It took Lexie a little while to make it to her quarters since she got lost several times, she had studied the layout of the Enterprise to hopefully avoid that type of thing from happening, however it seemed to have been a waste of time, in this case anyway, she had a feeling it would come in handy someday. She pinned in her serial number in the keypad located next to the door, all new officers had to do this but after this they were able to change it to a six digit code of their choosing, so they could easily remember it since they used it for everything. The door slid open and she stepped into the room, which would be her 'home' for the next five years. Her things had already been brought inside so all she had to do was unpack, but first she had to decide where to start. It wasn't as if Lexie had loads of belongings it was just the thought of having to do it that weighed on her mind. She soon picked a box to start with, placed it on her bed which she would have to make later on and opened it.
It was packed full of her spare uniforms, one by one she removed the red shirts from the box and placed them down on the mattress, then a dozen of black under shirts, followed by several pairs of trousers. Lexie had requested them as part of her uniform instead of the stander dress uniform female officers wore, since she was going to be working down mainly in Engineering she didn't wish for her legs to be bare. She then picked up the pile of trousers and carried them over to her dresser, she placed them in the draw. Lexie had just finished dumping out a cascade of black socks into another draw in her dresser when her door buzzed, "Come in, it's open." Lexie yelled, she assumed that it would be her Commanding Officer. When the door opened it revealed a male officer standing there in a red Star Fleet uniform with a PADD under his arm, he stepped into the room and Lexie stood to attention. The door slid shut behind him, "Don't act so formal lass. I'm not big on all that." The man said softly, his accent was Scottish which was something Lexie hadn't heard for a long time but hearing it again soothed her in an odd way.
She relaxed as the man stepped closer to her. "I'm Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott, Scotty to me friends. I'm the ships Chief Engineer and your Commanding Officer I believe." Lexie nodded quickly, "Yes Sir, It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Lieutenant Lexie Smith." When Scotty heard her accent, he couldn't help but smile. "You Scottish by any chance lass?" He asked, "Half Scottish Sir. My mother was Scottish, it seemed I picked up her accent but it comes and goes." Scotty's smile only grew, he was so happy to have a fellow Scot on the Enterprise. Even if Lexie was only half Scottish.
Scotty took the PADD from under his arm and looked down at it. "It says here on your Star Fleet file that your middle name is Gordana." Lexie nodded, "Yes Sir it is." "Such a strong name, I mean it does mean 'Heroic' in Scottish." "Thank you Sir, it was my grandmothers name." Scotty nodded as he looked around the room, Lexie felt her nerves peak along with her embarrassment. Her quarters were a mess with boxes stacked all over the floor, the bed not made and clothes covered the naked mattress. "Umm, I'm so sorry about the mess Sir, I assure you I'm much more tiddy then this it's just because I…" As Lexie spoke her cheeks only grew pinker, and only stopped when Scotty interrupted her. "Don't panic about the mess lassie, I've seen Admirals with quarters worse than this and I'll tell you a secret, mine ain't much better." Scotty winked at her which seemed to make all of her nerves vanish, the blood slowly drained away from her cheeks allowing them to return to their normal fleshy colour.
Scotty then looked down at the PADD once more, "I've looked over your file and I must say it's very impressive. I don't know many Ensigns to be promoted to Lieutenant just a few months after graduating." Once again Lexie couldn't help but blush, she had been told by countless officers how impressive her record is, not like she saw it that way. Scotty then tapped the screen a few times which switched off then held the PADD out, much to Lexie's surprise. "This PADD is yours lass, every officer has one. The Captain asked me to bring yours when I stopped by." Lexie blinked her eyes a few times, she hadn't been told about this before she boarded the ship but she took the PADD gently from Scotty's hand.
The screen burst into life as it asked for her name, rank, and serial number to log in. Lexie quickly typed in the information required then she began to scan through the things on the screen, while Scotty spoke to her. "The PADD will show your shift router which will be updated every three days. It's also your diagnostic PADD while working down in Engineering." Lexie had been listening to Scotty and simply nodded in response, she loved technology so she couldn't wait to try out her new gadget. "Thank you Sir, I'll take good care of it. But there is one question I was wondering if I could ask?" Scotty smiled, "Of course lassie, ask me anything you want." "What time today should I report down to Engineering?" Scotty chuckled at how eager Lexie was to start work. "Don't worry about coming down to Engineering today lass, just focus on settling in today, your first shift will be tomorrow morning, it will be listed on you router in a few hours." Lexie nodded, she wanted to get to work as soon as possible but she didn't really want to argue with her Commanding Officer. "Right, I'll leave you to unpack lass." Lexie couldn't help but smile at Scotty, "Thank you Sir and I look forward to working with you." The two of them shook hands, then Scotty vacated the room. 'So am I lassie.' He thought to himself.
The door to Lexie's quarters slid shut behind the Engineer, so she turned her attention back to the sea of boxes behind her, but decided to finish with the one she had started on just before Scotty had arrived. She picked up the pile of undershirts and carried them over to her dresser, she placed them in the draw, next to her trousers. Lexie sighed as she closed the draw but it wasn't a sad sigh, it was relief that she was finally going to do what she always wanted to do but also because she knew she was leaving her past behind and was hoping to start fresh. But somethings don't go away. No matter how far you go from them.