Posted by Captain Sara Kiernan (Commanding Officer) in Deck 6 - Captain’s Dining Room

Posted by Commander Shara Calloway (Executive Officer) in Deck 6 - Captain’s Dining Room

Posted by Captain Sara Kiernan (Commanding Officer) in Deck 6 - Captain’s Dining Room
Posted by… suppressed (9) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Shara chuckled. “It’s called life balance, Sara,” she teased. “It sucks doesn’t it? And I’m not going to pretend that I’m at all good at it either. But I’m leanring, and you will too.”

“Life balance? That’s news to me.” Sara laughed.

She looked at the remnants of their lunch and then studied her friend. “We should do this once a week- both for a break but also to touch base in a way that isn’t just another standard meeting with reports.”

~Shara Calloway, XO

“You’re right, we should do this more often. Consider yourself invited in for another meal in a week.” Sara thought for a second about how lucky she was to have Shara as her XO. “It’s been nice to have some company for once.

-CO

“Agreed,” Shara said with a wide smile. “Especially as your roving XO with no formal office, I find myself in unexpected places to get a bit of quiet work done. If I’m not careful, I’ll go back to my covert ways,” she added, a gleam appearing in her foggy blue eyes. She of course had a secured office set-up in her and Micah’s quarters, but that meant she was hiding away. It was a bit contrary to the demeanour of the approaching first officer she was trying to cultivate.

~Shara Calloway, XO

“That’s such a strange oversight from the designers of the ship.” Sara chuckled. “They had to know the ship would have an XO. Then again I can’t really talk, I didn’t catch on your office was missing until you told me.”

-CO

Shara chuckled. “Ahh, it’s fine. I don’t mind all that much. We have meeting spaces and I have my quarters. Micah and I have a secure set-up so we can both do classified work without getting in each other’s way. And to be honest, it’s probably for the best. It forces me to move about the ship and I tend to roam and visit with the departments when I’m not on the bridge.”

~Shara Calloway, XO

Bump

“When you take my job, at least you know there’s an office for you then.” Often Sara wondered if Shara wouldn’t be a better Commander for this ship and its crew. Especially in its new intelligence oriented mission. But all she could do was hope for the best. “You’re welcome to use this room if you need it. Just let me know you’re in here.” She offered a kind expression.

-CO

Shara arched her brows as she smirked. “I appreciate the offer and I’ll let you know if I take you up on it. But uh, just because I accepted being your first officer, doesn’t mean I’ve caught the command bug. I have no intention of moving up the ranks and what not.” She had this momentary flash in her mind of her in an admiral’s uniform and suppressed a shudder. Nope, she’d retire long before she got to that point.

~Shara Calloway, XO

“You never had the dream? Didn’t want to be a CO someday?” Sara asked with a mild laugh. Even though it made sense, she had a hard time imagining someone striving for anything else.

-CO

Shara shook her head, her expression frank. “You have to remember that I was forced into a Starfleet life. I chose to accept a commission, but by that point I had been on a Starfleet vessel for seven years, and well, we weren’t exactly your typical ship on your typical assignment. And then when we returned to the Alpha Quadrant, Intelligence came a-calling. I was deep undercover most of the next twenty years until that mission when Faye fell into my life unexpectedly.” She inhaled deeply and swallowed, the trepidation from this new chapter sitting closer to the surface than she had allowed it outside of conversations with Micah. “I was only ever promoted because I did great work and they wanted me to have the air of authority to be a trainer. Which I did. I wasn’t climbing a ladder for an end goal. My only goal was to complete each mission. Hell, Sarah, my goal wasn’t even to survive. I knew each time I went out that there was a very good chance I wouldn’t return.” She shrugged. It seemed such a simple reality in her mind but perhaps it really was truly strange. “And then I came here. But I didn’t even know yet if I could do a standard duty assignment. Then we had our mission, and yes in the aftermath I agreed to be your first officer, but it’s all serving a purpose. I have no ultimate goal. Hell, I’m not sure I should even tempt fate that way, given I somehow am still alive after all these years.”

She offered a soft smile. “I’m okay with this reality. In fact, in many ways my simple life on Tracken with Edward and Faye prepared me to try to be content in the moment, even if there was always a small part of me that was restless.”

~Shara Calloway, XO

“After all the training and corralling to this destination throughout my life… it seems so strange to not have the goal of having your own ship. But you’re happy the way things are? Even if the designer of the ship neglected to give you an office?” Sara thought she and Shara were a good team, a good fit. Even if their backgrounds and goals were so wildly different.

-CO

Shara shrugged. “I’ve gone my whole life adapting to the situation. To be honest, Sara, I’m probably closer to retirement from Starfleet than people realize. But until that point, I just want to be best I can be and support the crew I work with. No more, no less. I’m too tired at this point in my life for ambition. At least right now.”

~Shara Calloway, XO

“Do you mind if I ask- what mad you accept a commission, join up instead of running fast and far after Voyager? That must’ve been enough adventuring for a lifetime.” Sara had finally blurted out the question that had been on her mind since she had read Shara’s personnel file.

-CO

She didn’t mind the question, certainly not from Sara, but it was not the easiest one to answer. Straightforward, perhaps, but not easy. “The question of what would happen to us once we returned was one we could avoid for the longest time, until very suddenly, we couldn’t. It was right there. Technically, we were considered traitors. But… I guess the Federation couldn’t look at what we had been through the last seven years and declare we had gotten off easy, even though we had missed the war with the Dominion. So they decided to give us leniency and the benefit of the doubt. For me specifically, my recon and computer skills made me an asset, so they saw that there was potential there beyond just roaming about a ship fixing things.”

Shara took a deep breath and blew it out. “Why did I say yes though?” She gestured openly around them. “What did I have? Nothing. I had some friends I made on Voyager, but my home, the place I and others had built from scratch to be a lovely life, had been burnt to the ground. Edward was dead, I thought Faye was dead too. So were my best friends. My brother and I weren’t on speaking terms and he was not only still in Starfleet, but rising up in the ranks.” Shara shrugged. “It was quite honestly an easy decision because I didn’t have anything or anyone, and I didn’t have anywhere to go. It was never about ambition or anything other than I did run, Sara, I saw how empty the galaxy was for me now and without Voyager to distract me from it all, I ran right into the shadows of Intelligence covert work and didn’t look back until the Universe forced me to.”

~Shara Calloway, XO