Posted by Fleet Captain Ghubari Koraia (Captain) in Ready Room - Ops In The House! (Capt. Koraia)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Daggum Hammor (Chief Operations Officer) in Ready Room - Ops In The House! (Capt. Koraia)

Posted by Fleet Captain Ghubari Koraia (Captain) in Ready Room - Ops In The House! (Capt. Koraia)
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

She gave an easy laugh and nodded. “Can’t say I’m skilled in that area but I make a mean banana beef curry.” Ghubari herself was never an open book and recent events had seemingly only made that more true, but in her decade as a commanding officer she had found her groove, her way of being with her crew. That really hadn’t changed even if she had become Mama Lion, rather than the solitary Leopard.

“I will warn you that whatever you may or may not have heard about the Athena, nothing will prepare you for the reality. It’s a … peculiar assignment,” Koraia said with some amusement.”

Fl. Captain Koraia, CO

Hammor smiled. “I took the liberty of reviewing the ship’s mission logs and crew records. ‘Peculiar’ may be a bit of an understatement, Captain. Your ship has a definite… well… colorful history. Especially of late. I have to say, I was impressed. I was also a bit honored to have been picked for this berth. May I ask if that was your doing, Ma’am? Someone else, maybe? Or was it luck of the draw that landed me here in your office?”

Hammor, Ops

Ghubari considered him for a moment. “I hope you take this as a mark against you, but I had no say in it. Not for lack of interest, but mostly time. We’ve had a backlog of crew rotations that were due to happen and well… as your privileged access to our mission logs will tell you, we… went out for a little investigation and got more than we bargained for. We’re just sort of catching up right now.” It was about the biggest understatement she could have made but then again, while it wasn’t public information, for the senior staff it was all accessible.

Fl. Captain Koraia, CO

Hammor waved off her concern. “No no, not at all Captain. I know you and the crew have been through it recently. I just wanted to know how much of a say you had directly in my assignment. You haven’t had an Operations officer since the ship change. And if I am being honest… I am not the typical Ops Chief. I do things to get them done, not to make myself look good. I don’t mince words, and I don’t play games. That has ruffled more feathers than a chicken coop, but my job is to make sure that the ship is supplied and everyone has everything they need to keep the ship running as best as they can; not to be popular. So… with me you will always have, as the Old Earth Marine Corps used to say, beans and bullets aplenty. I also make sure that the small things are handled that may be overlooked. For the Athena, that means school supplies, vids, non-standard groceries and plants for the arboretum, among other things the civilians may require. I do allow for special requisitions, but they have to be justified. And in that vein… before you ask, yes. I deal with non-Fleet suppliers, but only as needed.” and he paused and took a breath.

She gave a nod. Ghubari didn’t have an issue with bending rules on occasion and certainly she had done enough of it herself in her life. So long as no one was harmed by it and the stakes were appropriate to the needs. “I appreciate you thinking on a grander scale. The Athena is indeed more than one thing.”

“I would recommend you contact the CO of the Dresden and ask her about me. Or Admiral Hallsley of Special Projects. They could give a better review, if you want one.”

Hammor, Ops

Koraia shook her head. “No, I don’t think that will be necessary.” She reached up and tapped her five pips. “The nice thing about earning the rank I have is that people in general already know my expectations. And the powers that be know what I require in my senior staff. So I am considering you vouched for, Commander. Lucky you,” she said with a wink.

Leaning back, she mulled over their situation. “Do you have questions about the ship, or for me?”

Fl. Captain Koraia, CO

Hammor smiled and said “Well… I may have a few.” and he reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out an optical disk and set it on the edge of the desk.

“I have already taken the liberty of setting up a standard requisitions list for all departments. I cross-referenced that with all requisitions since the change in ship, averaged with the past full Earth year of requisitions from each division and factored in any Department Head changes with a look at past requisition patterns. I adjusted to scale up for the increase in personnel, square footage of operational areas, and mission variants. I then added in the anticipated civilian needs based on patterns from similar vessels across the fleet.” He then reached forward and slid the disk towards the CO.

“What I need from you, the XO, and the Department Heads is a priority listing of any outstanding requisitions broken down into Priority, Necessary, Standard, and Desired categories. Definitions for each category are on the disk. I will also need you to sign off of the standard requisitions once they are compiled. That will generate automatic approval for any standard or regularly reoccurring orders and keep me from coming into your office on a daily basis.” He then leaned back and looked at her intently.

“Second, I would like to ask permission to pull some personnel from the Engineering and Security sections… with the respective Department Heads approval, of course… to be Operations officers and staff. Not many, of course. I think for a ship this size I could do with a team of twelve to fifteen, two thirds Engineering and one third Security.” He paused and watched her reaction to the question. He hated asking it, but Fleet Command was notorious for ignoring Operations staff; and when they did staff it, it was usually done as punishment… which made his job that much harder.

“And lastly… I need to know how you want me to handle Emergency Operations. Typically, in the very likely event that we find ourselves in the thick of it, an Operations officer is on the bridge and coordinates power distribution to critical systems and damage control… but I have found that some Engineers get very upset when Operations ‘steps on their turf’, so to speak. So I would like to ask you how you want that handled. I am an Engineer, and do work well with Engineering. I leave them to the day to day and then lend a hand when asked or during the action. I just don’t want to bruise any egos in the process. I have found in the past it is best if the Commanding Officer decides that relationship from the start. So how do you want me to handle that particular scenario, Ma’am?”

Hammor, Ops