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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2006 18:43:54 GMT
Sonak stood mutely glancing at the now blank screen, her mind racing. ~what is going on~ she wondered as she started to glance around the room. Nick and Logan were glaring at eachother, L'Ola was trying very hard to become inconspicuous, Trey stood threateningly behind Logan and Claire looked as though she was about to cry. Fox looked stunned as well, but seemed the odd one out in his reactions.
She was snapped out of her musings when the doors opened to reveal Nack and Jatan. She was handed a PADD while Nack and her bondmate took their seats. Quietly, she glanced over the results, then nodded. "I find myself in agreement with these results," sne announced, "however..." She glanced at her senior staff once more. "We have rushed into this investigation without clear thinking. Before I make these results public, I want you all to stop thinking about it until we receive new orders. Announcing this too soon may ruin careers which is something I most definately do not wish to be the cause of."
Sonak handed the PADD to Elron. "Admiral, could I ask you to keep these results with you until further notice?" She folded her arms over her chest as she leaned against the bulkhead. "After we dock with Bellicose in a few hours, I want you all to get some rest. We will have a few days until we start with ordered drills, which apparently will not take us far away from Bellicose. Commanders Martens and Byrne, you two will be overseeing the installment of a new bridge module for Minerva. That will hopefully teach you two to work with, instead of against one another."
Things threatened to become too much now, as Sonak had been through too many investigations lately. She vividly remembered the nervous breakdown she'd suffered a year ago now, and she was determined to finally start acting the Vulcan she ought to be. "This briefing is now adjourned," she concluded, "I will be in my readyroom. Admiral, would you please join me?"
Together with the fleet admiral, she walked out of the briefing room, crossed the bridge and entered her readyroom. "Things are not looking good," she sighed, "I feel like I am doing something wrong, but I cannot fathom what that would be. Am I being too soft on them?"
She sat down behind her desk, knowing she should retire soon to feed her baby. She was equally determined to nurse Miriya as long as was possible, but she did need to make the time to have that happen. And time was a luxury at the moment. A nurse came walking in with the baby, assuming that her presence in the readyroom meant it was time to nurse the baby.
Sonak cradled her daughter as she glanced at Elron. "Unless this will not upset you, I would prefer to do this in private," she offered him an excuse to depart. She'd done it before while conducting meetings, and she felt no shame about it herself. However, others might not be so comfortable in talking to a nursing commanding officer. Still, it was something best done in private. "I will make you acquainted with your goddaughter when we have more time," she smiled, glad to see the pleasant surprise on her friend's face.
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Elron
Fleet Admiral
[Retired]
?There are no facts, only interpretations? (Nietzsche)
Registered: May 31, 2003 12:23:57 GMT
Posts: 3,080
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Post by Elron on Dec 18, 2006 1:52:11 GMT
Elron took the PADD from Sonak. "I'll make sure no-one sees this until you think they're ready," he said with a wink to the Vulcan. He scanned the contents quickly, raised his eyebrows, then placed the PADD in a concealed pocket of his uniform.
Joining Sonak in her ready room, Elron sat back on the comfortable couch. It was a situation that struck the Admiral as an odd mirror image of their meeting on the Black Tulip. Sonak sighed. "I feel like I am doing something wrong, but I cannot fathom what that would be. Am I being too soft on them?"
Elron shook his head resolutely. "I don't think this is anything to do with discipline. You just need to foster more trust between your senior officers." He leaned forward. "It's not unusual for this kind of thing to happen in times of high pressure, especially if the Commanding Officer is absent. Let's hope they've learned form this experience." He couldn't think of any constructive advice, so he leaned back again. "It might be worth reminding to Logan of how things are conducted when you're gone. He can't go taking unilateral action like that again, even if he does mean well."
At that moment, the child Miriya was brought in by the nurse. As Sonak took her daughter, Elron looked at the girl lovingly. "Unless this will not upset you, I would prefer to do this in private," said Sonak.
Elron smiled. "It doesn't bother me in the slightest. However, there are one or two things I should perhaps do, so this might be a good time for me to take my leave." He stood slowly, still looking at the child.
"I will make you acquainted with your goddaughter when we have more time," smiled Sonak. Reminded of the honour bestowed on him, Elron grinned modestly. "I'll be back soon," he said quietly.
Walking onto the Mercury bridge, which was the new command centre for the ship, Elron made straight for the operations console. "I'm sorry Commander," he said to the officer stationed there, "but I'm afraid I'll need to take your external sensors offline for a while." His hands moved expertly across the panel, making sure that all sensory records of the Vesuvius' immediate vicinity were disabled. The Ops Officer watched with a frown, but dared not say anything. "Thank you, Commander," said Elron when he was finished. "Don't worry, you'll get them back soon enough. The Black Tulip will let us know if there's anything we need to see."
With this cryptic parting comment, Elron returned to the briefing room, which by this time was empty. He tapped his commbadge. "Elron to Black Tulip." There was a slight pause.
=/\= Disasterman here, =/\= responded the First Officer. "We're ready to start our journey back to Bellicose, DM. I've disabled the Vesuvius' external sensors, so you can take us through slipstream. From the look on Nakamura's face, I think it would be best to get them back as quickly as possible." =/\= Admiral Nakamura called? =/\= the commander asked with surprise. Elron ignored the question. "I'll be staying on the Vesuvius for a while longer. Contact me when we reach Bellicose, or if there's anything else you think I should know." =/\= Aye, sir. Disasterman out. =/\=
With things in hand, Elron walked back across the bridge towards the Commodore's ready room. Outside the ship, the Black Tulip had engaged a tractor lock on the Somma-class vessel and opened up a slipstream to Bellicose. Within moments, they were riding the stream through the Alpha Quadrant.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2006 20:50:22 GMT
The vibration of the deckplates felt different as the Vesuvius jumped to warp with the Black Tulip. Looking out the window, Sonak noted the absence of regular star streaks during warp travel. Instead, the ship seemed to be surrounded by a blueish cocoon. ~slipstream?` she wondered as she finished nursing her baby. She lay the quiet child over her shoulder and gently patted her back.
Just then, Elron came walking back in, his expression a mix of mischief and concern. "I have disengaged your external sensors for now," he informed her.
"I noticed we are not travelling at regular warp speed," Sonak commented dryly, "since when does the Black Tulip possess a transwarp engine? Oh I know about transwarp, I do have a chief engineer gone first officer, remember? And Logan is usually a very capable and talented chief engineer also. And let us not forget Nephi Jacobson, who also knew his way around in classified information."
She smiled ruefully. "my chiefs engineer do seem to have a knack of getting themselves into trouble...much like their commanding officer. At least I can trust my crew to do what is right...eventually."
She sat back, cradling Miriya who was now sleeping fitfully. "I find myself worried for this enquiry, to my knowledge we did not go wrong anywhere, yet we do seem to sustain a fair amount of damage since we crashed on the pole of that oceanic planet a year ago. "Actually, worried is an understatement. I fear for my crew. Especially Nick, he has lost so much. He was just reconciling with Kate and now she sacrificed herself to save my ship. While I can never forgive nor forget what she has done in the past, she will be recognized for her brave and selfless action."
Now, she leaned forward and handed the admiral the baby. "That will leave my hands free for a moment," she used as excuse, while walking over to her replicator. "Since you are going to be sticking around, as the Humans term it, perhaps I can offer you something? How long will it take before we arrive at Bellicose? At this speed, it cannot be more than a few hours at best."
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Elron
Fleet Admiral
[Retired]
?There are no facts, only interpretations? (Nietzsche)
Registered: May 31, 2003 12:23:57 GMT
Posts: 3,080
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Post by Elron on Dec 19, 2006 22:41:41 GMT
Elron chuckled. "No pulling the wool over your eyes, eh Commodore?" he said with tongue-in-cheek sarcasm. "I would have gone round the ship pulling down all the blinds, but I just didn't have the time." He was pleased that Sonak knew better than to follow this up any further. There was a time when he enjoyed using the phrase "If I told you, I'd have to kill you," but now he had so many secrets rolling around in his head that the novelty had worn off.
Sonak sat back in her seat. "I find myself worried for this enquiry, to my knowledge we did not go wrong anywhere, yet we do seem to sustain a fair amount of damage since we crashed on the pole of that oceanic planet a year ago." Elron said nothing, but he too was slightly worried. He thought he had seen the Vesuvius mentioned a few times too often in SFC memos, but he hadn't gotten around to following it up yet. He had assumed it was nothing significant.
He was knocked out of his wistful reverie by the sight of a baby coming towards him. With pleasant surprise, Elron took the child and looked on her fondly as he held her.
"Since you are going to be sticking around, as the Humans term it, perhaps I can offer you something?" asked Sonak from the replicator.
"Please," replied Elron. He paused, trying to figure out what he was in the mood for. "Umm... I'll have a hot chocolate, please. With cream and marshmallows, if you don't mind?"
Sonak gave the Admiral an amused look and ordered the drink for him. "How long will it take before we arrive at Bellicose? At this speed, it cannot be more than a few hours at best." Apparently the Commodore really did know her slipstream technology.
"I'm afraid I can't tell you exactly, but you're about right." They were about 60 lightyears from Starbase Bellicose at the time, so it would in fact take them just over an hour to make the trip. Any other ship would have taken nearly three days. Sonak returned with his drink, placing it on the table beside him. It had been a long time since Elron had last held a baby, but he was rather enjoying himself.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 20, 2006 23:05:53 GMT
At the expense of being perceived rude, Nack returned to sickbay. Jatan diverged and headed toward his quarters.
Upon arriving, Nack shutdown all displays containing the incriminating evidence of implication. Alice, on staff, asked what was happening.
"If the Commodore wants us to remain quiet, then we are going to remain quiet."
"Quiet about what?", Alice inquired. Nack had forgotten that she was off duty during the entire episode following Nick's incapacitation. Evolution was kind to the Ferengi, in the sense that his brain was well adaptable to working itself out of tight corners. If only it was capable of staying out of the corners in the first place.
"Uh... She said we need to be quiet about Nick accidentally shooting himself with a phaser." The doctor gave a goofy smile. "Yeah .. yeah, because it might lower morale or something." Alice didn't seem to buy it, but she didn't pursue the line of questions either.
"I think I can handle the rest of this Alice. You can go ahead and recalibrate the stasis fields in the back three beds. I did the other ones earlier."
The floor shook as the inertial dampers were unable to absorb the current course plotted by the Vesuvius. Nack figured the warp drive was acting up again.
Alone, Nack systematically encrypted all of the findings Jatan and he had found only a short time ago. Jatan would have to be told the white-lie Alice was told, but it was only a small misstep in a larger picture.
The doctor took it upon himself, at this point, to get his gear ready for security drills, which would occur while the Vesuvius was fixes were underway. Nack wanted to prove to everyone two things: 1) The Vesuvius has a good medical response team, and 2) He, as a Ferengi, was able to do the job as adequate as anyone else.
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logan06
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Post by logan06 on Dec 22, 2006 2:54:21 GMT
Sitting at his desk, Byrne kept going over the schematics of the ship trying to find out ways to possibly protect the vessel from any further acts of assault.
Only problem was that his mind kept flashing back to the look on the Commodore's face as she pointed her phaser point blank in his face. 'I know I went a little to far by shooting the FO, but at least I was right about the sabatoge. now if only I could get Jatan to talk to her for me', he thought as he slumped his head.
Checking the Main Systen Display board, he realized the all of the sensors were being blocked out. Tapping a few buttons, he confirmed they were at slipstream. "That explains the bumping motion, this ship is is no condition to handle these stresses in her condition", he said aloud. The lieutenant next to him looked at him puzzled. Shaking his head, Byrne waved off the statement.
Downloading the readings to the computer, Byrne headed for his quarters, a place he hasn't practically seen since he started on the ship. Grabbing a shower and replicating a new uniform, Logan sat at his desk to work on a game plan for the drills that were going to proceed during the Starbase layover, and an apology to Commander Martens for the situation on the Bridge. Replicating a large cup of coffee, Logan slumped into his couch to read a copy of the Book of the Birds.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2006 14:19:33 GMT
Leaning back in her own seat, Sonak enjoyed watching the scene before her. Baby Miriya seemed delighted at being held by the Avari admiral, and Elron seemed equally delighted to be holding the baby.
Glancing sideways, she remembered a final duty she ought to be tending to, before the two ships would arrive at Bellicose. She rose from her seat then picked up the tiny black box that had been sitting on her desk for several days now. "After I tend to this, will you join me on a tour of the ship? I believe we never got to finish the tour, after our unceremonious landing the last time you were aboard."
At Elron's nod, she tapped her combadge. "Lieutenant Nack, report to my readyroom on the secondary module," she spoke, sounding cold and indifferent. Yet, her expression told Elron that was hardly how she felt. After signing off, she smiled at her friend and superior officer. "Why should I let them believe that they are being ordered here for something fun? I have done it far worse in the past."
This time she grinned as she picked up the box, showing it to Elron. "The good doctor was due his promotion last week, but with all ongoing events, it completely slipped my mind." She was still smiling when a nervous looking Ferengi entered her office. "Ah, Doctor Nack, what a pleasure that you could join us." Sonak continued smiling as she presented him the black box. "Starfleet saw it fit to promote you to the rank of lieutenant commander. My apologies for not attending to it sooner but I believe you will understand why."
(Nack)
Approximately an hour later, Sonak felt the ship's tremor cease as both Vesuvius and Black Tulip slipped out of slipstream and back into normal space. External sensors were reactivated and before them loomed Starbase Bellicose. "All hands this is your captain," she announced, "until we are ordered back on board for our drills, you are all to enjoy shoreleave on Bellicose. Please do not leave the station until specifically granted leave to do so by Admiral Nakamura. This instance not even Admiral Clark's consent will be sufficient."
Sonak faced Elron. "Admiral, I am forever in your debt for towing us back to Bellicose as swiftly as you did. These investigations are far from over but I shall endeavour to see to it that this incident will not happen again in the future."
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2006 8:11:28 GMT
Nack finished resetting the screens when his combadge activated, emitting the Commanding Officer's callous voice. When the communique ended, Nack let out a deep sigh. He was not looking forward to this... He was probably in trouble for taking command of the ship. Actually, Nack was a bit surprised that his reprimand hadn't come earlier.
Directions to the secondary module's ready room were retrieved from the computer. Nack couldn't remember if he had been there before or not. With all the problems that have been occurring, he may have only seen the secondary facilities, for all he knew.
Arriving, the Doctor walked in stiffly. If it were possible to straighten himself even more he would have upon seeing Admiral Elron in the room.
The Commodore handed Nack a box. Surely this was going to be a record of his reprimand. Why else would she have called the Admiral in here with him? Nack was about to start explaining the entire episode that occurred while she was missing, but he was preempted when Sonak handed him a black box, straight faced.
Nack glanced at Elron, who broke his solid face into a smile. He looked back at the Commodore, knowing he was fooled. He shook his head side to side and half-laughed to himself. It's not everyday one fools a Ferengi.
Nack opened the box. A single black pip was present, which Nack immediately placed on his lapel on the wrong side of the two golden pips.
"Let me get that for you, Lieutenant Commander." Sonak said, trying to save him from embarrassment. "There you go."
"Lieutenant Commander," Nack thought to himself, and showed the emotion of the thought on his face. He was proud. This was something worth writing home about.
There was an awkward silence in the room when all parties ran out of things to say. Nack usually had something to say, but he was rendered speechless. Finally he mustered something up.
"Well sickbay doesn't run itself!" As soon as it came out of his mouth, Nack regretted it. "I mean, well - Jatan does a great job, but the Chief officer needs to be there sometimes..."
Sonak looked over at Elron and cracked a smile. If it were in her nature to wink to him, she would have. Nack didn't see. He was already a few sentences deep trying to get himself out of another linguistic mishap. The Admiral and Commodore held to their silence, mostly for their own entertainment.
"... and Alice is good too. In fact, I should check to see how she's doing." The Ferengi backed toward the door, which didn't recognize that he wanted to leave. Nack's back hit the door unexpectedly. Trapped, he continued, "... so yeah, tell Jatan that I value his help. He has made my arrival very welcoming." Nack turned quickly. With his front to the door, the computer recognized the doctor's intentions and opened the door. "Permission to leave?" Nack said passively. Sonak gave a slight nod, which was Nack's cue to bolt. Nack could have sworn he heard laughter after he left, but his nervousness was probably just getting the best of him. He made it a priority to get back to sickbay and run a scan on himself to be sure he was going to be OK.
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