Finding Tia [Part One]

Posted on Fri Jan 6th, 2023 @ 11:09am by Petty Officer 1st Class Tia Smithy(Kosugi) & Sergeant Trent Busby (Kosugi) & Cadet First Class Pallas

Mission: The Goddess
Location: Gladiator
1765 words - 3.5 OF Standard Post Measure

That Petty Officer Tia Smithy was on his mind, and Trent wanted to see if she were still wanting to have coffee with him. He'd actually sent a message to her, but had gotten no response. So where could she be? He'd asked a few of the crewmen who he'd come across, if they had seen her. They had given a shrug letting him know that she was probably busy. After all she was in engineering and probably up to her arm pits in muck. One person did remark that maybe a cadet would help him out on his quest.

"Try asking Cadet Pallas, she may know." said the crewmember before she headed off to get back to her work.

Tapping on his combadge, Trent sent out a message to Cadet Pallas. "Cadet Pallas, this is Sergeant Busby, I was wondering if I could have you meet with me? I need a little bit of help with something."

Pallas had just showered after her shift, and finished dressing when the call came in. She pinned her commbadge back on and tapped it to respond, "Of course, Sergeant. I will head over now." She had not met this particular Marine yet, and was curious what he could want with her. Nevertheless, given her particular goal of meeting as much of the crew as she could and learning as much as she could, a random call for assistance was pretty much exactly what she had signed up for. She exited her quarters and queried the Computer for the man's location, before heading there directly.

Trent was waiting by the turbo lift when Pallas arrived. He was a tall man with broad shoulders, and he said, "Cadet Pallas I assume? I am Sergeant Busby. Thanks for coming. I am looking for Petty Officer Smithy and I had been told you know her or of her?"

Pallas nodded. “Indeed I am, and yes, I both ‘know of’ and ‘know’ Smithy,” the cadet winked. She looked this Busby character over. “Why are you looking for her?” she asked, her eyes narrowing slightly with suspicion. Smithy had told Pallas about the trouble she had gotten into, and the cadet wasn’t about to let her get tracked down by someone looking for revenge.

Trent noted the narrowing of the eyes, "I don't mean her any harm I had told I'dl iike to get a coffee and she told me to let her know, but I'm not getting any answer from her. She had gotten into a bit of scuffle with some of my people and well maybe some sort of truce could be made between them and her? They were a bit offish with her, when she attempted to apologize."

"Ah." Pallas relaxed at the explanation. "Well, so long as you are not looking for any trouble. Curious, though, that she is not responding to you. Have you considered that maybe she does not want to see you right now? Perhaps the 'offish-ness' of your fellow Marines made her change her mind about getting a coffee with you. She does not seem to me to be the shy type."

"Yes but, okay the computer says she was in her room but, that's not what her bunkmate told me. I ran across her bunkmate, just after i called you. I am just now wanting to know what happened to Tia. And so I am just checking with those that may know her. I am also getting ready to get some security help to try to trace her steps." Trent said.

"Let's not be hasty jumping all the way to calling Security..." Pallas could see that this man was genuinely worried, but calling the fuzz in to help seemed like possible overkill. Besides, if Smithy was getting into some sort of mischief, Pallas would not be a good friend--even if only still a very new one--if she led the enforcement agents right to the scene of the crime, so to speak. "Maybe I can help you trace her steps, as you suggested. Security must be very busy with everything else that is going on right now, I am sure. Better for us to not unnecessarily strain their resources. The last place I was with Smithy was the scrap recycling replicator in Engineering. We should head there first; maybe she is still doing clean up duty."

"That should work, I do wonder though if the security cameras could have picked her up leaving her quarters. And why would she leave without her combadge?" Trent mused aloud. "But yes, we'll head for engineering first, then go from there." the marine replied. " And maybe someone in engineering might help to track her down." looking at Pallas.

The cadet led the sergeant to the turbolift and traced the path she had taken with Smithy back to the scrap reclaimer. "So, how did you meet Smithy in the first place?" she asked as they made their way down to Engineering.

"Tia came down to the mess hall and the marines were there eating, and she wasn't allowed to go inside, while they were there. There was a bit of a cold reception for her and I had suggested to her to try at a later time. Right now the Marines have been a wee bit disgruntled by her taking down two of their own, she's a bit of a dirty fighter, but can't say it isn't a bad skill for Smithy to have. Its just that no man or even woman wants to be hit in the groin area, and that was where she hit one of them. It is a bit of a pride issue there." Trent glancing at Pallas. "I did give them a bit of a dressing down though and told them to just treat her politely. Really can't let them cause a big rift on the ship, especially with what is going on now."

Pallas laughed. "'Dirty' fighting only applies to inside a ring, Sergeant. It is my experience, and probably yours too I'm guessing, that whether on a mission or a scrap inside a messhall, 'dirty' is a label used by those who got their butts kicked." She pointed to the door that she and Smithy had used to move the scrap into Engineering. "Here it is. Let us see if we can find her or at least someone who knows where she is."

Trent laughed at what Pallas said, "You make a point but well, who likes being hit between the uprights, I know I don't" he followed Pallas into engineering.

There were some curious glances towards the tall marine who stood beside the petited Cadet Palla. Well she was petite compared to Trent.

"What can we do for you Cadet Pallas?" asked one of the engineers.

Pallas recognized the engineer and gave them a friendly wave hello. "Sorry to interrupt. Is Smithy still here? This nice Marine is looking to go on a date with her, from what I understand of the situation," she said matter-of-factly, smiling at the sergeant, "but she left her comm badge in her quarters so the Computer is confused about her location. Thought maybe she was still here working off her punishment?"

"No she's not been here for the past few hours, and a date?" the engineer looked at the marine next to Pallas, "Well that is interesting but, I think we can figure out how to find her. Could do a bioscan and look for her and also could tap into the cameras that are through out the ship to try to trace her down, if you'd like to go that route."

Trent took a look at Pallas, then back at the engineer. "If you think that will work then sure go for it." he then asked Pallas. "Do you think it possible for them to track Smithy down like he said?"

“Of course,” Pallas nodded, as if it was an obvious solution. “I just would not want to interrupt her if she was trying to get some private time… but if it has been a few hours and she is not in her quarters and ditched her commbadge…” Pallas had to admit she was slightly worried now. “Let me help you with that,” she said to the engineer, stepping next to him at the console and helping to run the search for Smithy’s biosigns.

The engineer gave a nod moving to give Pallas access to the console while he operated the next. "I say we start from her quarters and work from there." he said, checking for the starting point, he found her quarters, then started there.

It looked to Trent that Tia was looking at something as she headed down the corridor. Once in awhile glancing to one side as if she were looking at something. Then she ended up in a turbo lift her lips moving.

"Can either of you read lips?" the engineer asked. "I am not able to bring up what she is saying.

Pallas shook her head no. "Not a skill that I have. Lieutenant Cortez might be able to, but let's see if we can figure this out ourselves first before informing senior staff. She looks like maybe she is sleepwalking?" The cadet pointed at the screen, which showed the Petty Officer removing a panel that accessed Jeffries Tubes. "Where is she going?" Pallas moved her fingers to pull up the three-dimensional deck blueprints, tracing Smithy's path as she simultaneously watched it on the camera. "Looks like Deck 11. Why take the turbolift just to go through Jeffries Tubes? It is almost like she is following a specific path." She continued to watch as Tia entered a storage closet and accessed a crew locker.

Trent was watching the whole scene, feeling a bit perplexed. "Following a specific path, that is just so strange. However now that we know where she is, lets go get her and make sure she is okay." glancing at Pallas. "C'mon, lets go."

"You know, we could just maybe transport her to medical." the engineer offered.

Trent looked at the engineer, and shook his head. "Nah I don't think that would be a good idea." the marine replied. "How would you feel if you fell asleep in one place and you wake up somewhere else and you are not injured. That woman from what I have heard, she'd not be pleasant if she were to wake up in medical. Is she showing any signs of distress?"

The engineer took a look at the scans. "Well no she isn't, she appears to be sleeping."

TBC