Solicited Advice

Posted on Sat Jul 11th, 2026 @ 1:19pm by Lieutenant Cyrin Xanth & Lieutenant Commander Christine J'Oh & Ensign Raven DeVine

Mission: A New Day at Midnight
Location: Med Deck
Timeline: Directly After "Welcome To The Fight"

Trying to walk and read at the same time was proving to be rather difficult on the Pandora, at least for the moment. With so many people still getting setup and situated, the corridors were rather busy. Cyrin found it nearly impossible to walk at his usual pace - fast, not quite a jog but definitely moving with a purpose - while examining the information he'd downloaded to a PADD. Right after meeting with the Captain, Cyrin had grabbed one of the devices, downloaded Omipro historical data onto it, and headed off to get the first task on his too-long list tackled. No time like the present, like they joked about in temporal mechanics.

There were a number of new crew getting their own medical checkups and records updated as he entered the main Sickbay, and for a moment he felt distress. Not only were most of the biobeds he saw occupied at the moment, but there even seemed to be a queue that had formed. A dozen people stood along a wall, waiting to be called. How long would he have to wait? Maybe he should come back later? But putting off responsibilities always gave him a stomach ache, so he'd wind up back here inevitably anyway and-

"Oh, Lieutenant Xanth?" a nurse said with a smile as he paused walking by with an equipment cart. "You can skip the line, sir. We're getting senior officers expedited at the moment due to the mission, and have been expecting you."

"Efficient!" the Trill immediately grinned back and slipped past the line, casting an apologetic shrug at those waiting. The first benefit of his position perhaps? He headed over to the empty biobed that the nurse pointed out to him, hopped up and took a seat. His legs swung beneath him as he lifted his PADD and tried for about the sixth time to read that first paragraph...

The Omipro civlization was a sophistocated culture at it's height approximately 20,000 standard years ago. While translation efforts of surviving records and inscriptions have been slow, so we do not know what they called themselves, we have made more headway in our analysis of other physical remnants, which this report will-

Efficiency had been on his mind too. With the pressure on due to time constraints, why not get his own regulation checkup out of the way, and have a chance to talk to the ship's Second Officer who had so kindly organized his department ahead of his arrival? When the CMO and SO were the same person, he could seal two subspace rifts with one tachyon burst. That was about as far as he got, the same spot he'd managed to reach each time he'd tried to read this so far, before he had to pause and look up.

Seeing the spritely Lieutenant enter the room, Raven DeVine gave a curious smile. She loved fresh faces, new people, excited energy. She also liked to see who could match her vibe, to weed out the pip-chasers and Academy-made robots from those with actual personalities and flair. Because she knew the captain. She had flown with Temple for years now, and she knew that as much as he liked his ship operating cleanly and efficiently, he also looked for people with spark and imagination. Officers who enjoyed their work and their time on the ship. Raven was just doing her due-diligence in figuring out who amongst the new crew members were going to make it on the Pandora. It was her duty, really.

Raven sauntered over to the bio-bed, her tall and slender frame practically floating over the tiled floor. She smiled sweetly to the young-looking officer as she approached.

“I’m Ensign Raven DeVine,” She stated, picking up a PADD to review Cyrin’s file. “And you are Lieutenant - no, that can’t be right.” She looked over his face, then to the PADD, then to his face again. She pretended to be studying it hard, squinting, judging. Finally, she shrugged with an exaggerated sigh. “Alrighty. Lieutenant Xanth. Why not. I will be performing your preliminary scans and getting your resting vitals for the Chief.”

"Nice to meet you, Raven," Cyrin said with only the smallest frown as he sat the PADD down next to him on the biobed. He tilted his head in a curious gesture as he did a double take. Even used to being shorter than most, she was so tall, and there was something more - intense? was that the right way to think of it? - to her presence that height alone didn't account for. His eyes were round, "What can't I be Lieutenant Xanth? I'm pretty sure that's what it says on the record, right? Or did they mix up my picture maybe?"

“It was the Lieutenant part.” Raven quickly remarked, a little bit of shade in her tone. “Now hush, your talking interrupts my machines.” Trying not to laugh, she picked up a medical tri-corder and began to scan over the Lieutenant’s body. She waved it dramatically over him, her face a picture of concentration. She wafted the device from his head down to his feet. Then she stopped, frowned, and waved the tricorder again over his shoes. She shook her head and tutted. “Are both of these yours?” She said sceptically.

Cyrin's mouth snapped shut with an audible click of teeth, but from the way he looked it was plain he wanted, needed to say something. He watched as she began the scan, practically vibrating from holding back and staying quiet. It seemed odd that he couldn't be a lieutenant, he'd been one for quite a while now. Well, okay, about two years give or take, but that was basically forever. Just when he almost couldn't stop himself any more, she asked him that question. "Huh?" He started down at his boots for a moment. Wriggles his toes just to be sure they were still attached to him and under his control. "Yes?" The look of sheer confusion as Cyrin stared back up at her was likely comedic, though he barrelled on ahead now that it seemed okay to talk. "Tricoders really shouldn't get intereference from sonic vibrations of this mangnitude. If you like, I could take a look at it for you to fix it maybe, or we can get you a new one out of the equipment locker."

Raven, unperturbed and without hesitation, threw in another question, “How often do you brush your teeth, Lieutenant?”

"Every day!" Cyrin said, confusion growing further. A touch of distress entered into his voice. "Oh no, do I have a cavity? Does my breath smell? I'm so sorry! Or maybe your tricorder is giving back errors, because of that malfunction. We should really run a diagnostic."

“Ensign.” Came a half-humoured, half-fatigued voice from behind them. Lieutenant Commander J’Oh approached, her eyebrows raised knowingly at Raven. Christine wore a pursed smiled as she arrived next to Ensign Devine, crossing her arms across her chest as she looked between Raven and Cyrin. “What are you doing to this officer?”

“I’m afraid it’s bad news, Chief.” Raven shook her head and frowned. “We’re going to have to take his appendix.”

As credulous as ever, not at all picking up on what was going on yet, Cyrin's eyes grew two sizes. He looked between the two women and delivered with dire seriousness, "If you have to, protect my symbiont at all costs. Please."

“Ooh.” Raven lifted the tricorder to her eyes as if she was studying it. “That’s what that was?”

Feeling a need to place her hand to her forehead, Christine sighed very, very loudly. “You are fine, Lieutenant. Please take no notice of the Ensign’s attempts to humour herself. Raven, has the bio-bed finished recording his vitals?”

“Yes, ma’am.” The Ensign nodded firmly. “Lieutenant Xanth is fit, healthy, and cleared to serve. Slightly elevated heart rate but I suggest that’s environmental. You gotta learn to relax, champ.”

“Go help finish preparing the triage kits for the Away Team.” Christine cut in, her tone showing that the time for banter was over. Raven nodded and winked at Cyrin before she strutted away. “I apologise, Lieutenant Xanth, Ensign DeVine is still learning the difference between professional and social interactions.”

There were several measurable seconds of silence as Cyrin processed what happened. Then he started to laugh. He'd followed along with Raven's ribbing without a single moment of insight, an easy mark the whole way through. "I should have expected-" he tried to get out as another round of laughter cut off his words. "Oh she's good. Wicked, but good." He wiped at his eyes with a sleeve as he got himself somewhat situated, though occasional chuckles lasted for a bit longer. "Hi. Doctor J'Oh, right? Or do you prefer Commander?"

Christine was pleased to see the Lieutenant could find it funny; she often wondered if Raven chose people because she knew they could. Christine nodded to the officer’s question about what to call her, “Commander is fine. I’m really just stepping in until a permanent Chief comes onboard.”

"It's nice to meet you, Commander. And Raven too." His shoulder shook with mirth again. "I guess maybe I'm a little wrapped up in all the work ahead. Relaxing will happen later. In fact, that's why I'm here. Nyx said you had already setup my team's duty roster and gotten them situated. Thank you for that. I was hoping I might um...what's that human expression? Pick your brain? About things a little too. If you have a moment?"

“Of course.” Christine nodded. “Come, you’ll all done here. Let’s step into the office.” She said, tapping at the bio-bed as a way of signalling it was okay for him to get up.

Christine lead the way across the Sickbay floor and towards an office at the rear of the department. They entered what was a clinically clean space - the far wall had furniture consisting of a rounded desk with two white chairs in front of it; a small armchair tucked in the corner. The room was surrounded with two book cases on the left wall, a stand with models of different historical medial equipment in between them; on the right wall there was a large screen terminal and a tall plant. It was all very functional and simple; not a lived in space.

The Lieutenant Commander made her way to sit in the chair behind the desk, inviting Lieutenant Xanth to sit as well. “What’s on your mind?” She asked.

He sat, but fidgeted, and flipped the PADD he'd carried with him between his hands as he spoke as if unable to fully sit still. "This is my first time being a department head," he started genuinely. "My last boss, on the Celeste, had a certain uh...way about her. I don't think I could ever manage her kind of leadership." Indeed, he didn't know enough curse words or how to be as foul-mouthed as she, while still maintaining good humour, nor would he ever be even half as intimidating as Lieutenant Torralba. "Not that I should be trying to copy her, of course. I know that much. So I guess, what I'm asking is, should I go with this memorized speech I prepared with this new team? I had the Computer help me refine it over the last couple of days, along with a suggested schedule about certain activities and drills to get to know their capabilities, but now I'm second guessing myself. Maybe I should go meet my team and just say whatever comes to mind? And just sort of...there's another phrase from Earth I liked. 'Wing it'."

Christine nodded along; following his words as much as she could but also wondering how much was truly relevant to act upon. Finally, she smiled, recognising the symptoms of the Lieutenant’s particular disease. “Have you also heard of the human phrase ‘first day jitters’?” She asked calmly. “This mixture of nerves, fears, and abundant excitement is a very common ailment for someone in your position. It’s okay to second guess yourself, everyone does. Even the most prepared officer will feel jitters when taking on a Chief role. I experienced this myself as I took on the Second Officer position. So did Captain Temple the first time he sat in that big chair. He’d probably not admit that, but it’s true.”

He shook his head in the negative over this first day jitters. But as the doctor described the symptoms, Cyrin did a bit of internal reflection. Yes, he had all of that, and then some. He wasn't normally this exciteable. Well, okay, so long as it wasn't something really fascinating like spontaneous polymorphism in a genetically stable species. That he could go on about, and at length. He took a deep breath, and tried to settle some of his...jitters. Then another deep breath.

“You don’t seem to be shy of public speaking, so I can understand why you’d feel confident in ‘winging it’,” She continued, focusing on his original concern. “But I do think brevity is best in this situation. People want decisiveness and clarity. A whole prepared speech might be too stiff and robotic, whereas going entirely without a script could seem vague and too informal. I would suggest just having some key dot points memorised that briefly outlines what you want to say and do, and then you let everyone get to work.”

"That..." Cyrin blinked in surprise. "That seems so obvious now. Why didn't I think of that? Christine, you are a genius, and I feel better already." So much so he'd relaxed to the point of forgetting titles like 'Commander' or 'Doctor'. "If I were them, I would hope my boss would be brief but friendly about it. I think I can manage that."

“Not sure about genius,” She smiled politely, “But I have had to sit through a lot of commencement speeches from new Chiefs and Captains. I liked the ones who kept it short and succinct.”

"Would you mind if maybe came by and asked for your advice sometimes? I know, trust myself and my training too, that's important. But you sure seem like you know what you're doing." He meant it as a compliment, and that already he would have no trouble following her orders himself. Probably.

“Of course.” Christine replied warmly, seeing the eagerness in his young-looking face. “One thing you’ll find on the Pandora, that perhaps you didn’t have before, is that we’re genuinely here to help each other. Ask any time you need something.”

"Thanks, Christine," Cyrin glanced down at the PADD in his hands, and if a medical scanner had been running at that moment it surely wouldn't have missed the spike in stress levels. "Oh. I really have to go. So much to do! Hope to see you around!" He didn't quite bolt as fast as he had on the captain, but fast enough that he had to dodge around Raven or risk running her over (or more likely bouncing off) on his way out of Sickbay.

“I told y’all you need to calm down!” Raven shouted at him with a disapproving shake of her head, watching as Cyrin disappeared around corner.

OFF