Joint Log | CO & CHelm | Capt. Carpenter & Ens. Kieran | "Terrifying Encounters"

Posted on 241403.06 @ 6:24pm by Ensign Aquila Kieran & Captain Eric Carpenter

Mission: Where no man has gone before.
Location: Captain's Dining Room

= Captain's Dining Room =

An informal lunch with his most junior ranked division head. Ensign Kieran was in charge of the Flight Control Department, although that wasn't exactly a 'huge' department, given that there were only half a dozen helmspeople, who were split between four shifts. Still, it was a significant achievement for an Ensign, since the billet would've easily called for a full Lieutenant or a Lieutenant JG. There had been Lieutenant Commander's who had been after the post, but Eric had picked Kieran for the job, so now it was time to actually meet the kid.

Aquila dove in head first. Rather than stand outside and wait, torturing himself, he pressed the door to the Captain's dining room. Why not? This lunch was going to happen one way or another, especially since it was at the Captain's request. To his immense surprise and mild horror, the door opened immediately after the entrance chime rang.

After the jarring moment, which felt like an eternity, Kieran could see the Captain inside waiting for him. "Sir, Ensign Kieran Aquila."

Eric smiled as the young man entered. "At ease, Ensign. I'm not going to have you for lunch. We only eat Ensign's on alternate days of the week. Take a seat."

The urge to laugh felt immediately like a mistake. Who laughs at the Captain? Are Ensigns supposed to retort from casual jokes make by their CO? He wasn't sure. Going back and forth about it while he took his seat, Kieran finally settled on a quick chuckle, "Heh, it's my lucky day then."

"Thank you for inviting me to sit with you, Captain. It really is an honor to be welcomed like this. I didn't think I'd get this post, much less the chance to have a one on one so quickly." Kieran smiled genuinely as he looked about at the dining room. It was very cozy, but in a way which played into the room's generous size. For a dining room it was rather large, in fact, being able to hold probably the entire senior staff if need be. For the moment the table seemed to seat the two of them comfortably, without seeming too large or obtrusive.

"So, I'm guessing that you're enjoying your new posting. You came highly recommended from the Academy, which was one of the reasons I selected you for the role. I believe in giving people a real chance to break out - chances I was given." He said.

Kieran nodded, "Yes sir, I am. Excited that is, of course. I'm honestly a little surprised you picked me, sir. I appreciate the confidence and the opportunity. What was it like for you right out of the Academy?" He was both astonished and terrified with his sudden comfort with talking to the Captain. The man seemed grounded and real, at least, something Kieran was used to. His own farm-town was full of veteran farmers still recovering from the Cardassian occupation on Bajor, so real and grounded was reassuring.

"Honestly? I found it extremely daunting, especially given how I came to the Academy. But I was taken under the wing of a very experienced Captain, and he took pity on me, but didn't do it in such a way that would impede upon my honor. It's always daunting your first time out, but if you trust in your seniors, you can't do too much to mess up." Eric smiled. "And yes, even Captains were Ensigns once."

"Anything is probably better than my last week or so at the Academy..." He said, moving in his chair a little, "after the attack and all. I'm glad the war is mostly over, at least in this part of space." Aquila could remember waking up from a nap between his final studies to hear a thunderous explosion tear through a building in the distance. The resulting quake had followed a moment later, throwing him and his desk over into the middle of the room. Getting through it with just a few scrapes and bruises was the best he could hope for.

He would always be grateful to be alive, and had since felt a responsibility to Starfleet for fighting off the attack. The ring of debris floating around Earth would hopefully be the most action he would ever see, and would ever want to see.

"Well, I'm glad that Starfleet is pushing back out into the exploration business." Eric said. "Fighting should only be as a last resort. Lately, that seems to be all we do."

Kieran's eyes lit up and he produced two or three PaDDs from his uniform, seemingly out of nowhere, "Oh, sir, I almost forgot. I brought the flight plans I mapped out for the next few days. A few suggestions for you if you'd like to look them over," his mouth thinning with apprehension and expectation.

"I spent about an hour in astrometrics this morning and we've got a type three Itinerant Pulsar about 30 light years out, five Mutara class nebulas, there's what looks to be unusual radiation emission emanating from an asteroid belt in the Deltol system about 40 lightyears out. One of the nebulas looked to house a stellar nursery. I also plotted courses through some of the more populated regions of space, and a few courses along routes not usually traveled by starships in this region of space."

The young Ensign paused as he noticed his words were beginning to run together, "Is that our next mission... Exploration?"

"Our first, next and ongoing mission, Ensign." Eric smiled. "We're the Enterprise son. We go where no one has gone before."

= END LOG =

Captain Eric Carpenter
Commanding Officer

Ensign Kieran Aquila
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS ENTERPRISE