The tiny redhead, lithe but surprisingly strong, was parked, legs crossed over each other at a console, propped up by some books. Brown eyes scanned the screen in front of her, and data spit out at her at rapid speed. Her sharp mind picked it up as quickly as the machine spit it out at her, though, and after a moment, she’d climbed from her perch and set off to relay the bad news. Both ops AND off-site teams were going to be upset with her. But she was only the person in charge of relaying atmospheric conditions, she didn’t control them. She was small enough to duck UNDER people, and around them, instead of needing to speak to them to get them out of her way. She headed for the Ops office; for now, the off-base teams operated under them, and that’s whom she reported to hourly when she was on duty. 

She pushed open the door, imposing as it was, and spoke to the person behind the desk, her voice as small as she was. “’Allo, Dr Fee Maccafferty from Astrometrics. I am here to deliver some bad news. You can’t send a team out, at least not for the next five hours. We’ve got some weather coming in from the South West. Going to be a NASTY storm.” She could only see the top of the counter, even though she stood on her tip-toes. 

Luke was hoping for a relatively smooth duty shift when we woke up this morning. There was still a backlog of work orders to be completed and database backups to complete. That all changed when his ears perked up. Someone was in the Ops office? Since arriving on the station visitor numbers to the Ops office were holding steady at…..infrequent, unless something was about to go wrong, was in the process of going wrong, or had gone wrong and couldn’t be righted.

Adding his final notes to the report in front of him, Luke set the padd aside and got to his feet looking around for the visitor, confusion dissipating as soon has noticed his guest. “Doctor Maccafferty was it? Ensign Luke Daniels.” Luke quickly introduced himself to the tiny woman. “How nasty are we anticipating?” Luke continued before his mind took him to the start of the Doctor’s sentence. “Wait, did you say five hours?”

This was not the news Luke was wanting. There were several shuttles getting ready to head planetside with a transport vessel due to depart the planet within the next two hours.

She moved to the left-hand side of the large desk, so he could see her, and she-him. She relaxed the muscles in her calves as she dropped to flat feet from tip-toe. “Aye. Five hours, at least. Both a solar storm and rain. The rainstorms here aren’t like they are back on my planet. Nor yours.” She paused a beat. “Rain, lightning, thunder. The solar part will mess up communications. Which is actually my next course of action.” She was dreading that-those guys were always loud, big, and intimidating. “And cold, to boot.” Actually, some tea sounded lovely. “I’ve already alerted engineering. They’re not happy.” Another small shrug to make her flame-colored braid bounce. “Can’t be helped. When will these people learn that I only SHARE and predict the weather, I don’t control it?! Also, here’s a requisition for a balloon.” She needed one for atmospherics. She handed him the three-page piece of paper, signed by herself and the CSO. 

Casting an eye over the requisition request, Luke fed the information into his terminal for any available stockpiles. Supplies were running low and additional units would need to be fabricated soon “Localised weather events can’t be helped I guess. Is this storm outside normal weather patterns?”

Running a hand through his hair, Luke leant back slightly in his chair as his thoughts caught up with him. “I will inform all ships to remain grounded planet side for now. How is the intensity looking for our solar event and do we anticipate any damage to the station or ships in the immediate area?” Luke asked, already warming up the doctor. In 21st century slang, Luke definitely knew she ‘passed the vibe check.’ 

He could already imagine how well it would go down if Docking Control was forced to recall the ships in its immediate vicinity or instruct them to seek shelter inside the stations shielding. Adding his signature to the requisition form after retaining a copy for the station records, Luke handed the paperwork back. “Where would you like us to arrange the balloon to be delivered?” 

She shrugged. “Astrometrics, I suppose. I am under the Chief Science Officer, so his office, as well, is a choice. I don’t much care.” She would find it; most of the time, people couldn’t figure out what the heck it was, and would ask. “Yes, the storm is an anomaly. Normally the atmosphere in this part of the Quadrant is mild.” It was why she’d accepted the posting-too much weather wasn’t up the young woman’s alley. 

“And done.” Luke finished tapping the drop off point. “Delivery is to be expected in the next few hours, unless you need this expedited?”

Sitting back he started formulating. “I will inform docking control to recall all small vessels as a precaution. Larger vessels should be able to withstand the incoming radiation. The communication arrays and relays are my next primary concern. Should probably follow up with Engineering too.”

Almost forgetting about Fee. He quickly sat upright again. “I am so sorry Doctor, my mind appeared to have wandered off for a moment.”

Fee just nodded. “That’s ok, I do that on occasion myself.” Regularly, really. “If you need me to send the data to your PADD, I can do that. Shall I inform Engineering myself, or will you?” She sighed. She really preferred to not do it herself unless she could do it via PADD or somesuch; the young scientist didn’t do well with personal confrontation, and the thought of annoying them made her blood cold. “Also, I should go see the Chief of Science soon. He won’t be happy.” She let out another sigh. 

“That would be appreciated.” Luke nodded slightly. “Transmit the data to my PADD and I will notify Engineering.” Luke already knew how that conversation would go down, but he would rather the Operations department be the focus of their annoyance rather than a member of the civilian crew.

“Thank you for bringing this to our attention.” Luke smiled. “If there’s nothing else, I believe you said the Chief of Science needed to be seen?” 

She smiled. “That’s all. Thank you!” With that, she turned, and hurried out of the Ops office, back towards her lab.