Executive Meeting

Posted on Sun Nov 7th, 2021 @ 11:53pm by Captain Thomas Ward & Commander Ael t'Laris

Mission: The Story of a First Contact Launch Day
Location: Ready Room, USS Titan
Timeline: 2411.03.10 0900 Hours

It was a slow morning for Thomas Ward. Better yet, it had been a slow week, and he still had meetings with his new Security Chief and Chief Intelligence Officer. The warm smell of coffee filled the room. He was going to need the caffeinated beverage even if his day was going to be slow. Despite that, he had a meeting with his new second in command. He set his PADD on his desk and took a big sip of coffee. Then, the chime to his ready room door sounded.

"Come in"

Ael hesitated when she heard the call to enter. She had hesitated just prior to ringing the chime, opting to pace back and forth in front of the Captain’s ready-room before making her presence known, but now that she had rung the bell, there really was no time or reason to hesitate any further. Taking a step forward to allow the doors to hiss open, Ael entered the ready-room with her hands folded behind her back, holding onto what appears to be a PADD. Her uniform seems freshly pressed and for a rather rare occasion in her life, a comb was run through her hair earlier this morning.

“Commander Ael t’Laris,” she said as she placed the PADD on the Captain’s table before returning to her previous stance, “Reporting as ordered, sir.”

"As you were Commander" he said. "I'm Captain Thomas Ward, your CO" he said extending out his hand in a typical Earth greeting.

She looked down at the offered hand, before extending her own from behind her back and wrapped her own digits around the human’s, making sure not to squeeze too hard. After the requisite time appropriate for such a greeting elapsed, Ael let go and returned to her previous stance.

“I am aware, sir.” she said before allowing herself a short gaze of the ready room, eventually returning her eyes to Thomas. “It appears we are still waiting for the remainder of the crew to report to their stations. Is there anything you wish for me to do in the meantime?”

"Not at the moment even though we are behind schedule" he picked up the PADD off of the table. "That said, you are my new XO if I'm not mistaken. I'd like to get to know my second in command a little better. If that's alright with you, Commander?"

Ael considered his words for a moment before bowing her head in acknowledgement. A smile crept across her face as she placed her hand on the headrest of one of the two chairs in front of the Captain's table, before crossing her leg over it to take a seat.

"Of course, Captain." she said, "All my information is in that PADD before you, minus of course, the classified materials. However, I am willing to elaborate to the best of my ability."

"Very well. I'd also like to let you know that my clearance is a little higher than other CO's, primarily because of my intelligence background. But I digress" he said as he nodded to Ael to let her proceed.

"Of course, sir." she gave him a final nod, as she sat back in the chair, crossing her right leg over her left. She waited patiently for him to begin his lines of inquiry, but as the moments began to drag, and the seconds eventually turned into minutes without a single word being uttered between the two, Ael knew she had made a slight misjudgement of his intentions. The courteous smile that once hung over her mug slowly faded as the awkwardness of this situation grasped her, morphing her lips into a discontenting grimace. But to remain further in this situation would only add to the awkwardness, so in attempts to rectify this scenario, she let out a slight chuckle and leaned forward.

Taking the PADD back, she began scrolling through its contents, her eyebrows knitting as she looked for a good place to start. It was always a strange sensation to be going through one’s own dossier, but she supposed the very beginning would be what the captain wanted.

“Umm… I graduated in ‘98. Linguistics major, I can speak several languages fluently. Good for, you know, intelligence. Heh, we’re both from an Intel background.” she began, that prior Vulcan tenseness seemingly disappearing as she began the monotonous task of listing off facts. “Um… spent a few months in a Klingon prison when I was an Ensign, went to ATC right after that stint… Did some grey-ops with the 7th, a few black ones sprinkled in…”

Thomas pulled up her personnel information on his own PADD. "Interesting. You also come highly regarded from Admiral K'Voss and the late Captain Anthi Sh'Yzdev" the Command Officer sighed. "My condolences by the way. The battle of Earth and the war as a whole was a hard time. For everyone." He wasn't sure if he should have brought that up, but he knew what it was like to loose a Captain, and later a ship.

Ael stopped herself at the mention of her previous CO. She didn’t feel offended truly, it was bound to come up and whilst she herself did not extensively study Thomas’s dossier, she could tell from the way he spoke that he too possessed a wound of the mind from that fateful battle. Bowing her head, she acknowledged their shared sorrows. “Indeed it was. Captain Sh’Yzdev was a brilliant Captain, she always had a stellar sense of Starfleet morals. As for Admiral K’Voss, well… Federation nepotism at work. I’m sure you are familiar with how our institution really works.”

"Yeah. In the intelligence field, you tend to see that" he added. "But given out current circumstances, my hope is for the Galaxy to be at peace again. But that is quite the long road from here."

"Aye," Ael bows her head in response, "I have my doubts about achieving such a goal in the next decade, but one mustn't lose hope and surrender to despair. Have you any other points of inquiry Captain?"

"Not at the moment. Unless you have any, Commander?"

She shook her head, before standing up to her feet. "None at this moment sir. If you deem this meeting over, I believe it would be prudent for me to familiarize myself with the rest of the vessel."

"Very well. It was nice meeting you Commander. Dismissed."

He watched Ael walk out of the ready room. He understood what she had gone through. Some of that pain he experienced. The for the past few years the Galaxy had been severely unstable. Could they actually prevail in returning to peace? He didn't know. Maybe he'd never know. The least he could do was to try.