New Beginnings

Posted on Wed Jul 21st, 2021 @ 8:06pm by Captain Björn Kodak & Lieutenant Sharrina Blackstone & Ensign Noah Balsam

Mission: The Place of Skulls
Timeline: Mission Day 1 at 1100

[USS Sojourner; Risa]
[Mission Day One]
[1100 Hours]

"OK. Try it now." Noah Hyman Balsam needed sleep. And a lot of him wanted to go to his quarters for even a few minutes of shut-eye. Maybe open up his menagerie and integrate one or two of them into the ship's holo-matrices. But right now, the ship was a mess. It was brand new. And they didn't build them like they used to. Sojourner had been kicked out of the slip at Antares early, and was undermanned as well."

And now, among the plethora of quirks, bugs and intermittent glitches that had plagued it since leaving drydock had decided to fault the transporter. To Noah, that screamed a software issue. Something wasn't interfacing with the subprocessors right. He could feel it on the back of his nape. His stick insect-like body, tall and unhealthily thin, was bent into a butterfly-shaped sit, his knees bent with a number of interlinked devices pulsing light in his lap. "It's bypassed like a Christmas tree," he said. "Buh-but we have a stable link." Noah got up, careful to extricate himself with a mind to not jostle his connections- if somewhat lacking in dignity.

He tugged on his SOJO t-shirt so he was no longer midriffing. Vague crescents of pit stains were badges that he'd been huddled in a hot processor locus room for some time He rubbed the sweat-glossy side of his nose as he proceeded back to the Transporter Control. He flicked his fingers at the amber of the holographics, "OK, we're on-line. I'll monitor." The transporter tech nodded.

"Sojourner to Delphinium Muster Station. Standby to energize." The Tech said while Noah turned and kept a close eye on his jury-rigging.

Had Sharrina Blackstone known that the transporter on the Sojourner was being held together by chewing gum and bailing wire and sheer will, she would most likely have said, "oh, hell to the no!" and taken a shuttle to the ship. But she didn't know that. And so, she was not the least bit concerned as she stepped up onto the platform on Risa. In fact, she was relaxed and smiling.

She'd just finished a well-deserved bit of leave and was refreshed and ready to face the universe again, and if necessary beat it into a proper state of submission. Okay, so that last was more of a mental joke to herself than her true pattern of thinking, but it amused her Klingon half.

She nodded to the tech on her side, and that man informed the Sojourner, "Sojourner, ready on this end. Transport when ready."

The telltale tingle of excited energy flowed before the shower of the pattern stream dropped over the half-Klingon like a curtain. She was taken apart, molecule by molecule as time and space distorted itself. When consciousness seemed to re-fire, the sprites and will o' wisps of energy converting themselves to matter finished putting the Security officer together on the transporter pad.

The first person to smile was a gangly, lanky-looking person in uniform pants and a sweaty t-shirt with "SOJO" across the chest in white. He was holding a PADD and was standing on a briar patch tangle of cables, fibers, and equipment. "Hi. Hi, uh, welcome... uh-aboard." He noticed her cranial ridges. But the Academy taught him well not to stare at differences, "Ma'am."

Her smile faded somewhat as she saw the state of the device which had just taken her apart and reassembled her. It looked like a rodent had decided to nest in the connections but had brought them out onto the floor first. That could have been very... bad, she reflected.

Her eyes then tracked to the man who spoke to her, and she gave him the once-over assessment. Definitely Engineering; he reminded her of every engineer on both her mother's ship and Starfleet ships, covered in sweat and way too proud of himself for keeping some system or other functioning. But then, she couldn't do his job, so she didn't begrudge him that pride.

Instead, she smiled back as she stepped off the platform. Everything seemed to be in the right number and configuration. "Thank you," she glanced to his rank insignia, "Midshipman." Her smile became a slight smirk, playful. "Good work keeping me all in one piece."

"Ma'am," the Midshipman said with a nod. Technically they took her apart into seven to the twenty-seventh power pieces, or somewhere around seven billion-billion-billion pieces. But, semantics. "Welcome aboard the Sojourner," he greeted. "I hope all your, um, molecules are back in the right, uh, p-place." He rocked back on his heels and looked at the transporter tech who was- conveniently- scanning their console for diagnostics. "Well. Um." He was on his own. "I-I guess, I can take you up to the Bridge?" He swallowed, "Or... s-somewhere you need? Are you familiar with the Rhode Island type?"

The poor man looked uneasy, Sharrina thought. Maybe it was her? Half Klingons did sometimes manage to intimidate people even when not trying, after all. Or maybe it was that he was just one of those Engineers who was better with machines than with people? Or maybe he had just been unprepared to be left to handle her alone? Whatever the cause of his discomfiture was, she decided to take pity on the poor fellow.

Sharrina smiled down at the young man in what she intended to be a reassuring way -- though sometimes the Klingon half could render such gestures less assuring and more... fearsome. She hoped for the former.

"Thank you, but I have the map," she answered, tapping the side of her head before looking down at the panel guts around him on the floor. "Besides, I think I'd feel better knowing you were finishing your surgical procedure here," she motioned to the work he had been doing, "than playing tour guide to me." The smile never faded.

Noah nodded with a quasi-cowed, whispered "OK," toward his chest. It was the Klingon fearsomeness he noted, the diluted pungency of Klingon biochemistry that was somehow earthy and aggressive. "Um. Rrght-right out there and then left. To, uh, the turbolift." Noah smiled with a chew to his lip corner before he squatted down, lanky legs folding like a cricket, and he quickly, efficiently sorted out what he deemed to be "bad" interfaces, with the new ones he would replace them with. As nimbly he was up and striding to a cart of tools, flipping open his case with some kind of filter buffer in his hand, about the size of a Rubik's Cube.

Sharrina smiled once more at the man, then she moved her gaze away. She'd scared the poor fellow enough, she reasoned as she hefted the two bags she had with her -- they were heavy by Human standards, but only mildly annoying in weight to her -- onto her shoulders and made her way from the Transporter Room. Out the door and left, she made her way down the corridor to the 'Lift; and once it arrived, she rode it to the bridge, approached the Ready Room, and touched the panel that would activate the door chime. The bags remained on her shoulders for now. Report in first; unpack after.

[Ready Room]
[A few moments later]

Given that his Ready Room was quite a bit smaller than his office on the Adelphi had been, Captain Kodak had been forced to make some hard choices. Among them was what to do with his extensive collection of bonsai trees. While he'd had three levels of shelving to store them on the old Ambassador class vessel, the Sojourner offered much less space to work with. He had just one shelf now and it was much less wide than he'd been accustomed to. This meant paring twelve trees down to just three. Three bonsai...three out of the twelve he'd spent the last twenty years tending to. And given how small his quarters were -- no, how small his and Andrew's quarters were, he mentally corrected -- it wasn't like the other eight trees could go there. And so the Captain had been forced to choose his darlings and send the rest off to be cared for by his parents on Earth.

The Chameloid sighed at that as he looked upon the remaining bonsai. Not that Kodak's parents weren't up to the task -- after all, it was his own father who'd gotten him into the hobby -- but having to make such a choice had hurt his heart. Each tree was unique and Kodak loved them separately for very different reasons. But if three was all he could have, the Captain decided he'd make the best out of it. Which was way he was now taking a few moments away from the very busy day to water the plants, letting his worries pour out of him just as the water gently poured from the thin, needle-like spout of his golden watering can. With each tree, a small pool of water collected on the surface of the soil, only to sink into the dry loam moments later, providing the bonsai with the hydration and nutrient solutions they needed to thrive.

"If only people were this easy to care for," Kodak smirked to himself. As he moved to return the watering can to its place on the shelf, the door chime suddenly sounded. "Come," he said, turning to affix his gaze on whoever it was who wanted his attention.

As Sharrina entered the room, the first thing that caught her attention was not the trees or even the man himself, but those eyes. The gold coloration was rare to say the least, and it caught her slightly off guard. It shouldn't have, she reflected, as she had read the man's bio, and that color was common for his species. But it still had.

That glitch in her attention did not last long, however. She lowered her bags to the floor and came to full Attention before him. Her eyes locked with his, but the momentarily startled look was gone now, replaced by pure professionalism. "Lieutenant Sharrina Blackstone, reporting for duty, Sir," she stated in clear, crisp tones, accompanied by the customary salute. She then waited to be told that she could change any part of her stance.

It's the eyes. Always the eyes, Kodak lamented to himself as the glitch rose and fell on the woman's face. While the Chameloid appeared 99.99% human, the one thing he could not change about himself was his eyes. And upon meeting so many people in his Starfleet career, he'd certainly come up against the startled reaction to his eyes many, many times before. But as usual, the moment passed and professionalism kicked in. And so the Captain simply nodded and gestured to a chair.

"Relax, Lieutenant," the Chameloid smiled wanly. "Would you like a beverage? Arriving is thirsty work, after all," he smirked, moving to the replicator and ordering himself some Bolian tonic water. He waited for Blackstone's response before further manipulating the replicator and returning with the requested item. Instead of sitting behind his desk, however, he took the chair next to Blackstone, kicking an ankle up onto his knee. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant. We appreciate you joining us."

"Black tea is fine," Sharrina answered, relaxing her stance as he told her to and taking the offered chair. When he handed her the tea and sat, she turned in her chair slightly so that she was facing him more directly. That was something borne of both of her heritages. For the Klingon, it was facing one's opponent head-on, as it were. For the Native American,. it was respect and courtesy. That same respect and courtesy demanded that she explain herself.

Taking a breath, she let it out slowly. Her eyes held on his steadily as she spoke. "I wish to apologize, Captain, for my initial reaction," she offered truthfully. "I should have held my reaction better, but it was not meant to offend. The color is... striking, actually. I find it... unique and, therefore, intriguing."

"No apology necessary, Lieutenant," the Captain smiled back warmly, meaning every word. "With eyes like these, you sort of get used to it. But I appreciate the sentiment nonetheless," Kodak nodded slowly. "Welcome about the Sojo. I'm guessing you came straight here?" he asked, eyeing the abandoned duffel full of personal items for a moment. "I like your enthusiasm," came a chuckle, "but you could have stopped by your new quarters first if you'd wanted. Did anyone mention you'd be rooming with someone? Sojo's a small ship: fast, sharp, full of sharp teeth and brains but a bit on the lean side...kind of like my sister, come to think of it," he smirked mischievously.

Sharrina nodded to his initial statements. Being half Klingon, she understood how one's appearance could engender a certain type of reaction. It was part of why she had felt badly for hers. She had grown up partly on a Klingon ship, and so she had gotten guff from them about her Human half. And among Humans, she'd heard incessantly about her Klingon half. Thank the Spirits for her father's genes and his training in finding and keeping her calm.

When he looked to her bag, she followed his gaze, smirking. "I suspected that such a detour would be permitted, but my mother's teachings die very hard in this area," she admitted with a slight chuckle. "As to being told anything, I'm afraid, aside from you, the only person I have spoken to since arriving was an unsettled young man whom I am guessing is an engineer. I got this from the fact that he had the guts of a console at his feet when I was beamed on board." Even now, she had to chuckle at the encounter. As much as her appearance had seemed to unnerve the young man, he had still engaged her. "He did offer to show me where my quarters were, but I felt as though I'd given him enough of a shaking up for one encounter," she added, allowing that chuckle to escape.

She paused for a moment to sip her tea, then continued to address the things he'd said already. "As to the ship being lean, I did notice that when I studied her specs. I was, I admit, more concerned with learning her layout for Security reasons than I was interested in my personal accommodations. But since you have brought it up, I don't have a problem with sharing quarters as long as my roommate is neat and doesn't put their nose figuratively or literally where it doesn't belong." She stated it simply, as a fact, with no emotion attached to it. Plain, simple, and straightforward.

"You and me both," the Captain smiled sardonically. "I remember my second year at the Academy. First year? No problems whatsoever. Bolians make great roommates, aside from a little lingering scent their sensory dampeners can't fully handle. But my second year roommate was a Ferengi with aims of being a science officer. Chodom was his name," Kodak smirked, sinking back into his chair as well as his memories. "He was thrilled to have a mythical Chameloid for a roommate. Had no end of questions. He asked about just about everything I did. How did I brush my teeth? Were my clothes actually clothes or my skin? How tall could I grow? Could I become fat? It was exhausting," he huffed slightly. "Felt like my downtime was never really my own. I got through it, of course," Kodak smiled thinly, "but it was a challenge. Hopefully your roommate won't be as difficult," he nodded, taking a sip from his own beverage.

Sharrina couldn't help but to chuckle at a couple of those questions given that they seemed... self-explanatory. She could completely sympathize with the general situation, though. "As do I. That does sound exhausting." If she were honest with herself, though, at least one of those questions she would have loved to know the answer to herself. She had the courtesy not to ask, even beyond the fact that it would be inappropriate given their positions. "Felines make good roommates too as far as being neat and clean. Their curiosity can get the better of them sometimes though," she shared in reciprocation.

"I've never roomed with one so I'll have to take your word on that," the Captain smiled back in response. He was about to take another sip from his beverage and then say more when his combadge chittered.

"Sir, incoming call from Admiral Drayson. Should I put it through?" It was Ensign Lennison from the Bridge, who was currently manning the Tactical station.

Reaching up to tap his combadge, Kodak said, "Go ahead, Ensign." To Blackstone, the Chameloid could only offer an apologetic shrug. "The life of a Captain, I'm afraid," he said, his tone husky. "Lieutenant, I've enjoyed chatting with you today. Sorry to cut things short. Please get settled in and if your roommate gives you any trouble, try to stay strong," the Captain smiled wide, all easy like as he chuckled. He stood then, moving back around his desk and sliding into his chair, ready to activate his monitor once Blackstone departed.

Sharrina was a little disappointed that their conversation was cut short; this captain seemed like someone she could get along with very well. She understood, though, having half grown up on her mother's ship. He was right; the life of a ship's captain. Politely, she finished the drink in one go and moved to put the glass back into the recycler. She then made her way out of the office with a salute, stopping only long enough to retrieve her bags.

"Admiral," Kodak nodded as the communiqué came to life on his monitor. "Thank you for getting back to me. I need to talk to you about our plans for entering Klingon space..." And with that, the brief meeting had truly come to an end, though much like Blackstone, the Captain had very much enjoyed the chat. He looked forward to future encounters with the new security officer very much.

=/\= A joint post by... =/\=

Midshipman Noah Balsam
Engineering Officer

and

Lieutenant Sharrina Blackstone
Security Officer

and

Captain Björn Kodak
Commanding Officer