A Meeting of Colleagues

Posted on Sun Oct 4th, 2009 @ 9:15pm by Commander Jordan Gunning & Commander Acle Walex

Mission: Into a Devil's Heart
Location: Ridge Lounge & Bar
Timeline: MD05 1300

Acle moved into the bar and cast his eyes about the dim interior. It was lightly populated and there was an almost unnoticeable murmur of conversation. He saw a table near one of the corners of the room and walked to it. He passed a table with a couple of junior officers and nodded a greeting to the ones who looked up.

Acle reached the table and took a seat so that his back was to the wall. Not only a practical security practice, but, also an easy way to observe the room about him. A moment later, a diminutive waitress sauntered over.

"What can I get you Commander?" the waitress inquired. Acle was quietly impressed. The civilian had apparently been studying her Starfleet ranks.

"Water would be fine Ma'am." Acle answered politely. "I'll be ordering food later."

The waitress nodded once, then moved away. She returned a moment later with a chilled glass of water. She sat it on the table and smiled at the lieutenant commander before moving to another table.

Acle sat forward in his chair, elbows on the table, chin resting in his hands. His eyes automatically scanned the contents of the room, noting the exits and whomever walked through them. His eyes briefly hovered over the group of officers, who were now softly chuckling at a joke one of their number had just made. Acle smiled wryly as he realized what he was doing and forced himself to stop looking at the room as if he expected an immediate threat.

Acle leaned back and took a sip of his water, awaiting the arrival of his fellow crew member.

Jordan had been having a tough time acclimatising to the deck layout of the Iapetus. He had spent a significant amount of time studying the floor-plans and service hatch layouts in order to give him a tactical advantage but had not quite had time to work out where the lounge was.

He stepped into the room, quite by accident, acknowledging the smiles which his El-Aurian genes were essentially just projecting onto people. He was well aware that most of the crewmembers in the room would already feel like they'd known him for months despite his having been on the ship for less than a week. He noticed the grey tunic of the officer he was supposed to meet and sidled over to him.

"Lieutenant Commander Walex?" He inquired. "I'm Lieutenant Jordan Gunning the new chief tactical officer."

Acle stood, a pleasant smile coming to his lips, and offered his hand to the lieutenant. "Nice to meet you Lieutenant. I apologize that I have not been able to meet with you before this. Events have tied me up."

"That's quite alright, Commander," Jordan replied, "I've had my hands full trying to integrate the new members of our department with the existing team- they're clearly quite shaken up."

Acle gestured with his hand and said "Please Lieutenant, have a seat." He followed his own advice and sat, his elbows resting on the table once again. He looked up and saw the waitress once again making her way over to them. "We'll place our orders before we begin" he said.

The waitress arrived at the table, a small padd in one hand. "What can I get you Ensign?" She began, then made a face. "I didn't get that right did I? Your a Lieutenant JG right?"

Jordan shot her a glance but, as was typical with him, it came across as being far more affectionate than he had intended. "Full lieutenant, I'm afraid. Close though." He said with a smirk.

Opening his palm to the Commander he gestured for him to order first.

The waitress looked abashed and looked to the Lieutenant Commander for his order. A pretty little blush slowly crept up her cheeks.

Acle carefully brushed aside the urge to smile and replied with his order instead "Pot roast, mixed vegetables, and a quarter loaf of wheat bread. A glass of milk as well please Ma'am." his eyes turned to look at the Lieutenant.

The waitress also turned to look at the other officer, the blush still evident.

"I think I'll go for the chicken parmigiana, please. A glass of red grape juice too, please." He noticed the colour of her cheeks and that her expression had largely changed. Best not to dwell on it, he thought, she has no reason to be embarassed.

The waitress took their orders and moved away, returning a moment later with the lieutenants juice. She swayed away again to the other patrons and the officers were left alone.

Acle took another small sip of his water then offered another slight smile. "As you already know, I am the Chief Intelligence Officer onboard the USS Iapetus among other things. As such, you and I will be working together very closely. That being the case, I thought it would be a good idea to get to know one another. I will fully admit that I have read your dossier, and am relatively impressed. You did some good work on the Hood."

Acle paused, his eyes examining the other opposite of him, almost as if reading every slight movement, every shift of emotion.

"Thank you, Commander," Jordan said feeling a little uncomfortable at his colleague's reading of his face. He felt like he had no sway over him and this scared him slightly.

Acle paused to take another sip from his drink then smiled. "As I said... I cheated. I looked at your dossier. Rather one sided. Do you have any questions of me? Like I said in the beginning, this is for both of us to become more comfortable with each other, not for me to simply confirm the impressions that I receive off of a document."

"I would like a rough outline of how you operate as the Intelligence Officer. I've met different officers who operate in completely opposing ways. I would be intrigued to know as to what level of information you allow other members of the crew to have?"

Acle raised an eyebrow. "Usually I follow the standard that Starfleet Intel puts out. Of course, if an officer comes to me and makes a compelling case for need-to-know, I do take that into consideration. In your particular case, you will receive, actually, have already received an Alpha-2 security clearance. In addition, as the CSO of the ship, I will provide you with access to any intelligence that I have on a starbase or planet that we are currently stationed near. As the CTO of the ship as well, you will get some information from Starfleet Tactical that I will not even receive about current weapons systems. About hostile weapons systems, Intelligence's Tactical section will relay whatever information it deems pertaining to our situation to me, wherein I will then route to you."

Acle paused, took a breath, then continued. "From there, you are the steward of the information that I have given you, to a certain point. You will have to follow the information security guide-lines and not over-step the clearances of your department members, but, besides that, you are free to share the information as you see fit. I do not usually worry about a security officer talking to much. I was one after all." Acle said with a slight smile.

"Believe me, Commander. Getting information from me can be like getting blood from a stone," Gunning chuckled, "I appreciate the level of openness and I would like to assure you that pertinent information will also be shared with your department if it's needed."

"Excellent." Acle smiled, genineuly starting to like the officer sitting across from him, which was somewhat odd for him.

The waitress moved back to thier table, setting down first the lieutenant's order then the lieutenant commanders before smiling and moving away. Acle looked at his food. A great improvement over his last posting to say the least.

"Where were you born Lieutenant?" Acle asked, more as a way to initiate a conversation that did not have to do with work then out of any real curiosity.

"I was actually born on Luna, sir. My family moved to the El-Aurian colony on Cezna II to allow me to go to the science academy there." Jordan gave a wry smile, "Needless to say I'm an unbelievably skilled scientist."

The sarcasm seemed to flow from every one of Jordan's pores. "I prefer Security, suppose I always have really. How about you, sir?"

Acle offered a wry smile before beginning his own tale. "I was born on Earth. My father was a mid-level official in the UFP government. I had a pretty decent childhood. After a series of... events, I decided to enlist in Starfleet, Department of Security. I concentrated mostly in Security Investigations until I got selected for officer training and my Chief convinced me to take it up. Switched to Intelligence at the academy and got accepted, graduated with honors. Did a few Intel. tours, then got selected for advanced training in-" Acle broke off suddenly, his eyes narrowing as he looked across the table at the other officer.

"That is rather remarkable Lieutenant." He said, his voice softer then before.

Jordan chuckled, his abilities had always been very much a part of him and he barely ever noticed if someone opened up to him more than they would have liked. "I apologize, Commander. Rest assured; I don't do it on purpose. Security investigations was my area of expertise also. I wonder if you might be interested in comparing some notes on investigation techniques at some point?"

"I know you didn't do anything Lieutenant... Just caught me off-guard. I cannot even say that it caught me unawares." Acle grinned again, relaxing, if only slightly "I can see where you would be good at Investigations... You have a few more techniques available to you then I do, but, if you would like, I would enjoy that. Course, you would have to listen to a former grumpy NCO telling you these things, but, if you can stomach that then it would be enjoyable I think."

As the two sat talking and finishing their respective meals, Acle actually found himself liking the other man. He studied this emotion, examining it much like he would a report, analyzing it, and found, much to his surprise, that the emotion was genuine, not put on by the man's race. He almost shook his head at his own mistake. He had read about the El-Aurian characteristics, even made a note of them. He had received training to combat just such things as that, but, it still managed to get past his "defenses". A neat trick indeed...

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OOCAcle: Just waiting for the "hunt" to be posted now.
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Lieutenant Commander Acle Walex
Acting Executive Officer / Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Iapetus [NCC 83721]

Lieutenant Jordan Gunning
Chief Tactical / Security Officer
USS Iapetus [NCC 83721]