Lt Alex Storm - The Query
Karen Morris
(( Library - Deck 4, USS Artemis-A ))
One topic ended, and Alex’s shoulders loosened with the breath. The volumes on the shelves whispered to her. oO Say goodnight and walk away, Alex. Oo
Alex’s tongue formed the first syllable, but the Captain edged her out.
MacKenzie: What struck your fancy today?
Storm: Oh!
Not having a book to show the Captain, Alex produced the fuchsia heels from behind her.
Storm: These?
MacKenzie: Sure, we can start there. Not exactly standard fare to go all-out just to head to the library...
Alex’s eyebrows pinched together for a heartbeat.
Storm: I felt like dressing up tonight, but I don’t know about you. Wearing heels pinches my toes after a while, and my feet scream for liberation.
MacKenzie: An uncomfortable but often necessary aspect of femininity. Hell, even the standard issue Starfleet boots hurt my feet after a while...
Storm: But if I had chosen a book it would have been a high stakes search for a missing person, but with a happy ending. Maybe something like, The Rescue. It’s an old fiction book from Earth, but it hits home.
MacKenzie’s brow furrowed—just enough for Alex to catch it.
MacKenzie: Sounds like a thrill without needing to be a physical thrill... I don't think I know it. Is it any good?
A smile pulled at her mouth before she could stop it.
Storm: Yeah. It is. A storm pushes a car off of the road. When a firefighter finds the car and she regains consciousness, she realizes her four-year-old son is missing from the car. The book is about trying to find her son.
Alex’s voice trailed off momentarily, but when it picked up again, she chuckled…
Storm: And other things. But what about you? What’s your poison?
The soft overhead lights cast a shifting shadow as the Captain rocked her head back and forth.
MacKenzie: Truthfully, I don't get a chance to read much for leisure. It's usually reports from Starfleet, or the occasional medical journal if there's something really interesting that catches my eye. Reading for fun is a bit of a luxury these days, so I'm happy to take any recommendations if you have favorites you like to come back to.
Storm: I do. There’s this other one I’ve read recently that I’ll come back to by Mickie Hawthorne. It’s a great psychological thriller about a man, Grant, who gets trapped in an underground cavern system. While he’s trying to find his way out, he comes upon a ‘home’ someone made in a tunnel and through different clues and pieces he saw before he fell down there, he discovers the other person down there is a wanted murderer, who may have engineered Grant’s fall into the tunnel. It’s pretty intense.
MacKenzie: Sounds exhilarating!
Storm: I based a recent phaser qualification practical on the setting, actually.
MacKenzie: Response
Storm: Imril passed with flying colors … ::A spasm bit into her back where Imril’s shot bit into her skin.:: If he ever decides to leave engineering, you should recruit him for Security or Tactical.
MacKenzie: Response
Alex set her shoes on the ground next to her and leaned back against the mahogany end of the bookcase. The memory of the qualifications scraped at her again—Imril’s shot, the hesitation, the sting down her back. Her fingers slipped over highly polished wood, her head tipped to the side, and her nose scrunched up before she asked.
Storm: When you were CMO, did you or even now, do you ever have misgivings about having to shoot someone? Even if it was on stun?
MacKenzie: Response
~*~
Tags / TBC!
~*~
Lt Alex Storm
Tactical Officer
USS Artemis
O240103SK2