Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman) in After Viewing the new ship (Tag Ford)

Posted by Lieutenant Charles Fordham (Security Chief) in After Viewing the new ship (Tag Ford)
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“Please, call me Ford,” he said as they walked. “And I’m afraid I didn’t catch your name.” He glanced at her from the side. “Unless it happens to actually be ‘Ensign’? Ensign Ensign. That would be interesting.” He hoped the attempt at levity would work, but it was a thin line.

COS Ford

Rand nodded to herself. It was in his file, he went by Ford. Of course that wasn’t her place to call him that. He had rank on her and was a senior staff member. Potocol dictated he be referred to by rank, rank and name, or position. But they weren’t on duty were they? Oh that’s what got her into this mess to begin with. The captain pulling rank and putting her back on duty and then wanting her to socialize with them off duty. Okay so the biggest problem was he wanted her to drink, and she didn’t drink. She took a deep breath and let it out. She smiled at his joke. This was one-on-one, she could handle that. “Rand, Rand Farquharson,” her voice took on a more pronounced Scottish lilt as she pronounced the clan name. “It’s nice to meet you…Ford. I…I go by Rand.”

Ford nodded. “It is a pleasure, Rand.” He would ask about her brother’s name later.

She stopped at the airlock while the dockmaster checked them both to make sure they were allowed on board. Then she led the way through the airlock and onto the Sentinel. “Welcome to the Sentinel, Lieut…Ford.” She waved her arm in a flourish that took in all the new shininess of the vessel. “This is deck 11. Home to General Astrological Science Lab, the Upper Stellar Cartography Lab, and the Upper Warp Core. Which is where we are headed now. Below us is Deck 12 and main engineering and the last of the science labs.” She turned down the main corridor and then into the central passage and they soon came upon the upper observation platform and could see the warp core. She looked around a moment, spotting the person she was looking for heading towards here. “Yeoman, here’s the report. I’ll make sure the morning one gets brought to you.” Rand nodded her thanks.
Yeoman Rand

Ford eyed the hallways, considering general layout and travel time. His forces would be the general security on board ship, as well as off, and in control of the ship’s defensive and offensive capabilities. While rare, having to deal with on board fighting wasn’t unheard of.

She tried to set a pace that would allow him to get a feel for the layout of the deck, but also not waste time either. Rand was neither an engineer nor a security officer, but she understood their view of what was important would be vastly different. She could surmise that the actual workings of the warp drive were not as important as means of access and egress and vantage points would be. She did fairly well with making educated guesses such as these. It was part of her job as yeoman to anticipate the needs of the various officers she came into contact with; it was more than remembering coffee preferences.

He took in the view of the warp core - it was beautiful, but it was also almost meaningless to him, other than a thing to be defended. He swept the upper observation area, not liking the spots he could tell would be invisible from below, especially around such a sensitive area. He was probably being overly cautious. He turned back to Rand as the other crewman walked away.

“Report?” he asked, tilting his head. “I thought you were off duty?”

COS Ford

Rand shook her head. “I was, but now I’m on duty again,” she glances down at her civilian attire. “Well somewhat on duty. A yeoman’s schedule isn’t exactly normal. I am required to be on duty whenever the captain needs me to be, or in his absence the first officer. And with a crew compliment of only 120, Sentinel does not rate a full contingent of yeoman. So there is myself and one yeoman second class in training. So if the captain wants his morning reports by 0600 and his breakfast at the same time, I’m up by 0430 to make that happen. And then all department heads have the reports returned to them with orders for the day by 0700 an hour before their shift starts at 0800. And the captain wants evening reports at 1900, so here I am at 1800 collecting them to have them ready for him and then have them processed and returned in time for the evening and overnight shifts to have their orders.” Rand took a great deal of pride in her work. She was specifically chosen for Sentinel because of her willingness and ability to work such odd schedules. Many yeoman wouldn’t make it. The need to be constantly on duty was wearing and exhausting for many. And since Rand didn’t socialize much and preferred the regulation and protocol of being on duty this was the perfect assignment for her.

Ford’s face stayed neutral, but inwardly he wondered where that left any time for… much of anything outside of work. Then again, that’s what they’d all signed up for on this five year mission. Still… “I hope you can manage to find some time to relax,” he said, glancing at her. “Burnouts can sneak up on you.” Though he’d never experienced one himself, he’d dealt with his fair share of burnouts - most in school, under familial and social pressures.

She took the long way about the outer corridor of deck 11 coming to the aft turbolift, she entered and waited for Ford. She pressed the controls for Deck 12. “The internal computer relays are having glitches and the computer science team is working on it. Which means I am manually collecting reports tonight since they are getting stuck in the transfer somewhere. Hopefully they will have it fixed soon.” She stepped out and to the left and then entered a large set of double doors. “Welcome to the shuttle bay.” She glanced around and headed towards one of the shuttles, “Lt Themopolis.” An older burly looking man glanced up and nodded. “Right on time yeoman. I don’t like to be kept waiting. I have work to do.” He thrust the data disk at her and turned back to her work. “Do you know if the computer techs have the system working yet? Puts you behind if you have to run the whole ship to collect these.” The man was gruff but not offensive, but obviously peeved that the ship’s systems weren’t working and an inconvenience. “I haven’t heard yet, but last estimate was they’ll be fixed sometime tonight.” Rand thanked him for the report and turned back to find Ford. She assumed he’d like to at least glance at the shuttles, never knew when he’d need one. Well she supposed he probably needed to know the layout for any craft that might want to dock with them.
Yeoman Rand

Ford watched her general demeanor as they walked; she seemed much calmer than when they were in the observation area on K-5. He hoped he’d been successful at helping take her mind off of whatever had set her on edge. He set that aside and kept track of the hallways and doors they passed, mentally calculating shift numbers to cover each area. He liked the open layout of the shuttle bay - generally staffed by one crewman manning the bay controls and an engineer, this was a critical entry to the ship, but fairly easy to secure. “One by the door,” he muttered, turning about to look at whole area. He mentally added more for new arrivals before nodding and returning his gaze to Rand. He tried to gauge again how she was doing before he spoke.

“Where to next?”

COS Ford