The Next Rung

Posted on Sat Mar 3rd, 2018 @ 12:32am by Commander Titus Livius Drusus PhD & Lieutenant Erin Whitlam PhD

Waiting was not Erin Whitlam’s strong suit.

It was all well and good for Commander Prescott to talk about being patient with the installation crew and giving assurances that she would have access to the Mark IV Subspace Gravimetric Spectrometer as soon as it was ready, but he didn’t really understand her point of view. How could he? As far as Erin was aware, he’d never peered into the glorious hidden dimension that was the barycenter of an active binary system!

Keep calm, Erin, she reminded herself as she focused on her breathing and not on potential treasure trove of valuable data she was missing because the installation crew was taking its time. The observations she could be making right this second might have been of events that may not happen again for billions of years!

“Calm down,” she said aloud this time as she made her way back to the astrophysics labs. You know Galenera is stable; you won’t miss anything if you have to wait a little longer.

She turned the corner and was in the last corridor before the lab; she could see the double doors that opened into her workspace, the place she felt most comfortable in in this whole starbase. It was there that she could bury herself in some work and avoid thinking about what she might be missing in the barycenter of the Galenera binary.

Her commbadge chirped and a stern, authoritative voice threw a wall up between her and the lab. “Drusus to Whitlam. Report to my office immediately.”

Erin stopped dead in her tracks. “Umm … yes. Yes, sir. I’ll be right there.”

What did he want to see her about? Had Prescott told him about their meeting? Was Drusus angry that she went to the chief of operations herself?

No, it couldn’t be that, he wasn’t angry last time, she assured herself.

She took one last look at the doors to the astrophysics lab and took a deep breath. “Only one way to find out,” she said aloud then turned right and headed for the nearest turbolift stop.

[Chief Science Officer’s Office]

“Come!”

The door sighed open and Erin stepped inside to be met with two senior blue shirted offices waiting patiently for her. Drusus was expected, but Lieutenant Commander Prell being there wasn’t. Oh hells, it must be bad if they’re both here.

“Take a seat, Lieutenant,” Drusus said, gesturing to one of the two chairs on the other side of his desk.

Erin took a seat, suddenly feeling a little less apprehensive. She had seen Drusus angry - few in the science department hadn’t - but he wasn’t angry now. There was something about his demeanour that made her feel comfortable. Almost like he was about to break some good news.

The part of her brain that usually started talking before the rational side kicked in, however, didn’t reach that conclusion in time. So she started defending herself going to Prescott. “Sir, if this is about me going to Commander Prescott, I can explain,” she began. “His crews were dragging their feet on our new SGS and I felt that I needed to appeal directly to him, as their commanding officer, if we were …” she trailed off when she noticed the amused look on the commander’s face.

Prell had a similar expression and Erin looked between the two of them before saying, “What is it?”

Drusus leaned forward, clasping his hands together on the desktop. “Lieutenant, I have no problem with you taking your case directly to the chief of operations. In fact,” he continued as he produced a small black case from a drawer and placed it on the desktop, “that’s exactly what I would expect you to do.”

Erin frowned, looking at the case like it was an unexpected reading in a data stream. “What’s this?”

“This,” Drusus said, pointing to the case, “is why I called you here. As of this moment, you are hereby promoted to the rank of full Lieutenant and appointed as Lead Astrophysicist and head of the Astrophysics Division.”

She could feel her eyes widen and her mouth felt suddenly dry; this was not what she was expecting. She reached out and grabbed the case, opening it to reveal the full gold pip resting inside to replace the hollow one she currently wore. Slowly a smile tugged at her lips as she gazed at the pip.

She looked up at Drusus and Prell, her broad smile defining her face. “Thank you,” she said.

Drusus smiled and looked at his deputy. “See that, Lera,” he said with a tilt of his head toward Whitlam, “I told you she wouldn’t be modest.” He turned back to the newly-promoted Lieutenant Whitlam. “You’ve earned that, Erin. But I am putting a lot of faith in you by promoting you. Do not let me down.”

Erin, who had by now affixed the new pip to her uniform, took a deep breath and nodded to Drusus. “I won’t let you down, sir,” she said confidently.

“Good,” the chief science officer replied, standing up to indicate the meeting was over. “Now go do some science.”

“Aye aye, sir.”

Commander Titus Livius Drusus
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant (j.g) Erin Whitlam
Science Officer