Kayetan was having fun. Now that, to most officers, was things going smoothly and their way, Kayetan was not normal captains.
"But sir, we'll never get a full biosciences lab in here."
"Pull these, condense all this into one mark four to make room for the new equipment. And, if we take this bulkhead out, that will make enough room for a science lab. We're pulling three sets of phasers from this side of the hull anyway, so we wont need a fourth redundant control room." Kayetan was standing in a cramped power transfer room, little more than a closet off one of the phaser control rooms. Turning he saw Lallal and Orruorak poking their heads in from the door several meters down.
"Jarvis," he said to the Lieutenant who was taking notes on a PADD, "You got all that?"
"Yes, sir. That all?"
"Shoo." retorted Kayetan making a scatting motion with his fingers. "Take that to the bridge and pump it into the remodel list.."
After the room was vacated the two officers joined their captain inside and waited while he extricated himself from the cramped alcove and leaned on a wall facing them.
"So, how are we doing?"
Lallal stepped back into a corner, his short tail rising and bracing against the wall. It looked awkward, but it was his version of 'leaning'. "The final parcelss of equipment are arriving and the industrial transporters are programed and ready too remove the proper partss of the ship." he folded his arms behind him and took a hissing breath, "All in all we are almosst done with the preliminariess. But we'll need more personnel to continue at this pace." he swivelled an eye over to Orruorak, indicating that we was done.
"Which brings us to this." he motioned with a PADD that was dwarfed in his massive paw, "I agree, we've moved beyond the part we can handle with just a skeleton crew, even one as fluid as ours. On the plus side thirty new personnel have already reported aboard, but most of them are junior grade and don't have much engineering experience."
Kayetan nodded, "Good, just put them to work pulling the new hardware out of its casings." He paused a moment the went on, "I considered the matter and when I requested a first officer, this is what I got." he reached down to the overlarge pocket in his coverall and pulled out a PADD of his own. "Captain Samantha Doyal. Started off in operations aboard the Nimitz, promoted to Lieutenant in field after a skirmish with Jem Hadar fighters. Then it was tactical on the Corsair where she made Lt. Commander and the Fleet Cross in a bit of mess called the first Battle of Betazed. Was transferred to Deep Space Six where she piled up several years worth of Very Good rating reports. From there she had several runs as a first officer before giving up a position as captain of the Tripoli to join our merry family here." he flipped the PADD around and tossed it to Lallal who caught it adroitly and started skimming its contents.
"Sseems like a fine officer." he said handing the device to Orruorak. "It will be nice when we have someone to dedicate to coordinating operations."
Orruorak rumbled again, "I do have two other recommendations. The last few days I have been impressed by the abilities of the dock master, a lieutenant commander Sorne . She has smoothly integrated us into the traffic flow of the yard and consistently kept up with the demands of our schedule. I think she would perform excellently as operations officer."
Kayetan smiled, "That's the Trill dock master right?" He thought about it a moment. He had only spoken to the overworked harbor master once, and from his own time spent in the same position he knew a sudden change scheduling like the one he had made was taxing on the dock workers. He noticed she had taken everything in stride. "Very well, if she's impressed you she's in, if she wants." Shifting around he folded his arms and went on, "I'll talk to Sorne , and anyone else you two or any one else can think of. And the other?" he finished.
"Do you remember Grella?"
How could he forget, she had at one time or the other set or regenerated half his bones, "Yea. How is she?"
"She is well. But she is now doctor Grella, she just graduated from medical school and has entered the starfleet officer exchange program. And while we made do with Miranda as a medic, we will need a chief medial officer."
Kayetan thought a moment, "Yea, that's perfect, I wanted to contact her brother anyway, see if he wanted to get involved with our little adventure."
"The general, Sir?" queried Orruoak.
"Yea." he confirmed, "We'll need more than one ship to really be effective as a backup and our allies will get involved at some point anyway, I'll just include them from the start." Kayetan looked thoughtful for a moment, "Besides, this'll take care of that so-called 'debt' he owes me."
Orruoak considered that, it was the type of direct tactical thinking the captain was known for, there would be a can of worms opened though, but nothing he could see as a problem. The general's ships would be handy as a reserve, their speed and response power would be useful for scouting, but not much else. And more importantly, he was trustworthy, the type of trust that could only be gained though surviving together. Orruoak looked at Lallal who swivelled an eye his direction and bobbed it up and down, signifying his agreement.
"Alright sir, I will contact them."
"Do it, but for now just compile any others in a list, the rest will be for our new first officer.
