Posted by Captain Dira Myqian (Commanding Officer) in Winters reporting for duty

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Alex Winters (Chief Engineer) in Winters reporting for duty

Posted by Captain Dira Myqian (Commanding Officer) in Winters reporting for duty
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

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Dira sipped her coffee, taking her time, unhurried as she sought the right words. “One of our more recent missions was to a refugee colony in Romulan space. Despite all the awkwardness between our governments, this place asked for help taking care of the people who had been displaced by tragedy. Our assignments aren’t always like that, but it is a big part of what we do. We go where other starship might not, and sometimes that means crossing borders into conflict zones. You have a big job before you. We rely on our engineers to not only keep this ship running, but to anticipate disasters and have workarounds ready. It’s hard to triage patients and get them all treated if we don’t have power. Intuitively, we know this, but it’s different when you’re in the thick of it.”

Captain Myqian, CO

Alex nodded. “I understand the importance of the job I have here. You’re the Captain, Captain. But if the Chief Engineer says we don’t go, we don’t go. That can’t happen when there are people in need waiting for us.”

“Exactly. And so we work as a team to make sure everyone has what they need so we as a crew can do what we need to do,” Dira said.

She smiled a small smile as her grandfather popped into her mind’s eye unbidden. He had been a healer and a tinkerer. He used to say anyone with a good head on their shoulders could be both. ‘Humans are just very complicated meat machines who happen to have a mind of their own.’

“You know”, she said, looking at Dira, “I actually joined the Fleet thinking I would be a Doctor some day. But you know what they say about Cadets who flunk out of Engineering 101? They become Deck officers. In my case, something similar happened. I find machines are far more predictable, and less temperamental, than living organisms. But no less essential to the mission.”

~ Alex Winters, CE

Myqian grinned. “And there’s nothing wrong with that. I am someone who believes we do our best when we go where we are called, whatever that means for each person.”

She tapped her index finger on the side of her mug. “I started out going to medical school and choosing psychiatry. My mother is a neuroscientist and I was fascinated by the brain growing up, about how all the pieces of a person worked together to make this living, breathing, and feeling being. And my father is a mixed media artist. He’s a free spirit who is passionate and whimsical. He thinks out of the box and sees intuition as being one of the most important guiding forces in a person’s life. I like to think that I brought that perspective with me as I delved into the science of behaviour and became a therapist. There are methods and research to guide us, but sometimes just trusting your intuition about a person in front of you can guide you more successfully that trying to work through a therapeutic checklist. Because no one person is the same. And that is true of a crew and the vessel or facility they live and work in.”

Captain Myqian, CO

Alex looked at the Captain curiously, kocking her head slightly to the side as she considered her. “I must say, Ma’am. I don’t think I’ve ever met a superior officer who talked this openly about what makes them tick to a subordinate. Let alone a psychiatrist. You are … not what I expected?”

It was a question, not a statement. Because even as she said it, Alex wasn’t totally sure what she was trying to say, exactly. And whether she was overstepping her bounds. But one thing wa for sure: working for Captain Myqian was going to be a different ballgame entirely than working for Devereaux at Utopia Planitia had been. Alex was pretty sure she’d just traded up. And not just because se was Chief and on a ship, now.

~ Alex Winters, CE

Dira chuckled. “Well, we don’t know each other enough yet for me to know if that is a good thing or not, but I’ve been in Starfleet over twenty years, most of that spent in a therapeutic role. When I made the switch to Command, I told myself that I wanted to find a balance between the roles. And the thing I do know for sure is that the faster people get to see and understand each other as people with feelings and motivations and aspirations, the better we can figure out how we all work together. And the why I see it, how can I ask all of you to show me who you are and give me the best of yourselves so we can accomplish our missions if I’m not willing to do the same.” She shrugged. “I loathe hypocrisy.”

Captain Myqian, CO

Alex nodded. “Many would not call that ‘hypocrisy’ so much as ‘the professional distance a CO position requires’, Captain”, she said, doing her best impression of an Admiral with a stick up his butt on that last bit. Then, with a smile, she added: “Apparently, you aren’t one of them. And yes, that’s a good thing, in my book.”

~ Alex Winters, CE