The State of Affairs

Posted on Tue Jan 24th, 2012 @ 12:53am by Petty Officer 2nd Class Sophie Blaise & Captain Benjamin Byrne

Mission: Deep Space 19
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD06 0900hrs

"Morning Captain," Sophie cheerfully said as she entered his office. She handed him a padd and took a step back again. "The summary of last night's gamma shift, from the science department. They had a small accident in section Alpha-32, but all is okay now and nobody got really injured. The Chief Science Officer proposes some experiments to run on the station, he'll be here in," she looked at the time, "ninety minutes to explain. If that suits you, that is." She looked up at him and smiled, "more coffee?"

Benjamin nodded to the offer. "What kind of accident?" he asked. He knew that if it was something that had caused serious harm, or loss of life, he'd have definitely heard about it by now, but he still wanted to know details. The Chief Science Officer - a Takaran that had come aboard the Antarctic to act as the acting department head whilst the Endeavour - or, rather, Deep Space 19 - was without a full-time chief - was a man who tended to skirt over accidents, mentioning them but moving forwards so quickly that once was forced to backtrack to return to discuss them.

She walked over to the replicator and ordered some more coffee. While it materialized she explained what had happened. "They tried to upload one of our data algoritmes to one of the systems of the space station. The idea was that it could help with the translation process." Sophie smiled, she would leave the boring details out. "The complete technical overview is on the padd, but it basically fried a part of the system. One Ensign was brought to sickbay with some minor electrical burns, but he is fine now and the systems seem to be repaired again." She picked up the coffee and placed it in front of Benjamin. "There you go, Sir."

Benjamin took the coffee, and nodded his thanks to the administrative officer. He'd been reluctant to have a personal yeoman aboard when Starfleet first broached the subject to him, but since she had come aboard he had grown accustomed to her presence and assistance. There was no way he could have handled all of the administrative work that was coming with the discovery of this station without her - at least, not without pulling several all-nighters and probably pulling some of his hair out in the process. "How is the rest of the project on the station going? Have they managed to fix the environmental systems yet?" So far the systems had been locked into the default setting for its previous inhabitants - whilst that alluded to the Starfleet crew that the species, whoever they were, came from a relatively cold environment, it didn't really help with the productivity of a lot of the officers over there. It wasn't cold enough to be hazardous, but a jumper or jacket was advised for all but the most strenuous work. Though on the other hand, Commander th'Ralik had seemed to be particularly cheerful at the end of every day he had spent on the station.

"They've managed to warm up certain parts of the station, but haven't succeeded yet in keeping it at that temperature." Sophie paused a moment as she tried to remember the exact details. Like Benjamin she saw a lot of details and information on the station and the ship. Sometimes it was difficult to distinguish between the two, especially on moments like this when she had to produce the information from the top of her head. "A combined team from Engineering and Operations is working on it this shift. I can ask for a status update if you like, or we can await the shift summary in a few hours." She smiled and leaned slightly against the desk. "It seems like we're making steady progress. Slowly but surely, but well get there eventually, I believe."

"The shift summary will do," Benjamin asked, nodding with a slight smile in satisfaction. He lifted his PADD and tapped a few keys on it, scrolling through the information it had been loaded with. "Starfleet's next shipment of additional personnel won't be arriving for at least two weeks at maximum warp. I want you to ask Commander th'Ralik to compose a report on progress over on the station. The Endeavour can only hold so many people, and I need to know when the station will be liveable."

"I'll inform him when he's back on the ship again." Sophie suspected that the Andorian was busy enough at the moment to forget a request like that if she asked him now. Telling him about it a bit later, in combination with a message to his office would probably do the trick. "Having a crowded ship probably just hinders the progress, as much as I love having guests though," she admitted with a smile. She also was curious about the progress made on the starbase. It was no secret anymore that she was dying to explore the station herself. It surely gave them a some troubles and gave her a lot of work, but it kept her imagination just as busy.

The captain stood from his chair, and slowly walked over towards the full-height window that was situated along one wall of his ready room, folding the arm that held the PADD across himself as he reached up to hold his chin with the other, noting the small amount of hair that had started to grow back since his morning shave. The ship was angled in such a manner that the station was clearly visible from this side of the ship, illuminated now as it was by all of the station's various lighting systems, since the Commander and his team had been able to restore power to the central core three days ago. They'd still only managed to search a portion of the station's upper and central sections, and the entire lower portion of the station - though now fully powered - remained completely untouched by the Starfleet crews. "Has Commander Andorzai beamed over to the station yet?" The new first officer had arrived last night, and was due to take up the primary coordination of efforts on the station today, after he had settled in.

Sophie shook her head. "No, not yet." She hadn't seen the new executive officer so far, so she assumed he was still busy in his quarters or office. Either way she wasn't informed of any beam overs. "Shall I let you know when he is transported or do you want to see him before he beams over?" She didn't envy the man, his first day was going to be a busy one and she doubted it would get less busy any time soon. On the other hand, she also couldn't think of more exciting task to start with.

"No, that's fine," the captain responded. "Just let me know when he's scheduled to go over. I'll be joining him; I want to see if I can help the teams speed up the process of getting that command centre operational." The theory they had been operating under was that if they could get the systems in that room running, and translate them into something that the Starfleet officers could read, then they would be able to utilise the information there to assist them in covering the rest of the station.

"I believe he is scheduled to be beamed to the station at noon, but I'll double check and let you know." Sophie had a good memory and could remember a lot of details, but didn't know the complete transportation schedule by head. She generally had a vague idea what most department heads were up to and the First Officer was also someone she kept in mind. "Is there anything I can do for you before you beam over? Or while you're there?"

"Just try to keep on top of reports for me," Benjamin said, smiling over his shoulder at her. "I'd rather not have to spend all night catching up."

"I will Captain." Sophie smiled back at him, "unless something very big and unexpected happens, I promise you won't have to spend all night here. Enjoy the trip to the station."

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Captain Benjamin J. Byrne
Commanding Officer

&

Petty Officer Sophie Blaise
Captain's Yeoman
USS Endeavour

OOC Information: This post takes place after a post which is yet to go out regarding the new XO. Keep that in mind whilst reading.