Joint Duty Log | LtCmdr Tristan Neyes PhD, Lt Jasmine Garza - "A Boot-Note"

Posted on Mon Aug 25th, 2014 @ 8:55pm by Commander Tristan Neyes PhD. & 2nd Lieutenant Jasmine Garza

1,919 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: In the Dark
Location: Marine's Barracks

=/\= Outside the Marine Barracks, USS Vindicator =/\=

Like many aspects of being on board the USS Vindicator, Tristan merrily advanced through the memories of Landon's past. Not all of them were positive, as he seemed to recall while approaching the Marine Barracks. Yet he held firm to an affirming attitude toward his new post. Wading into the space of the soldiers, Tristan could almost see his previous host's distaste for the men and women inside. Maybe not so much the people, no... something less tangible. Like a forgotten thought that clung to the forefront of his mind. Specifically, he could neither remember anything or anyone of note which could inspire such irritation. Knowing it was there was enough to draw Tristan in, however, and as counselor it was his duty to suss out those feelings. He peered around the corridors, his eyes catching on a few marines as they went about their business.

The entrance to the Marine barracks had two heavily armed Marine guards. Seeing as they didn't get many visitors they looked at the teal colored Trill commander. "Identification please?" One of the Marines asked.

"Lieutenant Commander Tristan Neyes," He looked at the two women, "I'll be the new counselor on board, and I wanted to check in with your CO."

The other Marine checked his PaDD that housed the ships personnel database. "Can you please place your hand on the PaDD." The Marine said knowing you could never be too careful.

"Certainly," Neyes complied willingly. "How is the Lieutenant today, marines? I trust she's not making guard duty too much of a drag." Tristan teased.

The Marines just continued to scan the area and keep an eye on the counselor. "The el-tee is good." Was pretty much all the commander was gonna get from them. After the scan was finished the PaDD came back verifying who he said he was. "Alright, commander this way."

Entering the stalwart quarters of the marines with one of the marine escorts, Tristan moved toward the offices of the senior personnel. Namely the office of Lt. Garza, which he had hoped to catch on a good day. Purely on a scouting mission, Tristan carried a PaDD and himself with relative ease. His uniform was neatly pressed, not to impress, but rather to kindle a sense of confidence with those he spoke with. A tidy smile on his face, he waited for the woman to summon Lt. Garza.

Jasmine was out of her office after agreeing to see the commander. Nodding to the escort to head back to his post she did looked at the commander feeling like she should know this person. "How can I help you, commander?"

An odd sensation overcame Tristan as a wash of images appeared upon seeing Garza's face. He'd disciplined her on numerous occasion, or at least threatened to. Well, not Tristan, but Landon had done so while Captain.

"Actually I would love to help you. You'll forgive me, Lieutenant, I'm not familiar with the Marine way of doing things. I'm Lieutenant Commander Tristan Neyes. I'll be the Chief Counselor on board. If you have a moment I'd like to get a chance to talk. Are you free now?" Tristan asked with thoughtful nod. It was a kind of not-ask asking he found very helpful with lower ranked individuals. In most scenarios a Counselor held an unspoken privilege when it came to 'little chats', Tristan wasn't afraid to flex those muscles every once and a while.

Smoothly and without hesitation Jasmine put on a smile, "of course, anything to help keep my men stable." Jasmine said holding that smile knowing full well the power that this or any counselor had when it came to grounding her men, 'cause he believed they weren't grounded enough.

"Yes, whatever works for you, Lieutenant. Shall we?" Neyes gestured toward the office, "I promise not to take too much of your time." They entered her office and Tristan took a seat in front of her desk. Looking around he saw nothing he didn't expect for a woman living a Marine's life.. The office was spartan, clean, efficient. Very Marine-esque.

"Anything to drink?" Jasmine said walking over to the replicator and ordering a tall glass of Kava juice.

Savoring the first pleasantry offered his way, Tristan nodded, "I would love some water, thank you." Tristan accepted the water from the marine Lieutenant and took a quick sip. He noted her movement as she sat behind her desk. Sitting opposite her, he wasted no time in getting to the heart of the conversation.

"I realize soldiers are independent. If you'd allow me though, I'd like to ask you about your marines. How are they recovering from the mission?" He took another sip with curious expression, looking at her and welcoming her to answer. He was careful to avoid including the Lieutenant in the lumping of her men and women. She was their CO, and he knew that meant something important. Keeping her separate allowed him to communicate with her about them all, without probing at her directly. It wasn't his style to sneak around communication, but given the common Marine's particularly evasive conversation skills, he felt it necessary.

Jasmine took a second considering her words carefully knowing that a innocent word could spell doom for the unit. "Tired, exhausted and frustrated." Jasmine said trying to find the right words to explain why they felt that, "my predecessor did not play well with others and we're suffering from that as we speak. All the steps we take to try and mend those wrongs seem to be met with hostility and a brick wall. No one has said this but we, myself included, have sensed the loss of Neyes and the almost of loss of Ivanova was our fault. The Marines' fault."

Neyes nodded. Something inside him wasn't at all surprised to hear the Marine's weren't quite the family favorite on the Vindicator. Like a rebellious teen looking to find themselves, soldiers and military personnel usually separated themselves from the more 'standard' officers. The two saw almost everything differently, and that made treating them separately that much more complicated. Tristan never looked away from the Lieutenant, keeping a level eye on her as he listened.

"Is that a sense you're getting from your officers? Or from the rest of the ship; something from the non-military personnel?" Tristan asked.

Jasmine looked at the counselor, feeling that the 'rest of the ship' was too broad of a net, and as for non-military personnel she hasn't had a chance to work with any. "Truthfully the command team, myself and my unit have had some good encounters with the crew, but I've been feeling a cold shoulder from command ever since this last mission."

"It isn't easy for Marines on a starship, I've been told. The disparate identities of your units and the crew sometimes creates a rift, and you can often be left wanting when it comes to communication." Tristan nodded, "Since the Commander is recently promoted to First Officer, you're talking about Captain Ivanova?" Neyes asked.

"Yes." Jasmine said, "truthfully I don't really know the new XO but my intelligence liaison does. She actually knows her quite well from my understanding."

Neyes paused, thinking a moment about the relationships. Having someone who knew the XO well would be helpful if he needed to speak with her in the future. Speaking with the Captain felt like such an impossible imperative, he had lost sight of what other avenues could be followed. His fingers carefully tapped the edge of the crystalline water glass.

"Who is your intelligence liaison?" He could have guessed, but decided to ask instead.

"First lieutenant Teá Black, apparently they served together on the USS Griffin." Jasmine said sensing this meeting was more of a set-up to this point.

Tristan frowned, he hadn't had a chance to meet with any of the intelligence team. Frankly, he wasn't looking forward to it, and not for the usual reasons. 'Spooks' as much of Starfleet callously called them, were notoriously difficult to speak with on a therapeutic level. They were cagey, guarded, suspicious, and arrogant. Nothing less than a fleet admiral could match their behavioral trip-ups. He'd need to dig up the file on Teá.

"Like Tea. Black Tea? Only backward?" He mused.

Jasmine just shrugged, "guess so but I suggest not bringing that up with her, she seems to be a no non-sense gal."

Noted, he thought to himself. "I'm sorry, I'm not used to very many names from other worlds. I haven't spent much time away from Trill lately. It's all new to me.

"I would like you to keep an eye on your marines, Lieutenant. I won't be in the barracks, for obvious reasons, so I need to know you're keeping an eye out for troubling behavior. If anyone becomes listless or distant, unresponsive or problematic... I'd like you to notify me immediately. Events like those that occurred on Notura can leave a mark that won't manifest for a few weeks. Thoughts can settle and after some time, begin to affect people in ways they wouldn't have anticipated. If you see anything, please give me a call."

"Actually I don't think she actually lived on Trill or at least that's what I can gather from her very complicated jacket." Jasmine said shrugging her shoulders. "Of course." Jasmine said again sensing that someone was actually trying to talk and make sure they were doing okay. "I assuming you know Marines do truly make the worst counseling patients, right?" Jasmine said with a smirk.

Tristan laughed, "I prefer to think of soldier-types as a challange of my skill."

Neyes nodded, "I will schedule a meeting with the Captain to discuss communication. I'd like you to attend. One of my goals here on the ship will be to facilitate communication between departments and command. Yours is no exception. Let me ask her and I'll get back to you with a time. Sound ok?"

"That would be much appreciated commander." Jasmine said looking at the counselor again sensing something very very familiar about the man, "have we ever ran into each other?"

Tristan shook his head. "I haven't left private work for the past eight years." It wasn't exactly a lie, he was working privately. Working under the cover of protective custody for that long would not have afforded either of them the opportunity to meet. However, the conversation change rattled the part of him which had become accustomed to looking over his shoulder.

"I am Landon's brother, that's probably what you're seeing. I'm actually a little surprised you didn't know. Everyone on this ship seems to be glaringly aware of it." An edge crept into his thoughts, and he felt like the conversation was drifting too closely to being about him rather than the Marines. Time to go already, it would seem.

Neyes took one last drink from his glass and stood up to leave. He didn't want to appear too rushed, so he nodded and thanked the Lieutenant for her time. "We can always talk if you need it. Just call and I'll drop in whenever you're free." A marine came in as if on queue, indicating an escort was ready out to the common area of the ship. Neyes graciously took the exit and left the marines to continue... whatever is was they did on a starship.

=/\= END LOG =/\=

Lt Commander Tristan Neyes
Chief Counselor
USS VINDICATOR

2nd Lt. Jasmine Garza
Marine C.O.
USS VINDICATOR

 

RSS Feed