The Lamb to the Lions' Den

[Akirapryde]

The Lamb to the Lions' Den
Stardate: 53835.4
Chief Engineer's Briefing Room
USS Thunderchild
Chief Engineer Kiera Medart, Engineering Section Chiefs and Lt. Jr. Noonia

Lieutenant Madart motioned for Noonia to follow her in to the briefing room. In her mind, all she could think was 'Oh My God!' as her heart raced. She wanted so much for everyone to respect and like her. After all, this was her own staff. Unlike on Utopia Yards, here everyone looked to her for leadership and knowledge. She would be that leader that others wanted her to be. She smiled as she gracefully walked for the door regardless of the turmoil that was in her heart and mind.

Like as her mother used to say, 'put forward a good face Kiera, and all will respect that.' With a smile on her face and a glimmer in her eye she led the way in to the near by room. "Good morning everyone" she said with a slight bounce in her step. 'Everyone will see me for the leader I am' she thought with pride. She motioned behind her to Lieutenant Noonia, "Some of you might have already met him, but this is Lieutenant Junior Grade, Mordicia Noonia. I asked him to join us because I think he has some really good ideas that we should at least hear" she said as she introduced Lieutenant Noonia.

There was no hint of anything besides the happiness that she wanted to put forward. She ignored the rolling of the eyes and even the sighs from some of her Section Chiefs. In her mind, she excused the behavior due to her being late to her own meeting. After all, she did call the meeting and she did show up late. She didn't blame them for their actions, she should have been on time. She decided to address that, "I am sorry I running late. Thank you for waiting for me" she added as they entered the room. Her mother had always ensured that Kiera was on time for everything. Being late was not dignified. Her mother's warning always rang clear to her. 'Be concerned with what others think of you. For they will judge you harsher than you will judge yourself.'

Like a high school class president she worked the room speaking with her Section Chiefs and asking how they were doing. She knew personnel details that really didn't have much place in such a meeting. Still she spoke to them on a personal level. She acted more like a high school senior trying to win votes for prom queen. Aside from Mordicia, most of her section chiefs were more than ten years older than her. It was a well known fact that Lieutenant Kiera Medart was the youngest Lieutenant to hold the position of Chief Engineer in Starfleet.

However for her section chiefs, All of them wore their faces like masks just over the complete contentment they felt for the bubbly headed woman before them. Kiera didn't make any sign that she saw through their mask or even acknowledged that she cared about their true feelings. For Kiera, these were the core of her Division and they were all happy, shaking her hand and speaking pleasantly with her. To her face, they were all pleasant and greeted her with a professional attributed but that was the extent of their acceptance of her.

Of the entire room, Mordicia only knew Lieutenant Barclay Aling personally. The man was by far the oldest Lieutenant Mordicia had ever met. The man was actually retiring in nine months after a long and hardly eventful service with Starfleet. Mordicia knew that Lieutenant Aling was embittered because his planned retirement was pushed back one and a half years to fill an empty posting aboard the Thunderchild. The man knew his stuff but simply was not in the mood or couldn't be bothered to teach. Mordicia was lucky enough to get a duty roster from the man let alone any real detailed training on the post or the responsibilities that would be expected of them. Aling pushed that off on to Ensign Jain.

Ensign Jain who had been a God Send to Mordicia. She had taken the time to explain everything Mordicia needed to know about the Thunderchild and its complex split bridge operations. The fact that Command and Control was split between Flight Operations and the Bridge made manning the bridge post more complex than Mordicia had first expected. Not close to be considered a leader in her field, she never stopped reading and expanding her understandings of the systems aboard the ship. Despite his short tenure aboard the ship, he knew without doubt that Ensign Jain was one of those officers that cared about her duties and fellow shipmates. Similar Mordicia, Ensign Jain had only come a board just a short period before the Thunderchild left dry dock.

Unlike Ensign Jain, as Mordicia looked around this room he didn't see that same level of passion from some of these officers. He looked at Lieutenant Todd Ottmar, the man in charge of the warp engine room. He was the first one to greet Lieutenant Medart and the first one to speak about her once she was out of ear shot. He mentioned to a nearby officer that this was going to be another bubble meeting. The two laughed off the joke about Medart. Lieutenant Tina Jacobson who was in charge of the two impulse engine rooms aboard the ship. She set across from Lieutenant Medart and actually pulled out a PADD to take notes of the meeting. Lieutenant Jacobson was one of the few in Engineering who had been aboard prior to the refit. A seasoned officer, Lieutenant Jacobson was most likely Medart's only truly loyal officer in the room.

Lieutenants Alesha Klerkse from Power Distribution and Zachery MacEachern from Tractor Beam Section were well known for their love affair. Here in this meeting, they made no attempt to hide their playful behavior towards each other while Medart was speaking to other officers. The next officer to be evaluated by Mordicia, was Lieutenant Ben Gray. He actually surprised Mordicia but moving his seat to ensure that he would sit next to Lieutenant Noonia. Lieutenant Ben Gray was from Maintenance & Damage Control. There was a look in the man's eyes as he set down. Sure there were the normal pleasantries, but if anyone would be a critic it would be Lieutenant Gray. Finishing up with the group were Lieutenant Ainsley Vann and Lieutenant Junior Grade Carmi Pace from Transporter Section and the Janitorial Staff. Both officers showed the same level of respect as those of Lieutenant Jacobson as they prepared for the meeting in silence.

Lieutenant Medart walked around the table as she took in a deep breath and summoned up her inner strength. 'They respect you Kiera because you respect yourself' she thought with a smile on her face. "Okay everyone, let us begin" she said softly but not everyone had been listening. "Okay guys" she said a again this time a bit louder then repeated again, "Let us please begin". She looked around the room and saw that she finally had their attention. "Okay so before we begin. I want to make it clear. I don't care about finger pointing. I have already reviewed the facts. I will not have finger pointing like what happened two months again when we had a similar failure on the flight deck. Back then, that behavior didn't get us anywhere. So I will not allow us to be drawn in to a disagreement with Flight Operations again. The facts are pretty clear to me. We had equipment failure and some safety protocols were not followed." She said than took in a deep breath, "This time however people got hurt." Her heart was actually sad to the point of nearly crying. That was, if she would ever allow anyone to see her cry.

She paused a moment then realized that she forgot part of her preplanned speech. Correcting herself, "I am sure that the Captain doesn't care about who did or didn't do what. I am sure he will want to hear from us how we are going to correct the issues which led to this tragic accident." She paused once more as she scanned the room. She knew that they wouldn't like this. The last time this happened everyone wanted to claim that the fault was with how the Flight Deck was conducting its operations. She hated those meetings following that accident. There was so much yelling at her and at each other.

She wanted to avoid that this time. "Okay so with all that said. I want you to greet Mr. Non'ah" she misspoke his name and caught it just as it slipped her lips. She gasped as she brought herself to silence by placing her hand over her mouth. There was terror in her eyes as she looked in to Mordicia's eyes. "Oh my god, I am so sorry" she said with heartfelt horror for her silly mistake. "Mr. Noonia. Please greet Mr. Noonia with the same respect you would with me."

She motioned for Mr. Noonia to take his place at the center of the table while she took her seat to listen. 'Damnit Kiera!' she cursed herself. 'You really won him over with your kindness, Kiera. Way to go, girl.' she continued to mentally punish herself. Under the table where no one could see, she dug her finger nails deep in to her flesh as she punished herself over the slip of her tongue. Her uniform would prevent anyone from noticing the self punishment. Outwardly, there was a smile on her face and she listened to each word Mordicia said with baited anticipation. After all in her mind she remembered, 'put forward a good face Kiera, and all will respect that.'