[@t2wave][i]"For the love of God, yes!"[/i] was an outburst that did [b]not[/b] occur. 

The captain, however, had to clear his throat and pretend like he was considering it for a moment before answering, "Uh, Yes please E-1."

He'd shortened ECAI-01 to E-1 because he wasn't very fond of long abbreviations, and his memory wasn't exactly the greatest. Elijah would've called her just "One", if he didn't occasionally jokingly call Zenith "Number 1." That would just be too confusing. 

Although he'd been serving with Zenith for a few months, Captain McDonnell was not at all sure his XO liked him. Like most people on the [i]Empirion[/i], the bridge crew showed their commanding officer the respect of his rank, but that didn't mean they liked working with him. And the few people (mostly civilian contractors) who didn't bother showing McDonnell any respect seemed to him to be a breath of fresh air known as "honesty," something rarely seen in military units. Elijah inwardly groaned as he recalled threatening to demote a man for sucking up too much. 

Despite the stress of his first command, Captain McDonnell looked forward to getting into the thick of things, whatever that entailed. He wanted this mission to be over quickly, though, so he could go back to patrolling some unclaimed sector of space. But he was also looking forward to talking to a counselor again. He just hoped he or she was an easy person to get along with.

As a man who abhorred unneeded conflict, it was often a shock to his crew or friends when he engaged in it, verbal or physical. However, he was never one to back down from his beliefs. And sometimes, Elijah had to remind himself that counselors - at the end of the day - have a job to do, and they get paid to do it. So when their discussions got too combative, Elijah would just stop going to therapy altogether. Some did not care about helping him, or anyone, just the paycheck. 

This was why Elijah was so shocked to be given a command; usually it's the people who put on an act for their superiors and subordinates who get the jobs, not those who can actually lead. Not that he was a great leader- he'd only had the job a few months, and his leadership skills up until then had been little better than average. But there was one thing that did separate him from other leaders: he cared about people, especially those who served under him. And he felt like that would be the driving force behind success.