Ensign Richard Matthews – Breaking and Entering, Technically, Yes. Pt. 1

[Matthew Gough]

((Starfleet Headquarters, California))

 

Sometime after a questionable poker game but before a birthday party.

Nonchalant, just act nonchalant, he was a Starfleet officer and this was Starfleet command. He was allowed to be there, he was supposed to be there, where else would a Starfleet officer be? Besides starships. . . And star bases. . .oh and outposts. Space stations too, he guessed. 

Okay, there were a lot of places for him to be. The main thing was that this was one of those places. No one had any reason to look at him and doubt that. To stop him specifically and grill him on what he was doing at the central command of his workplace. Still, Richard couldn’t help but feel like the guilty cadet that was trying to sneak contraband back to the dorms. 

Like the suspicious looking group of cadets scurrying past him. Five of them, four tall cadets, grouped around one smaller cadet. He couldn’t make them out that well. But it looked like they had a bag in their arms that was moving. 

oO Not my circus. Oo 

He did pay the group a backwards glance. But as a person who had gotten up to his fair share of shenanigans back in the day. He just wished his fellow troublemakers well. And then proceed to go and get into a little mischief of his own. 

Data terminals lined the walls, dotted the walkways, and were set up along the railing that overlooked the lower levels of the building. Starfleet command saw heavy foot traffic from officers, off world visitors, and civilians from all over who wanted to get a look. Maybe even float the idea of joining. Part museum, part recruitment office, the hallways, and common area doubled as both. With these terminals having guest access for civilians to look up public records and general info that wasn’t classified. Sure, they could just do that at home. But it felt more impressive to be able to do it at command. 

Sliding up behind a group of kids on a field trip. Richard half listened to one of the teachers talk excitedly about how the kids could do some research for their report due at the end of the month. He shuffled along behind them, smiling and nodding at a kid when they noticed the Starfleet officer beside them and moved to let him pass. 

Teacher: I want you to each pick a ship, you can’t all just pick your favorite, though. 

Richard had the portal open to the main directory. Scanning over the different links, he scrolled down to the bottom then back up to the top of the screen. Then he slowly scrolled back down until. There! He clicked, scrolled up and down again looking for a specific link designated by an icon. Clicked again. Repeating the process a few more times. 

Matthews: And there.

 

TAGS/TBC

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Ensign Richard Matthews

Science Officer

USS Khitomer (NCC-62400)

A238908RM0