Accidental Meeting

Posted on Wed Mar 16th, 2022 @ 1:00pm by Lieutenant Cyrus Halsey & Commander Nikolas Barakos

Mission: USS Tyche
Timeline: 2394 Pre-Launch

CJ decided to take a tour of the ship, his first watch didn't start for another 24 hours and he wanted to familiarize himself with the layout. He stepped off of the Turbolift and began walking. An alert on his PaDD distracted him long enough for him to walk right into another officer. "I'm sorry, Commander," he said as he saw the pips on the others' uniform.

Although unexpected, Barakos had only been mildly startled by the accidental collision, and managed to regain his composure rather quickly. He looked the man over, but did not recognize him. Then again, with all of the passengers they were carrying and a couple of new staff transfers, there were more than a few unfamiliar faces around. "At ease, lieutenant," he said, offering a smile, "No harm done."

"Thank you sir, I'm Lieutenant Halsey, the new tactical officer. I was just trying to learn the lay of the land so to speak. I'm not a rivet counter and blueprints and deck schematics are good but I like to walk the ship so I know where and what everything is." CJ explained to the officer though he felt he didn't really need to.

"Nothing wrong with that, Mister Halsey."

CJ nodded to the Commander, in response.

"Commander Barakos," the Thracian said, returning the lieutenant’s introduction with one of his own, "Chief flight operations officer and second officer, which means you and I are going to be working together, at least for a little while..."

"It's nice to meet you sir, you keep us flying straight, I'll keep the weapons hot, and hopefully we don't have anything interesting happen for either of us. Besides after teaching at the Academy the last few years, it will be nice to get my feet wet on a milk run like this," Halsey said easily.

Barakos couldn’t help but laugh a little at the lieutenant’s assessment. It wasn’t that he hadn’t ever shared Halsey’s thoughts about their assignment. As a matter of fact, the idea of this being a “milk run” was quite a common perspective among many of the crew. But, for whatever reason, it struck Barakos differently this time. Something about the way Halsey said it (or the way Barakos heard it) in that moment made the Thracian realize just how presumptuous it actually was.

“Oh, you never know,” he said, giving Halsey a bit of a mischievous look, “some of the strangest encounters in Starfleet history started out as routine supply runs.”

"That is true Sir, that's why we prepare for the worst and hope for the best. I'm planning on getting some training in once we get underway starting with the Tactical department and working with security and expanding from there. First though I'm gonna find some beer and a poker game before we get underway. You don't happen to play Poker, do you Commander?" CJ asked.

"I'm afraid I don't," Barakos replied.

"That's alright, it's never to late, Sir." CJ said before asking "Commander is there anything you need from me before I continue my walk about the ship?"

Barakos shook his head. "I don't believe so, lieutenant," he said, "but it was good to meet you." He offered Halsey another smile, extended his hand in greeting, and the two shook. "Enjoy the rest of your shoreleave..."

Halsey shook the Commander's hand and nodded before continuing his walk about on the ship.

#End