Incommunicado – Operations Departmental Meeting
by Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin & Lieutenant JG Lyhse Sullivans & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
ON:
Relma and the young crewman arrived at the meeting's venue a full ten minutes before it started. Since taking their places they had not said a word to one another, but the situation Relma had encountered in the corridor earlier remained at the back of his mind - it certainly wasn't a good introduction to the young man. Moving to the seat at the head of the table the Bajoran sat down and resumed reviewing the PADDs in front of him before the meeting began.
The half Vulcan looked at Meryn sitting in the chair at the head of the table, and the Bajoran could practically hear the wheels turning. Whatever conclusion he came to, the boy didn't seem embarrassed. Instead he said, "um, Chief? you might want to switch chairs. That one's cursed."
Relma gave the crewman an odd stare, before returning to his reading, paying the comment no further attention. he was surprised that someone with Vulcan heritage, even if a hybrid, would make such a comment.
Lyhse entered.
Hearing another person arrive Relma looked up and immediately tried to match the face to one of the service records he had read, but the woman did not appear familiar and so, standing, he said with a large questioning intonation "Welcome, Lieutenant...?"
"Thank you" 'Chief' she replied; Where would you like me to be seated?"
"Anywhere's fine, Lieutenant." he replied as he looked up, smiling. "Sorry, what was your name?"
"Lyhse Sullivans." she replied as she found a seat that was about mid way, not too far away, and not to take from another due to 'need'.
Searching once again Meryn drew a complete blank. "I must have an out of date or incomplete roster then, sorry Lieutenant Sullivans. What is your position?"
"Manufacturing Production Officer." was her reply.
The Bajoran looked up again, surprised, and, pausing for a moment to think, replied with a hint of uncertainty in his voice "That's an Engineering position, isn't it? Or have things changed in the last 3 years?"
The dark haired Lieutenant replied: "Generally speaking; it is a coordination Liaison position , part of ops part of Engineering, part of this, part of that. To expedite repairs, resupplying, upgrades, and construction of Star ships."
"Very good." replied the Chief Warrant Officer, nodding "I'll add you to the roster - thank you very much for coming and sorry about the confusion."
Lisa slight smile was easy to interpreted as 'think nothing of it; things happen' She replies "Thank you Chief." and walks to a seat she noted before; quietly sits.
CPO Jenna Minton, Admin Officer Assigned to the Ops Department arrived next and put her padds down on the end of the table, acknowledging the assembled officers and sitting unassumingly down.
Jen had brought all the items she could possibly guess might be wanted or discussed and this came to quite a collection. She sat and piled them into an order and a number of stacks that clearly meant something to her, finally looking up when she was satisfied with them.
At last she took in who she was with. She knew none of them well, the department personnel having changed a lot recently. All but her own self it seemed but perhaps that was just her imagination. It certainly seemed so but then again, according to the padds.... Jenna LOVED her padds.... there were still dozens of longer term staff.
To reassure herself she took up the staff data padd and perused the names for familiarity. It was soothing. Finally, she placed the padd back on the table top, adjusting it to be sure it was exactly in line with the one below. It seemed to over-compensate a fraction so she tapped the opposite side and sighed as it slipped back centrally. Jenna loved symmetry too.
She hadn't always. Jenna had been a free spirit until a few months ago. Times would insist on being turbulent and change without warning and this was no longer the spice of life to the CPO.
It was all too much nowadays since Thomas Whitlock.... she didn't want to even *think* the name of that no-good, two-timing......... ~Breathe Jen! BREATHE..... seven seconds out, eleven seconds in.... count.... there.... that's better.....~ she told herself silently.
Calmer again, Jen adjusted her padds and waited for the meeting to begin. ~Now, had she remembered to bring all the data they might need?~
"Welcome, Chief...?" said Meryn, smiling down the table while trying to scan his roster once again for a matching service record picture.
"Jenna Minton - CPO, Administrator, currently assigned to Ops" Jenna recited her name, rank and assignment, emulating the others and their introductions.
Relma made a note on his PADD of the woman's name as she was another person the roster had not shown. He glanced back up again and looked to Lieutenant Sullivans - encouraging her to introduce herself to the rest of the group.
The dark haired Lieutenant eloquently rose from the seat she was sitting. Her dark cobalt blue eyes, looking into the faces of the room's occupants. In a clear voice "Lieutenant Lyhse Sullivans, Manufacturing Production Officer." a slight wry smile as she looked at the 'Chief' and retook her seat.
At that moment a ragtag band of four ensigns and two junior lieutenants came in, chatting amongst themselves. They filled the remaining seats at the far end of the table from Relma and continued talking amongst themselves - paying no attention to Relma as he tried to grab their attention with a feigned cough. Relma was about to raise his voice to grab their attention when a Caitian Chief Petty Officer entered the room and having joined the group, taking the seat between them and the female Chief Petty officer at the very end of the table with a big stack of PADDs, seemed to settle them down a little bit.
"Ok then, everybody," began Relma in a loud enough voice to be heard clearly at the far end of the room "thank you all very much for coming: I know you all have busy days ahead of you, but I just wanted to introduce myself and get to know you all a little bit. So if we could just go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'm Chief Relma Meryn and I'm the new Chief of Operations." He gestured down the right-hand side of the table to the young man with whom he had entered.
The half breed gave a grin and a wave, "I'm Lash, and I'm a holo engineer, and its been 15 months since my last confession."
After the man's previous comment the latter made Relma entirely sure that he was a joker. He didn't have any problem with that personality type per say - as long as they were good workers beside that. He'd not seen any of the man"s personnel evaluations yet so he would reserve judgement, but given how he had first met the man impressions had not been good up to this point. He didn't understand the reference himself, but from the reaction around the table he could tell the way in which it was meant. He rolled his eyes and gestured on to the next person.
That happened to be the first of the gaggle which had entered - most of the rest of whom were still chuckling at the joke, a female Bolian junior Lieutenant who spoke proudly, but with a beaming smile "Lieutenant Golwat, Operations Officer."
Next to him was sat a large Andorian who spoke in a rather excited manner and appeared very eager indeed, with his eyes darting around the room "Ensign Thy'lek Tholos, Operations Officer.
"Lieutenant Thomas Eirich, Operations Officer" chirped in the smaller human sitting alongside the Andorian. The two glanced at one another after he had spoken and appeared to exchange some private joke or other.
Alongside them was sat a Vulcan with an almost stereotypically distant expression who tersely said "Ensign V'las" before gesturing to the incredibly scruffy-looking Betazoid alongside him.
Pausing to blow a loose strand of his hair away from his eyes the dark-eyed man opened his mouth and began talking: "Uhhhhhhhhhhhh... Ensign... uhh... Reittan Ral, uhhhhh... Operations Officer." The group broke out into laughter at the man's statement - unsurprising to Relma given the amount of difficulty the man seemed to have in reciting his own name. As the merriment died down Relma fumbled the roster PADD on which he'd been checking the names off and it clattered a little as it fell to the table-top, which made the Caitian Petty Officer at the end visibly jump in his seat, before blurting out, one place before his turn "Chief Petty Officer C'raal, Transporter Chief."
The man left out by the Caitian's interruption immediately jumped back in and said "Ensign Ian Repath, Operations Officer." before gesturing over to the woman on the Caitian's far side.
"Ok well thank you, everyone," began the Bajoran, nodding sagely at the Lieutenant, "before we get down to the serious business of assignments and things in the short term and the current situation I wanted to briefly let you know what I expect from you all, and what you can expect from me. Now, I'm no harsh rulebook-wielding disciplinarian. Between you and me I disagree with quite a lot of rules, regs, and protocols. That isn't to say, however, that I'll let you off with substandard work. If you fix something and it breaks again because you didn't do it right, or submit a report full of inaccuracies, or continually show up late for duty, or fail any kind of evaluation then I will be on your back about it. I need to know that each officer could step up to take my place if needed, and every NCO knows their job inside and out better than anyone else - even me. As for me: I'm not just your boss. I want you to think of me as a mentor and counsel. If you're unsure on anything my door is always open. Personally I have little formal training: I did a year's conversion course when I transferred into Starfleet and that really is it. Everything I know I've learned the hard way. I've made mistakes and learned from them and I'm always happy to pass that experience on." He looked down the table, making sure he made eye contact with each person sitting there. "Before we go on, are there any questions to do with any of that?"
The gaggle of junior officers at the far end of the table glanced at one-another, but said nothing. The Bolian shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Stability was what the department needed: she'd done her best to make a good impression, but a succession of officers had come and gone and she was still lacking a rabbi. She'd been in her grade for three years now - the officers on the fast track a much as three years younger than her had already made full Lieutenant. She needed a boost - and soon.
"Very well then." said Relma, smiling. Standing up and turning to the screen behind him he activated it with the panel to the side. The screen filled with a duty roster to which the Bajoran gestured. "Ok then, so given the current situation I'm going to be splitting the department into three sections. Lieutenant Golwat, Ensigns Ral, Repath, and V'las, and Chief C'raal, I believe you all have Communications experience. Thus along with the other personnel detailed here I'm going to detail you to Communications to assist Lieutenant Petro in any way possible. Lieutenant Golwat: you'll be in charge of the Operations detail under Lieutenant Petro's supervision, ok?"
The Bolian smiled at the older man and nodded. "Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir."
"The second section will be headed by me personally. I'll be grabbing most of our maintenance technicians and some of the computer specialists and working with Engineering on the repairs to the Pollux, so no doubt I shall see you later while we're doing that, Lieutenant Sullivans."
She stood once again and replied;" Scans at the time indicated the majority of the damage is to the power distribution systems, with secondary damage to most of the auxiliary systems, possible dead CPU, or a component within the CPU, the 'Black Box' fused causing cascading surges damaging both electrical systems, electronic systems, evidence the Center Line of the ship is of by 12 microns and will require to be either strengthened or straitened by shimming back into place. The Pollux's weapons should be tested and verified." She looked out into the audience; "Any questions, or clarifications?"
"Excellent, thank you for that, Lieutenant, I'll make sure my repair teams are appropriately equipped." The Bajoran replied before returning to addressing the rest of the room. ""he third section will continue our usual daily operations. Lieutenant Eirich you'll be in charge of that and on Ops duty, ok? All personnel not listed in either detail will be available to you. Just the regular day to day activities, but if anything comes up I'm only a comm-line away."
"Aye Sir." replied the human, nudging the Andorian Ensign to his left and smiling.
Relma's eyes moved just around the corner of the table to Jenna and he spoke once more. "Chief Minton, you have close contact with many of the civilian businesses and other activities on the station, do you not?"
"Yes Sir, I do. It is part of my remit to be available to any of them who would like to come in and make any suggestions, ask any questions or complain if they so wish. Unfortunately the latter is a more frequent event than we might wish but it *does* keep us in contact with them, yes." Jen replied.
The Bajoran chuckled. "I imagine there's a lot of confusion, concern, and worry about the current situation. In the interests of avoiding unnecessary stress and panic I wonder if you and your colleagues could reassure the civilians - especially the business people - and manage their expectations. Don't make promises we can't keep, but just talk to people - in many cases just maintaining the dialogue will be reassuring enough. Ok?"
Relma nodded and, having thanked the woman turned his attention to the man with whom he had entered and addressed him with a stern tone "Mister Lash," he began "I note that you don't have training on the AHDA so I'd like you to report to Chief..." he paused a moment to check the name on his PADD "Chief Xylix for training with him. Ensign Tholos will check on your progress in a week. Understood?"
"Uh, Chief, Tholos couldn't tell his lateral deflection from his redshift scatter trap and he couldn't find his EMVF accelerator with both hands and a map." Lash blureted out. "I've got more training than the rest of them put together. Your records are a little old. Trust me. Curse of the Chair!"
The Andorian rose out of his chair with such a force as to cause the chair to clatter to the floor behind him. "You want to say that to my face, Crewman? I'll snap you like a twig." The Lieutenants to either side of him, despite both being half his side rose to their feet and held the man by his arms to stop him charging off around the table.
The boy gave the enraged Andorian a puppy eyed look. " Tholos you can't a lateral deflection from a redshift scatter trap and I know you can't find the EMVF accelerators with both hands and a map. I know. I drew the map. With crayons."
Relma's eyes widened at the younger man's comment and slamming his PADDs to the table at almost the precise moment as Tholos' chair hit the deck and raising his voice shouted "STOW IT!"
The Andorian's face turned visibly paler and, having picked his chair back up he eased himself back into it and, though still glowering at the crewman, mumbled, obviously chastised, "Sorry, Chief."
"Crewman, you will apologise to Ensign Tholos right this instant." growled the Chief Warrant Officer, his eyes narrowing with frustration.
The Risian half-breed batted his eyelids at the ensign. "Sorry Tholos."
The Andorian scowled at the man, but made no sound. The tension around the table was palpable and the crewman's insult had won him no friends among the officers at the far end of the table - or the man at the head. "I'll speak to you further at the end, Mister Lash." He took his seat again and gathered his stack of PADDs together again and turning to the rest of the room addressed the room again."Any questions then?" asked the Bajoran, sensing the meeting was nearing its end.
"Very well then." Said the Bajoran calmly. "You're all, with the exception of Mister Lash, dismissed. Have a good day!"
The dark haired Lieutenant stood up slowly shaking her head from side to side "May the Prophets bring you blessings chief." walking slowly out the door.
Jenna stood and respectfully nodded to the man who had led the meeting, gathering up her padds and filing out with them precariously balanced, excusing herself as she negotiated between other participants who were also funnelling towards the same doorway.
Once the remaining personnel had left the room Relma turned his attention to the crewman who remained "What, by the Prophets, were you thinking, Crewman?" he asked, attempting to mask the immense frustration within him.
"Thinking?" Lash asked, then laughed as he saw Relma's face. "Tholos is just trying to impress you. He loves me really."
"What you said was nothing short of insubordination, Crewman," snapped the Bajoran in reply "and you said it not only in front of many of our department's personnel, but also two guests of our department for whom I cannot speak. I'm cancelling your AHDA evaluation, and reassigning you to Waste Reclamation Maintenance on Charlie and Delta shifts for the next week, is that understood?"
The boy's jaw dropped open, but then he shut his mouth again, crestfallen. "Yes Chief."
Relma smiled at the fact that the man was taking the smart option. "Good, Crewman. I'm going to be keeping a close eye on you now. Don't take it that I'm picking on you - you gave me no choice when you acted out like that in front of our guests. If you get positive reports I'll put you back in for AHDA as soon as I can afterwards. That's IF your reports stay positive." He watched the man's eyes closely, and added "Now, about your friend I saw you with earlier. I know it's none of my business, but I just want to make sure you know about Deltans. Given what I heard I should be taking it further, but despite that I shan't: as long as you can guarantee me that you know what you're doing. Can you?"
Lash almost pouted. There was a definite look of frustration to his dark eyes. "Honestly chief? I can't. But Kaelin can. He knows the rule and is buttoned down tighter than a constipated Vulcan. and I've met a few. Nothing is going to happen." And there was the definite implication that this was vexing to the you man
"If you're sure, Crewman." Answered Relma. The answer had been less than convincing, but Relma was on extremely uncertain ground - He'd have to read up on what the rules and regs actually were. Perhaps even speak to this Kaelin quietly, but for now he was unsure of how exactly to react so he would leave the matter there. What the man had said and what the Bajoran had heard earlier were somewhat incompatible. "Dismissed Crewman" he added as he ran through the situation in his head. He'd forgotten the intricacies of running a department, but for now he would have to put those out of his mind as he prepared for the main staff meeting.
::OFF::
Chief Warrant Officer First Class Relma Meryn
Chief Operations Officer
and
CPO Jenna Minton
Administrative Officer,
Assigned to Operations, DS5.
and
Crewman Lash
Holo-engineer, Operations
DS5
and
Lieutenant Lyhse A. Sullivans
Manufacture Production Officer / EO
Plus
NPCs by "Moose":
Lieutenant JG Golwat, Lieutenant JG Thomas Eirich, Ensign Thy'lek Tholos, Ensign V'las, Ensign Reittan Ral, Ensign Ian Repath
Operations Officers
Chief Petty Officer C'raal
Transporter Chief
by Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin & Lieutenant JG Lyhse Sullivans & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
| Title | Operations Departmental Meeting | |
| Mission | Incommunicado | |
| Author(s) | Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin & Lieutenant JG Lyhse Sullivans & Commander Chelsea Dunham | |
| Posted | Fri Jun 29, 2012 @ 4:54pm | |
| Location | Senior Officers' Conference Room, Deck 14 | |
| Timeline | SD58, 0730 Hours |
Relma and the young crewman arrived at the meeting's venue a full ten minutes before it started. Since taking their places they had not said a word to one another, but the situation Relma had encountered in the corridor earlier remained at the back of his mind - it certainly wasn't a good introduction to the young man. Moving to the seat at the head of the table the Bajoran sat down and resumed reviewing the PADDs in front of him before the meeting began.
The half Vulcan looked at Meryn sitting in the chair at the head of the table, and the Bajoran could practically hear the wheels turning. Whatever conclusion he came to, the boy didn't seem embarrassed. Instead he said, "um, Chief? you might want to switch chairs. That one's cursed."
Relma gave the crewman an odd stare, before returning to his reading, paying the comment no further attention. he was surprised that someone with Vulcan heritage, even if a hybrid, would make such a comment.
Lyhse entered.
Hearing another person arrive Relma looked up and immediately tried to match the face to one of the service records he had read, but the woman did not appear familiar and so, standing, he said with a large questioning intonation "Welcome, Lieutenant...?"
"Thank you" 'Chief' she replied; Where would you like me to be seated?"
"Anywhere's fine, Lieutenant." he replied as he looked up, smiling. "Sorry, what was your name?"
"Lyhse Sullivans." she replied as she found a seat that was about mid way, not too far away, and not to take from another due to 'need'.
Searching once again Meryn drew a complete blank. "I must have an out of date or incomplete roster then, sorry Lieutenant Sullivans. What is your position?"
"Manufacturing Production Officer." was her reply.
The Bajoran looked up again, surprised, and, pausing for a moment to think, replied with a hint of uncertainty in his voice "That's an Engineering position, isn't it? Or have things changed in the last 3 years?"
The dark haired Lieutenant replied: "Generally speaking; it is a coordination Liaison position , part of ops part of Engineering, part of this, part of that. To expedite repairs, resupplying, upgrades, and construction of Star ships."
"Very good." replied the Chief Warrant Officer, nodding "I'll add you to the roster - thank you very much for coming and sorry about the confusion."
Lisa slight smile was easy to interpreted as 'think nothing of it; things happen' She replies "Thank you Chief." and walks to a seat she noted before; quietly sits.
CPO Jenna Minton, Admin Officer Assigned to the Ops Department arrived next and put her padds down on the end of the table, acknowledging the assembled officers and sitting unassumingly down.
Jen had brought all the items she could possibly guess might be wanted or discussed and this came to quite a collection. She sat and piled them into an order and a number of stacks that clearly meant something to her, finally looking up when she was satisfied with them.
At last she took in who she was with. She knew none of them well, the department personnel having changed a lot recently. All but her own self it seemed but perhaps that was just her imagination. It certainly seemed so but then again, according to the padds.... Jenna LOVED her padds.... there were still dozens of longer term staff.
To reassure herself she took up the staff data padd and perused the names for familiarity. It was soothing. Finally, she placed the padd back on the table top, adjusting it to be sure it was exactly in line with the one below. It seemed to over-compensate a fraction so she tapped the opposite side and sighed as it slipped back centrally. Jenna loved symmetry too.
She hadn't always. Jenna had been a free spirit until a few months ago. Times would insist on being turbulent and change without warning and this was no longer the spice of life to the CPO.
It was all too much nowadays since Thomas Whitlock.... she didn't want to even *think* the name of that no-good, two-timing......... ~Breathe Jen! BREATHE..... seven seconds out, eleven seconds in.... count.... there.... that's better.....~ she told herself silently.
Calmer again, Jen adjusted her padds and waited for the meeting to begin. ~Now, had she remembered to bring all the data they might need?~
"Welcome, Chief...?" said Meryn, smiling down the table while trying to scan his roster once again for a matching service record picture.
"Jenna Minton - CPO, Administrator, currently assigned to Ops" Jenna recited her name, rank and assignment, emulating the others and their introductions.
Relma made a note on his PADD of the woman's name as she was another person the roster had not shown. He glanced back up again and looked to Lieutenant Sullivans - encouraging her to introduce herself to the rest of the group.
The dark haired Lieutenant eloquently rose from the seat she was sitting. Her dark cobalt blue eyes, looking into the faces of the room's occupants. In a clear voice "Lieutenant Lyhse Sullivans, Manufacturing Production Officer." a slight wry smile as she looked at the 'Chief' and retook her seat.
At that moment a ragtag band of four ensigns and two junior lieutenants came in, chatting amongst themselves. They filled the remaining seats at the far end of the table from Relma and continued talking amongst themselves - paying no attention to Relma as he tried to grab their attention with a feigned cough. Relma was about to raise his voice to grab their attention when a Caitian Chief Petty Officer entered the room and having joined the group, taking the seat between them and the female Chief Petty officer at the very end of the table with a big stack of PADDs, seemed to settle them down a little bit.
"Ok then, everybody," began Relma in a loud enough voice to be heard clearly at the far end of the room "thank you all very much for coming: I know you all have busy days ahead of you, but I just wanted to introduce myself and get to know you all a little bit. So if we could just go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'm Chief Relma Meryn and I'm the new Chief of Operations." He gestured down the right-hand side of the table to the young man with whom he had entered.
The half breed gave a grin and a wave, "I'm Lash, and I'm a holo engineer, and its been 15 months since my last confession."
After the man's previous comment the latter made Relma entirely sure that he was a joker. He didn't have any problem with that personality type per say - as long as they were good workers beside that. He'd not seen any of the man"s personnel evaluations yet so he would reserve judgement, but given how he had first met the man impressions had not been good up to this point. He didn't understand the reference himself, but from the reaction around the table he could tell the way in which it was meant. He rolled his eyes and gestured on to the next person.
That happened to be the first of the gaggle which had entered - most of the rest of whom were still chuckling at the joke, a female Bolian junior Lieutenant who spoke proudly, but with a beaming smile "Lieutenant Golwat, Operations Officer."
Next to him was sat a large Andorian who spoke in a rather excited manner and appeared very eager indeed, with his eyes darting around the room "Ensign Thy'lek Tholos, Operations Officer.
"Lieutenant Thomas Eirich, Operations Officer" chirped in the smaller human sitting alongside the Andorian. The two glanced at one another after he had spoken and appeared to exchange some private joke or other.
Alongside them was sat a Vulcan with an almost stereotypically distant expression who tersely said "Ensign V'las" before gesturing to the incredibly scruffy-looking Betazoid alongside him.
Pausing to blow a loose strand of his hair away from his eyes the dark-eyed man opened his mouth and began talking: "Uhhhhhhhhhhhh... Ensign... uhh... Reittan Ral, uhhhhh... Operations Officer." The group broke out into laughter at the man's statement - unsurprising to Relma given the amount of difficulty the man seemed to have in reciting his own name. As the merriment died down Relma fumbled the roster PADD on which he'd been checking the names off and it clattered a little as it fell to the table-top, which made the Caitian Petty Officer at the end visibly jump in his seat, before blurting out, one place before his turn "Chief Petty Officer C'raal, Transporter Chief."
The man left out by the Caitian's interruption immediately jumped back in and said "Ensign Ian Repath, Operations Officer." before gesturing over to the woman on the Caitian's far side.
"Ok well thank you, everyone," began the Bajoran, nodding sagely at the Lieutenant, "before we get down to the serious business of assignments and things in the short term and the current situation I wanted to briefly let you know what I expect from you all, and what you can expect from me. Now, I'm no harsh rulebook-wielding disciplinarian. Between you and me I disagree with quite a lot of rules, regs, and protocols. That isn't to say, however, that I'll let you off with substandard work. If you fix something and it breaks again because you didn't do it right, or submit a report full of inaccuracies, or continually show up late for duty, or fail any kind of evaluation then I will be on your back about it. I need to know that each officer could step up to take my place if needed, and every NCO knows their job inside and out better than anyone else - even me. As for me: I'm not just your boss. I want you to think of me as a mentor and counsel. If you're unsure on anything my door is always open. Personally I have little formal training: I did a year's conversion course when I transferred into Starfleet and that really is it. Everything I know I've learned the hard way. I've made mistakes and learned from them and I'm always happy to pass that experience on." He looked down the table, making sure he made eye contact with each person sitting there. "Before we go on, are there any questions to do with any of that?"
The gaggle of junior officers at the far end of the table glanced at one-another, but said nothing. The Bolian shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Stability was what the department needed: she'd done her best to make a good impression, but a succession of officers had come and gone and she was still lacking a rabbi. She'd been in her grade for three years now - the officers on the fast track a much as three years younger than her had already made full Lieutenant. She needed a boost - and soon.
"Very well then." said Relma, smiling. Standing up and turning to the screen behind him he activated it with the panel to the side. The screen filled with a duty roster to which the Bajoran gestured. "Ok then, so given the current situation I'm going to be splitting the department into three sections. Lieutenant Golwat, Ensigns Ral, Repath, and V'las, and Chief C'raal, I believe you all have Communications experience. Thus along with the other personnel detailed here I'm going to detail you to Communications to assist Lieutenant Petro in any way possible. Lieutenant Golwat: you'll be in charge of the Operations detail under Lieutenant Petro's supervision, ok?"
The Bolian smiled at the older man and nodded. "Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir."
"The second section will be headed by me personally. I'll be grabbing most of our maintenance technicians and some of the computer specialists and working with Engineering on the repairs to the Pollux, so no doubt I shall see you later while we're doing that, Lieutenant Sullivans."
She stood once again and replied;" Scans at the time indicated the majority of the damage is to the power distribution systems, with secondary damage to most of the auxiliary systems, possible dead CPU, or a component within the CPU, the 'Black Box' fused causing cascading surges damaging both electrical systems, electronic systems, evidence the Center Line of the ship is of by 12 microns and will require to be either strengthened or straitened by shimming back into place. The Pollux's weapons should be tested and verified." She looked out into the audience; "Any questions, or clarifications?"
"Excellent, thank you for that, Lieutenant, I'll make sure my repair teams are appropriately equipped." The Bajoran replied before returning to addressing the rest of the room. ""he third section will continue our usual daily operations. Lieutenant Eirich you'll be in charge of that and on Ops duty, ok? All personnel not listed in either detail will be available to you. Just the regular day to day activities, but if anything comes up I'm only a comm-line away."
"Aye Sir." replied the human, nudging the Andorian Ensign to his left and smiling.
Relma's eyes moved just around the corner of the table to Jenna and he spoke once more. "Chief Minton, you have close contact with many of the civilian businesses and other activities on the station, do you not?"
"Yes Sir, I do. It is part of my remit to be available to any of them who would like to come in and make any suggestions, ask any questions or complain if they so wish. Unfortunately the latter is a more frequent event than we might wish but it *does* keep us in contact with them, yes." Jen replied.
The Bajoran chuckled. "I imagine there's a lot of confusion, concern, and worry about the current situation. In the interests of avoiding unnecessary stress and panic I wonder if you and your colleagues could reassure the civilians - especially the business people - and manage their expectations. Don't make promises we can't keep, but just talk to people - in many cases just maintaining the dialogue will be reassuring enough. Ok?"
Relma nodded and, having thanked the woman turned his attention to the man with whom he had entered and addressed him with a stern tone "Mister Lash," he began "I note that you don't have training on the AHDA so I'd like you to report to Chief..." he paused a moment to check the name on his PADD "Chief Xylix for training with him. Ensign Tholos will check on your progress in a week. Understood?"
"Uh, Chief, Tholos couldn't tell his lateral deflection from his redshift scatter trap and he couldn't find his EMVF accelerator with both hands and a map." Lash blureted out. "I've got more training than the rest of them put together. Your records are a little old. Trust me. Curse of the Chair!"
The Andorian rose out of his chair with such a force as to cause the chair to clatter to the floor behind him. "You want to say that to my face, Crewman? I'll snap you like a twig." The Lieutenants to either side of him, despite both being half his side rose to their feet and held the man by his arms to stop him charging off around the table.
The boy gave the enraged Andorian a puppy eyed look. " Tholos you can't a lateral deflection from a redshift scatter trap and I know you can't find the EMVF accelerators with both hands and a map. I know. I drew the map. With crayons."
Relma's eyes widened at the younger man's comment and slamming his PADDs to the table at almost the precise moment as Tholos' chair hit the deck and raising his voice shouted "STOW IT!"
The Andorian's face turned visibly paler and, having picked his chair back up he eased himself back into it and, though still glowering at the crewman, mumbled, obviously chastised, "Sorry, Chief."
"Crewman, you will apologise to Ensign Tholos right this instant." growled the Chief Warrant Officer, his eyes narrowing with frustration.
The Risian half-breed batted his eyelids at the ensign. "Sorry Tholos."
The Andorian scowled at the man, but made no sound. The tension around the table was palpable and the crewman's insult had won him no friends among the officers at the far end of the table - or the man at the head. "I'll speak to you further at the end, Mister Lash." He took his seat again and gathered his stack of PADDs together again and turning to the rest of the room addressed the room again."Any questions then?" asked the Bajoran, sensing the meeting was nearing its end.
"Very well then." Said the Bajoran calmly. "You're all, with the exception of Mister Lash, dismissed. Have a good day!"
The dark haired Lieutenant stood up slowly shaking her head from side to side "May the Prophets bring you blessings chief." walking slowly out the door.
Jenna stood and respectfully nodded to the man who had led the meeting, gathering up her padds and filing out with them precariously balanced, excusing herself as she negotiated between other participants who were also funnelling towards the same doorway.
Once the remaining personnel had left the room Relma turned his attention to the crewman who remained "What, by the Prophets, were you thinking, Crewman?" he asked, attempting to mask the immense frustration within him.
"Thinking?" Lash asked, then laughed as he saw Relma's face. "Tholos is just trying to impress you. He loves me really."
"What you said was nothing short of insubordination, Crewman," snapped the Bajoran in reply "and you said it not only in front of many of our department's personnel, but also two guests of our department for whom I cannot speak. I'm cancelling your AHDA evaluation, and reassigning you to Waste Reclamation Maintenance on Charlie and Delta shifts for the next week, is that understood?"
The boy's jaw dropped open, but then he shut his mouth again, crestfallen. "Yes Chief."
Relma smiled at the fact that the man was taking the smart option. "Good, Crewman. I'm going to be keeping a close eye on you now. Don't take it that I'm picking on you - you gave me no choice when you acted out like that in front of our guests. If you get positive reports I'll put you back in for AHDA as soon as I can afterwards. That's IF your reports stay positive." He watched the man's eyes closely, and added "Now, about your friend I saw you with earlier. I know it's none of my business, but I just want to make sure you know about Deltans. Given what I heard I should be taking it further, but despite that I shan't: as long as you can guarantee me that you know what you're doing. Can you?"
Lash almost pouted. There was a definite look of frustration to his dark eyes. "Honestly chief? I can't. But Kaelin can. He knows the rule and is buttoned down tighter than a constipated Vulcan. and I've met a few. Nothing is going to happen." And there was the definite implication that this was vexing to the you man
"If you're sure, Crewman." Answered Relma. The answer had been less than convincing, but Relma was on extremely uncertain ground - He'd have to read up on what the rules and regs actually were. Perhaps even speak to this Kaelin quietly, but for now he was unsure of how exactly to react so he would leave the matter there. What the man had said and what the Bajoran had heard earlier were somewhat incompatible. "Dismissed Crewman" he added as he ran through the situation in his head. He'd forgotten the intricacies of running a department, but for now he would have to put those out of his mind as he prepared for the main staff meeting.
::OFF::
Chief Warrant Officer First Class Relma Meryn
Chief Operations Officer
and
CPO Jenna Minton
Administrative Officer,
Assigned to Operations, DS5.
and
Crewman Lash
Holo-engineer, Operations
DS5
and
Lieutenant Lyhse A. Sullivans
Manufacture Production Officer / EO
Plus
NPCs by "Moose":
Lieutenant JG Golwat, Lieutenant JG Thomas Eirich, Ensign Thy'lek Tholos, Ensign V'las, Ensign Reittan Ral, Ensign Ian Repath
Operations Officers
Chief Petty Officer C'raal
Transporter Chief