Duty Roster

Posted on 30 Sep 2015 @ 9:26am by Commander C. Kos & Lieutenant Commander Roget del Rosario

895 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Rude Awakening
Location: XO's Office
Timeline: MD 3 || 0815

Mackenzie had returned to the Black Hawk the previous day. She had enjoyed her time on the planet, aside from her emotional breakdown with Harvey, but she had matters to attend to. Including her next meeting. A complaint had been filed against the new security chief, Lieutenant Commander del Rosario, about his reorganization of the security department. Chief Wayerhauser, who Mac had worked with on several occasions, was unhappy that he was assigned to detention. Wayerhauser was a tried and true law enforcement type, including not being a fan of change. As XO, Mac was responsible to address such complaints with the department head involved.

She had arrived to her office 10 minutes ahead of when del Rosario was scheduled to arrive, just enough time to get settled in her small workspace. She got her usual cup of coffee, black, and then sat behind her glass desk. Taking a long sip of her morning caffeine, the door announcer sounded.

The doors opened and Roget stepped into Kos' office. He hadn't yet met the Black Hawk's Executive Officer, and he didn't appreciate their first meeting being about a staff complaint. His knowledge of the redheaded XO was based on both her personnel file and the intelligence file he'd pulled on her. The personnel file was bland. Her intelligence file, on the other hand, was far more interesting. The majority of her intel file was related to her father/ Since Ambassador Kos had long been a prominent figure in the interstellar arena, he, and his family, were subjects of special interest to Starfleet Intelligence.

"Commander," he stated plainly. He tended to take brevity to an extreme minimalist point.

Mackenzie looked at the man who now stood before her. This was her first time meeting the new Security Chief but she had reviewed his personnel file thoroughly before scheduling this meeting. "Thirteen complaints. On your first day. You are not making many friends here," she began.

Making friends is not part of my job, Commander, he thought. "Many people struggle with change."

"Yes," she replied, eyeing the older man. Looking at del Rosario's face gave Kos the feeling that he had lived a hard life. The deeply drawn wrinkles in his leathery looking skin aged him significantly. "Only one of the complaints was filed with a name. Chief Wayerhauser believes..."

"I don't care what Wayerhauser thinks," he began, cutting off the redheaded XO.

Mac rose from her chair at the interruption. "I was not finished Mister."

He was taken aback by Kos' demeanor. Her files indicated that she tended to be calm and rarely resorted to brash or bullish behavior, except when she was under extreme stress. "It hardly seems worth my time and yours to tell me something I already know. I know that you--"

"You don't know me at all. Don't assume otherwise." She lowered herself back into her chair. "Chief Wayerhauser believes that your restructuring of the Security department is a bad idea. He contends that you have, in fact, made the ship less safe, by forcing the Security staff to switch roles, roles which, according to the Chief at least, are unwanted changes. He's worried that morale is now lower and that that will lower department cohesiveness and effectiveness." She looked directly into del Rosario's cold eyes. "Response?"

"If that is the result, than the issue lays with a crew too inflexible to adjust to a new system rather than the system itself." He could see that Kos did not like that answer. "You've been a department head before, Commander. When you became Chief Engineer on the Susquehanna, did you make any changes, or did the department continue as it had prior to your re-assignment? Of course it changed. The system in placed when you got there was not your system. As senior officers, we are tasked with managing a sizable team. The best management technique rely on some form of structure, a system. Managers tend to formulate their own system, largely based on their own experiences, and then apply that to whatever team they manage. You do it. The Captain does it. I do it." He looked Kos in the eyes. "If I don't have the ability to manage my department as I see fit, that would be a problem."

"Do we have a problem?"

She couldn't believe the arrogance of the Black Hawk's new Security Chief. Her anger at the man was boiling over, but rather than blow, she took a moment to compose herself. "Mister del Rosario, as long as I am the Executive Officer on this ship, you will watch your tone around me. You work for me." She touched a control on her desk. "I've attached these complaints to your personnel file. Get out."

As he left the office, Roget thought about how he took issue with her claim that he worked for her. His loyalty was to Starfleet Command and his Commanding Officers. Kos ranked very low on his list of seniority, especially when compared to many of his former COs who now worked at Starfleet Headquarters.

Once the doors closed behind the newest, and most unpleasant, member of the senior staff, she tapped her comm badge. "Kos to Walsh. My meeting is over. Want to join me back on the surface? I've still got the room."

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