USS McKENZIE: Senior officers coming aboard

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A Defiant class vessel was already the smallest type of craft to be gratified with the prestigious title of starship. And at the moment, it appeared even more diminutive when the towering frame of the red and blue Saurian materialized on the reduced three-man transporter pad. Well over two meters tall, it's slender, almost skinny built belied his almost four hundred pounds of muscle and sinew as he stood with his bald, ovoid head grazing the ceiling, blinking his huge slitted blue-black eyes at the startled transporter chief.

Even chief Argyle was for a second taken aback by the strange vision of the scaly giant in the too small room. Saurians were not that common in Starfleet, especially ones wearing the grey and black, red collared and three-piped uniform of a Commander. There was no mistaking who this was. Nevertheless, the security officer scrupulously followed the full security protocols now spread from the flagship through the whole of Lotus Fleet. For his part, the Saurian commander waited as still as if he had been a frozen holoprojection.

"Glad to see you again, Commander."

Sscyssshilysss, Commander, Schaell," replied in a slow deliberate manner the towering reptiloid with a strange hiss in his toneless yet powerful voice, following the standard voice identification protocol while a light flashed in his right eye for retina scan; "and thiss is the very firsst time we meet, Lieutenant."

The last security check thus completed, Argyle received a nod from the transporter chief confirming all biometric and biomolecular identifications positive. The forcefield shimmered off from around the small pad and Schaell stepped down to come before the Liberated Borg officer.

"Welcome aboard the McKenzie, Sir. Your belongings have already been checked and beamed to your bunk."

"Thank you, Lieutenant. You are rigourouss in your duties. We will get along well. Please announce me to the Captain as ssoon as he is ready to receive me."

The way he spoke the last sentence, toneless, almost without inflexions and in a drone-like voice, made it appear as if he was reciting something he had memorized rather than simply thought and said.

Argyle tapped his combadge.

"Argyle to Captain Riker; Sir, your first officer is aboard and ready to meet you at your convenience."

Hearing the report Riker smiled. It would be good to see a familiar face, and good to have a conversation where both men are the only ones inside their minds. Tapping the comms panel Riker replied.

"Very good lieutenant. Show the Commander to my ready room"

"Aye Sir" Argyle responded.

Gesturing towards the door of the transporter room Argyle motioned for the Commander to follow him.

"This way, Sir."

When Schaell reached the small cubicle that served as both office and living quarters for the commanding officer, his imposing frame seemed to fill up the entire space not occupied by Riker himself. Straightening at attention so that his bald skull neared the low ceiling, he lowered his dark enormous slitted eyes to the captain.

"Commander Sschaell Schysssilysss, reporting for duty as Executive officer of the USS McKenzie. Here are my asssignment orders, Captain Josshua. W. Riker."

He placed a PADD on Riker's desk and stood again at attention.

Grabbing the PADD off the desk Riker thumbed through it for a few seconds and smiled.

"Nice to see you again."

"It is most agreeable to make your aquaintance again, Ssir. Having as a commanding officer the very being ressponsible for ssaving my life is obvioussly highly conductive of utter trusst and confidence. Hence why I postulated for this asssignement when learning of your promotion."

Tapping his head, Riker continued.

"It is also nice to know that we are actually talking to each other this time"

The Saurian nodded and his unmoving face,s perpetual reptilian smile semed like a genuine one.

"Indeed... the lasst time we were on the ssame sship, we weren't quite... oursselves, you and I."

They both remembered well being each of them bodily invaded by energy entities from another universe. That shared experience, more than the shared adventure, had somehow bonded them like only shared ordeal could between two officers.

Riker then proceeded to hand the PADD back to the large Saurian as he continued to speak.

"We are still awaiting the arrival of the rest of the crew and we should be fully manned and ready for departure by the end of the week. We will be running on a three shift rotation here and I am going to need you to oversee getting the station bills from each department."

"Acknowledged," Schaell responded in perfunctorily Starfleet manner and tone.

Riker then gestured to the small office that serves as the Captain's ready room, which was cramped tight with only three people inside.

"As you can see here, space is at a premium, so we are also going to need to keep a closer eye on inventory and supplies so that we can maximize mission efficiency without forcing the crew to live out of a handbag."

"I have been in Sstarfleet since the last days of the Consstitution classs and yet, I never served on a sship thiss ssmall before. It will be an interessting challenge as mosst sspecies consssume rather large quantities of food, water and air. I will discusss thiss with our chief of opss. I noted that Lieutenant Commander Elisssha Leône of the Phoenix is asssigned to thiss sship; with her expertise and experience, sshe will be a tremendouss assset in thiss regard."

Nodding to Lieutenant Argyle the security chief exited the room.

"This is my first command. There are going to be some growing pains, and my leadership style is not entirely orthodox. With that said, nothing matters more to me than the safety of this crew and I am a firm believer in looking to the good of the many. However, this is my first command and I'll be damned if I am going to lose anyone..."

After a brief pause Riker continued.

"However, as I said I am a firm believer in the good of the many. If you feel it is in the best interest of the crew, or the mission, do not hesitate to offer a suggestion that may result in a loss of life. I hate to think like that, and I hope it never happens, but I am far too much of a realist to not have this conversation with you as soon as possible. No lesser feelings will come from those kind of ideas, it is a burden we bear as command."

Grabbing the glass from his desk and taking a drink, Riker smiled.

"Well now that the awful boring stuff is out of the way, any questions or thoughts?"

The scaly giant blinked a few times before he answered in his toneless, hissing voice.

"Ssir, I am a Ssaurian; emotion is unknown to my kind... unlesss our main brain is disabled, a ssituation mosst unpleasant to everyone including oursselves. And my job, as I undersstand it, is to offer alternatives for your decision-making processs and then make ssure your decision is implemented as you sstate it. Be asssured, Captain, that there will be no emotional interference in these duties; I am simply incapable of it."

He paused a moment, obviously trying to come around something puzzling before he finally came up with the proper regulation phrased sentence.

"May I speak candidly, Captain?"

Captain Riker reached up to his collar and rolled it inward hiding his command pips. This was an old gesture used by members of certain armies to show that rank was not going to be part of the next conversation. He may still be captain, but for the time being Commander Schaell was now addressing Joshua Riker the man.

"Of course. These kind of first conversations only work if nothing is left on the table."

The giant reptiloid nodded, his ever smiling face belying the seriousness of his voice.

"I am utterly baffled by thiss... 'needs of the many outweight the needs of the few or the one' concept. Desspite it's ssuperficial logic, or maybe because of it, I feel it visscerally wrong. There is no 'many' if there is no 'one;' there is no value to 'many' if we do not equally value the 'one.' We Ssaurians can accesss inwardly the minds of all our direct forebears; we know and accept that each individual is a link in the long chain of life. But it is a fact that almosst every sspecies in thiss universse, even without our genetic memory, knows and accept thiss. That is why they all resissted and desspised the one sspecies that did achieve thiss needs of the many logic to perfection; the Borg."

He straightened to his full towering height in a formal stance, his long sinewy arms at his back.

"I fought the Borg, ssaw too many wonderful individuals desstroyed by them. I will not allow them final victory by sserving their outlook. Over time, even I, a Ssaurian, finally learned in Starfleet how ssuccesss, if not plain ssurvival, are besst sserved by cooperation, help and teamwork; but I also know that each one of uss is, for a very finite part of time and in a very small sspace, a part of the universe that is unique, never before seen and which will never exist again. And so, I value each and every 'one' on this sship as mysself and only in thiss do I value the 'many' that we are. Since I am to be your executive officer, I think it is important for you to undersstand thiss about me."

Riker stood straight as well, as both a sign of understanding and respect, but also to show that there could be respect in disagreement.

"I understand your point Commander, I really do. I was raised on a Maquis settlement, there was nothing more important to my father, or the people like him, than to respect each person. He used to tell me about the famous Admiral McCoy who once said that In this galaxy, there's a mathematical probability of three million Earth-type planets. And in all of the universe, three million million galaxies like this. And in all of that... and perhaps more, only one of each of us. I value the one perhaps more than you know, but I also value something else and that is viable sacrifice and the good that comes from it."

Riker paused for a moment and then continued.

"I am alive because one man stayed behind to allow people to flee, one of those people was my mother who was pregnant with me at the time. This ship, and ships all across the fleet, exist because of times when one man had to put his life aside to save many others. Understand something, I am not asking you not to value life far from it. I am asking you to be willing to value many lives if the option arises that the only way to do so is by letting someone, maybe one of us if the situation calls for it, give their life in exchange."

"I have served with officers who were unwilling to make the call when the time was right and more people died than needed to. They may disagree, but my duty is to the ship and to every life on board. If we disagree, I can respect that, but understand then that my duty is to the lives of the crew and I am going to do everything in my power to bring them all home. But I have a real enough view of the universe to know that not every mission and choice guarantees that outcome."

"I undersstand, accept and follow your judgment in thiss, Captain," Schaell assured him. "If thiss is what you mean by "the needs of the many," then we are in complete agreement."

"Excellent" Riker responded.

"The last bit of business is going to be finalizing all the shift rosters and duty stations. Within 24 hours of the last crew coming aboard I will want that information. I once worked on a ship that ran four shifts, it was a nightmare. I want a three shift rotation. Hopefully we should be ready to go soon. I can't wait to get going."

"I will ssee to it with all the department heads, Captain. With your permisssion, I will start immediately."

With that Riker nodded and sat back down at his desk. The nod was simple, he and his new first officer were going to get along just fine.