Interview with a CO (Kellison)

[Tannis V'larr]

Tannis V'larr read over the cover letter on his datapad for the eleventh time. The document had suffered through more revisions, addendums, and qualifications than the Imperial central budget, or so it would have seemed to anyone monitoring the lieutenant's off-duty activities for the past two cycles. He'd spent hours in his diminutive rack hunched over a tiny glowing screen, phrasing and rephrasing, adding a little deference here, a little coyness there, and masking all of it under the official sort of language that made the Empire's bureaucratic wheels turn. For all his vaunted Sikarran multitasking skills, he could be very single-minded about some things.

If it only had to be perfect, he wouldn't be fretting so much. Perfect meant there was a standard to match, a quota to fill. Instead, the letter had to be an optimum balance of disparate and even contradictory objectives. He had to be confident and yet reserved. He had to tip his hand without revealing too much. And above all, he had to be ingratiating without selling his soul.

It took every ounce of his control to keep his nerves from affecting his movement and speech as he made his way to the command deck. His emotions were a maelstrom hidden under a glassy sea.

With a deep breath, he held the datapad to his black duty jacket and tapped the chime outside Captain Kellison's office.

[Tal Kellison]

Captain Kellison looked up from his desk. Who the hell was that?

This was supposed to be his time. His time to center himself. His time to go over the events of the day and formulate a plan on how he could do better the next day. His time to contemplate his plans for the future, for when he was an admiral. With a grunt of disapproval he rose from his chair and made his way to the door. The Mon Calamari opera Kellison had been listening to played on in the background; the reports submitted by his subordinates lay abandonded in neat ordered piles.

Whoever this was better have a damned good excuse for interupting him.

He opened the door.

[Tannis V'larr]

Tannis was as composed as always. "Sir. I hope I am not interrupting anything."

As a matter of fact, he'd double-checked the captain's posted schedule to make certain he was not interrupting anything.