Trying to focus, kinda... *Roll Call Post*

Posted on Wed Jan 8th, 2025 @ 2:11pm by Lieutenant JG Daisheliss "Lissa" Kerr

Mission: Season 6: Episode 5: A church beyond heaven
Location: Astrometrics
Timeline: MD 1
597 words - 1.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Lissa was surrounded by the illusion of space and stars- the telemetry from a sector of the region that they would likely be travelling through next. Two other scientists sat at stations behind her. Their jobs were to identify any notable points of interest for scientific study, signs of life, and of course make notes to alert command and navigation of any potential dangers.

But, Lissa was thinking about a book she'd been reading. It was absurd really, which is why she was having a hard time getting the book out of her mind. Well, one of the reasons she was having a hard time not thinking about the book. The other was that the project in front of her wasn't particularly urgent. The ship wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, and nothing in the astrometric data was really jumping out at her as particularly inspiring, and it was on days like this and during projects like these that Lissa found herself struggling to be productive.

It was a lifelong struggle. As a child she could read books for hours if she was interested in the topic, but if the teacher sent her home with an assignment she wasn't particularly interested in, it wasn't uncommon for her mother to find her asleep at her desk with the assignment barely started. The pediatrician gave it a label, "variable attention stimulus trait." Once labeled attention deficit disorder, the humans had a history of medicating it, then not medicating it, and counselors had always given her tips and tricks she could try. Truth of the matter was, Lissa didn't mind it. She loved it actually. In a crisis or a last minute pinch, she thrived. And she loved the dopamine surge she could get from the bursts of energy when she really got into something.

But today her dopamine was low. The project was dull. And she was wondering how this Kurt Vonnegut fellow was ever a popular author when a good portion of his words were literally made up, and his chapters seemed more scatter-brained than she was. And what the hell was a Hoosier anyway? The author apparently hadn't made that word up, but someone had, and the Federation database wasn't able to give her a good definition either way.

"Arrgghhh." She groaned audibly when she realized that she was going to have to long some sort of progress report for the day. Also, she really wouldn't have a good answer for N'vok if he walked in right now and asked her what she'd been doing all day.Five hours. She'd been at work five hours and maybe accomplished fifteen minutes of work. Did her brain really ponder nonsense for that entire time?

Lissa stood up to stretch her legs and looked at the room behind her. The other two seemed to be working fairly diligently and didn't seem to be disturbed by her movements, or to have noticed her own struggle. Or if they had, they were too polite to say anything.

"I'm just going to go tidy up the other lab. You guys are doing great," Lissa announced, putting on a cheerful air. She had to get out of the room or nothing would happen today at all. The change of scenery would surely help.

With a wave from the other two, she left quickly making sure to not linger at the door. Even in the hallway the recycled air was bothering her more than usual today. Forgoing her original thought to organize a lab, she changed direction toward a turbolift instead.

"Deck Six. Arboretum."