See Ya!

Posted on Fri 5th Jul, 2024 @ 3:33pm by Mindo & Izwyx 'Lo
Edited on on Fri 5th Jul, 2024 @ 3:37pm

1,260 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: The Phoenix Gamble
Location: Dock Thirteen
Timeline: MD 1

ON

{Dock Thirteen Overlook}

From the overhead office which overlooked the docking ring, a simply dressed young lady watched the milling crowds. She gently sipped tea, nibbled at the crumpet which came with it. Her dark complexion lended itself well to the shadows she sat in, and with inscrutable countenance the Human simply sat and observed. The tiny man made his appearance big somehow, it was a charming affect she had observed many times in her surveillance. Mr. Mindo was trying to find a ship, and had taken a lead on the Ticonderoga. Much to his chagrin she imagined, he was soon to find out there was a black mark following him.

"Subject is in sight. Behavior is as expected."

She spoke almost sub audibly, the intonations and vibrations from breath and skull translated by communications heuristics into words. The reply was even more quiet, it felt like a tickle in her hairline.

"Mindo is to board "Sacred Wing of Y'eel."

Her mission here was as simple as getting him blacklisted. The Mizarians on the Y'eel would take anyone, so she waited for the inevitable moment someone on this ship did their due diligence.

She didnt reply, merely sipping her tea a bit more as hearing aids and lip reading software gave her the insights to conversation she wanted.


{DOCK 13- AIRLOCK}

Mindo knew he owed Admiral Francis. Captain, he reminded himself. He'd heard about his acquaintance's demotion after the massive scandal that changed them both. Mindo had broken the Prime Directive. It was thanks to Francis Mindo's name had been cleared, but not without cost to Francis. Mindo would forever be in the cantankerous old man's debt for that. Why he was let go so suddenly by Francis remained to be seen by Mindo, but for now he decided to roll with it.

The former Chief Engineer of the USS Pandora badly needed a job. Mindo always felt the most at home maintaining a warp core, and it had been over a year since he'd been able to do that. He'd had a hard time in the last few hours trying to find a ship in need of an engineer. Something where he didn't have to take orders from something unpleasant, like a Tellarite or a Chalnoth.

Mindo came from the planet Fesaria, born on a continent called Eloi. Eloi-Fesarians tended to be a little bit taller than most other Fesarians. Just so, Mindo stood about three and a half feet tall, nearly a foot above average for other Fesarians. After leaving Fesaria to join Starfleet, he found his height gave him a slight disadvantage. So he and a friend had designed some leg braces that were modified with small, silent rockets that allowed Mindo to hover at about six-feet height, putting him face-to-face with everyone else. It had made a huge difference.

Upon finding the ship Ticonderoga was being captained by an El-Aurian with an engineering position opening, he figured he'd found a match. Now he hoped the Captain, a very tall woman, would be open to an ex-Starfleet Fesarian officer keeping her ship running.

Activating the modified leg braces, Mindo approached her with caution, but tried to maintain a friendly posture.

“Excuse me, Captain Iz... Izzo... Izzwhick...” Mindo realized he had no idea how to say her name. He decided to start over. “Excuse me Captain, but I noticed you needed an engineer. I'd like to apply for the job.” Mindo gave her his most charming smile.

For Captain Izwyx the garbled attempts at her name were par for the course. She waited as he bumbled through and tried not to laugh at the latest member of the lollipop Guild circa 24th century.

“Well hello. You certainly have my attention...”

A floating Fesarian was not on her bingo board, she felt that meant it was out of date. The bridge was vast, with vaulted ceilings and plenty of space for the little guy to zip around. Her minds eye saw him flitting at speed down corridors forcing people to jump out of the way.

She continued, “I’m Captain Iswyx,” she said it like ‘Izzicks.’ Her friendly countenance hopefully his the discerning scowl she wanted to wear. There was something both confident and alarming about him, instincts telling her to find out much more.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Mindo," he said, offering a hand.

She took it in stride, the levitating man was a little more than her usual had to cope with. ‘Bemused but professional’ was the zone she landed in.

“Well Mindo, I do need a Chief Engineer, have you had any experience in the Service Corps, or on Vanguard class Mobile Star Cradles?”

"I have lots of experiences with various classes of Cradles," Mindo said. "Vanguard included." It was slightly true. Mindo did indeed know in great detail the specs of a Vanguard Class, and while he'd never actually been on one, he had experience fixing similar kinds of Cradles back at the Academy. He felt very confident he could keep this particular one together.

“Well she needs engineers like I need girlfriends if you know what I mean.”

"And while I'd love to be both," Mindo said, "I am only an engineer."

She appreciated the retort by scowling in earnest, “You dont want to be my girlfriend do you? Because I am hiring for an Engineer but the other position needs to be filled…” she winked in a large way, “Y’nknowwhatimean?”

Mindo smirked. "Well I may not be a girl, but there are still positions that I can fill... I'm pretty flexible."

“That is apparent. You gotta pass the checks of course, but Starfleet is one of the few places you reliably find people. No Peter Principle in a meritocracy, which is why I am not in Starfleet. Is that a joke? I leave that to you. Go see my second, Sepp Agandar. He’s probably on the bridge yelling, so easy to find.”

"I'll do that," Mindo said, and left for the ship.

There was only a few moments before Izzy heard the familiar chirp of her badge.

"Yes Sepp, how can I help you?"

The XO of the mobile star cradle was not happy, "I just punched in a Starfleet registry code for some Fesarian you sent my way. Starfleet Intelligence just sent you a message and ordered me to delete the record of my access and strike the name from any logs. Who are you talking to?"

Izzy shook her head, "No clue, but he clearly needed a job. I'll take the message at commissary."

She walked the dozen steps of the ramp and made her way to the food court. A comms device gleamed at her, and she hit the button for her badge channel to open.

"Captain Izwyx here."

"Priority one message from Starfleet...." A disembodied voice told her, "putting it through."

=/\= Captain Izwyx, recruitment of Officer Mindo is not recommended. Captain Francis, CO SB109.

She scoffed, "Well, that clears it up."

She opened up the channel to her XO, "Can the application. I smell spy stuff and who has the time really. Send a condolence and mark the profile in case he tries again. Izzy out."

She had enough to do, but it bugged her how fast that reply came from Captain Francis. The man was in charge of a whole Starbase but replied immediately? It was not her place to decipher any of this, there was already enough to do. Mysteries cant always be solved when they present themselves after all.

END

 

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