Shuffle Step

Posted on 14 May 2015 @ 8:44am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday

1,772 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: USS Galileo/USS Atlas - Administrative Offices
Timeline: MD 01 - 0730 hrs

[ON]

Sitting down at her desk with a furrowed brow while she read over an important recent communique from Starfleet, Lirha rubbed her green forehead with frustration and let out a deep sigh. A wave of feelings began to cross through her mind, the least of which was annoyance at this new set of orders given to her by the senior admiralty. But waiting and procrastinating wouldn't help the situation any further, and so she activated the LCARS terminal in front of her with a tap on the keypad and initiated a subspace transmission from Atlas to Galileo, specifically to Holliday who needed to be informed sooner rather than later.

The system took only a few moments to make the connection, and Holliday having already been in his temporary Ready Room reviewing tactical data, appeared on the monitor with his usual stern expression.

"Admiral Saalm - to what do I owe the pleasure?"

The familiar face of Galileo's CO appeared on the screen in front of her. "Captain ," she acknowledged with a slight nod. "It seems we have a rather pressing matter to attend to." She retrieved her PADD from the tabletop which contained the details of the orders she had just received, and tapped on the thin device's keypad to send them to him so he could read the instructions for himself on his console.

"It appears there is a developing situation back at Starbase 84 which requires the immediate attention of several of our crew," She then paused to rephrase that sentence. "...some of our now-former crew. Commander Blake, Lieutenant Commander Markos, Lieutenant Devin, and several other of our personnel have been recalled to the starbase for permanent reassignment...with expediency," she explained, then waited for Holliday to read the transfer orders for himself and digest the unfortunate news.

It took only a few moments for the data to ping through to his console, and just a few moments after that for the situation to make itself apparent to the Captain - he would be losing a sizeable portion of his staff almost immediately, to the extent that a runabout would be arriving to collect the aforementioned personnel within the next few hours.

"Well...it seems we have our orders as well then Admiral. I'll have the necessary crewmembers prepare to disembark as soon as the runabout arrives."

Lirha sighed and nodded in agreement. It was most unfortunate and untimely that the departures were happening when they did, and the expediency of the matter left almost no room for a proper goodbye ceremony. It was...frustrating, and disappointing to the rear admiral. "I will miss them," she quietly replied through the screen. "They were good officers and crewmen, and it will be hard to replace them."

"Damn good." John replied, looking solemly down at the desk in front of him for a moment before continuing.

"I presume it would the right time to replace them within the chain of command aboard the Galileo - are you happy for me to make the arrangements Admiral?"

"Yes, that will be fine. Galileo is your ship, now. I think you know the personnel better than I at this point and I will support your decisions for promotions and advancement." The last thing she wanted to do was to step on Holliday's toes and exercise her authority when it wasn't really needed. He was the ship's captain and it was therefore his prerogative to appoint his new first officer and department heads if he saw fit. At least, that was her opinion and unique administration style.

"Do you have any thoughts for replacements?" she then asked, wondering who he thought would be suitable for which positions.

Holliday went silent for a moment, thinking about the personnel he had available to him. Replacing Scarlet was going to be his biggest challenge - she was an excellent First Officer and had served alongside him with distinction since her appointment following his own promotion to Captain. Really it was a simple choice - Galileo was after all a vessel of exploration, science and learning, and perhaps the command staff should follow that lead.

"Stace seems the logical choice to serve as First Officer. She has command experience as a head of department and seems to hold the respect of the rest of the crew."

He stated, allowing his inflection to rise at the end as if trying to blur the line between making a statement and asking a question.

"I believe Lieutenant Commander Stace would be a good replacement. And an improvement, if I am honest," she mentioned. The joined-Trill came from a purely Starfleet background and didn't have a reputation of rubbing certain crew members the wrong way as Blake had, and the Orion admiral was pleased with his decision. "And for your second officer? Perhaps Lieutenant Command Kohl would be a suitable replacement for Norvi?"

Jonathan shrugged for a moment. Whilst he had served with Kohl for a while now, he had not yet seen the man fully tested, especially in a command situation.

"I think it is worth the attempt - the young Commander is still new to seniority and it might take some time to see him grow into the role"

"As is always the case with young officers, of course," replied Lirha with not-too-concerned light tone to her voice. "He has been aboard the starship for quite some time now and is very familiar with most of the crew. The protocol aspects I am sure he will be able to acclimate to."

"Indeed - very well I will schedule appropriate meetings and file the paperwork with Command. I'm sure that's something you don't miss about being a CO." He replied with a wry smile. He knew that the strains of Admiralty were entirely different compared to Captaincy, but it was equally unending.

She shook her head, her dark hair bobbing across her shoulders. "I have my own paperwork to deal with these days," she answered with a smirk. "Besides, it is good practice for you should you ever find yourself suddenly promoted to commodore like I was."

Holliday wrinkled his nose at the idea of being forced into the upper brass of Starfleet. He had no intention of ever having to give up his Captain's chair to sit behind a desk. He knew that Lirha was better suited to the diplomacy and discussion compared to the Martian's preference for a phaser and a torpedo.

"You wish. Then you'd have someone to share the boring life of the Admiralty with!"

It did get lonely at times, Lirha silently admitted to herself. Being the only flag officer aboard often meant she felt isolated from the rest of the crew, and she rather enjoyed her early career days as a junior commander when she was able to mingle and gossip with her fellow crewmates without the rank pips getting in the way of a fun talk. "Perhaps," Lirha shrugged before turning her thoughts back to the matter at hand. "We will also need replacements for Counseling and Support. I have looked over your manifest and perhaps Lieutenant McCarthy and Ensign Murray would be suitable, respectively?"

Holliday nodded in silent agreement. Lirha had quickly turned the conversation back to a professional one, and he wasn't going to push the issue of rank isolation any further.

"That sounds sensible. I'd rather shore up with our existing crew before we requisition Starfleet for replacements."

"Agreed," nodded Saalm with confirmation of his sentiment. "We are also not exactly in a position to receive such replacements in a time manner," she added. With Galileo and the rest of the task group far away from the nearest Federation starbase, it would be days if not weeks before any shuttle or starship would be able to rendezvous with them.

"Very well....I will draw up the necessary paperwork to file with Command for the transfers. Will that be all Admiral?"

John knew that doing this many transfers in one move was going to be a mountain of paperwork. Unfortunately without an XO on board at the precise moment he would have needed one, he would have no choice but to put the reports through himself. An unenviable task if ever there was one.

Lirha absentmindedly fiddled with a stray lock of her dark hair and curled it around her fingertip while she attempted to remember everything she had wanted to bring to his attention. Suddenly, she recalled one final crew promotion she wanted to make. "Oh...I almost forgot," she backtracked. "With Lieutenant Commander Kohl moving to chief science officer, I would like to promote our young anthropologist to the head of our research department. I know Idris is not technically a Starfleet officer, but I believe he would be interested in a provisional rank to suit his new position. And I think he would be quite qualified and enthusiastic about the opportunity."

Holliday raised an eyebrow, something he had done many times during their latest mission. A department head that wasn't officially a member of Starfleet? not exactly standard procedure the captain thought as he tried to decide whether or not he agreed.

"Such a position would have to be subject to some form of monitoring. There are rules, procedures and the like that need to be met after all?"

"Perhaps," Lirha agreed, then began to give it a bit of thought. "Maybe Commander Stace would be willing to work with him to help him adjust to the protocols and duties of the position? After all, she herself is one of Galileo's former chief research officers. She knows the details of the job as well as anyone," she suggested.

"And it would be a sensible use of an XO." Holliday finished the end of her sentence.

"That makes sense. I'll speak with the soon-to-be-Commander following her appointment. Just in time to show the Klingons what a Starfleet crew is made of."

The Orion liked the sound of that and gave Holliday one of her private smiles. "But of course, captain. It should be...entertaining, to say the least," she said, then proceeded to dismiss him unless there was anything else he wanted to chat about. "That is all I have for now. You are free to go if you do not have any questions?"

"Plenty of questions - not enough answers." Holliday replied with a smile, before leaning on the comm channel to close.

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Atlas

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Chronos

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