Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Vora Zorell (Scientist) in Black Rock- A Reunion of Friends

Posted by Captain Johann Dvorak (CO) in Black Rock- A Reunion of Friends

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Vora Zorell (Scientist) in Black Rock- A Reunion of Friends
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Vora nodded at Johann. “He keeps things pretty much to himself unless he’s lashing out these days, but he is a good student and everyone he’s worked with says he’s cooperative. He’s especially good in any of the sciences and shows an aptitude for physical mechanics. Probably worth him spending a bit more time with some of the engineers.” She gave a lopsided smile that was somewhat sad. “Seems he saves his ire for me.”

~Vora

“It usually works that way at his age,” Johann observed. “But you’re right, he might benefit from hanging around some of the Engineers. I’m sure you can figure something out there with… whoever we will have in Engineering.” Fleet Command had not yet indicated when a new Chief Engineer would be assigned, or who it would be, or how they would get there, let alone that it would be Madison Sullivan who they’d pick up at Starbase 51. That’s because this thread is quite a bit before the current main sim, not that we usually break the forth wall this explicitly to remind people of things.

Vora nodded. “I’ll have to have a meeting.”

“Does your fleet operate with the same sort of shambolic inefficiency that we have to deal with here?” Johann asked Deacon directly. Johann had been the Captain of Europa for many years at this point, and Fleet Command never seemed to be particularly on the ball about anything in that entire time. There was even that period where the Europa was apparently missing for 9 months due to a particular classified time travel incident, and nobody at then-Sixth Fleet seemed to notice…

– Johann Dvorak, CO

Deacon chuckled. “Not nearly, no. Vora has told me about a few of the more interesting, and not classified bits. I have to say that whatever is in the water at Black Rock is conveniently staying out of my fleet,” he said with a lopsided grin.

~Vora & Deacon

Johann couldn’t help but chuckle at that.

“You know, honestly,” Johann said a little quieter, and gave a very self-conscious glance at Vora before continuing to make his admission to Deacon, “I’m actually a bit worried about what being assigned to this fleet this long is doing to my career. I mean, not that I’m terribly ambitious or anything,” at least not anymore now that I have a ship… he left unsaid. “But I don’t think anyone at Black Rock really knows what we do in space every day. I write reports but I have no idea if anyone really reads them. And our last few missions have had stuff happen that really should have raised somebody’s eyebrows somewhere and at least prompted a few questions.” Like, the unusual number of times the Europa has collided with other objects while travelling in space, but especially the one time recently where Johann didn’t actually order it as an explicit tactical decision. Or the one time where Captain Dvorak shot an ensign on the bridge for abandoning his post during combat. Or how his entire crew actually began considering (but did not implement) regime change on the planet Grazer.

“I didn’t think much about it at first, because the first big mission we did under my command was one where we were temporarily attached to… another organization… so, you know, that’s kind of understandable. But I haven’t really had anyone from Fleet Command take much notice anything we’ve done even after that. Which, on the one hand, is great for things I’d rather purely-selfishly that they not notice, but isn’t really great for anything else. Plus this is my first command, and while I think I’ve probably done well at it, I’d expect more attention paid my way just in case I turned out poorly. I don’t know if that’s because I’m actually trusted to operate independently or if nobody’s paying attention to anybody.” The one thing that stuck out in his mind that might have given a hint one way or another was the one observation he made when speaking to Siennadye Nox (the alternate one) during their counseling session: he was now the longest serving CO in Black Fleet. But he didn’t actually know much about how the other COs were doing or why there had been so much turnover on the other ships, so it didn’t really tell him anything.

– Johann Dvorak, CO

Deacon seemed to be listening seriously and taking in what Johann was saying. Sitting back, Amherst frowned slightly. “Well, while I do have more years as a commanding officer, I will say that our mission profiles and assignments have been quite different at times, and that’s even considering we’re a science vessel too.” He folded his arms on the table. “If it would be helpful, I could make some well placed and discreet queries. See if anything turns up. It could be nothing, but if it is something, maybe someone outside of your circle can find something out?”

For her part, Vora just watched their interplay with curiosity. This wasn’t an area she had any direct experience in, even though she well understood how things might be if there was something going on more on the shady side.

~Deacon & Vora

Bump