Posted by Fleet Captain Ghubari Koraia (Captain) in Ready Room - Wallace meets Koraia

Posted by Commander Jennifer Wallace (Executive Officer (Incoming)) in Ready Room - Wallace meets Koraia

Posted by Fleet Captain Ghubari Koraia (Captain) in Ready Room - Wallace meets Koraia
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Jennifer had mostly gathered herself by this point, so she gave the woman a brief smile. Usually, other than short personal conversations, her duty reporting meetings didn’t go long, but she really didn’t know how Captain Koraia ran things, so she decided to ask. “Is there anything you would like to discuss with me before I go? Duties and such, responsibilities that your former XOs took care of that you would like me to cover?”

Wallace, XO

Puzzling out a new XO was something Koraia was well practised at, but it was also something that took time. Not everything would be clear right now, today. Still, that didn’t mean she had to move forward entirely in the dark. “Tell me what you expect to be doing. What do you believe a first officer’s job truly is?” A simple set of questions but their answers could be rather varied.

Fl. Captain Koraia, CO

Jennifer basically blanked, her face going wide-eyed for a moment. She hadn’t expected that question to go right back to her like that. But no. She’d been a good CMO, she knew to be in charge of things. “I suppose being a first officer is much like being a department head. But also different. I’m supposed to be your ‘rigt hand man,’ so to speak. Carry out your desires. Be in charge of away missions…” She looked at the woman, the lack of words clear.

Ghubari gazed expectantly. giving Jennifer time to figure out her answer. Was there a right one? To a point, but that wasn’t her intention in asking the question.

“Yeah, that’s all I got,” Jennifer leaned back, closing her eyes and giving up. Time to admit the truth. “I’ll be honest with you, Captain, I wasn’t expecting this promotion. I was… fairly content as CMO. Yeah, I’ve been slowly working on my command certification, but I was thinking it’d be another like, five years or more before they put me anywhere near the big chair. I didn’t know I was coming here until about 36 hours ago, and more than half of that was travel time.”

A slow nod of her head and a tiny tug at the corner of her mouth. Was Koraia amused? Yes, indeed she was.

She let out a ling breath. “I’m here now. And if I’m here I guess someone up in top thinks I’m ready. And they’re smarter than I am, so who am I to disagree, am I right?” She chuckled nervously. “What I mean to say is, I really don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m here. And I’m ready to learn.”

Cmdr. Wallace, XO

A crisp nod. “Good. That’s the right answer,” she said with a wink before taking a sip of her chai. She considered Wallace for a moment and then rose to her feet, her long dark fingers still wrapped around her mug. She gestured over to the couch that formed part of her sitting area at the expansive windows. “Come, let’s get comfy. I think we’ll be here for a bit.” Did that sound ominous? She hoped not, but the empath also knew that she read evaluate how her words landed and adjust if necessary.

Sitting in one ‘corner’ of the curved sofa, Ghubari crossed her legs at the knee and leaned back, sinking into the soft but supportive cushions. Another sip of chai. “Commanding a starship is a nonsensical thing at times. In one moment all the rules make sense and keeping order and discipline is a good thing. Then in the next we can all be in the midst of chaos and you sometimes just have to… go with it. Make it up moment by moment.” She gestured towards the door with her free hand. “I can’t tell you what it’s like for other crews, but I do know this one, and they have ben asked over and over again to do the impossible. And you know what? They do it. We do the impossible. Together.”

Fl. Captain Koraia, CO

Jennifer’s anxiety spiked slightly at the suggestion that they’d be here for a while. It looked like this wouldn’t be a quick meeting. She squeezed her mug, and her emotions calmed back down again as she stood and followed Ghubari to the couch, sitting a comfortable distance away, right up against the armrest if there was one. She sank into the soft cushions and ran a finger over the material. It was so smooth. It gave her an odd feeling, a sense of wonder that most people didn’t get by just touching a smooth couch cushion. But even after almost two decades in this world, she wasn’t used to the sheer luxury of Starfleet. The general smooth sterility of every surface. The recycled air, free of pollen and dust. She still had to play woodland sounds to help her sleep, synthesizing the soundscape of the small colony she’d grown up in. Even now she found herself staring out at the stars for a few moments with a wistfulness, wondering if Ga:gwa was one of the visible stars from this angle.

Snapping back from her meditations just in time for Ghubari to start talking, Jennifer listened to the woman. When she was finished, the red-haired woman nodded, brows furrowed. “So, what you’re saying is that being in command of a Starship isn’t much different from being in charge of a Sickbay. A lot of the time it’s just annual check-ups and keeping equipment clean, punctuated by frantic action as people with injuries come in and you have to triage and figure out who to treat first and who can wait till later. Or, you know, adjust that analogy for things you do up on the bridge.”

Wallace, XO