More the Merrier

Posted on Tue Jun 23rd, 2020 @ 5:33am by Captain Nycolas Temple & Lieutenant Arlowe Tate & Lieutenant Bethany Robinson
Edited on on Fri Jul 10th, 2020 @ 5:32pm

Mission: Death in Paradise
Location: Captain's Ready Room

ON:

It was becoming apparent that either Starfleet Admiralty really believed in the Pandora's mission, or they were becoming increasingly paranoid that the Luna class vessel wouldn't make it back to Federation territory. As such, Nyx was welcoming his third and fourth new additions to the crew in the past twenty four hours, and while the Captain always enjoyed meeting new people and expanding the Pandora family, he was beginning to wonder why Starfleet felt it necessary to send so many people at once. Still, he was especially thrilled to be gaining a new Chief of Operations and an Assistant Chief of Engineering - two departments that definitely needed more crew. Especially Ops, which had been short of a Chief since Lieutenant Kaleri moved to Counselling.

'Perhaps if I didn't keep almost-destroying the ship, they wouldn't be so worried.' Nyx thought to himself as he sat behind his desk in the Ready Room. A battle with the Tzenkethi, getting lost in a dark matter storm, a battle with the Ravagers, being torn into an alternate universe by a particle wave, and they were now deep inside the Inconnu Expanse just as the Alrakis Pact was trying to force them out. It had not been a quiet first year in service on the Pandora.

Nyx started to realise that the extra hands were actually quite a good idea.

The Captain waited at his desk as he received confirmation from the Shuttle Bay that the Corvette had arrived. He had given instructions for the ground crew to send Lieutenants Tate and Robinson directly to his office as soon as they arrived onboard the ship, and now he was just waiting for them to appear at his door.

The shuttle landed rather smoothly, Tate was fairly impressed considering how rough some landings could be from time to time. As the docking clamps secured the shuttle to the decking of the shuttle bay, their pilot stood up and stretched his tall lithe body. How he had fit all that length into the cockpit of this tiny shuttle, Tate had no idea, but she could appreciate the view anyway as he lengthened it out for the moment. Tate's own body cried out in resistance as she forced it into movement. She picked up her bags, having no idea where her Quarters were yet, and wanting to make sure her things made it to where they needed to go she planned to keep hold of them.

"I'll be just fine to never have to ride in this thing again." Tate said with a sigh looking over at Becks.

"I didn't make the thing, I just fly it." the pilot said giving her a look.

It didn't make Tate even blink. "Didn't say you did fly boy, go stretch out you're all kinked up. Come on Becks, lets get out of here."

Becks? Bethany wasn't sure quite how to take that, but she supposed it could have been worse. She could've been called Betty. At which point Tate would probably be sporting a different eye shadow...then again, when she saw the tall woman rise from her seat, it probably wouldn't have ended well for Bethany if she did try to attack her.

With a soft sigh, she almost made like a bullet and shot out of her seat, narrowly avoiding a collision with Tate at the last second, and she waited quietly.

The door slid to the side after a button push on a panel close by and Tate stepped out into the new shuttle bay. Looking around at the size of the large ship and all the shuttles that were currently docked. Waiting for Becks to hop down as well she saw a Support Officer rushing their way. He was waving at them like his life depended on it.

"Well...this should be good." Tate said leaning close to Becks, who peered curiously at the man with her body slanted to one angle.

"Lieutenants Robinson and Tate!"

"That would be us." said Tate with a shrug.

"I'm to escort you to the Captain right away!"

"Top brass right away, hey Becks, we're moving up." she grinned winking at the girl beside her.

Bethany turned and gave Tate a small smile, then pulled out her PADD and started requesting data frantically. What did she know about Captain Temple?

The excitable officer led the two of them to a turbolift and they were on their way. "Does the captain like to meet all the new transfers?" asked Bethany. She hoped he wasn't a Betazoid, or worse, a Deltan. It wasn't likely, based on his name, but then, she was a Betazoid with a human name. Anything was possible.

The man turned his head, only, to the two girls. "Course he does, newbies coming on board gotta meet n' greet n' all." he grinned at the two of them, though his eyes lingered on the pair sizing them up. Not a chance in hell. Tate thought as she slid herself just moderately closer to Becks. The poor thing would wilt like a flower in the sun if she saw the hungry gaze of the man on the lift. Tate leveled a gaze at him that did the job it was intended and he looked away looking a bit red in the face.

When the lift stopped the two stepped out. Tate turned to their glorious tour guide and gave him a index finger to the air. "I know where the ready room is." she said. "We don't need a guide, thanks for your services, it's been great and as was preferable, short." The man looked flustered but Tate turned and she and Robinson made their way across the deck to the door that she knew was the Ready Room merely because Bridge layouts were strikingly similar. She supposed if it worked, why change it. That sort of thing.

The door was open when the two arrived at the Ready Room, the Captain was keen to meet the Pandora's new officers and initiate their integration to the ship as soon as possible. He could hear them coming down the corridor and stood in anticipation, hands casually in his pockets as he waited.

"Please, come in." He called out, immediately as Robinson and Tate appeared in the doorway.

The door was already open and inside there was a strikingly good looking man standing there casually as could be as the two women stood in the door way. Part of Tate wanted to toss Becks in first just to watch her flounder, but then she'd probably fall apart, so Tate decided to step in first. She put her tattooed hands behind her back and straightened her shoulders. "Lieutenant Arlowe Tate, reporting, sir." she said confidently.

Robinson for her part had lost her train of thought alongside her confidence somewhere after the captain had spoken and the first word that came to mind was "Fiddlesticks." followed quickly by, "-gyuhh I mean..."

She shook her head and cleared her throat, "Lieutenant Bethany Ann Robinson, reporting...sir!"

Straightening her back and imitating Tate's posture, the girl felt like a right fool, but there was nothing to be done about it now.

Tate tilted her head to the side just slightly. Fiddlesticks? Do people actually say that? She stood there beside Becks and wondered how the girl had even survived this long in Starfleet. Surely a brisk wind was, at some point, going to carry the poor thing away. That or bruise her to the point of not being able to work at all. Tate wondered if it was futile trying to toughen the girl up, because, she was already afraid of her own shadow, something that would not do well in certain situations. Starfleet, situations.

There was a short smile from the Captain as he indicated for the two to sit down in the chairs opposite his desk, "Please, take a seat." He did likewise and reclined casually in his own chair as he spoke, "How was your journey from Carnwennan station?"

Tate gave a quick nod. "Of course." she stated as he told them to take a seat, she didn't hesitate as she rounded one of the chairs that sat flanking the man's desk and lowered herself into one. The cushions were plump but there were sinking spots that were well used by the other people that had sat in the same chair. She waited for Becks to take her other one. She didn't know what to say right now, except that the man asked how the travel from the station was. Tate's brow rose. "Tight." she said with a bit of a grin and a shrug. "But we managed, now we're best friends, sisters from other misters, that sort of thing. Nothing like sweating together and sharing your dreams of the future to make bonding happen on short flights." she gave a chuckle.

Totally over exaggerating it, but there was a bond for her and Becks. Little though it might be, she hoped it would grow into an honest friendship at some point.

Bethany had poked at her chair first, as if she expected it to move by itself or explode, before she settled into it. When Tate spoke, the blonde looked at her, then broke into a nervous smile and nodded eagerly at the captain, "Y-yes. Uh...yeah. It was...pleasant."

"Well, I'm sorry we won't be able to give you much time for you both to settle in." Nyx replied as he took a breath and looked to his console screen. "As I'm sure you're aware, we are docked at Paradise Outpost, under the guise of completing a humanitarian mission for the Irokari. Now, while we have actually delivered medical supplies to the Irokar, our real mission has been to investigate the movements of the Alrakis Pact. Are you familiar with the Pact?"

The blonde Betazoid shifted slightly in her seat, before she gave her answer, "Only a little." she said honestly.

No time to settle, of course, that was the way of Starfleet. Here are your bunk instructs, here are your room mates, here is your schedule, now get to work. Of course a sonic shower and a fresh uniform sounded even better but that was not how it was going to be. Tate leaned back in her seat, one leg crossed over the other. Her arms at rest in her lap as she listened to the information given. "A bit. What is it that we're hoping to find out?"

"The Alrakis Pact is the formation of the Breen, Talarians, Tzenkethi, and the Wi-u-Kai - also known as the Ravagers." Nyx explained with a rehearsed tone. He had given this same speech several times over the past few days and it showed. "About three months ago, they announced they had formed a coalition partnership and claimed total sovereignty over the Inconnu Expanse, expelling all Federation ships from the area. However, a previous encounter with the Ravagers have lead us to believe that they and the Breen have been working together for some time and may be responsible for attacks on Federation assets. Our intel directed us to Paradise Outpost, where we suspect the Breen and Ravagers have been meeting. Our directive is to find any information we can before heading back to Federation territory."

Tate gave a quick nod, and thought about what exactly she was going to need to help. Her job here, literally was to make sure the ship's assets were properly utilized and to shift power around when things got tough or tight. So she didn't need to worry about all the strategies and things like that which had always entertained her as well as had been a passion from a long time ago. Still, she would like as much information on the situation as she could get. Though, it seemed that there wasn't much to have as their mission was literally to gather said intel.

"I need to be able to access and memorize all the ship's systems. So I'll have to do that on the fly, but I think we can get ourselves set up rather nicely. Do you think that we will be encountering any resistance to our efforts? If the Federation isn't welcome where we are going, then it stands to reason we should have battle stations ready for the likely possible outcome."

"Indeed, I will need you to integrate yourself as quickly as possible, Lieutenant." Nyx nodded. "As soon as our mission is complete we will be traveling back to Carnwennan Station. We have attracted some unwanted attention from other ships around Paradise as we were allowed to jump the rather long queue. We will be on high alert after we leave the protection of the station. Please liaise with Lieutenant Griffin, our Chief of Security, and Lieutenant Boucher, our Starfighter Commander to ensure smooth operation in case of attack."

Throughout the conversation, Bethany had stayed quiet, her blue eyes darting from Tate to the captain, mostly taking in the information imparted to her. "And I'll get in touch with Lieutenant Mindo to acclimatize to my duties in Engineering," she said, perking up from where she sat.

"Very good." Nyx replied, giving a half-smile. "I expect us to be underway to Carnwennan Station quite soon, so you won't have long to get acquainted. After we're back in safer territory, though, we should have a proper welcome. The Pandora has been lucky to receive three other new crew members lately, and I owe you each a drink at our bar. Oh, speaking of, when you are off-duty, head on down to deck five. You'll find our recreation areas are a little more elaborate than most ships."

"I look forward to that," said Bethany, "Thank you."

"Same here."

Nyx stood from his chair, reaching out his hand to shake with the Lieutenants, "I'll let you get to it. Welcome, both of you, to the Pandora."

"Thank you for your time, Captain. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other on the Bridge soon enough." Tate rose smoothly out of her chair and brushed her silver hair out of her face behind one of her multi-pierced ears. She gave the man a bit of a smile and looked over at Becks. "C'mon Short Stack, lets go find our fancy bedrooms and princess dresses."

OFF