One Day at a Time

Posted on Wed Dec 26th, 2018 @ 11:25pm by Lieutenant JG Darzen Kail

590 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Negotiations and Apothecaries
Location: Crew Quarters/Engineering
Timeline: Current

ON:

Lieutenant JG Darzen Kail was a rather disciplined man. He kept routines and lists and notes. Each morning, when he rose from sleep, he would work out, shower, drink a cup of Raktajino, spend some time on his appearance and go to work. He was on Alpha shift currently, so getting up involved early morning hours. Usually, by mid morning he was ready for food of some sort. He had always found it difficult to eat upon first waking up. Food just didn't have that appeal at 0600 that it seemed to have at 1100.

Today, was no exception. When his stomach rumbled it was nearing the 1100 hour, problem was, he was nowhere near a point where he could take a break of any sort. This led to not eating when he was accustomed to and this led to a serious case of the grouchy. He had pulled apart a panel that wasn't working properly and gone through all the wiring and circuit boards one at a time until he found the culprit. It was all well and good to take the console apart, but getting everything back where it was supposed to go was another matter entirely. Darzen's disciplined mind wasn't about to let him go to lunch with the console open and all of its innards out.

It wasn't a hugely complicated task. Darzen had definitely done much harder things in his career, but he was hungry and that was making it all that much harder for him to get all the little pieces to go back and stay while he lowered the console into place again. After several attempts and some swearing on Darzen's part, a nearby ensign kindly volunteered to help him.

Maybe it was something in the ensign's tone, or maybe it was just the fact that he was going on an hour past his lunch time, but Darzen exploded. He turned on the ensign, whose eyes widened the moment he made eye contact with the angry Trill. The ensign also started to back away. "GET AWAY FROM ME!" Darzen shouted before he launched into a tirade that would have made the Chef Gordon Ramsay proud.

The first yell got everyone's attention, as the sound bounced around Engineering, loud and clear even over the normal din. By the time the ensign had fled, Darzen's shift manager was on scene. The angry Trill was almost like a hornet, unpredictable in the moment, and the shift manager treated him as such. "HEY!" He barked, as he approached, still keeping his distance.

The 'hey' was also percussive. Darzen stopped almost immedately and stared at the shift manager, then he sighed and hung his head.

"Lieutenant Kail, what in the hell is going on over here?" the shift manager demanded. He still didn't get too close, but he did step forward a little, predicting that Darzen was done with whatever fit he had just had. "We are not in preschool anymore. Tantrums are frowned on."

"I know, Sir," Darzen said in a defeated tone. "I'm sorry."

"I asked you a question, Lieutenant. What happened."

Darzen looked back at the console he had been working on and then back at his shift manager. To be honest, he wasn't really sure what had happened. Nothing had happened, except that Darzen had made a spectacle of himself. The ensign had been perfectly nice and had even offered help. "I was... hungry, Sir," was his final admission. "Frustrated and hungry."

"You. Lunch. Now. And you better not come back here with that attitude."

:OFF

 

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