Jive Talkin'

Posted on 24 Dec 2015 @ 5:53pm by Lieutenant Wilhelm Von Haeften & Captain Jonathan Holliday

1,074 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 10 - Symposium
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 1 - Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD 10 - 0832 HRS

[ON]


Wilhelm Von Haeften checked the crease of his pants and the shine of his shoes for the upteenth time as he stood before the door to the Skipper's ready room. It was to be his first formal meeting with his new boss and he wanted to give a good first impression. He had even bothered to wear what he called 'his good pips', the ones commercially made out of latinum and possessing a brillant shine.

Thinking there would be little chance of him correcting his uniform more than he had already, the CSO hit the chime to be granted admission.

The officer did not have to wait long however as the door burst open ahead of him and the ship's Captain, brandishing a PADD moved to exit onto his Bridge, only looking up with a moment to spare to narrowly avoid a collision with the blue-uniformed Lieutenant in front of him.

"Lieutenant! Ah....I apologise - too busy reviewing the latest transfer orders....I presume you are here to report in?"

"Jawöhl Herr Kapitän"* the German replied.

Holliday raised an eyebrow as his translator dealt with the native tongue of his officer. He had dabbled a little in a few languages but there was generally no need for him to become fluent unless he had pursued a career in linguistics.

"Well then....come in." He replied, lowering the PADD in his hand to his waist and accepting that he would be staying in his office perhaps just a little bit longer than he had planned.

"You'll have to excuse the mess - Operations and Engineering have their hands full with other matters rather than repairing my Ready Room right now - perhaps if I'm lucky it will be done before we depart spacedock. The replicator is functional however, if you would care for a beverage? Mine's a raktajino, double strong."

"The same for me sir, please." the german replied. Actually, Wilhelm could barely stomach the stuff, preferring standard coffee. But he found that a good way to get off on a good footing with a new commander is to show interest in whatever they have passion for; if the Skipper loves his raktajino, then by God, Wilhelm will choke the stuff down for a few minutes.

Holliday nodded in a discerning agreement before tapping a console above the replicator and waiting for the two mugs to materialise. Passing one to his new officer he cradled the other in both hands as he made his way back to his desk, allowing the strong aroma of the famous Klingon beverage to permeate every micron of his nose before taking the first sip and sighing with content.

"Take a seat Lieutenant. How have you found our little ship so far? She's not exactly the roomiest, fastest, or biggest in the fleet, but she has her momemts."

Taking a sip of his raktajino before responding, Wil stated "She's a fine vessel sir; she's the first pure-research ship I've had the privilege to serve aboard. All my scientific and personal needs have been met or exceeded."

"Good to hear." He replied, taking a sip of his own beverage before continuing. With their repair schedule due to conclude in a few days time before heading to Jupiter station, Holliday knew that he wouldn't be able to get this sort of quiet time with just himself and a coffee for much longer, and intended to savour it as best he could.

"Of course should you need further material requisitioning, my First Officer will be able to look into that. Just...don't let too many complex reports end up on my desk. Not my preferred sort of reading."

"Skipper...uh that is, sir..." the German started, unintentionally using the Reserve Fleet slang for captains. "I was a Reservist; I know that your time is valuable and limited; nothing will come to you unless I believe it to be necassary. I'm sure that we in SCIDEP can internalize the majority of our reports within our department, and that those that cannot will be brought to the XO first of course. In the event that any reports do reach you, I'll make sure they are as tersely and laconicly exciting as possible sir."

The CSO was only half-kidding; the writing style of official correspondance was vastly different between the Reserve and Active Fleets. The Reserve Fleet had a reputation of blunt speaking and short-handed, acronym-laced, and words-are-at-a-premium economy of language that could come off as terse and impersonal. Wilhelm liked to not think so, preferring instead to think of it as a skill to convey the most information in as little words as possible.

"That's all I can ask" Jonathan replied with a slight appreciative smile. He knew that the best he could hope for was to avoid too much of the technobabble and to be able to get on with commanding the ship, but such things went with the weight of sitting in the big chair.

"I trust you'll want some time to settle in. I suggest getting to grips with your department at your earliest convenience. There are some...interesting characters down there."

"Aye sir. I've met some of these 'characters' already. But if its alright with you sir, I'd like to get into the thick of SCIDEP; I assume I'll have plenty of time to get more acquainted with the personnel as we undergo repairs and refit."

"Permission granted Lieutenant." Holliday replied, already impressed with the man's commitment to his work, indeed it was pleasant for the work-hard Captain to meet someone else who was quite so focused on just getting on with things.

Raising his hand to indicate the direction of the door and therefore permission to leave, he took another sip of his coffee and waited for his new CSO to depart, and see what happened next.

The German CSO stood up to attention, bringing his heels together with a click. His right hand and arm once more snapped to his right eyebrow in a salute. Assuming that the Skipper would not return one, Von Haeften turned on his heel, and walked out of the Captain's Ready Room and back onto the bridge. His destination: SCIDEP.

*Jawöhl Herr Kapitän - Yaa-voll HaiR Kop-e-teen: Yes (emphatic) sir (LIT: Yes mister captain)


[OFF]

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

&

LT JG Wilhelm Von Haeften
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

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