Jonesey

Posted on 07 May 2015 @ 9:50pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant JG Grayson Jones

1,110 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: USS Atlas/USS Galileo - Private Offices
Timeline: MD 02 - 1120

[ON]

From her ready room aboard USS Atlas, Lirha sat with a mug of warm hot chocolate in her hand and tapped away at her LCARS console whie she finished up some pertinent paperwork and submitted it to Starfleet's admiralty. The sudden departure of several of Galileo's senior officers was most unexpected, but it was nothing that a bit of shuffling couldn't take care of. And as much as she'd have liked Holliday to handle the situation himself, his duties aboard USS Chronos had kept him rather occupied over the past several days and had given her an opportunity to once again administrate the Nova-class' affairs.

Her green hand reached out and tapped a communication request into the console directed towards the small ship's main engineering section, and she leaned back in her seat to patiently wait for the assistant chief to respond.

Naturally when an Admiral calls, asking for you by name, you go into a mild panic. Grayson felt exactly this as he straightened his uniform and sat down at the desk in the Chief Engineer's Office. Taking a few breaths to compose himself before answering the call.

"Admiral, a pleasure," the young engineer began, "what can I do for you?" He was hoping it was something to do with an upcoming mission or to check in on the recent upgrades to the ship.

Lirha smiled politely at the young Human sitting across from her through the screen. "Mister Jones, it is good to see you again. I have a rather abrupt notice to give you," she began to explain without any revelations present in her inflections.

Panic. That was all people would be able to read from his face. Even the most dense empaths near by would pick this up like a signal flare. "I hope nothing is wrong Admiral. I'm not being transferred am I?" He gave a short, awkward laugh that seemed to trail off into his discomfort.

"Well...'transferred' is such a strong word..." she prefaced, giving a moments pause to let her sentence sink in. "I prefer to think of such situations as an opportunity. You see, Lieutenant Kita and several other of Galileo's senior staff have just been reassigned with the utmost urgency...according to Starfleet Command. And with his departure, Galileo will need a new chief engineer..."

"Would you like me to get things prepared for the new Chief's arrival Admiral?" Grayson secretly hoped it would be him, but through the Admiral's eyes he would have thought that there were more experienced officers out there than he.

The Orion couldn't help but betray her thoughts with a subtle smile, then lightly shook her head to indicate the negative. "No, that will not be necessary. I am quite happy with Galileo's current personnel and I feel you would make an excellent chief engineer. That is, if you you have no objections?" she asked with raised and inquisitive eyebrows.

"Oh," Grayson flustered, "I...I...ofcourse not. Wh-y thank you Ma'am." He couldn't believe it. First the upgrade to temporary and now permanent. This moment was something he had been waiting for, for so long and it was here. Grayson tried his best not to let his eyes swell up with tears. "What about the Chief? I trust he is well and on to much better things."

"I believe he will be okay, yes. I was not able to gather much information but it appears he has a personal issue to tend to which requires his attention, and Starfleet will no doubt be giving him a new assignment once he is finished dealing with his own matters," she tried to explain with the limited information that was available to her. "But Mister Kita always seemed like the resilient type, and I believe he will be fine."

Her thoughts then shifted to the abrupt nature of Jones' promotion and she decided it would be best to afford him the opportunity to inquire as to anything which might be on his mind. "Do you have any questions about your new position as department head? Non-engineering questions, that is."

"Is the paperwork as bad as they claim it to be?" Grayson began with a joke, "I don't want to miss getting my hands dirty," he smiled, his own tension finally beginning to ease.

"Worse," she answered in a teasing voice. "Think of it as a fact of life...a non-stop stream of inquisitive minds wanting to know every mechanical adjustment to the starship and department personnel rotation adjustments you make at all times. The worst of bureaucracy," she grinned with bright white teeth. "And yes, if you are not careful, you may strain your thumbs on a PADD."

"It is not too late to change my mind is it?" Grayson laughed. "Thankfully I have had some experience these past few days as an acting Chief, I guess I have been eased into the role as smoothly as can possibly happen. Thank you Admiral," he beamed a very glowing, grateful smile.

Lirha smirked and shook her head before turning back to give Jones a sincere look. "Do not thank me. You have earned the position, and I think you will do a very good job at your new post. And, of course, it is formal now, and you will have to answer to myself, or Captain Holliday. Or Commander Stace, should something go wrong" she grinned.

"Thank you Admiral," Grayson replied, a humble tone to his voice, "although, knowing this ship and the...unique situations that can happen, you can expect weekly status updates," he returned to his jokes and smiles.

"Excellent," said Lirha with a chipper voice and a bright smile, happy that the young engineer was willing to take on a rather daunting task as the ship's new chief engineer. "And should you require any assistance with matters, Mister Quinn is our former chief engineer and would be happy to lend a hand."

"Thank you again Admiral. I best get to work, no doubt something will have gone awry during this conversation, it will be in my report," Grayson went to respectfully end the conversation and let loose the excitement that was pent up in his extremities. He could not resist the little further joke at the end, he was just so happy and it was finally sinking in.

"Of course. And congratulations, Mister Jones," she said, happy to let him get back to work and digest the news of his promotion.

[OFF]

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RADM Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Atlas

Lieutenant JG Grayson Jones
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

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