Back In The Saddle - Part II

Posted on Sat 30th Oct, 2021 @ 8:58pm by Commander Mikaela Locke

644 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: A Good Day to Hunt
Location: Deck 11 - Ops / Commodore Suzuki's Office
Timeline: MD 01: 1000 Hours

Mikaela Locke found that returning to a shift as officer of the deck was very much like riding a horse. She could go a month without doing it, but it always came back incredibly easily.

She stood in the vast operations centre of the station, leaning gently back on the master situation table, located in the middle of the room. There were two command chairs, just in front of her, but she almost never sat when she was on duty, preferring to either stand around the MST, or to wander around, checking in intermittently with the various crew, working at their stations.

As she stood she found herself reflecting on the fact that Ops had been surprisingly quiet so far that morning. There had been the quiet, low hum of machinery, the occasional swish of the turbolift doors and low-level chatter as the crew interacted, both with one-another and with various others on comms, but nothing had demanded her attention in any significant way. She turned around and glanced at the MST - first in station overview mode and then switching it to the map of the immediate area of space in which the station hung. On both views all seemed normal and she let out a deep sigh of relief that, so far at least, her first shift back was looking fairly innocuous.

The command chair, now behind her, emitted two short beeps and she turned back to check it. Seeing a reminder of her briefing with Commodore Suzuki - the first since her return to to the station - she paused only to pass command of Ops over to Commander Baro, before heading through the antechamber that lead to the station commander's office. Yeoman Mejia was conspicuous by his absence, so she moved straight to the door and pressed the chime.

"She's in," the Staff Lieutenant at the desk informed her, and the Yeoman at the opposite desk nodded. "Go on in." The frame around the far door turned from red to green and the doors swished open in turn. Suzuki sat on the far side of the office in her comfy chair in front of a coffee table which was in turn flanked by two sofas. A holographic fireplace crackled without heat on the fourth side.

"Commander," Suzuki said, glancing up at the sound of the door. "Don't stand on ceremony... or the floor, either." As she looked back down at her PADD, she added almost too quietly to hear, "Athena says it's made of lava."

Mikaela smiled at the old cultural reference as she moved effortlessly to one of the sofas around the coffee table - the one to Suzuki's right hand side. "I like this," she commented as she sat, indicating to the holographic fireplace that dominated the wall beside her.

"Most sophants are not so far removed from our primitive origins so as to be removed from the comfort of the sound, smell, and warmth of fire," Suzuki agreed, watching her second banana take a seat. "Though at the moment, I do have the heat turned off. And speaking of boots... how did giving Doctor Addams her promotion go for you?"

Mikaela offered a wry smile. "It was fine," she replied, nonchalantly, "Fairly standard." That was an out-and-out lie, and she suspected that Suzuki already knew that, but she was interested in what the Commodore's reaction might be.

"Ran you up a tree, did she?" Suzuki asked with a smirk. "Some people see rank as a reward for hard work; others, as a ticket to bigger challenges. Then there are those like the Doctor, who barely notice it exists. The trick is to know which you are dealing with, and act accordingly."

"Let's just say I wasn't wholly prepared for the experience," Locke responded with a wry smile. "But, yes..." she had to concede, "A learning moment, indeed."

 

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