Incommunicado – Rumour Mill
by Lieutenant Jana Kasikova & Commander Richard Dunham
Post Details
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Jana was feeling better if not a little on edge with everything that had happened the past few days. She and her baby had nearly died, her quarters had been ransacked (and there was only one person that came to mind when she saw her quarters).
Ben checked up on her whenever he could, either calling her or coming down to the office. She had jokingly told him that he could play mother hen, she didn't think he would take it seriously....then again he had watched her come within an inch of dying so she couldn't really blame him.
She set herself up to do some easy research at her desk. Jana had promised Ben that she would not overdo it for the next few days and she was determined to keep her word.
Rick took a deep breath and a longer exhale as he stood outside the chief science officer's office, he had been it had seemed like forever since the last time they had seen each other. Realistically though it had only been a week or so. Thats why he had a slight sense of anticipation standing outside her door, the rumor mill had dropped a couple of interesting things about the chief science officer current set of circumstances, and Dunham was a little nervous about talking on those issues, but he was a friend but also he needed a opinion from the chief science officer about the new temporal anomaly. He pressed the entry chime.
Jana looked at the door for a brief moment and thought about ignoring the door. She sighed and called out, "come in!'" as she took the seat behind her desk.
"Hey how are you doing....here are some flowers" said Rick a little awkwardly handing over a small bouquet hoping a little gesture would help things.
"Rick!! Thank you! Where's Chelsea?" She asked in rapid succession and looked around him as she accepted the flowers. "You still remember my favourite flowers." Jana smiled and smelled them before placing them on the desk.
"I'm sorry that I couldn't be at the wedding, I heard it was wonderful! Congratulations by the way. What brings you down to my little universe?"
He smiled and thanked her for her congratulations about the wedding. "Urrrmmmm yeah" said Rick agreeing about the flowers, though he suspected he was lying as he didn't remember picking out anything flower wise, maybe it had been subconscious, "Chelsea's still un-packing from our holiday."
Finding somewhere to sit in her office Rick then started to talk about why he had come down to see her. "Well it was the universe that i wanted to talk to you about, I heard that its not treating you very well.....and its also apparently dumped another temporal anomaly outside the station"
"I have diagnostics running scans as we speak regarding the anomoly...The universe may have kicked my ass in the last away mission but it hasn't been all bad Rick." She flashed Rick the engagement ring that Ben had given her the day that they found out she was pregnant.
"Wow" said Rick genuinely pleased for her, "Congratulations....." he looked a little baffled for a moment then said a little tentatively "Who's the lucky guy...." he assumed it was guy but it was the 24th century after all.
"The Assistant Chief Medical Officer, Ben Kensington. You can't tell me that Chelsea didn't tell you...she is the one that threw us together. She and I were actually going to go out together that night that I broke my wrist but an emergency came up...I guess the rest is history." She smiled at him.
Rick felt on the back foot and on the defensive "Its been pretty mental the last few days, I'm pretty sure Chelsea would of told me, but what with the wedding, the time displacement amnesia and a very very awesome honey moon it probably just slipped her mind. So how long have you two lucky people known each other" said Rick with a smile, trying to get a handle on what he had just found out. "What brought you together...apart from the unstoppable force that is my wife." He smiled again.
"I was only teasing Rick. I don't think...no let me rephrase, I know that the engagement wouldn't of happened as quickly as it did except for when I went to speak to Chelsea about carrying Melanie's baby that is in stasis Ben and I found out that I'm pregnant."
Rick suddenly felt like he had fallen through a wormhole to a 20the century soap operah after being hit by this new and extraordinary news. his mouth dropped open and he had do physically close his jaw with the tip of one finger "Ok...let me get this straight...hold on...Who's Melanie....have i met Ben? AND YOUR PREGNANT!"
He was acting like her protective older cousin and she laughed at him. "Melanie was the CMO on the Achilles, she was killed in action. She was my best friend. Her fiance was killed here during the Romulan attack. In her will it was declared that she wished me to carry and raise her child that is in stasis. She knew I would do it to...no matter the risk to myself. As for Ben...No...I don't think you have. We were called away on the away mission where I was nearly killed...and yes Rick, I'm pregnant, with his child."
Though he was relieved by her laugh, at his little outburst, this bubble of ease was suddenly burst by this rather grim story about death and babies. He wanted to ask what would now happen with this stasis baby but instead he turned the conversation back around to something he knew "Is this Ben fella treating you right? Do I need to have a word with this bloke?" he asked
"Yes Rick. Right now he is acting more like a mother hen than anything else. Ben didn't want me to come to work so quickly after I was so ill but I was going stir crazy. I promised that I would take it easy and not overdo it. If you must have a talk with him go ahead...just don't scare him off please." She giggled.
"Me!" said Rick placing a hand on his chest and giving his best over exaggerated innocent look and smiling.
"Yes you!" She laughed. "You are protective just like my cousin Edmund. I don't want the love of my life to be scared off by you." She winked.
"Ok" said Rick grudgingly but in a friendly sort of way. "I'll play nice." He paused then smiled "Congratulations Jana, I'm happy for you." He then clapped his hands together enthusiastically "Ok down to business, I've had fighter wing gamma set up a cordon around the this USS Horatio, but can you tell for certain that none of my ships are going to fall into some sort of temporal wormhole and end up a hundred years in the past?"
"Like I said Rick, I'm still running scans. But I don't see that they would be pulled into the anomoly unless it expanded. Preliminary scans aren't showing that it will expand. I would keep them back an extra 10,000 kilometres just to be on the safe side." She handed him a PADD with the information that she had collected so far. "I haven't seen anything like this...not even in anything that I can pull up from the past two hundred years of data..." Jana shook her head. "I am going to have to pull together the science department and have a meeting I think."
He looked at the data on the Padd and sent a copy of it to his office computer. "Ok" said Rick in a thoughtful agreeing tone, as he bobbed his head up and down in a nod of agreement. "Please keep me posted Lieutenant....." he trailed off for a moment, frowning at his own slip into work mode. He waved it off and asked in a more pleasant tone. "How about we go get some breakfast Jana, and you can tell me all about this fabulous man" then he giggled and said "and how you managed to land yourself pregnant with 24 century contraceptive"
"Alright dad...let's go." She laughed, stood up and left her office with him. "Well you see Rick...there is this story about the birds and the bees...have you heard it before or has Chelsea explained it to you before?" She teased as they walked down the corridor.
"Yes" said Rick as they made their way out of her office and towards the nearest turbo lift. "But what i'm trying to say is did one of you forget to have your injection or something?" Rick got his every month, it was a contraceptive injection that lasted for just over 3 weeks, but if you didn't get it topped up, their was possibility of it not working.
"No, I haven't been on it in a long time. I hadn't really been with anyone since Damien...and I didn't see the point of it. Neither Ben or I thought of it when we got together. I had just lost Melanie and it was, frankly, the furthest thing from my mind. It's a little more complicated but..." ~I don't want you think less of me.~ She finished the thought in her mind. He would probably think less of her. Jana honestly didn't know for a fact that Ben was the father...there was another possibility but Thomas seemed to have disappeared off the station, not wanting contact with her or the child. Her daughter would belong to Ben...even if he wasn't biologically her father.
"Fair enough....I know what its like when you get caught up in the moment." Said Rick understandingly. They entered the turbolift and Rick asked politely to the computer "promenade pleas." The lift lurched a little then headed off at speed to its destination. Out of the blue and because Rick felt he should say something reassuring in the looming silence that was potentially building, he said "Your going to make a wonderful mother, you know that right."
Jana stared at him for a moment before she spoke. "How can you say that when I don't even...never mind." She turned away from him and shook her head.
"Hey...." He said sympathetically and put one hand on each of her shoulders, gently turning her around. He had to crouch a little to get eye contact with her. But clearly something else was the matter. "Whats wrong....don't even know what? whats the matter." He face clearly showed his look of concern for her.
"I don't know who her daddy is...I slept with Thomas and Ben around the same time...Ben knows all of this...Thomas has disappeared to God knows where. Ben doesn't want a DNA scan, he has said that much to me...but how can I be a good mother if I don't know who her father is?" Tears filled her eyes but she refused to let them fall.
~Sounds like a half decent bloke~ thought Rick to himself but also closely followed up by ~Who the hell is Thomas?~ Hadn't he been a reporter or something, or was he mixing him up with someone else, so many people went through this station it was hard to keep track, but Rick reflected that this Ben seemed to be doing the right thing. "It sounds to me that your both stepping up and doing the right thing by this baby, and thats what good parents do. You will be fine" he tried to re-assure her.
Jana blinked away the tears and nodded, "you always know what to say Rick." She hugged him. "Let's go find some breakfast."
They settled down at the Italian food place for some breakfast, Rick looked at the menu, briefly considering ordering his favorite pizza, however given that it was still early in the day he went for some coffee and croissants instead. "So when you guys getting married?"
Jana ordered the same thing but made her coffee a decaf. "I would like to get married before I get too big with this baby but we haven't decided on a date yet. Chelsea is going to be my maid of honour." She smiled at him. "Ben gave me the same sort of ring as my mother has from my dad, only my stone is blue and hers is red."
Rick took her hand and his and gave the ring an inspection "Very nice," he said approvingly it was white gold with a sapphire in the middle surrounded by diamonds to make a flower, it was quite beautiful.. He let go of her hand, soon the food was arriving and Rick had another question "So urrrmm how long have you known this Ben fellow for?"
"In all...about six weeks I think. I couldn't be happier Rick. I'm getting what I always wanted." She smiled and started picking at her croissant.
Rick smiled in satisfaction. She was going to be alright.
Off:
Chief Counselor
Lieutenant JG Taleria von Alesk
&
CAG Squadron Leader
Lieutenant Commander Richard Dunham
by Lieutenant Jana Kasikova & Commander Richard Dunham
Post Details
| Title | Rumour Mill | |
| Mission | Incommunicado | |
| Author(s) | Lieutenant Jana Kasikova & Commander Richard Dunham | |
| Posted | Wed Nov 30, 2011 @ 9:01pm | |
| Location | Jana's Office | |
| Timeline | SD40 08.00 |
Jana was feeling better if not a little on edge with everything that had happened the past few days. She and her baby had nearly died, her quarters had been ransacked (and there was only one person that came to mind when she saw her quarters).
Ben checked up on her whenever he could, either calling her or coming down to the office. She had jokingly told him that he could play mother hen, she didn't think he would take it seriously....then again he had watched her come within an inch of dying so she couldn't really blame him.
She set herself up to do some easy research at her desk. Jana had promised Ben that she would not overdo it for the next few days and she was determined to keep her word.
Rick took a deep breath and a longer exhale as he stood outside the chief science officer's office, he had been it had seemed like forever since the last time they had seen each other. Realistically though it had only been a week or so. Thats why he had a slight sense of anticipation standing outside her door, the rumor mill had dropped a couple of interesting things about the chief science officer current set of circumstances, and Dunham was a little nervous about talking on those issues, but he was a friend but also he needed a opinion from the chief science officer about the new temporal anomaly. He pressed the entry chime.
Jana looked at the door for a brief moment and thought about ignoring the door. She sighed and called out, "come in!'" as she took the seat behind her desk.
"Hey how are you doing....here are some flowers" said Rick a little awkwardly handing over a small bouquet hoping a little gesture would help things.
"Rick!! Thank you! Where's Chelsea?" She asked in rapid succession and looked around him as she accepted the flowers. "You still remember my favourite flowers." Jana smiled and smelled them before placing them on the desk.
"I'm sorry that I couldn't be at the wedding, I heard it was wonderful! Congratulations by the way. What brings you down to my little universe?"
He smiled and thanked her for her congratulations about the wedding. "Urrrmmmm yeah" said Rick agreeing about the flowers, though he suspected he was lying as he didn't remember picking out anything flower wise, maybe it had been subconscious, "Chelsea's still un-packing from our holiday."
Finding somewhere to sit in her office Rick then started to talk about why he had come down to see her. "Well it was the universe that i wanted to talk to you about, I heard that its not treating you very well.....and its also apparently dumped another temporal anomaly outside the station"
"I have diagnostics running scans as we speak regarding the anomoly...The universe may have kicked my ass in the last away mission but it hasn't been all bad Rick." She flashed Rick the engagement ring that Ben had given her the day that they found out she was pregnant.
"Wow" said Rick genuinely pleased for her, "Congratulations....." he looked a little baffled for a moment then said a little tentatively "Who's the lucky guy...." he assumed it was guy but it was the 24th century after all.
"The Assistant Chief Medical Officer, Ben Kensington. You can't tell me that Chelsea didn't tell you...she is the one that threw us together. She and I were actually going to go out together that night that I broke my wrist but an emergency came up...I guess the rest is history." She smiled at him.
Rick felt on the back foot and on the defensive "Its been pretty mental the last few days, I'm pretty sure Chelsea would of told me, but what with the wedding, the time displacement amnesia and a very very awesome honey moon it probably just slipped her mind. So how long have you two lucky people known each other" said Rick with a smile, trying to get a handle on what he had just found out. "What brought you together...apart from the unstoppable force that is my wife." He smiled again.
"I was only teasing Rick. I don't think...no let me rephrase, I know that the engagement wouldn't of happened as quickly as it did except for when I went to speak to Chelsea about carrying Melanie's baby that is in stasis Ben and I found out that I'm pregnant."
Rick suddenly felt like he had fallen through a wormhole to a 20the century soap operah after being hit by this new and extraordinary news. his mouth dropped open and he had do physically close his jaw with the tip of one finger "Ok...let me get this straight...hold on...Who's Melanie....have i met Ben? AND YOUR PREGNANT!"
He was acting like her protective older cousin and she laughed at him. "Melanie was the CMO on the Achilles, she was killed in action. She was my best friend. Her fiance was killed here during the Romulan attack. In her will it was declared that she wished me to carry and raise her child that is in stasis. She knew I would do it to...no matter the risk to myself. As for Ben...No...I don't think you have. We were called away on the away mission where I was nearly killed...and yes Rick, I'm pregnant, with his child."
Though he was relieved by her laugh, at his little outburst, this bubble of ease was suddenly burst by this rather grim story about death and babies. He wanted to ask what would now happen with this stasis baby but instead he turned the conversation back around to something he knew "Is this Ben fella treating you right? Do I need to have a word with this bloke?" he asked
"Yes Rick. Right now he is acting more like a mother hen than anything else. Ben didn't want me to come to work so quickly after I was so ill but I was going stir crazy. I promised that I would take it easy and not overdo it. If you must have a talk with him go ahead...just don't scare him off please." She giggled.
"Me!" said Rick placing a hand on his chest and giving his best over exaggerated innocent look and smiling.
"Yes you!" She laughed. "You are protective just like my cousin Edmund. I don't want the love of my life to be scared off by you." She winked.
"Ok" said Rick grudgingly but in a friendly sort of way. "I'll play nice." He paused then smiled "Congratulations Jana, I'm happy for you." He then clapped his hands together enthusiastically "Ok down to business, I've had fighter wing gamma set up a cordon around the this USS Horatio, but can you tell for certain that none of my ships are going to fall into some sort of temporal wormhole and end up a hundred years in the past?"
"Like I said Rick, I'm still running scans. But I don't see that they would be pulled into the anomoly unless it expanded. Preliminary scans aren't showing that it will expand. I would keep them back an extra 10,000 kilometres just to be on the safe side." She handed him a PADD with the information that she had collected so far. "I haven't seen anything like this...not even in anything that I can pull up from the past two hundred years of data..." Jana shook her head. "I am going to have to pull together the science department and have a meeting I think."
He looked at the data on the Padd and sent a copy of it to his office computer. "Ok" said Rick in a thoughtful agreeing tone, as he bobbed his head up and down in a nod of agreement. "Please keep me posted Lieutenant....." he trailed off for a moment, frowning at his own slip into work mode. He waved it off and asked in a more pleasant tone. "How about we go get some breakfast Jana, and you can tell me all about this fabulous man" then he giggled and said "and how you managed to land yourself pregnant with 24 century contraceptive"
"Alright dad...let's go." She laughed, stood up and left her office with him. "Well you see Rick...there is this story about the birds and the bees...have you heard it before or has Chelsea explained it to you before?" She teased as they walked down the corridor.
"Yes" said Rick as they made their way out of her office and towards the nearest turbo lift. "But what i'm trying to say is did one of you forget to have your injection or something?" Rick got his every month, it was a contraceptive injection that lasted for just over 3 weeks, but if you didn't get it topped up, their was possibility of it not working.
"No, I haven't been on it in a long time. I hadn't really been with anyone since Damien...and I didn't see the point of it. Neither Ben or I thought of it when we got together. I had just lost Melanie and it was, frankly, the furthest thing from my mind. It's a little more complicated but..." ~I don't want you think less of me.~ She finished the thought in her mind. He would probably think less of her. Jana honestly didn't know for a fact that Ben was the father...there was another possibility but Thomas seemed to have disappeared off the station, not wanting contact with her or the child. Her daughter would belong to Ben...even if he wasn't biologically her father.
"Fair enough....I know what its like when you get caught up in the moment." Said Rick understandingly. They entered the turbolift and Rick asked politely to the computer "promenade pleas." The lift lurched a little then headed off at speed to its destination. Out of the blue and because Rick felt he should say something reassuring in the looming silence that was potentially building, he said "Your going to make a wonderful mother, you know that right."
Jana stared at him for a moment before she spoke. "How can you say that when I don't even...never mind." She turned away from him and shook her head.
"Hey...." He said sympathetically and put one hand on each of her shoulders, gently turning her around. He had to crouch a little to get eye contact with her. But clearly something else was the matter. "Whats wrong....don't even know what? whats the matter." He face clearly showed his look of concern for her.
"I don't know who her daddy is...I slept with Thomas and Ben around the same time...Ben knows all of this...Thomas has disappeared to God knows where. Ben doesn't want a DNA scan, he has said that much to me...but how can I be a good mother if I don't know who her father is?" Tears filled her eyes but she refused to let them fall.
~Sounds like a half decent bloke~ thought Rick to himself but also closely followed up by ~Who the hell is Thomas?~ Hadn't he been a reporter or something, or was he mixing him up with someone else, so many people went through this station it was hard to keep track, but Rick reflected that this Ben seemed to be doing the right thing. "It sounds to me that your both stepping up and doing the right thing by this baby, and thats what good parents do. You will be fine" he tried to re-assure her.
Jana blinked away the tears and nodded, "you always know what to say Rick." She hugged him. "Let's go find some breakfast."
They settled down at the Italian food place for some breakfast, Rick looked at the menu, briefly considering ordering his favorite pizza, however given that it was still early in the day he went for some coffee and croissants instead. "So when you guys getting married?"
Jana ordered the same thing but made her coffee a decaf. "I would like to get married before I get too big with this baby but we haven't decided on a date yet. Chelsea is going to be my maid of honour." She smiled at him. "Ben gave me the same sort of ring as my mother has from my dad, only my stone is blue and hers is red."
Rick took her hand and his and gave the ring an inspection "Very nice," he said approvingly it was white gold with a sapphire in the middle surrounded by diamonds to make a flower, it was quite beautiful.. He let go of her hand, soon the food was arriving and Rick had another question "So urrrmm how long have you known this Ben fellow for?"
"In all...about six weeks I think. I couldn't be happier Rick. I'm getting what I always wanted." She smiled and started picking at her croissant.
Rick smiled in satisfaction. She was going to be alright.
Off:
Chief Counselor
Lieutenant JG Taleria von Alesk
&
CAG Squadron Leader
Lieutenant Commander Richard Dunham