The TAO's Other Boss

Posted on 01 May 2019 @ 3:26am by Ensign Graham Beckett, Ph.D. (Jan 2389 - TRNSFR After Gorn War) & Lieutenant Junior Grade Steven Bernard, Ph.D.

Mission: Ka Hakaka Maikaʻi - The Good Fight
Location: Lounge
Timeline: Right After "The New Officer"

Bernard backed into the room and then found himself looking at his feet and the ceiling. "Gah!" he said as he hit the ground. He had tripped over someone, very hard in fact. He sat up on the floor, looking into the face of a tall, puzzled young man he recognized from the manifest. "Ah, Ow. Good morning, Ensign Beckett," Bernard offered his hand for Beckett to shake, "I'm Bernard, your new TAO. Nice to meet you."

Beckett had been catching up on some reading; with the looming battle he knew he was either going to have a quiet time holing up with Security, or he'd been running dealing with boarding parties. Neither prospect much appealed. So in practice he'd been staring at a PADD and absorbing very little of what it said, and thus was more than a little startled when someone literally tripped over him.

He bounced to his feet, apologising even though he'd been sat perfectly sensibly, before he realised he recognised the newcomer from a service jacket. With a confused, polite smile, Beckett extended a hand - not to shake, but to offer to help the other ensign up. "Ensign Beckett, Assistant Security Chief. Uh, are you quite alright?"

Bernard let Beckett help him up off the floor Quite alright? He laughed. All facades gone. "Physically, I'm peachy. How do you do? Sorry for tripping the heck over you."

"It's not a problem," Beckett said sincerely, then gestured to the coffee table he'd been sat at, his steaming mug of tea still there. Certainly he deserved a little blame for being seated lopsidedly, long legs stretched out to the side. "I'm perfectly well, thank you. Have a drink and join me, if you've the time? We should perhaps go over some matters if you're one of the new arrivals."

Bernard nodded and walked to the replicator. "Hot apple cider with cloves and orange zest." He took the mug and sat across from Beckett. "Please, tell me anything you deem necessary."

"I was hoping more the other way around, to begin." Beckett gave a polite smile. "I've read your service jacket; you seem to have picked up a lot of different skills in a lot of different areas. It will be useful, of course, to have your practical expertise in Tactical Actions. But you appear to have significant experience and education in areas we can put to use when it comes to forensic biology and anthropology?"

Bernard had been breathing in the calming steam of his drink. He took a sip as he listened then answered: "Yes. I was a scientist when I first set out. The warrior parts came later. I study all of the time and when I'm not studying, I'm trying to improve technology--some I just break--if you have any projects for me, I will do my best. Forgive me, I'm not sure what you are asking: do you have something specific you want me to work on? I'm up for anything."

"Nothing yet, I'm still very new myself and coming to grips with what everyone in the department's particular skills are." Beckett's smile remained. "I didn't want to make assumptions of your experiences and assume you could only act as TAO. I need to know how versatile the department is. I'm glad there's someone else here with a more thorough academic background - though my doctorate is in crime sciences." He punctuated this last with a wry, self-effacing gesture of his PADD stylus.

Bernard smiled. "We'll, I'm glad you didn't have to draw a chalk line around me, the way I hit the floor like a bag of--" he couldn't think of anything immediately relatable--"soggy porridge a minute ago. I can and have done some forensic work, but I would request some assistance from the medical staff if I am to examine cadavers. As for anthropological work, I'm not very good with ancient civilaizations--about at Earths medieval times is as far as my understanding of peoples goes. Good on you for your doctorate. It must be like being able to decipher happenings as if they were a holo playing backwards."

"Thank you," said Beckett politely, "but now I need the practice putting that theory into practice. For anthropology, I'd imagine we won't need that much on ancient civilisations when it comes to security work. If we have cadavers we'll always do better with a proper forensic pathologist so we can refer down to Medical. But sometimes one has to make do with the people to hand, so it's ideal when those people have a broad range of skills themselves." He put down his PADD. "However, we are heading into war. I would anticipate a great bulk of our work is instead going to be dealing with boarding parties and the ship's tactical matters. Do you have any concerns regarding your role there?"

Bernard nodded. "Yes, I understand this is a warship and I understand that on quite a few ships, the TAO acts as a quarter master of sorts: arming the security team and taking care of weapons. Will this be the case here and if so, who will I be arming? The Marines on board will have their own armory, correct?"

"The Marines have their own weapons and equipment. Drills are being organised for us and them to work on our cooperation in repelling boarders, but that's less urgent as they'll be deployed in en masse come our arrival at Canterra rather than remaining aboard," said Beckett, for such was indeed once the plan of action. "While we'll need to work together, I'm keen to keep Security separate from the Marines in terms of ethos, and so keeping our equipment and logistics separate will be part of that. We will of course fight to protect this ship, but we are not soldiers."

Bernard blinked. Police are not Marines he thought, but warriors they are. Different function. I have a different function now. Again. "Yes," he said, "As far as ethos is concerned, how do we foster that? I assume teams train together, then the department shares a competition or a meal together every so often. Who would be in charge of planning such events?"

"That has appeared to fall under my responsibility," drawled Beckett. "So far I've only had the time to arrange some training sessions. More pastoral care of group bonding is going to have to wait until we're not imminently in a a battle-zone."

"And as for equipment, does the Senior Chief preside over that, or will that be my responsibility?" Bernard asked.

"Senior Chief Kelly supervises enlisted personnel and liaises with the department staff on that front. I imagine you'll do well to work closely with her as nobody else has a better grasp of the everyday needs of most of our security personnel, but security equipment is your responsibility, and under your authority," said Beckett.

Bernard nodded, finishing his cider. "Very good. Are their any other duties you want me to be aware of?"

"I think that might be everything, Ensign. Understand I'm still familiarising myself with the ship and the department," said Beckett, a little apologetically. "But by all means bring anything to me if you need assistance."

"I will, Ensign. Thank you. If you will excuse me, I'm supposed to be meeting Senior Chief Kelly to get some rifle scores. Lt. Stevens requested them."

"Then don't let me keep you. Carry on, Ensign." Beckett gave a polite nod, and returned to his drink and paperwork as Bernard left.


Graham Beckett, ENS, SF
ATACSEC

Bernard, Steven J. ENS, SF,
TAO