TBD - Getting the balls rolling

Posted on Fri Aug 14th, 2026 @ 10:32pm by Lieutenant JG Reni Kozrehl & Lieutenant Rala

2,108 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Die Hard: Chimera Edition (side posts)
Tags: Rala,Koz,Operations,first meeting

::ON::

Having stepped away from the Captain and the new Assistant Chief Science Officer, Boudreau, Koz went in search of her new superior officer. Smoothing down the front of her uniform and thinking how little she liked the new material of the uniforms, she pinged the Chimera's Main Computer for her new superior officer's location. Mercifully given the ship's reputation about the fleet, the Computer answered without incident and sent her on her way.

As she stood in the turbolift, fingers moving across her hands in nervous motion, Koz reflected on what had led her to this point in her career. Faltan had proven to be an unmitigated disaster and any secret ambitions to further her career had fizzled out like the air from a balloon. The deflation was mirrored in her posture, momentarily stooped over, she shook herself back together.

She had a new boss to meet.

Approaching the door to the Operations Office, Koz adjusted her ponytail, squared her shoulders, and hit the chime. Time to get some balls rolling she thought to herself.

“Who is it?” snapped the voice from within, via the door panel.

Pausing a moment upon hearing the tone, Koz hesitated, then spoke up, nervous energy thrumming through her legs. 'Uh, Lieutenant Reni Kozrehl reporting for duty. The, uhm, new Assistant Chief of Operations?'

A muttered word that didn’t get translated was apparently picked up by the computer and transmitted through the panel, followed by the same voice, with what might have been a touch of forced calmness, saying, “Right, come in,” and the door swishing open.

Stepping through the yawning portal, Koz took a quick glance around the room before approaching the desk. The room felt full of a quiet, focused energy as she stepped lightly towards the boss.

The desk was cluttered with almost two dozen PADDs, and in addition to the usual computer terminal, there were three additional holographic screens floating above it. Behind the desk, Starfleet’s sole Draakri sat. Most of the Chimera’s crew would have thought she looked weary and uncharacteristically tight, like she was being simultaneously stretched and squeezed from all directions, but the newcomer did not yet have the same points of comparison the rest did.

She finished typing something on the terminal, set down the PADD she’d been holding in one hand, and looked up—a bit farther up than expected—at the humanoid who’d just interrupted her. Tall, blonde, with patterns of spots running from each temple down the sides of her neck and under her uniform. Trill. She’d met a few, but had never interacted much with any of them.

“Ah...right...” she said, scrabbling through the PADDs on her desk, ultimately finding the one she was looking for. She held it up and blinked at it. Her brow furrowed, making her face look even more pinched, then closed her eyes and focused for a second before reopening them and focusing on the PADD again. “Lieutenant...Kozrehl? Am I pronouncing that right? The translator helps, but sometimes it gets lost with nonhuman names.” She glanced up at the newcomer again, frowned, then shook her head slightly. “Oh, uh, at ease, sit down. I don’t particularly feel like craning my neck up at you right now.

'The pronunciation was spot on, Sir,' Koz replied with a quick smile, sliding into the seat in front of the desk. Having had a moment to study her superior officer, she realised with a start that she had never seen their species before. Purple-scaled, a facial structure curiously resembling Terran dragons from myth and legends. An expression that was unreadable to her, but if her eyes softened would likely be kind. Perched at the edge of her seat, Koz folded one leg over the other, and set her hands in her lap. 'So the ship seems busy,' she added helpfully with another smile.

“Prepping for a baryon sweep,” Rala said, closing her eyes and rubbing her face with two hands. “Anything organic and a bunch of stuff that isn’t has to get moved off the ship. It’s...” she sighed, “...a lot.” She dropped her hands and opened her eyes, looking at Koz again. “And it's 'ma'am'. I don’t care what regs say, nobody calls me ‘sir’ if I can help it.”

'Ma'am it is ... Ma'am,' Koz replied lightly, ignoring the dying feeling in her chest at inadvertently crossing her new superior officer in her first conversation. Great start Koz, exactly what you need right now. The Trill pressed forward. 'The baryon sweep prep must be taxing ... could be a good place for a new officer to slip in and lend a hand, if you'd like?'

Rala looked more closely at Koz, noting her posture and expression, and then at the PADD, trying to focus. After a few seconds, she dropped the PADD on the desk with a clatter and sighed, rubbing her face again. “I’m sorry Lieutenant, I’m a bit out of sorts—new medication’s having some unpleasant side effects—and I feel like we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot because of it.” She stood and stepped over to the small replicator on the wall, tapping in an order with a bit more force than intended. “I promise I’m not usually this...abrasive,” she said as the replicator hummed, filling the air with the harsh scent of raktajino, tempered with...chocolate?

As the scent of the raktajino wafted towards her, Koz shook her head, 'it's perfectly fine, ma'am.' Her nose twitched again as the stronger scent of raktajino hit her nostrils as Rala walked past. 'We haven't got off on any feet yet - it would be unfair to form opinions based on the opening pleasantries after all.'

Rala returned to her chair and leaned back, sipping at her beverage. “I’ve got your file on that PADD, but I’m sorry to say I’ve only skimmed it, and I’m having trouble focusing on it at the moment. Besides, I often prefer the direct approach anyway.” She gestured at the replicator, indicating that Koz was welcome to get something for herself if she wished, then smiled over her mug and said, “So, Lieutenant: Tell me a bit about yourself.”

'Oh, uhm,' Koz stammered, momentarily stumped. 'Well, I'm a Trill, obviously' she said, indicating the spots that ran from her temples to her feet with a wave of her arms along her body. 'The spots do go all the way down too, just to save questions. And I'm not a joined Trill,' she said, with a slight sobering of the expression as she momentarily touched on a nerve deeply buried, 'just to forestall those questions too.'

Buying time, she got up, went to the replicator and asked it for the last beverage provided. Piloting her own mug of raktajino back to her seat, she held it in both hands as she left the smell waft over her. 'So, I joined Starfleet because I needed to get off Trill, wanted to see the galaxy, yadda, yadda. Ended up Operations because, weirdly, I love filling out a good requisition form and performing general maintenance.'

She paused, then, 'let's see. Oh, uh, yeah, I've served around the fleet on various ships, was doing really quite well. And then I managed to give an entire Starbase food poisoning from a tainted meat requisition so they sent me back to Earth for retraining and now I'm here,' she concluded in one breath, looking over the rim of her mug at the Draakri across the desk. 'And that's the professional biography of Lieutenant Reni Kozrehl. My friends call me Koz, though.'

“I won’t presume to claim the title of ‘friend’ just yet,” Rala said, taking another sip of her drink, “and there are some notable differences between us, beyond the obvious, but there are also some similarities.” She gave the junior officer an abridged version of her own history—how First Contact had changed everything; how she’d joined Starfleet as quickly as possible to explore the galaxy; her experiences on the Thunderchild; and finally coming to the Chimera and finding an unexpected home.

“If this ship holds her course,” the Draakri said, now smiling as she tapped clawtips on her desk in an odd pattern, “er...if the pattern continues, I mean, then hopefully this will be just as positive of a posting for you as it has been for me and most of the others I’ve gotten to know here.”

'Do you think?' Koz asked in a small voice, distracted slightly by the tapping clawtips. 'I don't know ... All I'm really hoping for is a posting that, uh, I don't know, doesn't go horribly off-course for me. All I want is to fill in requisitions, get our supplies where they're needed, and help out where I can.' She shook herself, and smiled falteringly. 'I don't particularly want to screw up again.'

“I'd put coin on it,” Rala said in what she hoped was a reassuring tone, still smiling, but no longer tapping her claws on the desk. “We’re all off-course here, but we’re off-course together. It’s kinda what the Chimera is for, or so the Admiralty seem to think: Most folks here had some kind of trouble fitting in elsewhere, in one way or another; get sent here because, hey, why not dump them with all the other misfits? Thing is, that gives us something in common, something to build from, and that’s a powerful thing.”

She gestured at the pile of PADDs on her desk. “And if it’s requisition forms and suchlike you want, I can certainly accommodate. I loathe paperwork; some of it definitely requires my direct attention, but if that’s where you’re comfortable, I’m happy to let you handle as much as you like. Unless you have any more questions for me, I suggest you go get settled in your quarters and take care of any other onboarding tasks you need to take care of, then meet me back here in...” she checked the chronometer on her terminal, “...say, two hours, and we’ll see if we can sort out a duty schedule and what I should focus on delegating to you. Sound good?”

Considering it a moment, Koz nodded, 'That is more than acceptable Ma'am,' she said warmly, finding she was liking the Draakri's no-nonsense demeanour and directness. She felt it would do her good in her new assignment. Knowing that she knew little about her new senior officer's species and culture, she made a note to brush up on it so as not to inadvertently offend. A question about having four arms might not land well, she thought to herself. Koz got to her feet smartly, hand by her side. 'I'm sure I've taken up entirely too much of your time, as well. I'll return in two hours and we'll get these balls rolling then.'

“Not at all, Lieutenant. A valid excuse to stop staring at inventory lists and cargo manifests was just what I needed,” Rala said, smiling and waving a hand dismissively. “In fact,” she continued, looking at the chronometer again, “I think I could use a break in general.” She knew from experience, both on Draakrona and the Academy, that trying to maintain actual continuous productivity for hours on end was often counterproductive. She picked up her mug in one left hand and stood, moving around the desk and holding her first right hand out for Koz to shake. “Welcome aboard, Lieutenant. If you have questions, about anything, please, feel free to ask. I’d rather stammer through an awkward answer than not know you were curious in the first place.”

Looking down slightly at her superior officer, Koz flashed a dazzling smile. 'You got it Boss - any questions I got, I'll ask once you've given me my work.' She took the hand and squeezed it firmly, giving it a shake. They were not as she expected. Not that Koz was entirely sure what to expect the hand of a new species she'd just encountered to feel like. Subconsciously she must have expected it to be clammy, and rough, and it was neither. In fact, her hands were the opposite, soft and warm. 'A pleasure to meet you.'

 

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