[CO's Office]
Shani wasn't used to her commanding officer so lax at his desk and idly sipping on alcohol. That, and the report she read earlier about the starbase attack, gave her a tiny spark of dread.
"From your 'zombie' attack," she said. Not her words, but one of the officers she shared a turbolift with on the way up. "The report was brief. Are the shuttles damaged, then?"
[CO's Office]"A lot is. I'd imagine so." Idly, like a little boy, Stafford pedaled his feet around in his chair to swing it in a circle and grabbed a PADD. While he did have a childlike spark in him, he was also being practical: it would take him a long time to stand with his hip.
"Yes, significant damage." The captain tossed the Andorian woman the PADD underhanded. It was a jocular, friendly toss, like two friends throwing a football to one another. "None of them had time to turn off the shuttlebay's mini-tractor beams, so those are damaged. Hull and nacelle damage on most shuttles due to the stresses of the sudden escape. And I am sure a great deal of internal damage from cramming in so many poor kids in there."
The captain frowned, and ran a hand over his thin, grey-flecked goatee and mustache. Stafford looked like a skeleton that had been dipped in wax. He was thin, hawk faced. His chin and nose were as sharp as blades, his lips thin. His eyes were deep set into the fleshless face. If one looked hard enough they could see the shape of a skull beginning to emerge from his face, and the shaved head only exacerbated this effect. He looked worn out, or worse.
"Anyway, Avi should have the story. He's a good Department Head, a funny guy. Ask him about the old burrito on the ski trip story, the first time I heard that I laughed so hard I didn't know whether to shit myself or go deaf. I imagine you two will..." Stafford looked at the ramrod straight woman, who looked like a phaser being stood upright, she was so stiff and military proper. She didn't look like the laughing type. "...well, you two will be in the same department together."