A Matter of Operations

Posted on 27 Jan 2023 @ 12:12am by Lieutenant Commander Theodore Marsh III & Captain Harvey Geisler

2,157 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Regrouping
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: March 16, 2390

Just because Harvey possessed extensive medical training didn’t keep him from having a disdain for his former profession. He’d held several Chief Medical assignments, and there honestly wasn’t a job he hated more. What made his morning inspection of sickbay worse was that the ship only had five medical personnel currently assigned, and the least experienced nurse just happened to be the only person on duty.

Sickbay was a mess, with crates everywhere with all of the tools and supplies the staff would need, and not only did the nurse not know where to put anything, it just happened to be the moment when Harvey entered for his morning inspection. The nurse, a young Denobulan woman, did her best to not be flustered with the captain around, and her efforts did little to soothe the situation. Harvey, however, kept his face as stoic as possible and kept the interaction brief, resorting only to giving the poor crewman a few hints on what could go where. The Captain then helped himself to a small headache reliever before heading for the exit.

“Excuse me, Commander.”

Marsh looked up from his PADD to see a crewman step out of the way to avoid a collision. He offered a polite smile before returning his gaze to his handheld. Though he was on his way to Sickbay, he was also on duty, so he was trying to multitask. That got a bit trickier when trying to navigate the corridors of a Federation starship while reviewing supply requisition forms, reading status reports from the computer upgrade team, and trying to create shift schedules for his department.

His feet stopped when he arrived at the entrance to Sickbay, but he continued staring at his PADD as the doors whooshed open. His feet, instinctively, began moving through the doors.

Harvey hadn’t noticed that he wasn’t the one who had triggered the door sensor. In fact, he was looking downward rubbing the back of his neck as his body attempted to exit — only to collide with someone he hadn’t seen.

“Watch where you’re going,” Marsh said, not even thinking about the irony. He looked up. The man in front of him was in a command uniform. Then his eyes focused on the rank insignia. “Uh, excuse me, Captain.”

The Captain immediately staggered back a step or two after the collision. It had been his fault, and he was at least thankful that neither of the parties had been carrying a drink of any kind as today was not the day to deal with a soiled uniform. “My apologies, Lieutenant Commander…”

It then occurred to Harvey that he did not know the man in front of him. Command had assigned new members of his senior staff without involving the Captain, and knowing that both Operations and Engineering had yet to receive a department head, it made it impossible to know which section this man reported to.

"Marsh. Lieutenant Commander Theodore Elliott Marsh the Third," he replied, filling in the blank. "My friends call me Teddy though. You're welcome to join them."

Teddy had instant regret for being overly collegial with his boss. It had taken two years to get to that point with Captain Chavis.

“Sorry about that, Captain,” Marsh apologized.

“Nothing to apologize for,” Harvey stated, taking note of the man’s friendliness. He extended a hand for a shake as he introduced himself. “Harvey Geisler. Welcome aboard the Black Hawk, Teddy.”

Prior to this happenstance, Harvey assumed that he’d be getting the bottom of the barrel when it came to department heads, whether they were fresh ensigns or inexperienced lieutenants of the junior grade. But to get a Lieutenant commander… perhaps he wasn’t completely out of favor with command as he thought.

Marsh’s light brown hand reached out to grab Geisler’s offered hand. “Thank you, sir. I haven’t had a chance to explore too much, but what I’ve seen so far looks good.” He chuckled as he released the grip. “Funny how Starfleet has this ability to somehow make all of their ships unique and so very similar at the same time.”

“There are times I wonder if engineers have any sense of style or imagination,” Harvey suggested as he lowered his hand. “Speaking of imagination, you were obviously on your way to sickbay. Are you here to take a look at the inventory situation?”

Shaking his head, Teddy replied, “No actually. Trying to get my onboarding physical out of the way. But it sounds like maybe I should be looking into a supply issue.” He opened the supply requisition database on his PADD. “I don’t see any outstanding requests from Medical. But I’ll make sure to bring it up with the CMO.”

Harvey grunted. “That’s the thing. Most of the medical staff hasn’t arrived yet, and that includes the CMO.” He turned to look at the flustered nurse who was trying to ignore the senior officers. “I think you’ve got time to take a walk with me.”

“Let me guess, the medical staff will arrive on Tuesday?” Teddy offered with a wide, cheesy smile.

“Something like that.” The captain chuckled before gesturing down the corridor. He was rather tired of standing in the doorway anyway. “So tell me, Teddy, what has brought you to Chief Operations? Besides orders, that is.”

“Well, Starfleet was predestined for me. Both of my parents are Starfleet. Both sets of grandparents were Starfleet. All but one of my aunts and uncles are, or were, Starfleet. Uncle Jerry is the lone black sheep; he opted to go into education. Teaches comparative social history at Cambridge.”

Harvey guided their trek down the corridor, not exactly heading anywhere important at the moment. “Sounds like your Uncle Jerry and I have something in common, being the black sheep that is. Well, I suppose that’s not entirely true. Two of my siblings went off the rail, bouncing from prison to black market community. I seem to be the only one who stayed on the straight and narrow.”

Marsh smirked. “Makes for interesting family reunions, I’m guessing. Marsh family gatherings are a lot of Starfleet talk and comparing promotions. Always fun when the cousins play ‘who’s going to make Captain first?’ Especially when you’re always the projected loser.”

The Captain laughed. “It probably would be, assuming that we have reunions. I saw my parents in person more than a year ago, and there’s occasional messages back and forth. But I haven’t spoken to either of my siblings in a few years.”

“That certainly begs the question then,” Harvey asked, returning to the original subject, “how many siblings and cousins do you have in Starfleet? And what would you say about the race to Captaincy? Is that something that’s even on the radar for you?”

“I’ve got the one brother, Joey, and three sisters: Marina, Bex, and Shiloh. All Starfleet.” He took a momentary pause to count members of his extended family. “And there are forty-seven of us first cousins in my generation. Everyone old enough is in Starfleet; the youngest three are planning on applying to the Academy in the coming years though.”

“As far as rank advancement,” Teddy continued, “I don’t care much about it. Unlike some, it seems, I didn’t join Starfleet to command a ship or try to race to flag rank. For me, Starfleet is a job that provides the added bonus of getting to see the galaxy while interacting with all sorts of species. While my family loves talking about whose kid is in line for Captain next or which aunt is on the shortlist for Admiral, I’m perfectly happy just doing my thing. Taking this assignment ended up getting me the promotion to Lieutenant Commander, but that wasn’t why I took the job. Hell, I didn’t even know this gig came with a promotion. You could just as easily have been talking to Lieutenant Marsh had someone in Personnel not checked some box granting me an extra pip.”

Harvey nodded as they followed the curved corridor. On a normal inspection tour, Harvey wouldn’t have had to navigate these corridors as they would naturally lead to the ship’s engineering complex. These were not random facts to Harvey, but rather memories of a previous Black Hawk that surfaced as they were walking and Marsh shared more about his family.

“If exploration is indeed your goal,” Harvey said when Marsh had finished, “then you will certainly find the Gamma Quadrant to be an interesting place. Frontier dynamics, new species, and its own batch of weird, twisted, and unnatural phenomena. How has life in Operations treated you? I know the profession can keep anyone busy, especially the higher up one goes. Has it taken you to all the places in the galaxy you thought it would by now?”

Teddy laughed. “I have managed to not be stuck behind a desk too much. But I don’t know that I’d say it’s taken me to all the places. Jumping to the Gamma Quadrant was a big part of why I took this job. Lots to see here. I was reading mission logs from various ships in the GQ and was fascinated by all of the new species that have been discovered. Starfleet has had some sort of presence in the quadrant for awhile now but we’re still finding new things constantly. I don’t know that the Federation has had this type of ‘frontier experience’ in decades. And we get to be part of it.”

Harvey couldn’t help but smile. “It’s refreshing, you know, to hear someone actually excited about the Gamma Quadrant. Many of us out here enjoy it, at least when we’re not dealing with parasitic lifeforms or other unusual issues. There’s a lot of beauty out here. Just need to get Command to see that once again.”

“If I may be candid,” Marsh said, “there’s scary, unusual shit everywhere. And there’s always some set of people who wade headfirst into it. That’s us.”

The Captain chuckled once more. “That is us indeed. Well, Commander, I have no intention of keeping you from your duties. Do you have any questions for me at this time? Anything you want to know?”

“If I may, Captain,” Teddy said, stopping in the middle of the corridor, “I’d appreciate any advice you’re willing to give about working with you. And anything I should know about the holdover staff.”

Harvey thought for a moment, stopping beside the commander. He turned to face Marsh and said, “Well, there’s not much that were held over from the last ship. Fifty-seven in full I believe, including two members of the senior staff. We had one assistant chief that was promoted to Chief, and that’s Lieutenant Ryler in Science. She’s a bright woman, and I think you’d get along well with her. My wife, Joey, runs our small intelligence department. She mainly keeps to herself, but she’s very insightful.”

The Captain paused before continuing, making sure that he was selecting his words carefully. “That just leaves Lieutenant Commander Di Pasquale, our Chief of Security. It’s no secret she and I have disagreed about how to handle sensitive matters, and it’s largely because she cares very much about the safety of this ship and its crew. The worst thing you can do is stonewall her. Other than that, look for ways to work together. If you show her that you can sympathize, but also that you have a line of your own to toe, the two of you should be able to find a good working relationship.”

“Ryler, Science. Get along well with. Geisler, Intel. Insightful. Di Pasquale, Security. Don’t stonewall, do sympathize,” Marsh paraphrased. “That’s helpful. Thanks. And anything that could ease our, yours and mine, working relationship?”

“I strongly value communication,” Harvey plainly stated. “As long as you keep me abreast of all major activity, and any needs or ideas you may have, that’s all I ask.”

Marsh nodded and smiled. “Sounds easy enough, sir.”

The Captain smiled and offered a nod. “Then I think you and I will get along perfectly, Teddy. As for now, I suppose I should let you get back to settling in. Hopefully, we’ll get a qualified doctor soon, and you can get that physical taken care of.”

"It was great running into you, sir. If you need anything, let me know," he offered. "For now, I'll be in Sickbay if anyone asks."

The Captain nodded once more and added, "Good day, Mister Marsh." He then resumed his trek, this time with a determined destination.

"Teddy," Marsh called out, unsure if Geisler would hear him. "Just call me Teddy."

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