yet another kind of chat

Posted on Wed Mar 12th, 2025 @ 1:32am by Commander Antonia 'Tony" Stoffels & Lieutenant Etan tar-Lexros

Mission: Those who are left behind
Location: etan's office

Toni realised that amongst the senior crew she knew the operations officer the least. And lately she had been hearing a lot of good things about him. So she thought it was time for a chat to get a better picture of the young man herself to see if he was indeed command material. So she hit the chime to his office after her shift.

Nominally, the Operations department of a starship was mainly the purview of the First Officer. Etan had only really worked with Commander Stoffels on a relatively few occasions. Usually they engaged when an emergency rose. He allowed her in without a second thought. "Commander." He watched her, waiting a moment expecting to hear her in the moment. After a moment of silence, he spoke. "Good afternoon, Commander. May I ask why you're here?"

"I have been hearing very good things about you, Lieutenant so I thought it was time for a little chat." Toni made herself comfortable in a chair in front of his desk.

Etan nodded and offered her the chair with a gesture, setting aside the medical tricorder he'd been working on repairing. He sat up a little straighter and tried to ignore the command-level rank pips on her collar. His smile was thin and uncertain, concerned about what kind of 'good things' she'd heard - or more specifically, who she'd heard them from. He spoke softly. "Of course, Commander. I'm glad that you've heard good things - it's, uh, much better than the alternative, I think. Would you care for anything from the replicator? Coffee or tea, perhaps?" He was obviously trying to get away from a discussion of himself - an obvious ploy, but well-meaning all the same.

"Hot tea please." She said. "Yeah especially my granddad can't shut up about you." She said as she waited for her tea and for him to settle.

Etan brought over the tea, a fairly good blend with a bag on the side of the cup of water, rather than premade. It was a good distraction, and there was something different even in the flavor of tea made from replicated leaves to that which was made without that experience. He wondered if there was something in the specific oils, and decided it was a discussion he'd have the galley staff some day. For himself, he replaced his cold cup of coffee with a warmer one, and set the cups in front of himself and Toni. 'Granddad' caught his ear, and he stiffened slightly. He sat down, and took a moment to collect himself. "Commander, I wish to apologize if you feel I was insubordinate when I sent various sections of the laws and regulations involving Starfleet service focused on gender and sexual discrimination to the Marshal. I want to state in advance that I recognize that his comments were made to me in confidence, and outside of reporting them to a court, I'd prefer not to restate them. I will accept any demerit or demotion you feel is necessary." He didn't know how the man could have walked away from their interaction with a positive reaction - he'd all but threatened to report the man to JAG, after all. He looked into his coffee cup, and then back at Toni. She was off-duty, and this was his office. He judged that he could speak freely. "If I may be blunt, sir, after the way Xavier's hopefully well-meaning actions on the away mission he joined in violation of regulations affected First Lieutenant London, I found it impossible not to respond to the Marshal showing a lack of respect for both First Lieutenant London, yourself, and the many women whom I have served with in leadership roles throughout Starfleet." It would probably be interesting to see Etan's dander go up - and the fact that, like his predecessor in Ops (Talsi), when he was in an unhappy mood, everyone else on the ship save the Captain was referred to formally. And the way that Etan never referred to Kay as just 'Lieutenant' London, but always used her full rank, would probably catch Toni's ear as well.

Toni blinked a few times. She did not know the lieutenant very well, but she had never heard him talk for this long or this passionate. "First as a woman I prefer ma'am to sir. Since I am off duty, Toni works just as well. Second granddad did not indicate he had a problem with you or that he had obviously pissed you off. I will have words with him about that. "Granddad is very interested in furthering your career. And even retired that man still has a lot of inflluence in the fleet. Third, his bark is worse than his bite, he has sponsored women in the past and has gone to bat for them when others would not. He just likes to pretend he is a dinosaur, especially about women in his own family. But we all know how to take him. and Kay...... Oh...... you like like Kay don't you?"

Etan nodded and took a sip of his coffee, the caffeine helping immediately. "I apologize, ma'am. When you and I were together with Commander Doctrine several months ago, you didn't express that preference." The fact that the three had been in the midst of a crisis, saving the whole ship from decompressing didn't enter Etan's mind - he'd referred to Toni as 'sir' there, and thus it had stuck. "Your comments match First Lieutenant London's exactly, ma'am, that 'his bark is worse than his bite'. But I worry sincerely about any officer, especially one who is still under the terms of Reactivation given that we may be shortly at war, having such atavistic beliefs. Especially if he's made any command decisions that might have harmed a woman."

When she commented on Kay, Etan straightened slightly and met her eyes. He nodded. "Yes, I have a great fondness and respect for her, both personally and professionally, ma'am. Do you have any opposition to our relationship, as our direct command, ma'am?"

"I am sorry if I was not clear on the ma'am thing before, Lieutenant. That is on me, nothing for you to apologize about. But look at me and believe me." She said strongly. "My grandfather would never harm a woman, never ever ok. I have come across some creeps in my time and granddad just is not like that. And me being opposed to the relationship with Kay." She had to laugh. "Hell no. I have never seen Kay in love, so go for it. You have all my blessings and I will be rooting for you. And since I see her as my little sister, that would make us practically family." She was teasing him now.

Etan nodded at her acceptance of his apology with a smile. When she told him to look at her and believe her, he did - eye contact wasn't something he took lightly, and so making direct eye contact with the First Officer was reserved for occasions like this, when they believed it was important. He nodded at her. "I have to apologize again, ma'am. I agree completely, I don't believe he would directly harm any person without sufficient cause. But harming someone's career prospects is a more difficult thing to confirm."

He smiled again at her, having snuck in a sip of his coffee while she spoke. "I suppose if that's the case, that we'll just have to be clever about whatever benefits of nepotism you can grant Kay and I." He was obviously trying to make a joke, and mostly failing.-He wouldn't have accepted anything he hadn't earned anyway; and he was certain that Kay wouldn't either.

"That's going to be difficult." Toni said with a smile. "Kay and I both chose a careerpath aaway from our parents to avoid nepotism. And we had our parents swear not to interfere. I do believe they are trying to stick to it as much as they can. But it is not as easy as you may think growing up around admirals and generals. And then again neither of it needs it, you are doing well enough on your own."

Etan nodded, glad that his attempt at a joke had defused the tension; at least for now. He took another sip of his coffee and looked back at Toni. "I do appreciate that, ma'am." He looked back down at his coffee for a moment. "To be honest, I had a similar idea. My parents are both in the diplomatic corps. I wanted to apart from them as well. I do understand the basics of the situation." He took a moment, then thought. "If it isn't prying, why did you choose to join the command track?"

Toni was silent for a few seconds. "You know for the longest time I thought I would never. I love being a therapist and I am good at it. Very good." Another silence. "But I did want to broaden my horizons. Learn new skills, to see if I could be good at this as well. I can tell you it is pretty scary still. Sometimes I feel like an imposter." She smiled at him.

Etan thought for a moment and nodded. "I do not believe that you are in any way an impostor in Command. But, since you are a therapist, and not bound to First Lieutenant London, perhaps it would be wisest to ask you. You're aware that the Marshal and the Captain have been urging me toward Command track. Given what you know of me, and my records, and all that is available to you... do you genuinely believe I have a place in Command, outside the chain of command on this vessel?"

Toni took the question seriously as she looked at him. "I am not your therapist, so I don't know everything. But from what I have seen so far, yes I think you could grow into a command role. I am not saying it would be easy. I think it would involve therapy as well as training. But I have seen you grow since we started working together. Maybe more than you realize yourself. You are overcoming your anxiety bit by bit. But it is something you would have to want yourself. If you don't it is ok to stay where you are despite what everyone tells you. If you really want this, yes I think you could become a good command officer." She finished honestly.