She paused again, then continued with no hesitance, but with a mild shift in tone appropriate for introspection. “Prophet I believe will do better in a team that would generally be less prone to the kind of work I am used to, as you say. Unfortunately, his Zakdorn upbringing would likely hinder the operations in which my team would specialize. As for Firefly, she is a solid operative, but I believe it would be best to keep her separate from Nitro. I’ve heard a few rumors swirling about, and while I do encourage connections on a team, that is only to a point.”

Slowly, Oksana slid her hand over the table. “Which, on that note, I do have concerns about Cinder being assigned to Starfield’s team. Joker is at least a shared asset, but Cinder is a direct operative.”

The note about Jessica caught his attention for a moment, more so out of curiosity than anything else, a result of their old friendship. He appreciated the thoughts of Oksana as he processed what she was telling him, all similar reasons and opinions he had as well but wanted to check and see if she was in alignment. However the notes about Cinder and Joker shifted the Captain’s focus more so than anything before that. He reached over into another stack of PADDs and pulled out their profiles.

“Joker just started in the fleet it looks like, so he’s pretty fresh. I remember those days….” However next, Wade pulled up Cinders and took a quick look at it before handing it to the Intel Chief. “What have you seen in regards to her and Khalil?” He wondered if there was some sort of prior romantic entanglement or otherwise between them he hadn’t known of.

“They have served together for a number of years before, and they appear to have a rather deep bond from what I have observed.” Her smile finally faded, replaced by the smallest of frowns, “Again, I do encourage connection, but only to a point. Especially for something like Blackwatch. Very few people can have the mental fortitude to watch a close friend get dragged away to an unknown fate and not compromise a mission out of desperation.”

Samstone took a moment to think about what she was getting at. “So you’re worried about some sort of nepotism or…? Maybe an inability to be objective on either of their parts? I mean, what sort of connection are we talking about here?” Wade hadn’t exactly had time to dig back through everyone’s postings and history, so naturally things slipped through the cracks.

She shook her head, “Not nepotism, no. As I said, they appear to have a deep bond; I don’t believe a romantic one, but perhaps one that might be considered more familial. Neither of us have a sibling we grew up with, but I do imagine it would be hard to not want to save your little sister if she got herself captured, or put yourself in harms way to save an older brother.” She lifted her shoulders just slightly, “It is not something we have to address immediately, but something we should be mindful of as we begin our operations.”

“I am thankful for you pointing it out, do you think Cinder would be better off on your team, given the mission and focus in comparison at the moment?” He wasn’t sure at the level of the science officers ability when it came to intelligence gathering and the like. To his understanding, her background had been more combat focused, but that didn’t always mean staying in that role was the right fit.

“Perhaps, but we can see how she functions on the team with Starfield for now if you prefer. The skills she brings would be beneficial for any team, and even though collecting intelligence sounds like it would be a rather subdued pastime, it often comes with a need for more than a bit of fancy computer work.”

“Samstone nodded in agreement “Very well then, for the time being I’ll keep her where she is. I’ll keep an eye on things and make sure I read any reports carefully just in case.” It did help him to feel better knowing Jessica was on the team as well and would let him know if anything came up that was of concern.

He took a sip of water before continuing “There have also been some operational changes that I got just earlier this morning from Admiral Vance I’d like to go over with you, especially since it directly concerns your department.”

“Ah, yes. I received that this morning as well. A few I’m familiar with, and could potentially address concerns over as they were my suggestion.” She offered simply, and crossed her legs under the table.

Wade leaned back in his chair and got more comfortable “Good, it sounds like the Admiral is at least taking a few things under advisement. I’m confident your team will continue to handle information they have, but all communications regarding Blackwatch missions, operations, and the like will go through Intelligence. So to some extent, I need the Team leaders to have access to suites as well as anyone else in an Intelligence role, be it Signal or as an Operative on the teams. I don’t want anyone else in there however. They can use the places down here for the limited access their roles allow. And as always, everything is need to know until it is identified and presented at briefings accordingly. So nothing transmitted to standard stations or PADDs outside of your suite, unless it is down here once it is cleared. Most of the information they should be going over down in this area should be from open sources anyways, data mined accordingly. It’s amazing what’s out there and available, if you know where to look.

“Yes, that’s not a problem. The area is designed to accommodate that kind of arrangement while still allowing necessary separation. They’ll be allowed access to the hub and the information they are cleared for; all of our tools will be at their disposal as well as long as nothing else is taking precedence at the time.” She took a small sip of water and looked at his face again, this time slowly scanning his features.