JDL | Lt. Merlin & Capt. DiAgessi | "Talking With Turbolifts"

Posted on Fri Oct 13th, 2017 @ 6:47pm by Captain Aine DiAgessi & Commander Evan Merlin

He stood in front of a viewport when they dropped out of warp, approaching Cold Station Theta. In the distance, he could already see the intricate swirls of the nebula, that mystical place which, maybe possibly hopefully, held the answers to who he was and where he came from.

He shrugged, shaking those thoughts away. If the answers were there, he'd find them at one point or another. If they weren't, he wouldn't. Either way it was pointless to dwell on it, not when he had so many other things to occupy his mind. His first glimpse of Cold Station Theta, for one. The first place he'd called… well, not home, he hadn't found any place yet he'd ever call home. But the first place he could actually remember.

It had changed. Part of him was disappointed, even though he'd known there had been a lot of changes at the station. But another part of him, a deeper part of him which only rarely made itself known, seemed to say: Yes! *This* is what it was supposed to look like!

He sighed and rubbed his face with both hands. After thirteen years he still hadn't gotten used to those flashes. Sometimes they seemed to be premonitions, at other times echoes of the past, and sometimes he couldn't place them at all. They happened infrequently and he had never been able to discover any rhyme or reason to it.

Anyway… He dragged himself back to the present. While he had been lost in thought, the station had grown rapidly bigger and now it was filling half of the viewport. It was time to pack his gear, they'd be arriving soon.

This place has grown huge,he thought as he set foot on board the station. There was even an Ensign with a padd, who looked up as he approached. "Lieutenant… Evan Merlin?" he asked.

He shrugged easily. "I suppose." Names were funny things, he reflected. Coats on a coatrack. When he just arrived, they'd taken to call him 'Chron Doe', a play on words which lieutenant Balearus had coined. Later, someone else had given him the name 'Evan', to which he had added the suffix 'Inco' (for 'Inconnu', unknown) because people seemed to insist on surnames. And in recent times, after people began remarking that time didn't seem to have a hold on him and gave him the nickname 'Merlin', he figured that made for a better last name than 'Inco' and had it changed. He had never really understood how other people seemed to think their names defined them. That feeling was totally alien to him.

"Ehh?" The ensign looked perplexed. "Does that mean you are?"

He waved a hand. "Relax, Ensign. Yes, sure, by all means, mark me as 'arrived'." He smiled and walked on, leaving a puzzled young man to look at his back.

Then he paused and turned back. "You wouldn't happen to know where the Captain is, would you?"

Now the ensign got a 'deer in the headlights' look. "No, sir."

"That's alright. I'll find her." He gave a reassuring wave and vanished around a corner.

---

Damn. It. All. While her heart had stopped galloping through her chest on a joy ride through Chernobyl, Aine still felt the after effects of nearly dying in that stupid lift. Sure. They'd sung songs. He'd stroked her hair. Convinced her that they weren't about to plunge to their deaths another several hundred decks below, but she was still unnerved by the entire debacle. Her shoulder had turned out to be just as she expected; a bruise. Her phobia, the fear, treated by a very mild sedative that was slowly starting to bring her around and set her back on solid ground where she belonged. From now on, though, she was going to climb or walk everywhere. Great idea, except for the fact that the station was something stupid like twelve-hundred-fifty decks high in totality and she was often having to traverse all of them in a single day.

"God damn it!" She swore under her breath. Several officers paused to look at her, tilting their heads or furrowing their brows at her unnatural state of... Whatever. Her hair was a wild mane of tawny waves hanging to her mid back and over her shoulders, certainly not in regulation form; tucked back off the collar. They could thank the stupid lift for that and the fact that bobby pins weren't immune to free falls and then, even worse, fit through freight lift deck grates. Gone. Fallen. Eaten by the guts of her station just like she'd almost been. But hadn't. Nope. Instead she was left to storm across her own command in search of yet another lift and the shaking began anew, gentle against the stasis field set up around her nerves by the sedative, when she hit the button to call for it.

And then there was a shadow. One she almost expected to be Satie, but turning to look at it from over her shoulder it very obviously wasn't Satie. "Going up, Lieutenant?" She asked, focusing on the collar of the man's uniform.

"Yes, I am," the man said, turning to look at her with a wide smile. There was no malice in it, no mockery for her wild hair or any other aspect of her appearance, but he did give a slight nod when he studied her in turn. "Ah, Captain. Just the person I was looking for!"

Just at that moment, the lift arrived and the doors wheezed open with a rattling sigh. "So, not everything's changed on this station," the man said, more to himself than to his CO. "This thing is a certifyable antique." He grinned again. "By which I mean that it should belong in a museum, not here."

Oh sweet Jesus. Her lips pursed and it took everything she had in her to force that step forward and on to the lift. This one, she remembered, was on the list for replacement. "Well you found me." Aine replied with a nervous little smile, "This one's set to go on a field trip far... Far away from here." She nodded, tugging her uniform back into place, "We had a small incident with a different lift earlier in the day. Good thing it was the Commander and I, not one of the Admirals or Commodore Ivanova or... Well... Anyone else." Damn it. Damn drug. Nervous talking, Damn lift. Check marks were going off in her brain of things to damn right about the same time the antique lurched and began to head up towards Operations. It would be three more minutes trapped in Hell. "I'm sorry, my manners seem to have gone out the window." Leaving the hem of her tunic, one of her hands was held out in open invitation of a shake, "I am Captain DiAgessi, but I think you already knew that." Maybe she could just crawl back to her quarters for the rest of the day. No. No she couldn't.

"Yup, I did my homework," the man said, shaking her hand. "I swear, if I'd known this old thing would still be here, I'd have brought a book with me. Or maybe a portable replicator. You could almost eat a full breakfast before it arrives in Ops." He shook an errant curl of hair from his high forehead, then, absurdly, grinned again. "Y'know what I did what sometimes helped? This." He turned around abruptly so that he faced the wall of the turbolift and pressed both hands against the rough surface. "Let's see if she still recognises me… Hey, old girl, remember me? Do us a favor and stop that rattling around, will you? I know you'll feel a lot better when you do… Yes, I know you can do it." Was it imagination, or did the shuddering diminish? The man certainly seemed to think so. "There's a good girl," he said gently. "Now, if you can manage a bit more speed, that'd be lovely… Yes, I know, I've missed you too. You're absolutely right, none of those newer lifts have character. But you should really stop being cranky, you know. If people like you, it's so much more fun!"

The lift came to a stop without its characteristic shudder for a change and the doors wheezed open. The man lowered his hands and followed the Captain out, gave a quick wave with his fingers before the doors shut again, and gave a quick nod of satisfaction. "And here we are."

The look on Aine's face was one of horror and deep concern. Concern for her own safety as well as the man's sanity, and neither one was going away any time fast. Curled mane and all, the fella was a tall drink of water with eyes that glittered like magic... Or madness. Probably madness. "Right. Okay then." Was all she could muster in response as she considering waving him off with a quaint good bye and booking it to her office. No could do. He was her problem now, part of the motley crew of oddballs and moth balls that had been sent to keep the place running and she, and no one else, would be the one to officially greet him. "Well," she sighed, plastering a smile on her face, "Talks With Turbolifts, would you mind following me to my office? We'll get you sorted out and on your merry way quick as anything." Aine's drawl was beginning to be tainted by the effects of the sedative and she knew it was just a matter of time before she followed her feet home for the day. No doubt her mother would be waiting, worried and irritated that lunch had become a pipe dream thanks to that damned freight lift.

"Are you sure?" The grin faded and was replaced by a look of concern. "We can do this another time. Maybe tomorrow? I can clear the other stuff out of the way by then, medical checkup and stuff. You really look like you could use some time alone. A good cup of tea, maybe." He talked softly, so that other people would see them talking, but not hear the actual words. Still, he couldn't help muttering to himself: "'Talks With Turbolifts'… That's a new one for the collection…"

"I'll be just fine, promise. Tea can happen while I get you booked in and clear that paperwork out of the way so that you'll be granted the access to the station that you need." She nodded, tucking hair behind her ears and motoring on through the throng of Engineers and Operations staff that clung to the area like bees around honey, "Would you like a cup as well? Of tea, that is." It was worth an offer, and so she asked as they passed through the door to her ready room, and her fingers gestured towards the replicator she was making a bee-line for. Maybe then he would spare her when he came unglued and thought the station directed him to kill everyone. Bad, Aine. He's harmless or he wouldn't have been sent to such a delicate region of space.

He followed her into the office and looked around, nodded slowly. "Yes to the cup of tea, with thanks. Love what you've done with the place," he added with a smile. "Captain Gabriels had a collection of weapons mounted on the wall. Mind you, the wall was quite a bit smaller then, so he really needed to pack them together in order to display them all. Didn't really do justice to the collection. Plus, weapons aren't exactly my thing…" he shrugged. "I know that probably sounds weird, but there it is. Personally, I distrust any triggerhappy tactical or strategic officer. They usually lead to quite terminal and messy mistakes." He shrugged the same wayward strand of hair away and smiled ruefully. "Sorry. My mind seems to have a tendency to wander off. I promise to keep it brief from here on. You'll need this, I take it?" He handed her the padd which contained his transfer orders and service record.

"Weapons collection... Yeah no... No I'm not one for a weapon's collection," Aine's head shook slowly as she looked up towards the barely there smattering of her knick knacks. A half dead plant she'd found under the desk sat near the window, and she was still convinced she could save it so long as she could channel her mother's green thumb. Coming away from the replicator with the tea cups, she traded him his for the PADD and rounded the desk to find her seat, "Lieutenant Evan Merlin... Says you were here a decade and some change ago..." She mused, sipping the hot amber elixir as she read along. Some of the odd behavior and monologues began to make sense, namely his sense of familiarity with the turbolift. "Welcome home, Lieutenant." Was the best she could do as she noted he'd be a member of her Operation's crew, one she'd likely be unable to shake whether she wanted to or not. Tea would keep him appeased and rumor had it that her cousin had the most extensive collection to be found in the entire Quadrant. Of course that meant that the Vindicator would need to come home. Fast. "Do you have any questions? I know it's been awhile since you've been on the station."

"Thank you, Captain," he said, sipping his own tea. "Yes, they picked me up here thirteen years ago." He smiled. All that information and more could easily be found in his service record. Suddenly he wondered whatever had happened to the lifepod. Knowing Starfleet bureaucracy, it was probably stored somewhere deep inside the belly of the station. Maybe even racking up storage fees. He finished his tea, maybe a bit quicker than he normally would. The woman really was looking out of it. The sooner he was out of her hair, the better. "No, I have no further questions, so if you have no further remarks, I'll leave you to yourself."

The more she read, the more questions she had, the more tired she became. Damned Vorta, she should have known better. Or maybe the havoc being played on her system by the drug was due in part to the fact she'd only consumed two coffees that morning and dinner early on in the previous evening. She was starving but her body chose not to inform her of such. Ok. Maybe not damned Vorta. "Not at the moment, Lieutenant, but if I wind up with any... I'll know where to find you." Aine smiled politely and slid a PADD back his way. One full of details about his new new life aboard the station.

He placed the empty cup and saucer on the desk and accepted the padd in what seemed to one graceful motion. Then he gave a kind of salute which was more of the type generally executed by engineers and science staff than by the more military minded tactical or strat ops department, and followed that up with a flawlessly executed bow. "Thank you, Captain. When you need me, I'll be only one tap away," he said with a quick gesture to his own combadge. "And please give my regards to your mother. She's the one who gave me this name, you know," he added just before stepping out of the office. The door silently closed behind him.

Aine, in return, choked on her own tea and stared at the space the strange man had previously occupied.

---

Captain Aine DiAgessi
Commanding Officer
Cold Station Theta

Lieutenant Evan 'Talks With Turbolifts' Merlin
Chief Strategic Operations
Cold Station Theta