A Migraine Mystery

Posted on Sun Aug 13, 2017 @ 4:19am by Lieutenant Corsa Yeros & Flight Staff

Mission: Strange Matter
Location: Deck 26, Flight Control Operations
Timeline: MD 26, 1245

Sometimes it was a good to have a place to hide among the hubbub. Not that Corsa would ever admit to hiding from other members of the senior staff or even the Commodore himself but he was. He was hiding from being pestered while he dealt with his current obsession.

Some men were focused on their muse; a piece of art they had to sculpt, paint or craft and often spent weeks or even months coming up with the inspiration. Others pined after a woman; a lover that had spurned them and had dedicated time and energy into winning them back. For Corsa Yeros it was Danube Runabout Clyde.

It remained in Shuttle Bay One with the no-fly stickers adorning its hull. With a mystery of how it had managed to develop the ability of one hundred and eighty percent efficiency. It felt like the runabout was taunting him. Mocking him for being unable to find the root cause. Corsa had considered simply firing it into the nearest star but decided against it.

Flight Ops was quiet even in the middle of the day. Not much in the way of incoming and outgoing traffic. The odd fighter sortie but patrols seemed to be standard and he trusted his staff to liaise with the pilots without him having to worry about micromanaging. Everyone was busy with that or general administrative work. PADD-work flowed like water and some of it splashed onto him.

Corsa was sitting in front of one of the holographic displays as he ran every search he could. The flight path from dock to the ship was shared and had been through remote link as the Chief of the Deck had suggested. No other runabout had any similar issues and the Clyde had been scanned, searched and pretty much molested by flight crew and mechanics.

He had been so buried in the research that he hadn't noticed an Ensign hovering behind him. Finally he noticed the shadow and turned around in his chair to find a black-eyed redhead smiling at him. She had a stack of PADDs in hand which caused Corsa to become naturally wary of her. Finally he looked at her face; she was young and had a broad smile on her lips that made Corsa want to listen to her. Even trust her. The PADDs however made her more of an omen than anything else.

"Can I help you, Ensign?" he asked the PADD bearer, his eyes now focused on the electronic devices with a sense of foreboding.

"My very words!" she responded. "Ensign Jenos Tylan. Your yeoman."

"My what?"

"Yeoman." Jenos said with a mother-like patience. "My duties are to make your life easier, for a summary. I'm an administrative assistant. I fetch and carry. Mostly PADDs with reports, messages, take calls, coffee orders and so on. I suppose you could say I am an extension of your will. Your...office. Yes, that does sound good..."

Corsa could feel the wheels in his head turn as he tried to ponder what she was and why she was doing it. This felt like a detail, a large one, that he had missed and it annoyed him. He prided himself on knowing details. They stopped him crashing the ship. "So you are, effectively, my secretary?"

"Yeoman." the Betazoid repeated with another smile.

"Very well, Ensign. Now. What do you have for me?" Corsa decided it was best just to soldier on and try and retain what little dignity he could. The issue with the runabout have made him tetchy and now he was having to deal with a new problem in the form of a person.

She started to hand him the PADDs one at a time. "Just things for your signature, sir. We have the full shuttle manifest and repair logs. There's also the duty roster needing to be completed and signed...today's diagnostics reports on the flight controls from bridge...two requests for Promenade leave and a birthday card. Well. Electronic."

Corsa soon found his hands full, literally, with all these pieces of administrative work. He was a pilot not a manager. "This whole making my life easy has fallen at the first hurdle, Tylan..." the Traxian said with narrowed eyes. However he decided to remain at some professional level as he began to read over all of the maintenance report.

"The...Clyde." said Jenos as she bent down to read his holo-display. "Have ourselves a little project sir?"

"What do you know of it?"

"Nothing specific." the Yeoman admitted. "But I do know that it's been a talking point for the shuttle bay crew."

Corsa made a grunting sound as he signed off the maintenance report and started viewing the gaps in the duty roster. He tried to make sure everyone had time for breaks, rests and so on. It was a balancing act he still struggled with. "Apparently it's operating at eighty percent above nominal efficiency and no one knows why. Frankly I'm annoyed because the more the question hangs around the more I'll have the XO asking me in a rather impolite manner why one of the ship's runabouts is sitting there decorated with 'no fly' stickers."

"Hrm. May I make a suggestion, sir?"

"Long as it doesn't involve PADDs." Corsa told her as he waggled the duty roster at her in an accusatory manner.

"I suggest you speak to the Chief of Operations. Or one of his officers. After all power flow and regulation is their bread and butter. So to speak. Perhaps he could offer some insight?"

Corsa had forgotten about that idea. It made sense. Ops was the place to go if you had a power or logistical problem. Mechanics and flight staff had failed. It was time to talk to everyone and anyone he could. "I will. After I do this homework you've given me."

"Splendid. My desk is near yours in your office so when you're done please deposit it there?"

"I thought you'd come fetch it?" Corsa asked with his brow furrowed.

"Consider it a lesson in...departmental documentation." Jenos replied as she smiled. "Good luck in your investigation, sir."