Sonja had not had a good morning, in fact it was up there as one of the worst. She had spilled coffee on herself as she prepared to leave. After doing this she quickly went in and changed looking at her chronometer she silently yelled at herself. She was slated for a meeting with Chief Vaughn and at this rate she wasn’t going to be there on time. Her hair was also a mess so she quickly managed it into a bun and tried again with her coffee this time succeeding.

She grabbed her PADD and quickly made her way to the Chiefs office making sure to not be stopped by anything. She arrived and straightened her uniform before activating the chime to the door. 

The summons was as gruff as usual, but when she walked in, Vaughn was sat at his desk and did not appear to look up from the screen on his console. “Thompson, I expect my officers not to look like they got dragged through a hedge backwards. Did you lose a fight with a donkey? Was a donkey rogue on the promenade?” he growled. Only then did he jab his screen to a locked state and leaned back to look her in the eye with his usual chilly glint.

Sonja stopped for a moment and looked at him with her usual chipper demeanour “Apologies, Sir. It wasn’t a good morning and I struggled to get dressed. I didn’t want to be late though so I tried to look presentable so I wasn’t late. So to answer your question no I didn’t have a fight with a donkey, more so a fight with myself.”

She again didn’t change from her regular attitude and waited to be allowed to sit down.

Vaughn grunted, and gave a curt gesture towards the opposite chair. “The moment you’re in the uniform, you represent the service. When you’re on this station, you represent Bravo. When you’re in these offices, you represent this department. Once we’re done here, you’re going to go tidy yourself the hell up. Understood”?”

Sonja nodded as she knew there was nothing else she could say or do, as Vaughn was quite clear and blunt, which was indeed his usual demeanor.

Another grunt. “Right. Thompson. Why’re you here?”

She collected herself “I am here to report the current status of Security on the Promenade. You had requested an update about how things have been. Honestly things have been rather calm at least on my shifts. I did have a run in with a drunk Cadet and a little run in with some upset people, but it was resolved rather quickly and efficiently. Things for the most part seem to be not only running efficiently, but the station crime numbers are down.” She said as she handed him the PADD with her report as he requested.

“Hm. We’ll monitor it. Never forget that all we’re recording are the crimes we’ve noticed – the crimes people are reporting,” Vaughn said gruffly. “This starbase isn’t a rough place, but to keep it safe, we have to have a strong relationship with the people who live here. Otherwise they don’t reach out to us for help. And all we have are numbers collected by people who don’t actually have a clue what’s going on. Still, this maybe gives us some breathing room for what’s next.”

Sonja agreed with the statement though she wasn’t quite sure if the crimes would go away completely, but she did know that part of her job made it easier to help control the crime on the promenade, though she wanted to help more. “I will do anything to help make sure those numbers stay low.” She said as she thought about the issue in her head.

“If you’re so keen, Thompson, then I’ve more responsibility for you.” Vaughn reached for a PADD and slid it across the desk towards her. “A new community outreach program. This station’s not been open for long, and between that and the disruption of the last six months, most of our population’s new. If crime’s down, then we’re going to use this space to improve relationships with our little neighbourhood, the Promenade, so when trouble does come up, people bring it to us, and fast. And I want you to take point on that for the precinct.”

Sonja looked over the information on the PADD and began to start checking through the information in her personal checklist. She nodded “I will do whatever is needed to help Sir. I would be happy to help in the program. I may need some personnel to help in the department, but only if they can be spared. If not I will make do with what I have.” She said as she tucked the PADD under her arm. 

“Not help.” Vaughn leaned back, arms folded across his chest. “This community on Bravo’s new. People have been here all of a year. It changes all of the time. There are hardly any starbases of this size in existence in the Federation, and all of them are in unique environments which impact the community makeup. So I want you to figure out what community engagement from the security department on this base, on this Promenade, is going to look like. Which means – you’re going to have to find out. Do that first – put together a proposal, give me a pitch, and then we talk personnel.” He shrugged. “Don’t forget crew are part of the community. They’re just not the most important voices, either.”

Sonja nodded as she now understood truly what the Commander was asking of her “Understood, is there anything else you need? If not I’m going to go and make myself look presentable before doing some preliminary checks and getting the information needed for that proposal.“

“Nothing else,” said Vaughn, gesturing for her to get up and go. It wasn’t until she was on her feet and heading to the door that he said, voice still its usual gravelly grumble, “Stuff like this looks good on your record, Thompson. It might not be the excitement you join Security for, but it’s the setup that leads to the payoff of really making a difference. Being good at this makes you a good officer.” For a moment it sounded almost like encouragement, or at least a reassurance that this new task mattered, but then Vaughn met her gaze with a flat expression. “So don’t screw it up.”

Sonja smiled back at the Commander before heading off to her quarters to freshen up as she had been ordered. She smiled maybe she was finally making some progress with the Commander…maybe.