Mess Hall Meeting

Posted on Sat Aug 14th, 2021 @ 9:32am by Lieutenant Aiko Kiroshi & Lieutenant Anthony Edwards Ph. D

2,475 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: The Silent Scream
Location: Mess hall

ON:

Aiko found a place in the busy mess hall. First shift after getting her clearances finally. The morning was busy as hell. She found that, at least by her standards, Engineering had been neglected. The morning was spent creating a to do list and organizing it in order of importance. The afternoon would be spent cleaning and fixing the waster reclamation unit. Perhaps not the best thing to do after lunch but... it needed doing.

Anthony knew there had been a new Chief Engineer had been assigned recently, he was distracted as he wandered through the mess hall. He had been feeling hungry for a few hours and his stomach was the chief distraction. He grabbed a hot coffee an apple juice and a bowl of Pasta. As he was lining up he saw a new head with a closely cropped head of hair. That must be the new Chief Engineer I should introduce myself. He thought as his mind snapped back to semi alertness.

Aiko reviewed the PaDD in front of her as she wolfed down her sandwich. She mumbled as she read.

Anthony followed Aiko to the table and heard her muttering to herself and said as she approached her Table, "Lieutenant Kiroshi I presume? I'm Anthony the Chief Science Officer, I thought I would take the time to say hello and welcome to the Wolff!"

Aiko looked up. After the Glory she was still a bit jumpy with crew pretending to be nice. "Kiroshi, Aiko. Thank you for the welcome." There was an awkward pause before Aiko motioned for the man to sit.

Anthony could feel the nerves, and tried not to fill too much of the conversation but took a seat. "So I was right your the new Chief Engineer?"

"Yeah, just came on with the XO but was finishing my leave, the tail end of it."

"I am sure you'll be fine you just need to settle in. I am sure once your team understand how you like your team to work they'll be running like clockwork in no time." Anthony said with a smile as he sipped at his apple juice.

"Yes...the team. There are some that are trainable and others that...well frankly are not, they'll be offloaded next dock."

"We all go through times when we winnow out the wheat from the chaff or pull them up from their bootstraps to get a better performance from our teams to make the ship stronger as a whole." Anthony said with another smile. "I was lucky when I arrived the ship went into a long term refit and I was graced with a long term Scientist and then picked up a civilian Theoretical Engineering scientist. Everyone else was brand new on the ship after the upgrades."

She raised her eyebrow in Vulcan like fashion. "That first part was very philosophical...you sound like one of my old friends who passed away not long ago. Galatea."

"There might be a reason for that Aiko, If you don't mind me calling you that. Your friend Galatea was the Doctor that cleared me for service on the Wolff. In fact, she died in the science labs and it affected me deeply. Her head nurse Hunter gave me the miniature figurines which she treasured." Anthony said with a smile.

"Actually I prefer Kiroshi." Aiko sighed. "Yes I know she died. I was at the ceremony held on Betazed to honour her. I guess you knew Hunter too then."

"I can deal with Kiroshi, at least it is a name which is better than lieutenant all the time, you say that in a crowded room like this and you get twenty people turning to look at you. Yes, I knew Hunter, for about the first month I was going to challenge him for Galatea's affection, she was a very beautiful woman. It was soon very obvious, well to me at least that was never going to work for any one of the three of us, so I bowed out gracefully. She obviously was very glad I did because she gave me her figurines as I said before." Anthony said "Was it a nice service for them? I was too busy out here to get to it."

"Yeah, Gali would have hated it, she wasn't about these big ceremonies and the waxing about her." Aiko smiled a little. "Hunter...well his was a month later. He brought her home, saw to her service and died of a broken heart a month later. Sad but I have a feeling they're finally together."

"Either that or I bet he is still chasing her! It doesn't surprise me that a broken heart was what killed him because he was a broken man before they left for Betazed. I hope he got his wish to be with her. It only seems right!" Anthony said with a nod.

She smiled. "Yeah Gali was a piece of work I don't know anyone who didn't have a crush on her, myself included." Aiko sighed. "Okay listen we should have a formal sit down. I run my Engineering with Science. Sometimes you guys need the techy stuff and we need the theory so I figure we better come up with a cooperation plan."

"I get the feeling that she might have been more interested in you. Though I think it was also just because she liked to be busy. I am happy to have my team too work with your team, in fact outside the other sciences Engineering is someone everyone needs to work with, Operations as well, as the minor fix-it men of Starfleet. You would have loved HG she was the Theoretical Engineering scientist that I was telling you about when I first sat down. She would have understood more how to help you get more efficiency out of the engines. I'm more the Linguist that added Cartography and a few other sciences to make me a better Star finder for Starfleet or I would have had almost no chance to get into the Chief's seat on the bridge." Anthony with a smile and continued with "That said a formal sit down is a good idea, we can work out how the Sciences can help Engineering and vice versa."

"Great! Invite this HG lady too." Aiko studied him. "So what's the ship like?" it was a way to get some info on the ship.

"Well you see as a civilian she shipped off at the end of the mission before our last one, I would love to have her back at the drop of a hat. She made understanding engineers difficult, But as a scientist that isn't an engineering scientist the two of you would have known exactly what each of you was talking about. I expect if you ever chatted the two of you would need to dumb it down for me. I mean I can fluently speak twelve languages but outside getting the mix of Matter and Antimatter wrong makes for a big boom, and how to run a diagnostics to compile a list of what needs fixing and an order of need and you'll have me scratching my head. She made a Phased Cloaking device where you don't actually need an Isolation suit. That said you did have to be in this plain to interact with anything like door switches and the transporter so it isn't perfect." Anthony said.

"Fascinating," She wondered if the woman would try to butt into Engineering. She'd handle that if it happened. "Well then when she's aboard."

“HG can be interesting at times, she doesn’t completely trust Starfleet.” Anthony almost felt what Kiroshi was thinking and said “She will give you good scientific knowledge but she will leave command of your team completely up to you.”

"Good, then we won't have problems." Kiroshi studied him. "So tell me about the ship."

"Well, it is a Luna class three hundred and fifty crew. She is an explorer with impulse warp and slipstream drive but as an Engineer but I guess you already knew that. What would you like to know?"

"Not the physical ship the crew, the atmosphere...that kind of thing."

"Ah well, the atmosphere on the bridge is fairly relaxed. The Captain likes to use First names, which of course is her privilege. Obviously, we are always very professional, but then again what would you expect from Starfleet. Below decks, it is almost like an extended family, so long as we all accept we all have our area's of expertise and stick to those working as a family is a good thing. Depending on whether Galatea contacted you and what she talked about it I think you could have gotten that from subspace message from friends." Anthony said. It was good to be talking to a friend of Galatea. It wasn't exactly the same but it was like he was talking to a dearly missed friend again, even though who he was talking to was a complete stranger before their own introductions.

"She didn't talk much about the ship. She was an odd one. She liked to talk about art and other stuff. "

"Actually now that you say that it does seem more like her and Hunter not to be overly enthused to blab about work. Don't get me wrong, she was a great doctor and counsellor and he was a very good nurse, but they were always rather hush hush about work. it was like trying to pull teeth if you weren't working with them at the time to get information from them about their work in medical." Anthony said.

She laughed, "Yeah. Not the most communicative but both good people."

"I have probably spoken more to you today than I actually spoke to either of them that wasn't of their choosing and those topics were never about work, unless I forced it, by catching them in the sickbay." Anthony said with a gentle laugh.

"Yeah I hear ya." She scrubbed a hand down her face. "Can I ask you an off the record question?"

"Feel free it's your nickel! Sorry sometimes I wonder why I didn't go into Psychology, though they are about the only people slower promoted slower the Linguists are psychologists and padres. By that I mean feel free it's lunchtime." Anthony said.

"Tell me about the CO. I had a questionable run in with her and I'm on the fence about... liking that one."

Anthony was interested to see what she wanted to know but now knew Galatea really hadn’t spoken much outside of school so to speak, so asked “What would you like to know. Did Galatea tell you she was a blood-sucking vampire?” He knew the Japanese had scary stories about Kitsune from his conversations with James Sulu a fiercely true Japanese chef on board but knew Galatea probably hadn’t called the captain a vampire. “She is a thoroughly respectable commanding officer and for those close to her a true friend. Closer than that she is a good mother and daughter at the same time.”

"Hmmmm she seems to not like the truth. I told her three of my engineers were blithering idiots, she took offense." Shrugging Aiko finished her drink. "Oh well. As they say an Engineer is only free talking to their engines." She studied Anthony. "So what are the amenities on this ship like?"

"Indulge me a moment if you will, You're a commanding officer of a starship and a brand new Chief Operations Officer joins your crew and immediately tells you three of the people that you have commanded for however many years are idiots. How do you think you would feel?" Anthony could see both points he had weeded out some of the non-functional officers and crewmen in his department. "As to how are the Luna class amenities, we're not a galaxy-class so smaller than they would be but larger than the sabre or defiant class. The lounge is a reasonable place to relax."

She gave a nod, "If I'm the commanding officer I would ask for proof, which I have provided to the XO and I would trust my Chief. As for lounge...I'm not a lounge person. I more prefer holodecks and gyms."

"Yes well remember in this purely hypothetical, sorry sometimes I can't separate myself from being completely scientific so I deal with a lot of hypothetical scenarios, but it this one let's say that new Operations Chief is a brand spanking new to the ship and hasn't yet had the time to settle in yet and get to know the crew as you do yet, maybe just maybe it isn't that she doesn't like the truth, maybe it is all in the delivery. Packaging something in a diplomatic way could make all the difference because she gets the truth from all the chiefs." Anthony said with a smile before he changed to the topic of the amenities. "The Gym and holodecks are again smaller than a Galaxy class vessel but larger than the nonexistent defiant class one so yes there are plenty of places to remain at your physical peak."

"Well that's good, about the fascilities...as for the diplomatic." She snorted. "I don't sugar coat."

Anthony laughed "There is a difference between gently suggesting that you could do with changing your team and sugar coating. It is likely the term idiot, that she disliked If you had maybe said that you would be assessing the team for their abilities and may suggesting some changes rather than calling three of them idiots, because people that finished their cadetship and Uni degree that goes along with it certainly aren't idiots."

"Idiot was Engineering Command Term when I sent the results of my test." She shrugged. "Anyway I don't do diplomatic speak."

She sighed. "Well I should go, I have a few more things to take care of." She studied him. "Good to meet you Edwards."

"You to Kiroshi." Anthony said as he shook his head and added as she got ready to head back to work, "I am sure you'll fit in, eventually, though I think Idiot is more a lecturers term that people out amongst the stars don't really have the luxury to have. We kind of have to work out a way to work around those that aren't as effective and lift them to pull their weight."

"There's always the airlock." She grinned and then headed out.

"I suppose you're right there is always the brig or maybe Captain Tigran will support tit for tat and use the same airlock! I'm sure she might even draw up a court-martial for you before she sentences you to death." Anthony said this time he didn't smile.

Off:

Lieutenant Anthony Edwards
Chief Science Officer

&

Lieutenant Aiko Kiroshi
Chief Engineer

USS Wolff

 

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