Yesterday, 06:14 AM
It seemed like an oddly intimate moment: standing in the middle of a Klingon freighter’s cargo bay after completing a hostile boarding and having the Chief of Security—by all accounts a badass giant of a woman—gently placing her hand on your shoulder. If Rubicon had known Calleja for a while and had developed a decent rapport with the woman, it might have been an expected reaction. But having met the other woman less than a handful of times, the dichotomy of the scene itself caught Rubicon off guard. Especially when one factored in the smears of blood, sheen of sweat, and singes of weapons fire across their skin and uniforms.
“Understood. If you wanna talk about it once we’re back on Artemis, we can do. If you need some time to think about things, I get it. This ain’t a question that has a clean answer, so get back to me in your own time.”
And yet, it was exactly the way that Rubicon herself would have handled the situation. If another doctor, nurse, or attending in the emergency room had acted similarily, Rubicon would have pulled them aside and checked in on them when they had a moment in the chaos to breathe. It was one of the key things about leadership she’d learned: empathy was far more important than a lot of leaders gave it credit for. A leader who understood that their direct reports were people all the same were the ones who garnered the most respect from their teams. The action put Calleja up a few notches in Rubicon’s book, earning the woman additional trust and respect.
Rubicon simply nodded in a reply.
A moment later, things began rolling again and their slight breath was interrupted.
Engineers and additional security personnel joined them. The engineer practically attacked the lock, trying to figure out how to hack into the dang thing.
Rubicon didn’t know what the woman in gold was doing since it was a skillset that she herself didn’t possess. But it was done with a precision that Rubicon could respect. If she didn’t know better, Han was a surgeon and the engineering tools her scalpel. More crew arrived and Rubicon took a small step away to give them more room. She kept her eyes scanning the rest of the cargo bay, making sure nobody else slipped in to attack them. She wondered if, while they were waiting for the door to unlock, if it would be worth their while to check out some more of these cargo containers.
“Hey Chief,” Ju called to Mara, “Something is happening, I think we got it unlocked.” Rubicon glanced back at the door as she heard mechanical sound then back out to their six. Was she being super cautious? Perhaps.
“Alright. Look lively, it’s work time,” Calleja barked to the assembled Security officers. “Han, step clear, I don’t want you getting caught in any crossfire. Keep an ape in armour between you and trouble. The rest of you, form up, weapons hot!”
Phaser tight in her hand, Rubicon loosened her grip and let out a breath. She turned her attention back to the door, setting her stance so she could be ready to react no matter what was behind door number one.
“On 3. One. Two. Three!”
The door quietly slid away. Rubicon took several steps forward into the space, weapon hot, ready to fire should they come upon more hostiles. But that’s not what she found. Instead the space was small and narrow, with chains and manacles hung about them. There seemed to be nobody present, but given the hidden aspect of this room, Rubicon knew they shouldn’t assume the space was how it appeared.
“Clear,” Rubicon reported back to the boss. Her eyes caught on splotches of something dark, and it didn’t take her medical training to guess it was blood. She pulled out her tricorder. “There’s some old blood over here.”
== GM input: Details on the blood please, what species it came from and how old. ==
“Understood. If you wanna talk about it once we’re back on Artemis, we can do. If you need some time to think about things, I get it. This ain’t a question that has a clean answer, so get back to me in your own time.”
And yet, it was exactly the way that Rubicon herself would have handled the situation. If another doctor, nurse, or attending in the emergency room had acted similarily, Rubicon would have pulled them aside and checked in on them when they had a moment in the chaos to breathe. It was one of the key things about leadership she’d learned: empathy was far more important than a lot of leaders gave it credit for. A leader who understood that their direct reports were people all the same were the ones who garnered the most respect from their teams. The action put Calleja up a few notches in Rubicon’s book, earning the woman additional trust and respect.
Rubicon simply nodded in a reply.
A moment later, things began rolling again and their slight breath was interrupted.
Engineers and additional security personnel joined them. The engineer practically attacked the lock, trying to figure out how to hack into the dang thing.
Rubicon didn’t know what the woman in gold was doing since it was a skillset that she herself didn’t possess. But it was done with a precision that Rubicon could respect. If she didn’t know better, Han was a surgeon and the engineering tools her scalpel. More crew arrived and Rubicon took a small step away to give them more room. She kept her eyes scanning the rest of the cargo bay, making sure nobody else slipped in to attack them. She wondered if, while they were waiting for the door to unlock, if it would be worth their while to check out some more of these cargo containers.
“Hey Chief,” Ju called to Mara, “Something is happening, I think we got it unlocked.” Rubicon glanced back at the door as she heard mechanical sound then back out to their six. Was she being super cautious? Perhaps.
“Alright. Look lively, it’s work time,” Calleja barked to the assembled Security officers. “Han, step clear, I don’t want you getting caught in any crossfire. Keep an ape in armour between you and trouble. The rest of you, form up, weapons hot!”
Phaser tight in her hand, Rubicon loosened her grip and let out a breath. She turned her attention back to the door, setting her stance so she could be ready to react no matter what was behind door number one.
“On 3. One. Two. Three!”
The door quietly slid away. Rubicon took several steps forward into the space, weapon hot, ready to fire should they come upon more hostiles. But that’s not what she found. Instead the space was small and narrow, with chains and manacles hung about them. There seemed to be nobody present, but given the hidden aspect of this room, Rubicon knew they shouldn’t assume the space was how it appeared.
“Clear,” Rubicon reported back to the boss. Her eyes caught on splotches of something dark, and it didn’t take her medical training to guess it was blood. She pulled out her tricorder. “There’s some old blood over here.”
== GM input: Details on the blood please, what species it came from and how old. ==