Chief of Ops - Check-in

Posted on Mon 25th Sep, 2017 @ 5:01pm by Commander Paul Graves PsyD & Lieutenant Commander Alora Baro

1,523 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Unity Week
Location: CO's Ready Room
Timeline: MD-1, 1000 hours

Col. Drake had alerted Paul ahead of time that both he and Cmdr. Hunt would be away from Vanguard for about a day, so Paul had cleared his calendar of Counseling appointments and was spending the day working on command-related tasks in Drake's Ready Room. As usual, there were a lot of minor tasks to do, despite Drake having told Paul he would handle certain ones upon his return from the Bretagne.

He was in the middle of approving a leave request when Drake's computer chimed to inform him of an incoming message from the Officer of the Deck. He glanced at it.

Arrival of Lt. Baro Alora, incoming transfer as Chief of Operations.

Her ID image displayed onscreen, and Paul amended her name from 'Lt. Alora' to 'Lt. Baro' when he saw that she was Bajoran. He acknowledged the message and replied that he was available for Baro to report in.

Lt. Baro acknowledged the order as she weaved her way through the chaos of the station. Her brown hair was tied back in its usual practical ponytail. A repair kit slung over one shoulder, she hated to be without her tools. Wearing a backpack over her uniform, she still managed to move gracefully through the throng. Ever so often, she consulted the PADD modified to mount on her lower arm, as she hadn't quite memorized over 2000 decks. She made for the nearest turbolift. Her last assignment had been a 3-year deep space mission on a ship of fewer than 200, so this all took some getting used to.

Finally, sea green eyes alighted on the area she was looking for, and she got in line for the turbolift. Eventually, as she tried not to gawk like a tourist, she was able to arrive at Lt. Commander Graves' location, and she politely tapped the door chime, waiting.

"Come in," Paul said. At his words the computer slid the door open. He looked over the new officer as she entered, noting the arm-mounted PADD and the backpack. Practical he thought.

Alora entered and smiled as she reached to pull a smaller PADD from a side pocket of the backpack. "My orders, Sir. Lt. Baro Alora reporting." She didn't normally wear both a backpack and the repair kit, unless she had a lot she needed at the time, like a big repair job. It was more practical than running about for things, but she had things she valued and wanted to keep on her person until she got to her assigned quarters. She pushed a loose piece of hair behind the ear that held her cultural earring and assumed a position of respectful attention. Her eyes taking in the the room in one go before settling again on the man behind the desk.

"Thank you," Paul said as he stood and accepted her PADD. "Please have a seat, and welcome to Vanguard, Lieutenant. I'm Lt. Commander Graves, Chief Counselor and Second Officer. Did you have a good trip over?" He began entering the acceptance of her orders and completing the transfer process while he listened to her speak.

"Thank you, Sir." She sat in the chair, after removing the backpack to set it on the floor near her feet and adjusting the repair kit so it rested on her lap. It was moves born of long habit, so it looked like smooth motions. "Yes I did. We got a 90-day furlough since the mission had been so long, so I was able to go home and had a smooth enough trip here. Time enough to study some of my new position, at least." Her tone of voice held a kind of gentle friendliness that didn't overwhelm but allowed one to join in or not, as they liked, but overall was professional.

"It is a huge job, keeping Vanguard running, so I'm glad to have you here," Paul said. "Col. Drake and Commander Hunt are both off-station at the moment, but they should return by week's end, so you can meet them. I'm afraid this is going to be a vastly different posting from your last one. You have a good staff, though, and they've handled problems ranging from removing a dead aquarium to clearing power conduits of ... well, I don't know what it was, but I'm told it was gooey and distinctly unpleasant. You will have no end of interesting experiences here."

Alora nodded with a smile, "I rather gathered this is a not-so-small city, the sheer amount of organization to keep this going. Well, frankly, I am amazed. I did set up appointments with key staff over the next few days, would it be possible to debrief with my predecessor? Being able to talk to someone who held my position at least once may be useful," she asked hopefully, not the kind to let any good resource go to waste when she needed to know something.

"I believe Lt. Shepard is still on active duty and in the Starfleet Contact Directory, so you are certainly welcome to communicate with him," Paul said. "I think he would appreciate knowing his department is in good hands. And I think meeting with key staff is an excellent plan and something the staff would welcome. Commander Hunt and/or Col. Drake will probably meet with you to go over budgets and so forth, and we'll need to arrange a meeting with you and our Contracts Manager, CWO Lopez. There's also a civilian side that you might have to liaise with from time to time. We'll introduce you to that person, too."

Alora nodded, automatically breaking things down into what she called 'action steps', to keep her from being overwhelmed. She tapped notes on her wrist PADD, "I understand, Sir. I will put a message into Lt. Shepard and await appointments to my calendar." Then she thought to explain, "My schedule, including appointments, what a pilot friend would call my 'flight plan', is on the computer accessible by senior staff, should anyone need to check something, to find me, or before scheduling me elsewhere. It's pretty simple: green squares are on duty but no appointments, red are appointments, blue are off duty but can be overridden if needed. And this," she held up her arm with PADD attached, "will ding me to changes."

She usually didn't go this far, but it had been one of the things she'd set up when she looked at the sheer amount of action steps she'd need to do to avoid drowning in the new position. "I also have an earpiece." She tapped her right ear where a hidden earpiece wirelessly attached to her comm badge rested. "I can hear my coms even if I am in a loud area, best part is, it works within 32 feet, so if for any reason I am away from my badge but within that range, it will still communicate." She realized she was giving a lot of information and stopped so the 2nd Officer could have a chance to address what she'd already covered.

Paul nodded. "We do something similar with our calendars here," Paul said. "Most of us don't use an earpiece; we just let the computer page us, but for confidential things, the earpiece would work well."

Paul finished inputting information and tapped the screen. "You're all set, now. Your temporary password is VanguardBaro. When you log in, you'll find a message from me containing your security clearances and other information. Colonel Drake or Commander Hunt will probably send you a welcome message, as well. If you'll wait a moment, I'd like to get someone from your department to escort you there, perhaps give you a quick debrief along the way, and introduce you around."

Paging was not a system used on starships, it was simply unneeded, not that they couldn't. Just something else to get used to, she thought as she replied, "That would be fine, Sir, thank you."

Paul tapped his combadge. "Graves to PO Jin-Kyung Quinn."

"Quinn here, Commander. What can I do for you?" the harassed interim lead engineer replied.

"Hello, Ms. Quinn. Your new department chief, Lt. Baro Alora, has arrived. Please report to the CO's Ready Room to meet her, and then escort her to your department, give her a brief run-down of current situations, make introductions, and so forth."

"Right away, Sir." As she quickly cleaned her hands, she bit down on the irritation that was trying to rise. There was a lot of work to do, but the sooner they had a new ChEng, the sooner it would no longer be her responsibility to oversee it all. She never would have expected the responsibility to fall on her shoulders, even though she knew more about how Shepard had run things than anyone else. Still ... it would be nice to have less responsibility ... and now she'd have to get used to a new way of doing things. Hurrying to the lift, she went straight to the Ready Room, presuming that's where her new boss was.

OFF

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

Lt. Baro Alora
Chief Engineer

 

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