One More Ask & Two Minute Talk

 One More Ask

Month 16 Day 8

13:44 Hours

Bugalu

Beth looked around as Bugalu approached. "You might as well go in. She's not having any luck falling asleep. Maybe you can help her calm down."

"What's her problem?"

"I don't know. It took her a full hour to get here after her shift was over, so she must have eaten, but she's been fretting since she got here. I think she'd be tossing and turning, if she could."

"Okay, I'll talk to her." He took the fresh uniform in with him. "Am I waking you, Mac?" he asked softly.

She sighed. "I can't sleep."

"What's the problem?"

"I need access to a computer, and some time on it. And I can't figure out how to get either one."

"Worried about your projects?" he asked. "The ones you left running on your personal computer?"

"No. At least, I wasn't, until you brought them up. No, I've got a new project that I have to do, it's got a firm deadline, and I can't do anything to get started on it."

"Another project? What's this one?"

"Finding myself a job, for when I leave the Fireball in a few weeks."

Wondered when she would start worrying about that. "Yeah, that's not something you want to leave until the last minute."

"I should be looking now, but I can't figure out how!"

Yeah, now that she's realized that, she's definitely in a tizzy. Time to do the brotherly thing, I guess. "How about I look for you?"

"You?" She paused to think about it. "Well, that's nice of you to offer, but what good does that do? We only get a few minutes to talk a day, if we're lucky."

"Beth said you took a full hour to eat a meal before you came back to med bay today."

"Yeah, I was talking to MacG. I don't usually take that long. More like half an hour. Or 3 quarters of an hour for lunch."

Well, the library is across the hall from the mess hall. Why not get your food, go to the library and use one of the computers to check your email? Meanwhile, I'll comb through the openings and send any that look interesting to your inbox. Engineering or communications?"

"Either. I can't be picky."

Don't like the sounds of that. Maybe once she starts seeing what's out there, she'll stop feeling quite so desperate. "You can look them over and give each one a number. One for it looks interesting, 2 for maybe, and—"

"And 5 for 'over my dead body'." She gave a huge sigh of relief, and he could see her relax under the blanket. "Thank you, Bugs. I could not figure out how I was supposed to exercise my options during the current circumstances. I was sure I'd be sent to a tug station or something, and I want nothing to do with any of those captains!"

"So, am I looking for a position for you as an individual, or part of a married team?"

"Oh, I haven't ruled out anything yet. Although there's a couple options I'm pretty desperate to avoid, if I can."

"Okay. I'll start looking as soon as I get off, and you should have emails to look through by the time you head for breakfast."

"That soon?"

"The Fleet is a big organization, Mac."

"Oh, yeah, don't forget to look in the private sector, too. I might not stay in the Fleet. Need to look at all my options."

"Okay," he agreed. "Private sector, too. Now, you settled down? Think maybe you can sleep?"

"I hope so. My nerves are settling, my stomach isn't churning." She yawned and settled into the bed. "Good night, Bugs. I owe you big time."

"Good night, Mac." He turned and headed for the doorway. All her options include being part of a married team with a helmsman/pilot. We can argue about it later, if we have to.

"Thank you, Bugs," Beth told him as he emerged from the ICU. "She's already drifting off."

 

 

Two Minute Talk

Month 16 Day 8

23:58 Hours

Smitty

Smitty called the briefing to a close. "Please relieve me, Lt Wilson, so I can talk to Colleen for a moment." After the others left the office, he turned and closed the door so they could speak privately. "You look... better rested."

"I think my back is improving," Colleen told him. "Plus, I'm not feeling quite so frantic."

"Frantic? About what?"

"What options I have as a pregnant member of the Fleet. Somebody sat me down and spelled them out for me."

"I could have done that."

She shook her head. "It took him nearly an hour. I don't know how you could condense it down to 2 minutes."

"Who did you talk to? Dr Fong?"

"No, MacGregor. Plus, I saw some of the openings within the Fleet while I had breakfast."

"In the mess hall?"

"I took my food to the library to check my email. I only had a half hour, so I didn't get through the 2 dozen openings Bugs sent me. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish up on my lunch break."

She goes to Drake and then enlists Bugalu's help? "I thought I was looking for openings to be considered."

"I imagine you are looking for openings for the 2 of us as a married team. And I'm very willing to listen to those, to discuss them at length. But—" She swallowed. "I don't think I should limit my choices without seeing everything that's available."

"I hope to convince you to marry me." He took hold of her hands and moved forward to kiss her. She reciprocated, and it lasted longer than he had intended. "I really want to marry you."

"It's a definite possibility," she answered, her breath a little ragged. "Especially when you kiss me like that."

"Then I wish we had time for more kisses," he returned with a smile. He lowered his voice. "When we return to the Fireball, I know some positions that won't put any pressure on your back."

Her face turned red. "That sounds... interesting."

He glanced at the clock and sighed. "And now we've used up our 2 minutes, and didn't even get one job opportunity discussed."

The office doorbell rang. Smitty consulted the wall screens to see who was outside. "It's Adams. Well, you go ahead and finish up the warp alcove while I inform Mr Adams that he's assigned to check the ship's core. That should keep him busy for most of your shift. After that, send him to work on a nacelle. Under Abdulla would be a good touch." He reluctantly let go of her to open the door, and the two of them went their separate ways.