"Mister Adventure"

[LeftEar JoNs 0]

Note: This one shot log is inspired by the “Mister Adventure” scene from Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock, quite possibly the best example of an excitable and hard charging junior officer excerpt ever filmed throughout the Trek franchise.

 

“Good Boy. Now get in the closet…”

 

07.14.09

USS Excalibur/USS Union

“Mister Adventure”

 

Commander MVess ‘Left Ear’ JoNs had stayed on the bridge of the USS Union for most of the first shift, checking in with the various lead officers or departmental representatives that were on joint duty to monitor the Union away team that had been dispatched over to the abandoned Scorpiad vessel. There was also the matter of the flight wing out on patrol, and as a former stick jock, Left Ear enjoyed listening in on the pilot to pilot wireless through the ear bud that she had procured from the communications officer on duty.

 

So far, things were going well as plans were set in motion to figure out the reasoning as to why the Scorpiad ship had been left adrift. From what JoNs had been able to gather from the various incoming reports and updates coming across the ship to ship wireless from the remote exploration team, the away team had managed to access a few of the core operating systems of the Scorp boat. Therefore the salvage mission was going according to plan, relatively speaking, and perhaps the temporary crew of the USS Union would find some answers as to why such a valuable piece of military equipment had been set adrift in the first place.

 

JoNs made note of the fact that a junior commissioned officer had arrived on the bridge, and was now proceeding to make his way over towards one of the manned auxiliary operations console. His intense gaze glanced frantically about the bridge as he tried to take the whole scenario all in one shot. He was a lighter skinned Human, blondish hair, average height and just this side of lanky, but held an athletic build on him. He wore the typical black Fleet uniform with the dark charcoal gray fabric across upper chest and shoulders area, and sported the golden mock turtleneck under tunic that showed he was with the operations department.

 

First official trip to a command bridge module, definitely, Left Ear thought to herself with a mild amused smirk playing about her muzzle as she observed the young man’s excitable body language. The brown furred panther Cait merely nodded when the light haired officer made eye contact with her. He had obviously been sent here as a ‘delivery boy’ by a shift lead, probably to familiarize himself with the ship in the process; the junior on shift courier exchanged report PADDs with the seasoned enlisted officer working at one of the secondary bridge console OPS posts.

 

Sending a PADD courier (usually a newbie junior officer or a Yeoman assistant) from the below decks departments up to a particular bridge station, was still employed at times during the shifts when there were multiple data streams or monitoring programs being performed across the departments and the updates were flying back and forth at warp speed. As was the current case with the remote away team dispatched from the Union.

 

The brown furred ships Exec was only paying half attention to the exchange, but as she was standing nearby the auxiliary operations console where said information exchange had just taken place, the newly arrived officer chose to engage the ships Exec in conversation.

 

“Excuse me, Commander JoNs, Sir, but when will I be on the away team duty roster?”

 

A feline ear flipped back, and she regarded the younger officer with a mild curiosity. “Anxious Ensign? And it’s either Commander or Sir. I answer to either, but not both.”

 

“Yes sir! I’d like to check out that ship that the Union was sent to investigate; the rumors are all over the lower decks. But I was a little disappointed about being this assignment being assigned to the Union, and really wanted to get a look at your regular ship, the Excalibur.”

 

Oh dear. The gods save her from the hard chargers.

 

“You’ll be on the rotation soon enough per any clearance from your department chief, and the Excalibur will no doubt be waiting for us when we re-dock back at the station after we complete the current mission. And, keep in mind that not everyone is tapped for planetary or away team duty all the time; the final decision always falls to your department head or chief.”

 

“I mean, that’s fine for you Commander, just hanging out on the bridge. You’re a command officer, you’ve done your time and you’re older and your career is winding down, and you need to put in the administrative down time.”

 

Must. Not. Cuff. The Youngling. Left Ear disguised the knee jerk desire to cuff the Man-Kitten by redirecting her paw (which had shot up) to nonchalantly comb through her high and tight cut mane as if to smooth the very short fur down. Humans did not react well to being swatted by a feline, and there was the danger of blacking out and such when they were cuffed hard enough by a larger version of the felinoid species such as JoNs.*

 

Even Jumper Honor-Scar had never been this green. Her distant cousin was always an insubordinate handful sure, but she had never had the warp factor hard charger predilection. JoNs’s tail had started to swish, and a female officer manning another one of the bridge consoles was forced to gently bat the appendage out of the way.

 

JoNs did a quick mental recall on the Humans profile, since he was starting to annoy her: Harriman, Micah. Fleet Operations, and that had been his concentration major as well. Currently held a junior ensign rank, and was finishing out his final training cruise on board the Union, and had come on board with the other replacement and transfer officers and crew during the layover at the Camelot station. His grades were all top notch, but that couldn’t account for common sense apparently. He was early twenties, definitely hadn’t hit twenty five yet.

 

“So … my thirty four years old is downright elderly according to you Ensign? And our current salvage operation is not appealing to your sense of adventure?” Left Ear kept her tone and expression neutral with some effort.

 

“Well, uh, not really Sir, but that’s just the way things are. You’re the XO and Corizon is the CO, and any ships command staff is expected to stay out of the way and be protected. Officers such as myself however are in their prime and should be part of the front line action.”

 

“That’s Captain Corizon to you, and yes, you are a prime target all right Ensign … Harriman, correct? Not all of our missions here on the Union or on the Excalibur call for guns blazing, onward to glory and fame. There’s also something to be said for a minor mission to map gaseous anomalies.”

 

The Union bridge, while spacious for the decade in which the Excelsior class ship had been commissioned, was small when compared to the modern USS Excalibur command bridge that the senior bridge crew had gotten accustomed to. Up until this point, it had been easy to keep the conversation between the senior command officer and junior ensign relatively contained and away from prying ears on duty about the smaller bridge confines … but Left Ear heard her own vocalizations becoming more direct as her level of ‘command tone’ began to spike. It was time to remove the situation from the bridge, so to speak. The Excal Ex Oh was mainly concerned about Lieutenant ‘Radar Ears’ Khal and another new operations ensign, Waters, a female Human who had sonar and acoustical type talents way above the average Terran according to her biographical profile, picking up on the tone of the conversation if the two hadn’t already.

 

Harriman frowned then at what the Ex Oh had just said, but his first reaction was to be honest. “Mapping sectors is for Science and Research vessels Commander, or a cadet trainee crew on their first assignment, or maybe even those flea bitten border patrol crews. A line ship and crew such as us is beneath that sort of grunt work.”

 

Perhaps a little too honest.

 

A big brown paw darted out to clamp around the young man’s bicep. “Oh, so we’re royalty now, are we? Walk with me Ensign.”

 

JoNs gently but firmly marched the kid over to the turbo lift; the outer sensors of the elevator conveyance obediently whooshed the doorway open for entry as the approaching movement was detected. She paused just inside the ‘Lift entry, and maintained her grip on the slightly taller officer’s arm while turning him to face her. Her bright green eyes flashed, she spoke in a low tone, and only just managed to keep a hiss out of her vocalizations.

 

“You listen to me Mister Adventure: you’ve got the goods, otherwise you’d never have passed the Academy curriculum let alone the ‘Maru test. But let me tell you something -- there’s a big difference between doing your job as a Starfleet officer and actively looking for trouble. We are not out here to get a fancy medal pinned on our uniform, we go where our orders take us and do whatever is required no matter how boring the mission, and the command bridge is not a social club...”

 

“Uh …”

 

“I’m not done yet Ensign. Remember that, do your job, don’t get yourself killed with delusions of grandeur, and maybe I won’t have to kick your rear clear into the next galaxy.”

 

Stunned silence; Harriman looked like a Tibarthian deer caught in the shuttle lights.

 

“Speak now. Words. A yes sir is always acceptable and encouraged.”

 

“Yes sir!”

 

“Good boy. Dismissed and carry on with your duties. Try not to hard charge yourself into a bulkhead.”

 

* Trivia Note: TOS Novel Uhuru’s Song, by Janet Kagan (1984). A non-Caitian feline race is prominently featured in this book, and Captain Kirk gets cuffed by a clan matriarch, which is hysterical.