Turbolift Tango: Port
Posted on 05 Dec 2025 @ 1:02pm by Lieutenant Commander Roxanne "Rox" Matamoros Garcia
445 words; about a 2 minute read
Mission:
Opening Transmission
Location: USS Proteus: Port Turbolift
Timeline: 2259: Immediately following #1 ‘Hey Mickey’
Tags: Matamoros, Collingwood, Proteus
Introducing Rox Matamoros Garcia, who will be our NPC First Officer until someone wants to take the role as a PC. Like many people from Mexico, she has two surnames (and there's no hyphen). Where only one surname is used (which is fine) it should be the first, never the second,
ON:
[USS Proteus: Port Turbolift]
Troubled, Captain James Collingwood retreated from the Observation Lounge to the relative safety of an empty Turbolift and beathed deeply. Threlox Varn had neither mellowed with experience nor seemed to give an inch of deference to Collingwood, despite his reputation as one of Starfleet’s rising stars.
Collingwood grasped the handle and twisted, pondering the savage drubbing young Mickey had received from his new Captain as the price of his startling promotion: ‘nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won’.
Just then, the doors swooshed open revealing a mutinous looking Lieutenant Commander Roxanne Matamoros, who regarded her erstwhile Commanding Officer sadly and stepped aboard. “Captain”.
“Rox”, replied Collingwood cooly, “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“You know I avoid the Starboard side, one of those turbolifts always makes the strangest noise…” Collingwood nodded in the awkward silence that followed and decided to confront the elephant in the turbolift.
"Computer. Halt Turbolift", ordered Collingwood. "Number one." Collingwood turned and addressed his erstwhile First Officer, "Let's hear it."
Matamoros lost her usually stiff posture and shrugged. Deflated she searched for the right words. In the end, “Why not me?” was all she could manage.
“The Proteus is going to need you. Your new Captain is brilliant, but he doesn’t know Proteus and he might need someone who can stand up to him and tell him to stop.” Collingwood then saw on Matamoros’s face that she had meant a different question. He continued nodding. “In a few years, it would’ve been you.”
“Why Foster?” Pushed Matamoros, shifting the question again.
Collingwood grasped the handle of the Turbolift and gave the order to resume. “It’s duty, Rox. Starfleet expects every officer to be where they’re needed. This is where you’re needed and Aryabhata is where Foster is needed.” He paused. “One day, you’ll know why. And that'll be the day you're ready to be a Captain.”
The turbolift doors then swished open. “See you around, lass” said Collingwood and strode off down the corridor leaving Matamoros lost in thought.
OFF:
Lieutenant Michael "Mickey" Ballentyne
Chief Science Officer, USS Proteus
writing secretly as:
Lieutenant Commander Roxanne "Rox" Matamoros Garcia
First Officer, USS Proteus
and also
Captain James Collingwood
Former Commanding Officer, USS Proteus
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