Snippet #2014088

Alice glanced at Doctor Mackenzie, nodded her greeting.
"Lieutenant Commander Chen," she answered, for the benefit of all those who had arrived post-introductions. Absentmindedly she flicked through the documents that Jon had sent to her, but she did not have time to read them in-depth now. She was in charge of this massive crowd of officers and specialized personnel. She had already looked into each of their records - any further research could be done in her quarters, once the crew was settled.

For now she scanned each of their faces, matching it to one of the files on her personal computer. There was one young man who caught her attention immediately. She knew why, but she was not about to comment on it. A young man who had known only R&D deployment, whose intelligence would more than make up for his lack of experience. She pivoted on her heels, boots snapping against the tile, and approached him, pushing his worrying aside. She could not afford to pay attention to her subordinates' fear. She was not ship's counselor. She was the sub-commander.

"James Grey," she addressed him directly, her tone cold and her eyes hard. The military standard. The only hint that she was nervous... but none of these people knew who she was, and they could not recognize that her formality was her shield against a new situation. "Engineering department, correct?"