240010.14.0700

Cezear stepped out of the turbo-lift and onto the bridge of the Mercy for the first time, he pulled at his tunic to make sure it was straight and looked down to make sure his boots were somewhat shiny and not scuffed too bad. “I’ll have to spend some time on those tonight.” he thought to himself as he walked toward the small grouping of blue tunic’d individuals.

“Good morning ladies and gents. How was everything overnight? Anything I need to be made aware of?”

The small group turned and faced him as he approached. “Sir?”

“Right, guess I should have led with that. Let’s try that again, shall we? Good morning ladies and gents. I’m Lieutenant Cezear Beattie, the new Chief Science Officer as of roughly 2230 last night.” He looked at the group in front of him. 

They gave each other looks. “Sorry sir, we weren’t aware that a new Chief Science Officer was going to be selected so fast. Does it have something to do with the Data packet we received last night?”

“It does, notwithstanding that a ship like the Mercy can’t go too long without a CSO, can it?”

As he walked up to the Chief science console. “So, were we able to get started looking over the data this morning?”

“Sir, We just finished running it through the ship’s systems and making sure it was loaded into the ship’s computer core. You wouldn’t believe the amount of data in the packet, sir.”

“Oh, I think I have an idea. Before I start assigning it to the various departments. Can someone go through it and remove all the extra crap that we don’t need.” Two of the crew turn and start working on their consoles.

“Sir, “As a human female, wearing the pips of an Ensign, reached out her hand. “I’m Ensign Priscilla Applewood, your Gamma shift leader.”

Shaking her hand. “Nice to meet you, Ensign. I’m sure you’re ready to get off shift and all that so unless you have anything for me I think we are all good here.”

“Yes sir, well No sir. I mean I don’t have anything to report.”

Cezear chuckled. “All good Ensign. Go get some food and sleep, see you tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, sir.” as she looked at the two crewmen standing beside her, nodded toward them dismissing them from their shift. The small group made their way toward the turbo-lift doors.

Cezear sat down at the console and started to arrange the various displays as he liked them. “Computer, lock in current science one console layout as Cezear-charlie-alpha-one.” The computer simply beeped in acknowledgment.

“Alrighty then, let’s see this data shall we.”

Cezear spent the next several minutes going through and dividing the data into the various departments, creating packets for each along with crosslinking several packets and departments, including medical.”

He spun in his chair and faced the two other science consoles, stood, and took a couple of steps toward them. “Excuse me, ensign?”

“Ensign Portia Linwood, sir. General Sciences.”

“Hmmm, not a bad decision by the previous chief to have a generalist on the bridge. Ok, so I would like you to pull the scan data for the system around planet SB1094 for the past year. I would like to know who has been there, how long they were in the system, and any data they were able to gather. Do you prefer the rank then name or during informal conversations going with surnames.”

“That shouldn’t take too long, Lieutenant. As for the second question. I guess during informal conversations surnames are ok, as long as it is understood that if anyone else were to approach or take part in the conversation we use rank prior.”

“agreed.”

He walked a couple of steps over to the science three consoles. 

“Ensign Huvem, planetology.”

Cezear nodded in reply. “May I call you Huvem or do you prefer the rank prior,”

Ensign Huvem held up a hand. “I overheard your conversation with Ensign Linwood, sir. I too would find it logical to use given names during informal conversations. I have also removed the crap as you put it from the data.

“Very well. Excellent.” 

“Next question. Does it seem logical to you to remove the anthropologist team after six months and then replace them with a team composed of Biologists and Psychologists and then to bring them back roughly two years later?”

“As part of a cultural observation team, it does not seem logical as you humans would say it seems a bit odd.”

“That’s what I thought. Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? Could you go through the data from the anthropologists and see if there is any reason why they would need to be replaced to include anything in the reports on why the decision was made to replace them if there was no scientific reason for replacing them in the first place? Also, look to see if there is any reason why anyone would bring an anthropologist team back to the planet after two years.”

Cezear watched as Huvem started typing commands into the console. “Second question, would you like the planetology packet or should I send it down to the lab.”

“Logically, I would receive the packet first and then I will delegate it to my team in the lab as needed.”

Cezear nodded at this. “Ok then, I’ll be sending the packets out in a bit.”

Huvem nodded, as Cezear made his way back to his console and took a seat. Reaching for his coffee cup and taking a sip, he grimaced. “Drat, gone cold. Excuse me, Linwood, is there a replicator on the bridge?”

Linwood looked up from her console and pointed toward the forward port side door. “Through that door is a small crew rest area with a replicator and the latrines.”

“Good to know, thanks.”

Cezear stood from his console looking around the bridge as he made his way to the side door. “Guess after I warm this up I should make my way around and introduce myself.”

Returning to his console just as the Captain stepped on the bridge, he watched as the Captain and XO had a brief conversation. Returning to his car sole he barely heard the turbo lift open as he saw the reflection of Captain Pottinger entering the bridge.

“Oh, this should be interesting.” he chuckled to himself.

Listening to the conversation he almost spit out a sip of coffee when he heard that her lap dog would be assigned to his team. “Damn, micro-managing now are we. Gotta fix that can’t have him commenting on everything I do or say or reporting back to her every time I make a decision he doesn’t agree with.”

Looking around he saw the looks on several of the bridge team when Captain Pottinger tried to command the helm officer and he looked at Captain Halsey for clarification.

“You may be in charge of the mission but you are not in charge of the Mercy and she does not like that fact very much, now does she? That’s interesting.”

He started to pull up his department head and assistant head files to decide on who will be joining him on the planet. “Humans preferably or those easily passable as human.” 

He spun his chair to face the two Ensigns. “Ensign Linwood, you’ll be joining us on the planet. Ensign Huvem you’ll stay here on the bridge”

They both turned to face Cezear. “Yes, sir.”

“Ok, we have some time yet, let’s keep working on this data. Huvem, let’s start watching the long-distance scans. Gather as much information as we can on the system and SB1094, and cross-check it against the files we got from Pottingers team.”

“Ok then let’s get to work shall we.”