Quite the First Impression

Posted on Mon May 15th, 2023 @ 10:27pm by Captain Allison DeBries & Lieutenant Sayori Summers

Mission: Mission 0: Introduction
Location: Captain's Ready Room

ON

This was it.

She had been patient. She had been calm. She had been bouncing between boring assignments for seven years. She was qualified. She was ready. She wouldn't take no for an answer.

She...was having a hard time focus.

Focus, Sayori!

It had been no easy feat to sneak aboard a warship of the Empire. The airlock had to be opened remotely. The guards had to be distracted or disabled. Her biosigns had to be hidden. Various other guards had to be diverted or knocked out as she went from corridor to corridor, all while avoiding any suspicion. From the moment she stood against the closed outer door of the port airlock at Utopia Planitia to the moment she was in the main turbolift, almost forty minutes had elapsed. And only two guards had to succumb to her console shock spikes.

When the lift opened to the bridge, Lieutenant Sayori Summers simply walked in, straight to the Ready Room door, confidently, like she belonged. No one bothered her -- after all, surely the guards elsewhere on the ship would have stopped an interloper -- as she chimed the door.

DeBries was still staring out the window of her office contemplatively. It wasn't the best view, but it beat staring at a blank wall. Her first meeting had been both exactly as she had expected, and yet, still beyond what she had expected.

The chime of her door sliced through her consciousness, derailing the train of thought. "Enter." She called, still with her eyes fixed out the window. Had the man forgotten something?

Sayori walked up to the Captain's desk, leaned forward onto the desk's surface, and looked DeBries in the eye. "Good morning, Captain! You don't know it yet, but I'm your new Chief Engineer!"

DeBries looked the woman dead in the eyes. Her mind ran at almost lightspeed. She had reviewed the service profiles of the Senior Staff. She didn't shout, didn't lash out. She did turn the chair, to fully face the woman, one arm resting on the desk, her other hand on her left hip.

""Last I knew, Lieutenant Hill was my Chief down in Engineering." Her voice was calm, cool, collected.

"Lieutenant Hill?" Sayori said, grinning from ear to ear. "Keith Hill? You don't want that know-nothing chump, pardon my language. Besides, didn't you know? He asked for a transfer yesterday." The forged transfer request had been transmitted into the Captain's inbox just minutes earlier, backdated appropriately.

DeBries tilted her head slightly, regarding the woman with the intense stare that made even Admirals take a step back.

Sayori's eyes kept locked onto DeBries's, and she began to chuckle very softly. I may have overplayed this one.

The Captain pulled her terminal closer, leaning in slightly. Her left hand, hidden by the desk and her body was now resting on the underside of the desk top. "Very nice work. Would have missed it, if I hadn't already gone through the files. I was my father's Chief of Staff. I know every paperwork trick in the book."

Her fingers tapped a command on the terminal, sealing the door with an audible sound. At the same time, her left hand came up from under the desk, holding a small phaser pistol. "Who are you." It was a command, not a request.

Gulp. "Lieutenant Sayori Summers, ma'am," was the reply. She would keep her position but would answer the questions. Seemed like a good half measure, given she was now on the bad end of a phaser. "Chief Engineer of the Pyotr Velikiy. But that ship's boring and your mission profile looks good. I want in. And you want me, Captain. I'm one of the best. Better than Gentle Slope you have in engineering."

DeBries remained silent for a moment, regarding the woman. She had balls, and she had the skill to hack a Captain's personal access. That kin d of skill would be useful. Time for an interview. "How did you get on board?" The phaser remained in place.

Got her, thought Sayori, though her smile couldn't stretch further. "A few easily exploitable security flaws. Once you approve my transfer, I'll work with your security chief to close them. No one got hurt though. Just two electro-stunned guards in sections twelve and fifteen."

The seconds stretched as DeBries considered the woman and her words. Finally, she put the phaser back under the desk. "Okay. You're either very good, in which case I want you, or our system security sucks, in which case I need you."

She came to her feet with a smile that stopped at the mouth. "Hill will be officially transferred by day's end. If anyone asks, he got new orders from above, and you were called in. Clear?"

Conspiracies are way more fun when you’re in them! Sayori thought.

“Crystal, Captain!” She stood up straight and snapped off a sharp salute. “I’ll be back in the morning with my effects! And a plan to boost your speed — Hill was short changing you by at least a few tenths of a warp factor! This baby is capable of so much! — and solve these security faults.”

DeBries shook her head for a moment, smiling. "Lieutenant, you've already made the pitch. Never overplay your hand. My personal Rule 4."

Sayori couldn’t help but cock her head. “What are rules one through three?”

DeBries couldn't help a chuckle. "Catch you tomorrow, Lieutenant. You have a security grid to fix."

Sayori stood up straight, fired off a sharp salute to her new Captain, and walked out as confidently as she walked in.

OFF