Posted by Commander Shedda Mal’athar (Executive Officer) in Wanderings and Wonderings (XO)

Posted by Lieutenant Pretha Oberon (Security Officer / CRIT Leader) in Wanderings and Wonderings (XO)

Posted by Commander Shedda Mal’athar (Executive Officer) in Wanderings and Wonderings (XO)
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

“So how is CRIT different than a well selected away team or in the case of an onboard situation, our own specialists?” Mal’athar could easily surmise the difference but she was interested to see how Pretha viewed it.

Mal’athar, XO

Pretha thought for a moment. It was a good question. She understood her own reasonings for it but wasn’t sure she could explain them. “I think, when you have an away team, or even a group on the ship, there tends to be a leader. And there isn’t anything wrong with that, but when you hit a snag, say, a trouble from some other corner, the leader tends to want to maintain control. With CRIT, it’s not like that. We all work together seamlessly to know that whatever situation we are in, the most capable person because the lead but there really isn’t a leader. If that makes sense. And the fact we train together also eliminates the unknowns in a swiftly put together team.”

She bit her lip a moment before continuing, her mind half beating her up for rambling. “When most ships hit a snag, externally or internally, the away teams and response people are usually from a random pool of whoever is on duty and available. You may be on the surface with Ensign Jameson and Lieutenant JG Fitsguard this time, but next time it may be Lieutenant Jones and Ensign Madison. While such things are definitely not a bad idea, you have no idea the strength and weaknesses of the people you are with. And you don’t know how they react in different situation. With CRIT, we are called each time, every time. The same people, every time. There is no need to pause and say “Who has this piece of equipment? or “Who knows what this is?”. We can instantly know who can lead, who can follow, and who can guard.” She shook her head and shrugged with a slight laugh of nervousness. “I don’t know if that makes sense, but it’s the gist of it. It’s the knowledge, team building and trust that makes us more effective than just whoever tossed into the assignment because they happened to be awake.”

She wasn’t sure if the Captain would appreciate her response. But it was what her reasoning was. Sure, there were probably more bureaucratic responses and political ones. But in her mind, this was the main thing. A cohesive group of individuals who trained well enough to know one another and handle situations with swifter responses than anyone else.

Pretha
CRIT Ldr
((dummy? lol))

Mal’athar took the time to think over Pretha’s response. “So why not constantly rotate who is doing these trainings? Require the whole crew to train for such instances? Of course that’s a lot of people to cross train with, and the logistics would be mad. But why not work towards the whole crew? What happens if that one expert from engineering that you NEED for CRIT isn’t available or gets taken out? How do you know who to replace that person with? And how do you prevent members of CRIT from feeling like they are superior to others in their department? Or trying to ‘lead’ on a regular away team simply because they are CRIT?”

Mal’athar, XO

Pretha laughed. “Answer a couple questions about CRIT, huh?” She took a moment then nodded. “You’re right. Cross training the entire ship would be a nightmare. But honestly, you have mini teams already around the ship. Security teams for different scenarios. Sure, some names overlap, but they’re just teams. And yes, sometimes someone is missing. But that’s why there’s more than one person per department. They usually train as smaller groups, but large scale trainings occur as well. So they know one another that way as well. So replacements, to a point, aren’t a an issue.”

She took a breath before continuing. “As to god complexes both in the department and on other missions, it hasn’t been an issue. CRIT is a special response team. As such, they know they are different, but not superior. I suppose it’s like folks in Special Ops. Sure, they know they do things others don’t. But they don’t brag about it. Because they know if they’re called, something’s gone sideways, if not completely upside down. And the ones in CRIT, so far, know they hold no special ranks or privileges. If on regular away teams, they follow the lead of the leader. Maturity seems to come hand in hand with the other skill sets.”

So far she hadn’t heard of anyone getting uppity either in they specific jobs or in various other situations. Perhaps someday it would happen. But right now they were lucky enough to have a good group.

Pretha
CRIT ldr

Shedda continued to walk at a steady pace thinking over the woman’s answers. She seemed…uneasy. Her answers showed a competent and capable woman, but her body language or her tone maybe seemed to Shedda to indicate she wasn’t quite settled in her position yet. Or maybe it was just late and Shedda was off. “And how would you handle such missteps were they to happen?” Pretty was the CRIT leader and it was her job to handle such things.

Mal’athar, XO

Pretha thought a moment and shrugged. “A question like that has a million answers, ma’am. It would depend on how it manifested. Simple misunderstandings could be explained to better the understanding of both sides. Blatant disregard for orders would be handled one on one with either the person being removed from the situation or attempt or in their place with private reprimands happening behind closed doors.”

She shook her head again and wondered about all the permutations that such things could bring about. “Insubordination and lack of ability to listen and follow commands happens in every department all the time in small infinitesimal ways and large ways that demand brig time or discharge from duty. Each one is handled in the moment and geared to the situation and people involved. As to how to handle an expert on a particular team not being available, we have backups on the form of the other teams. And barring that, we go to that department and ask for aid. We would do whatever’s necessary to save the ship and crew and carry out the orders of the Commanding officers in whatever shape that took.” Her final words were strong and sure. She had no doubt in her mind, whatsoever, that the ship and her crew could withstand nearly anything thrown at it. And while not saying so outright, she gave the impression she was letting the XO know that she and the CRIT team would defend her and the rest of the crew to their last breath.

Pretha
CRIT ldr
(sniffs yup… Just a little pride there lol)

Mal’athar continued to walk, her expression not giving anything away. Pretha obviously had pride in her work, and the conviction held something else…Shedda couldn’t put her finger on it, but it didn’t quite sit well with her. That could be a reflection of her own newness to her position or a reflection of her interpretation of what Pretha had said. She would have to think on it. She also noticed that instead of answer her question with detail and possibilities as she had earlier with filling missing spots, Pretha went back to filling missing personnel. “The question does have a million scenarios, so let’s go with this one. An engineer on your team volunteers for CRIT and is cleared by the CE. In the normal course of things the CE chooses someone else to work a difficult calibration. Your CRIT engineer steps in after the assignments and works late to do the calibration himself. When asked he says that he is the better officer, he was chosen for CRIT after all.” Shedda had seen similar things many times with many different scenarios. People were proud of their accomplishments and could feel their position and relevance threatened would try to ‘out do’ anyone to have stability. “The CE deals with this, but he is also under your command and the CE comes to you to collaborate.”

Mal’athar, XO

Pretha was silent a bit. Sure, such things came up. And she and the CE or whatever other department head was involved would handle it. It seemed odd she was getting what felt was the third degree from the new XO on a project the CO had implemented. A quick thought of wondering why she wasn’t asking these questions to the CO went through her mind. But a half a breath later, it was gone. She shrugged ever so slightly and shook her head. “We haven’t had that come up. If it did, we would step the person aside, and ask them why they were doing something another person was asked to do. The simple answer of ‘I was chosen for CRIT so obviously I’m better’ wouldn’t be tolerated as an answer. Department Heads are better but they aren’t chosen for everything. And high ranker officers are often better but again, not always chosen. The Department Head had given an order, the assignment, and that should have been sufficient enough for the CRIT member. Reminding the CRIT member that the person the Department Head had chosen may have been chosen regardless of the CRIT team’s existence, may be sufficient to remind the CRIT team member that just cause they are on the Team doesn’t put them above anyone else in any additional ways. Obviously if they outrank others that doesn’t change, but being part of the team adds absolutely no additional perks to them as far as rank and privileges goes. We would remind them of that.” She frowned a moment. “Though I would then, perhaps, make the CRIT member work with the person anyway, together, as a team, to remind him that others are just as capable. And if he can teach, or learn, then all the better.”

Pretha wasn’t sure why, but somehow, she felt she was being tested. And something told her she wasn’t passing with flying colors.

Pretha
CRIT Ldr
((btw, I am enjoying this from an ooc perspective… ic, Pretha isn’t lol))

Shedda didn’t miss the hesitation and she mentally nodded to herself. Years of experience with people told her that Pretha wasn’t comfortable with her asking all these questions. The questions were two fold, CRIT was part of the way Manhattan functioned and worked and Shedda felt it was important to know as much as possible. She knew it was an idea developed by Cpt Cochrane and a security officer by the name of Gravel Mardusk, an Orion. That in itself was enough to get Shedda’s interest. And she could ask Cochrane, but he wasn’t in charge of it, Pretha was. And so the second part of the questions was to find out what type of leader, what type of commander, Pretha was. Shedda couldn’t make the best use of CRIT if she didn’t understand how the team worked and how the CRIT leader determined when and how to deploy. It was be extremely detrimental for Shedda to give orders that copied or countermanded what Pretha ordered CRIT to do. They had to work well together. She nodded at Pretha’s explanation, with a slight smile on her face.

“What are the training sessions like, or are they simulations, or something else?”

Mal’athar, XO

Pretha smiled. This question she had been waiting for. “Both, actually.” She said then glanced at the woman at her side. “We run sims with various themes. Most are taken from ship records of things that have happened. Two fold, or more, issues being dealt with at a time. Like first contact, and ship issues. But there is also single training that will begin within the week. Once every few days, seven at the most, everyone will go work in another department for a shift. They are to learn the basics of those departments. Where the warp core shut off or ejection controls are. How to access and deploy weapons, where basic triage stuff is in medical, and how science catagorizes knowns and unknowns for segregation, storage, or disposal.” She paused at the next intersection and turned to the XO.

“This is still a relatively new program and one that we’ve only used on a limited basis so far. With crew turnover this last rotation, we lost almost half the CRIT team in a single swoop. So refilling those spots has been slow. Not everyone understands the importance of what we will do. And those who do may not know how such things will work because everyone is used to egos and chips on the shoulders getting in the way. The Captain doesn’t tolerate grand standing and while it’s one thing to be good at your job, it’s another to flaunt it to the point of being a jerk. So we take those folks who can do their job without letting their attitudes get in the way, and gather them up for the betterment of the ship.” She leaned on the wall and crossed her arms. “To be honest, I’d like to see a ship full of CRIT members. A crew able to help out in any location at a moment’s notice. I don’t expect everyone to understand every part of the ship. But it’s not ridiculous to ask a security officer to run a medical bed scan, or a scientist to initiate the program to eject a near exploding warp core. Don’t you think so?” She wasn’t being sarcastic. Her final query was more to ask if the XO thought she was being ridiculous, herself, in the hopes and training ideas she had.

Pretha
CRIT Ldr
((Btw, after this sim I am hoping to use those who showed up for ‘CRIT’ in threads that will do just what Pretha proposed… side training sims and cross department posts))