Will They Suffice?

Posted on Sat May 6th, 2023 @ 1:43am by Commander Thomas Johnson & Lieutenant JG Nezuko

1,046 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Descent
Location: Main Bridge
Timeline: Before departure

Thomas sat in the centre seat, with the Captain still stowed away in her ready room, working on the stacks of padds. It left him with the bridge.

After having established herself properly in the Office of the Chief Operations Officer, Nezuko was ready to begin a full bridge shift.

She had arrived on the Tokyo just in time to enjoy shore leave on Risa, and when they returned the ship was still in dock, with no need for the senior officer to sit watch at Ops when she could be doing productive things elsewhere. So even though she had been in her position for a while, she had not actually sat at the bridge console for a shift yet.

When she entered the bridge from the turbolift, she went to greet Thomas, signing [Hello, Commander!] to him.

[Lt, how was your holiday, good I hope] Thomas greeted as he stood. [Please have a seat.] he gestured to the first officer seat to the side of him.

Nezuko had never really considered a future in command, but the offer to sit in the available XO seat was truly appealing. She sat and realized how much she could see. Her normal console on the left really only got a view of the viewscreen and her own station. From here, she could see everyone except Tactical and some aft stations, but even then, the acoustics meant that she could hear everything behind them even if she couldn't see it.

Those first few seconds in the XO chair gave Nezuko just a taste of the red shirt life, and she didn't mind it.

[It was very good, thank you!] she signed back. [Congratulations, by the way. Talia is a friend, and she messaged me about your wedding.]

[Thanks, it was fast. Not to mention now we are expecting our first kid] He replied as he sat down in the center seat once again.

The edges of Nezuko's lips could be seen curling up behind her rebreather, and her eyes shone brightly in joy. [Amazing! Congratulations! Tell me more!] She knew very little of Human or Betazoid gestation. She understood the conception process well but not much beyond it.

[Nine months and we will have our bundle of joy, honestly, I was not expecting a wedding so soon, let alone a kid. We only met little over a month ago.] Thomas stated as he stared at the view screen

[When it's right, it's right,] Nezuko replied, reaching her hands far enough forward that Thomas still could see them in his peripheral vision while looking ahead.

[Among Amphea, long term relationships are arranged by families, so one might meet their spouse once to verify compatibility and get their arrangement notarized the next day. We also mate for pleasure without consideration of how long we've known the other partner or partners. So time is not a factor we think of as influencing whether to bed or marry someone.] Her smile changed somewhat. [Let's just say that I also had fun on Risa.]

[Glad you enjoyed yourself] he replied as he looked back over to her. Standing once again [Lets show you your updated console shall we.]

Nezuko nodded and followed the XO over to the revitalized Ops station.

Walking over to the console he moved aside so she could have access to the seat. [First addition is this button right here.] Pressing it, it gave a dissimilar beeping, emanating at the centre seats. [If you dont want to attract attention... there is this pad here, which you can send written messages to either the centre seat or the first officers seat. This one here, allows you to send messages over to the other department consoles, should the need arise, just a drop down menu, and choose the right console you want.]

She sat and followed his hands as he signed and pointed to different functions. An obvious alert button and then more private written communications to each bridge station. Fantastic. Even better than she had on her last ship.

Nezuko decided to do a few little tests. First, she sent an alert to the command area and indeed the beeping sound could be heard. Next, she typed a message which read This is a test. If you can read this, please wave to the Ops station and sent it to helm, tactical, engineering, and Science I. Within a few seconds, the junior officers manning those four stations smiled and waved at Nezuko.

She also saw the small speaker built into the console. She typed the worst Test and sure enough a computer voice, feminine but dissimilar to the normal computer voice, said "Test". Nezuko bounced excitedly in her seat and typed some more. "This is what I sound like when I need to speak with you," the console said for her. "I love it."

[glad you like it] he said with a smile. [Is there anything else you require?]

Nezuko shook her head. [No thank you,] she signed. [Not now, at least. If I find some issue I will alert you right away. Thank you very much for this!]

[Everyone needs to have their own way of communicating, Lt. I do understand that you did have a way, which I felt was time consuming. Having to rely on a certain person, which I dont mind being as a way of communicating, can be frustrating. Or so I hear.]

[It's fine for the occasional meeting], Nezuko replied, [but that would have been awful during a crisis on the bridge. I would have used my PADD to speak for me before relying on another officer that way. But this is so much more useful, Commander. Thank you again.]

Giving a slight nod, [I am sure the other upgrades thats been done to your console, will be to your liking.] He replied. [I will let you discover those on your own. I will be taking a nap... in the centre seat.] He paused. [kidding] He turned and walked over to the centre of the bridge.

Nezuko nodded and returned her attention to the console, in part to manage ship operations for the next several hours, but also to explore the different upgrades Commander Johnson and the others had made for her.

RSS Feed