Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Janna Kingston (Counsellor) in Business As Usual - CNS Office - Tag Kingston

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Serena Stone (Executive Officer) in Business As Usual - CNS Office - Tag Kingston

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Janna Kingston (Counsellor) in Business As Usual - CNS Office - Tag Kingston
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Janna nodded. “That sounds like a great idea. It’s a beast of a ship and I bet you’ll not only get perspectives you wouldn’t have otherwise, but you might find out about some interesting places.”

“Take a deep breath right now and tell me how you feel in this moment about this ship and your role here.” Janna was curious if anything had changed from when Serena had first stepped in, but also it was a reminder for the woman to check in with herself.

~Janna Kingston, CNS

If one were to take a before and after photo of the woman, they would notice her shoulders were visibly relaxed in comparison. She did as bidden and took another deep breath. Or rather took air in, then took another pulse of air in, before letting it out in a slow sigh. The neurological sigh, but as she did she seemed to relax a little more. A moment later she nodded. “A little more centered,” she mused. “I suppose a lot of it is …” She trailed off then broke into a smile, though her gaze had fallen and drifted to the side as she went internal again. Processing.

Janna simply observed, waiting for Stone to find her way when she was ready.

A moment later she seemed to come back, a little chagrined, but overall she seemed to have let go of another layer of stress. “I need to get a better handle on that pattern… habit.. thing.” She tilted her head, regarding Janna thoughtfully, chewing her lower lip. It wasn’t hard to feel the redhead contemplating a question.

Serena Stone, XO

“We can work on building those habits, but tell me what’s happening just now. What words are sitting there, asking to be said?” Kingston said.

~Janna Kingston, CNS

She nodded. “It’s just patterns of worry, anxiety. I suppose most of what comes to mind will probably never come to pass. But if it does, then I also suppose I am prepared. It works well in security matters. Because anything I can think of, so too can someone else who acts with malevolence in mind. Looking to hard my ship, my crew.” She shook her head. “But now there’s the larger picture to consider. And it requires that I be more open to the idea that mistakes and problems arise, not out of malevolence but ignorance or stupidity. Not to call anyone stupid, but people will sometimes do dumb things because of lapses in judgement.” She shrugged. “It requires that I trust that most everyone has good intentions. Rather than looking for negative intent all the time. It’s kind of a completely different switch in mindset. Which means old patterns need to be unlearned. Which will take time. How much? I have no idea.”

Lt Cmdr Serena Stone, XO

Kingston considered this and took her time formulating a response to Stone’s apt description of her situation. “What if, instead of trying to be prepared for, as you allude to, a bunch of situations you can’t full prepare for, you were to prepare instead just to simply be surprised on a daily basis?”

~Janna Kingston, CNS

Bump

((Oops, I must have missed this in all the shuffle! Sorry.))

The answer came immediately. “Surprises get you killed. It’s the thing you can’t see that turns your head into a canoe. Or almost killed. Surprises are not good or fun things.” Her gaze pinned Miss Kingston like a spear. There was no hostility, but every bit of cold reality in those words, drawing the redhead fully upright and alert. A subtle tightening of the stomach and core. Ready.

Stone

Janna met Serena’s gaze evenly, undisturbed. She could feel the other woman’s readiness, the coiling of muscles and mind. “Surprises happen every day on this ship, in a myriad of areas. On very rare occasion could we prepare for them. Sometimes, yes, people die. My predecessor was killed by a fellow officer on a mission where she apparently had a secret role few people knew about tracking a traitor. They fought, she died instantly. Instead of continuing on the medical ship in our exploratory fleet I just arrived at, I came here even though It wasn’t what I wanted. And I’ve been here every since. But I couldn’t have predicted that. And no one could have predicted Kallen Reese’s death. But it’s how we deal with those surprises that matters, Serena. So, knowing that you can’t predict everything, how will you proceed as first officer, as the one the rest of the crew is looking to for leadership and an example?”

~Janna Kingston, CNS

A memory came flooding back.

It was late, and a soft breeze drifted through diaphanous curtains, ghostly in the lunar glow of the night sky. The room was otherwise dark, and for the moment, she slept peacefully. Night turned to instant dawn, there and gone in a flash. No sound. The house shook*, slapped by an invisible hand. Serena groggily looked up from the floor, wondering how she got there. Dazed she climbed to her feet. Another bright flash. What? She barely had time to register the thought before she was knocked from her feet again.

And then the ripping crack and green flare of a disruptor struck not far outside the windows. They shattered, flinging jagged shards into the walls. Serena threw up one arm and dove for cover, instinct more than anything telling her what to do. Scrambling for her bed, she found her mother rushing into the room. “Come on, Serena! We’ve got to go!”
“Go where? What’s happening?!”
“We’re under attack?”

Attack? By who? Why? What did do to deserve that? The questions were less thought and more feeling, leaving her bewildered, disoriented, dazed, and more than a little frightened. Her mother was pulling, dragging her out by one skinny arm. She’d never seen her mother in such a state either. Much less her clutching a phaser with the other. And then her dad meeting them both, his expression grim, eyes wide, carrying a rifle. “We have to get to the shelter.” His voice was thin, tight.

“Shoes,” mom demanded, dropping a pair Serena hadn’t noticed her mother scrounge up in the confusion. Recognizing this was no time to argue, she put them on as fast as she could, trying to ignore the tremors and shockwaves. Ignore things falling off shelves. Ignore the pounding in her ears and head.

As she straightened back up, her father knelt, coming down to her eye level, even though she was almost ten, and not that short. “We’re gonna have to run for it, bug. Stick close to your mom. Fast, quick. But quiet and careful when she tells you. You hear?” Serena nodded, and then threw her arms around her father as tight as she could. His hug back was warm as sunshine, hard as iron.

Stepping out into the street of the colony was practically a warzone. A ship she couldn’t identify flashed past overhead, barely visible with it’s running lights and thrusters being the only clue. It’s passage shook the ground, and as she watched, several of the colonists shimmered, vanishing in light. Transported? She thought so. They were taking people.

Nearby. A shape loomed up out of the trees. two.. four. Angled pylons that dwarfed the trees. Golden beams of hard light began raking across the skies. flattened sections like pancakes popped out of each of the pylons, two to a side, coming out like a plug, each one with an oval opening. Out of those openings began flying red-gold stars, screaming and crackling as they streaked into the sky so fast Serena could barely follow. The colony defense grid had finally come online and was fighting back.

A hand on her arm yanked her gaze away from the defense towers. Her mother was pulling her along, her grip was a tight band. She did her best to keep up. Her mother’s long, fast strides ate up ground, but Serena spent so much time running in the forests and hills the flat streets of the city weren’t much concern, even with debris from the attack littering the place here and there.*

The redhead blinked away the unbidden memory. “No, you can’t predict everything,” she agreed. “Doesn’t mean you can’t be vigilant. Doesn’t mean you can’t be prepared. Training, skills. And while you can’t prepare for every contingency or eventuality, the idea is to be flexible. Have a playbook, but don’t be married to it. Be ready to play it by ear. Adapt, improvise, overcome. Something we get drilled into our heads in security training from day one. It’s vital for any ship and crew, really. You do it enough, you get good at it. Which is part of the competence-confidence loop. We’re all taught to be self-reliant. Doesn’t mean the surprises are rainbows and butterflies. Just means you carry a phaser in one pocket and a smile in the other, use either as necessary.”

Stone, XO