ILLUMINARRPG: (1 - 0817) ACONN Alexander Dyson

[Ruben Hilbers]

Mission: Prelude
Day: 1
Stardate: 2446.03.23

(USS Illuminar - Pilot's Ready Room - ACONN Alex Dyson - 0817)

One moment Alex was putting Lucy through a Yeager loop, the next his eyes were open because of the computer was screaming at him. ~Red Alert ? In the Sol System ?~ Figuring that he should report to the bridge, he walked out the Ready Room and realized that something was wrong. The alarms were only screaming *inside* the Ready Room. ~Ha, ha, very funny.~ 

He walked back into the Ready Room and made his way to the control console. Several buttons later, the alarms were silent and the lights were back to normal. While his ears were now happier, the rest of Alex was miffed. ~This is one of the many reasons why didn't join Starfleet back in the day.~ Discipline was not his favorite thing. As he keyed in the next sequence, he thought back to the last time he had enforced a rule.

(Mars, Santa Maria Orphanage - Corridor - 0053)

The last boy fell to the floor with a thud. There were eight of them and they were all older and bigger then Alex and Emile. Emile Schofield was Alex's best friend. Born on Luna, he was the same age as Alex and had lost his parents to at age seven too. 

Except in Emile's case, it had been to a hull breach on a passenger transport. Thanks to the bureaucrats, he had ended up as Alex's roommate. And they had been joined at the hip ever since.

When Alex had heard a noise in the corridor outside their room, they had gone to check it out. They had found seven boys laughing, while their leader - a bully called William Zander - was 'sticking to' and touching a girl called Andrea Jones in a way she clearly didn't like. 

Words had been exchanged and soon the fight had begun. Between the fact that the two boys were outnumbered, smaller and - and this was the clincher - the complication that Emile was in a wheelchair, they thought they would win. Emile and Alex had proved them wrong. The fight over, the two of them turned their attention to William. 

"No means no !" They said in unison.

They slapped William - who was in rough shape - together. The bully dealt with, Emile got out his wheelchair and they put Andrea in. Emile could walk, but it was painful and slow. ~Thank you, Vrolik Syndrome.~ And with both of them fans of Mass Effect Holodeck Programs, there had been only one nickname that Alex could have give Emile...

"Come on, Joker," Alex said. "Let's get her to the nurse."

"Sounds like a plan, Shep."

Ironically, it was the school nurse that had introduced them to the Mass Effect Programs. But that wouldn't save them from her wrath. ~She is not going to be happy that we woke her up this late.~ Of course, that was a later problem....

(USS Illuminar - Pilot's Ready Room - ACONN Alex Dyson - 0819)

The nurse had indeed been unhappy with them. Until they had explained why they had woken her up. As for William and his goons...word of what had happened had gotten the orphanage's management and they had come down on them like a ton of bricks. Within two days, William and his gang had transferred to places all over the Sol system, never to meet again.

Emile and Alex had expected to find themselves in trouble, but none had come. Meanwhile, in the here and now, Alex had told the computer to record an audio message and send it to Lieutenant Grey Wolf.

"Morning, boss. It's me, Iceman. And before you ask, you can thank Doctor Solice for that one. I don't know what I would have picked. But it sure wouldn't have been a reference to an ancient movie so technically, biologically and psychologically dumb that the instructors at the real Top Gun docked trainees points for just quoting it."

NRPG: I did not make this up. I've seen interviews with real instructor and they do this. RPG:

"Hell, it's like mentioning the Scottish Play to a Shakespearean actor. Anyway, after clocking an hour on a Mark-I Spitfire and two-and-half on a Mark-II Viper, I figured I could take a nap in the Pilot's Ready Room until the oh-eight-hundred shift showed up. Well, it turned out that the shift thinks that the alert system is a toy to be played with."

~You sound like Mister Rogers.~ Robert Rogers had been the Physical Education teacher at the school Alex and Emile had attended. Even now, he was the most cranky, gnarly and grumpy person Alex had ever met. And when you had served with on a Gorn ship, that was saying something.

"And yes, I know that 'telling to the boss' might be considered childish by some. But I figured that if Starfleet officers can get away with behaving like undisciplined teenagers, I might just as well go ahead a reflect their attitude back towards them. Which so far can be summarized with the words judgemental, self-righteous, arrogant and condescending."

~At least, that's how it feels to me.~ "Oh, and one last thing. I don't know how it works in Starfleet. But us civilians are excepted to show up ON TIME for our shift..." ~Or earlier, so you can confer with whoever you're relieving on any issues.~ 

"...not fifteen minutes late. If you want to yell at me, I'll be in the simulators. And who knows, maybe my coworkers will beat my expectations of them and stop wasting time with coffee breaks, ship's gossip and childish pranks. Iceman out."

He pressed the buttons to end recording and send the message. Then he gave the nearest log recorder his most withering glare, before heading for the simulators. As he powered up one of the simulators and selected one of the simulations, he thought about what he had just done. ~It won't really make you popular with the department.~ 

But then, at least to him, he was feeling like an outsider anyway. He climbed into the simulator and was the program. It was a landing on an ocean going vessel in the middle of a stormy sea. ~Choppy waters, talk about irony.~ Ignoring the neural interface, he grabbed the joystick and got to work.

(Reply Montero, Grey Wolf, any in Flight Control)
(Posted by Ruben)