Before we start

Posted on 05 Jun 2019 @ 6:00pm by Commander Amelia Fox & Lieutenant Commander Aidan Datari

Mission: Shakedown
Location: XO's Office
Timeline: MD4 1000
908 words - 1.8 OF Standard Post Measure

See the XO before the CO. Aidan read his transfer orders a second time then shrugged. It wasn't unusual to be sent to the XO first except he'd never had this happen to him before. Not since being commissioned at any rate. He shook his head as Sherlock zipped ahead of him. "No, we'll save you for a meeting with the captain. Then we'll introduce you to others."

The blue hooted indignantly but disappeared nonetheless. He was probably going to find the ship's arboretum, which was fine by Aidan. Checking his orders a second time, he pressed the chime to the XO's office.

Amelia's office was a sea of PADD's at the moment. Who should have thought it was so much paperwork to launch a new starship? There was the new duty rota, crew assignments power allocation, uniform requests... and she would like to meet the new officers as they came onboard. After meeting with the Captain their morning, she had already met their new helm officer.

She took a moment to grab a gulp of the coffee that was sat on her desk and looked at the mountain of work. "I'm never going to get through all of this." she muttered to herself "And where is our new science officer?"

At that moment, the door chime sounded. She looked up and called out "Come!"

Said science officer walked in, brandishing a new PADD to add to her ever growing pile. "Lieutenant Aidan Datari reporting for duty ma'am," he stated quietly.

"Ahh, speak of the devil! You must be the new science officer. Come in and ......" She stopped as she saw a small blue dragon following him. She looked down at her cup. "What the hell is in this coffee? I thought the only dragon onboard was our chief engineer."

"Sherlock!" Aidan exclaimed, shaking his head, "I told you to go to the arboretum." He sighed. "Ma'am, this is Sherlock, my pet. He's harmless and actually quite useful."

Amelia breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness for that, thought someone had spiked this coffee. Speaking of which would you like a cup?"

"Ah.." He hesitated, then nodded. "Sure, why not."

Amelia raised an eyebrow as she indicated the chair "That's an unusual pet. And here I was thinking about getting a cat. Where did you pick up a dragon?"

"That's a long story ma'am. I was seventeen when I got him, I was walking across a market with my then boyfriend. I still don't know how or why but his egg was pressed in my hands and he hatched then and there. My boyfriend urged me to feed him and he's bonded to me ever since. He's susceptible to my mood and I can sort of sense or feel what he's thinking. He's very loyal and protective of me and those I care about."

"Wow" Amelia said as she came back from the replicator with another cup of coffee which she placed in front of him "He sounds a great companion but, I think I'll stick with a cat. Was your journey here uneventful?"

"Yes ma'am I believe so. We had a quiet journey here I think. I spent quite some time of it sleeping. Our last mission on the Rhea was exhausting and I was injured. If you need details you might want to ask my wife, I'm sure she'll come report in eventually."

"Sounds interesting, I hope the injuries weren't serious. The Andromeda's mission is heading into the uncharted Beta quadrant. Did your wife have anything to say about your new assignment?"

"Depends on what you all serious. A holodeck train hijack went wrong, the safeties went off and I was shot. I didn't notice until after the program ended though." As to her last question, he nodded. "Of course she did, we wanted a posting together."

Amelia nodded "Good....." She then corrected "About keeping family together, not about being shot." She picked up a PADD and handed it over. "This has all the information about your posting. It also has information on the incident that took place on the Starbase at the reception. A bombing that injured a dozen people carried out by a rogue Son'a group calling themselves 'The Cetea'. Starbase are looking into the incident but we are running our own investigation as well. I need any information you can gleam about the bomb. Composition, detonator, point of origin, anything. Also the federation news is sniffing around for information. The Captain and I want a total blackout till we know more. No talking to the press, clear?"

"Assuming I can ignore them. Ma'am there is one thing you should know about me... I cannot lie. I have never told a lie in my life, and I do not believe I would ever be able to if I tried. It would be best for me to utterly ignore them, and even pretend I do not hear them at all. That might be easiest." He smirked mischievously. "Or I use Sherlock to scare them off."

Amelia nodded. "Very good Lieutenant. If there's nothing further, I'll let you carry on with your duties."

"On to seeing the captain soon," the Trill smiled, then inclined his head briefly before turning and walking out.

OFF:

●● Lieutenant Amelia Fox
Executive Officer
USS Andromeda


●● Lieutenant Aidan Datari
Chief Science Officer
USS Andromeda