Conversation

Posted on Tue Jul 5th, 2022 @ 7:49am by Captain Dirk Taggart

Captain Taggart walked through the ship on his daily rounds, he tried to visit a different department at random everyday, he saw his intelligence officer near the Navigation room, "Lieutenant Trall, how are things?" he asked the fellow officer.

Trall was caught up in some paperwork on his PADD, walking a bit aimlessly, doing some routine checks. At the sound of his name, he immediately stiffened up and follow the sound of the voice. Seeing the Captain, he had a minute of panic. He has already been on the ship for two days, and got so caught up in hitting the ground running, he now realized, he forgot to do the most important thing a new crew member can do, and that is to go speak with the Captain.

"Captain Taggart. Sir. Things are good. I apologize for not coming to see you when I boarded. Lot's of paperwork, and sometimes I get a bit hyper focused on the job."

"That's ok Lieutenant, I've been meaning to speak with you, I wanted to officially welcome you aboard. I'm glad to see you hitting things at warp speed but I don't need you burning out on me your first month here. From what I understand I believe this is your first attachment as the Chief intelligence?"

Trall's tail tucked just a little low and if you could see his skin under the fur, it would be a little flushed. "Yes sir." he said nervously.

"But I assure you I intend to do the best I can for you. I have many year experience with StarFleet Intelligence. Not that you wouldn't already know that sir. You have obviously seen my record. Not that I think you would ever take someone on without fully vetting them..." He realized he was doing a bit of nervous stammering. He shrunk a little into himself. "... Sir."

"Please take a deep breath, I put my pants on one leg at a time like anyone else," he said with a chuckle in an attempt to inject humor to calm Trall down a bit. "I was hoping to discuss some things with you later and get your perspective on some events."

Trall closed his eyes and took that deep breath. We even splurged and took a second. He could walk into a room of Romulan smugglers with all the confidence in the world, but you put him in front of the commanding officer, and he will start to babble like a new kit.

"I'm sorry sir. I have worked very hard to get where I am. You would be surprised how much effort it is for a Caitan to be in intelligence."

He gestured at himself.

"It's not easy for us to blend into a lot of rooms, especially since physical alterations never looks quite right on us." He smiled a bit. "I also have a bit of 'white coat syndrome' when it comes to one on one's with commanding officers."

Trall now looked much calmer. "I would be happy to discuss anything you need Sir. If there is any data you need me to review, please have it sent over." He suddenly looked panicked again. "Not that you need me to tell you to send things to me." He immediately stopped, took another breath and continued. "I'm sorry sir, I promise it won't always be like this."

"It will be fine Trall, I was wondering if you had heard of a rogue group operating in the area known as the Syndicate. They're led by a reptile looking man named Dravick. They're based on Ketram. A couple of our crewmen were kidnapped and we were able to mount a rescue, but I was hoping you could dig deeper and maybe gather some more intel."

Trall glanced down at his PADD, "Yes sir, I have been reading the reports. Very disturbing group with their hands in a lot of very disturbing fields." He suddenly looked lost in thought for a second, "I wonder." He then snapped out of it. "I'm sorry sir. I have some ideas that may help us. I will write them up and have them on your desk by morning."

"Sounds great, in the mean time I'm going to go grab a cup of coffee, things are quiet, at the moment and we should be entering the orbit of Tabula Rasa tomorrow." the Captain asked.