The Orion Job

Posted on Sun Apr 21st, 2019 @ 1:52pm by Lieutenant Commander Magnus Grey & Lieutenant Raine MacLeod

1,124 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Mission 6.5 - Obtaining New Crew
Location: Cargo Inspection Area
Timeline: 2296/02/14 - 1030

Raine wasn't one to sit idly or depend on reports for her knowledge. Her staff was already figuring out that she would show up to check in, even when she wasn't on duty, sometimes in the middle of the night, and they were learning that lax wasn't a word she tolerated with respect to the safety of the ship and its crew. At the moment, she was checking in with the inspection team who were charged with making sure that anything coming on board had been thoroughly checked which meant sensor sweep as well as visual inspection. "Nothing gets on this ship without a visual inspection," she repeated. "If the crewman doesn't want you going through a package from his mother than tell him to talk to me. Fair enough?"

"Sure thing, L.T. I'll be happy to send him your way," the security officer said with a somewhat cheeky grin that signaled old/well-known problem not to be resolved quickly.

Raine sighed. His partner's chuckle confirmed her read and she shook her head slightly. She thought, for just the barest of moments, about making him her Asst. Chief if only to wipe the smug grin off his face but thought better of it. Best to set the ground rules early and make it clear to everyone how things would be. Best. Not pleasant. But best.

Lieutenant Commander Magnus Grey was doing his own rounds, trying find different officers in their workplaces to meet. A security officer mentioned Lieutenant MacLeod was probably checking with the inspection team, so he tried to catch her there. Coming upon their workstation, he did indeed see the blonde security chief, standing as tall (or not) as he. “Lieutenant MacLeod, I presume? I’m Magnus Grey, First Officer. I’m glad I caught you here, actually. My own effects should be arriving in the next few minutes.”

"Yes, Sir. I'm MacLeod. Pleasure's all mine." She took a look at the queue and added, "Tell you what, I'll just go back and check. See if I can expedite things for you. Otherwise, you could be waiting an hour or more." She winked as she added. "A whole lot of packages from home, more than a few of which held contraband of one form or another. Though nothing serious."

"I should hope nothing serious," Magnus said. He smiled warmly at her. "And thank you. I appreciate it. Half of my personal effects came in the day I arrived, but the other half got delayed." He let her work before adding more.

"No problem, Sir," Raine said. She made her way back to where the majority of packages waited their turn at the inspection stations and picked up a scanner. It didn't take long to find the Commander's effects. Some enterprising crewman had set them off to one side, presumably to be kicked to the front of the line, and would have been had not an oversized crate scheduled for medical not been deposited directly in front. With the aid of a crewman, working in tandem, they pulled his gear out. Raine didn't shortcut the inspection though. It was scanned and visually inspected the same as anything else coming onto the ship would be. When she was satisfied, she picked up a crate and headed back to where he waited. "Crates match the manifest and everything's in order." She set the crate down at his feet. "Shall we send it to your quarters or have you made other arrangements?"

“Have it sent to my quarters, please,” he replied. “And I’ll want a report on the contraband you find once it’s ready. But in the meantime, do you have a moment to talk?”

"Of course, Sir," Raine said and stepped aside to give orders to the team handling deliveries then returned to the executive officer. "I have the time. What would you like to talk about?"

“I just want to get to know the rest of the senior staff a bit,” Magnus explained. “We’ll be working together, and I like to know who I’m working with. You were Chief of Security on the Vanguard, is that right?”

"Yes, Sir," Raine said, nodding as she did a mental calculation. "About eight years, I think? Right out of the Academy."

“That was a good ship,” he noted. “You were involved in that interdiction of the Orion Syndicate Captain a few years back?”

"Yes," she said at once, "we were. Harried his operation and eventually caught up to him though he did lead us on quite the chase. I'm surprised you heard about it."

“I helped study the Orion logs while I was on the Avenger,” Magnus explained. “Everyone in Starfleet who can read Orion was brought in. You stopped his operation and brought him in, and the information on his ship was used to dismantle an even larger segment of the Syndicate.”

"Good times," she said lightly though the mission itself was anything but and hadn't come without a price but that wasn't something she spoke about often, if at all. "We had to beam over because we wanted the intel as much as we wanted him."

"If it is any consolation," Magnus offered, picking up her tone, "I guarantee you that by bringing in those logs, a lot of good was done and a lot of lives were saved. That Captain was a pretty big cog in the Syndicate but he was still a cog. Bringing him in stopped the flow of several types of drugs into Federation space. The logs also helped us dismantle a ring of sentient traffickers. I read the report. You rescued close to a hundred and fifty young girls from forced prostitution and prevented it from happening to a lot more."

Raine nodded in response. She'd read the reports as well and it did bring a bit of comfort though the loss of a friend was not small to her. She didn't make them all that easily. She searched her memory and brought up a less emotionally charged moment as a way of shifting the conversational track. "One of the girls insisted on making cookies and sending them to the Captain but with the route it had to take to reach us, they were long past their prime. Heard he broke a tooth trying to eat one."

“But I’m sure they were the best cookies he’d ever had regardless,” Magnus said with a smile. “Well, Lieutenant MacLeod, I won’t keep you further. Thank you for your assistance with my cargo. I look forward to working with you, and reading your contraband report.”

"You'll have it as soon as its ready, Sir," Raine said and nodding politely, returned to the work at hand.

 

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