Ops Together

Posted on Sun Oct 15th, 2023 @ 7:15pm by Ensign Charlotte (Charlie) Washington & Lieutenant JG Astrja Kyan

Mission: Character Development
Location: Operations suite
742 words - 1.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Astrja peeked in and then stepped in, "Hello," she waved, "you are Ensign Washington, right? I am Astrja Kyan, the new Assistant Ops Chief, I wanted to try and get to meet everyone else in the department while things were quiet. So, well, hello." The Andorian seemed a little nervous but mostly friendly.

"Oh!" Charlie looked up from what she was doing. Henry had told her there was a new assistant chief of ops and she had been curious to meet her, but had forgotten to seek her out that morning. Not that she had any reason to anyway besides pure curiosity. "Nice to meet you!" Charlie did a small wave in return. "And yes, I'm Ensign Washington. Though most people call me Charlie or CJ, but of course you can call me by whatever name you prefer, ma'am. I'm not picky. Anyway," she changed the subject before it became awkward. "Where did you transfer in from? If you don't mind me asking."

"Space Dock by way of the USS Gwydion," said Astrja with a smile. "And feel free to call me Astrja. I don't feel much like a ma'am. So, what do I need to know about Ops here?" She sat down on the edge of the desk.

"Good question! Things are pretty straight forward. Lieutenant Leiko runs a good department. We tend to pair up with engineering a decent bit, but I don't think thats terribly unusual. I can't think of anything really red flagish to tell you. I've heard some crazy rumors about previous missions, but I'm sure every ship has her rumors and crazy stories. Anything we should know about you?" Charlie flashed a curious smile.

Astrja made a showy shrug. "I am an open file. Though, since it will come up," she grinned, "yes, I did legitimately graduate from the Academy with the lowest score in my class year. And I have the record for the lowest passing grade in the Understanding AI class at the Academy." She seemed inordinately proud of these achievements.

"Oh, uh, interesting. Not what I expected I have to admit," Charlie chuckled. "Book smarts are only a small part of what you need for the job I find though," noting that she herself often gets lost in the clouds. "It's your ability to pull everything together and make things work that really matters."

"That is what I think too! Besides, things change so quickly in our field, what is accurate today can be outdated tomorrow, best to just slide on down the slope," Astrja replied with a grin.

"Exactly," Charlie nodded with a grin before moving to continue her work. "Care to help me with this power flow adjustment?" She asked as she grabbed a hyperspanner and hunched back over an open panel.

"Many hands make work light," said Astrja moving over to take a look. "Is it too high or low of a flow?"

"High, we need to ramp it down." Charlie started to make some tweaks before abruptly stopping and looking at the Andorian. "Why the Athena?" She asked, curious as to why the new assistant chief had picked their vessel above any others. She was a great ship, but curiosity always got the best of Charlie and she wondered what sort of rumors or stories might have drawn someone new to them.

"Isi," replies Astrja, "it was not a choice made by me. Do not get me wrong, I am glad to be here, the Athena is an amazing ship, but I was given my transfer papers and they said Athena."

"Oh, interesting," Charlie knew that sometimes Starfleet just assigned you a new vessel but sometimes you had some sort of say in matter too. She and Henry had picked the Athena when ops slots opened up. She shrugged, "I guess you really do just like to slide on down the slope."

"You end up in more interesting places that way," said Astrja leaning in and looking at the readings. "Try restricting the Byrrian filters to sixty percent." She said. "Oh," she tapped a hologram, "Delay the secondary energy relay feed by ten milliseconds, that will step down the field spiking."

"Good call, on both fronts. I think that fixed it!" Charlie gave her newfound friend a genuine smile. "I'm headed to engineering next to help out with a few tasks there. Care to join?"

"Yes, please! Always good to meet new people," said Astrja bounding to her feet.