Second Officer?

Posted on Wed Mar 22nd, 2023 @ 8:46am by Captain Rueben Gregnol & Executive Officer Jake Ford & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein

Mission: Mission 16: Hysperia
Location: Conference Room
Timeline: Fourth Day of Festival (MD08)
2258 words - 4.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Burnie strolled into the conference room, coffee in a hand sporting an o-ring on his ring finger and, despite his best efforts to suppress it, a cat-digesting-canary smile on his face. Just a regular meeting to update progress on the ship, nothing to see here... Honestly, he was surprised the whole Alpha quadrant hadn't heard the whoop of joy when he'd comm'ed his family (and the Sophie pouting about not getting to be flower girl - there was good chance vows would have to be made properly if they ever got back to earth again), but so far no one on the ship had picked up on the news.

Gregnol hurried in with a mug of coffee and several PADDS. He had spent the night trying to get Jeassaho a valve for some type of project that she had her heart on. The former Executive Officer knew after nearly a decade together that a way to her heart was by finding what ever part she needed for whatever project she had going on. “I found the part J wanted.” He announced by way of greeting to the engineer.

"Good," Burnie replied with a smile. "I still think we could have reverse engineered one and fabbed it ourselves, but probably better to get one made to spec by craftsmen."

“Jea said it was impossible. I am inclined to believe her as it as so small but it’s sorted. You will have your still and the new chef seems easier to assist you all.” Reuben said looking the man over. “How are you doing? Enjoying Hysperia?” They had not caught up since before the festival had started which was weeks in refit time so they meeting between Gregnol, Burnie and Ford was much needed.

"Yes." Burnie nodded, smile growing on his face. "Nollel and I finally got a chance to go visit the festival, and..."

Poking his head in the door, Jake gave a little wave.

"Sorry I'm late," he grunted. "Rough night's sleep. How are we doing?"

"Great." Burnie lifted his coffee mug in a semi-toast. "Sorry you didn't sleep well. Hope everything is alright?"

Gregnol said nothing but watched Ford for a moment. “Not too bad. Made Jeassaho happy with done engineering thing.” He laughed before sobering up. “You have had a few nights like that.” He said thoughtfully. He might be know for acting like a bull in a China shop sometimes but he cared deeply about every member of his crew.

"I'm good. At least I'm not trying to sleep on the floor of a freezing cargo bay anymore," Jake shrugged.

"It has been three months. Are you ever going to let me forget?" Gregnol said with a roll of his eyes and laughter that looked more than likely a response that belonged to Jeassaho than to Reuben. "Was your quarters upgrade not good enough?"

Burnie shook his head. No one was going to forget that any time soon, but none of it was Gregnol's fault. "Well, the good news is we shouldn't have to worry about anything like that again. The upgrades to the ship are nearly complete and despite the odd old-timey language the spacedock crew here seem to really know what they're doing."

“I am relieved to hear there is no dragon fire in the engines.” It had been a concern of his that there would be some upgrade or change to the system. “They do seem to be a lot more professional than I was expected.” It was definitely his own expectations of judging a book by its cover.

"That's good news," Jake nodded. "Having been to the surface I wouldn't have predicted their talent for something like that. Hell - flying around on dragons and whipping out swords, it's a wonder they had time to develop warp travel."

“Should have a tour of the palace ship they have. It is impressive.” It was like anything Gregnol had ever seen before outside of earth but it was in space and fun by almost magic. “I almost wonder if Meghan is here hiding with all the magic around.” He was 90% sure the Mega would not be there but there was 10% concerned that the woman who had body swapped them had stumbled across a place where she could go unopposed and fit in.

Burnie suppressed an urge to make an old superstitious sign against the evil eye. "So far I haven't seen anything but idiomatic references to wizardy for Ops. The only thing I'd call magical was the fireworks," he added with a private smile.

“Well that is a relief. I am not interested in swapping bodies again… Ed… yeah not interested.” He glanced at Jake but said nothing more. Reuben turned slowly to look at the man taking in the smile and raised an eyebrow. He knew the man loved fireworks but there was something about the tone and the smile that he was missing. “Why are you smiling like that?” He asked grinning.

"Smiling?" Burnie shrugged, but despite the attempt at nonchalance the smile wider. "Oh, no reason. Just wound up tying the knot with Nollel over at the fireworks area."

“Tying… what…” Gregnol asked sitting up properly and looked to Jake to check that he had heard what the man had said properly. “You and Nollel got married?”

"So we're told," Burnie chuckled. "We, uh, hadn't exactly intended to, but seems local custom during the fair is that lighting 'dragon's breath lights' together counts."

"Well. Damn." Jake scratched his head. "Uh...congratulations?"

“Um… I am lost for words.” The Captain admitted for once stumped in that to say. The man looked happy but he needed to ask some questions. “Are you going to get an annulment? Am I going to expect some issues in crew personnel?” He asked softly.

"We discussed an annulment briefly." A grin spread on Burnie's face; the sort you might expect on someone who'd just won the lottery and can still barely believe his luck. "It turns out Nollel is okay with staying married to me, so we're going to look at it as blessing in disguise: a wedding with no expense or fuss, and it was an accident so my family couldn't be too put out about not being invited." He took a sip of his coffee, shaking his head slightly. "Though next time we're on earth, I'm pretty sure we're going to have to do some sort of renewal of vows or something."

"No chance of a bachelor party either. Knowing this crew, they'd be liable to burn some holy relics or start a local civil war or something, the reputation we seem to be building," Jake said, a wry shake of his head. "At least you didn't end up lighting the lanterns with someone else, or that could've gotten really awkward." His mind immediately began trying to recall if he'd been anywhere near that event and anyone who might have been in close proximity.

Gregnol winced at the mention of his crew getting a reputation but his mind was trying to move forward with the relief that he was not going to have to deal with a relationship fall out between the woman who somehow kept the paperwork running on his ship and the man who was keeping the engines running. "You did not see anyone else there right?" Gregnol demanded quickly his mind going to the next problem.

"I wasn't exactly looking for anyone else, but no," Burnie replied. He understood the captain's concern. "They did make it seem a couples thing, so I doubt we have to worry about most of our folks getting accidentally married. But I did warn Liha, just in case she and Taev wandered through." He chuckled slightly at the thought. "She told me not to worry - they aren't as clueless as I am."

The Captain snorted into his coffee at Liha’s comment and inclined his head. It very much sounded like Liha. “Jake don’t wander around there with Cassie please.” Gregnol said dryly. “Or with anyone else. Just stay out of trouble.”

"I like how I'm the one you're most worried about," Jake scoffed. After a moment, he mentally added-up any number of previous moments of hapless and awkward incidents he had been though and just nodded quickly. "All right. Fair point."

Gregnol smiled wider as the man caught up with the rationale of why he was telling him to avoid it together. The weird and wonderful seemed to be his Executive Officers speciality. "You know it makes sense Jake." Gregnol chuckled and shook his head. "I am happy for you both. I wish you many years of happiness and blowing stuff up." He added to tease him just a little. It was only fair when Jake had gotten it too.

"Thank you." Burnie smiled and lifted his coffee mug in semi-toast. "We'll try to keep the blowing stuff up to off-ship fun."

"Hear hear," Jake nodded.

“Appreciated. I can’t be dealing with you both causing damage.” Gregnol said feeling secure in the pair that he could tease them about the path. Nollel had very much moved on but was also very much happier. “Which reminds me of what I have been trying to talk to you about for a few weeks. Now you’re a married responsible man I wonder if you want to take on more responsibility around here?” He questioned.

Burnie's brows lifted. "More than keeping the engines and the rest of the ship running?"

“Second officer. We need someone who can help more.” Gregnol admitted. They had not had a second officer in a while but with getting things back to normal they needed to get things sorted again in organising. “I would have offered it to your lovely wife but she refuses the operations chief position.”

"Besides, you seem to have a far better rapport with some of the...'wilder' members of the crew than we do," Jake added. "If you can keep those Engineers in line, I'm confident we can leave you in charge of other things too."

And this is what I get staging that intervention between Liha and Kali... "You mean, if I can keep two paranoid Romulans from knifing each other, you're willing to chance leaving me unsupervised," he joked. But all things considered, it was better he was saddled with it and maybe the new position would help take some load off Nollel. "Fine. Just don' make me regret promising to not to blow stuff up on the ship."

"I was thinking more about keeping J in line as well as Cami but if that is what you are going for then I guess it could seem like that," Gregnol said trying to not smirk at the argument and the fact that they had won in getting the man on his side enough that he was happy to be the second officer. It would mean a much more even spread of resources around the ship as well as taking pressure off places. "So... I guess all is left is when are we having a party to celebrate you and Mrs Burnstein"?

Burnie blinked at hearing her called that. He was sure the Captain was just using an old fashioned way of referring to someone's wife. After all Jea hadn't taken his name and few if any people changed to a spouse's name anymore. Still, he wondered how long it would it be before heard the occasional 'Mr. Livaam'. The idea made him smile a little. "I guess since we got to skip planning a wedding, we still owe a party," he said. "Though maybe we should wait long enough for everyone to sober up after Beya's coronation party at the ball."

“Are you both attending the ball then?” Gregnol asked surprised. He had no choice but he had not expected them both.

"I think Cassie wanted us to go together," Jake said, dropping his two cents into the conversation. "If Reuben and Jea come along, then it's only fair you bring your plus-one..."

"Thinking and doing are two different things." Gregnol offered already having gotten his outfit and found Jeassaho a dress that he wanted to surprise her with.

"We're thinking about going. It could be fun," Burnie said. "I have my D&D costume that basically fits right in here. Just need to lose the battle axes and add my next dragon scale coat to spiff it up a bit. Nollel can pick whatever she wants for a dress since she looks good in anything."

“Don’t you have that Jake?” He was sure he had seen the man involved. “Would Cassie’s outfit be appropriate minus the staff?” He could remember her wandering about the ship with a staff in hand several times making him feel like he had jumped back in time.

"They're similar sizes, I'm sure they'd be compatible. And if not I heard that Delaney's been doing some last-minute tailoring for the rest of the crew. She'd probably have something," Jake mused.

“So there we go.” Reuben was happy to leave it all there as he rose from his chair. “I will see you all at the ball then. I will announce to the ship your new position as well Michael and set up your permissions.” It was easy enough to do he just need to find moment to get it all organised.

Burnie nodded. "Guess I should go tell Nollel then, so she hears it first from me."