Meeting the new boss.
Posted on Wed Jul 24th, 2024 @ 3:40am by Lieutenant Eirly Andersen & Lieutenant JG Xalanth
1,386 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
What We Do With Second Chances
Location: Chief Security Officer
Timeline: MD11 - 1100 HRS
Xalanth sat patiently outside of the security office waiting to be called in. His hands were on his arm tracing a pattern along the gems on the bracelet on his arm. A dragonian bonding bracelet was a unique piece of jewellery each one was unique and made by the male for everyone in his bonding group. He missed all of them. His four amazing mates and the many daughters they had blessed him with.
Hearing the door buzzing indicated he was being called in he pulled his sleeve down over his bracelet before taking another look at himself in a nearby mirror before stepping inside.
Giving his human commander a salute the lizard then stood to attention. " Lieutenant JG Xalanth reporting for duty ma'am." He said politely.
The newly minted Chief of Security and Tactical was sitting behind her desk and trying to get organised while still coming to terms with everything that had happened: she'd transferred over to this ship a couple of weeks ago into the Assistant Chief Tactical Officer position as a Lieutenant (JG) and now she was the Chief of Security and Tactical and a Lieutenant! Wow.
Now she knew how Clay felt when they'd met for the first time. Looking up at the new officer, Eirly smiled, "Lieutenant, welcome aboard the Astrea! Please," she motioned towards one of the available seats, "There's no need to be formal with me so come take a seat and relax."
" Thank you, ma'am." The lizard said dropping into a more casual pose as he took one of the seats. " I'm happy to be here. Nice to be back in the action after my recovery from Mars."
"I apologize in advance for having not gotten myself familiar with your files, it's been a rather chaotic time over the past few weeks, and I feel like I'm still playing catch up a little bit." Eirly shifted in her seat and made to cross her ankles so she was a bit more comfortable, "You've seen action on Mars, you say? Are you able to give me a brief rundown of what happened there? If you don't mind, of course?" She felt foolish and unprepared for this meeting and made a mental note to work on it for future meetings. Right now though, she was happy enough to learn more about who she was going to be working with.
"Of course. I was being shipped back to spacedock one for my "actions"..." the lizard said holding up his hands in quote marks before continuing. " During the Romulan evacuations. When the SOS came from Mars, the ship I was on was the first to show up. With Mars's defences hacked, drone ships glassing the planet's surface and the defence grid firing on any vessel that approached the fleet needed to do something to turn things around. They decide to drop a few teams via orbital drop onto the planet's surface and hope one of us could switch the defence grid off. Guess who volunteered. " He said gesturing to himself.
Eirly nodded in understanding and took a drink from the cup to the right of her. This man had seen more combat in his life that she could ever hope to in her own, in fact, her life had been quite cushy in comparison. Yet she continued to listen.
" Well, I landed just outside Ares city with seven of the ten people on my team left. We began fighting our way through the synths doing our best to get as many people to the city's defence bunkers as possible. To get to the defence grid controls we took a short cut through the city's main hospital." Xalanth sighed slightly.
" That place was a blood bath. As we made our way through, we got jumped by a group of the android's fleet used to build the ships. I managed to down four of them, but a fifth one took my arm off with a power saw. By some miracle, I managed to get it with my fang blade. I was running on half a dozen combat drugs and adrenalin but the last three of my team made it to the defence centre and managed to switch the defence grid off."
"And yet you still choose to serve, even after everything you've been through. That's highly impressive, and I applaud your dedication. In fact, I'm actually in awe of you." Eirly smiled before adding, "How are you adjusting back into a more... normal... life after it all?"
" I'm okay. I have my family for support and the attack on Mars was nothing compared to my own people's first contact." the lizard said shuddering slightly at the memory.
"I apologize for the million and one questions, I've just never come into contact with anyone from your race before and I'm keen to get to know more about you, seeing as we will be working closely together and all," Eirly said as she relaxed back into her chair a bit more and took another sip of her drink. It was starting to get cold and not at all flavoursome like it was when hot, "Is your family coming here to be on the ship, or are they located elsewhere? I firmly believe in having a support system that's outside of our rostered hours."
" No need to apologise ma'am," Xalanth replied with a smile. " Yes, I'm hoping my family can join us here though the hoops I'm jumping through to do so confirm that someone in fleet command doesn't like me."
"I would say it would all come down to the fact that as far as Starfleet is aware, your species is rather new to the Federation and they're unsure of what to do, not that they don't like you specifically." Eirly replied and finished the rest of her drink, "Either way, you and your family are more than welcome on this ship, and I'm sure you'll find that we're a tight knight crew who get along with everyone else. If you have children, there are plenty of other people on board who would appreciate their own children making friends."
" Oh, my people haven't joined the federation. I hope they will, but I doubt it will happen. Especially after our first contact with the federation and yes I do have children, seven beautiful girls."
"You're a very lucky man to have been blessed like that." Eirly admitted with a slight nod. "Now, getting down to business. Is there anything you would want to know about the ship, our department, even myself?" Eirly queried.
" How are things shipwise ma'am? I've been hearing horror stories about the state of some of the other ships," the lizard enquired.
"To be honest, I've only been on the ship a short time myself, but I can honestly say that everything seems to be running smoothly, and we haven't had any issues so far." Eirly replied, "There's been no incidents in our department that haven't been dealt with promptly and the Major handed over this department in really good order too, if I'm assuming that's what you're referring to?"
"That's good ma'am. The discipline of some of the ships I've been on has been rather disturbing. I'll definitely be doing my best to make sure none of that happens here." Xalanth answered.
"I'm sure you will, and I appreciate all the help I can get." Eirly replied in an appreciative tone. "Please, if you have any ideas or plans on how we can make this department the best it can be, let me know so we can get straight on it too. I highly encourage people to step up and make themselves seen."
" I'll get them written up and sent over over to you to give me the go-ahead ma'am. Now the XO asked me to tail you for a shift to get the feel of the ship so shall we get going, I'm sure we have duties to attend. " The red security officer replied with a grin on his face.
"Let's go then" Eirly stood up and walked to the door, waiting for Xalanth to exit first before they headed down the corridor nad on to duty.
OFF
Lieutenant Eirly Andersen
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Astrea
Lieutenant (JG) Xalanth
Assistant Chief Tactical Officer
USS Astrea
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