(Exeter, Turbolift, 2 weeks prior)

Traan had come to respect the good natured Vulcan during the shifts they had served together aboard the bridge of the Exeter. Especially during the last half hour or so, dealing with the Fraser rescue.

The turbolift lighting was dimmed, but the warmth in Traan’s tone still cut clearly through the quiet hum of movement, ‘For what its worth Vulcan, I’d be honoured to serve under you again. You did a fine job back there. For a few moments I almost forget we were just Observers on a cadet crew, and you seemed like the ships Captain, and I felt like I was really manning the Ops console.’

Aloran listened without interruption, giving no visible response save a subtle inclination of his head. Praise, as always, was an emotional indulgence, but recognition of performance was not. And Traan, in his own manner, had given both.

‘That is because, that is exactly what you were doing for that time Chief.’ Aloran said flatly, with a little whimsy to his smile.

‘Haha, yeah, I guess you’re right, and uh, technically, while performing this rescue, that means we’re actually serving as an active vessel, and all our cadets are officially on active duty.’

Aloran tilted his head slightly, the corner of one brow lifting in what might, in another species, be read as a smile. “By Starfleet regulations, Chief, you are entirely correct.” He tapped another note into his PADD – flagging the cadets’ mission time for official entry into their service records.

‘We had it all wrapped up and done before the Captain even made it to the bridge too’ Chuckles Traan.

Aloran paused, then turned fully toward him, “A fact of note,” he said dryly. “Though I would caution against sentimentally over-valuing speed in command situations. Precision, not haste, defines effective leadership,” the older man leaned in, “And sometimes, doing nothing solves the situation”

A moment passed, then, just as Traan was about to speak again, Aloran added, “Your performance on the Exeter exceeded standards. If this were a formal posting, I would have recommended you for a commendation” Taps on his padd again

Traan blinked, “You’d recommend me for commendation?” Suprised that a Vulcan would even consider doing that for an Andorian.

Aloran nodded, “Acknowledging aptitude serves no ego. It ensures competency is reinforced. Recognition, Chief, is the logical consequence of performance,” there was silence for a moment longer, “besides, you refrained from panicking during a simulated attack, correctly rerouted power during the yellow alert transition, and – most importantly – we did not break the Academy’s ship”

Traan burst into laughter, and gave the Vulcan comedian a good natured slap on the shoulder. “Excellent point, hahaha, the brass doesnt like it when they dont have the proverbial ‘daycares to send the kids to’…but, for me, the biggest thing was rescuing those 4 people on the Fraser. Imagine coasting, near full impulse for a few weeks, just hoping someone picks them up before they careen into the heart of the system and smack into who knows what…’

((4 days later, Conference Hall 8))

After returning from the cadet cruise Traan had returned to duty in the Operations Department, this time as a Maintenance Coordinator. Essentially the people in that role coordinated, dispatched, and scheduled maintenance tasks within their section. He had just started getting a hang of the job when in the middle of his duty shift he recieved a message through his comm badge. ‘Chief Traan, this is Commander Klinka, can you report to Conference Hall 8 in 30 minutes?’ To which Traan had responded that he could.

When he entered the room, here saw a large fore area with a long 16 person conference table festooned with drinks and food near the windowed wall, facing towards Mellstoxx. The room was probably 28 metres by 14 metres, with the table taking up about 20 percent of the floor space. Around the room, there was approximately 50-60 people, mostly officers, but a few chiefs and lower ranks aswell. There was a personnel office Lt JG at the door, who took his name, and told him that the ceremony would being soon.

‘What ceremony? Whats going on here?’ He thought to himself as he looked around the room, and grabbed a drink from the table. He recognized only a few of the faces in the crowd. LCdr Aloran, from the cadet cruise, Ryke, the counselor he had met before the cadet cruise, Lt JG McDoofus from his maintenance section, and Lt. Dunoon who walked right over when he noticed Traan.

Dunoon shook Traans hand “Good to see you pal, I was invited here because one of my friends from the Flight deck is getting promoted, I was pleasantly suprised to see your name on the list aswell. Congrats.”

“List?…promotion? What are you talking about Steve, I’m a chief, there’s no more promotions for me.” Being at the highest ranking he could achievable through ‘promotion’

Dunoon gave Traan the come on you know what I mean look. ‘Promotion, field commission, its the same thing, either way you deserve it pal.’

“What? Nah, I applied ages ago, I got the rejection letter through subspace back in March.” Traan said recalling the trite letter he has recieved while stationed at Luna.

Just then, after a few other people had entered the Hall, the LtJG who had been at the door whispered into the ear of one of of the senior Personnel officers aboard. That senior officer then went and tapped a chime, and said ‘Alright everyone, let’s begin the ceremony. I’m sure your all happy to be here, its always a great day when we get to recognize some of our own. So, without further adieu here we go…Starting with LCdr…’

‘Theres no way…I read the rejection letter.’ Traan thought as he heard 2 other names called and they both followed the first and formed up infront of the table at attention. Then the personnel officer called his name. Still a little bewildered, Traan went to the table like the others, and took his place next to the person whose name was called 3rd, and came to attention.

The officer read 3 other names, who all did as Traan did and formed up on his left. Then the personnel officer read the promotion orders for the first 3 officers to his right. A LCdr, a LtJG and an Ensign, all being promoted in what could be called the standard way, according to a regular career progression, having a senior officer place new pips on their collars as they went. And then he began reading Traans orders.

‘Now, this is a bit of a different case. I can speak to this one personally. I noticed Chief Traans name come across my desk a few times in the past few weeks. His file was flagged and forwarded to the personnel dept by one of the stations Counselors, he was also sent to help augment the crew of the Exeter for a training cruise, and then I noticed he was ‘mentioned in dispatches’ at the conclusion of that cruise aboard the Exeter. So I dug into The Chiefs file a bit, and notice that he had applied for a field commission as a specialized duty officer. At the time, his application was rejected and the only reason given was ‘the needs of the service’. Which meant one of 2 things at the time, he either was doing too fine of a job at Luna Shipyards for them to let him go, or he owed his CO a whole bunch of credits” the personnel Cdr paused as many in the room chuckled at the obvious joke.

‘But, now that he has been reassigned to the 4th Fleet. We have decided that the needs of the service would be better met by granting the Chief’s application for a field commission…’

Traan thought to himself ‘Well Traan, here you are, about to become a 47 year old Ensign….Dad would be proud. Pffft starting at the bottom again.’

“And furthermore, since his prior duty station was actually the billet of a Chief OR a LtJG, we have decided to backdate his promotion to the start of the Chief’s assignment to the Luna Shipyards. And therefore, it is with great pleasure that we have the honour of granting Chief Traan a direct field commission to the rank of LtJG.’

‘OR NOT…’ Traan thought quickly.

One of the stations senior officers removed Traans enlisted rank and replaced it with 1 solid and 1 hollow pip. The Conference Hall, as with the 3 previous recipients of promotions, was filled with applause that was slightly more vigorous then the prior promotions, causing a bit of the Andorian version of nervous selfconsciousness to well up in Traan. His antennae even began to twitch randomly. It’s not every day that a Chief Petty Officer got promoted to LtJG, and Traan had never been one for the limelight. Though he had risen from Crewman Apprentice through to Senior Master Chief before the rank restructuring of a few years ago. This was only the second full on ceremony he had been promoted in. Usually, as a noncom, his promotions involved a message on his padd or a pat on the shoulder and a new insignia being shoved in his hand by a superior.

‘Well ain’t this something…I guess keeping my nose down and not griping even though I really wanted to, finally paid off.’ Traans head was literally swimming as the other 3 people to his left were all promoted. At the end of the ceremony the atmosphere turned into one of celebration and congratulations. Traan met eyes with and shared a nod of approval with Aloran shortly before the Vulcan had departed. The eating, drinking and merriment continued for about 30 minutes as the crowd eventually dwindled.

One of the personnel officers had given Traan a new pad that contained his new duty assignment, and he realized the padd contained orders for his 4th reassignment in the past 3 months, and 3rd in the past month. He knew that the events of Frontier Day followed by the Blackout and Vaadwaur invasion had caused rough times in terms of personnel and crew shortages. But he now hoped that he would be able to sink his proverbial teeth into his new assignment for a while. But alas, he would soon discover that his assignment shuffling wasn’t quite over yet.