Executive Officer's Advice

Posted on 13 Feb 2013 @ 1:15pm by Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D.
Edited on on 13 Feb 2013 @ 9:16pm

2,664 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 2 - Executive Officer's Quarters
Timeline: MD -02 1930 hours

[ON]

Looking at the door infront of her, Pola started to wonder why precisely Jonathan was always located in his quarters. Moved a hand across her head, she straightened the French knot at the back of her head before straightening her jacket.

Going over in her head, Pola realised she really needed some advise and Jonathan had been the first person to pop into her mind. Cyrus was the second, but she didn't feel it appropriate to discuss this with him. Pressing the chime, she wanted for an answer.

Reclined on the sofa, with a PADD in hand, Jonathan Holliday may as well have been permanently preserved in this pose, as it was the one that he always seemed to have adopted moments before someone decided they required his attention. Closing down the latest reports from Security, John called out to his would-be guest.

"It's open. Come in."

As the doors slid open, Pola realised that she was chewing on the side of her lip, a habit which portrayed her nerves. Moving far enough into the room to allow the doors to slide closed behind her, she cleared her throat before talking in a small voice. "Commander. Would you have a moment? I kinda need some advice."

The accented voice of their Irish doctor was enough to pull John back into the more social world of the Galileo, quickly closing down the datascreen on his PADD and depositing it on the sofa beside him.

"Of course Doctor...or should I say Lieutenant Commander now? Congratulations."

Blushing slightly, Pola had to resist the urge to press her fingers to the pips in her collar. The new rank was part of her reason got being here and questioning if she'd just misused it. "Sir...If I tell you some things can you give your absolute word that it will go no further not will you take any action unless I say it's ok?"

John sat up straight in response to the question, it was of course his duty to ensure that any information passed to him was held in confidence unless of the utmost importance and would require passing onto the captain. Needless to say, his position was one of great trust, and an officer asking him to maintain a level of secrecy was something that would have been expected of any Executive Officer.

"You have my word Doctor. Anything passed to me by a member of this crew is held in confidence - you know that."

Continuing to chew her lip, Pola knotted her fingers together continually behind her back. Jonathan had never given her reason to doubt him before and she sincerely hoped that he wouldn't now.

"A number of days ago there was an incident which was kept out of all reports as myself and counseling are handling the situation and given I was the..." Pola tried to figure out a word which fit, "...Um...I was the person who was in danger, I chose not to push it any further or press charges."

This more than certainly now had John's complete and undivided attention. The look on Pola's face was enough to let him know that something had happened which had either embarrassed her, or worse, led to some degree of harm. Immediately the XO snapped into his First Officer mindset.

"Could you...explain? Please, have a seat."

Pausing for a moment, Pola picked a stand alone chair which she was able to pull over so as to be able to face Jonathan. "See...the advice I need is surrounding a situation which has occurred following this incident. Our new intern bore witness and now holds...a hatred against the person. I tried to create a situation for them to try resolve this in a neutral environment of the intern doing our colleagues medical. Needless to say...the situation again turned bad."

Whilst John could appreciate that Pola was doing her best to state exactly what had happened in as short and as succinct a way as possible, if anything it was simply making him more and more confused.

"Lieutenant Commander...please....just speak plainly. Names, events, these things all matter. I can't advise you if I don't know what I'm giving advice on."

Leaning forward in her seat, Pola rested her arms along the length of her thighs as she tried to rethink the events, trying to ensure that she got this right.

"Ok...Lieutenant Stone came into sickbay about three days ago for a repeat prescription. At the time, myself and Doctor Wilson were present aswell as Crewman Jordan whom Wilson was looking after." Moving a hand, Pola pinched the bridge of her nose. "I had called Wilson over for an observation as Jeremy started to become aggressive. I was refusing to refil his prescription until I had sat down and talked to him, not wanting to just hand out drugs without knowing the person I was giving them too."

At this point Pola went quiet as the doubts she thought she'd dealt with cane back. She never blamed Jeremy for what happened, it was always her fault when she thought back.

"At this point Jeremy tried to leave sickbay in an extremely aggressive and agitated state so I wasn't happy for him to leave. I ordered that sickbay be shutdown and he be removed from duty until such a time as the situation was settled. I moved Jessica and her patient to my office to safety at which point Jeremy destabilised. Eventually leading to him pulling a phaser on me."

"A phaser?"

Jonathan's eyes went wide at the mention of the words, was it really true that a member of his crew had pulled a phaser on another officer simply because they didn't agree with their colleague's opinions? Had he heard of this sooner then the XO would have been able to take action.

"And you chose not to press charges?"

Nodding her head, Pola looked down at her hands. "I have a funny feeling Jessica doesn't agree with me on that but it was me he held the phaser on so she doesn't have a say in the matter...I can't explain why but I don't want to go down the route of charges. He had issues getting an appointment with counselling which I feel was detrimental to his..." Pola paused as she tried to think how to put this, "...to his switch being flipped. I've put in a strong commendation to counselling that they fix this and he's already secured an appointment."

"Very well...in which case there is little else I can do until if and when Counselling return a verdict on the Lieutenant's state of mind and whether or not he is fit for duty. However if you feel that you are unsafe within Sickbay I can always have Security assigned to the medical bays that are under instruction to report directly to me?"

John didn't like the idea of overriding another department head, and if anything it left a rather bitter taste in his mouth. Bypassing immediate superiors usually ended up causing a dispute within a department, and pulling rank was something that the XO tried to avoid doing unless absolutely necessary.

"You..should have come to me straightaway."

Shaking her head, Pola moved a hand to rub her knuckles against her eyes. "What would have been the point? You have department heads for a reason. If I felt he would do it again to somebody else then I have a responsibility to haul you and Carlisle into a meeting but in this instance it was managed."

Feeling a low thumbing beginning in her head, Pola pulled her hand away. "Since the incident he has shown nothing but remorse and has even apologised to both me and Jessica. What has lead me to approach you is the aftermath of this..." Rubbing her fingers across her forehead, she tried to figure out how to put this.

"I seems that my intern is holding grudges against the Lieutenant. All be that noone would hold it against her, it's causing me concerns as in such a small environment, people need to be able to forgive and move on. The Lieutenant offered her a sincere apology, which I bore witness to but I also bore witness to her performing his medical and her lack of respect for the man showing through. I've tried talking to her but I get the feeling that this is something she stands set on refusing to move on from."

"She wouldn't be the first one to be holding a grudge against Mr Stone. He seems to have earned some sort of fleet record for pissing off the maximum number of crew members in the shortest possible space of time."

"But it's different in her case." Pushing her face into her hands, Pola started to wonder if this had perhaps been a bad idea. Herself and Jonathan had spoken before on their different views of each's roles and lives, perhaps he wouldn't understand. "You're a Starfleet officer first and foremost, you pride that above everything else including your personal life." Moving her hands, Pola clasped them between her legs before looking over at Jonathan.

"We are no different as Doctors. We have patients to care for, people to heal and that comes before anything else. What do I do if Jeremy presents himself in a situation where his life is under threat and he needs medical intervention." At this point, Pola took a breath as she realised how much she was saying, giving Jonathan opportunity to let the information sink in before continuing.

"Jessica showed me today that she can't put her feelings aside for a basic medical, the ground work to establish the state of a patient so we can judge correctly if something changes. How do I trust that she will push all feelings aside and save Jeremy's life if ever it needs to be done? I can't be there to referee them all of the time."

Rubbing his hand against his chin, the XO tried to contemplate what exactly he would do in that same position. Humans, like any other species were able to make judgements and rash decisions at the drop of a hat, but when it came to the survival of the ship as a whole, he hoped that nobody would put their personal feelings first.

"That's the risk we take serving in a Command position. Those underneath us might not always act in a way that we see as appropriate, but we have to find a way to rationalise it wherever possible. I'd like to hope that in a situation that was either life or death, no member of this crew would willingly choose to let another person die."

Smiling slightly, Pola closed her eyes for a moment before looking back over at Jonathan. "I don't feel she would ever intentionally allow someone to due just because of her feelings, I just fear that those feelings could blur how she views things and cause hesitances."

Sitting back into the couch, Pola tilted her head back as a sudden exhaustion seemed to engulf her. "But...what do I do in the meantime? Do I formally discipline her for her behaviours at the medical? Even though I spoke to both her and Jeremy, and I went hard on them, is that enough? Am I meant to do more?"

"I try to keep to not disciplining subordinates on the first offense - in my experience a verbal telling off is usually sufficient to get people back in line - perhaps see how the situation progresses?"

Pushign her fingers through her hair, Pola carefully considered Jonathan's words before looking over at him. "And if that doesn't work?"

John sat forward in his chair and gathered his hands together into his lap, before chuckling and pointing towards the entrance to his quarters.

"If that doesn't work...well I won't put the doors on lockdown any time soon...it's always open."

As her fingers moved to the new pip on her collar, Pola's fingers casually caressed it before she pulled back. "Can I ask you something I think you'll understand...I know that nothing's changed, I'm still a department head but I'm just of higher rank but...it feels like I've so much more responsibility on my shoulders, more than I've ever had before."

"Welcome to the senior ranks." John replied, smirking and saluting limply with one hand in a casual joke. They had gone through the exact same situation the last time that Pola had been promoted, and the XO knew that it would definitely happen at least one more time.

"On this ship? Nothing has to change. You're still our CMO, you just have a different title, same as me, I'm still the XO, just with a different pip."

Laughing slightly, Pola moved to the edge of her chair. "Perhaps...What age were you when you made Lieutenant Commander, if I may ask?"

"I was assigned that rank when I was 31 years old - right before I transferred out onto the New Orleans to assist with the Romulan relief missions, and right after I finished teaching at the Academy. Why the sudden curiosity in my file Doc?"

Pushing herself away from the couch, Pola stretched for a moment before looking back down at the man behind her. "You like to distance yourself from the crew when truthfully you're a good guy. This isn't the first time you've helped me when I've had nowhere else to turn. I guess I'm trying to tease you out a bit more."

"My opinion is a First Officer is here to maintain discipline and transfer the authority of the captain to the lower ranked members of this crew. If I started getting friendly with everyone then that would impede my ability to command in an impartial manner."

John knew that Pola wasn't the first one to mention to him that he could be a little closed off when it came to giving a straight answer about anything personal, but that was simply his command style.

"The day I compromise my impartiality is the day I get someone hurt, or worse."

Studying Jonathan for a moment as her face portrayed her seriousness, Pola warred for a moment with saying what next came to mind but decided she'd nothing to loose.

"Perhaps, but the man seated in this room with me today is different to the man whom I first meet three months ago. Even in that small amount of time you've changed, and part of that change is how you see the view us, the people around you."

"That might be....but don't let any of the junior crew figure that one out. if anyone knew I was going soft in my old age they might decide to take advantage...I'm still the hard-assed XO until I say otherwise, understood?"

John knew that arguing was pointless - he himself knew that he was no longer as brash and demeaning as he might have been when he first stepped aboard. Working on the Galileo had taught him the benefit of patience, and this ship was finally, at long last, beginning to feel like home.

Smiling slightly, Pola shrugged her shoulder. "You always could trust me with your secrets, that hasn't changed now. What has changed though is I had better get going. I need to stop into sickbay before grabbing food."

"Don't let me stop you Doctor. Carry on." John replied with a nod, giving his officer permission to leave even if she had been the one to come to him, and this was certainly not any sort of official meeting.

With a small smile, Pola left the quarters of her boss, a lot more now for her to think over and consider compared to when she'd first arrived.

[OFF]

Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

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