Meetings

Posted on 24 Mar 2016 @ 10:44pm by Lieutenant Oren Idris Ph.D. & Lieutenant Wilhelm Von Haeften

1,586 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 10 - Symposium
Location: Jupiter Station, Restaurant
Timeline: MD81 - 1200hrs

[ON]

"...personally, the only one I'm a little worried about is Cyrin. He gets a little nervous."

Oren followed the admission with another bite of his salad, chewing thoughtfully over it before glancing back up at his dining companion. Despite his misgivings about his working relationship with Von Haeften, Oren had to admit the man wasn't too difficult. If he ignored the annoying buzz he got from picking up on his emotional state, he could almost be called pleasant, if more militaristic in demeanor than Oren liked.

Still, their relationship, through the handful of times they'd spent in each others' presence, had been steady and amicable enough that Oren felt comfortable extending Wilhelm an invitation to have lunch together and discuss the upcoming symposium.

"I've talked to him a few times Oren. I think he'll do ok. Besides, the best way over is through they say. The experience will be good for him in establishing confidence." Wil stated, past a mouthful of his own meal, a Targ meat sandwich with thousand island sauce, lettuce and tomato.

"Uh huh," Oren said, clearly skeptical. In fact, he saw a slap and a cold wash cloth in Cyrin's future, something he would need to provide as a good friend, just before the start of the Trill's presentation.

"I don't like these kinds of things," he admitted with a small shrug, poking at his greens. His tone was still light-hearted, though, since there were certainly plenty of things to enjoy about the symposium. After all, it would no doubt be an opportunity to run into colleagues Oren hadn't seen in years, maybe even decades.

"I always come up short when I time myself, or I let my mouth run away with itself" he said.

"Then don't time yourself my friend; just let the words come naturally. Besides, it's the subject matter that counts, not getting in on time. Doesn't matter if the subject fits in the time slot if everyone is bored to tears."

The German ate another mouthful of sandwich.

"Speaking of which, what did you think of my proposed speech? Funny, not funny?" he inquired.

Eyes widening slightly, Oren's chewing stopped as he looked up to stare at Wilhelm, caught off guard by the question. Licking his lips slowly, he eyed him. "Do you want an honest answer or a professional one?" Although not a man who kept his opinions to himself very often, Oren preferred to not have a repeat of his relationship with Kohl.

"I always prefer honesty Oren. If it stinks, just say it stinks." the CSO said to his friend and colleague.

"I wouldn't say it stinks...it's just that I feel like you're not taking the opportunity seriously. You're the Chief Science officer of one of the leading scientific vessels in the fleet and you're on stage, making crude jokes and talking about sex," Oren explained his point as delicately as possible.

Wilhelm laughed without rancor.

"Oren, yes, we are scientists, but a lot of those in our audience are laymen, and even those who are scientists, will probably have had their fill of droll subject matter by the time I get to them. I want this symposium to entertain as well as inform."

Wil thought for a minute.

"Also, for the record, it's about interspecies courtship and how it is viewed by various cultures, not sex. Sex is just the attention grabber, you know, because most humanoids...kinda like it." the CSO said with a light laugh.

Oren visibly rolled his eyes. "I'm afraid I'm not among them, so I don't see what is so interesting about it to warrant you using it as an attention grabber. Let's face it, most of the jokes you're using are of a sexually suggestive nature," the El Aurian pointed out, though he didn't sound chastising, though slightly annoyed.

"Perhaps I'm heavily biased considering my asexual nature, but in any case, I do wish you luck and that you achieve whatever it is that you wish to achieve," Oren added after a sip of tea. He was aware that he didn't identify with any of Wilhelm's presentation, much like he knew most humanoids wouldn't identify with his own topic of the relativity in how one experiences time.

"Thanks." Wil said tersely. He decided it best to change the subject.

"Which of the presenters are you most looking forward to?" the CSO inquired.

"From the Galileo?" Oren asked then, without waiting for an answer, continued. "Doctor Allyndra has a fascinating mind, I'm sure her presentation will give everyone something to think about," he paused, then inquired the same from Wilhelm.

"The same. The good Doctor sure seems to know what she's talking about, although I admit the math is beyond me. What are you discussing Oren?" Wil asked, looking for polite conversation.

"Time perception between different species," Oren explained, picking gently at his salad. "It's something that affects more people that most realise. Especially when it comes to longer lived species like my people, or shorter lived species like the Ocampa. Not to mention the different year lengths on different planets. A year is a relative term too."

"Like Einstein says: burning your hand can seem to last a lifetime, but kissing a pretty girl can seem like mere moments." WIl said with a nod of his head.

"Did you have a chance to meet the rest of the science team? I was thinking we should hold a group meeting with everyone but, having thought it over, it would probably be best to split the team into smaller groups for actual research meetings. That way we can avoid petty rivalries. The last thing we want is physicists snickering at whatever the social scientists are doing." Oren rolled his eyes at the idea. It was one of the things he hated on Romulus. It was like a playground, the way some of the scientists acted.

"We're professionals, not school kids." Wil replied without rancor. "I'd still like us to meet as a cohesive whole at least once a week to discuss matters; I don't want either side to accumulate too much knowledge without sharing it. We need to build bridges, not walls."

"That's a nice sentiment, but I think a lot of the scientists, myself included tend to keep things pretty close to our chests until we're absolutely sure we know what we're talking about," Oren explained, licking his lips. "I know we're not school kids, but I don't think anyone wants to look the fool among other scientists, especially older mentors. But I do agree that we should meet once a week. I was thinking of holding meetings with each one individually to discuss their own research one on one. To see what kind of resources they might need."

"I'm your colleague Oren, not your boss; run your shop the way you feel is best, and all I ask is to be kept informed of that which needs to be shared. I of course will do the same. I'll need to break the SCIDEP gang of the habit of keeping their opinions and data to themselves. It's hard to finish building a puzzle when each side has half the pieces and won't share, right?" Wil asked.

"I agree," Oren nodded. "And I wasn't telling what I was going to do because I think you're my boss. I was doing it to keep you informed," he pointed out after a moment of pause. "Maybe it would be easier to also hold meetings with related sciences, though we don't have many social scientists onboard, unfortunately."

Wilhelm shrugged. "Not really a problem that I forsee. I can work my way around the 'hard science' circles too you know." he teased. "How about you create a schedule of when it would be best for your people to meet for various topics and we'll work into that?" Wil took a swig of his drink.

"My only concern is that we should not have meetings for the sake of meetings; if there's no pertinent data to put out, cancel the meeting and let the crew get on with their lives, or better yet, make it a social event of some kind, like on the holodeck if able." the German said, musing his ideas out loud.

"I don't know if forced social events are better than forced meetings," Oren returned, thinking out loud as well. "Although maybe something sport related could be fun. I know a couple of the scientists were on sports teams. Van Zyl played rugby and Cyrin plays football."

"I know a handful of the 'hard science' guys meet occassionally to play volleyball..." Wil added. "But at least social events can have the potential to be fun, and there's no way I'd ever make them mandatory...had too much of that nonsense in the Reserves; we called it 'mandatory fun'."

"That's never good," Oren commented. "I had enough of that during shoreleave. I'm glad it's over, really," he added. "I'm all for a break, but three months was beginning to feel a little long, you know?"

"I know the feeling; a man can only rest so long." Wil agreed. "So anyway, about these briefs, I think maybe if we move the birefs to a different time slot, we could maximize..."

The two men returned to the drudgery of time keeping and slotting everyone in.

[OFF]

Lieutenant JG Wilhelm Von Haeften
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

&

Lieutenant Oren Idris. Ph.D
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

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