Missing Uniforms

Posted on Tuesday August 13th, 2019 @ 1:03am by Lieutenant Commander Freya Mannerheim & Lieutenant JG Sydney Allen

1,036 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Getting to know the XO
Location: U.S.S Poseidon - Junior Officers Bunk
Timeline: Pre-Launch - Drydock

It had been a busy day for Freya, accustoming herself with the Poseidon's navigational systems so shortly before launch, and making sure everything was ready for the ship to leave drydock. After her duties on the bridge, she had spent some time on the holodeck to keep her combat reflexes honed. Now, she was simply tired, but content. She found herself settling in easily enough. When she got to her quarters, she threw her uniform jacket onto the side of her bunk and threw herself onto the bed, to try and get some rest.

Sydney was rushing through the walkway to get to her bunk as she discovered something worrying whilst she was doing final stock take of inventory. As she approached her quarters, she slowed down to take a second on what she wanted to actually do about the whole situation. She is going to tell Freya, the only person on this new ship she could slightly trust and hopefully she could help her.

upon entering her quarters she looked into the direction of where Freya's bed was and saw the person she was looking for.

"Freya, I need your help. Please help me, I don't who else to go to." Sydney begged.

Freya turned around and immediately noticed the worried expression on her bunkmate's face. She sat up. "What's up? Is there a problem?"

Sydney started to pace back and fore, "I was doing pre-departure inventory checks and for some reason the number of spare uniforms don't add up. There should be 50 but I can only find 45. Losing uniform is a big deal and I really don't know what what to do. I had my team count it three times to make sure. What should i do." at this point Sydney's eyes started to tear up. "I can get dismissed for this."

Freya nodded. "Okay, calm down. We will get to the bottom of this. You said you had your team check it. Did you check yourself, too? There could have been a simple error. Did you count them by hand or did you have the computer do it? Before we make any assumptions, let's make sure they are actually missing and it's not just a case of someone having counted wrong." She stood up and grabbed her uniform jacket. "Where do you keep the spare uniforms? Let's go count them ourselves."

Sydney started to calm down "The primary stores on deck 7, to be honest the team I have been given are a bit dumb. So getting another pair of eyes wouldn't hurt. Thank you."

Sydney opened her arms and with a smile gave Freya a tight hug.

Freya laughed. "Always happy to help, and as they say, if you want something done properly, do it yourself. Primary stores you say? Lead the way, Ensign."

Leading the way Sydney left their quarters and headed to the turbo lift to go down to deck 7. Before getting to the lift she stops and turns to Freya "I've never had someone offer to help me in my life, Since i was young i had to grow up fast since I never knew my parents. All I know is that I was abandoned outside of a police station with only a note with the the words SYDNEY IS NO LONGER. That is how i got my name."

Sydney looked at the ground starting to tear up again. "Thank you again, it means a lot to me."

Freya didn't know what to say for a moment. "I know how loss feels, Sydney. I lost my parents and my brother when pirates attacked our ship. I was 15. I managed to save my little sister, but I lost my leg in the process." Pausing, she put her hand on Sydney's shoulder. "In the academy, nobody would help me. I came from a colony world, from a dodgy trading background. I was constantly at odds with the instructors. It was..." she hesitated, not wanting to reveal too much. "It was a painful and difficult time. But we are comrades, we should help each other out, right?"

"Right, back to what were doing, lets go and count these uniforms. I bet it was just a clerical error. Let's go and make sure though." Sydney started to brighten up again.

As the lift opened up they both entered and headed down with the knowledge of having each others back.

They reached deck 7 and the lift doors opened with the sight of a busy deck, all the crew were busy getting everything ready to go. Fraya and Sydney exited the lift and headed down the walkway to where the uniforms were stored.

After a short walk, they reached stores. "Okay," Freya said, "this is your place, Ensign, you take the lead."

When walking into the huge room filled with cabinets, Sydney pointed over to three sets of lockers that are colour coded red, blue and yellow. Upon opening the lockers they were greeted with rows of uniforms the same ones that they themselves were wearing.

"Well then lets get to counting them again." Sydney said.

Freya nodded. "You said there ought to be fifty?" She walked to the locker closest to her. "Well then, let's see what we've got!"

It didn't take long to count all the uniforms, and to make sure she hadn't made an error, Freya counted them twice more. But she got the same result every time.

"Well," she said, looking at Sydney. "There was no clerical error it seems. We are five uniforms short. We have fifteen of each colour. Do you know which departments the other five should have been?"

Sydney looked at her PADD and shook her head "Nope, It just says there are fifty uniforms on the ship." showing Freya the screen. "I will just change the numbers, should be okay."

Sydney typed up the number in the box. "Don't tell anyone i did that, or i might slip you have a undeclared item" giving a smile and a wink at Freya.

Freya feigned ignorance. "Did what, exactly?" She laughed. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. Now, we just need to figure out if those five ever existed, and if they did, what happened to them..."

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