A new face

Posted on Wed Dec 23rd, 2020 @ 4:27pm by Commander Lillian Carter

1,031 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 2 - Echoes Of An Empire
Location: Xo's office
Timeline: MD3 0900

ON:

The transport from Earth docked at Starbase and from the airlock stepped Lillian Carter, fresh out the academy. She had spent the journey listening to her favourite Beethoven Piano sonata, trying to ignore the atrocious flying of the transport pilot. He was making rookie mistakes... sloppy turns, wasting thruster power, terrible acceleration to warp... It was lucky they arrived at starbase in one piece.

She paused and studied the information board, looking for where the Copernicus was docked. In starship terms, the Copernicus was tiny. She could run rings around a Galaxy class starship at impulse power. Still, Lillian was looking forward to taking the reigns and finding out what she could do and what small spaces she could squeeze her into.

Stepping through the airlock onto the ship, she immediately felt how much smaller the corridors were to the starbase. As well as listening to music on the way over she had looked at the deck plans of the Nova class vessel and already had the layout of all eight decks committed to memory. Right now, she was heading to the office of one Lieutenant Holt, the ship's first officer on deck 2, to report in. She had also read the reports on the attack on the Copernicus that had resulted in the loss of most of her senior staff which, had led to her getting this posting.

She stopped outside the door, brought herself to attention, and pressed the chime.

Tamaska was working out details of where she would arrange things in her office. Her office, this was still so strange and new. The chime of the annunciator made her jump slightly, almost dropping the black teapot she was holding. "Enter!" she called out, Still holding the black teapot which had the image of a wolf and evergreen trees behind it.

Lillian entered and came to a stop in front of the XO's desk, noting the quite intricate design on her teapot. Still holding her to attention, she addressed the first officer formally. "Ensign Lillian Carter reporting in Ma'am."

"At ease Ensign Carter, have a seat while I figure out a place to put this teapot and its teacups." motioning towards the tea cups which had little pine trees on it. She looked around then decided that the tea set would be safe and also look really good on the black shelf near the wall.

She turned and smiled, going to take a seat in a chair nearby Carter. "Welcome aboard." she said with a smile.

Lillian relaxed. "Thank you Ma'am. That's an unusual teapot. You know, some people used to claim they transformed into wolves during a full moon." She blushed "I studied mythology and I found lycanthropy interesting."

Tamaska chuckled, "My name Tamaska means Wolf, and my middle name Esmeray, means Dark Moon. And my last name means Son of the untouched forest. That teapot set was given to me by my parents." she gave Lillian a bit of scrutinizing look. "Hopefully you won't think I am a Lycanthrope in disguise, due to my name."

Lillian thought for a moment. "It would be unfortunate if I had to shoot the first officer with a silver bullet. I'm not sure the Captain would be too pleased with me. My transfer orders should be on the main computer." she added without missing a beat.

"Ah ha ha ha!" Tamaska said in a rather dry voice, then she grinned. "Very good, very good indeed." as she brought up the file on Carter. "I shall add a notation of subtle sense of humour, for my personal notes." she mused actually adding that to Carter's profile. "And no, Haistro wouldn't like losing his brand new shiny XO just yet."

Turning away from the screen, Tamaska asked, "Could I get you some hot chocolate, some tea? Something else you'd prefer from the replicator?"

"A cup of tea would be very nice, please. I had a rather... troubling journey here and I could do with something soothing."

"What type of tea? When I get some proper tea, you and I can have a proper cup of tea with that tea pot." Tam replied, as she made her way to the replicator. For herself, she ordered some green tea with honey and lemon.

"English breakfast tea with milk please." Lillian replied.

"What happened while you en route to the station?" Tam asked while waiting for her own tea.

"Oh, the transport pilot need a few more lessons in the simulator. Sloppy manoeuvring and poor piloting." Lillian said. "If it's one thing I can't stand, it's bad piloting. We were lucky to make the dock in one piece."

Tamaska's eyebrows rose at that statement. "That would have been terrifying if it was evident the pilot was slipshod in his skills. I would have imprinted in the seat of the transport if I were with that shuttle pilot. I noticed that it had stated that you are a rather skilled individual when it comes to the Helm. May have to see how you are on the simulations. Though I am quite certain you are better than I am when it comes to piloting."

Bringing over the tea that Lillian requested, as well as her own.

"Thank you Commander. By all means, look up my simulator score. I'm very proud of my academy record. In the theoretical navigation course, I scored the top in my class and only slightly below the top score which I believe was set by the current Commanding Officer of the USS Merlin."

Tamaska nodded as she looked up the scores. "Impressive, I will get some pointers from you then." looking up at Lillian. "You are certainly confident in your abilities." taking a sip of her tea. "And rightly so."

Lillian stood a little taller. "Thank you Ma'am. She finished her drink and set the cup back in the saucer and placed in on the desk. With your permission, I've got to go and find my quarters. Thank you for the tea."

"You are welcome, and dismissed." Tam said with a bit of a smile, "Will see you later then." she watched as the new Helmsman leave then went back to her work.

END

 

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