Career Goals
Posted on Wed May 7th, 2025 @ 12:19am by Captain Remy Johansen & Lieutenant Commander Eirly Andersen
1,575 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Gone, Without Ever Knowing the Way
Location: Ready Room
Timeline: MD 03, 1000 Hours
Captain Johansen stood on the upper level of the Bridge tucked away near one of the science stations as she overlooked the current crew on the Bridge. They were scheduled to enter the Typhon Expanse at some point late this evening, and science, operations, and engineering crews were all working dilligently for the potential unknown on their arrival. In the interim, the chaos of trying to run multiple away team missions had Remy thinking more about her senior staff and what could be done to strengthen leadership at their level and below.
Eirly had been summoned to the Bridge by the Captain with very little details given as to the why of it. Even though it had been a while since her promotion to Lieutenant Commander, it was still surreal to make sure the third pip on her uniform was there and straight with the others. "Captain," she said when she got close enough, "You wanted to see me?"
"Yes," Remy smiled as Eirly stepped off of the turbolift. Andersen earned her position as Johansen's second officer because circumstances had put a lot of their feet to the fire early in Astrea's tenure, and Eirly had shown herself has someone that the Captain could trust. Experience-wise, the officer hadn't had much time to step outside her specialty in security, but the Captain had thoughts of bigger plans for her.
"Let's go to the Ready Room," Remy suggested. "Things seem to be quiet for now."
"Lead on and I'll follow," Eirly replied with a slight hint of worry in her voice. Ofcourse Remy would tell her if there was anything wrong, but Eirly still couldn't help but worry slightly.
Remy had a slight spring to her step as she moved from her stationary spot near the back of the Bridge to head down the ramp toward the Read Room. "Lieutenant Morger, you have the conn."
The Captain derived a small bit of joy watching the excitement on a junior officer's face when they were given an opportunity to take control of the Bridge if even for a few minutes. Remy suppressed her smile though, until Morger was in the command chair, and she and Eirly were inside the Ready Room and behind closed doors.
"Thanks for coming up. Can I get you anything to drink?" Remy asked as the door closed behind them.
"Just a water would be great, thanks." Eirly replied as she took a seat.
Remy talked over her shoulder as she walked to the replicator. "So, I've been floating a few thoughts around in my head. Some have to do with just management of a crew on a ship this large..." There was a pause as Remy ordered water for Eirly and tea for herself. "And I've also been thinking about your role on the ship, now that you technically have some executive responsibilities."
Remy walked back and handed Eirly her glass of water and then sat down. "I was wondering if you've thought much about your future with Starfleet since you accepted the second officer position?"
Eirly accepted the water with a nod and took a drink out of it before lowering it. "Prior to accepting this position, I'd never thought about going down a Command track, if I'm being honest. But now I've kind of reflected on it a bit more and I feel like I'll be able to further advance my career if I do that." If she was being honest with herself, being just a Chief Security Officer wouldn't get her as far in life, and she had to question if she would be happy in ten years' time with just that role.
Looking at Remy as she took as a seat, "What do you have in mind, Rem?"
"If you're up for it, I'd like to broaden your base skills in our major departments, and have you work with some of the department heads in fields that you have the least experience to make you a more effective executive officer. A lot of officers go through this kind of rotation when they are junior officers in the command track, but we kind of fast-tracked you to senior staff," Remy replied.
"So I just kind of skipped the queue, so to speak, right?" Eirly questioned with a laugh. She was beyond grateful to even be in this position so she wasn't going to overcomplicate it and overthink it. "I appreciate this opportunity so much as you know. In saying that though, what department would you have me start with first?"
"I guess you and I haven't really had a one on one since we asked you to step up. Since you came on that mission to help Brunel. Not a lot of officers would have put themselves in the position that you did to help him. To help me." Remy smiled warmly at Eirly. "I think the harder way to get to the top is by majoring in command and just going through the motions. Commanding officers are just looking for people who they know they can trust, and who aren't afraid to step up, and have a strong enough opinion to tell us the truth."
"Anyway, we have a large crew now, and a full senior staff roster, who I am sure will be be naming assistants soon enough. This mission is going to take a lot of resources, so first off I think it might be prudent to move you into your Second Officer position as a full-time position, similar to how the First Officer operates. I think trying to run a department and take on some of the new responsibilities coming your way might be a little much, though if you are bored in a few months, we could revisit that." Remy gave her a mischievous grin. "Can you step away from the Chief of Security Position?"
Eirly made the head bobbing side to side motions as she thought about it, "Oh, I don't really know." She'd become proud of how her department was operating so smoothly. "I've come to quite enjoy running my own department, but I know that Lieutenant Xalanth has been stepping up quite a bit since he came on board and if you were thinking of asking him to step up into that position, then I would have to say that the department will be in good hands. He's got a lot of potential that will go a long way."
"I'll want to run it by Spello, but I'm glad to hear you say that. I like Xalanth," Remy nodded. She knew where the Dragonian allegiances fell, and he'd paid the price for that when he chose to save a group of Romulan civilians against orders.
"As for you, I think you should definitely spend some time in stellar cartography this week. I don't expect it will be all foreign to you, since some of that is necessary for navigating weaponry. However, we're entering into territory where spacial anomalies make it difficult to maintain accurate maps," Remy stated. "I'd also like you working with Lieutenant Ral in Operations. Again, some overlap, since Operations does a lot with maintaining our defensive and offensive systems, but you can get to know your way around the other systems, and make yourself known to the junior officers."
"Though, you might have Ral start with teaching everything there is to know about what we can do with our defensive systems on the backend, not necessarily the tactical work you are familiar with, but we can expect to need them in the Expanse, and places in space with names like that have a tendency to make our computers start acting a little buggy." Remy spoke not just from experience, but from stories told in their history lessons at the Academy.
"Understood," Eirly replied. She hadn't had much to do with Ral directly at that point so it would be a good opportunity for them both to get to know each other, especially if they were going to be working together as well. "I'll start to make a list of which departments I need a bit more familiarity with as well, because I realize there's quite a few." She frowned slightly. "It would definitely be in my best interests though to get more familiar with Lieutenant Ral and learn more about maintenance on the defensive systems."
"I would like her to get to know more of the senior staff," Remy agreed. "You'd be my first pick as a welcoming committee. Shall we see what Commander Spello is up to? He and I have already talked a bit about this, but we can get his final thoughts on Xalanth now that you've weighed in. And maybe you and I can do lunch later this week. If you're interested."
Eirly smiled as she stood up. "I imagine that Commander Spello would be happy with the outcome of this conversation, so let's go find him. And lunch would be good, it's been a while since we've properly caught up. Well, since everything happened with Brunel, I think."
"It's a date then," Remy replied with a smile.
Captain Remira Johansen
Commanding Officer
USS Astrea
Lt. Commander Eirly Andersen
Second Officer, Chief Security Officer
USS Astrea
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