There they were. A motley crew of unlikely senior officers to say the least. Not that they were all unlikely to be senior officers, just that some departments officers weren’t there, and the rest were a bit out of place.

Firstly, the CO and XO were each in a role outside of their comfort zones, and would double as the chief science and chief tactical officers respectively. Tyler, the CO, a middle aged scientist who never desired the command, but yet had it. The XO Wong was a pilot by trade and former staff officer at HQ. The second officer, LCdr Aruin, the El Aurian Ops officer wasn’t slated to arrive for a few hours, and was represented at the table by the weasely faced CPO Ford.

Rounding out the room, there was CPO Patron, the Tamarian medic, sitting in for the Exo-comp LtJG Chief medical officer who was on a cultural exchange on Khitomer. Then there was LtJG Tesa from Engineering, who mysterious already had grease and scorch marks on her uniform and face. And the frenchman Lt. Lasage, the Helms/Chief Flight Control Officer. And LCdr Meeh eh joined the conference via the monitor from cetacean ops.

Tyler balked a bit at the Tesa’s appearance. ‘Everything ok down in engineering Lt?’ Sounding a bit worried that things were already exploding or needing repairs.

Tesa brushed him off, ‘Oh everything’s great. These Cali engines are no joke. 9 decks tall, if I ever gave you full power to the warp drives we’d reach warp 9.8 easy, but then again our nacelles would shear of…but yeah, we’re golden in the engine room.’

LCdr Mee IH chirled and squeeked ‘[You look hot and sweaty Lt, why dont you come down for a skinny dip with us after the meeting]’

To everyone in the rooms suprised, Tesa replied ‘Oh wow, you know what, that sounds great actually, Ill be right down when were done here.’ The cetaceans were heard giggle with glee through the comms.

A bit relieved about engine room and shocked at the acceptance of the offer, Tyler said ‘Good stuff…uh, alright then. Lets uh, begin the meeting I guess. Welcome aboard everyone, I’m Cmdr Tyler, I’m the Acting Captain’ he said nervously as he glanced down at his padd to confirm ‘For uh…yep, the next 2 and half months or so…’

‘Dabuto, when he saw his parents touching lips![Expressing shock and a failure to comprehend]…Ahem, sorry, I mean to say. How are you to be a Captain when your rank is Commander and how can you be in command when you wear the blue uniform of sciences… oh Glenda, when her hair got tangled in the vines of Scandathu with him[Expressing a desire to learn and better one’s position in the same way]

Tyler was nervous enough, and now he needed to collect himself and respond to the interuption. He had never been the best public speaker. The gravitas of speaking from a place of authority had always eluded him. Throughout his career even when he was the project leader or chief science officer of a ship, he had always chosen collaboration and teamwork over taking a firm hand or acting like the boss.

‘Well, I am qualified for the position chief…and uh. Yes, I still wear the blue uniform of my former department, because for now this just a temporary assignment. But for the next 2 plus months I am the captain…’ nods at Patron.

‘Platta, when the words stirred his heart at Tenagra[I understand competely]…ahem yes sir.’ He seemed mollified.

Tyler took a breath and continued, ‘So um. Yes, we have a very busy schedule for the next few weeks. The XO has shared duty rosters with each of you. Uh, I will be covering as the head of sciences aboard. And the uh, XO here, LCdr Wong will be helping out the Tactical department…I know some of you are new to the roles you’ve being assigned, um but we do have experienced chiefs and other crew aboard’ he paused and placed a padd down on the conference table, as he was the only one standing, all eyes were on him. “So uh, dont be worried to lean on your people to help you. We have a busy first few weeks planned, and we will be slightly understaffed for this tour of duty…but uh, its just the way it is, and we will have to just make due…we plan to depart at around

1230h hours tomorrow, so yeah, we should make sure we got all the supplies and gear we will need for this uh, first leg of our mission…any questions so far…’ He was beginning to sweat and have some severe anxiety, there they were…his staff, all listening intently to every word he said, and here he was stammering like a 2nd year cadet. He was really out of his depth here.

The room remained quiet for a moment and then Wong coughs and mentioned Vestic Prime, attempting to remind the CO to inform the crew that they would be making a pitstop to pick up the runabouts.

Tyler thought he knew exactly what the XO was hinting at and blurted ‘Oh yes, thank you number 1. Yes, we will be making a quick pitstop at the Vestic Prime Reserve Depot to pick up a few Runabouts, and the Yard Master has requested 4 cases of Saurian Brandy in exchange for the runabouts, so if…’ a look of horror came over Wongs face and he facepalmed as Tyler spoke, ‘Uh, anyone knows where we can get that, uh, just let me or the XO know.’

The room was quiet for a few more seconds when Lt Lasage forthrightly noted in his thick french accent ‘Iv ay ad dat much Sorian BRANDY ay wud not be Ear, to be sure Mon Capitan’ He added a chuckle.

Ford, who had been silent the whole meeting then furrowed his brow and interjected ‘I think I might know a guy on the Starbase that might have that much Brandy…the stuffs not cheap these days though.’

Wong was still shaking his head in disbelief that Tyler had openly asked the senior staff to help put together a bribe for the runabouts, the act alone broke about 3 starfleet regulations, and might be a felony if the Brandy was illegal.

‘Well, we uh, do have ships funds for incidental costs and paying for various sundry supplies and gear that we might need. How many credits are you talking about Chief’ Said Tyler, recalling that each starfleet vessels with less then 400 crew usually had an account with about 80000 Federation credits in it.

Ford scrunched his face slightly and nodded his head back and forth as if doing some quick math in his head. ‘Could be as high as 24 or 25 hundred credits per case, but I think I might be able to bargain my contact down a bit.’

Tyler nodded aporovingly, not knowing that the actual going rate per case was about 1800 credits. ‘Well that’s excellent Chief, I’ll authorize you to withdraw 10k credits from the ships account. Are you sure you can get it onboard by the time we leave tomorrow?’

Ford was repressing his giddyness at this point. ‘Oh yeah, for sure sir. I’ll be able to get it pretty quick I think.’

Tyler summed up ‘Very well then uh, if there’s no other questions, uh, I know we all have a lot of work to do before we leave tomorrow…meeting adjourned’

Wong thought to himself ‘oof, this guy is going to struggle giving commands from the big chair…if it didn’t seem so imprudent id offer to help lead these staff briefings.’

As everyone filed out of the conference room Tyler said ‘Number 1, stay for a moment please.’

Wong halted and stayed as the others left. ‘Sir?’

Tyler confessed ‘I could use a hand during these staff meeting Danny, I’ve never been a very good publ…’

‘And there it is, he’s perceptive Ill give him that. Wong then cut him off ‘Say no more sir. I can definitely assist you there, spent a year and half doing nothing but briefings at HQ. Just send me the pertinent notes before each meeting and I’ll chair the sessions if you like.’ noticing the bead of sweat on the CO’s brought.

Tyler let out a massive sigh of relief. ‘Oh, yes, that right, you were an Admirals aide for a time. Thank you number 1, I’ll honestly admit I haven’t been this nervous since I defended my dissertation over a decade ago.’

The squeeks churls and grumbles started again, as the comm link to cetacean ops was still open and the long serving Beluga officer went off on a bit of a rant, a respectful one though, unlike the outburst from Joe(dolphin) earlier. ‘[Oh sure sir, go ahead ask the fly boy with the chiseled abs to help you run the briefings. I’ll have you know that I’m one of the longest serving cetaceans officers in the fleet. I’ve held a senior bridge officer certification for 18 years, and not once has a CO ever asked me to run a briefing or serve a single shift in command of any ship. Its just more of the rampant racist policies of starfleet, and I accept that yeah, sure, it might be a bit tough, because most bridges dont have large pools of water in them. But that’s besides the point(it wasn’t, that literally was the reason)…I applied for the 2nd officers position here 2 days before I came aboard. And you didn’t even reply to my communique sir…which I suppose meant that you probably picked someone else becuase of the speciesist anti-flipper pro-articulating opposable digits policy thats been in place since my species started serving in Starfleet nearly 100 years ago…]’ Buy the end here sounded just outright dejected.

Tyler vaguely recalled the message on his padd from days before…but as he had just recieved the orders to take command of the Blythe, he had placed it in the deal with it later. At the time he wasn’t even totally sure why the message had come to him, he thought 2nd Officers were assigned by starfleet not the captain.

He had since learned that appointing a 2nd 3rd or 4th officer was the captains prerogative. And he hadn’t made a decision yet. While the Beluga had been talking Tyler had already began analyzing the problem and identify solutions. As he had always been a champion of the any and all anti-racist causes, and the cetacean officers record certainly qualified him for the role. They could get around the not have a pool on the bridge somehow, it was the 25th century after all.

Wong jumped in and asked a question as Tyler was obviously pondering something by the looks on his face. ‘I dont want to sound racist myself by asking this, but how did you pass the bridge officers course with your flipp…’

The cetacean squirks an annoyed condescing sounded reply of squeeks and shrills. ‘[I didnt pass the bridge officers course!]’ He raised his flipper to accentuate the next point ‘[I would have if I had some fingers and thumbs or there was a less racist policy. I passed the Senior Bridge Officers course, you know the one where you tell people what to do, and save the ship over and over, and then they make you ‘fake’ send a crewmate to his death as the final exam. You dont need opposable thumbs to be a leader now do you, huh?]’

Wong shrugged and nodded as if to say good point.

‘Yes, I do apologize for not replying to that message sooner LCdr. But, I guess now is as good a time as any to inform you about who I chose as the ships 2nd officer. You’ll also be in charge of the bridge during Beta Shift .’

Sounding very sullen, totally missing that fact that Captain said You’ll,  ‘Good ahead and tell me…its probably the El Aurian, Joe said you’d definitely pick her.’

‘Starfleets policies may be racist and speciesist, but I on the other hand am not LCdr. I’ve actually selected you for the role. I expect you to patch in through the comms while in command during beta shift. We will arrange one of the rear station displays to work in conference mode, and cetacean ops already has real time monitoring capabilities so I have no doubt you’ll do just fine at the job.’

The Beluga whale as a species, was not known to be the most acrobatic of species when it came to leaping out of the water. But this Beluga was so happy he launched himself up and nearly did a full backfill despite his advanced age, a sure sign of how elated and happy he was.

LT. Mee IH winced a bit ‘oh ouch, thats gonna hurt in the morning, probably shouldnt be doing backflips at my age…but thank you so much sir, today you have made an ally of the entire cetacean community. Thank you, thank you…]”

(Meanwhile in the corridor outside)

Patron exclaimed to 3 others with him with him ‘Shaka, when he bored his troops to tears at the Bridge over the river in Benabalas’

Tesa snorted in laughter ‘Yeah, wasn’t the most rousing pep talk was it?’

Meanwhile Ford followed the other 3, relishing in the fact that he had just sold his stock of illicit Saurian Brandy to his own captain, and at a substantial profit to. He didnt care that the captain and XO were breaking regs to buy the stuff, he only cared that he was making some bank on the deal.