Minor Oversight

Posted on Thu Nov 15th, 2018 @ 12:50pm by Lieutenant Asa Dael & Commander Rita Paris

Mission: Escaped Pantheons
Location: USS Hera, Deck 8, Officer's Country
Timeline: 2395

The schedule of the ship's surgeon was a busy one, as was the schedule of the first officer. But despite both of them having opted to work 12 hour shifts, at 19:00 hours both were scheduled to be off duty. Which was why it was a curiosity to the young El Aurian physician that they had an official request to meet the full-figured first officer on Deck 8 at 18:00 hours. While she was known to be quite social in her off hours, Lieutenant Commander Paris was known to be professional during duty hours. Which made it a bit of a confusing request that she would summon the chief medical officer to the deck where her quarters were to be found- after all, she was not shy about visiting Sickbay for her medical needs.

A mystery, albeit minor, but a mystery all the same.

Doc Dael approached the indicated quarters with a smile in place. The day had been long but productive, and they were always happy to see Rita.

"Good evening, Lieutenant Commander. Doctor Asa Dael, reporting as ordered. How can I serve you?" they said brightly.

"Good to see you Doctor," the gold-clad lieutenant commander replied offering a somewhat chagrined smile. "It turns out, I owe you an apology. It seems in all of the recent excitement, I appear to have overlooked something rather significant, and it has shorted you of one of the benefits of your position. So, time for me to own my mistake and remedy the situation."

Puzzled, Asa cocked their head to the side, utterly confused. "I'm not aware of anything I'm lacking, but if you say so..." they trailed off quizzically.

“I do indeed,” Paris waved her hand before the door she was currently standing before, and the door slid open revealing vastly spacious quarters not unlike the anachronistic astronaut’s own. However, these lacked the vintage room dividers and the small touches of personality that marked the quarters of the curious commander of another age. Instead, these were simple and stylish, decorated in muted reds and browns and earthtones.

“Senior staff are the members of the crew who are prepared to lay their lives down before any others,” Paris lectured as she strode slowly into the vast quarters, easily four times the size of the quarters in which Asa was currently billeted. “They stand between the rest of the crew and danger more often than not, and the perks that they receive in return are seldom more than additional responsibilities and a lot of paperwork. This is yet another one of those responsibilities, if you will.”

“In starship combat, the prow of the vessel is highly likely to be damaged in a battle. Particularly with these viewports on the bulkheads that extend to the overhead. Thus there is great risk to those whose quarters are located there that should the shields fail and a hull breach occur, they might just lose their personal possessions. Sure, replicators cheapen the value of a lot of things, but we all know that mementoes can be very important, and gifts can often be touchstones to lives with which we no longer have contact.” Pa7using in the lecture, Rita Paris turned and smiled.

“You are senior staff, Doctor Dael, and this is Officer Country here on Deck 8. This is where the Captain, myself, Sonak, and all of the rest of the senior staff maintain our quarters. And as the Chief Medical Officer, it is your privilege to live here as well. Not without hazard, as I mentioned- they don’t give us these great big quarters just for the view. But if you would like a bit more living space, this is an oversight I have not yet tended to, and this is your right as CMO.”

“Wow,” Asa replied, taking in the large quarters in which they found themself. “This is…something. The view is really, really nice.”

Turning to Rita, the Doctor felt the open space surrounding them and said, “What do I do with all this space? Heck, I’ve never had this much room to myself!” They were smiling as they asked though, clearly happy to be welcomed to Officer Country.

“Well, I myself am also used to much smaller quarters, so I broke it up into basically an apartment. That was my solution,” Paris offered, gesturing expansively to the wide open space. “You could choose to clear the floor of furniture and have a vast open space, or just learn to adapt to the generic layout that’s offered here. This is one of these things that Starfleet is pretty liberal about in the modern day- your quarters should be an expression of you, who you are, what you stand for, where you came from and where you’re going. Maybe cover the walls with alien vistas you want to visit. Or order shelves and cover them with books.”

“You are limited by your imagination and the patterns in the replicator, Doc. So this is you. You’ll have Dox as a neighbor to port, and Counselor Jurot to starboard. The captain and I are right down the corridor, and down near the turbolift is Lieutenant Dauntless.” Turning to regard the young El-Aurian physician, Paris smiled gently. “Not much foot traffic on this deck, you might notice, because frankly there’s not much reason for the crew to be on this deck, and most of the time we’re busy working, so even those of us who live on this deck are here very often.”

Their mind spinning with possibilities, Asa’s eyes had taken on a somewhat manic quality, the beginnings of plans that may or may not be all that successful. “This is going to be fun!” they enthused. “I’ll clear out my previous quarters and move things down once I’m off duty.”

Watching the excited junior officer’s eyes dart about the spacious quarters as they considered the possibilities, Rita Paris smiled, a genuine little piper’s smile. Had she ever been that young and enthusiastic? It seemed like a million years ago that she was a Lieutenant, excited to be moving into spacious senior officer’s quarters onboard the Constitution that were a fifth the size of this palatial quarters. Seeing Dr. Dael boggle at the space, the perk, the view and the possibilities.

Which somehow made her feel young again.

“Well, if you need anything, you know where to find me, Doctor. I’ll be happy to help however you need, and I look forward to seeing how you express yourself in your own space,” Rita offered, although she was confident the frail physician would need no help in this matter. Young and excitable they might be, but they were destined for greatness, of that Rita Paris was certain. After all, she had seen officers come and go, and given her impressions of them, history had often borne out her intuition in such matters. One day the galaxy would know the name Asa Dael, and until then, it was her job to help foster that seed of greatness.