Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Nikki Brako (Chief of Operations) in XO’s Office

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Jessica Teller (XO) in XO’s Office

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Nikki Brako (Chief of Operations) in XO’s Office
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻
snip
Akane gasped and chuckled, she had completely forgotten this had all started with him asking for directions. “Of course! Sorry, you want to take the snail express here up to deck 2, the XO’s office is in the command centre, 2nd on the left sir,” she replied helpfully and threw him a little playful salute.

Lt Sakai (CNS)

The Iotian put the cigar back between his teeth and, while his mouth couldn’t ‘smile’ so much that way, his eyes certainly did as he took in her response. She was like a bouncy castle all rolled up in one compact bundle. His eyes followed her directions. Up more. He thought he had gone up as far as he could, but evidently not. The lift had a mind of its own, but then it likely stopped for her when she was getting on and had called it and he had gotten out without looking. Well, the fates did have a way of showing their hand. He stood aside after her salute, gave an exaggerated bow and held out his hand gesturing for her to go into the lift first. It also gave him a quick view of her caboose as she went in. Fleet uniforms did a better service to the guys where they didn’t look like they were in pajamas, but the big boss, Kirk, his time had a much better style with the dames. Too bad they didn’t bring that back, he thought. “Deck 2. 2nd on the left,” he repeated. “Got it.”
- Nikki, COO

Nikki continued up to Deck 2. That was a short trip, certainly. “Wait’ll they get a load of me,” he said, grinning behind his cigar. Maybe that would have been lessened in thought if he had a uniform to wear but he was decked out in good duds. When the door opened he stepped out at once and, after a quick glance to see whether the XO boss was there, determined she wasn’t, he scanned then for the second door. Spotting it at once, he moved steadily toward it. His walk was not a swagger, but it displayed a particular self confidence in motion. Ignoring everyone else he reached the XO’s door and pressed the buzzer. The dame may not be in but this was the first stop before he had to go hunting.
- Nikki, COO
OOC: Name change on the Topic to attract the XO’s attention <G>
OOC: Bump

Jessica was staring down at her personal communicator and furiously typing out a message like she was a seventeen-year-old girl who was oblivious that other people occupied the world she was living in. Since having the baby and marrying Teller, Jessica realized that she needed a full-time assistant to manage her personal life rather than her professional one. Today was one of those days. Holding the lip of the paper coffee cup between her teeth, Jessica furiously typed out a message to Natasha on the Saracen. The idea her longtime friend was trying to get married again was not surprising news. The fact she was doing it on warp speed was. Rounding the corner, she walked on autopilot to her office with her eyes down and focused on not spilling the coffee while sending her message.

Evidently there was nobody home. There had been no answer at the second buzz and Nikki was weighing his options. He could return back to the Ops deck and hobnob there to find out what things were like on this beast of an outpost - both as an outpost and what it was like to work here. Knowing him he’d run into a snot nosed ensign wet behind the ears and singin the praises of the Fleet. No, he’d maybe try to find his quarters after this and see what that was like. He had an image in mind and it was nothing like his cabins that he was used to. Glancing down on the PaDD he caught the layout of the station and where his quarters were. They weren’t labeled his but the generic COO’s. Knowing his luck the previous engineer had a penchant for cooking fish in his apartment. No, he’d make a stop in Ops and see about when he could catch the boss dame and then check out his quarters. Starting to turn about …

This juggling act would have been perfect if there was not a six-foot wall of human male directly in front of her path. “Cahm puh tah. Oh peh dah tor,” she said still trying to clutch the papery edge of the cup in her mouth as she spoke. Whether the door would have followed her commands was a moot point as she ran face first into Brako’s back. Luckily the coffee was barely lukewarm and the cup half full which prevented it from sloshing over the edge and causing a mess.

Lt. Commander Jessica Teller XO

… he was first run into by what had to be a dame. Small and with a bit of squishy bounce that was a distinct contrast to what a guy would feel like in a collision. He watched her in the next moment in regaining her composure and control over the coffee cup. She was a looker that was for sure. And totally incomprehensible. “Lass, I don’t know if that was an Andorian curse, a Risan prayer or a Bajorian pick up line but it sounded sweet to me. If I recall ye right yer the boss. Ol Nikki here was comin to see ye.” He lifted his fedora in greeting revealing the short cropped red hair on the sides and elevated ridge in the middle. Smiling around his cigar he stepped aside out of the way of the door and the coffee still dangerously within range of his suit. “Brako.”
Nikki

Looking up Jessica studied the man in front of her. His green eyes could mesmerize you if they looked at you the right way. Heck, he was looking at her in bemused surprise and she was speechless for a second. Partially it was because she ran into him but also because he was hitting every box in her head that made Jessica look twice at a guy. His height, build and snappy comeback was the type of guy she always tended to go for. The hint of mild rebelliousness in his manner intrigued her. It was not brazen or disrespectful but spoke of those nights when she was single where woke up the next morning chiding herself for the actions of the previous night.

There were looks that dames could give ya that would make one know that a punch was coming, and other looks that suggested that drinks and a night were ahead. The look here was somewhere in between that range but one where it gave Nikki the idea that at some time she’d have not minded a night of drinking with him. Or, in his thought, perhaps sometime in the future.

“It was the ancient curse on all technology,” Jessica laughed finally finding her words. “Off duty, it would have contained a heck of a lot more colorful metaphors. =/\= Computer open door=/\=. Brako, follow me,” she indicated with a head nod. As it slide open she dropped all the things on the desk but her coffee. “So can I get you a cup of coffee and not try to throw it on you this time,” Jessica teased moving towards the replicator. “I run on the stuff. Last year almost killed me when I went cold turkey off of it but I am not only back on the wagon but driving it now. Large bitter and blonde,” she ordered. Aedan had nicknamed the way she took her coffee and had it programmed in all the replicators on the station. Now that Cera was an official resident of Outpost 42 all restrictions had been lifted on the amount she consumed. So Jessica was back to her four cups before 1000 hours schedule.

Lt. Commander Jessica Teller XO

“Sounds like yer off duty tone is more interestin,” Nikki replied. Somehow he felt that her ‘ancient curses’ were not limited to technology. She had spunk and her call to follow him was indicative of her official self. He considered the Irish coffee which would be his social favorite. Working? “Black,” he replied to her. Listening to her commentary about herself he took that to note. It sounded like the station was a killer for stresses. Still, at first blush it had some potential. Still amused, commented, saying, “It doesn’t stain as much”. Looking around the room while she was at the replicator. “You know the Ferengi had developed a kind of drink, called it synthecaf. Simulated just like the synthehol. Guess it hasn’t made it out here yet.” He grinned. “Should start up a shop in me spare time.” He was not, however, in his mind, joking.

Jessica spun and looked at Nikki like he had spaced the crew, blew up the outpost, shot her dog, and stole her Bible. Being a Texas girl the last two were far more important than the first two but everyone had their own personal standards of what entailed a tragedy. Synthecaf was almost as foul of a word as the slew of curses that could be heard on a Saturday night at the Honky Tonk back home. “Excuse me? Did…did you just suggest synthecaf? Why, why, why would you ever think of something so so,” Jessica faltered for her words but clearly was looking for a reply from Nikki. “Did I do something to you in the past?”

Her reaction actually startled him and, for a moment put him on his heels. She was a puritan dame, at least with coffee. He blinked. Her accent came through stronger here with her outburst. He resisted the urge to lift his hand to take out his nonexistent cigar but his mouth screwed up in a way that his teeth clenched as though holding it. “So vile?” He finished for her. “So ye like the real stuff, do ya?” he said, his lilt coming through. He had had in mind that the ‘Fleet was full of people who craved anything that came out of a replicator, including coffee - which he himself thought of as fake - and synthehol that they deemed the new drug of choice, though they’d not confess to it. He wanted to point to the replicator and tell her that that was as fake as what the Ferengi came up with. “You have a coffee maker here? I should leave ya a brochure for me ships. One cruise and ye’d not go near a replicator.”

“One large COO that was acting like a door causing me to drop the only decent cup of coffee on the darn outpost forced me to use the replicator,” she teased back with a wink.

“I only drink the replicated stuff in dire emergencies. I had a coffee maker here before the baby but,” Jessica pursed her lips almost in an expression of a little kid confessing she had stolen a candy bar. There was no reason to lie. The man would see soon enough that the jokes about Jessica hooked up to a coffee IV wasn’t far off the mark. “Let’s just say you can work anything to death with enough usage and the CMO is one lady hell-bent on keeping her crew healthy even if you really do think her methods might kill you,” she shrugged it off. Paige was the best CMO Jessica had ever seen and one of the feistiest. “When the doc said to cut back on the coffee what she really meant was Jessica I am going to help you. Have the baby and in nine months you get it back.” The conversation might have been more imagination then reality Jessica would admit but the point was clear. Twelve to fifteen cups of coffee a day was way past what one should have when you were pregnant so the coffee machine had a sudden death and to this day Jessica never knew why or who.

“It sounds like this place takes a lot of work,” he observed from her comments. “Understaffed? Undersupplied? Unions?” He refrained from saying ‘underskilled’. Fleet people were trained well and they knew their stuff but they had the business acumen of a tadpole which meant that things didn’t get done with an eye to improve. They ran on ‘duty’ these days as much as ‘caf’ but duty got the job done. It didn’t get the job better.
- Nikki, COO

“Yeah and running on synthecaf would only make it worse,” Jessica said sliding the cup of coffee over the desk towards him. Taking a deep sip she gave him a half-smirk, “So you wanna tell me something about yourself that I am not going to find in the official, flashy, Starfleet file that might redeem yourself after the coffee comment.” He could tell she was being friendly if not a bit playful. The Starfleet files were a joke to her at this point. It was always blah blah blah did this and blah blah blah did that. THe files never summed up an officer like a good old fashioned chat.

Lt. Commander Jessica Teller, XO

Nikki moved in and took the coffee. The mug was warm in his hand and he held it in both hands, dwarfing the cup. The lass was a playful sort. That and terribly passionate about her coffee. He made a mental note that her replicator needed to be serviced twice as regularly to ensure that there was no lack of coffee streaming from there to her veins. Something not in his file. Was wasn’t in his file that he necessarily wanting to tell. “I grew up in space and prefer space to a planet.” Planets were commodities. Something to barter over. He considered his next comment. She shocked him. He needed a tit for tat. “If ye are having trouble with someone and need a little help dealin, I can take care of that problem for ye.” She’d have pegged him as an Iotian by this time. ‘Hits’ were something he was familiar with. Mostly it was economic now but still there was room for the good old fashioned cement overshoes. He gave her a look that was hard to read .. serious or joking?
- Nikki, COO

“So you are a....resourceful man,” Jessica leaned back in her chair with a small smirk. The few years she was arm candy for missions in the intelligence field had taught her the art of creative conversations. Oh I am going to hate myself for liking you this much Jessica thought. Nothing about the man scared her but he did have a certain charm that piqued her interest. Biting her she let out a half laugh. “Word association time. Airlock,” she said and tried to hide the amusement on her face with the coffee cup. She had never met a Lotian before but knew of the race. They were smart, witty, and very loyal to those they valued as a friend. If you weren’t a friend and on their bad side she had heard it was best to sleep with one eye open during sleep overs and one hand on a phaser under your pillow.

Lt. Commander Jessica Teller XO