Work Text:
HOLT: Tell me about your crew, Commander Jeffords.
Terry activates the holo-display and uses air gestures to swipe through each personnel file as he speaks. First up are a Caitian and Tellarite. Their uniform colors are non-standard.
TERRY: S’kully and Hich’kak. They handle sickbay and engineering.
HOLT: Who handles which?
TERRY: They’ve been onboard the Brooklyn so long, no one remembers, and their original transfer orders have gone mysteriously missing. All we know is that somehow they both end up in either Sickbay or Engineering whenever we call down to them.
Holt raises his eyebrows. Terry replies with a look of shared bafflement – “I don’t get it either”
TERRY: Never send them on away missions.
HOLT: Noted.
TERRY: Now the good ones. [swipes to next file] Rosa Diaz, Chief of Security: tough, smart, hard to read, and scary as hell. She’s Betazoid, but she says, and I quote, ‘Other people’s minds are so repulsive, I close off my telepathy to save myself from going insane.”
Terry swipes, a Bolian appears on-screen
TERRY: Boyl, Operations Manager. He’s a grinder. Will never serve on the Enterprise, but he works harder than anyone else. Just don’t ask him about food. Or hair.
HOLT: Touchy subject? [Bolians are bald]
TERRY: No sir, he loves talking about hair as much as he loves talking about food. But trust me, sir, you don’t want to hear him talk about either.
Holt makes the smallest face. Hardly an auspicious start to his first command. Terry swipes, and a human woman appears on-screen
TERRY: Amy Santiago, Science Officer. Fifth generation Starfleet officer and the youngest of seven children. She thinks she has a lot to prove, but she’s absolutely brilliant. She and Peralta keep a tally of who has “saved the day” the most times – Santiago’s science versus Peralta’s flying.
HOLT: Unorthodox, Commander.
TERRY: [a little self-conscious] Yes sir… but they’ve both been putting in extra hours practicing in mission simulations, getting faster, more creative… they’re both very competitive, sir.
HOLT: [approvingly] Sounds like good leadership, Terry. Tell me about Peralta.
Terry swipes
TERRY: Jake Peralta is the best pilot I know. He loves saving people from danger and solving puzzles. The only puzzle he hasn’t solved… is how to grow up.
HOLT: [impressed] That was very well put.
TERRY: I’ve talked a lot about Jake in my mandatory teletherapy sessions.
Holt swipes through a few more images of Peralta displaying varying levels of professionalism
HOLT: You know my history, Commander. You know how important this is to me. This crew is doing fine. But I want it to be the best in the URAD. And I need your help.
TERRY: Absolutely sir. [enthusiastically shakes Holt’s hand] Where do we start?
Holt points at the holoimage of Peralta, gripping the manual controls of the starship with one hand while pumping the other fist victoriously in the air
HOLT: We start with him.