Post 298: Getting to know you

Posted on Mon Aug 25th, 2025 @ 6:00pm by Lieutenant Commander Michael McMahon & Lieutenant Felix Fernley

2,431 words; about a 12 minute read

The steady hum of consoles and quiet murmur of personnel filled the Operations Center of Starbase Obsidian, a symphony of coordination and control. Lieutenant Commander Mike McMahon, clad in his crisp yellow-trimmed uniform, strode across the main level with practiced ease. A PADD in one hand, a half-finished mug of coffee in the other.

He'd been reviewing power allocation for Decks 17 through 22, silently wondering how the hydroponics bay kept tripping secondary relays. He had requested that his new Asst Ops Chief meet him so he could get to know her better.

Felix was in the middle of finishing up her morning checklist though her head was in one or two other places as well, it was something she'd had to get used to over the years - wearing the Starfleet officer hat, the admirals wife hat and the mother hat and to some extent wearing all of them at the same time. Stepping out of the turbolift she headed straight to the Operations station and checked some readings for a moment before looking over to her department head "You asked to see me Commander?" she asked.

Mike looked up from his PADD, taking a sip of the lukewarm coffee and eyeing Felix as she approached. There was a subtle weight in her expression, the kind that came from juggling far more than duty rosters. He recognized it—he’d seen it in his own mirror more than once. Except hers had more hats.

“I did,” Mike said, offering a polite nod and gesturing toward the open space beside his station. “I figured if we’re going to be working together in a war zone wrapped in bureaucracy with a dash of Delta Quadrant weirdness… we should at least be on a first-name basis.”

He offered his hand. “Mike McMahon. Welcome to Ops.”

His smile was professional, but not cold. “You’ve got a hell of a resume, and I hear your multitasking skills are the stuff of legend. I’ll be honest, it’s a little intimidating.”

There was a brief pause before he added more quietly, with a dry edge of humor, “Though I’ll probably be grateful for that the next time everything decides to break at once—which, on this station, is usually a Tuesday.”

He gestured at the screen nearest them. “I was just wondering how the hydroponics bay manages to trip secondary relays like it's trying to grow tomatoes with a warp core. But before I throw you into the deep end, thought I’d check in—how are you settling in? And more importantly… have you had any coffee yet that doesn’t taste like it was filtered through a Jefferies tube?”

Felix chuckled ever so slightly "My husband isn't the biggest fan of replicated food and drink either." she said "We've got a whole section of the Renee Picard's hydroponics bay turned into a coffee farm, I'll put you on the access list if you want." she giggled a little "I'm settling in ok, been a while since I've lived and worked on a starbase, but best place for me, my husband and our three kids. Though I will say I've never been on a starbase quite this big before."

Mike's eyebrows lifted slightly at the mention of a hydroponic coffee farm. “You’re kidding. Real coffee?” he said, a grin forming despite himself. “That might be the single greatest bribe I’ve ever been offered before noon.”

He set the PADD down and leaned back against the console, letting the moment breathe.

“I’m glad you said that though,” he added, more sincerely. “About this being the best place for your family. Not a lot of officers in our shoes get to say that out loud—let alone believe it. Between black alerts, Kazon scouts, and whatever V’Lar’s classified project of the week is, it’s easy to forget we’re still human beings… or close enough.”

He let his eyes wander briefly across the Ops Center, where officers moved with choreographed precision. “It is a big station. Some days it feels like it’s running on caffeine, duct tape, and the lingering willpower of Admiral Bradley alone.” A beat. “And maybe Lirian’s stern therapist stare.”

Looking back to her, he tilted his head slightly, curious. “How are the kids handling the move? This place can be a lot—especially when the lights flicker for the third time in a day and a red alert kicks in during homework hour.”

He wasn’t prying—just offering something most officers rarely got: space to be real, without judgment or rank in the way.

"Oh trust me if there's ever an alarm during homework time coming from inside the base there's a fair chance it's one of their experiments causing it." Felix said "Not that they're mischief makers they're just far too clever for their own good and have the imaginations and skill to back it up." she looked at Mike "Other than that three adventurous children with a huge starbase to explore... what could possibly go wrong?"

Mike let out a short laugh, the kind that came from someone who knew exactly what could go wrong.

“Well, at least we know who to call when Engineering starts whispering about 'unidentified plasma fluctuations in the school wing,’” he said with a smirk. “Remind me to route their science fair projects through Ops before they accidentally invent time travel. Again.”

He sipped his coffee—grimaced—then set it down like it had betrayed him. “But honestly… that kind of curiosity? That’s gold. Starfleet’s built on it. And I’d rather deal with a few fire suppression alarms than see kids lose that spark.”

There was a short pause before he added, more quietly, “Sounds like they take after their mother.”

He cleared his throat and stood a little straighter, eyes scanning a data stream flickering across the nearby console. “Anyway, if they ever need a guided tour of the less hazardous parts of the base—or want to help me figure out why Hydroponics thinks it’s a warp engine—just say the word.”

Then, with a wry grin: “And if they ever manage to break into V’Lar’s encrypted schematics vault… don’t tell me. I want plausible deniability.”

Felix giggled "I'm fairly certain they'd jump at the chance to help solve puzzles." she said "They were starting to prep for the Academy's preliminary stuff and then well we all know what happened." she glanced at the panel in front of her "And I'll make sure you never find out if they manage anything like getting into certain vaults."

Mike chuckled, shaking his head with amused resignation. “You know, that’s the kind of reassurance that somehow makes me more nervous.”

He leaned slightly against the edge of the console, folding his arms. “Academy prep, huh? They must be impressive—juggling that kind of work while adapting to a station like this isn’t easy for seasoned officers, let alone kids. Sounds like Starfleet’s going to be in very capable hands a few years from now… assuming we don’t lose them to Section 31 first,” he added with a wink.

Then his tone softened, just a touch. “It’s good they’ve got parents who see them, not just shape them. That goes further than any prep course ever will.”

A pause, and then he glanced sideways at her. “If they ever need extra practice simulations, I’ve got a few puzzle-heavy Ops drills that don’t technically require a security clearance. Let me know—I can flag some for you to share.”

He pushed off the console and reached for his PADD again. “And in the meantime… let’s figure out why Hydroponics is trying to reroute power like it’s planning a mutiny.”

"Well." Felix said thinking for a moment "That's where we keep our crop of Prototaxites stellaviatori so we can fuel the Angel's spore drive and we know those attract tardigrades who themselves travel via the Mycelial network. That could have something to do with it."

Mike blinked at her, the way someone does when they’re not sure if they just heard the beginning of a science briefing or the plot of a slightly unhinged holonovel.

“…Right. Giant interstellar mushrooms, space tardigrades, and a spore drive.” He set his coffee down slowly, as if freeing both hands might somehow help him process that sentence. “You realize, Felix, that Ops normally deals with things like faulty relays and cargo scheduling. Not… this.”

He tapped his PADD a couple of times, scrolling for the relevant deck schematics. “So basically, you’re telling me Hydroponics is doubling as a fuel depot for the Angel, a vacation resort for tardigrades, and a potential doorway into a network that ignores space-time?”

His lips twitched into a reluctant grin. “And here I thought the worst we’d get from them was a rogue tomato plant in the ventilation system.”

He straightened, shaking his head. “Alright. Let’s run a systems diagnostic, isolate the relay fluctuations, and make sure our… fungal friends aren’t about to open a shortcut to somewhere we really don’t want to visit. Because if the Captain asks why a colony of tardigrades is parked in our power grid, I’d like to at least have a flowchart ready.”

"I think the word normal left the base when the first Synthulan ship turned up." Felix said turning her attention back to the console "Perhaps with a little observation we can work out a correlation of Tardigrade meal times and see if that matches our hydroponics fluctuations."

Mike let out a low chuckle, shaking his head as he keyed in a few observation parameters. “Fair point. ‘Normal’ is probably sitting in a bar somewhere light-years away, laughing at us.”

He brought up the station’s environmental monitors and linked them to Hydroponics’ sensor suite. “Alright—tardigrade feeding schedules, power draw patterns, and any signs of them trying to redecorate the place. If we can prove the spikes line up with meal times, maybe we can adjust the grid so it doesn’t look like an all-you-can-eat buffet to them.”

With a final tap, the system began logging the data. Mike glanced over at her, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “You know, Felix… most officers would have written this off as a weird glitch. You turned it into an experiment. I like that.”

He picked up his long-forgotten coffee, thought better of it, and set it right back down. “Let’s keep an eye on the readings for a few days. And if it turns out the tardigrades are the culprits, we’ll solve it.”

A beat. “And if they’re not… well, I’m sure this station will find us something even stranger to deal with by next Tuesday.”

"Hard to imagine anything stranger." Felix said "Unless a T'Kon, a Q and a Metron all suddenly drop onto the promenade which I know sounds like the beginning of a joke of some kind." she allowed the slightest of giggles to leave her mouth "Commander I'm an engineer from a family of engineers, I've been around jeffries tubes and power relays since I could hold a hydro spanner if there's one thing I like it's a good experiment, though as my father would no doubt remind me 'remember your surroundings' because in my pre academy days I was a little bit ambitious in the experiments."

Mike arched an eyebrow, a laugh escaping before he could stop it. “You know, if a T’Kon, a Q, and a Metron did walk onto the promenade, I’d bet half my paycheck the Q would be the punchline.”

He shifted his stance, giving her a more appraising look now. “An engineer through and through, then. Figures. That explains why you didn’t flinch when I started talking about power grids and tomatoes trying to masquerade as warp cores.”

There was a flicker of something warmer in his tone as he added, “Ambition’s not a bad thing, Felix. Gets us into trouble sometimes, sure—but it’s also how the best breakthroughs happen. Your father wasn’t wrong, though. Remembering your surroundings on this station is probably a full-time job on its own.”

He tapped the PADD in his hand, closing out the hydroponics diagnostic with a final swipe. “Tell you what—next time we’ve got a few spare hours, I’ll bring the coffee, you bring the experiments, and we’ll see which one explodes first. My money’s on the coffee.”

With that, he gave her a small nod of respect. “Glad to have you in Ops, Felix. This station’s unpredictable enough—we could use someone who knows how to turn chaos into an experiment worth running.”

Felix giggled again, she was getting the distinct impression that she was going to enjoy working on this base, "My money would be on the coffee as well, probably following either re-materialisation from a transporter or some sort of experimental propulsion system but maybe keep some sort of life sciences angle as the dark horse bet there." she had to smile, the beauty of her somewhat misspent youth of trying what would seem as crazy ideas had honed her engineering and science skills very well. "Glad to be here commander."

Mike gave a slow, approving nod, the corner of his mouth quirking into a grin.

“Sounds like you’ve already got the betting pool covered,” he said, amusement threading his tone. “Coffee versus transporters versus experimental propulsion, with life sciences as the wildcard. That’s about as perfect a summary of this station as I’ve ever heard.”

He straightened up, tucking the PADD under his arm. “Alright then—welcome aboard, Felix. We’ll keep the chaos contained, turn the glitches into experiments, and if all else fails…” he lifted his abandoned mug with a wry glance, “we’ll blame the coffee.”

With that, he gestured toward the Ops displays around them, the steady hum of the starbase pressing in like a heartbeat. “Let’s get to it. Something tells me this place isn’t going to wait long before throwing the next mystery at us.”

And with a final nod, Mike turned back to the console, already diving into the flow of work—knowing he had an officer beside him who could handle whatever came next.

--
Lt Commander Mike McMahon
Chief Operations Officer

Lieutenant Felix Fernley
Asst Chief Operations Officer
Starbase Obsidian

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