Ensign Nella Noxwyn - Back in action

[Alcyone Brennan]

 

There are some people who just blow you away with their writing, and @Nella Noxwyn is definitely one of these people. Nella is our newest Security Ensign and essentially just fresh out of Academy - which makes the sim even more impressive. Lean back, read something cool, leave a nice comment ❤️

((Evac-10, SS Belladonna))

 

Ensign Noxwyn hadn't said much since the beam-over to the SS Belladonna. For all the verve and vivacity she showed at the Academy and on the bridge of the USS Narendra, she increasingly felt a growing disunion with those earlier feelings—reality didn't care; the evacuation carried on. It was inexperience, perhaps, that allowed her mind to wander up a blind alley. Inexperience caused Nella to blurt out something she half-remembered about insisting on “taking point” for Commander DeVeau's team. The exact words she'd uttered were the half she didn't remember, but resounded in memory like something plagiarized from the Academy Security manual. The half she did remember was the palpable sting of deep embarrassment in her Iotian heart that hadn't subsided. She had been too formal, perhaps too emotional, and the other officers definitely seemed to notice this. There was a slew of comments about not coming aboard blasting with phasers; that was never her plan. To a security officer fresh from the Academy, “taking point” meant to assume the most exposed position in a military formation. It was her duty ((not her call of duty)) to protect the officers with her—especially if they were Narendra's XO and Chief Medical Officer! Nella feared she'd been misunderstood, but knew better than to argue semantics in that moment with her superiors; and that was the moment that rendered her demure. She hadn't spoken much or been lively since. Doubt.

The feeling was overwhelming and spreading through her, virulently. Nella Noxwyn had long imagined herself a member of Starfleet. Multitudinous hours of dreaming spent on creating this moment in her mind's eye—her first active service mission as a commissioned Starfleet officer. Now it was finally here, and Ensign Nella Noxwyn was in doubt.

 

oO Well, ain't that I'm feeling so swell about it now . . . Oo

 

She'd left most of her focus in the transporter room, and she must have lost the rest during the beam-over. Was this actually happening? Was she dreaming? Was her life-long ambition fading out of view? Was she blowing her career already? Was she simply exhausted? Could she afford to be exhausted? No. Absolutely not! The crew was counting on her to focus; yet she couldn't focus. Why?!

Whatever the reason for her lack of focus, it was needed now more than water in a desert and proved just as elusive. Conversations between the two other officers continued around her as she milled through habit, just as she'd done by rote during sleepless morning drills at the Academy. She was already leaning fully on routine and habit to carry her through. Her mind was elsewhere, and she was lost. This wasn't just because her body was broken into particles and transferred to the Belladonna's lounge. It was the characteristics of the lounge itself that transported her memory back to Sigma Iotia II; specifically, to Beamtown: her home. More specifically, to the Beamtown Avenue Cabaret—her mother's nightclub ,where Nella had lived and worked all her life. No laws prevented minors from tending bar in Beamtown, so she'd done that, and just about everything else involved in running such an establishment, at some stage growing up. It was the closest she'd felt to home since she'd left. She'd left to join Starfleet. She'd left to join Starfleet because the Beamtown Avenue Cabaret was bombed in a turf war. Now, she was in a lounge aboard the SS Belladonna, wearing a Starfleet dress uniform she hadn't removed since her graduation ceremony earlier that day, in order to assist the command crew of Starbase 118 in diffusing a bomb.

 

Too many coincidences. Too many similarities. She was being haunted. Her mind went full circle, but her body moved by routine alone. Scanning this, nodding that, occasionally verbalizing a short response to the other officers, but not interacting much. They were discussing everything between them, and she keenly felt the slack she offered for them to hold taught. When the officers seemed to prompt Nella for input, she only drew blank—a nod, a “yes sir”. No focus. None in the turbolift after they'd left the lounge. None in the Evac point, where they were now. Ensign Nella wanted to be here. Nella wanted to be elsewhere. Ensign Nella wanted to be here. Nella wanted to be elsewhere. The two rival gangs in her head squared off.

 

Ensign Nella's mind snapped back to the moment, and the voice of Dr.Trovek:

 

Trovek: They are beginning with Evac-10 to Evac-15, the evacuation points in the center. My suggestion is to go to the passenger quarters belonging to those evacuation points and wait for the update on who is missing. ::she paused:: But it's just a suggestion, ma'am. 

 

oO Great Montgomery Scott! How long was I out?!! -- Focus, Nellie! You remember more about the plan than you think! C'mon! Focus! Get back in action!! Oo

 

DeVeau: And it’s a good one, so no point in ignoring it. but…I think I have a way to make getting updates a little easier and quicker. 

Trovek: You do? 

Noxwyn: How's that, Commander?

DeVeau seemed to keep that secret to herself.

DeVeau: The entrance is just down here. 

Commander DeVeau led them along a corridor, to a large bay. From what Noxwyn recalled of the Belladonna's schematics, this was probably a large recreational module or artificial biosphere.

Instead, a set of wide doors opened up and inside the room were the evacuees; some of them, but some of them was a lot of them.

DeVeau: Stay here. I’ll be back. 

Trovek: Sure... 

Commander DeVeau became as poise incarnate, and used her command experience and authority to silently part the crowd before her, creating an organized path to her intended target. These people knew at this point they were being evacuated, and they obviously recognized that Commander DeVeau would be the one taking charge. Nella broke from her amazement at this to do her job, which was to keep watch over DeVeau and Trovek. That meant one eye to split between the two other officers, and left Nella's other eye to indistinctly survey the crowd. DeVeau returned almost as quickly as she had left—or so it seemed to Nella. That was just as well. The room had an odor of sweat, stress hormones from a cocktail of species, and stale air. Thousands of quiet private conversations coalesced into a loud gurgle of indecipherable speech. It would be good to get this crowd on the move.

DeVeau: Okay, got a list, and linked my triPADD with the ship’s manifest. When people are reported missing, it’ll come up automatically and we can go hunting. It’ll save some time too.

::Stepping back out of the evacuation area, Commander DeVeau held the device so that the other officers could see it clearly::

DeVeau: And here’s our first list. Let’s get started. 

Commander DeVeau turned and led the way on the search for the first missing passenger. Dr. Trovek had obviously been preparing extensively for this plan and was reciting important information. Nella felt more focus now; she was regaining control.

Trovek: Our first group seems to be a whole family missing - at least their last names - Onagh - implies that. Can we locate them via the ship's computer? 

 

 

oO Onagh. . . Oo

DeVeau: response

Trovek: Good Idea. 

The Commander and the Doctor led the way; so much for Nella taking point. What a palooka, she'd been! This wasn't at all how she wanted to perform on her first mission, but maybe her first career lesson was in seeing so many people needing help—so many people in a danger they weren't aware of. So many people on the Narendra dedicated to helping. So many more people on Starbase 118 and other vessels supporting the effort. Far more people in danger on Betazed—this wasn't about her at all!

Perhaps in that moment, what remained of Cadet Noxwyn ceased to exist. This wasn't training. This was definitely not a drill. Ensign Noxwyn was on duty.

Nella kept alert as the team was led through a complex of corridors and eventually ended up in one of the more 'luxurious' areas of the ship. There were plants and fresh flowers that Nella had never seen before—not that she had ever seen many. Beamtown was more like a massive enclosed dome than a city, as it was located on Sigma Iotia II's polar continent, near the planet's true magnetic north. This room was captivating and pleasant, in strict contrast to the nature of their mission.

The doctor's tricorder chimed as it detected a reading.

Trovek: Guess this is a lot easier than we thought.

DeVeau: response

Nella then received a note from her own tricorder—a nearby wall showed an unusual zone of heat from somewhere within. Nella cautiously approached the wall and felt it with a gloved hand. The wall was warm in a single spot... warm, but on the edge of being too hot. Perhaps it was a component of the systems used to maintain the plant life in this area, perhaps it was something far more hazardous. Nella wasn't sure; she wasn't an engineer; she wasn't a botanist; she was a security officer, and her job was to be suspicious.

Noxwyn: Commander, Doctor. I'm gettin' odd thermal readings from this wall! It's . . . hot.  Can you make anything of it? 

Nella may have set herself up for another embarrassment, or, she may have found something pertinent to the mission. She was so fresh from the Academy she wasn't sure. That's why experienced officers—some of the fleet's best, in fact—were with her, to make that determination. Nella felt less alone now, and just as well. People, many people, were counting on her to get back in action!

Trovek/DeVeau: response

TAG/TBC

 

-- 

Ensign Nella Noxwyn
Security Officer
Starbase 118 Ops / USS Narenedra NCC-26595 
O239906NN2

[LCDR Aine O. Sherlock]

This brought back a lot of memories and feelings from my first mission. Started out much the same, fresh Ensign just out of the Academy at the beginning of a mission. Unsure and questioning herself. Very well done @Nella Noxwyn!

[Alora DeVeau]

• Awesome job, @Nella Noxwyn!

[+ Vitor S. Silveira]

I have to say I am impressed with your writing skills @Nella Noxwyn. Also I love that fact you chose to write an Iotian character. There was a Trek audio show I listened that had an Iotian in it and you truly bring that into your writing.

[Nella Noxwyn]

Thank you all very much for the feedback and the warm welcome! I'm looking forward to more writing with all of you