XO/CStratOps Lt. Evan Merlin | Musings

Posted on Wed Jun 27th, 2018 @ 8:42am by Commander Evan Merlin

Mission: Lacuna
Location: XO's office, Cold Station Theta
Timeline: SD 241806.27

The Lieutenant paced. It was past midnight, he was in his office – one of his offices, the XO one, since it had more pacing room – and he paced. He was too restless to sit still, but somehow, just taking off for a wandering tour around the station didn't sit right, either. So, six steps from door to desk, eight from desk to wall, ten from wall to door. Round and round and round. (Well, triangle to triangle to triangle, really, but somehow, that didn't roll of the tongue as nicely.)

It had been some weeks ago since the station's CO had taken a LOA, 'family matters'. Starfleet had sent them a brief message that they expected the CO to return shortly, or they would send someone else as an interim CO. That message dated back at least a week, and since then, nothing had happened still. His last request for information, sent three days ago, still had the stamp 'Pending'. For all the improvements made to the station, for all Starfleet's investments, for all that it now was the sector 's mainstay, the station still had 'backwater' status. The irony that he, a 'mere' Lieutenant, was de facto in charge of the station had never even crossed his mind. Apparently Starfleet wasn't all that bothered with it either.

Sure, he supposed he could prod the local brass, but in the Lieutenants's experience, brass didn't like to be bothered with such tedious, mundane matters as to who actually ran the station, as long as it was run quietly and efficiently. Better let them lie.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Baxter and his team were still away, status and location unknown. No idea if and when they would be coming back. If Intel knew, they weren't talking. Which, incidentily, also robbed him of the only person who could help him with the PADDS.

There was a nice, lovely, brilliant pile of them. If more kept coming, the Lieutenant mused, he would have them transferred to the Arboretum. With some luck, a small gletcher would form and they could all go skiiing on a mountain of administration. It was a good thing that he required little sleep, but it was impossible to keep up with all the PADDwork. He had his own department – though StratOps was a relatively small department, it was still essential, what with the Romulans on one side and the still very much on edge Stenellis on the other. Not to mention a mysterious nebula who held stars-knew-what kind of secrets. None on the station was more aware of it than the Lieutenant himself.

And Command PADDs. So many of them. Status reports from all departments, neatly summarised by the CO's yeoman - had she ever seen the CO before her LOA started, the Lieutenant wondered? He made a mental note to himself to drop by and ask her soon.

There were more things which bothered him. A report from Commander th'Zarath and Lieutenant Satan about their findings regarding the explosion last month. He still needed to get back to the Commander about it, maybe he had found out more by now. Still, the conclusion thus far pointed in the direction of a deliberate action, not an accident. If that was true: why? And when would the next shoe drop? For it would, he had no doubt about it.

And then there was the mysterious stunt double of Commodore Ivanova. Now he knew the Commodore herself was not bothered by it, so logically speaking, if she wasn't bothered, why should he be? But the Lieutenant was not a Vulcan, not a creature of logic, and he was well aware of the powerful psychological motivator of denial. He wanted to keep an eye out for the odd twin, but he hadn't encountered her since then. Still, it kept nagging in the back of his mind, kind of like a splinter one just couldn't reach.

Too much on his mind, not enough to distract him. Xue had been busy of late, preparing for her departure back to the Stenellian Ascendancy. Diplomatic relationships, matters of state, packing, whatever. Busy, and not in a mood to be distracted – somehow he could tell.

All in all, plenty to keep him awake, and pacing. Six steps from door to desk, eight from desk to wall, ten from wall to door, and so on. And just like that, he had enough.

He threw the last PADD he'd been working on on his chair, on account of the desk being too full of them, tossed his hair back and abruptly left the office. One of the gamma shift members, who obviously hadn't realised he was still in there, jerked upright with a gasp.

"Boo," the Lieutenant said softly and jumped into the turbolift. The doors, he noticed, still had dents in it from the last time Thelin had to force them. He keyed in a random request, closed his eyes and let the turbolift take him where it wanted to. Any place. Any place but up there.


Lieutenant Evan Merlin
Chief Strat Ops/XO
Cold Station Theta