A Carefully Worded Report

Posted on Sun Feb 1st, 2026 @ 7:42pm by Lieutenant JG Kally Kellerman & Captain Calypso Skyie & Lieutenant Commander Alexander Espersen

Mission: A Princess Of Tial
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: Immediately After A Fistful of Katies

Kally stepped onto the bridge and walked purposefully around the command center. "Commander," she said, addressing Espersen in more formal a tone as she ever had, "I need to speak with you and the Captain. I believe she's in her Ready Room."

Alex arched an eyebrow. He’d never heard her quite this serious. Never. “What’s this about, Doctor?”

"It's a medical matter and requires some privacy," Kally said, lowering her voice, her eyes serious.

“Alright then,” he said. He assigned bridge overwatch to Rebecca and got out of the command chair. “After you.”

Kally nodded and walked over to the door to the ready room, pressing the chime.

"Entrez vous!" Cally responded cheerfully, "That's French, for come on in!"

As the doors opened, Kally walked in and folded her arms, waiting for the doors to close.

The seriousness on Kally's face stopped Calypso short and the grin on her face fell, "Uh oh, did someone die?"

“Not that I know of,” Alex answered.

"Lieutenant Jenna Jade is officially on medical leave until further notice," Kally said.

Cally grimaced at the announcement, "It's that bad? Spill it, doc."

“What’s going on?” Alex added. He took a seat in one of the available chairs and gestured for Kally to take another.

"Jenna has been suffering from elevated stress levels," Kally said. "I know that goes for most of us, but it's been causing her serious health issues, and they've finally caught up with her. She came to me complaining of hallucinations and was in extreme distress. She was dehydrated, physically exhausted and on the verge of physical collapse. In trying to keep Engineering running, she bit off more than she could chew and collapsed." She sighed, shaking her head. "She's worked so hard, she just didn't want to let us down, but her management style isn't sustainable, and she needs to step down."

Calypso nodded as she remembered back to The conversation she and Kally had the previous day, deciding that Alex needed to know as well. “Jenna’s been taking stims, Alex, lots of them. To the point where she’d forged a prescription for them and convinced an inexperienced person that it was legitimate. I’ve given Kally the chance to rehabilitate her off the books, nothing official in her file if she’s successful. It’s going to mean we need a new Chief, but I’d rather that than kill her career over this.”

Alex nodded. “Anyone else might not deserve such a second chance, but she’s kept engineering running better than anyone could expect.”

"I'm going to need forty-eight hours to let everything cycle through her system and get her back on a sleep schedule," Kally said. "Once that's happened, I can start to treat the altered brain chemistry and cure the cravings. She'll be physically well within a week. Katie's already realigned the duty roster and distributed Jenna's work, and we can keep her on light duty so she's technically on the roster. We just need someone experienced with Engineering to look in now and then to make sure things are running smoothly while the team treads water."

“Tell your sister quietly to put me on the schedule if you need some gaps filled,” Alex suggested.

"I already have," Kally said. "She says for the rest of this week they're all good. She'll keep an eye out for next week." She looked between them. "Thank you both for giving Jenna a chance to get a handle on things."

"I put too much pressure on her from the beginning." Calypso said with a look at Alex, "I then went and when an actual engineer was assigned here, I poached him to take over being the Exec job because I'd just lost mine. I don't want her to pay for my mistakes."

"She's paying for her own mistakes, her own choices," Kally assured her, sitting down and patting Cally's hand comfortingly. "I don't want this dragging either of you down. Tomorrow, we start a new day, and we move on to a new normal, and we don't dwell on this. I'll keep everyone updated, but once it's done, we put it behind us and push forward, agreed?" She looked between them.

"Works for me," Alex said. "Inform me when she's able to work again, with a plan for gradual scale-up of duties back to normal. That's normal for a mid-tier Engineering Officer, not a Chief."

"Agreed. And I don't want this to hurt her career if possible. She's already got some experience as a senior engineer, so let's keep her in the command loop. Make her whoever takes over's Assistant?" Cally floated the idea.

"She's too good an engineer to lose to one mistake," Alex said. "No matter how big a mistake. No one was hurt, and you caught it early, Doctor. Thank you for that."

Kally let out a deep sigh of relief. "Thank you both for supporting me, and her," she said. She put her hands behind her back and cleared her throat. "If you'll both excuse me, I should get to Sickbay. I have a lot to catch up with."

"I'll walk you out," Alex suggested, standing up. "Captain," he said to Cally, giving her a nod as he followed the doctor out of the Ready Room.

"You're doing the right thing," he said sotto voce as they reached the door to the bridge.

"Keep reminding me," Kally said quietly as they stepped back out in public.