POTM Winners January 2021 - Nira Said and Catherine Goodspeed

[Tess tLhoell]

Dear Shadow Fleet community,

please help me congratulate our winners for January's POTM, Nira Said and Catherine Goodspeed!

Truly awesome posts!

I will attach both posts here for you to enjoy once more.

Nira Said

[Lieutenant JG Nira Said | Bridge | Deck One | USS Discovery NCC-78393-B]

Nira's anger had abated in her face, but they had fueled her reflexes. Her fingers danced on the console with the weapons. Before she knew it, twenty of the attackers were taken out. She was sure Discovery accounted for most of them, thanks to her. What initially surprised her was how the shields had held up against the Wanderers' fire power, barely dropping five percent down. Had all these ships been Jem'Hadar attack ships, Nira was sure the crews of all the ships involved would've been corpses walking. Then again, the Discovery had been undergoing a refit; perhaps the shields would hold even against a Dominion attack. Not to mention...

They definitely have to be pirates, thought Nira to herself. Seems to apply even to pirates of the Gamma Quadrant, too.

Nira had noticed how the Challenger had bore down on the Wanderers. Only Captain Galloway could pull off something like that. Then again, so did Don.

Nira furrowed her brow when the Captain said "full 360 degree targeting view." Then she realized that she was utilizing that to the fullest. The Athena certainly didn't have that, and Nira wondered if she was using it without realizing it. Then again, radial phaser dispersal was helping with that, and Nira was exceptionally clever, often figuring things out. Not to mention she practiced attack patterns whenever she could on the holodecks.

Nira looked up when a message from the Challenger mentioned one of the ships harassing Discovery was the leader. Captain Tekin gave his order to find and disable the ship to Nira just as Torra gave a message. Nira worked as quickly as she could. Nira noticed one Wanderer ship in particular seemed intent on sticking with the Discovery like an incredibly parched mosquito. Even when most of the other ships were withdrawing, this one seemed intent to keep on harassing the Discovery as much as possible. That had to be the lead ship.

Smiling grimly in a "you're mine" kind of expression, Nira targeted the engines. She had heard the Captain correct himself - she heard him almost say "destroy" - but she understood the feeling. She also wanted to take the leader alive. She worked as quickly as possible; she heard something from the Captain that they were heading to warp speed momentarily. That meant she had to stop the leader and get him or her to the brig.

Targeting, Nira hit the engines and, for good measure, took out the shields. The phasers pummeled at the lead ship; she didn't want to use torpedoes, for they would only destroy them. It wasn't hard, anyhow. The lead ship was eventually just a drifting antique. Remembering that the transporter chiefs would likely be helping with evacuations somewhere else in the system, Nira pulled up the transporters at her console had had everybody beamed to the brig.

"Captain, we have the leader," said Nira with satisfaction. And just in time before the ship was about to warp away.

Catherine Goodspeed

Katra Station - Deck 2 - Officer's Mess

The evening was all in all going very pleasantly.

The food was very pleasant.

The synth wine was very pleasant.

The visiting crews seemed very pleasant.

Even the conversation was very pleasant.

Everything was so very....... pleasant.

Cat had given up toying with the last mange tout on her plate as was taking a sip of very pleasant Chateau Pape de Neuf synth red wine when one of the Captains... Was it Fritz.. (why didn't StarFleet have name badges for goodness sakes) aimed the open ended question of 'what makes a good officer' to her directly.

Cat carefully placed her glass on the table and smiled as it seemed all eyes were now resting on her. She was especially aware of the gaze fixed on her by a Vulcan.

So the game was afoot.

"Well sir, I've not been employed by the Federation for very long so I couldn't really say plus I'm only an engineer, I just fix things"

Cat picked up her glass and took another sip of the wine and toyed with her glass for a few moments before continuing.

"BUT from what I've seen from years dealing with ship repairs is that the ships that made it  limping and crawling back to my shipyard were the ones where the senior staff had several things in common"

She took another sip and swallowed slowly "You see the crew of the average commercial vessel wouldn't have had hours upon hours of simulation experience or diplomas under their belts or years sitting behind a desk learning to heart 'proper procedures' or worrying about directives."

Cat stared through the crystal of the glass before moving her eyes from face to face  "Everyone starts at the bottom and works their way up, even the Captains. Most  vessels are family owned or bought, begged, borrowed or bartered and the majority are barely just holding it together when a Captain gets hold of them.  They don't have access to waves upon waves of shiny free new ships or access to fresh crew.  Crew are picked up as they go along unless they know them personally and get their training on the job".

"But being a good Officer is nothing unless you have a good crew to back you up.  A good Officer will still suffocate the same as an ordinary crewmate if the air system fails and there is no good CoE to fix it, a good Officer will still scream and burn if the pilot loses control and collides with another space object, a good Officer will still bleed to death without a good medic.

She took another sup of wine.

"So from a layman's perspective of what makes a good officer? An abundance of experience, humility, care for their crew and a very large dose of common sense. Oh and a crew to match".

"But that's just an opinion from an ordinary ex ship builder Sir. The Federation may have a different view, as may everyone here".

Cat finally put down her empty wine glass and gave everyone her most pleasant of smiles.

[Don Damien Addams]

Congrats on the winners

[John Saxon]

Bravo, both!

[Rayek trLhoell]

Congratulations to the both of you!  Very well deserved!