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Posted on Monday August 24th, 2020 @ 14:36 hours by Mayterial Droz & Kenzia Nemet

Mission: Safe Passage
Location: Bridge, Deck 1, S.S. Fawkes
Timeline: MD06 - 1630 hours
2189 words - 4.4 OF Standard Post Measure

"Hey, you, why can't I use the terminal in the mess to make a call?" Hirral had been trying to get a call out on a secure line for the better part of the past half hour. He needed to let them know that he was finally on his way. It was less than ideal that he was on a cargo trawler, a bit slower than he had hoped, but it didn't matter. He was going where he wanted to go. With just one stop on Betazed between him and getting to Risa. He had been given clear instruction on what he could and couldn't use, where he could and couldn't enter, but he didn't really care too much about any of that. So there he stood, at the entrance of the computer core, calling out to the Signaller, at least that's what the computer system had told him.

Nemet was happily absorbed in her work and enjoying the peace and quiet - until - from out of nowhere she heard a noise. She listened, became aware it was someone yelling. Let him yell. She was about to continue working on the core but something told her she would be bothered until she found out what he was doing. So grudgingly she put away her tools and emerged, fighting the urge to snap back and instead said, "You have some problem?"

"Oh yes, I have a problem. The Terminal in the mess hall doesn't allow for outgoing communications." Hirral folded his arms and stood in the doorway, as if to say 'you're not leaving until I've had my call', "It's bad enough that we don't have our own consoles in our rooms, but to be unable to place a single call is unacceptable."

Nemet fought the urge to snap out some comment that would have been witty and utterly devastation (she thought) and instead said, "You would need to ask permission for that. Communication is not cheap after all." She was guessing but it made sense to not allow unrestricted communication for passangers - next thing she would be dealing with people clogging the bandwidth with rubbish. The Trill didn't look happy if she was any judge and she added, "You may want to speak to someone."

"Are you serious? Aren't I talking to someone?" Hirral shook his head and huffed, "That's what I'm doing, aren't I. You're the signaller, aren't you? Well Signal someone..." He muttered something under his breath in the general direction of the unhelpful crewmember.

"Very well." Nemet finally brushed imaginery dirt off her hands and didn't quite keep the sarcastic edge from her voice, "I suppose you want me to look at the terminal? And maybe fix it for you?" Times like these she really disliked passengers...then again she normally disliked interruptions.

"If it's not too much of an inconvenience for you," The Trill man seemed very tightly wound by the whole ordeal, whomever he wanted to talk to it seemed to be very important to him.

Nemet decided to be sensible and not push the man too far - he seemed likely to bite if provoked. Instead she gave a slight nod of the head, "As you wish. Show me what terminal is creating problems..." There. She had attempted to play nice and with any luck she could fix the problem and get this pest out of her hair. She had more interesting things to do after all...

Hirral started walking back towards the turbolift, they had to get to the mess hall where the terminal was set up. He waited at the door for the Cardassian. He should've been more discerning when he choose a freighter to board.

Nemet had her PADD and a few other potentially useful tools, even though she had a working idea why the pest hadn't been able to make his call from here....best guess was that it was restricted because otherwise every other passenger would be making expensive calls and clogging up subspace with nonsense. And not paying. She reached the Trill and let him guide her to the terminal, there were only a handful eating here at the moment and she was glad. She activated the screen with a swipe of her hand, and checked before saying, "Well the problem is that calls are restricted here and it seems you were trying to place a rather expensive one." Hmmm...that was probably a bad choice of words, "I might be able to override it however....it depends."

"Expensive? This is the UFP, what do you mean expensive?" Hirral shook his head, "you probably override all sorts of Federation protocols all the time," he waved his hands at the console, "do it... make it so..."

"I am not concerned about Federation protocols....those I can override in my sleep...I am more concerned with bypassing my captain's orders. So if this is some trivial matter -" Oops, "- or rather if I am going to break protocols I need a good reason. Never skin a gul's vole unless they hand you the knife." Nemet said, an old saying and appropriate right now.

Hirral rolled his eyes, just another one of the crew out to try and figure out his secrets, "I need to make sure arrangements are made for my arrival," he folded his arms, "It's important." Ever since he had gotten on board the crew had been a little bit too nosey about his personal affairs, especially his extraordinary bit of personal cargo he had in the cargo bay. So far nothing had happened that had required him to take more drastic measures, but the trip was a little while longer still and he needed to play his cards close to his chest if he wanted to avoid them finding out what exactly it was he was carrying.

"So you want me to break protocol, give you access to this terminal so you can call ahead to what....? Make sure the voles are well fed and ready for eating?" Nemet was trying but for all her might she couldn't understand what he might be wanting to have prepared. Hah, now if the pest was a gul he would have been demanding the best kanar....

"I don't know your obsession with Voles, lady, but I need to call my associates and make sure preparations are made to push our project to the next stage," Hirral huffed back, he was really not appreciative of this woman or the fact that she was trying to get him to spill his motives for having to call. He didn't want anyone to know, least of all a spoonhead.

Nemet didn't respond...yet. She checked the terminal and as she suspected it was working just fine...but no reason to give access to sarkku...especially annoying ones. She gave him a look, "Well I can get this working for you -" Now she smiled a little, "- however I am reluctant to do that on some personal whim. I should call the captain to get approval." Good....he looked angrier, with any luck he would explode. She didn't have any particular grudge against him of course...simply that he had disturbed her and was...annoying.

"Call the captain? Didn't the Captain put you in charge of this? Do you need to call the captain for every little thing that you need to do?" Hirral shook his head, "No. Just fix it now. My goodness, why is everything so difficult on this ship?"

"With respect -" Nemet said...rather disrespectfully, "Bypassing the lockout to give you privileges to make whatever call you want is not a little thing. I will call the captain for approval....should not take more than oh....an hour. Or so. You are welcome to wait." She used her communicator for effect, =/\= Captain I need you to authorise something for one of our delightful guests.=/\=

There was a moment where Mayterial just wanted to go and slap whoever was requesting unreasonable things now, but she remembered that the last time she told a passenger no he ended up in the sickbay, and they only really had two beds available there, =A=Do, whatever it is, if you can make sure it doesn't endanger the ship or crew, make it happen.=A=

=/\=Very well.=/\= Nemet was relieved since she suspected this passenger would have exploded if she said no again. She gave her least sincere smile and said, "Now if you give me a moment I will meet your demands - sorry, I mean...requests." She shrugged and added, "Federation Standard is not my native language....sometimes I misplace the right words." It wouldn't take long to give him access but if he irritated her too much she would drag it out.

Hirral shook his head a bit and impatiently waited, arms crossed, foot tapping on the metal floor plating, "if I had known this, I would've gone with the R-101." he shook his head a bit, looking around the mostly abandoned mess hall. Most of the passengers holed up in their quarters unless food was being served.

"Oh but then I would have been deprived of such delightful company." Nemet said, keeping her tone bland enough that she wouldn't signal if she was being sarcastic or was sincere. She logged into the terminal and as she suspected there were some blocks in place to stop unauthorized access. That was easily fixed...of course. And she debated for a moment what was the best way to do it, "And you would not have as fun entertainment on the R-101...why they do not even have stray voles if you enjoy the sport of chasing them." She finally decided to simply remove the blocks and gamble on giving him limited access.

"Thank you for your cooperation," Hirral stepped forward and tapped in a couple of codes into the terminal. He looked over his shoulder as Kenzia was still hovering over him, "Some privacy, please?" His eyebrow arched in quiet annoyance, this woman probably made sure she could still monitor his communications so he'd have to keep it short and secretive. He hated being cooped up with all these nosey civilians.

Nemet gave him a curious glance, "As you wish." She went to move away - of course just a short distance so she could monitor him. Her natural paranoia being what it was she was not about to just leave him there...unwatched. As an afterthought (a calculated afterthought), she added, "If you have any difficulties just let me know."

Waving dismissively Hirral focused on the terminal in front of him, waiting for the UFP seal to be replaced with another logo, the one from his tech company. A quick flick of the wrist redirected the signal to bounce to another recipient. It wasn't uncrackable encryption, but it would frustrate and delay most seasoned code crackers plus it had the advantage of alerting him if someone was going to be snooping around on those frequencies. It took a couple of seconds before the signal redirected and showed the face of a grizzled old human, "Hi Bob," he immediately spoke, before the man on the other side could say anything.

"Hi." The man on the other side seemed to get the hint.

"I'd like to be able to continue work as soon as I land, has everything been arranged?" Hirral continued.

"Everything is ready," it seemed that 'Bob' was a man of few words.

"Good, now listen, there was an incident, so we need a new Y-type capacitor." Hirral looked slightly concerned at that request.

'Bob' shook his head a bit, "I'll make sure it's here." He sounded exasperated.

"I think we're going to need Frank's expertise. I've been hitting a wall." Hirral added, knowing it wasn't the best time to be discussing this, although on the other hand 'Bob' didn't really have any room to argue with him without saying too much.

"Frank's not going to be of any help," 'Bob' merely stated.

Hirral sighed, "Look, just get me Frank and the Y-type."

"Why do I even bother. You'll have them. After it's up and running I expect severance pay." 'Bob' cut off the channel.

Hirral balled his fists as 'Bob' said that, he took in a sharp breath through his nose and held it for a moment. The smell of the dinner that was being prepared invaded his nostrils. He closed the redirect and the communication before turning to Kenzia, "What's for dinner tonight?"

Nemet had been focused on her PADD, trying to act like she wasn't paying attention to the irritating passenger (even though she was)....until he spoke and she jumped a little, "Nothing gourmet I am sure." She said without thinking then shifted her tone, "Judging from the smell I believe it could be curry...that is one of the few human dishes that does not stink like a zabu. If so it will be good, not spiced enough for my taste, but good."

"Good, sounds good." Hirral awkwardly shuffled away from the Cardassian signaller and gave a half-hearted wave, "See you then, I suppose."