StarDate 241502.10 Joint Log: Executive Officer/Chief of Security and Tactical, Security/Tactical Officer N.P.C., Civilian N.P.C., Operations Cadet N.P.C.

Posted on Tue Feb 10th, 2015 @ 7:10pm by Captain Innovindil Valenar & Ensign Elanawen Valenar

1,381 words; about a 7 minute read

The excitement of being on a starship flying through space had finally worn off, leaving Elanawen Valenar somewhat bored. With her mother on duty throughout most of the day, she was under little or no supervision, which combined with a bored curious teenager, was often a bad combination. Normally, Elanawen would try to stay in her quarters or limit her time out to a quick visit to the lounge, but the curiosity was simply too much on this particular day and she found herself roaming the ship. The few Officers and enlisted crew she had passed had acknowledged her with a passing friendly greeting, but since civilians were a common enough sight on most Starfleet ships, Elanawen was passed by without much of a second thought, although a few did give her a second look due to her lip ring and bluish-purple hair.

Having fully explored Deck Five with the exception of the Medical Department, Elanawen continued on to Deck Six, where she found the majority of the science laboratories, several more areas that were restricted to Starfleet personnel only, and to her delight the holodecks. Since the first one she came to was unused, Elanawen simply let herself in and activated the computer controls. Not knowing what she wanted to do, she started skimming through the many program files in hopes of finding something.

Cadet Akira Sato tried to keep from yawning as she stared at the readouts and numerous screens at the Operations station on the bridge. Having passed all of the required courses at the Academy a year early, she had elected to finish her final term in the field aboard a starship. It was becoming a common enough practice that her guidance counselor had approved it without too much trouble and had Akira assigned to the Endeavour as an Operations Department assistant. Due to the shortage of available personnel, Akira had found herself assigned to bridge duty, which was counted as a prestigious assignment for any cadet but could be extremely boring when the ship was flying through an uninterested region of space.

It was because of her sheer boredom that Akira blinked at first in surprise and again in excitement when the computer monitor blinked to report an unknown user utilizing the holodeck. Naturally, Akira was eager to do something, so she entered in a query and tried to find out whose access codes had been used to activate the holodeck. When the answer came back as an unknown user, Akira naturally did the one thing she had been taught to do at Starfleet Academy: call Security.

"Bridge to Security, there is an unknown user in Holodeck One. Could someone please investigate?"

Sitting in her office, Innovindil caught the request over the comm.-line and frowned. It wasn't a crime for someone to visit the holodeck during off duty hours, but recent changes in Starfleet's operational guidelines required that a user access code be entered so that a log of who used the holodeck could be kept. It was one of the recent changes that had been implemented that made sense as an idea and was almost a total disaster in practice. But regulations were still regulations, but it was a small enough offense that her presence shouldn't be required. Reaching out and tapping the communications controls built into her desk, Innovindil opened a channel to Security.

"Valenar to Heartly, could you take over this call?" Innovindil asked before she signed off. Having worked with Heartly over the past several weeks, Innovindil knew that her second would take over the case without having to be directed further.

Kyra groaned as she paused in her jogging and took a moment to catch her breath. She had skipped her morning run in favor of a late breakfast and had decided to make up for it by spending her first break jogging the circular main corridor on Deck Nine-B. Knowing that she didn't have to respond to the Executive Officer, Kyra thought over the duty roster for the day before she tapped her comm.-badge.

"Parker, Harris, report to Holo-deck One and find out who's in there," she ordered. Signing off, Kyra sighed and started jogging towards the nearest turbo-lift.

Elanawen was still skimming through the list of holodeck programs by category when the doors opened and a pair of enlisted crewmen wearing gold collars entered. Frowning at their serious expressions, she turned towards them and offered a friendly smile.

"Can I help you?" Elanawen asked.

"We're going to have to see some identification please," the senior crewman said, holding out his hand.

Elanawen frowned, somewhat at a loss since she hadn't been stopped anywhere else on the ship before. She presented her identification and tried to keep a friendly smile.

"May I ask what exactly the problem is?" she asked.

"We received a report that an unknown user had accessed the holodeck computer. Regulations require us to identify anyone trying to gain access without using a user access code," the senior crewman replied as he glanced over her identification.

"I don't have one," Elanawen said flatly.

The crewman was about to speak when the holodeck doors opened and Kyra rushed through them. She paused long enough to catch her breath since she had literally just run from the turbo-lift to the holodeck. Both crewmen braced to attention at seeing not only an Officer but their direct supervising Officer. Kyra glanced at the purple haired young woman before she turned a questioning look to the crewmen.

"Report," she said.

"She claims to not have an access code, Ma'am," the senior crewman, Crewman First Class Parker, reported as he handed Elanawen's identification over to Kyra.

Kyra studied the identification card and frowned as she studied the information. After a moment, her brain managed to put the pieces together as she realized who the young woman had to be. Handing the card back to Elanawen, Kyra nodded.

"Gentlemen, you can return to your patrol," she said. As they left the holodeck, Kyra smiled as she turned towards Elanawen.

"I'm sorry about that. We've had so many security protocol changes in Starfleet recently and everyone has been busy getting the ship ready for her shakedown that some things were bound to slip through. You should have been given a user access code by Operations and Security when you boarded, but only half of the crew assigned have one, so we have to find out who doesn't have one as we go," Kyra said.

"And I thought nothing ever got past my mother," Elanawen said with a smile.

"I thought Commander Valenar was your mother. You favor her," Kyra said.

"Thank you," Elanawen said. "So, do I need to get an access code before I can use the holodeck?"

"I can log you as a guest this time and get with someone in Operations about assigning you a code. You will have a message on the terminal in your quarters either this evening or in the morning that has the clearance codes assigned to you," Kyra said.

"Thank you," Elanawen said. "I hope my mother doesn't find out about this."

"Too late," Kyra said. "She doesn't know it was you that Operations called us about, but I'll have to mention it in my report. I'll drop by and let her know that you're alright, though. That way she doesn't have a panic attack and start worrying about you."

"I'd appreciate it. She can be a little overbearingly overprotective," Elanawen said with a chuckle.

"I’ve noticed. Speaking of which, I’d better get back to work before she starts sending out search parties. I'll log you in as a guest from the Security office after I check in, so go ahead and enjoy the holodeck," Kyra said before she started towards the doors.

"Thank you," Elanawen said with a laugh. She waited until the Security Officer left the holodeck before she turned back to the computer interface and went back to browsing the program files. Silently, she hoped that the rest of the day went better than it had started.

Lieutenant Commander Innovindil Valenar
Executive Officer
Chief of Security and Tactical

Elanawen Valenar
Civilian N.P.C

Lieutenant Kyra Heartly
Security/Tactical N.P.C.

Cadet Akira-Ri Sato
Operations Cadet N.P.C.

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