So, What have we Got?

Posted on Tue Apr 30th, 2024 @ 4:34am by Lieutenant JG Miraj Derani & Captain Gary Taylor

Mission: Season 6: Episode 4: Memory Lane
Location: Flight Control Department
Timeline: MD02 1600
1096 words - 2.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Gary walked into the Flight Control Department and to say he was surprised was an understatement. it looked completely disorganized with people just milling about. he bypassed them and went straight to Miraj's office.

He saw her at her desk, her back to him. it looked like she was studying a PaDD. He stood in the doorway and rapped the frame. "Miraj? I'm here to help you with the flight control department like the Commodore asked."

She jumped, too absorbed in the padd to notice his arrival. "Oh. Yes. I remember." vaguely, she didn't want to add. "I... Okay. where do we start?"

Gary nodded, he wasn't sure if Miraj remembered or not and it wasn't a big deal either way. He was here now to help her. "Your department Miraj." He countered but added, "Have you got a duty schedule made up?"

She handed him the pads, flicking to the roster. The history showed many many changes, but each change would be superseded a few changes down, forcing the rosters back to the original position, so it kept falling back into the same pattern, and then everything would start again.

Gary's eyes scanned the PaDD. His attention on the roster. It was the same thing over and over, no changes in assignments or shifts. "Myne." he said gently, "Who made this roster? You?"

"Yes." She sounded uncertain. "I mean, I started with what Commander Qwyyn left me. Made some adjustments as people had requests and such."

Gary nodded as he fondly remembered Liselle Qwyyn, the Elysium's former chief of flight control and his dear friend. "All well and good Miraj but I don't see any cross training. Wouldn't it be a good idea to get Neri and Danvers some time with the QSD? even in simulation. Take some of the burden off you."

"I would. I was. But we don't have a functioning QSD anymore, and the flight simulator isn't working right now either, and the holodecks aren't a priority fix." She made another change to the shifts, which cleared the immediate problem of placing Jason on the graveyard shift when he was also down for being the docking bay duty manager on alpha shift. And promptly threw up 2 more errors as it then moved Anish and Eric onto the same shift and left the no-one on the battle bridge for the evening shift. She undid the change. with a sigh.

"Give them information to read, get them up to speed with the QSD. It is just a suggestion Miraj. You don't want your people to stagnate by doing the same things over and over. Come let's go over this roster and get it straightened out and people where they need to be."

"Okay. Where do we start?" She stared at the handful of names. There were nine duty shifts, plus her auxiliary, but only 7 officers. And the shuttle bay could run on a skeleton of three crewmen for marshalling and traffic control, and another 2 for turnaround and prep, needing a total of 15, but there were only 13 survivors. Normally the department ran on ten times that many. That said, normally there was a lot more coming and going.

"We start by figuring out where your department priorities lie, and the number of bodies you have for those priorities, and we work from there Miraj. So, bridge duty is a priority. What of the shuttle bay and battle bridge? How many total personnel do you have?"

Miraj blinked. "You don't know?"

Gary looked at her, "I want to see if you know Miraj." He replied firmly.

She gave him an incredulous stare. As if she didn't after everything they'd been through? "Twenty, sir. Including me. Would you like their names and ranks too?"

Gary refused to be baited. "Not at this time Miraj. Perhaps later." He replied simply.

"So, where do we start? I've nine officer shifts, but only seven officers? And forty two enlisted slots, and 13 enlisted?"

"We start by making this simpler. It is like the old question how to you divide 16 apples among 17 people? Answer, make apple sauce. We are going to make apple sauce by extending shifts and getting rid of others." Gary replied.

"I can do that?" Miraj gave him a look of wide eyed surprise. "What about the rest of the ship? Aren't we all supposed to be lining up?"

Gary nodded, "Yes you can Miraj. The rest of the ship is adapting just like your department is. We all need to work together."

"But what happens when people say they can't do that?"

"We will give them on the job training with the people who do. We all are going to have to give a hundred and ten percent." Gary answered. "We will get this done." He added firmly.

She looked uncertain. "So we move from eight hour shifts to 12 hour shifts? So we only need two thirds of the staff we would normally do. Meaning we can give rest days again." she made an adjustment to her schedule and started moving names around the schedule. "though I guess we'll have to train people up of ATC. I'm not really comfortable having people on long shifts doing Traffic Control, even though we don't really have much of it anymore."

" Traffic control is not a high priority right now Miraj. As for the long shifts, it has to be done. your people will adjust and will become more comfortable with the idea once they see they are getting some days off." Gary answered.

"Okay. So then we move the beta shift to the second shift, split the graveyard between first and second shift, and give the extra two days off, and then set rotation to... five days... and there we go." She turned the padd around to Taylor with all the pride of a five year old presenting macaroni artwork. "Is it right?"

Gary looked at the PaDD and the changes Miraj had made to the rotation. He saw her eager, hopeful look on her face. He was silent for a moment, two. "Miraj..." He began his voice firm thinking of giving Miraj a difficult time but he couldn't go through with it not seeing her face. "Miraj." He began again. "I couldn't have done better myself. This is excellent. Well done." His face splitting into a bright smile.

Miraj grinned back. "Okay, I'll let everyone know. What's next?"

Gary nodded the smile still on his face. "You do that Miraj. As for what's next, you decide, its your department and you've proven you can run it." He finished honestly.