Kevin Riley was making his way across the bridge to deliver a PADD to the Captain (he was still shocked he was even allowed on the bridge or in engineering after the incident) when Lt. Uhura's comm station buzzed. "Incoming transmission from Starfleet, Captain." "On screen." Everyone on the bridge turned, excepting Scotty, who'd gotten into a fight last shore leave and didn't want command to see the large bruise over his right eye. "Captain Kirk." The Admiral on screen said, addressing the Captain. "Yes, Admiral?" "You have a new shuttle and crew member coming aboard later today, a Lt. Axia Burwell in an, as yet, unnamed shuttle. Her transfer orders should arrive in a few minutes. Starfleet out." Instantly, chatter filled the bridge about the new crew member. Suddenly, Chekov's voice was heard above everyone else. "Axia Burwell? Ze Axia Burwell?" Things quieted down, as Kirk turned to look at the younger man. "You know her?" "Yes, sair. She vas ze best in our year in warp dynamics. She made a new formula zhat Starfleet adopted. Almost all ze boys in our year tried to get a date with her." Riley snickered as Chekov blushed. "Well, Mr. Scott. It seems you have competition." He muttered, "No lassie is gonna go interferin' with my wee bairns.." The captain smiled at his indignant chief engineer. "That's yet to be determined., Mr. Scott." "Yes cap'n." he sighed.
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Riley's first meeting with Lt. Burwell was in the mess hall around 17:00 that day. Her shuttle had docked three hours earlier, and rumours had started flying about her. The first thing he noticed was that it was true; she was a stunner. Her wavy black hair had started to come out of its bun, loosely framing her features and making her soft grey eyes stand out. She wore no makeup as far as he could tell, and her ivory cheeks were dotted with very subtle freckles. She was about an inch shorter than him, and was fairly thin. Knock it off, Riley, she probably already has a boyfriend,he mentally berated himself. "Hullo. Who are you? I'm Axia." She'd wandered over, noticing his stare. "I'm Kevin O'Riley, though most just call me Riley." She looked startled. "Riley? The Kevin O'Riley? The guy who single-handedly nearly destroyed this ship?" He was positively floored. They'd managed to keep that one quiet, somehow. How the hell did she know? "Wh-where'd ya hear that?" he stuttered, not making eye contact. "You messed up the warp field, so they sent the stats to me to figure out how the hell to fix it. Took me awhile-still have no clue how exactly you managed it. And my eyes are on my face, not the floor." He instantly switched his gaze to her face. "Oh." was all he could presently manage, and his face flushed redder than her uniform dress. She laughed at his reaction, and as a couple more people approached, she grabbed his arm and led him out of the mess. Once they were at her quarters, he said, "What the hell was all that about?" "People have been badgering me all day. I know they're just trying to be friendly, but it's starting to drive me crazy." She pushed past him, into her quarters. She looked over her shoulder. "Coming?" he hurried in after her. There wasn't anything to show her personality in the room yet, only the standard issue Starfleet furnishings and a few scattered PADDs. "Wanna give me a hand unpacking?" "Sure." He answered, hoping to learn more about her. As they began to unpack together, he noticed a few things; she liked old books, Tom Sawyer and Peter Pan being among her small collection. She also apparently had a love of drawing, half-finished sketches beginning to litter the floor. Finally, he interrupted their relatively quiet work. "I've got Alpha shift tomorrow. This has been nice, but I need to go." "Alright." She walked with him to the door, and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for the help, Kevin." She gently pushed him out into the hallway, and left him there, wondering if that'd really just happened.