=/\= Various Ships Storage Rooms =/\= Dexter wasn't too happy about the XO's order to make a torpedo inventory check together with LT. Wellington. One reason was the fact that she as a ship's counselor had surely little knowledge about photon/quantum torpedoes, the second was the fact that she was recently injured and in Dexter's opinion not fit for such a task and the third was the fact that he felt always a little bit nervous in her presence. Aside from the fact that she was a senior officer and he just an ensign, Wellington was a beauty and secretly desired by half of the man's crew on board. And well ... Dexter WASN'T desired by ANY female on board ... Athena had been feeling better when Ensign Dexter came with the orders from Shane and she wanted to do what she could to help. As the two of them had climbed crawled and struggled to this storage room Athena couldn't help thinking {I'm an extremely large ornamental Key.} She assumed the slight bump on her head and the dried blood that covered her clothing would be considered the ornamental part. She smiled at the ensign and started placing what looked usable in one pile and what looked to be bits and pieces in another. While Athena worked on this task Ensign Dexter continued his count and keeping track of it on a padd. Luck was one thing and that Wellington didn't seem to want to interfere with his inventory and kept herself busy. Sure, she was helping him as good as she could but luckily she didn't try to examine the torpedoes corpses for damage. Dexter noticed every torpedo they found on his PADD and with a little surprise he realized that most of the torpedo storage was undamaged. If the torpedo launchers would be in working condition the Chimera could still be an intimidating enemy for most know non-federation ship's in the quadrant. Dexter didn't pay much attention to Wellington as he tried to finish this cargo room as soon as possible and concentrated himself on his task. Athena pick up some sort of rifle and looked at the weapon. She let her hand glide over the smoothness of the cool metal. She looked down the barrel of the weapon and through the sights. Her movements were calm and sure as she remembered when she was learning to shoot a similar weapon better. ~ His warm arms came around her and helped her with the weight of the weapon. His soft deep voice brushed against her cheek as he explained all the steps. "Now just squeeze the trigger gently" She held her breath as she did what was asked of her and she hit the target. "That's better," he said as she turned in his arm in her excitement of hitting the target. Her breath caught in her throat for a second or two before she replied, "yes." ~ Out of nowhere ... like a thunder from a clear sky a phaser impulse sounded through the room and hit a nearby wall behind Dexter. For a little moment he froze in shock about the sudden shot and the wildly looked around searching for the enemy {X!Chi!!!} he thought. Seeing no one at first with a weapon, Dexter turned to Wellington to ask her if she heard the same. Taken by surprise he saw a phaser rifle in her hands, aimed in his general direction ... her look was quite indifferent. "Lieutenant" he said, "Lieutenant ... what happened? Why did you shoot?" he asked still in shock about the pretty counselor with the rifle in her hand. Athena became suddenly aware of a shocked voice talking to her. She looked up and noticed that she had narrowly missed Ensign Dexter. "I'm Sorry, Ensign. Its a touchy trigger," she said as she laid the weapon aside. "I'll be more careful to check that the safety is on in future," she continued to put the poor man at ease again. Dexter sighed heavily and kept staring at Wellington. {Touchy trigger?} he asked himself in disbelief {bless God for the bad aiming of hers } he thought at the moment not aware of the counselor's telepathic abilities {what is she thinking shooting around like the old Walsh} They were on the move again and Athena's head was beginning to throb a bit. Ensign Dexter was moving like a one man wrecking crew and occasionally Athena was finding it difficult to keep up with him. Her vision seemed to be darkening around the edges a bit but Athena wasn't going to give up. She tripped on some debris and winced as her ankle twisted. Tears instantly sprung to her eyes and she pushed them away as she continued to the next location. Being aware of his danger, Dexter paid the counselor now much more attention. He kept an eye close on her and her actions. {There are too many weapons around} he thought as they walked through the short corridor between two storage rooms. Athena was often hard to read and not it was not different but Dexter had the feeling that she was not feeling good at all. It was nothing certain but the feeling remained. At one point she stepped bad and her ankle twisted, but she did not fall now complained ... so it was hard to judge when to say something to her. When they reached the next storage room, Ensign Dexter gave her an assessing look. Athena diverted the attention by saying, "I'm sure you want to get this done quickly so don't let me hold you up." This was one of the last two storage rooms they had to inspect but now she looked like she could do no more. She sat on a nearby large piece of debris and said no more. Dexter fought the thought of kneeling down to her and offering help, but well ... would you ask one of the most beautiful woman on board being a little unknown ensign? Dexter looked at the PADD in his hand and then back at Athena. Not quite sure about that ... he made a step closer to her and asked quietly: "No problem counselor, this two rooms wont take long. Please stay here and have some rest and ... if you would like ... I saw there a small barrel of fresh fruits in the previous room ... what would you say to an apple?" The thought of food at the moment made Athena's stomach turn more than just a bit. She was sure her face went a little pale at the ensigns offer of an apple. She swallowed down the nauseating lump in her throat and closed her eyes for a moment. Opening her eyes and meeting the ensign's gaze, She replied, "No thank you." Athena ignored his hesitation as he turned away and rubbed her sore ankle a bit while she rolled the stress from her neck to ease the dull throb in her head. Every time she caught the ensign looking her direction she gave him a warm polite smile hiding the fact that she sensed his unease with her. It was more than just his usual unease that she associated with a hand few of the crew; it was more intense. {I suppose nearly shooting him could explain it. I tried to ease his mind about that though.} She hadn't fired any weapon since that little accident let alone even pick up a weapon that looked like it might work. She thought he would be feeling a little more at ease by now. Turned down by the counselor was what he expected, but nonethless there was some little hope in his mind ... but well, miracles don't happen every day. Shrugging slighty with his shoulders Dexter returned to the routine work of inspecting the torpedo payload. Well, there was one thing that made him to feel a bit more on ease. Till the shooting Wellington didn't try to touch a weapon again ... {at least I keep my head} he thought. Now the pretty counselor resting and well, if she was of little help ... she was of little trouble as well. Dexter was almost ready with this room when ... Athena heard a muffled noise and stood up quickly. The rapid movements made her head swim a bit. {What was that? Had someone been down here when...} Dexter turned around and stared at the counselor with a bit fear of what will it be this time {Please NO grenade} he thought. But all he saw was Athena stan ding tall but she looked rather confused. He looked fastly around but seeing nothing special he looked back at Athena and asked carefully: "Lieutenant? Is there anything wrong?" {is she getting crazy?} Athena turned her gaze to Dexter and Started to reply, "I thought....." Instead she shook her head which made her a little dizzy but she finished, "Nevermind," as she gave her temples a small rub. Dexter looked at Wellington in a way you look at a child you don't know what it will do next ... burst in tears or laugh hysterically. He nodded slowly and said in a soothing way: "I am almost finished here Lieutenant, it shouldn't take much longer". At that instant he noticed a strange sound from behind a nearby debris as well. It was faint and unrecognizable ... like a ... "A Rat" Dexter cried in surprise as a small white furry four legged thing started to run ... directly at Athena! Athena spun around just in time to see the furry white creature running straight at her. The fringes of Athena's sight darkened and everything began to spin. The next thing she knew she was falling and then came to a sudden stop. She was holding on to something warm and her vision began to clear up. She found herself looking into Ensign Dexter's eyes. It all happened within a moment. Just a second ago there was a mice and a woman nearby and now the woman was in the man's arms. Dexter caught Athena by instinct and prevent her from falling and now was looking quite shocked and frozen in her lovely face while holding her in his arms. Time for daydreams? =/\= End Log =/\= Lt. Athena Wellington Counselor USS Chimera & Ensign Dexter NPC apb:Muma