Reporting In--Officially

Posted on Fri Dec 13th, 2024 @ 6:49pm by Commander Rhupert Tyree & Lieutenant Katya Davi

1,873 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: The Foragers
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: Morning after Get the Party Started

ON

The morning after the gathering at the club, Katya verified that Commander Tyree was in his ready room, put on a clean uniform, and headed for the turbolift. She was eager to get to work and familiarize herself with her new ship and her new assignment. Each ship had its own personality and its own song, for lack of a better word. Spending time walking around the ship and crawling through the Jefferies' Tubes would soon help her hear what the ship sounded like, and how it felt. It was a quirk of hers to listen to the ship as much as look at the diagnostics, but she loved to learn how each ship was different from the others.

When she stepped off the turbolift she paused, closed her eyes, and listened for a full minute to the sounds of the bridge. Then she looked around at the bridge, smiled, and headed for the ready room.

She had to keep herself from bouncing on her toes as she rang the door chime and waited. She didn't remember everything from the night before, but what she did remember still colored her thoughts. Thoughts she had to keep carefully locked away because she didn't want to say or do anything to cause problems for her new assignment.

Rhu's ready Closet (he refused to call it an actual room) was minimalist out of necessity. Some previous Captain had painted it white with grey to make it seem bigger and Rhu had ordered the viewport lengthened to give it, at least to him more space.

To make it his own, he added a small mobile of the various small craft and fighters he'd piloted through his career (five in total) and a small embedded shelving area held a picture of he and his family at their last gathering on Betazed. The bottom shelf was consumed by an aquarium with various fish going about their day within their tiny world.

At the annunciator's sound, Rhu glanced at the holo showing Katya at his door and he said, "Come in, Lieutenant," by way of indexing the door. "Please take a seat," he said, gesturing toward the chair opposite his desk. He himself was slumped comfortably, feet up on a corner of the desk as he worked through the morning's mail.

"Good morning, sir." She looked around the tiny room, her gaze pausing at the aquarium. She didn't see many fish on a starship. It was a nice touch. She sat across from him and set her orders on the desk. "Just to be official," she added with a smile.

Casting a glance at his new Ops, he said, "Official can be good. And it's going to take some paying attention to depending on our mission stance. But we're also a small crew so in private, you can stick to informal. Or when we're operational, we may all have different tags. I'm working on that."

He sat up slightly. Shuffled through a pile of readers and then settled glancing at the new one. "Your service record. Looks like you're a perfect fit for Valiant. Especially with some of the upcoming missions. Operations is likely to get wrapped up some with Engineering. Especially with us being short a Chief Engineer. Jov is a good Petty Officer, but he'll probably need some directing, too. You up for that?"

"I am. I'm stronger in communications and transporters, but I can do engineering when necessary." There was a twinkle in her eye when she added, "Operations does tend to be a catch-all department, so I'm flexible. Also, I tend to get informal in my department, so I appreciate less formality with others when appropriate." She also believed the greater informality would help the crew bond and that would be important if she was working with both ops and engineering. "What else would you like to see from operations?"

"Formality is a tenuous line," Rhu commented. "Smaller ship, less personnel who are brand new so you can go less formal as needed as long as they know the line too. In regards to having a smaller crew, if you run into a slacker or someone causing problems that you don't think can be sorted, tell the XO and get them either out of the department or off the ship. Everyone doesn't have to like everyone but they'd better be able to go Watch in Watch with one another."

Tossing the reader onto the pile he said, "As far as Ops go, get up to speed fast. I have an idea that we're going to be jumping back into a mission quickly and there won't be a lot of time for on the job systems training. I do expect my Department heads to lead and my XO to give me a tightly focused ship to fight. That's my focus."

Keeping his eyes on her, Rhu shifted his shoulders into his chair and said, "It's not that I'm not here for advice and to talk things over like some Captains. Just that I'm not doing any of you any favors if you leave this Command and walk into a wall of trouble with some other CO because I let you run with bad habits."

Then he grinned, "Does that make sense at all? Seems like I'm prattling on."

"It makes perfect sense." She met his gaze and smiled, appreciating his bluntness. "I agree 100% that everyone has to pull their weight, and department heads lead by example." Then her smile turned into a grin. "However, if I have a slacker, I won't need the XO. There are at least a dozen dirty jobs I can assign someone who doesn't want to do their part. I'm generally easy to work with--unless you try to pass your work off to someone else or just don't do it at all."

She paused before adding, "I had professors in and out of the Academy who made sure none of us forgot that no matter what job we do, others rely on us doing it right. If that includes a few showtunes, I don't think many will mind." Okay, she probably shouldn't have added that last part, but she had broken into singing on more than one occasion while working in the bowels of the ship. More often than not, there were some working near her who joined in. It made the task more enjoyable.

Rhu nodded. "Sounds like we're on the same wavelength then," then he grinned with a glint in his eye. "And something I like to ask all of my crew. What's your worst habit?"

"Well...I just admitted to one of them. But it's probably not the worst." She had to think on the question--and what she wanted to admit to. "Maybe reading a print book in the bathtub...or eating chocolate in bed." Then she leaned forward, grinning mischievously. "Now that you know mine, Rhu, what's yours?"

Without having to think about it, Rhu answered "Trusting my gut too often, probably. I like to think it's tempered with experience and training, but someday I'll probably leap before I look and land in more trouble than I can handle. So far, it's either been luck or skill that's kept me alive. Jury is still out."

She considered his comment seriously. "There's a risk with any action you may or may not take. That's inherent with any type of command. I personally like to think our gut is a bit of many things. Skill and luck, experience and training, head and heart." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she tried to find the words to explain. "If you're too much in your head, you can't reason. If you go with your heart without thinking, you're rash. By the same token, we're trained to do things a certain way, but sometimes experience tells us the training isn't enough. I think you're where you are because you found that balance." She didn't know him, but she knew of him, and she sensed that he was someone she could trust.

"That's pretty deep," Rhu said with a grin. "I get what you're saying. Sounds like a good fit for Valiant's Ops. The post has been vacant for a minute, which isn't good for the Ship. My door is always open and I try to be. Any questions for me?"

She flashed him a grin. "Yeah. I can go deep, and then there are showtunes and bubble baths." She grew serious again. "I do hope I'll be a good fit here." She wanted to be. She liked the captain. "I'll start with a level one diagnostic. That should give me a baseline and let me know if anything needs immediate attention." Hopefully, she'd have time to do some basic maintenance while she was at it. But that was standard procedure and probably didn't need to be said. Last night was still making her a little light-headed--which brought up other memories of the night before. "Is there anything you want me to focus on first?"

"Priority one is the power plant. Chief Jov is working on re-harmonizing the dilithium chamber before he goes on leave. Once that's done is I would like all of the power conduits given level two diagnostics, starting with the shield matrix and weapons systems. Those saw hard service in our recent actions. But go with your gut after you get a look at things. Valiant will be going to the yard for a minor refit coming up and what I really need is a list for the yard birds. When we take her back, there will be a big job working her back up into shape."

Katya nodded as he spoke, mentally making a list of priorities. She'd definitely be busy for the next few days, but it was a great way to get to know the ship and her department--and engineering. She would also have to ensure that they had some shore leave, even if she didn't. "I'll get on that immediately."

"Looks like a place to start, Ops," Rhu said. "Welcome aboard and have at it. Keep me in the loop. My door is always open so please let me know if you need anything or have questions."

"I will." Then, as she passed him she couldn't help adding. "And if you ever need a dance partner, let me know."

Smiling, Rhu said, "I'll do that. It was an experience." He was attracted to her but that simply wouldn't do as Captain. "I do thank you for the fun, Katya. Maybe we'll find the opportunity to do it again some time."

She got the feeling that the captain could use a little more fun in his life. "My father always says that opportunity is what you make it." She smiled. "I hope we'll have that opportunity." With a nod, she continued out the door.

He considered the vacant doorway for a few moments, splitting his mind into the semi-hazy memory of them dancing together at Neverwinter Nights. He ordered his mind and decided that, unfortunately, he didn't have time to make opportunities right now.

He had too much drahk to do. Smirking at himself, he got back to work.

 

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