<snip>

“Sure,” Thomas said, standing up from his desk. “You’re certainly not wrong about that.”

He headed out of his ‘office’ and gestured to the room beyond it. “The bullpen. It’s got a desk for everybody, a lavatory and a replicator. Open plan because collaboration between colleagues is important.”

He pointed to the side wall across the room from where they were standing, where there were three doorways.

“Door number one leads to the interview rooms, door number two to the armory and door number there to our holding area. Take your pick.”

COS

It took Magnus less then a heartbeat to make his decision “The armory if you will” He said with a half-smile. After two years on Earth he’d only had the chance to use training weapons. He knew his fondness for weaponry was generally a frowned upon thing in this day and age but there was something alluring about them.

XO

“Armory it is,” Thomas said, quickly walking across the room and inputting his command authorization to unlock the door. It slid open to reveal 60 phaser rifles, and an equal amount of hand phasers, plus a handful of various types of heavier weapons. It was more than enough to outfit the senior staff and the entire security team, but if the ship were ever boarded, their resources would be quickly overwhelmed.

COS

Magnus walked around the room, looking at the weapons for a few moments “Maybe not as many as I’d like but I don’t think we’ll be heading into many situations were they’ll be necessary.” He looked back at the Security Chief “Tell me, has the Genesis been in many combat situations during your tenure?”

XO

“This ship, no, she’s brand new,” Thomas said. “The old Genny, yes. Her first combat situation with me was unfortunately also her last, because my battle management ended up destroying her.”

COS

Magnus raised an eyebrow questioningly. He was aware of the ship’s relative newness but as he understood it things went differently than McGregor said “How do you mean?” He asked “As I understand it your actions saved a lot of lives”

XO

Thomas shuffled his feet and looked away. “Yeah, but I’m always wondering if there’s a way I could have pulled it off without causing catastrophic damage to my own ship. There were a few who didn’t make it off, that day, could anything I did differently have saved them?”

COS

Magnus was quiet for a few heartbeats “I understand” he said with a slight nod “It’s the feeling of guilt of not saving everyone that’s the worst, survivors guilt on a different level” He really did understand how the man felt “I guess you have more than a few drills run to keep ypur people fighting fit, not much to secure here” He said changing the subject.

XO

“At least one per week,” Thomas confirmed, grateful for the change in subject. “I try to change it up often, never run two similar scenarios in a row.”

COS

Magnus nodded in approval “Are any scenarios where your staff excel and anywhere they don’t?” He asked in a critical manner, a Security Chief who knew his own staffs strengths and weaknesses was more important to Magnus than having hundreds of rifles or a squad of marines on board.

XO

“My refined 24th century sensibilities should be ashamed to admit that they struggle to talk down a group of belligerent, intoxicated Klingons, but that might be a side effect of my programming more than anything else,” Thomas said. “The raucous bar scenario always ends up in a fight, and I won’t say I’m disappointed, because that’s happened to me in real life more that I’d care to admit, but I do feel like it shouldn’t happen every time.”

COS