Welcome to Wonderland

Posted on Sunday October 11th, 2020 @ 4:56pm by Lieutenant Commander Alvar Othran & Captain Tobias Bishop III

Mission: The Forgotten Outpost
Location: Various

Alvar headed into the nearest turbolift. "Deck 12, Main Ops," he said.

As the turbolift headed to the specified destination, he thought over the station and the crew (or at least those crew who'd been assigned as of the last report he'd been provided). They seemed like...well, he was hesitant to say that they were an "unusual" bunch, but that in some ways that almost seemed fitting. He supposed you had to be a bit unusual to take on an assignment like this. Heck, he was downright weird by comparison to most people he'd met in Starfleet, so he wasn't one to complain or judge.

The turbolift arrived at its destination. The doors opened to reveal the station's main operations center. It was a big, roomy area (although it, like the other parts of the station that Alvar had seen so far, looked like it had seen better days) with several crewmembers bustling around, carrying out their various responsibilities.

"May I help you, Commander?" one nearby crewmember asked upon noticing Alvar.

"Yes, I'm looking for Colonel Bishop," Alvar replied. "I'm to understand that he's here?"

"Yes, Sir. He's in his ready room," said the crewmember, gesturing towards a door.

"Ah, thank you," Alvar said before heading over to the indicated door and pressing the chime.

"Come." Tobias called out to answer the chime. It seemed like half of Starfleet had come to his door in the last three days.

Alvar entered the ready room. "Good day, Sir," he said. "Lieutenant Commander Alva Othran, reporting for duty."

"Ah, Commander, I have been expecting you. Come in. Feel free to sit anywhere. Would you like something from the replicator?"

"No, thank you," Alvar said, taking a seat on the other side of the desk from Colonel Bishop. He looked around for a moment while quietly trying to size up the man in front of him.

"Did you have a nice trip out here?" Tobias asked. "I've heard from others that it can be quite a long trip."

"The trip was uneventful," Alvar replied. "It was a bit long, but I used the opportunity to read up on the station. I hope that our location doesn't affect our ability to get fully staffed. I noticed from the last personnel report that I got that we're a bit light in several areas right now."

"You are not wrong." the Colonel answered with a heavy sigh, and a gesture with a data PaDD.

"Starfleet Command ignored this station for a long time, but when they discovered the Shackleton Expanse, suddenly it shot to the top of the priority list for them, but it seems HR has not received the memo quite yet."

He stopped and took a long drink from the mug on his desk. "And just in case it wasn't implied, 'Permission to speak freely' is not only granted, it is expected as long as we're alone in my office. I need someone that's going to be honest with me if I'm going to survive running this dumpster fire of a station."

Alvar nodded. "I understand all too well about how sometimes it seems like the various sections of Starfleet seem to have forgotten how to work together. The bureaucratic mentality seems to be the only constant in the universe." Alvar paused for a moment, then added with a grin, "And I will try not to let the 'Permission to speak freely' go to my head."

"Sadly, I think might just be right." he replied with a shake of his head. "And if it does go to your head, believe me, I will pull you up short so it doesn't happen again." the grin on his face and the tone of his voice didn't quite match.

"Oh, I believe you," Alvar said. "Is there anything else in particular you'd like to bring up with me right now?"

"Well, I think it might bare mentioning that our new CAG did a flyby on her arrival, and I told her if I caught her doing it again, I was personally going to permanently ground her." he said with a tired laugh.

"Yes, sometimes there are those who like to make a statement, even when, perhaps, they shouldn't, or at least do it in a less crazy way."

"It's like my mother used to tell me, 'Some people seem to think that even negative attention is enough when you are hungry for attention.' and people will do dumb stuff just to get noticed."

"Your mother was a very wise woman," Alvar noted. "Now, of course, my parents are as well, but if they ever try to tell you that I ever did crazy stuff as a kid, I will of course deny having any idea of what they're talking about." He added a wink at the end of the comment.

"And I would never suffer such falsehoods about my saintly First Officer." he laughed and winked back.

"Now, anything else to you want to bring up right now?" Alvar asked.

"No. I think with that out of the way, I've pretty much covered everything I had. Do you have any questions or points for me?"

"Not that I can think of at the moment," Alvar replied. "I look forward to serving with you."



Colonel Tobias Bishop III
Commanding Officer
Deep Space Three

Lieutenant Commander Alvar Othran
Executive Officer
Deep Space Three