Posted by Captain Dira Myqian (Commanding Officer) in Side-sim: Walker’s Workout

Posted by Commander Brad Walker (Chief Of Staff/Second Officer) in Side-sim: Walker’s Workout

Posted by Captain Dira Myqian (Commanding Officer) in Side-sim: Walker’s Workout
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻
<snip>
“Alright then, if you’re sure,” he said, placing the bar back on its rack to give his shoulders a rest. “How about a change in subject?”

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

Dira’s lowered herself back to the mat and rested her head on folded arms for a moment. “Sure,” she said softly before chuckling. “And all that comes to mind is work. I know that’s a bit of the reality of shifting into a new role, but it is a little sad. So, tell me something about yourself I don’t know.”

Captain Myqian, CO

“Sure,” Brad said, walking away from the squat rack, grabbing a towel and wiping his face with it. “I spent the summer I turned 16 in a kayak, paddling the entire navigable length of the river that runs through my home city.”

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

“Really? What made you decide to do that, and how long was the river” she asked, rather fascinated. As someone who loved being outdoors herself, she could imagine the reasons for doing so. It was often no different than the pull her father and her and felt towards traipsing over the woodlands and beaches of the outskirts of Hadran City. She shifted into a sitting position again, with one knee up, and twisted gently in the opposite direction.

Captain Myqian, CO

“The entire river is almost 3800 kilometers, but it’s basically cut in half for hydropower generation. I started just below the last dam, and from there to where it flows into an even bigger river was 1350 kilometers,” Brad said. “And it was in part a challenge to myself, but also a way to just spend time on my own and away from my four little brothers.”

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

She grinned. “I love kayaking. It’s such a fluid and freeing way of moving across water. Though I can’t imagine going that sort of distance. The one time I did river kayaking, it did not go well. Then again, I suppose you weren’t dealing with white water on your journey.”

Brad chuckled. “No, the only falls on that river are impounded well behind the dams. It took me most of a fortnight, since I limited myself to 100 kilometers a day. Aftewards, I’d head to shore and make camp for the night, or head into the nearest town for a meal and a room.”

“What was it like having so many siblings?” Myqian asked.

“Incredibly frustrating,” Brad replied quickly. “Especially with the youngest ones. Bret and Brian are each two years younger than me and each other, then Braedyn and Brynden were born when I was 11, so they were barely toddlers while I was in my teens.”

Captain Myqian, CO

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

Dira tried to imagine what it would have been like to have grown up with other children in the house and with such an age range, and she found it rather difficult. She shook her head. “I’m an only child and my parents divorced when I was young so I have a hard time imagining what it would be like. But I can imagine that that age difference creates a much different dynamic with your youngest siblings than the middle ones. Are you close with any of them?”

Captain Myqian, CO

“I was closest with Bret and Brian growing up. They even followed me into the Fleet, but they both mustered out after their first tour and went into private practice back on Earth,” Brad said. “The twins I don’t think I’ve seen since they graduated high school, and that was 12 years ago. The last I heard, they were both involved in refugee resettlement in the Beta Quadrant, but even that was three years ago.”

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

Dira’s immediate family might be small but it was very close-knit. She also recognized that her parental situation was unusual in that her divorced parents were great friends and supported each other in whatever was going on in their lives. It was this basis for a relationship that Dira had been raised with and, having seen different people parent over the years, she could recognize that her parents’ ability to coparent had been rather exceptional. She had a fairly large extended family but her maternal cousins were all on Betazed along with the rest of her mother’s family, and of her surviving Haliian grandparent, she rarely saw them.

“You know, when I was little I had imagined what a larger family would have been like. My extended family all lived elsewhere from Vega Colony, but you know, my parents were very involved n the community and so I guess many of the people there became like my aunts and uncles, and the other children around were like cousins. But I was the only one of us who went into Starfleet. I’ve lost touch with most of them.”

Captain Myqian, CO

“Not been back for a while either?” Brad asked, returning to the squat rack to start another set. It had been more than five years since he’d last visited his childhood home.

“No, not for quite a few years,” Dira said, shifting into stretching out her hips.

“I’m hoping to get some leave time after we finish this mission,” he said, “Head back to some of my old childhood haunts, I think that might be nice. Of course, it’ll be less nice to have my parents harangue me about settling down and starting a family like my brothers, but I think I can bear it in exchange for some R&R and some home cooking.”

Cmdr Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

She chuckled. “I know the feeling, though they are pleasantly surprised I’m not single these days. I’m supposed to be going back for my mother’s wedding and she’s waiting on me so she can set a date, but…” Dira blew out a breath. “I don’t know how I can get away now. Not with all the changes.” It was all rather complicated all of a sudden. She had firmly planned on going and now she was resigning herself to the fact that she should encourage her mother to just go ahead without her.

Captain Myqian, CO

“Uh uh,” Brad said. “I’ll drag you onto the shuttle myself if I have to, but you’re not giving up your own leave time and family time to get married to the job. Even Captains are entitled to leave, and more of it than the junior officers simply because of the stress and demands of the job.”

Dira shot him an amused look. She somehow suspected that there was a battle brewing and she would probably lose this one given she suspected Sinclair wasn’t going to let her get away with it either.

That said junior officers were often the cause of much of said stress and demands went unsaid.

“Besides, that’s what XOs and Second Officers are for, to keep things running while you get some wine, women and sun,” he added with a wink.

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

Dira stopped her stretching and laughed loudly. “If I wasn’t in a committed relationship, I’d probably go ‘Who said just women’, but… you know,” she said with a grin.

Brad returned it. He did know, very well.

She considered Brad carefully. “So, Second Officer. If I were, to say, invite a certain security chief with me, do you think that would be a problem?” Could the ship function without their CO and COS for a little while? She knew the answer was yes, but that wasn’t the point. It was the optics of two senior officers being away at the same time. This was all new territory for her.

“For me, no,” Brad said. “For most of the ship, equally no. For the hardcore little cadre of lower-deckers that seem far too intent in the love lives of the senior staff, I’d say you’d make their year if you did so,” he said with a smirk.

Captain Myqian, CO

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff