Posted by Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) in [Pre-Sim] CO’s Ready Room: Emerson Reporting In

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Audrey Emerson (Chief Science Officer) in [Pre-Sim] CO’s Ready Room: Emerson Reporting In

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Audrey Emerson (Chief Science Officer) in [Pre-Sim] CO’s Ready Room: Emerson Reporting In
Posted by… suppressed (10) by the Post Ghost! 👻
The first night on board had been uneventful, but a good night’s rest made all the difference after the long journey of the previous day. Skimming through the day’s tasks on her PaDD while drinking her morning coffee, Audrey got ready for the busy day ahead.

Honestly, all she wanted was to check the science labs and her office, but there were more pressing matters than that at the moment. First things first, and the first things were reporting everywhere she was due before starting anything else.

“Meow.” The high pitched complaint came from near the replicator where she had set her new companion’s space for now.

“I know, I know!” Audrey hadn’t decided on a name for him yet, so she referred to him as Kitty whenever necessary, and for now that worked out just fine. She refilled his water bowl and filled his food bowl with the best cat food replicators could make. It smelled better than she had expected. With a soft pat on his head and a little chin rub, Audrey continued. “I’m going to be out for a little bit, but I’ll be back later. You know where the litter box is.”

“Meow.” Was the reply.

“I know, Kitty… I know. I’m sorry…”

With a last glance at her quarters and a soft smile at her cat, Audrey was off.

First stop, deck 1, Captain’s Ready Room.

No matter how many times she had done it before, it never got easier. Although, the view to the Bridge as the turbolift’s doors open made it a little better.

With a few confident strides, she walked to the Ready Room’s door, and with a final glance at her uniform and a last check on her braid, Audrey pressed the chime and waited.

Lt. Cmdr. Emerson, CSO

“Easy-to-please houseguest my arse. You know you really don’t inspire trust or faith if someone comes in and sees you dead,” Kelly said adjusting a leaf on a succulent that now resembled more of a mushy brown splotch versus a firm green extension of the plant. The truth was Kelly’s thumb was anything but green even with something as sure-fire as a succulent. Hearing the chime she replied, “Come,” adjusting a photo in front of the plant hoping it was hidden enough.

Kelly Bordeaux CO

The word was all it took for Audrey to walk through the sliding doors of the Captain’s Ready Room. Looking around, she was now very aware of her own movements. Why was she so nervous again? She had done this three other times before but somehow it never got easier.

As Audrey’s mind went on a little tour of its own, she finally settled her gaze on the other woman in the room. She smiled. Was it a polite smile? Did she look like an idiot? Emerson tried to control the muscles around her lips but she was sure she was only making it worse. Shaking her head slightly and regaining her composure in such a way that she hoped had gone unnoticed, Audrey stepped towards the Atlantis’s Captain.

“Captain Bordeaux, it’s so nice to finally meet you.” She held out a hand for her to shake if she so wished. “I’m Lieutenant Commander Audrey Emerson, your new Chief Science Officer.” Of course you are. She knows that! Came her brain’s immediate response. Emerson ignored it. “Here are my transfer orders Ma’am.” She said as she offered Bordeaux a PaDD. Trying her best to keep a professional smile on her face, Audrey hoped she looked more like someone with almost a decade of experience on the job and less like an Ensign fresh out of the Academy. The truth was that she had always been a horrible conversation starter, but she also knew that once conversation started flowing, she would ease into it. At the moment, however, her hands were shaky and her palms were getting sweaty, and Audrey hoped it didn’t show.

Lt. Cmdr. Emerson, CSO

Kelly took the PaDD casually with a half-smile. “Call me Kelly,” she said gesturing to the seats by her desk. “I try not to stand on formality when I am able. I hate first meetings too,” she leaned in slightly as if sharing a secret. “I tend to always say something wrong or go back to my quarters and replay every sentence until I make myself crazy. Coffee,” Kelly asked moving towards the replicator.

Audrey smiled a knowing smile, and a little less nervous one too. “Yes, Ma’am.” She replied at the mention that she was free to address Bordeaux by her first name. The fact that she had done exactly the opposite seemed to not register in her mind.

“The only rule, Audrey,” Kelly used the woman’s first name hoping it would relax her some, “is never offer me that Boston Bay water the English think we will opt for over coffee. Personally, I think they are still sore we Americans tossed it over the harbor walls in Boston almost five hundred years ago which is why they constantly push it on us but tea is coffee’s weaker and more pathetic cousin. Here we run on pure diesel arabica.”

Kelly Bordeaux

Audrey didn’t share that strong of an opinion about tea. She was a tea enjoyer on occasion, but she wasn’t a regular tea drinker.

“Yes, Ma’am. You won’t ever find me bringing you tea.” She chuckled. She was feeling that they would get along just fine, but then again, she had felt the same on the Santiago, and it hadn’t turned out for the better. It had been her own fault though… Audrey hoped she wouldn’t mess up this time either.

“Excellent. Already getting three stars for your up-and-coming performance review,” she joked good-naturedly nodding at the replicator as Kelly grabbed her cup off.

“Coffee would be great!” Emerson had just had her morning coffee before she left her quarters, but there was really no such thing as too much coffee. She usually ran on the stuff anyway, and it was likely that she’d grab another cup before her next check-in appointment. The fact that she generally worked on a lab full of dangerous substances was not a problem. The only time she had had an issue it hadn’t been due to her coffee consumption habits. Although there had been that one time when she drank the compound she was working on and poured her coffee on her Erlenmeyer instead… the two weeks in sickbay that followed hadn’t been fun.

Not wanting to stare at her new Commanding Officer while she grabbed the coffee from the replicator, but also not knowing what else to say, Audrey stepped closer to the desk, sat down on one of the previously offered seats, and waited.

Lt. Cmdr. Emerson, CSO

“So Audrey Emerson,” Kelly said bringing the coffee to her desk and setting the woman’s cup before her as Kelly took her seat. “I don’t tend to run on rank and file unless we have to. I also tend to go by Kelly more often with the senior staff than Bordeaux because my husband is the chief diplomat. Just giving you a heads up so you don’t yell out Bordeaux and get two people saying yes. What are you most comfortable with being called? Just because I am the CO I hate to assume people always want to go by their last name however, fair warning, since my senior staff is made up almost exclusively of lieutenant commanders, it might sound like a cadet review if I just randomly yell out a rank.” Kelly smiled taking a sip hoping her small dip into the humor pool might help the science chief relax some. It was always awkward meeting the boss and the faster Kelly could alleviate that, the better this meeting got.

Kelly Bordeaux CO

“I’ll try Ma’am. Uh… K-Kelly.” Did it sound as bad as it did to her own ears? Audrey could feel the heat rising on her cheeks. “But I can’t make any promises.” She completed, promptly taking a sip of her coffee to hide her embarrassment.

It was weird. Having grown up on a starship, with a mother actively in the Command line, there was a very specific set of rules that had been imprinted in her mind from a very young age, and right at the top were the proper ways of addressing a ship’s Commanding Officer. In Emerson’s case, these were particularly important, as for most of her childhood and teenage years, the ship’s CO had been her mother. Sure, she was not serving under her, but also her mother had made sure that she only ran into the Bridge yelling ‘Mooom!’ exactly once. From then on, the rules were established and up until her current posting she had never been given the freedom to break them.

“Audrey is what everyone calls me. So, by all means, I don’t need to go by rank or last name either.” Emerson smiled. The irony of the request was not lost on her.

Taking another sip of her coffee, thoroughly enjoying the warmth the cup brought to her hands, she took a moment to let her gaze wonder around the desk. A picture frame caught her eye, and behind it, the tip of a browning succulent leaf peeked through. As the stereotypical scientist, Audrey was bad at small talk but could spend hours discussing the intricacies of her work, and she found her thoughts wondering to the chemical processes behind what was happening to the small plant and what kind of compounds could be used to help revitalise it.

Audrey mindlessly took another sip of coffee waiting for Bordeaux’s next question. Her eyes seemingly now transfixed by the picture on the desk even though she was actually thinking about the succulent that seemed to be behind it.

Lt. Cmdr. Emerson, CSO

It was clear the woman wanted to be here but also wasn’t sure what to do here. Kelly liked her instantly. Audrey has an easy way about her and seemed friendly enough once someone got to know her. Some CO’s had the initial meeting be all about duties and responsibilities. Kelly seemed to want to get to know the person first. “So which picture are you most interested in,” Kelly said noticing the woman was looking at the picture on her desk. It was a bio-fold frame with on one side showing a man holding a beagle and on the other a man holding a monstrous lizard. Since men didn’t normally pose for selfies like women did the pictures had to mean something special. Both men seemed to be about the same age and both were smiling at her with the easy grin of someone withholding intimate knowledge about the person taking the picture. “Lizard or beagle?” Kelly’s personal life was like an abstract puzzle. She did not hide it and was very open about it if someone cared to ask.

Kelly Bordeaux

OOC: Apologies for going AWOL. I have been travelling for the past few days and lost track of time… – Joana

IC:
“Picture?” Audrey muttered more to herself than to anyone else. The question caught her off guard and her eyes focused for the first time on the object she had actually been staring at. “Oh… Um…” She looked embarrassed for a moment, but quickly composed herself with a shy smile. “I was actually looking at the plant”. Emerson made a small gesture with her hand indicating the small leaf barely peeking out behind the frame. Audrey took another sip of her coffee and bought herself a moment to think before continuing. “However… I never pass up on reptile adventures!” She chuckled nervously. “I am more of a cat person myself, so I’ll have to go with the lizard.”

Lt. Cmdr. Emerson, CSO

“That is Captain Fantastic or known less commonly as Captain Dante Knight of the USS Saracen. There was a mishap at the academy when I joined. Some idiot thought Kelly was a male’s name so they had me bunk with him. Turned out that mistake was one of those things that changed my life. He was my roommate for a month before the academy figured it out and by then he and I had a rhythm. We challenged the decision based on sexism and failure to respect our beliefs in sexual equity. It was all BS,” Kelly waved her words away with a hand as if it were nothing. “He was just so much damn fun and about three hours into meeting him we discovered we had a lot in common. The academy years were our jumping-off point. We got into a lot of trouble but earned the names Captain Fantastic and Captain Chaos. I was his XO for years on the Broadsword until he took a transfer to be with his fiancee and I got divorced and the Atlantis.” Kelly had little reservations about expanding on this more depending on the look Audrey was about to wear on her face. It sounded far more tawdry than it was but some people were interested and others not.

Audrey smiled and nodded in acknowledgement, but the look on her face was more neutral than curious. She found it more fascinating that starship Captains always seemed to have an enormous amount of interesting stories to tell. Although, to Audrey, it was easy to see how, as she already had amassed a fair number of adventures and she had only made it to Lieutenant Commander.

“The lizard is our son Bruce. He was named after Dante’s brother Bruce because they had some family bet that whichever brother had a son first they would name it after the other. Bruce was not pleased but you can’t control everything in life and never make a bet you don’t already know the outcome of. Anyway, Dante and I were on a shore leave once where we had way too much booze and way too much time on our hands so long story short, we rescued him as an egg and then hatched him. Of course, the academy freaked out but we were able to convince them it was a therapy pet,” she air quoted the words to ensure Audrey understood that much like the sexuality thing it was just an ends to a means to get done what needed to be done. “When Dante took the Saracen and I took the Atlantis we split custody of him.” Kelly had just hurdled a lot of information on Audrey so she sat back seeing how the officer would process it.

Kelly Bordeaux CO

For the most part, Audrey was not the most emotive person, most of her thoughts being hidden under an interested yet neutral exterior. However, her eyes widened slightly at the mention of the pair being able to convince the higher ups at the Academy that the lizard was a therapy pet. She supposed that both must have quite the argumentative skills, and clearly the names of Captain Fantastic and Captain Chaos were fitting. Emerson wondered for a moment what it would mean to serve on ‘Captain Chaos’s ship’. If anything it would clearly make working under Bordeaux quite the interesting experience.

Audrey smiled at the ‘splitting custody’ of the lizard comment. “Oh, so Bruce visits the Atlantis from time to time then?” This time she seemed genuinely curious.

Lt. Cmdr. Emerson, CSO

“Yes,” Kelly smiled and pulled out another picture of a large lizard swimming in the pool on the Altantis. “I get him a few weeks of every year depending on missions and such. It hasn’t been feasible to exchange him recently but Dante and Natasha are going to back to Earth for shore leave. I get to keep him while they are gone. Do you have any fur babies or in my case scale babies.”

Captain Kelly Bordeaux

Audrey laughed. “No scale babies, just fur ones.” She said with a smile. “I have a cat. Quite unexpectedly actually.” Emerson seemed lost in thought for a moment. “Found him on my parents’ backyard back in San Francisco right before I left. Gave him some bacon leftovers and he hasn’t left my side since… couldn’t find an owner so I took him with me.” Audrey’s smile was visibly proud of her companion. “Poor thing was born without an eye and seems to be deaf from one of his ears… I’m hoping maybe someone here can look him over. I took him to the Vet before I left so I could get him travel ready, but didn’t have time to see if there was anything that could be done about his eye and ear. The little fellow is already old and seems to have had a rough life. I’m hoping that I can change that even if only for a few years. He’s so sweet. He absolutely deserves it.”

Lt. Cmdr. Emerson, CSO