You want to go where?

Posted on 14 Nov 2017 @ 3:50pm by Ensign Miraj Derani & Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin
Edited on on 03 Dec 2017 @ 7:19pm

2,248 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: USS Hathaway - Miraj's Quarters
Timeline: MD 93 1800

[ON]

Amaranai pressed the door chime for Miraj's quarters. When the door opened, Amaranai smiled.

"Hey, did you see that announcement from Starfleet Headquarters?"

Miraj was bouncing up and down. There was one line that had caught her eye . "They're going to do an A reg! A new Galileo! I wonder what it will be? Akira? Another Nova. Maybe something bigger? I wonder how it will handle?"

"What do you think about it? Are you going to apply for any of the assignments?"

Miraj nodded. "Voyager and Galileo. Running in a ship needs a sensitive hand, but well. Voyager!" She stood back so Amaranai could come in. "You?"

Amaranai entered the room and smiled at her friend's excitement. She looked over the datapad and then back to her friend.

"Galileo for sure," she said. "But I don't know about the area of operation." She paused. "I'm planning on bringing my younger sister and I didn't want to put her in the direct path of danger. One of the other assignments might be better to avoid that."

Miraj bounced onto her bed, and pulled her knees up so Amarani could sit down. "It says its base of operations will be Regula One. That's a space station right on the edge of the federation's outermost boundary." Miraj had a map of the known galaxy in her head. She hadn't needed to look it up. But the remoteness had come as a surprise. "Edge of the universe as far as we're concerned. Near the Mutara Nebula. Its absolutely forever away. to be honest, its what's making me think twice. You'd spend 2 months at warp 9.9 to get there. Anything slower than Warp 6 and you start counting your journey time in years."

Amaranai listened as Miraj talked about Regula One and more about the area of operation. She also talked about how long it would take just to get to where they were going.

"Well," Amaranai said. "At least it would give me time to get to know my sister again."

"You'd want her out with you? With no means of escape?" Miraj laughed. "I can't imagine being trapped with Mal. Prowling the corridors and bedding everything with a pulse." She wrinkled her nose, creasing up the feint trident shaped impression in her forehead.

Inwardly, Amaranai shuddered at the thought of Miraj's brother roaming the halls looking for girls to sleep with.

"I got her out of the bad place that she was in at home and put her with a former instructor to care for her for a while. And now, a couple of years later, I want to get to know my sister again."

Amaranai paused.

"I'm sure that I'll get tired of her after a while, but at least we'll be together and be able to rebuild our relationship."

"It can't be that bad?" Miraj and Mal were close, she couldn't really comprehend not having a relationship with a sibling.

"It was for her," Amaranai started. "She was the youngest in the family. I left home when she was six. She didn't have a good role model. My brothers and sisters and even my parents are all terrible, selfish people. I don't want to bore you with details, but I managed to practically kidnap my sister after bailing her out of jail and took her to San Francisco."

Amaranai paused.

"She wasn't too happy with me for a while. She wouldn't even talk to me for almost a month."

Amaranai looked at the datapad in her hands to avoid looking at Miraj. After a few moments, she continued.

"Now that I've been home and we've been talking, things have gotten better. I'm hoping for more time to strengthen it."

"You should mention that on your application." She held up the padd she had been staring at for an hour. "It will make you look well rounded and stable, and motivated to make it work. No one wants to be trapped on a ship with a relationship going sour."

Amaranai lifted the PADD and opened the application. She nodded at Miraj.

"I know what you mean," she started. "I've been stuck on ships for months with two different exes. It was not a pleasant time."

"Yuck!" Miraj agreed. "We can help each other. Like this one: What can you bring to the crew of this vessel? I haven't a clue. I fly. It's all I'm good for really."

"You do a lot more than fly," Amaranai said. "You're passionate about things. Especially things that might affect you negatively. So that's one thing that's not just flying."

The brunette paused to think.

"Plus, you aren't afraid to speak your mind, no matter the consequences."

Miraj looked doubtful. "I kind of had that filed under 'total failure of brain/mouth filter'. Do you think any captain wants someone who sounds like she argues a lot?"

"I don't look at it as arguing," she said. "It's like being willing to speak up when others don't." She paused a moment. "If a captain or other officer is causing a problem or is trying to do something crazy, I know that you are just the person to say something. You've always been that way."

"Really?" Miraj didn't think that sounded like her at all. "Okay, I guess. What about you? Anything on here you're having trouble with?"

Amaranai thought for several moments about the application in her hand and then spoke up.

"Well, it asks for the position I'd like to apply for and I want to apply for the chief security and tactical position. But I don't know if I have the experience or not, but even so, I'd still like to get a promotion."

"Go for it!" Miraj enthused. "You've, all of us, have seen more action in the last 6 months than most people see in their whole careers. You're clever and smart, you're more worried about your sister than chasing bad guys, so they can't accuse you of being some cowboy glory hound. You'd be really good at it too."

Amaranai, despite showing confidence, didn't always have what it took in the way of proving it. Even just talking about applying for the Chief position, without even being a full lieutenant, was making her cringe. Would the OPM just laugh and toss the application aside or would they consider it?

"You really think I'd make a good chief?" she asked.

"Why wouldn't you?" Miraj looked just as puzzled at Amaranai's lack of self belief as Amaranai had with her own. "You're smart, quick thinking, calm under...stressful situations. And anyone who can survive on that iceball and only go in to save someone else's life. Well, that speaks for itself." She smiled. "I'd follow you."

Amaranai thought about the application and noticed that there was extra information in the section for chief applications. She chuckled at Miraj's comment and shook her head.

"You can only follow me if you decide to switch careers," she said. "Or if something terrible happens to the other senior staff that leaves me in charge."

"Like being shot down by klingons, so the captain goes down with the ship, the XO dies of his wounds, the 2XO is a doctor and the Strategic Ops officer goes MIA and turns up barely able to stand?" Miraj asked with an impish smile. "Because that's never happened." she consulted her padd. "Try one: What is the best way to motivate your crew on a daily basis?" she read out.

The brunette stared at the girl for a moment as she described what had happened to their crew recently and how it was an exact scenario that would have put her in charge, even for the briefest of moments.

She listened to the question and thought. Before speaking though, she smiled.

"Offer quickies to everyone that performs beyond the call of duty!" she said with a laugh. "That would not only motivate the crew but help me out as well."

Miraj giggled. "only if you get a crew of betazoids amd deltans. If you got tellerites you'd be picking hair put of your teeth between here and Bajor."

After a moment to let the seriousness return, Amaranai spoke up again.

"I think, ideally, it's a matter of knowing your crew as much as possible. Find what they like. Ask them what motivates them and work toward making that happen. If they see that you are trying, they'll try too."

"See," Miraj sighed, letting her padd fall aside and putting her head back against her headboard in despair, "You're a natural at this. That promotion is practically in the bag."

Amaranai was still unsure of her own ability to receive a promotion and attain a Chief position. She knew that there would be a lot of applicants for each position and Amaranai wanted to make her application the one that was noticed the most.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Amaranai said. "So, what about you?" She paused and nodded at the PADD on the bed. "What's your answer to the same question?"

Miraj shrugged. "I think, ideally, it's a matter of knowing your crew as much as possible. Find what they like. Ask them what motivates them and work toward making that happen. If they see that you are trying, they'll try too." She raised an eyebrow at Amaranai.

Amaranai squinted her eyes at the other girl.

"Why does that sound familiar?"

"I cribbed it off a good source," Miraj said with an absolutely straight face.

Amaranai shook her head and placed a finger on the PADD.

"Maybe paraphrase a bit," she said. "That way, when they are reading through the applications, they don't notice and have unnecessary questions."

"Okay." Miraj bit her lip whilst she thought it through. "I guess I'd just try and ask them how they think I should do it, and do that. How does that sound?" she asked brightly.

Thinking for a moment over Miraj's answer, she smiled at the girl.

"It's not a bad start," Amaranai said. "But you have to be careful with that kind of statement because you could end up with a crew that wants to make all the decisions for you instead of you listening to the options and making the final decision."

Miraj sighed again. People wrangling was so much more difficult than flying. "See, this is why I only scraped a pass in leadership skills. And why if you don't submit for department head at the very least, I'm going to do it for you."

Amaranai chuckled at her comment about her lack of leadership skills. She waved her hands in protest and smiled.

"Fine, fine," she said. "I'll submit the application for department head."

"Trust me." Miraj assured her. "I may not be any good, but I do know what good looks like." She looked at her own padd once again. "Now all I have to do is fake it long enough for some random captain to get too far from Space Dock to make it worth kicking me off."

Again, Amaranai chuckled.

"If some random captain figures you out," she started. "Regardless of where you are, you might become an expert at escape pod piloting."

Amaranai filled in some data on the PADD and wondered if it was all worth it.

"Do you really think the OPM looks at these?" she asked. "Or do you think they just randomly assign people without taking their needs or wants into account?"

Miraj shrugged, entering more answers onto her form with her thumbs.

"No idea." she saved her progress and looked up. "Probably for the longer ones. It wouldn't make any sense not to, to me. I mean if I was picking a crew to share air with for anything longer than a few months, I'd want to at least try and get a crew that works without too much drama. You don't want to be surrounded by drama-llamas when you're eight months from everywhere."

Amaranai nodded.

"I guess you're right," she said. "But remember, I have been on a ship with exes in the past and that was just me. That didn't discount the many different drama children on the ship."

Amaranai looked at the PADD once again and sighed.

"I really hope this is all worth it."

"Of course it is. Before you know it, we'll be off where no-one has gone before, discovering new and exciting ways to get flummoxed by the prime directive and making exciting but ridiculously deadly scientfic finds and facing down space whales and space pirates and space...llamas." Miraj waved her padd. "It will be cool."

Looking at the PADD and making some notes, Amaranai stayed quiet for a few moments as she wrote in some answers. After a few moments, she cleared her throat.

"Well," she said. "I think it's done."

Miraj leaned over the older woman's shoulder, scanning the answers, noting the request for promotion, and for department head. Then she reached out and pushed Transmit "It is now."

Amaranai, caught off guard by Miraj's quick fingers, turned and scoffed at the girl. She grabbed Miraj's PADD and added a few things to her answers before hitting Transmit also. The brunette grinned at the younger girl.

"Oh no. What have you said?" Miraj stared in horror at the transmission complete notification.

"Guess you'll just have to wait and find out."

[OFF]

--

Lt. JG Amaranai Franklin
Security / Tactical Officer

Ensign Miraj Derani
Flight Control Officer

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