Time for a Team Up!

Posted on 29 Mar 2014 @ 11:42am by Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Commander Norvi Stace & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton

1,728 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo :: CSO's Office :: Deck 4
Timeline: MD -07 - 1138 Hours

ON

Asahi was probably making things more difficult for himself than they should have been. Without an official assistant to do the duties he was supposed to do himself, the tiny engineer had unintentionally taken on double duty. It didn't seem to phase him, as he continued working normally, just at double the normal amount. It never occurred to him to assign the assistant-type duties to someone else, if even for a temporary portion of time.

However, it did cause him to turn quite scatterbrained, especially now, as he was making his way to the Science Department. Had he remembered to contact the Trill he had been meaning to get a hold of, he may have felt less worried about whether she was going to be in her office at all. But, between gathering information for K'os to digest faster than a hungry little tribble and everything else, he had forgotten to do just that.

As he pressed the little buzzer button he always seemed to forget to press, Asahi let out a hesitant sigh. This was going to be a rather long day, if he couldn't keep himself gathered.

Stace's eyebrows raised as the door chime reverberated around her little office. She didn't spend much time gazing out of the window, lost in her own thoughts and memories, but since the rescue from the Venture and the talk of ghosts and manifestations on Lyshan III, her mind had begun to wander. She spun around on her heel and and snapped her attention back into the room. "Come in," she called out, her arms folded across her chest.

Asahi entered through the doorway as it opened up, giving his best smile. He hadn't known much about the science chief, but he knew she was Trill and she was smart enough to land herself in this position. He knew very little about trills, just that this one was much easier to locate than the one he was supposedly working under.

As he approached, he rubbed the back of his head. "Hey ah... Asahi Kita, from Engineering? I wanted to bring up an idea one of my engineers had about the colony on Lyshan III, if you've got a moment."

Stace smiled and sauntered over to him casually. She smiled again and held out her hand for him to take it. "Nice to meet you, Lieutenant," she said as they shook hands. She sidled around her desk and slowly lowered herself into her chair, offering one of the other vacant ones across to Asahi. "It's quite fortuitous that you have sought me out, Lieutenant," she began, interlacing her finger on the desk in front of her. "Myself and Lieutenant Pendleton decided that we should somehow collaborate with Engineering to get to grips with the technology used to terraform. But, let's hear your idea first. Would you mind if I called Pendleton in?"

Asahi shrugged. "Not at all." How Stace ran her department was up to her. As far as he was concerned, anyone she wanted to attend the tiny meeting was fine with him.

Stace smiled her reply and then tapped her combadge. "Stace to Pendleton. Could you come to my office, please?"

The massive man entered the door only seconds after he was hailed as he had been walking down the corridor towards the office as quite a coincidence. "You rang Stace?" He smiled at both of them.

"Ah, Pendleton. Lieutenant Kita, here, has an idea to share with us about the colony and I thought it best for us both to hear it." She turned to Asahi. "Can I get either of you anything before we start?"

Asahi turned to the much larger man, smiling, albeit weaker than he would have managed. If they weren't Trill, they were tall. He felt oh so out of place sometimes. Smiling, he returned his gaze to the smaller of the two scientists. "Ah... no thank you, thank you though."

Jacob replied, "Ice cold Orange Creme soda please."

"No problem," Stace said as she got up from her desk and then made the short walk to the wall replicator. "One iced cold orange creme soda, please," she asked as the blue twirling lights flickered into existence. She then, after retrieving it from the alcove, walked over to her own coffee pot on the table on the side. She poured it into a china cup and then ambled back to her desk, balancing both beverages in each hand and then proceeded to sit slowly in the seat adding, "So what's on your mind, Lieutenant?"

It was difficult for Asahi to not cast a sidelong look at the much larger man next to him, but he managed it as he nodded. "We've all no doubt made ourselves extremely well-acquainted with the information on the Lyshan mines, and the situation surrounding them." Well, everyone except Asahi seemed to know what was going on with the mines, but he barely had just enough time to run around and make sure his engineers weren't going to stab Cardassian miners, but he knew he'd have his chance. "And, as you were mentioning before, there were thoughts of having Science and Engineering team up. It just so happens that one of my specialists recommended that same thing to me, so I'm glad I don't have to do any convincing." He gave them both a sheepish grin. "Not from Science anyway."

Jacob replied with his usual, easy going yet deep voice, "Of course Asahi, we are always ready and willing to help and are honored working side by side with our Gold shirted teammates."

Stace nodded in agreement to Jacob, sliding him his own beverage as she herself took the cup to drink. She looked at Asahi with warm, friendly eyes. Something about his demeanour suggested an uncomfortable air and so the Trill attempted to over compensate, leaning a little to far in. "We'd like to help anyway we can, Lieutenant. My technical know-how isn't as up-to-scratch as it should be so hopefully we can work in tandem to help each other out. Do you have a starting point? I, for one, would like my hand held with regards to the terraforming tech. I don't think I have much of a clue."

Jacob smiled even wider, "Oooh yes, Terraforming! That is good stuff for sure and a possible excellent place to start!"

While relieved that he wasn't going to have to strong-arm anyone, Asahi couldn't shake the discomfort he felt from being around someone nearly as tall as Pendleton. He was used to taller people, and he wasn't one to judge based on height. The strong man back at the Sumi would have been extremely disappointed that Asahi was being so shy. "The same specialist actually requested he speak with some of your scientists, so if I could get a team on my end to... cooperate enough on the matter, maybe they could collaborate and see if they could come up with a more cohesive hypothesis... or set of hypotheses... hypothesi?"

Asahi could feel his cheeks grow warm with embarrassment. "I should be able to get a hold of most of the specifications for the equipment we're going to be looking at. If you want me to send copies of the specs your way, I'd be more than happy to go over them before we send teams down there, and I'm sure Petty Officer Beaumont would be just as happy to do the same with anyone who asked... As for subject matter, I'm not too sure I have much of a starting point. I haven't really been able to take a look at the information much myself..."

"Okay," Stace began with, smiling widely at Asahi and looking a little uncomfortably at Jacob from the corner of her eye, "that's definitely something that we can out together as departments, I think." She nodded to her own suggestion and took in a breath to break the silence that punctuated it. "In fact, it might be a good idea to have your engineering team brief my our departments as a whole. Almost like a presenta..." She broke off her sentence, interjecting herself. "I'm sorry, Lieutenant," she added softly, interlacing her hands again in front of her and leaning forward. "Is everything all right? You just seem a little... on-edge."

Jacob listened intently and thought about solutions as to how the two departments could work together more efficiently. He said nothing but was intently listening for more information.

"... On edge?" Leave it to Asahi to throw a bad first impression out there. He tensed, mouth already open to deny the claim. His mouth clamped shut after a moment of hesitation, breaking his gaze from the pair. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be at all." He let the apology hang in the air for a brief moment, making an attempt to break it by speaking once more. "I ah... could have them go over the information, see if any of them are up for something like that. Maybe it could go both ways? There's a lot of learning that could be done out of this. I ah... I'm actually looking forward to the opportunity."

"As are we Lieutenant," Jacob replied, "This would make an excellent foray into interdepartmental problem solving and less 'turf' situations as too many ships seem to have."

"Absolutely," Stace agreed. "The more we all know the better we can deal with what's happening. "I'll have Lieutenant Kohl gather the teams again in a few days' time once we've individually collected our thoughts and established some sort of direction."

"Great!" In his nervousness, Asahi nearly squeaked out his response. "I'll make sure my engineers are prepared for a more formal meeting. It'll get a good dialogue going. With enough preparation and data correlation, we may be able to solve the miners' problem much faster."

"Great news," Norvi enthused, her smile now beaming. "Speak to your engineers and I'll have Kohl contact you."

"Yes, I and should definitely get back to them..." Asahi let his polite smile fall only to mutter under his breath. "Make sure they aren't all killing each other when I get back..."


OFF

LT Asahi Kita
[Acting] Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

LT Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

LT Norvi Stace
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

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