Follow-Up

Posted on Wed 19th Jul, 2017 @ 12:29am by Commander Paul Graves PsyD

2,155 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Unity Week
Location: Deck 12: CO's Ready Room
Timeline: TBC in the timeline after the previous Gunnar post.
Tags: paulgraves, grahamwinchester

ON

Once Captain Gunnar and CWO Winchester had departed, Paul brought Gunnar's personnel file up on the CO's computer screen. He skimmed over the brief history, which was lengthier than normal and contained some surprising information about their new crew member. While fascinating, none of it told Paul what he really needed to know. He clicked on the psychological profile and began reading that. And there, under the 'Impressions' heading, was his answer.

"Hm. No specific diagnosis of anything," he muttered under his breath. Curious. I disagree. But since I don't know the man well, I'll observe him before jumping to any conclusions. Looks like that's what the previous counselor thought, too.

Paul closed Gunnar's file. Intriguing as it was, he did have other work to do in Drake's and Hunt's absence. He slogged through the long list of emails he'd been copied on, approving various leave requests, approving supply orders, reading and signing off on reports. He hadn't gotten very far on that last category when the Ready Room door hissed open, and Winchester reappeared.

"That man..." Winchester started, waving his arms about. "Can you believe the attitude on him? I've never known a Marine like him. How the Hell did Drake sign off on him becoming the Brigade Commander? Has the man gone insane?" He was calm but, as ever, his accent added a tone of anger and impatience, which wasn't at all intended. In fact, Winchester rarely lost his temper these days.

"You never know who you're getting until the officer arrives," Paul said. "A heads-up would've been nice, though." He approved a supply requisition for Medical and then turned away from the computer to give Winchester his attention.

"I am wondering the same thing," Paul said. "I'm concerned about Gunnar being in charge of the Marines. He doesn't know how to deal well with people, and he's sharper-tempered than a Kzin--not to mention condescending. I don't want this to cause a loss of discipline or effectiveness in the brigade. Do you have any advice for how to guide him? I can imagine myself, if I happened to be in command, second-guessing everything Gunnar ordered, asking myself if his directives would really be the best way to proceed. That might be less of a problem for Col. Drake, but Cmdr. Hunt is only slightly more experienced with real combat than I am."

Winchester slumped into a chair opposite Graves and sighed. "My advice would be to get him off the station as quickly as possible... failing that, keep a bloody close eye on him. I know some reliable officers in the Brigade who can report back to me, should anything go awry. As for second guessing his directives... whilst Drake's away I can certainly give you the wink if, in my opinion, he takes a step in the wrong direction."

Paul frowned. "I hate that that feels necessary. I don't want anyone spying on him; that will just bolster what he already feels, and it's not a subordinate's place to monitor the actions of a superior officer. That is Drake's job or Hunt's job--or my job in their absence. On the other hand, we need to be informed if there is common gossip that isn't making its way up here."

Winchester sighed, he hated indecision, even from people he liked. "Just let me know what you want me to do then."

"Do precisely what I said. Don't ask anyone to spy on Gunnar. But if, during the course of your normal duties, you hear of problems, let us know. I don't think it will be long before the brigade staff start complaining. If I worked under Captain Gunnar, I'd start complaining...or I'd wind up in the brig for mentioning my displeasure to him directly," Paul said with a faint smile. "Sometimes my people can be rather blunt about what we think."

He opened his mouth to protest. The man had not given any clear instruction before this, instead weighing up the pros and cons but yet proceeded as if clear instructions had been laid out. He exhaled through his nose and nodded - no matter how good the officer was, they all seemed to have certain traits. There was no point in mentioning this, after all he rather liked the chap.

"Do you want anything?" He motioned towards the replicator before ordering a cup of tea for himself.

"Could you get me a raktajino, please?" Paul said. "This is going to be a late night."

He placed the Klingon beverage in front of Paul and placed the tea opposite and sat himself back down. "How goes everything else?"

"Thanks," Paul said. He took a sip of the Klingon brew. "Aside from Captain Gunnar? So far as I can tell, things are going well enough. I'm settling into the new position, and I like the duties. I doubt I will ever want to command a starship, but I am more comfortable than I used to be with leading others. I never used to be able to see myself in the role, but now that I've been in it a while, I feel that I've grown into it. I have a lot more growing to do, but the only cure for that is time."

Winchester smelled the tea - This is the stuff the Empire was built on - his Father used to say to him when he was younger. Despite being a Belfast man born and bred he had a passion for history and loved the days of the old colonial British Empire. That and brandy!, he'd always add at the end for comic relief. "I think only fools and idiots see themselves in the role of command. In my experience, most people are either pushed into it or end up in it by accident. Those jumped up young officers who set out with the sole intention to command rarely make it past Lieutenant." He smirked as he allowed himself the first sip of the quintessentially British drink.

Paul nodded. "You can't really command others unless you are also prepared to be commanded." He sipped from his raktajino. "There are those who are temperamentally well suited to it and who aren't in it to feed their egos, but yes, such people are few and far between." He studied Winchester for a moment. "Why did you decide against a command position, if you don't mind me asking? You are someone who I would consider quite well suited for it. You're well disciplined, you know your job, and your people trust you."

"Very few people know this," Winchester spoke in a serious but clearly comical tone of voice. "But you could, at this very moment, have been sitting across from Lieutenant Colonel Winchester!" He smiled, slightly depressed that he was already over halfway through his drink. "Before this bloody nonsense," he waved at his collar. "I was an enlisted man, I joined as a Private and worked my way up to Sergeant Major which was a rank I held for a long time. I was happy doing that. It was more of a boots on the ground role than being an officer, I could work more closely with my men. I always felt that was important." He swirled the remaining brew around his cup. "Starfleet had been pressuring me for years to take promotion, never more so than after the Dominion War. We lost so many people there was simply no good way to replace them. Starfleet turned to people like me. I was offered Lieutenant Colonel and command of my own battalion, would you believe it. I turned them down because I knew Starfleet and the Marines had to rebuilt from the ground up. I knew I'd be more effective training new Marines and working alongside them than I would be commanding others to do the same. So, after some leave, I took up a teaching position at the Academy."

He took another sip, barely a quarter left now and it was getting cold. "I thought if I couldn't be convinced to take a promotion after a war like that then nothing would ever convince me. That, of course, changed after I met Horatio. Years after the war the numbers were beginning to build back up and I was getting fed up with teaching. I took an RSM role on the Jakarta, something to see me through for six months while I decided what it was that i wanted to do. Horatio joined about the same time as the new Marine CO and feck me was he a little gobshite!" He smiled, remembering the first time they met. "On his first day he wanted to implement a training regime that would have given the men barely any down time and meant that there'd be certain times of the day where the active response units, for emergencies and what have you, would have been stood down to join in the training sessions! I remember going into his office and trying to explain this to him but he wasn't having any of it. Eventually I called him a fecking idiot. Oh God you should have seen his face!" He was now holding back his laughter. "He puffed up his chest and said a load of how dare you's and who do you think you are's and the like. So I called him a fecking idiot again! He threatened this that and the other. Oh I've never seen someone as angry!"

He paused for a minute, pulling himself back together. "I was ready to get the feck off that ship, there was no way I was working with someone like that. But then he surprised me, he asked me why he was a fecking idiot. I stopped in my tracks, taken aback for a moment or two. So I explained the way of the world to him. It was as if the penny dropped with him. Don't get me wrong, he was still a jumped up little fecker but he listened to me from that point on, he asked my advice and would always run decisions past me. As I got to know him I realised there was more depth to him than I first thought... something deep inside him. There were strong elements of good and bad." He paused, remembering the privacy that Drake liked to afford himself but also remembering that the Chief Counsellor was probably aware of most personal issues. "Recently those bad elements have had a chance to take hold. I wanted to ensure they're kept in check until the good can prevail once again." He smiled, that was enough. "The rest, as they say, is history. Starfleet tried getting me on Vanguard as a Lieutenant Colonel and again I refused... we compromised and here I am." He finished the last of his tea, stone cold.

Paul chuckled at Winchester's colorful description of Drake. "I'm glad he finally had the sense to listen to you. And I'm glad you're able to see him clearly. That helps. I agree with you about hoping the good aspects of Drake overpower the bad ones.

"There's an Earth author, Robert Heinlein, who wrote a book about a military in which every soldier started as an enlisted man and had to earn officer rank. I think that's how we ought to do it," Paul said. "The idea of experienced NCO's having to train newly-minted officers in the practicalities of doing their jobs is ridiculous; the officers shouldn't be promoted to command rank until they know the lower-level things first. I've never understood this concept of a difference between officers and enlisted crew; it seems very old-fashioned, to me, a hold-over from some time in which officers were likely the educated class and enlisted personnel must have been recruited from a poorly-educated class. We don't have such differences today; everyone is educated. Nowadays the only possible reason to keep such a distinction would be that some people genuinely prefer not to lead."

Winchester raised his eyebrows, "I haven't heard of it... but I'll give it a read." He pondered everything for a moment. "I remember a quote I read in my Academy days. It was given to all recruits from our CO. He was trying to enlighten us with some cryptic message bollocks about when to challenge superiors and when not to. I took something simpler away from it though. It's from Tennyson's, The Charge of The Light Brigade, 'Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and die'. I interpreted it more as, why flap about things you can't do anything about. Just get on with your lot and focus on the things you can change." He shrugged and got up to place his empty cup back into the replicator for recycling.

OFF

Lt. Cmdr. Paul Graves, PsyD
Second Officer, Chief Counselor

CWO2 Graham Winchester (NPC)
Command Chief

 

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