First Impressions

Posted on Fri Aug 28th, 2020 @ 7:52pm by Ensign Zinzeria Cavanaugh

Mission: Welcome Aboard!
Location: Liberty Bridge

Shakedown cruises were something Zinzeria had no experience with. The ins and outs of settling into a ship's routine were so far from their experiences as to not even register. What could be more fun? It only took them... Three attempts to get to the correct science lab with the set up for the linguistics program and everything that they would need. No biggie. Not an issue. The Liberty was bigger than the entirety of the Q'Tahl science station. How long would it be until they stopped comparing everything to that little corner of Klingon space? With a big old smile, they greeted the skeleton crew that was in the ops lab setting up their own workspaces. Calling up the duty roster they examined what their schedule was looking like thus far.

Frowning, the Orion double-checked, rubbing the space between their eyebrows. They were going to have to do shifts on the bridge? At ops? That was... unexpected, but perhaps it shouldn't have been? They were, after all, a Starfleet Ensign. They guessed it made sense that they weren't going to be paid to just play with translating alien runes for the rest of their life. Back in the day, there had been a communications console on the bridge of starships, now it was some weird combination and they were going to have to master a couple of new skills that they hadn't really used since the academy.

Longingly handling a transcription pad, they sighed. The orders on the duty roster were to report to the bridge as soon as they had settled in. Better to demonstrate a willingness to get right to it, even though there was a new program installed on that pad that they hadn't had access to out at Q'Tahl and... With a wicked grin, they picked up the pad and took it with them. Calling up the new program as they moved through the corridors they ran it through their own specific standard tests, finishing up just as the turbolift arrived at the bridge. Bookmarking four translation errors, they tucked their arms behind their back, pad in one hand.

The doors opened and they gave the bridge crew a bright smile, all thoughts of protocol cheerfully flying from their mind as they absorbed the crew and the shiny new bridge and how seamless everything seemed to be working together. How were they going to settle into this routine and not stand out as a rank amateur? "Oh! Wow! Look at all this! This is just... wow. Amazing." They stood in the open door, trying to absorb everything.

"Can I help you, Ensign?" The voice was... mildly irritated? Were they reading too much into it? Swinging their gaze around they couldn't quite place who had asked, but it had been enough to shake them out of their haze of wonder. Blushing a darker shade of green they stepped forward, letting the door to the turbolift close behind them.

"Oh! I! Commander! Uhm... Ensign Zinzeria Cavanaugh, Linguistic Specialist reporting for duty. I got..." They gesticulated with the hand holding the pad, waving it around as if it could illuminate their reasons for being on the bridge in some way. "I have orders... A shift! A shift at Comm... no, that's not a position anymore. Ops! I have a shift running the ops console on the bridge to acclimatize or something." For someone whose whole job was translating languages into something that someone else could understand they were failing spectacularly at being even remotely loquacious. This was embarrassing. The officer, had they even identified their rank correctly? The officer gestured as if ushering them to continue on to their position. "Uhm... Could you... point out which console is the ops terminal?"

Zinzeria winced, ducking their head as a low chuckle rippled from the other side of the bridge and a suddenly much more aggrieved looking officer pointed to their new position. Well this was going swimmingly, wasn't it?

-Ensign Zinzeria Cavanaugh, Linguistic Specialist