Part 19 (1/2)
Jayme thought for a moment. ”Who else do I know on the Enterprise?”
”Guinan, the bartender.”
Jayme had to laugh. ”That's right! The night I was tracking Elma. I bet I didn't make much of an impression on her.”
”Actually, I think she figured you out immediately.” Moll Enor ducked her head to smile, shy as always. ”She congratulated me on knowing a good thing when I ran into it.”
”Thanks,” Jayme said, feeling mollified and more than a little flattered. Moll Enor was talking about her in Ten-Forward.
”Do you want to come up to the s.h.i.+p tomorrow morning?” Moll asked casually.
”Do I!” Jayme gave her a look. ”You know I do.”
”Tomorrow then, 0800, be at the beam-down point.” Moll Enor hesitated, looking closely at Jayme's face. ”I have a surprise for you.”
Moll could tell Jayme was bursting with joy to finally be on the Enterprise. One of her great-great aunts had served on the Enterprise-B, the Excelsior-cla.s.s stars.h.i.+p, and a third cousin had served on the Enterprise-C briefly, just before the s.h.i.+p disappeared under the command of Captain Rachel Garrett. But Jayme had told her that no Miranda had had a permanent post on board the Starfleet flags.h.i.+p since then. Moll had felt guilty being on the Enterprise, knowing how much it would mean to Jayme-who really deserved all of the credit for the negotiations.
”t.i.tus is so lucky, getting a field a.s.signment on the Enterprise,” Jayme said soon after she beamed up. ”Too bad he isn't here yet. And we have to stop by and say hi to Nev Reoh.”
”He's down in the geophysics lab,” Moll agreed. She gestured toward Jayme's bodysuit-an acid-green swirled through with white streaks. When she moved, it made Moll's eyes cross. ”Nice outfit.”
Jayme shrugged, glancing at Moll's plain black coverall. ”You know me-I don't want anyone to forget me.”
”Don't worry. I'll introduce you to everyone.”
Moll Enor gave Jayme the grand tour, introducing her to the officers they encountered along the way, and making a special trip to sick bay to let the premed student meet Dr. Beverly Crusher.
Jayme shook the doctor's hand so hard that Crusher winced as she pulled it away. But she smiled, and said, ”Don't worry about starting late, Jayme. Tyler Brannigan was number one in my graduating cla.s.s from Starfleet Medical, and he decided he wanted to go into medicine in his last year at the Academy. He said he had to cram three years of premed into a solid year and a half of study.”
”That's what I'm doing now,” Jayme admitted.
”Welcome to the world of medicine,” Crusher told her. ”You'll never get another good night's sleep.”
Jayme was radiant by the time Moll took her to deck sixteen, through a door into one of the s.p.a.cious crew quarters. Since they were on the bottom of the saucer section, the long wall slanted inward, providing a startling view of the brown and red planet of Rahm-Izad.
”Ohh ...” Jayme breathed in admiration. ”Is this where you stayed last night?” Without waiting for an answer, she wandered into the adjoining room and bounced down on the bed. ”Does everyone get such a big place to live, or is this just the guest suite?”
”These are my quarters,” Moll Enor told her.
It took a moment for her meaning to sink in. ”You were offered a post on the Enterprise?”
”Yes, Captain Picard told me last night.”
Jayme made an inarticulate sound, rus.h.i.+ng over to hug her. But her voice broke as she said, ”n.o.body deserves it more than you.”
Moll kissed her and hugged her back. They were both thinking of having to part, but leave it to Jayme to put that aside, knowing how important this was to her.
”When do you go?” Jayme asked.
”We leave tonight.” At Jayme's silence, she hurried on, a catch in her own voice, ”There's no need for me to go back to the Academy. I can have my things sent on.” When Jayme was still silent, she added, ”We both knew I would be leaving on a.s.signment once I graduated.”
”Yes, but, the Enterprise ...” Jayme said. ”You'll be at all ends of the Alpha Quadrant.”
Moll Enor cleared her throat. ”I trust you to track me down no matter where I go.”
They both grinned at that, then they hugged each other again. Moll felt so rea.s.sured by that simple contact, by knowing how much Jayme truly loved her. She hadn't realized how long she had relied on her best friend to always be there for her. Now they were partners.
”Maybe some day I'll get a post on the Enterprise, too,” Jayme said valiantly, wiping her eyes. ”But I have years of school ahead.”
”We both have a lot of hard work to do.” Moll pulled back, giving Jayme a shake. ”But this isn't the end for us. We're just beginning. You remember that.”
Chapter Ten.
Summer, 2371 MOLL ENOR SERVED ONE s.h.i.+FT every other day at the third aft station on the bridge, known as mission ops. All the new ensigns who were on the command track served their required years at mission ops or a.s.sisting the operations manager.
Ensign Enor slid into the seat, smiling as she relieved Ensign Dontorn, serving his second year on board the Enterprise. Mission Ops duty was mostly a matter of watching the computer activity of specific research projects, taking care of unforeseen situations that didn't fall within the parameters of the preprogrammed decision-making software.
Seated at ops was Lieutenant Meg'han instead of Commander Data. Moll never needed to refer primary mission conflicts to ops when Data was on duty. He would see the need before she was capable of registering what was happening, and it was eerie the way the primary routing would change under her fingers, with the lower-priority tasks failing neatly into a line for her to deal with at a more human speed.
The other ensigns often talked about how superfluous they felt under Data's command, knowing that he didn't need their a.s.sistance. But Moll privately considered it a comfort to know things were under control no matter what she did. a.s.sisting ops was also somewhat better than her occasional posting at the environmental systems station, which was usually left staffed.
”Sir!” Lieutenant Meg'han announced. ”I'm receiving a distress call. It's from the Federation Observatory at the Amargosa solar system.”
Lieutenant Commander Kriss ordered, ”Red alert! Inform Captain Picard, Lieutenant. Helm, set a course for the Amargosa Observatory, warp five.”
Moll Enor hoped it wasn't a false alarm. All of the senior officers were in the holodeck, celebrating Lieutenant Commander Worf's new rank.
But she didn't expect them to return to the bridge wearing intricate costumes of blue, red, and white. Moll didn't realize she was staring at Worf's bell-shaped hat until the officer removed it and gave her a reproving shake of his head.
”Just do it!” Captain Picard ordered Commander Riker. Everyone on the bridge instinctively jumped at the unusual sound of Jean Luc Picard losing his temper.
Moll Enor felt as if she had been slapped back to duty, and she instantly looked to see what disaster had occurred during her moment of inattention. But Data took ops, and Lieutenant Meg'han came back to mission ops, b.u.mping Moll to the only panel left on the bridge-environmental systems station. It was either that or leave the bridge, and since they were in emergency-response mode, she took the station and began monitoring life-support activity.
Since environmental systems didn't really need her attention, she listened as data was relayed from the sensors, indicating that the Amargosa solar observatory had been attacked. There was no response from the crew-a compliment of nineteen scientists.
When they reached the observatory and there was still no communication from the scientists, most of the senior staff joined the away team to the station.
Moll Enor moved back over to missions ops, and there she had a bird's-eye view of the action. Mission ops was responsible for monitoring the telemetry and tricorder data from away teams as it was relayed to the proper departments. She watched the inflow of data, wincing at the readings of the dead humanoids who were part of the observatory team. In all, there were twenty dead, and one injured Federation scientist, Dr. Tolian Soran.
She recognized the patterns of two of the medical readings because of a chart she once saw in Jayme's medical tapes. Her remarkable memory was the only reason she knew, moments before the word came in from the away team, that they had found two dead Romulans.
Nev Reoh worked late in the geophysics lab on the unusual readings, helping pinpoint what the Romulans were after. It was trilithium, an archaic substance used as an explosive. Trilithium resin was made by exposing dilithium to matter/antimatter reactions, but it was highly unstable and therefore difficult to identify. But the geophysics lab did identify it, and after Lieutenant B'll ran their a.n.a.lysis up to command, the entire lab decided to go to Ten-Forward to celebrate their intensive, successful effort.
They had just entered the lounge when someone nearby whispered, ”There's Captain Picard.”
Reoh strained to see the captain among the room full of off-duty personnel. Then he caught sight of the dignified figure in red having an oddly tense exchange with a white-haired man. Someone else identified him as the sole surviving scientist from the observatory. After a few seconds, Captain Picard left as quickly as he had come. Soon after, the scientist left in the other direction.