<USS Avalon> A New Beginning --Ensign Kyle Fenner

A New Beginning

By Kyle Fenner

 

Kyle sat up in his bunk. The glaring red readout on the clock told him it
was 21:55. Reaching over, he turned off the alarm that was due to sound in
just over five minutes.  Sliding to rest his feet on the floor, he worked
the kinks out of his neck and back. First day on a new ship; Kyle sighed. As
he wondered what the crew was like, he stood up and began to pad towards the
bathroom. Just past the foot of his bed he stubbed his toe.

"Computer, lights."

The chair with his uniform across it sat in the middle of the small room. He
stepped around it, pulling his shirt off as he anticipated the shower. Most
people didn't like sonic showers, but Kyle loved them. He couldn't deny that
there was something special about a water shower, but a sonic shower left
you clean while almost massaging you at the same time.

After his shower he donned his uniform. Kyle was glad he had shined his
boots the night before; he doubted he had enough motivation to have done it
this morning. After a quick look in the mirror he walked out the door.

The chow hall was beginning to fill up. He scooped some scrambled eggs off
the buffet and ordered a replicated latte, then looked, unsuccessfully, for
an empty table. After a few moments a lieutenant took pity on Kyle and waved
him over to her table.

"Hey Ensign," she greeted from behind a coffee mug, "Why don't you join us?"

Kyle smiled back and made his way to her table. As he approached, he gave
them a quick look-over. The lieutenant was seated across a male and female,
both slightly younger, and both junior lieutenants.  Kyle hesitated next to
the table. "Evening... I'm Kyle."

The woman who'd called Kyle over reached for his tray. "Hi Kyle, that's
Der'kur and Sara," she cheerfully explained, nodding towards her companions,
"And I'm - Oh, I'm so sorry," she cried after sloshing a large amount of
latte into Kyle's scrambled eggs.

Kyle grinned as he slid into the bench seat. "Don't worry about it,
Lieutenant Sorry. They looked a little bland; the coffee should make 'em
edible." Der'kur and Sara chuckled at the expected joke. Lieutenant Sorry,
apologizing, offered to get him more eggs, but Kyle wouldn't hear of it. He
extended a hand towards Der'kur and Sara. "Hiya."

They responded with similar greetings as they shook his hand. Sara gestured
across the table. "Sorry occasionally goes by the name Tracy." Tracy giggled
as Sara continued, "I see you're in engineering too, did you just get
aboard?"

Purposely swirling a forkful of eggs in the puddle of coffee, Kyle nodded.
"Yeah, I got in yesterday evening; they assigned me a shift rather fast. I
go on-duty in," he looked at his watch, "Just over an hour from now."

"We're gamma shift too," exclaimed Tracy. Sara giggled. Der'kur rolled his
eyes as Kyle shuffled his food around.

Sara broke the silence.  "Are you just in from the academy?"

Kyle slouched noticeably in his chair.  "No, I graduated in June."  All
three listener's heads jerked around to face him.

Kyle seemed to be focusing on the table.  "I spent 4 weeks on the
Tomlinson."  He looked up when no one commented.  Along with the varying
expressions of astonishment on their faces, Tracy and her friends were also
apparently speechless.  "You know, I've got to go report to engineering," he
blurted out while sliding free of the table.  "Thanks for the seat."  He
hurried for the door, barely taking the time to deposit his tray in the
collector.

'Fucking hell!'  The silent scream echoed through Kyle's head as he hurried
down the corridor.  Already he wished he had made something up; a sick
family member would have worked.  He forced himself to slow down as he
approached the turbolift.  He nodded politely to a group that squeezed out
of the compartment.

"Deck eleven."

While the turbolift traveled, Kyle continued to berate himself.  When he
stepped out onto deck eleven he decided that he would work hard and try to
make friends without mentioning ever being on the USS Tomlinson.  With any
luck he could make a couple of friends before the rumor mill caught up to
him.

When he stepped into engineering he looked around.  The matter/anti-matter
reaction chamber thrummed slowly, periodically washing the area in blue
light.  Since it was the late shift there were only a handful of workers
performing duties.  Kyle decided the night looked to be a quiet one, and the
thought cheered him up.  Flurries of activity made it difficult to
familiarize with equipment.  

Logging into a terminal awarded him with a message from the shift
supervisor.  All he was required to do tonight was familiarize himself with
the equipment layout and the various versions of equipment that he would be
working on.  Apparently as an afterthought, the lieutenant mentioned that
there was a PADD issued to him in shift's distribution cubby.  Kyle was
pleased.  He had feared needing to use his replicator rations to acquire a
PADD.

Logging into the PADD allowed Kyle to officially report for the duty-day.
Subspace physics had been a passion of his at the academy, so the first
thing he decided to familiarize himself with were the warp engine systems.
While his PADD was scrolling model numbers and output ratings for the
reaction assembly, Kyle happened to glance up at the ship's Master System
Display; he temporarily forgot about the information scrolling by his hand.
The display showed not two, but four nacelles!  

"Ahhhhh," he shuddered out.  The reaction drew an amused chuckle from behind
him.  

"You didn't know about the modified layout?"  Kyle thought it sounded like
Sara, from the crew's mess.  He turned to see who found him amusing.

Kyle straightened his posture before the lieutenant.  "Hello again, Ma'am,"
he greeted.  "I was told it was an Intrepid, but they didn't go into further
detail."

Sara looked towards the display.  "This Intrepid has quite a few upgrades,
the most obvious being the extra nacelles.  I'm actually doing a study to
determine the effects, if any, the configuration has on the fabric of
subspace.  The study was initiated by the science department," she paused a
moment as if reflecting and smiled.  "It's how I met Tracy.  I think she
likes you, you know."

Kyle took a notice in his PADD's display.  "You mean she... all three of you
didn't get weirded out by me being on the Tomlinson?"

Sara started to move a hand to his shoulder, and then pulled back.  "We were
just... stunned, I guess.  These last few weeks the rumors have slowed down,
but for a few weeks there the subject on everyone's lips was the incident on
the Tomlinson."  She leaned down a bit to catch his eyes.  "You were the
first crewman from the Tomlinson we've met.  We all felt bad when you bolted
like you did.  We didn't mean to alienate you."

Kyle looked up and managed a smile towards her.  "I'd thought I had started
off on a bad foot here, and I kept thinking back to the awkwardness on the
starbase where we were questioned.  The looks, the whispered comments; it
was hard not to be paranoid when you walked down a corridor.  I was dreading
this ship's rumor mill."  He looked into her eyes as he continued, "Thank
you for clearing that up."

Sara gave him a reassuring smile.  "No worries, Kyle."  She became serious.
"I didn't catch your last name, Ensign.  I'm Lieutenant Raelin."

Kyle didn't hesitate to answer.  "Ensign Fenner, Ma'am."  He gestured
towards the display.  "I've been directed to familiarize myself with the
ship.  Subspace Physics is my passion, so I'd wanted to start with the
engines, unless you prefer something else."

Lieutenant Sara Raelin shook her head briefly.  "No, that'll be just fine,
Ensign.  Continue what you were doing."

Kyle gave a respectful nod and turned back to his PADD with a hint of a
smile on his face.  It looked like things might actually turn out okay here
after all.  

"Four warp nacelles..."

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