Post 274: Cycle

Stardate:70701.1423
Title: Cycle
Author: Ensign Xhian
Scene: VariousTime: The day/night before "Come As You Are."

Ever since Xhian has been on the Independence, he has spent much of his free time in the holodeck.

Alone for many hours on end, only coming out to eat, sleep, and perform his duties. A few of the crew are finding it strange that even though at this point he has made some new friends on the ship, he really doesn't try to socialize with them. Or with anyone else for that matter.

In the end, they figure that he's a loner and doesn't want to be bothered by anyone.After another couple of hours in the holodeck, Xhian came out to start his shift and finish working on the adjustments to the transporter systems he had suggested to Zanh Liis before. He may not be able to fully implement all the improvements he hoped to yet, but at least he could increase the power availability to the transporters by a modest amount as a start.

He was assigned to work with Ensign Stratton, and they were also under orders from Captain Gilmore to unwind the mess of wires that they'd had to jury-rig into place to keep the transporters running while the away teams were on Bajor. Cleaning up the mess would take a while, and would require caution. If they moved too quickly or tried to unhook too many systems from the crossed wires at once, there could be problems with random systems all over the ship.

It was the usual painstaking ordeal. Put this wire here and there and so forth. But by the end of his shift he was done with the transporter adjustments, if not with restoration of the original wiring lay-out Gilmore wanted. The Captain had been very specific in his orders to Zanh Liis, saying exactly what he wanted the engineers to do next. But finishing that could wait until tomorrow.Xhian spent a few more off-duty hours on the holodeck, tinkering with his invention designs. Then he decided to head to the dining room.

Once there, he didn't see February or Lily so again, he ate alone. He decided that he had enjoyed the fish and chips the first time, and ordered them again.
(Private Quarters)Another day, another night. Alone Xhian sleeps, but is never able to dream.

He wonders what his purpose is, or if he even has one anymore. This is the same thought he has every night.

As he falls asleep, he wonders if he'll just repeat the same cycle again tomorrow.

Ensign Xhian
Engineering Officer
USS Independence