Taking a Risk

Posted on Wed Nov 4th, 2026 @ 5:17pm by Lieutenant Commander Sitka Kline & Lieutenant Connor Turner

869 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Mission 6 - Candy Leads to Cavities
Timeline: MD01 - 1200

Connor knew that his experience with women was somewhat scant. After all, his longest, or at least his most confident relationship was with Candy, who he thought was Holly when they were dating. It was all rather confusing for him. Computers were much easier.

What confused Connor was that after he broke up with Candy, he could not seem to find any one new to date on a longer term basis. Perhaps he was cursed. Of course, he could do without women. Computers were much easier to understand. However, after Candy, he found that it was nice to have someone else around to talk to.

At M'Mira's party, he had started talking to the new JAG officer Sitka Kline, but he was rudely interupted by the new Chief Ops Officer. So, he did not know what that meant. However, he felt like that there could have been a chance of something.

Unfortunately, going to the Counselor had been little use. She did not seem to be able to help him figure out what was wrong with him or how to re-introduce himself. He was shy by nature and just randomly going into someone's office was rather intrusive. She could be busy, dating someone else, married, or who knows what else?

But, perhaps the counselor was somewhat right. Normally, he would wait for her to notice him. So, how could he contact her and make the experience easier for both of them?

Connor smiled, having come up with a solution. He sent Sitka a message. The message said, "We met at the party but got interrupted. Would you like to meet again?" Once the message was read, it immediately switched to another screen and had two touch boxes. "Yes" and "No." Depending on Sitka's answers, the algorithms would ask further questions. Now, he just had to wait for the answers.

When the message popped up on her screen, Sisi was puzzled. Lieutenant Connor Turner was..... She had to look him up. She'd met so many people since arriving, they were starting to get all jumbled up on her head. Right, the guy who had reminded her that replicators exist and she could dump her drink. Because it was always lovely to have it reaffirmed that she was a bit of a hick. Though, really, replicators were not efficient, and the way some people in Starfleet forgot that the average person ate food that grew out of the ground annoyed her. Some people spent too much time on space ships and stations and not enough time with dirt under their feet.

She opened the message and blinked. And then blinked again as it flipped to the options of yes or no. Maybe the guy was too busy to actually ask her? If so, it was impressive he was willing to follow up with her at all. She clicked "Yes."

Immediately after clicking "yes," a new screen popped up with three options: "Today? Tomorrow? Other?"

A startled laugh escaped Sisi. Did this guy actually want to talk to her? Because he seemed to have gone out of his way to avoid it. She selected tomorrow. She still needed to meet with Security about Templeton's arrest.

Another screen popped up with three options: "Brunch? Tea? Dinner?"

How many of these questions were there? She selected Tea.

The response came back, "I look forward to seeing you at 15:00 tomorrow at The Crown Inn. Will that be alright with you?" Another pop up screen below that statement questioned, "Yes? No?"

She was far enough into this she wasn't about to back out. She hit yes.

The PADD delayed in its response, as if this was the first time that there was not a pre-programmed response. "Lovely! I do not plan on dressing formally. I hope that this was not too awkward for you. I do not know that I could have done this in person."

Hopefully, Connor would manage actual words when they met in person. Now, she just had to figure out where The Crown Inn was.

Another message flashed across Sitka's PADD, "In case you do not know, The Crown Inn is on the Promenade, near the outer rim of the station. I can send you a map, if you would like."

Okay, that's wasn't creepy at all. And she could find her own map. She was perfectly competent to find her way around the station on her own.

Connor waited for a response and found that none was coming at all. He had no idea what to do. He ran through his options and considered them. If he sent something more, he would come across as desperate or needy. If he did nothing, he could be viewed as uninterested. Then again, she could be working and very busy. He had already taken up some of her time. Indecision continued to wreck havoc with his nerves. How in the world did guys do this all the time?

Sisi watched the screen, waiting to see if it did anything else. When it didn't, she shut down the screen. Faltan Station was a strange place.


Lieutenant Connor Turner
Acting Assistant Chief Engineer
Faltan Station

Lt. Commander Sitka Kline
Chief Legal Officer
Faltan Station

 

RSS Feed