The Hyper Assistant

Posted on 26 Feb 2016 @ 7:20am by Lieutenant JG Catherine Cooper & Lieutenant Commander Camila Di Pasquale
Edited on on 26 Feb 2016 @ 7:44am

2,553 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Outbreak
Location: Security Office
Timeline: MD 1 0900 Hours

Camila sat in her new office adjusting the seat since the former Chief was much taller than she was and finally sighed as it relented and lowered before she had to take a phaser to it. With that taken care of, she sat down and made herself comfortable before she pulled up the duty roster and began to go over it. "I really need an assistant to handle this stuff," she said out loud before she started to go over the list of qualified personnel.

Ten minutes later, an item of interest caught her attention on the file of Lieutenant JG Catherine Cooper - the Security officer was SAR trained and Camila had been looking for more officers to train in that. She smiled and tapped her combadge =^= Lieutenant Di Pasquale to Lieutenant Cooper. Please report to the office of the ...my office.=^=

[Armory]

CJ looks up from the partly dismembered type two phaser, sighs and answers, =/\="Understood. Cooper Out." Quickly she reassembled the weapon, "Later my sweet and purring you shall be..." She carefully put the weapon away and clean up her tools before heading out.

[Security Office]

She tapped the door chime on the Security Chief's Office, then looked at it oddly when it went off. She couldn't quite place the tune but it didn't sound good. Her new Chief did have an interesting sense of humor.

"Enter," Camila called out, pleased when she heard her new door chime activate. She gave her desk a once over and decided she needed to give it more appeal but it would have to suffice for the time being.

Cooper entered and put her hands behind her back, mostly because she never seemed to know what to do with her hands. "Reporting as Ordered Chief." She asked curious what it was. It was quiet and she'd been happily tinkering in the armory, so really had no idea what this was about. She mentally shrugged it off. She'd find out soon enough.

"Have a seat, Lieutenant," Camila said as she got up to go to the replicator. "Would you care for something to drink?"

CJ sat, "Coffee is always good..." So says the person trying not to tap her foot.

Since cream and sugar wasn't specified, Camila ordered a regular black coffee and turned to hand it to the woman. "Tell me a little about yourself, Cooper," she said as she sat down again. "And not the stuff that's in your file."

She sipped the black coffee. Strong enough peel paint or use a degreaser, just the way she liked it. Nothing like a multi-useful drink. Her eyebrows raised briefly. "Everything relevant is in my file and anything else is covered by the Seventh Guarantee". She quipped. The Seventh Guarantee was the right of all Federation citizens not to self-incriminate. "Seriously though that's a tall order, your going to have to give some perimeters." She said with a small smile.

"Do you like to dance while covered in the blood of your enemies?" Camila asked. "Stuff like that."

CJ smile grows broader, "Well I tried that but it took forever in the shower to get it out of my hair so I've had forgo the blood but dancing works as well as rock climbing, some sports, sailing, camping, taking bad guys on long walks off short piers. A bit of this and that." She finally responded. Curious where this was going.

Camila laughed. "And that is what I was looking for, Lieutenant," she said. "I see we share a very similar outlook and background training. Your SAR experience is going to be very useful because the Captain has allowed me to begin assembling a group of recruits for SAR training. So far, I only have one and a potential that I'm leery of, but I'm certain that with two of us recruiting among the crew, we should have better luck. However, I need to do something before I can release you from your current duties to do that."

"That sounds great though it may be rough to replicate some of the training in a holodeck." To be honest it was over a year of some of the toughest training that existed in Starfleet. The Combat Water Survival alone was six weeks of instructors trying to drown you. No really...up to a point.A typical day of this course would start getting up and running at 0530 and then swimming 1-4 mines, followed by what can be described as near drowning experiences. Buddy breathing with a snorkel under constant harassment by instructors(called 'Sharking') and the 'Object Retrievals' (retrieving items such as phaser rifles, equipment canisters, weights, etc) follows shortly thereafter. The object is to create calm where terror of drowning once existed. This phase is responsible for almost half the attrition of a class, although the Indoctrination course is responsible for the majority of drops. It was not a pleasant time but Cooper could never resist a challenge and so jumped at the chance to qualify. The problem was the sheer about of time and resources it took to qualify a SAR member. She wondered if the CO knew what he was getting his people into.

Cooper continued, "Do what Chief?" she asked curiously and cautiously.

"I'm well aware of the challenges involved, Lieutenant," Camila said. "I went through the course fresh out of the Academy. The thing that I need to do is make you my Assistant Chief. Do you think you're up for the job?" she asked her.

"Always, Chief. Does the skipper what he's unleashing on this poor unsuspecting crew?" She said grinning.
She replied confidently.

"He promoted me to this position while I was dressed like a violin playing pirate, Cooper," Camila said. "I think he wants people like us protecting the ship."

CJ laughed out loud, "I heard about that, classic. She grew serious though her eyes still sparkled, "Fair enough then I am happy to help." She looks thoughtful for a minute then continues, "Though I'm putting in for changing our dress uniforms for ship events as pirate garb. Do we get a unit patch? Can it involve a skull and cross bones?" The artist part of her mind already drawing designs in her head even as another part started plotting evil, evil training scenarios.

Camila laughed. "I don't think he'd let it go that far," she said. "I like you, Cooper. You've got what this ship needs right now and what this department needs. There's going to be a lot of changes taking place in Security very soon and I have a list of things that I want to implement so we don't have the same kinds of problems again." She looked around on her desk and handed her new Assistant a PADD. "Everything is on this, so aside from maintaining the duty roster, I'm going to need your help getting this set up."

She nodded her thanks, "Can do Chief." She replied with her personal motto. "I can review this and get a prelim report to you by tomorrow if that works? Shame about the patch though...". She often found some of her best ideas weren't permitted alas that is the way of it. She looked down at the PADD in her hand and gave a short bark of laughter, "Sorry, sorry this is serious but loving the Karma of the brig transport. These seems prudent considering what I heard happened here.." She said seriously. She was fairly new and so missed some of the initial craziness with the consortium.

"That's why I want them instituted immediately," Camila said as she turned her attention to her console for a moment. "Okay, you're clearance and data access levels are changed. Be sure to rotate your authorization code at random. Currently, I have teams of two Security officers at a time patrolling the ship with orders that they aren't to be separated without notifying me, but I'll add you to that list. I'm also monitoring subspace frequencies for anything unusual. Do you have any further ideas you'd like to add?"

"One immediately comes to mind, we instituted it to good effect at my last posting. Called them 'batman belts' I'm not sure why but one of the history buffs said some justice person who wore a mask had this all purpose belt in the past and so it stuck. Anyway not important, I had this thought that when things go wrong they don't usually wait for you to grab the equipment you need but its also not possible to carry everything you need for every possibility so I had this idea of a light weight belt that could carry a basic survival kit. It included a type two phaser, a small slug thrower for if there was an energy dampening field which was worn in the boot or on the belt, an emergency breathing mask, one flash/bang, a door opener in case of no power, a general multitool, a couple of transport transponders in a pouch, tricorder and pair of handcuffs but we can modify it as needed. We were working on a modifying something you could attach to shoes that was tiny so one could keep their feet in case of zero g but weren't able to get that done before I left." She said efficiently. As joking as she was as a rule it didn't mean she wasn't good at her job. Often she could be underestimated by those who didn't know better. She smiled a little and shrugged, "Things like this happen when I'm left alone in my own head..." she was getting more excited as she talked, the idea coming fully formed.

"Slow down, Cooper," Camila said. "Breathe before you pass out from lack of oxygen. You have some good ideas. I'll write them up and submit them for approval and we'll see what flies and what gets put out the airlock. I like your ideas."

Cooper grinned a little sheepishly she did tend to run off with things if she wasn't careful, "I'll add it to my report for tomorrow. Looking forward to working with you Chief." she said standing and putting her empty coffee cup down.

"Remind me to not give you regular coffee from now on, too," Camila said with a smile as she came to her feet. "It makes you hyper."

"I don't think its kicked in yet..." Ciege Engine, so nicknamed for her stubborn 'overtake all' personality, replied with another ready smile.

"Sweet baby Klingon!" Camila gasped. "This is you naturally?"

"I've learned to slow down some since it weirds people out." She replied her face dead pan, her eyes still sparkling with humor at her Chief's reply. "Truth is I get excited about an idea and my mind starts whirring and my body wants to keep in step. I get some of my best ideas rock climbing or running to be honest. I learned juggling so I could pace and think faster...no trust me it makes sense to me."

"I like to go running, swimming, mountain climbing, orbital skydiving, do Jiu Jitsu and parkour," Camila said. "But when I do those things, I'm usually only thinking about those things. My creativity comes out when I'm playing violin. Still, I think that you being quick on your mental toes is going to be very good in emergencies as long as the other personnel can catch what you're saying. I may ask Operations to add an additional translator for Cooper speech," she laughed.

CJ nodded, "And here I thought I gotten better at not using my personal slang." She had personal slang, if she got off on a path using it, it could make things even more weird. Like 'I have a cat on my lap' a long story that boils down to, 'I can't help you just now I can't/don't want to get up'. She continued, "I love all of that but I could be focusing on it and ideas will just pop into my head. Good ones too once I have time to think it over, you know like when I'm not plummeting at the ground at over 100 miles an hour. I think I have helpful idea fairies." She joked, "We should do something sometime if you'd be open to it Chief, not everyone likes orbital skydiving so its hard to find a repel buddy." She said completely unaware she manage to jump into two conversations at once. It makes sense to her.

"It's not your slang," Camila said. "It's the speed at which you speak. I thought I was quick on my toes, but you're here running circles around me." She laughed again. "Idea fairies, huh? I think that I'd like to go orbital skydiving with you sometime. It would definitely make for an interesting trip, but I can't guarantee that I'd be able to keep up the stream of conscious that you seem to have going for you. Maybe I should put in for some idea fairies, too."

"I'll try to slow down Chief." Said in the tone of one who would try but couldn't promise they can deliver. She'd always been this way, her parents learn ways to help focus her. Slow her down enough so she could interact normally. They really helped her sense of observation. She took in everything but couldn't always analyze it. They helped her to understand and interpret clues in ones surroundings. Which was one of the reasons crime scenes interested her if one could interpret the sheer amount of data they generated they were gold mines of intel. She actually has mellowed with age but if she got excited about something well old habits and all that. "Just let me know when I'm going overboard. Idea fairies are great just make sure to leave offerings of broken pencils to keep them happy." She grinned again, "And sure anytime, if its physical I'm into though can't say I've tried Parkour..." she seemed a bit puzzled by it.

"I will," Camila said as she laughed at the broken pencils for the idea fairies. "Are you sure you don't have an M5 computer embedded in your brain or isolinear circuits? She asked, only half joking. "As for Parkour, it's very demanding mentally and physically. If you're good with spatial geometry and the position of your body to an object and how you can use it, it would be good for you."

Her glittering with 'oooh challenge' she came to attention and bowed formally, one fist in another in front of her as she bowed in the formal martial art style. "You must teach me this Parkour, Sensei."

Camila nodded with an evil gleam in her eyes and returned the bow. "Patience, Grasshopper and all will be revealed. If there's nothing else, I believe you have your work cut out for you."

"I'm on it Chief..." With a grin she took her leave. Really pleased with how the meeting went. She really thought she could work well with this one. That was half the battle, instead of dealing with personality issues they could focus their energies on the actual work at had. Her mind whirling with ideas, she tapped furiously on the PADD even as she deftly dodged other personnel, her internal situational awareness sensor working fine.

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