=/\= Earth - Starfleet Security =/\=
It was times like these he wished they'd never found him on Cardia.
"Lieutenant, I need you to authorize this," the nameless crewman shoved a PADD in his face.
Rob held back his temptation to roll his eyes. "What exactly am I authorizing now?" The PADD was only one of dozens he'd already worked through today.
The young man, even younger than Rob, looked at the Lieutenant with a confused expression. "The transfer process for Ensign Nammal, sir. It's due to the Commander by 1400." Rob had nearly forgot. Nammal was his latest hotshot academy kid Starfleet had sent his way. Like the three before him, Nammal and Lansine had not gotten along. In fact, the two had nearly come to blows early that month. Starfleet Security seemed to believe the barren deserts of Carida and his traumatizing survival had somehow bestowed him with the ability to mentor young graduates in the way of Security operations.
They most certainly had not.
"The Ensign will be leaving for Paris in a few minutes, sir." The crewman was talking again. He was looking from Rob to Nammal's office; he seemed to be suggesting something.
Rob stared at the crewman. "You think I should talk to him?" His question was cold and flat. The crewman looked surprised for a moment, Rob had taken him seriously.
"Perhaps it would be for the best, sir?" It was phrased more as a question than a statement.
Rob sighed and tapped his authorization into the PADD before standing up from his desk. "Perhaps."
Ensign Fyru Nammal sat in his office, working on stringing together a detailed summary report on the lackluster state of the division's cadet update memo. It's grammar was a wash of disappointing and disgustingly obvious errors even a young Andorian could identify. Not to mention the whole set of reports was more than 3 hours later getting in than he had specified. Were all humans this lazy? His impression seemed to lean further and further towards 'yes, absolutely'.
It was unfortunately appropriate Nammal's least favorite human in the entire sector walked into his office just after he'd sent off a rather nasty letter to the Academy's human resources managerial staff, reprimanding them for sending him such trash. Soon he'd be leaving this ridiculous planet and serving under a new team. Hopefully they understood the need for perfect sentence structure like he did. He was Andorian for Malla's sake. What did they think he was? A Klingon monster?
"Lieutenant, Lansine." Nammal said, his disapproval with the man being in front of him was clearly sounded in his tone. Fyru's two antennae twitched notably at his discomfort. He never addressed Lansine as 'sir'.
Rob glanced around the room, noticing the various storage containers and other moving paraphernalia before his eyes settled on Nammal. "I just approved the final transfer protocol," Rob wasn't quite sure what to say. The two men had never gotten along. Their personalities offered little compromise when dealing with one another--they were both too stubborn for their own good.
"Oh good, I had thought it had been finished by now." The Andorian raised an eyebrow. "Hopefully my new post finds timeliness even more important than you do."
"I'm glad you found a position to your liking," Rob lied. He could have cared less about the Ensign's new assignment. He'd most certainly be assigned a new fresh academy graduate within the next two weeks and the process of breaking-in some new know-it-all greenie would start all over again.
The Andorian held up a PADD, "I finished your transfer paperwork more than a week ago. Didn't your assistant let you know?" He thought for a moment, "I assumed Starfleet had informed everyone. Silly of me to make assumptions, but I had much more important things to worry about. You understand." Nammal set the PADD down on his desk and pushed it little more than a few centimeters in Rob's direction. An indication he wanted Lansine to take it, but didn't care to actually get up and hand the device to him.
Lansine stared at the PADD, not really listening to the last part of Nammals self-indulgent statement. "My transfer?" His tone had gone from irritated to extremely curious in only a few moments only to transform back to irritated. "Why were you handling my transfer?" Rob had been sending in requests for months now. After being prematurely picked off the Charon late last summer he'd been chomping at the bit to get back into the field. Starfleet may have felt the emotional trauma inflicted on Carida was too much baggage for him to bring on a new assignment but in actuality he found sitting at a desk all day only made it worse. His mind constantly flipped back to the images of the former colony--he couldn't bring himself not to think about it.
Nammal's brow narrowed at the comment. It was one thing to simply be inept in the workplace, quite another to insinuate another was somehow worse. "I assure you I made no mistakes. Well... I make no mistakes period, but this is beside the point, Lieutenant. The orders came in directly from the Director of Starfleet Security. Speak to him about it if you want, but the paperwork is genuine. If you weren't informed..." Nammal's lips almost cracked a grin, but quickly returned to their stoic pompous expression, "Then perhaps they thought your performance didn't merit it. One can only speculate, however. Either way your shuttle leaves in a few hours. It's all there in the PADD, and your personal belongings have already been moved."
The surprising nature and utter finality of his transfer was almost too much for Rob to handle while attempting to keep his professional composure in front of the junior officer. Nammal's typical smart-ass comments meant nothing to Rob now, the Andorians words just brushed past him. "Thank you." Rob said, this time almost sincerely. The wave of emotions he was going through was hardly something he had expected when he'd come to say goodbye to Nammal. It was all quite offsetting.
"I would thank you for your efforts as well, Lieutenant. However I have to be in a review meeting prior to my transfer in 20 minutes. I hope you manage to make your shuttle appointment, I hear the Captain on the Charon is rather impatient when it comes to careless tardiness." The young Ensign waited, with an almost palpable impatience, for Robert to excuse himself.
Rob stood in the doorway to the small office for a few moments, still taken back by the situation, before realizing the level of awkwardness in the room.
"No, you're right. I don't want to be late."
=/\= End Log =/\=
Chief Security Officer
