Category: Fiction Fragment Friday Page 1 of 24

Fiction Fragment Friday

This week is not prose. I was told I had to share the memo Captain Moss sends to the crew. Since I have had an extremely busy and mentally draining week this worked very well. So dispite my intention of not doing so here is the memo he sends to the crew. I do like fiction in other formats and this certainly fits that. I also hope to use the format options to make the most of this entry.

To the Crew of the Oddity,

I want to start by thanking you all for the hard work you have put in over the past few months since I took this billet.  In a very short time, we have made unprecedented progress in improving life onboard ship.  I know change has the potential to cause anxiety, but you have all embraced my vision.   We could not have achieved the successes we have without your support. 

I want to call out some of these successes by division, but to do that I first want to acknowledge the new organizational structure that has supported these successes.  I am grateful to my senior staff for stepping into their new responsibilities as well as their part in designing the new structure.  As a united crew we have embraced the Oddity identity outwardly with a new paint job and ship suits.  Internally you embraced it long before I arrived.    

Engineering:

• 115 backlogged maintenance and repair items have been completed
• We now have a comprehensive plan for system updates
• That lingering smell is no longer present in the gym
• Finally, we can now perform a system jump and bake cookies at the same time without losing power. 

Logistics and Ship Operations:

• The new crew services department has been created allowing for consistency among laundry, break, and galley duties. 
• Considerable improvement in the quality of meals being served.
• Implementation of a knowledge and skill sharing program for the crew starting with cooking classes, but soon to expand into additional disciplines and interests.

Systems Division:

• An internal ship intranet has been established with weekly updates and blogs from all divisions.
• A form is now in place to request automations or data analytics.

These are only the beginning though.  Coming soon is the Odd Plates Cooking Competition to determine who the new Head Chef will be.  Additional details will be published on the Crew Services site over the next few days.  Everyone is encouraged to participate whether they are competitor, judge, or enthusiastic audience member. 

Supporting this competition will be screenings of the cooking process on a brand new screen being installed in the galley tomorrow.  This screen will allow for future movie nights, improve karaoke, and enable future morale improving efforts still being organized.

A new software suite that I anticipate assisting with profit improvement will have a production version rolling out in the next week.  This software I have begrudgingly allowed to be named Mosstermind is proving valuable in finding potentially valuable cargo and allowing us to claim it before our competitors. 

My final announcement is an additional staffing change that I anticipate may cause some concern.  Home office has determined that our ship should have a first officer and assigned a newly promoted employee into that role.  Effective as of tomorrow at 0900 hours, Victor Lumsdon will rejoin the crew as First Officer.  Our current organizational structure will remain in place, and I want to reassure you all that the progress we have made will remain.  There may be a few complications along the way, but we will find a way to integrate this new role into our ship culture. 

Instead of thanking you all once again for your efforts I instead want to stress that Oddity belongs to all of us.  Work towards improving it is work towards improving our own lives.  We are building something we can all be proud of and it is more than just a ship.  Oddity is our home, our livelihood, and our statement to the universe that we are not to be ignored. 

Continue to support each other.  Continue to move forward.  We are in this together and heaven help anyone who gets in our way. 

Fiction Fragment Friday

I’m not going to lie this week was harder to write. I thought earlier in the week about how I was looking forward to the next chapter and then remembered the bomb I dropped in the last. I struggled for a bit on how to have the characters react. This isn’t one of the strongest parts to this story as it is another transitional piece. That said I do think it sets some things up nicely before actually bringing Lumsdon back into the story.

                When presented with bad news you need to allow yourself time to process and internalize before you can think rationally, and plan your reactions.  Life in space rarely gives you that opportunity since bad news is frequently delivered in the form of emergency.  This time however I had tasks to complete on station before I could address the issue. That meant nothing but time to think about what it meant that Victor Lumsdon was returning to the Oddity. 

                I knew how Elaine Van Eisenburg thought.  Lumsdon returning to the ship would hurt morale, but he was still in my chain of command so the most he could hope for was undermining my efforts.  That wasn’t a strong enough reason for her to pull strings like this.  She didn’t like doing anything for only one reason when she could accomplish multiple goals.  That left one obvious move for her to be making.  Lumsdon wasn’t just on ship to be a thorn in my side he was going to be a spy.  That also meant this was just her first move.

                By the time I returned to the ship I had processed my shock and had gotten my anger under control.  That was important because I was not ready for the general crew to see how upset I was.  Despite thinking I had my expressions under control the moment I stepped on the bridge Miss Southerland saw right through me.

                “What’s wrong sir?” 

                I was a bit taken aback.  “What makes you think anything’s wrong?”

                “You’ve got a lot of facial expressions.  Some of them funny, some of them strange, but that one?  That one I haven’t seen since your third week aboard.”

                I smiled.  “You are more observant than I gave you credit for.  Here I thought you spent most of your time lost in that novel of yours.” 

                “Well….  I actually finished that one and started on a new one.” 

                “Have you submitted it to any publishers?”

                “Submitted?  No, no, it’s not anywhere near good enough for that.”

                “You’ll never know if you don’t try.  What’s the worst thing that could happen?  They don’t publish it.  It’s not being published now.”

                “I guess I never thought about it like that.  Hey, wait a minute you changed the subject on me.  You’re good.”  She smiled, but gave me a stern look. 

                I sighed and looked around the bridge.  Pablo wasn’t on duty so there was no one to overhear.  “I shouldn’t be telling you this, but everyone will know in the morning.  HQ assigned us a first officer.”    

                “That doesn’t sound so bad.  We don’t need one, but that shouldn’t…  Wait that’s not it is it?  It’s not what.  It’s who.”  She tilted her head looking at me.  “The last time you had that expression was when…  No they wouldn’t…  Lumsdon?”  Her look of shock had to pale in comparison to my own. 

                “How in the world did you figure that out?”  I wasn’t surprised that she could figure out that the appointee was the problem, but the leap to it being Lumsdon astounded me.    

                “Forget that.  Chief Burton must be pissed.” 

                “She doesn’t know yet.  No one does.”  In that moment I felt guilty for telling my pilot before my own senior staff.  “I was just getting ready to call a meeting.” 

                I moved to head to my office and barely heard her call after me.  “Sir.”  It was quieter than I had ever heard her be. 

                “Yes Miss Southerland?”

                “This is just a setback.  The crew trusts you and this is not an easy crew to give that.”

                I just nodded before heading into my office.  I shot a message to my senior staff asking them to join me as soon as possible before sitting down at the head of the table.  I took those next few moments alone to get my thoughts in order.  This was the first emergency meeting I had ever called and I was hoping it would be the last. 

                “What’s up boss?”  Chief Burton was the first to arrive. 

                “Have a seat.  I want to wait until everyone is here.”  We sat in awkward silence until Pedro and Chief Louise arrived.  Once everyone was seated, I stood and hit send on the message I had prepared.  It was a copy of the note from headquarters.     

                “Thank you all for joining me on short notice.  As you will see in the notification I just forwarded to you, we have a new first officer starting at 0900 tomorrow morning.  It’s Lumsdon and I have reason to believe he isn’t just being sent here to be a thorn in my side.  We need to assume he will be reporting and twisting everything that happens onboard back to home office.  Before I go on, I want to open the table up to your thoughts and concerns.” 

                “How is this going to impact our new organizational structure?”  I was not surprised that would be Pablo’s first concern since he was the one who proposed the changes. 

                “It doesn’t.  Unfortunately, he will outrank all of you, but I’m not giving him a single direct report.  It’s not much, but that’s my first mitigation step.”

                “Sir you know this is going to be a huge hit on morale.”  Chief Burton was the next to speak up.  “Some are going to be scared, but he had his people that are going to feel empowered again.  Even just walking around the ship spreading his negativity is going to have an effect.” 

                “I realize that and I’m going to rely on all of you to help counter it.  You are closer to your people than I am and in the best position to keep things running smoothly.  Part of that is going to be how you message this to you people.  We have made a lot of progress in my first few months aboard and I don’t plan on letting anyone undo it.” 

                “With all due respect sir, you need to be the one to tell the crew.”  Chief Louise leaned forward.  “They aren’t stupid.  They know all the change around here is because of you and that you were the one that got him kicked off the ship to start with.  They need to hear this from you to know that you are on top of it.” 

                “What exactly am I supposed to say?  I can’t talk poorly about an incoming officer or share with them the political positioning that led to this. 

                “It doesn’t matter what you say as much as it is you saying it.  Keep your face out there and make sure they know they are not being cut off from you.” 

                I sighed.  “Ok I’ll draft up a ship wide communication, but I want all of your feedback before I send it.  I think you should all know though that while I’m limiting the damage he can do Lumsdon is going to be my responsibility again.  That means something to me.  It means I need to try and get through to him.”  I looked around at all the shocked faces.  They thought I was either insane or naive, but not even Chief Louise was willing to say it out loud.  “We have enough damage control to do for now, but you each have more history with this man than I do.  I want to know everything there is to know about him.  What does he love, what does he hate, and why does he feel that way?” 

                Pablo looked up at me.  “Sir I hope you don’t mind if we prepare some contingencies for worst case scenarios.  I do hope you are successful, but I would like to have a script that disables his system access with the press of a single button.”

                “I both expect it and do not want to know what they are.”  I thought for a moment.   “Do you have a script ready to disable my access?”

                “Not that you know of sir.” 

Fiction Fragment Friday

I debated for a while what part of the story to tell next in this week’s Fiction Fragment Friday.  There are a couple scenes I’m holding on to and just trying to determine when they would fit best into the story.  I could just write them at any point and then consolidate and edit them in a more reasonable order.  Instead, I sat down and wrote this part of the story.  As I’m sure you have noticed I’m titling each part of the Oddity story with the word Odd in it going forward and have been doing so for a while.  I wish I had thought of that when I started. 

               Staff meetings are an unfortunate side effect of being in command.  Filled with procedures, droning reports, and self-aggrandization, no one could possibly enjoy them.  That, however, was not the case aboard the Oddity.  My senior staff didn’t feel a need to try and make their accomplishments sound bigger than they actually were.  With all the changes I was implementing the reports were actually interesting instead of statements we had all heard hundreds of times before.  For the first time in my career, I found myself looking forward to my staff meeting. 

               “Ok, folks who would like to go first.  Pablo how about you?”  On any ship I had previously served, that would have been putting my Head of Systems in the spotlight.  If he felt that to be the case, you couldn’t tell from his demeanor.    

               “Well sir 93% of the surveys you requested have been returned.  I can say with certainty that the remainder would not be enough to sway the result. Navy blue with gold accents won ship suit design.  The crew liked the synergy with the new ship hull colors.”

               “Did the results actually include the word synergy?”

               “Only one used that particular term.”

               “Was that yours by chance?”

               “Results were anonymous Captain at your request.  However, that would be a reasonable conjecture.”  While his words were cold and flat his face held a smile on it.  “Also, Mosstermind beta version 2 is loaded into the ship’s systems and ready for your review.” 

               “Ok, I know I requested it, but does it really have to be named a pun for my last name?”

               “You had your software requirements, and I have mind.” 

               “Chief Louise what is going on in your world?”  I turned to my Cargo Chief and tried not to further acknowledge the pun.  If I cracked and laughed, it would just encourage him. 

               “Crew Services seems to be coming along nicely.  There are still duties none of them want, but I find they work together to finish them faster.  As I’m sure you have noticed, the meals have gotten substantially better, but my cooking classes are still very basic.   I really think it would be best to create a new position dedicated to galley.  Crew services could continue to assist in prep, but if we want progress we need someone to be dedicated to the work.  Finally, you will find some cargo recommendations in your inbox.  Mosstermind is a huge help in finding some potentially valuable cargo.”

               I shook my head at the name but did not verbally acknowledge it.  “I will take your recommendations into account and see what I can do numbers wise.”

               “Sir I think I can’t help with headcount.”  Chief Engineer Burton leaned forward.  “Lumsdon seemed to have a knack for getting Captain Rogers to give him people.  I have too many in environmental and with the repairs we have already done my maintenance team doesn’t have enough work for all of them.  I would like to keep the maintenance headcount for now to work on some proactive projects, but I can give up one of my Environmental Engineers.”

               “Are you suggesting we fire someone and reassign the position?”  I watched her closely knowing her response would tell me much about her as a person.  Her look of shock at my suggestion pleased me. 

               “No sir.  Jacobs hates the environment section and with all the changes he mentioned being jealous of Crew Services.  Seems he likes variety in his work.” 

               “Well then if Chief Louise approves of him then she just has to decide who is getting the head Chef position.” 

               The two of them looked at each other like they had stolen something and gotten away with it.  I turned my head between the two.  “Ok ladies what am I missing?”

               “Odd Plates,” they said in unison. 

               “The greatest cooking competition ever held aboard a starship,” Chief Louise said while spreading her arms wide in an arc to make a point.

               “A crew uniting social event to improve morale and let the crew get to know her captain.”  Chief Burton had jumped in without missing a beat.  I knew they had planned this and just needed to determine what my role in this plan was. 

               “Ok, I get the basic idea and agree it will be great for morale.  How is going to let the crew get to know me though?”

               Chief Louise jumped back in.  “Well sir every good cooking competition needs to have a host.  Someone to present the challenges and announce the winners.  A face of the show if you will.” 

               “That’s right,” added Chief Burton.  “We want three judges to be pulled from the general crew, but we want you to get first bite and give feedback as well.  In case of a three-way tie you could cast the deciding vote.” 

               “This is insane.”  I sighed.  “Ok I’m in.”

               Chief Louise hit a button on her tablet.  “Great the full proposal is in your inbox.  Since you’re hosting though we want you to punch it up and make it more you.  We gave some sample challenges but wanted to let you suggest some as well.”

               “Anyone have any other business we need to address today?”  I looked around the table at the shaking heads.  “Well in that case I have a few matters to check into on station, so I won’t keep you here any longer.” 

               As the meeting broke up, I decided to hold off on reviewing the information they had sent me.  If could wait until I was back onboard.   I had pulled in a few favors and gotten a screen procured for the galley that we could use for movie nights.  I needed to talk to the installers personally though to keep it a surprise.  After a few moments I found myself walking out of the air lock and down the ramp to the station. 

               “Oh, how the mighty have fallen.”  The voice was one I could never mistake and sent chills down my spine.  There leaning against a bulkhead was Elaine Van Eisenburg daughter of our company’s owner Austin Van Eisenburg.  The woman responsible for my assignment to the Oddity.    

               “Don’t think I was ever mighty.  That’s a description reserved for you and your father.”   I was extremely proud of myself for not letting my voice show just how unsettled I was to see her. 

               “Oh, you were well on your way to Captain of the best ship in the fleet and an eventual place on the board.  If that doesn’t count as mighty, I don’t know what does.”   

               “Why are you here Elaine?”

               “I just had to see your new ship.  Why is it blue with gold writing by the way?  It was grey when daddy assigned you to it.” 

               I stared her down and tried to put every ounce of my hatred in my eyes.  “What do you want?”

               “You know what I want, and no one gets to tell me no without penalties.  You rejected me, you embarrassed me, and you made a fool out of my father.  Even after all that though it’s not too late.  Apologize and play your role.  This can all be over or it can get so much worse.” 

               “This is pathetic even for you.” 

               “Just remember you asked for this.”  She pulled up her tablet and hit a button.  I heard my tablet beep in response.  Looking down I saw a message. 

               Anger and hopelessness warred for position on my face, and I could not keep them from showing.  For her part Elaine was not grinning.  She likewise had an expression of anger.  “If I can’t have you Jacob Moss I will destroy you.”  She turned and walked back into the station leaving me speechless on the ramp of my own ship.       

A special word from the author

I find myself sitting here shocked and reeling from the end of this week’s story. I know I wrote it, but I did not see that coming. I had started to feel that things were going too easy for Moss and his crew. They needed some adversity to come their way to bring in tension. Now that I have written it though my mind is racing about how all the future scenes I had planned now need to be completely rethought. I am over 10,000 words into this story and still feel like it is just in the first chapter or two.

Fiction Fragment Friday

Welcome back aboard the Spaceship Oddity for our next installment. This week I knew the conversation I wanted, but it didn’t flow quite as well as I had hoped when I went to write. I need to shake the story up a bit next week and get away from a converastion around a table or desk. If I want to keep going for as long as I plan to with this setting I need to keep things fresh. There is a future storyarc I want to get to, but need the characters more developed by that point.

I think I might include a bonus post sometime before or maybe with next week’s story giving the crew roster and some stats on the ship itself. World bulding things in my head and notebook but not necessarily things that need to come out in the story.

               I poked the overcooked thing on my plate masquerading as meat and found myself pining for the Paul Dillon flavorless sandwich and stale chip special.  The utility crew rotation had moved Mr. Dillon to break stander giving Miss Nia Torres control over the kitchen.  I looked up at my senior staff eagerly waiting for me to take the first bite.  “You’re all enjoying yourself, aren’t you?”

               “Only until we take our first bite,” responded Cargo Chief Marissa Louise.  For the past few days, I had been having lunch in my office with my senior staff as a kind of informal brainstorming session.  A chance to bond, share ideas, and make me aware of concerns.  I had made it clear that these meals were an open forum for speaking freely and nothing said was to ever leave the room.  By my own rules I could not comment on her heckling so instead I stabbed the thing claiming to be food and put it in my mouth.

               I was pleasantly surprised that the meal was edible though it was a close thing.  The meat was very dried out beef in a sauce that had been condensed too far.  I pulled a fake smile on my face and looked around the table.  “By all means eat up.”  The looks that met me were less than pleasant.  After a sigh I addressed the room.  “Ok food is now moving up my list of things to deal with.  Can someone please explain how it is this bad?”

               My new Chief Engineer leaned forward and took the lead.  “To be fair she is in particularly rare form today.  Nia really does try.  She has hundreds of recipes she wants to perfect and a couple of them are actually pretty good.”

               “A couple?  Out of hundreds?”

               Chief Burton just shrugged at me, so Pablo jumped in.  “If I may sir?”  I motioned for him to continue but made note that he seemed to think he needed that permission.  “Well as you know we don’t have anyone permanently assigned to the galley.  We have three utility crew that rotate duties.  None of them chose or were ever trained to work in the galley.  We got lucky that Mr. Dillon has a talent for baking.  Miss Torres however has more enthusiasm than skill.”

               “She actually likes working in the galley.  How does the crew not rip her apart when they get served something like this?”  I pushed the plate away from me, done trying to force it down.

               “Another crew member you haven’t met in person eh captain?”  The comment from my cargo chief hit me hard.  It was a lesson I should have learned and a mistake I kept making.  Seeing the point had been made she softened a bit.  “When you do you will find a young woman with an enthusiasm so infectious that no one would dare say anything negative to crush it.” 

               “Every time I think I’m making progress I find I don’t even understand the actual issue.  Bottom line I don’t know my own crew.  I’ve only been on the ship a couple weeks now, but that can’t be an excuse forever.  Part of my problem is just how flat this reporting structure is.  Most of the crew don’t report to a department head or even have an assigned department.  Even if I could trust the performance reviews, and let me be clear that I can’t, most of the crew haven’t had one in years.”  For a moment I second guessed letting them see my frustration but discarded the concern.  My senior staff was my team, and they needed to know what I was thinking.  This was the whole reason I had set these lunches up.       

               “I might be able to help with that sir.  If you will look at the proposal, I just sent you.  It might not be perfect, but I believe it will give you a starting point.”  Pablo was looking down at his tablet and not making eye contact.  This seemed to be his default position, but his work thus far had been impeccable. 

               I opened what I expected to be a document on my tablet and instead found a complete proposal with multiple documents.  There was a modified organizational chart breaking the ship into three high level divisions.  The first division under Miss Burton was Engineering which was further broken down into maintenance, environmental, and engineering itself.  The second division under Chief Louise was Logistics and Operations.  This of course covered cargo, but also a crew services department.  Finally, Pablo was in charge of a System Division that covered bridge operations and computers. 

               “Pablo what is this new crew services department?”

               “Well sir that covers the galley, laundry, and providing breaks.  Instead of rotating duties it would turn them into a team of three that can work together more often.  I have a few workday examples in the document titled Crew Services.”

               “You did not just put something with this much detail together.  How long have you been sitting on this?”

               “My first draft was a year ago.  I’ve been updating it for changes.  A lot of updates since you came onboard sir.” 

“I imagine.  Have you ever shared it with anyone before?” 

               “Oh no sir.”  He seemed shocked that I would even suggest that.

I hit a few buttons on my tablet and sent it to the rest of my senior staff.  “I’d like the three of you to review this together and give me a final recommendation that you are all comfortable will help us support our crew.  There is one glaring thing that this proposal doesn’t consider.” 

               “What’s that sir?”  There was a hint of defensiveness to his voice. 

               “The right seat for the right person.  This crew is full of people put here and put into positions.  That doesn’t mean those are the right positions.  I want to know what job people want, what job people would be good at, and how we can take advantage of their skills to grow each other. For example.”  I pointed to my plate. “Find me someone who can cook and is willing to give classes to anyone who wants to take them.”

               To my surprise Chief Louise spoke up.  “That’d be me captain.  My family owns a restaurant on Toran Station.  I practically grew up in the kitchen.”

               “See folks this is what I’m talking about.  Find these happy little surprises on the ship and let’s use them to make it better for all of us.”  I took another bite from my plate and almost spit it out.  “But in the meantime, let’s continue this conversation by going out to the station for lunch.  My treat.  We’ll call it an investment in ship morale.  Just don’t expect it to become a habit until we improve profits.”    

Fiction Fragment Friday

Well, well, well here we are again back aboard the Starship Oddity.  I debated when I ended last week’s story where I wanted to start with this week.  I knew I didn’t want to write or make you read an entire job interview, but I also felt like jumping too far ahead was not the right answer either.  I named the character of Marha Burton in last week’s story, but I didn’t introduce her.  I told you about her, but I didn’t let her show who she was because she wasn’t present in it. 

As it turned out I needed this scene not just to let her have a voice but also to help further develop the themes I am working towards.  This story that continues to develop has a few key ideas I am exploring through these characters.  I’m not going to share what those are just yet, but I hope they are coming through clearly enough in the writing that some of you could guess them.        

               “Well that certainly is quite the list.  Tell me Miss Burton, how is this list prioritized?”  I assessed the woman sitting across from me looking for any signs of nervousness.  Most of the candidates I interviewed for the chief engineer role have exhibited at least one.  She was not sweating, there were no noticeable nervous ticks, and eye contact was not broken unless she needed to check something on her tablet.  There was a combination of confidence and competence I had not yet seen in my short time as captain of the Odyssey.  Plenty of my crew had one or the other, but no one had thus far exhibited this degree of both. 

               “Well sir I actually have multiple criteria and filters available for prioritization.  The view you’re currently looking at is the one I’ve had the section working from.  Anything that requires expenditures for parts we don’t have in stock is filtered out.  Then it is sorted in order of risk.  We didn’t have any criticals and the only high requires a purchase.  After that it is sorted by time required and date of first report.  The view is named ‘Low Hanging Fruit’.  I wanted to have the biggest impact we could as quickly as possible before a new chief came in.” 

               “In case they didn’t allow you to keep fixing it?”

               For the first time in the interview, she hesitated before answering to think about her words.  “Yes sir.  It’s not that I don’t trust you to find a good candidate, but I know how difficult it is to find one before the company assigns you one.”                   

               “Nice save there Miss Burton.” 

               “I try sir.”

               “You mentioned a high-risk issue that does require a purchase.  Have you reported that previously?”  I suspected I knew the answer but wanted to see how she would address it.

               “Chief Lumsdon was well aware of it, but the moment his leaving the ship was announced I filed a new report with a quote for the needed parts.  Unfortunately, it got routed to the Chief of Engineering’s queue for approval and is waiting for someone to review it.”

                “Give me one moment Miss Burton.”  She nodded and I brought up my tablet.  Pablo had given me access to the chief’s mailbox and work queues that morning, but I had not yet had time to look at them.  When I saw the number of unviewed items, I found myself regretting that oversight.  It only took me a few moments to find the work request submitted by First Engineer Marsha Burton.  I was extremely impressed by the thoroughness of the report but taken aback by the price.  It was within my budget, but we would need to start making some serious profit before long after taking this hit. 

               “Well Miss Burton I believe you will find that your request has been approved, the purchase forwarded to Cargo Chief Louise for logistics, and that you have been granted access to the work queue.”

               “Captain?  That fast just on my word?”

               “That fast.  I have it on good authority that you are…”  I looked down at my tablet and read, “sharp, reliable, and the best damn engineer in this sector.  That is if the seven recommendations that have come into my inbox since you joined me in here are to be believed. “

               With that comment she actually looked flustered.  I could tell that praise was not something she had experienced in far too long.  I suspected the same could be said of most everyone in the section.  “I don’t know what to say.”

               “Your former chief chose to point out that everyone onboard this ship was here because they are a burnout, incompetent, or you are being punished.  You, Miss Burton are not a burn out based on your work ethic and I have seen enough to confidently say that you are not incompetent.  Why you got sent here is none of my business, but it is my intention to turn this ship’s reputation around and I’m going to need some strong partners in my senior staff to do it.  Will you help me stick a thumb in the company’s eye by making this a ship people want to be assigned to?”

               “I’m not a member of senior staff sir?”

               I smiled.  “Let me rephrase my question and make this a bit more official.”  I hit the button on my tablet to record the conversation and set it down so she could that was the case.  “First Engineer Marsha Burton as Captain of the Starship Odyssey I Jacob Moss officially offer you the position of Chief Engineer.  Do you accept this offer provided that we can reach a mutual agreement on compensation and benefits?”  I pointed to the tablet before she started speaking to ensure that she spoke into the microphone.

               “I do.”   I held up a finger to signal for her to pause while I hit the button to stop the recording.

               “There now that the official part is done is there anything off the record you would like to say?”

               “You are not at all what I expected sir.  Despite what Chief Lumsdon had told us about you I think it’s safe to say you’re not here because of burnout or incompetence either.  Can I share a piece of advice though?”

               “Please do Chief Burton.  I expect my senior staff to help keep me in check.” 

               She smiled so widely I was taken aback.  “Chief Burton.  It has been a lifelong dream to hear someone call me that.  Captain, I have heard from multiple sources that you are less than pleased with the ship’s nickname of Oddity.”

                 “That is correct.  I am finding that the crew is far more capable than their reputation would indicate and the nickname is just one more way to dismiss them.”

               “Well, that is true for how it started.  We like the name Oddity.  It has become an identity we can rally around.  While outsiders and the former chief used it to insult us, we embrace it.  Sir, I am proud to be an Oddity, and I think you will find that sentiment shared by most of the crew.  I will do everything I can to make this ship physically something to be proud of, but please do not take that identity away from my team.” 

               I sat there stunned for a moment unsure how I felt about her impassioned speech.  “Here I thought I had a lot to think about before.  Ok Chief Burton, you have given me an idea, but I need to speak to my legal counsel to see if it is possible before sharing.”

               “You have legal counsel sir?”

               “Of course.  She may not be legally certified, but I think you will find that out pilot Miss Southerland has forgotten more about regulations and loopholes than they teach in those expensive legal schools.”

               Once again, she smiled at me.  “If you don’t mind my saying so sir you are going to make a fine Oddity.”