Posted by Captain John Tiberius Glen (Captain) in Reporting in - Captain’s Ready Room
Posted by Lieutenant Inola (Communications Officer) in Reporting in

Inola took a deep breath before knocking on the door in front of her. She had already made a first impression, but showing up at a briefing late wasn’t the one she had hoped for. Hopefully this would go better. “May I come in sir?”

Captain Glen usually left the human resources paperwork to Kord, his First Officer, however he made a point to meet all of his officers, and as a Bridge Officer, John knew that Inola would be someone he would come to rely heavily upon, in those times when you really needed people you could rely upon. Therefore he was keen to meet her in more quiet surroundings than the full officers briefing.

“Come! Please!” he replied.

“Take a seat,” Glen said, “Would you like a drink?”

Inola came in quietly and sat down in front of Glen. She shook her head lightly. “No thank you, sir.”

Once the pleasantries were done, Glen asked Inola, “Tell me more about your experience and former positions?”

Inola answered with an easy smile. “Well, this is my first actual ship. I was posted on a small Starbase for a year and a half as their communications officer, right out of the academy. Unfortunately, they didn’t really need a Comms officer, so I ended up as more of an HR department. I sent memos out, did some side translation work, and solved interpersonal problems.” She laughed a bit. “It wasn’t awful, but I took this position as soon as it was offered.”

She paused for a moment. “It’s not much, but I have some non-Starfleet experience too. As a kid on Cerberus, I translated for visitors to the colony. It was more efficient than our Universal Translator.” She shrugged. “It’s not very official, but it made me pretty good at learning in the moment.”

“That kind of experience may prove very useful,” replied Glen. “The nature of our missions out on the edge of known space mean that we come into contact with less well known species, and often some totally new. This often tests the UT to it’s limit, as is the case with this present mission where the UT translated several phrases as ‘unknown words.’ So, often we need more than a communication exchange operator, we also need an interpreter, a reader of body language, a decipherer, a code breaker, and a translator. I’ll need you to come away on missions, in landing parties, and to think on your feet. Does that sound like something you can do?”

-Glen, CO

Inola nodded confidently. “That’s what I do best sir.” She let out a happy sigh. “I knew this was a great offer.”
-Inola, Comms