Diplomatic Relations (Backpost, Part 1)

Posted on Fri Dec 27th, 2024 @ 1:28am by Commander Elisabeth Churchill & Lieutenant Karen Kujo 'Union Jane' & Ensign Olivia Prescott

1,261 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Captains and Contraband
Location: Elisabeth Churchill's Quarters

Ensign Olivia Prescott wasn't in uniform, but that wasn't much of a surprise as she nearly flowed in the purple dress to which she had attached her single Ensign's pip to the shoulders that held the dress up. She'd come aboard a few days ago, but a look at her putative charge's schedule had shown very little time to actually get to meet her for anything more than a brief meet and greet, so she'd put it off until THIS morning in order to spend a solid hour or more introducing herself. And there was little better than having cooked a full English Breakfast, now resting under a silver cloture, complete with a breakfast tea steaming in a pot as a greeting.

She approached the quarters that belonged to the head diplomat aboard the ship and sighed. Now... How to approach this? There were two ways to do it, but she'd try to do it the gentle way. She used a hip to press the chime, as her hands were full, "Commander Churchill, this is your morning wakeup call. I have breakfast for you, as well." Would she let a stranger into her quarters? Only one way to find out.

Elisabeth, for the record, had been up way too late on the holodeck modelling the Andrea Doria. Progress on the Queen Mary had come to a standstill, and Elisabeth had moved on to a different liner to save herself the insanity of individually mapping heel marks in the stairwells. With Karen constantly bothering her about the creative process, the session that night had been painfully slow-going, and Elisabeth had made it to bed absolutely exhausted.

That was until the entry chime to her quarters dashed her dreams and quite rudely snapped her back to reality.

"Bloody Nora." Elisabeth grumbled as she sat up. "Who the hell could be calling at this bloody early of an hour?"

"Uuu..." Karen groaned, pawing somewhat pathetically at Elisabeth's nightgown. "Izzy, come back... you're so warm... I'll miss you so..."

"I'll be back in a minute." Elisabeth assured her. "Just need to tell whoever's calling to bugger off unless the captain needs me for something."

Karen's lips curled into a pout.

Getting up from her nice warm bed, Elisabeth made her way out into the common area of the quarters and to the door that led to the corridor outside, and pressed the button to swoosh the doors open to find an out of uniform Ensign awaiting her. In fact, the only way Elisabeth (who looked quite undignified standing there in her nightgown with her hair all a mess) could tell the other woman was an Ensign was the fact that she had her single rank pip fasted to her clothing.

"Are you lost, Ensign?" Elisabeth asked. "Or have you been dared by Charlie Shift to bother senior officers by ringing people's doorbells until someone upends that tray in your face?"

“You wouldn’t dare!” Olivia’s jaw dropped at the implication that she could have all this work thrown literally in her face, but she composed herself, “Ma’am, no one put me up to this, I am Ensign Olivia Prescott and I am your Aide, Commander. Computer, what’s the time?”

The androgynous voice responded almost immediately, “The time is Seven Thirty-Six.” Which caused a smile again from Olivia as she tried to put the threat behind her.

“See, ma’am, I would have thought that you would have been awake by Oh-Seven Hundred, which was why I went to the trouble to make you a proper breakfast, myself, not from the replicator, when I queried the computer to see if you were awake.” She wiggled her arm slightly, drawing attention to two PADDs, “I also took the liberty of downloading and bringing along the morning dispatches and update briefings on the state of the Federation and our various interests with a highlight on our current sector. I do apologize if I arrived earlier than expected, but when I left a message in your queue, I never got a response back and this was the latest I’d dared wait for a response, ma’am, and Dear God.” Her being miffed had caused her to overlook the appearance of Elisabeth, “Ma’am, certainly you’re not going to be seen looking like that! If you’ll allow me, I can brush out your hair and put it up in a practical but elegant manner and make sure that whatever dress you’re planning to wear is presentable.”

"I can brush me own bloody hair and put on me own bloody clothes, thank you very much." Elisabeth responded. "Now, Ensign, just because Alfa Shift starts at 0600 doesn't mean everyone assigned to it is scheduled to start at that time. If you bothered to look at the schedule, you'd know that I don't start until bloody 0900. Now, if you don't mind, I had a long night last night and I'd rather be catching up on my z's right now instead of standing here letting in this awful draft talking about work which I don't have to start for another bloody hour and a half."

"If you had your schedule posted somewhere that I could have seen it, Mum, or if you had replied to my message, then I may have been able to avoid this situation." Olivia stated calmly and cooly, "Unfortunately, until I have been granted permission to see your schedule and appointments, that avenue is denied to me. That's the problem with only being an Ensign, Mum, I don't get all the access and privileges until they are given to me. Now, since we have clearly gotten off on the wrong foot, might I bring you another proper breakfast for once you are up and functional?"

Ensigns these days just keep getting dumber and dumber. Elisabeth thought to herself.

"If you were able to send me those messages, then chances are you already have access to a PADD:" Elisabeth explained. "I don't know how you set things up on your PADD, everyone does so a wee bit differently, but there should be an option for you to view your schedule; from there, you can see who's working today and when they're scheduled. If you don't have that basic function on your PADD, you've done something wrong in setting it up."

Commanders... Heads so far in the clouds they forget the basics. That's why they have people like us, to remind them the ground is still down there. Olivia gave a mental sigh, but let nothing show on her face.

"Mum, my pardons, but that was one of the issues in my message to you. I don't have a schedule for myself or others, because I have yet to be approved to your staff by you." Olivia's arms were finally starting to get tired of holding the tray, but she decided to grit her teeth and bear the aches in the arm, "If it would be more convenient for you, however, we can discuss this a bit later, then we can also discuss the reasoning that caused me to be assigned here? I can make biscuits and tea if you'd be interested in that at that time?"

"Izzy, is that breakfast I smell?" Karen called out from the bedroom. "Mmm... Breakfast sounds could; could you save me some, please?"

Well, so much for sleep... Elisabeth thought.

To be continued...

RSS Feed