Introductions Usually Go Better Than This

Posted on 03 Oct 2016 @ 10:53pm by Lieutenant Commander Arivek Zhuri & Captain Nathan Cowell MD

Mission: Prelude; Breakfast at Curmudgeon's
Location: Captain's Ready Room - USS Arizona
Timeline: MD -2: 1200 hours

In the corner, a swirl of light shimmered and suddenly Lieutenant Commander Arivek Zhuri appeared on the Bridge of the USS Arizona, his new assignment. So far, everything seemed a bit familiar, but still different. The place was definitely bigger than the Katana, that was for sure. But he only really had a few rooms to see. Unlike the Intrepid Class, the Arizona appeared to only have holoemitters in certain areas of the ship, and that was greatly hindering his movement. And with his experiences on the Katana, transferring from area to area always came with the possibility of ending up in places you didn't want to be.

This just wouldn't work. Arivek refused to be confined to his quarters and Engineering, and he was going to let the Captain know right now. He walked up to the doors that separated the Bridge from the Captain's Ready Room and pressed the chime.

"What?" the gruff voice of the room's occupant called out.

Arivek was taken aback by the abrupt answer, but continued to stand there silently.

After a few moments of silence the voice called out again, "You don't know how to open a door?"

Pressing another button on the side panel, the doors opened with a swish and Arivek walked in.

Captain Nathan Cowell was sitting in his chair behind the desk of his Ready Room, his feet lazily resting on the surface of the furnishing without much of a care for just how unprofessional it might look. The only real attempt he made to even acknowledge the person whom had stepped inside was to open one eye and let out a small grunt.

"You're blue," the Old Man commented as if he were somehow revealing some great secret.

"And you're not," the Engineer stated, looking the man over with surprise. Was this honestly what he was to expect from his new CO? Today was getting worse and worse.

"True enough," Nathan shrugged the comment of and slowly pulled his legs off the table. Once he was more or less upright, he motioned for the seats in front of the desk.

"So who might you be?" the Captain asked as he studied the man in front of him.

Arivek was really not in the mood for this. "My name is Arivek Zhuri, I've been transferred as your new Chief Engineer."

Nathan narrowed his eyes for a moment as he watched the man. There was something not right about him... And for the moment he wasn't sure exactly what it was but he could feel it. The Old Man drummed his fingers against the desk in thought as he formulated his reply to the 'not right' man.

"Well, Commander, you've got your work cut out for you. This boat has only recently finished her shakedown flight through the Sol System. Not a highway mile on her. If I were a betting man, I'd say there were plenty of gremlins scattered all through the ship that need ousting that your friends in the dry dock didn't bother with. You think you can crawl through all the dank places that didn't get all the right attention when they threw this boat together?" Nathan inquired.

"That's actually what I came to talk to you about." Arivek crossed his arms in front of his torso. "Your ship hasn't been outfitted with holoemitters on every deck. At the moment I seem to be confined to my quarters, Main Engineering and a few other places that I'll rarely go. Either Starfleet has a solution or they've made a mistake by transferring me here. Either way, the situation as it exists won't work and I would like to know how you plan to solve this dilemma."

"So that's it..." Nathan grumbled, "I knew there was something wrong about you."

And that was it, Arivek had enough. "First of all, there's nothing fucking wrong with me. Second of all, if you had bothered reading my service jacket, you'd know I was a hologram. On one hand, I'm surprised you didn't read the service record of one of your senior staff." He sighed and rolled his eyes. "On the other hand, seeing as how you can't even be bothered to sit up straight, much less greet me with any respect as an officer or a fellow being, why should I be surprised you didn't bother to read it?"

The Captain didn't flinch as he stared at the hologram and listened to the tirade that issued forth from him. When he was finished, Nathan continued to stare at him for a while without so much as a muscle moving. After a somewhat exaggerated silence, Captain Cowell pushed his seat back and stood to his full height. Despite being shorter than the majority of the people around him, when he could be bothered, Nathan could summon the entire 600 years of life experience he had and project a very imposing countenance.

"Son..." Nathan began slowly and with practiced control, "I don't know what kind of boats you've been on before and frankly I don't give two shits. You're on mine. And while you're on my boat there's only one way we go about things... mine. All that baggage you're carrying with you about this 'condition' you have... you need to leave it on Starbase One. I don't have time for your tantrums and I'm not about to shoulder the blame."

Nathan moved around his desk and stopped less than a foot away from the hologram, "Now, that service record you seem to be so proud of... I don't give them much more than a passing glance for a reason. You don't get to know a man or a woman by what some personnel officer thinks is important. Are you everything that report claims you are? No. Hell, I can hand you my personnel file right now and you wouldn't have the first damn clue about who I am because most of that stuff isn't in there."

The El-Aurian continued to glare at the man standing in front of him, his tone becoming icy, "Then you had to go and talk about respect... Walking in my office with this 'I'm a victim' attitude, holding your nose so high up in the air because you don't like your lot in life, and having the guts to tell me that I need to fix something before I even know it's broken... well... lemme tell you something sonny boy... That dog don't hunt. If you want solutions, rather than walking in here with the 'fuck this place, it's not tailored to my needs and I'm special' cry baby bullshit, what you should have done is come in here with an attitude of gratitude that you were given the chance to rise up in the world. Your last boat was a damn Intrepid... half the size of this one..."

Nathan paused for a second before continuing, "Surprised? I did read your jacket... I read every damn thing that comes to my desk... and before you walked in here I'd already gotten the feeling we'd have problems with you. And I don't mean that piss poor attitude of yours either. Now sit your photonic ass in that damn chair before I really get pissed off at you..."

Without a word, Arivek took a seat.

"Good..." Nathan grunted before returning to his own desk, "Now I'm pretty sure given your handicap, you've heard about Voyager at least once or twice. And even if you haven't, I have. Kathryn and I go a ways back and I heard from her that she had a photonic doctor... I think they just called him doctor... Which I always found to be a bit redundant but that's neither here nor there. Point is, this hologram could get foot loose and fancy free outside of his sickbay. And this was back before they made boats with holoemitters standard. Since I'd already gotten wind that Starfleet was shipping a holographic engineer on my ship and that they hadn't bothered with emitters in every corner of this ship, I made some calls. Calls that I'd have already told you about if you hadn't walked in here acting like some spoiled little shit."

Captain Cowell tapped the command that prompted the embedded screen to reveal itself, then brought up the schematic he'd been sent. Nathan pushed on the screen until it turned to face the hologram.

"I'm not a damn engineer, I'm a doctor, so I don't have the damnedest idea how to make this thing. And before you go asking me why I didn't just replicate the thing, it's got parts in there with resolutions even our industrial replicators can't handle... the computer already told me that. You're going to have to use your talents as an engineer to get the thing made. But when you do," Nathan paused for what could only be considered dramatic effect, "Mobility will never again be a problem for you."

Arivek cleared his throat, looking down for a moment before looking back up at the man in charge. "Thank you, sir. I can take care of that," he said softly, folding his hands in his lap.

"I didn't figure you couldn't, or they never would have shipped you here," the Old Man remarked pointedly, "You have any other questions for me, son? Seeing as we're on the same page now and all."

The hologram held back the urge to roll his eyes and sigh again. "No sir," he simply said.

Nathan shrugged and leaned back in his chair, throwing his feet up onto the table once more, "Well then, I'm sure you'll want to get started on that mobile emitter. Oh, and before I forget, if you wouldn't mind making sure that your department has enough gear, spare parts, and whatever else you need to keep this ship held together... then double that, I'd appreciate it. Ships with the name Arizona seem to just attract trouble, and I'm aiming to be ready for it this time around."

Arivek did not like the sound of that, but he nodded and stood. "I do want you to know," he paused for a moment. "I don't see this as a disability or handicap, nor do I consider myself to be a victim. I fought very hard to be accepted as a person again after what happened and leaving the Katana wasn't easy to deal with. But none of that was your fault, and I apologize about my attitude."

"Apology accepted, son," Nathan said, "And for the record... you still are a person. You're just not one I can practice medicine on anymore. I've had more than a few patients that would be damn jealous of you."

Giving the man a half-smile, Ari walked out of the room with very valuable information on the PADD in his hands.