The Profferred Vase
Posted on Wed Jan 3rd, 2024 @ 3:00pm by Lieutenant Commander Kevin Lance
Mission:
The Avenger
Location: USS Chuck Norris
Timeline: Current
on:
{Outside Commander Rodale's Quarters}
I shouldn’t be doing this, I shouldn’t be doing this, I shouldn’t be doing this, Kevin kept repeating to himself as he approached the door to Mira’s quarters. Her promotion ceremony during the mission briefing had been too short to give any individual congratulations to her and after the briefing he had been too busy planning and programming the search pattern to do so.
And now he found himself holding a vase of yellow roses as he stood outside Mira’s quarters. His finger hovered over the door’s call button. He had triple checked the duty roster to confirm that she was scheduled to be elsewhere but there was no telling if she was taking a break, or working from her quarters, and the only way to find out would be to announce himself. He took a deep breath and pressed the call button.
He heard the door chime and waited 30 seconds.
No one responded.
He press the door chime again and waited. Again, no one responded.
He was about to press the call button a third time when he decided that doing so would be silly. If Mira was ignoring the first two chimes, she would certainly ignore a third. He entered the quarters.
Like most crewmembers, Mira did not lock her quarters door when she was out unless there were outsiders aboard ship. In the post scarcity society that made up the core of the Federation, thievery was an aberration and there was little reason to lock ones quarters whilst among friends and colleagues.
The quarters were empty. Even Vaytok was absent. Kevin idly wondered what the creature did all day.
Kevin looked for a place to set the vase where Mira would immediately see it when she entered her quarters. He had used a portion of his accumulated energy credits on replicating the roses. Picking the commemoration of the promotion had been difficult. Trills typically did not exchange physical reminders of events such as this and he abhorred the idea of giving a Klingon gift. He finally settled on a gift of flower. Though ephemeral, they appeared to carry significance in human society.
The computer indicated that it was traditional to include a short note with flowers to announce the purpose of the gift. He had struggled with what to write. Many of the draft sounded to officious, others overly sappy. In the end he had settled for brief and concise.
Kevin place the vase on the shelf at the bottom of Mira’s weapons display. The yellow flowers looked incongruous surrounded by the collection of blades but there was no way you could overlook them. Satisfied, Kevin departed Mira’s quarters.
The card amongst the roses read simply, “Congratulations Mira. K”
:off
Lieutenant Kevin Lance
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Chuck Norris
