A Wild Ecologist Appears!

Posted on 21 Jun 2013 @ 12:21pm by Ensign Natalie Chevalier & Captain Jonathan Holliday

1,449 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 1, Bridge
Timeline: MD11 - 1400 hours

[ON]

The turbolift doors opened, discharging Nat onto the Bridge. From the frown a passing officer shot her she knew immediately higher standards of dress were expected up here, so she reluctantly rolled down the sleeves of her uniform, did her best to straighten out her top, and plucked a twig from her hair. Walking down past the tactical consoles, she sought out a man she took to be the Executive Officer.

The formalities of reporting in did not duly concern her: depending on the officer in charge, the meetings could be a little dry, and some command types had little use for specialists in the science field, but she had no particular reason to expect emnity here, given the Galileo's mission and profile. In fact, she was hopeful of a more receptive welcome: a good impression here would go a long way to helping her secure a permanent transfer.

"Commander Holliday?" she asked hopefully, bouncing on her toes, her voice a little louder than was strictly necessary: but as a woman of petite stature, she'd found it was always advisable to speak up, or else risk being ignored.

Having had his gaze aimed firmly over the helm studying the latest set of astrological charts uploaded to Galileo's systems for this particular solar system, John was a little startled by the rather vocal officer appearing behind him. Standing up straight from his previously bent over posture, he turned to face his latest arrival.

"Yes? You are?"

"Ensign Natalie Chevalier, Planetary Sciences Division. I'm joining you for the Rojar survey from the Venture," she announced with a smile.

She extended her hand, but noticed it was dirty from the plant she'd brought aboard. Not wishing to anger her new XO unduly she withdrew it, gave it a quick wipe on the back of her uniform, spilling soil over the Bridge floor, and returned with a second offer: a marginally less grubby but still less than pristine little hand.

"Pleased to meet you!"

John sighed as he accepted her hand and shook it somewhat coldly. He was not used to officers aboard his ship appearing in such an underprepared state.

"Yes..quite. Ensign is there any reason that you're on my Bridge without observing proper uniform conditions? Last time I checked we had sonic showers and uniform replicators aboard?"

The Commander wasn't intentionally trying to appear harsh, but with the more junior officers, Holliday found that sometimes the only way to whip them into shape was to come down on them like a ton of bricks when they first stepped aboard. That way he knew that in the future, they would actually perform to his specifications.

Rather than being cowed, Nat merely offered a half hearted shrug.

"I've only just got on board, Commander: I thought it best to make my way up here as soon as possible to sort out my duty shifts and officially report in to you, rather than wasting time finding the replicators and fiddling about in the showers?" she said with a touch of impudence in her tone.

However, she knew her service file was dotted with demerits for uniform regulations, and she suspected Commander Holliday was going to be no more lenient than past command staff had been. There's no point trying to get in trouble, she chided herself.

"Nonetheless, Commander, I apologise. I'll make sure to take care of it when I return to my quarters, and I'll try to remember for future Bridge shifts."

Without that final statement, John would have quite easily had this young Ensign removed from his Bridge without a moment's hesitation. Luckily for her she had made sure to apologise for her mistake, and for this once, John would give her the benefit of the doubt.

"Don't try to remember, just remember. Set foot on my Bridge again without the correct uniform conditions and I'll have you removed from active duty."

Sighing, the XO finished his work at the helm, nodded to the duty pilot and headed back across the Bridge towards the centre chair and settled back in.

"If memory serves correctly you are our new ecologist, correct?"

"Yup. I mean: yes, sir," she corrected. It had been a while since she'd had anyone to report to directly; on the Venture she'd been left to her own devices, and a sense of discipline could easily go slack if you spent long enough in the arboretum.

"I've been assigned to Starfleet Planetary Sciences Division as a specialist in ecology for just over a year. Before the Venture, I was an advisor on Kuthus III, and before that, a planetary posting."

The first thoughts that appeared in John's head were related to her length of service - it seemed the Galileo was becoming popular with younger members of Starfleet fresh from the Academy. The XO relished the idea of being able to help mould the captain's of the future, but only up to a point where it didn't feel like he was back at the Academy as a lecturer again.

"Planetary posting? That must have become rather....stagnant. In my experience, space is where the most interesting work is done."

Nat's eyebrows arched. She managed to avoid an outburst, but she couldn't help a sardonic tone creeping into her voice. "Respectfully Commander I'm not sure everyone in the Planetary Science Division would share that view."

That said, he had a point: her time on the Q class planet had been the very definition of stagnant, to the point where a young woman who'd spent her training dreaming of such an assignment ended up requesting a transfer.

"But then, perhaps my posting on the Galileo will show me otherwise." She gestured towards the black space on the viewscreen. "I look forward to seeing what's out there."

"Right now - there's a lot of unexplored expanse." John replied with a smirk, looking up towards the viewscreen as he did so. The beauty of an unexplored system was that you were never sure what would be around the next corner.

"But those planets out there, well I'm sure they have plenty of subject matter to keep our science department occupied. Speaking of science department - I presume you intend to check in with Lieutenant Panne before too long?"

Nat nodded. "WO Jaster scheduled an appointment for me; I'm to speak with Lt. Panne at 1600 hours. I'm looking forward to meeting her: she's really quite respected in the field. I don't really share the mystical-spiritual lean to her thoughts, but I admire her work nonetheless."

In truth, Nat didn't quite know what to make of Panne, whom she regarded as one step away from that most hated of all institutions to the natural scientist in her: the philosophy department. Nonetheless, it wasn't going to accomplish anything to trash her new Department Head to her new Executive Officer's face, so she bobbed a polite smile.

"I was also told I needed to schedule medical and counselling check-ins, which I'm seeing to either later today or first thing tomorrow, depending on when is convenient for the staff in Medical. And Warrant Officer Kiwosk has asked me to stop by his office for some kind of security evaluation."

She wanted to present an organized front, and make it seem as though she'd taken care of everything possible: that way, she reasoned, she was more likely to be given the leeway her actual manic lack of organization would inevitably demand.

"Excellent. I appreciate that kind of organisation. It breeds a better caliber of officer." John replied, before looking down at the lcars display between the CO and XO's chair. Furrowing his brow, he quickly tapped in a series of commands and closed down the display. Commanding Galileo in Lirha's absence was fast becoming as much as he could handle right now.

"If you'll excuse me Ensign I have something to take care of sooner rather than later.... if there's nothing else you need then consider yourself dismissed."

Nat was more than happy to end things there, while Holliday still had a favourable impression of her, and before she tracked any more mud over the clean Bridge deck. Nodding politely, she beamed at the XO.

"Absolutely. Thank you very much, Commander; I look forward to working with you."

She made her way to the turbolift, meaning to go and tidy up before meeting with Lt. Panne, although by the time the doors were closing on her, her mind had already wandered onto other matters.

[OFF]

Ensign Natalie Chevalier
Ecologist
USS Galileo

CMDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

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