Stardate: 70219:1614
Title: Friendly Advice
Author: Lt. Yonatan Levi
Scene: Deck 4.
Time: After "Solving the Puzzle"


The ship was being torn apart from top to bottom. The crew scanned absolutely everything in a fashion that may have been called ‘pedantic’. Coordinating the departments Yoni could confirm that the majority of the ship had been cleared of the planted devices.

If there was anything Yoni felt guilty about, it was the fact that he had to wake up the shift that was on its sleep cycle; he knew that he would be a bit upset if he had been woken to tear the ship apart looking for tiny devices. But orders are orders, and it brought the crew together - for the first time the Gamma shift crew actually talked to the Alpha shift crew.

As Yoni was walking down the corridor, he noticed the tall figure of the Chief Engineer, Lt. Vilmer, approaching him. Yoni smiled and offered his hand to shake. He barely met Kal outside of staff meetings.

"I hope you will remember to return the ship to its previous condition, Lieutenant," Kal opened up, a bit irritated from all the mess that was around him - access panels wide open and a wide variety of components and other devices were spread in columns on the floor.

"Want me also to scrub the floor for you too, Lieutenant?" Yoni asked jokingly.

"No, but if you're already searching the ship, if you find my hydro-spanner... I lost it last week somewhere in this area. And try to make it quick – I need my men back." Kal smiled.

"No problem." Yoni said and the two resumed their walked, with Yoni leading slowly toward the elevator.

"What's on your mind?" The elder El-Aurian asked as if he had read Yoni's thoughts.

"I was just wondering: Galt got what he wanted – he got the bomb, he got rid of Merldock – so what does he now want from us? Why tap the whole ship? What is he trying to gain by that?" Now it was Yoni's turn to sound irritated.

"Maybe the bomb wasn't enough for him." Kal paused, putting forward a likely assumption. "This is a powerful ship. It carries valuable technology that can't be found in this universe. That’s worth a lot, and Galt knows this."

"So you assume he will be back?"

"He’ll be back, try to hack Relly again, and cause more damage. I can even bet he has installed one or two more backdoors in the system."

"Clever move," Yoni sighed.

Kal chuckled. "Don't worry, I'm already ahead of him – I have a team analyzing every aspect of the computer system – searching for any other surprises."

"From lending a hand to a ship in distress we become the prey ourselves," Yoni spoke his feelings loud. "This is one bad trip. The sooner we get out of here the better."

"You don't like it here?" Kal enquired.

"No more than being yelled at in the Captain's office or searching an entire ship for tapping devices. This entire jump was one big screw up for me, one trouble after another."

"Don't do stupid things; don't get yelled at." Kal remarked on Yoni's failed away mission.

"I just tried to do the right thing..." Yoni didn't have much to say about this incident and couldn't really defend himself.

Kal stopped suddenly and held Yoni's shoulder.

"Yoni, you have to understand something: if you want to keep sitting in on the senior staff's briefing, if you want to keep your office, then you will have to learn to become a team player and stop acting as a freelancer."

"I should imagine the Captain is disappointed," Kal continued, "and not because of the away mission, but because you fail to show the behavior which is expected from an officer. You have been avoiding bridge duties for the past couple of days, having McGee and other members of your department switch shifts with you."

"I was merely conducting an investigation, trying to give something for security to work with." Yoni was now actually defending his choices.

"Tell me, is your name Adams?"

"No, why?"

"Is McGee the Chief of Operations onboard."

"No, why?" Yoni’s patience was starting to wear thin.

"Because McGee is doing your job right now, and you're doing Adams'."

"But it's the Chief of Operations duty to..." Yoni tried his best defence.

"Don't tell me what the Chief of Operations' duties are." Kal cut him off; "I've been in Starfleet for a long time. You are the Chief of Operations onboard; your duty is to make sure that this ship is well operated, well coordinated and all hands and departments get what they need, be it sensor time or power allocation, to carry on their jobs without disturbing the Captain. You are here to make sure that his ship is ready to go to warp and all hands are accounted for. Your duty is to make the call 'all decks report ready, sir'. Security isn't your problem, and neither are files clusters."

Yoni kept silent for a moment, his walls shattered, his ego bumped and hurt.

"The Captain told you to find those devices, but not because he trusts you - it's because you were dealing with matters that weren't your concern, but now you have stepped forward and are trying to gain points and his favor. The one who should be doing this is McGee – he should be leading this project, running around the ship with a tricorder. You should be there, on the bridge, monitoring and leading his activity as well as power levels and ship readiness for jump if required."

A moment of silence lasted between the two and it took Yoni a while until he dared to break it.

"So what now?" Yoni showed no resistance anymore.

"Now finish what you started - you complete scanning the ship and find those devices." Kal sighed. "After that, you take the night off, go to your quarters and think what you want to do next. If you’re still not convinced your place is on the bridge then there are always alternatives, especially within your department." Kal finished his words.

Nodding, Yoni said, " I think I need to think about where I stand. One step at time though. Thank you, Sir. "

Kal smiled. "No problem. And find me that Hydro-Spanner if you can!"


==========================
Lt. Yonatan Levi
Acting Chief of Operations Officer
USS Relentless
NCC-11966
==========================