Tentative Steps

Posted on Sun Jun 11th, 2023 @ 3:34pm by Captain Iy'dan Brell & Lieutenant Commander Conall Rovaris & Lieutenant JG Ace Tidebreaker & Vincent Sinclair & Addison Talbert MD & Fiona "Fee" Maccafferty PhD & Commander Ila Emeris & Lieutenant Commander Galaa

3,111 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Begin Again
Location: Observation Lounge

ON

The day had been wearing on as they travelled to their destination and Iy'dan was keenly aware that the crew was new, in many cases wet behind the ears with the exception of himself and Commander Emeris. He was leading them into a situation that required a slick operation, understanding of one another which would normally come with years of working with each other. He had only a few meagre hours to try and start developing that within his team.

To that end he was just placing the finishing touches to a buffet, an assortment of finger foods from the home worlds of each of the senior officers, pitchers of liquids both fruity and sweet and some gentle jazz music playing in the background. Was he trying to much... Probably but all the same he felt it was needed.

He stood back from the table, now devoid of chairs and a more than impressive spread waiting. Now he just needed to see who would attend as he had made it a completely optional attendance. He was just contemplating who might arrive first when the doors behind him slipped open.

Fiona appeared next; the diminutive redhead wearing her half-sized too big purple uniform. She wasn't Starfleet, and she wasn't used to the pomp and circumstances of it all. She was, however, a very conscientious worker and so when he said be there a 2030, she was THERE at 2029. Her hair was back in a braid, and she wore no makeup-she never really did. With a quiet ring of the chime, she stood to wait for his response. Once received, she opened the pneumatic doors, and peeked in, brown eyes wide with nerves. "'Allo?" She inquired.

Ace was more at ease than she had been when she first met Lt. Commander Ila, but she was still finding her feet in general, so she was a bit nervous about this 'meet and greet'.

"Greetings, Commander, Fee," Ace chirped softly as she walked in, glancing around at the spread appreciatively.

"Lieutenant" Iy'dan fired back quickly with a cheerful tone. "Help yourself both, mingle, chat, get to know the other senior staff."

Ace nodded and wandered over to a table.

Lieutenant Commander Ila Emeris sighed as she walked toward the entry way to the Geronimo's Observation Lounge, datapad firmly in hand as she approached the decorative doors that had become so common on Starfleet ships for their conference rooms. As an Angosian she was raised from a young age to be a soldier so her movements were precise, calculated as she made her way to the doors. Unfortunately, she was soon to be out of her element. Socialization was not her forte.

Entering the Lounge, she looked around, "Lieutenant Commander Emeris reporting as ordered."

"Relax Commander before you sprain something!" Iy'dan teased as he handed her a glass of replicated red wine quite surprised she was being so formal. He had assumed that the Starfleet personnel would have adapted faster than the Civilian crew to ship board life but he was now wondering if his assumption may have been in error.

"Thank you," she accepted the drink in her hand and looked at it. She was familiar with red wine from her experiences serving in Starfleet. Holding the drink, politely, she scanned the room quickly and noted the arrival of many of Commander Brell's Senior Staff. "It would appear that most are here, Sir. I am gratified that they were able to attend."

"As most are Civilian I thought it best to invite rather than order... I don't know about you but I'm certainly not used to having civilians within the chain of command".Perhaps he had misspoken but if he couldn't trust his own XO then who could he trust.

Just then the door opened, disclosing the arrival of Addison and Vincent. It could be heard that Addison was regaling Vincent about a story. "And then whilst we were getting ready to work on that injured steer, my husband had said, 'And this is when you definitely need to take the bull by the horns and...." Noticing who was there and Addison paused her story. "Hello everyone, this looks great! Hello Captain Brell, Commander Emeris, Lieutenant Tidebreaker, Doctor Maccafferty, nice day isn't it?" off to one side she said to Vincent, "I'll finish the story at a later time"

Ace nodded a greeting as she considered what she wanted to eat and drink.

She walked over to where the buffet set up was and took in a deep breath, "Oh this smells divine and looks fabulous!"

Vincent walked over to where Fee and Ace were at, "How are you two doing?" he also turned to greet Emeris. "Thank you for not booting me off the ship on my arrival." a pleasant smile which turned into a grin.

"Doing pretty good Mr. Sinclair...still finding my feet but mostly settled. How bout you? Hey, wait a minute! Why would we boot you off the ship?" Ace asked as she selected several different types of fruit and a few meats.

"Very well, thanks," she said, her voice slightly above a whisper. "Thank you for inviting me." Civilians hardly ever were.

Vincent then glanced at Iy'dan and gave him a wink.

Fee watched the interaction with a smile. Cute!! She hoped to meet someone interesting out here, too. "Please excuse me," she said, moving to the food. She was nervous, so her first inclination was to eat something, to distract herself, and because she wouldn't otherwise.

"Time to mingle Commander!" Iy'dan spoke softly, encouraging Ila to do the same thing he was hoping the crew would do, get to know each other.

Iy'dan, for his part, moved with ease between the different beings within the room, a small group but still very diverse, until he was standing next to Doctor Maccafferty, having gathered up a small plate of food as he had passed the conference room table.
"Doctor, no need to be a wall flower!"

"No need, but necessary," she said, quietly, but she did move to a far chair to listen.

Unfortunately, the Executive Officer of the Geronimo was not as adept at mingling as the Captain had proven himself to be. As she matured on her world the ability to socialize was not a priority, where as learning how to field strip a phaser rifle was praised. Rather than risk an incident with the crew of the Geronimo, the XO and Acting Security Chief instead decided to take a moment to herself to monitor rather than initiate. As a Starfleet Officer she was taught how to research, perhaps this was the easiest way to fulfil her duties.

Iy'dan had watched Doctor Maccafferty retreat to a corner, his own executive officer also seemed to be taking refuge in her own corner. Lieutenant Tidebreaker was young and eager but at least they seemed personable as was Doctor Talbert. He approached the two as Vincent moved over also.
"Lieutenant, Doctor" taking a long draught of his drink "How are you both settling in?"

"Hi, Commander Iy'dan. Getting there. I'm trying to stay out of trouble...but it seems to follow me like a bad penny!" Ace laughed.

"I am settling in pretty decently." Addison answered. "I do hope you aren't upset at the er surprise" giving a nod towards Vincent.

Vincent just shook his head momentarily. "Things are okay between myself and Iy'dan." he answered with a chuckle.

He looked over at his husband. "Isn't that right Commander?"

"Yes dear, I wouldn't dare disagree with you dear!" Iy'dan shot back with a lopsided grin

Looking over at the Captain as he spoke with Lieutenant Tidebreaker and the Doctor, Emeris knew that she had to do better, that she had to try to be a leader for the crew and not just a wall flower. Noticing that Doctor MacCafferty was off on her own, the XO decided that she would speak with her about her experiences so far on the ship.

"What do you think of the Geronimo, Doctor?" She asked politely as she grabbed a plate of her own.

Fee glanced up. "It's much smaller than DS21." She said. "But the look at the labs I had proves promising." The young Vissian looked down at the table as she spoke quietly. "I look forward to assisting you if you need it. And I am VERY excited to see what we see out here." Her specialty was Astrometrics.

"I'll be honest that I'm not much in the way of looking at the stars," the Angosian XO answered honestly. "I'm more in the habit of blowing things up than exploring them." It probably wasn't the answer that the Science Officer was expecting, and a civilian one at that. Ila had been genuinely shocked that the Commodore had selected so many civilians to take senior roles within the staff and crew of Deep Space 12. Then again, when you were stuck in between a rock and a hard place with finding crew willing to take on such a farflung assignment, sometimes you had to take what you could get. She glanced at the door and saw it opening as she spoke with the Science Specialist.

Fee smiled. "I imagine that most people don't get as geeked out by the stars as I do; I assume by now, most of the crew just sees them as a background over which to work," she replied. "I am the first of my race to serve in the Fleet, and even though I am a civilian, it's quite an honor." She said. "And sometimes...blowing things up is fun. On Vissia, I attended our Science academy for Uni; I actually have a second degree in Explosives Chemistry." She liked to destroy things, as well. "Like...how to blend gunpowder with lead to make things go boom," she explained. "Vissia is a neutral planet, but we ARE neighbors with the Romulans and you can never be too careful." With that, she bit into a piece of food, and nodded once.

"Interesting," the XO filed that information away in her own mental notes. "With the current fate of the Romulan Empire, following the destruction of their star over a decade ago, I can only imagine how stressful such interactions have been for your planet. With the growing number of warlords and vassal states that are claiming ownership of the Empire I am gratified that your world seems to be doing so well."

Fee nodded quietly. "So far, we've managed to co-exist pretty peacefully-we're a docile race, and not space-faring, really, anyway." By "really"-they had an Air Force and Army, but they were mostly for Senatorial things like parades and the like. She shrugged. "Have you met Lt. Tidebreaker?" She asked, desperate to get the attention off of herself.

A call out of the blue and he still jumped to it. Conall had been called to the Observation Lounge, but for what he wasn't not all too sure. He was only recently on board the station and finding his feet there but was slowly getting used the hustle and bustle of station life. He adapted quickly.

Entering the lounge he looked around at the large amount of people and nodded to a few, bowed slightly to others before making his way to the nearest table for a beverage before even starting a conversation with anyone. The amount of civilians on show was quite alarming. Conall didn't question their skills, just found it out of sorts given the nature of the station.

Addison noticed the new arrival recognizing him from the visit to medical. "Ah, hello again Commander Rovaris. Welcome to the er, housewarming party." the CMO motioning for Rovaris to join in the conversation.

"Commander Brell, this is Commander Rovaris, head of security. Then again you already would know this." Addison smiling.

"Actually, I was the one who dragged the Commander on this mission... Right place at the wrong time!" Iy'dan chuckled, smiling at the commander but also sensing eyes watching him and he suspected it was those of Commander Emeris.

"Wrong time." Conall shook his head and smirked. There was always something about the mention of time to an El Aurian that sounded ironic. "I can always come back? Pick the right time?" he asked.

"We are not turning around Commander. You can walk back to the station" the Commander offered tongue in cheek feeling far more comfortable at having more fleet personnel. He also made a mental note to check with the Commodore why he had taken on so many civilians in key positions.

"All I'm saying is... if you point the ship in the right direction and fire me from a torpedo tube I can get back quicker." Conall replied in kind. "I've seen it done... although the man was in his own inertial dampening shielding, and inside an ejection tube." Conall scrunched his nose. "On second thoughts, I'm quite happy here."

"Correct answer Commander!" Iy'dan waved over Ila. "This is Commander Ila Emeris your first officer for this mission.

Fee seized the opportunity to retreat back into the corner. Too much brass in one place made her nervous-and Humans did, too-they were large and loud and generally overbearing. When would the briefing start? Or was this meant to be a social gathering? If it was the latter, she'd need to quickly think up an excuse to leave. Not that these people weren't NICE-there was just too many of them in one place and the Vissian was the nervous, tightly-wound sort.

Vincent had gone quiet, watching the interaction of everyone, he even noted Fee's retreat to a corner. He wandered over to where Fee was at, and quietly took a seat a few paces from her. He glanced at her with a nod, softly he said, "Nice day eh?"

She looked up at him. "I suppose, sir," she said. "I don't spend much time outdoors, really." She preferred the safety and quiet of the lab. "Astrometrics specialist, but I think I'll be serving as the general Science Officer for now," she explained. "Do you like stars? Nebulae? We're promised some lovely light shows over the next week. Come by and check it out." It was the best she could think of off the cuff.

"You can call me Vincent, and that sounds like a good plan I would love to see the stars, I take it too many people right now? Maybe just concentrate on me for now or just close your eyes and think of the stars. " the man was quiet in his speech.

Emeris noticed that the Science Specialist had seemed to step away and, momentarily, wished that she could do the same. She wanted to get back to work as she was never really intended for such informal settings and interactions. She was gratified to see another Security Officer aboard. Nodding in welcome, "I am sure that you'll find your time aboard the Geronimo exciting, Commander."

"Oh I have no doubt, Commander." Conall replied with a smile and a nod. "If not I can always find ways of amusing myself." he looked over at Addison, their date would have to wait... or maybe they could do something on board the Geronimo if time allowed.

Addison feeling the glance of Conall, gave a smile towards him, raising an eyebrow as if to say talk after the meeting?

The Angosian glanced between the new Security Officer and the Doctor. She crossed her arms, "Of that I have no doubt."

"So we're gathered together, and its lovely to meet all of you." Addison spoke up. "And I think I know most everyone's name? At least I do not have a medical tricorder scanning you as we speak." giving a light laugh. "I made certain to leave it in my office, after all this is a meet a greet." giving a grin.

[This is getting interesting] Ace though with a soft snicker as she swirled her drink.

A voice interrupted, "Bridge to the Captain."

Ace nearly spit out her drink at the call!

Fee craned her neck. Things had just gotten interesting. She took a seat back at the table, but still in her corner, where she could scuttle back to the wall, if needed.

"This is Brell, go ahead bridge!" he returned after tapping his own combadge.

"Captain, sensors are detecting a Kessok vessel on approach to us. Closing fast."

Commander Emeris walked toward her Captain, letting the overheard words sink in. They knew that they were going to encounter the Kessok on this mission, but they were nowhere near the Kessok's colony world yet. This could be a randomized patrol or they may have detected the Geronimo underway to them.

"Sorry folks, bridge officers report to stations!"
Iy'dan was already on the move, pointing at Emeris and indicating she should follow, casting a glance at Rovaris also feeling thankful he had two experienced officers here to support him.

"I'll take up secondary tactical support if needed." Conall said as the group began to move. This was not his ship and he would not presume to insert himself onto their current bridge crew unless ordered.

Emeris, despite wanting to serve at her traditional workstation, shook her head, "Your place is at Tactical, Commander. Let's go."

Conall simply nodded respectfully. "No arguments here." and moved with the rest of the crew towards the bridge to take up the tactical station.

Fee sighed, but followed the others out of the room. She wasn't technically a Bridge officer, but she WAS a senior staffer-actually, she was the ONLY scientist aboard at the moment, besides medical. She settled into her console chair. "Science present," she said, to no one in particular.

Vincent looked at Iy'dan. "I'll get this cleaned up." giving a nod towards his husband. It wouldn't do for this to just sit around, maybe he could be Iy'dan's unofficial atttache for this trip besides being part of Addison's Medical team.

Addison followed the others out to the bridge. She paused for a moment to ask Vincent a question. "Will you be okay in us leaving you to do this?"

Vincent gave a shooing motion. "Just go on out there and get the lay of the land, Doctor, I'll be okay here." flashing a smile.

Addison gave a nod. "You're a good man Vincent, glad you agreed to come along." then she stepped out to join the others, the door closing behind her, whilst Vincent began to clean up.

Welp, here we go!' Ace thought as she finished off what she was eating, slugged down the last of her drink, and scurried after the Captain.

END

 

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