"Hey, LT!" The chief's hand raised to flag her attention, before she trotted over, her boots crunching over rough gravel. They hadn't been paired up before, so Nicole had to rely on someone pointing her out. She considered the shorter woman as she came to a stop, not bothering to hide her frank curiosity. No idea how much experience this junior officer had in the field, but she wasn't going to judge without seeing her in action.

Ensign Apollina "Polly" Clarke still wasn't sure how she had been accepted into Starfleet, much less graduated and given a position on an actual ship. She kept her head down, performed her duties diligently, and ensured both her and her teammates' work spaces were clean.

Only rarely did she allow herself to give in and visit the holodeck to work with her hands, kneading and baking and icing the evening away. There was something about a handmade meal that the replicators could never -- well -- replicate. It helped to have something she could eat while playing pretend, but it felt hollow tonight, and she stepped out -- only to find everyone was on the move. It didn't matter if her shift didn't start for a few hours yet; Polly needed to make herself useful.

So. IV was to be meeting the Betazoid. 

The landing pad was a temporary reprieve from the literal hell he’d been stationed in. There was still a throbbing in his neck, an ever present reminder of the fact that he’d nearly died the day before. And the. Well.

His screen blinked back off before the image seemingly permanently engrained in his circuits broadcasted to everyone in the vicinity. Just in time, IV straightened slightly as the ship door lowered into a ramp to reveal the remarkably small person that was to be their translator in this hostage exchange.

Two weeks had treated him well so far aboard the Enterprise. The job was fairly interesting. The crew was accommodating. Dr. Crusher was very kind to him. A lot of the anxieties that he had about his newest assignment ended up being for nothing. One of the biggest had been how Captain Picard would take him, but the Captain seemed bend over backwards to help him feel welcome, and made it clear to his shipmates that they should do the same. 

The whole business of people wasn’t his favourite thing. It had been in the past. He remembered being very comfortable around people. Charming, even. Words came easily to him. People seemed to trust him. But the last few years, that had seemed to get more and more difficult the further he traveled from Earth. Another frustrating thing to add to his list for his next meeting with Counselor Troi. Travel had never been seen as a stressful or negative thing, but he had come to find comfort in the Federation programs. It seemed the more of the world he saw, the more of the world hated him for what he was. 

It was beginning to wear a little thin. 

Although his assignment was technically to continue his studies in neurology, he enjoyed doing lab work for Dr. Crusher. His shift was sometimes spent entirely in the back of sickbay, out of the view of any patients that came in complaining of any issues. Was he hiding? No. Absolutely not. Definitely not. He was just...preoccupied. In the zone. Passionate about his work. 

Scan results scrolled quickly across his ocular implant. Six leaned back in his chair, shaking his head for the hundredth time today. Nothing out of the ordinary. Almost nothing at all - a mindless job that afforded him much needed time to daydream about all the things that made him nervous about his new position. Great. 

The doors to sick bay slid open for the millionth time that hour. Or was it the billionth? He had every intention of ignoring it. Several actual nurses and doctors were on call. Whatever walk-in patients appeared, they could handle it. But Six was hit with such a powerful wall of emotion that his attention was ripped from his scan samples and the PADD in his hands clattered to the desktop. 

He gasped quietly, suddenly wracked with an onslaught of emotion that was too much to process without warning. A whirlwind of regret and fear and sadness that twisted in his gut like something rotten. Through the initial shock, Six listened out to sickbay. Surely the person he was feeling was there for some sort of emergency, but...he heard no chaos. No sound of Dr. Crusher shouting orders. To movement whatsoever. 

He couldn’t just ignore it. Not something as out of the ordinary as this. Before he could use better judgement, he had a hold of his white cane and was out in the main room of sick bay, attempting to locate the cause of his distress. It didn’t take long - the emotions were emanating from them like a siren accosting his senses with an internal racaus that he couldn’t ignore. It was clear to him now that the person was also a Betazoid. Aside from Counselor Troi, with whom he occasionally spoke telepathically with, there were no other Betazoids on the ship. The prospect was exciting but not nearly enough to distract him from what he was feeling. Without awaiting orders, he headed straight for them. 

“So Lieutenant, we have about thirty minutes before we get back to the Enterprise, how about we get to know each other?” Robin asked. She could always do with making more friends, it wasn’t that Robin didn’t have a lot, she just enjoyed making new friends with people and especially her shipmates. “It’s fine if you don’t want to, just figured we could make small talk to kill the time. Law number six, Time goes by faster when you have a friend to talk to.” Of course she didn’t expect the lieutenant to know what any of her laws were, but normally those were an interesting talking point for people if she mentioned one.

spread the love! ( accepting // @strings-have-been-cut )

1. What’s a roleplay blog whose characterization you admire? — Gotta say @nashforhire. Liz feels as real to me as any canon DS9 character, and I can literally hear her voice with every reply. Jen does such a phenomenal job with her and she’s an absolute delight to write with.

7. What’s a roleplay blog you love whose character you didn’t know until you started writing with them? — I immediately thought of @tnott. Before I started writing with her, I honestly could not tell you one thing about Theodore Nott, but Tanja took the very bare bones of a character and built something incredible out of it. It’s seriously very impressive and I will always recommend Potter RPers go check her out.