Posted by Lieutenant Commander Ciaran Donoghuei (Acting Commanding Officer) in Side Sim - Job Shadowing (Tag Ciaran)

Paku bounced on the balls of his feet, trying not to wiggle too much as he waited. The other students chattered and talked while they waited for their mentors to arrive. Paku was very excited because he got to shadow the coolest person of all of them. The First Officer. His Ig’ta was the coolest person on the ship, but they weren’t participating in the job shadowing. … Probably because a lot of the kids in class were icked out by bees and ants and other weird bugs. Paku twisted a bit of his shirt, fiddling with it.

“Quiet down, students. Our volunteers are here now. Use the picture on your Padd to find your adult.”

The door opened, and several uniformed Starfleet Officers filed into the classroom.

Paku, Middleschooler

OOC: Now I know why i’m AWOL. My post didn’t save. Sorry.

When Ciaran arrived at the classroom, he looked around. He saw a number of children and he was nervous. He was never the best with children. He always felt nervous and did not know how to act around them. He was always worried he would say or do something incorrectly. This was as good as a time to test his skills. He had not had children of his own so he was not use to being around him. He was way better with machines than he was people, especially children. He waited to be introduced and provided a child to show around.

Lt. Cmdr. Donoghuei
Executive Officer

Paku’s hands flapped excitedly for a moment before he clasped them behind his back in imitation of the very important adults. The teacher introduced each adult, calling their assigned student over, and finally reached the First Officer. “Lt. Commander Donoghuei, you’ve been paired up with Paku. Paku, come greet your mentor.”

Paku scampered over. He was a small child, about two thirds the height of the other children in his age group. If Ciaran had seen his parent around, he’d know that was natural for his species. Pak looked up at the man with a starstruck expression on his face, big brown eyes wide in wonderment. “I am honoured to meet you, SIR!” He exclaimed, attempting to salute. It was a little messy, but he got the point across.

Paku, Middleschooler

Ciaran looked down at the very small middle schooler. He expected someone taller but he took a moment and noticed this was indeed not a human. He kneed down to Paku and stuck out his hand and said, “Hi Paku. I am Ciaran. It is nice to meet you. I look forward to getting to know you and show you around.”

Lt. Cmdr. Donoghuei
Executive Officer

Paku enthusiastically shook Ciaran’s hand, holding on for a little longer than was polite, and only stopping and pulling his hand back when the teacher cleared her throat. When he pulled his hand away, he left Ciaran’s palm a little damp. He was nearly vibrating with excitement, and it looked like the smallest thing might send him bouncing up the walls. “Nice. to. Meet. you. Ciaran.” He finally managed, enunciating the words carefully while he looked at the man. He had SO MANY QUESTIONs. He took a deep breath as though he was about to speak, then stopped before saying anything more. No. Teacher said to be polite. Igta said to be respectful. Kota said he could ask questions, but only one at a time so his mentor could actually answer the questions! He thought of his older sister and took another deep breath, this one to steady himself. He was gonna learn so much.

Ensign Tak
Science Officer USS Ark Angel

Ciaran looked down at the young child and noticed he was shaking. He assumed the child was excited and nervous. He then responded to the child, “Are you excited or nervous? No need to be nervous. You can ask me any question you would like. I will try and answer the best I can without providing any classified data. The first place we will be going will be engineering, as that is my most comfortable location. How does that sound to you?” He waited for Paku to answer the question.

Lt. Cmdr. Donoghuei
Executive Officer

“EXCITED!” Paku exclaimed, bouncing onto his heels for a moment. He slapped his hand to his mouth and gasped. “Sorry. I’m very excited. My Igta, Tak, has told me so much about you. And all the other officers. I have so many questions!!” He informed Ciaran as they left the classroom, scampering after the man and doing his best to keep up with the longer strides… not really noticing that Ciaran was already walking slower than what his normal pace would be. “How long have you been on the Ark Angel? Have you been in any cool space battles? What’s the weirdest alien you’ve ever met?” He cut himself off before asking any more questions, remembering his sister’s advice. One question at a time. Three should be ok though.

Paku, Middleschooler

OOC: Sorry for the delay in this but it should help with some side simming till get a new GM to help move a story forward.

Ciaran laughed at the young child. He could see the excitement flowing through young Paku. Ciaran had to stop for a minute to remember the questions and try to answer them the best he could remember. His ADHD got in the way of remembering things. He then responded to Paku, “I have not been on the Ark Angel. very long. I would say a week or so. I’m just getting in the ropes of things being the XO here. I was on the USS Memorial for a short time but the opportunity to server on the Ark Angel came about and I requested the transfer.”

Paku had the BIGGEST look of amazement on his face, but held his tongue, waiting until Ciaran was finished talking before saying anything.

Ciaran then stopped for a moment to gather his thoughts and answer the next question, “Being the person I am, I do not believe any one race or create is any different an another so I would not say I have a weirdest alien meeting because of the way I like to think.” Ciaran then remembered this was really the third question and tried to remember the second question.

It took a moment but then he remembered the question. He then answered Paku, “I would not say space battles are cool. Unfortunately, everyone involved in the battles have the potential to lose lives so its not really a matter of being cool or not. It is part of our duty in Star-fleet to protect Star-fleet’s planets and residents and having to do this via a battle is the last resort.” Ciaran then smiled because he was actually able to remember all the questions and have a decent response for them all.

He then asked Paku, “Paku, if there was one place on the ship you wanted to go but you have never gone to before, where would it be?” Deep down, Ciaran was hoping it was engineering, because this was Ciaran’s bread and butter, but it could be anywhere. Being an executive officer would allow him to talk through most everywhere but Ciaran could do way more in depth in engineering. He waited for Paku to respond.

Lt. Cmdr. Donoghuei
Acting Commanding Officer

“WE were on the Memorial!” Paku blurted out when Ciaran finished answering all his questions, jumping in place briefly. “Did you see us there? Igta said we moved to this ship cause it was safer for them. The Memorial was in some cool space battles. I had to be in the safe parts of the ship though so I didn’t get to watch.” The question directed back at Paku made the small child consider for a few moments. There were so many options!!! He held his breath, thinking it would make the decision easier, but it didn’t really. Paku could hold his breath for a while though, as an aquatic being, and despite his small size and young age, managed to hold his breath long enough to possibly elicit a little worry in his mentor before finally blurting out, “Warp Core!”

Ensign Tak
Science Officer USS Ark Angel

Ciaran laughed. He could not believe that Paku wanted to go to engineering. Ciaran then said to Paku, “We can go there. That is my bread and butter” Ciaran then remembered that Paku might not understand that since this was an old Earth saying.

Lt. Cmdr. Donoghuei
Acting Commanding Officer

[bump]

Lt. Cmdr. Donoghuei
Acting Commanding Officer

Paku hopped up and down a few times before beginning to run towards the Turbolift. He only got a few steps before he remembered he wasn’t supposed to run, so he stopped and began to walk at a more reasonable pace.

Ensign Tak
Science Officer USS Ark Angel