Posted by Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in CIO’s Office- Building Trust

Posted by Lieutenant Shock (Chief of Security) in CIO’s Office- Building Trust

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in CIO’s Office- Building Trust
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Shock interpreted Calloway’s reply as further steps of finding rapprochement, yet she still appeared not to understand what he was trying to convey. Why was this so difficult for him to communicate with her? Why did she have to persist in habitually misinterpreting him? He had tried to be as clear as possible, perhaps he was speaking to clearly in this case, as she seemed to interpret his words as barriers and resistance.

“That is indeed logical,” he said, resigning himself to this. There was no way he could convince Calloway. And he would not be able to get a bigger insight to the system right now. He decided not to say anything more, at the risk of her misinterpreting him further, but rather, giving Calloway a chance to move on in the conversation. He wanted to see what she would say next.

This was difficult for Shock. He began doubting his role as chief security officer. He needed to speak to someone about this. And that someone would certainly not be Calloway.

– Lt Shock (COS)

For Faye, this sudden lack of input was confusing and she wasn’t sure how to interpret it. Since there was still things to cover, Faye figured that since he didn’t say otherwise, she might as well continue.

“Umm, so, anyway”-she gestured to the display-“the capture nodes will be installed first, and then the biggie will be the device at Computer Core 1 and 2. Those I’ve already explained. “

Leaning forward, Faye’s fingers flew at an incredible speed as she pulled up the programming. The code scrolled in all its elegant glory (at least to her). She liked elegant but punchy code. Stuff that flowed nicely but also was often unconventional. Then again she always thought code was indicative of the person doing the coding and no one would ever accuse Faye of being conventional. For a moment she just stared at it and smiled. It was * beautiful* and no one could convince her otherwise.

Shock could not devise a working hypothesis of credibility as to why Calloway stood still, smiling at the picture. Pride? But pride was not an emotion he had seen Calloway display before. She was more matter-of-fact of her abilities, like Vulcans, and unlike humans in that respect. She was in no way a Vulcan though – she appeared to Shock as emotionally incontinent – leaking emotions in every thing she did. If only she could regulate her emotions like most humans in Starfleet could, or, even better, like Vulcans – then she would make an excellent colleague.

No one was perfect. Shock was not, he knew that in every fibre of his being. Conversing with Calloway reminded him only of his inadequacies in cross-species communication, and of not understanding observed emotions in others. Suddenly, he found himself longing back to Vulcan – a novel cognitive experience for him, as he consciously left Vulcan… had there been emotions driving him away? Was he acting on emotions he did not know of? Was he, perhaps, more similar to Calloway than he dared examine?

Eventually, she remembered that she was supposed to be showing him how this would all come together. “So, essentially, this program will be adapted for the Athena. I’ll have a small team of people I train and trust implicitly who will take pieces of this and tweak them to accommodate the uniqueness that is not just the Mythology-class, but also the Athena specifically.”

Lt. Cmdr. Faye Calloway, Chief Intelligence Officer

“Very well. How shall we vet the team?”

He hoped that some cooperation between them – not the one-sided lecturing from hers – would help him understanding how to behave around Calloway and to understand why Calloway behaved the ways she did. He needed a collaborative working relationship with her, their departments would interlink on most matters and required them to function with one another in a way better than most other DH-to-DH relationships needed. If this relationship would break down, … he stopped himself from thinking the thought. It was not logical to continue there.

– Lt Shock (COS)

She turned to face him. “That’s a good question. My first thought was that I would gather a list of people with the necessary skills and who can clear a background check, and then you vet them based on other security markers. What things are you most concerned about with a coding team?” Faye asked. She had numerous ways she could evaluate people, but she was supposed to be working with him and she really did want to try to get this right.

~Faye Calloway, CIO

Shock spoke:

“That they pass standard security clearance for that high level of security – I am confident you know of the routine, assessment of susceptibility to undue influence, risk assessments, family connections that may pose security issues, and so on. What would you suggest be added, from an intelligence point of view?”

– Lt Shock (COS)