A Long Day Done

Posted on Fri Aug 13th, 2021 @ 4:14am by Captain Calypso Skyie & Lieutenant Commander Tyler Driskill

Mission: The Boneyard Heist
Location: Captain's Ready Room

Tyler had just completed one of many task he had been assigned and was on his way to meet with Commander Skyie. It had been sixteen hours since the two met in the shuttle bay. He was actually enjoying being back in the First Officer role and his superior seemed to have a good head on her shoulders. Tyler wasn't quite sure he would ever get used to calling her Cally, but it was what she requested. Exiting the turbo lift Tyler gave a quick "evening" to one of the engineers working on the bridge. He didn't bother to learn the names of the starbase personnel that were aboard as they would soon be just a memory. He made his way across the bridge and requested permission to enter Cally's ready room.

"Come on in." Calypso glanced across the room, yes, it was presentable, not that the base crew had much to do with that... They'd repressurized the bridge early in the morning, then done a quick diagnostic at each station and were apparently satisfied with them, but the ready room? Not a chance. Elbow grease to get it dusted, remove the models of the single former ship named Aegir, dumped those into the replicator and created one of the Centaur-class Chimera to put in its place, it wasn't shiny, no new-ship smell, but it looked good.

As the door opened, Artemis's head shot up and looked to see who it was and hauled herself to her paws and trotted over to Tyler as he entered for her due of ear scritches.

"Hey Cally" Tyler smiled and then turned his attentions to his new four legged friend. After Tyler gave what he guessed was the right amount of attention before turning his attention back to the CO. "How ya doing?" he asked with a grin, he really enjoyed getting to love on Artemis.

Cally gave a grand gesture around her even as she smiled at the interaction between Artemis and Tyler, “As you can see, I’ve made the place presentable to other beings, though not diplomatic standards.. So it’s closing in on break time. I also got the personnel file dump of a shuttle slated for tomorrow that has our first batch of engineers.” She grimaced, “Transfers from ships in-system and it’s just what I expected. One of them was a suspected smuggler, never got caught, another enjoys fighting a bit too much. The only officer among the group has been promoted to JG four times in the last eleven years, all but the last one taken away because she finds herself randomly falling asleep in the darndest places, must have been a short that zapped her, or a gas leak, or something else somewhat random.” She shook her head slowly. “So, hopefully you’re doing better than me?”

Tyler shook his head "I'm glad to say much better" he let out a giggle "but you know we'll just have to keep an eye on those two and hope we end up with a good Security Chief." He looked at his PADD "All armories have been fully stocked, all replicators are online and have passed diagnostics" Tyler glanced up at the Commander and back down to his PADD "ships armament is stocked and diagnostics say they are mission ready. All and all I'd say the ship is ready to receive crew."

“As long as it isn’t too many.” Cally grudgingly agreed, “Inventories of replicator mass and other supplies should last a full crew about a month or so, longer if we don’t have that many. I contacted the supervisor of the refit crew and he says that ‘He isn’t authorized to provide us with additional supplies.’ Now, we could always park and cannibalize an asteroid, one of the wonderful features of the Luna-class, but we don’t have that sort of time.”

She leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes for the litany to come, “We have both integral craft, but the Waverider is out of commission for some reason or another, we have a grand total of one Type 15 shuttle pod and a broken down Type 11 shuttle craft, plus the Razor I flew in. The dilithium matrix, according to the maintenance engineer I talked to, is due for replacement in a year, it’s the original from the Aegir, and the ship is in need of a coat of paint on the exterior. The engines are fine, though emergency propellant is at fifty-two percent capacity.” Her eyes opened again, “But as you say, weapons we’ve got.” She giggled maniacally.

"Yes" he paused and gave a slight smile "Well it shouldn't take us much time at all to get the girl back in shape."

"No, not much time." Cally said in a deadpan before sighing, "But none of it'll happen today... I think I'm done for the day, did anyone ever tell you that being the CO of even a ship that's all but dead in the water comes with paperwork like you wouldn't believe?"

"Speaking of that" he paused with a smile on his face about her comment about paperwork, every Commanding Officer he had the pleasure to serve as First Officer for had the same complaint. "Were there not any ships that were in better state?" he asked raising his brows.

Calypso closed her eyes, thinking back to that meeting, "As Admiral Towers told me, and I quote, 'This is your one and only chance at a command. Take it, or kiss your chances goodbye.'" She opened her eyes again, "Captain Majorie Taylor, my old CO, apparently had recommended me for my own command in such terms that I wasn't even considered for an Exec slot. And Admiral Towers, over the last few months, has never held back from telling me that he didn't like the idea of a former Marine being the CO of a starship. And if I refused command, no one would ever trust me in any spot again."

"Oh I see" Tyler said with look of surprise on his face but it quickly washed away. "I may get court martialed for saying this" he gave her a smile "But Admiral Towers is kind of an ass."

“Who’s gonna court martial you? Do they have microphones in here? Vid cams?” Cally stood and theatrically looked around for the offending devices, “Tyler, Admiral Towers is a monuMENTAL ass of such proportions that he couldn’t find his own rear end with landing lights and a runway guide pointing the proper direction! He’s giving us four weeks to get underway to and arrive at Starbase 6-1-4 from a cold start or else he’ll flush my career out an airlock. On the plus side for you, that would probably put you in command if he does that..” She trailed off slightly, curious to see his reaction.

"No thanks" he looked her in her eyes "we will be ready" he assured his new Commanding Officer and someone he could see himself being friends with.

Was it that he didn’t want command? Or was it that he was just being supportive? She was tempted to undo her mental blocks to try to sense what sort of emotion he was feeling as he said that, but dismissed it just as quickly. It would be a violation of trust and besides, she kept THAT part of her locked away, ever since the last mission of Perseus, and even then she’d only allowed herself to use her empathic sense sparingly since she was 25. No, letting that sense out to play was far too much like playing with fire; she’d get burned badly. “I’ll agree that we will be on station, really being ready is a bit much to ask for.”

A signal sounded from the desk to get her attention and she glanced down, seeing the message that had just been received, then began to laugh a little like a crazy person, “Good news, two days from now we’re getting a visit from a small transport.” Cally looked up, “The Academy just graduated the senior class and we have twelve brand new ensigns coming aboard, plus another six cadets on their cadet cruise, as well as another score of enlisted, scattered in departments. Feel like being a babysitter? Because that’s what we’re going to be.”

Tyler shook his head covering is forehead with his hand before looking up at Cally "you are joking right?"

She crooked her finger in the ‘come here’ motion and stood to step to the side a foot to give him a better look, “If I were joking I’d ask you ‘What do you do with a Elephant with three balls? Walk him and pitch to the Rhino.’”

Tyler knew a little bit about several sports so he laughed at her joke as he made his way around the desk and there it was plain as day "well shit" he let out and glanced over at Cally.

“Compliments of Admiral Towers.” Cally said softly, “Tomorrow, we’re going to sit down and come up with an action plan for those new Ensigns.” Her voice had remained relatively quiet, her eyes looking at one spot on the desk, “Two ensigns and four enlisted per team, we’re literally going to use them to get this ship cleaned up. Cadets are going to be gofers for the time being, the two remaining ensigns?” She smiled a smile that no one could take for being cheerful, “They’re going to ride herd on that JG that’s coming tomorrow. Whether she likes it or not.”

"Solid plan' he paused and started to laugh "slightly sadistic but solid."

“Only slightly?” She chuckled, letting it expand into a full on evil villain laugh, “I’m just getting warmed up. I figure when we’re not in a critical situation, we’ll probably split time on the bridge, the other going all around the ship. Be everywhere at all times, when everyone least expects it. At least until we get the crew humming along efficiently.”

Tyler gave a nod "sounds good." It seemed to him that Cally had good plans in place.

"But I'm calling it for the day..." Cally sighed, "I figure I'm going to grab something to eat, then relax for a couple hours before getting some rest for tomorrow. It's going to be another wonderful and busy day in the Fleet."

"Yeah I've got a list too" Tyler said holding up a PADD. "Care for some company for dinner?" he didn't have plans other than to eat in his quarters and he wanted to get to know Cally a bit more as they were about to be responsible for several hundred lives.

“So long as we don’t talk about Chimera here.” Calypso patted the console lovingly, with a soft smile. The ship was growing on her, after all, she was hers. “And I’m definitely going to get out of uniform. My quarters or yours? Or there’s always a holodeck, we’ve got a couple that are up and functional.”

He didn't use the holodeck's often so he never even thought about dinner there. "Let's take advantage of the chance to use the holodeck while we can, who knows when we'll get a chance once we launch" he shrugged and smile at his Commanding Officer.

Calypso smiled softly, “Then just one more question before we blow this popsicle stand… How formal? Super-casual, semi-formal, party like there’s no tomorrow or ‘Oh My God, The President Of The Federation Is Here’ formal?”

Tyler could go either way so he thought for a second "let's go casual, we've been so busy it will be nice to relax for the evening."

She nodded in agreement, “Sounds good to me. Number One in ohhh, half an hour?”

"I'll see you then" Tyler returned the nod with a smile on his face.

"Holodeck One, then, thirty minutes." She grinned, "Don't be late!"