<USS Avalon> "The Lessons We Learn - Part 3 - Leadership"

The Lessons We Learn - Part 3 
Leadership
By Senior Lieutenant Elissabeth Marksbury and Junior Lieutenant James Monroe
 

Marksbury checked in with Ketchum about the mission and their ETA.  Too soon.  
It wasn't enough time to finish her training like she wanted - not at all.  
Only three days into it.  Three days of non-stop work, and nights of sitting by 
Skyler's bedside, hoping that the woman would reach out for her since she had 
the answers now.  However, nothing had happened and it was starting to wear on 
Lissi.  The physical and mental exhaustion were catching up with her and she 
felt as if she needed a second opinion about her choices just to make sure she 
wasn't as cloudy as she was starting to feel.
 
"Marksbury to Monroe, please report to my office."  She knew the teams were on 
break right now and it'd give them a chance to talk. 

 
He sighed, tapping on his combadge, "I'm on my way." He was tired. Too tired, 
and it was to the team's benefit that they didn't have to go about their duties 
while training was in progress. James didn't feel like talking to Liss right 
now, either. He wanted to be simply left alone. Making his way to the office, 
he tapped the chime. 
 
"Come in," she announced and waited with a tiny bit of dread.  She knew the 
morale of the group was down.  They were tired. They were sore.  And they hated 
her.  She knew that even though James understood what she was doing, that he 
was angry too.  
 
"You wanted to see me," James stated simply as he stood there opposite of her 
desk. His joints were sore, more than he was used to. Then again, Elissabeth 
had pushed the entire team more than the physical regiment they were used to. 
 
She looked up at him with compassion in her eyes.  He was so tired.  They all 
were.  "We have a mission sooner than I expected."  Realising once again that 
she just dove right in to the conversation, she said, "I'm sorry.  Have a seat. 
 I need your opinion on things."  
 
"Sure," he took the seat, "what can I help you with?" 
 
She handed him a PADD.  "We're going to skip this part for now and push a 
little harder to get to the end.  I want to know who you think I should choose 
to continue to train and possibly take on this mission.  In your opinion, who 
are the best?  I have a list, but I wanted to make sure my judgement hasn't 
been clouded in some way."  Then looking at him, smiling shyly, she added, "And 
I know that you're a good judge of character."  
 
James gave a tired smile as he ran through the list of possible people. Harak 
and Fenner had made an impression on him, but he wasn't sure if both of them 
were ready. Considering he had never been much for team work, it was hard to 
judge them by character and not by performance. Everyone did well in 
performance, but he didn't know if any of them could cooperate in a team. "I 
would say Lieutenant Matthews and both Ensign Harak and Fenner." 
 
"What is your impression of Jameson?" 
 
"She's good, but I don't know her well enough to judge her. Her performance is 
examplery. Yet I won't know how she would respond in a potentially hostile 
situation. I know Harak can handle it, he's in tactical after all, and I know 
Fenner based on his background." James shrugged, "Made some discreet inquiries 
of the other Intel officers on this ship. But one thing is for sure, she has 
her focus, I won't dismiss her so easily." 
 
"I'm not.  I think she's good.  If she can keep her mouth shut and take orders, 
that is.  That's my only concern.  And... this next one is gonna be a shocker, 
I think.  Forester.  The yeoman.  He has this... unbelievable drive and 
compassion - did you get that?  When I put him on the outside that morning... 
well, it sorta endeared him to everyone.  In a way, he holds a group together.  
What do you think?  Am I crazy?"
 
"No, you're not. But I don't find him as your 'elite.' He's more of your work 
in progress. Rapid progress. Fenner is more qualified. As for Jameson, in a 
hostile situation, I notice she can take orders well. But make no mistake, she 
still is a 'medical officer,' she won't shoot unless necessary, and I do think 
she can take orders. She tends to question only when safe." 
 
She paused, taking his words into consideration.  "I think you're wrong about 
Jameson.  I think she'll do what has to be done.  Fenner, yes.  Matthews, yes. 
Harak, yes."  She paused another moment, considering.  "Jameson, yes.  You.  
Sergova, Whitt, and... Forester.  I'm going to dismiss everyone else for 
training at a later date.  I know I'm taking a chance with the guy, but I have 
something on this mission planned for him - if he can make it through the rest 
of the training. Same with Sergova.  No one else has shown such improvement.  
Those two have been fast learners and they're eager.  Everyone else I've chosen 
has either gone through Intel's training or have had field experience."  
 
"Alright, he's sorta raw still. So don't push him hard. He and the other one," 
he rubbed his eyes with his fingers, trying to recollect the name," I forgot 
her name. Both of them have had the hardest times out of that group. Don't push 
them too far if we're going into a dangerous situation. I think the woman would 
handle it better than Forester could." 
 
"Well, we'll see in the training.  I'm gonna push them hard, James. We're 
running out of time."  
 
"You push them harder and harder. One of them, any of them, will hit their 
breaking point. And then what are you going to do?" James looked at her and 
shook his head, "You said we have a mission coming up soon. Push, but don't 
make it to the point where they will not cooperate with you anymore. As it is, 
it's strained enough that I've heard some talk of them just transferring to a 
different department away from you." 
 
"Then they aren't the ones that has what it takes.  You know what this entails. 
 The ones who make it will be the best and I will lighten up.  You know it.  
Don't make this harder on me than it already is."  
 
"Harder on you," James smirked and shook his head, "I'm not saying don't push, 
but I'm also saying don't push unnecessarily. They will always need the 
training. They will always need more lessons, nothing can be crammed in one 
week, or two weeks. Nothing. You push them that hard, Liss, you're gonna end up 
with insurbodination, and they won't care. My cell leader was hard on us. Very 
hard. This is only slightly harder. But he didn't have people hate him in the 
works of training. You have to work with that if you don't show some sort of... 
emotion from here on out." James looked away, knowing his own anger was getting 
the better part of him, "But it's your team. Do what's in your best judgement." 
 
"And it wasn't meant to be this way, but sometimes we have to adapt.  I'll back 
off when they're ready enough for me to back off.  That's why I'm only pushing 
this handful through the last bit of training.  I think they can take it...  
And emotion?  What sort of emotion do you expect me to show?  Someone has to be 
the one driving them forward."  She ran her hand  over her eyes, matching his 
gesture of moments before.  "I know what I'm doing.  I've done this just a 
little longer than you have, you know."  
 
"Whatever. At this point, I frankly don't care." He looked at her, "You see, 
even I don't care. I already went through it. And if they didn't and they don't 
want to, I'm not going to say 'no stop, don't leave'... And yeah, emotion," he 
gritted his teeth, "the one that makes you cry, or laugh. You know? A pat on 
the back for one of your trainees or telling them they did good. Not just, 
'Dismissed. Be here sharp at..' blah blah blah. Right about now, they're doing 
it 'cause they were ordered to. Nothing more holding them. And those that do 
want to succeed, well good for them, really. The others just. Don't. Care." 
 
"You don't care and you asked to be moved to this department because you needed 
to do something?"  She shook her head, thinking that he would've understood the 
process - understood what she was doing.  Had faith in her that she knew what 
she was doing. "The rewards come later.  Just trust me a little bit, okay?  
You're always harping on me not trusting you... "  
 
"I'm trusting you to do it now," James got up from his seat, "not later. Later 
won't come. Even though you're out there working with us, you're not one of us. 
You're still the one commanding us, no matter how many miles you run along side 
of us.  And every good commander knows when to motivate them. Do you see them 
motivated? Do you? The basics of 'tired' and 'worn out' is all well and good. 
But motivation, they have none of it. You expect them to be motivated just 
because you can do it?" 
 
"The obligation to your duty and your uniform are motivation enough!"  It was 
the first time he'd ever heard her raise her voice and lose her temper to that 
degree. 
 
James stood straight up looking at her and quietly said, "Obviously something 
you've forgotten. This uniform motivates us to be out here. Our duty is to do 
what we like doing. Motivation to not do something you're resenting is stronger 
than 'nothing' from your superior. Apparently, you've forgotten that. Your men 
are demoralized. Your team doesn't care what you're telling them, and if they 
walked out on you, they walk out on their careers they started with. But that's 
okay," James said nicely, "you're the one in charge. Demoralize them further. 
Beat them down. And when they turn their backs on you and walk out; you can 
give the other department chiefs a head up why their valuable member was lost 
to them because of you." He stepped away from the seat, "Is there anything 
else?" 
 
"No, that was quite enough, I think."
 
"See you at the end of break, ma'am." James walked out. 








                
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