Forensic Friends

Posted on Sat Sep 27th, 2025 @ 11:39am by Lieutenant JG Lwaxana Myles & Petty Officer 2nd Class Leah Rochester
Edited on on Tue Sep 30th, 2025 @ 9:58am

1,237 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 2 - The Sins of History
Location: Forensic Engineering Lab - Deck 7 - USS Artemis
Timeline: MD013 1330 hrs

Leah hummed gently to herself as she rounded the corner, a hand idlily stretched out, fingertips brushing the bulkhead as she made her way to the engineering team. She'd been onboard a couple of days now, and had decided it was time to try and broaden her horizons a little. If there was anything she'd learnt in the last couple of years working amongst a crew, it was that if you wanted to get anywhere, you had to get along with your closer colleagues. And Starfleet crews had something that she hadn't encountered in her time with the Earth police force...forensic engineering specialists.

Her blue eyes darted around with curiosity as she half swung around the corner into their territory, her step light as she clasped her hands behind her back.

Lax rose head and her black eyed registered their new visitor. She nodded in greeting while finishing up a padd that she had been working on.

The look and nod was more than enough of an invite for Leah. She made her way over to Lax, smiling warmly as she tilted her head to take in what she might be doing, but paused long enough to allow her to finish up. "Sorry for barging in, but I was hoping you'd have a moment? I've just arrived, part of the Crime Scene Investigation team."

"Anytime!" Lax said, retuning the smile. "And welcome. I'm Lieutenant Myles, forensic engineer. How can I help you?"

"Leah Rochester, a pleasure to meet you," the other woman offered her hand out in the human manner, the warm smile coming easily to her. "Honestly, I'm here out of sheer curiosity. I trained and started my career in the police force, back on Earth, so your specialism is still rather new to me."

Lax shook the offered hand. "It's a little new to me myself. The engineering forensics speciality. But I jumped on it so to speak. I did holoprogams about solving crimes while on my last assignment and found out about the posting here. Oh, and call me Lax."

"Ah, a natural, huh?" Leah laughed softly, leaning forward to rest her arms against the edge of the console as she watched her with curiosity. "So why engineering over the other disciplines?"

"I just sort of fell into it. Started at the Academy. I was Engineering, my boyfriend was security. Let's just say he made a big splash."

Leah leant in closer to lower her voice, a playful smile coming to her. She knew when there was something going on between the lines. "Sounds like there's more to that story..." her voice was soft with a slight tempting lilt.

"I was reading with a friend. He saw me with a friend that he was with. He saw me across the quad so he made his way over. He wasn't watching his path. Splash! Right into the fountain."

Leah couldn't help but laugh, able to picture it all too well as she covered her mouth to try and smother the laughter down. "Literally turning heads, huh? Quite right, make them fall for you..."

'Yeah! Something like that." Lax laughed

Leah chuckled softly as she calmed from the image, fondness in her eyes after the endearing story. "So...you trained as an Engineer, but decided to move into the forensic speciality....?" she used the tone of a question, hoping to find out more about her path.

"To be honest, boredom. Was stationed at Empok Nor, I was sort of like O'Brien trying to keep Federation tech to jive with Cardassian. So in my off time I did old Earth crime stories on the Holodeck. One thing led to another and I trained in forensics."

"Ah, nice," Leah nodded gently as she watched her with a gentle smile. Lax was following a genuine interest and passion, she liked that. It showed a commitment that she tended to struggle with herself. "So...I take it your involvement in an investigation would be pretty wide then...everything from personal computers to station wide systems?"

"Sure. I'll find whatever I can find. Evidence to prove, or to rule out. Like fixing stuff, if it isn't broken, don't fix it "

"Is it true you can retrieve huge amounts of data even if a system's been wiped?" Leah asked softly as she leant in closer to her, as if gossiping. "I wouldn't even know where to begin..."

"I'm sure it is." Lax began. "Although I've never tried.' she chuckled a little bit. ""I was taught how, though."

Leah couldn't help but consider how smart Lax had to be. She both admired it and envied it at the same time. She had been told over the years that she'd advance quickly in her own field, but it didn't feel like it. Most days, she still felt like she was trying to play catch up with the world. "How is it working here?" she asked with a small smile, although, she was mostly asking what the people were like.

"So far I love it!" Lax smiled "A vast improvement on the old Cardassian station I was on. Think DS9, but more broken. Here I actually get to think more."

"Cardassian station?" Leah let out a soft whistle as she tried to imagine life somewhere like that. Some days, Federation ships and stations seemed too clinical and bleak compared to life planetside, let alone a Cardassian structure. "I bet it kept you on your toes as an Engineering specialist though..." she chuckled softly as she thought on the kinds of secrets their systems might have held.

""Totally! I felt like Chief O'Brien most days." Lax replied with a laugh.

"Chief O'Who?" Leah asked with a soft chuckle, watching her with interest. As someone who had entered Starfleet as an impulse on the back of her forensic skills, she had more than a few gaps in her Starfleet historical knowledge.

"The guy who kept Deep Space nine from falling apart." Lax replied. "He cobbled together federation tech and Cardassian and made it work. A lot like what I had to do on Empok Nor."

"Ah," Leah nodded with understanding...or at least, vague understanding. "So that makes you an expert jack of all trades," she chuckled at the contradiction in terms, but she also knew it to be true.

"Not quite yet but I'm getting there." Lax chuckled

"Well, I'm always looking to expand my horizons. Maybe we can schedule some training time together, so we can learn more about how to work with and each other's specialties?" Leah offered with a casual shrug that said she didn't mind if she wasn't up for it.

"That sounds great!" Lax said. "I'm always up for training time. You learn every day."

Leah nodded, patting the edge of the console as if to say 'that was that' before pushing herself to stand. "I'll let you get on, I've kept you from your work long enough. I'll book us some time in a holosuite and send you the invite."

"It's a date." Lax smiled

A Joint Post By

Lieutenant Junior Grade Lwaxana Myles
Forensic Engineering Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit

Petty Officer Second Class Leah Rochester
Crime Scene Investigator, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit

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