Duty rosters and odd conversations

Posted on Wed Nov 2nd, 2022 @ 7:14am by Lieutenant JG Eira Cortez & Cadet First Class Pallas

Mission: The Goddess
Location: Operations Offices, various places
Timeline: Backpost -- After "First Timers" and before "Intimidation"
2511 words - 5 OF Standard Post Measure

This time, Cadet Pallas did, in fact, get lost. One would think that finding Ops would be straightforward, but she had never been on a starship the size of a Sovereign-class before. Plus, the turbolift had been surprisingly crowded, and she was starting to wonder if maybe she had gotten off on the wrong floor.

"Wonder" was a polite word. She was, in fact, starting to worry. Looking around to make sure the hallways was as empty as she could hope during the middle of the first shift, she lowered her voice to as low as she think the voice recognition would pick up and, letting out a deep breath, asked, "Computer, how do I get to the Operations Offices from here?"

"Operations offices are located on deck 9" came the automated response from the computer. "The Chief Operations Officer is currently located in her office"

"Right," Pallas said to herself. "Obviously Deck 9. And I am on..." her face sunk when she looked at her PADD. "...the wrong floor." Already humiliated, she ignored any looks of curiosity and sprinted back to the turbolift, making her way to Ops as quickly as she could.

Eira sat in her office and sifted through more of the reports she'd been given and came across one saying there was a new cadet aboard who would soon be heading her way: a fourth year who looked to be majoring in the Sciences. Emma would love it.

Eira found the list of what was required for the orientation and cussed under her breath that the Ensign she usually assigned to do something like this was off-duty at the moment. "This will be great," she said with a smile, thinking it'll be a good break for a while.

Just outside of Ops, Pallas leaned against the corridor wall and caught her breath. She hadn't fully thought through that running full tilt meant that she would be winded and be even more late to her appointment due to being completely unpresentable in her current condition. She closed her eyes and focused on some deep breaths, trying to use some of her anti-anxiety tools learned from therapy as an ad hoc solution to her momentary dilemma. It sort of worked, at least well enough that the cadet figured she could speak without panting. Checking to make sure her hair was in order and that there was no visible sweat on her, she cleared her throat and then stepped forward, causing the office doors to slide open.

She spotted a blonde woman, rather young, sitting behind the desk in the Chief's office. Pallas stood at attention after making her way to the front of the desk. "Cadet First Class Pallas, reporting as required, sir," she saluted sharply.

Eira could sense that the other woman in front of her was nervous, underlying issues maybe? Never mind, it wasn't Eira's place to ask those questions. "Please relax, Cadet." she smiled the warmest smile possible as she waved her over. "Come take a seat, I'm Lieutenant Cortez and I'll be looking after you coming on board. Welcome." Shifting through the stack of padds that had inevitably fallen off the desk, she found the correct one.

Opening it up, Eira looked through the details and then looked up at Pallas, "Is there anything you want to know or discuss before I give you the orientation of the ship?"

"Thank you." The cadet took the offered seat gratefully. Sitting down now, her heartbeat and breathing were able to slow significantly, though she kept her face straight and neutral as she pondered the Chief's question. "There is one thing, Lieutenant. I came aboard the same time as the XO, Commander Kosugi. Just by coincidence. He showed me where my quarters were and the mess hall... we also took a quick trip to the Bridge, and saw the ongoing repairs. He did give me a summary of what happened, the attack by the... Trinity Zealots, I believe is what he called them? I just wanted to share with you that I've received this information, and I recognize that it is a very hectic time for me to be coming onboard." Pallas had other things she wanted to discuss with the Chief as well, but it seemed like this was the most pressing matter. For everyone.

As she wasn't that much of a people person, Eira masked the relief she felt when it washed over her face. Why she accepted this role in Operations was still beyond her but hey, a role is a role, right? "Perfect. That narrows down what I need to tell you then." She tapped a few commands onto the padd in her hand and looked at the cadet before handing it over, "On here is your duty roster, access codes and clearance level, along with your quarters location."

"As for these religious zealots, all I'm going to say on the matter is that the crimes they've committed are inexcusable, and they need to be stopped once and for all so no one else gets hurt from it."

"That's enough for me, sir. If the Gladiator is able to stop them from doing any more harm, then as part of the crew I will do whatever is asked of me to assist." Pallas looked at the information on the PADD. She knew where her quarters were already, as the XO had shown them to her on the extended welcome tour, but it was still good to see the confirmation written down. Her duty roster reflected that her first rotation would be with Medical, which suited her just fine. She had been advised to keep an open mind coming into this final part of her Academy training, and had requested to start with another part of the ship besides Engineering, though that might seem the logical place for her to jump in, given that was what had turned her onto Starfleet in the first place. "I can hold any other questions, Lieutenant Cortez. Nothing pressing. An orientation of the ship would be very helpful."

"Shall we begin then?" Eira stood up from behind her desk and walked towards the end of the office and waited for the cadet to follow her. They walked out into the corridor, which was actually quite busy for some reason and Eira looked over at Pallas, "Feel free to ask any questions you have while we walk and I can try and get them answered as best I can."

Pallas stood and followed Eira out of the room. She noted the other officers in the hallway, scurrying about on various assignment. "My questions feel a bit basic, Lieutenant, given the circumstances that we find ourselves in. But I also understand that whatever is happening, this is still my official Training Cruise. I understand that I am supposed to rotate through each of the departments, so I will eventually be working directly for you, sir, and would like to get to know you better. Is it appropriate for me to ask you about your own experience so far, in Starfleet and as part of this crew?"

Eira raised an eyebrow at the question and thought for a second about what she could and couldn't say. The one thing she could pick up from the other woman was the sincerity of the question. "Unfortunately, quite a few of my experiences are classified from being in Starfleet Intelligence so I can't make a comment on that, but other than that it's definitely been an experience as a whole. As for being a part of this crew, probably one of the best ships I've been on for a while."

"When you come to be in my team, I'll tend to come across as cold, guarded and uncaring at times, but it is mostly due to those classified experiences so please don't be offended by the way I come across. It's a work in progress."

"You were Starfleet Intelligence?" The cadet raised both eyebrows, her eyes widening slightly at the revelation. "I will resist the urge to ask you what *that* was like, then, sir. I'm guessing that even ships that do have Intelligence departments do not let cadets rotate through those on their Training Cruises." The thought almost made Pallas laugh at herself, as she recalled how much information Commander Kosugi shared with her when she was only an hour into being on the ship, and how she had the gall to question whether he should be sharing so much with a cadet. "I know that different officers have different leadership styles, Lieutenant. It sounds like you value professionalism and directness. I will keep in mind what you have shared with me and I will not take offense. I boxed at the Academy, so I can be tough when I need to be." She continued to follow Eira along the corridor. "I am glad to hear, though, that this is one of the best ships that you have been on. It is certainly what a cadet wants to hear upon arriving. I'll try my best to live up to those standards."

Eira nodded in response and smiled, "You're gonna do great things aboard the Gladiator and beyond if you're already thinking this way." They continued walking and she stopped and asked, "You did boxing in the academy?"

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Pallas smiled at the compliment, before grinning and nodding at the question, always happy to share something she was very proud of. "Co-captain this last season. It was my one and only extracurricular, so I made it count. I would be exaggerating if I said that it was the most important thing I did in my time there, but it was certainly just as valuable a learning experience as my coursework. And it was the only place I could punch someone in the face and not get thrown in the Brig, so it was... I suppose it was also a healthy outlet for pent up stress and frustration. Do you box, sir? Or practice some other kind of martial arts?"

"Unfortunately, I don't do anything like that: I'm a dancer rather than a fighter. I did ballroom dancing for a number of years while I paid my way through studied." They walked down another corridor and Eira showed her a couple more areas of interest. "Plus, I also do enjoy a good archery session." She went to ask about learning some boxing moves from the cadet but then thought to the training session with Raiden and thought against it. "I mean, I know the basics and whatnot though."

"Dance is an excellent foundation for boxing. I do not know much about other forms of martial arts, and there are certainly others on the ship I have met who already who know more than I do. But at least with boxing, footwork is probably the thing that most struggle the most with. I imagine a ballroom dancer would pick up the rest of the fundamentals pretty quickly. Archery... that is an interesting sport, sir. May I ask how you picked that up? We did not have anything like that where I grew up."

Eira shrugged, "I come from a long line of archers, dating all the way back to the early 17th century, apparently. And I guess I wanted to kind of keep it alive. Although, it's not really so much about hunting for sport any more as it is just about having a skill. I mean, if you got into a hypothetical situation where you had to take someone out and silence was key, you're not exactly going to be using a weapon, are you? They make too much noise. The only noise you get with a bow and arrow is the quiet whistling of the arrow through the air."

Realising that she was probably going off topic too much, "Sorry, that's extremely off topic." Eira gave an uneasy laugh, "That situation is never going to happen to you, forget I mentioned it. But footwork is definitely important for a lot of things, and I'm happy to teach you from a dancers perspective if you want?"

The cadet paused briefly, definitely *not* forgetting that the Lieutenant just advised her on the best way to silently kill someone, before quickly answering the last question in the affirmative. "Yes. I would, actually, very much like to take you up on that offer. We had a dance at the Academy... as you know. Of course. Sir." Pallas looked sheepish for a moment. Obviously senior officers had all been through the Academy and knew that there were dances there. "... ahem. What I meant to say was, I am not sure whether it has always been that way, but while I was there, it seemed like the dances were just..." Pallas mimicked what she thought the other cadets' dancing looked like, which was something like flopping around like a fish out of water. "I would love to learn how to actually dance. I have only seen it a few times, but it looks quite elegant."

Eira stopped and looked at the cadets face once she said that and laughed, "You're face is priceless right now. I'm definitely not advising you on how to kill a person, I should have clarified animals not people. Never people." She shook her head and thought about what she had actually done in the recent years. "You know what? Whenever you're free, let me know and I'll go over everything so you can stop looking like a fish out of water."

“Thank you, sir, I will absolutely take you up on that.” Pallas felt some relief knowing that Lieutenant Cortez was talking about hunting and not murder. Though, Pallas did have to consider the fact that, as a former Intel officer, Eira probably wouldn’t be allowed to tell the cadet the truth even if she *was* using ancient Earth weapons to silently assassinate enemies of the Federation. “Perhaps this week? I will always make time to learn a new skill, and dancing seems it would come in handy at some point. If only to show up other junior officers,” she smiled slightly.

"Okay then, we'll book it in." Eira paused for a moment to think what shift she was on. "I'm currently on the Beta shift so whatever work for you, I can book it in on one of the holodecks."

The cadet nodded in agreement. "In the morning, then, if it is not too much trouble for you, Lieutenant? That seems to be when I have the most time right now."

"Absolutely. I think we leave the tour here as I'm sure you will find your way around the rest of the ship pretty easy, and I can call for you in the morning." Eira replied, starting the mental checklist of what to teach the cadet first. "It'll be fun." Just then her commbadge chirped with one of the Ops team requesting her presence back in her office and she ducked off, leaving the cadet to find her own way.


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