First Impressions

Posted on 19 Jun 2012 @ 11:36am by Chief Petty Officer Lucalin Mrina Ph.D. & Captain Jonathan Holliday

1,896 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 2, XO's Office
Timeline: MD08 - 0000 hrs

[ON]

Lucalin followed his PADD's spoken directions towards the XO's office slowly and meticulously. The memo had read that he should report to the XO anytime after 0000 hours. It was interesting to Luca that the XO would be working the Gamma shift, based purely on his experience with most humans, but not really surprising. Humans were an often surprising species. A few feet ahead of him, Flim Flam plopped down on the ground and rolled onto her back, stretching out for a belly rub. With a breath of a laugh, he rubbed his foot over her stomach as he stepped over her, tipping her back onto her front and tapping the side of his leg to ask her to follow.

Huffing slightly, the heka rolled up and followed along.

"Turn right at the next intersection," the PADD instructed him.

Lucalin turned into a small hallway that dead-ended with three doors.

"You have arrived at your destination. Route guidance is complete."

Luca stood still, breathing quietly, and listening to the echoes reverberating from Flim Flam's purrs. Doors. Placards. He brushed his thumb over one of the placards and sighed. Not raised. Great job, PADD-mapping. "Shh," he instructed, kneeling down beside Flim Flam and running his hand down her back to quiet her. "Shhh." When she was quiet, he tilted his head and listened.

There. He rose and crossed the corridor, clicking softly until he found the chime and pressed it. He'd learn where everything was positioned. Eventually. Why there couldn't be a standard height for things like door chimes, he would never understand.

The work of the XO was never done. Having finished his Bridge shift, the Commander had seen fit to attend his office only for a few moments to pick up a couple of PADD's and check on the status of a chemical diagnostic that he had been running, thanks to the gift he had received from their Intelligence chief only a short while previously. For the door to suddenly chime, just as he was preparing to head to his quarters was slightly...inconvenient to say the least. Whatever it was, hopefully he could get it over and done with quickly enough to still get some sleep.

"Enter"

Lucalin tapped just above the chime and listened as the door whirred open. The Flim Flam bumped against the back of his legs, so he walked on ahead a few steps, assessing the location of the XO with a few clicks and a trill. "Good evening, sir. I am Petty Officer Lucalin Mrina; I came on board today, from Starbase 123, by way of 152." Heedless of his attempt to be professional, Flim Flam began petting herself against his calf. "I received a message that I was to report to you when you were no longer on the bridge," he continued.

Yet another species that John had very little knowledge of had made it's way onto the Galileo it seemed. Taking a moment to study the appearance of their newest crewmember, John used the silence to try and remember exactly where he had seem the name before on the new duty rosters. Whilst he appreciated the officer's attention to detail in reporting to him once his command shift was finished, John knew that really, he would have preferred to leave this until the morning.

"Well in that case welcome aboard Petty Officer...you're one of our new science officers if I recall? Lieutenant Barel was kind enough to brief me on the new names that would be joining her team in her last report"

Despite a solid amount of time on board Federation vessels, Lucalin had never quite gotten the ideas of 'morning' and 'night' into his head, nor - really - what it meant to have a 'day'. He'd grown up underground where 'time' was something on a geological scale and had nothing at all to do with the progress of the nearest star that Meratah orbited. And since then, his time on the space stations had been much the same. He was on duty when he needed to be and not when he didn't need to be; he slept when he was tired and ate when he was hungry. So it was that he felt no guilt or compunction in reporting to the XO at the next opportunity as his memo had specified. "Yes, sir. Bioengineering." His voice warmed on the mention of his field, as he was exceedingly pleased to be doing the thing he was most fascinated by on a ship full of people all fascinated by their jobs, whose focus was the discovery of new things. He moved his head slightly, gathering a better acoustic understanding of the room through Flim Flam's guttural purring. She sounded like he felt.

The reminder of the officer's specialist subject was enough to jog the rest of the memo that he had been given to come forward from the back of his mind and announce itself to his consciousness. Thankfully he had not yet managed to forget the name of a new arrival; an accomplishment that he had no intention of losing any time now.

"Excellent, our science department has been waiting a while to build up it's crew complement. As soon as our current mission is over I'm sure there will be plenty of call for the skills of yourself and the rest of the science teams. Galileo has to earn her name, being the new ship in the fleet and all that"

"I certainly hope so, sir," Lucalin agreed, happily, although there was a timbre in the XO's voice that Luca didn't recognize. Not happy. Not sad. He couldn't quite place it. "I am very pleased that your current mission brought you out here to us on the edge sector. Not too many ships brave the Klingon and Romulan territories," he added.

"Trust me, it wasn't my first choice in terms of missions to be assigned - I don't know how aware you are of the current Klingon political situation but we're certainly not the most well armed member of the fleet...I'll be glad when we're back into Federation soon enough..."

Lucalin listened to the XO quizzically. "Tension has been high in this sector since the end of the Dominion War, sir. It's one of the reasons I never made it to the Academy when I was accepted. Ships don't tend to come to us unless they must and when they leave, they want to move quickly and unencumbered. I've heard there are places where Starfleet vessels travel without fear from place to place. I'd like to see that." He paused, "We are very grateful, my people are at least, that the Federation made a small stand for us in this sector. If it were not for your efforts on our part, I and the rest of my race would very likely be extinct. We have you to thank for our continued existence. You and the stations out here with us."

Hearing a species that he had not met before professing it's thanks to the Federation and to Starfleet as a whole made John's heart swell a little. It was not overly often that he got to actually hear things like this, even though he knew full well that Starfleet was first and foremost an exploratory and protective wing of the Federation, sometimes out amongst the stars, it was possible to lose sight of their mission.

"Well that's....that's very nice to hear Petty Officer, thank you very much. I just hope that we get back to friendlier territory without overstaying our welcome - difficult to be an effective science vessel if we're dodging hostile ships too often I've always thought. Have you checked in with your department head as of yet?"

Lucalin made a winging sound of assent - a short, swooping trill. "As soon as Commander Remington instructed me to do so. The labs..." he trilled again, purely to express his joy at them. "I look forward to working with such excellent equipment. The genome sequencer on this ship runs about one point seven times more quickly than the one I've been working with on 123."

At this moment, John really didn't feel like exposing his lack of detailed scientific knowledge compared to the field experts wandering the halls of Galileo. It was true that he was more soldier than scientist, preferring to leave the hardcore work to the professionals, whilst he kept the ship running at tip top condition.

"Well if there's anything else you need, I'm sure Lieutenant Barel can run you through the requisition process, or if not bring it straight to me and I'll see what I can do. No promises though."

Lucalin smiled, trilling quietly again, "Promises for unforeseen circumstances are impractical. However, I thank you."

The unusual speech patterns of the individual in front of him was rather interesting, in fact it was rather different to a lot of the species that he had encountered up to this point, but nonetheless was perfectly understandable.

"You're the first of your species I've ever actually met....it's nice to finally sit face to face with a culture that I haven't encountered before, even if it is in a more formal setting such as this."

"It is quite likely that I am the first of my species that most have met. As far as I know, I am the only one of us who has ever been away from Meratah for more than two years. We sent a delegation to the Federation when we were first given probationary status as a united Federation member, however, our pyonyo quickly longed for Mera's bright core and returned. Our planetary delegation now consists solely of Gwer and Sabujan." He clicked a couple times, making sure that he was actually face to face with the XO. "I would be happy to answer any questions you might have."

For a moment, the option to explore a new culture became almost too good to refuse. Almost. However, the Commander knew full well that right now all he wanted to do was get some sleep, and before that could happen, he had much more important business to deal with. Tapping his fingers on the desk a moment, he made his decision.

"I''ll have to take you up on that offer at some point but....I really need to get some sleep after my shift....rain check?"

The phrase was one Luca hadn't heard before, but he was able to understand it by context. "Certainly. A rain check it is. Shall I go then?" he asked pleasantly.

"Of course Petty Officer. Dismissed" John acknowledged with a nod, glad to see that there was going to be no argument over the urgency his body put on it's desire to get some sleep. With the crew growing, it was certainly going to be an interesting trip back home.

Luca tapped his foot in a semi circle, clicking and whistling until he found the door again, herding Flim Flam between his feet as he moved. It was generally an illuminating experience to meet new people and he was quite pleased to know the XO. Sleep sounded like something he could possibly do; he didn't need it exactly yet, but it had been a complex day.

[OFF]


Lt Cmdr Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

Chief Petty Officer Lucalin Mrina
Bioengineer
USS Galileo

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