Dog Days

Posted on 25 Mar 2018 @ 7:08pm by Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler & Petty Officer 2nd Class Mofrich Torg

1,652 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Crossing Over
Location: Intel Complex
Timeline: MD 35 || 1945 Hours

Not long after leaving her husband back in his ready room did Joey find herself entering the Intel Complex that had come to be her home away from home these days. She still had some crew that weren't lucky enough to have their memories restored, but hoped the Tellarite she'd been getting to know on a friendly level had made it back to the land of remembering. Joey supposed she would know soon enough, and found herself searching the facility for him. Of course, if he wasn't here, she'd have the computer summon him to her.

As she looked, the human woman couldn't help but feel the fatigue start to set in. A lot of that was events the day created, but a good deal was also her pregnancy, and that was likely to get worse as she progressed even farther along. Still, it was more than worth it, and soon she'd be back at home with her two furry babies and relaxing... even if one major part of her life would be missing from that equation.

"Torg?" she called, still not knowing if he was around or not. The area wasn't that large, and didn't have many places where he'd be able to go, but there were a couple aside from her office. "Are you here?"

The Petty Officer was in the Intelligence Office. In fact, until he heard the voice calling for him, he'd been the only occupant in the room. This was where he'd awakened after the ship crossed into the zone, and now that he had his memories again, he had to check on how his database cracking was going. As they entered the zone, the computer was about ninety percent of the way through it all. And now, it was all corrupted and he was going to have to start again. So, instead of replying to the Lieutenant, he only shouted expletives as he slammed his fist into the console.

She heard him before she saw him, and soon found herself standing next to him and the console he was beating. "What's going on?" Joey asked unable to keep herself from arching a brow. She thought she was the only one to beat consoles in hopes of getting them to comply.

"The damn decryption got corrupted," Torg snarled, fiddling with the controls. "Looks like there's a whole section of the computer core that was messed up when we entered the zone."

Now it was her turn to say a few choice four letter words in such a way a sailor would blush. "Please tell me we're not back at square one," she begged, trying to keep from panicking completely. After the day they'd had, though, something like this was just the icing on the proverbial cake.

"What does it mean to just have one square?" Torg gruffed. "Either way, the computer will have to start over."

"It's a human saying. It was a way of wondering if we'd have to start over, which you answered," she explained with a frown, moving over to another console to see if there was anything worth recovering. Sadly, everything was corrupted just as he'd said. It wasn't that she didn't believe the Tellarite, but preferred to see it for herself. This was going to set them back quite a while, and that frustrated Joey more than it should have. Still, it wasn't anyone's fault, so taking it out on him, or anyone else, wasn't the way to go. "Are we absolutely sure there's no way to recover at least some of this? Have you tried?"

Torg gave her a trademark Tellarite growl and snorted. "What do you think I've been doing, Lieutenant? Ever since regaining my memories, I've been trying to figure out what the current state of affairs. Do you think I act this way if I am pleased?"

Joey had to take a deep calming breath to keep from snapping on him. It was clear he was upset. Hell, she was upset, but turning on one another wasn't going to make their current situation any better. "Look... I understand that you're pissed off. I am, too, but that's no reason for the growling. It may not be directed at me personally, but it's still not going to make this any better," she said, keeping her voice calm and caring. Sadly, she didn't know if he had potential to get violent when angry, and regardless of species, anyone was capable of that. "Why don't you take a few minutes to compose yourself, and I'll get this started again?"

He didn't reply. Instead he just glared at her for a moment, a characteristic common for his blunt and argumentative species. Yet, he was the non-com, and she was the officer. Therefore, he would comply. With a gruff, he departed the room to get some air.

Once Torg left, Joey rose to her feet and pinced the bridge of her nose. Of course this would happen, and what ticked her off the most was how close they'd come to having the decryption done, but then... when it rained, it poured. And right now, she felt like she was caught in a torrential downpour about to be swept away by a mudslide. "Why?" she asked no one, fighting the urge to kick the console in front of her. What good would that do?

Joey took another deep and calming breath before she sat down again, moving her fingers over the sensors in front of her. There was no other option but to begin again. An additional two weeks. The warning Harvey sent himself played in her head, and now she had to wonder if other parts of the computer suffered a similar fate, or if it was just this one? Were there people on the ship that couldn't be trusted? Were they going to uncover something that someone didn't want them to? Recovering the corrupted data might have been impossible, but finding out exactly when it happened wouldn't be.

A scan of the computer came back inconclusive. Since being powered up earlier that day, the computer was running around sixty percent efficiency. Evidently, several isolinear and bioneural sectors had been jostled loose passing through the barrier. Until enough crew were back to working status, the computer core would not be touched.

Hands slammed down on the console in front of her. "You worthless piece of..." A long stream of curses followed as she rose to her feet, shoving her hands through her hair in a fit of pure frustration and borderline rage. The feeling she had was just too strong to ignore, and there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it until the core was fully operational. Who knew how long that would take once they had the man power to make it happen?

Joey pinched the bridge of her nose again and closed her eyes. There was a headache brewing, and now she didn't know if she could trust anyone around the sensitive data the complex contained. Maybe camping out in her office wasn't a bad idea. At least then, she'd be able to monitor what went on while the new scans were running. Of course, two weeks was a long time to crash on a couch, but she'd do it. Is this how Harvey felt? Always wondering if there were someone out to sabotage the crew, or worse, destroy them?

"Perhaps you should take a few minutes to compose yourself, Lieutenant," Torg said quietly, having re-entered the room in the last minute and had watched the woman work. "Besides, it is late, and given that you are carrying spawn, you should consider rest."

She had no idea he had returned, and thus, a startled jump was given when he spoke. He had access to Intel. Could he be responsible for possible corruption? Or perhaps, it was one of the other eight members of her team. Was she reaching conclusions that were so far out there she was unable to consider that going through the barrier of the Zone was responsible for everything? While all of it was a possibility, she didn't want to take any chances. "I'm fine," she protested, looking back to the poor console she'd assaulted. There wasn't a mark anywhere one it, so it would live to see another day. "There's nothing either of us can do right now anyway, so perhaps we should both call it a night and attempt to relax until we have the rest of the team back with their memories."

Torg could not argue. "If you don't mind, Lieutenant, I'll hang back for a bit and clean up the mess." He gestured around the room, which looked like an explosion had gone off. Isolinear chips, padds, other tools were scattered around the room, all thanks to traversing the barrier. "That way we don't have to do it in the morning."

Joey shook her head. "I'll take care of it. I've got a couple other things I need to do before I can leave anyway," she said, not wanting to let on that she didn't trust him to be alone in the facility. "Take some downtime... handle things you don't normally have the chance to. I'll be fine here."

He reluctantly agreed, not liking the idea of being sent away with less than a quarter of the crew having their memories restored already. Perhaps a trip to the mess hall, or one of the other areas where the memory-less crew had gathered would do everyone well, even him.

Once the doors closed behind him, Joey found herself breathing a sigh of relief as she looked around at the mess she'd volunteered herself to clean. It was a small price to pay to have everyone else out. With a mutter, she began to clean the scattered items with the intent of moving to her office to handle things there once she was done.

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