EM May 2007 - Performance Review ((RP for number_eight))

[arrow_of_apollo]

No more clocks, no more countdowns.


A little less than twenty-four hours before, the fleet had finally stepped down to Condition Two. Lee immediately sent half of his flight wing to their racks, and every one of them had wanted to kiss his boots for it. Two hours after that, they had stepped down to Condition Three. Lee put every pilot except the ones on CAP back to the duty lockers. As CAG, he had been completely within his rights to have called it a day even back at Condition Two. Instead, he stayed on duty and took the first CAP rotation instead.

Kara had nearly had to haul him over her shoulder to get him back to his own rack after he landed.

He'd gotten something like nine straight hours of sleep, unheard of for Lee Adama. After he was finally freshened up, he'd reported for the debrief with the Commander (and wasn't that going to be the worst part of the duty). His father's instructions were crystal clear: no matter what, military discipline needed to be maintained. Procedure and protocol were to be followed to the letter, and no slack was to be given. More than ever, they needed to stand strong, not bow to the new pressures of life on the run.

Typical, thought Lee. When things go wrong, tighten your grip. Not that he disagreed so much with the theory, it was more an amazement at the double-standard of it all. The only thing Bill Adama had never tightened his grip on was his own family.

Procedure and protocol. Lee made it his first order of business to return to business as usual. His predecessor, Maj. Spencer had been just about to start the round of personnel reviews shortly after the Galactica's decommissioning, and since he was following protocol and needed to get face-to-face with his pilots anyway, Lee began scheduling the meetings. Already he'd done four that day and even the jet fuel that passed for mess hall coffee was starting to lose its potency.

He picked up the folder for his fifth and final review for the day. The top of the service jacket read "Valerii, Sharon" and bore a sticker with a Lieutenant's rank insignia. He flipped through the slim pickings inside: photograph (was every female aboard this ship attractive?), a couple of previous performance reviews (Acceptable to Exceeds Expectations in every category, but with notes on Technical Skills), and her final Academy transcript. Valerii, or "Boomer", he reminded himself, was about as green as a pilot got. Hopefully, this wouldn't take long.

A knock sounded at the hatch of the small office off the briefing room he'd commandeered as his own for these reviews.

"Come," he said clearly.

Comments

[number-eight.livejournal.com]

Sleep had been a very good thing to finally have. Sharon had crawled into her rack after they'd managed to escape the Cylons, but she was missing Chief. Everyone had been busy, so there really hadn't been any time to go and see him.

Not that it mattered much, because the legendary Apollo was here, and he was giving performance reviews. She chewed on her lower lip nervously, hoping it would go all right, but everyone knew she was just a rook pilot. She was lucky to be alive after the crash back on Caprica, and she still felt bad about leaving her ECO there. It wasn't right. He was her friend, and by now, she was pretty sure that Helo was dead.

Hold it together, Boomer, she told herself as she stepped inside the hatch door and saluted.

"Lt. Sharon Valerii reporting, sir." Oh my Gods, she was standing in the same room as Apollo. Apollo! The son of the Old Man! Who'd led the Fleet to victory over the Cylons, even though it had cost the olympic Carrier and she'd been part of that little adventure.

Suddenly, thoughts of Chief flew out the window as she straightened up, trying to impress him.

[arrow-of-apollo.livejournal.com]

Lee looked up and gestured toward the seat in front of the desk, mustering up a half-smile that still probably looked pretty worn. "Have a seat, Lieutenant," he said. Arranging her still-open file in front of him, with the evaluation form beside it, Lee leaned back a little in his chair and launched into the familiar speech.

"Lieutenant-- Sharon-- there hasn't been much to relax lately, but you'll find that I tend to run a pretty casual ship when things are going pretty smoothly. And I don't think it serves your time or mine to read through this evaluation form and have you parrot back to me the answers out of you regulations book for me to note down for the twentieth time."

He leaned back some more. It was a move he employed in meetings like this to put the person on the other side of the desk more at ease. "So I want you to feel comfortable. I want you to feel that you can say anything that's on your mind in this room, no matter what, and trust me to do the right thing about it."

Nodding, Lee straightened back up, and made a show of closing her file before looking Valerii square in the eyes. "We'll start easy. How are you holding up after last week?"

[number-eight.livejournal.com]

She practically beamed once he said her name. Hardly anyone called her "Sharon" lately. Maybe it was because of the Cylon attack and so callsigns were just becoming habit?

She didn't even want to think about why she was grinning like mad at the new CAG instead of thinking about the Chief or worrying about Helo.

"Sir?" She blinked a few times as his words finally sunk in. Comfortable? Say anything? She nodded at him. "I'm doing great, sir. I'm not really that tired, actually, so if you need me for anything, I'd be up for it, sir!" Volunteering for more work wasn't typically her thing, but Sharon wasn't lying to him. Sleep had been great, but she wasn't as tired as everyone else seemed to be for some reason.

"I wrote a paper about you. At Flight School. I got the highest marks in my class!" It all blurted out so quickly, but she sat in her chair and just smiled.

[arrow-of-apollo.livejournal.com]

Lee chuckled quietly. "Well, then you're a very lucky young woman, Sharon. Two days ago I couldn't have hauled myself up into the cockpit let alone flown one more sortie, so good for you." Advantages of youth, Lee figured to himself. Not that Valerii was that much younger than him in years, but the girl clearly had energy and enthusiasm to spare. Both good things, in his book, for a rook pilot.

Plus, she was actually smiling, something he hadn't seen much of in the last week. It might have been annoying. Instead, it just seemed to lighten the room's mood. Another good trait.

It was her next statement that stopped him cold. Lee blinked, almost unsure he had heard her right. "A... a paper?"

Unfathomable. He was Captain Lee Adama, callsign "Apollo". He was just another Viper jock, one of thousands at the time Sharon would have written her paper. Gods, he wasn't even regular Fleet, he was a Reservist. What the frak could she have written about? He tried to school his face back to calm down from befuddlement.

"Highest marks, you say? Can I ask what it was about?"

Hell, if he had done something deserving of academic study, Lee wanted to know what it might have been.

[number-eight.livejournal.com]

"Oh, we were writing about people we admire, and I chose you. I wrote about how you were a great person for being in the Reserves, and yet you still did things like read banned books." She nodded her head in all seriousness. Sharon had done lots of research on him. He was, after all the famous son of Commander Adama!

"I mean... you're Apollo," she said, still beaming, as if that alone made all the sense in the world. She suddenly remembered that she was here, talking to him, and that he really didn't know her the way she knew him.

"Maybe you could have dinner with me. I could show you my report. I have it with me here. Your father read it a few times."

[arrow-of-apollo.livejournal.com]

Lee sank further and further into his chair. People wrote essays on important people, like that Dr. Baltar on Caprica, or even like Tom Zarek from Sagittaron, speaking of banned books. And he'd seen plenty of papers on his grandfather Joseph's law practice, and a few even on his father's exploits during the Cylon War-- the First Cylon War now, he supposed. It was... baffling to consider.

There was a smile on Sharon's face that clearly told him she was having a ball just being in the same room as him, which was disconcerting even further.

He shrugged. "I'm Lee Adama. I get smashed on too much ambrosia, lose almost every hand of pyramid I play, shower in the officer's head and put on my flight suit one leg at a time." Smiling, he gestured back at the junior pilot in front of him. "And so, who's Sharon?"

Blinking, he mulled over the offer, but then his stomach announced that it had made the decision. Smiling, he rose from his chair. "I think we're done here, so I think some chow sounds great." Maybe, he hoped, she'd forget about that report.

[number-eight.livejournal.com]

She blinked. Who's Sharon? Apollo was asking her who she was?

"I... I'm Sharon Valerii. My parents died in an accident on--" She shook her head. The response had become almost automatic. Strange. "I'm just a Raptor pilot who bunles up her landings. Ask anyone; I'm practically infamous for them."

But, then Captain Adama stood, and she stood right away, at attention. Until he said he wanted to eat with her. Oh my gods, he wanted to eat with her! Oh, she could ask him all sorts of things, like his various missions and things that she hadn't been able to write about in her paper!

"Yes, sir!" She saluted with a smile. Everyone would be jealous to see her eating with the son of Commander Adama!

Chief? Chief Who?

[arrow-of-apollo.livejournal.com]

When the young pilot started into her life story, Lee couldn't help but be a little relieved-- it at least was a subject other than the "Captain Apollo" she had written a paper about in school. Valerii mentioned her landing troubles, and he nodded. Lee had noticed that in her jacket, but other than a few carefully worded but clearly annoyed notes from the Chief of the Deck, no one seemed to be considering that particular shortcoming too terrible. "Well, I'm sure you're working on those landings. If you've got any questions, I'd be more than happy to give you some pointers," he said off-handedly. "I'm Raptor rated."

Returning the young woman's salute, it was tough not to smile at her exuberance. Lee was sure he'd never been a rook that excited, but then he'd taken a lot different road than Sharon Valerii. In any case, he shuffled the papers of her service records back together, filed them and stood, letting the younger pilot lead the way out of the room.