Posted by Cadet Satyol Kastyi (Scientist) in Science Dept - Cadet Satyol Reporting to Department Head

Posted by Lieutenant Garth (Chief Science Officer) in Science Dept - Cadet Satyol Reporting to Department Head

Posted by Cadet Satyol Kastyi (Scientist) in Science Dept - Cadet Satyol Reporting to Department Head
Posted by… suppressed (12) by the Post Ghost! 👻
SNIP

From the same speaker as the computer’s voice had come, Garth’s baritone rumbling emerged. “Greetings, cadet. Congratulations, you have arrived on the Challenger for your cadet cruise prior to graduating from Starfleet Academy.” His voice was deadpan and unnatural, having obviously read off of a script for this recording. Garth himself sat with his arms crossed and head tilted, listening as his past-self continued.

“The Challenger is a Discovery-class vessel outfitted with a plethora of specialized labs, including areas designated for the study of astrometrics, geophysics, stellar cartography, biochemisty, bioscience, genetics, microbiology, and botany. The lab you are currently standing in is my lab, do not touch anything unless instructed.” Garth pointed up at the ceiling to emphasize that point from his disembodied voice.

“As a member of the Challenger’s crew, you will be expected to perform the duties of a standard Starfleet officer. This includes assisting with ship-wide crises, collaborating with an interdisciplinary team including medical, engineering, and security officers, and contributing to the mission of the Challenger as stated by its captain.”

An audible sigh echoed from the recording. “And this is the part where I remind myself to ask cadets what they want their personal project to be.”

Garth snapped his attention back to the cadet in front of him. “So? Thoughts?” His small eyes narrowed further.

(Lt. Garth, CSO)

Well. He hadn’t ever been greeted by a message while the person alleged to be delivering the greeting was right in front of him before. That much was new. Still, the best officers learned to ‘roll with it,’ instead of arguing.

Still at attention, Kast replied directly and briefly.

“Sir. Thank you for the summary. If I am to submit a personal project, I would like to perform a sociological study. The study would track self-reported career satisfaction ratings among the crew, with an eye toward comparing the reported levels from various cultures, the different career specialty tracks, and possibly other variables if they become relevant.”

It helped that he’d been mulling this idea over in his head for a few weeks before the cruise. Sociology as a discipline relied a great deal on personal intuitions to come up with testing parameters, after all. His course advisor had therefore encouraged him to mull over random ideas as often as possible.

Maybe it would work out in this case.

(Cadet Satyol Kasty, Scientist)

Garth scowled, then waved a hand in the air dismissively. “All in due time, Cadet. I’m asking you for your opinion on the cadet greeting program you just heard. You’re the first to witness it, so you should be flattered. I assumed your sociology experience would be helpful in determining if it achieved the intended effect. Was I wrong?” The Chief Science Officer raised a bushy triangular eyebrow.

(Lt. Garth, CSO)

OOC: I see that you’ve experimented with snipping already! Snipping is one of the more complicated parts about the STF system/site, to be honest. You don’t want to snip too often, but you also don’t want to snip too little. Usually, I snip threads down to 6 posts. In a main sim, when snipping a thread you should make sure each character has at least one post still in the thread after the snip. In this case, you snipped a little bit early, because I scrolled up to see if your character had introduced themself by name in the first post and it wasn’t there! You want to keep the immediate context available for other writers so they can remind themselves what happened recently.

Another note with snipping is to delete the “Posted by” line that’s at the top of the thread with the corresponding > symbols. I’ve demonstrated this with your snip. We’ll revisit snipping once the thread is a little bit longer so you can get more practice, don’t worry!

Ben

OOC: Copy that, thank you for the clarifications.

IC:

The Cadet listened to the explanation, then shook his head. “No sir, you were not. I simply failed to request clarification. The cadet believes that on its own, it will likely be an inefficient solution, as regulations require reporting to a Department Head in person, barring specific circumstance such as Department Head not being present, or the ship being in immediate crisis. Sociologically, generalized messages are better for briefing guidelines after a face-to-face meeting, as they reinforce the interpersonal contact rather than replacing them. Sir.”

Being challenged on his knowledge set right on arrival before even his records were reviewed. That was something he was relatively familiar with, and perversely he found the implied conflict rather comforting. He was used to navigating waters where his abilities were up for question.

(Cadet Satyol Kastyi, Scientist)

Garth pursed his lips in dismay. “Alright, but what if that message played while I was in the room, just working on another project? After all, I usually just recite that script to new cadets anyways, why does it matter that I do it in real-time, as opposed to a recording? It’s a waste of my time to do it myself every time.”

The tellarite was a difficult person to read. It was not immediately clear if he was genuinely defending the idea or purposefully creating a conundrum for the new cadet to address. Perhaps both. The stout man crossed his arms.

(Lt. Garth, CSO)

OOC: Sorry for the delay! I see that you’ve jumped into a side sim, which is great! Many side-sims can happen in tandem, as their place in the timeline is lax. Feel free to participate in or even create any side-sims you’d like! I will work on incorporating you into the main sim shortly!

Side sims usually consist of the “B-plot” of Star Trek episodes, typically focused on character development and relationship-building between crew members. Common side sims include mess hall meals, holodeck adventures, duty shifts with other department members, etc. Of course you can make side-sims exciting, but generally you don’t want to endanger the ship as a whole or cause a permanent change to the writing environment, as that’s for the main sims.

Side sims also don’t have a GM (game master) like main sims do. In this case, usually the person who started the thread is the GM of sorts, but GM responsibilities are often shared between writers if that indication is given. In this thread, for example, I am acting like the GM of sorts, but if you would like to introduce a narrative device you’re more than welcome to! I hope all of that makes sense.... if not just let me know and I’ll try to be more clear lol

Ben

The Caitian’s tail flicked a bit, perhaps unconsciously, as he tried thinking through the Lieutenant’s reply.
“At the risk of being impertinent, this cadet would ask if you don’t have the time to speak to your charges, then why did you accept promotion to Department Head on an Academy ship, which is specifically about managing people and introducing cadets to their duties as Starfleet officers, sir?”
Kast said it as politely as he could. It was indeed phrased as an inquiry, not an attack, but such questions always had a certain level of incredulity to them. He’d just have to hope the Tellarite respected bluntness in his students as much as he valued it for himself.

(Cadet Satyol, Scientist)

Garth stared at Satyol for a couple long seconds. Then he threw his hands up in the air in exasperation, sighing dramatically. “I ask myself that same question almost every day, Cadet,” he grumbled. He gestured to the lab around them with a stubby-fingered hand. “The Challenger may be an Academy ship, but it’s also a fully functioning vessel in the fleet. We still conduct important research, support citizens of the Federation, and provide military backup when needed. So expecting efficiency and self-sufficiency is an introduction to a cadet’s duties as a Starfleet officer.”

“As for ‘speaking to my charges’,” Garth said with a grunt of amusement, “I’m speaking with you now, aren’t I? About more important things than the trivial introductory information the recording played earlier.” The scientist looked mighty happy with himself, feeling as if he had countered Satyol’s observation successfully.

(Lt. Garth, CSO)

OOC: I’m loving this interaction! I’m sorry if Garth seems a little gruff, that’s just his character! I like to think I’m a lot more friendly. The thread is starting to get a bit longer now, so go ahead and try your hand at snipping again! Just the first post would be great!

Ben

“You make a very good point sir.” Kast nodded, unperturbed. It seemed like he was treating this as an exercise, a problem to be solved. “Might I suggest a compromise? Delegate the immediate on-boarding responsibilities to a senior cadet, so they have the sense that their arrival is at least worth a personal greeting. Have the cadet relay a polished up version of your greeting message as part of the onboarding, then when you need to speak to them directly as part of duties and assignments, you may do so?”
Complaints needed to be accompanied by solutions, he’d been taught. Even if the proposed one didn’t work, it might lead to a discussion of what would, after all.

(Cadet Satyol, Scientist)

OOC - Oh no, I’m loving it. Kast is used to dealing with crochety folk, and tries to simply work around it. I figure it’s part of having learned Judo - yield in order to redirect, instead of getting offended.

(small bump)

Garth paused and ran a hand down his scraggly beard in thought. “An interesting idea, cadet. Delegating the task to a cadet seems to be a fine solution indeed. Maybe that cadet will be you.” It was not clear if Garth was joking or being serious, but he moved on before his intentions could be clarified.

“Alright then, tell me about this idea of yours again for your project, I’ve already forgotten. Something about job satisfaction right?” The tellarite snorted out a laugh. “That should have some intriguing results.”

(Lt. Garth, CSO)

OOC: Apologies again for the delay! I was moving this weekend so I’ve been very busy in real life! I see that you put a bump in this thread and although I appreciate the enthusiasm to continue (and I share it!) bumping should only be done to keep the post thread from slipping off the front page of the ship, which means that you should only bump a thread after 6 days have passed since the last post, as threads shift off of the main page after a week. If you are wanting to check in on someone that you’ve been posting with who usually posts faster than they have been recently, you can always chat with them on Discord! But STF is very much a marathon, not a sprint, and unfortunately sometimes people have real life commitments that come up that keep them from posting for a couple days. Although it sounds liek a long time, giving people a week before bumping a thread is a good amount of time to accommodate for real life circumstances.

Ben

“Of course sir. In short, I want to do a survey process. Write up a survey asking various crew members what their assigned department upon Academy graduation was, whether they remained in that department, how long they remained, how long before they changed if they did so, and their self-reported job satisfaction in their current position, with a supplementary question of difference in job satisfaction levels before and after position transfer. This data would then be compared against Starfleet records for age, gender, species, and starfleet performance reports, then used to provide raw data for statistical models. My hypothesis is that there will be a positive correlation between job satisfaction and quality of performance standards, with a subsidiary hypothesis that this will trend true regardless of other demographic factors.”

He was enthusiastic, and thorough. He had a grounding in the scientific method, and had at least a basic understanding of controlling for variables given the parameters he was expressing. Further, the survey had been chosen specifically to rely on extant data as much as possible, with a very simple data gathering method to include the new factor he wanted analyzed.

Cadet Satyol, Scientist

OOC: Apologies for the overenthusiasm. I’m still getting used to the format, and I thought the thread HAD dropped off, at least I didn’t see it. That might have been an issue of not understanding the UI properly just yet. I will keep to the week rule in the future.

Garth nodded along, but Saryol might catch the darting of the tellarite’s eyes back and forth, a hint that this was not Garth’s specialty and his brain was working a little harder than usual to keep up. “Alright…” he said eventually, “I’m glad you have a hypothesis, that’s a first step. But why this specific project? What applications does it have? What are the consequences if your hypothesis is proven or disproven?”

“Basically,” Garth huffed with another recrossing of his arms, “why is this project worth your time?” Of course Garth was blunt as always, but there was a hint of suspicion in his tone as well, and it was clear this was a conversation between a astrophysicist who considered himself a “hard science” researcher and a subordinate whose field he considered to be “soft science”.

(Lt. Garth, CSO)

OOC: No worries at all! I haven’t been the best about posting recently, it’s true. I will hopefully get back into the swing of it in the near future! Also, for the record, I have a psychology bachelors and a “soft science” masters degree, so Garth’s thoughts are entirely his own! But a little bit of interpersonal conflict is always fun, so I hope you don’t mind that he’s being a bit challenging!

Ben

“Simply put sir, it’s worth my time because it’s data gathering. I don’t know enough about the field, and don’t have enough of a reputation, to warrant a more complex project like the Obedience experiment or the Stanford Prison experiment. However, all of the sciences can benefit from additional data. And to be frank, Starfleet’s mission has always involved meeting people and helping them reach solutions to their problems. This kind of data, collected regularly, helps Starfleet do that, and I’m happy to carry it out.”

He didn’t get angry, he seemed to accept the challenge to his proposal as if it were expected. Trying to become a religious scholar had been the same way. At least here he was assumed to belong, so this was a walk in the park by comparison.

Cadet Satyol, Scientist

OOC: Conflict is just fine by me. He’s not dismissing it out of hand, he’s taking the pedagogical role of challenging the merit of it, making the Cadet think beyond book learning. In any military or paramilitary environment, there’s always someone going “why are we using our resources on that?” Doubly so when the resources are split between defense and research, like STarfleet does. Kast will need to get used to defending his position if he’s going to propose scientific endeavours in Starfleet, after all.

Garth’s face cycled through a few different emotions in the span of a couple seconds, eventually settling on restrained excitement. “Experimentation… now you’re speaking my language, Cadet.” As if reminded that he was supposed to be minding his own projects, Garth hobbled over to a serious of test tubes and beakers, adjusting hot plates and adding small doses of other chemicals to the bubbling solutions. He turned back to Satyol after a moment. “You won’t learn more about the field until you properly apply yourself. And you won’t have a reputation until you have a reason to. If you’re married to this idea of… data collection,” he said with a hint of disdain, “then by all means your project is approved. But, if you want to be on the cutting edge of science and further our understanding of the galaxy… I highly suggest that you consider an experiment of some kind.”

“However,” Garth continued with a side-long look at the cadet, “of course you would have to get it approved by the Starfleet Academy IRB. Social experiments like the ones you describe can be extremely unethical if done incorrectly… like the Stanford Prison experiment you mentioned.”

(Lt. Garth, CSO)

OOC: I’m glad to hear we’re on the same page! I don’t mean to state the obvious or anything, I’ve just found that OOC communication is very important in STF, especially when there is IC conflict between two characters (and I know this isn’t even really a conflict, just a discussion). On that note, STF is a collaborative effort OOC first and foremost. So in this example, IC Garth is suggesting IC Satyol do something ambitious. But OOC, I want you to do whatever your character would want to do! Feel free to shoot down that idea, there’s no harm in that! My OOC expectations are simply that you have fun!

Ben

Kast had to stop and think for a few moments at that reply. He hadn’t expected to be told to design an actual experiment. His tail flicked as he thought through the implications there. He was just a Cadet, after all.

But his superior was giving him a suggestion and seemed to want an answer.

“Well sir, I see what you mean. I’m afraid I don’t have an actual experiment designed just yet. May I take a few days while I settle in and put an idea together, and bring it back to you for advice?”

If his boss was going to propose he be ambitious, he’d certainly try to be ambitious.

Cadet Satyol, Scientist

Garth waved a hand dismissively. “Of course, I wouldn’t want you to purpose a idea that you haven’t thought through. Whatever you decide upon will be of great importance to your prospects of graduating, after all.” Garth said this as if it was an off-handed remark, perhaps a warning but not a threatening one. “Feel free to consult with NEnsign Selik if you want another perspective before you present your finalized proposal to me.” Garth pointed a stubby finger over Satyol’s shoulder, where the door to the main science lab opened to reveal a young vulcan man. He inclined his head in greeting to the cadet.

OOC: Welcome back! We’re wrapping this thread up now, I just wanted to do my due diligence and introduce you formally to “NEs” or “nameless ensigns”. NEs are the classic Star Trek “red shirts” who are more or less background characters. However, each NE often still has their own personality, and people often have reoccurring NEs that they use (such as NE Selik, who is Garth’s assistant). As such, whoever introduces an NE still writes and controls them, as they are the creation of that writer. NEs can be great for playing supporting roles, but be careful not to use them unnecessarily! They can sometimes clutter threads where there are already a lot of main characters or where another player’s character could play the part instead!

Ben