(SB 86, Bar, Promenade)

After they had met in the bar on SB 86, Tyler and Wong had proceeded to sit and have a wide ranging chat on dozens of topics that lasted for over an hour. Tyler had instantly recognized how much of asset and potential fountain of knowledge Wong could be for him. And Wong, to his credit, had reconsidered his initial low opinion of his new CO. It was still true that Tyler was a man of science more suited to a laboratory or a teaching gig at the Academy. But what Tyler appeared to lack in leadership skills and relevant command experience he more then made up for with his wit, thoughtfulness and humility.

Within the first 10 minutes, they had traded stories about where they each came from and what each of them valued and what their career goals were. Within the first 30 minutes Tyler had begun asking for Wongs advice and input on topics ranging from crew shifts to mission planning, and duty delegation.

Then by the time they were an hour deep into the conversation, Wong was freely offering reccomendations to an eagerly receptive Tyler about; having the Blythe operating on a 2 and a half shift crew rotation schedule; having both of them ‘wearing 2 hats’; requisitioning, begging for, or borrowing a few Runabouts which Wong noticed could be very useful for them.

Tyler had listened intently to the his XO’s reccomendations and then risked losing Dannys respect yet again and asked “So. Just a few questions, and please again, forgive me if they sound naive, but, what do you mean by a ‘2.5 shift crew rotation with double dog watches as our delta’? I dont quite follow you, I’m familiar with the standard 2, 3, and 4 shift rotations…” He stopped as he noticed that Wong seemed eager to answer.

“Oh, that part, yeah, sometimes I tend to use traditional naval slang for certains things…uh, basically we run the ship on 3, 8 hour shifts. But the 3rd, or delta shift, is half strength and manned by our most experienced non department heads, split into 2, 4 hour dog watches. When I’ve served at other posts that had severe crew shortages, I’ve seen this approach work well. During the dog watches 2 people cover the tactical, ops, helm, and mission specialist consoles on the bridge, the Cali class systems have the ability to hot seat multiple stations from one console in ‘times of crisis’ already anyway, and like i say, thats why we could assign experienced officers on those dog watches” Wong responded matter of factly.

“I see. I like it, make it happen, number one.” Tyler had just given his first order as a Captain, and he couldnt help by grin slightly. He passed one of the padds to Wong and continued.

‘And the runabouts, I get that they’re larger and slightly more versatile then our standard compliment of shuttles. And Cali class ships do have plenty of hangar space compared to other vessels their size but…” gestures with his hand for Wong to go ahead, sensing he had a simple answer to this query aswell.

Wong took another sip of his drink. “Well boss, runabouts could concievably deploy from the Blythe, and accomplish some of the assigned tasks listed on this mission itinerary’ wavving the padd that Tyler had shared with him. “It could save us alot of time and manpower…2 things we are going to have a chronically short supply of by the looks of all this.” Wong said, nodding his head at the half dozen padds sitting infront of them on the bartop.

“I like your thinking on that aswell Lt. Now we just need to figure out how to get them. About the dual hatting and each of us covering another role in addition to CO/XO…” he reviewed the padd that had the crew roster on it. “I can pretty naturally cover the science department aswell, considering we only have 2 Ensigns and 11 techs in the whole department so far, I think I can manage that. You’ve got certifications at….tactical and the helm right?” Wong nodded as Tyler reviewed the roster again, and sorted it by departments, in the corner a graph read:

Command-8(20)

Helm/Comms-8(20)

Sciences-13(42)

Operations-19(48)

Medical-14(36)

Tactical/Security-24(52)

Engineering-34(68)

Cetacean Ops- 3(14)

Attached Logistics Staff- 24

**Parentheses denote full authorized strength

“We barely have enough Tactical and security personnel to secure the vital sections of the ship in the event of an emergency, and only 7 qualified bridge watchstanders in the whole group.. Would you be comfortable covering Tactical aswell?”

“Well, I’m more of a pilot and navigator by trade and creedo…but in this case i think you’re right sir, Tac/Sec needs the help more” Wong confessed.

They chatted for a few more moments before agreeing that getting another round of drinks would not be a good call. Considering they were to report aboard the Blythe the next morning, getting a decent sleep was more in order. As they made their way to the exit after settling their tabs Tyler asked “Got any idea where we can scrounge up a few runabouts Danny?” He said with a hint of mischief in his voice.

“I might….actually, yeah, I might…I have a friend who is the head of flight operations at the Vestic Prime Surplus Depot, its only 39 light years away, and near our flight path to our first mission delivering relief supplies to the colony on Hargusta…” Wong recalled though the haze of the alcohol. “He might be able to supply is with some older Danubes if its my name on the requisition requests, and he knows its coming before I send it, hahah, I’ll send him a message tonight.”

Tyler was very impressed, and even though he had only met the man little more then an hour prior, he wanted to show Wong a sign of his trust and somehow thank him for the professional and sound advise and reccomendations he had given to him throughout their conversation. And suddenly the idea came to him, “Well number 1, that requistion request will look more in official if its marked ‘Urgent’, and coming from a person with a rank more befitting their post…” he tapped at one of his padds a few times. “Lt. Cmdr Wong, has a much better ring to it anyway.” He warmly patted Danny, who remained speachless on the shoulder as they exited the bar side by side “Now, I’ve got my first orders, and first field promotion completed, ill have to read up and figure out what else I need do to complete my ‘Rookie Captain Bingo Card’.”

Wong chuckled for several seconds as he understood the apt yet archaic reference, his opinion of his new CO had firmly shifted from a negative to a positive outlook in the past hour. Maybe this new assignment wouldnt totally suck after all, he thought to himself.

((SB 86, Promenade))

At 1000h and 58 members of the Blythe’s crew all had orders to report for duty. At 0900h the Stations Ship Repair Dockmaster, opened the ship for rehabitation and occupancy, so the crew could begin boarding.

It was 0850h and Cdr Tyler was finishing a quick coffee on the promenade before making his way to the ship. He tapped his comm badge and said.

‘LCdr Wong, this is Cdr Tyler, are you available to meet me at the Blythes Docking port?’

‘Yes sir, in fact I was just on my way there. I’ll be a few minutes.’ Wong replied.

‘Ill meet you there, Tyler out’ he said as he grabbed his bag and stack of padds and headed out.

((Blythe Docking port, 0901h))

Wong and Tyler had met up and walked through airlock together. The yard foreman was standing there, padd in hand waiting for them just inside the USS Blythes Starboard Airlock.

‘Greetings sirs. The vessel is fully repaired and ready for you and crew to reboard her.’ The 30 something yellowshirted Lt said as he held out the padd to Wong.

‘Uh, he’s the CO, Im just the XO.’ He said with a smile gesturing towards Tyler. It was a simple mistake, Tyler was a blueshirted Commander, and Wong was a redshirted LCdr now since Tyler had promoted him the night before. And to be fair to the foreman, with the angle they were standing at, he couldn’t clearly see what rank Tyler had been wearing immediately.

Tyler took the padd, read it, and signed it with a thumbprint, as the foreman apologized ‘It’s alright Lt. An easy mistake to make, is there anything else you need from me?’ As he passed the padd, which was the official dockyard release forms, back to the foreman.

‘Other then this, no sir. She’s all yours.’ He made his way his way off the ship.

Wong stood there looking at Tyler, as if waiting for something.

Tyler said ‘So, now we take command of the ship and…get to work? Right?

Wong chuckled ‘Yes sir.’

Tyler ‘Computer….transfer sll command and authorization codes to me. By orders of starfleet, I hereby take command of this vessel…’ the last word lingered as if it was almost a question.

The computer responded ‘All command and authorization codes have now been transfered to Commander Frederick Tyler’.

Tyler nodded in acceptance and then looked at Wong ‘By the way, shes the only one who is allowed to call me Frederick’

Wong grinned ‘Yes sir.’ Just then a Bajoran Lt JG wearing a yellowshirt came through the airlock.

Tyler greeted her ‘Welcome aboard Lt. Our new Chief, I presume?’

The woman nodded and replied ‘Yes sir, Lt. Kira Tesa….and no, we aren’t related’ Guessing at the next question she was about to recieve. The fame and prominence of the Bajoran from that prior generation almost irked her at times. There was nearly 41 million Bajorans with the family name Kira, it was actually the 11th most common family name on their planet.

Wong said cheerfully ‘Well we have about an hour before the first tranche of crew report for duty at 1000h, shall we take a quick tour of our new ship as people trickle onboard?’

Tyler and Kira nodded and they decided to start at the bridge and work their way down.

((USS Blythe, Logistics Office, 0940h))

Even the self absorbed and arrogant Ford felt a sense of unease as he entered the office where he Morris and T’Sen had spent all the time waiting to begin rescued. The Shipyard crews here at 86 had done a fine job repairing the ship. The room was cleaned, and the furniture had been returned to its standard configuration.

He walked through the door in the far corner across from his desk that led to the Logistics Bay. This large room was essentially located to the fore of the exact centre of the saucer section, infront of the main computer core and auxilary power distribution node on deck 6. The idea behind this was to keep the supplies, gear and tools located in the logistics bay as safe as possible in case of emergencies.

The logsitics bay, like his office had been cleaned and the remaining stuff in the bay had been stacked back neatly, again its standard configuration. Ford noticed that none of the supplies and gear utilized by the 3 survivors during their ordeal had been replaced, they had just tidied up.

Ford made a mental note to requisition more of the devices, rations, tools and gear that they used during their impromptu survival exercise. He walked back to the Logistics office and found a Bolian crewman stood in the middle of the room with a padd in hand.

‘Hey, can I help you crewman’ Ford said blandly.

‘Uh, yes, I think…I dont know sir. I’m Crewman Treex, Logistics tech. My orders say to report here at 1000h.

‘Early, thats good. Looks like starfleet is barely scraping together a crew for us for this tour of duty.’ He tapped a quick list into a padd and passed it to the Crewman. ‘You can start by requesting all of this be transported over from Starbase 86. And then when they send it over, store it all in there, ill send the logistics storage layout to your padd so you’ll know where everything goes ‘ Fake smile, as he pointing to the door to the Bay.

‘Y…yes chief, I’ll get right on it.’ Treex said and nodded and departed.

‘Sweet now I can chill, and read these surveys’ Sits and leaned back in his chair. Before the vaadwaur invasion, as the Logistics Chief on the Blythe, Ford was is charge of a team of 8, and was notionally, the 4th highest member in the Operations Department. Now, he would have a 4 person, and be the 3rd highest ranking person in the department.

The opportunities to ‘delegate’ and slack off while on duty were going to be nearly endless. Ford was certainly good at his job, he was just too self centred and prideful to bother to care most of the time.