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OOC: Here’s a quick lesson of something we do here on STF. If you look at the top of this post you’ll see I wrote “<snip>” and deleted some of the older posts. We call this, easy enough, “snipping”. That way a thread doesn’t get too long over time and people have to scroll super far down to see the most recent post. A good rule of thumb is to leave at least two to three posts for context or more if needed for important information. Once you start doing and seeing it more often you’ll get the hang of it! Also apologies for such a late reply, had surgery recently and thought I’d have more of a chance to post but didn’t.

IC:
Dael soaked in the cadet’s obvious enthusiasm as he watched him speak. Good, we can always use someone like that. Working the job will temper that a little bit, but hopefully not too much he thought as the Washburne finished up his response.

“Finding out wrong answers to problems is definitely a key factor in troubleshooting, and I’m always a big fan of learning from mistakes. Just as you said, this is a critical job here on the Challenger, the success or failure of a crew and it’s mission is heavily reliant on our department. There’s not a single aspect of this ship that can be done without Engineering involved, and honestly it can be a thankless position sometimes. An Engineering crew that’s invisible is a successful crew, if you understand my meaning.” Dael said, folding his hands together on his desk. He sensed some hesitation in the cadet’s answers but chocked them up to first day jitters. Dael was an engineer after all, not a sociologist.

“I was curious looking over your Academy record that you focused in Transporter theory, a favorite and concentration of mine as well, but also Xenolinguistics, an interesting choice for a Engineering tract. If you don’t mind my asking what pulled some of your interest there rather than a more… let’s say practical, for your field, extracurricular?”

-Lt. jg Dael Stadi, CE

OOC: Thanks! That’s good to know for the future!

IC:
Connor nodded as the Lieutenant spoke. He understood what he meant about the thanklessness of the job, luckily he had no illusions about the glamourous nature of Engineering. If an Engineer is truly doing their job well, the only ones who would know were other Engineers. The cadet thought to himself.

As the Beta-zoid posed the question about his extracurriculars, Connor couldn’t help but chuckle slightly. This was a question he had become accustomed to hearing. Very few cadets took Xeno-Linguistics if it was not required for their desired path. “During my career with Starfleet I intend to use spare time in order to research and analyze systems in hopes of developing new systems for vessels. Though I’m still in the very early steps of the research process I believe there may be a way to increase a transporters power efficiency, which in addition to possibly extending the range of a transporter, would require it to draw less power, which would allow more power to be directed to other functions of the ship. I took the transporter theory in order to further explore my own theory.” The human chuckled at his play on words.

“As for the Xeno-Linguistics, I seek out and read different papers and publications that I may be able to use in my own research, not all of which are fully translated yet. Admittedly I also believe that knowledge of Xeno-Linguistics may present unique opportunities for growth.” The cadet realized he had begun gesturing with his hands, a habit that he had most quit, but occasionally re-emerged when he became passionate. He dropped his hands to his sides. “I apologize if I sound over-zealous Sir.”

|Cadet Connor Washburne|

“Well, I definitely look forward to hearing more on your work on that, Cadet. I’ve done some work recently on trying to upgrade our biofilters to be more efficient. They run like they should but there’s always room for improvement, I’ll make sure to keep you in mind for the next duty rotation for working on those upgrades.” Dael made a few quick entries into the PADD he was holding to make a note of that before looking back up at Washburne.

“And I like your thinking on Xeno-Linguisitics, I’ve heard from many who’ve studied languages that they can help mental faculties and outside the box thinking, which is very handy on a starship. But Cadet, never apologize for being over zealous when it comes to this job. At least not to me, the counselor and maybe Medical might say otherwise but I don’t believe in an engineer who’s too focused on his job. As long as quality of work on other essential duties don’t suffer, I want all of my staff pursuing what they feel will make this ship run to the best of it’s capabilities.” He paused to consider for a moment before adding: “Granted running them by me first, of course. I don’t need a passion project on an induction modulator I never authorized or was made aware of going on while I’m trying to test our deflector field. There’s wanting to do all you can, and then there’s overstepping.”

“On the topic of doing all you can, what would you say you see yourself wanting to do in the future in Starfleet? I know we serve at the whim of where Command needs us but if you could plan your career ahead, what would it look like? Working at Jupiter Station? Maybe a Chief Engineer role? Captain’s chair?” At that, Dael leaned back in his own chair, ready to observe his new team member as he replied. These were the usual standard questions he’d been told where good to get a grasp of any new cadet to his team when he first rose to this position, and he remembered not quite sure what his future had held as a new cadet. He remembered just wanting to fix things, and maybe be left to just that. He certainly hadn’t planned to be in charge of a repair team, let alone lead a department. But as some cadets had told him, “when officers plan, Starfleet laughs”. Still, it was a good idea to get an idea what motivation drove his team members, so he continued to ask these questions to cadets.

-Lt. jg Dael Stadi, CE