NCO Briefing

Posted on 22 Oct 2018 @ 4:40pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Petty Officer 3rd Class Constantin Vansen & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kala Gorvel & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark & Petty Officer 1st Class T'Lin & Petty Officer 3rd Class John Hollenday & Petty Officer 1st Class Shafa Arij
Edited on on 23 Oct 2018 @ 4:09pm

2,436 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 2, Mess Hall
Timeline: MD -181, 1000 hrs

[ON]

Kai looked out at the assembled petty officers and chief petty officers. The conference room wasn't big enough for a meeting of the ship's NCOs, so Kai had reserved the mess hall for this gathering. There was a fair amount of murmuring, and it was getting louder as people started getting a little restless. When the exact time scheduled for the NCO briefing arrived, Kai got everyone's attention.

"NOW HEAR THIS!" he said in a booming voice. Everyone immediately settled down and waited to hear what he had to say next. "Let's get started. Take a seat if you can find one."

Kai waited a moment while everyone who was going to sit, sat. When the movement stopped, he spoke again.

"For those of you who haven't met me yet," he said. "My name is Kai Mazen. I'm a Master Chief Hospital Corpsman and I'm Chief of the Boat here on the Galileo-A. I spent most of of my career as a Corpsman with the Marines, may that institution rest in peace, but the last decade or so, I've been an Independent Duty Corpsman with the fleet. I joined Starfleet in 2350, so I've been Starfleet over forty years. This is my first assignment wearing Command red, but I think that forty-odd years of service I just mentioned has me pretty well prepared. You've all had information on our mission made available to you. You know we're taking the long route to the ass-end of nowhere, where Starfleet is doing research. Starfleet Command, in its infinite wisdom, has chosen not to tell you, or me for that matter, what the subject of that research is. We'll learn more when we reach our destination. Until then, please keep in mind that this is a six-month long journey to the ass-end of nowhere. That means we need to keep everyone busy with both work and play."

John slouched in his chair. He had already been through one so another seemed kind of moot to him. "When is Engineering not busy?" he more or less muttered it but also spoke it.

T'Lin looked over at him and then to the Chief. "Indeed," her cool tone seemed to chill the room by a degree. "We are going to Regula I, a research star base is what I have heard. If it was not for the freighter we and others are escorting the trip would be shorter."

"Yeah," John remarked. "Well guess we could play space polo with the work bees just for fun."

Kala rolled her eyes "Please refrain from using our work bees as battering rams they're really sensitive pieces of equipment and im pretty certain we can't afford to lose them, though there's nothing stopping us from having fun elsewhere" She said with a grin, her head still recovering from the insane shipwide party.

"We only have one and we need it to re-calibrate our sensor suites," chimed in Shafa Arij, the brown-haired Baghdadi petty officer sitting among his other blue-collared science officers. "If you break it we have to go back home to get another."

Vansen rubbed his face tiredly. Hungover, lack of sleep and this was already his second meeting in. He looked around for a moment, considering it for a moment. "Maybe..." he started before he stopped and shook his head. "I mean, we aren't the first ship to do a long tour. What did others do to keep people from going crazy?" he asked aloud.

Gabriel Stark looked over to Vansen with wide, dark eyes at the question. He managed to keep his comment to himself, but grinned to Constantin with a suggestively arched eyebrow.

"I do find a deep meditation helps. I am Temple trained and can show others how to find inner peace and explore. The hours can melt away. There has been some talk of starting various groups which I think is logically an excellent way to also manage boredom." T'Lin offered.

"Temple trained? You mean like them Vulcan priestesses?" John asked.

"Yes, that was my destiny until my father arranged otherwise."

"Well ain't that somethin'. You also know some of them Vulcan martial arts as well. I would not mind learnin' some of those."

"I could show you some Suus Mahana, Sha'mura is more difficult for one of your kind but not beyound learning. I will not show Tal-shaya. I is frowned upon from those not Temple trained." T'Lin replied.

"Maybe just the idiot's version then," Vansen said with a small chuckle and looked around. "I...this might be a bit lame, but has anyone ever heard of zero g rugby? One ball, two teams...no gravity..."

"I'm in..." Gabriel clapped his hands and rubbed them together. It sounded like chaos. Contained chaos, but chaos all the same. "Boredom and I don't mix well," he shook his head with a slight sigh escaping.

Vansen smiled as he looked at Gabriel, giving a small and encouraging nod. "I think you'd like it," he whispered softly before he looked over at the others.

"When does the underground boxing tournament start?" Gabriel grinned as he stretched in his chair, thinking back to one or two...exhilarating moments when boxing in the Academy. "Who's going to run the secret betting pool?"

T'Lin replied when it seemed there was a spot, "Yes, I have done zero gee sports before. It is a good logical exercise in handling one's self if gravity systems go down with a challenge to the mind as well."

John snorted, "Don't need to float around, get a bit nauseous but you can sign me up for the boxing. I did a fair bit to make some credit when the crops prices where thin."

"Academy tournament boxer," Gabriel grinned as he motioned to himself, making a play of blowing on his nails and brushing them down against his chest. He didn't add underground prison tournament boxer. He was pretty sure this wasn't the right audience.

"I don't really do punching people in the face..." Vansen admitted before he considered it. He was impressed by Gabriel's experience. Tournament boxer was a good thing. "I'm not good at all the fighting things but I sure as hell can cheer from the sidelines. But maybe that is it, we get more physical activity in. Boxing is brilliant because it's a sport, but we all did something at the Academy. I was a track runner, but I know there was a fencing group, the martial arts groups, the climbing group, the swimming team..."

"Alright, settle down," Kai said. "Thank you so very much for addressing your comments and questions to me so that I can respond. That's sarcasm, for those of you who didn't understand that you were being insulted. That said, I compliment you on taking initiative. Hard work and play will cut down on disciplinary incidents, but even with that there's going to be some grumbling, as evidenced by the grumbling I just heard now. Discontent is spread by malcontents and it spreads like wildfire."

Kai looked out over the gathered NCOs for a moment.

"There are four things you need to be to be a good NCO," Kai said. "You need to firm, you need to be fair, you need to be clear, and you need to be consistent. Your subordinates, including some of the people in this room, need structure they can depend on. They need to know what to expect from you. They need to know that they can count on you. When you're unclear and/or inconsistent, you make your subordinates uncomfortable."

Vansen raised an eyebrow at Kai before sitting back in his seat, crossing his arms as he studied him. Okay, so clearly this Kai had a lot of stuff going on. Hungover and not really in the mood to be insulted, a small smile curled his lips. "Thought we were going to keep the people busy with work and play. We suggested some play stuff. If it is work stuff you want, Sir, we can get a list together from our respective departments. But I don't think I could come up with five things to drag a day out without referencing the current duties." And he thought he was speaking respectfully as he said it. But something about this grated on him because to be honest, he thought his training and the promotions he had gotten in his career that mattered, not some magic formula given to him by the Chief of the Boat which he felt had been covered in training in the past. But, Constantin being Constantin, he moved his hands in a shrugging movement and the smile relaxed and became more genuine. "I think we were post-party brainstorming on this..." Not an excuse, but an explanation.

Kai looked at Vansen.

"Vansen, right?" Kai asked, then went on without waiting for an answer, voice clear and business like. "Let's get a few things out of the way. First of all, Don't call me sir. I work for a living. I'm sure it's just your hangover that made you forget that NCO's are not addressed as 'sir' or 'ma'am', but instead by their rank or rating. Secondly, I didn't say you were talking about the wrong things. In fact, I acknowledged that you were talking about the right things. I'm guessing that's your hangover again. Lastly, I can admit when I've been a little too harsh, so, to all of you, I apologize. If anyone has anything they need to say, say it, and let's move on."

If Vansen had been able to roll his eyes, he would have. Instead he made the hand shrug again, because there was nothing for him to add in. He never understood the while 'only enlisted work for a living'. He had met so many officers that he had to call Sir or Ma'am who worked so much harder than he could ever imagine. Who had responsibilities above and beyond what he had signed up for. But the man had apologised for the tone of the meeting, which Vansen took as a win in general.

Gabriel discreetly crossed his fingers and closed his eyes. Please let there be nothing to say, please let there be nothing to say, please let there be nothing to say... the distinctly hungover man wished with all his might. He wasn't sure his hungover cloudy brain could take much more. Why did all good things end up in regret. Still, even in his delicate state, the irony of being in his condition whist being reminded of what made a good NCO was not lost on him.

Taking a breath Kala slowly opened her mouth to speak, she knew no one wanted to be here especially after the party and the hungover state wasn't lost on her but still she felt a little guilty that Kai had gone out of his way to pull this meeting together for the betterment of all of the NCOs aboard the ship. "I think we need to find a way to balance the work and play load. Keeping morale up is definitely a must in each department and while yes the officers will be surely constructing their own plans it's us who will overall oversee them so we need to remain connected to our subordinates not just as their bosses but a figurehead they can approach with confidence. I believe this is best done by a firm but fair ruling hand but also on a level that is more friendly, no one ever got far by being a hardass." She smiled awkwardly, "So yeah... that's kinda it from me."

Kai held his smile inwardly, he enjoyed listening to Kala speak the way she used her words and her facial expressions seemed to always calm him. "Thank you Chief" He managed to look around the rest of the table clearly noticing even within Kala they all looked tired as a result to last nights party. "It would seem this is a good place to cut our meeting short. Obviously, some of us need to return to bed and sleep off the remainder of last night. Let it be said however I expect a much higher level of professionalism from all my NCOs in the future. If there's nothing else then you're clear to leave."

Kala smiled frowning slightly at Kai, he never struck her as the grumpy controlling type but he did have a point. Some people did look a little worse for wear and weren't exactly 'Playing the game. She was the first to stand and nodded in his direction a show of solidarity and also a knowing 'I'll speak to you later' look in her eyes. "Thank you Master Chief."

T'Lin stood with that easy grace one learned and only nodded before all but gliding out.

John just shrugged and decided that there was nothing more to offer right now. "See ya around chief, best get back before the plasma coils overheat so somethin'."

Arij, along with his fellow science officers, shared a glance of relief between some of them after realizing this quick gathering had just come to an end. He appreciated the brevity and wasn't all to keen to listen to more speeches until at least after 1200. Standing up alongside Minodora, Malko, and Dumam, he moved to wait in line at the door while everyone began to file out.

Vansen looked to Stark and winked, smiling as he moved to his side as they started walking out. "Maybe...for our morale's sake...you'd like to have a coffee with me?" he asked the other man, eyes shining playfully despite how hungover he still felt.

Gabriel wasted no time in reaching into his pocket as he made his way to the door with Vansen, pulling out a pair of sunglasses to slide on. He let out a breath of relief at the slight improvement the sunglasses made to the harsh, unforgiving lights of a starship on the delicate eyes of a worse for wear man. "For morale's sake only, of course..." he agreed.

[OFF]

--

Chief Petty Officer Kala Gorvel
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Wyatt]

Master Chief Petty Officer Kai Mazen
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo-A

PO2 T'Lin
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Warraquim]

PO3 John Hollenday
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Warraquim]

PO3 Constantin Vansen
Operations Officer
USS Galileo-A

PO1 Gabriel Stark
Security Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Blake]

PO1 Shafa Arij
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A
[NPC Saalm]

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