Boo Boos
Post of the Month - November 2010
by Connie Morgan playing Lieutenant Ashley Douglas
OFF: Here's my first post for Lt (JG) Ashley Douglas. I have a small story arc planned for Ashley that will take place over the course of The Road to 2386. This post however is a bit of fun, and it includes the events from Marcus' post.
ON:
~~Linguistics Department Deck 6 USS Pacifica~~
Ashley Douglas tapped her fingers gently against the smooth clear panel of her workstation, waiting patiently for the computer to finish with the latest batch of translations. The Lieutenant along with the rest of the Linguistics Department was performing a large number of translations for the Federation Science Council sponsored archaeological expedition that was taking place on Ti’ane II. The translations had been the Linguistics Department’s primary assignment since the expedition commenced back in October and it had provided all of her staff with plenty of work. It was not very often that Ashley got to work with a language as beautiful or as subtle as the TinnjaI and she had enjoyed the experience immensely.
Running the text through the computer’s translation protocols often took time, but for Ashley, keen the see the fruits of hard work it felt more like an eternity and it would on occasion test her patience. Today was one of those days and she felt like a kid on Christmas Eve, anxiously waiting for morning to arrive. In an attempt to take her mind off of the computers dilly dallying Ashley looked from her workstation and took in the homely confines of the Pacifica’s Linguistics Department. Like usual for the time of day only half of the department’s several workstations were active, each one occupied by an NCO who were assisting Lieutenant Douglas with the translation work. The small room was ablaze with morning activity and chatter as the crew went about their assigned tasks with due diligence.
Ashley long ago had mused that Linguistics was often the source behind a lot of the ship’s scuttlebutt, each morning the room was full of the latest gossip and news from across the Sovereign Class Starship. Today had been no exception, most of the morning’s talk today had been focused on one of their own Ensign Jake Connelly who had made what Ashley’s two year old son Brian would call a big boo-boo with a fungus experiment that had left Science Lab 2 in a real mess. Ashley had chuckled when she had first heard the story, but she was starting to feel sorry for the Ensign as she herself had been in that situation many times before.
“You guys should cut the kid a break,” Ashley finally spoke up, “We’ve all been there before.”
“The Lieutenant is right,” Chief Petty Officer Naomi Harland spoke up from her workstation on the other side of the room. Harland was one of the senior members of the Pacifica’s Lingusitics Department and was also one of the longest serving members of the staff with her tenure being even longer then Ashley’s. “We all make mistakes, I’ve made a few myself that I would rather forget about.”
“Sounds like there is a story behind that,” quizzed Crewman Lisa Matthews between sips of her morning cup of coffee. “Care to enlighten us?”
Always the one to share a story Harland was happy to oblige her colleague’s request and began to weave a tale about one of her own unfortunate accidents. Ashley lent an ear to the start of the Chief Petty Officer’s story, but her attention was quick to shift back to her work. The computer had finished with Douglas’ translations, which were now displayed brightly across the screen waiting for her attention. Ashley swivelled around in her chair to face her console and started to read through the work with her eye open for even the slightest of mistakes.
“What about you Ma’am?” a voice asked from across the room. Ashley recognised the voice as belonging to one of the younger members of her staff, Crewman Bianca Ford.
“Hmmm?” Ashley glanced up from her work and glanced across at her fellow colleague’s who were waiting eagerly for her response. She had been so absorbed in her own reading that she had lost track of the lively conversation that was going on around her.
A youthful and almost energetic smile crossed Ford’s face as she reworded her previous question, “Been involved in any embarrassing mishaps?”
“You mean, boo boos?” Ashley cringed, “Sorry, force of habit.”
Ford chuckled at Ashley’s use of words before nodding her head, “Not what I would call it, but yes.”
Ashley rolled her eyes, a small smile forming on the corner of her lips. It was something that Ashley didn’t need to put much thought into. She had never been the most graceful person going around and as such had been involved in a number of unfortunate embarrassing incidents over the years. “Yeah I’ve done more than enough to form a personal highlight reel of shame,” Ashley replied, mocking herself in the process.
“Oh?” Crewman Matthews chimed in with a laugh. “Care to share?”
Ashley thought about it closely for a few moments, debating whether or not to share one of own tales of misery, “Ok why not, I could always deal with some more self loathing.” Ashley paused for a few moments and collected the details on the story of woe that she intended to share, then began. “Well back during my senior year in High School there was this boy.”
“There always is,” Harland butted in with a cheeky all knowing smile. “I take it that he was cute?”
“Oh he was more than cute. He had this presence about him that made us girls weak at the knees,” Ashley’s smile grew wider and brighter with her mind awash in memories of her youth. “And I had the biggest crush on him,” she continued with a laugh.
“So what happened?” Ford prodded, she was eager to hear the rest of Douglas’ tale.
“I never had the courage to approach him, but on this one day my science teacher assigned me to be his lab partner.” Ashley paused for a moment and tucked her loose flowing light brown hair back behind her ears before continuing, “So in my excitement I decided to just go for it and try to impress him.”
“I take it that it didn’t go so well?” enquired Harland softly.
“Oh, it was a complete disaster,” Ashley admitted, the smile disappearing from her face.
Disaster was the correct term to describe not only her attempts at trying to impress your schoolyard crush but also the events that had directly followed it. Ashley had been so wrapped up in her attempt to impress him that she failed to pay attention to the science experiment that they were working on at the time. That science experiment contained one active and very hot Bunsen burner, that served as the catalyst for Ashley’s embarrassment.
Harland who was doing her best to maintain a straight face was the first one to speak following Ashley’s story, “You’re joking right?” she asked, with her voice almost breaking out into laughter.
“I wish that I was.”
“You actually set yourself on fire?” Matthews asked, she was having a hard time believing that was she had just heard.
Ashley nodded her head almost reluctantly; she had absently mildly left her hand close to the active flame, which had caused the baggy sleeve of her lab coat to catch fire. “Fortunately it was just the sleeve of my lab coat, but it took my pride with it.” She looked around the room at her colleagues all of whom were overcome by fits of laughter. A smile quickly returned to her face, she was glad to see that her own misery could make others laugh. “In the end it was probably not the best way to go about impressing him.”
“Probably not,” Ford joked between the laughter that still filled the room, “But that’s one way to leave a lasting impression.”
“That’s one thing I’m good at that,” Ashley continued to smile. “Thankfully I was able to carry myself with more dignity and grace when Sam approached me for the first time,” she had been about to launch into a second story but quickly thought better of it as she had embarrassed herself enough for one day.
OFF:
