Science Geeks

Posted on Mon Jul 4th, 2022 @ 6:02pm by Commodore Jacob Kane & Lieutenant Leah Bailey & Lieutenant Alexis Ryan

Mission: Shore Leave
Location: Grand Hotel Toram - Restaurant
Timeline: Shore Leave
3206 words - 6.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Having had too much of the sun for one afternoon, Leah had made few plans other than to shower, grab a bite to eat, and turn in early with a book. Maybe a technical manual, she wasn't sure yet. It wasn't until she spotted a familiar shock of red hair that her plans took a slight deviation. Alexis was apparently waiting to be seated in the restaurant, which was coincidentally where Leah was headed as well.

"Lieutenant Ryan, isn't it?" she asked, approaching the other woman. Starfleet officers, even out of uniform, still gave off enough of a vibe to others that wore the badge. "Lieutenant Bailey. I think we're going to be working together." She left a short pause before motioning to the maitre'd. "If you don't mind some company, may I join you?"

It took a moment for Alexis to collect her wits. Company wasn't necessarily objectionable, it just hadn't been her experience yet to be recognised and, in typical fashion, it hadn't taken her long to grow accustomed to the anonymity that shore leave provided, particularly when she had been left waiting days for the Athena to show up with no additional obligation. The other woman's explanation slid the pieces into place promptly, however, and Ryan recalled her firstly from Bailey's service record. Anyone in the department had warranted scrutiny but the higher ranks were likely responsible for holding down the fort, so to speak, between seniority placements. Leah was someone that Alexis had intended to speak with, soon.

Apparently, sooner than she'd anticipated.

"Sure, table for two sounds fine." The amended instructions given, Ryan turned her attention to the brunette and considered her intently for a split second before her features recalled the function of manners and relaxed into a smile. "Enjoying the break?"

"Making the most of it," Leah replied with a pleasant smile. "Been a little while since we've had the chance to get some proper downtime. Can't be bad for you - joining the crew right as we're heading on a fortnight of leave? I've got to tell you, it's not usually this cushy..."

"It never is." Smiling faintly at the woman's candour, Alex motioned for Leah to follow their waiter first and slid into a seat at the small table they were shown near the window before continuing. "And whilst I wouldn't say I need the downtime, the opportunity to find the Science Department underneath the rubble before we're actually expected to function in the field has been an eye-opener." Reaching for a menu, Ryan quirked an eyebrow at her colleague. "Your previous Chiefs were... Would it be fair to say overwhelmed?"

Leah laughed at that question, but quickly pulled herself back in. "I wouldn't say 'overwhelmed'. Maybe they just didn't have the right expectations; Athena isn't like a lot of other starships out there. We tend to tangle with trouble more than the average crew might, and that doesn't always appeal to the science nerds who just want an easy life studying rocks and plants and things without being shot at every other week."

A slight nod of her head sideways saw Alexis pay dues for the reimaging of her opinion. "Both new to seniority too." Yes, she'd checked. "Which is fine, I'm just going to spend the next couple of weeks housekeeping."

A pause to order drinks and entrée, which Alex usually avoided but didn't feel like she could leave Leah to eat on her own, gave time to fill glasses with water and then the Lieutenant sat back, glancing out of the window whilst the other woman ordered. Once the waiter moved away, she slowly drew her gaze back.

"What about you?" Shrew blue eyes, one with a sliver of ice through it, studied Leah for a moment. "You have the rank and experience. I'm curious as to why Kane didn't just step you up."

"Would've been nice, wouldn't it? Long-serving member of the crew, never had a bad rep, etcetera..." Leah shook her head. "It wasn't to be. I don't mind so much; I'm not really a leader in that sense of it. Never really had the ambition. Being a supporting number two suits me just fine. So don't worry about jealousy or anything like that, I won't undercut you anywhere."

There was an elongated pause, just enough time for the slight hitch of Ryan's eyebrows to linger as obvious bemusement before her features slowly settled back into place. "Glad to hear it." Still, there was something about the woman's candour that was refreshing and certainly suited Alexis' preferred attempts at communication; guess-work was far too inaccurate. Taking a sip of water, she then added, "I don't think scuffling with my staff is quite what Kane had in mind when he told me to mingle."

"I wouldn't put it past him; the Captain has a reputation. Nothing serious or anything, but by a lot of peoples' standards he's tougher than Gorn hide." Leah smiled. "At least on the outside. Who knows what he's really like." She mouthed a 'thank you' to the server as their drinks arrived. "So, do you think you'll be around for a long time yourself? Or do you have plans to ship out just like the ones that came before?"

"I doubt my plans would ever resemble 'the ones that came before'", Alex quoted, amused by the phrasing. It was a neat and tidy way of proclaiming to be of an entirely different ilk. "And I don't think I'd have quite the same issues in the first place. Athena is one of my star-class. I'll mingle as much as the Captain wants but I'll tell you now, you'll have your work cut out impressing me more than the ship herself does."

The Lieutenant's tone was light and teasing but her words held an element of truth. Perhaps the best reassurance she could give regarding the sincerity of her motives was her esteem for the ship and its inner-workings. Convincing her to go from prototype production to field-testing hadn't been a hard sell.

"Good to know," Leah grinned. "You'll be pleased to hear I'm not the try-hard sort. Been around the block too many times for that."

Their food arrived fairly promptly, a light evening's selection of some local foodstuffs of varying colour and scent. Starting off with a starchy-seeming purple root, Leah did her best to keep the conversation moving. "Did I hear that you were coming on board with some new upgrades?" she asked.

Having been subjected to the local fare over the past few days, Alexis' picked several condiments from the barrage of tiny little dispensers nestled in their caddy at the centre of the table and seasoned with the expertise of one who'd already learned the hard way which ones to avoid. She paused to offer a wobble of her hand to accompany her response.

"Yes and no. I come bearing the news, and the past two years of experience first-hand, that the Prometheus-class has several major upgrades working through certification at the moment, I just don't have a delivery date for Athena yet. I'll fast-track what I can, I'm hoping they'll prioritise us so that I can start generating live, adaptive data."

"I hope that includes some improvements to the astrometric sensor grid. That's almost 18 months out of date at this point," Leah sighed. "They expect miracles, they need to provide us with the tools."

Pausing with fork halfway to her mouth, Ryan frowned and narrowed her eyes. "Are you telling me you're not capable of performing miracles, Lieutenant?" With practised precision, only Alex's eyes gave away the tease, a glint amidst the otherwise convincing consternation.

"Depends on your definition of miracles," she grinned. "After all, for some people, advanced technology and scientific knowledge is almost indistinguishable from magic."

"Ah, so you're a magician. Good to know."

Ryan's features relaxed, permitting what passed for a faint smile. It softened her lines and, as had been pointed out one too many times for her liking, returned some of her youth. It had been the Lead Engineer's way of calling her a child, of course, but one cantankerous superior out of an entire shipyard had been easy enough to navigate.

"As for your concerns, you'll have to wait and see." Arched eyebrows playfully dangled the possibility of granted wishes. "I can at least promise that I don't deal well with outdated systems, in any department."

There were probably a few people that came under that classification too, Leah pondered, but she didn't say anything; Alexis would find that out on her own.

They continued the rest of their meal with various elements of small talk and simple 'getting to know you' questions, and Leah eventually took her leave with a polite thank you for the time, leaving Alexis to decide whether or not dessert was appealing.

In the end, it was the opportunity to sit with her own thoughts that coaxed Alex to order a coffee, with a dash of something extra, rather than relinquish the table and, with it, her sense of relaxation. There had been a time where she'd fought the necessity of leisure time, too enthralled with aspects of her work projects to break her rhythm. The temptation was there to go back and work for a few more hours until she dropped from fatigue but that wasn't the best first impression and, in any case, Bailey had given her plenty to think about. For all Alex had naturally gravitated towards taking charge of situations, she'd never officially been where the buck stopped before. If nothing else, she mused, stirring her drink when it arrived, she'd determined she had one competent officer on her staff. It was a start.

"How's the coffee here?"

She was interrupted, momentarily, at least, by the Captain. He was passing the table, coincidentally on his way to his own, when he noticed the familiar red hair. He wasn't stopping to sit with her by any means, but he was still trying to follow Zora's strict instructions to 'bond' more with the crew while they were on leave. Even if he could interpret that as simply making polite small talk in passing.

He was the last person Alexis would have expected to see, let alone go out of his way to draw her attention. It had been a facet of her personality for as long as Alex could remember that, once she was committed to deep thought, it took several waves of a hand to snap her out of it. This time, it was more a matter of a blink or two before she recognised the man (out of uniform?) and registered his question.

Glancing down at her mug, the redhead nodded once in consideration. "Add a splash of top-shelf malt and it's half palatable," she replied, making eye contact again with a faint half-smile. "I can recommend their cheesecake for the same reason."

"Noted, thank you." He felt an awkward silence hang for a few seconds, as though he were to make polite conversation but the words weren't quite there. After all, this was only his second time actually engaging with her.

"Can I help you, sir?" A Toramite waiter motioned to the seat next to Alexis, possibly assuming some sort of deeper connection between the two of them.

"Do you mind?" Kane asked. Perhaps it was a reasonable opportunity to continue previous discussions. If she wasn't completely averse to the idea of 'shop talk' on shore leave.

There was a fractional pause, almost imperceptible, before Alex nodded towards the seat. "It's probably still warm. Lieutenant Bailey just left." To the waiter, still hovering, she requested, "You've twisted my arm. Bring me the cheesecake." Eyes alight with amusement as her commanding officer sat down, Alex added, "I'm going to end up rolling to work at this rate."

"That's what site-to-site transporters are for," he retorted as he took the seat, recalling with some amusement the shenanigans Lieutenant P'rel had pulled on his XO. "I genuinely don't mean to intrude. I just thought...well, since we were both under strict instructions to socialise this last couple of weeks, we should share progress."

"I seem to recall, at least in my case, that they're your instructions." The gentle poke didn't stray into over-familiarisation but likewise distinguished Ryan from any of the junior officers who may have stumbled over themselves to second-guess how to talk to a superior officer. "Amongst several other suggestions, at least. I feel moderately mingled," she added over a sip of her coffee.

Nodding along, Kane allowed himself a small smile. A sense of relief, perhaps. "Thankfully I think escorting Commander Zora to the casino and meeting some junior officers looked good enough. I just hope it's not a regular thing." He accepted a glass of some local wine from the waiter, who seemed to be lurking. He aired the glass a second and then lifted it towards the middle of the table. "Here's to never having to force ourselves to make awkward small talk ever again?"

Toasting with a mug of whiskey-laced coffee was a little odd but Alex embraced it, her features relaxing enough to permit her own half-smile. "Am I allowed to quote you on that? Better yet, cite it as formal permission to assign myself double-duty shifts until I optimise this ship of yours?"

"If you can prove that you're making Athena a better and more efficient ship, then you absolutely do," he agreed. It was a good job he outranked Zora or she would likely have had him hosting team-building lunches or whatever it was some people liked to introduce. Efficiency and effectiveness came first in his mind. "You can consider your mission accomplished, Ms. Ryan. I just hope that doesn't mean you're spending all of your time away from the rest of your duties; I will be calling on my Chief Science Officer when required."

"I am interspersing it with attempts to evaluate my staff," Alex defended, not without humour. "Once I figure who I can up-skill and trust the lower priority maintenance to, I'll have more than enough time to stand on the Bridge pressing buttons." Away from the ship, lulled into a more relaxed version of herself by Leah's easy-going banter, Alex found her stride with the flippant, dry humour that characterised her personality. "I'm not typically neglectful," she offered as a quieter reassurance. "Once we leave dry-dock, I'll have us to a point of easy back-fill."

"I'm sure." He wasn't sure what to make of the idea of 'standing on the bridge pushing buttons' being her role, but that was, inevitably, one perspective of it. "And how would you evaluate the staff you have at your disposal?" he wondered, silently wondering if she knew that he had personally vetted and selected about 75% of the ship's crew.

"Bailey is more than competent. Probably could have run the place and, likely, has been just recently." Since it wasn't her place, certainly not this early on, to question Starfleet's choices, or Kane's for that matter, Alex left her curiosity regarding Leah's lack of promotion there. "I have high hopes for Gupta too, between the two of them they cover areas of our primary function that I'd ultimately prefer to place in the hands of specialists."

"That's reassuring to hear. I recognise your team is likely to be somewhat smaller than most Starfleet crews can be afforded." He left that open; not a question, but a statement, to see how she would feel about it. Some of his previous science officers would have taken the chance to raise some sort of grievance about limited resources. Given Ryan was a former marine he suspected she might take a different view.

"I don't need quantity, I need quality."

From an operational point of view, there was a minimum amount of personnel required to keep a departmental roster functional, but Sciences often got padded out with specialists who were working on their own agendas within Starfleet's broader picture. Alex didn't begrudge them their passion, nor did she fail to see the importance of such work in a lateral sense, but rarely did it contribute to the day-to-day aspects of keeping a starship primed and ready. It was the lack of scope for exploratory opportunities that made the post so unattractive to many, but the same limitations actually appealed to Alex. The less time she had to spend factoring in everyone's specific requirements meant a greater capacity to tend to the systemic issues that would matter when Athena stepped up to perform her primary role.

Shifting just slightly to allow the placement of a significant chunk of cheesecake in front of her, the redheaded Lieutenant eyeballed her Captain. "If anything, I'd benefit more from a reallocation of several Operations juniors."

He put the glass down and folded his fingers together in front of him. "Interesting." He hadn't expected that sort of request. "Lieutenant Leiko does have a reasonably larger team at his disposal. Anyone in particular you have your eye on?"

Digging a spoon into the solid dessert, Ryan shook her head. "Not yet. Oddly enough, between focusing on finding my department's current identity and mingling," An eyebrow offered a hint of a tease, "I've not had any opportunity to see a lot of them perform. On duty, at least." It was a quick amendment because, much though she'd spent some time with the crew manifest, Alex was far from being able to put a face to every name in every department. Certainly not enough to know if she'd encountered any potential candidates trying to improve their tan-lines. "Recommendations are always welcome though."

He noted that she'd flipped it around rather astutely. "Depending on what you are looking for..." he said, prefacing his answer. "Lieutenant Sh'rillil may be worth your time. She's worked cross-departmentally before." He'd considered one of the Washingtons, but even in his brief encounter with them at the blackjack table he suspected they were a little too 'lively' for Ryan's tastes.

A receptive nod was Alex's only initial response, given whilst negotiating a spoonful of cheesecake. A hand waved to the persistent waiter declined further assistance for the time being and the Lieutenant considered her spoon thoughtfully as she contemplated the tastes in her mouth. She'd have to experiment with the replicator.

"Here," she offered her plate to the Captain unexpectedly, partially because she felt awkward eating in front of him, but also because the slice was twice the size Alex remembered her first experience being. "I have theories, I just need a second opinion." Smiling faintly at Kane's controlled surprise, his Science Chief pointed towards the cheesecake with her spoon. "Toffee or caramel?"

He eyed her for a moment, not quite sure if she realised how forward she was being with someone who very rarely socialised with his crew. But Zora had told him to relax, and he was sure she'd tell him to let his hair down (proverbially, at least). So he picked up the spare fork. "Both," he simply replied, before tucking in.