You think you’re ready for this? The voice of Yora, the previous host of his symbiont Tir, tugged at the back of his mind.  Calog had known Yora and Tira for the past ten years, and Yora had been sufficiently critical of his decisions in that time that they had fought early on about his path to Starfleet and his decisions to embrace operations.  She had come to accept his choices, but she’d never truly given up asking the question at each turn.  The trouble was she wasn’t wrong in her line of questioning, and it frustrated the Trill to know that while Yora may have lost her life early, she wasn’t going to let him take risks without making her feelings known.

“Lieutenant Tir?  He’ll see you now.”

He stepped into the office and stood before the CO of the ship he had applied for, “Lieutenant Calog Tir reporting for my interview, sir.”

Harris glanced up and motioned for him to sit, “You’re lucky your ship was passing through the sector, Mr. Tir.  We’ve got need of an operations officer.”  He sat back, “There’s no question as to your qualifications.  You’ve been promoted and held the assistant chief position for a good length of time.  The question is – what do you bring to the table of the Edinburgh?”

The Trill blinked.  It wasn’t an unexpected question, but the forthrightness of the commander still managed to startle him slightly.  “I care about my work, sir.  I am singularly focused on making my department run well and helping connect everybody else together.  Any starship worth its weight needs a steady and focused hand on the operations wheel.”

Ambrose scrolled through the personal report, “Your previous host died.”  He looked up to Calog, “There’s not much detail here…I’m hoping you can fill that in.”

I don’t trust him, came the voice of Yora, and he shook her loose from his consciousness.  “She died in the midst of a smuggling operation gone very wrong.”  He paused and waited to see if this commander would let it go at that.  The look on his face suggested Calog needed to continue.  “She was the captain of a transport ship, and she hadn’t been made aware of a smuggling part of her cargo.  Some pirates got motivated and took the shipment and thought they’d killed her.  Tir kept her alive until a rescue operation found her in the nick of time.  They needed someone immediately; I had been waiting on a list…and given the circumstances, I stepped up.”

Harris remained impassive, “Does Yora agree with that…record of events?”

The joined Trill allowed a quiet smile, “You’ve done your research, Commander.”

“If I’m going to ask you to be a part of my crew, I make sure I do my research and ask the right questions.  Letting the wrong one in can destroy a command crew and a ship in very short order.”  He repeated the question.

Calog decided that truth was better than fiction, “She wasn’t happy to be placed inside a man.  It was a rough start.  We still argue off and on, but it’s more of a married couple than anything.”

It was Ambrose’s turn to quietly smile, “That is a reference I understand, Lieutenant.”  He glanced over the file one last time and stood, extended his hand, “Welcome aboard the USS Edinburgh, Mr. Tir.  Your quarter’s information is on your PADD, and your first shift will kick off in an hour.”

Calog thanked him and headed out the door and back into the masses of Bravo.  He was a chief, and he had a future ahead of him.  Hope sprung eternal.