The Coursework Beginneth

Posted on Tue Apr 21st, 2020 @ 9:27pm by Lieutenant Alexis Aenera

Mission: Around The World in 8 Days
Location: Science Lab 1

Alexis hadn't done more than acknowledge them as they entered the science lab she'd set aside for this... 'project'. Chief Konig had come through for her, perhaps better than he'd imagined and Lexi was surprised when she'd heard that a solid nine personnel were going to be coming in to volunteer to help her and her people out on an ad hoc basis. Of course, that wasn't to say that all of them would be worth their weight in feathers, even, but there were things she could do to find THAT out.

Finally, she'd given that vaguish smile to the last one and they'd settled in at one of the tables with another of their fellows and nodded before slipping out of her seat and stepping around her desk and resting up against it, "Good afternoon ladies and gents." She had a professional smile on her face, "I'm Lieutenant Alexis Aenera, the Chief of Science on board the Astraea, and each of you has shown an interest and desire to learn more about science. For that, I thank you. However, I'm not going to kid you, I'm not going to treat you with kid gloves, but I'm also not going to be an asshole about it either." Her eyes speared the only officer in the room, "Ensign Balcery, I remember you from my Basic Astrophyics lab back in Ninety-One. Aren't you an Engineer?"

The ensign in gold nodded, "Yes, ma'am, but I'm trying to become a warp specialist and well, I um..." He trailed off.

"Need refreshers in certain areas?" Alexis asked, eyebrow raised. He nodded back at her, "I would tend to agree, if your grades didn't bump up a bit more. But, if you didn't, you wouldn't even be here to begin with." She looked at another of the nine people in the room, "PO?"

"Andrea McEntire, ma'am." A red-uniformed female introduced herself, "Flight Control. Just wanting to expand my horizons, ma'am."

"Then expand them we shall." Lexi turned back and grabbed a short stack of PADDs from her desk and began to pass them out, ending up with a couple extra in her hands, "This is a combo syllabus and information questionnaire, with what I'm offering to teach and asking what you all are looking for." She activated one of them, dropping the others off onto her desk as she glanced at it, "Since duty schedules vary, I'm planning on setting several times a week that should enable each of you to make it at least once per week."

"Will there be homework? Absolutely. You can't expect to come in and listen to a lecture and expect to absorb the information, doing it helps immensely. We'll have labs, we'll have lectures, we'll have guests if we need them. I would encourage you to attend as many as possible, learn about things that you might not otherwise find interesting. If there are subjects no one desires, I can leave them off the courses, double up on those that many people like." A sly grin crossed her face, "Don't discount chemistry. That once can be rather quite exciting when you get down to it."

Alexis waved at the walls surrounding them, "These aren't a jail, you can choose to stop whenever you want, I'm not going to force anyone to be here if they don't want. I'm also available most of the time to help with questions and problems and really just about anything." She tapped the PADD with one manicured finger, "Today will be brief, but I'm going to stay here if anyone has any questions for me, or requests, or anything of that sort."

Over the next thirty minutes, she went over the contents of the PADDs subject by subject, giving a brief explanation of what each consisted of, then finally put it down, knowing that the tally of the interests of the individuals would be downloaded to her 'Master' PADD sitting on her desk so she could plan out the next lessons. "Thank you all again for coming, dismissed."

OFF:
Lieutenant Alexis Aenera
Chief Science Officer
USS Astraea