Abashed

Posted on 04 Dec 2018 @ 10:48am by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Azra Ghoc & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Oliver Sylver
Edited on on 07 Jan 2019 @ 1:44pm

1,233 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: USS Galileo-A - Shuttlebay 1
Timeline: MD - 175, 1124

[ON]

Azra walked through the shuttlebay, doing a quick visual inspection of the shuttlecraft. She was also checking on the enlisted crew who had been assigned to do a thorough check of the shuttle systems. Sure enough, she saw both of them working diligently. They didn't notice her walk through.

Galileo was a beautiful ship and equipped with a decent compliment of auxiliary craft for its size. Although the shuttlebay wasn't full, by any means, there were several people at work in addition to the engineers, including a tall, dark-haired former marine.

"Chief Sylver," Azra called, "can we chat for a moment?"

Even after all the years that had passed, seeing the Cardassian features made something in Oliver's chest tighten. He pushed it aside though, the war was long over and he was a different man. More importantly, the woman wore the uniform of Starfleet, making her a part of them all. "Yes Chief," he said and pulled back from the screen and offered the PADD to the crewman who had been standing beside him. He walked over to Azra, his strides long and his back straight. Even now, he had the posture of a Marine when he was on duty.

"I noticed you here, and wanted to reassure you that despite the difficulty you and your department had with the simulation, your performance was well above what is expected of most Starfleet officers," Azra said, "I hoped to show everyone to what standard we aspire. I've been informed that I started at too great an intensity. Future sessions will not be so demanding."

Sylver looked at her for a moment, taking a deeper breath. he had performed the best he could in the simulation. It hadn't been up to the woman's standard. "Yes ma'am," he said, because it was the only polite thing he could say. Truth was, he had been fuming at the scenarios thrown at them. And perhaps ten years ago he would have been able to handle it, but when he was doing it he had only had the bad taste in his mouth. A simulation could only do that much and without the real adrenaline and sense of...life or death it was difficult to reach that.

Azra noticed the tension in Sylver's jaw, the deep breath, and the contained civility in his response. Yes, he was angry. As she had considered more, she agreed with Shizn's criticisms of the first scenario. "I don't regret showing you what I hope you'll be able to achieve," she said, and moved a half step so that she could look the former marine in the eye, "but I went about doing so in the wrong way. I am sorry that our first training session went so poorly."

Perhaps it wouldn't help salve feelings, but Azra hoped that as she approached the other members of the department, they'd let go of their anger toward the training, even if they held onto their anger with her.

Oliver exhaled as he looked at her before he shook his head. "The way you did the training made it feel like you were showing your program's superiority and our inferiority. No decision we did worked because there was a perfect storm. Not even in a real combat scenario would you end up dead in half the ways you had plotted," he said as he watched her before he looked away from her, thinking. "The standard you are asking for is almost impossible based on a few things." He reached out and tapped the side of the shuttle. "This baby can't move with the same flexibility that a fighter can. The width of her and lack of strapping, plus the extra weight makes it near impossible. She is also older. Shuttles are meant to withstand entering atmospheres, so their design and weight distribution is different than for instance a space jet that will never enter an atmosphere." He smiled gently and looked at her, his entire body relaxing as he spoke, as the anger bled away. "Knocking confidence is fine if we were over confident. Truth is...none of us are. The hot shot pilot cliche isn't something we have, Chief. Not on this ship, not yet anyway. Maybe fifteen years ago your training program would have put something in perspective for me. All it did was to remind me of situations I barely escaped with my life and sanity."

Azra felt that, while some of his criticism was justified, his conclusion was wrong. "I wasn't trying to puncture bloated heads, chief," she said, "I was trying to show you both what is expected of you, as well as what you'll be able to accomplish with effort and practice." It probably wasn't the most tactful response, but she believed what she said.

"You obviously know more than I do about the shuttle's ability to maneuver and the actual tolerances under which they can operate," Azra admitted, "but the simulations were less about piloting ability than training the fight/flight reactions and decision-making in crisis. Although I had no intention of bringing up traumatic experiences, those are exactly the kinds of things I want to help train you to overcome. I recognize that I didn't make that clear, and I'm sorry."

He nodded before he smiled weakly, holding Azra's eyes. "Apology accepted, Chief," he said, although he struggled to see her side of how such a simulation could help the flight/fight instinct. Maybe he was getting old and set in his ways.

"What kinds of situations do you think would be most useful to practice for?" Azra asked, "I could include them in future training sessions."

He looked at her before he smiled weakly. "Heard about full system reset?" he asked softly. "It doesn't happen nowadays, but during the War we were rushing fighters and shuttles off the production line as quickly as we could. Sometimes, it came with glitches. The computer froze, the universal translator stopped working...as did your signature. So you couldn't be easily identified. We had to do a full system reset. It took...minutes. If you hadn't heard of it, if you hadn't been told...you wouldn't even know where to start."

Azra nodded. She had read through the procedure, but not the reason it existed. "I always wondered why there was a procedure for a full system reset during flight. Training on that would be a good idea. Thank you for the suggestion."

"Welcome," Oliver said before he exhaled and sighed. "I'm sorry I was short with you. I suppose you never grow too old for a bruised ego." He smiled at the words and looked at her, giving her a small nod.

"I don't think any of us grow out of that," Azra admitted, "After future training sessions, please let me know what you think. Hopefully the feedback will be more positive than after the last time."

"Will do," Oliver said and gave her a small nod, holding her eyes. "Thank you, Chief. It does make a difference." The apology. Or more the recognition of a misstep.

Azra smiled and walked toward the nearest turbolift. It was going to be a long day. Especially if the rest of her apologies were anything like this one.

[OFF]

--

CWO3 Azra Ghoc
Boatswain
USS Galileo-A

CWO3 Oliver Sylver
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Vansen]

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