PNPC CPO Ral Shaw - Snitches get stitches, so don't tell Sherlock - Part 1
CPT Arianus
(( Cupboard called Boatswain’s Office, Deck 6, USS Artemis ))
There are good days, and then there are Mondays. Technically, it was Wednesday, but Chief Ral's carpal tunnel hurt like every Monday did. In Operations, there were two kinds of people. One who actually saved the day with important work they did aboard Federation ships, and the second, a more feral, more wicked gang hidden in the shadows of their fancy, comfortable offices tucked away on Federation Sector Headquarters, Divisions, and Fleets Commands.
Paper pushers.
Those who were born, lived, and died in the name of a sacred form pushing through the Federation bureaucracy. And their masters. The people responsible for creating sacred forms for their brothers and sisters in a bureaucratic hamster wheel, giving all those regulations and directives the guidelines, and circulars. Forms to fill. Reports to report. Circulars to forward. Newsletters to sign up to.
Cult of paperwork.
Operations Compliance department.
When Shaw saw their header on the form for the twenty-fifth time this evening, she almost started to cry. Every step meant two or three forms to fill out. One specific step meant FIVE forms, just for Starfleet Operations. The end was near, somewhere in September 2421.
Chief stared into the self-audit form and wondered if this was it. This is how she will die.
Maybe they will find her in her office in a few days, like a cobwebbed skeleton gnawed to the bone by tribbles from ventilation, still trying to finish all the paperwork to report their findings in Cargo Hold.
She saved the concept and closed the form she was filling out. Tomorrow was a good day to die, too. She filled out all the necessary paperwork needed for a crime to be reported for inter-division investigation.
Audit reports, remediation actions reports, risk assessment reports, monitoring reports, compliance measures trackers - all these things could wait now. There was more, as Chief checked on her PADD - she honestly hated herself for not refreshing the guideline on reporting and handling the incident before she started to act; otherwise, she would have simply thrown the box into space and pretended that nothing had happened - around fifteen steps to do, plus eight more reporting tools to report into.
Ral sighed and checked the chronometer in her office. It took her a while for her brain to rewire itself into the mode of a living, breathing creature, but after a couple of seconds, she realized she was late.
Ral: =/\= Chief Ral for Chief Nemik, question?=/\=
Nemik: =/\= Nemik here, ask, Ral. =/\=
Ral: =/\= Did Kerynitis already landed? I need something to play with the band on board that shuttle. =/\=
Nemik: =/\= Negative, Kerynitis is still not here. Let me check… no, their TOA was just informal; they have some science expedition ongoing. I can call you when they will contact us for arrival. =/\=
Shaw looked at the stopwatch again and thought. Their expedition was supposed to be an exercise, so there was absolutely no reason for them to be late. On the other hand, it was a scientific exercise, so scientists.
Ral: =/\= Can you - please, please - do me a favor and call them when they plan to return? As a busy woman, I have a schedule to hold, something that you people in traffic control can relate to. =/\=
Nemik: =/\= Push up the ladder that a guidance tractor beam calibration I asked for three weeks ago as a priority, and I will even send a security team to pick them up if you want... =/\=
Ral: ::laughs:: =/\= Ah, no, not needed. Just call them and tell me what they told you after. I will look into that request of yours; where did it get stuck. And talk with Engineering. =/\=
Nemik: =/\= Thank you. I always knew the well-being of the lower decks was in good hands. Boatswain. =/\=
Ral: =/\= Always. So call me when you know more. Ral out. =/\=
Chief Ral closed the channel and looked back to PADD on her table. She needed Savel and Chevalier. She needed to kill two birds with one stone, as she did not want to have anything to do with Article V of the Guideline on Starfleet inter-division cooperation in criminal investigation downwards…
TBC