Professional Girl Talk

Posted on Mon Oct 15th, 2018 @ 7:09am by Lieutenant JG Teenah Spartacus & Lieutenant Lei Shan

2,114 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Food for the Gods
Location: Counselor Offices

ON

Spartacus was in a mood; she had been so light-hearted for a bit after a fine time of meditation and other lessons on Vulcan she was a bit muted in her usual attire; she had ESHa press her Silken Uniform that is dyed to Fleet colors, the Skirted option today was with black hose and to add some color to the ensemble she wore dangling silver ear rings and a tennis bracelet. The Skin shed from a Lizard On Alpha Centauri III had subtle properties of 'molding to the wearer' to form a very appealing contour and appear to be a second skin in many ways so her boots also had a muted glow.

She was on the edge of er desk reviewing the file of one Lei Shan; her mate is the Diplomatic Chief and her record alone was one of an Alpha Female driven to achieve. Having drive is a good thing and the woman was not all that much to press her own skills from the past reports. She might have a level head; Spartacus wondered how much of her Vulcan Mate had affected the Human female?

Waiting for the chime is the hard part, but Spartacus is used to it.

Shan glanced at the time as she hit the sensor for the counselor's door. She was usually very punctual, she prided herself on it, but in this case being two minutes late wasn't so bad. She'd been working and frankly that was more important than 'checking the box' on her on-boarding psych eval. So at only two minutes past the hour, she was here. And she had a pile of work waiting on her desk to get back to, so she had no intention of dawdling; this wasn't going to take long.

"Open Door Policy." Spartacus had stood to greet the new officer, though she did give 5 minutes to be 'Fashionably Late' to all who made an appointment. "Lt. Shan Welcome aboard." SHe extended her hand . "I am Spartacus."

Shan stopped a little short on entering the office and her gaze flicked up and down on the woman who greeted her. A skirt uniform? Who wore those anymore? Obviously no one who crawled a jeffries tube. The jewelry was just asking to get caught on everything, too. As the counselor introduced herself, Shan couldn't help but expect to start hearing echoes of 'no, I'm Spartacus', but when they didn't come, she decided that it wasn't a joke and was actually the counselor's name. "Shan," was the only introduction of herself the new Assistant Chief of Operations gave as she took the Orion's hand for a quick handshake. "And since you were expecting me, you obviously have my file."

"A little bit of light reading." Spartacus smiled. "But I prefer getting what information I need from the source." She gesture to a small sitting area with Oriental pot and cups for tea and some crumpets as well. "Please sit down and make yourself more comfortable while we chat."

Shan glanced at the tea set and groaned internally. Apparently, this was not going to be as quick as she had hoped. She sat and scooted back in the chair just enough to be moderately comfortable, but not leaning back or getting 'settled in'. She also didn't reach for the tea. She didn't mean to be here long enough for tea.

"I do not seem to be a very good hostess." Spartacus leaned back and crossed her legs at the ankle. "You are the new Deputy Chief of Operations." Spartacus began. "Not like the standard crew; you are getting into command positions and this will not be a short process." She cocked her head slightly. "You do know that I have a few questions that if you answer true and honest it will go quickly and if I do not get the needed answers it will take longer." She winked. "No one really likes the first time with a Counselor so I will try to make it as painless as possible." She could feel the tensions in the air; Lt. Shan did not like being here and her body language told her a little more than the ambient emotions that were in the air.

Shan managed not to roll her eyes, but it was a close call. "Look, I know- but I can assure you I'm not harboring any lingering stresses or suppressed trauma from my previous assignment. I've been on inactive reserve status," she said a little distastefully, "for months now, and I just want to get back to work. So the faster you can make that happen, the better."

"Okay, you want the short path to duty?" Spartacus smiled like the feline that lurks within some women.

"Do you actually have one?" Shan asked bluntly.

"Yes, but most do not like it." Spartacus shrugged. "If you want the quick way out here goes." Spartacus looked Shan square in the eyes. "Tell me something you would not want me to know regularly; nothing classified just something that you would not want a Counselor to know normally?"

Shan paused for a long moment of silence. "What? I'm confused. What do you mean, something I wouldn't want you to know?"

"A personal secret that you would not normally tell a counselor; something that you would not tell anyone else normally. Just a little secret to let me know more about you."

"Like what?" Shan asked. "I'm not big on secrets; if you ask me something I'll likely just tell you."

"Tell me something personal; not what one would in common conversation, but enough for me to know more of the real you." Spartacus suggested. "Some detail about yourself that is known and can be shared between you and I alone."

Shan shook her head. "Can't help you there. I told you; I don't have secrets. Even if I wanted them, I couldn't keep them. My Mate knows everything."

From you mate I do not expect you to," Spartacus corrected. "I said something you would not tell a Counselor." She emphasized the last word. "Open honesty is critical to any relationship of mating; love is based upon open trust but aside from your mate do you have a habit of being so open with everyone; you say you tell everything to everyone that asks?" Spartacus said, "The question is one more to establish a point that you are avoiding; tell me something that is secret from everyone but your mate. Something you would want no one but him to normally know. Open your mental defenses and trust me with something that can show I will keep that show of good faith between us." She looked at Shan. "As an example, I am quite impressed with how you are so able to have someone that there are no secrets between you; you are in the minority of most people I speak with . You are a lucky woman in my opinion. I do not give that complement often I assure you."

Shan shrugged. "It wasn't exactly something I intended, but when you truly Bond with a Vulcan... Well, it's unavoidable. As for your question, yes, I tend to answer most questions that people ask. They don't usually ask, though. You may have noticed. For instance, no one has ever asked about me and Savar, and just how deep a Bond with a race known for telepathy goes."

"I know a bit about how much depth can be wit an empath," Spartacus remarked. "But as I said you are fortunate to have someone like Diplomatic Officer Savar as your mate. He is an interesting individual from what I have skimmed from his file." She admitted, "I glanced at your file and naturally took some time to read his as well, he is a department chief and thus reports to me for counseling." She looked at Shan. "How is it to mingle the Human Emotional persona with Savar?"

"I'm not sure what you mean. It's no different than any other two people; everyone makes adjustments and has to make allowances when they get into a relationship. His being Vulcan... it's just not as important as you might think."

"You must love him deeply?" She noted. "That is a complement actually, it is a gift."

"Yes," Shan admitted. "I do love him." An amused smirk danced across her lips. "Good thing, too, at this point, because things would get really uncomfortable with our Bond if we didn't."

"Most Bonding does tend to be better with genuine affection and trust ." Spartacus pour her some tea. "Are you sure you do not want anything, call it a type of coffee break in the day?"

"No, thank you, I'm fine. Just ready to get back to work."

"I see that you are coming as the Deputy OPS chief, can I ask you as the newest member of the OPS section and a second in command; do you see any difficulties arising with your new position?"

It was a common thing, when new crew came in and were in charge over the established members sometimes it seemed like an outsider was coming in and there might be significant changes in the way things are handled in the future. She hoped Shan would not face that but it is a possibility?

Shan shrugged a little. "Not on my end. I know better than to come in and start smashing things right away- I won't be rescheduling everyone or asking for secondary overhauls or insisting that they start using the new redundancy checks on all biogel packs installed outside off a spacedock. Not the first week anyway," she said with a joking smirk.

"You are wiser than some deputy Heads I have spoken with." Spartacus complemented. "I heard that you came aboard while repairs were being done; the Command Staf saw your potential, have you had a chance to get any impressions of your fellow OPS people yet, kind of a taste of what you are getting into?"

Shan leaned back and touched her fingers to her lips thoughtfully. "Well, they're no slouches, obviously, and you've got a warrant on your ship who is some kind of savant with transporters. One thing did confuse me, though, the split between Ops and Comms. I've only ever seen that kind of departmental segregation on stations, where the amount of Comm traffic justifies a full department covering it. Why are they separated here?" she asked.

Flag ship I suppose?" Spartacus said. "I am not sure it was that way when I came aboard. The XO used to be the Department head for Communications; he might have a better answer for you?" She relayed. "I am glad we have a good OPS crew, if my replicator goes on the fritz it is good to know we have the better people for it." She glanced at Shan. "What I can tell you is that the Comm Section gets more of the XO attention and I have been told OPS has a more latitude to do things their way by the reports I get from OPS personnel." She smiled.

Shan's smiled turned curious and... a little mischievous. "Really? Thanks for the heads up. I'll keep that in mind when I do implement redundancy checks on every biogel pack installed on this ship."

"I work with confidentiality here, I hope you will return the Favor and not tell Commander Munich where you got the heads up?" Spartacus chuckled. "So aside from waiting before you put the crews to work is there anything else I can help you with, I am known to have a good listening ear?"

Shaking her head, Shan answered, "Not right now. I only just got back on active duty, after all, I haven't had time to develop any new neurosis or anything."

"Well if anything comes up I have an open door policy." Spartacus rose. "And if you just want a safe place to have a coffee break from the rat race I keep a warm pot brewing." She offered a hand. "I think you can be cleared for duty."

"Great," Shan practically bounced up out of the chair and grabbed Spartacus's hand for a quick- very quick- shake. "If I need you, I'll be in touch. And don't bother reminding me about my physical, that's my next stop, if they can fit me in right now."

"Be well Lt. Shan." Spartacus smiled.

"Have a good day," Shan said, almost calling it back over her shoulder as she headed out the door and made a bee-line for sickbay.

OFF

Lieutenant JG Lei Shan
Assistant Chief of Operations
USS Calypso

Lt. JG Teenah Spartacus
Counselor
PNPC Munich

 

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