Eh, if I have to change it, I'll make an edit.
Fresh Ideas
It was forty minutes into the meeting with Rear Admiral ch'Shennaryth when Hikaru Sulu realized something was amiss.
"Ah, Patricia," Zrai ch'Shennaryth says. "She still sends me recommendation sheets. Not just her direct subordinates either, almost anyone she finds interesting in her whole command. Quite on-point, that one."
"Truly?" Hikaru replies. "I think that more officers should be involved in the careers of their subordinates. Ensuring they meet their potential is part of our duty."
"That it is. Patricia goes the extra mile, though. She even recommends transfers for those she think would work well in specific teams. In an alternate universe, she could easily be director of the academy. Or even have my job."
"Well, that's excellent. I suppose she's one of the prime candidates for the new Admiral position in Ops?"
"Ah, b-" Zrai cuts herself off. "I suppose she is."
"But what?" Hikaru asks sharply, alarm klaxons going off in his head.
"Ah, it's just, there's signs there's something big happening in Shipyard Ops right now. You know about Vice Admiral Chen's accelerated program, yes? I mean, no one could miss how we put out the last wave of Constitution-class in two years rather than three. And in my position, it's hard to miss that her recommendations are usually timed along with the build schedule."
"Yes, I've seen much on this," he says, "but what does it have to do with the Admirality?"
"Well, that's the thing," she says. "These last few months a trickle of requested reassignments has turned into a flood. Usually it's just a few individuals, but the Vice Admiral has been sending me whole lists. Independent requests for reassignment are also coming in thick and fast. Even ch'Volet had a few transfer recommendations at the end. Usually I'd chalk that up to last appointments before retirement, but taken together? There's something going on up there, and Vice Admiral Chen is in the thick of it. Promoting her now could be very disruptive."
"Perhaps preparations for the Ambassador prototype?" he suggests.
"No, it couldn't be that. The teams were lined up for that years ago. This is something new. More than half again as many teams requested and hundreds of personnel reassigned."
"I see," he says slowly. "I will have to confirm this before making a decision, then. For now, let's designate the plan to send Chen to Operations as Contingency Blue," he tells her.
She gives a snort of laughter before entering the file title on her PADD.
"And if you want to keep her in Shipyard Ops?" she asks.
"Contingency Yellow, ch'Tharvasse to Operations instead. I suppose I should get this resolved before my well-wishers beat down your office door. Either way, you'll be hearing from me again soon, Rear Admiral," he says to her. Then he speaks into his communicator. "Starbase One, Transporter Room Three."
"Sir," a voice replies not five seconds later.
"Sulu here. One to beam up."
"Acknowledged, sir."
The offices of Shipyard Operations on the periphery of Starbase One were vast and labyrinthine. Vice Admiral Patricia Chen had a windowed office well away from the main concourse, overlooking the three berths of San Francisco Fleet Yards. If he had held her position, it was a privilege he would have chosen for himself too.
"Admiral!" Patricia Chen chirps from her position on her roller chair. She jumps to her feet, PADD almost clattering to the ground as she catches it and sweeps it onto her desk. "Congratulations! I'm surprised to see you here so soon. Usually it's a few weeks before the new Commander pays a visit to Shipyard Ops."
For her to be
this young and spry and the well-seasoned age of sixty almost beggared belief. Certainly, he had been described as energetic in his, how to put it, advanced years, but he had nothing compared to Patricia. And no, he only knew her age because he had just looked at her file in Personnel.
"Yes, well, I hear there are some exciting developments here, so I thought I would drop by. Although I admit, I had not expected news of my promotion to travel so quickly."
"Oh, I wrote a program to monitor public Starfleet chatter about the potential new Admiral. It, uh," she glances down for a second. "It's a position that will affect all of us. I figured I should be ahead of the curve."
Left unsaid was the "it could have been me".
Chen grins sheepishly.
"Please, have a seat," she tells him, even as she remains standing. She leans down and taps closed the file she had open on the PADD, bringing it back to the main screen. Hikaru catches a glimpse of the build schedule for the new explorer, the Ambassador, although there are many additions since he last viewed it. Not his department, but it certainly catches his interest.
He steps forward and eases himself into one of the chairs. Chen on the other hand, takes the top edge of her seat with one hand and spins it, seating herself exactly as it aligns with her desk and catches under her legs.
"I'll get straight to the point," Hikaru says. "I've just spoken to Rear Admiral ch'Shennaryth, who told me that on with Sousa's permission, you've been sending her assignment recommendations."
"Oh," Patricia says, an undisguised look of concern flitting across her face before being replaced with a slight frown. "That's not a problem, is it?"
"Not at all. I wish more officers took such a keen interest in the careers of their subordinates. I-"
"Not just their careers, Admiral!" Patricia interrupts. "It's important our engineering and construction teams work efficiently together, and boosts job satisfaction too. Too many brilliant spacers end languishing without seeing their full potential. But get the right combination, and the team becomes more than the sum of its parts."
"That certainly may be so," Hikaru says. He can see why Vitalia spoke so highly of Patricia now. "Zrai said, though, that you're making even more reassignments than normal. Why is that?"
"Oh, it's for this," Patricia says, opening her PADD to the same file she just closed and spinning it to face Hikaru. She smiles widely as she does. "Circumstances conspired to allow us a unique opportunity. It still needs final approval, likely from you now, but you can see the summary here."
He takes a moment to read carefully.
"Two Ambassadors," he says with a sharp intake of breath. "I had seen that proposal in Tactical, but I didn't realize it had gotten this far."
"Absolutely. I was just reviewing the schedule for the deflector assemblies. We'll be ready to go at around the time of the Council meeting."
"This won't affect the reliability, will it?" he asks. "It
is still a prototype."
"Well, kind of," Patricia says. "But doubling the parts means we'll be far better prepared for mass production. The teams will have good reasons to produce consistent quality, and will have a second sample to check their work against. On the balance it cancels out any issues with unproven technology."
"Remarkable," he says. "But tell me, does this plan need your supervision?"
Chen narrows her eyes slightly. There's a long pause.
"The build schedules are flexible until about a month before the hull is laid down," she tells him slowly. "But after that they can't be changed at all. I mean
really can't be changed, or everything goes to hell. Even if I come up with something after, at that point it's out of my hands."
"Even if there are issues or unforeseen delays?" he asks.
"How often have we launched a ship late?" she asks right back. "But yes, I do some management. I don't think it's anything only I can do, most of the time it's just approving the shipyard Rear Admiral's requests."
"I see," Hikaru says. So she could be crucial, or she could be unnecessary. "I can certainly work with that."
Chen seems to relax at that, giving him another slight smile.
"By the way," he continues, "these two ships won't both be the Ambassador. Have you spoken to the naming committee about the second yet?"
Chen's smile turns into a grin like the cat that caught the canary.
"It's exactly as you're thinking," she tells him. She taps the wireframe on the PADD and the panels on the hull fill in, revealing the hull number.
NCC-1701-C
"So what you're telling me is that we're back where we started," Rear Admiral Zrai ch'Shennaryth says, hands folded on the table.
"I wouldn't say that," Hikaru Sulu tells her. "But we still have a decision to make. Keep Chen in for the duration, or for part of it. Or move her once the project is started."
"Or you could move her immediately."
"Mmm, I suppose," he says, not really meaning it. He isn't going to let the new
Enterprise go that easily. "Let me see her file again..."
