First Impressions
Posted on Fri May 31st, 2013 @ 6:26am by Ensign Maximillian Cobyassa PhD
1,175 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Episode 2 - Whispers in the Clouds
Timeline: Day 1 - 2300
ON:
As the door slid shut behind him, Max collapsed onto his bed; his luggage unceremoniously dumped on the floor. He was exhausted and humiliated beyond words. While the private transport had arranged a shuttle for him, they had failed to mention that he was supposed to pilot it. While Max had some basic training in holoprograms on how to fly one, he wasn’t confident at all with his takeoffs, landings or any of this warp speed synchronization that had been discussed for him to be able to board his ship that was already in warp. At least they hadn’t had to make the Unification drop out of warp for him; a small blessing for him; that would have been too much. He had been forced to return to the front desk and explain that while yes he was a Starfleet officer, he’d still need a pilot for the trip. When they had procured him a pilot, it looked like they had woken her up in the middle of the night to do this trip, and she was none too happy because of it. She had barely spoken a word the whole trip, and even the technician at the transporter pad had given him a bit of a funny look. Then again, it may very well have just been his appearance that was drawing the looks. While he didn’t know exactly what time it was and was too tired to check, he knew he was long overdue for some sleep. He hadn’t even had a chance to change clothing since he had boarded his transport to New Bajor. He knew he was badly in need of a sonic shower, but he just couldn’t seem to muster the strength to move... but was it his imagination or was the room getting darker?
A couple hours later, Max awoke with a start. Struggling against the space pirates restraints, he noticed they were nothing more then.. bag straps? As his imagination wound down and brain started up, he recognized his surroundings and as his memory came back to him, he realized he must have dozed off.
Deciding that a shower was in good order, he laid out his uniform on the bed and made his way to the sonic shower. He really wanted to go back to bed, but he realized he still had way too much to do before then. He knew he needed to make his presence known to his superior and maybe check out the ship abit. He hoped he would have a little bit to get to explore the ship before his first shift. He also reminded himself that he should probably brush up on his piloting skills in case he ever needed to use one of the shuttles in an emergency.. like a space pirate invasion.
With his mind preoccupied with the rapidly growing to do list, he failed to hear the soft hiss of the front door and in what seemed to be the next of a long series of unfortunate events, came face to face with his new room mate while being stark nude. Seeing the look of confusion on the other officer's face, and knowing there was no easy way to explain himself properly, he decided to roll with it. Striking what he thought was a sexy pose, he winked at the officer and with his sexiest voice exclaimed, "Well hey there sexy! I've got the showers all warmed up and ready to go."
As the man's jaw dropped like a stone and his stunned face started turning all kinds of interesting shades of red, Max couldn't keep a straight face. Unable to hold it back, the laughter rolled out of him in bellows. Every time he tried to regain his composure, he'd see his roommate's beet red face and lose it all over again. It was several more minutes before he could stop himself long enough to try to explain the situation.
"D-Don't worry m-man." Max tried to explain between ragged gasps, doubled over trying to catching his breath. When he finally caught his breath he continued. "Don't worry man, I'm straight as an arrow. You just caught me at a bad time." he pointed towards his laid out uniform. "But damn did I get you good. I didn't know a person could turn so many shades of red!"
Taking a deep breath, Max finally calmed down long enough to get a good look at the other officer. He was slightly taller then Max with a patch of straw coloured hair perched atop the still bright red face.
"I-I.. I.. I.. you're an ass!" the man stuttered, still not completely convinced about Max's story.
Max gave a light laugh as he headed towards his clothing and started getting dressed, "The name's Max. You'll have to excuse me for not shaking your hand at the moment, but it's my policy not to shake hands with other men when I'm naked."
"That's great.. Max..? But can you please explain to me what you are doing naked in my room?" As the colour returned to the other man's face, Max could see the confusion turning into irritation.
"I told you, you just caught me after getting out of the shower. Don't worry, I'm almost finished getting dressed."
"Yes, but why are you taking a shower in *my* quarters?"
"Not *your* quarters.. *our* quarters." Max corrected him, a Cheshire grin spreading across his face.
The room became quiet for a few moments as you could see the man processing this piece of information. Max could see the moment of realization as the man's look turned to disbelief followed quickly by disgust.
"N-No.. Oh no.. Nonono.. you can't be my roommate! When we left Bajor, you weren't here. Is this another prank? Who are you really and why are you teasing me so much? Did someone else set you up for this? I should report you!"
Max gave a shrug as he finished getting dressed. Going over to retrieve his Padd, he brought up his room assignment on the Padd and handed it to the man "If its a prank, its an awfully elaborate one."
He knew it was a lost cause trying to explain anymore to the man. As he headed out the door to find his commanding officer and explore the ship a bit, he called out over his shoulder:
"Maybe this is all just a bad dream."
As the door hissed shut behind him, Max arbitrarily picked a direction and headed out to explore the ship. He'd give his new roommate some time to digest the news and calm down. He'd have to wait till later to find out the man's name.. and unpack. That is assuming his new roommate didn't throw all of his stuff into the recycler.
[i]It wasn't *that* bad was it?[/i] He thought to himself.
He sure hoped his new roommate could take a joke.
He sure hoped he wasn't fired..
OFF:
Ensign Maximillian Cobyassa
Science Officer
USS Unification