Ohio

20 - Little Hank

Oh but it's hard to live by the rules

I never could and still never do
The rules and such never bothered you
You call the shots and they follow
I watch you still from a distance then go
Back to my room, you never know
I want you, I want you but now
Who's the talk of the town?

-- Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders (Talk of the Town)

=/\=

Timeline fully restored, the department convened in Conference Room six, which had enough room for all. Carmen spoke, "I've got space and orders to hire three more full-time equivalent travelers. I want travelers, and not engineers, as I think the need is greater there. With the unexpected importance of musician Christine Ellen Hynde – not to mention the earlier issues we had with musicians Jiles P. Richardson, Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly – one of the FTEs will definitely be musician and musical historian HD Avery," she sighed a little, a tad annoyed but resigned to the need, "I'm open to suggestions regarding the other two. The only people on the table are the ones I've already interviewed, who are: Daniel Beauchaine, Rajesh Kumar, Teresa Marquez, Elston McCoy, Polly Porter, Carol Tilson and Alice Trent."

"Maybe someone else who can fight," Tom said, "It wasn't really needed in Bogotá, but if that guy hadn't succumbed to peer pressure and withdrew, it coulda been fisticuffs or worse."

"That would be your friend Dan Beauchaine, right?" Tom nodded, and Carmen continued, "Perhaps. Since the situation ended up being an almost diplomatic one, or at least it was resolved in that manner, I could also see adding someone with a psychological bent, like Polly Porter."

"Given the fact that Boris's wife was the Empress Consort for a while there," Otra said, "it might be good to bring in someone who can comfortably and effortlessly observe protocols."

"That would be Alice Trent," Kevin said, "'Cause God knows I don't know what a fish fork looks like."

They all laughed, a little nervously, "If we get more travelers, we'll eventually need more ships," Rick pointed out, "I know you said you didn't want to hire anyone but a traveler, but you might need an engineer, too."

"That's Tilson and Kumar," Carmen said, reading off a PADD, "Their credentials are fairly similar."

"Who's left on the list?" asked Deirdre.

"Elston McCoy, Gregory Shaw and Teresa Marquez," Carmen said, "but I won't be hiring her."

"Why?" asked Levi, and it was the first clear indication that he'd been paying attention at all.

"She is a medical doctor," Boris said, "And Marisol is already working here," His voice lingered on her name, just a little.

"And Shaw and McCoy?" asked Crystal.

"McCoy is an expert in ancient sciences. He can cast a horoscope, even. But the times we've been going to haven't been quite that primitive. And Shaw is an animals specialist. So far, we've had no need for him, either," Carmen said, "That might change, if we have to go earlier." She looked around the room. "Sheilagh, you've been quiet."

She was quiet, still, for a while, before speaking, "I, I just, I need to tell you, I have seen people killed today and yesterday. And now we're all just talking about who to hire, and it's almost as bad as if we were all going on about where to go to lunch."

"Sheilagh –" Carmen began, but Tom cut her off.

"If I may, it was, uh, a good eighteen or nineteen years ago that I was in Basic Training. But it took two years after that before I saw any real action. I was on Bajor, and there was this guy who'd stolen a phaser out of a storage bin and just started shooting. It was a few days before we caught him, and I saw a coupla my buddies breathe their last right in front of me. It was scary, and it was awful and it kinda shook me to my core, if that makes any sense."