Just saying Hi, How are ya?

Posted on Fri Nov 15th, 2024 @ 11:17pm by Lieutenant JG Kestrel & Lieutenant Cassian Maritz & Ensign Tamblem Dravor & Ensign Eekit Drol

Mission: Mean Green Queen
Location: Deck 5 - Security Offices
Timeline: Mission Day 6 at 0900

Being brand new on board, Cassian had barely gotten himself familiar with the surrounds of the ship, let alone familiar with his department and everyone in it. He understood that the last Security Chief hadn't really left him much to work with in terms of organization, so he walked over to the replicator, ordered a black coffee and cracked his neck to each side before he stood still and took a sip of it, "Different ship, still the same terrible coffee."

Shaking his head and walking back over to the meeting table, he moved a couple of the padds that held personnel files to make room for his coffee and set it down before sitting down himself. It had only been a day and he came to realise he didn't have an assistant chief as of yet so now he was flying solo with his own department. Sighing slightly, he looked at one of the files and sat a little bit straighter in his chair as he noticed the name: Ensign Eekit Drol. Ah, this would be interesting because they both didn't know who each other were. Instead of doing anything else about it, he called for an entire department meeting.

"Can Ensigns Dravor and Drol, and Lieutenant Kestrel come to the main Security Office, please?" Cassian called out over his commbadge and waited for them all to appear.

Kestrel was first to appear of the group requested, stepping into the security offices attached to the brig and coming to stand at the ready before the new chief's desk. They'd met yesterday, of course, after the debacle in junior crew quarters in which she and Dravor had been forced to discharge their phasers in response to a threat from a mimetic lifeform that had somehow managed to come aboard undetected. It had been an exciting way to start the day, certainly, and not her usual choice for meeting a new chief.

"Lieutenant Kestrel reporting as requested sir," she said, still holding parade rest, but relaxing enough to look directly at the Chief instead of straight ahead.

"Good to see you, please take a seat, get a coffee or whatever, make yourself comfortable while we wait for the others." Cassian replied with a smile.

Tamblem slipped through the doors as they hissed open. His freshly replicated uniform and shower removed any evidence of the morning's mutagenic surprise, save for the apparent bump of a bandage visible on his trousers. He already held his security-issue insulated tumbler full of standard-issue coffee. The Trill raised his cup towards Cassian, "Ensign Dravor, sir."

Eekit was the last to arrive, still in the process of fastening her uniform jacket as she slipped in the door. She looked a little rumpled, like maybe she'd picked the uniform up off the floor, and her long hair was pulled into a hasty bun at the base of her skull; not its long plait as usual. Her expression was carefully neutral, none of the annoyance she felt making it onto her features, but instead bleeding into the jerky way she moved into the room, habitually sweeping its entire expanse, noting first Dravor, then Kestrel, and finally--

The Cardassian only barely managed to stifle her groan. No wonder the voice over the comm had been so familiar. Of course the guy she'd accidentally punched in the face was their new department head. Of course he was. So much for getting off the mid shift any time soon, she thought grimly, struggling to keep her expression neutral. "Ensign Drol, reporting. You wanted to see me, sir?" she said, her tone less dispassionate than she had intended, her salute somehow resigned.

Cassian sat forward and raised an eyebrow and gave a slight smirk but otherwise remained neutral at her entrance, his mind flicking back to the previous night they'd met at the bar, "Good of you to make it Ensign, grab yourself a coffee or whatever you'd like and take a seat."

He reclined back into the seat and looked at everyone with a smile, "Now that you're all here, I just wanted to say this isn't a formal meeting as such, more of a get together to kind of... get to know each other a bit more, especially me because I'm obviously the new Security department head and you have no idea who I am or what I'm capable of, right? For instance, I started at the Academy in San Fransisco 12 years ago, have been in the Security department for seven years, and this is the first time I've been in the Chief of Security position. And I have a cat named Blue Chai." Cassian looked at them all again and added, "I mean, there's no right or wrong here, think of it as a way that we can learn strengths, weaknesses, where we can improve, etc."

Kestrel peered between the other three, taking the temperature of the group a bit. She knew Dravor best of them, but mostly from their interactions during duty rotations or from one of Irynya's... party game... get togethers. She figured none of the things revealed/discussed at an Irynya-run even were admissible as get to know you info. The point there was almost always to reveal things that could be considered shocking or embarrassing. For as many introverts as Irynya seemed to amass, it was amazing none of them refused to join in.

Fixing the new chief in her gaze she opened her mouth to offer a quick intro. "I'm originally from Argelius II. Umm... touch empathic, but also..." she held up her hands which were sheathed in gloves. "So, there's no danger of anyone like... needing to worry about that. It... I mean if you wanted strengths and weaknesses..." She stumbled a bit over that and then shrugged self-deprecatingly. "I'm 10 years out of the Academy and have been a tactical officer since my first posting. And if anyone ever wants a sparring partner for Aikido or Jiu Jitsu let me know." She smiled and with it there was a warmth that was hard to miss. "Oh, and Muay Thai... but I'm not very good at that one yet."

The unsubtle tension in Eekit's shoulders very slowly bled away as Cassian made no mention of her assault the day before, and by the time she'd collected some kind of steaming beverage from the replicator-- better to have her hands busy than fidget-- she was looking considerably less nervy. "When Kestrel says she's 'not very good,' she means she'll put you on your back in less than three minutes, instead if her normal one minute," Eekit put in, flashing the Argelian a rueful grin; she could still vividly remember their last sparring match, and plainly did not appreciate losing.

As attention swiveled to her when she spoke, Eekit decided to simply leap into the breach. "Eekit Drol, originally from Vulcan," she said, managing to keep a straight face for all of a couple heartbeats before the glittering mirth in her dark eyes spilled over into a flashed grin. "I see I can't fool a crowd of keen observers like this. I'm one of Cardassia Prime's wayward daughters, and I've been with the Sojo pretty much since she was refitted and sent out here to the Dee Que. Uh," she glanced down at her steaming mug, then back up again, "I like my music loud and in my spare time apparently I like to punch my COs in the face." The smile she shot at Cassian was not as confident as her previous grin. Clearly she used humor as her armor, but would it land as she hoped it would with this new Chief?

Dravor smirked as the Cardassian finished her introduction, "Tamblem Dravor, from Trill, and no, I am not joined. Only a select few are, and honestly, I never had any interest." He paused to sip his coffee, sliding a bit in his chair, his stance relaxed, sure, before continuing, "I've never been to Earth; I did my academy stent at the Trill annex. I've never understood the fascination with Earth anyway. Just another blue/green utopia, the UFP is littered with them, Trill included." He shrugged, sipping his coffee again, "Anyway, I enjoy the gym, training, and having a good time off duty."

At Drol's comment Kestrel ducked her head, grinning at the table for a moment before raising it again to take in the group. She couldn't help her amusement. She'd heard a rumor that there had been a recent... misunderstanding... of some sorts, but she hadn't surmised the details. It sounded like all of them were off on an unusual foot with the new boss between Drol's admission and the nonsense in junior crew quarters yesterday. She shuddered a bit as she recalled the feel of the slime coating her skin. It would be a long time before she was interested in any food that wobbled again.

Cassian looked to Eekit and grinned, "You've got a good punch on you, and I'll make sure that I'm not on the wrong side of it again, I promise." He then turned to Dravor and nodded, "I can perfectly understand why you think it's just another blue/green utopia, because it is. I think the only real point of interest is that there is a lot of different cultures and races spread throughout and we have an extremely varied history. A lot of the food there is pretty good too, I must admit." Then looking at Kestrel, "You know what? I'd be keen to take you up on that offer of sparring for Jiu Jitsu, I've always been interested to learn that. Whenever you've got time, of course."

Finishing off the mug of terrible coffee, Cassian looked around, "Now. Onto more work-related matters. I've already had the official report about what happened yesterday and I was there at the aftermath, but is there anything extra any of you know or have heard about that could be added?" He was already formulating a plot on how to avoid situations like this from occurring again.

"Goo is much more fun after hours?" Eekit volunteered, and immediately regretted her flippant mouth. She had, mercifully, been dead asleep in the middle of her off-shift when the shape-shifting goo-spurting extravessel-being had attacked a few junior officers in their quarters, necessitating security response. She'd heard most of the particulars from her fellows-- word traveled fast around the security ranks, particularly when something actually happened-- but really, she was in no position to expound further. She ducked her head to her steaming drink, perhaps to take a drink and hopefully to hide herself from further scrutiny after her poorly-considered quip.

The Argelian flipped through her memories of the event. They had started to fragment slightly. While she recalled things fairly clearly in the high intensity of the moment, a day later she found that it lived in her mind as still frames--the kind of pictures that often led to paintings or sketches for her rather than detailed reporting. Of course, she and Dravor both had debriefed for the report. But that didn't mean they'd gotten all of the details available.

Screwing up her lips until they puckered in a twist toward the side of her mouth she threaded her fingers through each other, stretching them wide so her hands made a sort of X--an absent minded tic. "It didn't respond to our phasers," she finally said, half thinking out loud. Her eyes were unfocused as she thought about it, but they quickly came back to the officers at the table. "I mean... it didn't like being fired on, but the phaser fire didn't disable it. Stun didn't stun. Kill didn't..." She shrugged almost apologetically. "It was Ensign Person's flame thrower that did the thing in. I've never fired on a shape changing life form before. But it did seem that we were unprepared for it with our standard issue phasers." She looked to Dravor then to see if he agreed.

Tamblem nodded in agreement, "Agreed, stun just upset the creature. I burned a hole clear through it on the highest setting, and while it did seem to impair its ability some, it was, Shelly..." Dravor paused, his face suddenly hot, flushed with embarrassment at his slip, "That is, uh, Ensign Parsons, quick thinking to replicate a, umm, what did you call it? A Flame Tosser? Whatever it was, if he hadn't acted quickly we might not be having this conversation now." He paused momentarily, remembering the incident, "And Ensign Balsam having the wherewithal to keep it from escaping the flames." He chuckled and shrugged, "Engineers."

One ridged brow lifted at Dravor's slip, and Eekit hid her smirk in her mug, making a mental note to do some more thorough investigation later.

"I believe you're referring to a flamethrower?" Cassian offered with a smile, "Definitely well done on Ensign Parsons behalf, I personally wouldn't have thought to do anything like that, but clearly there's a reason why he's an Engineer and I'm not. But in saying that, keeping that.... thing... where it couldn't escape the flames and do more damage to who or whatever else was also great thinking. My question though, is how did we even miss this thing getting on the ship in the first place?"

This, at least, Eekit had some idea how to address. Staring at security footage for days on end had some advantages, apparently. Clearing her throat, she sat up a little straighter, hoping to garner attention without having to resort to actually raising her hand. "I actually had some thoughts about this, Lieutenant, and it something we may need to speak with ops and engineering about remedying. Of course you all came on a shuttle, not via transporter, so some of the usual scans we make for anything beaming aboard weren't performed. Still, the shuttlebay forcefield should have alerted us to something unusual. Except..." she paused, gnawing briefly on her lip with nervousness.

She didn't want to blow her idea out of all proportion, but after all, Cassian had asked. Mustering the false-fronted courage that had been beaten into her as a child, Eekit continued, "Except the scan isn't designed to detect a lifeform like that. I was reviewing the shuttle's arrival footage and scans; nothing out of the ordinary from the cameras, they're just visual. And the scans were all performed to spec. What they detected was the correct number of lifeforms-- compared to the shuttle's manifest, with no additional contagion aboard. Because that thing had already done... whatever to the real guy-- what was his name? Pedros? It had replaced him, rather than adding itself. And since it was biomimetic, it was good enough to fool the scan. I'm no engineer, but it seems like we need a scan update or tweak."

Kestrel's brow creased at Drol's addition. While it made sense -- they left from a Starfleet-run station where they would have undergone scans. They arrived on a Starfleet shuttle. And for all they knew the creature in question could mimic Peters down to the cellular level. It evoked questions of what made a person a person in their own right if their genetic makeup was irrelevant. She shoved that unhelpful philosophical line of thinking to the back of her head and scanned the faces at the table, trying to gauge their own reactions before speaking up.

"I'm not an engineer, but the transporters have a highly sophisticated mechanism for detecting biomimetic lifeforms. It dates back to the Dominion War and..." she frowned trailing off. This wasn't news to any of them. "Sorry," she amended. "What I'm getting at is maybe we can modify that element of the transporters to apply it to... force fields." Even as she said it that idea sounded off the rails. Transporter beams and forcefields were hardly the same technology. One was meant to bring someone in while the other kept someone out. She ducked her head, flushing slightly. "I mean... we should probably ask engineering."

The ideas now flowing the team leaned more into the question Maritz had set them and settled in for the discussion.

=/\= A Mission Post By =/\=

Lieutenant Cassian Maritz
Chief of Security

Lieutenant Junior Grade Kestrel
Tactical Officer

Ensign Tamblem Dravor
Security Officer

Ensign Eekit Drol
Security Officer