Wild Surprises of Command [Back Post]
Posted on Tue Jul 4th, 2023 @ 1:21pm by Fleet Captain Maxwell Culver & Colonel Galen s'Khev & Commander Lorut Vila
Edited on on Tue Jul 4th, 2023 @ 1:25pm
2,458 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
Good Will Tour: Mountain Home [Part Two]
Location: Triton Seabase: Mess Hall
Timeline: MD27: 0800 hours
Vila had arrived with the strange Vulcan admiral. It had been mostly an uneventful, quiet trip from the Outpost, where the Bajoran woman had been posted, to Triton - about a twelve hour trip. After getting settled, seeing her office, and a nap, she was refreshed and ready to go.
She found the Mess Hall turned Command Room, and rang the chime. Her tunic was freshly pressed, but she hadn't taken pains with the rest of her appearance - she was a scientist and cared little about the rest of the bullshit regulations that the Fleet required in the way of personal care. She wasn't messy, and so she didn't worry.
Max thought he would fall asleep at any second. He grabbed the first - and only - stim that he had asked for. Injecting it via hypospray, a few seconds later his eyes were wide open. His sclera were white, his skin looked its normal tannish color. “Come in,” he said, knowing he had four hours before that stim ran out and he had a lot to do.
When given the command, she entered, unsmiling but her face poker-straight. What she'd been told and read about these two was enough to let her know she was in for hours of headaches. Culver was, by all accounts, as feckless as she was, though he didn't have her visceral distaste for authority and the rules, and the Romulan seemed...well, Romulan. Still, it was her last best chance, so she had to at least try, and luckily, she could devote MOST of her time to science, and she was looking forward to that. She hoped someone had told this El Aurian to keep her busy-a bored Vila was a self-destructive Vila, and NO ONE benefitted from that. "Hello," she said, then turned to the Colonel. "Jo'lan Tru," she said, before sitting down.
Galen attended to the Captain as he did every morning. It was an informal briefing an update of sorts of the general goings on. This was not something that happened at the Captain's request, it was at Galen's. This morning briefing was common on Romulan postings so it goes here as well.
He was about to begin when the door chime rang and a Bajoran woman entered. Galen did not have much love for the Bajoran people. They were, in fact, too emotional even by Romulan standards. A race entrenched in theology was not one that Galen trusted. However, she seemed to be here in some sort of official capacity. Galen appreciated her following protocol and showing deference and respect to both himself and the Captain. Without a word Galen placed his hands together, palms up in the gesture of Jolan Tru.
“Good Morning, Commander,” Max responded, knowing the blue uniform and rank meant his Chief Science Officer had arrived. “You must be Lorut Vila, a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
Vila just nodded. "Indeed. I am. I am not sure it will be a pleasure once you read my file," she said. Clearly, he hadn't, because those words wouldn't be coming out of his mouth. "It's nice to meet you both, as well," she said. She let out a small breath. The Bajoran was high-strung and neurotic on top of the rest, and so she wanted to be up and active and DOING things, but she also knew she was a Senior staffer and needed to be a picture perfect officer for at least ten minutes. "I saw the Labs already. Whoever ran them before should be court-martialed for the state of it." Like some people valued interpersonal or romantic relationships, so Vila thought of "her" labs-her baby, the place where she'd discover things, and grow new species, and so on. "I have also already called in Miss S'Tera and Lieutenant JG Aurora. Two Klingons on one base is a bit rare, isn't it?" She asked.
“Miss S’Tera is a Caitian and Lieutenant Aurora is a mixed race Aquadian and Klingon, so technically the only Klingon on board is in medical,” Max answered. “As for the labs, they’re yours now. I suggest you run them as you like, just remember Miss S’Tera is not a Starfleet officer, but a civilian. She’s not going to work the way Starfleet does.
Vila nodded. "I spoked to them already today, just briefly. I have supervised civilians before. They usually are actually BETTER, in my opinion, because they are aware that they need to compete, because the Fleet WILL open their billet up to a Fleety," she said. At least, that had been her experience. "And thank you for the clarification on the racial makeups of the staff. I don't want to stick my foot in my mouth," she said. Even though that was really her speciality.
“We currently have two new species, a stingray type creature that work together as a funnel while each takes a jab. The other, I think is more interesting, is an atomic sized creature that changes body temperature to breed. I’d like to see more study on that.
“On top of that, Colonel s’Khev will be beginning an investigation into the crash of one of fighters last night…”
"An atomic sized creature?" She bent her head a moment to tap a note. "I see. I will definitely rush research on that with Lt. Aurora." She said. "I am planning to take the Astrometrics person out later and we'll see what we can do for preliminary atmospheric stuff," she said. "My specialties are chemistry and xenobiology-studying the water and soil here will be my pleasure," she said. "And are the natives generally friendly? If I wanted to check out the terrestrial flora and fauna, would they be ok with that? With the proper paperwork, of course." She wasn't STUPID; she wasn't going to run into town, taking photos and samples of random critters in a strange place.
Max paused as he noticed now that his fatigue was abating. “Colonel, where is Commander Paxidor?”
Her attention flicked to the Romulan. Wasn't that who she was replacing, on top of her duties of Chief Science Officer? WELL. She wasn't going to be the one to spill the beans...yet.
"Commander Paxidor has been transferred Captain. She is now on assignment with Starfleet Intelligence. I saw the order this morning. It seemed to have happened during the night. Classified mission," Galen replied dismissively. How the Captain did not know what was going on with his crew was beyond the Romulan's comprehension.
"That explains my rapid departure. My former CO said my transfer had been approved on a rush assignment. I had an hour to pack my things," she said. "I was out at Faltan outpost," she said. "Luckily, it was close enough that the Admiral could get me on the way out." She said. She looked from man to man. The Romulan seemed nonchalant, but the Captain seemed surprised. Had no one told him?
“You’ll have to excuse me, Commander, I was in Sickbay all night in a procedure with another patient. I was only released early this morning.” Max paused as his head spun out of control and his head pounded rapidly. No doubt this an after affect of the threeway mindmeld.
Max closed his eyes, feeling like if he opened his eyelids, both eyes would pop out of his head. At the moment, in his head, he was riding a black horse in the sweltering heat of the day. And then, he was back in the meeting. A line of sweat across his forehead. “My apologies again, just an after effect of the procedure. It’ll pass, we have too much work to do now to worry about headaches and transfers.
“I’ll have you begin the meatiest bit of the newest mission. Unfortunately, we were not able to recover our crashed fighter or the remains of our fallen friends.
“In the meantime, we know a spider species was responsible. I’ll have you move from the recovery position to scientific exploration of the species. We don’t know much,” Max told her. “This video is their way of incubating their young, we think.”
Max touched the console and showed her the recorded final moments of Senator Killik attempting to shed the beasts on his own constituents. The way the young seemed to crawl out from inside him before the vid went black.
Vila gave him a look, but didn't question him. She behaved much like him when she'd just gotten off a bender, but who was SHE to question what was really going on? She was just a Chief Science Officer trying desperately to not piss off the wrong people. Again.
The Captain brought up a video snippet on his PADD. She leaned forward to watch-mistake. The strange Romulan senator, who apparently was called Killik, vomited white, hairy spiders. Gross.
She made a face, but then looked at the man. "What does that mean? Are the spiders a threat to the base?" She looked from man to man. It was always some kind of fuckery with the Fleet, wasn't it?!
“Not necessarily the base, no,” Max responded. “But they have obviously infiltrated the city known as Mountain Home and the surrounding areas. We think we have the situation under control from further contamination of the spider creatures.
“Our information indicates that the Romulans have lost two engineering teams and about thirty of the civilian population, possibly more. Senator Killik’s personal records were destroyed when we were forced to destroy the Senatorial Hall.
“You and your chosen team, along with double the security guards, will be tasked with the study of and hopeful capture one of these spiders for study. Feel free to ask questions at any point, Commander Lorut.”
Vila simply sighed. The questions she had were basically "What and why the FUCK?" but she knew better than to voice that one. Instead, she asked a more simple question. "When can I get out there?" She asked. "It's Romulan territory, correct?" She wanted to clarify. Luckily, the Romulans were mostly neutral to the Bajorans, so at least she'd have little trouble in that way.
“Commander, you have read the briefing packet, I assume? We’re working in tandem with the Romulan Star Empire as an olive branch. As such, not only do we learn their ways, but we have an opportunity to learn theirs.
“We don’t have a complete open door policy between the Federation and the Romulans, much the way Bajor remains as a Protectorate, but we not only have the obligation to search for our missing crew, but to investigate how and why they disappeared. We are also working under the direct command of the Romulan Star Empire to research their cold cases here as well. One hundred and fifty four people is the assumed number of people missing. We know the who,” Max paused, hating to command his next command. “Now we need to know the where and why.
“Besides, I’m told you’re up to a task. This is the current task, Commander. As I’ve said, you’ll be working with Security and both departments will report to Colonel s’Khev.”
Vila sighed. So far, her impression of this place was frankly kind of poor. It ran like she ran her own personal life, and if THAT was anything to go by, it wasn't going to end well. Still, she was indeed up for the task.
"I am just the person to undertake such...missions," she'd almost said "fuckery". Vila volunteered for these types of things-Counseling said she had a risk-taking personality, as well as a need to "prove" herself. She liked the danger and the unknown. It fed her need to keep things constantly fresh to her brain.
"When do we start?" she asked.
Max touched the desk before them and a snow swept lower mountainside displayed. "I'd love for you to get your house in order, but this is top priority, Commander. I would make the suggestions to take Lieutenants Yas and Aukai, but the weather wouldn't work for Yas, so you can take the angry blue ball of indestructible fur, Lieutenant Aukai.
"He's a lot of gruff and grumble, but he'll tear down as many spiders as he can with his bare claws and his rows of teeth. Literal land-shark. Security will be operational as soon as you are to drop their boot polishing, so long as they can shoot as much as you'll let them."
She looked at the blonde man, incredulous. He wanted her to take a koala on a science mission? She sighed. "Alright. How do I find this....Lieutenant Aukai?"
“If he’s not in one of your labs, then I expect he’s in his quarters. Deck five entrance, unless you want to fall a full deck…I wouldn’t suggest it, seven meters isn’t a pleasant fall,” Max said, though even he hadn’t made that type of fall without knowing it was in the realm of possibilities.
She nodded. "Alright, I'll find him, and set out. Colonel, anything I should know?" It was his people, and therefore, his land, and she'd defer to anything in that sense.
Galen cocked an eyebrow much like his Vulcan cousins would. "I would suggest being upfront with anyone you meet along the way. My people do not like secrets, I know, hypocritical, but I digress. We do not like secrets. If asked, tell them you are performing a scientific survey. They may ask for your results so be ready to produce them."
“The Colonel is right, be as honest as possible. Obviously, the locals probably already know about the spiders and we’re under threat of talking about them. You can tell people we’ve set out to study them, if it comes to that.”
Vila nodded her understanding. "Trust me, I don't play much of anything too close to the belt," she said. "I'll gather a team, and you'll have a report soon. Anything else?"
"Nothing from me." Galen replied and leaned back in his seat.
"By your leave, then," the woman said, standing up. She didn't have time for niceties. Of course, she never did, but these two didn't need to know that yet. "Good luck. I think you're going to need it more than me," she said, as she left the room. A tinkling laugh could be heard down the hallway as the Bajoran woman began her assignments.
Max looked to Galen. “Normality is just not going to be a thing on this station,” Max mumbled to himself. “Dismissed…”
He wasn’t sure if it was the stim or the new arrival, but he was developing an enormous headache.
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