Arriving In The Time of Nick
Posted on Sat Oct 30th, 2021 @ 5:34am by Lieutenant Alisha Reno & Commander Elisabeth Churchill & Lieutenant Commander Tristana
2,231 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Handling the Fallout
Location: Docking Ring/Intelligence Officer
Timeline: Day One
The woman walking down the corridor was good looking, her blonde hair flowing behind her as she moved with the grace of someone coming down a walkway on display. On her back was a guitar case, worn as if it were the most precious thing in the world to her, not just as an instrument. In her left hand was the handle to a piece of luggage, small though it was, apparently a small suitcase that was meant to be grabbed first when needing something just to be sure one had it. The conflict between the two items was striking, just as her blue eyes were to the grey of her uniform. The skirt flowed around her knees as she moved towards the Lieutenant at the hatchway, waiting for people expectantly. 'Hispanic,' The woman thought to herself as she approached, slight smile on her face, 'Pretty as well, though I'm willing to bet she's getting more than enough propositions from others, doesn't need me doing the same.'
Her stride noticeably changed as she closed the last ten meters, slowing to come to a stop in front of the woman with two full pips, not just the one and a half that she herself had. Her hand came up in a formal salute, not that it was required, but sometimes it benefited someone to throw the other off-guard, "Mum, Lieutenant Junior Grade Alisha Reno, requesting permission to board the Myogi, ma'am." Her accent was English, the salute more of an open-handed salute, the type traditional to the old military of the nation of Great Britain.
The young Mexican woman looked back at Reno, unsure how best to return the salute.
"Credentials, please." She stated plainly.
The slight smile only expanded slightly at the obvious confusion, but the request did constitute acknowledgement, so Alisha dropped her salute and reached for the small PADD on her belt, flourishing it through a finger roll to present it to the Lieutenant, “‘Ere you go, ma’am.”
Tristana accepted the credentials and began to comb them over for signs of tampering.
As Tristana inspected Alisha's credentials, a third woman dressed in purple was approaching from further up the gangplank. Two and a half pips adorned her uniform, which she complimented with a piece of Edwardian style headwear. Her blonde hair draped over her right shoulder brought out her blue eyes.
The Intelligence Officer watched the newcomer approach out of her peripheral vision as she inspected the Lieutenant scrutinizing her identification. Another blonde, her eyes left the Lieutenant and searched from the side to see the hint of blue eyes from the purple uniformed woman, then turned halfway and brought her hand up once again in the formal old-British style of salute, though not older than the What… Victorian-era headgear? She accidentally misidentified the hat’s origin, “Ma’am.” She stated as a gesture of respect for an officer far more senior than her own lowly rank.
The other woman returned the salute with one in the style of the British Royal Navy, which was often mistaken for an American-style salute.
“How are you doing, ma’am?” Alisha first let the apparent diplomat start to drop her own salute before she snapped her own down sharply, “Lieutenant jay gee Alisha Reno, ma’am, Fleet Intelligence.” Her eyes glanced at Tristana, “And Lieutenant, the edges aren’t going to come apart, ma’am, it’s a legitimate ID.” Her attention returned to the Commander.
"Lieutenant Commander Elisabeth Churchill, Diplomatic Corps." The other woman, Elisabeth, responded. "I've been assigned here as acting chief diplomatic officer."
"Pleasure to meet a professional, ma'am." Alisha said softly, "I'm good at finding information, but when it comes to actually talking to other peoples, governments and the like? I could sure use a lot more work. Don't get me wrong, I'm not quite an incompetent with it, I'm just far better off in the background of the piece." She smiled demurely, hiding the strength of her personality behind the facade.
"Everyone praises my way with words." Elisabeth admitted, blushing and sheepishly running a hand through her hair. "Sometimes, I wonder if its because my mum claims I'm related to Sir Winston Churchill; though how precisely I can't figure out, because me family records only go back so far before you get to the Third World War and things get spotty because lots of records were destroyed in the conflict."
That got a rise from Alisha's eyebrows. She'd not had any warning of this officer being aboard, so she was completely blindsided and had to improvise with anything she said, "It's most definitely a possibility, ma'am." She allowed, there was no way for her to prove it one way or the other at the moment, but something to look into, even if just for the sake of curiosity, "I'm related to... No one of any importance, that I know of, though a distinct chance of Genghis Khan in my ancestry, just due to the sheer number of people statistically are." She smiled humourously.
"I never really much cared for genetics and ancestry, though;" Elisabeth said, her Yorkshire accent particularly prevalent. "To be honest, I prefer to talk about ocean liners."
At this point, the security officer had finally decided to accept Alisha's credentials as legitimate.
"Your credentials check out." The young Mexican spoke up, offering Alisha her credentials back. "Welcome aboard the Myogi."
"Thank you, ma'am." Alisha grasped her ID, but didn't pull them away, instead looking into Tristana's eyes, "Are you fully satisfied by them? Without any sort of hesitation that I am who I am?" Her voice had changed slightly, the English accent she'd been using fully dropped to no accent on her words entirely, "Lieutenant...?" She trailed off, expecting the more senior officer to respond with a name.
"Tristana, Senorita. (Miss.)" The Lieutenant responded. "Forgive the extra protocol, Lieutenant; we had an incident recently with someone who was more than they said they were, and I intend to make sure something like that never happens again."
This was the trick, how to handle this particular situation. She'd shown both of these women two sides of her already. A gracious nod, "I understand completely." Even her tone of voice was softened as she reacquired her ID, "I'm sure that we're all grateful that you're being extra vigilant, ma'am. I understand we from Intelligence can be wearing on everyone, but no matter what the 'faxes say, we really are generally the good guys. Some bad apples don't make a poisoned tree."
"I understand." Tristana responded. "You may proceed."
"Thank you, ma'am." She stepped through the docking ring, but paused as the Commander was next.
Once Alisha stepped through the docking ring, Elisabeth stepped up to Tristana.
"More than they said?" She asked, presenting her credentials. "In what way, Lieutenant?"
"That is a need to know thing, and you don't." Tristana responded as she scanned Elisabeth's credentials.
"Bitch please, I outrank you:" Elisabeth said. "I could make you spill your embarrassing secrets if I really wanted to..."
"And I could detain you in the brig for abuse of power." Tristana responded. "I've said this before, and I'll say it again; putting on 'do me' eyes won't make me swing in that direction. Anyhow, your credentials check out: Welcome aboard."
"Thank you, Lieutenant;" Elisabeth said, accepting her credentials back. "Though, friendly word of advice, consider buttoning up so your low-hanging fruit is less of a temptation, hm?"
Alisha waited as Elisabeth walked in, a sly smile on her face, "Tempting is right, ma'am, those are rather quite so." She smirked, having made sure Tristana would be able to hear the words, then smiled broadly at Elisabeth, "Good day, ma'am."
Past the younger hispanic woman, Alisha shook her head with a smile, but continued on. "Reno to Control, I'm in." She whispered. She wasn't talking to anyone, just herself, so she herself was 'Control'. This was her first assignment as a head of department, and on a New Orleans-class starship, the head of the Intelligence department could easily be an Ensign, not a Lordly junior grade Lieutenant. When she'd been handed her orders on the Virgil, hand delivered no less, she'd been informed that they didn't know what her section would consist of, so she did some research of her very own. With fifty-three officers and only a hundred sixty-five crewers, she figured that she'd be the only officer, with perhaps two NCOs to run errands or stand off-watches when needed.
In the end, she was wrong. As she walked through the door to the small, tiny actually, Intelligence offices, she saw three doors with a small desk in the 'main' room, a single NCO sat at it, obvious relief in his expression as she walked in, "Lieutenant Reno, I assume?" He asked, "Good to finally have someone else here, ma'am, not that I've not been kept busy, I just.. Ever since Lieutenant Haskins left, with Ensign Rattick in tow, I've been the only Intelligence analyst present."
Alisha's eyes opened, then closed as if it could make more people appear out of thin air, but it was still only the Petty Officer in front of her and she let her bag sit upright and let it go, "You mean, we're it?" She asked, unslinging the guitar case from her back and leaning it against the wall, "No, I don't think I actually want to hear you confirm it..." She physically waved it away, "It's just the two of us." She said it herself.
"Petty Officer Third Class Alistair Freeman, ma'am." He came to attention, "Analyst and codebreaker specialties, it's not really that much, but I do the best I can."
"Oh God, Alistair, sit down..." She glanced around, "Any of these offices bigger than this?"
He nodded, pointing at the door that had the name 'Haskins' on it, which Alisha grabbed her guitar case and stepped into, seeing what was apparently a well appointed office with a comfortable chair, but no decoration whatsoever. "Good, come on in, make yourself comfortable. Grab us something to drink, I don't really care what." She put her guitar in the corner, making a note to pick up the stand as soon as possible from her storage and bring it in, then unsealing and stripping off the jacket she'd worn in, tossing it on the chair before perching herself on the desk itself in the tank top tunic she most often wore, "And call me Alisha. If we're going to be working together, an if it's going to be just the two of us, we'd best be on the best terms we can be."
Alistair shook his head, this was different, but he dutifully went to the replicator and got a couple of colas, placing one in an outstretched hand before finding a chair himself, "All right, Alisha, I'm not sure where you're going with this, but I'm game if you are. Whatcha thinking?"
"That it's just the two of us." She took a sip from her glass, "I'm a bit more talented than you, it appears... Not judging, just a statement of fact." He shrugged at the comment, "We're going to have to be flexible with our scheduling, because there's no one else to stand watches or the sort, at least not yet. We may get someone else, but not gonna bet on it. I'll start handling the morning briefs, most of the time, but both of us are going to be 'on call' at all times, in case something with a high priority comes in. I'll take any requests from the command team for instant analysis and opinions, you don't need to be responsible for that, it's my job anyways, but we'll switch off the 'on call' duties for the overnights. I intend to be in at Oh Seven Hundred daily, I'll have you walk me through everything for the next few days, then perhaps have you cover up to say... Nineteen Hundred, with anything new getting vetted by the 'on call' person?"
Alistair listened closely, nodding at various points of her plan, then took a long drink of his cola before belching, getting a laugh out of Alisha, "I like it. It's going to be a lot of work for the both of us, but that's a given in any case. But it gives us each a fair amount of time off, and I've got a refinement for that: If the 'on call' person needs a consult or something big comes in, we call the other?"
Alisha nodded at that, "Fair enough, Alistair, but do you mind if today I take it a bit slow, get used to the area, maybe take a walk around the ship and possibly make another trip back to the station? I also need to start to get unpacked. Not to mention that-" She stopped as Alistair started laughing, then joined in with him, "I know, I know."
"Take your time, Alisha, get settled in, I already loaded your office desk with personnel files and some of the more critical regional reports. I'm here to help."
"Thanks Alistair, really... Thanks."
Posting by (in order of appearance):
Lieutenant Junior Grade Alisha Reno
Chief Intelligence Officer, USS Myogi (NCC-65918)
Lieutenant Tristana
Assistant Chief Security Officer, USS Myogi (NCC-65918)
Lieutenant Commander Elisabeth Churchill
Diplomatic Officer, USS Myogi (NCC-65918)
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