The Start of Something New

Posted on Wed Oct 30th, 2024 @ 5:47am by Commodore T'has & Captain Mela Meaki & Commander Lukas Hartmon & Ensign Yiasen Laed

1,419 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Daily Operations and Crew Enrichment
Location: USS Midway - Bridge, Ready Room
Timeline: Stardate 133426.74
Tags: Captain, Tactical, Bridge, 133426.74

As expected, the ride to the bridge was short and sweet. It did offer Lukas a moment to reorient himself after being poked and prodded at the doctor's office. He wasn't against doctor's by any means, after all, he basically considered sickbay his home away from home, given how much times he's spent in them. He took a deep breath to come back into the moment as the turbolift doors parted, revealing his primary workspace, the bridge of the USS Midway. He stepped out ahead and looked around. The watch officer looked up at him and stood.

"Commander Hartmon," he said. "The Captain is expecting you." The young lieutenant gestured towards the ready room, indicating Lukas to get a move on.

Lukas walked over, thanking the lieutenant for the direction and signalled his presence outside the captain's ready room.

"Come in!" A melodic female voice could be heard from inside the room. The doors opened to reveal a wide open carpeted room with deep blue lavish couches, a big desk in the center of the room with an office chair and bunch of papers all over the place, the walls were a deep blue as well. Sitting behind the desk was a disheveled looking female Betazoid seeming to be looking for something on her desk. "Oh hello Commander, you must be my new Chief Tactical Officer." She said, looking him up and down at his crisp uniform. "Come in, sit down please. Sorry about the mess" she said looking at her desk. "It's quite the mess of things on the midway right now. I don't have a new XO yet, nor a second officer even, the only two department heads I have currently are you and the new Chief Science Officer that's arriving. The remainder is Assistant Chiefs acting as department heads. Yup, the midway is a mess since our last battle with the Dominion. Fleet Command is just now beginning to send us replacements." She said sighing. "Anyways, welcome to the midway" she chuckled.

"Thank you," Lukas said in response. "Though we didn't see any direct action, a lot of the ships in our sphere of influence were redirected to the effort, so our garrison ships on 72 got a lot of mission opportunities." He thought about the many missions he'd not only been on, but commanded. As one of the ranking officers in the department on Starbase 72, he frequently was granted opportunities to take the garrison ships out for a spin. "There was always something that needed doing.

"That must have been an interesting position to be in for you. Well if it weren't for those garrison ships, Alpha Fleet may not even exist so thank you". She smiled broadly at him and then continued "Alright, so I'm going to need you to complete a detailed initial tactical/security assessment of the entire ship and operations. I'm also going to need to you to complete the same assessment as per Alpha Fleet and Federation protocol for our upcoming mission to unchartered space. You can find all the required information in the mission briefing in the Alpha Fleet files." Just then there was a buzz at her door once again. Looking confused she looked up at the door and said "Come in!"

The doors opened once again to reveal a tall male Andorian with the badge of a Commodore. Captain Meaki immediately rose and stood at attention, saluting the newcomer. "Commodore T'has! I had no idea you were going to be coming today. What brings you to the Midway? I thought yourself and Fleet Admiral Roayru went to Vulcan for a conference?"

Chuckling, T'has said "At-ease captain. Yes, my visit is unexpected for even me. The Fleet Admiral received orders direct from the Minister of Science & Technology. I am sure you know what I'm talking about" he said eyeing the human male suspiciously.

"Oh yes, order 101-Alpha-1B. But I've already got my orders so then again, I am still confused what brings you here, not that we don't enjoy having Fleet Command aboard the Midway!" She said with a save.

"Well, with it being a very highly sensitive order, I was ordered to supervise it being built. So I am here to do just that. Admiral Roayru wanted me to portray her deepest apologies and that it has nothing to do with your competence but because it came from even above her head, she wants someone in Fleet Command monitoring the situation. I am only here until it's built and then I will be departing." He smiled but said with a sternness that said this is not up for debate.

Smiles back, Captain Meaki replied "Not a problem Commodore, please let me know if there's anything I can do for you during your stay. In the meantime, I'll have Ensign Laed provide you with some quarters." She proceeded to call Laed over her com.

A few minutes later, Commander Hartmon and Captain Meaki were alone once again. "Well, that was certainly unexpected, sorry about that. Now, I presume you understand your first assignment?" She looked at him expectantly.

"Certainly," Lukas said quickly. It was standard procedure when taking command of a new department. Making sure to get the lay of the land and understand everyone's strengths and weaknesses was important for a department head. Everyone had their place and it was his job to make sure he knew what that place was. But then, he did have one question. "I don't suppose I'm allowed to know what it is, am i?"

Chuckles a bit and then Meaki replies with "Unfortunately not. That is an Alpha level classified project. Even the ones working on it don't actually know what it's for yet. It's on a very strict need-to-know basis only."

Captain Meaki then starts typing away at her monitor for a moment. After she stopped typing, she looked back at the Commander. "Now, as my Chief Tactical Officer, I need to know what makes you tick. Tell me about yourself a bit. I've already read through your record, it's why I chose you but I want to here your story from you directly. Give me a brief summary of who Commander Hartmon and what made him the way he is today." She said sitting back awaiting his reply.

"Very well," Lukas said in reply. He paused a moment before telling his story. "I overthink things. Everything to be quite honest. Its been part of my flaw category since I was a child, but Starfleet trained me to harness that fault and use it to my advantage. I spend all day every day dreaming up scenarios from the universe around me. Everything in existence has some piece of information to offer me so that I can have a more clear picture on how I make my decisions and how I lead my teams." He took a breath. "My job is to think of this ships obstacles and overcome them before this ship even comes across them. And I take that very seriously. Starfleet taught me that."

The captain smiled approvingly. "Good. Well, I've decided to appoint you as my Second Officer for the moment because we do not have a Chief Operations Officer yet and I need some help up here in command. Your responsibility is first and foremost the Chief Tactical Officer position but you now also have the temporary added responsibility of Second Officer. I've already gone ahead and requested the proper approvals to bypass the ops policy. Your command codes are 27-Bravo-Hartmon-Charlie. I trust you know this must be kept confidential. If anyone ever questions you, your approval ID from Admiral Saakom is 1011A. Any questions?" She looked him expectantly.

Lukas thought for just a moment before shaking his head. "No sir, I'm eager to get started." He was surprised at the elevation to second officer, but given the need, it was a position he'd accept for the sake of the crew. Having a proper chain of command was important.

"Perfect!" Smiling broadly and ordering Ensign Laed back to her ready room through her com. "Ensign, take the commander to deck 3 and show him his quarters". The Ensign nodded an acknowledgement and motioned for the commander to follow. Together they disappeared back into the Turbolift and down to Deck 3 where he was shown his quarters he was assigned which was Room 10, Deck 3. "Let me know if you need anything else sir." And he disappeared back down the hall with a quick smile at the Commander.

 

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