Posted by Shara Calloway (Intel Liason) in Officers Mess - Change of Scenery [Open]

Posted by Lieutenant Luke Wyatt (Chief of Security) in Officers Mess - Change of Scenery [Open]

Posted by Warrant Officer Walker Darach (Chief Operations Officer) in Officers Mess - Change of Scenery [Open]
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Luke nodded, “Yes trained in dealing with… Well, the point is that there is already a way too many branches of Starfleet, what happened to just goo old, Command, Science, Engineering and Security.” He held up his hands “Dont get me wrong no doubt they all have humble begins I’m sure its those departments that end up corrupt or bending the rules. I’m getting a little tired of these sections, I think Intelligence is as far as it should go when dealing with mission specialists, we dont need no Section 31, CriT and who knows what other branches there are.” He looked to Sharah as if she’d divulge any sensitive Data, he knew she wouldn’t.

• Lieutenant Luke Wyatt

“Command, science, engineering and security…” Walker ticked off his fingers as he named them. “So you wouldn’t expand to any other areas? Such as medicine?”

“Ah yes sorry I forgot about medical, though you could argue that medicine is a kind of science.” He sipped on his drink rolling the thoughts in his head.

He just looked straight at Luke, not reminding that his own job could be considered a branch off from engineering.

WO Darach - COO

“To be honest I’m not saying that all departments should just be simple and I’m not trying to offend, I was a Marine before becoming a Security Officer and apart from tha different uniform, an elitist attitude and some different weapon choices there’s not much between the two. I guess what I’m trying to say is, When did everything have to be sub categorised, a department is a department but why not train people within thier role and leave it at that instead of creating divisions within those departments by having units such as CRiT, people just love titles.” Finishing his drink he sighed, “And I’m definitely not saying Operations shouldn’t exist, I understand the difference”

• Lt Luke Wyatt

Shara digested the conversation and that allowed her to draw some conclusions. “Well, first off, mission specialists are just that. They aren’t from Intelligence. They are just ordinary officers with a particular skill set assigned to a ship on a usually temporary basis until that ship is done its mission. A good example of that would be a science vessel assigned to a marine world to work with the local scientists on a large project. That mission specialist might be a marine biologist selected for their expertise to coordinate the project,” she said with a shrug. “Your current experience with a mission specialist is an anomaly. Normally they aren’t seconded to Intelligence as well. But the Manhattan is in a unique position.”

Shara tore a piece of bread slowly as she thought. “To offer an outsiders perspective it sounds like this CRIT team is just a bunch of cross-trained individuals who go about their usual business and in a pinch assemble to tackle a problem that needs more than one perspective. Out here, that’s gold,” she said, eyeing both of them in turn. Based on the conversation so far she suspected they didn’t know, so maybe it was worth filling them in. “I know that, because I was on the USS Voyager for seven years out in this quadrant. There were times we could have used a team like that. We had plenty of exceptionally skilled crew members, but those are individuals. Having a team who all trusts each other and knows how to listen to one another when one of them might have better and more experience than the others without ego getting in the way? Priceless.”

~Shara Calloway

He nodded in some agreement, “I suppose you’re right. I can certainly see it from an outside perspective, it’s better than not having it for sure.” Luke finished his drink, “I’m just an old ex marine with a chip on my shoulder and some acute post-traumatic stress” He chuckled, “Perhaps being here on this ship is going to teach me far more than any tour or academy lesson could have.’

• Lt Luke Wyatt

“I also think you are overthinking all of this,” Walker said taking another sip of his coffee. He was really going to have to make time to swing by the mess to grab a cup from here more often. “I long ago accepted that the brass will do what the brass want. Obviously someone, somewhere, felt like this particular type of mission was not being accomplished by an existing organization or department, so they made a new one. And now we’ve got a CRIT team.

“It’s not my job to question the brass, I’m certainly not paid enough. Or is it that you are jealous that they are going to be seeing the front line action, while you are trapped back here on the Manhattan?” Walker asked cocking his head to the side slightly.

WO Darach - COO

Luke chuckled, “You’re right on not being paid enough and by my overthinking of the situation. It was just a thought” Thinking back to the other mans comment of the ‘brass will do what the brass wants” Oh how true that comment was, sometimes it required a little descent in the ranks for it all to make sense but this wasn’t one of those times and even Luke could see that.

• Lt Luke Wyatt

Shara was still listening to their conversation (she had been quietly polishing off the chowder), though in this moment she had picked up the cup of coffee, both hands wrapped gently around it’s smooth surface, absorbing the heat. Simple things, simple luxuries. So many things in the last few days had converged in her life in unexpected ways. The Delta Quadrant and Faye had always been two entities unto themselves and here they were mixed up and merged. But if she had learned anything in the last couple of years, it was that all she could do was lean into it all. Her own PTSD demanded she take things slowly and with gentleness, but that definitely had become something of a different reality when faced with watching her daughter struggle and suffer all over again, even if this time it had been rather different.

~Shara Calloway

“You gotta be careful about those thoughts, that’s how I ended up in this job,” Walker said chuckling.

Looking over at Shara he noticed her quiet reflection. “Speaking of thoughts, it looks like someone is lost in them. Penny for your thoughts Commander?”

Picking up his own spoon, Walker took another bite of the chowder.

WO Darach - COO