Terah stuck her head around the corner, her black eyes narrowing at the expanse before her. 'Hm... Have I been down this way?' she thought. "AWK!" a strange sound echoed in the corridor, Terah reached back to her shoulder, where a large red bird sat, and held the bird's beak softly. "Shh... you silly bird." If the bird could have expressed a thought with her look, it was 'Aww, I'm sorry,' with sad puppy eyes.

The rather young woman shrugged, and turned around the corner walking slowly, her eyes looking at the doors, carefully reading the labels. "Argh! I have been here before." She said to no one in particular. The bird bobbed her head, seemingly in agreement. "I didn't ask for your opinion." Terah said with a slight smile. She chuckled.

Then, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a red-uniform clad figure disappearing down the hallway. "Excuse me!" Terah called, breaking into a jog to catch up. The bird flapped slightly to keep her balance, but stayed on Terah's shoulder. "Hello!" She called after the man, puffing ever so slightly. She smiled. "Can you help me? I'm a little lost..."

The man, hearing her calling, turned around and started to walk down the corridor towards her. As he walked he kept staring at Terah's feathered friend. But as she approached, he seemed to get over the fixation and instead looked at her. "Hi, Alexander Drake, ship's Deck Officer. How can I help you?" Even as he said that, he still looked back towards the bird, peering at it rather suspiciously.

Terah had a permanent smile on her face that refused to be wiped off when she tried to suppress it. His eyes kept darting towards the bird, as if he didn't trust it. The bird, of course, liked the attention and hissed at him. Terah knew, somehow, that she didn't mean it, and was just showing off due to the hesitance Drake was showing. Terah chuckled and pointed to her shoulder. "I'd like to introduce her, but I don't know her name... I just found her wandering around last night in the corridors."

Drake grinned at this, and tapped something into a padd that he was carrying. "Just adding, 're-house bird flock' to the list of things to do today." He looked back at the bird one last time, grinned at it, and then looked back at Terah. She smiled.

"And yes, I hope you can help me. I'm trying to figure out who can write me in to some guest quarters ship-board? I didn't want to bug Lysander after him being out so late last night, but I'm afraid I've been wandering around for hours, trying to figure out what and who I should be seeing! It's terribly frustrating." She ended with a smile.

"Well you've come to the right person... actually, hang on a second." Drake looks something up on the PADD; "Yes I think that's one of my jobs, which reminds me, I must see Callen about getting a list of them, anyway, if you'd like to follow me, I'll show you to your room."

Terah giggled slightly, sounding much younger than she really was. Two things struck her as funny, he was talking to a Callen right now, and didn't know it. And somehow he sounded like this was a hotel service, and whenever she had mentioned to any of the officers about it before, they chewed her out saying this is a Starship, not a hotel.

Drake looked quite curious after the giggle. He wasn't expecting the bird. He wasn't expecting the giggle. Suddenly asking at the academy for the most interesting ship, probably meant the wrong thing... after all where he came from, interesting meant wonderful... not bizarre. Regardless, he began to walk down the corridor towards the turbolift, presuming that she would follow. He turned his head to her to try to make small talk, "So what's your current assignment then?" he said.

She smiled at him. "No assignment... I'm a..." she trailed off, looking at the ceiling in contemplation. "How do they say... dirt poor, undisciplined, sorry excuse for..." she just grinned at him. "In other words, I'm a dumb civvie" She reached back and absently stroked the bird, as absently as a girl playing with her hair. Somehow, she just wouldn't have seemed complete without an animal hanging around her in some fashion or another.

He nodded at this. "Well I had enough years of that, although it does prove to get repetitive after a while." Drake tugged at the front of his shirt, "Hence the uniform these days. So, if you're a civvie, what do you do then?" And smirking at the last sentence, "Apart, of course, from finding stray birds?" At that, the smirk turned into a full-blown grin.

Terah narrowed her eyes in mock annoyance and moved to poke him in the side, not making contact, then smiled. "Alright, smarty pants." She crossed her arms across her middle and looked forward. "I do more than just finding stray birds...." She paused for effect. "Sometimes I even find dogs, and cats... and even the occasional monkey." Her face was perfectly serious, but something in her eyes danced about, betraying her joking manner.

"Well I'm afraid we've got no monkeys on this deck, they're all in Engineering at the moment." Drake pouted his lips trying to keep a straight face as they turned a corner and stopped in front of the turbolift door.

"I see." Terah managed stoically for about three seconds, allowing herself enough time to walk into the turbolift and turn around before she collapsed into gales of laughter. She leaned against the turbolift for support, and slapped her knee once.

Drake began to laugh as well, not quite so furiously as Terah did, but he laughed to his own degree. "I shouldn't really say that, but I think I'll pass, seeing as engineering used to be my trade, back when I was a 'dumb civvy'."

The bird squawked in protest of the laughter, but that didn't bother Terah any. Slowly managing to catch her breath she smiled, wiping a few tears from her eyes. "Well... take my advice, don't let them hear you say that. The particular breed of monkeys that work in engineering dislike being reminded of their genetic past." Terah chuckled softly.

"I'd have to agree with you there, calling people monkeys to their face isn't the best way to get them to do something." Drake suddenly remembered something, and looked up at the ceiling of the turbolift, "Deck eight, please."

She chuckled. "Aye... I guess it wouldn't be." Terah sighed deeply and leaned up against the wall of the turbolift, not saying anything.

"I would have though it would have been more comfortable staying on the station, what with all the damage on the Isannah. Heck, most of the crew is getting moved onto the Starbase in a couple of days." And at that, the doors slid open onto deck eight. Drake strolled out, and waited in the corridor for Terah to reciprocate.

Terah walked silently beside him for a few minutes, her mind wandering over the differences between what she had expected, and reality. Then she spoke softly. "I know... but I wanted to be near, in case I was needed." She said without offering any real explanation, not because she didn't want to say it, but because she was thinking about Jesa.

Both of them walked along the corridor a few meters until they passed the first door. Drake looked down at his padd and then over at Terah. "The manifest says that this room is empty, but it doesn't say what condition it's in, although this part of the deck made it through pretty much untouched." Drake touched the door panal controls on the right of the door twice, and the door opened. Learning into the room, he swung his head in first to make a quick check, and then walked in.

"Yes, this one isn't too bad, but I don't know if the replicator or the sonic shower works. If they don't, just give me a shout and I'll sort out an Engineering work detail to fix it up." Drake looked back at the padd and went to type something in, but then hesitated for a second as he realized what was missing, "Sorry, what's your name?"

The young woman walked in, looking around the room. Then, being the person that she was, she turned around and smiled. "Thank you. Oh... I haven't told you, have I?" her eyes fairly twinkled. "Terah, my name is Terah Callen." Then she lightly tapped the door closed, and giggled to herself, facing the door and just enjoying the look he had on his face... she'd have to apologize later.

Drake's blood froze for a second, and his mouth fell half open for a few seconds more, before he looked back down to the padd, and entered the name into the manifest. He stood there trying to think of how to pull himself out of the big hole he'd managed to throw himself down. He suddenly heard himself say "Would you like a drink?" and his body moved towards the replicator mounted on the wall.

Regaining control of his senses, he tapped a few controls on it, and found that it indeed did work thankfully. "Computer, I'll have a sna..." Suddenly, he remembered that Snail Juice at this moment might not be such a good idea... the bird might try its luck, "Make that a Coffee, black, with 3 sugars." As that materialized, he turned to Terah to see what she might want.

She waved a hand slightly in dismissal. "No, no thank you..." her bemused smile was clearly read, not unkindly, just enjoying the moment. "Sorry about that." She chuckled.

Picking up the coffee, he turned to Terah, "That's okay. I just wish I could return the favor you know." He sipped at it gently; "But I now realize the reason why you're not staying on the Starbase at least." He sipped again from the coffee, before placing it back on the replicator, and the cup and its contents vanished. "I just remembered that I can't stand coffee." Grinning at that he made his way to the door. "Anyway, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a holodeck."

Terah smiled gently. "Yes... and thank you for your help. Sorry again about the little shock." She winked and grinned. "Just getting used to the whole thing myself... I mean, Jesa's always been my older sister, but haven't had people living in fear of her before... except maybe my brother." She grinned widely. "Have a nice day, Mr. Drake... oh, excuse me, Ensign Drake." She smiled.

He grinned back, and as the doors opened, he walked through the doorway. Turning around to Terah, just as the doors closed in front of him, he spoke "Rule number two hundred and eighty five, No good deed ever goes unpunished," and with that and a nod of the head, the doors closed. Terah's eyebrow rose slightly, and she chuckled, her eyes twinkling in merriment, having the intense feeling she would see him again, somehow. Then she turned and surveyed the room. "Well, whatdaya think there, you unnamed bird, you?" The bird bobbed its head slightly and squawked. "Yep... I agree... I think he's up to something." she grinned and began busying herself with straightening the place up.

Meanwhile, Drake headed along the corridor back into the turbolift. As he entered he looked up to the ceiling, "Bridge, please." And slowly banged his head against the side of the turbolift. 'Well', he thought to himself, 'at least someone on the bridge might know what my job is. At least there's supposed to be a seat there with my name on it. And of course, I'd better get a perch sent down to Miss Callen's new quarters.' He sighed.

Loaded: 03.10.2004