Posted by Lieutenant Darklis Castle (Chief Science Officer) in Department Check In:TAG CSO

Posted by Civilian T’Pris (Scientist) in Department Check In:TAG CSO

Posted by Lieutenant Darklis Castle (Chief Science Officer) in Department Check In:TAG CSO
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

Previously, not long before T’Pris shows up ..

Darklis stared at herself in the mirror and combed back an offending strand of hair that was simply not cooperating. Truly she was procrastinating and she knew it. At some time she needed to meet her ‘team’. Bouncing on her toes a few times that seemed to be her go to motivational means to psyche herself up for things she stopped and looked at herself. “It’s show time, girl.”

Soon she set foot into the ‘lab’ and stopped and looked around. As labs went this one was certainly larger than the one on the Matrix, but then a closet was larger than much on the Matrix. It didn’t hold a candle to anything at the DI. In her early teens she had been coaxed to read an ancient series of novels by a fellow called Adams, whose main protagonist had found himself on a space ship for the first time soon before Earth was going to be destroyed. His response was, ‘It’s a bit squalid, isn’t it?’ She had built up some kind of idea of what it would be and now, facing it, that was what came to mind. Well, squalid or not, it was hers.

Slowly she became aware that there were people in the lab. And they had all stopped and were staring at her. Had she been like this for how long? Was there a spot on her uniform? Or, God no, part of her lunch on her face? Unconsciously she brought a finger up to run along her lip. “Hi,” she said. “I’m new.” Well that was profound, and it showed on their faces. There were five of them. Two human. No, three. Two of them were identical twin women. Another was in the background, partially hunched and his head tilted oddly to one side. The other two who rounded things off were a Ferengi and what had to be the shortest Klingon she had ever seen, both male.

One of the two twins broke their side of the silence. “You’re Lt Castle. Welcome.” She noticed they had ensign pips. Sure, couldn’t be different to help her tell them apart. “I’m Tanya. This is my sister Talia. Over there is David. Our heavy hitter on the softball team here is HuS and last but not least,” she gestured to the Klingon. “Cash.” Well didn’t that seem appropriate. “The rest are off shift or out.” This was a science team? Seriously? Well, we work with what we have, was something her grandmother said, though the context there was always related to the kitchen and food. She glanced around to the sparse lab. That would have to change.

The Ferengi came up. “Welcome,” he said. “Nobody said that our new boss was going to be so .. beautiful.” There was a groan from HuS.
Talia chimed in. “Lt, Cash here is full of suggestions for improvement. His most persistent was that to facilitate concentration, his concentration, that the females would have clothing optional days.”
“Is that so,” Darklis said, focusing on the Ferengi who was looking hopeful.
“It was part of a cultural sharing, to learn about each other’s culture. A sharing of information,” he said.
“I have a cousin like you,” Darklis said, approaching him. “Always with suggestions like yours.”
“And?” Cash inquired? “What happened?”
Darklis promptly gave him a slap on the back of his head, then knelt down to his level, took the tips of his ears in both hands and lifted, just a bit. “Usually his mother would give him a slap and threaten to hang him up on the clothes line by his ears.” She let them go and then moved toward David. HuS looked on approvingly. Tanya could be heard whispering, ‘Why didn’t I think of that.’ Cash just rubbed at one ear tip looking. “I’m in love,” he said, starry eyed.
“Hello David,” Darklis said. David turned shyly away.
“You won’t hit me too. I do not say such things.” His tone was precise, but off. Darklis looked at him. Was he okay?
Surprisingly HuS spoke up. “He is autistic. But brilliant.” There was a challenge to his voice. Darklis had heard it before. Protective. It unnerved her, briefly.
Her tone moved an octave gentler. “I’m happy to be working with you, David. I don’t close the door of my cabin unless I’m sleeping. You can come by to visit anytime.” It seemed like Cash was about to say something but all Darklis heard was a slap and a muffled ‘Ow’.

“I’m happy to be here. Thank you for your welcome. My full name is Darklis Castle. I look forward to getting to know you and what all your specialties are and who you are. In an official capacity please use my rank. In an unofficial capacity call me DC.” She paused.
“Darklis is a good warrior name,” HuS said.
“I’m told by the First Officer that I’ve joined a family. I come from a large family myself.”
“How large?” David asked, interrupting.
“Quite. Come by and I’ll show you.” She continued, with David saying in a low voice ‘That wasn’t very precise’. “I hope that we can work like a family business does, doing our best work even if we squabble at times. I ..” her voice stopped as the door swished open and a Vulcan woman came in.

After she got a clean bill of health from Medical T’Pris made her way up to Deck 2 and found the Science Labs. She entered and looked around for the CSO.

~Dr. T’Pris

Six sets of eyes fixed on T’Pris who seemed to flit from one to another, finally landing on Darklis, or rather her pips. “Hello,” she said. “Can I help you?” There were some Vulcans at the Daystrom Institute (DI). DC had found them aloof and unengaging, typically only coming to life in work related conversations, or, curiously, in artistic expression. One, she knew, a man named Sren, engaged in a kind of meditative, interpretive dance, that she had always found quite laden with emotion, though that was quickly denied.
- Darklis, CSO

T’Pris realized immediately that she had interrupted some type of meeting and she soberly met each of the eyes that met hers before her gaze fell on Darklis last. “My apologies, Lieutenant, I did not mean to come at an inopportune time, or perhaps it’s not. I am the Civilian Science Consultant, Dr. T’Pris. I hope I may be of service.”

~Dr. T’Pris

“No, welcome,” DC said, recovering without missing a beat. The one thing one learned from a large and invasive family was that interruptions were something that one moved through like a fish through water. It was going to happen so one adapted from a young age. In the scale of interruptions, this was pretty small on the meter, though a little higher on the surprise gauge. “You beat me to the lab by about 5 minutes. I’ve only just come aboard myself.”

She turned to the others. “The twins here are Tanya and Talia,” she pointed to each in turn just long enough to get a smile from them and they in turn pointed to one another. “This is going to be interesting,” she said and corrected herself. “Talia there. Tanya here. In the back is David, HuS and Cash. By my glance at the roster there are another half dozen I’ve not met yet. And I’m Darklis Castle, but call me DC. It’s easier.”

“I’m hoping that we will all be of service,” she said, suddenly having a side thought of ‘am I really doing this?!’. Why do we have a Vulcan civilian scientist aboard? Has it to do with the Romulan kidnapping? She looked around the lab. It was really drab. “First off, do I have an office?” She clapped her hands together and glanced around hopefully. The others just looked at her. Talia, or was that Tanya, shook her head just a bit. They keep moving, those two!! “No? Oh .. okay.” No office? Well, it did look cozy here. One big room. It did look like it could be sectioned off. “Okay, let’s do this. Everyone carry on. I suspect everyone has something to do. If not, see me. Tomorrow I want to do a ‘thing’. This is all going to be on me as a test because I suspect you all know each other in some way. I want each of you, including you T’Pris, to bring a favorite food, a kind of appetizer plate. Preferably something that speaks to your world or culture you grew up in but it doesn’t have to be. And on it, a card that has your specialty on it. We’ll eat, have a chat, and I’ll go around and see if I can guess whose plate and specialty it is and in turn, right or wrong - probably wrong - you will tell me why it is so. Sound good?” There were looks about the few that totally were mixed.

Cash broke the silence. “Looking forward to it, Lieutenant. I’ll help with the setup. And, start the betting pool on how you will do.” There were some snickers from the twins. “What time?” he asked.

“Good catch, Cash. Let’s do oh eleven hundred.” She turned back to T’Pris. “But Civilian T’Pris, T’Pris .. how should I address you?” Just Pris? “Perhaps we can have a chat.”

T’Pris took a deep breath and quickly shoved aside her almost instinctive umbrage at the casual address. She was not Starfleet anymore, not a Medical doctor anymore, she had returned to the Sciences…the Civilian Sciences.
“I would prefer T’Pris actually.” She managed to get in during the CSO’s rant but just barely as the woman rambled on.

DC looked around, mentally gauging where everyone was when she came in and pointed to a spot, a small sectioned off corner area that had a third wall partition making it relatively private. “Lets chat over there.” That looked okay. Tall lab chairs looking more like bar stools sat around an oval island in the midst of this area. A counter was along one wall, lab equipment along another and the third had a large computer display. That was evidently the shiftable panel. The ship looked new. Was everyone new to the ship? Or at least was the ship new to everyone?

• Darklis Castle, CSO

“Oh now?” T’Pris felt thrown off her stride as she had thought the CSO meant later…tomorrow. T’Pris waited for the other woman to lead them.

~Dr. T’Pris