Nondescript

Posted on Tue Jun 2nd, 2026 @ 3:46am by Lieutenant Alice Durant

931 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 1: Shadows of Diplomacy
Location: Engineering Deck

This bio-neural gel pack was functioning perfectly fine, number three-dash-two-dash-four. She turned it around in her hands to look for any defects after unhooking her PADD from it, then made a detailed visual inspection of the ports it had been plugged into before reaching out with an abrasive cloth to rub over the contacts once more. Another glance over the gel-pack in her hand and she carefully reseated it in place, secured it, made another scan to ensure that it was in place, run a diagnostic on the fixture, then keyed in the override and redirected the power flow into it. Another scan, another diagnostic. Everything still perfect. The brown-haired, brown-eyed woman reached for the panel cover, seated it into place and pushed on it until she felt the seal engage.

As she stood to her full height, engineering kit bag in hand. That was the fourteenth bio-neural gel pack that she had checked today, only another six to do before she had achieved her directives for the day. It was boring work, but for someone like Bianca, it was perfect. It allowed her to do her real job in the little bits of downtime between items and between shifts and be seen all over the ship and accepted that she belonged. After all, if she were going to find a smuggler or their smuggled goods, coverage of the entire ship was important. With a ship this size, there were a lot of nooks and crannies and she'd found most of them already over the last few weeks. She knelt by the next panel and began the removal process for the panel.

Two and a half hours later, Petty Officer Third Class Bianca Lee walked back into Engineering, smiling at the Ensign that greeted her by name rather than rank, a clear sign that she'd been accepted as one of them. Checking in the tricorder, placing the kit bag into the storage panel and her day was done, the time was 1800. As had turned into her routine, Bianca went to the mess hall for dinner before heading to the enlisted rec room to play a game of billiards with another PO from a different department, she retired to her quarters.

Being a very junior non-commissioned officer, Bianca shared a set of quarters with three other equally junior NCOs. She didn't have a problem with that, of course, it was just the way of it. With one roommate and two others in the adjoining bedroom right across the small living area, there was no privacy, but that was of no mind to the young engineering NCO. In fact, it was better than the alternative of living alone, more alibis, more corroborating evidence, more gossip. For today, however, she glanced at the chrono and reminded herself that it was the day she was supposed to send a message home. Giving her excuses for a few minutes to the three other women in the living area, she vanished into the room she shared with PO3 Heidi Ballange, an exobiologist in Science who wanted desperately to become an officer, and snagged the personal PADD sitting on the nightstand and setting it up to record.

"Hi Mom!" She said jubilantly, "Sorry I'm a bit late in getting this recorded, it's been busy over the last few days and you wouldn't believe where they had me pulling maintenance on this ship! I didn't know so many corners existed, much less on something this size." There was a sigh, "But it's not all fun and games.. I know you liked Markus, but after we had that fight and I got sent to Scharnhorst, he broke contact with me and I haven't heard from him. I think it's a dead end, so I've decided that I'm going to put it behind me and move on. I know Dad always thought he was going to go another direction, but don't let him tease me about it, okay? It hurts enough to be wrong as it is. I look forward to hearing back from you two as always. Love you." She keyed the recording to end and hit the send button, queuing it up in the outbound transmission queue.

And now her entire day of work was done. Lieutenant Alice Durant of Starfleet Intelligence flopped back on her bunk, staring at the bottom of the bunk above her, where Heidi slept, as she reviewed in her head what she'd just sent. Her investigation had gone to pot, there wasn't any smuggling going on this ship and the trail had gone cold. She was ready to depart at the first convenient opportunity, such as when they next touched a starbase and Petty Officer Third Class Bianca Lee would vanish into Starfleet's reassignment black hole, to resurface when it was convenient. After all, Engineering NCOs were a dime a dozen, effectively invisible to the rest of the Fleet. All she needed was a new assignment, which 'Mom', also known as Captain Azalea Martine, would figure out for her and she'd be on her way. Such was the life.

None of it showed as Bianca again stood from her bunk and put a smile on as she went back out to the living area just in time to hear the punchline to a joke that Tara told at least once every two days and she laughed all the same, tucking both legs under her as she joined her 'friends' for another evening of watching some cheesy movie. There would be a 'message from home' in the morning, plenty of time.

Such was the life.

 

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