Meeting of Minds

Posted on 29 Apr 2013 @ 1:39pm by Lieutenant Theron Rhodes & Lieutenant Aria Rice
Edited on on 29 Apr 2013 @ 2:11pm

911 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Security Office
Timeline: MD 06 1430

ON:

Lt. Rhodes sat behind the desk in the Chief of Security's office. He always knew that paperwork was an important part of the Chief's position, but never fun. It was not too bad at the moment, but making decisions could be.

Theron was holding the PADD with the agenda for the department meeting that would be starting soon, when Lt. Rice walked in.

"Sir?" she smiled gently, her eyes going to him before she chuckled softly.

"Come on in and shut the door." Theron said casually.

She nodded, letting the door slid shut as she moved to stand in front of the desk. Now this was a change in dynamics. She could almost sense it...if it wasn't for the fact she was human.

Looking again at the agenda he was working on, "I am going over the points to cover . . " he looked up. "Oh, have a seat. Please." He then leaned back. "This is definitely going to be a change for us. I know at times there will need to be a strict line of authority and then others when we are working together." He stared off to the right for a moment, "Odd how dynamics change."

Aria sat down, watching him for a moment before smiling gently. "It's okay, you know. I'm not oblivious to how it should go in a department. You won't hear me argue with you over anything. And if I disagree, it will be behind closed doors."

He let her supportive words hang in the air for a moment before saying, "One day it will be you on this side of the desk." and gave her a wink.

Aria looked at him with surprise before nodding, even if she didn't feel it. "Mmm...hopefully not that desk."


Theron nodded, accepting her point. Taking a deep breath he leaned forward, picking up the agenda. "But for now, I feel we should cover a few points."

Aria nodded, remaining silent as she let him get on with the meeting.

Theron continued, "We will of course cover our new positions, and the change to 3 shifts . . "

"About time, Sir," Aria said with relief. She had noticed the drop in morale and work when the shifts were introduced. People ended up being too tired to work properly.

"Absolutely. This should definitely help. Oh!" Theron said remembering, "Did all the team leaders report that everyone would be there and on time?"

"Yes, they did," she said and motioned to a padd on his desk. "All the shifts will be coming. I told them to show up in uniform, but it would be quick."

"Excellent." Looking at his PADD again, "We will touch on the Memorial for Stone." He realized that he did not say Lieutenant Stone. He hoped that he was not showing proper respect. Maybe he was without realizing it. He then looked to Aria, "What is your opinion about Lt. Orexil?"

Aria looked at him, taking a deeper breath. "I think we need to get her into the department again, slowly. She was very injured, she'll be recovering slowly, but I want her to...to become part of the team again."

Rhodes looked down somberly, "I think we should have her come in the office after the meeting and get a reading on her and her desires."

"Sure," Aria said softly, sitting back as she took a breath.

Theron then picked up another PADD. As he scanned through it, he asked without looking at Aria, "I've read your report of what took place down on the moon. So tell me . . " Theron looked her direction, "what was left out of it, that I need to know?"

"No," Aria met his eyes, searching them. "It's all in there. It seems that the rest of the team believed themselves to be Security people as well..." she had written in her report that some members of the away team had acted in a way that could have endangered them. Equally, she had put that they had acted with the best intentions. "But luckily we only lost Stone."

Rhodes brought his hands together, interlacing his fingers looking down and then directly at Aria. Theron felt that if there was any hesitation in her ability, he needed to know about it, but what was the best way to ask. The moment went on longer than it probably should have and then asked. "Do you feel that you hesitated?"

"No," she said and met his eyes, holding them for a long moment. In this, she was beyond confident. "And I assessed the situation quickly too. Stone was a goner the moment the animal was on him. My priority was to get the animal away and keep the away team safe. Unfortunately, it ended up with me having to put it down after it got badly wounded."

Theron wanted to be confident that she felt good about the situation. It was a hard question for him to ask. He let her answer stand on its own and finally replied, "Alright, that is good enough for me." He glanced at the time, "We should probably get in there before they do."

She nodded and stood, smiling gently as she watched him. "And make sure that we work together as a team. We need to become a team again."

"Absolutely." Rhodes replied.

END:

Lt. (jg) Theron Rhodes
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. (jg) Aria Rice
Assistant Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

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