A Good Distraction

Posted on Sun Jun 28th, 2026 @ 9:53am by Ensign Zeve Navot & Ensign Ian Milkovich & Lieutenant Liana J'Oh

Mission: A New Day at Midnight
Location: Deck 1 - Bridge

ON:

The Bridge was intensely quiet. The Pandora was at high warp heading towards the White Diamond Nebula en route to their new mission. The Captain had adjourned to his Ready Room until they arrived at their destination. The ship would soon find themselves on the very fringes of the boundaries of the Federation, a thought that prevailed on the minds of the shift team currently on the Bridge, adding to the tense quiet that had settled within the room. Under the vibrating hum of the Pandora’s warp engines, there was barely a word spoken. Occasionally an officer would tap at their console, the soft beeps of the LCARS interface breaking the silence. There would be a still vocal report from Engineering on warp engine productivity and from Operations on shield density, carefully and robotically.

Sitting at the helm was Ensign Ian Milkovich, his eyes barely leaving his console as he adapted their pathway to accommodate sensor information and ensured the Pandora maintained their speed and trajectory. He felt a lump in his throat as he called out a minor course adjustment to account for a solar flare detected within their path. Everyone silently acknowledged the correction on their own; fingers tapping on their screens.

The silence felt longer than the journey.

At the next half hour mark, there was a Security team change over for the Bridge watch patrol. Without a word, the turbolift doors opened and a squad of officers entered the Bridge. They took up positions in front of the existing squad and gave a nod. A murmured chorus of “You are relieved” quickly followed, as the previous squad moved towards the lifts in unison and then exited. Ian had kept his eyes on his screen, barely acknowledging the change that had happened around him.

“Psst.” Came a whispered noise.

Ian flinched, furrowing his brow without moving his view. If the noise was caused by a fault on the Bridge, Ops would handle it. He knew this.

A minute passed by without further noise, until suddenly:

“Psst.”

It was right by his left ear, hovering above him. With a frown, Ian turned his head to where the noise had come from.

Ensign Zeve Navot was standing by his left, eyes focused straight in front of him like he was a statue. Zeve gave no indication that he had heard or said anything, his face was completely cold and expressionless. Despite wanting to steal a longer moment to stare at him, Ian shook his head. He was about to turn back to his console when he noticed Zeve quickly glanced down at him, his dark eyes flicking across for a moment. The corners of Zeve’s mouth threatened to pull upwards into a smirk when saw Ian was staring at him.

Ian breathed out through his nose heavily before turning back to his console. But he soon lowered his head and tried to hide his own smile, which threatened to break into a smile.

There was silence once more. They had noticed each other, Ian reasoned, that was more than enough for now. Ian still had a job to do, even if some of the tension had been replaced by excited butterflies in his stomach now.

After five minutes, Zeve dared to interrupt once more.

“Psst.” Came the whisper again.

Without turning his head, Ian lifted his hands off his console and sighed. He murmured out of the side of his mouth, not daring to look at Zeve. “What?”

There was a moment of silence. Ian quickly glanced around at the officers attending the other stations but they hadn’t reacted. They could have still heard, of course, but none of them had looked concerned. For now, at least. He saw that Lieutenant Liana J’Oh was busy typing into a PADD as she sat in the Command Chair. She seemed to be entirely consumed by whatever task she was completing, much to Ian’s relief.

“This is amazing.” Zeve whispered.

“What?” Ian hissed back, trying desperately to keep his voice as low as possible.

“Peeing on a bench.” Zeve apparently said.

Ian was incredulous. Why on earth would Zeve try to interrupt him to talk about urinating on benches. “What?!” He frowned. “Peeing on what?”

“Be-ing. On. The. Bridge.” Zeve said, annunciating each word through his closed lips.

“Oh.” Ian said, trying not to laugh at the misunderstanding. He was certain that he was going to give himself away. He couldn’t even attempt to look at Zeve, knowing that would break him entirely. But if Zeve had found it funny, he wasn’t reacting either. Zeve was trained for stoicism, to be an absolute statue when required, to not react even when something ridiculous had happened. Ian tried to stifle his laugh, pretending to be utterly concerned by his console as he ensured for the tenth time that minute that everything was still on course and functional with the helm. “Yeah.”

“My first time.” Zeve whispered. “On the Bridge.”

Ian looked to see if anyone had heard them. He was sure they could have been noticed by now, there was little else happening on the Bridge and he desperately didn’t want to get a disciplinary citation for neglecting his duties to talk with the security personnel. But he had to admit, there was a little part of him that was thrilled to have Zeve speaking to him like this. His heart raced a bit faster now.

“Not mine.” Ian carefully replied.

“Ooh. Mister Senior Staff.” Zeve whispered back playfully, a fun sarcasm in his tone.

Ian snorted in response and immediately lowered his head down into his chest, trying not to show the smile on his lips. He absolutely could not be seen to be joking around on the Bridge. There was a clear coughing noise from the Command Chair, as Lieutenant J’Oh made an obvious attempt to gain his attention.

Ian bash fully looked up and saw the Lieutenant raising her eyebrow at him expectantly. Ian felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment. “Sorry.” He said, face falling into a neutral expression.

“Mmm-hmm.” A less than impressed Liana responded with a dry tone. She raised one eyebrow over at Zeve, who was doing his best to look like he had just been introduced to Medusa. But there was a slight bead of sweat dripping down from his temple to his cheek; his perspiration a very slight giveaway for his guilt.

Zeve swallowed and tried not to flinch, eyes remaining deadly focused ahead of him. Of course, this only made Ian look like the childish one, the one randomly laughing on his own for no apparent reason. Zeve was calling upon all of his training to appear as if he was completely innocent and Ian quietly hated him for it. Well, not hated, but definitely found extremely annoying. He had been left to get the Lieutenant’s dirty look alone.

Silence filled the Bridge for some time. Long enough for Liana to have returned to her PADD report and for Ian to find himself calmed down again. He called out another course milestone.

“Passing Federation territorial border.” He announced.

“Acknowledged.” Lieutenant Liana called back. She tapped at the comms button on the Command Chair. “Captain Temple, we have passed outside Federation borders. Our target destination will be reached within an hour.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant.” Came Temple’s voice. “I will relieve you soon.”

“Aye, sir.” Liana said firmly with a nod, even though the Captain couldn’t see her doing so.

Ian tapped at his screen, looking ahead to see what the long-range sensors were picking up. Although the Pandora was beyond Federation space, on their first new mission, they wouldn’t be alone. The USS Palentine, captained by the Pandora’s former Executive Officer Commander Nash, was running a patrol route between Federation territory and the White Diamond nebula, to help protect the Pandora should anyone be waiting for them. It hadn’t escape the Senior Crew’s minds that the attack on Omnipro was just a tactic to bait Starfleet into responded; with the Palentine on the patrol, they would have some back up.

“Nothing on sensors.” The Security station reported, as if reading Ian’s thoughts.

“Stay sharp.” Liana insisted, “I want to know if a comet farts out there.”

Zeve let out a loud snorting laugh, but quickly pulled his mouth closed as the rest of the Bridge looked at him incredulously. Ian’s eyes stayed glued to his console.

“Excuse me, Ensign?” Lieutenant Liana called out. “What was that?”

“My apologies, ma’am.” Zeve said, regaining his composure as much as he could.

“Mmm-hmm.” Liana said with another raised eyebrow.

Ian’s smirk was evident, even as his face was turned to his station. Zeve could still see his mouth from his vantage point, and could feel his amusement steaming of him.

“Serves you right.” Ian whispered after a while.

Zeve knitted his lips together, now it was his turn to feel his cheeks flush as he tried to keep his face calm. Ian tapped at his console with renewed confidence, making a slight show of his work, his fingers dramatically jumping from button to button. He knew Zeve wouldn’t dare to speak again now, and as embarrassed as they both had been, their interaction had been a good distraction after all.

OFF