RP Log: Certification Training Begins

Roleplay Log
Participants: Tilar	Hauser
Location(s): Deep Space 3 -- Operations
Stardate: 137449.49
2026-02-22 15:58

Hauser says, "Hey Vi. You working hard, or hardly working?"

[Hauser's Commbadge] Tilar says, "As if any of us have time for 'hardly working' these days..."

Hauser says, "Tell me about it. Well, put your needles away and join me in ops. Time for some of your training."

[Hauser's Commbadge] Tilar sounds surprised. "Oh. Uh. Okay, let me close up these files and I'll be up there in a few minutes."

Hauser says, "Good deal. Out"

Operations <Deep Space 3>

Operations aboard the station is substantial and larger than the typical ship bridge. The central tier is down three steps from the surrounding, accessible from all four sides of the circle. Within the center of this tier is the Situation Table, where up to eight officers can coordinate all main station operational needs. Eight more stations surround this lower tier, separated by a high railing. There are workstations here for the commanding officer, security, tactical, engineering, operations, communications, and science. On the perimeter of the upper tier are eight more stations, as well as access to the turbolifts, the conference room, the transporter room, and the commander's office.

The carpet is an almond colour with a sand coloured trim, with the bulkheads, walls, and furniture in a subdued beige. The room is bathed in a warm white light from the overhead lighting panels.

Hauser is sitting on a non-console part of the situation table, very nicely situated, feet swinging, waiting as people go about their business.

It does take Tilar a few minutes to hand over the bulk of the work to the rest of the medical staff, but with the influx of new and competent officers, it's a much faster process than it used to be. The blue-uniformed Doctor arrives in operations shortly after her conversation with Hauser, stepping off the turbolift and making her way over towards the other woman. "What's up?"

Hauser drops to the floor. "Hey there, Lieutenant," she says, using your rank over your title on purpose. "I remember on that last mission of ours on the Jor'WI, you were starting to get a little on the job ops experience in. How did that go?"

There is a brief twitch in the corner of one eye when Hauser uses her rank instead of her title, but she doesn't comment on it. It's an adjustment for her, and something that has always been used as an insult this is not that, and she adapts to the shift as her mind flips to 'operations' instead of just 'medicine.' Tilar takes a breath and lifts her shoulders in a small shrug. "It was more piloting training than operations training," she says.

Hauser nods. "It's good to know a little about flying," she says. "The thing about command, and I'm gonna use the word command here a bit loosely. I don't just mean sitting in the captain's chair, but any kind of leadership role. The thing is this. We have to know a little bit about a lot. The mistake that some people make is that they try to become experts in everyone else's jobs. You don't wana do that. Now, I'll never know as much about security as Commander Worthington, or about piloting as Commander Choma, or about ops protocols as Lieutenant Castillo, or about medicine as you. But that said, Starfleet does expect a baseline competency level of knowledge about all those things, even while you're an expert in something. Me? I'm an engineer. I'll always know a heck of a lot more about matter antimatter control systems than I will about disassembling a quantum torpedo. See what I mean?"

Tilar nods her agreement to Hauser's explanation. "I understand," she says. "I don't want to be an expert at all the systems. That's just not a reasonable expectation for myself to have. I don't have any issues deferring to more qualified personnel. Which, I hope, I've demonstrated in the past with all the mess going on here." One hand lifts, gesturing about the station in general.

Hauser nods. "So, let's flip it around. Tell me something." She smiles. "What's wrong with a leader trying to be an expert in all systems or trying to do all things. What goes wrong there?"

"It's not the leader's job to DO everything." Tilar shakes her head. "If they are busy trying to be an expert in all the systems, they're not going to trust their people to do their jobs. Not to mention, they just... WON'T be an expert in all the systems. That's more of a practical angle than anything else, though."

Commander Choma arrives from Central Turbolift.

Hauser nods. "You're onto something there. So yes, you're not going to be expert in all systems, and you're circling something else. It really pisses off your crew when you, the one in charge, are trying to do their jobs for them. People want to be useful, and the quickest way to piss them off and make them feel use, less, is to try and do their stuff for them. Makes them feel unwanted, or worse, untrusted." Hauser is apparently talking to Tilar, and some kind of something is in session. "I've been on the receiving end of that," she finishes.

"So have I," Tilar points out to Hauser with a grin. "You saw it. And you tried to hear me." One hand lifts as she taps the side of her head. "I noticed. Thank you for that, by the way." She stands near Hauser, listening and offering responses as they talk. "I have a relatively good grasp on what I do and do not know. I try to pick up the easy things so I can help, like replacing light bulbs, but I have no problem letting people do their jobs. They were trained for it. Sometimes they just need encouragement or guidance."

Choma nods to his officers as he heads through Operations towards his office.

Hauser raises a hand to Choma as he passes. "Hi there, Commander. Just starting Lieutenant Tilar on her line certification journey." and she notes that he's heading for his office, so she resumes speaking to Tilar. "Replacing lightbulbs. I like it. Anyway, I heard you loud and clear that day," she says. "Alright, Lieutenant, let's have a little fun. Tell me what kinds of tasks the guys at these stations are responsible for. Don't worry about being exhaustive. Tell me what ya know." She points to: science, ops, engineering, tactical, naming each. Lowering her hand, she listens to Tilar's reply.

Tilar looks over at Choma as he arrives in operations, lifting one hand to wave to him in greeting. "Hi," she says with a smile before looking back to Hauser, listening. Then she turns in place, considering the officers and the stations in the operations deck. "Security: Maintaining the safety and security of personnel on the station. Tactical: Managing external threats and weapons arrays. Engineering: Maintaining and repairing station systems. Science: Sensors and analysis of said readings. Damage control, traffic control, and comms are all relatively self-explanatory, I think." She pauses to take a breath, then turns to look at the remaining consoles. "Operations: A bit of everything, but general status of the station and flow of work teams. And then there's that." One hand rises and she points at the situation table. "I don't really have much exposure to that. But if I were to guess, it's similar to operations it gives a clear status of things."

Choma pauses as he overhears the lesson and is reminded of something, "Jessica, if you think it's safe, we should see about getting those banks back online."

"I'll check in with Commander Worthington, sir, but I think with the computer system secure, it should be. I also want to look over the physical arrays to make sure nothing's wrong with them," Hauser replies. "Then we'll bring them back online." She nods to Tilar. "Good. You've got the basic idea. Now with this being a starbase, some of our stations look a bit different than you'd find on the bridge of the Phoenix. Security and tactical are usually one station, and the head of that department is, no surprise, the chief of security and tactical. We're a base, and so we do things differently. Hey ensign, step over here, would ya? Thanks." She was speaking to the duty ops officer. "Take the ops station, lieutenant."

Tilar gives the Ensign a small smile, nodding to the officer as she moves to take control of the console. Her fingers move over the display, logging in as she examines the console. "Stations do definitely work differently than ships. Stations are bigger, but don't move around. Ships move around, but have fewer personnel to manage."

Hauser nods. "So, you said earlier that ops does a little bit of everything. Very true. Name 2 things that you think are certainly ops territory, and two things you're pretty sure are not."

Tilar looks over the console, eyes flicking between Hauser and the display in front of her as she considers the question. "Cargo management and general transporter function...?" She squints a little bit, seeming moderately confident, but not wholly. "And things like weapons and piloting are certainly not."

Hauser nods. "Yes, I have no problem with that. Ops often runs the transporters, and ops absolutely does cargo. They also do communications, and a hoast of other things. Piloting, you're right. Luz doesn't drive, and James shoots. Right again. Now here's the funny thing about the chief of ops. You'll love this." A beat. "Your chief of ops is often, not always, but often, your 2nd officer. So think, 3rd in command of the boat or the base. So, sometimes, an officer can be appointed as chief of ops who isn't ops background. It doesn't break anything when that happens, because by the time you reach 2nd officer material, you should know enough to at least know the right questions to ask. But structurally, the chief of ops might or might not be an ops guy. Chief of tactical? Always a security and tactical guy. Ops is just a little funny. Now, tell me about communications. Let's see. What's our comms range. Can ya work that out?"

Tilar listens attentively, eyes occasionally flicking back to the console, keeping an eye on it. She is the one responsible for it for the moment, after all. "That makes sense," she says with a nod. "Ops usually knows what's going on with everything. It makes sense that they'd be second officer." Her fingers then move over the console, checking the status of their comms. "Currently 100 lightyears, or 1000 for tightbeam."

Hauser nods, checking her own readings. "That's right. Why is our comms range only one hundred lightyears? What do you think?"

"It's only currently pulling 10% of its potential power," Tilar says with a small smile. "Give it more juice, it'll go further."

Hauser grins. "Yes, and everyone from here to Romulus and beyond would hear us. What do you see on short-range sensors?"

Tilar's fingers move, the display beeping softly at the questions. "Currently the Coleman, the Serendipity, and the Nexlith," she says with a nod.

Hauser nods. "Good! Ok Lieutenant, I see that the starboard landing bay doors are open. Close them for me."

Tilar nods to Hauser, fingertips moving to pull up the information for the landing bays before pressing the appropriate buttons to send the command. "Closing," she says with a smile.

Hauser nods. "Very good. I think we'll pause it there for now. I'm gonna upload some stuff to your cue for reading. A bit of Starfleet history and some command psychology. I'm also gonna assign you to shadow some of our line officers, Luz, James Worthington, like you did on the JorWI. Ok?"

Tilar logs off from the console and steps back, nodding to the Ensign to take over. Then she turns back to Hauser, nodding to her. "Sure, that sounds good to me," she says with a smile. "Thanks, Commander. I appreciate you taking the time for this."

Hauser grins. "Any time, Vi. Any time. I'm gonna get back downstairs, myself."