This Ain't Quite Right

Posted on Mon Aug 20th, 2018 @ 5:28am by Lieutenant Commander Angus Murphy

Mission: A Majestic Affair
Location: CIO's quarters
2017 words - 4 OF Standard Post Measure

Liviana laughed as she stared at the construction her father had put together. Her merry laughter echoed through the empty quarters, which was still undecorated and littered with unpacked boxes.

Evaste stood staring, running her hand trough her long blonde hair. There was question in her eyes as she turned towards her father. "Are you sure you followed the instructions?" she asked.

"I'm pretty sure I followed them," Lhaes said as he shooed one of the cats out of the children's bedroom. "Three cots, all stacked with Galan's at the bottom."

"It doesn't look right," Liviana commented between fits of laughter, "perhaps you should call that engineer...what's his name?" She giggled. "He had a very unusual name, I've heard him get mentioned at some point."

For a five year old, Lhaes realized his daughter seemed to possess quite an amount of wisdom so he nodded. "Sommers to Murphy, I seem to have a little emergency in my quarters. Please come and have a look."

"On my way," the voice that replied was quick and seemed almost in a bad mood already. Murphy had not yet met the new intel chief, who he understood had a number of children and animals in the quarters. The Chief Engineer had actually been one that bawked at setting up a room for that many people, his exact words being, 'This is a starship, not a hotel.' But in the end, orders were made to followed and he had set Cravens on the task, even though technically it should have been an operations assignment. Cravens, apparently, had not followed through.

Murphy chimed the door when he arrived a few moments later.

A little girl appeared in the doorway. "He's in there sir," she said politely, though she couldn't keep the giggle out of her voice. "And he's made a total mess of it. I don't think we can sleep in what me made."

An exhasperated Romulan appeared behind her not even a second later. "Please excuse my daughter," he apologized, "apparently, my attempt at building a bed is quite amusing. This way please."

Murphy wore a perpetual frown from the moment the girl opened the door until he took in the spectacle of the three-tiered bed, at which point he couldn't but laugh as well. "That's... wow." He scratched his head. "Definitely not going to pass a safety inspection."

"You think?" Lhaes commented as he picked up the instructions again. "I'm pretty sure I can follow instructions, but I'm no engineer. Never had any affinity for it either, can't even pass as one if I were needing to." He held out the PADD to show him. "I need your help."

There were always a lot of last minute adjustments going on when a new crew came aboard, it was the reason engineering was one of the first teams in. In all his years in Starfleet, however, Murphy had never seen anyone bring their own bed, much less try to assemble it. Also, he'd never seen a three-tiered bed before. Actually, as he thought about it, he had seen a three-tiered bed on a Starfleet ship before and that's exactly the solution Sommers needed.

"Can I be honest, Commander?" He struggled on how to word what he needed to delicately. It was not something he was used to, but you had to respect a Lieutenant Commander and, possibly more importantly, you had to respect a man in front of his kids because they needed to be able to look up to him and see him as a strong father. Murphy crossed his arms and stroked his chin beard and then lowered his voice a little. "This is a good piece of furniture for a house, but here? I'm concerned that it's so tall. Without being bolted to the bulkheads and the floor, I'd be worried it could tip over with some rough housing or some... turbulent flying. First time we go through a nebula?" He shook his head.

tag Sommers - optional?

"So, what I'm thinking," Murphy leaned down and dug through his tool bag, eventually withdrawing a PADD where he pulled up schematics of the quarters. He then scrolled through an industrial replicator catalog until he found what he was looking for. "Is something like this, but instead of two, I'd customize it for three nooks. It's going to be a lot more secure and it looks pretty badass. I saw them in a marine housing unit once."



"That looks far better than what I was trying to build," Lhaes agreed as he studied the picture on the screen. "How long will this take us to put together?"

Murphy thought about it. "We'll replicate the parts we need, customize and assemble down in the cargo bay and be able to drop it in via transporter. Maybe a few days?" He glanced over to the kids. "But. I think I can fix this bed up to get you by until then."

"That would be nice," the Romulan answered with a grateful smile. "They can hardly sleep in bed with me, I wouldn't be able to get any sleep at all."

"Well if you like sleep, why'd you have kids?" It was a joke, but it came out a little more blunt than Murphy maybe had imagined. Nevertheless, he stooped down near the bed and took a look for all the bolts and connections that needed adjusting and tighening and then he took out a wrench and started to work.

"They do sleep just fine," Lhaes answered calmly, while observing the man's work, "just not in my bed. My children have made my life so much richer. They are the reason for me to come home every day. My reason to live when things get tough." He pulled one of his girls up in his arms and gave her a firm hug. "The light in my life." He set her back down and crouched next to the engineer. "Can I help with anything?"

Murphy slid his body halfway under the bottom bunk and worked on tightening the cross-supports. "Not really. I'll be out of your hair before you know it." He worked in silence for a few seconds before commenting, "The reason I come home every day is to shower and sleep. Don't want kids. Certainly wouldn't want them on the ship with me. These things are flying death traps."

Lhaes arched a single eyebrow at him, even if it went unseen. "If it's a flying death trap, why do you serve on it? Where's the logic in that?"

"I'm not saying we're going to explode for no reason. I'm just saying bad things happen. You and I know it. We signed up for it. The kids? Doesn't seem right," Murphy talked as he worked.

Liviana crawled under the contraption and laid down on her back beside the engineer before her father could stop her. "Hey mister," she started, "why does my bed look so weird from under here? Are they supposed to be all criss crossed? When daddy put it together it was very wobbly, and we couldn't sleep in it."

"Which one are you? Hansel or Gretel?" Murphy asked her as he glanced her way for a second, then went back to focusing on the bed. "Structural Engineering 101, Gretel. These are called cross braces. They make everything better by giving the structure the ability to withstand more lateral force."

"My name is Liviana," the blonde haired girl said, looking oh-so serious, "what is lateral force? What does that do? And why are you calling me Gretel? Who's Gretel?"

Lhaes worked hard to keep himself from laughing. "Liv, perhaps you should let Mister Murphy work?"

"But dad...I want to know!" the child countered, fixing earnest eyes on the man with her under the bed.

Murphy slid out from under the bed finally and stood up to check the wobbling, which was significantly improved. "No, it's fine Commander." He found another bolt on the upper bunk that needed rethreaded so he set about to find the right tool for that in his bag. "So, the way I see it," he told Liviana. "You have at least two homework assignments now. You need to use the ship's computer and read about lateral forces and then you probably should know the story of Hansel and Gretel so that you don't wander too far into the ship alone and suffer the same fate that they did."

'I can't read yet," the child retorted with the logic only a child her age could offer.

"I'd considred them a bit young for that story but you probably do have a point there," her father conceded, "it's a very suitable story about not wandering off.... unless it'll give them nightmares about being abandoned. I can't remember my parents ever telling me that story."

"Fortunately, the computer can read to you and there's probably a video," Murph retorted to the young one. He finished the bolt he was rethreading and tightened it up, tested the wobble again and brushed his hands together. "Okay, just don't... break yourselves on it. Starfleet Safety Commission comes through here and they'll come yell at me and then I'll have to come yell at someone else, but we should be okay as long as we get the new one in before we launch."

The little girl jumped and wrappe her arms around Murph's legs, only to be followed by her twin sister, who did exactly the same. "Thank you for fixing our bed mister," the first girl said, beaming up at him.

Lhaes just rolled his eyes, wondering how his normally shy girls got to be so extravert. "Thank you for your assistance lieutenant."

"Uh..." Murphy peeled one of the girls off his legs by applying gentle lateral force on her shoulder until she disengaged. Except she was persistent and immediately re-engaged. "Well they are certainly... uh... clingy, eh?"

"Apparently." The Romulan frowned at his daughter's behaviour. "I assure you this is not their normal behaviour and I can't begin to fathom why she does this now." He reached out and peeled Liviana away from the man. "That's quite enough. Please go see if your brother is awake yet." He looked up at Murphy. "I do apologize, I'll talk to them about improper behaviour again."

Murphy gave an awkward and forced smile. He'd certainly never been in this position before. "It's alright, commander... I am in their home. I guess. Well, I should get going. I'll let you know when we have the next one ready. Maybe the kids will be in school when we do that."

"The girls will be," Lhaes promised, "and please call me by my name. While we're in my home, you call me by my name." Though he didn't offer the man his hand, he did smile. "Thank you for your time, you've saved our night."

"It's what we do," Murph said with a dip of his head. He bent down to pick up his tool bag and caught the girl watching him from the other room. "Have a good evening, Gretel," he smirked before heading to the door.

"He's an odd man daddy," Liviana said as she peeked out at her father, "he keeps calling me names..."

Lhaes took his daughter into his arms. "It's just a nickname dear, don't worry about it. But if you don't like it next time he comes to install the new beds, you tell him alright?" As the girl nodded, Lhaes walked after the man, pretending he wouldn't have heard the little conversation. "Let me know when the replacements are ready and I'll make sure you can get in to get it installed," he tol the chief engineer.

"Will do, Commander," Murphy smirked, pretending not to have heard the conversation and then ducking out. Though she was charming, he was still glad he didn't have kids to deal with.


Lieutenant Murphy
Chief Engineer
USS Majestic

Lieutenant Commander Lhaes Sommers
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Majestic

Liviana & Evaste Sommers
Children