</\> USS Chimera NCC 96899-C – Deck 12, Tactical Centre </\>
"No, no, no," Mike Levison cried out to the assembled throng of
Tactical officers who filled the Weapons Control room before him. With
a groan and shake of his head, he reviewed the reaction times and
accuracy ratings of the officers who he had just had running a
simulation of manually firing the point-defence phasers and other
weapons systems. Suffice it to say, he was les that impressed with the
vast majority of them. "My Grandmother could do a better job than you
lot. McGee, Olef, Eriksson, N'Ken and Dometrus, you five will do that
again and again and again until I am satisfied that you can hit a barn
door with a plasma shotgun at more than two centimetres away, at which
point you will get to move on to the next level of testing. As for the
rest of you... not bad, but you could all stand to do much better."
Protests could be heard from the twenty or so people inside the room,
but Levison silenced them with a glare, "Quiet! You're all Starfleet
officers, not Ferengi School Children, act like them! You'll soon
learn that I may be strict and a relative stickler for the rule book,
but I will never push you so hard that you won't be able to function.
Or at least I won't after you've been doing training with the Security
Department every morning for six weeks. Coincidentally, that starts
tomorrow morning."
More discontent rang out from the men and women in front of him, this
time Levison doing nothing to stem its flow. "Why are you doing this
sir?" Levison heard quite clearly from one quarter of the room whilst
from another he heard a couple of comments that might have been
directed towards his parentage. When it died down once more, his voice
dropped to its most deadly tone, the sort that was usually reserved
for those that were about two steps from being shoved out of the
nearest airlock.
"Ensigns, crewmen, lieutenants, your attention please," the Commander
said clearly, "I suggest, that if you don't like your current posting,
you get a transfer. I shan't stop you. I will however give the most
damning reports to your potential commanders and make certain that
none of you are promoted for a very, very long time. Frankly you're
all a mess and the sloppiest department I've ever worked with. That
will change and the sooner the better."
He had their rapt attention now and more than a few faces had turned
an interesting shade of white, grey and light blue. "This department
is essential on this vessel and on this mission in particular and we
owe our crewmates and our commanders every iota of our skill and
abilities to make sure we succeed. Do you want to fail your friends?"
When no-one answered for a moment, he asked it again. "No sir," came a
quiet voice from towards the back to which Levison asked the question
again with an added "I can't hear you."
"No sir," rang out several voices this time, to which Levison just
stood, arms folded and eyebrow raised. Finally, they all got the hint
and rang out in unison, "No sir."
"Then, what are we going to do about it people? Are you going to sit
back and continue doing the same, damn sloppy job?" the Commander
demanded.
"No sir," rang out the group once again, most of them actually
managing to sound like they meant it.
"Instead, are you going to give me one-hundred and five percent and
get this Department up to that same level of readiness? Are you going
to help make sure we defend this ship to the upmost of our abilities?"
Levison asked again, waiting for the reply for a far shorter period of
time than the previous one.
"Yes sir!" came the response in a far more convincing manner.
"Very well then, folks," Levison nodded sombrely, "We have all of two
days to get ready. First stop, accuracy testing once again. Snap to
it!"
After a quick torrent of activity to shift back into their crash
seating and power up the weapons banks, the Tactical crew was back to
its simulations, shooting down incoming torpedoes, assisting with
simulated requests from the bridge for target locks and generally
getting better at their jobs. They still had a long way to go in
Levison's mind, but it was a start. After two hours of observation and
testing, Levison allowed them a ten minute break and reviewed their
overall efficiency charts.
When they reconvened, Levison nodded and said: "Not bad people, not
bad. N'Ken, you did a fantastic job in pulling your scores up and
ditto with you, Eriksson. You other three have a bit more work to do
yet, but I'm pretty confident that you'll all get better in time."
"My colleague and new assistant will be joining us tomorrow with any
luck and at that point, you'll have him to impress as well. I can
guarantee he'll be even less forgiving than I am, so you have been
warned. I expect nothing less than perfection, so imagine what he
thinks!" the Commander said gravely, before offering a smile, "But by
the time he arrives, you'll be pretty close to perfect, I'm sure.
So... let's get back to it and see what we can do this afternoon."
</\> End Log </\>
Commander Mike Levison
Chief Tactical Officer
USS Chimera NCC 96899-C
&
The Tactical Department
USS Chimera NCC 96899-C
