Meeting Operations

Posted on Sun Jun 26th, 2022 @ 2:23am by Lieutenant Ayana Varón & Captain Alistar McKeon

871 words; about a 4 minute read

There hadn't been as much paperwork as Alistar had thought would be waiting for him, so he had used some of his free time to enjoy his ready room and of course the view. Reading through personnel records had proven to be more boring than he had thought it would be, so instead he had switched over to update reports. Fortunately, some of those reports held valuable information for the Endeavour's area of operations for the upcoming year. They also made for decent reading in some parts, which was why he had his feet propped up on the edge of his desk reading a padd when the door chime rang. "Enter," he called without missing a beat.

A petite Vulcan walked in and smiled. "Hello, Captain. Lieutenant Ayana Varón, reporting for duty."

Alistar looked up from his reading and seemed to freeze for a brief moment before he sat up in his seat. His boots hit the deck and the padd hit the desk as his mind raced. "Lieutenant Varón, you're my new chief operations officer if I remember correctly?" he said.

"I am," she replied. "I'm looking forward to working here, sir."

"Oh? And what is that?" Alistar asked. He was sure he could guess the answer, but he sometimes liked to test his officers, if for nothing else then to keep them on their toes.

"Exploration, experimentation, and information," she said, smiling. "I like to learn, and this position promises that."

"Well, we should be able to provide that, but I hope you like a challenge," Alistar said with a chuckle. "As chief of ops, you have the job of keeping the ship operational. And unfortunately for you, I have a history of being somewhat rough on starships."

Ayana chuckled. He wasn't the first captain to do so, and he wouldn't be the last.

"But hopefully, I'm breaking that habit," Alistar continued. "Our first mission is supposed to be a diplomatic one, so the chances of us scratching the paint is slim. I hope."

"Okay. If you do, great. If not, we'll have your back, sir."

Alistar nodded. "Those are words every officer likes to hear, so I greatly appreciate them," he said. "But I haven't received details yet, so for right now everyone is working on getting the ship ready."

Ayana nodded. "Understood. I'll make sure everything is up to code before we launch." She raised an eyebrow. "Is there anything in particular you'd like me to look at?"

"Well, to make sure we're completely ready, the answer to that question would be everything," Alistar said. "Endeavour's a brand-new ship, with quite a bit of new tech and equipment, and she's captained by me, and just in case I forgot to mention it, I'm rough on starships and eventually we're going to need to push her to the limit. I need to know if she can handle anything that might get thrown at us."

She nodded. "I'll do a complete diagnostic before we launch, just to be sure there's nothing obvious. I can't guarantee something won't work itself loose once we get moving, but the Core of Engineers is usually pretty thorough."

"They may be thorough, but they won't be the ones whose lives depend on those systems operating as needed," Alistar said. "But that is probably one reason this ship was equipped with plenty of spare parts and one of the best industrial replicators ever built. We'll do a full shakedown for a week after we leave orbit with an engineering ship shadowing us, but after that we'll be on our own. So, we'll have to figure out a way to shake this ship to her core during that time."

"All right. We'll get her to do the boogie woogie and see what shakes loose. I'll talk to engineering and ask if we can come up with some combined tests," Ayana said.

"The boogie woogie," Alistar chuckled softly and shook his head. "You're not a typical Vulcan, are you?"

She grinned. "No. I never quite fit in with Vulcan society, much to my mother's chagrin."

"Not to mention the majority of the residents of Vulcan, I'm sure," Alistar chuckled again. "I hope your mother is at least proud of your accomplishments here in Starfleet. You've gone from communications officer to chief operations, and that's not normally an easy feat."

"Starfleet is honorable, if not prestigious," Ayana said with a grin. "And yes, she is proud of my promotion." That conversation had been surprisingly pleasant, and hopefully meant her mother would be more supportive of her daughter's fascination with ancient Terran communication devices. But probably not.

"Well, in any case, you're here as a department head on one of Starfleet's leading deep space explorers," Alistar said. "And I'm glad to have you aboard."

"Thank you. I'm happy to be here." She raised an eyebrow. "Is there anything else you need from me, or should I start running diagnoses?"

"That's all for now," Alistar said with a nod. "Welcome aboard Lieutenant."

"Thank you." She gave him a polite nod and left to go have a good look at her department.

____
OFF

Captain Alistar McKeon
Commanding Officer
USS Endeavour

Lieutenant Ayana Varón
Chief Operations Officer
USS Endeavour

RSS Feed