Shoving Off

Posted on Mon Jan 4th, 2021 @ 5:14am by Captain Kelly O'Connor & Lieutenant Commander Archibald (Archie) Gates & Lieutenant Glenn Radars & Lieutenant Dacia Stallworth & Lieutenant JG Cara Ross & Lieutenant JG John Adams

2,467 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Mission 8 - A Blast from the Past
Location: Meeting Room
Timeline: 2296/03/07 0700

O'Connor wondered at how there was no interruption during the dinner the previous night. Sure there had been fireworks but not the sort that usually set the America off on some dangerous mission. Was her luck changing? She did not know how it might be but she wondered what was in store for her.

She need not wonder long, as Admiral Moore rang her quarters and instructed America to report to the Neutral Zone. In the back of her mind, she had to remind herself that the Klingons were allies now and that the only real neutral zone now was with the Romulans. At least she would be near the action. Of course, when she saw where they were deployed, she groaned.

Over the comm, she called out, =^= All senior personnel to the meeting room in 15 minutes. =^=

"On my way, Captain." Gates replied.

Short on his heels, Cara acknowledged the orders as well, though she sounded groggy, with a muffled, "Aye ~yawn~ Aye ma'am."

Adams acknowledgement came next. "Understood, captain."

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O'Connor was there in less than one minute, anxious to shove off but bored at the prospect of her mission.

Commander Gates walked into the meeting room and gave Captain O'Connor a respectful nod. "I'm guessing we finally have a mission, Captain." He said as he took his seat to the Captain's right.

Stallworth had her hair loose and uniform pressed as usual when she entered the Conference Room; she had a pad to take notes as she moved towards a seat mid way to the Captain's right side, best be on the Right hand of God and Captains.

"Top of the morning to Yew all." She greet before smoothing her skirt and sitting.

The Captain gave polite nods to Gates and the Doctor. Silently, she prayed that her Chief Engineer would make it into this meeting on time. She had her doubts, however. "Doctor, you're going Irish, now? I approve of the change," O'Connor responded with a small chuckle.

Before the Doctor could comment or reply, another redhead made her way into the room. Her hair was pushed back from her forehead by a wide, chrome colored metal headband that kept it out of her eyes, but was otherwise not styled. And she had a large mug of fresh, steaming coffee in her hand. "Glad to see I'm not the last one to show up," she managed to cover up a yawn after and took her seat.

"Late night, Ross?" O'Connor asked her Chief Science Officer with an interested look.

"Eventful night," the science officer said, rolling her eyes just a little bit. "And possibly too much to drink. Possibly. I plead against self incrimination."

"AH have a cure for that but am told it is worst than the little 'ole symptoms." Stallworth commented. "It does get results though I think your stimulant would due yew better."

Without warning the locker in the conference room burst open and Glenn literally fell out of it. He managed to stumble to his feet. "What happened last night. Who put me in a locker?" he asked curiously. He then noticed that most of the senior staff were there. He simply smirked. "I'm not late am I?"

Archie rolled his eyes. "Take a seat, Lieutenant. I'll deal with this later." He said eyeing the Engineer.

Glenn made his way to the table. "Anyone got any coffee?" He asked. "Best hangover cure those wonderful miracle beans of go go juice."

O'Connor told Ross, "Perhaps you should have been born Irish rather than pseudo-Scottish. You'd have more of a tolerance!"

The other redhead in the room snorted at that and rolled her eyes. "I'll take that up with my parents. Right after I have another go at them over 'young women do not wear pants, they wear skirts.'" She played up her accent a bit at that, and took on the tone of someone clearly mocking a person not present. Shaking her head at Glenn's antics she glanced over at Dr. Stallworth and added, "I might take you up on that offer if this headache doesnt clear up by the end of the meeting."

O'Connor smirked at Ross and stifled a laugh. She definitely enjoyed her Chief Science Officer, though the matter between her and the men she seemed to be choosing was an issue O'Connor might have to carefully watch. Romantic entanglements were fine unless and until they affected the performance of the ship.

Adams walked in, "Captain." and made his way to the empty chair next to Cara.

In Cara's defense, she hadn't meant to cause a stir. She kept telling herself that as Adams took the empty seat at her side. She of course kept her gaze locked on the Captain. Silently screaming 'look i can be professional, honest!' Ross was quite thankful for the lack of obvious telepaths in the room.

Stallworth had smoothed her skirt as she sat , placing the PADD in front of her and looked to the Command staff.

Optional Tags

"Alright, folks. We have our new mission. We're going to be patrolling the Neutral Zone. She turned on a holoprojection of a map of the border between Romulan space and Federation space. She then lifted herself onto her tip toes and pointed to the top left corner of the map. "We're going up here." She then turned to the group and with a hard stare defied anyone to make fun of her height or her inability to effectively reach to where the top of the map was. "I wish I could say that there was something interesting about the area. But I don't see anything. There's some stars and planets out there but any civilizations appear to be pre-warp."

"So, why are we going? Surely there's better missions for a Constitution class vessel should be doing?" Archie asked, frustration evident in his voice.

"Oh, no. Apparently the Excelsiors get everything that's worthwhile. And, did I not tell you when you came on here, Mr. Gates, what doom that you might have consigned yourself to?"

"There's only a handful of Excelsiors in service! Has the stature of the Constitution class fallen down the pecking order so quickly?" Gates knew his protests wouldn't go anywhere but he felt that it needed to be said.

"Constitutions are all being retired as the Excelsiors come out, Commander. You should already know that," O'Connor informed him, perturbed.

Glancing back and forth between the CO and XO, Cara gave a little shrug. The class of ship in and of itself was something approaching 50 years old, if not more. She tried to remember when the first Connie launched, but could only recall that the previous incarnation of the Enterprise set sail in 2245, the day before Admiral Archer died. Like many of the current crop of junior officers and recent graduates in Starfleet, she'd grown up reading the FNN stories of the great Captain Kirk. Its why she liked Connies so much.

"So, does anyone have any questions?" O'Connor wondered. The mission seemed boring and clear enough. She just wondered what she would have to do to keep herself from going crazy.

"Have there been any indications of Romulan activity in the area prior to now? We don't make contact with pre-war civilizations, but the Romulans have never felt restrained by such convictions." This from Ross, whom found herself curious despite the apparent banality of the assignment. The caffeine might have something to do with that.

"I suspect that is Starfleet's concern and why were are going there. Some time ago, we ran into problems with Romulans. You were not there then but Lieutenants Pendragon and T'Pruk were. Their reports are there if you wish to see them, as are mine," O'Connor informed Ross. "Quite a messy mission."

"Do we have any assets in the area?" Gates asked curiously.

As he did, Ross leaned over her padd and made a note to review those mission logs that the Captain had brought up. She was curious as to the answer to Lt. Cmdr. Gates question as well, but had her doubts.

"Assets?" O'Connor asked, throwing back her hair and scoffing. "Yeah, like Starfleet would give me any of those." She looked at Gates with eyes that said, I told you so.

"Clearly" Glenn said. "I'm one of your best assets here!"

O'Connor looked at Glenn and bluntly replied, "You got the first three letters of that second to last word you uttered correctly."

Glenn started to count on his fingers. "Oh... hey!" he exclaimed. "I mean, I know I'm not the 'perfect' officer on the block. But that's just not nice," he crossed his arms and seemed to sulk.

"I'm not nice," the redhead replied matter-of-fact. "And I expect..." O'Connor paused as she looked Radars up and down with a more than skeptical eye, her voice taking on a derisive tone. "....more."

"Captain" Glenn said in a rather surprised tone. "Lets keep its professional shall we? What you want in your own time..." he dropped his voice to a whisper using one hand to shield one side of his mouth as if to share a secret "is your own business... if you want more you need to get out more..." he smirked.

"I don't need to get out anything for you except a magnifying glass, Radars," O'Connor replied with a wicked grin.

Glenn sat there stunned for a few seconds. "Wow. Savage. Just savage Captain, I guess you win this one..."

"Might Ah ask where we are going Cap-tain?" Stallworth asked.

O'Connor turned to the Doctor and said, "Apparently we have free reign on whatever we decide to patrol as long as it is in the area that I pointed. I'm up for suggestions?"

"Maybe, with luck, we discover something of importance, something that puts the Constitution class ships back at the top, captain." Adams suggested.

"Blooming hope so. The class has plenty of life left in her yet!" Gates said with a smirk.

Having been momentarily caught up in the exchange between the Captain and LT Radars, Cara did a slow blink as she mentally attuned to the idea of the actual mission. She offered a small smile to the XO for his enthusiasm and gave a shrug of her shoulders. "I'm sure we can find some sort of fascinating spatial phenomenon out there if nothing else. Those always seem to go out of their way to pop up when things are supposed to be boring."

O'Connor did her best not to yawn. Of course a scientist would appreciate looking for space phenomenon. In truth, that would be much more exciting than a routine patrol. And, if it was something new, she was liable to be excited for a time. However, O'Connor preferred a fight. Why would the Romulans care about a backwater section of the Neutral Zone. Feeling doomed to anonymity, O'Connor merely remained silent, wondering if anyone else had any thoughts.

Adams studied the map closely, and asking himself, ~why would Command send us there? there appears to be nothing of value.~ "Captain. Maybe the Romulans are interested in that sector because it gives them a base closer to Federation territory. From there, they could jump into several key sectors before Command could launch a counterstrike."

"It is Federation space, Lieutenant. There are better locations out there than this remote system." Gates said, verbally slapping the Security chief down.

That what he gets when he opens his mouth around either of them. He simply responded "Yes sir." And kept to himself. But tactically, any area of space that the Romulans could get a foothold in that gets them closer to Federation space is sound.

Wincing, Cara let her leg drift and bump lightly against Adams. She thought it was a decent enough question, though she was a scientist, not a tactician.

Adams took a side glance at Cara and rubbed his leg against hers.

John decided that no matter how the captain treated him, he was going to perform his duties to the best of his abilities. So now he longed for some action to prove himself to the captain, the commander and Cara.

"So, when do we depart for this voyage of excitement, Captain?" Gates asked, so he could prepare the crew.

"As soon as you can get everyone back on board, Commander. Make sure that we are more than adequately supplied," O'Connor instructed him. "You never know what can happen out there."

"Sounds like Ah might be too late for a little extra supplies in the event Sick Bay might become busy this mission?" Stallworth started. "Do yew think Operations could get a rush order of some field supplies before we depart to compensate?"

"Actually, I was going to ask if there was any last requests for me to put to the Station's quartermaster before we left. I can add those to the list, Lieutenant. Anyone else need anything before we leave?" Gates asked the gathered officers.

Looking up at Archie, Cara flashed a brief smile. "My department wouldn't say no to a few sensor diodes. We've been running the lateral array pretty hard lately and I'm worried about potential burn out. If you can wrangle a some, Commander, it'd got a long way toward some peace of mind."

Pleased that her XO seemed to be doing the job competently so far, O'Connor gave him a small nod of satisfaction.

Commander Gates nodded as he made a note of what Cara needed. "Anyone else?" He asked. Looking around the table but avoiding the security chief's gaze. Looking him in the eye might mean he'd have to punch him in the face to wipe the smug look off of it.

Adams could see that Gates was avoiding looking him in the eye. Good thing, he might have to teach him another lesson, except this time, the captain wouldn't be coming to save him from a beating.

Hearing nothing further, O'Connor said, "Very well. You're all dismissed."

Gates grabbed his datapad before standing, he gave the Captain a respectful nod before leaving the briefing room to finalise everything for America's departure.

Stallworth stood and took her datapad, having a smile on her face she started towards the door.

Adams left the briefing room, and headed to the security station on the bridge.

Cara lingered for a moment, deciding to let both the XO and the Security Chief get some distance out of the room before she would follow suit. Standing and adjusting her skirt, she collected her notes, and ducked out, checking to be sure the way was clear before heading down to the main science labs to check on some of her departments work before she was due up on the bridge.

 

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