[snip]

Glen had prepared the Ready Room for the meeting he had called. He hoped that his department heads would come along ready to discuss their particular subjects of personal interest or such that could work as a Q/A session at the Academy.

Nkosenye came in, PaDD in hand. He looked at the Captain and said “Sir. Good evening.” and took a seat.

The CoS was followed by Cross ‘’Captain…Lt’’ she gave them a quick nod then looked around ‘’Coffee Captain? No coffee Sir? Where is the darn coffee?’’ the female doctor asked as if her life depended on it.

Just then, Faith brought in the coffee machine with milk or cream and three kinds of biscuits.

Cross was surprised to see the Captain’s niece and wrapped both arms around her ,that is once she put the tray down ‘’Faith where have you been?’’ the doctor asked as she caught sight of her friend ,clearly delighted to see her.Making a cup of coffee she asked Faith if she would mind sitting next to her.

“I’ve been working as usual; my clerical, secretarial and girl Friday duties; and also looking after that cat. Oh! And making coffee for you! And I’d love to sit next to you, but this meeting is for the senior staff and I really have too much to get finished so I can get back to writing my novel, See ya!” replied Faith.

Kord, as usual, stood to the right of the Captain’s chair. He was the silent monochromatic statue watching the proceedings with his piercing blue eyes.

‘’Cmdr’’ Cross said giving him a slight nod and a sheepish smile wondering if he even remembered.

Once everyone had finished the small talk and poured their coffee, Glen brought the meeting to order. He wanted it to be informal, but on the other hand, they did need to present some kind of list to Admiral Rose by the following morning, which didn’t give them a great deal of time.

“So, if we can all find a seat, has anyone come up with any ideas already?” Glen asked.

William, having sat down, put his PaDD on the table and smiled slightly “My problem is the overabundance of ideas.” He spoke as he poured a cup of coffee for himself “Although seeing as this is my first spacefaring mission in several years and I can’t hold a lecture on my time in the think tank because classified so a guideline on what I can talk about for this mission, mainly can I talk about the reality-bending stuff we saw on the planet itself?” he asked sincerely.

Kord wasn’t sure what he could talk about. Living for so long there were lots of things he could talk about but would any of it be of interest or relevant to a classroom?

Cross stood silent, not because she did not know about her presentation but rather keep the aim to herself which would ultimately result in a possible course of action.

Glen was a little disheartened that only Lt Grey spoke. Still he could run with that for now. “You can certainly discuss the force field that turned everything upside down. I can’t see anything hush-hush about that. You will need to try to explain it, and how it might have been achieved, or to relate it to work currently underway in Starfleet now, otherwise you could just say how you must always expect the unexpected and explainable. As for your time in research and development, there must be projects that have had tangible results or palpable improvements that you can point to and say, I helped bring that change about, and that it saves time and energy, and how makes life on a Starship better.”

“Myself, I was thinking of not talking about work at all. I thought that the students might be interested in the other opportunities that travelling the Galaxy gives to you. I’ve been able to pursue my interest in archaeology in ways that would have been impossible on Earth. I regret that I have never been on an actual ‘dig,’ though there is still time for that. However, I’ve had the fortuity to be able to visit the Museum of Izurite Antiquity within hanging gardens of Ekkaia, and the Starfleet Museum on Alpha Centauri where I saw a Romulan Vrelnec. I could also speak about some of the alien races we have met, particularly the Romulans. I’ve spent quite a lot of time with Commander Andone, and also her daughter, which undoubtedly would have to be a secret. Still, very few people have met Romulans at all, and we are quite privileged in that respect. The third advantage we have is the culinary delights we get to experience. I think I could give a talk on the unusual foods, drinks and snacks we have encountered. I’d be happy to give that one up to someone else though. Klingon food alone could probably provide material for an entire lecture.”

“Anyone else?” asked Glen.

Cross quietly stood up and the only reason she did was not to disappoint or disrespect Glen in anyway ‘’Captain obviously I’m going with medical, most probably choose a branch from the extensiveness of the subject and well ....guess for now I can say I’ll go with the flow’’ .

“That makes sense,” replied Glen. “Plenty of unusual medical problems that you’d don’t get on Earth. Never a dull day in Sickbay.”

Nkosenye spoke up after Cross. “I plan on speaking on the integration of on-site scans into real-time security plans for Away Team missions. I think there is a lack of training with regards to that in the current curriculum.”

“That’s also a good suggestion,” said Glen. “Make it a little lighter than it sounds though, without trivialising it or playing down its importance. I see our role here as primarily to provide enthusiasm for joining ships of exploration, as opposed to taking an office based assignment. So, I don’t want to put them off by playing up the dangers of alien conflicts, diseases and parasites. I want to show how fun and exciting our jobs can be. However, there are serious matters to be discussed too. These cadets are the future of Starfleet and they will take the decisions about any changes that will happen. We have an opportunity here to influence them and to make them see things a different way. So, we ought to make use of that.”

“Has anyone got any ideas that are a little more off the wall and wacky?” Glen asked. “Don’t be afraid! There will be no criticism of any wild ideas.”

Glen, CO