Star Trek Voyager: VX

Xeno

Stardate 48910.2

"Come in, Lieutenant."

Captain Janeway beckoned Zariel into the briefing room, and continued, when Zariel looked around and noted all the people sitting around the conference table, "You're not late."

Zariel nodded, and took the seat that the Captain indicated, next to Commander Tuvok and across from three ensigns whose faces she had seen, but whose names she did not recall. Zariel settled into her seat and looked toward the Captain at the head of the table, and the younger officers did as well; apparently they had no more idea than she did what this meeting was about. Only Tuvok didn't seem confused, tapping idly on the screen of a PADD. The Captain leaned back a bit in her chair.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are the only Federation ship in the Delta quadrant currently. Or ever, as far as we know. We're going to be seeing a lot of new things, agreed?"

They all nodded, this was obvious so far.

"Well, each of you specializes in new things; in analyzing, categorizing and documenting things never before encountered. Ensign T'Lin, new planets, yes?"

The young Vulcan woman directly across from Zariel nodded.

"Ensign Hall, new plants." The red-haired young man next to the Captain nodded as well.

"Ensign Wildman, new life forms." The blond woman nodded with a little smile. Zariel got the feeling that a smile was her default expression.

"And Lieutenant Sindile, new forms of communication." Zariel acknowledged this with a nod as well. She could not divine from the Captain's emotional emanations where this was going, only that she was enthusiastic about her bright new idea.

"Well, Tuvok and I thought it might be useful to have a whole new department for this purpose. The four of you could mesh your specialties, and then coordinate with your original departments. I know a physical space we could retrofit for you, some sensor bandwidth we could assign to you on a permanent basis, plenty of computer availability. You'd be part of the sciences command structure, reporting directly to the Science Officer, and your CO would be part of the bridge rotation."

She looked around at the four of them. "What do you think?"

Zariel didn't need them to answer out loud, she could already tell: they all loved it.

Ensign Wildman said, "I think it's great, Captain, we can build more detailed analyses by working from one another's data."

Ensign T'Lin said, "I can also envision a predictive element to our work, Captain. Similarities between species we have already encountered and those we might encounter in the future."

Redheaded young Ensign Hall grinned. "I'm excited to be a part of it, Captain."

Zariel hadn't said anything, so the Captain turned to her. "Lieutenant, would you be willing to command this new department? Willing to test to qualify for bridge duty?"

Zariel was a bit taken aback by this, although it probably should have been obvious that she was the ranking officer. She took a deep breath, and a quick measure of their emotional reaction to her prospective leadership, then answered, "I'd be honored, Captain, not just willing."

She shot the ensigns a quick, cautious smile, and the two humans gave her one back. T'Lin lifted her chin the tiniest fraction.

Captain Janeway continued, "We couldn't really decide how to refer to this new department, however." Her eyebrow waggled a bit as she glanced at Tuvok. "Delta Sciences? Multi-sci department?"

Zariel sat up straight in her chair, as an idea hit her. She looked around at the three ensigns, and could almost pick the same answer out of their feelings as well. "Well, Captain, all of our specialties have the same prefix." She spread her hands to indicate her new crew. "We're the Xeno department." She glanced over at them for approval; the humans were grinning theirs, and the young Vulcan gave her a nod as well. The pleased look on the Captain's face cemented the decision.