03-31-2025, 02:27 AM
== Petty Officer First Class Tassa “Ziggy” Zh’kol - NRC ==
“...that’s when I heard a woman screaming from my bedroom…” Parson barely had said the last word when Malley interrupted him.
“The only time a woman has screamed in Parson’s bedroom,” Malley smirked as she spoke, causing the rest of those gathered to start whooping like gibbons.
“...real mature Malley. Where was I? Oh yeah, so a woman is screaming in my bedroom…”
Rolling her eyes, Ziggy took a sip from her mug and hummed as the double raktajino hit her tongue. It was helping, barely, to keep her headache at bay and her sanity in check. There had been a wild party lower deck side, with plenty of poker chips, food, and booze slung in honor of some enlisted knuckle dragger getting a promotion. Tassa wasn’t even supposed to be there, but her friend Shendi had convinced her to go.
In the meantime, the lot of them continued bantering and interrupting Parson’s well worn Risa story. She had considered telling them all to can it, but as long as the dispatchers could do their job, which they were, Tassa was okay to let it slide. It didn’t help her headache though, so she focused on something else.
Zh’kol’s eyes perused several of the displays that Dispatch had up at all times, monitoring the situation on the qoH, as well as the comings and goings from the Artemis. It seemed that there was no shortage of casualties as was Artemis tradition; some had been beamed directly to Sickbay. A worried sort of frown was matched by drooping antennae, as the Andorian Petty Officer wondered if it was some of theirs, or all Klingons.
“What’s that?” Tassa asked Malley who was nearest to the transporter log.
“What?”
“That,” Ziggy pointed to the anomaly that was someone getting transported into Transporter Room One.
Malley just shrugged, uncertain of how to answer Tassa’s question. It looked like Captain Crawford had ordered someone from the qoH beam directly to that transporter room. That seemed odd to Ziggy, though she wasn’t one to question the skipper’s command decisions. Still, curiosity was getting the better of her.
Turning about, Tassa went over to the situation desk to look at the audio and video feeds that were coming back from the group on the qoH. Now her antennae were forward facing, showing her intrigue for the new mystery that had dropped in her lap. However, whatever happened had passed, and there was nothing at that moment to see, or hear.
“Was there someone that got beamed over just a few moments ago?”
“Yeah, some mystery guest that they found in a crate on the qoH,” Qur replied quickly to Ziggy’s question.
“And? Who was it? Did they get security cleared by us?”
“No, sounds like Captain Crawford challenged them, and the guy must have said the right code word, cause he got beamed straight to tango-romeo-one.”
“She went over to the qoH?!” Zh’kol’s eyes went wide.
Nobody told me the Captain left the ship!
“No no. Calleja was relaying everything. Hold on, I’ll get the footage.”
[Calleja to Security Office.]
Ziggy’s antennae had turned to the source of Mara’s voice, shortly followed by her head moving in the direction too. Whoever their mystery guest was would have to wait, as their boss took priority.
[Get me the duty team over here on the qoH please. If anyone can find any old-school lockpicks, bring ‘em.]
“Lockpicks? Is she kidding?” Malley looked genuinely confused.
“Does the Chief ever kid?” Parson blurted out.
“She does, just not with you,” Ziggy said with just the slightest bit of a lash in her tone.
Shaking her head, Zh’kol went over to the comms, leaned down, and pressed a button to reply.
“Understood Chief. We’ll send the duty team with…” Ziggy paused, “...some kind of lock picking paraphernalia.”
Releasing the comms button, she sighed lightly to herself.
“Who’s on the duty roster for today?” Tassa stood up and took a look around.
From the gathered group, all of them were touching their noses. Eyes widening, Ziggy went looking for and found a PADD with the current lineup. Seeing her name on it caused her antennae to melt into her hair.
How did I not remember… she groaned internally and tried to smooth her outward expression. It was far too late for that though, as many were already chuckling.
“Alright, alright. Get a hold of the others. They need to be prepped to go ASAP. Also, does anyone know about lockpicking?”
A notable silence fell upon the group for a few moments, until Qur spoke up.
“There’s that odd Crewman in the Armory, everyone calls him ‘Cakes’ on account that he likes all sorts of cakes.”
“How inventive,” Zh’kol sighed, running her hands through her hair.
“He’s into old school intelligence and spy stuff from all those weird novels and whatnot. Pretty sure he knows about locks?”
Ziggy didn’t like the questioning inflection in Qur’s voice at the end of his sentence, but she had nothing else to go on.
“Does ‘Cakes’ have a real name?”
Qur looked sheepish in his chair before typing a few commands in and pulling up a dossier.
“Crewman Jamie ‘Cakes’ Aitken,” Qur finally replied while Tassa sighed, again.
“Zh’kol to Aitken. Get whatever gear you have together for lockpicking, and get geared up for away duty. Bring some breaching charges, a cutting torch, and det cord too… just in case.”
With that done Ziggy downed the rest of her raktajino, handed the mug to Qur, and headed off to gear up.
>> Klingon Freighter qoH >>
“...that’s when I heard a woman screaming from my bedroom…” Parson barely had said the last word when Malley interrupted him.
“The only time a woman has screamed in Parson’s bedroom,” Malley smirked as she spoke, causing the rest of those gathered to start whooping like gibbons.
“...real mature Malley. Where was I? Oh yeah, so a woman is screaming in my bedroom…”
Rolling her eyes, Ziggy took a sip from her mug and hummed as the double raktajino hit her tongue. It was helping, barely, to keep her headache at bay and her sanity in check. There had been a wild party lower deck side, with plenty of poker chips, food, and booze slung in honor of some enlisted knuckle dragger getting a promotion. Tassa wasn’t even supposed to be there, but her friend Shendi had convinced her to go.
In the meantime, the lot of them continued bantering and interrupting Parson’s well worn Risa story. She had considered telling them all to can it, but as long as the dispatchers could do their job, which they were, Tassa was okay to let it slide. It didn’t help her headache though, so she focused on something else.
Zh’kol’s eyes perused several of the displays that Dispatch had up at all times, monitoring the situation on the qoH, as well as the comings and goings from the Artemis. It seemed that there was no shortage of casualties as was Artemis tradition; some had been beamed directly to Sickbay. A worried sort of frown was matched by drooping antennae, as the Andorian Petty Officer wondered if it was some of theirs, or all Klingons.
“What’s that?” Tassa asked Malley who was nearest to the transporter log.
“What?”
“That,” Ziggy pointed to the anomaly that was someone getting transported into Transporter Room One.
Malley just shrugged, uncertain of how to answer Tassa’s question. It looked like Captain Crawford had ordered someone from the qoH beam directly to that transporter room. That seemed odd to Ziggy, though she wasn’t one to question the skipper’s command decisions. Still, curiosity was getting the better of her.
Turning about, Tassa went over to the situation desk to look at the audio and video feeds that were coming back from the group on the qoH. Now her antennae were forward facing, showing her intrigue for the new mystery that had dropped in her lap. However, whatever happened had passed, and there was nothing at that moment to see, or hear.
“Was there someone that got beamed over just a few moments ago?”
“Yeah, some mystery guest that they found in a crate on the qoH,” Qur replied quickly to Ziggy’s question.
“And? Who was it? Did they get security cleared by us?”
“No, sounds like Captain Crawford challenged them, and the guy must have said the right code word, cause he got beamed straight to tango-romeo-one.”
“She went over to the qoH?!” Zh’kol’s eyes went wide.
Nobody told me the Captain left the ship!
“No no. Calleja was relaying everything. Hold on, I’ll get the footage.”
[Calleja to Security Office.]
Ziggy’s antennae had turned to the source of Mara’s voice, shortly followed by her head moving in the direction too. Whoever their mystery guest was would have to wait, as their boss took priority.
[Get me the duty team over here on the qoH please. If anyone can find any old-school lockpicks, bring ‘em.]
“Lockpicks? Is she kidding?” Malley looked genuinely confused.
“Does the Chief ever kid?” Parson blurted out.
“She does, just not with you,” Ziggy said with just the slightest bit of a lash in her tone.
Shaking her head, Zh’kol went over to the comms, leaned down, and pressed a button to reply.
“Understood Chief. We’ll send the duty team with…” Ziggy paused, “...some kind of lock picking paraphernalia.”
Releasing the comms button, she sighed lightly to herself.
“Who’s on the duty roster for today?” Tassa stood up and took a look around.
From the gathered group, all of them were touching their noses. Eyes widening, Ziggy went looking for and found a PADD with the current lineup. Seeing her name on it caused her antennae to melt into her hair.
How did I not remember… she groaned internally and tried to smooth her outward expression. It was far too late for that though, as many were already chuckling.
“Alright, alright. Get a hold of the others. They need to be prepped to go ASAP. Also, does anyone know about lockpicking?”
A notable silence fell upon the group for a few moments, until Qur spoke up.
“There’s that odd Crewman in the Armory, everyone calls him ‘Cakes’ on account that he likes all sorts of cakes.”
“How inventive,” Zh’kol sighed, running her hands through her hair.
“He’s into old school intelligence and spy stuff from all those weird novels and whatnot. Pretty sure he knows about locks?”
Ziggy didn’t like the questioning inflection in Qur’s voice at the end of his sentence, but she had nothing else to go on.
“Does ‘Cakes’ have a real name?”
Qur looked sheepish in his chair before typing a few commands in and pulling up a dossier.
“Crewman Jamie ‘Cakes’ Aitken,” Qur finally replied while Tassa sighed, again.
“Zh’kol to Aitken. Get whatever gear you have together for lockpicking, and get geared up for away duty. Bring some breaching charges, a cutting torch, and det cord too… just in case.”
With that done Ziggy downed the rest of her raktajino, handed the mug to Qur, and headed off to gear up.
>> Klingon Freighter qoH >>