"Creative Personnel Reconfiguring"

[Kansas_Jones 0]

Note: this log takes place during the ship’s travel time to Rigel.

 

06.22.08

USS Agincourt NCC-81762

“Creative Personnel Reconfiguring”

 

The Federation Starfleet had lost hundreds of cadets during the orbital attack on the planet of Earth, and a new influx of midshipmen into the service was not to be expected for quite a few years. Those Starfleet cadets who had survived the attack, because of dumb luck or because they had been serving a training assignment elsewhere, now found themselves being re-assigned and shipped out ASAP to mainstream assignments. This was not to say that the assignment process was haphazard or pell mell, not at all. Even though the academy was no longer standing, the re-assignment process was still following correct procedures as best that what remained of Earth Command was able to.

 

If an officer knew their way around the red tape, or at least had access to certain unknown or backdoor channels that would be able to circumvent the red tape, then you were in a position to make things happen. Or, at the very least, get the inner gears turning and working instead of grinding to a halt.

 

The JoNs clan was a well to do military family, with several succeeding generations currently serving in the Starfleet. Over the years of various JoNs’s serving with the Starfleet in either the military or the naval portion of the Federation, it was inevitable that a contact list was built up or certain favors were owed or called in when the situation permitted.

 

Lieutenant Commander Kansas JoNs had done something. Something she hadn’t yet exploited or used during her ten years of active Starfleet service. She had called in a few favors and used her family contacts and connection list within the fleet in order to make sure that certain senior cadet personnel ended up where she wanted them too. Namely, the feline had made sure that the young cadets who had been with her during the recovery assignment at the African S’Jhinto Base were well taken care of during the post attack assignment process.

 

JoNs scrolled down the personal profile information displayed on her desktop monitor, re-checking the information before she greeted the new security midshipmen who had been assigned to the ‘Court. The others had been assigned to her elder cousins’ ship, the Yellowjacket. The ‘Jacket had lost almost a third of her crew complement during the dust up with the Soltans, so Kansas knew that Left Ear was in dire need of good personnel.

 

= = = = = =

 

Chase, Midshipman Joseph (Male Caucasian Human)

Major: Security

Minor: Heavy Ballistics

<Assigned to USS Agincourt NCC-81762>

 

Connor, Midshipman Amanda Jo (Human Caucasian Female)

Major: Medical Technician

Minor: General Medicine

<Assigned to USS Yellowjacket NCC-1609>

I’Beka, Midshipman (Female Human/Capellan)

Major: Security

Minor: Weapons

<Assigned to USS Agincourt NCC-81762>

 

Sarvin, Midshipman Safalo (Male Caitian)

Major: Communications

Minor: Operations

Languages: Caitian, Federation Standard, Klingon

<Assigned to USS Yellowjacket NCC-1609>

 

Arika, Midshipman Savortin (Female Unjoined Trill)

Major: Security

Minor: Armory Officer

<Assigned to USS Agincourt NCC-81762>

 

Shumi, Midshipman Ho-San (Male Asian Human)

Major: Engineering

Minor: Damage Control

<Assigned to USS Yellowjacket NCC-1609>

 

T’Varek, Midshipman (Female Vulcan/Rihan)

Major: Flight Control

Minor: Operations

<Assigned to USS Yellowjacket NCC-1609>

 

= = = = = =

 

Chase, I’Beka, and Savortin had been assigned to the Agincourt under JoNs in security, while Sarvin, Connor, T’Varek, and Shumi had been assigned to Captain Left Ear JoNs’s Yellowjacket command. Kansas, in a rare showing of very un-kitten like boldness, had left her Elder Guardian cousin with explicit instructions to be nice to the new middies. And if the older Caitian was not nice to them, the younger JoNs would have words for her. Surprise on Left Ear’s part had worked in the younger felines favor, as Kansas had managed to cut the communications line before Left Ear had regained her non surprised and normal hard case composure. Score one for the youngster feline.

 

“Excuse me, Commander?” Chief Petty Officer Raphael Esteban poked his head through the open doorway, the human’s usual easy going smile plastered to his olive skinned and rugged features. Esteban had moved from the Beta armory squad over to the Alpha squad after the first shift squad hands had been lost in battle. Rafe would be training the midshipmen as the new Alpha squad lead.

 

“What’s the word Rafe? And what did I tell you about the Commander when I’m off duty?”

 

The Spanish man chuckled. “Mi apologies feline jefa. The newbies are all settled in their new quarters, and I just introduced myself to them. I see what you meant. Despite all that has happened to them, they are good kids.”

 

JoNs blanked her computer screen and stood from behind her desk, stretching as she did so and then grabbing a small duffle bag from its spot under the desk. The healing that Shadow had performed on her had indeed worked out well, and the Caitian officer was moving much more easily now. “I wish you could have seen the kids going into action down on Earth Rafe; they probably saved my life when they disobeyed orders and took on that mercenary crew. Their level of maturity is also holding strong, considering all the disconcerting things they have witnessed as a result of the attack.”

 

As usual when she was off duty, she was wearing the ever popular black high cut sweatpants to accomodate her cat shaped hind legs and yet another tee shirt featuring some family members ship or duty station.

 

The armory chief smirked and pointed a finger at the shirt. “And what family member and ship is this jefa?”

 

Kansas pointed a paw to the stylized logo and design of a starship stitched on the front of the dark grey shirt, and smiled brilliantly, exposing her fangs. “The USS Fearless, my cousin Ravarr, one of the senior security officers within the department.”

 

“Are most of the JoNs’s in security?”

 

“Actually, no. We really are all over the place within the fleet with regard to what our duty stations or concentrations are, and there are a couple that are also in commands of their own or on strict administrative duty within the command structure as well. It’s a pretty a pretty broad line within the family … I guess you could say we are well rounded.”

 

JoNs moved out of her office, and Esteban walked with her for a bit out of the offices and down the corridor toward the turbo lift. The line officer and enlisted officer discussed the normal ship board concerns: how the repairs were coming on the internal section of the main armory that had been compromised, the personnel transferring between the armory departments in order to make up for the loss of the first shift team, and how to re-vamp the safety procedures to make sure another explosion accident wasn’t a possibility. There would always be the danger of an explosion within the armory, as it was the nature of the job. But, certain precautions could always be implemented.

 

The lieutenant commander and chief petty officer soon parted company, and JoNs continued on her way to the junior officer quarters deck.

 

= = = = = =

 

Mature could be considered a relative term at this particular moment, considering that Midshipmen I’Beka, Chase, and Savortin were currently engaged in a rather suicidal game of throw the stuffed animal around within the small quarters that I’Beka and Savortin were to share. The doors to the junior officers’ quarters were left wide open, and Kansas walked right on in and deftly plucked the stuffed bear from the air as it winged at her head.

 

Green cat eyes fixed a no nonsense gaze on the junior middies who were frozen in mid dodge and or crouch. “Okay, I’ll pretend I didn’t see this, but this sort of thing is best left in the gym. But, hey, if you all slam into something or knock yourselves out on something hard, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

 

The three younger officers were still wearing their cadet grey duty uniforms, and wasted no time scrambling into a parade rest formation, which was no easy accomplishment in the two by four quarters; Chase ended up smashed against the desk in the corner area.

 

Kansas waved a paw in the air and tossed the stuffed bear back to the closest officer, which happened to be I’Beka, who caught it without a problem. “At ease and don’t bust a gut getting into your attention stance; I’m off duty and so are the lot of you for right now. You’ll have plenty of time to do that when you meet Colonel Harper and Lieutenant Colonel Day, and I will expect you to comport yourselves properly when you meet our commanding Shark ladies.”

 

The feline lieutenant commander parked it on one of the two bunks and set the duffle bag between her hind paws, motioning with a fore paw for the middies to settle in. “Sit down for a moment, I want to talk to the three of you.” The three junior officers quietly sat down on the bunk across the small area from JoNs, looking curiously at the golden feline.

 

Kansas started speaking straight from the heart, with her full honestly coming through loud and clear.

 

“We had a pretty raw clean up assignment down there on the Earth, patrolling those African territories for anything unusual. That mercenary crew that we encountered was bad medicine, and you and your friends kept your wits about you and responded to the situation well. I’ll be honest, you probably saved my life. I wanted to do right by the squad, so I made sure with all the re-assignments happening, that you three got posted here on the ‘Court because of your majors and minors, and why the others were assigned to the Yellowjacket under my cousin Left Ear JoNs. The good Captain JoNs can be a bit of a tight wad, but she’s a good commander and she needs officers to replace the ones she lost. I … also… well, I just wanted to say thank you….”

 

JoNs broke off from what she was saying and instead started rummaging through the bag. One by one, she handed out handwritten cards and small gift packages to the midshipmen. The cards were handwritten notes of thanks and congratulations from the Caitian officer, written on actual paper that she had managed to scrounge up, and the packages each contained one brilliantly colored Spican Flame Gem that the feline had purchased eons ago on a shore leave run.

 

Each of the young midshipman officers showed simultaneous surprise and pleasure at the little gifts. Chase spoke up, his brown eyes flashing happiness. “What’s all this for Commander?”

 

“Graduation presents.” A sad but encouraging and gentle smile graced Kansas’s features. “With all of this craziness from the attacks, you cadets didn’t have any kind of graduation ceremony from the academy, so I’d thought I try and remedy that situation. Welcome aboard the ‘Court, all of you.”