Chapter Text
Shall I just be
A lonely stranger on the shore...
“Number One, in my ready room!” the captain’s voice barked from Riker’s comlink. Will decided it was best not to ask for details. When he arrived in the captain’s office he saw Picard staring hard out the viewport, tense from head to foot.
“Sir?”
Picard whirled on him, the embodiment of outraged authority. “I just received a subspace communiqué from Starfleet Command. They have decided that in order to best implement the new starship administration certification, whose first class has just completed the academy, that the flagship of the Federation should set the example by establishing the first such post as a pilot programme.”
“You mean they’ve ordered you,” he began but Picard cut him off.
“They’re sending me a secretary as a bridge level officer! Bloody hell!” he exploded, not noticing Riker’s eyes widen in surprise at the outburst. “How long have I held the rank of captain in Starfleet, how many years have I commanded starships, and you and I have been quite capable of running things on the Enterprise as they should be run thank you very much. How many missions have we come through alive and whole and without triggering interstellar catastrophe without the assistance of an, an, ‘administrative executive officer’! A secretary with the rank of lieutenant! Thrust upon this ship, dropped in from above,” he was so completely beside himself that Will had to stifle a smile.
“With respect, sir, the admin program at the Academy is said to be quite rigorous. Basic proficiency in areas of interstellar science, Federation and Starfleet history, engineering, and weapons are required in addition to personnel, starship ops, and administrative management.” Will knew this, of course, because Data’s friend Leo O’Reilly had been a member of the first graduating class.
“That’s not the point, Will.” Picard ran a hand over his head and sat heavily in his chair. “I’m a Starfleet captain. I issue orders, I make decisions, I delegate to my senior officers. I do not…” the fury fell away and was replaced by the honest admission, “I do not ‘share’ well. I have things organized a certain way and it has worked for quite some time with few fatalities. Now Starfleet tells me I need a,”
“Not a secretary, sir.”
“Fine, an administrative exec, to help ‘keep things running smoothly’.”
”But sir, you’ve said yourself lately you’d sell your soul to be freed from some of the ops and protocol issues, crew assignments, diplomatic events coordination, you’ve said with all the new peacetime developments in Starfleet and Federation activities you’d give anything just to be captain of the Enterprise again.”
“I am the captain of the Enterprise!” Picard roared.
Will finally sat down in the chair opposite Picard’s and leaned forward with a sympathetic expression. “Permission to speak freely, captain.”
“Oh, please.”
“Captain, it sounds to me like it’s a done deal. You can either beat your head against the formidable bulkhead of Starfleet, or you can find a way to make it work. You've always been wise at picking your battles with them, and this doesn't sound to me like it's worthy of tying your career up in knots. And to be honest I wouldn’t mind being relieved of the personnel issues and shipboard minutiae you have to delegate to me. Many of the bureaucratic elements that we find so disruptive of the work we trained for, this new exec can take them away and leave us to the research and exploration, the project proposals we never seem to have enough time for. And you could take time off for leave now and then.”
“And leave a bureaucratic functionary to run my ship? I think not.” Picard punctuated his icy words with an icier glare.
“Sir, to be fair...”
“I suggest you do not raise the subject of fairness right now, Commander.”
“Yes sir. Will there be anything else?” Apparently he’d been summoned so Picard could vent to a trusted colleague.
“Yes. Crew quarters assignment will be needed for this new lieutenant.” He glanced at his desktop viewscreen and squinted at the name. “Leora O’Reilly… wonderful, they’re sending me a woman to tidy up the place.” Even as he spoke the words the captain realized how unlike him they were. He'd never been prey to such primitive stereotypes, but frustration was getting the better of him.
“O’Reilly, sir?” There could only have been one "O'Reilly" in that graduating class, he was sure.
“Yes, Will. Good lord, you don’t know her ‘well’, do you?” He was not unaware of his first officer’s reputation with the ladies. But an Academy cadet? Even for Riker that was a reach.
“No sir, in fact we haven’t met. But if you remember, sir, Data recently took a few days’ leave to attend a friend’s graduation at Starfleet Academy…”
“Leora O’Reilly?”
”Yes, sir.” To head off another tirade, Riker hastily added, “Graduated number three in her class of fifteen. No mean feat for a woman from the 21st century.”
Picard strained to remember. Yes, he recalled Data having a great deal to say about someone he’d met while at the First Contact Diplomacy seminar last year. This got worse and worse… bad enough to be forced to post a fresh graduate – an officer, no less – who had a pre-existing personal relationship with another senior officer, but what kinds of conflicts would arise when said senior officer was an android? “You mean to tell me that Starfleet has assigned me someone who is personally involved with my second officer, someone whom I have never met, and that I am supposed to believe that this someone deposited three hundred years into her future graduated third in her class after only eighteen months?” Now he ran both hands over his head, and down over his face. And resisted the urge to drop his head forward on the desk with a loud thud.
“Accelerated, sir. And apparently an administrative specialist in her own time.”
“Not on a starship she wasn’t!”
“No sir, I suppose not. But Data tutored her in the 24th century technology, that made a big difference. He says she caught onto the principles very quickly. And don’t worry sir, she and Data are close friends but I’m sure that won’t be an issue.”
Picard grunted. “It’s not Mr. Data I’m worried about.” He sighed, rolled his eyes, and suddenly focused on another pointed question. “Tell me, exactly how did this Leora O'Reilly even get approval to enroll at the Academy?”
“Captain Justin Raymond of the Avalon, sir. Remember their difficulty with the magnetic anomaly… they seem to have picked up Lieutenant O’Reilly on the way. Captain Raymond wrote her recommendation to the Academy.”
Picard raised an eyebrow. “Raymond’s a good man. What could he have been thinking?”
“Well according to Data it was either that or drop her at a Starbase for re-education. She managed to persuade Captain Raymond that the academy would be the best option.”
“For whom?”
“For everyone, apparently. She was concerned about being useful here, about finding employment that would contribute something. Sir, they would have washed her out if she didn't perform.”
“Well I suppose that’s to be commended. She talked Justin Raymond into a recommendation…a persuasive 'administrative exec' to help things run smoothly… on my ship… wonderful.”
“Sir you know that Starfleet doesn’t graduate politically.” He didn’t bother to hide his smile. “They save politics for later.”
Picard smiled ironically in acknowledgment. “Well said. Sometimes I think I’ve been at this job too long, Number One.”
“Captain, the list of ‘firsts’ the Enterprise as a ship, and you as its captain, have presided over is standard course material at Starfleet. Maybe you can look at this as another breakthrough for the record.”
“You’ll forgive me if I’m not dazzled by that silver lining. Well.” Personal outbursts concluded, Picard straightened in his chair and adjusted his uniform. “See to the crew quarter assignments, and I suppose she’ll need some workspace too. And she’ll need ship’s orientation.”
“I think Data can handle that sir.”
”Of course. And see that Counselor Troi schedules an appointment with her. I don’t want any post-time jump baggage to trip over. Dismissed, Commander. And Number One...”
”Yes sir?”
"I don't suppose you know why I couldn't be assigned someone who was first in her class? Or even second?"
"Perhaps they chose to remain at the Academy for further studies."
"How nice for them," Picard observed tartly."That will be all... dismissed."
On the way back to his post, Will paused at Data’s bridge station. “She’s in,” he whispered with a wink and added more seriously, “and for quite a ride, too. Too bad she doesn’t have your titanium hide.”
Data approximated a smile and suggested, “Perhaps she will not need it.”
Will shot a look back at the door he’d just come through and shuddered. “From your mouth to the gods’ ears, Data.”