The Nerve
Posted on Fri Jun 28th, 2019 @ 2:44pm by
Edited on on Fri Jun 28th, 2019 @ 3:36pm
1,128 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Episode 7 - Home Again
Location: Quarters of Quinn and Ameri
Timeline: MD005 0030 hrs
Ameri was steamed, no she was angry. She had fumed the rest of her shift, then headed home. She was quiet, careful not to wake up Enya but when she reached their room she had had it.
“Quinn!” She hissed “Are you awake!” When he didn’t answer she picked up her pillow and hit him with it. “Quinn! You can sleep when your dead! Wake up!”
"Do you realize the time?" Quinn said, being a little annoyed that his wife was waking him up. What was so important that she had to wake him up, at this very instant?
“I am angry and I need to vent at someone,” Ameri confessed. “But first I want your word you will listen as my husband and not a command officer. It is important I handle this!” She paced back an forth. “Well!” She looked at him not really letting him answer. “The Sooner you agree the sooner I will yell and you can get back to important things like sleep instead of listening to your wife who is upset!”
"Venting is best done over a cup of coffee. Not in the middle of the night." Quinn suggested to Ameri. As he continued to sit up. "Since I am up, what's on your mind?" He asked grumpily.
“I would have your word first,” Ameri said stubbornly. “All I need is for someone to say I hide behind the executive officer.” She looked at him. “I am sorry to wake you up but I can’t rest until I talk to someone.”
"Then talk." Quinn said, as he motioned for Ameri to have a seat on their bed.
“I got Ensign Robertson in trouble,” Ameri said quickly. “All I did was stop to welcome him on the ship , make sure he was settling in okay and the ops chief came on the bridge and tore into him about idle chit chat and then she made reference to me not having enough work!” She was getting angry again, “I have experienced personal conversation here and there on the bridge whenever I have been there. I am mad and I feel guilty at the same time. She gave him all sorts of work then demanded he attend a meeting he will be lucky to make it to and finish his assignments. I really wanted to tell her off but I kept himself in check because of her rank.”
"I'll talk to her in the morning and Ensign Robertson. I want to know, the full story of what is going on. From what you said, it does sound like our chief operations officer, may have been out of line." Quinn said, wondering why a senior officer would lecture a crew member on the bridge of the USS Pioneer.
“No!” Ameri shook her head. “You aren’t the XO right now, you are my husband. If you say something she will assume I complained and then it will spread through the ship. She already sees Jayden in a bad light I don’t want to make it worse. I just want to know if I was wrong to talk to him. If not, I plan to handle it in a way where it doesn’t look like I am using your position to get my way.”
"Bridge chatter is allowed on the bridge, as long as it does not interfere with an officers duty." Quinn said, knowing that Ameri already knew that. So why did she ask that question. What in the hell happened on the bridge.
“I needed to vent or I was going to go find her,” Ameri confessed. She shook her head feeling like she wanted to cry but she wasn’t going to. “Jayden didn’t speak a word the rest of the night and when I left he was still working on the assignments she gave him.” She looked at Quinn. “We were in the right but what could we do? She holds the rank!”
"Back up for a moment, start from the beginning, what exactly happened?" Quinn wondered. He wanted to know exactly, everything that happened. He wanted to get a good picture in his head.
“I came onto the bridge to cover for science,” Ameri replied. “I stopped at Operations to welcome Jayden. Talked to him for a few minutes and Lt. Wakefield came on the bridge. The moment I saw her I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty she looked mad so I went to my station. She went over and questioned Jayden. Insinuated that the diagnostics he ran wasn’t up to par and had him run it again. Then she made a comment that if he had time for chitchat he needed more work. “ Ameri paused. “She made reference to me not having enough to do and then made reference to him transferring to science. Then, she told him since he didn’t have enough to keep him busy she would give him some work and it had better be done before his shift ended.”
"So help me to understand why you are angry? Did the Lieutenant belittle you?" Quinn asked? He wanted to make sure, he was not missing anything. Why was Ameri so worked up, that she had to wake him up in the middle of the night. What had happened?
“She made me feel like I was lazy or not qualified for my job and beneath her,” Ameri confessed. “And I don’t
Care who you are, if you are going to reprimand someone you do it on private. Instead she humiliated Ensign Robertson. It was wrong!” Ameri sighed. “I should have let you sleep. I am sorry!” Taking a deep breath. “What has me the angriest is that she was mad when she came off the lift. She hadn’t even met the ensign yet. It wasn’t about him talking to me it was about her throwing her weight around.”
"I will talk to the both of them in the morning." Quinn said, as he got out of bed, and reached around from behind to hug Ameri. "Now come to bed. The morning, is going to come, sooner than we would both like."
“You’re right,” Ameri leaned back. “Remind me tomorrow that I owe you a really good dinner for waking you up in the middle of the night.”
"I'll hold you to that." Quinn said, as he guided his wife to the bedroom. The scene fades.
A joint post by:
Commander Quinn Ó Flannagáin
Executive Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Junior Grade Ameri Ó Flannagáin
Assistant Chief Science Officer, USS Pioneer
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