Diplomatic Division

Posted on Tue Apr 23rd, 2024 @ 2:11am by Captain Remy Johansen

2,129 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Mission Interlude Starbase 76 & Serenity
Location: Bridge
Timeline: MD 8: 1000 Hrs

ON:

Remy sat on the Bridge reading briefings while she waited for Ensign Amano to arrive. Lieutenant T'lenn was equally immersed in work at one of the science stations. The Bridge was unusually quiet, even for being space docked. Remy was grateful that Starfleet was able to time so many crew transfers with their brief stopover at Starbase 76. It was just unfortunate that she was currently down a First Officer, and quite a bit of her senior staff were travelling on another ship ahead of the next leg of their current mission. As a result, she had assigned a good portion of the onboarding meetings to herself. Next up was Ensign Lindsy Amano.

The Diplomatic Division currently did not have a department head, so they were reporting directly to Command. She'd pass their oversight over to her First Officer once one was in place, but her first choice was currently in route to New Sausalito on another vessel.

As the turbo lift sped toward the bridge, Lindsy stood there patiently and swept her hair back behind her shoulders before tugging at the bottom of her jacket to straighten it out. This thing was less comfortable than she'd hoped for and would be looking to replicate a more tailored fit and better material in the next day or two. In hand was he PADD with her orders to report and in the back of her mind was the words that Nevan had said to her in the shuttle bay on the starbase, about if she thought she was going to be taking over his team, she was out of her gourd. It was traditional for there to be an officer slotted on those teams and she fit the bill, so to speak. It was something she would address with the Captain.

Once the lift stopped and the doors slid open, she stepped out and took note of the woman in the center chair. She was younger than her by a couple of years which was okay, she seemed a little young to be a Captain but in this day and age Starfleet had a shortage in just about everything and they were all doing the best they could. It would be nice to have someone close to her own age to share perspective with. "Ensign Amano reporting as ordered, Captain."

Remy stood up at the sound of the turbolift doors opening, and walked toward the ensign, closing the gap between them. "Pleasure to meet you, Ensign. Thank you for reporting in. Feel free to take a look around the Bridge if you're into that sort of thing. Everything is more or less in the same place, but with refit the space is being used a lot more efficiently."

"That's Lieutenant T'lenn, our Assistant Chief Science Officer at the science station. She was on board with me during part of the refit, so while the senior staff is still coming on board and getting shuffled around, she's a great resource.," Remy said gesturing to T'lenn.

T'lenn had stopped working to stand briefly. "Greetings, Ensign Amano."

Lindsy made a note of the Vulcan and gave a smile "It's good to meet you Lieutenant, I may request your assistance soon in connecting to some archives." She turned back to the Captain "Thank you, I'll take a look around here at some point although to be honest I don't plan on spending much time up here. From what I can tell it sounds like the Diplomatic team needs some work considering they have no brass in their ranks. Well except now."

"At the moment, they are reporting directly to the Command division, which we usually don't mind getting into diplomatic affairs too much," Remy responded. "Did you want to step into the Ready Room?"

"Ah yes, if you don't mind Captain." Amano waited a moment and allowed her new Captain to lead the way before following her accordingly. There were a few things she wanted to discuss that were probably best done out of the earshot of others.

"This way then," Remy responded, gesturing toward the Ready Room doors. The doors opened for Remy automatically. "Please, have a seat," Remy said gesturing to the chairs as the doors closed behind them. Remy took her spot behind the desk.

"I usually like to spend a few minutes getting to know new officers and learning about their short term and long term goals," Remy started. "It seems like you may already have talking points you wanted to get to today, so we can dive right in, if you prefer."

Lindsy took the seat offered and didn't hesitate to begin "I don't know how much you know about me Captain, I'd presume you have a fair idea already otherwise you wouldn't have those pips. One doesn't get there by not being aware of their surroundings. I've made a career as a civilian advisor to several diplomats, attaché's and training facilities, most recently Star Fleet's own Civil Operations school. I was offered a direct commission into a department head role but turned it down, with such a need in the Diplomatic teams for junior officers I felt my experience was better lent in that of being a field officer as opposed to sitting behind a desk, which is why I have one pip instead of three. I'm here to work towards a peaceful retirement and what Star Fleet promised me, but in the meantime I'm also fully committed to my role here. Unfortunately I already have not gotten off to the greatest of starts, I met Petty Officer Kayto and he was quite protective of his position." It only took a moment for her to realize she still hadn't provided the other woman her orders, so she leaned forward out of her chair and slid the PADD onto her Captain's desk "Apologies ma'am."

"No need to apologize," Remy responded taking the PADD. "Let's go back to the part where you said that Officer Kayto was protective of his position. You made that seem like a problem, but I wasn't planning on removing him from his position. So tell me more about what you meant there, Ensign."

"We uhm, had a bit of a run in on the starbase. I saw that there was a new runabout ordered so I went to pick it up. However the dockmaster refused to sign it over to me and Mr. Kayto showed up to sign for it. He went through the process and when I made note to him about the fact that being an officer I should be the one signing for it, he essentially dismissed me making note that I wasn't transferred to the crew yet. And then when I made a further point that being the only officer in his department he'd need to work with me about sending reports my way and that he'd be reporting to me once I was transferred on board, he asked to see my orders."

Lindsy let out a bit of a sigh before taking a deep breath and continuing a moment later "I also let him know that he'd have to start also going through me for approvals on the operations of Civil Ops and what they would do for missions planning, he really didn't want to recognize my position or role afterwards. The man has to recognize he's just an NCO and we have officers in Star Fleet for a reason. I think there may need to be some work done with him Captain and I would like to help with that going forward." Lindsy sat up straight in her chair, she'd dealt with difficult subordinates before and was known for running a tight ship. Coming in here would be no different.

Remy opened her mouth and shut it once before opening it again to speak. "I'm not quite sure where to begin, but as I mentioned before the entire diplomatic division will be reporting directly to command, which will be me, until the First Officer is named in a few days."

"As for Civil Operations, Officer Kayto is a Civil Operations specialist. I'd think twice before referring to any of your colleagues as 'just an NCO.' A person's value, and what experience and wisdom they can bring to the table isn't dependent on whether or not they spent four years at the Academy. You'd be wise to learn that lesson, and realize that just because you may outrank someone doesn't necessarily mean you are better at their job than they are."

Remy glanced down at Amano's orders. "It does not appear you are even assigned to the Civil Operations division." Remy looked up. "So, since you are just an ensign, I don't think you are quite in a position yet to be overseeing their reports. We'll get you in on a regular crew rotation and be sure to keep you busy though."

It was probably the first time that Lindsy had regretted not taking the offer for commissioning at a higher rank, but even then she still wouldn't have outranked the captain so it didn't matter. "Correct, however I am still assigned to oversee and ensure that everyone on board is following all diplomatic policies and procedures which would include them as well. So I do hold an operational responsibility to that end towards everyone. I have no doubt I'll be kept busy considering there's likely a stack of reports needing filed on these Atarans. I'll have to verify everything has been followed to the letter and report any violations accordingly. After all at the end of the day, the best interest of Star Fleet must be maintained."

"You'll have to show me where in your orders it says that you were given a supervisory role on my ship, Ensign." Remy offered Lindsy the PADD. "Leadership roles here are earned, not just handed out to the highest ranking officer. Officer Kayto was put on point with the Ataran representatives with regards to settling in to their new space. Since he's done a remarkable job, and already has earned their trust, he'll stay in charge of civil operations' aspect of the project."

Lindsy wanted to push further with the Captain but decided in the moment that it was better to not do so. She'd be better off getting settled into her role and working from there. She knew what was required of her from the Diplomatic Corps and what she did in fact hold control over as a matter of policy, and the only way she would lose that was to be relieved of her position by either Star Fleet or of course the Captain. "Of course, Captain. I'll take a look and see what I will need to do then to ensure the crew is up to date on the policies and see what I may need to catch up on within my role, and advise the best way possible." She leaned back in her chair, not having much more she was willing to offer Remy at the moment. She knew what she knew, and if the Captain wanted to risk an incident without her assistance, that was her prerogative.

"Since you're eager to jump in with the Ataran mission, I'd suggest looking closely at Lieutenant Spello and Officer Kayto's reports to get your footing on what we've learned about them so far. If you'd like a project with civil operations for this one, reach out to Officer Kayto. I know this is a big project, and we need a lot of boots on the ground for it," Remy stated. "Otherwise, I'll have you work with Lieutenant Spello's team."

The idea of working with Civil Ops did not appeal to her, so she simply replied "I'll report to Lieutenant Spello then, and await my assignment. It seems there is plenty of work to go around." Lindsy was looking forward to getting settled into her quarters and working towards doing her own thing, away from the Captain for the time being.

"If that's your choice, you'll still need to get yourself up to speed. If you need anything in the interim, don't hesitate to ask. If that's all, you're dismissed.

"Certainly Captain, I'll start on reading up here shortly once I get my quarters and then to my office. I'll be reading reports by this afternoon at the latest, I appreciate your time in speaking with me." Lindsy gave a grin to help ease the tension that had arisen between the pair as she stood to leave.

"Thank you, ensign," Remy responded, returning her smile with a simple nod.

Lindsy made her way out of the Ready Room and off to the turbo lift. It was time to get settled in and get to work.

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