Log’s palms grew increasingly sweaty as he fumbled with the tricorder in one hand and the small circuit tool in the other. He knew what he had done, a foolish swap of a six for a nine had parsed a small but not inconsequential portion of the personal records of the cadets who were housed nearby. And whilst he did not know the content of the lost folders, he was sure someone would be along with a righteous fury in no time.

The sound of hurried footsteps only served to increase the slickness of his palms, and his thick fingers lost their grip on the tricorder, sending it skittering across the plush carpet with an embarrassing din despite the floor’s thick weave.

Straight into the toes of Cadet Davidson.

“Sir, I believe you might have misplaced this.”

William picked up the device and stepped over, he was still a little sweaty himself from his exertions in the Cadet gym. He had always enjoyed a nice early evening workout to get the brain juices flowing for a night of study.

The course for tonight was writing up his lecture notes on Interspecies Protocols in a more comprehensive form. In the meantime though, it looked like he might be able to practice what he had learnt in an applied form with the young Ensign.

“Are you okay, sir? You look a little panicked. Anything I might be able to help with?”

Log’s heart fluttered momentarily, perhaps the young man didn’t realise the engineer’s error. Perhaps he had got away with it. Slowly, he lifted the proffered tricorder after rubbing his slick palms against his uniform front, long dark zebra stripes appearing across his slightly bulging belly.

“I’m fine, Cadet,” Log sputtered with a wholly unconvincing confidence. “Just doing some buffer clearances on this node.”

The pair stared at each other for an awkward moment.

“Completely standard, absolutely no issues whatsoever.” Log is finally finished, a constricted whistle erupting from his pursed lips. In the holo-novels, the nonchalant characters always whistled.

“Alright then. Just let me know if I can help.” Will left the Ensign to his work and took a seat at a table in the nearby common area.

As he produced his PADD, the recent lecture was running sprints through his head. Meeting someone from another species who was seemingly fumbling at the same social skills he had been trying to get his head around was at the very least a little reassuring. Maybe worth bringing up the experience at the next class?

He opened the digital notepad and navigated to a category on the topic where his lecture notes were stored. A polite but firm audio cue responded, “Data not found.”

Will’s mind raced as a slow bead of sweat dripped down his temple, his mouth agape at the revelation.

‘Gah….what?!?’, his mind screamed, whereas his voice could not express his incredulity.

Was this a prank? Voss was still nursing a sore attitude towards him after their arrival on the station, but Kallen wasn’t a malicious person. Deleting his notes because he didn’t want to go touring the promenade would be a bit much.

‘The ensign! He’s an engineer. Maybe he can help me…’

Will doubled back around to the junction, to his relief, the thin Tellarite was still there, packing away his gear.

Log was slipping the tricorder back into the engineering kit, laying its slender grey sleeping form alongside the quiet thanks he offered to the universe, when the polite smile of Davidson appeared in the corner of his eye. With a PADD in hand and a quizzical look on his face, he seemed perfectly innocent. But that could quickly change.

The young tellerite swallowed the growing lump in his throat with limited success before closing the lid of the equipment case and, with his best nonchalant smile, turned to the man.

“Cadet, is there something I can help you with?” Log offered a look of false apology, reaching mentally for any trace of those rhetoric lessons he had received at his father’s knee in the debate halls of Tellar Prime.

“I’ve got several other nodes to work on this morning, and the Chief can be quite the stickler.” The beneficent face of Chief Petty Officer Milton floated across his inner eye. A tiny lie, the chief was so laid back he had almost made the circle back to vertical, but the Cadet wasn’t likely to know the difference.

“If this is regarding your assignments, I’m not sure I can be much help.” Log bit his tongue roughly before it could plant another seed of suspicion.

‘Shut up,’ he hissed internally.

Will tapped his foot against the floor a little, then folded his arms.

“Erm…yeah about that, it’s not about an assignment per se, but my PADD seems to be having some trouble loading my lecture notes. I don’t suppose you co-”

The combadge on the ensign’s chest cut off Will’s entreaties and gave Log the excuse he needed. Beckoning wordless apologies he gathered up his belonging and retreated to the safety of a nearby corridor.

‘Huh…weird…’

Will was about to step away when he saw it out of the corner of his eye. In his haste, Log had left the data node exposed, and of course, as a good, abiding Starfleet cadet, it was Will’s duty to restore it to its secured state.

‘I don’t figure there’s any harm in me checking it first though.’

The cadet retrieved his own tricorder, and before long found himself looking at a block of nearly indecipherable console logs. That was until he found the one obvious entry that he could understand without a major in engineering.

DATA CORRUPTION DETECTED DURING MAINTENANCE OPERATIONS - RESTORE FROM BACKUP ADVISED

His curiosity sated and suspicion about the Ensign’s conduct confirmed, he restored the panel protecting the data node to its proper place. Returning to the common area, he filed a report with engineering about the incident, then he pulled a mammoth textbook from his bag and sat it down on the desk.

Patting the worn text he whispered to himself. “Guess I’m doing this assignment the old fashioned way…”