“You know you can leave the work at home, right?”  The bartender indicated the three PADDs that sat on his bar.  The Chief Medical Officer and XO sat on the stool, her eyes scanning the screens as she tapped at various points. 

Lieutenant Sienna Frisco rolled her eyes without looking up. “Did you ever work as a CMO or XO, Jack?”  She continued to work on the PADDs.

Jack Barton, all of twenty-five years old, blinked at the bite back she’d tossed at him.  He’d known her from a distance during her original assignment to the Valkyrie.  He’d never been close enough to test the waters from whence she drank.  He wondered if he should have just let her work and tended the bar.   “No, I have not, Lieutenant.  I have seen my share of officers burn out or have uneven life balance.”

Frisco closed her eyes and sighed before looking up and opening her eyes to stare at him, “It’s part of your job to make sure none of the senior staff is losing their minds or going off the rails.  You don’t know me much, and I know what I’ve read on your dossier, even the ugly bits.  If you’re going to serve in the senior staff lounge, I recommend getting to know the person you’re daring to give life advice to before you exposit on their life choices.”

Jack opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again – like a fish gasping for air.  He settled on, “You’re right, lieutenant.”

She went back to work on her PADDs.  Ten minutes later, as he was working through a long overdue inventory, she asked as she continued to work, “So, Mr. Barton…where are you from?”  His blank look as he turned to face her required her to explain, “If we’re going to function as a team – bartender and XO – we should start that whole getting to know each other pretty quickly.  So, where are you from?”

Two PADDs were stacked after being completed. She had learned that Jack hailed from a farming community in Nebraska and that he’d learned to play the trombone in middle school. They’d bonded over their experiences playing band instruments in middle and high school. She went to work on the last PADD as the main door to the lounge swung open, and the captain walked in.

Saffiya usually preferred Valhalla. She wanted to be present and approachable to the crew, and thus far it had blessed her with a few very interesting conversations with the junior officers and crewmen she would usually not get the opportunity to talk to. But it was also exhausting, and today, Saffiya didn’t feel like doing exhausting. 

She had work with her, the last few PADDs that needing sorting through before their next mission, and it wasn’t the first time she longed to be back in Engineering, where the PADDwork was only a small part of the job – and something she had a habit of delegating. 

As she entered the lounge, she as glad that there were only a few people around, and most of them probably didn’t have the need to make conversation. She made her way to the bar, noting Frisco there. She glanced at the PADD the woman was working on, and then at the two other ones that were either completed, or pending review. 

Unaware of the conversation the Lieutenant had with the bartender only a short while ago, she selected a stool at a reasonable distance from the XO-CMO. “You know there is something called work-life balance, yes?”, she commented with a smirk, very well aware that she was equally miserable at it. 

Frisco chuckled as Jack Barton’s face blanched, and he increased the ferocity of the cleaning he was giving to the glasses.  “Mr. Barton asked the same thing.”  She tapped at the PADD, satisfied with the report, “We decided to get to know each other first.”  She handed Captain Nassar the completed report, “Managed to get our department reports completed – including my own.  Engineering had a list, but thankfully, we have a former engineer with four rank pips.  I’ve handled what I could from science and medical – tactical and operations have a few more requisitions, but we should have those within the week.”

The Captain took the PADD and glanced first at this additional bit of work, then at her XO. “You know, I was  thinking I was almost done. Thank you for this gentle nod into direction reality.” 

Frisco smiled and ordered a hard cider, “Seems like we have to face reality a lot more these days.”  The unspoken ‘Frontier Day’ reference remained unspoken.  Filling positions was just one of the issues it had created.  “Anytime you need a reality check, Doc Frisco’s your woman.”

“I would like to note that I, too, am doing more than one job at the moment; I think we can settle with saying we each do one and a half.” She sighed and ordered a drink – any drink. “But it’s temporary. Unless there are any concerns regarding your up-and-coming replacement for sickbay.” It wasn’t quite a question, mostly because Saffiya believed that Frisco would already have approached her if there were, but she still wanted to leave an opportunity to voice her discomfort.

Sienna drummed her fingers on the bar, “She’s got plenty of catch-up work to do, and I made the notes about having the counselor have a chat or two, given her dossier history.  She wants to do right by medical, which is what matters to me.”  She turned to face her CO, “I’ve done what reviews I can through the lenses of medical and command – crew is as ready as they’re going to be.”  She sipped at her cider, “The question is – are you?”  She explained, “You eminently qualified, captain.  I’m asking more about your feelings in between the lines.”

Saffiya raised an eyebrow. Out of all the questions Frisco could have possibly asked her, this was one she hadn’t expected. And frankly, she’d rather discuss the matter of her qualification than her feelings. Truth was, she didn’t really have time to have any feelings as of yet, and she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to have them in the first place.

The Captain shifted her in her chair, considering her response. “As… ready as I’m going to be.”, she said vaguely, mirroring what Frisco had said regarding the crew. “How about yourself?”

Frisco sat on the question with a pregnant pause, “I don’t know what possessed them to slot me as an XO.  My dossier reads like a dissertation on a doctor’s excellence.  I get along with most folks, so maybe that was it.”  She accepted a refill from Barton, “That or they saw that I’ve been around a bit, and they’ve got a shortage of command-ready executive officers.”  She reflected on Saffiya’s reaction to her question earlier, “You gave me a look when I asked you that question.”  The XO asked, “You struggling in the qualifications shuttle along with me?”

Saffiya rolled her eyes. “No, not really. Just like you really should not. I mean, with all the stuff the galaxy throws at us, can you really be a hundred percent qualified? Isn’t there always going to be some Vulcan who would be better at it than you are, no matter what you do?”, she sighed and sipped from her drink. “It’s a step up for both of us. Outside our comfort zone. But then, I am sure the last CO-XO team was beyond qualified, and they only stuck around for a few months. So maybe your people skills are exactly what is needed.”

Sienna laughed out loud, “I lived with plenty of those Vulcans growing up.  I loved them and tolerated them equally.  Sometimes more.  Sometimes less.”  She stood from the stool, checking her watch, “I’m up for duty in the morning.”  She picked up her PADDs, “I think I’m going to like it here, captain.”  She headed out the door, destined for some long-overdue rest.

Saffiya sighed. She did like it here, but she was reluctant about liking it too much. After all, there was a reason her time on the Cupertino had been so short…