Tactics

Posted on Wed Oct 10th, 2018 @ 2:13pm by Commander Rita Paris & Chief Petty Officer Jonas Kader

Mission: Hera v Hera
Location: USS Hera, Deck 4, Chief Flight Control Office
Timeline: 2395

The doors to the bridge opened to reveal Delta Shift manning it's stations, Chief Kader walked on without much eye contact or non-verbal interaction with it's crew as he made his way towards the XO's ready room. Duty Uniform withstanding, the Chief glanced over at the security station and the slightly young ensign working the control panel. It served as a reminder that he needed to review his lesson plan for the evening, studying for the SOCS test had recently took a back seat to his responsibility on-board the ship. Still, his personal and professional advancement was paramount.

Waiting to be instructed to enter, the Chief paused at the doors of Lieutenant Commander Paris’ office.

“If you are looking for the first officer, she’s never in there,” the ensign whispered to him. “If she’s in office she’s usually down in the flight control office on Deck 4, or she’s running around the ship if she isn’t serving bridge duty. But you’ll grow old and die waiting for anyone to answer that door, Chief.”

Kader looked at the Ensign, then back at the door before turning towards the Ensign and tapping his commbadge.

=A= Locate Executive Officer Lieutenant Commander Paris. =A=

=A= Lieutenant Commander Paris is on Deck Four, Flight Control Office. =A=

Kader nodded towards the Ensign and responded. "Thank you Ma'am." Turning away before allowing her to acknowledge back. Walking back towards the lift, the doors opened as the computer responded to the request for deck four from the Chief. A few moments later, Chief Kader was walking through the Flight Control area, eye's keen to the distinctive rank set on the collars as he made his way towards the Flight Control offices.

As for spotting the first officer, that turned out to be easier than he expected, although she herself was a bit unexpected.

Approaching the flight control office he caught a glimpse of a bright gold uniform that definitely stood out in the sea of black uniforms with grey shoulder accents and a hint of color at the collar to indicate department. A long-sleeved minidress, bearing a gold ribbon on the wrist shadowed by a broken ribbon above it hugged the rather pulchritudinous curves for the tall female human officer. Black leggings prevented her from creating an issue if she bent over, while black chunky-heeled knee boots covered her feet. Pale caucasian skin was evident, as the wide black accent offset V-neck collar bore the two solid and one broken pip that identified the woman’s rank, and as he watched she ran her fingers through the shock of relatively short blonde hair she maintained, sweeping it out of her eyes. Currently she was pacing the floor in measured military strides as she tapped away and at PaDD in her hand.

That...could only be his XO...Chief Kader paused for a second, then once sure it was her, made his way in her general direction.

"Commander Paris." He said as he stopped mid stride to allow a pair of officers to past between them. Once the path to her was clear, Chief Kader approached with his duty uniform in prepared condition as he made eye contact with her. Thought curious, he wasn't prepared to ask why all the activity on a relativity quiet portion of the ship, or what the XO's pacing actually meant. Instead, he closed-width on her and stopped within ear shot as to allow their conversation to be as private as the corridor would allow.

“That’s me. Come on in,” the unconventionally-uniformed officer answered, gesturing for him to enter the office.

"Chief Kedar...tactical. Do you have a moment?" His request was as mono-toned as his facial expression. No real sense of urgency or importance as the Chief wasn't the excitable type.

Inside the flight control office, the deck to overhead transparent aluminum walls offered a fantastic view of the Hera’s expansive flight deck, which occupied fully half of Deck 4. The officer in question stepped over to lean her rear against the front of one of the desks, then set her PaDD aside to focus on the conversation. Bright blue eyes took in the details of tall tactical chief in a casual inspection. “Of course, Chief. What can I do for you?”

As the door to the office closed behind them, Kader saw out of his peripheral what tantamount could have been the shuttles they were going to use in the cargo holds of Deck Four. Walking a little closer to the XO, his eyes locked on her as he spoke. "Commander the tactical teams are all set, Armory is synthesizing the mystical properties of the melee weapons as we speak and should be ready for dissemination within the hour."

Shifting his eyes away for a second, then back at Paris, he wasn't sure if his request was appropriate to bring to her. It would eventually make it's way to the XO, but his immediate supervisor was the person more apt to make the appropriate response and judgement. After all, breaking chain of command isn't how Jonas became a Chief. "They will be ready to move at your orders."

Picking up the tablet with a small frown, Paris tapped at it until the office door opened again. “Good to hear, Chief. Unless I’m mistaken, you’ll be going with team Selune with the infiltration and demolition team of Fine, Howard and Besser, and I believe that’s where your team will be supplementing. Team Thor has a separate mission, and Palmiotti, Conner and Bunche will be with me on that one. I had no doubt that the personnel would be ready, and Engineering has been working on the weaponry for a bit now, I’ve been following the reports.”

Eyeing the tactical officer with some curiosity, Lieutenant Commander Paris cocked her head slightly. “Something else on your mind, Chief?”

"No Commander, you've address everything with regards to the mission and team." In probably the only time he's shown some hesitation, Kader took an additional step towards the desk and spoke. "I did receive a protocol breech notification earlier about my presence on the bridge. Not that I'm complaining or anything, but I do have the security clearance to serve on board the ship, I am striving to take and complete the officers examination soon but not having access to the bridge for... administrative reasons at this point does make may job alittle hard."

Taking a pause, he added. "Can I expect that to remain the policy and figure a work around to this?" The restrictions in reality had nothing to do with rank and more to do with status. Unless your bridge certified or senior staff, the bridge was off limits. The concern, though small to maybe those qualified, was still a hindrance to ship personnel like Jonas.

"You want access to the bridge," the unconventionally uniformed first officer crossed her arms beneath her rather prodigious bust, and eyed the tactical enlisted man. "That's quite curious. What part of your job is being made hard by you not having access to the bridge, Mister Kader? Color my curiosity piqued." To the uninitiated, her question may have seemed casual. But the experienced tactical officer could tell, the curvy commander was sizing him up, studying him more intently while looking for incongruous details.

Kader glanced down at the XO's slightly exposed legs...a way of being polite while contemplating, for a a split second before looking back at her and continuing.

"This is quite the unique ship Commander, up until now, my training has had me as a tactical operative first and security professional second. Now because intelligence has a special relationship with the Hera, not only do I have to reverse those roles, but I have to train others to do the same. Now that's part of the job, I have no quarrel with that, but I am...by defaults, the second in charge of security onboard this ship. This gesture, would allow me the access needed to properly and effective be the security asset the Hera needs."

Taking another moment to think, he smirked and looked at her before continuing. "Besides...what's the worst that can happen?"

A small smile graced the face of the pin-up pilot, as she uncrossed her arms to grip the edge of the desk. “Unless I misread my chain of command, Chief, the head of your department is Lieutenant French. The second in command of your department would be Lieutenant Sexton. As enlisted personnel, you are a bit down the chain of command from being second in command of the department in which you work.”

“As for the worst that could happen, we could ignore the rules and start bringing unauthorized personnel onto the bridge and violating security protocols, given that the bridge is a restricted area for a number of reasons. Which of course could result in a great number of security leaks, and as we are an Intel vessel, that could be catastrophic. So if this is a test to see if I understand said protocols, I hope that I passed. If it is an inappropriate request from someone with a poor grasp of the chain of command whose job is literally security, I would be less than thrilled to hear it. So this was a hypothetical question to see if I grasped bridge security, right?”

While the tone was chipper, the smile did not reach those appraising eyes, which were watching his reaction carefully. Paris had offered the chief an out on his request, if he chose to take it. Now she was curious how this would play out.

"Hypothetical... of course, Commander." Chief Kader responded as the smirk slowly dissipated from his face. "And you'll have to forgive the insinuation, security...as it stands right now. Appears to be more than ready to adequately handle the responsibility of the USS Hera, with or without me on the bridge." Biting his lower lip slightly...he allowed a brief silence between the two of them before responding. "Don't mean to keep you for your work, I don't have anything else at the moment. Will you be needing me further?"

“No, Chief, I don’t believe so. But conversely, I have always held a special place in my heart for mustangs… do they still call it that anymore? When an enlisted is striking for officer rank?” The commander raised an eyebrow questioningly, then continued without awaiting her answer. “If there is anything I can do to facilitate your officer application, do let me know. It’s a noble effort, and I support you.”

Nodding once to her, he responded as he turned to exit the office. "I do believe that what they are called Commander, and I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Thank you." The doors to the office opened as the Chief walking into the hallway once more, disappearing among the faces and bodies of flight control towards the lift. The meeting was as productive as he'd hoped and knowing he had support from a member of the command staff in his pursuits meant a little more to him.

For her part, Paris frowned again at not having noticed the door, which she kept open as a matter of policy and had already ordered open once in the past 3 minutes, had closed again while she had been distracted. This time, mildly irritated, she sent the order to open and remain that way. Then a quick not to Lieutenant French regarding the discussion, which concerned her, and to the captain. After all, if the Hera had another potential security breach, better to get ahead of it then be chansing it.

“Getting paranoid in your old age, Rita…” the anachronistic astronaut muttered, returning to the tasks at hand.