Six Ensigns
Posted on 09 Aug 2022 @ 7:11pm by Commander Calliope Zahn & Ensign Marcello Wiser & Lieutenant JG Maxwell Tilmer
Edited on on 15 Oct 2023 @ 7:16pm
Mission:
M3 - Into the Deep
Location: Holodeck, Pathfinder
Timeline: MD 05 ~1400
966 words - 1.9 OF Standard Post Measure
Ensign Marcello Wiser typically had the Conn, but he had seniority among the other officers whom Calliope had called up for this test and so was directed as commander among these six least experienced of the bridge crew. Any team or group or crew was as strong as its weakest link— it was as essential as that. And while there were plenty of run of the mill assignments that could afford to drag some hidden dead-weight in the ranks to invest in them the time and opportunities and guidance in order to gain experience and grow on their own terms… this assignment wasn’t one of that order. Looking down at her action plan, Calliope reminded herself how she hated training this way, but for the sake of the entire ship, they would have to be either made or broken in the forge.
Wiser was looking a little uncomfortable in the holographic command chair and Calliope thought she saw him glancing wistfully at the conn, where he would have undoubtedly felt more comfortable. Sometimes driving was easier than riding- you felt a sense of *direct* control, Calliope sympathized with him. Giving orders was a higher role but a step away from the actual flight panel. Something Calliope knew Corvus would have felt when she’d been promoted up from her role as pilot years ago, too. Ironic that being given more responsibility removed the feeling of control. It introduced the need for more dependency. As she watched Wiser struggling with the new feeling and examining his new peers, she considered the similar situation the more experienced bridge crew had in parallel to these. They needed to build rapport with one another.
Well.
These would have plenty to commiserate about shortly.
At Ensign Wiser’s coveted conn station was instead a willowy flaxian young man, Ensign Zletze, who seemed to be at his ease, subconsciously making little popping and bubbling noises with his lips, the kind a hyperactive child would be equally unlikely to contain, which on the surface had the effect of telegraphing that he was more than bored thus far and possibly anticipating additional dry training to continue the trend. Yet his foot betrayed some nervous anxiety, the heel bouncing.
Calliope also noted Zletze’s eyeline as he often cast a glance back to tactical, where a short, solidly built Bolian woman was manning tactical— one Ens. Lantaine Sabba. Although Zletze appeared preoccupied with her, Sabba seemed fully engaged in her console reading and Calliope suspected she understood the mission best, just from her focus and demeanor, right down to the confidence in her stance. Knowing Wiser he was going to defer to her surety.
Calliope made an adjustment to the simulation and then looked back around the bridge from her vantage on the one-way holographic wall. She circled until she came to stand on the other side of the view screen, staring at the Ops station only a few feet away, but hidden from the view of the Ferrengi at the swing away console. Calliope had had a mixed experience with Ferrengi joining starfleet but there had been more than a few in recent years who had become federation citizens and a few of their number who had sought to serve. Some with more noble personal reasons than others. Ensign Jup was something of an unknown to her. She couldn’t tell from the resting-stupid look in his face — not to mention the occasional mouth breathing he was doing— if there was more going on between his ears… or if he just had some obstructed sinus passages.
At science was a very prim, darkly toned looking human woman, brandishing similar focus to her Bolian counterpart at Tactical, except her legs were crossed in a very closed off posture from the rest of the bridge crew and she projected a demeaning air, her wrists loose as she flicked through the display readings of the simulated sensor readings. Ensign Kaiki Wonai— Calliope suspected that while she might have been naturally bright, and clued in to her own duties, Wonai was the sort that was unlikely to volunteer new information without being asked and unlikely to coordinate well. Wonai was probably hoping to get research opportunities in her career. She was the gifted mind that, Calliope suspected, joined for exploration and not conflict. While Calliope more than sympathized with such high minded desires, sometimes the universe had plans different than your own. In Calliope's estimation, only a substantially free state could afford to construct and maintain the resources for extensive exploration. That necessitated a good defense, supported by advancing knowledge. Calliope’s fingers closed around the circlet charm of her necklace. There was no having the one without the other.
Which brought her examination around to the Engineering Ensign at his station in the back. Ensign Max Tilmer. An unjoined Trill who still had a kid-like look in his gray eyes, topped with a swirl of his blonde mussed hair over his forehead. She hated herself for how she was going to have to drive him past his youthful expectations. Lance wouldn’t be bellyaching over the prospect, she knew. He’d have tripped the complication a lot sooner than she was waiting to do. But then, Calliope was still fine tuning the settings based on her observations of Delta Shift’s subliminal cues in their body language and small interactions as they navigated the quiet waters of the introductory phase and the anticipation of the complication yet to be pitched at them.
They would never be on one shift on their own like she had set them in the current scenario. That would be massively negligent to assign a watch like that. But for the simulation it would serve its purpose.
“Computer… Begin scenario.”
