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Pre-Sim - Captains ready room: A gift for Dante

Posted Feb. 22, 2021, 4:15 a.m. by Captain Dante Knight (Commanding Officer) (David Shotton)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Rebecca “Becca” Ngata (Executive Officer) in Pre-Sim - Captains ready room: A gift for Dante

Posted by Captain Dante Knight (Commanding Officer) in Pre-Sim - Captains ready room: A gift for Dante

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Rebecca “Becca” Ngata (Executive Officer) in Pre-Sim - Captains ready room: A gift for Dante
Posted by… suppressed (8) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Shouldering her heavy kitbag, Becca moved through the corridors of the Saracen, navigating by a map displayed on her PaDD as this was her first time aboard a Pendragon Class.

She had studied the specs on the flight out to Meridian Station, but the short notice change of orders that had cut her shore leave short and brought her to the Saracen had left little time for study. Besides, in her experience there was no substitute for getting your boots on the decking of a new ship and getting a feel for her.

She had managed to sneak aboard with a group of techs doing the final pre-deployment checks in order to avoid any attempt at pomp and ceremony as she came aboard, she wouldn’t have put it past The Captain to put on a band playing or some other such nonsense, knowing how uncomfortable such things made her. Besides, she had a plan that required a degree of stealth if she was going to pull it. She cradled her precious cargo in one hand, determined to keep it safe.

=^= Computer, where is Captain Knight currently? =^=
=^=Captain Knight is in the ready room =^=

Perfect! At this hour, the the ship docked, she should have no problems taking him by surprise. She moved towards the turbolift.

——————————————————————-

Arriving outside the ready room door, she placed her kitbag to one side and carefully balancing her ‘package’ on one hand behind her back, she used her other hand to hit the chime.

Becca Ngata - XO and delivery girl

“Come in,” came the faint, slightly accented voice of the Captain of the Saracen from behind the door to the ready room just half a second before the door slid open at the command. Through that door Becca would see Dante sitting at a large dark timber desk in front of a view panel giving him a view to fo-ard of the Saracen, albeit slightly angled, feet propped on one end as the chair almost precariously balanced at a daunting angle with a mug of coffee held in one hand and a PaDD in the other, playing the faint sound of something that he was watching on the screen.

To one side of that desk a bed of some kind was tucked in the corner, the ‘small’ round pallett occupied by a ‘large’ reptilian form, whose head had popped up with twin, beady eyes judging the new entrant, a tongue flicking to taste the air for recognition. This was Bruce, the Captains loyal, pampered and judgemental pet Monitor Lizard.

Dante looked up from the Padd and lowered his mug, his eyes moving to a timepiece and an eyebrow raising slightly. “You, are early.” his tone was light, but accusing.

“You missed my reception party Becca. Come in and take a seat, how was the flight?”

Captain Knight, CO

“The flight was fine, we got in a little early so I thought it would be best to report for duty right way.... did I miss something Sir, I’m terribly sorry.” Said Becca, mostly succeeding in keeping a straight face but she wouldn’t be winning any poker games any time soon.

Instead of taking the offered seat she instead moved to the bed and gave Bruce a playful scratch under his jaw, just how she remembered him liking it, her other hand kept carefully concealed behind her back.

“You’re getting big fella!” She exclaimed.

Becca Ngata - XO

Bruce’s eyes locked onto the woman as she scratched his chin, his tongue flicking in indignation before his eyes slowly closed as the pleasure of the neck rub made it through his scales.

“Hmm,” was Dante’s reply to her plea of innocence regarding her arrival time, and he took another sip of his coffee, sliding the PaDD onto the desk but not putting his feet down.

“Help yourself to a coffee from the replicator if you like, Commander,” Dante said, using her new rank formally for the first time. “What did you do to your arm, bust it in an arm wrestle with an Orion on the way over?”

Captain Knight, CO

“Replicator coffee?” Asked Becca with a raised eyebrow that said ‘You Sir, have gone down in my estimation.’

“Bruce ate my stash,” Dante explained with a glare at the big Lizard. In reply, Bruce’s tounge flicked out at him once. The message was clear to Bruce, but not anyone else. If Dante had spent more time playing ball with him instead of feeding the attention seeker Oscar, Bruce wouldn’t have needed to go to such extremes.

“I think we can do better than that.” She announced, bringing out a heavily insulated jug from behind her back with the air of a conjurer producing a small white rabbit from an article of head gear.

“Old Navy?” Dante asked, suddenly sitting up in the chair and taking his feet off his desk.

She popped the top, letting out the heady aroma of strong dark coffee. The contents of the jug appeared as black as night and almost oily in consistency, the surface reflecting the overhead lights. She glanced around the office looking for a mug to pour into, her usual drinking article still safely wrapped up in her kit bag.

Becca Ngata. - XO

Like magic, two mugs appeared out of a low drawer in Dante’s desk and were pushed towards her. “I knew I requested you for this assignment for a reason Becca, nothing to do with your talent,” he smirked at her and sniffed the air, the heavy coffee aroma filling the room.

Captain Knight

Becca eyes the suspiciously clean mugs with disappointment.

“Have you been letting Auntie Tashie clean your mugs out again? I’ve told you, you need to let them mature properly, get a real patina going, adds to the flavour, don’t listen to the good doctor about stuff like ‘cross infection’ and ‘bacteria’ it won’t hurt you.”

Raising an eyebrow slightly, Dante waggled his finger at her. “You know she’s not exactly fond of that nickname,” he smirked, “make sure you don’t use it on duty, we have standards these days.” Leaning forwards he pushed the coffee cups closer to her, “pour the coffee Commander, I’m Italian, not some knuckle dragging caveman that lights a fire in the ground and wraps their food with flax leaves before burying it and leaving it to age while it heats up. Coffee is best pure in the ceramic, not sullied by a coating of mould.”

She filled two mugs with the coffee, the hot liquid so thick it almost oozed out of the jug rather than poured.

Cradling her own mug, she took in the strong aroma, yep, dad had really known a thing or two about coffee.

Picking up his own cup, Dante sat back again and put his feet on the desk. Ordinarily he wouldn’t have been so comfortable with doing this in front of his new XO, but Becca had come up the ranks behind him in Security, served in his team on the Broadsword before becoming his CoS once Kelly had risen to be his XO, if only for a short time before Dante took on the Saracen.

“I assumed it was for my sparkling personality and sense of humour Sir, not that I’m not grateful for the opportunity, you must have had plenty of options, even for a short notice replacement posting.”

Becca Ngata - XO

“Yes, I did,” he admitted, “plenty, but I needed three things before I could choose. One, was that I have a terrible habit of looking for Officers I can give a new opportunity to, raise them above the rest and give them a chance to stand out. Terrible habit really, I mean who does that?”

“Two, was the new Executive Officer of this ship had to have an idea about coffee. Most of the people that were available were poncy english tea drinkers. Earl Gray even, do they have no individuality?”

“Three, I needed someone I could trust at short notice, and on that, the list was very, very small. Almost non-existent,” he innocently sipped his coffee and savoured the taste as the thick, black sludge slid down his throat before looking back at her. “But, then I saw the Broadsword was also docked at Meridian Station. Once I saw that, I knew who I needed on my ship. Now, are you going to sit down or stand there like a star struck clown, Commander?” Grinning, he raised his cup in a toast to her new rank.

Captain Knight, CO

“I’m very sorry SIR it’s difficult not to be overawed standing in your ready room in the presence of all your magnificence” She made a salute with her coffee mug, performed an elaborate bow, and then seated herself opposite the Captain.

“You will get used to it, I assure you,” he waved his hand dismissively, acting completely serious but using the cup to hide any twitch at the corners of his mouth.

“And don’t worry sir, you know me, work hard, play hard, but I know where to draw the line between the two. I won’t let you down.”

She pulled out her PaDD, ready to talk business once the Captain had had his caffeine dose. What kind of a Star Fleet officer drank tea anyway??

Becca Ngata - XO

“That, is why I requested to Starfleet Command that you be given the opportunity to take this position,” he put down the coffee cup now, and even dropped his feet back down and sat forwards in his chair. “I know that you won’t.”

“I expect you have taken the time to read over the crew manifest and in particular the ships Department Heads?” He was rather sure she would have, she was young for an XO and somewhat over-confident, but what XO wasn’t when they took their first posting, that was exactly why they got the job. It was why he had got the job at a younger age than many and been earmarked for Command positions sometime in his career since the Academy. Overconfidence was a sought after trait, but it had to be kneaded into a fine Ciabatta and baked to perfection, or it sagged in the middle.

Captain Knight, CO

“A good solid group, at least on file anyway. I intend to do the rounds once I’ve stowed my gear and settled in, get to know the ship and meet these guys on their own turf so to speak, better than a formal meeting I think and you can never really get a true impression from these files, I’d rather make my own mind up. On the whole though a really good group to work with by the look of them, plenty of experience.”

The voice in her head added “all of them a lot more experienced than me.”

“Except for this ‘Doctor Knight’ anyway,” she said, holding up her pad, displaying Nat’s file, “I’ll have to keep an eye on her, her romantic liaison with a senior officer might be disruptive to morale.”

Becca Ngata - XO

“You gotta watch that one, she’s got an attitude on her like a Cossack who’s been celebrating the latest batch of vodka,” Dante smirked, then raised an eyebrow, “But that senior officer liaison is a worry, I’ll need to airlock the sod, ain’t nobody got no time for competition.”

“I’ll have your Executive Officer Authorization in place once you leave this office Becca,” he explained, “and the Senior Staff is a good group. They’ve done the rounds, been through some experiences. Some like Lieutenant Commander Graham are young for their rank, but they have earned it, all of them.” Picking up his coffee once again, he drained it and then set it down with a pause.

“So tell me how you have been since I left the Broadsword, anything exciting happen? Meet anyone special or beat up anyone notable?”

Captain Knight, CO


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