Oh, what tangled webs we weave...
Posted on Sat Oct 15th, 2011 @ 3:54pm by Lieutenant Norval Tigan
Norval Tigan was not accustomed to feeling uncomfortable.
It was well known, even to him, that he was flamboyant. In truth, he liked the attention. He also liked the perks that often accompanied that attention... perhaps it would be better to say 'accompanied him home' following such attention. Seven lifetimes already lived had eroded all sense of embarrassment. He was used to making people talk.
But not like this.
This was very different. This caused rooms to go silent when he entered. It caused furtive glances to dart towards him whenever his back was turned. It brought whispers wherever he went, which was turning out to be quite inconvenient - with all that was going on, he'd have liked nothing better than to have a drink or three at the Nexus, but he didn't even want to imagine how awkward that would be.
And so he had buried himself in his work for several hours, a sort of penance for missing the initial hours of the search for Kh'ali. With stellar traffic on lockdown, a large part of his daily routine was rendered moot and he had instead facilitated increased power allocation for the internal sensors and additional incidental personnel for Security to assist with the search. Things were going well, he thought, until he learned that not only had Kh'ali not been located, but there had been another murder. Feeling enormously frustrated, he yielded central Ops to a subordinate, grabbed an engineering kit and boarded a turbolift.
The talking started before the doors had even closed completely.
"What in Gre'thor is going on around here?" the Trill wondered aloud.
=^= Please restate the query. =^= came the automated response of the base computer.
A huff escaped Norval's lips as he muttered "disregard" in reply. Maybe fixing one of the sensor conduits that was out of service would take his mind off of things. At least there wouldn't be anyone else in the Jefferies Tube.
Lying on his back, breathless from the heat, covered in sweat... Norval could think of at least one other thing he'd rather be doing that involved similar circumstances as he tossed the spanner back into his repair kit. The Jefferies Tube had become far too close now, almost as stifling as the strange aura that seemed to follow him about the station since Kh'ali's disappearance... or at least, as soon after Kh'ali's disappearance as he could remember thanks to the Romulan ale.
He checked the computer's chronometer. Beta shift was coming to a close, which meant there was little sense in heading back to Ops - he could return the kit tomorrow. The Trill replaced the maintenance hatch and rolled over onto his hands and knees to begin the crawl back to the main corridor, reaching for his comm badge as he did so. He wasn't the only one coming off duty, even if EE was probably swamped in Security.
"Edwards, you up for a drink at my place?" he asked.
The silence that followed lingered too long to be coincidental. "I... don't think that's such a good idea right now."
Norval stopped dead, closing his eyes for a moment in disbelief. This was getting to be completely ridiculous. "Would you mind telling me why that wouldn't be such a good idea?" he demanded, anger creeping into his voice.
"Look, I just think it's better I don't get involved. You're playing with fire." And with that, the comm line closed.
Norval didn't know what fire he was playing with, but he was certain that someone was going to get burned. Picking up his pace, driven by anger and confusion, he exited the Jefferies Tube and made a beeline for the one place on Starbase 900 that you could find the answer to any question, or at least pick up a lead - that aptly named crossroads of fact and fiction, The Nexus.
____________________________
Lieutenant (j.g.) Norval Tigan
Acting Chief of Operations
and thoroughly confused
