Quentin's First Shift
Posted on Fri Mar 22nd, 2024 @ 3:40pm by Lieutenant Commander Asahi Kita & Chief Petty Officer Baen Sloane
Mission:
Shakedown Shake-Up
Location: USS Nelson - Intellgence Office
Timeline: Shortly after the USS Nelson is underway
Tags: quentin,new crewmember
1893 words - 3.8 OF Standard Post Measure
Several days prior, Quentin had witnessed in horror the half-melted USS Vesta be towed in. Quentin's next shock came as he was informed that instead to starting his new assignment on the Vesta, he would be on the USS Nelson with the Vesta crew. The initial shock wore off and turned to frustration since Quentin had replaced his normal work during his travel time in part with studying Vesta systems. Now, Quentin is heading to his first shift.
Quentin entered the turbolift and requested the deck which the intelligence office is located on. No one else ends up in the lift with him and he reaches his destination with no stops. "I'm lucky to get the turbolift alone today!", Quentin thought. He proceeded down the hallway and turned into the office. He walked towards the door labeled "Chief Intelligence Officer" and knocked. Quentin got no response and then looked around for a Lieutenant Commander and saw no one with the signature two solid pips with one hollowed pip. Quentin knocked again, still getting no response.
"No, don't re-encrypt every-gah!" came a shout from one of the various office areas. Soon enough, out came an annoyed-looking petty officer, followed by the black and white collie dog that was synonymous with the Vesta's Intelligence Office. The former of the two had the bridge of his nose pinched, battling with a tension headache. The dog, on the other hand, immediately took note of the new person and darted from the side of the curly-haired man to investigate. "Hojo, wai-oh."
Baen blinked at Quentin, tilting his head to one side, then the other. It was not odd to see new faces in the Intel Offices, not with how quickly they seemed to go through them, but it was usually Asahi they saw first. And then Asahi who dragged the newbie down the 'Kita Grand Tour', which included everything but the Intel Offices. So, to see a new face that looked so lost? That was the new part. But Baen caught onto the pips on Quentin's collar quick, giving the man a nod. "... You trying to report in? We haven't seen him all day. I think he's warring with the Nelson's holoprograms. Petty Officer Sloane. I'll at least show you around."
"Odd, yes that would be appreciated. Lieutenant Junior Grade Th'ziakres, nice to meet you. I'm supposed to be the new Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer and I am in fact here to report in.", Quentin said in a confused tone. His antennae swirled around. He shook the Chief's hand. Quentin began to follow the Chief around the intelligence office and after a short while asked a question, "How long have you been with this crew?"
"Too long," came the reply from Baen as he took the officer down the hall. "It's a good thing I was single before the Vesta had her two-year time jump or I'd have had a lot to answer for." He gave Quentin a sidelong look. "Did you get stuck in this position or did you get the grace of choosing it? Because hoo boy if it was assigned and hoo boy if you chose to join us. I'll have to show you the good hiding spots either way. There's a ton of 'em."
"Time jump?", Quentin asked with confusion. He tilted his head to the side and his antennae move outwards before returning to their original position. Quentin had heard stories of time travel at the academy, but he'd never have thought he would be assigned to a ship that had actually done it. "I was offered the assignment because of my time on the Prometheus. I guess they figured I'd be right at home on another experimental ship. I could have stayed, but they offered me Assistant Chief. Speaking of that, do you mind pointing out my office?", he said.
"Office?" Baen let out a snort. "I think we'd all be lucky if we got chairs on this rig. Nelson's not equipped for people. And we only brought a skeleton crew with us. I'll make sure you see the Vesta's space for you when we get back, but we've all kinda been-" He paused, only to gesture past the hall and into a room that looked smaller in size than the five consoles and chairs could hold. None of them currently contained people. "Nelson doesn't have a dedicated space for us, so we made do. The LC's been operating out of one encrypt-secured line via his quarters, but he'll pop in to say hi and make sure we aren't trying to find a way to strangle some holograms."
"I just figured I'd have an office, but alas, we are on the Nelson... I'd heard something vague about that, but I'm more of a tech guy myself.", said Quentin.
Baen gave pause, tilting his head to one side. "Surprised you didn't do research on the Vesta and her crew before you got here. Had a time skip a bit ago. Hopped from one year to another, skipping a few years in between. A lot of people thought we were gone, or worse. But here we are, still in the game. Starfleet and all the Federation stuff, anywho."
"Is there any work that needs done right now?", Quentin asked. The man liked work and wanted something to do, even if it would normally be considered boring. He was mildly frustrated at the lack of a proper workspace, but it wasn't that big of a deal to him.
A chuckle came out of Baen. "There's always work to be done. Specifics? That I'm not sure of, but you'll wanna get to know all the encryptions we've got first. Trust me - some of 'em are weird. And may require some musical knowledge. Among other things. But it isn't so bad. We'll get your credentials through and you can start work quick. Knowing Boss man, he's probably already pushed his part through while we were talking. If you're an officer, he'd be expecting you. Maybe."
Quentin, speaking in an exasperated tone said, "Let's here about 'em! Music? That's a new one. Where do we check for the credentials? Do I get a secure terminal in my room?" Quentin asked his litany of questions quickly in hopes that he'd be able to just get to work faster. This whole 'boss man missing' problem was starting to irritate Quentin. Yes, he could have taken control, that's true, but he didn't want to rock the boat.
"Slow down there, Junior Boss." Baen chuckled, as a foot tall, bipedal feathered lizard ran out from under one of the console stations. The creature stopped in front of the pair of Intel officers, sniffing the air around them before leaping about at Baen's feet. "I hope that's a sign you'll get all your answers soon 'cause-"
"ELLIE!" came a voice from down the hall. Sure enough, there stood the dusty-haired Intel Chief, hands on his hips and a stern look on his face. "How many times do I have to tell you not to play out in the open like that. Someone's gonna abduct you."
"Hey Commander," shot Baen across the hall, stepping aside to gesture toward Quentin. "Were we expecting another assistant chief? Because we have one."
Asahi made his way down the hall, hoisting the wily little dinosaur into his arms like a baby. He paid no heed to the happy whips of her tail as he looked Quentin up and down. "I wasn't. But glad you're here. Gotta keep the rest of these guys in line somehow. I've got a lot to update you on too. Movements in the area - movements we're avoiding - all that good stuff. I'm sure you wanna dig in. How are you with being social and reconnaissance? Baen here's about as social as a Klingon being forcibly withheld from their booze, and he's in infiltration. I just wanna see what we're working with here-oh, this is Ellie. I'm Asahi. Just Asahi."
"Quentin, nice to meet you Sir... or uhm... Asahi.", Quentin said, "I'm a pretty social person I'd say. Mostly done signals intelligence. I presume you've gotten my personnel file?" Quentin was glad to finally have meet his senior officer. The man loved how Asahi understood his desire to 'dig in'. He tilted his head in and moved his antennae forward.
"Signals? We need a signals guy!" Asahi stated excitedly. "Oh I got it alright, it's part of why I wanted to get in here." He seemed to ignore the razor sharp raptor teeth threatening to pierce the skin of his fingers as he spoke. Instead, he approached the young Andorian, maneuvering to offer Ellie's tail as if a hand to shake. "But we gotta test that socialness at some point. What if we need a signals guy to blend with a society? I'll put that on the to do list. Nothing to worry about right now though, Nelson's not exactly-... it's ah... don't worry, the Vesta's way more state of the art. You'll get an office there too - bare with us here and we'll take care of ya."
He gestured Baen away with his head, which the infiltration specialist seemed more than happy to oblige. Asahi winked at Quentin. "How 'bout we get you onboarded so we can get ourselves rollin'?"
Quentin smiled and swirled his antennae. He carefully shook Ellie's tail. "Let's do it! Glad that you need me. Looking forward to the Vesta", Quentin said. He thought about the 'socialness' comment. Did he do something wrong? No... it was just the new ship, he thought. Quentin kept his eyes on Ellie before looking at Baen again. He was still worried about making a bad impression.
"We need all the help we can get," Asahi stated resolutely, "The more experts, the better too." Setting the happy as a clam velociraptor down so she could follow behind them, "Shouldn't take long -" he was already in the makeshift office area, smacking a hand against a console to get it to work. "The onboarding that is." After a few swift taps of the strobing screen, he gestured to Quentin, pointedly looking anywhere but the screen itself. "This'll get you an account into the Nelson. Any work you do here will get itself transferred to the Vesta after we re-encrypt it to the much more secure method - don't worry, there's a ton of encryption here to protects it from leaking out, we just have to go through... holograms to get to it. Just put a password in and it'll be set. You can go through the rest of that all later."
Quentin looks confused. He reluctantly types in a brand new password. "Everything here seems like it doesn't work great!", he said with a laugh.
"Great!" Asahi clapped his hands together at the happy chime of the console. "Well, I'm glad we got to meet, but I do hafta jet. I had something running back in my quarters that requires me to exist there when it finishes. We'll have time to get aquainted with each other soon. Before I do - got questions for me?"
"No, Sir.", Quentin said. He waved goodbye to Asahi and got to work reviewing recent intelligence.
