<USS Avalon> "A Leg Up."

"A Leg Up."
By: Lt. Jg. Melanie Redgrave
 
The staff meeting broke up quickly and everyone went their separate ways,  
with Melanie heading towards the forensic lab with the small pip box clutched 
in 
 her hand. The promotion was a surprise and it thrilled Melanie to no end. At 
 least with everything else going on in her life she was right about the move 
to  Avalon being positive for her career. She stood at the closest turbo lift 
 rubbing her neck which was a giant knot of stress and tension. She thought 
about  going to sick bay to see if Georgia had anything to help, but opted to 
head for  the labs instead. There was still a lot of work to do and Captain 
Ketchum wanted  an arrest. 
 
When the turbo lift didn’t come Melanie figured that it was broken again  and 
headed for the lab the long way. Her mind kept switching between the case  
and her personal life in a madding dance that Melanie wanted to put to rest.  
‘
The first thing I’m going to do when I get to my terminal is book an evening 
on 
 the holodeck.’ She thought as she made her way to the labs.  
 
“How was the meeting?” 
 
Melanie looked up at the young man who had addressed her upon her entrance  
into the main area of the forensic section of the science deck, and smiled. The 
 young man was the only one on staff that Melanie had been able to click 
with,  the others all seemed to have their own things going. 
 
“It was productive.” Melanie said as she tossed the pip box up into the air 
 
and then caught it. 
 
The young man who was a foot taller then Melanie walked beside her as she  
made her way over to her locker. Paul Laurents was a handsome young man. He had 
 
raven hair that he wore short, deep blue eyes that looked almost violet, a 
thin  build that ran into unbelievably long legs, and an amusing New York 
accent. 
 
“Congratulations Junior Lieutenant.” He offered with a warm smile as he  
watched Melanie affix the black pip to her collar next to her gold one. “And  
here I was hoping I’d be the one to brighten your day.”
 
Melanie looked into the small mirror that hung on her locker door a moment  
longer before turning to look at Paul. “Oh yeah? What you got for me  
Pauly?”
 
“Well first thing is you’ve been called down to one of the turbo lifts by  
one of those night crawling grease monkeys.” 
 
Melanie couldn’t help but smile as she rolled her eyes. She’d heard all the 
 
details about the Parrises square revelry between engineering and forensic  
science and had spent an hour telling Paul she didn’t play the game. “And 
being  called to a turbo lift is going to brighten my day how?” 
 
“You didn’t let me get to the real news.” Paul said as he watched Melanie 
 
grab her field kit “We were finally able to locate a transporter recorder for 
a 
 beam in into the ready room.” Paul paused for dramatic effect and then went 
on.  “It was piggy back onto a cluster of engineering patterns. They use site 
to site  to move around the larger items like sheet metal and what not. We 
found a site  to site pattern that originated in a turbo lift near main 
engineering and ended  in the ready room and then was reversed.” 
 
“The same lift I’m being called to?” Melanie asked as they walked back  
towards the front doors. “Tell me you were able to get a biological  
signature?”
 
Paul frowned and shook his head. “It was erased.”
 
Melanie paused inside the now open doorway. “Someone’s covering their  
tracks after the fact which means sooner or later we’re going to run into a  
mistake they’ve made.” 
 
After thanking Paul for the information, Melanie and her silver monogrammed  
field kit headed to turbo lift two to meet with the two men Paul had said  
called, Ensigns McEntire and Garrity. Hopefully this would give her a leg up in 
 
the case, or at least another peg to get her closer.

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