Part of USS Dragon: Hatching grounds

Meeting the staff – part 1

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“Enter”

The first to enter was a female and male Lieutenant, one wearing the gold of operations and the other wearing the blue of science.” No, no, no… Sust we can not fly the Dragon like we did the Raven’s. She is too big for those types of maneuvers.”

“Look, dear sis, look at the specs. The math doesn’t lie. With the block three upgrades to her impulse engines, I know we could make her turn on a dime. All I’m asking is that we give it a try in the next holo mission. Better find out in there, then out there.” he makes a sweeping motion in front of himself.

“Sust, are you factoring in the addition of the mission pod that is being added as we speak.” As she took a seat a couple of seats down from the XO.

“Yes, dear sister I have. With its closeness to the impulse engine location and its size and shape. I don’t think it will make that much of a difference.

She looked at her brother.

 ^^” Care to put your wallet on it?”  

What’re the stakes?

“Loser pays for dinner at a location of the winner’s choosing.”

Hmmmm, deal. Though we need a fair and impartial judge. Any ideas?

“Not like we have been here long enough to make too many friends. How about I ask the XO?”

Acceptable.”^^

“Excuse us Sir, ma’am. My brother and I were just debating the flight characteristics of the Dragon. I’m Lieutenant Viameli Dromi, your Chief Flight Control Office. “She pointed across the table. “Is Lieutenant Sustram Dromi, my brother, right now he is the wearer of multiple hats. I believe on the roster he is slotted in a Helm officer slot and as the department head of the just added Astrometrics lab.  Though if I understand correctly, we have been assigned a Squadron?”

Aryanna and Kr’antren looked at each other for a second. Kr’Antren was about to say something when Aryanna held up a hand just barely on the tabletop.

“Yes, we have been assigned a squadron.” She looked at the two of them, landing on the lieutenant in blue. ”What are you asking?”

Viameli started to say something and is cut off by a look from Aryanna. “Lieutenant, I’m quite aware of the Betazed hierarchy however you cannot speak for your brother all the time.”

“So, what is it Lieutenant Sustram ?” as she turned her gaze back toward him.

“Well, ma’am. We, well I mean I, was wondering if there would be a slot on the bridge for me. I know that Starfleet did away with the navigator seat a long time ago. But if the rumors are true and we have been assigned to Task Force forty-seven then maybe the captain would be agreed that it wouldn’t hurt to have one on the bridge again. Especially if we have to rely on those old Cardassian maps.”

Aryanna looked over her shoulder at Kr’Antren who just shrugged a reply.

“And? What else?”

“Well, ma’am. With the addition of the squadron would not need some sort of a Tactical air space controller. Someone that would be able to pass the Captain’s plans and orders to the squadron during the encounter or normal flight operations.”

Aryanna sat back in her chair and looked at Kr’Antren. “Not sure we had even thought of that yet. Guess it would be something to discuss.”

Kr’Antren nodded at this. “Yes, it is. Though I do think the idea of a navigator position on the bridge is something that I think would be a good thing to have/ someone to help the Helm officer.” he looked at Viameli “with helm operations and be able to decipher those old Cardassian maps without interrupting her normal operations. The idea of a strategic ops officer is one that we are not quite big enough for nor do we require one full-time, but the idea of a dual-slotted officer, one with helm experience and a working knowledge of what is around us sounds like a good role for a young, eager Lieutenant. What do you think, Aryanna?”

She looked back at the two of them. “Hmmmmm, why do I get the feeling that we were just hoodwinked, sir.”

“Because we were.” he handed her his PADD showing the twins in the holosuite. “Looks like they have been working this out between them for the last couple of days. Including the strat ops role from the looks of it.”

<<” Sounds like something we would have done back in the day.”

“Don’t you mean something we have done? Not quite as elegant as they pulled it off though.”>>

Aryanna gives the two of them a stern look and then lets out a slight chuckle.

Kr’Antren made a note on his PADD and watched as others walked in and took a seat.

That’s when he noticed something going on at the far end of the table.

Scamandrius was behind the Tellarite Tactical Officer as he entered the briefing room. He made his way over to one of the empty chairs. “Damn, this ain’t going to work.” As he looked at it and shook it with one of his overly long and quite large arms. “Nope, not going to work at all.” shaking his head. He made his way over to the row of chairs against the far wall giving them a look over. “Not much better. Don’t think I’ll fall right over, but pretty sure they will not be the most comfortable thing for me to sit in.”

“Excuse me, Lieutenant. Is something wrong?” Kr’antren asked as he looked at the lieutenant.

“No, sir,” Scamandrius replied, blinking his single eye. 

Kr’Antren looked at him again with a raised eyebrow, as now the XO turned to look to see who the Captain was talking to.

“Damn it, well yes sir, there is. It’s the chairs.”

“The chairs?”

“Oh for crying out loud, Scama. Did you request this on purpose? How did you even know I was assigned here?”

“I didn’t, till now.”

The Captain looked between the lieutenant he was talking to and the Orion that just walked in. As Aryanna looked up at her with a smile and a raised eyebrow.

Zaishi looked at Aryanna and shook her head. (mouthing) “Later” and received a nod in reply.

“Yes sir, the chairs are an issue for the Lieutenant. Oh, I’m Lieutenant Zaishi, your Chief Engineering Officer, sorry I wasn’t on the bridge for your arrival but we were running some tests on the port fusion reactor.”

“You see the lieutenant here is heavier than he looks as his weight is supported differently than on most humanoids. So most standard issue chairs cannot properly support his weight or his sitting posture. I will get a team on this straight away, I know what is needed.”

Scamandrius shook his head as she spoke. “Not what I wanted to happen, nor is she who I wanted to run into,” he grumbled under his breath.

“I heard that Scama and WE will discuss it later.” She said in his direction as she took a seat.

Kr’Antren looked at Aryanna then at the two Lieutenants. “Ok then, Lieutenant. Please take a seat wherever you’re comfortable till we get this issue resolved.”

Scamandrius walked over and offered a hand to the Captain.” sorry sir, I forgot to introduce myself. Lieutenant Scamandrius, I was just assigned earlier today as your intelligence officer. Something about a request from the Task Force along with the addition of a modified sensor/communication/ECM mission pod.”

“Hold on so you’re the reason why I have been working my proverbial tail off the last two days trying to get that mission bay reconfigured with new labs along with adding that pod to the outside of my ship.”

“No Zai, the other way around. I’m here because that POD and those labs were requested.” As he took a seat on the floor with his back against the row of chairs.

Aryanna looked over at Lieutenant Zaishi. “Not even a CEO for more than a couple weeks and already calling it your ship?”

Zaishi chuckled. 

Kr’Antren noticed the next person entering the room was Doc, he quickly got up and made his way to stop her before she made it in too far.

“Doc, how about a cup of Raktajino?”

“No thanks Captain, I’m good.”

“Ok, well then join me as I get one.” 

The look he gave her and the tone in his voice made her realize more was up than just a simple hello and a cup of Raktajino.

“Doc, after this meeting you, the XO, and I need to sit down and have a chat. It looks like those of us on the Rhyndacus were not the only ones affected by your sister’s actions.”

“Hold on, I read the Exec’s medical file when I heard you two were being assigned. Are you telling me that the attack on her ship was Avasa?”

He nodded as he took the cup from the replicator.

“You know Lieutenant Zaishi was there also, she is the one that cut the Exec’s arm off. Saved her life.”

“Damn, no I was not aware of that. Do me a favor and take the seat next to mine. Just in case.”

She nodded and made her way to the seat.

Aryanna noticed her enter and noticed Kr’Antren having a short conversation with her.

<<” He was right, you know. They look nothing alike. You can see the human side of her genetics.”

“Yes Rigras, I can see with my own eyes. Not her.”

“Guess you’ll find out. I am willing to bet you three will be having a chat after this.”

“I better get a message to Zaishi, she will need to be part of that also.”

“About time something I told you in the past stuck in that rock you call a brain, was beginning to wonder.”

“ok, old man. No need to get mean.”>>

Aryanna quickly typed something on her console and looked over at Zaishi, who looked her way and nodded after reading the message.

Kr’Antren returned to his seat, placing the cup of Raktajino in front of him. “Is this everyone Aryanna?”

She looked around the table. “I do believe so, though I haven’t seen the squadron commander yet.”

“Hmm he said he was finishing up a simulation, I expect he’ll join us as soon as he is finished. Let’s get this started shall we.”

Kr’antren rapped his knuckles on the table to get everyone’s attention.

Comments

  • Quite the cast of interesting characters being assembled here on the Dragon and I'm looking forward to seeing some of them. Nice use of implied background and familiarity between the new faces and can't wait to see those details coming out in the future. Nice parsing out of character details, giving hints and treats for the future and decent foundations to build on in the future. My only suggestion I could think of would be to stick with a single character's point of view for each chapter, especially with the internal monologues. The bouncing back and forth can be somewhat difficult to fully parse. Really enjoying what I'm reading at the moment and can't wait to see more out of this bunch!

    March 4, 2023
  • Great introduction to the twins there. We really get a glimpse of their personalities as well as a hint into their culture. You’ve given us some nice hints on the characters and their backgrounds and I could see Scamandrius assessing each of those chairs! Great start, looking forward to reading more!

    March 5, 2023