Tracking Down A Problem

Posted on Tue Jul 16th, 2019 @ 4:19am by Lieutenant Alexis Aenera & Master Chief Petty Officer Hans-Peter König

Mission: Getting To Know You
Location: Chief of Science's Office

Alexis set the PADD down in front of her and resisted the urge to bang her head against the desk she was now sitting behind. The sheer amount of information she had to go through it would definitely take her a while, but some of it could wait until they were underway, or at least she hoped so. Some of it, most of it, couldn't wait, though and she'd been plowing through it for a few hours. And now she'd finally gotten through the whole personnel section that reported to her. She was SUPPOSED to have twelve people under her, three other officers and nine enlisted, but she had only two other officers and five of the enlisted people. It could be worse.

But there she sat, pristine in her uniform, true, the skirt and leggings of the regulation uniform option and the somewhat non-regulation heels, a science-blue band keeping her hair straight and neat down her back when she didn't have all of her people even on board. She'd talk to the Operations officer about the missing Ensign she was supposed to have aboard, but the enlisted? She pressed the comm key to the side of the board, "Master Chief Koenig? This is Lieutenant Aenera in Science, can I have a few moments of your time in my office?"

"I will be there momentarily, ma'am," König replied over the comm sharply. He had a lot to do but none of it was demanding his immediate attention, so he proceeded to the Chief of Science's office and rang the door chime. When he was admitted, he took a few steps into the office, leaned against his cane and addressed Alexis, "What can I do for you, Lieutenant?"

"Please, Chief König, have a seat." Alexis smiled at the Chief, "I have a slight problem: I'm missing people, well, not just missing people, but unless I'm missing an update, I don't even have assigned personnel. One officer and four enlisted personnel. The officer, of course, isn't your problem, but since you're the link between the enlisted crew and the Captain at least, I figured you were my best bet."

She took a breath and continued on, "If it helps, I'm missing my senior NCO, which I think would a Senior Chief, or even just a Chief Petty Officer. Unfortunately my senior NCO is a PO-2 who just got his status a month ago and I think it would be far too soon to bump him a couple grades out of the zone. Otherwise, I have a PO-3 and the other three are various lower grades. I'm just not quite sure what I should do, Chief, and I would appreciate any advice or help."

König settled back in the seat indicated by the LT, laying the cane across his knees. He looked thoughtfully across the desk for a moment before answering, "Well, ma'am, knowing the rusty trusty wheels of Starfleet Bureaucracy, I would be genuinely surprised if you ever did get your proper complement which means we're going to need to come up with a dynamic solution.

"I wouldn't worry about PO-2, this will be an opportunity for them to grow as an NCO," König smiled as he said the next little bit, "And I can make sure they are equipped with the tools to succeed."

Growing serious again, the Chief leaned forward, "As for your department's capabilities: which specialties are you lacking and how often do you anticipate needing them?"

Lexi chewed on the edge of her upper lip for a couple seconds as she mentally ran through the list of her people and specialties, "I suppose I'm not missing any of the majors at various levels, but I can cover most of those weaknesses and of the true specialty work, the ones I can't cover to a decent enough degree, the rest aren't going to be needed often if at all." She admitted, "And I can probably work with Medical to see if any of their people have some of those capabilities, like microbiology. A good virologist would probably have enough ability there."

"So, unless I misunderstand, the biggest stress on your department is a lack of manpower but not necessarily a lack of skilled manpower." Half a grin returned to König's face, "Ma'am, I don't see a problem here. I think what we have is an opportunity for the ships' enlisted.

"If you're willing to take up a little teaching again, and especially if you can pull some strings with your former coworkers at the Academy to scare up some academic credit for extra duty, then I think we'll not only be able to solve your personnel crisis with the enlisted already aboard Astraea but the volunteers for extra shifts will probably start trying to break down your door. This is Starfleet, after all. We have no shortage of science enthusiasts."

"I can swing the credits, Commodore Fabrel, the Dean of Sciences, was telling me how he thought we should expand the base Science knowledge of the cadets beyond what we do now. I can say this is a case study in off-site knowledge advancement and he will probably rubber-stamp the credits." Alexis smiled brightly at the Chief, "But if you send me the crewers, I'm going to grade them the way I graded my students. They're going to have to Earn the credits, not just sit off to the side and take a note or two."

"Tanstaafl," König smiled, "I see we think alike. I'll start putting together volunteers. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Alexis gave a quizzical look for a moment as she figured out what he'd meant. There ain't so such thing as a free lunch. She chuckled, then shook her head, "I think that this is the best solution, so no Chief, I think this solved my problem. Thank you. Thank you VERY much."

"Absolutely, ma'am," König pushed himself back to his feet with his cane, "Let me know if you need anything else. And, send that PO-2 my way. Let's get them up to speed."

=/\=

Master Chief Petty Officer Hans-Peter König
Chief of the Boat
USS Astraea

Lieutenant Alexis Aenera
Chief Science Officer
USS Astraea