Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Dael Stadi (Chief Engineer) in CO’s Office - Cadet Washburne Reporting for Duty
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“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

Connor let out a small sigh of relief at the CO’s seeming acceptance of his work ethic and thought process. Life aboard the Challenger would be much simpler in the Chief Engineer’s good graces. The cadet nodded his head compliantly as Lt. Stadi spoke, agreeing with the Beta-zoids opinions about the responsibilities of an Engineer. “It should go without saying Sir, that I would never make any sort of modifications without your approval and would never bring anything to you that I did not believe to be properly vetted.”

When he was asked what his plans for his career were going forward, he paused to think about it in earnest. Truth be told, he spent very little time thinking about much besides his current goals. “I’m not quite sure yet. It’s my belief that if I do my best work, eventually it will be recognized, and opportunities will present themselves. But if I had to give answer I suppose I’d like to do something where I could help as many people as possible while still working with the machines. Being a captain or an admiral may seem more glamourous, but Engineering Officer or something in R&D sounds much more fulfilling.” During the course of this conversation, Connor had become increasingly comfortable speaking with the Lieutenant, something he had not been expecting due to the rigidity with which he was used to speaking to other officers with.

|Cadet Connor Washburne|

Dael could feel some of the calm that seemed to be coming over the Cadet, and smiled a little at that. He wasn’t always the best with people but “talking shop”, as he’d heard some of his human crew-mates say, always helped and he’d notice a similar trend with a lot of the people on his team. Although you really didn’t have to be a Betazoid to know the best way to open up an engineer was to “talk shop”. He nodded along with the man’s answers and filed them away, and made a few notes on his PADD.
“Well I’m glad we’re in agreement on the approval. It’s nothing personal, just something I try to go over with all of my cadets. As you can imagine there are a lot of eager spanner jockeys who can’t wait to get their hands on a real starship’s systems. I’ve had to temper a few as a team lead.” he said thinking back to when the replicator system went down because a cadet thought he could improve the “tastiness” of the products. It took an hour of troubleshooting before Dael realized he was fighting new modifications and not a random system glitch. He shook his head to wipe the memory away.

“Well, I’ll say don’t stop thinking about what future you want in Starfleet. Do the work, and people will start to notice, but don’t solely rely on that. Just like anything here in Engineering, you treat it right and it should go your way. But a clear path of where you want it to go can make all the difference when you have to think of what modifications you want to get it there. If that makes sense… Anyway, I’ve been asking a lot of questions, is there anything you wanted to ask me? No question is a bad question either, this is your first tour on a starship so I want to make sure you feel comfortable keeping it running and working with me and the team.”

-Lt. jg Dael Stadi, CE

The cadet took the advice to heart and would try to keep it in mind for the future. “Noted, Sir.” The cadet would have to find time for thinking about the future between his duties aboard the Challenger, his personal research, and his sleep. If achieving greatness was easy than everyone would do it He thought. As the Beta-zoid remarked that there were no more questions to ask and opened the floor to questions from Connor, he asked the only question that occupied his mind. “When do I start?” The human male smiled at his CO counterpart. He was ready for this next step in his journey and eager to begin. And under a Chief Engineer like Lt. Stadi, he felt like he could finally stretch his legs and show the depth of his knowledge.

|Cadet Connor Washburne|