Did You Know...?

Posted on Fri Feb 10th, 2023 @ 5:43pm by Lieutenant JG Marcel Knowles & Cadet Freshman Grade Poppy Koppelman
Edited on on Tue Feb 14th, 2023 @ 10:30am

846 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Mission 2: Rendezvous At Starbase 10
Location: Starbase 10
Timeline: M2 MD01 (2268.6.03) 0800

"Hey, we're the same!" the girl in the baggy, somewhat second-hand looking, Cadet uniform of outdated cut, yelped, pointing to her USS Midway insignia. The handsome young man she was talking to had been sitting there a while, and despite the ostensibly spontaneous nature of her greeting, Poppy had been watching him for around 20 minutes, trying to build up the courage to go over and speak to him, and practicing in her head what she would say when she had the nerve.

"Hi! I'm Koppy Poppelman! I'm human. I'm going to be temporary acting assistant records officer on the Midway. Pleased to meet you. Did you know that there are over 3,567 separate data discs to be maintained and filed on a Constitution Class Starship? Oooh, you have a red shirt on, that means you're member of the Communication or Security or Engineering Department. If I have to wear one of the new uniforms, I've got to wear a red one, even though I'll be working in Operations. My Mom says I should keep my legs covered though, so men don't stare at them."

Not only had she mispronounced her own name, she'd gone a little off track from what she meant to say, and suddenly realised that in her nervousness, she hadn't even given the Lieutenant a chance to say anything in reply!

The same? thought Marcel examining the woman and noticing her hair.

Poppy's hair could get a little bit greasy if she didn't wash it every day.

He said nothing initially. She seems bubbly he thought to himself, and he too could be a social butterfly at times, but he wasn't as talkative. "Your mom is probably right. People have a tendency to stare when they shouldn't. Personally, I'd opt for asking if you could wear a variant of the uniform, maybe something with pants" he said. Or at least an or two more on the skirt portion.

"Moms are usually right!" the girl agreed brightly.

"Koppy Poppelman?" He had repeated what she said, suspecting that she had jumbled that around in her delivery of her name.

"Who?" she asked, then realised what she'd done and went as red as Marcel's uniform. "Oh no. I'm Poppy Koppleman! That's such a bad start: I want to learn everybody's name on the ship and I can't even get mine right!!" she wailed.

"I'm Lieutenant Junior Grade Marcel Knowles, and Engineering for me. I'll be the environmental control officer for the Midway" he explained.

"Marcel Knowles, Marcel Knowles, Marcel Knowles" she chanted, memorising the name. "Environmental Control? Gee, that's a Bridge position, how exciting. You might even be on the Captain's Watch! Can you imagine. I don't think I'll ever get to meet the Captain, I'll just be down at the bottom of the hull, sorting out data cards."

"Being a records officer can be a rewarding experience. I used to be one myself."

"Wow! Really?!" she gasped, as if he had just informed her that he used to be President of the United Federation of Planets. "Which ship was that on?!" she asked.

"An Ares class starship" Marcel replied with a smile. "Not as large as a Constitution class but I am sure that you will do perfectly fine. If you need help with anything, I'll be happy to help you."

"Oh, those Ares ones are much safer!" Poppy exclaimed "When I told my family where I was posted, my sister told me that all Constitution Class ships are cursed because one of the designers was killed in an accident during the prototype testing, but I think she was just trying to scare me!"

Marcel smiled. "I'm not sure how safe I'd call an Ares class, but then again are any of them safe?”

“Oh!” Poppy blanched “But my Pop always says riding in a space ship is safer than crossing the road.” Not that there were too many roads on Pluto, as there weren’t many places to go.

“Space exploration has a lot dangers" he commented. "Your sister was probably giving you a hard time, but I'm a little nervous."

“Oh zoinkies!” gasped the cadet “If an experienced officer like you is nervous, I’d better be super-nervous! What’s going to happen, the ship isn’t going to start falling apart in space is it?!”

The green Koppelman would soon learn, from experience, to refer to the Midway by the preferred pronoun ‘she’.

Marcel waived dismissively. "Nonsense. I'm not that experienced, hardly more than you. I have spent a few years on a starship. That's not really a lot."

"W.. well, that's a few more years more than me!" She gave him her best smile, but even thick skinned Poppy got the very strong impression that he wasn't interested in getting to know her.

Oh well.

She stood. "Well, I'd better leave you to it, you've probably got more important things to do than talk to a cadet." she said, giving a little wave. She would be careful not to bother him again.

 

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