What is he Doing Here? - Breakfast with a Surprise, Pt. I

Posted on Wednesday February 12th, 2020 @ 10:38pm by Cadet Freshman Grade Chloe Graydon & Cadet Freshman Grade Caleb Johnson & Lieutenant Commander Freya Mannerheim

1,215 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Shakedown Cruise
Location: Officers' Lounge, Deck 3, USS Poseidon
Timeline: Day 4 - 0500hrs

"Far too early," Freya grumbled to herself as she entered the mess and retrieved her breakfast from the replicator. Today, she had paired her usual strong, black coffee with some eggs royale - she liked some variety to her breakfast, and smoked salmon had always been one of her personal favourites, as it was a speciality of her own culture.

As usual for this hour, the mess hall was full of barely-awake people, quietly filling up on breakfast before their duties. As she passed them, Freya nodded her "good morning"s to several of the bridge crew, before she spotted Chloe being sat at a table in the corner, all by herself. Quickly, she made her way over to the Cadet, and, without asking permission, placed down her tray and took a seat opposite her.

"Morning, Chloe," she said, managing a tired smile as she pushed up her glasses. "How are you feeling today?"

"Eh." Chloe said simply, taking a small sip of coffee, before playing with her Bacon and Eggs that she'd ordered. The morning sickness was really playing havoc with her appetite, and despite being really hungry, she couldn't push herself to eat her food. "Is it to early to want to go back to bed already?" She asked, looking up from her food.

Freya chuckled. "Well, in my opinion it's too early to even be out of bed to begin with, let alone showered and fully dressed. But then that's the hours we have to contend with." She took a big gulp of coffee. "Doesn't mean we have to be happy with it, though. Did you manage to have a chat with the counselor yesterday?"

Chloe nodded. "Yeah, she's going to help me with telling everyone, except the CO, who you're gonna have to help me with, if you're still ok with that?" She asked hopefully.

The Lieutenant shook her head. "Chloe, what did I say. If you need my help, I'll help you. Simple as that. Just let me know when, and I'll be there. That's a promise. And a Nygardian warrior never breaks a promise."

“A what warrior?” Chloe asked a little confused by the terminology.

"Nygardian. It's the planet I come from, settled in the late 22nd century by people from te-" - she feigned a cough to cover the almost-slip - "Earth's Scandinavia region. Our culture is very much calling back to the Vikings of old. Very honour-based." She smiled wistfully. "And very much focussed on family. It was a good place to grow up."

“Oh so like Loki, Thor, Asgard?” She asked, making reference to an old earth film.

Freya chuckled. "Ah, yes, the old gods. Well, we believe in the Spirits of the Wild. Bear, the strong and brave. Raven, the know-it-all." She grinned. "My sister always said I must be one of Raven's chosen. She thought I knew everything, when we were little." She took another big gulp of coffee to distract from the fact that she was suddenly holding back tears again. "I miss her, Sora. She's just a little younger than you, actually. I'm sure you two would have been good friends."

Chloe nodded. “What, urgh, what happened to her?” She asked.

The Lieutenant sighed. "It's not what happened to her, really. It's what happened to me. It's a long story, and I don't really want to go into it. But I don't think I'll ever be able to go back home." She shook her head and drained her coffee. "Nevermind that, though. What about you, where do you come from?"

Chloe smiled. “Originally from lovely rainy Britain, then moved to Australia, Sydney to be precise. Sydney was perfect, lovely sunshine, beaches to die for, sunbathing whenever you could get the chance...” She trailed off, her mouth hanging wide open following the last comment, just staring in the direction of the replicators.

"What's wrong?", Freya asked, following the Cadet's gaze. There was a new cadet at the replicators. She frowned. "Is that... Is that who I think it is, based on your reaction?"

Chloe just sat there and nodded slightly, a few tears slowly rolling down her face. “This is not good...this is in no way good. What’s he doing here, why does this always happen to me?” She asked herself, starting to panic.

The Lieutenant put her hand on Chloe's arm. "Hey, calm down. You want to know what he's doing here? One easy way to find out. I need a refill for my coffee anyway." She smiled and got up. "Unless you don't want me to?"

Chloe nodded. She just hoped he didn’t see her. That’d cause to many awkward conversations to say the least.

Smiling, Freya walked over to the replicator, where the new cadet was just retrieving his tray. "Good morning," she said, cheerfully. "You must be new on the ship, I certainly haven't seen you around. Lieutenant Mannerheim, chief conn officer. And you are?"

Caleb jumped slightly at the surprising new voice behind him. He turned to see a young woman, approximately in her early 20’s standing behind him.

“Lieutenant, sorry!” He said realising he hadn’t said anything to her question. “I’m Cadet Caleb Johnson, the new nurse onboard.” He said, flashing a quick grin at her.

Freya nodded. "Pleasure to meet you, Cadet. New nurse? I thought we were pretty much fully staffed, how come?"

“Request from the Academy, I don’t know the details, just got told to report onboard ASAP.” He answered, shrugging his shoulders, while peering over her shoulder at someone sitting at one of the tables alone.

"I see," the Lieutenant replied, before retrieving her refilled coffee from the replicator. "In any case, I should let you get on with your breakfast. Doctor T'vek does not appreciate lateness. At all." With a wave, she turned away from the cadet and returned to Chloe.

"So," she said, when she had sat back down. "He says he's here on request from the Academy, but he has no further information." She sipped her coffee. "A nurse, eh," she added, with a smirk.

“A Nurse?!” She exclaimed rather loudly. “Could it get any worse...” she said.

"Wait a sec." Freya was confused. "You didn't know that he was in medical?" Then it dawned on her. "Oh. Oh! That's what you mean. Yeah, you probably will need to talk to him about that."

“Ya think?” She asked sarcastically. “God I hope he doesn’t look at my record and find out that way...” She said. “How do I tell him...he doesn’t even know I’m here.”

"Well, it did seem that he was looking this direction when I was talking to him, and anyway, don't you cadets have regular briefings together as well? I'm sure he will find out very soon that you are on board. So just go and talk to him. Seriously."

“Can you...come with me?” She asked.

"Do you want to go now, or later?", Freya replied simply, quickly knocking back her coffee.

“Now I guess...get it out of the way?” She answered.

The lieutenant simply nodded. "Lead the way."

Chloe held out her hand, looking more to comfort herself than anything else. “Well...let’s get this over with.” She replied.

=/\=To be continued...=/\=

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