Senior Staff Meeting - Part 2

Posted on 19 Aug 2010 @ 11:32am by Commodore Da`nal of the House of Varal

2,006 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: M6: Blood of the Innocent
Location: Observation Lounge

" AYE SIR! " Snapped the Master Chief as he took one step forward, and began to speak to all.......very loudly. " In case you have forgotten, my name is Master Chief Sharpe. If you forget that, sir will do fine. Now, with that said......." Sharpe gave a look to everyone in the room. " Lets get this meeting going. Attention to Orders! " He bellowed. " That means, get out your PADDs, and be ready to accept your orders people. " Then he took one step back, right where he was beside the Captain. " Sr. Staff is ready and waiting for your orders, sir. " He said to the captain, looking just as expressionless as before.

Instantly, Tika's jealousy was replaced with extreme confusion and rather powerful annoyance as she looked up at the balding man. She'd never seen anything like it in her life. Were they expected to refer to a NCO as sir? She looked at the Captain inquisitively. "Sir?....."

Don didn't know if he should laugh or shiver. "Right," he said.

Anara's eyes widened and she touched her ear reflexively, "Master Chief Sharpe- While I appreciate your fantastic enunciating but, I don't believe the volume is necessary. We all have decent hearing."

The Master Chief looked at the Lieutenant, and he addressed her like an Academy Drill Instructor speaking to a First year cadet. " I'm sorry, I thought by the speed you are getting your PADD's out that you couldn't hear me. Shall I repeat myself, OR will you do what you are told? " said the Master Chief with a scowl.

Tika nearly snapped out of her chair, but still managed to stay seated with her eyes planted squarely on the Captain. "Sir, I hope when you said he reports to you alone, this is not what you had in mind...."

Anara pointed to the PADD that was already out on the table in front of her, "Sir, I have had my PADD out since the moment I arrived." She looked at him candidly. Her eyes met his head on without flinching.

John began getting a little irritated, he had been replace in the 'Gung Ho' category. "Master Chief, you may want to put on your glasses, there are no Enlisted in here, but you. We are all Officers and will act accordingly. If you need a refresher on protocol, I can send you the proper Star Fleet regulation."

Wandella remained seated, she was way too tired for this kind of drama, ~He's like Cora, only worse. Whatever.~ She wasn't even sure if she'd brought her PADD or not, fishing in her jacket, ~Okay, there it is.~ She smiled, quickly hiding a semi-racy message from an old Academy friend.

Silonez silently nodded approval at the comment, but his next thought was interrupted by the comm system, "Lieutenant Commander Ericson you have an incoming comm from Admiral Kellenger priority one." Silonez rolled his eyes, he knew what this was about, "I'd love to stay and participate in this little chat but the real business calls." and with that sour but pointed comment he exited the room

Da`nal slammed the padd on the table. "ENOUGH! You were ALL call to attention per MY Instruction or are you all blind to that fact. Now on YOUR FEET!"

The Master Chief remained standing at attention. His pace stick under his arm, and no expression on his face. Just like before.

Anara gave a smug smile to Raymond when she heard John support her side. She turned toward the Captain at his roar and she rose to her feet, grabbing her PADD in hand. She waited at attention to see whatever would come next. She kept her eyes on the Captain.

Jess stood up wondering if something was going on and because of that she didn’t let her snarky comment out to play. Looking at the Captain she tried to work out what might be going on.

Tika stood rigidly at attention, her face hot with annoyance. "Apologies sir....but perhaps you could explain to us exactly what is going on. Perhaps we are all simply confused. This is all rather unorthodox."

Seeing Silonez at the door frozen at attention. “You are dismissed. See to the Admiral and return.â€

John had stood in a flash and snapped to attention, becoming ridged and unmoving.

Don stood, frowning. He would have to speak to the Captain. They were not cadets, nor were they children. However, this was not the time or place to raise his opinion. He would let it play out first and see where this was going.

Gilmore had never witnessed anything like it… She rose, awkwardly at first, to join the others and follow the captain’s orders. The look that washed over her alabaster face was one of complete shock and disbelief. She felt, despite her years and experience, as a child, being berated by a parent. She remained silent as the smirk of discomfort stretched her lips upward. Not want to appear insubordinate, she gazed blankly at the table before her.

Wandella turned to the left and right, taking in the entire scene, "Vat is everyone doing? Oh, yeah, that." She sighed, rising slowly to the single least rigid position of attention in recorded military history.

Da`nal began walk the room, silently circling behind the backs of those assembled calming his temper thanks to Ayren’s steady mental reassurance. “This is the last time anything like this will happen. When I give a queue for a course of action I don’t care if the queue is given to Commander, Crewman, or Cadet; I expect that order to be followed. What is ‘unorthodox’ about being called to attention? When the order ‘Attention to Orders’ is given a presentation usually follows does it not.†He stated rhetorically.

Completing his circle of the room he stopped at his XO. “Lieutenant Commander Killian to say your service to this ship as been honorable would be an understatement. As such you are here by promoted to Commander. Congratulations.â€

The Master Chief yelled out... " Three Cheers for the XO....Hip Hip "

"Hurray...." Tika said rather blandly. She was happy for the man, just upset with the situation.

Sharpe repeated his chant. And he was actually showing a slight smile. " Hip Hip...."

"Hurray!" John added in for the benefit of the XO only, he was happy for him and didn't want him to think any less.

Anara chose to ignore the Chief Petty Officer's chanting. She turned directly to the XO, "Congratulations, Commander."

Wandella whispered softly to Don, "Wandella will come celebrate with you properly later."

Don grinned at Wandella, hiding his overall surprise. Da'nal tended to do that with the others though. "Thank you Captain," he said after a few moments.

Taking his hand firmly, he clapped him on the shoulder. "It is my Honor...Commander."

Returning to his seat he looked out at his officers, their eyes still forwards and the hardness gone from their expressions. He gestured for all to retake their seats and as they did so did he. “Now, Lt. Cole, what is the overall status of the Ballard?â€

"To borrow a Marine term sir the Ballard is FUBARed. We have managed to restore life support to Engineering and below but the saucer section is Swiss cheese ... no way they would be able to sustain the stress of warp. Only possible option is to release the saucer section and destroy it ... but the release will have to be done manually as the clips melted in the heat and fried the release circuitry. Honestly I'm amazed they didn't go boom sir." Jess had maintained eye contact with the rest of the table the whole time. Dropping her head to confirm the numbers finally she added "They lost all bar three of their engineers when a conduit blew ... and two of those are cadets."

Silonez not so quietly returned to the meeting his face looked pale, "WE have our first real lead on who attacked the Ballard, a group calling themselves Laruc First was directly involved."

Now it was Da`nal that was confused "How? What is the source of this information? We have a claim of responsibility from a Larucian terrorist group."

"That would explain the mismatch of weapons damage we found sir." Jess looked over at Silonez and then back at the captain "We found evidence of weapons from 5 different races sir."

"A lot of the evidence points to Lurucian, but all of the DNA was Kyarian. The scientific research supports what Intel and Engineering has found," Anara chimes in.

"So it's possible it could be more than one race? Or perhaps just one that's trying to trip us up by using a variety of technologies." Tika chimed in.

"These planets have been trading and fighting each other for nearly 50 years. That would easily explain the difference in weapons."

Commander Phoenix-Patil nodded. "I imagine our search would start with these weapons. With a bit of research, perhaps we can discover who sold the weapons....and who to..."

Lieutenant Gilmore looked up from her PaDD. She had to admit, this was a lot of information to assimilate, even putting aside the differences in personalities relaying the meat of it. “Perhaps that’s where I can be useful,†she expressed, finally chiming in with something worth while. “If I could be supplied with the information already gathered on the weapons’ signatures, maybe a fresh pair of eyes could be beneficial. After all, weapons are my area of training.â€

"A Ferengi arms dealer name Boric is known to work in this area he's probably a good bet on having sold some of the weapons, the Klingon disruptors may have been stolen so finding that dealer might take more time, neither side is willing to provide us with intelligence reports or other data, so we will at some point have to depend on what ever we can get through interrogation and simply by going out and looking for the information our selves."

Silonez moved on the group themselves "From what we have on this region and its multitude of factions this group are made up of rebellious settlers who will attack Kyari military targets by several methods from simple bombings to military style raids."

Tika made a note on one of the PADDs she'd brought. "Then the saucer section will pursue that lead. Any idea of the whereabouts of this Boric?" She asked, looking toward the officer she'd come to dislike quite a bit in the last few hours.

Silonez looked at Tika, "Heading to a pre arranged meeting location, he's also an informational operative so I'll have to go meet him, I have orders from Admiral Kellenger to that effect."

Tika nodded. "We will meet him where he's going and track the terrorists from there."

Silonez looked at her with total disgust, "Hes' an undercover operative, if you feel like blowing his cover and there for wrecking all intelligence operations in the area then by all means lets go there and blow two years worth of work out the nearest airlock!"

Ayren was disturbed by the animosity between the two officers, but before she could intervene, the ops chief spoke.

She'd had more than enough of his attitude. Why was everything she said to be challenged? "Is it your policy to be rude and boorish every time you disagree with someone, Commander? This is not the time or place for this but I assure you, as you will be working under MY command when we separate the ship, we will have a little chat in private.." She said, her beautiful face scowling.

Silonez had enough of this person and did something he should have done awhile back, "I resign my commission effective immediately, I cannot do my duties on board this ship with people interfering with them." he took off his comm badge and dropped it on the table exiting the briefing room.

Lahtikah winced as the man walked toward the door. <> She thought to herself, rolling her eyes.


TBC

 

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