An Excuse

Posted on Mon Apr 14th, 2014 @ 9:00am by Lieutenant Commander Rosaleen O'Donnell & Captain Pete Samson

Mission: New Frontier
Location: Lt O'Donnell Office

This was Pete's second day on board, his new XO Chief Warrant Officer KING would be arriving in the afternoon.

After meeting LT O'Donnell, Pete kept thinking about her. He was very taken by her and decided that he wanted to see her again. He knew that he was being silly, but still he wanted to see her.

Pete rang the bell to LT O'Donnell office and hoped that she would be in. This time he was just in his working Marine uniform. He smiled remembering the prat he made of himself only yesterday.

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"Come in."

Rosaleen had spent the morning shopping planetside, and had not yet bothered to change into her proper work clothes...sporting a backless sundress instead of a uniform. Her dress had a long slit that allowed it to fall from her crossed legs to well above mid-thigh, and it was quite low cut as well. Any effect that her appearance went unnoticed, as she was finishing up a conversation on the comm unit. "...and we look forward to receiving that shipment in good order, Commander. We will see you in two days. New Frontier, out." She closed the channel, and turned her chair to see who had entered. "Good afternoon, Captain. What brings you to my little corner of the universe?"

Pete had walked into the office trying to look relaxed and there for work reasons. He had in his arm a file and was drinking coffee from his other. When he saw the LT sitting in front of him he almost choked coffee going everywhere.

A quizzical look spread across her features. "Are you alright, Captain?"

"Am so very sorry Lieutenant." Pete once again looked like an idiot in front of this very attractive LT. He was never very good at this. "Have you got something to clear this mess?" Pete's face had gone bright red.

She reached into her desk and pulled out a stack of waste towels. "You really should be more careful." She stated as she handed them to him.

Pete cleaned up the mess and tried to clean up his uniform.

"I am here to check on the any update with my new HQ, my XO is arriving today and it would good for me to be able to tell her something. You remember what Chief Warrant Officers are like." This was the best excuse that Pete could come up to see the LT.

An impish smile greeted his query. "Sir, you do realize that it will take several months for the construction of your facilities to be complete. In a few weeks we will have a temporary home though, so you won't be homeless at least."

"I thought so, at least we wont be homeless. All we need is a large secure shell." Pete then hesitated, what he wanted to do was to ask her for a drink or even dinner, instead of saying this he said "Well I must be going."

Pete turned around and approached the exit. 'What are you doing Pete,' he said to himself. Pete turned around,"Lieutenant would you like to have dinner with me this evening?"

Rosaleen was quiet for a moment...an uncomfortably long moment for Pete...before standing and walking over to where Pete stood, almost touching him. Looking up at him, he could see her eyes had taken on a completely different character that he couldn't really describe. It was around this time that something else made it's way into his conscious mind.

It was warm. Very warm. And it was coming from...

Rosaleen placed a hand on Pete's chest. It's was hot...much hotter than the room's ambient temperature. "Think carefully about what you ask." As she spoke the lighting in the room dimmed. Rosaleen was certainly putting on the show for Pete, but he needed to know.

Pete had no idea about what was going on, he was both scared and excited. Who was Rosaleen? More importantly what was Rosaleen? He had his adrenaline rushing through his body and the feeling of butterfly's in his stomach, it was like he was about to have a fight. Pete was never scared of fight and therefore he would not be scared of Rosaleen.

"I am sure Rosaleen, I would like to have dinner with you." Pete never called any officer by their first name, but this was different, and technically she was out of uniform so off duty, well so Pete said to himself.

And like a switch had been flipped, everything returned to normal. Rosaleen remover her had and took a few steps back. "Only on the grounds that we go on-planet. What we have to eat here is...yeah, definitely on-planet." She could still feel the last waves of energy rippling through her body as she brought everything back into norm.

Pete was now very intrigued, he had never been so intrigued by anyone and he had met some interesting people in his time. Pete decided to be even more forward "It is a date."

"So how about tomorrow, I got to meet my XO today?"

Rosaleen ran the days scedule through her head, making sure she even had time for dinner. "Hmmmm...should be able to get free after 1830, barring any last moment emergencies." That was always a possibility...in the condition the station was in, just about anything constituted an emergency.

Pete wanted to ask a 101 questions, but decided that it could wait till they had dinner.

"One last question, I do not have any civilian clothing apart from gym gear. Any idea were i can get some"

"You have to go down to Pratheus for that. Most shops accept Federation credits there. Stuff is a bit pricy, but the quality is excellent."

"Well I won't have time to do that, I am sure that I can throw some things together, any idea how we get to the planet?" asked Pete.

A knowing smile. "I have a shuttle assigned to me personally. Not a problem."

"I will see you tomorrow then."

"I look forward to it, Captain." She watched as he left the room, then turned back to her console which was already chastising her for the delay in responding to several messages. There just were not enough hours in the day...

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Marine Captain Pete Samson
Marine Battalion Commanding Officer
Starbase 80-New Frontier Station

&
Lieutenant Rosaleen O'Donnell
Commodore's Personal Assistant
Starbase 80-New Frontier Station