Taking the Edge Off

Posted on Sun Mar 28th, 2010 @ 7:36am by Captain Alexander Gunning & Commander Dietrich Reinhart & Captain Liarra Von & Lieutenant Commander Nilani Prax & Lieutenant Commander Melissa Daniels M.D. & Lieutenant JG Callaigh Roland

Mission: Commissioned
Location: Antares Fleet Yard Accomodation - Forward Lounge
Timeline: MD -1, 2000

[ON]

Alex had spent the entire day red-faced at the ineptitude of the gold-collared engineers. He had grown convinced as the afternoon carried on that they were mocking him with some half-built Defiant and that the Jackal was all ready to go in another area of the yard. After he had managed (after a significant period spent looking through cargo manifests) that this was not the case he decided to take the edge off a difficult day by calling a staff meeting.

Where better for a staff meeting than a lounge? He reclined in a chair, exchanging angry glances with one of the engineering team whom he recognized from the transporter room of the Jackal. He had called the staff that had arrived on ship already and wanted to make sure that they relaxed and had a chance to get to know one another.

Starfleet had assigned him two new crewmembers from a Sovereign class vessel that had been suffering technical glitches throughout its shakedown procedures. The report from Command suggested that the Niagara would be stuck in the Antares dry-docks for some time to come as the Engineering teams tried to figure out what had gone wrong.

Roland & Daniels He mused as he flicked through their service records. They should fit in just fine. It was odd for the Commanding Officer of any ship to be given completely free reign over the crew who joined his ship and he had been lucky so far with getting most of his senior staff full of officers whom he had previously served with but he would not discount the potential of these women just because he had not met them before.

Dietrich headed in first, a PaDD in hand and disgruntled look on his face. He was more angry and frustrated than usual, which probably had something to do with his day spent configuring the deflector field. He looked like he had a bit of a headache, but he tried to drop the facial expressions on his face as soon as he sat down. "Well that feels good," he said, walking across the umbilical, as if leaving a great burden behind. Reinhart tried to relax as he made his way through the shipyard to the lounge Alex had called them to, and hoped he had a few minutes to sit and relax.

The CFCO walked in first and looked at the man sitting at the end of the table. "You look pleasantly upset."

"No more than the previous times I've found a load of incompetent buffoons pulling lumps out of my bridge." He sighed. "I think the only thing that would put a smile on my face would be blowing them all out of an airlock. Individually."

Liarra wandered in soon after. She had been going over the armory inventory, making sure everything was to spec. She was pleasantly surprised that the phaser racks were one of the only completed things on the ship. She pulled up a chair next to Alex. "Good evening, sirs."

"Evening, miss," Reinhart said as he looked back at the CO, as the conversation would inevitably be shifted now.

"Evening, Liarra. How's our armoury looking? Please give me some good news, I could use it right now."

"Good news I have. I turns out, the armory is in good shape. We may not be able to fly or anything else, but by God we can shoot."

Daniels continued to walk with Jaro. "Alright, so there I am on the Nightinagle, and this Tellarite comes in for a physical. And as far as Tellarites go, he is the most stubborn humanoid I've ever meet."

Sydney nodded, realising only casually that she was missing her uniform jacket, as usual. She continued listening to the story, only vaguely wondering where she could have left it as a grin spread her lips. Any medical stories involving the Pak'leth was bound to be entertaining.

"Well, scans pick up a strain of Pak'leth influenza. Not too serious, unless you're a Pak'leth. So, I'm going to give a hypo for it when he refuses. He tells me 'I am a picture of health, I don't need your fancy drugs.'" Melissa said while imitating his deep voice. "So I go to the Medical Replicator and replicate two or three good old syringes. Good enough for an injection of Valinprovaline. He takes one look at them and asks me what they are for. I turn and say. 'These are syringes, and they're for real bad asses.' Then he wants me to give him a shot, then I say. 'Pft! You?!? I meant real bad asses, not crybabies like you who are afraid of Hypospays.' Then he demands that I give him the medicine through the syringe. Reverse psychology always works wonders." Melissa noted as she laughed.

The doctor was laughing loud and hard as the doors to the Lounge opened and the two doctors strode in. She turned it smoothly into a smile that she sent around to the other officers and sat down. It did not escape her notice that she was probably old enough to be each one of these officers' grandmother. "Evening." The annoyance coming from the Captain was almost palpable and she hope that this posting would turn out better than it seemed to be starting out.

Melissa walked in and sat down next to Jaro.

Cal had left her quarters struggling to put herself together correctly in her uniform. She was never late for anything, but somehow this meeting had caught her unaware and she'd been on fast forward since. The trip to the lounge was spent reviewing the PADD she'd grabbed off of her desk and it was by luck alone that she'd even managed to grab the right one. A quick head count told her that she was thankfully not the last of the Jackal's crew to arrive. "Hello everyone," she nodded in greeting before sliding into the seat next to Daniels, the one person she recognized, and tried to inconspicuously give her jacket one last straightening tug.

Nilani was last to enter, a pleasant smile on her face as she strolled through the hatch into the lounge. "Good evening, Alex," she said, nodding towards the Commander as she collected a raktajino from the replicator and took a seat.

"Evening, Nilani. Not fancy something stronger? I'd imagine you've had a long afternoon." He replied.

"Does that mean you're condoning drinking on the job, Alex?" Nilani joked, smiling as she took a sip of her drink.

Alex just smiled as he turned to his assembled crewmen and addressed them all; not in the way that he might usually have if he was in an observation lounge or briefing room but in a more measured, relaxed tone. After all these people would be the ones he would rely on when things got tough; they would be the people who made sure that the Jackal even stayed afloat. They were going to be everything to him.

"Everyone, I first of all want to thank you for agreeing to take on this assignment. It means a lot to me that you would all come aboard and try to get the ship out in time. As you all know we're having a few problems with the engineers but I'm assured that we will be ready to launch by ten-hundred hours tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I want you all to relax and get to know one another."

As Alex spoke, Callaigh's curious eye was already surveying the faces around her. Even her knowledge of Ms. Daniels was superficial; and she certainly had never seen the names of the rest of the crew before. She had work cut out for her in studying up on who she was serving with, starting with Commander. One of Cal's secret pleasures was seeing what positions officers had filled up until their current posting, their length of time spent in their roles, and what their Academy files said. Besides, that was always a good starting off point for any counseling sessions. She'd learned that it was much easier and more comfortable to discuss career paths than personal information for any officer.

Melissa looked around. There was quite a bit of people she had never meet here, and it somehow made she spoke, "Oh I'll have plenty of time to get to know you. Besides, you're going to have to come to sickbay sometime" She grinned. "Don't worry everyone, it won't hurt a bit."

The senior medical officer did not understand why Melissa had felt the need to add that, but when several members of the senior staff smiled she assumed it was a joke and didn't add anything.

"I want to make sure that you're all comfortable together so please do take this time to enjoy each other's company." He looked around at the faces that surrounded him. "At least don't fight, okay? We're on Starfleet property."

"Besides," Liarra spoke up with a grin. "We have a security officer present. I don't want to have to throw anyone in the brig."

"Does that mean we have to make sure you're top of the invite list to all our parties?" Prax said, throwing the fellow Trill a cheeky grin.

Melissa spoke with her usual smile. "Don't forget to invite the medical staff. Otherwise we'll call you in for a physical early."

"If you skipped all those people it would end up being more of an intimate dinner," Alex offered.

The security chief nudged her old friend. "We can't allow that then, can we?"

"There will be no intimacy on my ship." Alex replied with a smile. "I'm going to have that etched onto the dedication plaque."

"Well you just take all the fun out of everything," Liarra said with a laugh. "Should I keep the brig open in case the crew gets friendly?"

"Probably better," Alex said, taking another sip from his drink. He was enjoying the evening, something he had not had the opportunity to do in months. The ship would launch tomorrow and he was sure that the crew could handle the little ship and all her gremlins.

[OFF]

Commander Alex Gunning
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Commander Dietrich Reinhart
Executive Officer / Chief Flight Control Officer

Lieutenant Liarra Von
Chief Security & Tactical Officer

Lieutenant Sydney Jaro
(Acting) Chief Medical Officer
Played by Lieutenant Allein Mara

Lieutenant (JG) Nilani Prax
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant (JG) Melissa Daniels M.D.
Chief Medical Officer

Lieutenant (JG) Callaigh Roland
Chief Counselor