Ready or Not?

Posted on Tue Jan 9th, 2024 @ 2:17am by Captain Elena Navarra & Commander Shannon McKenna & Lieutenant JG Matthew Cowley

1,483 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Secret Spies
Location: USS Samaurai, Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD 2, 0845

Lt. Cowley was enjoying his increased rank, but not letting it go to his head. He laid three PADDS out at precise angles and stood behind the chair he usually claimed between the CO and XO at their weekly meetings. Today, there were two major things to discuss ... organizing the bridge staff, now that it was complete, and checking the Cargo Bay he and the new Tactical Chief thought would be best docking home for WV Nomad at its next ... first ... docking. Both topics filled him with a little excitement.

Captain Navarra entered her Ready Room and wasn't the least surprised to find Cowley there making preparations for their scheduled meeting. He consistently reminded her that her that she made the right choice in bringing him with her.

"You know Cowley, sometimes I get a bit confused on whose Ready Room this is ... mine or yours," she said with smile on her face as she made her way to her chair behind the desk.

Tongue-in-cheek, the newly-minted JG answered, "Being a middle-child, I learned to share early."

Shannon only caught the end of their conversation, but she smiled as she sat at her usual place. Matthew often elicited that response from her with his dry wit.

"Good morning, Shannon!" Navarra said as she began looking through the notes provided to her on the PADD. "How is our ship faring this fine morning?"

The XO looked up from her PADD reading. "Quite well, in most areas. This little shake-down cruise is bringing personalities out, and the crew is learning to behave more like senior officers. The ship, itself, is functioning well, and there are no major physical issues we have to solve immediately. In all other areas, the ship and crew are learning to work well together, even though quite a few bridge officers are learning to perform new tasks. There will be some issues we'll need to smooth out, particularly WV Nomad's docking port," she said obliquely. "That's not an issue for today, however."

Navarra looked up from her PADD with a bit of confusion. "I thought Henry had already worked everything out with Nomad's docking situation?" she asked while placing the PADD back on the table and leaning back in her chair.

Cowley interrupted smoothly, "That's part of our today's issues to address." He thought a responsibility discussion between the engineer and the tactical officer could be ... interesting. as long as he didn't stand too closely to either one!

"O.K. then," the Captain said, still puzzled about the confusion. "Where do we start, Cowley? I don't want to steal the thunder from your well-assembled meeting."

"It depends on the angle from which one investigates," Matthew said. "The engineer did leave a document discussing his opinions on the best location. I believe he might have made one or two ... alterations to a particular cargo bay. However, we now have an officer you have assigned to tactical security and it falls under his authority to choose to follow those recommendations, or to examine things "on the ground" as it were, and make his own decision, with suitable explanations and discussion with you, of course."

The captain's advisor was reaching the edge of his comfort zone in dealing with three superior officers, if one included the captain with the other two. His job title was new, his position was new, and his rank was new. Learning to handle all of it was also new.

He didn't want to get into any power plays the three might choose to try, though his experience with the engineer and the new crew member was little enough to be able to judge if they would be using power plays. He'd leave it up to the captain, who hadn't used her power as an unfair advantage, to sort out any possible problems. In fact, his experience with her led him to believe that if the two men didn't agree, she'd lock them in a room and tell them to let her know when they'd worked it out. The thought made him smile.

Navarra sat at the table and pulled Commander Perry's document up and reviewed it carefully. She made sure to make note of his recommendations, and to make note of the requirements. She was very interested in hearing Th'Firria's opinion and recommendation.

"OK. Well, since neither are here at the moment, let's table this for now. But we definitely need to get this project done sooner rather than later. I have a feeling we'll be heading out really soon, and I want to be prepared."

Looking up from her PADD, the captain looked back at Cowley. "OK, what else do we have?" she asked.

Shannon spoke up at that point. "I think the other pressing need is to organize the bridge staff. I mean socially, as well as job performance. They're shaking out ... okay, I guess is the best I could say, but we need better than that for the missions we may have to carry out. They all know their jobs, even if it's a new one, but they haven't developed a sense of one another, or how to anticipate each other's actions and reactions."

"I agree," Matthew said. "It isn't something that can be rushed, either. It isn't often that there are so many new people in new positions on a ship which has as much time in grade as Samurai has." He scooted forward slightly as he warmed to his subject.

"This ship has a remarkable history, but the legendary officers who made that history, including your engineer, are not here to run the ship now. We have some of the junior officers and non-commissioned, but not many. If our staff ... your staff, sorry ... is going to be at all effective, these officers on the bridge, especially, are going to have to bond ... have to make second-nature decisions about their own actions by knowing the likely actions of their cohorts."

"Good points, Lieutenant," McKenna nodded. "We need practice with that. I'd be interested to hear suggestions for how to accomplish that." She truly was interested, since she herself was one of the new-job people. She'd not had to do a lot of team building, since she'd been ONE person moving into a well-lubricated machine in the past.

"A few," he nodded. "I think we need to start with the kind of meeting where our staff becomes acquainted, builds some trust and understanding. There may be resistance because they could feel they are past this point in their careers. We forget that we don't know what we don't know."

"Team building exercises." Navarra said. "We need to find some exercises that do not demean the crew, but offer them the opportunity to grow with one another."

Elana stood and walked over to the window to lean against it with her back toward the stars. "What are our thoughts about having an old fashioned scavenger hunt, or even Samurai Bingo? And then a big social gathering after?"

Nodding thoughtfully, Shannon said, "I like that idea ... bonding followed by fun? A scavenger hunt could be interesting, and have some meaningful items that will help them discover how their bridge mates function, and if we limit the spaces included, maybe to the Bridge and observation lounge?"

"Actually, I would like to add one more place for the scavenger hunt," Navarra said as she looked up at her colleagues. "Let's add my quarters. We'll lock-down the terminals there, sanitize any sensitive information that may be lurking about."

McKenna made a note in her PADD, "Sounds do-able. Now, what kind of social gathering are you planning? Would that take place up here, too, or perhaps we could reserve space in the mess hall or the observation lounge? I don't think Lagoon Lounge has a separate area, do they?"

Thinking for a moment, Navarra paused and imagined the space in The Lagoon Lounge. "The Lounge does have a spacious enough area to host parties and other functions. It isn't often used that way, but it can be."

"I think that will be fine. It can be a rolling party. I wouldn't expect everyone to come at once." Navarra stopped and looked at her XO with realization.

"Unless you are thinking more of the observation lounge because some crew don't get a chance to come there regularly," she stated.

McKenna shrugged, "I think it's a consideration. If we're having a social occasion, and there are those who haven't been there, it could seem ... special."

Matthew spoke up then. "I think the Lagoon Lounge is the right spot. For exactly that reason. A training session can be intense, but then we follow it with a good time in a slightly fancy and unusual place." He looked at his PADD. "And that wraps up everything nicely, unless anyone is adding to the agenda today?"

Shannon just shook her head. "Not me."

 

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