Checking in with the Boss

Posted on 26 Oct 2023 @ 7:59pm by Captain Easton Lawe & Commander Kristiana Petrova

799 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Miranda
Location: Ready Room

Kris was tired. Her entire body ached. She knew it was the sickness, but she also knew that her case was light. And that there was work to be done. So she'd taken some painkillers and had continued to work on, though to a reduced workload. Of course, this means that some work was piling up, some reports unread, not signed off on. But she'd asked her department heads to mark their reports with a priority number from one to three - prio ones she'd handle as she could, prio twos she'd handle when she'd handled all the prio ones, and prio threes were put on the ever growing pile of 'some other time, hopefully'.

For now though, the next thing on her docket was the daily check-in with the boss. And so on the appointed time she made her way to the ready room, there to ring the door chime.

Easton stared into his mug and tried to remember which coffee this was. He knew what type, of course, because he could taste it. He just couldn't remember how many he'd already had. Fortunately, there were not symptoms of the disease, so he was pretty sure it was only exhaustion and stress. These were total legit, he thought, when under a ship-wide, plague-level crisis.

When his chime rang, it took him a moment to snap out of it and look toward the door. "Enter," he called.

She all but staggered inside and flopped down in a chair, leaning back and closing her eyes. "Godforsaken illness," she muttered. "It's just not giving us a break, is it."

Easton watched her walk in and arched a brow. "No offense, Commander, but you look like hell. Have you reported in to sickbay about showing signs of the illness?"

"I haven't, and I am. Sick, I mean. But nowhere near as bad as I've seen other people be," Kris opened her eyes again, regarding him. She raised her hand before he could speak, "Yeah, yeah, I'll go by sickbay after this report. Promise. It's just - there's so much work to be done. I've already got a whole pile of shit I haven't gotten around to yet and probably won't for the foreseeable future."

"You realize that so far, the casualties of this disease are those who assumed they weren't 'as sick' as others and didn't go to sickbay," the captain said. His expression and tone were taut, but he didn't reveal any of the rest of the emotion he felt behind it. "You also could be spreading the virus to people who have not yet been infected by not remaining in quarantine of some sort." Including him, now, he thought but did not say.

"You really think there are crew onboard who haven't gotten in contact with any sick people before me?" she quirked a brow. He was right, of course, but she wasn't just about to sit here and be lectured like by a father. At least, she wasn't going to be happy about it. "I'll go to sickbay after this report. Sir."

"Give your report quickly then, Commander," Easton said. Inwardly, he was determined that there would be a longer discussion after this crisis was over.

"Ship's functional complement running dangerously close to being a skeleton crew, at this time. With the amount of people in quarantine, we're barely holding together as is. I've ordered Commander sh'Zoarhi to sickbay, she was - " as stubborn as me, Kris smirked softly at the thought. " less than amenable to the idea. Ship's medical crew is running on fumes, overworked, trying to stem the flood of people. Engineering was also hit particularly hard. I've ordered the ship halted and non-essential systems shut down. I've ordered engineering into a triage mode, to just keep the power, life support and communications going - at the expense of other systems, if need be. I've ordered Ensign Walker to help in engineering, since she can't get sick and doesn't need breaks. Aaaand - that's it."

Easton nodded once. "I've had a report directly from Doctor Martin as well," he said. "I'll follow up as needed on the rest." Briefly, his mind returned to the still-missing Odin AI. They could've used her help right about then, too. "If there's nothing else, I won't keep you from your appointment with sickbay."

The Odin AI had passed Kristiana's mind too, but she wasn't hopeful the being would ever return. If she hadn't yet, why would she, still. But Kris was the first to admit that she didn't really understand the being's nature, so who was to say. "Yes Sir," she tiredly muttered as she pushed herself up from her seat, taking a moment to find her balance before heading towards the door on her way out.

 

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