While Lieutenant Anderson made her way to the Ready Room, Bane took a moment to look over the crew compliment of the Cygnus. He wasn’t looking at the files of each member of the Cygnus closely, he did ensure to pay attention to the glaring reality of this ship. Her crew compliment was junior, in the extreme. Best he could see, the highest ranking person on this ship, save himself, was the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Elodin, whom he had the pleasure of meeting a short bit ago. Everyone else, including the entirety of the Senior Staff, where junior Lieutenants and below. Out loud, he muttered, “How could Starfleet Command do this to a poor ship and crew?” Unfortunately, he had no answer. Not coming up with anything, he tapped his commbadge. “Lieutenant Lisald, please report to my Ready Room.”

On the Bridge, Lisald sat up straighter in his chair at his duty station at Ops. “Aye sir,” he said. From his station on the Bridge, it was a short three steps to the door. It hissed open as he approached, and he entered. “Sir, Lieutenant Lisald reporting as ordered. And sir, please allow me this opportunity to say that it is an incredible pleasure and honor to serve under your command. I mean, I loved serving under Captain Stafford and Commander Pope, but to be serving under you? Sir, you are a legend among Bajorans!”

Bane furrowed his brow. “Yes, thank you, Lieutenant.” Boy, was that awkward!  “Please, have a seat. I have some questions for you.” Happily, Lisald sat down in the chair offered by the Captain. “First, tell me about you.”

Lisald beamed. He had been waiting for this moment since Bane had come aboard. “Well, I grew up in Raakar Providence. I was credited with finding ancient Bajoran texts on a boulder not far from my home.” Lisald brightened up at the next nugget of information. “It is on display at the Central Museum on Bajor!” Lisald thought he would get a reaction out of Bane, but he did not, so he continued. “I earned my Doctorate in Archaeology, with a minor in Anthropomorphic Studies. I worked briefly with the Bajoran Scientific Survey Team of Archaeology, but I had learned to fall in love with the stars when I was in college, having joined the Astronomy Team on a whim. I applied to Starfleet and was accepted. Upon graduation, I was assigned here, and have been here ever since.”

The Captain was surprised. “You earned a doctorate before you joined Starfleet? I thought you looked older than some of the other junior Lieutenants, but I didn’t want to be rude. Do you prefer to be called Doctor Lisald, or Lieutenant?”

It was a fair question, and Lisald was happy to be asked. “I prefer Lieutenant, sir. I would not want to be confused with a medical doctor.”

“LIeutenant it is,” said the Captain. “How come you are not in the science division then, if you have a doctorate in science?”

Vaat smiled. “I used to be, Captain. Captain Stafford and Commander Pope saw fit to transfer me to Operations because of my asperations of someday being a Captain, like you.” He meant it to be flattering, but it came of as a bit of a brown-noser.

“Uh huh,” Bane said, deadpan. Shifting gears for the real reason Bane called Lisald into this office. “Lieutenant, why do you suppose there is a severe lack of experienced officers aboard this ship? I took note of it a moment ago, and the highest ranking person on this ship is Doctor Elodin.”

Vaat nodded. “Yes sir. That is actually a recent development. We used to have a Commander, Commander Pope, who was our Executive Officer, but she left with the Captain, er, that is, Captain Stafford. We also used to have a Lieutenant Commander at Security and Tactical, Lieutenant Commander Angus McTavish. He got transferred off to be Second Officer of the USS Angkor Wat, I believe. We also used to have a Lieutenant Commander in Engineering, Lieutenant Commander Abrum Micca, Captain Staffords husband, but he lost his leg during the Deneb IV mission and decided to take a sabbatical from Starfleet. We also had a Lieutenant Commander as our Chief Pilot, Lieutenant Commander Alexandus Rex, but he retired from Starfleet following the same mission where Commander Micca was wounded.”

Bane nodded. “So I am hearing this ship is a curse for Lieutenant Commanders,” he joked. “Ok, I will see about getting some more experienced officers onto this ship when we return from our mission. Thank you Lieutenant, that will be all. I look forward to serving with you.”

“Aye sir,” Lisald said, standing up. Before he turned to move, he had to ask the question that was likely on everyone’s mind. “Sir, what do you plan to do about an Executive Officer?”

Bane looked up at him, then leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers in front of him. “Nothing, right now. We don’t have anyone aboard that has sufficient rank or experience, let alone sufficient training to do the job. As for now, we will be without one.”

Vaat nodded, understanding that the Captain would be taking on two peoples roles, likely the two positions that had the most to do on the ship. “Well, if you need anything Captain, call on me. I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

Plase nodded. “I appreciate that, Lieutenant. So long as you do your job and do it well, that will be all the help I could ask for.” Bane chose not to ask the good Lieutenant why he didn’t inform him of the modifications being done to Doctor Kin’Fuji’s quarters. That would be a discussion for another day. “Dismissed, Lieutenant.”

“Sir,” he said in way of salutations before heading back to the Bridge and to his post at Operations.

OFF

Lieutenant (jg) Lisald Vaat
Chief Operations Officer
USS Cygnus

&

Bane Plase, Captain
USS Cygnus, Commanding