Explanation

Posted on Tue Jul 7, 2020 @ 9:50pm by Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit

1,465 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Binary Suns
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Shortly after the Captain's return

"--and all operatives and assets are being recalled as we speak," Exon said. "If you're not already on your way, I suggest you be soon."

"Understood," Nicole said, then looked up as a light flashed on her desk. "Out," she said, tapping her combadge quickly. She turned off the flashing light and finished working on her padd, adding the last to her report.

When the Captain swept in, Nicole braced herself for the oncoming storm, and the deceptive calm that would come before it. "Do you want me to bring back his tusks, or his whole head?" she said, conversationally.

“Depends on whose head your describing...” the Captain answered.

"The drunken reprobate who assaulted AJ and myself and started the ruckus the other day," Nicole said, handing the Captain her padd. "I assume that's why you've gone to 'Mood #2'?"

One eyebrow rose at the ‘Mood #2’ comment, but her voice remained deceptively calm with her reply, “What were the orders you were given prior to embarking on this last away mission.”

"To be as subtle as possible and not start trouble," Nicole said. "Strictly speaking, we succeeded," Nicole said. "We didn't start any trouble, we ended it--as subtly as possible. We even took the time to throw the local constabulary off our scent and got the locals blamed for the fight they started. Then we got out of sight and disappeared."

"Subtle." Kennit repeated. "Subtle..." she said again, her voice a little louder. "Doctor, you and Lt. Taggart were about as subtle as a Vulcan having a wank standing in the center of the Great Hall of the Klingon High Command on Qo'noS! The orders you were given were quite clear and the pair of you didn't make it 4 hours before you were creating chaos and smashing up local businesses!"

The Doctor appeared to be about to speak, and the Captain pointed one finger of her left hand at the Doctor's nose and said, "No! Commander Torres and I were in the midst of a meeting with the leader of the dominant smuggling operation here, not that he claimed as much, trying to perhaps open a door for future negotiations and possibly trade and your little squabble came up! You may think you managed to slither off unnoticed and unidentified but you're sadly mistaken!"

Nicole swallowed and resisted the impulse to have her eyes cross to look at the finger pointed at her. "We did not cause it," she reiterated. "We were minding our own business, and someone else started it. You'll forgive me, I thought it prudent to prevent them from murdering Lieutenant Taggart! I prefer my crewmates in one piece!"

Kennit stood and leaned closer, leaning her head in ever so slightly to say in a whisper soft, yet clearly highly displeased voice “There were security cameras in the bar Doctor. I had the distinct pleasure of witnessing events as they happened, shared with me by a criminal thug. You had ample opportunities to withdraw, yet you threw yourself into the fight quite gleefully.”

"Oh, so you saw the assault," Nicole said, standing as well and putting her palms on her desk. "So your criticism is that we didn't abandon AJ when we had the chance?" She looked at the Captain coldly. "I sincerely hope you aren't actually suggesting we leave one of our people to be beaten to a pulp, or worse. They had him by the shoulder. They attacked, we retaliated. I didn't kill anyone, and as soon as we got control of the situation, we left. You want to throw my ass in the brig for that? Be my guest. I'll go get my pillow. However, I'm curious what you would have done if you had been there in my stead."

“Watch your tongue when you are speaking to your commanding officer.” the Captain said in a still quiet tone of voice that left no doubt just how irate she was. “What I saw was members of my senior staff including my goddamn First Officer engaging in a bar fight instead of pulling their junior officers out and don’t give me any bullshit about not having an option you had time to request Dr. Lévesque acquire you a drink.. WHICH SHE DID !”

"Forgive me for needing something to stop the person choking me!" Nicole said, her voice raising as well. "It's hard to pull a junior officer out when I'm being bent backwards over a bar, and not in the good way!"

The Captain had begun to slowly walk around the desk, prompting the Doctor to move her chair back while her staff watched through the windows wide-eyed. To describe the captain as being angry somehow didn’t seem accurate as the Captain launched into a dressing down of epic scale. She switched at times into Klingon, the language offering far more descriptive expletives for her use. From Taggart‘s injuries, to Halvor and the XO it was evident she knew what had happened and was not at all in a forgiving mood. Nicole shouted back, refusing to back down from backing down, refusing to let the Captain cloud the issue with her version of events.

Their voices never reached a full shouting level, yet at the same time those not currently facing the Captain’s wrath strove to keep it that way.

She paused for a moment, searching for words then said, “And Summers! As if we don’t already have enough to consider with her unique medical situation--” here again Kennit paused once again for a moment before continuing. “What were you trying to do pimp her out?!”

"Don't you dare put that riyeht-kashik-kloshai actions on me," Nicole snarled. "You had every opportunity to--"

The comm chimed then, the ops officer on duty saying, “Bridge to Captain Kennit.” Startling two nurses who had been struggling to appear nonexistent but who were now also trying not to giggle at the Captain’s last comment. Ignoring them for the twits they were she tapped her comm badge and answered with a decidedly semi-hostile, “What!”

A pause, then in a slightly cautious tone the bridge officer said “uhh Captain there is an incoming message from Captain Tombe of the USS Junyo. It is marked priority Zulu.” He told her, his voice holding a note of uncertainty. There was no priority Zulu.

Kennit blinked. Once. Then, her voice suddenly sounding very subdued and she said, “Pipe it down here to sickbay. Use Doctor Anderson’s terminal.”

"Oh, by all means," Nicole snarked.

Kennit sidestepped the Doctor and strode swiftly, not quite running, into the Doctors office where she went straight to the desk console and pulled up the message. She scowled at the encryption code for an instant, then entered a series of numbers in order to access the message. Her face went white, an expression of disbelief and actual fear crossing her features. She shook her head slightly as if to dispel her own reaction and hit her comm badge. “Red alert! Prepare to break orbit! I’m heading to the bridge!”

Nicole turned and put her fingers to her mouth, giving a shrill whistle, then tapped her combadge. "All medical personnel report to Sickbay, on the double!"

Kennit left the doctors office this time at a full run, racing out of sickbay on her way to the bridge at a dead run.

Nicole ran into her office and dropped into her chair. Left behind on the doctors console was the message from Captain Tombe. Long ago, he had served aboard the USS Endeavor with Kennit and Captain John Murdock. The message was hard to believe. A coup had taken place within the Federation. Starfleet itself had split, ships fighting one another.. the Federation President had been arrested, as had a number of the Federation Council along with most of Starfleet’s Command personnel.

A trial was scheduled in 48 hours, with the execution of the President, and the other captives to follow.

Nicole tapped her combadge twice. "We're on our way," she said.

Her combadge vibrated once then fell silent.

She stood up and left her office. "Everyone listen up!" she said to the assembled staff. "I need all inventory double checked. Delta and Epsilon teams rotate through checks. We're on four-rote till further notice. I'm not at liberty to say what's going on yet but prepare for casualties. I want triage wards, trauma teams, battlefield kits prepped, the works. Team leaders, I want readiness reports in three hours. Pass the word to the other shifts once they arrive. I'll be on the bridge.

She ran out as fast as she could as well, following the Captain and tapped her combadge. "Anderson to Levesque, I'm en route to the bridge, meet me along the way."

 

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