Ensign Talon Morda: Did they change the curtains, too?
Eston Melton
((Docking Ports, Deep Space 33))
The all-hands muster order that pinged on Morda’s padd wasn’t surprising in and of itself, but the sender -- LCDR C. DeWitt, XO -- was odd. When they’d left -- and when they were inadvertent spa companions? had had a drink together? -- the "LCDR" hadn’t been the "XO." Or had he?
Regardless. Shore leave had been fun, and as always, it had ended right on time. Slipping into uniform and routine -- even though the routine was still new -- was his comfort zone. His uniform was crisp, his boots shined, his cuffs lint-free. Shave touched-up, haircut honorable though no longer sodden with bloodwine. He reached the docking port amid the swarm of arriving officers and crew. They were mostly still utter unknowns to him, though a few were passingly familiar from crossing paths on the cruise. He settled a few ranks back from where the senior staff were congregating, and went eyes-front when the XO -- definitely wearing red -- got the proceedings going with a smile.
C. Dewitt: As a friend of mine used to say on occasions like this… Here we are again.
After a pause:
C. Dewitt: Before we get to why we’re all here tonight, there’s something I want to address first. ::beat:: Some of you may already have heard… Others may have guessed, and a few of you probably saw the uniform and figured it out immedieately. Standing here as the First Officer of the USS Khitomer is not something I expected to happen this soon.
oO Interesting: “not something I expected to happen this soon.” Oo Morda thought back to their observation lounge talk. Dewitt had talked about Khitomer’s role as a testbed and sencha radiation … and then about training, procedures, readiness, preparedness. Engineering, and then on to leadership. Had Dewitt known then that he had been made XO? Or was he merely telegraphing where he saw his career going, serendipitously returning to port with a promotion waiting?
C. Dewitt: Captain Shayne and Commander Hobart have led this crew through some of the hardest months most of us have ever seen. Through battles we didn’t choose. Through losses none of us wanted. And through the long shadow of the Lattice Alliance.
Morda hadn’t even met Shayne: he’d been at the prison when Morda arrived on Khitomer, and Morda had been on guard duty until the ship pulled into port. Hobart though: he seemed solid. Put Morda to work right away, listened to his ideas, and paired him up with Lieutenant Michaels who’d kept him out of trouble.
But more than anything, he wondered why Starfleet had replaced both senior officers at once. That seemed potentially highly disruptive to cohesion and continuity. Had something happened on the mission that they were both yanked for accountability purposes? Starfleet must have its reasons, but it didn’t sit well -- and surely others must’ve wondered about it, too.
He focused back on Dewitt. Because if he, Mister New Ensign, thought it was awkward: holy smokes, what whirlwind must be going on for LCDR C. Dewitt, XO? It was a vote of confidence that he’d been tapped as a source of constance. Morda suddenly suspected Dewitt had known when they met that he was the XO, and that the transitions hadn’t been mentioned over drinks or broadly announced via padds to avoid swirling emotions for a crew that was supposed to be relaxing.
C. Dewitt: And through all of that they reminded us what Starfleet is supposed to be. They reminded us of why we are out here with a family of four hundred.
oO “Family.” Oo He’d heard a lot about the Starfleet “family” as a cadet from instructors and guest lecturers in port from the field. It was a metaphor he didn’t care for. Despite his own relatively healthy family, families could be dysfunctional, or take advantage, or be too entrenched in old ways, or expect greater obeisance to the detriment of the community’s greater good. Or just weird, which Morda saw in his own. oO Okay, some Khitomer folks are weird. Oo Still: leaving his “family” was unthinkable -- but one day, he’d leave Starfleet for Whatever Comes Next. Just like he'd left home for the OSF, and just like he'd left the OSF for Starfleet.
C. Dewitt: Many of us have carried scars from the last year. Some visible. Some not. ::pause:: Tonight is not just about recognition. It is also about turning a page. A new chapter begins for Khitomer today. One where, hopefully, we begin to heal from what countless fights have left behind.
Yeah, now that his clearance was active, Morda needed to hunker down with Lieutenant Zerva and learn about those scars -- and the lessons learned.
C. Dewitt: And every new chapter needs someone to lead it. I haven’t known him for very long. But in the short time, his advice has already had a significant impact on my life. ::pause with a smile:: And you can ask my wife, that’s something I don’t say lightly.
Right: Dewitt had mentioned his wife. It was the root of the whole spa mixup. Maybe the Starfleet/family metaphor was easier for Dewitt because he’d found his wife in the service? And maybe, he considered, Morda would grow into feeling differently the longer he was in this uniform. The OSF had been more of a team, but they also never measured the distance from home in anything more than kilometers and days; in Starfleet, it would be parsecs and years.
C. Dewitt: I look forward to a new chapter and to seeing where he will lead this crew next. It’s my honor to introduce the new commanding officer of the USS Khitomer… ::a small gesture of invitation:: Commander Naxell.
Morda joined the polite clapping as the new CO stepped forward. No surprise the new captain wasn’t a four-pipper -- not for a frigate their size. Morda recalled Denobulans being long-lived -- oO Longer than Vulcans on average? Oo -- and wondered where Nexell’s Starfleet service sat relative to that long lifespan. As the applause tapered off, he listened keenly for the new captain’s words
Naxell/Any: Response
TBC