Have Children, Will Travel

Posted on Sat Mar 7th, 2020 @ 6:17am by Lieutenant Colonel 'Greyscarr' Abooksigun & Commodore Teyo Kemoke & Captain Tirothyn R’Shav & Fleet Captain Vrr'Srhann'rr 'Siranna'

Mission: Mission 70: Children and the Workplace do Not Mix
Location: Various Locations - USS Dreamcrusher
Timeline: 1200Hrs - March 30th, 2392

Captain Vrr'Srhann'rr was seated at the head of the table as she waited for the other people who were a part of this gathering to arrive. She regarded Firespirit who was already present. "So...Do we have any ideas on how this is going to go?"

Firespirit had a while pile of padds with him. "Well, first we need to establish guidelines of what we want the interviewing officers need to be doing, and what questions they will be asking."

Siranna regarded the PADD's in his arms as she plucked the two off of the top. "Oooh.. Literature." as she gave it the once over. "I assume you need some people to help with this mountain you seem to be buried under..."

Firespirit looked at the mountain of Padd's. "Yeah, what admin guys i do have are badly overloaded."

"Okay.. I have forty Operations staff sitting around, doing very little.. I'll send them over to you when we are finished here." Siranna responded. "Now... I assume you have seen the numbers for the adoption requests... We should draft what sort of questions our guys are going to ask... We have to see ti it that our guys get this right... I don't want to start rehoming kits from people who are drastically unsuited to raising Caitian children."

Firespirit looked over as the other senior reviewing officers started shuffling in. "Well' that is why I have requested that the initial batch of reviewing officers be limited to Caitian, Eeiaouan, Akurian, Shiar or Arakor service members, as well as OISU officers. Right now I just don't have the time to train the officers of other species to be sensitive on the matter yet."

Siranna regarded the officer before her. "Makes sense.. I know that people and resources are coming..." she explained. "I already forwarded our situation report to Admiral Yamaguchi... He assured me that help is coming.."

Firespirit nodded and surveyed the officers present. He recognized Teval and Zuko, but the others he was less familiar with. He recognized Renhai as being the same species as Teval, but for Cyrin, he noted that he resembled a kurokuri, but didn't have the scent of one, so firespirit Figured Cyrin must have been a different species. Teyo he could tell was Caitian as was Greyscar and Tirothyn, and Wukari he recognized as Shiar. Of the officers present four where ship captains and five where not, however they would be the senior leaders for all the reviewing officers. "Alright well you all know what you are here for, all of you will be acting as reviewing officers for people seeking to adopt Caitian children or you will be leading other officers whom will be performing that task, So first thing is first, I think we do need to establish some guidelines as to what questions we need to ask of interviewees and what we need to look for out of their home life."

Siranna nodded in agreement. "We need to establish if the people sticking in requests can actually raise Caitian children who have various special needs." she explained. "Now I'm looking at adopting four more in addition to the small group of children I already have."

Greyscarr regarded the female who spoke. "What of those who want kits but lead dangerous jobs?" he inquired. "I know that Tienn Nerra wants a couple yet she is demolitions..."

Ryuukei offered up his input," Well I am not so sure we can be picky on that matter, I think that as long as they are privy to the needs of caitian children and are tolerant of the cultural difference as well as leading a decent home life, I don't see us being able to afford being any pickier than that."

Firespirit nodded in agreement. "Yeah we are looking at several million orphans here, so we cant be too picky."

Greyscarr regarded the small gathering before him. "Alright.. Hopefully we don't end up settling kits with imbeciles." he rumbled.

Siranna sighed. "We can't afford to be too demanding on the subject... but they need to be aware that Caitians require their own specific needs.."

"And not treat them like pets either," Teval replied flatly.

Siranna had been making notes on a PADD that she herself had brought for the occasion. "Mmmm." she tapped quickly to keep up. "Okay... Did we miss anything that we have yet to cover.... Caitian kits should go to people who have open minds, that these are children and not pets and have rather specific needs..."

Zuko then brought up his point," Since there are Klingon officers requesting to adopt, but many of the Ferasians have an innate fear of Klingons now, what are we going to do about that."

"Probably will have to restrict them to only adopting infants," Renhai suggested.

Tirothyn R'Shav waved her hand in a dismissive nature. "Klingons want to adopt Caitian children... after the atrocities they committed... Not a chance in Baal!"

"These are Klingons in Starfleet... surely-" Siranna responded only to be cut off a second time.

"No." R'Shav answered. "Klingons do not deserve to live..."

Greyscarr regarded the female before him. "Strong words... from someone in your position.."

"What position... is that... Marine!" the female shot back.

"You are prattling on about matters that do not concern this conversation." Greyscarr rumbled. "For example... IF Klingons in starfleet were to adopt... they MUST be educated on the culture of the Captain People... they must also follow it and not just pay lip service to it."

Siranna nodded her head in agreement. "Members of other species are talking of adopting our children.... then they must learn and appreciate our culture."

R'Shav growled. "Klingons... don't even appreciate their own culture. let alone anyone else.... and why are the Akurians serving as reviewing officers anyway.... No disrespect to them but they do not know of our ways..."

"We will see to it that our allies in the room and elsewhere know of them... That will be quite enough disrespect Commander... or you will taste my claws.... Is that quite clear!" Vrr'srhann'rr growled angrily.

Greyscarr regarded the two Caitian females before him in silence. "So.. kitty, you wanna tell us who pissed in your milk bowl this morning?"

"We don't have time for this..." R'Shav responded.

Greyscarr glared darkly at her. "Oh yes we do... Considering they-" he indicated Ryuukei and the other Akurians as he spoke. "-Risked life and limb to rescue several billion of our people... "

"Klingons should not be adopting Caitian children... ever."

"Fine." Siranna responded, effectively silencing the other woman. "Then don't handle the Klingon cases.. I will deal with those myself." she sighed. "At least I will give them a fair hearing."

"Fine by me." R'Shav responded darkly.

Greyscarr regarded her. "You wanna tell me what this is about?.. Becuase you are losing your mind over nothing really.."

"I wouldn't call this-" she waved to indicate everyone in the room "_exactly nothing."

"I would." Greyscarr responded. "We've not yet started work... We are here to hammer out the criteria for the adoptions, what rules these would be parents will need to abide by and the like... I would like to add that these adopters need to learn something of Caitian culture and they must appreciate they are raising a child that is covered in fur.. Some breeds have long and others have short fur.... so not every single child will need to wear clothing."

Siranna found herself reevaluating her opinion of the large Marine before her. "Indeed... They must learn of our culture.. But what of our allies... who do not know of our ways..?"

Greyscarr regarded the various Akurians in the room one at a time as he spoke. "That's just lack of information and can be cured, they have done our people a great service and that must be respected by all." as he shot R'Shav a dark look as he spoke.

"I don't think Klingons should adopt.."

Siranna laughed. "Indeed... I love the hypocrisy here." she commented. "Whats wrong with Commander Kolar?" she inquired. "He has a human wife and has three children of his own... Do you not think he can raise children properly?" she inquired.

"How about Commander Torghn?" Greyscarr inquired. "Or K'Wor.?"

R'Shav growled. "You made our point.?"

"Have I?" Greyscarr responded. "I rather doubt it as I've not yet explained myself..."

"Well then please ... kitty ... get on with it!" R'Shav responded. "Please get to the point."

"My point is simple... Not all Klingons are alike. Do not show ignorance in regards to them, The Klingons who were raised in the Federation don't have the retarded sense that most Klingons seem to have in plenty."

R'Shav paused. "I will keep it in mind."

"Good... while you are keeping that in mind, consider this as well. One man's hero is another man's villain." Greyscarr explained. "Now... we seem to have gotten off of the subject.... What else do we need to discuss...?"

Firespirit massaged his temples as he felt a major headache coming on, he briefly considering actually throwing the book at someone, considering his rank, but this time he decided against that. He wondered to himself just what he missed about R'Shav.

However Ryuukei did decide to weigh in," Well it is true that generally us Akurians aren't familiar with all the nuances of Caitian culture, but I would like to point out that the Ferasians have lost a lot of their original culture. For example, while many Caitian breeds either tolerate or are fully willing to wear clothing, Ferasians of practically all breeds are perhaps more hostile to the idea of wearing clothing than Sevekians are. So much so that I notice they definitely do not seem to trust clothes wearing people as much as the unclothed ones, even though most of them try not to show it."

Siranna paused a moment. "So we will have to get to know the children as well as the new parents... try and match the right child... to the right parent." she mewled softly.

"Like I said. Kling-"

"R'Shav... After we finish here... I am taking you out to lunch... because I am sensing that you are way too hard up and I am going to cure your issues."

"Ohh.. I like to see you try."

Greyscarr suddenly grinned at her. "Yes... I will.. for now. Lets focus on the matter at hand..." he indicated Ryuukei. "Ferasian culture will probably be a patchwork of various other cultures, with the natives trying to replace what they lost... So.. We will need to remind our caseworkers and adopters that they MUST be consistent in their treatment of the children in their care."

Ryuukei nodded," And we definitely need to make sure that potential parents understand what it takes in raising these children. While on one hand they would be well advised not to waste time investing in a lot of clothing, they do need to understand just in basic necessities us furry species do require different grooming standards that most humanoid parents would not be familiar with at all. But this does mean that we pretty much need to focus on parents whom aren't going to be squeamish about nudity."

"Well that rules out a lot of human adopters." Siranna responded with a sigh. "So.. what now?"

Ryuukei nodded," I always figured that would happen anyway."

Teyo offered his opinion," Well we will try and bring as many of the Fersian children into the Caitian foster care system, but I know it cant handle all of them. Beyond that I know a lot of Akurians are looking to adopt, and basically we will just have to to with whatever humanoids are willing to work with the culture barrier."

Zuko then replied," we are still potentially looking at a lot of unadopted children though."

Renhai sighed and added. "We may have to settle with developing some kind of boarding school system or something like that. Given that older kids are going to have a lower chance of adoption too, we may not have a choice n that matter."

"We're asking people to take in Caitian children who don't know their own culture, who may or may not have emotional and development issues and probably have behavioral issues to boot." Greyscarr responded. "We are looking for rather exceptional parents then...."

Firespirit nodded, "That is basically it." He then looked around at everyone present saying," Well I have nothing further for you all, if you have nothing else, then you are all dismissed." He then passed a look at, R'Shav, " You however, I need you to stay behind so I can talk to you."

Greyscarr regarded Firespirit. "I'll wait outside sir." he then turned and departed along with everyone else. R'Shav remained seated.

Firespirit looked at R'Shav. His years of experience in starfleet told him one thing about her, she was overworked, so he asked," So, when was the last time you took any time off?"

"Time off... Honestly. I have no idea.." R'Shav responded. "I've had way too much to do recently."

Firespirit sighed, then commented. "Alright, well, you need to start taking some breaks then, because you have all the classic symptoms of being overworked. Also some of your fellow caitians will be holding a party on Roanoke on the 4th. I want you to be there, get out and socialize a little. Is that fair."

R'Shav nodded her head. "I can do that..." she paused. "It might be fun too.." she added a moment later.