OTA

[makesbettermouth]

Amy is starving and busy, and both states have combined to make her one grouchy person.

You can find her trying to organize a pink folder filled with practical pictures that look like Polaroids (Thank you, replicator) in between bites of an enormous bmlt.

If you ask nicely she might share her cheese fries.

Comments

[makesbettermouth]

"Mghpthth," Amy says eloquently, but manages to swallow and put on better manners. "Hi," she says. "I don't think I've met you yet?" she plunges on.

[bob_fraser_rcmp]

"No, I don't think so. I'm Bob Fraser, Royal Canadian Mounted Police," he offered. "And you?"

[makesbettermouth]

"Amy Santiago," she says, "Detective," she adds as an after thought almost. It's a weird place to try and maintain cophood in.

[bob_fraser_rcmp]

"Hello, Detective," he smiled. "So what are you working on?"

[makesbettermouth]

"I'm putting together an little album," she says, pointing to the Polaroids. "I took these all over the ship." There are a variety of shots under her spread fingers, and they each reflect an aspect of life on the Enterprise.

[bob_fraser_rcmp]

"For your own use?" he asked, looking through them.

[makesbettermouth]

"Yep," she says. "So I'll be able to remember this place."

She's always prepared to leave.

[bob_fraser_rcmp]

"Well, I'd hope you wouldn't forget being abducted by an omnipotent being and brought to a starship in the future, but I know what you mean," he said. "I just keep a diary."

[makesbettermouth]

"Has that happened before?" She manages to bite back her anxiety and says, "oh, a diary! I haven't kept one of those in a long time." She'd ask what he puts in his, but that seems like prying. "How long have you been here?"

[bob_fraser_rcmp]

"It's happened now," he replied with a shrug. "Five months. You're new?"

[makesbettermouth]

And this is the expression of a woman who's trying to remain neutral-expressioned in the face of surprise. "Pretty new. I've been here a couple of months!"

[bob_fraser_rcmp]

"Enjoying it so far?" he asks after nodding, thoughtfully.

[makesbettermouth]

"It's SO fascinating. There's so much to learn and to do and I kind of want to do everything at once."

[bob_fraser_rcmp]

"I've been doing a lot of reading," he nodded. "I miss the books, so I might have started to replicate them."

[makesbettermouth]

"Have you asked around about digital readers?" she asked. "You can get a bunch of books at once in one thing."

[bob_fraser_rcmp]

He sighed in the way you do when someone's come away with the opposite impression of what you were trying to say.

"No, detective, I mean I have been using them, but I prefer books."

[makesbettermouth]

"Oh!" she flushes. "Well, I asked the replicator for all of this stuff and it gave me this! Maybe it'll give you some books if you give them an author? Or a name! Or even a title?"

[bob_fraser_rcmp]

He smiles. He doesn't hold it against her that he'd just told her that that was what he'd been doing which led to the conversation in the first place. It was what flustered did to a mind.

"I'll try that," he says for peace.

[makesbettermouth]

It's the face of a woman who's trying to help, at the very least. "Would you like to borrow some of my stuff? I've been reading The Old Man and the Sea lately."