-- Timeskip: Three weeks. Location: Planet Malta, Omicron Alpha System --
It was never one of Halpert's strong suits, patience. Being that he times his flights around Sirius when performing tasks for the Starfliers, his device has a program open showing how long he's spent on Malta. 23 solar rotations, at least what counts as 23 rotations on Planet Manhattan, has passed so far. Though Planet Malta rotates slowly around the sun, having days and nights last longer, was most preferred as Halpert liked to stay awake and get things done.
Many notable things have happened during Halpert's stay within the Starfleet Embassy. Notable in the sense that it passed the time for him. The biggest one for Halpert was feeling very uneasy and weird about 13 hours in. Many times he's heeled over coughing and taking very deep breaths. On occasion he'd stare at his hands just to check if all of his fingers were still there. Something felt off, and he couldn't quite place it. Three weeks is a long time to spend waiting, especially when he's fully aware that shipyards are busy building god knows what for who knows what. In any case, Halpert has recorded a few of the details here for himself, to keep track of what's going on around him.
Rin Miyazaki stared up at the Maltese sky. The faint traces of cardamine in the air was especially strong this season when the spores of grass were being carried on the wind. This was the first time since many months that she had the time to take a break from here spacefaring trade of cardamine throughout the northern sectors of Sirius. Her secondary job as GC ambassador on Malta has been pushed to the background after the dissolution of Hispania Imperial, but right now she venture into the embassy that has she had visited often in days past.
Amongst the people, crew and other individuals going about their day, Halpert leant on a wall just staring at all the pockets of commotion within the Starfleet Embassy. A handful of crew loudly disputing something, a craft being loaded with cargo and a few Junkers having fun stacking scrap metal. There was one thing that stood out to Halpert, another person. Looking similar, but different to another Gen'an Chrysanthemum they had met a few months ago, Halpert approached them.
"Hey, you one of those Golden Girls?"
Rin noticed the man approaching her. He didn't look like the typical outcast, and perhaps just as out of place as she was. Apparantly, he wanted something from her, so she stopped and looked at him with an observant gaze.
"So I am. With whom do I have the pleasure?"
"Halpert Kennedy, Starfliers. Didn't expect to find one of you all the way out here."
"Greetings mister Kennedy. I am Rin Miyazaki. Of course I am here. Where else would we obtain our cardamine?"
"Huh... is that why I feel all weird being here? Doesn't matter. How are you girls doing? Last I met with one of you it was with Misaki. Been a while since then."
"Oh, Misaki-san. She can be a handful. Anything in particular happened? I can vaguely remember the Starfliers having a presence in Kepler."
"Long story short, we left that hellhole. I almost got serious radiation sickness. Some of us got it worse. Glad to be out of there."
"Ah yes. I have witnessed for myself what that radiation can do to my ship's hull, let alone the long term exposure to a human body. This does not your explain your presence at Malta, however." She took a look around. "I never expected you to be in the smuggling business."
"Smuggling? No, I'm not interested in Cardamine. I'm here for something else. Can't go into specifics, not even sure if it'll move ahead."
Halpert leans over, takes a few quick breaths and stands back up.
"God, what is going on here? Anyways, what are you Golden Girls up to? Helping out Starfleet?"
"What is going on, you say? I do not know what you are refering to, but I somehow have the idea that things aren't going as you had planned on your end. As for my business here... I am head of the GC's logistics division, and also an ambassador for the GC here on Malta."
"Not only did I find a Golden Girl, I found THE Golden Girl on this planet. Well, whatever the case. You do your thing and I'll continue to wait on my thing. Been here a few days already and there's no update yet. Guess I'll see you around here again, maybe."
Didn't take long for things to get very quiet, and with quiet, comes impatience. Halpert organized to have a transport take him off Malta to the Freeport within Tau-37. In the past he has enjoyed the food and drinks there, and the flight itself would suck up a bit of time. Three hours into the journey, Halpert started to get sick. It began with slow wheezing and developed into borderline asphyxiation. Luckily, the Freighter Halpert was on was equipped with boosted engines and the return trip was just has fast, if not faster back to Malta.
The pilot of the Freighter knew what was happening to Halpert, but did not disclose this to him. A short time later, Halpert awoke in his bed feeling completely fine. Nothing abnormal lingering after the incident on board the Freighter. Little did Halpert know that his DNA was very quickly being re-written by the strong traces of Cardamine on Malta - since he's located on planet with the only source of it within Sirius. He hasn't put two and two together yet, and after his little trip to Malta for his meet and greet with the Maltese shipbuilders, Halpert's life would be forever changed by Cardamine.
If not waiting in the foyer of the embassy, or enjoying the sunlight outside near the landing pads, Halpert would be working on his "Vector"-Class page on his portable device. After flying around the "Kali"-Class for quite some time, he has grown fond of the ship's look. However the response from the Temporary Autonomous Zoners about his complaints annoyed him enough to scrap the three-winged look and brainstorm a new look for the Starfliers' new ship. Spending a few hours each day, all iterations Halpert would come up with would get binned. Hitting reset one final time reverts the screen back to the initial altered "Kali"-Class ship.
"Eventually... something will come round where it all makes sense and just clicks."
All the specifications remain the same, and with Halpert not knowing anything at all about shipbuilding and what an enormous process it is - he may not reach a final result in the end. But... he keeps trying, as he considers the "Kali"-Class a piece of shit.
After the 23 Solar Rotations, no progress was made with the ship, though he did record a location of where the ship could be purchased from. Obviously not the Research Complex has he knows the Starfliers don't have space to house a plethora of ships to sell, but somewhere closeby where both the Starfliers and their allies could easily acquire them if needed. Another 45 hour awake window, all it took was a faceplant into his bed for Halpert's lights to get knocked out.
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Talking to a Golden Girl