Reorganizing

Posted on Mon Feb 28th, 2011 @ 6:29pm by Lieutenant Commander Aiden Roberts (KIA) & Captain Nathan Cowell MD
Edited on on Mon Feb 28th, 2011 @ 6:32pm

Mission: Shore Leave 1: Pacifica
Location: Various
Timeline: Before Boldly Go

It had been the first time Aiden had set foot on the bridge since before the Arizona had departed, leaving a small contingent on the planet's surface. While he didn't doubt the crew's abilities or the vessel's overall chances of holding it's own in a confrontation, he was relieved to see things as he had left them. He wasn't on duty, at least not stationed on the bridge, but he wondered up here none the less.

The Lieutenant peered at the operations console, not recognizing the individual at the station. He imagined it was another crew member, undergoing the cross training in closely related departments. He would be sure to introduce himself later. Instead, Roberts settled in the the mission operations station in the rear of the bridge, reviewing the reports that his team had submitted in his absence.

Captain Cowell had been engrossed in reports of his own and had decided rather abruptly that he needed to stretch his legs. In doing so, he walked out just in time to catch sight of the Operations Chief, manning the console that Lieutenant JG Marion normally occupied.

"Joker, unass that console and come talk to me," Nathan said, abandoning his walk in favor of more constructive endeavors, like messing with Aiden's head. Nathan returned to his desk and sank back down into his chair just in time to see Lt. Roberts walking in.

"Sit," Nathan ordered gruffly, pointing to the chair before his desk.

The young Lieutenant sank into one of the two seats in front of the desk, sliding it slightly on the carpet to angle the chair as opposed to the head on direction they normally were place at. Truth be told, this was the first time the two had been in the same room since Aiden effectively got caught with his pants down - literally. While no mention of the night had been made thus far, he felt in the back of his mind that once the dust had settled around their current mission it might come up once again.

"Look boss I wanna apologize..." Aiden started, trying to pick his words carefully as he waited for the hiss of the doors behind him closing, giving them the privacy that they wouldn't have received on the bridge.

"What did you do now?" Nathan asked bluntly, thinking it was an admission of some sort rather than a rehashing of things long since filed away as 'handled'.

"Ahh nothing... that I choose to admit," Aiden bit his lower lip, "Look, I'm a lot of things and I lack morals in certain aspects of my... self? But when you're wrong you're just that... wrong. I acted inappropriately with a member of my department, regardless of their relationship with you. I just wanted to say... I'm sorry..."

"Noted..." Nathan muttered with a frown, "And perhaps I shouldn't have thrown you up against the bulkhead... but done is done and let's not dwell on it, shall we. You made it out alive and you're a better man for it. To business..."

Nathan picked up a PADD and tossed it at him, "You can read the fine print later, but that basically says until I tell you otherwise, you're the new Second Officer. When the kid is out and I'm in my office, you get to run the show. You're already Bridge Officer qualified, correct?"

Aiden was shocked and surprised to say the least. He did, however, keep his mouth from gaping open. Obviously, he wasn't the poster boy for officer educate and protocol, but he had made the tough calls and the hard choices from time to time. "Uhh yea.. I ran the night shift on my last posting at Starbase 98. Thank you Captain... I'll promise not the burn the place down..."

"You're the second person that's brought up fires... what is it with you humans and wanting to burn shit. I can remember back in Korea, we had a surgeon that just couldn't start the day without his cigars. Said he liked the smell of shit being set ablaze... He was also a fat, aristocratic bastard with delusions of being better than everyone else in the camp... Came to find out later, before I left Earth, he was sued to the poor house for malpractice back home... Stupid fuck..." Nathan reminisced.

When Aiden flashed him a blank stare, Nathan remembered himself, "Anyway, no matches, no lighters, no wild parties, no strippers, no goosing the females, no staring at shirt puppies while you're on the bridge, get me?"

Aiden quickly played out a scenario involving each of the activities mentioned by the Captain, and brief smile appeared on his face before snapping himself out of the day dream. "You gotta deal Boss..."

Nathan's eyes narrowed, "You just sat there and planned to do everything I just told you not to do... And don't lie and say you didn't. I've been commanding morons for generations... probably led one of your idiot ancestors in one of the big wars... Do you people actually have to be contrary by genetic design, or is it human stupidity that drives you males to do dumb shit?"

"I think it stems from a desire to learn from one's mistake, but you have to make those mistakes first to learn from them..." Aiden replied thoughtfully.

"Take it from someone that's made six hundred years worth of mistakes, you could stand to skip a few," Doc Cowell offered up bluntly.

Aiden pondered for a moment, and nodded as though conceding the argument to his superior both in rank and age. "So... where to next? With the medical supplies in hand and situation on the planet no longer a situation..."

"The powers that be will be sending the Hippocrates to the system within the week to check up on us. We, however, will be going to Pacifica for some R and R. Being that you are the Operations Officer, I figured you could work on getting some activities planned for the crew. Even if you aren't a morale officer, you seem to have a penchant for getting together with people. Though, I don't know if a mass crew orgy would be well received or prudent at this point," Nathan said, an obvious slight at Aiden's expense thanks to his recreational activities the night before he went to the planet.

Aiden looked over the padd that Cowell had tossed to him earlier, making sure he did say 'Second Officer' and not 'Moral Officer'. Relieved, he stood. "If that's all sir, I'll be in Astrometrics planning said events. We can save the orgy for a time where everyone is more... familiar with one another?"

"How about we just eighty-six the orgy all together. I'd rather not see you nude in a social setting," Nathan said flatly, "Now piss off, I have work to do."

Aiden chuckled and resisted the urge to admit the same thing about the Old Man. Instead he turned and exited the Ready Room, eye the center chair on his way to the turbolift.