The Autocrat of Astrophysics
Posted on Fri Mar 17th, 2017 @ 11:37pm by Lieutenant Erin Whitlam PhD & Commander Jordan Gunning
Mission:
Shadows and Whispers
Location: Astrophysics Labs
Why is it taking so long?
Erin finished examining another packet of the data from the Mnekora Nebula survey and shot a glare across the lab to the closed door of Lieutenant Zohlaosh’s office. The objectionable little Head of Astrophysics had been in that office all day and though the messaging system told Erin that he had opened her request almost nine hours ago, he had not deemed it worthy of response.
While she waited, she had spent most of her day working through the long list of assignments the Autocrat of Astrophysics had handed down to the team. Most of the tasks were grunt work best suited to ensigns, interns and lab techs and were, in Erin’s opinion, beneath her. Quite frankly, it was beneath anybody who had earned their doctorate, but the two other Jay-Gees in the division seemed perfectly happy ensuring the efficacy of data. She looked over to them both now, huddled over their terminals on the opposite side of the lab they shared.
Are they sleeping? she asked herself, but before she could look closer she heard the swish of Zohlaosh’s office door and caught a glimpse of the hairy despot rushing out.
She leaped from her stool and rushed after him. “Doctor Zohlaosh!” she called, hoping the courtesy of using his title rather than his rank might slow him down just a bit. Behind her, one of her colleagues looked up at the noise while the other didn't move. "Can I speak with you for a moment?"
The Tellarite let out his politest snort which still emerged as a contemptuous harrumph. He allowed himself twenty-two minutes every day for lunch at exactly twelve-hundred-and-thirty hours. New staff would require a memo that this routine was not to be disturbed. "If you must." He looked at the woman's tunic. "Lieutenant."
Well that's not a good start. She paused a moment, unsure whether he even recognised her. "I was wondering if you had a chance to take a look at my request. I sent it to you early this morning."
"Lieutenant, I receive many requests across my desk and each one is summarised and reviewed between ten-thirty hours and eleven-thirty hours." Zohlaosh sent a memo to that effect weeks ago - he remembered the areas he had italicised. "I have received and logged your request for a Mark Four Subspace Gravimetric Spectrometer."
Erin stared at him for a moment, he was a peculiar fellow and she instantly disliked him. Temporal specificity around procedures aside, his answer didn't exactly give her the information she was looking for. "When you say you logged my request, does that mean you've approved it?" she asked.
"No, Lieutenant." The Tellarite still hadn't broken his stride but he wasn't exactly difficult to keep up with. "It means that I have logged your request under the category of denied as you would know if you had referenced against the memo which all staff were sent thirteen station days hence."
"I wasn't even here thirteen station days ago," Erin replied, feeling her frustration grow much faster than usual. "But that's beside the point. Surely you'd agree that we need a Mark Four SGS?"
"Quite the contrary, Lieutenant. Not only do I not believe that the station requires a Mark Four Subspace Gravimetric Spectrometer." He tried to put as much derision into the technical name as he could. "I do not believe that the study of this binary star system - Galenera, was it? - is of any scientific merit. If I granted your request then it is distinctly possible that the important work being done on this station could suffer."
It felt like a cold, hard slap to the face. He was saying that her work was bereft of scientific merit. She had included a complete summary of her intended study with the equipment request and he didn't strike her as the kind of man to miss that kind of obvious detail. She dove in. "Respectfully, sir, I must disagree with your assessment," she said, shaking her head firmly. "The observed interactions between the primary and secondary at Galenera make it an excellent candidate for further study. They share many of the characteristics with the Scobee binary, which I wrote about in my dissertation. If I can peer into the barycenter I may be able to confirm important aspects of what I observed at Scobee. But I can't get the level of detail I need without a Mark Four SGS." She took a breath and quickly added, "This is important work, sir."
"And respectfully," the head of Astrophysics came to an abrupt stop sending Whitlam a couple of paces ahead, "I must disagree with your assessment, Lieutenant. Request denied. Good day to you."
Erin stood before him, arms at her side and her jaw clenched as she tried to remain calm. "If that's your final word, then I will be appealing this to the Chief Science Officer."
The Tellarite turned his back on Whitlam. "I said 'good day'."
Watching him walk away, Erin felt the fury inside her subsiding and the muscles in her neck and shoulders slowly unknotted themselves. What a thoroughly distasteful man he was, she said to herself. But she would not be deterred. One angry division head would not be enough to dissuade her from her course. She checked her surroundings - they hadn't walked far from the lab - and immediately started for the CSO's Office.
No point in wasting time.
Lieutenant (JG) Erin Whitlam
Science Officer
Lieutenant Zohlaosh (NPC played by Jordan Gunning)
Head of Astrophysics
Starbase 332
