Settling In

Posted on Sun Oct 11th, 2009 @ 1:51pm by Lieutenant Commander Mark Anderson

Mission: They Arrive on Tuesday...
Location: XO's Quarters, USS Endeavour
Timeline: MD05, 1423

ON: [[XO's Quarters, USS Endeavour, MD05, 1423]]

Mark let out a sigh as he lowered himself into the chair behind his desk. Reaching out, he tapped the activation panel and waited as the terminal rose smoothly from its hidden place within the surface of the desk. As the screen came to life, it showed the familiar Starfleet emblem before returning to Mark's usual working display. Only a day after his arrival and, already, he had a lot of work to catch up on.

He looked over to where James was relaxing in one of the easy chairs. They young man was seated sideways, his legs draping over one of the chair's arms. It was a characteristic trait James had developed over the years he'd been living aboard the Houston with Mark. In his hand, he held a large PADD, which he was gazing at intently, no doubt reading, as he usually did.

Returning his attention to the terminal display, Mark immediately skipped over the more routine reports in search of anything that would immediately catch his eye. There were a few higher priority messages regarding materiel transfers and the arrival of two more of the Endeavour's shuttles. There was even a personal message from his parents included amongst the paperwork. It didn't take him very long to read, but the thought behind the message was appreciated.

As Mark moved on to the more dismal, mundane parts of his job aboard the Endeavour, he thought back to his first meeting with Commander Byrne the day before. The man certainly seemed to be rather warm and somewhat casual in his manner. Certainly, the fact that he had his own wife and child aboard spoke much about his demeanor and his approach to command. It showed that he felt them safe aboard the Endeavour and, especially given his response to James' proposal, seemed more apt to accept others aboard.

One thing that Mark did notice was that it was probably going to be difficult to pin the commander down. Everyone knew that it was the first officer's job to ensure that the commanding officer did not come to harm. That meant that the XO should lead the away missions while the CO remained on the ship. In theory, it was a noble idea. In practice, it was far less so. Often, it was not so simple a thing to undertake, depending on the situation and the officer's demeanor. Furthermore, the simple idea of caging a commanding officer aboard his own ship seemed awfully disillusioning to Mark. The thought of never being able to see first-hand the worlds unexplored did not seem like part of the captain's job description.

"Hey dad," James said, interrupting Mark's thoughts. The young man was looking over the back of the chair toward his father's desk, waiting to see if he would get a reply.

"Yes," Mark said, looking up from the terminal and focusing on his son, "What is it?"

"I ran into Commander Byrne yesterday," James began, looking back down at his PADD, knowing he had his father's ear. Mark took this to mean he didn't need to focus his entire attention and returned to perusing the reports while still listening to his son.

"Oh," Mark replied, "You didn't knock him over, did you?" It was a joke, but James gave a nervous laugh. It had very nearly been what had happened.

"Very funny, dad," James said, rolling his eyes, "He said he was going to talk to the Academy commandant about my proposal." There was an unmistakable tone of hope in his son's voice, which caused Mark to smile.

"That's good," he commented, flagging part of the report for later and opening another, "It looked good, James. Really." Mark had read his son's proposal himself and, admittedly, had never seen better. Were it to be approved, which he had little doubt it would be, James might even find himself working alongside Starfleet officers on the bridge or in engineering.

James did not say anything more and Mark felt silence descend on the room again. In fact, it was a little too quite. "Computer, access musical selection Anderson-3, playback at 15%," he said as instrumental music began to play softly in the background. It was something to calm the mind and sooth the senses. It was one of the musical programs the two of them could agree on and was, consequently, the most often played in their quarters.

As the music played, Mark continued to wade through the numerous reports while James sat in his chair, reading through the Academy exam material for the tenth time. Already, things were starting to feel like home.

OFF

James Anderson (NPC)
XO's Son
USS Endeavour

Played by

Lt. Cmdr. Mark Anderson
Executive Officer
USS Endeavour