Too Tired to Work; Too Much Work to Sleep

Posted on Thu Nov 6th, 2025 @ 4:41am by Lieutenant Commander Rebecca Bluegarden & Lieutenant Commander Damien Maillet

1,427 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Season 1, Episode 2: War, Peace, And All That Jazz
Location: Rebecca's Quarters
Timeline: After 'A Rude Awakening'

Now with a previously unscheduled Senior Staff briefing scheduled for 1000 hours, and the case of the murder that still needed to be sorted, all Rebecca wanted to do was go back to sleep, but with everything that had happened, sleep was the last thing Rebecca would be able to do. As Chief of Security, it would be her responsibility to help coordinate the various aspects of the murder investigation, and her standing orders were for her to receive new developments in her quarters.

Returning back to her home away from home, Rebecca put on some tunes and got to work. However, after an indeterminate amount of time had passed, it had become apparent that Rebecca's brain had turned to mush, as she realized she was just sitting at her desk staring at something that made absolutely no sense to her, and she had probably spent a good amount of time trying to make heads or tails of it...

Meanwhile in Ops, data from all departments was being collated, searching for something — anything — which might be useful in the investigation into the murder of the Eifie named Vulpie.

For his part, Damien, finishing up his watch shift, was analyzing outgoing signals. If this were a politically-motivated assassination, then it stood to reason that the assassin would need to send some kind of signal to whomever hired them.

Or this would lead to nothing, but at this early stage in particular, it was important to gather information quickly and completely.

An officer relieved him of his watch. Good. He gathered the information collated by each station to bring it to the security chief. The hour was late, but her instructions had been clear.

He’d hoped a friendly, familiar face would be more welcome than a random yeoman or an audio transmission. So regardless of the hour, and how tired he himself was, he found himself outside her door, activating the chime.

The sound of her quarters' chime brought Rebecca out of her trance:

"Enter:" Rebecca said half-enthusiastically, expecting another Security Officer to deliver another meaningless update.

The door slid open, and in walked Damien, his uniform a bit unkempt but given the hour he thought it likely forgivable.

“Another update from security,” he said, apologetically, “as well as from communications and operations, on the off-chance something useful is revealed.”

"Thanks, Chief:" Rebecca said, not paying attention to who it was delivering the update. "I'll look it over as soon as I figure out how the quadratic formula fits into all of this..."

As this was the privacy of Rebecca's own quarters, her uniform lay discarded on the bed, Rebecca having changed into a cropped white tank top and a pair of denim shorts.

Chief? Quadratic equation? Damien frowned and took another step in. They’d both been up all night but he’d had time to sleep a bit before that overnight shift. She clearly hadn’t, and was worse for wear for it. “Commander?” he said. “Rebecca? Yoohoo.” He smiled and waved his hand in front of her face.

"Huh? What?" Rebecca gasped, looking around rather confused before finally making eye contact with Damien. "Oh, hey Damien... Yeesh, how long ago did that Yeoman drop this off...? Did I fall asleep again?"

“I dropped it off just now,” he explained. “As for sleep, I don’t know how much you’ve had, but it’s not enough.”

"You can say that again..." Rebecca sighed. "But, Commander Vincent's going to be looking for answers as to what the hell happened, and I'm the one she's going to be looking to for them."

“But will your answers be right if you’re this sleep deprived?” he asked. “Caffeine only does so much. I know you’re on call but no one’s life is in the balance right now. You can get an extra hour or two of sleep.” He smiled and gestured with his arm toward her bed. “I can tell you a bedtime story? I’m actually good at storytelling.”

"Okay, fine..." Rebecca finally lamented. "But only if you agree to cover my ass tomorrow when Commander Vincent is inevitably pissed that this work hasn't gotten done."

“You have my word,” he said with a smirk. “Come on. In you get.”

"I ain't sleeping in this getup, you know:" Rebecca responded, a naughty grin spreading on her face. "More comfortable than my uniform, yes, but nothing beats a nice pair of silk pajamas for nighttime comfort. Especially when you got girls like mine that like to do whatever they want when you sleep."

Admittedly, Rebecca had only said a half truth: There was something more comfortable than pajamas, but that was only for when she was truly alone.

“I can leave then, if that’s what you prefer?” Damien asked. “Let you sleep. Or I can turn around while you change. The story is still on offer,” he added.

"You can stay, turn around like you said." Rebecca said as she made her way over to the wardrobe to select her pajamas. "Though, if I'd have known I'd be having a boy over, I would've worn my nicer underwear..."

That made Damien chuckle as he turned to face the wall. "The standard issue ones are comfortable but not always the most flattering, are they?"

As his curiosity got the better of him, his back still to her, his eyes explored the parts of the quarters he could see. He picked up a few details here and there.

It wasn't his fault that one of the objects in his line of sight was a mirror, making the boy blush.

Unaware that Damien had caught a glimpse of her via a poorly placed mirror, Rebecca finished her changing into a nice pair of pajamas, putting her uniform onto the hangar that they had once occupied and scooping her clothes she had been wearing up off the floor and unceremoniously stuffing them into the bottom of the wardrobe before climbing back into bed, the covers still the way she had left them when she had been awakened, meaning they were easy enough to pull back over herself.

"Alright, so what's the story for me tonight?" Rebecca asked, indicating it was alright for Damien to turn back around. "Ooh, what about the one with the girl who made her way from sixth to first for the win? Oh, wait, you probably don't know that one yet..."

“I’d love to hear it,” he said, “but you need sleep, remember? Your story is tomorrow night. When you’re tucking me in,” he added with a cheeky grin. “Tonight, how about the one about the handsome junior Lieutenant who defied the odds and broke Klingon encryption codes so his ship could outmaneuver them?”

"I suppose that'll have to do for tonight..." Rebecca shrugged.

"Well, then," Damien said, taking a seat next to the bed. "Once upon a time, aboard the starship Shiloh, there was a lieutenant serving as Assistant Chief of Communications. He was blonde and fair, and spoke with a charming accent."

"Sounds like somebody I know." Rebecca chuckled. "Did he sound like a dog with peanut butter on the roof of his mouth?"

He laughed with her. “He may have.” He continued on. "One day, the Shiloh found itself trapped by Klingons in a system very close to their border. Four light cruisers combed the area with active scanners, trying to get a bead on us. They were fast and many, and the helm chief was good but not a miracle worker. They needed a window through which we could escape.

"The comms chief had an idea. If we could break into their comm system, then we could trick them into moving away from us long enough to escape. But of course they were encrypted. So they turned to the handsome assistant chief and his skilled ear."

It was at this point that a deep rumbling began to drown out Damien's story. The sound was that of an exhausted first officer asleep after a long day and its abrupt extension.

Damien smiled and pulled the blanket higher up onto Rebecca’s quarters. “I’ll finish it another time. Bonne nuit, jolie dame.” With that, he left her quarters, hopefully to get forty winks of his own before he was needed again.


END

Lieutenant Commander Rebecca Bluegarden
Chief of Security
First Officer

Lieutenant Commander Damien Maillet
Chief Comms Officer and Second Officer

 

RSS Feed