Not Quite Out of the Nest

Posted on Mon Oct 24th, 2011 @ 12:08pm by Ensign Matthew Lessly
Edited on on Wed Oct 26th, 2011 @ 2:57am

Mission: Episode 2.3 - "Hippocratic Oath"
Location: CSO's Office
Timeline: Mission Day 03, 1900 hours

ON: [[CSO's Office, USS Pandora, MD 03, 1900 hours]]

Matt flopped down onto the small couch in his office and let out a sigh of exhaustion. It had been one of those days where nothing had gone quite the way he had been hoping it would, resulting in a non-stop rush from the moment he awoke. His first indication of how the day was going to go was when one of the newer crewman woke him up at four thirty in the morning because there had been an accident in lab one, resulting in the freeing of a thousand nanites. From then on, the day struggled to even be that good.

After a few minutes of laying down and attempting to forget the day, Matt sat up and activated the wall mounted view screen across from the couch. "Computer, open a channel to San Fransisco Yards, dockmaster's quarters."

The computer beeped in acknowledgment and the screen changed to indicate the channel was in progress. As he waited, Matt leaned back and rubbed his head a bit. It had been a few days since he had last spoken to John (NPC), partly because he wasn't over the fact that Matt didn't tell him about the Borg until after it was over, and partly for other reasons that Matt didn't really want to get into.

Matt sighed as he watched the screen and waited for John to answer. Granted, it wasn't like John didn't have other things to do, but it was probably about seven in the morning San Francisco time, so he shouldn't have left for the office yet. He shook his head and leaned forward towards the control panel to close the channel just as the screen popped to an image of an empty room.

"Sorry... was in the shower." came a voice from outside the viewscreens field of view.

Matt bit the bottom of his lip slightly before responding. He could tell that John was still annoyed with him, but there wasn't a lot more he could do from a hundred plus lightyears away that he hadn't already done. "It's okay... it's not our normal talk time anyway."

John's image came into view and sat down in one of the armchairs near the viewscreen of his quarters. "No... it's not." he said, simply.

Leaning forward, John sighed and shook his head. While he still wasn't quite over what had happened, he knew that Matt wanted to talk about something, otherwise he probably wouldn't have called at such a time. "What's up?" he asked.

Matt took a deep breath and rubbed his head again. "Everything..."

John cocked he head to the side and, in a coaxing manner, said, "Matt... come on... we haven't been apart so long that I can't tell when you want to talk about something."

Nodding slowly, Matt responded, "You know how you keep telling me that, if I'm going to be recognized by the command staff better, especially now that I'm a department head, I have to speak up and get outside of my comfort zone?"

"Yeah..." John said slowly. He had been trying to push Matt 'out of the nest' since a few months after they started dating but he hadn't had much luck and being so far apart hadn't helped it any.

"Well, I tried it..." Matt began, but then stopped as he started thinking about it again.

"And?" John asked, slightly excited, but also worried by Matt's hesitance. "What happened?"

"And if the stare of an XO could kill, I'd be vaporized by now." Matt spat out.

John quirked an eyebrow. "The XO? What did you say to the XO?"

"Nothing... technically." Matt responded quickly, but then amended he statement at the end.

John looked at Matt through the viewscreen and waited for further explanation. He knew that, if given time, Matt would expand upon what he was saying.

"We were at the mission briefing... this Caitian CFCO that came aboard a few months ago has been complaining that the CFCO has been missing ever since she came aboard." Matt began, taking a break before continuing with what he was actually supposed to say. "Anyway, she begins complaining again at the beginning of the briefing and I tell her that she is the CFCO. Then I get this glare from the XO... you'd think I had defected to the Dominion or something."

John leaned back in his seat and looked at Matt. "And the briefing had already started?"

"Just barely... Iluvar had just said 'good morning' when she-" Matt began before being cut off by John.

"Then you were wrong." John interrupted. "Once a CO starts a meeting, you need to pay attention to him. Don't do anything but listen until he asks for opinions."

"But the-"

"No, Matt. I'm sorry, I know I've been pushing you to be more vocal with your thoughts, but you were wrong. Let the CO or XO deal with it next time." John interrupted again, not wanting to let Matt make any excuses. "It's their job to make sure everyone knows their postions, and it's your job to listen and to give your opinion when asked.

Matt tilted his head back so that it was leaning against the wall behind him. Without looking back up towards the viewscreen, he sighed. "Yeah... you're right" he responded, adding 'again' in his mind.

John sighed and shook his head. It seemed like the long-distance part of their relationship was starting to take its toll on both of them. "Okay... I'm gonna go. Just... do what you think is right."

With that, the screen in Matt's office changed to show the symbol for the Federation Science Academy.

"Easy for you to say." Matt said to himself. "You're not the one who's had it come back to bite him twice in three days."

OFF:

A Post by:

Ensign Matt Lessly
Chief Science Officer
USS Pandora

Lieutenant John Forest (NPC)
Dockmaster
San Francisco Shipyards
Played by Ens. Lessly