PNPC Ens. Imogen Lacy — Refuge in Pumpkin Bisque

[Nolen Hobart]

((Officer’s Mess, Deck 13, USS Khitomer, en route to Alpha Trionus II))

What a difference one sleep made. When she got off of her shift the day before, she had been a welcome part of the crew. One of its cadre of respected (if occasionally zany) junior officers. She didn't recall if she'd gone to sleep with a smile on her face, but she supposed it was perfectly possible that she had.

When she turned up for her duty shift, however, things were markedly different. No one talked to her. When anyone made eye contact, seemingly it was for a fleeting moment until an unspoken realization pulled their gaze down and away. The scores of whispers caught her ears, and it was several hours until she'd begun to piece together what had happened. What she had done. What she would do.

A weight dragged on her heart, as she realized that her story would be bookended by resentment from the people she had come to respect and care for. First Libris, and now—someday—Ouachita. As she stalked through the aisle of the Officer's Mess, searching for a seat among welcoming faces that didn't exist, she spied someone else seemingly lost in their own thoughts.

Lacy: Excuse me, sir. May I join you?

El’Heem: Response 

It was, perhaps, unfair to ambush him. But Ginny reasoned that if she didn't seize the opportunity to sit with someone who didn't appear to be actively shunning her, the odds were she'd be eating her soup with her tray wedged between her chest and the compartment wall. And, as bad as things were, Ginny Lacy was determined that they were not yet that bad. No wall soup today.

Lacy: Thank you, sir.

El’Heem: Response 

She set her tray down across from the blue-clad Lieutenant, carefully, so as not to slosh the bowl over onto the pile of leafy greens beside it. She picked up her spoon and began to gently stir the creamy, bright orange liquid. She might have sat there quietly, sipping and munching on her lunch, except there was something in the way that El’Heem looked at her. More directly than anyone else, he almost seemed to be attempting to look inside her.

Lacy: I— erm. Eventful day so far? Sir?

El’Heem: Response 

TBC

——— ● ———

Ensign Imogen “Ginny” Lacy

Engineering Officer

as simmed by

Lt. Commander Nolen Hobart

Executive Officer

USS Khitomer (NCC-62400)

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