A Sharpe Tongue

Posted on 06 Apr 2015 @ 9:18am by Commander Andreus Kohl & Commander Scarlet Blake

2,751 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: USS Nautilus - Deck 7, Main Engineering
Timeline: MD -02 - 1610 hours

[ON]

One of the largest compartments aboard the Nautilus revealed itself to Andreus Kohl with the parting of the heavy double-doors. The open concept of the engine room made every corner of it immediately visible. Kohl's eye was, of course, drawn to the glorious, throbbing warp core at the heart of the chamber. Having left Bridge duty behind him, Kohl hadn't felt ready to retire to his quarters. His walking tour of the ship brought him to Engineering first. Kohl strode across the compartment, approaching the warp core for an up-close look.

"Hey...watch it! Don't be messing..." Heather Sharpe's voice faltered mid barrage and stride as she clocked, too late, that he wasn't some rookie newbie but the new First Officer. She cleared her throat, coming to a halt and looking around lightly. "....with things you have every...right...to...."

Kohl had made it all the way to the warp core, where he rubbed his palm down the shimmering, silver-blue column. He offered no words or change in posture to suggest he assumed the verbal barrage was directed towards him. Kohl closed his eyes, and he tried to memorize what the vibration of the warp core felt like, right then. After he opened his eyes, he turned to where he heard Heather clear her throat. "Lieutenant Sharpe, hullo," said Kohl. "How fares the warp core in our mad dash to sector oh-five-three?"

"Holding together," she said lightly as she moved closer to him, her arms folded as she shrugged with a frown. "Let's just hope she holds it together in the wargames too. I mean, this old bird's going to have to face up to some real war ships."

Kohl's brow knitted quizzically, and he chewed on his lower lip. "Are you saying Nautilus' chances of surviving are low," Kohl asked, "if she faces a real war ship, as you put it?"

"I'm saying that we're not exactly state of the art compared to whatever Klingon tricks they might have up their sleeve," she replied bluntly, without fear of being bold in front of a senior officer.

"I suppose..." Kohl said with a challenging edge to his words, "that means our crew will need to be all the better then their crews. Would you have preferred to be assigned to somewhere state-of-the-art?" Kohl's tone became all the more challenging, when he said, "I can arrange a transfer for you, if that's what you would prefer."

Heather watched him with wide, dark eyes, setting her hands on her hips as she caught her breath. "Now hang on a minute! I am more than capable of looking after this ship! I was just saying I don't get why the brass sent this ship to a wargame with some hard arsed Klingon bird of prey instead of a proper big old battleship with balls and teeth."

Kohl raised his voice to fill the chamber. "Lieu-ten-ant," Kohl said with his most military snap. He lowered his tone, but not the military snap, when he said, "If this is how you speak with your... If this is how you speak with anybody, then I would say you've been assigned to exactly the right starship." He pointed both index fingers at the warp core. "Old fashioned."

Heather's eyes widened as anger sparked in them, her fingers gripping her hips tighter, digging in. "Could say the same for you, Sir!" she bobbed a curtsy, turning away from him with a frown, jaw tight to try and stop herself saying anything else stupid.

Kohl didn't show as much self-control, although he kept his tone even. "Adding the word sir to the end of a insult only makes it more insulting," Kohl said. "Especially if it's the first time you've even used the word."

Heather stopped at the words, taking an unsteady breath, her anger sparking. She screwed her hands up into balls as she turned to face him, counting in her head, trying to settle herself down, but clearly struggling. "It's only the first time I've used it for *you*..." she sniped pointedly.

"Really though," Kohl said condescendingly, "You'd better make it: Sir, Lieutenant Commander, Sir."

---

Location: USS Nautilus - Deck 1, Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD -02 - 1655 hours


Instead of saying hello, Kohl declared, "I took the liberty of drafting a non-punitive letter of caution for you to submit to my service jacket." Fiddling with a PADD, Kohl approached Blake's desk with rounded shoulder and he dropped himself into a chair. His tone was remarkably casual, when he said, "Or you can upgrade it to a reprimand, if you think that more appropriate."

Scarlet looked to him with surprise at the entrance, lifting her chin from her hand where she had been reading. "Hm? Reprimand? Maybe you should tell me why I'm reprimanding you first?" she leant to him with confusion.

"I was inspecting our Engineering section, trying to get a feel for it," Kohl said matter-of-factly, to begin his explanation. "Lieutenant Sharpe, introduced herself by questioning Command's wisdom by assigning this ship to the exercises, and by hollering at me for intruding. I tried to assert some respect, or at least discipline, from her, and the next thing I knew, we had descended into a sinkhole of challenging one another, and name-calling, in the middle of Engineering and I didn't know how to get out."

Blake sat back as she let out a long, tight breath, taking all the information in with a frown of concentration. "So why would I just reprimand you but not look at her inappropriate behaviour towards her First Officer?" she shook her head lightly, holding his eyes. "It sounds as if her initial behaviour towards you was out of line considering you're part of the command staff on this ship."

Suddenly realizing he had misrepresented his intentions, Kohl blurted out, "Oh, we're going to reprimand her. No question about that." He nodded enthusiastically, and then his expression sobered. "But I don't know what happened with me. I lost my temper. I thought I was in control of the situation, and then I was ranting in the middle of Engineering. ...I pretended I was late for a meeting and ran out, but the damage had been done."

"Some people can test even the most patient temper," Scarlet assured him, shaking her head gently. "Okay, before we start talking about permanent reprimands, let's...think about it a bit more. It sounds like you rubbed each other the wrong way, is that a fair assessment?" she checked, after her first misunderstanding wanting to make sure she had the right idea about how it had spiralled.

Losing himself in thought, Kohl angled his gaze over Blake's shoulder and he gave the back of his neck a rub. As it came back to him, Kohl nodded at Blake. "I-- yeah, you could put it like that," said Kohl, but he didn't sound entirely certain. "Sharpe openly questioned Command's decision to assign Nautilus to the wargames. I gave her what I thought were ample opportunities to rephrase, and when she steamrolled on, I recommended she ask for transfer." --He tilted his head to the left, as something occurred to him-- "I think what she heard was me questioning her abilities. ...The more I think about it, Sharpe and I were practically speaking different languages to one another."

"Maybe you were," Scarlet gave a half smile to him, shaking her head gently as she leant to him with a soft sigh. "It can happen, especially if tempers spark. If...that's what you're thinking now though, how would you feel about maybe calling her into your office and giving her a dressing down and make it clear that her behaviour to a commander officer in a public place wasn't appropriate....rather than going straight in with an official reprimand that will stay on her file?"

Kohl had been nodding at Scarlet's perspective, and gave an emphatic nod at her recommendation. "Yes, yes, that would be a reasoned approach," Kohl said, easily acknowledging her logic. "I don't know that I can give someone a dressing down if they haven't put a life at risk. But I can summon her to my office. I can explain to her the impact her behaviour has on morale in her department, and on her own efficacy as a leader. I can ask for a verbal commitment about how she intends to change her behaviour. ...And then, if I'm not satisfied with her level of commitment, and then I can railroad her into a satisfying commitment."

"Good idea," Scarlet nodded with a small smile on her lips as she eased back to lean back in her chair as she watched him, secretly, or maybe not so secretly pleased, that he would give it a go. "She has to know that what she said and where she said it was completely unacceptable and unbecoming of someone wearing this uniform. But this way, she gets a chance to put it right before it gets put on her file...because once something is down there, it follows you your whole career."

"Affirmative," Kohl replied with a hearty nod of his own. The look he gave Blake communicated, consider it done. "As I said, that would be the most reasoned approach." Leaning back in his chair, he shook his head with a self-depreciating grin. "...It makes me sound like an especially argumentative Tellarite by comparison."

Scarlet chuckled softly, shaking her head firmly with a slight wave of her hand. "Don't give yourself a hard time. You've thought it over...you said yourself where things might have gone wrong. Means you can make it go more smoothly next time. There will *always* be clashes on ships. You have independent, confident people from different cultures and backgrounds all serving together in a small space, forced to be together for sometimes long stints at a time. There's bound to be arguments and disagreements. But that's also why there has to be a line where some behaviour is unacceptable towards superiors, because if that becomes 'normal' and 'acceptable' to someone to interact that way with the senior officers or command officers, then the chain of command can be damaged or even break at crucial times, when it needs to be strong and decisive and orders followed quickly without bickering when lives hang in the balance," Scarlet shrugged gently, hoping that made sense. "Equally, I don't want to see a young, fiery officer tarred forever on their file over a big mouth they might kick themselves for once they've calmed down, and they can learn to get under control. We just need to make sure the learning happens quickly so it doesn't disrupt the running of this ship," she gave a wry, almost wistful smile to him as she arched an eyebrow.

While Scarlet spoke, Kohl took back his PADD to start tapping notes on the touchscreen. "I'm going to use some of that," Kohl said enthusiastically, "when I speak with Sharpe."

Scarlet stood slowly, stretching her back for a moment with a soft sigh before moving to lean against the viewport frame, looking out with just a hint of a frown showing. "Being the First Officer brings....a lot of change in your professional relationship with people, especially those who you have worked with in a different way before, and not all people will be comfortable with it. It's not an easy position, and sometimes a thankless one when it comes to ship discipline, but on the other side of that? You get to help and shape young officers into being the best officers they can be....encourage them to train and get more qualifications to explore their potential...help those who want to develop and go as far as they can..." the way she spoke about working with crew development made it clear she loved that part of the job, and that for her, it made it more than worth it. "...And every so often, you get to make decisions that might just change the shape of Starfleet forever. Although, admittedly, I'd rather those decisions never involve Cardassian zombies ever again..." she shook her head quickly, laughing softly at the thought of it. "But either way, if you ever want to try out the Captain's chair, the First Officer's chair is the only way to get there. And there's no reason you couldn't. Be in the Captain's chair one day," she turned enough so she could look at him with meaning, clearly serious about that.

With widened eyes, Kohl nodded at her affirmation. From his expression, he appeared daunted by that thought, but not overly so. Not as much as he might have been when he served as Galileo's Assistant Chief Medical Officer. "That is crystallizing as a possibility, more and more each passing day..." Kohl remarked. From his seated position, he tilted his head back slightly, looking back at Blake's gaze. He asked her, "How do you find that command chair is suiting you?"

"Me?" Scarlet asked softly with surprise, looking back to him with a half smile, leaning back against the wall as she thought on it. It was a good question. One she'd been too busy to contemplate so far. "It was always in the plan, believe it or not for a counsellor," she admitted quietly, shaking her head. "The marines were my life back then. Nothing was quite like being out there, sniper rifle in hand, that quiet, solitary, focussed moment where time slows and it comes down to a heartbeat. And being the psych officer out there, it felt like I was looking out for them, you know? Whether I was needed out in the field with a med kit, or after the guns had stopped firing but a soldier could still hear them. I'd made it to the rank of Captain in three years, and I had no intention of stopping. When I had to give the marines up...I was determined to rebuild here in the regular fleet. I'm...getting there," she finally smiled to him, her eyes honest with it.

Genuinely curious, Kohl asked, "How does one go from craving the quiet solitude of being alone, in the field, with a gun to a career at the opposite end of the spectrum?" --Kohl swung a thumb back in the direction of the Bridge-- "That Captain's chair out there, it's sitting in the middle of a maelstrom. There's a constant torrent of reports, and requests, and minutia, and nonsense. The demands weighed down upon you, it's like a cacophony of sound. It's noise. What made you plan for that?"

"I would have stayed in the marines for as long as my health permitted," Scarlet admitted with a chuckle, moving to sit on the desk, casual enough with him to set her feet on her seat instead and resting her arms on her knees. "But when I was pregnant with Lily, well..." she shook her head, shrugging lightly. "It was the compromise. But it didn't stop me from being ambitious. And...I missed leading a group of my men out in the field. Being where I am now....leading an away mission is as close to that as you can get here..." she shrugged, shaking her head with a heavy breath. "Sorry, I must be boring the hell out of you."

If Blake doubted Kohl's interest, it had nothing to do with his body language. From his chair, he was leaning towards her, his eyes following her as she moved closer. "Not in the least," Kohl insisted. "But I can let you get back to your reports, if you need? I have an engineer to drag into my office, as you know."

Scarlet chuckled gently at that, straightening up a little and tapping her knees with her hands. She wasn't the most eager person to talk about herself, but Kohl had made it easy. It was good to get distracted back away from it. "Good good. We can catch up with a drink after all this is over," she assured with a small smile, rising to her feet.

"We will be having that drink," Kohl assured her, "even before we step off this ship."


[OFF]

Lieutenant Commander Andreus Kohl
Executive Officer
USS Nautilus

CMDR Scarlet Blake
Commanding Officer
USS Nautilus

LT Heather Sharpe
Chief Engineer
USS Nautilus
[NPC Blake]

 

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