New Strat Ops Chief Joins the Crew

Posted on Mon Aug 17th, 2026 @ 5:38am by Captain Calypso Skyie & Commander Alexander Espersen & Lieutenant Edward Barnes
Edited on on Sun Aug 23rd, 2026 @ 10:11am

2,870 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Chimera and Deep Space 16
Location: USS Chimera, Deep Space 16
Timeline: Tbd...

After his shuttle landed, Edward collected his bags and made his way straight to docking bay three, where the USS Chimera, his new ship, had just finished docking.

As he moved against the personnel that were disembarking from the ship, he reported in to the officer of the watch and, after his orders were confirmed, he was directed up to the bridge, where the computer had indicated both the Captain and First Officer were currently located.

Once he reached the bridge, Edward gave his bags to a yeoman, who said he would take them to the quarters that the new Strategic Operations Chief had been assigned. Edward thanked the young man, then straightened his uniform jacket. Taking a breath, he reached up and pressed the door chime to the ready room. He then waited to be allowed entry.

"Come on in!" The definitively feminine voice of the Captain sounded as the door opened for Edward, "Well, Alex, when does your ship leave for Earth? Kalliope," She smirked as she spoke her girlfriend's full first name, "And I are going to be leaving in just about another day or so for Gault, along with Katie and Jadizon. Tessa and Henry are headed to Earth too, but I think they're already gone, they were off the ship as quickly as they could for whatever that ship was."

“My transport for Earth leaves tomorrow,” the XO answered. “There was too much to do on docking; I couldn’t catch that earlier one. Not that I need to share a wall with those two.” He nodded at the newcomer. “Lieutenant.”

Calypso looked over at the newcomer and waved him over, "Come on over here, don't be a stranger, we're just killing time." She didn't even bother to stand, her 'uniform' of the day being sweatshirt and sweatpants, the Marine crest in the middle of her chest and the word 'Marines' down one leg vertically, "Grab a seat, Lieutenant, need something to drink?"

Edward stepped into the private office and stood at attention. "Lieutenat Edward Barnes, reporting for duty as you new Strategic Operations Chief, Ma'am." He produced a small datarod and handed it over to the Captain. "My transfer orders snd personnel file, Ma'am." He then resumed the position of attention, as he waited for Calypso to respond.

Cally gave Alex a look and rolled her eyes slightly, but took the safari’s anyways, then settled her best ‘officers look’ on her face, “Stand easy, now… Sit!” She commanded, pointing at a chair, “And when you’re good and ready to do so, take the stick out of your ass.” She softened that last one with a slight smile, handing the rod over to Alex without so much as glancing at it, “We don’t go for all that ‘stand at attention’ bullshit here, I may be a Marine, well, was one, whatever, but I prefer my people to be well… People.”

“I’m the one that values discipline a bit more,” Alex said. “But even then, only when it’s called for. Or when you’re being out of line.” He transferred the data rod to his left hand and offered his right for a handshake. “Commander Alexander Espersen, XO.”

Edward did as instructed, mostly. While he sat, he did not fully relax. He could still hear the J.A.G. officer's warning in his thoughts, that if he screwed up again, he would either out of the service in disgrace...or shipped off to a penal colony. He turned towards the Executive Officer and shook his hand, glad to see that the man had a firm grip. Edward did his best not to make his seem like a steel grip. "An honor to meet you, Sir."

After they released the handshake, Edward turned his gaze back to Calypso. "And thank you for accepting my assignment request, Ma'am. I know that, with my...legal issues, not many senior officers would want to give me a chance."

Cally gave Alex a glance, "Have I gotten that old that I now have to be called 'ma'am'?" She made a face and sighed deeply, "Look, I've been in your shoes, just about, my own assignment to this ship was meant to drum me out of Starfleet, but I'm still here. Most of the crew here were sent here instead of being kicked out, or just because they were nuisances. Some of them were, some of them are pains in my ass, but in a good way." She gave a slight smile, "But for the sake of everything that's holy, I need you to re-lax! If I gave you a blowjob, would that help?"

For a beat, Edward was shocked by the Captain's words. Then, something clicked inside, and he realized that he was in the right place. Recovering quickly, he went with the joke and replied with a shrug, "Wouldn't hurt, Captain."

Her empathic sense caught his ‘realization’ that what she’d offered was a joke and she glanced over at Alex again with a smirk, before leaning forward, “You know, I’m being serious. If giving you a B-J will settle you down and take the edge off, I’m quite willing to do that so that you’ll show me who you really are. We’re not the flagship of the fleet after all, everyone expects the worst from us already.”

Alex returned the Captain’s smirk and stepped back, curious how this would unfold. “She means it, Mr. Barnes. And she’s damn good. I’d take the deal, if it’ll help you unwind in front of us.” At this point he was equally prepared to be asked to leave, left alone, or be invited to join. None of those options would faze him at this point.

Edward paused a beat, then replied. "With respect, Ma'am, I'm not a man who has casual sex. I only go there, when I'm in a committed relationship. Though, I am honored by your offer."

“Fair enough,” Cally chuckled, “I’ll try to let the doctor know before you go see her, but there’s a fair chance she’ll still do much the same. All right, Alex, siddown yourself, it’s a bit awkward with you towering over us.” She grinned at her XO, “So, Edward, aside from people who think they know everything telling you that your career is effectively over and this is your last chance, tell me why you were shipped out to us, in your own words, not theirs, because I’m willing to bet the situation isn’t what that file says it was. They rarely are.”

Alex took back his seat and listened to what the new Strat Ops chief would answer. His response to her offer had been respectful and respectable. He was sincerely curious about what he would say next.

Edward took a breath, then let it out through his nostrils in a quick blast. He then looked the Captain in the eye and spoke evenly. "While I was on the Potempkin, we came across a new world, where the people, who were a mix of reptilian and avianoid, had just recently achieved warp technology. It was a first contact mission, so everyone was excited."

He let out another breath, then continued. "The diplomatic chief on the Potempkin was a Lieutenant Commander, who had spent nearly all of his career to date, sitting behind a desk, back at headquarters. This was his first starship assignment, and first first contact experience." He paused to add, "He is also the son of a senior Admiral in Starfleet Security." He took another breath, then continued.

"Anyway, as I was in the combined Security/Tactical department, I was assigned to the away team. We went down, started the whole welcome speech, and sat down to share a meal with the regional magistrate. That's when things went sideways. The commander made an error in how he started eating the meal, which upset the magistrate. Then, he ended up insulting the man even more. It became clear that we needed to get out of there immediately. I got us out of there, and we started back towards the beam in point." Edward shook his head slightly.

"The dumbass decided, halfway there, to stop and start second guessing the whole situation. He was losing it, straight up. When I tried to focus him, he pulled his phaser on me and fired. Thankfully, my reaction time was faster than his, so I was able to sidestep the shot, and I laid him out."

He took another breath, then continued. "Once he was out, I threw him over my shoulder and hauled ass. Unfortunately, the delay allowed the natives to catch up to us and before we were beamed out, I was shot about a dozen times." His jaw tightened at the memory. "I woke up in the brig, and was told that the prick had blamed me for everything." He frowned as he spoke, as if the words tasted sour on his tongue. "The rest, is in the file."

Cally gave Alex a look as he was finishing up with his story, then nodded slowly, “So you were brigged for doing your job, then.” She summarized the entire story in a handful of words, “And a spoiled brat with a powerful father wanted to keep the splatter off his precious baby and scapegoated you. I wish I could say that would surprise me, but I’ve had my fair share of experience with Admirals and their grudges.”

She leaned forward in her chair, “I mentioned earlier that I was a Marine, right? That was my first sin, according to a certain Admiral that ‘owns’ Personnel, Towers is his name. My other sin was that I survived the destruction of Perseus, where I was the XO, and his son was a Lieutenant in Security.” She hadn’t told that to Alex before, “Vladimir Towers was a decent officer, decent enough at his job, but he died right along with Captain Taylor, my CO and about half the crew of an Akira-class ship. The Admiral disliked me for being a Marine, hated me for living when his son didn’t. Marjie Taylor had just recommended me for my own command before we went out hunting that pirate, so he couldn’t cashier me. Instead he gave me a broken ship and the worst possible crew he could scrape from the bottom of the barrel and other ships.” She gave a slight smile, “Then he sent me to wild space so I could get all of us killed and the rest is history.”

For a few seconds, Edward silently stared into Calypso's eyes, as if he was measuring her up. Then he nodded slightly, as he replied. "Well then, sounds like I'm on the right ship afterall." A slight grin curled the left side of his mouth upwards. "So, question is, where do we go from here?"

“We go for a fresh start,” Alex answered. “Strategic Operations. We’ve not had an officer responsible for that before. So it’s a new start for us too. And, hopefully, you’ll find your place here among the outcasts and thrive despite what Towers and the admiral that sent you off would prefer to believe.”

“But first, we go on vacation.” Calypso slightly brightly, “Now that we’re here at Deep Space 16, the ship is going in for a full overhaul and we’re expecting to be laid up for three months, in fact in about an hour, there’s some high-falutin’ Commander who is coming to take over officially, temporarily taking command while we’re in the dock. I know Alex here is heading to Earth, as are a few others, I’m going with my girlfriend to meet her parents on Gault, and most of the others are off to wherever they want to go.” She gave a shrug, “What do you plan on doing for three months?”

Edward considered the question for a couple beats, then replied. "Well, since I came her from leave, I guess I'll stay with the old girl while she's laid up. Get to know her and get a jump on collecting any and all intel that I can get my hands on for where we are going. "Do we have a region in particular, or is it more second star to the right, straight on till next millennium?"

“It’s an unexplored sector of space,” Alex replied. “Not much is known about it yet. I’ll have our stellar cartographer make sure what maps we do have are handy for you before she leaves.”

"Thank you, Ma'am," Edward nodded. "I'll do some digging, collect everything I can, and give you as complete a report as possible when you get back."

“Also, make sure to review all of our log and tactical entries for the last year and a half.” Calypso added to that, “I’ll make sure you have access to all of my relevant private entries as well before I go, because I want some fresh eyes to do a potential threat analysis on the Dashian Hegemony. There’s a good chance that we came back here just to venture galactic north again and because I’ve been exposed to them for longer, I want to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Do your independent analysis before looking at mine, if you could. Also a general overview of what else we found along with any other indications of mercenaries or pirates going off the grid in the general area wouldn’t be amiss, we ran into something like that up there and I want to see if we got the bulk of them.”

Edward thought about his instructions, then nodded. "I'll get started immediately, Captain. I'll settle in later." Now that he had a mission, he was eager to get to work, pull his weight on board.

“No, you’re going to get settled into your quarters first.” Calypso stated firmly, “If I have to come to your quarters and SIT on you to make sure you get unpacked and settled into? I will. I know how hard it can be to have to move ships, and there’s going to be plenty of time for you to go through everything, I promise.”

“You have the time, Lieutenant Barnes,” Alex assured him. “Get settled in. Explore what the ship has to offer. Meet people. Get a drink.”

Edward was quiet for a couple beats, then nodded, "Aye, Ma'am. I'll start first thing in the morning then." He hoped that would be accepted, however, he had a feeling that the Captain and Executive Officer were going to insist that he relax. What they didnt know about him yet was, as someone who grew up working a cattle ranch, he was conditioned to work hard first, then, after all the work was finished, play just as hard. "I suppose I could check the holodeck for any good rodeo programs to relax with."

“And with the Captain gone, Holodeck One might actually be free for you to use,” Alex said, teasing his Captain and friend. “But I think I did see one or two in the catalogue.”

"Excellent!" Edward replied as he grinned over at the Executive Officer. He then looked back at The Captain. "Then, unless you two have other orders for me, Ma'am...?"

“Very well, Lieutenant, dismissed.” Cally grinned widely back, “And welcome aboard.”

Edward stood, then nodded to both of his senior officers, before turning and striding out of tgr ready room. Perhaps he had found the right place to start over afterall.

After Barnes left, Alex stood and moved to the more comfortable couch and smiled at Cally. “He’ll do alright. Won’t be long until he realizes he’s among peers.”

"That'll be good," Her eyes lingered on the door, then shook her head, "Of course, with so many of us leaving for so long, he may just fall back into his old habits. Wonder what did it, though."

“Your offer helped,” Alex observed. “Just having made it broke his rigidity just enough. Shame he didn’t take it though. That would’ve been fun…”

"It would have been, but you know something, Alex?" Calypso shifted in her seat to more fully face him, "None of the newer arrivals have taken me up on things, not since before Orgrann. One of the first ones was my new yeoman, but since then I haven't gotten anyone new to the ship into bed, or on my desk or floor or ANYthing! I'm losing my touch, Alex. Have my boobs gotten all saggy? Am I too old now?"

“I promise,” he said, standing up and uncoupling his belt, “that you are still the sexiest Captain in Starfleet. And if you’re game, bend over the desk, and I’ll show you how sexy you are by doing what I was hoping to do to you while you were helping relieve Mr. Barnes.”

That brought Calypso to her feet, as well as her pants, showing that she wasn't wearing anything underneath, "I was hoping you'd say just that!"

~OFF~

 

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