Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in Side Sim - Head of the Ship (CO Check in)

Posted by Ensign Juliet Anders (Security Officer /RTF) in Side Sim - Head of the Ship (CO Check in)

Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in Side Sim - Head of the Ship (CO Check in)
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Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

Juliet smiled, though it wasn’t quite a full commitment. “That’s good to know, about the Lieutenant, Sir. Thank you.”

But when he asked about hobbies, even the half attempted joviality seemed to wilt a bit. “I don’t have any, to speak of, Sir. Never found the time, to be honest. I prefer to work and keep my mind and body sharp and ready. I can’t see being on a holodeck program about some beach when things go sideways, to be a good way to spend time.” In truth, she’d always kept busy to keep her mind occupied. There wasn’t a reason to take up carving, or needlework, or a fascination with holo programs about fake people in fake places. To her, if she wasn’t doing something to improve her security skills, or working on maintaining her physical readiness, it was a waste of time. But saying it out loud sometimes set an edge on people’s nerves. She wondered if the Captain would be the same way and look at her as one of the myriad of ‘anomalies’ on the ship because she wasn’t chasing phantom men in a thirty by thirty room of projections.

Juliet
Sec/RTF

Zachariah nodded. “Far be it for me to question such devotion to one’s duties, Miss Anders,” he replied, “especially on a ship like the Leviathan, where potentially lethal entanglements seem to lurk around every corner. But burnout is a real and, at times, incredibly dangerous thing. Now don’t worry, I’m not about to start recommending massages and meditation,” Cobb chuckled, “but if you want my honest advice then, find some way to unwind at the end of a difficult shift, eh? Even if the method may not always be approved by Starfleet,” he raised his glass of very real alcohol, before draining it to the very last drop.

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

His view on unwinding made sense. On a ship like this, heightened awareness was the norm, not the rarity. Here she would have to find occasional quiet time or she would be a liability, being on edge all the time. “I’ll keep that in mind.” She smiled and finished her own drink, though in not quite such a grandiose manner. “Captain, can I ask you plainly… was I placed out here on punishment? I would rather know, since we are discussing honesty. Was I sent out here with the expectation that I’ll fail or screw up?” She looked at him with a serious that could probably come off as comical. Smiling wasn’t something she did, and if so, not often enough to be considered a ‘smiler’. She wanted to know where she stood with him. She didn’t expect him to answer with a straight up answer. But the ambiguity with whatever his response was would give her a starting point, at least, on how to proceed forward.

She just wanted to know if she should bother unpacking or not.

Juliet
Sec/RTF

In response to her question, the captain emitted a hearty laugh, although his eyes reflected nothing but sympathy for the young woman.
“Aye, it does feel like that, doesn’t it,” he finally nodded. “Took me a while to shake the same suspicion. Hell, I’m not entirely sure I have shaken it completely. But then I tell myself this, Miss Anders - we have been assigned to a starship, and to a mission, involved in nothing less than saving the entire damned universe. Now, is it possible that, to the ARU, this is all nought but a game and that they would take pleasure in seeing us fail?” Cobb shrugged and released a heavy sigh. “I can not deny that the thought crosses my mind on a daily basis. But perhaps it is too much misanthropy, even for me!”

“Which leaves us with only one other conclusion - that we, each of us, are here because against all of the odds, somewhere in the ARU, someone believes in us. Someone has studied our records and observed our prior performances and decided that we represent the best in our field at whatever it is we do. And so that I may find the strength, daily, to step into the CIC, I have to believe it as true.”

Zachariah studied the young woman before him. Once her superficial similarities with Casela had been put to one side, what remained was an attractive, competent, courageous and, he suspected, fierce officer. Was that the same reflection that stared back from her own mirror? Somehow he doubted it.
“Miss An…Juliet,” he continued at last, “on paper I may sit under the command of the ARU, but out here, in the vast cavern of space, on the Leviathan I am the highest authority. So believe me when I tell you that I would not, for one second, risk the lives and the safety of my crew, or my ship, for an officer who I did not feel was up to scratch. This is no game we play here. We sail a turbulent course between existence and annihilation at all times. I can not afford to have a single weak link in my anchor chain. And I believe, with everything that I am, that you, Juliet, are as far from a weak link as I could have been given.”

Blue eyes locked with her own, watching, waiting for a sign that she accepted, even just a little, the confidence he was attempting to bolster within her.

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

Something in her released. It wasn’t so much a slacking of shoulders, or a bowing of back or even an exhale of breath. But with his training, Cobb would see it. It took a moment for her physical reaction to match the mental one as she slowly nodded her head. “Thank you, Captain. That means a lot. Though I imagine you hear that a lot.”

Cobb smiled. “And yet I am always delighted to hear it.”

Her body then relaxed as well. “I can’t promise I will never let you down. This seems the kind of ship where split second decisions have to be made more often than not. I can however, promise that I will do my best. And should I ever disappoint, I will do my best to remedy it and redeem myself.” It seemed a hollow promise for everyone to claim they would always do their best and never disappoint. Life wasn’t that forgiving or manageable. But she was capable and competent enough to admit that should she slack, she could pick herself back up again and continue on. “I don’t want to keep you, Sir. If there is nothing else, I should go see the RTF Supervisor. I plan to inform him of my true background if you have no objections still. I believe he and the Security Chief can then decide who in the teams has need to know as well. Unless you would prefer I still keep it hush for a while.” She was enjoying her chat. Probably more than she should. After all, who was supposed to want to sit and stay in the company of their Commanding Officer. But for the first time, she was starting to feel their was hope in her future. It was a good feeling.

Juliet
RTF/Security

OOC: So the RTF Commander has changed since we began this thread, but I don’t think Juliet has checked in with him yet? So I’m going to write this as if it’s current time and she’s referring to Vonn, although if I’ve got that wrong just let me know and I can edit.

IC: At the mention of the RTF Chief, the captain visibly grew tense, one hand reaching for his drink as one might an oxygen mask on a plummeting ship.
“Ah, yes. I suppose you should do that,” he agreed, before adding quickly, “I would advise you to research before your meeting. Best to go in there fully prepared.”

What he wanted to say, what he could not quite get past his lips, was that the woman best be prepared to face off with a Breen. But he would allow her that discovery to herself.

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

Juliet visibly frowned at the Captain’s reaction. She would have had to have had her back to him to miss the tense body language as his hand tightened enough that, just for a moment, she thought he would crush it into shards. “I will make sure I am prepared, Sir,” she nodded solemnly. She wanted desperately to ask more of him about the new RTF Chief, but she had the feeling this was more of a dismissal than an in depth invitation. “If that will be all, then, Sir. Perhaps I should do just that. I should be seeing the Chief this evening.” She set her own drink down as she realized her own knuckles had whitened in sympathetic gesture to what she had witnessed.

Juliet
RTF/Sec