Being the lowliest of the low, a freshly posted Ensign Desk Officer, meant that the half Betazoid, half Romulan was assigned wherever Command needed an extra pair of hands. In this case, it was “Meet ‘n’ Greet” duty at the main hanger deck. Basically, it entailed greeting new Arrivals and asking if they needed any directions or assistance.  If the Arrivals needed directions, it normally entailed picking up a Basic PADD off a large pile, entering the Arrival’s identifier, finding the requested destination, then offering the PADD to take with them.  Some take the PADD with a smile, others jerk it from S’Lone’s offering hand. These Arrivals S’Lone thought of as “The Seekers”. 

Then there were those Arrivals who knew where they were going and who often did not even slow their pace. These Arrivals were “The Hurried”. A sub-tier of these offered a brief smile of acknowledgement and even a “Thank you”. S’Lone called these Arrivals “The Smilers”.

There was one final type of Arrival, “New Transfers” who normally made a beeline for him, eager for S’Lone as Deck Officer on Duty to accept their official transfer orders by entering them into the Starbase’s registry and helping them get where they needed to go. S’Lone tried to spend extra time with these folks as he would be working with these personnel in the in the future. 

By the third day, S’Lone had gotten used to the ebb and flow of the assignment. It was interesting to see how Arrivals reacted to interacting with the half-breed.  Because his ridgelines were softer due to his Betazed blood, he was often taken for a Vulcan half-breed.  Some Arrivals even greeted him in Vulcan, which gave S’Lone a chance to polish his Vulcan, which was near-native.

By the 5th day, S’Lone had taken the initiative by trying to memorize the names of the Tier I through II Command Staff and Department heads. These he would greet by Rank and Name. He hoped this act did not come across as obsequious.

Deck Duty was not so bad. But he could not wait to step back into the Intelligence Business.