Posted by Ensign James Mason (Engineer) in Mess Hall

Posted by Ensign Clinton Reed (Engineer) in Mess Hall

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Issac Forgrave (Chief of Security) in Mess Hall
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻
<snip>
“Coffee and a chat is a damn fine way to get to know someone; least it is in my book. Sure beats interrogation or an interview. After all, we’re all in this together, no sense in bein’ antagonistic.”

“And generally I’d have to agree with ya Stores. Everythin’s a compromise of some sort; ain’t seen anything I’d call perfect yet. True fer both digital and physical things - ya gotta plan fer the future as best as ya can guess at. And that’s a losin’ game every time!”

James quietly sipped at his coffee, listening to the three officers chat and carouse like a bunch of petty officers. His earlier fears of being grilled or saying something out of turn had quietly fallen by the wayside as he realized that the group simply wanted to chat. He took the chance to take another long slug of the black gold in his cup, thankful he didn’t have to fight a war for it, and then grinned over the brim.

“I don’t know Stores, next I know you’ll know my favorite beverage and’ll leverage it against me,” James joked, a wide grin on his face. “You strike me as the type to be very well informed.”

Stores gufwalled at Mason’s coment, “Na, it’s just when you have been around as long as I have you learn a lot buy just keeping your eyes and ears open, a ship is a rather small comunity.”

Clinton “Stores” Reed, Supercargo

Issac noted that James had… glossed over the XO’s question; and his own, earlier. Mason here seems a bit more relaxed than earlier; but that makes sense what with being new aboard and the XO sharin’ a table with ya. All the same, might see if I can’t get a look at his file while on shift - man’s allowed privacy, but feels a hair different from just bein’ reserved.

“I don’t know Stores, that sounds an awful lot like bein’ sneaky to me! But maybe yer right; I reckon Star Fleet is payin’ us to think, after all. Hopefully that holds true for the enlisted as well, but maybe y’all can comment on that better than I can; my over-educated self jumped on as an Ensign.” Issac looked inquisitively at both Mason and Stores; a twinkle in his eyes betraying his deadpan voice as a joke.

Ensign Issac Frograve, Security

The fact that Mason seemed to have ignored her question didn’t go unnoticed to Manning either. Even though she pretended to shrug it off, Amelia made a mental note to check for the man’s file in the pile on her desk. “It should be the same for Enlisted personnel, but what can I say… I’m the same overly educated category as you, Mr. Forgrave.” Amelia said with a chuckle before taking another sip of her tea. “So what other tricks for staying in the loop have you learned over the years, Mr. Stores? Anything you could teach us?”

Cmdr. Manning, XO

“One would be hard pressed to teach an XO worth her salt anything on that score,” Stores face lit up with a big grin” Now as my ignoble arrival hasn’t gone unnoticed, and I am decidedly non Star Fleet, the junior EMs are more likely to tell me things they have overheard.”

Turning to Issac, “ Nothing sneaky at all, when a grease monkey has his head under a console its easy for folks to forget we are there.”

“Jim, you don’t mind if I call you Jim? Stores turned on Ensin Mason with deadly Ernest “ Might as well come clean, they will fert you out!” Not being able to container his grin “ The X here is likely to make you promise to use your evil powers only for the good of the ship and crew.”

Clinton “Stores” Reed, Supercargo.

“I’m hurt,” Mason replied with an easy-going chuckle. “Barely on the vessel for a few hours and already I’m grilled to disclose my secret evil powers that I’ve hidden away from Starfleet. Woe to be me.”

The fact that I’ve sliced my fair share of security consoles over the years notwithstanding. After all, weaponized applications of continuum distortion tend to be secured.

Turning to his XO the engineer of questionable loyalties smiled. “As for slicing my way through security consoles, I generally try to refrain from that unless I’ve been requested. Tends to get you in interesting conversations with the command if you do it of your own accord.”

Stores started lafing at Mason’s false earnestness. “ We got a live one X, Cheif beter put him on Alpha shift with me, so I can keep an eye on him!”

Clinton “Stores” Read, Supercargo

Issac joined in with the laughter, before commenting “Heh, as long as Star-fleet’s the only one with root access to ya, I suppose that’s more than fair! And I reckon if the powers that be have any concerns over ya bein’ here, they’ll see fit to let us know as appropriate. As far as slicin’ consoles, I’ve heard there’s an open bounty on exploits; could be worth lookin’ into.” Issac’s face was contemplative for a moment. “Probably best to do that on your free time though; but I sure can’t speak for the Chief Engineer.”

Ensign Issac Forgrave, Security

“That’s the thing with Starfleet, Mr. Mason, we will only take you if we can use your evil powers to our advantage. Otherwise you’re of no use to us.” Manning added with a chuckle and a smirk. “And yes, slicing through security consoles unsolicited does tend to get you in interesting conversations with the command staff. Actually, slicing through any consoles will get you into the same interesting conversations.” Amelia eyed Stores jokingly. “As I’m sure Mr. Stores here probably also knows.” Turning back to Mason she continued. “Now… the question is, Mr. Mason, whether you are interested in having those conversations and how often will I expect to have to have them with you?”

Cmdr. Manning, XO

“Damn X,” Stores said “ Can we just schedule weekly meetings?” His shit eating grin in place “ best to save them up if you expect to get any work out of me!”

Clinton “Stores” Reed, Supercargo

“While I don’t think that I’ll need weekly meetings I don’t think never is the correct way to classify it either Ma’am,” James replied with a chuckle. “Let’s call it once a month more than likely. After all, if I’m doing more often than that it means I’m not fixing up the ship, and if I’m not doing that the Chief Engineer will hang me by my ears.”

Looking over to the security officer, Isaac he thought, he caught the man’s eye and then nodded at him. “Plus if I do it more then that, form or not, I think that Security will start getting nervous.”

James Mason, Engineering

Issac grinned at Mason, enjoying the banter at the table. He was glad to have met the new engineer while off-shift - his own personality was such that he found it more difficult to be social while on-duty; he tended to fall into a more serious mindset. While it worked well for much of a security officer’s duties, it had caused trouble at times when diplomacy was required.

“Well, I suppose in a perfect world we’d all be twiddlin’ our thumbs quite a lot! And I don’t know that I much care for the idea of the ship needing repairs any more than you’d like security breathin’ down yer neck. But I’d sure like to think we’ll all do our part to avoid botherin’ each other, ‘least in any official capacity.”

Ensign Issac Forgrave, Security

Bump,
OOC; any one else wondering buy the mess hall is more than welcome to drop in. If I don’t see you bylines once in a wile I get to worrying.

Getting a good first impression with Security was never a bad idea. James had made that mistake on his first tour, and it had set the stage for the NJP that came later. Here though things were definitely looking up. Other than the ribbing from Stores Mason felt like there hadn’t been anything that went wrong which was strange for his luck.

“I’m sure I’ll find some way to get underfoot to mess things up,” James joked. “Maybe a power conduit inspection that leads to me needing to traipse all over your workplace.”

James Mason, Engineering

“I’d say to try and schedule those things for ‘off hours,’ but I ain’t convinced such a thing exists on a ship. Tell ya what, I’ll have a thermos of fresh coffee if ya can keep the traipsin’ to a minimum!” Issac grinned. “You do that, and in return I’ll try to stick to a minimum of runnin’ through engineering on PT drills, eh?”

Ensign Issac Forgrave, Security

“Good with me,”Stores chuckled”But The Cheif might have some choice words!”.

“But we may have more pressing problems” Noding his head and cutting his eyes tord the XO” X has gone aufly queit, I think she is taking notes.”

Clinton”Stores”Reed, Supercargo.

“Well well, I think you’re right Stores,” Mason joked, before taking a slow sip from the delightful drink he had. He paused for a moment to let his words formulate and come together before continuing. “Completely silent, scanning all of our faces, and being a staff officer? Its clear as day now that you’ve mentioned it.”

He looked around to his fellow officers with a widening grin. “Now, we better not talk about that secret mutiny we’d been working on in Engineering to create the sovereign nation of Cargonia. Don’t want the XO getting any wrong ideas and all. Would be bad for the revolution.”

Ensign Mason, Engineering

“Cargonia, Eh?” Keeping a deadpan face, Issac pulled a small notebook and pen from his uniform pocket and started writing. “And uh, whereabouts were you thinking of starting this sovereign nation?” Issac’s face turned from Mason to Stores, eyebrow raised inquisitively. “Just idle curiosity on my end, of course. I just want to take some notes for uh, record-keeping. Nothing more.” As he spoke, Issac found it harder and harder to keep a straight face; at the last, he gave up, and a sharp grin cracked his stoic mask.

Laughing, he continued “Gotta say, 10 points for the name! I suppose there are enough crawlspaces down there to make it feel like another place entirely.”

Ensign Issac Forgrave, Security