Posted by Warrant Officer Walker Darach (Chief Operations Officer) in Ready Room - Meeting of the Minds (Tag CE, COO)

Posted by Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Ready Room - Meeting of the Minds (Tag CE, COO)

Posted by Warrant Officer Walker Darach (Chief Operations Officer) in Ready Room - Meeting of the Minds (Tag CE, COO)

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“So I take that this is pretty serious then Captain.”

WO Darach - COO

Cochrane shrugged slightly. “Yes and no, Chief. It is serious in that one of ours got injured. Thankfully she should be okay. But more than that, this is kind of a &^%t show that you two have stumbled into.” he said frankly. He held up the device the Ops Chief had retrieved and handed to him and said “This? This doesn’t exist.” and he opened a desk drawer and put the device inside. “And before you ask, I have no idea what it is. It has something to do with Lieutenant Calloway’s ‘project’. And no, I can’t tell you what that is, either. Hell, I don’t know that much about it anyway. What I was told before I arrived here was that she is working on a project. It’s important, and it’s being done on orders from people I never even heard of. I was told to, and I quote, ‘Give her every support and leeway necessary for her to complete her task and ensure that she has the cooperation of all sections.’ I was assured that the project she is working on is not a risk to the ship or the crew, and that it would provide only minor but temporary interference to systems operations. So here we are.”

Cochrane, CO

“So here we are,” Max echoed, “with her project endangering ship and crew, and bypassing standard Starfleet protocol of informing the Chief Engineer of any new equipment or systems and getting that Officers Authorization to go ahead. My information said she was making adjustments, not installing tech. The end result speaks for itself, Calloway is seriously injured and lucky to be alive, and we lost several systems that are going to take time and resources to repair. It is now our responsibility to find out what that thing does, and it isn’t going anywhere near my systems, if ever, until I know exactly what it is supposed to achieve. End responsibility for the mechanical safety of this vessel lies with me, Captain, not some Lieutenant on an undercover mission nor orders from somewhere we can only guess. It doesn’t matter how important it is, we have protocol for a reason and that being bypassed is unacceptable.”

Lt Cmdr Wynter, CE

Cochrane knew that would be the Engineer’s response. It had been his in the briefing, after all. “You are absolutely right, Commander. Well, mostly you’re right.” Cochrane said and then rubbed a hand across his face briefly. “You are right in that Calloway is lucky and that she isn’t hurt more severely. And you are right in that we have repairs to be made that are a direct result of her project. You are also right that this is being done in a most inappropriate fashion. Where you are wrong, unfortunately, is that is not your responsibility to find out what her systems do. In fact, you are to stay well away form it unless she asks for your help. And her equipment is going to be installed, Commander… regardless of your objections which are almost verbatim what mine were when I was told. To the point that when I said ‘Any Engineering Chief worth his uniform is gonna raise hell over this and they should because this flies in the face of all practical approaches to ship systems.’ I was told, and I will quote Star Fleet Command here, ‘If they do, we will find someone who won’t.’ To which I simply had to say ‘Yes, Sir.’. Trust me, Mr. Wynter… Mr. Darach… I do not like this situation any more than you do. But the powers that be will have it their way whether we like it or not. That was made abundantly clear to me before I left.” and he sighed heavily.

“But there is a bit of a silver lining, gentlemen. Calloway can, and will, be able to let you know what parameters her systems work within. And what systems they access. She may not be able to tell you exactly how, but I am telling you both right now… this is one of those &^%t sandwiches you just need to eat as fast as possible to get it over with. And the more you can help Calloway, the faster this is gonna go for everyone. You two, her, me… the whole ship. And then it will be done, we can get a briefing on what was done. And if we don’t like it afterwards, well… we can eat that* particular sandwich when it gets served to us. Not to put too fine a point on this gents, but I just want this done and over with. As the brass said to do it. With no hiccups and no fighting. You want to know what is going on? Work with Calloway to get this done. Then we can all find out together. And if not, I’ll give you the go-ahead to yank it out and toss it out an airlock.”

Cochrane, CO

Walker just calmly sipped his coffee as he listened to the CO talk. The Commander was right, this was not an ideal situation at all. But even so, he was not surprised that the Brass was meddling in the ship. Yet another situation of people giving orders, and just expecting that they would be followed. Not thinking about the consequences.

“Well to be blunt Captain, this sucks. But to be honest, I’m not surprised. This smelled of covert ops, and you just confirmed it sir. But going forward, the Lieutenant might not have to tell us what she is installing, but she at least has to give us a heads up. If she is going to be messing with the ship systems, we should be told where she is at, and what systems she is touching. This way we can plan around any disruptions.”

WO Darach - COO

Cochrane nodded and said “And that, unfortunately was the result of yet another decision made by Command. And trust me when I say Gentlemen, I am not trying to pass the proverbial buck here. Calloway had given a heads up to the previous Ops Chief, but I am going to hazard a guess and say that wasn’t conveyed in the change over. So be it. Calloway has already been directed by me to make sure you both are aware of where she is working and to give you a heads up to any projected power fluctuations or outages. And to do so as much in advance as she can. Right now, that’s the most I can give you. If that changes and I can give you more to go on, I absolutely will.” and he paused and looked at both men with a stern expression on his face. “I can also tell you that this will be the last time something like this goes on under my command of this ship. I want transparency between departments; and I don’t want some pet project of some nameless, faceless bureaucrat impeding that.”

Cochrane, CO

Walker snorted. “”Fat chance of that happening,” he muttered.

He looked at the Captain and the Commander. “I’m sorry that was out loud. Sir.”

WO Darach - COO

Cochrane looked at Darach with a unsettling intensity. “Chief, I know we just met and you don’t know me yet. But I want you to know two things right now. One, never apologize for sharing you honest opinion with me. Two, I take no s&^t when it comes to my crew. From anyone. If this thing hadn’t already been in place when I came along, I can guarantee it wouldn’t have happened. At least not like this. We clear, Mr. Darach?” Cochrane’s tone was not one of anger or rebuttal, but it was stern. But the stern-ness was not necessarily directed at the Ops Chief. More likely it was the previously mentioned bureaucrat.

Cochrane, CO