More Help

Posted on Thu Aug 31st, 2017 @ 2:51pm by Lieutenant Commander Eneas Clio & Aewia Larani

Mission: When Iconians Deserve to Die
Location: Deck 13, Intelligence Offices

Now that she actually had people working for her, Clio had found her paperwork drastically decreased, along with the general workload she'd gotten used to. She actually had time to do other things, like reviewing duty schedules or catching up with reading sensor reports. Reviewing the schedules really took very little time; she just liked to know who was requesting days off and whether all the requests were able to be filled before forwarding the document to Mal. There wasn't actually much she could do with it anyway, other than tag which requests overlapped. Finding no such thing, she shrugged and sent the document on its way, instead focusing her attention on sensor reports.

Cosmic dust.

A stray asteroid or two.

Small increases in radiation that didn't honestly amount to anything.

Absolutely nothing of interest, which was just as well. Deciding to leave the sensor reports for the scientists to muddle through, Clio pulled up some information on Magna Roma and started skimming over it. She'd never been to the planet, but everyone knew the basic story. It was just something to do until something else came up to occupy her attention.

Aewia was nervous and excited. It had been a few years since she'd worn this uniform. There were no pips, but she decided that she'd best wear an intel uniform anyway, just to help keep herself focused. Checking to make sure her uniform and comm badge was straight, she pressed the door chime on Clio's office door and waited.

Clio wasn't expecting any visitors, but she set her PaDD down and checked to be sure she had the door unlocked. Since she hadn't been doing anything remotely classified, it was indeed open. "Come in."

Walking into the office, Aewia offered Clio a small PaDD. "Commander, I've been assigned to your department as a data analyst. I know my medical needs are great, but I hope to help out however I can and I hope that my personal knowledge and experiences with the Master can be an asset in the upcoming missions."

"Believe me, I welcome the help." Taking the offered PaDD, Clio skimmed over the information there. A fair amount of knowledge and considerable experience, and then her eyes fell on the name. Aewia Larani... Now that was a name she hadn't expected to see, not reporting in her department anyway. "I've heard stories about you, mostly from Nexi. Mostly I assume she exaggerates, but having looked at the reports that Fairchild, Stanson, and Santiago left... I'm a little surprised you stayed on board."

"I doubt she had to embellish anything at all. And those things they fought... I saw how they were created so with what coherence I had, I had a vested interest in seeing them stopped. That's why I'm still here." Aewia took a deep breath before continuing. "And now we're close to cornering the very source of those nightmares. I can almost feel him still in my mind at times. Watching and waiting. I mean, yeah I'm sure he kept the pieces of my brain he lobotomized, but being able to read my mind here from them is literally impossible so I'm sure it's just PTSD. Still, it's something that bothers me when I'm trying to sleep alone."

"Well. Commander Fairchild's notes are... rather graphic, let's leave it at that. As far as stopping the Master... I hope we can. I believe if we have the right weapons we can mortally wound him. If he doesn't bring his hellhounds with him." Reading about the apparent Baskerville hounds had been quite bad enough. Clio hadn't quite mustered the strength of will to watch the video of their attack. She didn't want to see them mauling Farenia... or anyone else for that matter. "PTSD is something I'm quite familiar with. I understand that sort of paranoia, probably better than most in the fleet. You'll get no judgments for it in this department, that I can promise."

"Thank you for that," Aewia replied with a grin. "And I promise to try not to read too many minds. The doctors were able to do some pretty miraculous things regrowing the parts of my brain that were removed and though a lot of memories are lost, I'm regaining a lot of my natural Betazoid talents and I was blessed with an overabundance of them. Unfortunately, that means relearning how to control them as well. Hence why I know a lot of little secrets about the entire crew. Crewman Swiron's mother is in the hospital and he's compiling data on the geopolitical state of Magna Roma for you rather than taking his shore leave to distract himself, for example."

"Really? Then why am I bothering to read this?" Clio indicated the PaDD on her desk with a little hint of a chuckle. "Just use your powers for good and try to stay out of my head. I have some Vulcan training, but I'm not as hard to read as an actual Vulcan. Obviously." She paused for a moment. "I do hope you don't already have my secrets."

Aewia chuckled softly. "I apparently pulled secrets from the head of an ancient Iconian demon so there might not be much hope of that. I'll do my best though. Really, unless I'm trying, it's just things that people are preoccupied with. So... On the schedule I received, I have mornings off and only work afternoons to accommodate medical needs. Is that ok? I can stay late now and then, if you need me to. It's just that no one wants me to push myself too hard yet, is all."

"Iconians. Ugh." Iconians were often more trouble than they were worth. Clio didn't have to actually meet any to know that. "Your schedule's fine with me. On my assignment previous to the Katana, I worked half shifts for at least six months. So if anyone wants to complain, I'll shut them down. I doubt anyone will though... we're a pretty laid-back bunch for an Intelligence department."

"Excellent," Aewia smiled again. "I assume my first assignment will involve the Master. I've already updated our info on him with what I've remembered several times, but is there anything you'd specifically like me to tackle? I've completely lost all memory of my academy years but I still have more knowledge of data analysis on the subject than anyone else in the department. I could also do data mining in the recovered databases, if you prefer. I know that's a lost art and I doubt even Daytona is very experienced at that."

"If you could help Daytona with the mining and analysis, that would be great actually. He's done all right so far, but it would go faster if he had some help, I think. I tried, but staring at a screen for that amount of time... I just can't do it anymore." Clio decided not to elaborate on why. She didn't discuss her health problems with many people; even Mal didn't know the specifics of why she had to take a break from lighted screens after a few hours. "Besides, I'm sure he'd appreciate a break now and then."

"Ah yeah... migraines can be nasty like that. You should probably get that checked out." Aewia couldn't help but pick up on that little tidbit of info - it seemed harmless enough to her. "Back on the Spectre, I could sit in the datamining terminal for twenty six hours straight without breaks once a week. Farenia was part of the team back then and we were training for the mission into Romulan space that started this whole thing for us. Fun times indeed."

"I've had it looked at. Everyone says the same thing. Too much stress, not enough water, make sure you eat at regular intervals, rest when you need to, blah blah, more unhelpful medical-ese. Sometimes they treat the pain... sometimes they don't. All I know is doctors tend not to listen so well." Clio was willing to overlook that tiny intrusion, seeing as how that tidbit was going to make its way to Aewia's ears at some point anyway.

"That's... unhelpful..." Aewia frowned for a moment, trying to think of some way she could help, but nothing came to mind.

"It is, which is why I don't go to them unless I absolutely have to. Anyway." Clio cleared her throat. "You didn't come here to discuss my problems. I'm sorry I brought it up."

"Oh no, it's perfectly fine. Anything I can do to help, I'll do." Aewia grinned again, a bit more goofily this time, but quickly recomposed herself.

"Well, there's not much you can do about any headaches, but I appreciate the sentiment." Clio grinned. She couldn't help it; she liked Aewia and all of the woman's little quirks. "I was serious about us welcoming any help we can get. For a while, it was just me and Nexi... and then just me and Nexi with a little help from our resident crazy jarhead that somehow we've all come to love. I got used to it, but it's still nice to have the work shifted around a little."

"Yeah nearly eight hundred people aboard and finally after this last refit we actually have people in the Intel department aboard an Intel ship assigned directly to Starfleet Intel Command. Technically, there are one hundred fourteen Intel agents aboard the ship... But not all of them are assigned to your department. One of them is the Captain, of course. Some, like Crewman Dedjoy, are technically sleeper agents..." Aewia was rambling now, finally comfortable in 'letting her hair down', as it were. "Anyway, it's a pleasure to be working with you, Ma'am."

"Exactly, and I know all about Ila. I haven't found the others yet, but I will. And it'll be a pleasure to work with you too... between the two of us, we should be able to drive Nexi absolutely crazy. It'll be fun." Maybe it was unprofessional to torment one's crewmates, but Clio wasn't exactly a paragon of professionalism.

"I look forward to it," Aewia replied with a lopsided grin. "She hates anything with flavor, by the way. If you eat anything with a spicy aroma near her... Anyway, I should probably get my desk setup and let you get back to work."

"Yes, please get your workstation set up the way you like it. If you need any special accommodations, let me know. I can get Mal to authorize any changes we need to make." Clio had been enjoying the conversation, but there was always work that needed done. And they'd have plenty of time to socialize along the way.

"I will, thank you Commander." Nodding, Aewia excused herself and headed out of the office and claimed her new desk and began reconfiguring the terminal and familiarizing herself with the new touch interface design.

As Aewia headed out of the office to begin setting up her personal workstation, Clio went back to her reading about Magna Roman. While Crewman Swiron's notes would no doubt be helpful, she needed to know as much as possible before going there.