The last two days had been busy. Benton had met with the Captain and the First Officer upon his arrival, he had settled in his assigned cabin, met with the ship's Chief Engineer regarding the transwarp shuttle, and met a nice member of the ship's science team, Lt. Tomme, when she had returned the errant Spot to him.
Lt. Tomme had wanted to stay a while and talk, to which Benton had agreed. It would be necessary to get to know the other crewmembers if he wanted to be an effective officer, and Lt. Tomme seemed eager to be on friendly terms with him. After a while though, Benton began to suspect that Lt. Tomme, or "Jenara", as she insisted he call her, had an ulterior motive for being in his cabin, although he couldn't imagine what she could want.
Any Human observer would instantly have noticed that Jenara was attracted to Benton. The way she complimented little things about him, the way she sat near him and seductively tossed her hair now and then.
The way she was getting more and more frustrated that nothing seemed to be working on Benton. He simply answered her questions in a polite manner. Benton wasn't nearly versed enough in Human customs and inter-gender relationships to figure these things out for himself. In his opinion, little of it had any practical value.
Eventually, Jenara sighed, and excused herself in a disappointed voice, "Well, Benton. It's getting late. I have to go." She stood to leave.
"Very well, Jenara. Thank you for this little chat. It was a pleasure to meet you," replied Benton as he stood and walked her to the door.
The door slid open and Jenara stepped out into the corridor. She turned around and started to say something, but thought better of it. Instead, she gave Benton a small wave and smile, and walked away.
What a strange guy. You'd think he was a robot or something, she thought sullenly. But a cute one! That thought perked her up.
Back in his quarters, Benton mused over his encounter with Jenara, Lt. Tomme. He was not quite sure what had happened. I wonder if that could be considered 'Starting off on the wrong foot.' He believed that was the correct expression.
He walked over to Spot's cage and tossed in the last jelly doughnut. Better stock up, he thought.
But that was yesterday. Today, it was on to the next order of business: meeting his Assistant Security Officer.
He mumbled quietly to himself as he consulted the duty roster displayed on the computer terminal on his desk, "Assistant Security...Ensign Sitto Lan...Bajoran." At that he stopped and thought out loud, "There sure a lot of Bajorans on this ship."
Misinterpreting Benton, the computer said in it's disinterested voice, "Unknown direction. Please re-state command."
"Disregard, Computer." Benton hit the "Cancel" button and continued reading Sitto's file. Finally, he sat back and after a moment said, "Well, I think it's time to set up a meeting between the two of us." Addressing his next remark to the terminal, Benton asked, "Computer, where is Ensign Lan?"
He waited, but there was no reply.
"Computer?"
Still nothing. Had he hurt the computer's feelings? No, of course not. What a ridiculous concept. He toyed with the idea of restarting the terminal to see if that would correct the malfunction, but then he remembered. He felt a little foolish as he tapped the "Continue" button in the lower corner of the screen. Then he tried again, "Computer, where is Ensign Lan?"
This time he got an answer. <Ensign Sitto Lan is currently in the Mess Hall.>
Odd, thought Benton. What is Ensign Lan doing in the mess hall during his duty shift? I better go check this out. He switched off the computer terminal and headed for the mess hall.
As soon as Benton stepped through the mess hall doors, he knew something was wrong. A small crowd was gathered at the back of the hall near the bar. At the center of everyone's attention were a crewman with a bloody nose and a small, young woman in a science uniform who was currently being restrained by Ensign Lan. He was having a surprisingly hard time holding on to her as she fought to wrench free from his grasp and get at her victim.
"Let go of me, Sitto!" she yelled. "I told this loser that I'd knock his block off if he didn't leave me alone, and that's what I'm gonna do!"
"Just calm down, Franny. Nobody's going to doing any block-knocking on my shift," answered Sitto as he tried to get a better grip.
Benton quickly made his way over to the crowd and pushed through into the center of the action. He had heard enough. Obviously, the young lady had been antagonized into this violent course of action, but this sort of behavior was unacceptable on a Federation starship. A quick and non-violent resolution was needed here, he meant to help Ensign Lan achieve it.
He tried to use a reasonable tone of voice as he addressed the combatants. "Excuse me, everyone. Don't you think it would be better if we all just sat down and talked this problem out? I'm sure we can come to a peacefu..."
But Benton never got to finish that sentence. His sudden appearance in the middle of the fight caught everyone by surprise. Ensign Lan gave a small start, and that was enough to let the young woman slip from his grip. She lunged forward, off balance. The massive round-house punch she had meant for her opponent swung wide of her target. Carried on by its momentum, her fist continued on to a different target.
Benton saw it coming, but it was such a vicious swing, and unexpected at that, that he didn't have time to duck. The last thing he remembered was the sight of the wide-eyed young woman gasping and putting her hands over her mouth in shock. Then all went dark.
The first sensation that came back to him was a stinging one on his face, but it wasn't a steady, dull pain like you'd expected from a punch. This feeling was sharp, and was repeating itself at regular intervals. His foggy mind struggled to make sense of this, but couldn't.
The next thing he noticed was a woman's distraught voice saying, "Wake up! Say something! Oh, I'm so sorry! It was an accident! Say something!" Each pleading exhortation was accompanied by one of the stinging sensations on his face.
Finally, his vision swam back into focus. He saw the young woman crouched over him, slapping his face in an effort to wake him. Her face wore a worried expression. She said again, "Are you all right?" She slapped him again. "Say something!" Another slap.
"Ow," said Benton.
Relief washed over her face. "Oh, you're okay! I was so worried! Here, let me help you up." With that, she put her arms under his shoulders and helped Benton stand up."
Most of the people that were in the mess hall during the fight were gone. Apparently, they had been dispersed by Ensign Lan. All that was left were two men behind the bar. One of them obviously thought the entire episode was quite funny. He said to the other, "Ha! She knocked his block off, all right! Just the wrong one!"
"Can it, Dweezle!" called Ensign Lan from where he stood with the male brawler in custody. "Let's get this mess cleaned up," he said indicating the spilled drinks and food on the floor.
Benton stood, wobbled a little but quickly regained his equilibrium. He was going to have a hard time living this down. Probably most of the ship already knew. Beat up by a girl!
He disengaged himself from the young woman, who still had her arms around him. She was looking at him strangely, but Benton dismissed that for the moment.
"Thank you for helping me up, Ensign..."
"Ensign Francesca Milano, Sir."
"Thank you, Ensign Milano," amended Benton. He tugged and straightened his uniform tunic and continued in a nonchalant way, "Now, if you would please accompany myself and Ensign Lan there to the brig?"
"What?! Why?" Milano seemed crushed. How can he do this to me? But he's so cute.
"'Why?' she asks," laughed a disbelieving Sitto. "I'll tell ya why. Because you just decked the new Chief of Security, that's why!"
Milano looked shocked at the news. Her mouth opened and she looked at Benton. "Oh." Well, I sure started THIS relationship off on the wrong foot! she thought.
As the two security men led their charges out of the mess hall on their way to the brig, Milano's voice could be heard whining, "But I told you. It was an accident..."