“Sorry, you did what?” Aynesh asked, still chewing on the liquorice stick hanging from the side of her mouth as she pressed the small tool closer to an awkward circuit. It trilled a high pitch squeal, mimicking Aynesh’s own frustrated exclamations towards the obstinate circuit board.  

“I went to speak to the Betazoid delegation.” Log muttered beneath his breath, she had clearly been asking about his following actions but it had taken a not insignificant amount of courage for Log to say it once, he wasn’t sure if he could manage a second time. 

“I got that bit.” She rolled her eyes as the black liquorice rolled across her lips to find a new resting place, nestled in her left cheek. “Did you really say that?” With a clunk the micro spanner was down on the wall panel and her eyes were drilling into the young man’s skull. “You told the Betazoids they were being un-empathetic?” She leant on the wall as she waited for an answer, her interest in the work at hand thoroughly suspended. 

“That’s not what I said.” 

“But you told them they weren’t being very nice.” Log knew she was probing for something juicy as she continued to chew the cudd of her liquorice, there was nothing Aynesh enjoyed more than a story she could gossip about. And, everyone knew it. 

“I told them that I thought it was very unfair to boycott all the Cardassian exhibits. We shouldn’t punish them all for the actions of the Central Command.” The young Tellarite felt his ire beginning to rise again. When he had left Iska’s quarters following her revelation regarding her artistic content he had made the impulsive decision to make a beeline to the quarters of the delegation from the Betazoid managed Enaran University. 

“So you told the Betazoids they were being racist?” Aynesh pushed, catching the scent of something interesting for the rumour mill. Log watched her in the corner of his vision as he continued to calibrate the circuits in his own wall panel. He needed to be careful, he was still new on the station and if rumour got out he was insulting dignitaries it wouldn’t end well, regardless of the truth. 

“No” he said firmly. “I just told them that I thought some of the exhibitions should be given a second chance.”

“You felt the need to tell the people famous, across the known galaxy…” she threw her arms wide to emphasise her point “… for being sensitive to other people’s feelings.” Her eyes narrowed as she searched for the right summary. “That you thought they we’re being mean?” 

“That’s not…” he paused as he finally turned to meet her eyes, narrow slits barely visible beneath the folds of her confused and furrowed brow. “Essentially, yes. I suppose I did.”

The two stood for a long moment in complete silence, their bodies both completely still as Log waited for Aynesh to respond, her whole body stuck on pause as she processed the story. Had any passers by managed to see through the temporary screening they might have mistaken them for statues in a new Colloquium exhibit, ‘Two Confused Ensigns’, Artist: questionable choices. 

After an eternity she reached to her mouth and removed the liquorice twist, pointing it towards him as she channelled her best impression of the mafia boss from her favourite film. “You got guts kid, I’ll say that.” She smiled and jostled Log’s shoulder playfully. “What did they say?” she asked, turning back to her stubborn circuit. 

“Thank you for the message, we aim to respond to all inquiries within 12 hours.”

“Sorry.” She turned again from the wall console. “What?”

“I was in such a fluster about it all, because…” The face of Zaya flashed before Log’s eyes, the spice of her perfume that had always heralded her arrival caught in the back of his throat. He had told no-one on his new posting about her death during the Borg Mission or the fact it had pushed what remained of their friends apart. “… because it’s so frustrating.” He looked back to his own work, partially to hide the embarrassment, partly to hide the tears that were beginning to form in the corner’s of his eyes. “When I got to the reception doors I didn’t realise the receptionist was a hologram.” There was a breath as his colleague processed the information. 

Aynesh laughed for a full 90 seconds. Her cackle carrying echoing into the wide open space of the promenade where they were setting up the newest exhibits, Log could hear imaginary birds scatter from nearby trees at the volume of her joyous laughter. 

“You shouted at the answering machine!” she screeched between gasping breaths, her deep blue skin beginning to turn purple as she continued to snort. “At what point did you realise it was a recording?”

“I was almost back to my quarters.” Log whispered, hoping she hadn’t heard him between her hyena like howls. 

Noticing the young man’s hunched shoulders as he attempted to disappear into the open wall console she scolded herself, attempting to draw the laugh back to a quiet chuckle. “I’m sorry Log. I wasn’t laughing at you.”

“Yes you were.” the already diminutive figure of Log continued to shrink in embarrassment. 

“Well, okay maybe I was.” She took a deep breath, tempering her jovial tone as she put her mentor hat on. “But surely you can see it funny.” Aynesh picked the small beeping tool up once more as she returned to work on the circuitry. “We all make mistakes, we should all be so lucky that they only involve scolding a hologram. One day i’ll tell you about the time I almost killed the Klingon Ambassador’s son with a Bolian Hot-pot.”

Log emerged slightly from his cocoon, raising a large bushy eyebrow. “When did you have reason to meet… ” 

“I wasn’t always an engineer you know.” She batted her eyelashes playfully. The wall console screeched again as her lack of attention caused the panel to become misaligned. “I might not be one now.” She muttered through gritted teeth as she struck the bulkhead in frustration. 

“If I may?” Log offered an open hand for the tool. 

She placed the small device in his hand, stepping aside to allow him access to the truculent relay. “Go for it. It’s being particularly annoying today. I might have to pull the whole…” Before she had finished her sentence, the final words hovering between her lounge and her lips, the panel was once again aglow, purring with a gentle hum of optronic data nodes happily going about their business. She stood slack jawed, staring as the young ensign offered the tool back to her as if hadn’t just solved an hours worth of problems. 

Log shrugged, placing the small silver microspanner into her open palm. “Machines are easy. Its the squishy bits I don’t do very well with.” he sighed, closing his own panel and turning the locking bolts with a quiet click. 

“Stick with me kid.” Aynesh smiled, lifting her own panel back into place. “Stick with me, I’ll teach you everything you need to know about the squishy bits.” She threw an arm around the young Tellerite as she slung the engineering field kit into his arms. 

“I don’t know…”

“There I was in the kitchen of Starbase 29 with an empty hotpot bowel, a particularly green looking Klingon and a vat of over seasoned Plomeek soup.”