A New Arrival

Posted on 17 Mar 2012 @ 7:19am by Captain Jonathan Holliday & Ensign Im'er Mor'an

1,993 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 00 - Pre-Deployment
Location: USS Galileo - XO's Office
Timeline: MD04 - 1700hrs

From the window of his office, John busied himself watching as workbees, maintenance workers, and engineers crawled over every inch of the virtually-completed skin of the Galileo. This vessel had been in the works for months, evolving from nothing more than a requisition order to begin construction from Fleet HQ, to the gleaming metallic shell that stood here today.
Nodding to the sight ahead of him, the Commander returned to his desk, faced with a never ending pile of paperwork that was going to take more than a few hours for him to sort out, in fact, he highly doubted he was going to be finished here until launch day. Sadly, before he had the opportunity to lose himself in the next piece of documentation that crossed his path, the personal access terminal that made up the bulk of his desk began to flash with a sequence of numbers that he had not seen for some time, demanding his attention.

Settling back into his chair, John entered his authorisation code to identify the source of the transmission.

"Starfleet Command huh? I wonder what they want?" He muttered to himself as he confirmed the signature of the message was indeed as he had expected. Sighing gently, John punched in the final code sequence, and the familiar Starfleet emblem was replaced by the face of an Admiral he had met several times before.

"Admiral Keyes, long time no see" John spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. The grey haired human admiral was one of the officers that he had frequently butted heads with during his tenure at the Academy, finding himself having to explain his teaching methods a dozen times just to get his syllabus approved.

"Mr Holliday...I see your reassignment hasn't tarnished your sense of pride." The admiral retorted in his own arrogant way. The similarity in their personalities had served to be a constant source of kindling for the fire that often threatened to consume both of them when an argument took hold.

"Guilty as charged sir. To what do I owe the pleasure?" The Commander did not want this to last a moment longer than was strictly necessary.

"Certainly not a social call Commander, I'm here to give you new orders. Now before you start blurting out arguments, be quiet, thats an order."

The Admiral stopped John in his tracks, giving him nothing else to do but sit back and wait for his orders. Keyes reached across his desk, somewhere out of sight of the communications screen, and retrieved a small PADD, thumbing the controls for a moment and reading the words that appeared.

"We're giving you a special assignment. Red Squad are preparing to churn out their next batch of cadets, a damn fine class, but they haven't had any real world experience. After careful deliberation, Command has decided to begin assigning the more...adept...cadets to serving starships, so that they can learn from experience officers."

John coughed for a moment, trying to take in that Starfleet was essentially sending children out into the fleet without any real input from the officers already in the field. John knew full well from his time as an instructor that these cadets certainly still had plenty to learn.

"We're assigning Cadet Mor'an to you Commander, she was in your class for Advanced Combat Tactics, you yourself were one of the officers that recommended her for Red Squad, or have you forgotten already?"

"No sir" John quipped back "I'm well aware of the actions I took as an Instructor....what exactly are you expecting of me? With all due respect sir, I'm not a babysitter."

"And you aren't expected to be Holliday! Don't get smart with me, you always had a problem following my orders. Your job will be to help prepare her for life as an officer, take her under your wing as it were, teach her command procedures, methods, tactics, then report back to Red Squad commanders as necessary."

"But sir I don't have time for--" The admiral quickly interjected, stopping John before any argument could even begin.

"Now don't even try that one John, anyway, she's already aboard your vessel, I believe she met with your Captain a few hours ago - don't make me pull rank here, you know I will. I'll expect a report from you within 48 hours. Keyes out."

And with that, the channel ended, the Starfleet emblem reappearing on the screen. Gritting his teeth, John thumped the panel in outrage, taking the system out of communication mode. He was outraged that he had already been given more duties when the ones he already had were taking up so much of his time. And for the fleet commanders to go behind his back and assign him extra duties before even considering his feelings was in his opinion, betrayal. There was quite literally nothing he could do.

Sighing, he rubbed his face with his hands, glad that at least he had been sent a student that he had actually spent some time with, and approved of, rather than some fresh first year cadet with a mouth too big for their boots. Slapping his combadge, John decided to get this over and done with sooner rather than later.

=/\= Holliday to Im'er....report to my office Cadet, on the double =/\= He was well aware of the naming system of the Tarkannans, and even after a brief stay on Bajor some years ago, he still had to remember to get the order correct.

Mor'an tapped her combadge. =/\=Aye, sir. I am on my way.=/\= She had just met with Captain Saalm mere hours before, and now she was headed to meet her former tutor from the Academy. His order to come to his office had been clipped and direct -- it sounded as though he had just learned of her presence. Arriving at the door of his office, Mor'an didn't press the door chime right away. How was he going to receive her? He remembered her, but to what extent? Pushing the thoughts aside her pressed the chime.

From the comfort of his desk, John lifted his head and for the millionth time to day, put down the PADD he was working on to pay attention to the door that seemed to permanently be trying to make sure that he had no choice but to deflect himself away from the work he so desperately wanted completed.

"Come in" He called out, simultaneously tapping the door release panel built onto his desk, watching the gap grow between the two door sections as the outline of the cadet he had summoned appeared.

"Cadet, take a seat." He spoke in a tone that was reminiscent of his days as an Academy instructor, direct and to the point, it was something that he felt worked well with the younger members of Starfleet, with a sound of authority in the voice, it was harder for them to decide to do something other than what they were instructed to do.

Mor'an silently greeted the XO with a hand gesture before sitting in the seat opposite his desk.

"I just had Command on the line saying you've been assigned to my ship as part of some new Red Squad training system...you're lucky you did so well in my class otherwise I'd have having the transporter chief send you right back to the Academy...so...do you think you're ready for this?"

Not fazed by Holliday's abrupt manner, Mor'an simply smiled at him. "Would I be sitting in front of you if I thought otherwise?" she asked in return. "Remember, it was you who recommended me for Red Squad."

"Good answer Cadet" John said, a smile starting to take shape across his face, even with the stress of getting this ship off the ground, he had not forgotten some of the pluckier members of his class, the cadet in front of him certainly qualifying to be included in that group. She had certainly impressed him during his tenure at the Academy, and he did indeed remember having a word or two with the Red Squad intake panel to make sure she was on the list of candidates.

"How has Red Squad treated you? I remember telling you when I applied for your place that it was going to be a challenge."

"It was nothing I could not handle," Mor'an said, "I grew up with challenges, and Red Squad is a welcome reminder of my childhood training. When I was told you were to oversee my training on board the Gallileo, I was very pleased that you even remembered me. It has been some time since I was your student."

"Indeed...I left the Academy rather sooner than I had originally planned...the Commandant and I didn't exactlys eye to eye on a few matters, but that's all in the past now. Well, from what information I've gleaned from HQ, I need to get you up to speed in Starship command procedures, tactical operations, Bridge behaviour, things of that nature...do you have any questions before we proceed?"

"Not as of yet," Mor'an replied, settling down into her seat in preparation for the coming lecture.

"Very well, I'll give you the rundown of the situation, so at least you know what's going on. As you know, the Galileo is a Nova class starship, designed for short range scientific and survey missions only. This does not mean that we are not going to be entering into a combat situation - in fact it means that if we do, we are going to find it a much greater challenge, meaning that every single officer on board must work to their best ability"

John turned away from his desk to the large MSD behind his desk, and tapped a few controls, to which the image of the Nova-class vessel rotated to a top-down view, and began to display its defensive and offensive systems, highlighted in white against the standard Starfleet gold background.

"Although you might be here to learn command routines and procedures, I will still expect you to show the same flare and ability for tactical situations that you showed in my classes. I want you to make sure you are familiar with our tactical systems before we leave drydock, and i recommend you take a look at the helm as well - we all have to be flexible in an emergency."

Turning back to the monitor, he entered a few more commands, and the image returned to its earlier, still version, without any major systems highlighted.

"We launch at midnight tomorrow - I would like to see you on the Bridge for the launch - that way I can introduce you to the rest of the senior staff before we get too far away from Earth - you won't be able to learn much if nobody knows who you are except me and the CO"

Mor'an nodded in agreement. "I would like to be present for the launch." She hesitated before asking the question that had presented itself to her when Holliday had mentioned the senior staff. "How will the other officers respond to my presence? What do they think of a tenderfoot cadet being part of the crew?"

"to be honest, I'm not entirely sure....I imagine for most of them, they'll be obliged to follow orders, especially with Commander Saalm and I keeping an eye on you...my advice is to watch everything and learn as much as you can. We have some excellent officers on board and you should pick up plenty from them. If anyone gives you trouble, report the, back to me and I'll step in. Now if there's nothing else Cadet, you have a lot if studying to do, and I have a lot of work to finish"

"Aye, sir," Mor'an said, gaining her feet, "Thank you for everything you have done for me."

"Just don't let me down Cadet. Dismissed."

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