A presentation?

Elias looked down at the message on the padd in his hand like it had personally offended him rather than just been words on a screen. What on earth did they want him to do a presentation on?

Carrying on walking down the corridor heading toward the ops center, he read as he walked, dodging the crowds of other personnel without even looking. He’d honed walking and working down to a fine art now. And he’d needed to. No one ever thought overly much about the admin department or the yeomen who staffed it, but if the paperwork for whatever department wasn’t filed correctly, they found out just how quickly things around here ground to a halt.

Checking the ETA and timestamp on the request, he sighed, reassigned his current task to the admin pool and turned around. The quicker he got this out of the way, the better, then he could focus on the missing requisition forms from environmental control.

In the Comms Office Nico looked at his new CO. He didn’t know her, and he hoped it was just a temporary assignment for her. He already didn’t like her.

“Lt. Kaleidoscope, you have your orders….” she snapped her fingers….

The thought of leaning on his intelligence training hadn’t passed, he could make it look like an accident, and innocent accident, she could of slipped on her ego, maybe tripped on the bulkhead and hit the eject button at the nearest Airlock? Override the VCD (Video Capture Devices) the way Anastasin taught him when he was a child.

“Yup.” he said grabbing his padd, and turning on his heel. “Office 33 – Alpha. Hmm haven’t been in an Alpha level office before.”

He moved to the closest turbolift and summoned it.

His partner for this presentation was late. Elias checked his padd again and looked up the office number. 33-Alpha. Yeah, he was definitely in the right place. Which meant that Lieutenant Kalogeropoulos was late.

Hiding his irritation, Elias took a seat where he could watch the door, and set to work. At least he could match some requisitions whilst he was waiting.

Stepping into the Office he noticed a dark haired man, he nodded, “Sorry for the late, I was … tied up.” that was the best way to describe it. Nevermind the new Chief Comms Officer was tardy which left them all tardy. “My name is Nico, you ready to get to work?”

“Always,” Elias gave a small nod, then as the other man had given his name, he added. “I’m Barrington.”

It was his surname, given but he was non-comissioned. No matter how experienced he was and how long he’d been in the fleet, officers were rarely interested in a yeoman’s first name.

Nico sat down at the table, and motioned on it, for a Holo-Screen to appear… nothing… he motioned again… he looked around the room, it was rather rudimentary, but it would do, the room had a table with two view screens on either side.

“Alright, so I spent some time with Tamarians, their language is a very unique one. Fortunately, we have been able to work with them to understand their syntax and devise a method for out Universal Translation Matrix to understand them, 90% of the time. It is strongly recommended that a specialist leads this negotiation and a communication specialist with experience is there amongst the negotiation.

“Their language is event driven… so for example for us to say ‘We should work together,’ you would have to say, ‘Darmok and Jalad at Tanabra’.” he paused to look at his colleague.

“Event-driven and direct by the sounds of it,” Elias said with a nod of approval. At least one of them had experience with linguistics and the Tamarians in particular. “I like it.”

Nico couldn’t help but notice the brooding darkness emitting from the CPO, he kind of liked it, but he had to keep ‘it’ underwraps. Didn’t want to scare him away, and he wanted to maintain a working relationship. It was only recently he had become single.

“I would recommend seeking Lt. Kayshon, if he is still in Starfleet to be apart of the party, as he would serve not only as a shining example of both of our interests. Furthermore, should something happen with the UTA, or should a an example of a more complex linguistic challenge be present, he should be able to help out more than me or other specialists.”

Elias nodded and made a note. “Aside from linguistics experts, we would be wise to add diplomats to the roster,” he commented, looking up to catch the Lieutenant’s gaze. “In my experience, these kinds of events require a multi-disciplinary approach.”

Nico’s eyes met Barrington’s, they looked like Brownie Lava Cakes… “Uhm yes, who did you have in mind.” Nico is going to need a cold shower after this. “We can also cross reference the officers to see who would be best suited for this.”

“Making a list now.” Elias typed fast, frowning as he accessed several department rosters and compared records to check what personnel had what experience in such matters.

Checking his work, he nodded and looked up again, sending the lists across to Nico’s screens. “Two teams of options. Team Alpha would be my preferred picks, but…” he paused for a moment and made a change. “I’m fairly certain I saw a request from Lieutenant Mallon for personal leave in the processing crew, so we’d need to switch him out for Lieutenant Cooke from the beta list.”

He waited while Nico read through the lists. Lieutenant Kalogeropoulos… it was a name he wasn’t familiar with. He made a mental note to check Nico’s department records.

Tapping on the console and nodding, he was playing with his beard as he was looking at the list… “Looks good, very thorough work Mr. Barrington. I shall submit my report along with the list to the Diplomatic Corps, unless if you think we should add anything else?”

“No, nothing comes to mind, sir.” Elias shook his head. “This was… easier than I expected it to be,” he admitted, offering a rare smile. “I won’t miss my spot on the range now. I had suspected I would have to cancel.”

The range… oh no, he was going to be at the range, TONIGHT?! I am not going to be concentrate. “You going to the range too after this?” Nico inquired. “Err… well not right after this, maybe after dinner, around 1900?”

Elias looked at the lieutenant. Directly this time, not in a glancing way. “My booking is 19:15,” he said, tilting his head slightly in interest. “You shoot as well? I mean, not just to keep your ratings up, but as a hobby?”

“It’s a date!” Nico exclaimed awkwardly, “Or uhm, that’s just an expression… I love to shoot.” how he wished someone would shoot him now.

Elia’s grin was small, and slightly crooked as he gathered up his padds to head to the door. The lieutenant looked like he wanted the deck plating to open up and swallow him whole.

“Good. Beat me, and I’ll buy you a drink,” he winked, and headed out the door.