Crewman Annamae Barberra - Float Like A Butterfly

[Wil Ukinix]

((Flashback – XO’s Office, Level 3, Copernicus Center – 2 days earlier))

Annamae walked into Wil’s office unannounced.  With her head down and her gaze solely on the floor, she dropped herself into the vacant chair opposite the XO’s desk.  The time with young Molly in the Yosemite had been somewhat of an epiphany for her.

Without looking up, she spoke in her normal monotone voice.

Barberra: Please don’t send me back to Earth.

Ukinix: Crewman, I’m over here.

She looked up at the vacant desk in front of her, before turning over her shoulder to look at Wil who was sitting at the round table at the opposite end of the office, drinking a mug of green tea while reading something from his PADD.

Barberra: Oh.

Rather than getting up, she turned in her chair and rested her elbow on the backrest.

Ukinix: I have to say, this is a surprise.  I’ve been convinced that you’re not committed to a long-term career in Starfleet, Crewman.  That’s at least the sense I got.  ::Tapping PADD:: I recently received your Academy transcripts after I requested them.

Barberra: ::Sigh, deflated tone:: Oh.

Ukinix: Ah, here we go.  Five months and sixteen days at the Academy.  Exemplary academic results, you topped many classes. Yet you were reprimanded for repeated discipline issues, you have multiple black marks against your name for behaviour, and you were practically kicked out when they transferred you to the Technical Services Academy.

Barberra: Five months?  I thought it was three.  I stopped counting.  Whatever, ::Shrug:: I’m guess I’m not officer material then.

Ukinix: ::Still browsing PADD:: Hmm. The only reason they persisted with you was because they thought you had huge potential.  ::Reading from PADD:: “Annamae is mean and mostly rude, disruptive, anti-social, and does not respect the chain of command, which taints her potential as an outstanding officer.  She would have otherwise been an asset to Starfleet.”

Barberra: Those other Cadets were stupid.  They thought they were so good at everything.  They hated it when I was better than them.

Ukinix: Annamae, I had idiot Cadets as well in some of my classes, that’s normal.  But it also teaches you how much you have to rely on each other when you are actually out on the final frontier.

Barberra: I don’t like people.  Except for Ensign Iko.  And Molly.  And Commander new older brother.

Ukinix: ::Tilt of head:: Who?

Barberra: Commander Iovianus.

Wil nodded, then moved his chair to be closer to the Crewman. If she was forming some semblance relationships with people, maybe there was still hope…

Ukinix: Not surprisingly your record at the Academy mirrors what’s happened here on Amity.  Awful behaviour, but exemplary results when you do apply yourself.  I got the report of what you did in the Medical Center to poor Ikaia.  ::Reading PADD:: You busted in on a private conversation involving Lieutenant Ariadust, and you upset Daughter Ascendant Polgonz - ::slight shrug, quietly:: not much lost there in your defence - ::normal tone:: and you embarrassed yourself and Starfleet in The Chief of Mission’s office.  I’ve received multiple written complaints. One from Ensign Finsen about your behaviour in front of Ambassador Vataix.

Barberra: ::scowl:: Finsen talked so much, it’s like the entire Federation Standard dictionary is vomited out every time she opens her mouth.

Wil paused for a moment and pondered. 

Ukinix: OK, I’ll give you that one too.  ::Serious tone::  But that’s our CO, crewman, and Rivi and Kivik – and Finsen - deserve better than that.  I get it, you don’t have to make friends.  But you do have to respect your fellow crew.  We’re all here for each other, especially when things go wrong.  That’s important.

Annamae paused for a moment, and looked left.

Barberra: Okay.  Fiiine.  I’ll pretend to like everyone.

Wil observed the crewman while he momentarily thought back to losing the new Ensign on the Miombo, before shaking his head.

Ukinix: That’s not enough, crewman. We are all thousands of light years from home, we have brilliant people on this Outpost, and we all look after each other.  We have to, to ensure each other’s wellbeing.  ::looking back at PADD:: I’m sorry Crewman, but-

Barberra: You’re sending me back to Earth?  ::shrug:: Okay.  Shame.  I was just beginning to not hate this place.  But you’ve made a decision on my career that I couldn’t, so that’s that.  Now I can open that novelty three-meter-hat store I dreamed about as a kid.

Ukinix: I haven’t finished, crewman.  I’m assigning you to our next mission on the Indy.

Annamae looked incredulously at Wil, and blinked her eyes a few times.

Barberra: Are you high right now?

Ukinix: ::Tapping PADD: Solak, in *his* written complaint, tells me you interpreted a display in Stellar Cartography like ::click fingers:: that.  Your analysis and alteration suggestions of the Kathesis Pact agreement highlighted a bunch of logistical issues that no one else picked up.  I’m told you singlehandedly repaired a holographic sign in the Merchant District, and set up your own apartment without anyone from engineering need to help you.  In your Academy record,  ::Tapping PADD:: where was it….  “Cadet Barberra’s natural engineering prowess and abilities would be much better utilised for useful engineering practices rather than for practical jokes that affect an entire section of the Academy dormitory.”  ::Curious tone:: What’d you do?

Barberra: Nothing!  I just... accessed the replicator control systems, and programmed them to continually replicate silly string.  Every single replicator.  It started at 2am, and they couldn’t stop it for two and a half hours.

Wil tried his best to supress a smirk, before he cleared his throat and looked back at the PADD.

Ukinix: One of your instructors classed your helm abilities as “just short of advanced” compared to the other cadets in your class.  You show natural leadership and assert authority in stressful situations, okay that I can believe.  Despite your behaviour, Crewman, you could be anything you wanted in Starfleet if you tried.

Barberra: ::Shrug:: I didn’t know if I wanted to be in Starfleet, the recruiters talked me into it.  I just wanted to see all the weird and strange things in space.

Ukinix: I’ll tell you a secret.  Most of us do.  And I agree with ::lifting PADD:: this assessment, you’d be a loss to Starfleet.  I’m giving you an opportunity to take a break from the Outpost and serve on a starship for a bit.  You might even see some weird stuff.

Annamae’s eyes moved left, not able to look Wil in the eye.

Barberra: Okay.  Thank you.  Commander.

The XO smiled a little.  Calling him “Commander” rather than “sir” or “professor” demonstrated to him that she was at least trying, in her own weird way.

Ukinix: Report to the Indy. I want you to observe and learn.  Still be you, but be effective.  Get involved.  Help your fellow crew, they’ll help you.  Wherever your curiosity takes you, go there.  Report to me on board once a day and brief me on the things you’ve done.  If things don’t work out, maybe heading back to Earth is for the best.  Dismissed.

Annamae got up from her chair, and began to make her way out.  But she stopped when Wil spoke to her once more.

Ukinix: Oh, and crewman?  That silly string replicator thing?

She turned around momentarily.

Ukinix: ::Slight wicked smile:: Brilliant.  Do it to Wong sometime.  That’s an order.

A devious grin, the largest smile of any sort that Wil had seen on the crewman, appeared on Annamae’s face.  With almost sparkling eyes she turned to face Wil at attention, then lowered her chin to accentuate her devious expression.

Barberra: Aye, Commander.

((End Flashback))


((Engineering, Deck 2, USS Independence-B))

She had slept a few hours, before deciding to get up and walk around the ship again.  Engineering wasn’t a place she’d visited yet, so she decided it was time.

Whenever Annamae passed a crewmember in the corridor, she’d half look at them, and half look away.  But she always gave them a polite nod and an awkward smile, even if it was forced just about every time.  (Except for the xB helm officer, she couldn’t look him in the eye at all.  She’d heard about xB’s but had never met one, and she so desperately wanted to talk to him!  Oh, the insights… but two things held her back.  (1) Maybe he didn’t want to talk about his time in the collective (not like that kind of thing had stopped her before), and (2) he was kinda hot, especially his metal thingy above his eye).

In return though, many crew stared at her with an amused look.  It was probably because of the black fairy wings she was wearing on her back in addition to her standard issue red uniform.  That, and the cat’s ears headband she was sporting.  “Be you”, Commander Ukinix had told her.  That’s just what she did.  She knew she’d eventually get told to stop wearing them, so decided to make the most of it while she could.

As she walked into engineering, she kept in the corner to be discreet and to let everyone do their job, and to do the other thing that Ukinix had told her: “Observe”.

And observe she did without anyone noticing she was there.

She observed the klaxon warnings screaming at everyone.

She observed everyone lurching when the ship rocked and the hull groaned under some sort of stress, she assumed from some sort of outside gravitational pressure.

She observed the warp core light up like a fireworks before it went silent, and observed the gold-uniformed Ensign thrown into the nearby railing just as the lights went out.

She observed everyone, including herself, starting to float.  oO Good thing I wore the fairy wings Oo

And when she observed the fires and the sparks, and heard the emergency bulkheads slamming into place, she decided to “get involved” just like Professor Ukinix had told her.

In the darkness, she pushed herself off the wall and floated over to the centre of engineering (flexing her back muscles as she did so it looked like she was flapping her fairy wings).

Richards: I’m rebooting the generators. No guarantee it will help anything but it’s letting me do it.

Petras: Response

Reade: Great! That sounds good.

There was a low hum that reverberated around the bay, as the generators reset, before they were silent again.

Richards: I’ve got the generators coming online. 30 minutes until we know if they will work.

Reade/Petras: Response

The Ensign that had previously bumped his hip floated over towards the bulkheads

Richards: Maybe someone can hear us through the bulkheads. I only home there is someone close by.

Reade/Petras: Response

The Ensign desperately yelled out.

Richards: HELLO?! ANYONE THERE?

Even if there was someone on the other side of the bulkheads, Annamae wondered if they would hear him.

Reade/Petras: Response

The crewman quietly observed as the Ensign looked around.  After finding a small piece of metal of some sort, he went back to the door and started tapping it.

Richards: .... . .-.. .-.. --- ..--.. / .- -. -.-- --- -. . / - .... . .-. . ..--..
(OOC: Hello? Anybody There?)

The Ensign then let himself float free of the door.

Reade/Petras: Response

Barberra: Maybe we could establish a console link with the bridge.  I did that at the Academy once to… ::trailing off:: oO Send rude messages during a simulation to the short angry Andorian cadet who told me I was annoying Oo … communicate.  If we can establish a link, we could send morse code that way.

Reade/Petras/Richards: Response

Barberra: Ignore my red uniform, I can do engineering things.  What can I do to help, sirs?  ::To Richards:: Is your hip OK?

Reade/Petras/Richards: Response


Tags/TBC!

 

 

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Crewman Second Class Annamae Barberra
Liaison Officer for the Starfleet Attaché
Amity Outpost
V239511WU0