The 'long and short' of it.

Posted on Wed Sep 25th, 2024 @ 7:06pm by Commodore Finchley Kerr & Commander Shr'Nesh Karadis & Lieutenant Commander Kevin Kilbane & Captain Yadira Tristen & Lieutenant Commander Isabelle Savette & Commander Alec Hunter & Lieutenant Drevas

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: The 'Eagle continues.
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: Current.

Finchley paced back and forth in his office, it was time to get the mission briefing started.

"Will you calm down please" Kilbane said, "You'll wear the carpet out or the soles of your boots!"

"Can't help it" Finchley replied, "We're going into a difficult mission, and it's a new crew, well, nearly all new crew, I don't know them all, I don't know how they'll hold up."

"Just do what you always do" Karadis said, "close your eyes, cross your fingers and hope for the best."

"That's not helpful Karadis, even if it was in jest" Finchley said, stopping and staring at her.

"Who said I was joking?" Karadis replied, shrugging her shoulders.

Finchley just waved an arm at her and made a 'Huh!' sound, then continued pacing. As he did so, Kilbane said "Want me to get the ball rolling?"

Now Finchley was chewing his finger nails as he paced, but he nodded at Kilbane's suggestion.

Tapping his COMM badge he said, "All Senior Officers report to the Captain's Ready Room please."

First to arrive was Drevas, the Kelpien chief of security and tactical. He pocketed his PADD as the door closed behind him; maybe he'd been taking care of work before being summoned to the ready room. "Captain. Commander." He nodded to both of them. The captain in particular seemed stressed - he wondered why. Could that be a sign as to the scope of this briefing, he thought to himself.

Isabelle was next through the door, noting that Finchley seemed unusually nervous. If anyone should be nervous it should be her, being her first meeting as Exec and all. She nodded and smiled to all present as she took a seat.

Alec came through the doors a few seconds later, "Hello everyone." He greeted the assembled officers as he took a seat at the table.

Yadira walked in, head buried in her PADD and a file as well. Tripped and nearly fell but caught herself and stopped. "Damn it! I told engineering about this carpet two weeks ago and they still haven't gotten it DONE!! . I must apologize for my out burst. I have a stressful situation that needs to be taken care of. However, this briefing takes president over all" she said as she sat down.

"What stressful situation?" Finchley demanded.

Yadira's head spun and looked at Finchley with eyes that could easily drill through his head.

"This mission is a tough one yes, but are we ready to undertake the dangers that go with it. I know how this ship can take the punishment she will get, but can this crew handle the stress level it will create? My intelligence is not complete on the clarity of just what we are walking into", her eyes never let go of his eyes. Finchley was angry, upset, stressed, and nervous and she tried to let her own voice to sound irritating.

Drevas glanced between the two senior officers. It was honestly a little bit worrying to see the two senior officers already stressed like this, and even moreso now that he knew that they had little intel to go on for their next mission. Someone needed to try and clear the air here, and somehow he felt that if he didn't at least try, they'd go nowhere fast. "Whatever the circumstances, I'm sure the crew shall do their best. I will begin preparing my department as best I can with the intelligence we currently possess." Drevas offered calmly.

"Thank you Lieutenant, have the departments status report to me ASAP" Finchley replied.

“Captains” Isabelle looked between Finchley and Yadira. “Might I suggest both of you try and calm down a little, you’re both obviously very stressed at present but the crew need to see a calm attitude from all of the senior staff.”

Alec watched the exchange between Kerr and Yadira. In his opinion both Captains were doing a terrible job of maintaining a calm, cool and professional approach and it it continued it didn't bode well for the crew.

Finchley's head slowly turned to look at Isabelle, "When I want your opinion Commander, I'll give it to you, and don't say another word, that would be a mistake right now!"

Isabelle gave Finchley a glaring look, one that, if it could have killed, probably would have right there and then. One thing was for sure they’d be having words after the meeting.

Then he turned to look at Yadira, "When this meeting is over, you stay behind, I want a word with you. By that, I mean you'll shut your mouth and listen to what I'll tell you."

Yadira had succeeded in breaking the level of stress in Finchley. She knew just how to do it without being insubordinate. "Now that you're back to the Finchley I know and have great respect, I will sit and be quiet," she said and smiled and sat quietly.

Finchley's stress and strain were now gone. The exchange between him and Yadira had now focused him and the steeliness was now back.

"Right, all of you, park your arses in a seat!" he said, pointing to them.

Karadis, standing up against the wall behind Finchley, smirked to herself. When Finchley had the bit between his teeth, he was almost what humans called 'School Prefect like', and this she took great delight in provoking.

Alec continued to watch the little drama unfold As Captain Kerr growled and snapped in fine fashion. He briefly wondered if it was real or for show. Then decided it didn't matter if it got the results the captain wanted. As he was already sitting, he didn't need to park anything. So, he sat and waited.

Once everyone was seated, Finchley began, "Right, this is where we're at. The planet Romulus is dying and the Romulans have reached out to the Federation for help. The Federation have agreed to do so and have suggested a relocation programme for the Romulan population to Rator III. Admiral Picard is putting together a rescue fleet and is coordinating with the Romulan High Command. There is however a problem, not all the High Command are in agreement to the rescue, a break away faction has formed. Now, it's not the political side of the High Command, it's their military side who have broken ranks. We don't have a lot of Intelligence information about who is in the break away faction except for one, General A'axxa."

He turned to Drevas, "Lieutenant, get me everything you can on A'axxa. His military record, his command team, known associates in the Romulan High Command and if you can, his personal information...is he married, does he have children, legitimate or otherwise."

"Understood, sir. I will do what I can to look into it," Drevas answered. Find intelligence like that on a Romulan flag officer? Somehow Drevas knew it would probably not be as easy as simply trawling the Starfleet database on Romulans - unless, of course, he'd gained enough repute to put all that information on public record. He made a mental note to seek out the intelligence officers for their take later.

Looking back to the rest he carried on, "It goes without saying that though Admiral Picard is in control of the rescue fleet, we're not a part of it, we're acting on our own, we're going in there to see what this break away faction could do to the Federation plan. To add to all of this, the Romulan High Command have invited the Federation President to personally visit Romulus...and he's going. For the life of me, I can't see what good this'll do, but, we have to ensure the Presidents safety so that adds a little bit of pressure to our mission. Any questions so far?"

Having heard all this before Isabelle looked around to see if anyone had anything to ask.

Alec knew what Captain Kerr wanted from him, so he saw no need to open his mouth and ask what he already knew.

Karadis raised her hand.

"Yes Commander, what would you like to ask?" Finchley said, looking expectantly at Karadis.

"Well, it's a bit of a deep routed question, possibly going into a lot of the why's and wherefore's of the mission...but why are you such a colossal ass hat?" Karadis asked with a very straight face .

Kilbane now raised his hand and said "I'd like to second that question Sir."

Finchley's face fell, and he let his head drop, accidentally 'dunking' it on the desk.

"I rest my case M'lud" Karadis grinned, looking at Kilbane.

"Mmmmmmm, yes, case proved" Kilbane replied.

Raising his head again, rubbing his now slightly throbbing forehead, Finchley said, "Are there any mission related questions?"

Looks at Finchley "Just this I feel like a fifth wheel here . I have no idea what is going on other than the President is scheduled to go this trip,," Yadira said.

Looking at Yadira he said, "There is another situation, but so far it's not been linked to the Romulus mission, however, I want to discuss that with you later."

"Understood Captain." Yadira said calmly.

Isabelle looked towards Karadis and Kilbane. “Karadis, Kilbane, I want to see the two of you in my office after the briefing, and that’s not a request.” She couldn’t say she blamed them, but she needed to step up as Exec starting here and now.

"Oh oh, looks like we're reporting to the Assistant Principles office" Kilbane said to Karadis.

"She probably thinks we're members of the crew" Karadis replied.

"Quite possibly, shame we're not, but hey ho, let's go anyway" Kilbane answered, "might even get a spot of tea whilst we're there."

"And Tiffin, can't have a spot of tea without Tiffin" Karadis said.

"Somebody's in trouble." Alec said softly hoping no one would hear.

"If you're quite finished?" Finchley rhetorically asked Kilbane and Karadis. They both sat up, not saying a word, just smiled and nodded.

"Right, this could be a complicated situation, so we all need to get our parts done correctly" Finchley said to everyone at the table. "Liaising between departments will be key, if you require anything to get you the information you need, speak to Commander Savette, she'll help you, if she can't, she'll bring it to me and I'll get whatever it is you need. If there's nothing else, you're dismissed...except you Captain Tristen, remain behind please."

"I'm not going anywhere as you so ordered," Yadira said flatly.

Drevas rose to his feet and, after nodding to the other senior officers, made his way out of the meeting room.

Finchley watched as everyone left the room. Once he was alone with Yadira, he looked at her and said, "I saw what you did and that was not on, now I need to punish you..."

 

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