Reward and Punishment - Part 2

Posted on 29 Oct 2012 @ 6:25pm by Commodore Da`nal of the House of Varal & Captain Rebecca Post

1,149 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: M9: Rest, Recovery, and Reflection
Location: SB 80 - Temp Offices
Timeline: MD 3

PREVIOUSLY...

"We cannot commend someone and recommend them for Recon status on the same day that we discipline them for disobeying an order," Rebecca commented. "I've spoken with Lieutenant Malluk, and he is of the opinion that Lance Corporal Harper disobeyed a direct order to affect the rescue. Don't get me wrong, Sergeant Major, I think he did the right thing, but we cannot have Marines disobeying orders, even if it is a case of the letter of the order overcoming the spirit of the order."

Rebecca paused.

NOW...

"Alright, how about this, I'll add my endorsement for your recommendation for Lance Corporal Harper to undertake Recon training, whatever the legal situation he's got the mettle for Recon, however I will veto any promotion recommendations for at least three months and assign him extra duties," Rebecca reasoned. "That way you get him on the team, and he is punished for his indiscretion."

The fact the Harper had left his post to accompany Jason on the rescue was unavoidable and as she hadn't mentioned any formal charges he could keep him busy with training and additional duties all 'off the record'. "Did you want to want to wait until after the leave for any disciplinary action? With the ship in repair the only way to keep his punishment 'in house' would be to assign him to engineering as an extra body. If we waited until it was time to resupply that would give him more than enough to do and would probably relieve someone that would have normally been assigned from the station."

"We'll wait until after he gets back from leave, whatever his conduct may have been he deserves some relaxation," Rebecca replied. "We'll handle this with Non-Judicial Punishment, but I'll want to have a word with him, he needs to understand that although this had a positive outcome it could very well have gone the other way."

"Understood..." He was glad that was settled. "...Have you had an opportunity to speak with Lt. Malluk yet concerning SSgt Frey?"

"No, we...um, had a... disagreement with a Colonel from the station before we could get to that point," Rebecca replied wryly.

"Really? Ruffling feather already huh? So much for getting new gear...now we'll probably get their second hand equipment." He said jokingly.

"We'll just send Lieutenant Malluk to go get the gear, what QM is going to argue with a pissed of Klingon?" Rebecca grinned. "Besides the guy was an arrogant, hypocritical prig, deserved everything I threw back at him, figuratively, not literally."

He was half temped to ask if that wasn't true of all senior officers, but all the only hint of the comment was the grin on his face. "Well I'll just have to take your word for that Ma'am. As for Frey’s action on the surface. If you look at the situation, the wording of the order I passed and when he departed on his rescue; I think you see that any formal action or charges would be hard to enforce if he chose to fight the action.

"I'm not making any excuses for him at all and I HATE people getting off on 'technicalities'. The main reason for my intervention is that the last thing the troops need to see is the new CO coming down on one of their own for rescuing one of their own. Before we disembarked from the Soyuz the LT ordered '30 days maintenance duty with 10 days of weapons drills'. While the timing of the LT's action could have been better, the other Marines heard the order and we can't undermine his authority by you altering his decision either. My recommendation is to let his order stand, to hit following the liberty ordered by the Commodore, and instead of any formal action you let me deal with the Frey in my own way. I promise that once I'm finished with him he never pull anything like that again. You'll find ma'am that I am 'old school' Marine and like to keep things in house and that if someone wants to play games they'll find I have more games than Matel."

"Very well, at the end of the day Frey was the senior Marine here, the Lieutenant's punishment order is more than what we are giving Harper, so I'd say it’s appropriate," Rebecca nodded. "Like you say we can't do anything else without undermining Lt. Malluk, and that's the last thing I want to do right now."

"I couldn't agree more." No that was over all later remain was minor. "Did you have any plans for activity during the leave? Might not be a bad idea for you to get out there and meet the troops informally. Some of the have already started to head down to the surface and none have requested leave outside the system so if you want to address everyone formally I can set that up without much fuss."

"I was thinking about arranging a detachment hike through the hills, a nice bracing walk can do wonders," Rebecca replied. "The Commodore also suggested inviting the detachments loved ones along, making it more of an 'extended family' kind of event."

Velez kick the idea around for a brief second. "I'm not sure all the significant others, children especially, could keep up with a 'bracing' hike. How about have the dependents and significant others set up a picnic area at destination of our hike as a surprise?"

"That is an excellent idea," Rebecca nodded. "We'll have to beam or fly them out and back of course."

Velez grinned, "And I think I know just the person to help set things up to. We can make your formal introduction at the starting point as well"

"Sounds like a plan," Rebecca nodded.

"Then I will set things in motion. Did you have a date in mind?"

"I was thinking the day before we leave, let them all have their own fun, then we can start getting back into the swing of things before the end of leave," Rebecca replied.

He was surprised at that but took it instride. "OK, you're the boss. Is there anything else?"

"Yes, I know you're a Recon Marine, but I also know you've been effectively serving as the detachments senior Non-Com," Rebecca commented. "I want to make that official."

Major Stone had moved him into that billet unofficially before they had left the Achilles and thing back to his actions since their return he had continued in that role. "Thank you Captain."

"Excellent, I'll update the roster when I eventually get through all of this crap," Rebecca said. "Thank you Sergeant Major, Dismissed."

Velez stood, nodded sharply and departed. As he headed down the corridor he decided that he was going to like this CO.

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Captain Rebecca Post
Marine Detachment Commanding Officer
USS Achilles

SgtMaj Arcenio Velez
NPC played by Da`nal

 

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