Minion Management

Posted on Thu May 27th, 2010 @ 3:17pm by Ensign Velia Moretti & Commander Christopher McNeil

Mission: Episode 1.1 - "Now Boarding"
Location: Intelligence Office
Timeline: Day 3, 1000 hours

ON: [[Chief Intelligence Office, USS Pandora, MD03, 1000, Backpost]]

Velia entered the office cautiously. "You wanted to see me Sir?" She took her seat casually, trying not to reveal just how nervous she was. There were a whole list of reasons she could think of as to why Commander McNeil would want to see her; last night included. Pessimism was an old comfortable friend for her.

"Yes, Ensign," McNeil replied, giving the very nervous-looking woman a smile. "I wanted to check in with you and see how you were adjusting to the Pandora so far."

"Fine, I guess," she shrugged lightly. "It's just moving from one ship to another." She'd barely had time to adjust to the Tethys so the move hadn't really been very hard.

McNeil nodded. "I know you didn't really have all that much time to get settled in aboard the Tethys before the transfer orders came through for the Admiral. I've known some officers who've found that fast of a ship change rather... unnerving."

"I don't see where it's unnerving. I mean, if it had just been my transfer, I guess maybe my feathers would have been a little more ruffled. But when it's nearly a ship wide occurrence, I don't know why it's an issue." She glanced around the new office.

"Glad to see you're taking it better than some," McNeil replied. "Have you had a chance to see our new decryption lab?"

That perked her up. "We have a decryption lab?!" Velia nearly squealed, suddenly finding it hard to sit still. "I think Sir, I missed that somewhere in the deck listings. Have you seen it yet?"

"I saw it yesterday with Lieutenant Kiral, but didn't have a huge amount of time to look around. That's why I was asking you," McNeil replied with a smile. He had spent most of his time aboard thus far looking up information regarding the Pandora's mission assignment

"I see," Velia eyed his PADD peppered desk and took note of the shadows darkening his eyes. Hesitantly she raised her hand.

"Yes?" McNeil said slowly, with an indulgent smile.

"Well Sir, it just seems to me like that's an interesting addition; may I suggest a department excursion?" The corners of her lips twitched slightly. This day was certainly starting to look up.

"Do you want to lead the way, or should I?" McNeil asked, gesturing towards the door. If nothing else, he could certainly say that the Ensign was enthusiastic about her job. It was more than he could say about some Intelligence officers he'd worked with in the past.

He hadn't even finished the question before Velia'd flown to her feet, posture perfect and eagerness coursing through her. "Well Sir, I'm more than willing to lead the way, but since I'm not sure where we're headed, unless you have some time to waste wandering, it may be best if I followed you." An afterthought, "Sir."

McNeil smiled and led the way out the door. He turned to the right and headed down the corridor towards the lab, which was only a short ways away. "So, ensign, how'd you get into Intelligence?"

It wasn't hard for Velia to imagine that the commander hadn't read her file yet considering the current look of his desk, office, and face. "I decided counseling was for those with a more passive aggressive curiosity," she replied completely serious. "What about you sir?"

McNeil shrugged noncommittally. "I got recruited after I finished the Academy. My original specialty was security, but apparently I was too curious for my own good and attracted Intel's attention."

Velia didn't believe anyone could be too curious for their own good; knowledge was power after all. But she wasn't going to question him since he apparently felt differently. "And are you glad for it?"

"Well, I won't claim it's all been a basket or roses," McNeil replied as he came to a stop at the door, which was marked with the nondescript title of "Communications Equipment." "But, it's not a bad gig, most of the time."

Well that was reassuring. She waited until he had entered and followed behind him. "This place certainly seems as though it's intended to actually be used," Velia noted as she stepped off to the side and began inspecting the equipment. For the most part encryption wasn't something that most ships considered as a necessary function -- or at least that's what she'd been told. The impression she'd been given at the academy was that often times commanding officers and certain department heads like Security had their own skill set where that was concerned. "I don't suppose this shiny new functional room came with any tasks to be done, did it?"

Before them were several desks with embedded consoles. There was a cabinet on one wall which McNeil knew to be stocked with PADDs, decryption and encryption tools, and cases upon cases of storage media. The opposite wall from that held a panel that currently mimicked the Master Situation Display on the Bridge. And finally, directly across from the entrance was a bank of windows looking out into space. McNeil doubted they'd ever be used, but those windows had built in blast shutter and could be made opaque instantly with a single verbal or typed command.

"Not specifically, no," McNeil replied. "But I imagine our Fearless Leader will be interested in any information we can give him about Romulan border colonies."

Refering to Iluvar as 'fearless leader' was enough to make one side of Velia's lips curl and earned McNeil a brief glance filled with amusement. "Is that an official order, Sir?"

McNeil considered that question for a moment. "Consider it a strong suggestion, Ensign. We're not officially under orders to do much other than keep our eyes open, but as they say, knowledge is power."

"Words to live by," Velia muttered, taking a seat. Not to mention, her own personal motto. "Any partiularly interesting place you can think of to start?" Her fingers danced with the need to touch something, anything. "Sir."

McNeil walked over the the MSD display and called up a map of the region of space they were o their way to at this very moment. Looking thoughtfully at the image, he pointed to a small, almost insignificant system. "Nerus."

"Nerus, Sir?" Velia tilted her head slightly, questions written all over her face.

"It's small, has little of value, and as far as I know the Romulans have only had a real presence there for a short time. It also appears poorly defended." McNeil shrugged. "If I were looking at Romulan space with conquest on my mind, it would be on my list of possible beachheads. Might be good to see if we can find anything unusual there."

"Heh," Velia nodded. The reasoning was solid, though what his definition of unusual was, was another matter altogether. She turned to the screen without responding and ran her fingers over the panel. "Let's see, we've got Romulan population number, weather patterns -- or lack of them, and ..." Velia flittered through a few more screens, "how long they've inhabited it." She frowned, browsing. "It's a whole lot of nothing special, Commander. That's not all that unsual for a border colony though, is it?"

"No, not really," McNeil replied thoughtfully. "Keep looking, both there and the other border worlds that we might visit. I'll check back in with you later."

OFF:

A JP

by

Commander Christopher McNeil
USS Pandora
Chief Intelligence Officer

and

Ensign Velia Moretti
USS Pandora
Intelligence Officer