voice;

[2leftfeet]

This is Shepard, formerly Commander of the SSV Normandy. On the topic of signing up to do work, we've got huge unexplored sectors of this ship and that should be remedied. The ship changes at the jump [--or hell, mid-month--] but if we don't try to map it, we can't know if there's any kind of pattern to the changes. [And somewhere out there, there has to be a secondary control central for the ship seeing as no one was on the bridge when they took it.] As far as I see it: the more intel we can get, the better. And I don't know about the rest of you but I'm sick of either running blind or just waiting for something to happen.

I also realize I'm talking about dangerous work. I'm not here to tell anyone what to do, but if you're looking to help and want to volunteer then I'm all for building small scouting teams with mandatory check ins, written reports and posted communication lines. [With the unspoken message being: look, you're only cannon fodder if you don't write about it first.] I'm planning to go off the last known schematic we have of the ship. I've attached it to this message in case you haven't seen it as well as well as a short survey for anyone interested in volunteering. I'm looking to build at least five groups of three to four with a contact for each running and recording communications from a secure location.

Experience with field-ops is a bonus, but not a requirement. Weapons training is mandatory for anyone on a scouting team. If you don't have it, get it. If you don't know where to go, talk to Gunnery. For anyone looking to help with comms, technical skill is a bonus. Additionally if anyone out there has workable ideas about how to boost the network signal to deal with the ship's dead zones, I'll personally buy you a drink.

I'd appreciate cooperation with Security and Ops, but I won't argue with anyone who doesn't feel like backing this. Again: the is strictly on a volunteer basis only.

[As promised, attached to this message is a partial map of the ship and a short text document since everyone on the TQ loves surveys:]

Name:
Crew Number:
Previous Occupation:
Applicable Skills:

Comments

[dogbane]

That's right. Ain't indestructible. My abilities function concurrently, but armor, knives and pistols don't exactly regenerate on a cellular level, so it's less relevant f' me, probably, than anybody I'm in contact wif. But I've always come out of it unharmed. [His brow knits fractionally. Relaxes again. He can guess at what she's thinking.]

I was also going to ask if this could stay in confidence. So this is me doing 'at, right now.

[2leftfeet]

[Which earns a somewhat impatient, but affirmative nod of the head. All these people with their secrets are a goddamn logistical nightmare - and she wouldn't want to be a team leader out in the halls trying to wrangle a bunch of people with unknown mystery abilities, but she can't exactly refuse either.]

I won't tell anyone without your approval. [But--] If it were me I'd share it with the people in your team when we go into the ship.

[dogbane]

[That's practical for those of us who want to survive, and William's prerogative of secrecy was to serve that goal, not to impede it.] Awright. Better'n that, I'll let them know once our assignment's up, [he tells her.]

Any idea when you'll know if I'm granted field status? [He knows better than to phrase it as a demand, and that's only half military culture. Survival comes first-- perhaps even before the tactical objective in this case, he knows it's for his own good, etcetera etcetera, but there's a restlessness seeded in his head. She's seen it before: the stupid kids growing stir-crazy in the barracks, not knowing that's easier by far than the reeking dead, the roar of a thresher maw. William doesn't exactly look like the type, but anybody would go stir-crazy, in the Tranquility.]

[2leftfeet]

[If she's being honest with herself, stir-crazy might play some part of why she's running this at all. It's one thing to have a theory and another to act on it when doing so means running blind and headlong into the open mouth of something ready to eat you, but she's also not content to sit around with her thumb up her ass until someone comes along to tell her otherwise.

So yeah, his gentle needling isn't exactly a foreign concept.]

That'll depend on what the final roster looks like. Give me a few days to get my ducks in a row.

[dogbane]

Awright, perfect. [Whatever passes for perfect on this ship. He grins, shows teeth, a clean white row with a few crooked individuals. He hands his hands down even at his sides, and he bows from the waist with a sort of deference that's familiar but different from the culture of her home.

He doesn't move. Won't realize, for at least one or two longer, more awkward moments, that he's waiting to be dismissed.]

[2leftfeet]

[It's a long pause. Once she realizes he's waiting on her, Shepard half clears her throat - throws him a salute out of propriety or habit.]

Dismissed, cadet.

[Jesus, she hasn't had the reason to say those words in long enough that they feel downright alien.]

[dogbane]

[The airman smiles. Fleetingly. Not enough it would have got him in trouble, back at the camp, but it's something.] 'Ave a good evening, ma'am.

[With that, William heads out of the holodeck.]