CSO, Reporting for Duty (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 15 Oct 2012 @ 9:47pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm

2,366 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 02 - Resupply
Location: USS Galileo - Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD 02 - 1810 hrs

[ON]

The day had been quite eventful so far for the captain. After their emergency landing the previous day, task force reinforcements had promptly arrived in orbit and had since been diligently tending to Galileo. Project Sienna had been secured and transported to USS Victorious along with the development team, signifying the successful completion of their first mission. A mission that at times, Lirha did not think they would have survived. But they had, against all odds, and now she time to sit back and reflect on the happenings of the past week.

With a PADD in her hand while leaning back in her large chair, she began to browse through her ship's updated repair list. There was still much work to be done to restore the Nova Class to operational status, but ever so slowly, the list of inactive and damaged systems was growing smaller. A soft yawn escaped Lirha's lips and she set the PADD down to rub her eyes, still feeling fatigued from her lack of recent rest.

Maenad followed the others out of the shuttle onto the landing pad. The sun hurt her eyes, and she had to force them into a hard squint; she hadn't seen the sun for two days, since the morning of her conference on Vulcan. She hadn't made much conversation with the other occupants en route, either - most had kept to themselves anyway, so there were no awkward goodbyes or false promises to see each other again. Only one other was a Starfleet officer, the rest were academy students planning careers in operations. Their instructor thought that Vega was a good place study variant Federation colony systems and Maenad was fortunate enough to hitch a ride.

The Nova class USS Galileo, her new home, stood about fifty metres away but its size made it seem closer. As the others walked in the opposite direction toward a receiving hangar, Maenad fixed her eyes on the ship. It was massive, she thought. What amazed her even more was that the Nova was one of the smallest ships there were; imagine how it would feel to stand next to a Galaxy or Sovereign class, she mused. Maintenance craft and repair crews were crawling over it like insects, taking away some of its majesty, but underscoring its scale. The clouds moved and a beam of sunlight caught part of the hull. It would be a long time before she would see the Galileo like this again.

Slowly Maenad walked closer, not taking her eyes off the ship. It was beautiful. She noticed her shoulder bag getting heavier as she arrived at the security perimeter surrounding the ship. "Excuse me, doctor, this is a restricted area." An enlisted security officer approached her from a gate in the fence.

Maenad looked at him. "Then how do you expect me to report in?"

"Report in? Nobody called for a doctor." He eyed her suspiciously.

She sighed. "I'm not a medical doctor. I'm the chief science officer." Maenad swung her bag around, lifted the flap and pulled out her clearance and identification. The security officer took it from her, not taking his eyes off her. He then looked them over.

"My mistake, Miss Pan." He replied, nodding as he returned her documents.

"It's Pawn." She corrected. He motioned for her to follow him through the gate toward a temporary transporter pad.

"Transporter room, prepare for one to beam up." The security officer said into his commbadge.

Maenad stepped onto the pad and adjusted her bag as she replaced her clearance and identification PADD. "Energise." She said, then immediately felt the tingle of the transporter fill her body. Within seconds she had rematerialised on the Galileo.

"Welcome aboard," said the transporter chief from behind his console.

"Thank you," replied Maenad. She stepped down from the pad and entered the corridor, heading for the nearest turbolift. It was time to report in. All she knew of her CO was that she was an orion, a species she had never encountered before. She ordered the lift to the bridge. When the doors opened again, she thought It was strange to see so few people manning the stations and so many consoles black. The lack of the ship's rumbling engines caught her attention too. For a moment, Maenad considering reviewing what would soon be her station, but she didn't want to get in the way of the maintenance crew. So, putting it off until later, she walked down the flank of the bridge toward the captain's ready room, straightened her uniform, and sounded the chime.

The sound of the door chime echoed softly throughout the room and caught Lirha's attention. "Enter." the captain called out quietly, then adjusted herself in her chair and turned her attention towards the door, wondering who was outside. It could have been any number of personnel, and she had had several visitors over the past hours, all wanting permission from her for one thing or another.

Maenad looked over her shoulder before stepping through the door. She clenched her jaw once and pressed her lips, to 'refresh' her face to its usually neutral expression. She pressed the button for the door to open and walked inside. For a second she was confused, thinking she was in the wrong place. The Nova's ready room was very different from a Sabre's, her last assignment. The captain was sitting behind her desk.

"Maenad Panne reporting in, captain." She said, adjusting her bag's shoulder strap.

Lirha took in the sight of the blue-collared officer in front of her. Her tall and slim appearance was striking, and Lirha noticed her pair of beautiful green eyes which complimented her black hair and pale skin tone. A quick look at the woman's collar revealed that she held the rank of lieutenant junior grade, and the captain motioned towards a vacant seat across from her. "Hello, lieutenant." she said politely with a friendly smile, "At ease...please, have a seat. Do you have your orders with you?" she asked, waiting for the woman to produce a PADD for her to look at.

Maenad retrieved the PADD with her transfer orders from her bag. She looked at it for a second to make sure it was the right one before passing it to the orion Captain Saalm. She quickly glanced at her skin, afraid that staring might give the wrong impression. It was just that never before had she the opportunity to see an orion in the flesh. Maenad put her bag down on the floor beside the empty chair and took a seat, crossing her legs. "I was told that I was being reassigned here this morning," she said. "They said a new exploration ship needed a science chief." She wanted to know how the ship had been so badly damaged, but knew that the information would come on its own if only she were patient.

Reaching out with her hand, the captain took the PADD from the woman and set it down on the table before looking back towards the newly-assigned science chief, nodding simply in understanding. "So you are Lieutenant Barel's replacement?" she asked, before continuing without waiting for an answer, "Yes, we are in need of a new Chief Science Officer...our last one has recently become with child, and she just transferred off Galileo." she explained. "Although I admit, I didn't think a replacement would be available on such short notice." she added with a glint of approval in her green eyes.

"Neither did I," Maenad replied. "I'm just coming from an archaeology conference at the Vulcan Science Academy. I thought I'd be teaching for at least another year before finding myself out in space again." She gnawed at her bottom lip. "I'm-- I was-- beginning a study into the origins of modern vulcan culture as based on ancient vulcan mythology, particularly from the teachings and interpretations of the philosopher Surak. Surak's teachings, you'll find, were very much, well..." She paused for a moment to think of how to word what would come next, but stopped herself. She was beginning to ramble. "I'm sorry," Maenad smiled, flushing a little, before going on. "I wasn't expecting an assignment so soon, either. I'm glad to be here."

Lirha slowly nodded. It was always a good sign to have officers aboard the ship who actually looked forward to their deployments, as opposed to a select few who saw them as a burden. And it was especially reassuring to have a new science chief who enjoyed her work, and took the initiative to travel to various summits and conferences to further her studies and teachings. "Well, I'm happy to have a new science officer aboard." she replied. "Tell me a little about your previous postings." she said, hoping the woman would give her a bit of insight into her past duties. The information was all contained in the PADD along with the transfer orders, Lirha assumed, but she preferred to hear people explain their story in their own words.

Talking about herself wasn't something that Maenad enjoyed. She was perfectly comfortable talking about things she knew about, but when it came to herself it always came out drab and boring. "Well," she said finally, "For the past eight months I've been teaching at the Academy." She was looking at the captain's desk, thinking. "Before that I was on the USS Crane, a Sabre class, where I was the chief science officer. We were posted along the Cardassian border; we spent a lot of time in the Badlands."

Maenad hesitated about mentioning her meddling into Starfleet Intelligence, but decided that she ought to. Whatever she said would later be verified in her file. "After a year on the Crane, because of my expertise in archaeology and palaeontology, Starfleet Intelligence requisitioned me to infiltrate a facility on Cardassia Prime known to be holding stolen artefacts from Bajor during the occupation." She raised her eyes to Captain Saalm. "I got them back, but I really don't like talking about it," she said with a terse smile.

"That's quite alright, I'm sure I could dig up the details if necessary." she said with a wry grin, then folded her hands in her lap and changed the subject. "So is this your first time aboard a Nova Class vessel?" she asked. A Saber Class frigate was of similar size to Galileo, but there were more than a few things about Novas which made them substantially different.

"Yes," Maenad nodded. "My first two starship postings were both Reliants. The Zebra, my first posting, I was a science officer and personal assistant to the assistant department chief; and the Ocean, where I was the assistant chief. I spent a combined three years on them before transferring to the Crane." Her reprimands on both of those assignments were fully explained on her record. If the captain wanted to talk to her about them, she could; Maenad didn't want to get off on a bad start. "This is my first time aboard a Nova - it's definitely the most advanced ship I've ever been on."

"She's the fleet's newest of her class, just commissioned several weeks ago." the captain replied with a bit of pride in her voice. "I think you will be quite happy with our laboratory and cartography facilities...they are state-of-the-art, but we unfortunately lack some of the amenities of larger starships." she added, referring to the lack of recreational areas aboard Galileo.

"That's alright with me. I studied the schematics and facilities on my way here." Maenad said. "I admit I dozed off a few times; I haven't had a good sleep for a few days with all this travelling." It was time to do a little prodding of her own. "What sort of work do you expect we'll be doing? The ship doesn't look like it's just come home from a routine nebula study."

Lirha absentmindedly rubber her sore shoulder where the torture device had torn through her flesh. She didn't want to go into the details of Galileo's previous mission, but also didn't want to keep one of her new officers in the dark. "The details of our previous mission are classified, Level 10 access only, I'm afraid. But needless to say, we ran into a bit of trouble inside the Beta Quadrant. It appears that Starfleet's relationship with the Klingon Empire is turning sour, and we were on the receiving end of a rather demanding and belligerent general." she explained, choosing her words carefully. "I'm not sure what the future holds for us but I expect Starfleet will be sending us back out onto the frontier as soon as we're ready."

The captain's words sent a chill up Maenad's spine. She felt her eyebrows raise only slightly, in the way that they did when she heard worrying news. Back to the frontier? The frontier of research and exploration? Or whatever it was that had left the ship looking the way it did? She didn't sign up for this, she thought to herself. There was a sudden tightness in the middle of her chest that crept its way up her throat. If she knew Captain Saalm better, Maenad would have started complaining and demanding answers, but she didn't. "I see," was all that she could say after a brief pause.

Picking up the PADD containing Maenad's Starfleet file, Lirha proceeded to skim through it, and several long moments of silence passed as she scrolled down with her thumb through the service record and took note of her former CO's comments. She looked up briefly at the science officer with a raised eyebrow before turning her attention back towards the file. "It seems you've gotten yourself into a bit of trouble in the past..." she commented quietly as she read through a couple insubordination citations.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CMDR Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

LT (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

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