Posted by Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Deck 14, Meeting Room- Learning to Share

Posted by Lieutenant Shock (Chief of Security) in Deck 14, Meeting Room- Learning to Share

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Deck 14, Meeting Room- Learning to Share
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

“Agreed,” said Shock, satisfied that things were going smoothly still. “What I would consider: How their psychological functioning is affected under stress – are they susceptible to mistakes, to letting things slip – Is there also a history of not being able to keep confidential matters secret?”

“Confidentiality is something I’m looking for too. People prone to gossip are not high on my list for the team,” Faye replied.

He nodded, felt something in his throat.

He paused. “Excuse me,” he said, standing up. He walked to the replicator. “A glass of water, 300 milli-litres, 70 degrees Celsius”. (OOC: teehee)

He took the glass, had a quick sip, before returning with it to the table.

“Do we have reason to suspect spies on board?”

– Lt Shock (COS)

Calloway shrugged. “No more or less than usual. I don’t have any reason based on Commander Nightstalker’s excellent record keeping to worry about something that would affect this particular project, but I will naturally be on the lookout for anything amiss.”

~Faye Calloway, CIO

“As will I,” said Shock. It all made sense to him. It seemed like they had found a way to communicate with one another. His throat remained incredibly dry though. He took another sip. And another one, and another one.

“Do you wish or need to borrow staff from Security for the implementation of the project?”

– Lt Shock (COS)

Faye pondered this for a moment but shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t see a need for it, given this is a predominantly Engineering and Operations focused project. We’re installing the hardware and then I and, maybe others if I allow it, will take my base program and adapt it to the Athena specifically. I don’t know about you, but unless they are working on something with me, I dislike having someone watching me work and I know many others are the same. It’s not productive and implies a lack of trust. But if you have a particular case to make for it, I’ll hear it out.”

~Faye Calloway, CIO

Whether Calloway liked something or disliked it was not what Shock had asked. Officers in Star Fleet had a duty, in the interests of the ship. Shock’s duty was the security of the ship. Could she not see that? Did he have to spell it out? Calloway’s demeanour provoked something in him. He felt his heartbeat go slightly faster, his body temperature rising, and his breathing going lighter. He needed to purge this immediately.

He closed his eyes, only for a second, breathed, and purged the anger out of him. Back to a serene state, he knew he had to listen to this sudden emotion, ponder its meaning, and why he reacted as he did. Emotions were not alien to Vulcans, rather, they were communicative tools, just like a sensation of hunger or cold was.

“I see it as this: I am chief security officer on board. As such, all security-related matters are my responsibility. If anything goes wrong, my head – as you humans would say – would be the one rolling. I have to ascertain that I know all that is relevant for the security for this ship. Either, I will send an officer to liaise with you. Or perhaps, you would prefer to regularly update me in person on any such matters related to the security of this ship and its crew. What would you prefer?”

– Lt Shock (COS)

Faye tilted her head and considered this man before. He was hardly the first Vulcan she had worked with, and in general she got along quite well with most of them for reasons that made sense once people understood Faye’s brain a little better. “I thought we were working on this together, anyway. Why wouldn’t you be kept informed?” People! Some days she just didn’t get them. Give her a database and the threads of a puzzle and she was happy as all get out, but trying to parse how people said stuff did her brain in.

~Faye Calloway, CIO

Calloway’s passive-aggressive question did not help, nor did it bring the conversation followed. It was as if she and Shock would constantly misinterpret and second-guess one another. He needed to diffuse the situation.

“Then we are in agreement,” he simply added. “We will stay in regular contact and there is no need to deploy further Security staff into the project unless circumstances change.”

– Lt Shock (COS)

“Right…” Faye stared at him, feeling like the world was suddenly spinning in a different direction, or gravity had altered. The conversation was perfectly fine and she was hardly empathic. In fact, Faye was so far from it, despite being incredibly sensitive, that this was one of those moments where she instinctively felt like she was missing something and had entered a different reality. All she knew was that her instincts told her something and she had to figure out how to make sense of it and respond. “Is…?” She shook her head and frowned. “Did I do something wrong?”

~Faye Calloway, CIO

Shock paused, looked at his colleague – this time less as a colleague and more as a fellow sentient.

“Your question assumes a binary – that there is a right way to conduct a conversation and a wrong way. There are instead countless ways to conduct it.”

“Your question highlights, however, something that we ought to discuss. There appears to miscommunication in our communication. I understand we both have tried to be as direct and clear as we can, yet, there is miscommunication. I have not, for example, mean to imply that you have done something wrong, yet your question, in my interpretation, assumes that implication. May I hear your thoughts on this matter?”

– Lt Shock (COS)