Unintended Commiseration
Posted on Tue Jun 30th, 2020 @ 4:51am by Captain Luka Mahone & Lieutenant Alan Harrison
2,031 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Equivalent Exchange
Location: USS Io Wreckage, Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD - 05 : 1530 Hrs
Alan Harrison stepped out of the shuttlecraft and onto the landing pad, hiding his eyes from the harsh sunlight with his hand. He was from Seattle and had spent the last few years teaching at the Academy in San Francisco, so handling the bright sun was not his forte. At least it was Spring, or so he'd been told, so the temperature was tolerable, if a bit crisp. Looking around, he only saw a few people wandering around the landing area. Approaching one of them and asking for directions to the captain's office, he was pointed toward a looming Starfleet hull in the distance. He'd heard about the fate of the USS Io on his journey to Haumea, but he was still taken aback by the sight of a crash-landed starship saucer.
After making his was over to the hull and finding a reasonable-looking entry point, Alan found the hulk to be populated, with crew and civilian staff moving about in the corridors. He asked the Ensign guarding the entrance where he could find the captain. Finding that this Ensign was the captain's yeoman, she was expecting his arrival. She directed Alan to take a turbolift to the bridge and find the captain's ready room. With recent events, Alan wouldn't have been surprised if the captain was too busy to meet a new senior officer and simply told him to come back later. He didn't know much about the colony and didn't have any assigned quarters, so he wasn't sure what he'd do in that event.
Alan followed the yeoman's instructions and found himself on the bridge of the derelict ship. Surprisingly, there either wasn't much damage or they had been quick to repair it, since the lights were still at full brightness and the automatic doors seems to be operational. He took a breath to calm himself down -- meeting the captain always made his nerves act up -- and pushed the chime on the ready room door.
The door swished open, revealing Luka's large office space. It began it's life as his ready room, but with a few changes and an opening of the viewports, it had become a brightly-lit space that suited the Hawaiian captain.
At the end of the large room sat an elegant desk, made of a dark, fine-grained wood, with the Captain seated at the end of it, in a similarly-toned chair.
"Hm?" Luka looked up from his work, groggily staring across the space as if he had never heard the chime at all. "... Oh, you must be ... uhm... hold on." He snatched up a PaDD, squinting at it. "My new Chief Engineer?" his tone was incredulous as he blinked over to Alan. "Is that correct?"
"Yes, sir. Lieutenant Alan Robert Harrison reporting for duty," Alan replied, remembering the protocol that was supposed to come with this official introduction to one's superior officer. While waiting for the captain's response, Alan took stock of the room. He'd found you could tell a lot about someone by how they kept their workspace. The first thing that he noticed was just how bright it was in here -- he wondered how the captain put up with it and figured he would probably feel out of place commanding a starship. Maybe I'll also get used to it in due time, he mused. The second thing that caught his eye was the material of the desk, seemingly out of place on the command deck of a starship. From this, he gathered that the captain probably had fine tastes. Figuring this could be an opportunity to make a good first impression, he asked "Is that desk real wood, sir?" before the captain had an opportunity to finish skimming Alan's record on his PADD.
"Harrison. Oh. Good." Luka sat upright, sliding a pile of offending PaDDs to one side. "I'm glad you could make it down. Hopefully nothing troubling occurred. We haven't had a lot of issues with our air traffic, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was something in here about needing more traffic control officers. Please, sit." He extended his arm to the other side of the desk, where a four-legged, bright paisley chair side. "It is real wood, a gift from one of the various businesses in the area. Woodworkers, so they decided to make one of the first items they built from the natural wood a desk. I quite enjoy it, compared to my last one. But that one was Starfleet standard, so I don't feel so bad repurposing it. Are you into woodcrafting?"
Alan nodded and took the seat the captain had indicated. "Not particularly, but I can appreciate a fine piece of furniture," he chuckled, "The ride down was actually quite uneventful. They offered to let me use the transporter, but I prefer landing on planets when possible. It gives me a chance to take in the views. It's a breathtaking planet you have here, but its a bit brighter than what I'm used to."
Luka's smile slowly transformed into a thoughtful frown. "... They fixed the transportation receivers..." he stated, and while it was out loud, it did not appear to be addressed to Alan. His smile returned soon after. "Well, our shuttles are fairly attentive to everyone's needs than a transporter, so I don't blame you. Mm, well Lieutenant, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, I'm Captain Luka Mahone. I'm sure there's a lot to discuss, but I wanted to know... what brought you all the way out here to Haumea? A colony is not usually the choice of Starfleet officers, so I have to ask."
"Well, being honest sir, I got tired of teaching at the Academy. I joined Starfleet for the promise of adventure and exploring new frontiers, but ended up teaching others how to do that instead of doing it myself. I have a lot of advanced technical experience from before I joined Starfleet, so I understand why they wanted me there, but it just wasn't satisfying," Alan said, hoping the captain didn't interpret his honesty the wrong way.
"If there's anything I've learned from my time in the Academy, it's that those positions should be reserved for people who have a little more experience on their hands and want to live out the rest of their years in Starfleet giving back anyway." Luka pointed out. He rested a hand atop his desk, all but covering whatever PaDD he was attempting to ignore for the moment. "No, I meant why a colony instead of a starship? We may have a lot to offer in terms of planetside exploration, but that's just that. It's planetside exploration. On a starship, you've got quadrants ahead of you., or a starbase, where you have more potential to be aboard other ships. I've always wondered why people pick a colony instead of anything like that."
Alan was nervous. Did he really want to tell Luka that this wasn't his ideal posting? He didn't want to start off his time here by lying to the CO, so he decided to try to state diplomatically that, while he would have preferred a starship, he was going to try to make the best out of this situation regardless. "Permission to be honest, sir?"
"Please, by all means." Luka gestured in the air. "I prefer it in one-on-one conversations."
"This was my first transfer request that was accepted, sir," Alan revealed, "I would probably have preferred a starship, but I'm going to try to - I hope you're familiar with the expression - make lemons out of lemonade. However, to be honest, it already seems better here than I feared - we still have a whole planet to explore," Alan continued, trying to end on a positive note.
Luka hesitated, blinking. Then, a hearty laugh burst out, causing the young malamute pup nearby to yip, startled from his nap. "Oh oh..." He held up a hand, letting the laugh die down before he continued. "I apologize. You'll have to excuse me for saying so, but there's no reason to be so shy about that. We do have a whole planet to explore, and there's quite a bit of work to do. If exploration holds your interest, it's definitely something I'll keep in mind. You never know when you'll need an engineer, as an old friend of mine always said. But there's no need to seem so starry-eyed about it. Haumea was not my first choice either. Nor my second choice. No, for a doctor like me, I honestly saw myself at the head of a medical ship, or something a little more mobile myself. But Haumea needed a doctor and a commanding officer first. I won't get preachy, just don't feel so bad about trying to find the positives instead of coming in with all the positives."
"Yes, sir, I keep that in mind," Alan said with a relieved laugh. It was quite fortunate that the captain both understood and shared his point of view. "Is there anything in particular I should know about the colony or the engineering department before diving in, captain? It's my understanding that our focus here is a bit different since we're working with structures instead of warp cores."
"It's very different." Luka's brow furrowed as he thought on it. "You're mostly going to be overseeing Starfleet-related operations, so keeping up on any maintenance here, the Starfleet sciences building, all that we have jurisdiction over. You'll also probably be working with the civilian engineering organizations to make sure that they're all up to speed on what we can offer and how we offer it, as well as lending a hand wherever you can. On the technical level, I'm not as well-versed. I'm actually going to refer you to Lieutenant - oh. Yes. Lieutenant Mahone. He's been acting department head, but he'll step back to more an assistant chief position until a transfer order comes in, or whatever else."
Luka gave pause. "That's the day-to-day. I don't expect you'll be bound to the Colony proper the whole time. There's plenty of time for exploration, of course, and I know we're getting a number of technological upgrades soon, so that's something to look out for."
"I see. Quite an uncommon thing for us in Starfleet to be working directly with civilian engineering teams. Although I imagine a different perspective can never hurt when solving unusual problems. What's that Vulcan philosophy? Ah yes, IDIC," Alan replied before considered the similarity in names between the captain and Alan's new assistant chief. "Captain, my assistant chief - he wouldn't happen to be related to you, would he?"
"The more perspectives the better, in my opinion." Luka stated, a small smile on his features. "Well, until we all start arguing in a room and flinging accusatory commentary. Then I may start utilizing my pips and make some calls." His smile fell. "... Yes, Kikua is my younger brother. I called him in on a favor, and he's got a fair bit of experience in engineering in this sort of setting - a colony I mean - so it made sense. Don't feel pressured by anything - he's a good engineer - but he is his own person. I try not to do the whole... cast a shadow for him to live under thing, but I'll let you talk to him before I give you anymore of an impression."
"No worries, sir, I was just wondering," Alan replied, trying to assuage any potential awkwardness, "Is there anything else, sir? I'd like to get familiar with the engineering facilities and the rest of the colony before anything major breaks down on us."
"Don't let the civilian engineers hear you say that." Luka gestured toward the door. "But go for it. You let me know if any issues crop up."
"Yes, sir, I'll keep that in mind," Alan responded. Follow the captain's indication, he left the ready room, only to find the Captain's Yeoman waiting for him with his quarters assignment. However, he had packed lightly, so he decided to head over to engineering and get acquainted with his new department.
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