The Marsh Land

Posted on 27 Jan 2023 @ 4:12pm by Commander John Reynolds & Lieutenant Commander Theodore Marsh III

1,779 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Regrouping
Location: Black Hawk Main Operations
Timeline: MD 1 || Morning

John decided that his best bet would be to get the initial meetings with the Department Heads out of the way before the ship left dock. With the Security Chief meeting under his belt, his next scheduled stop was the Chief Operations Officer. Going to their respective departments might be seen as an intrusion, but it gave him a chance to talk to them in their environment. Meeting a new Executive Officer wasn't easy, especially if he called you to his office for it. No one liked that.

John found the main operations department easily enough and entered. He paused by the door, looking around at the current, well, operations.

The sound of the doors opening should have been noticed, even from within Marsh's office. But he was so engrossed in reviewing the department manifest that his brain didn't process the noise. Picking up a PADD with the specs of his new ship, he stood up and exited his office into the larger operations center. His eyes glued on the handheld device, he crossed to the replicator. "Iced raktajino," he requested.

A glass shimmered into existence. It took a few seconds for Marsh to pick up the beverage. Turning to head back to his office, he looked up briefly and was startled to see someone standing there.

"Hello?"

"Commander Marsh," John said, with a half smile on his face. "Commander Reynolds, new First Officer. Making introductions, seeing how things are running, and familiarizing myself with the ship."

"Ah. Welcome to Main Operations then, Commander," Marsh replied. "Not sure how helpful I'll be in getting you familiar with the ship. I just got here myself. Transferred over from the Toussaint." He motioned towards his office. "Want to sit for a bit?"

"Heh, should be an interesting first run then. I'm slowly getting the idea that there's quite a few new faces on board," said Reynolds. "Sure, we can sit for a bit. I'm sure we'll be doing a lot of standing soon enough."

Leading the other man into his office, Marsh dropped into the chair behind the desk. "Tell me about yourself. How did you get to be Commander Reynolds?"

John settled into the chair on the other side of the desk. "Well, I was on the USS Infinity, oh, about three or four years, as the Chief Security and Tactical Officer when the Captain lost his Executive during an away mission. Then Lieutenant Commander Reynolds led the extraction team that retrieved what was left of the away team. We had our memorials and such. Later, the Captain had me fill-in as Acting XO. During that time I did the Command School classes and made it official. That's the short of it, really. How did you end up over here from a ship like the Toussaint?"

"It was time to move on. You know how it is, I'm sure," Marsh replied. "After you spend a few years someplace, you need a change of scenery. I put in for a transfer and this is what came up. That it came with a promotion was a nice bonus." He touched the rank pips on his uniform. "Never been very interested in climbing the ranks. Or so I thought until the first time someone called me Commander Marsh."

"Oh I know how that feels," he said. "Sometimes it's not just a place that gets old and time to move on from. Heh, the sound does tend to make it easier to accept. But then it's usually followed with a question, a requisition, or a 'can I go do this' sort of statement."

The operations chief leaned back in his chair. "My parents will be thrilled to hear about my promotion. My brother, on the other hand, will be pissed. He was convinced he'd make Captain before I'd be addressed as Commander."

John similarly relaxed. He was glad there were people who seemed to do so around him when it wasn't all-hands on deck. "Well, Commander, now you can rub it in his nose if you want to, heh heh. So where's your brother assigned?"

"The other Commander Marsh is currently doing a stint teaching at the Academy. He's a xenoanthropologist who's been involved in nearly a dozen first contact missions. He was expecting to make XO on a deep exploration vessel but the brass thought differently. He called me when he got this assignment. I could tell he was disappointed even if he tried to play it cool. 'Teddy,' he said, 'a tour at Starfleet Academy is a stepping stone to greatness.'"

He took a gulp of his raktajino. "Like any proper sibling, I told him that Command probably thought we'd all be safer with him on Earth and not out roaming the stars," he added with a chuckle.

John had a good laugh at the sibling comment. "Ah yes, proper siblings...I have two younger ones, fraternal twins Sebastian and Charlotte. Sebastian is one minute, twenty seconds older and he never lets Charlotte forget it. Sometimes it's fun to just sit back and watch."

"I try to get my licks in when I can. Joey, my brother, jabs whenever he can, so I take advantage of openings when I can. Natural strategist or something." Marsh laughed. "Sounds like Security has treated you alright. My aunt Fern spent her entire career in Security. Retired from Starfleet and started up a private security firm. Has contracts with several Federation members to provide diplomatic and executive protection."

"Security's been good overall. Had a rough start, but I took hold of it, brought it in close, and took it to ground. Used it to make myself better. But a private security firm with lots of contracts? Very good for her. Have you ever run into any of your aunt's business associates while on the job?"

"Probably," Marsh answered. "Hard to know since I'm not privy to corporate contract details. Aunt Fern is careful about keeping her client list pretty secure. Consummate security professional that she is."

Teddy took another swig of his raktajino. "Since you're new here too, you probably don't have much intel you can provide on the other senior staff, right?"

"Not really, no. You're actually only the second department chief I've met with today," said John. "So there's not much I can tell you. Oh, that reminds me. I wanted to make sure that we have all the supplies we can get before we leave. One only has to look at the headquarters base to see that it might be difficult, though. I don't believe I've ever seen a starbase looking so haggard."

Picking up one of the many PADDs on his desk, Marsh turned it towards Reynolds. "I'm working on a list already, actually. So far, things don't look that bad. We are a little short on some things, but nothing too concerning. But I say that with the caveat that I'm only about a third of way done with the inventorying."

John accepted the PADD and scanned it as he listened to Marsh give the run-down. "I have a feeling that word 'caveat' is going to become fairly well used for a while. Kind of like like a Security officer I once knew...'in theory' was his favorite tagline for anything that wasn't officially documented. Anyway, we have to start somewhere."

"There are times when I wonder about Starfleet's ability to be prepared," Teddy offered. "By and large, Starfleet is decently run. But we seem to keep getting caught with our pants around our ankles. The Borg. The Dominion. Any number of natural disasters. Right on down to minor things like having supplies for ships."

John put the PADD on the desk and nodded. "Almost like someone put their head in the sand for far too long and wasn't paying attention to what was happening around them. Gotta stay alert, especially this far out from the core worlds. Sometimes I wonder if a good rotation from desk work in 001 to places like this frontier would help. But then, it'd probably just give them more reason to pull-in like their doing now."

"Having spent some time riding a desk at a starbase," Marsh said, "I can say first hand that those types absolutely exist. Fewer of them than you'd think, but enough to gum up the works sometimes."

He took another gulp of his Klingon coffee. "A lot of those paper-pushers would love to get away from their desks but there's only so many billets out here and the competition is stiff sometimes. Those desk jobs back on the core worlds aren't bad gigs but they hardly set you up for landing a job like mine. For better or worse. If I didn't have some fleet experience fresh out of the Academy, I might still be riding a desk. Having as much family in Starfleet probably didn't hurt either."

John nodded. "Fewer of them, huh. Certainly surprised at that. But I guess that's what most people who've never been behind a desk for any length of time think. But you're right, there aren't too many billets out here anymore. Seems like you have to fight for it if you want it. Unless," he said, gesturing towards the Commander, "you have a Starfleet family."

"I'm hoping that my family connections aren't responsible for getting me here," Teddy said, "but it is possible. If it was family, it wasn't my parents; they haven't lifted a finger to help my career. That I know about, at least. Once they knew I was going to 'follow along' and join up, their only involvement in my career has been to prod me regularly about advancement."

"Hey," said John as he sat forward in his chair, "sometimes it pays off. Sorry to hear about the lack of support from your parents, though." He paused a moment. "I'm sure you have lots of stuff still to get in order, so I think I'll be heading out. If there's anything you need, Commander, don't hesitate to let me know. I've heard it can get pretty wild out here." He reached across the desk and extended a hand to shake.

Teddy gave the other man a friendly grin. "It was nice of you to come down here," he said while grasping Reynolds' offered hand. "Good to start out with a welcoming introduction rather than our first run in being as we face down a squadron of Warbirds."

John released the grip of the handshake and returned the grin. "Heh, right on that one," he agreed. He gave the Ops Chief one last friendly nod before heading out the door. Two down, three more to go.

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