When things happen...

Posted on Sat Dec 30th, 2023 @ 9:40pm by Lieutenant Commander Jason Elliot & Lieutenant JG Mario Pranjić & Ensign Annika Wiseman & Commander Chalan Kendri
Edited on on Sat Dec 30th, 2023 @ 10:33pm

1,946 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: Campor III - Resupply
Location: Intelligence Office - Jason's Office
Timeline: MD C20 1706hrs

On:

Annika didn't sleep all that well, she'd hit the breaking point with things and she had made her decision. She poked her head in the door, "Can we talk boss?"

Jason looked up from the report he was writing up, "What can I do for you?"

Annika sat across from Jason and spoke "Back when we first met you agreed that if I wanted out you'd let me leave, I want to resign."

"Okay, so did you want to go back to medical?" Jason said reclining back on his chair

"No, from Starfleet." Annika removed he rank pip and commbadge, "I'm done, this is too much for me."

Jason looked at the desk then at Annika, "Are you sure about this, since this isn't something I want to take lightly."

Annika looked at the floor then up at Jason, "It is, when we depart I'm officially done with Starfleet, this whole thing just has me wanting to walk away maybe find some small clinic, maybe raise a family, I just don't want to be here anymore, the whole mess and it's fallout has been too much for me."

"Okay, I can put it in the system, I'll put your status as inactive and allow you too think things over, and I'll let you return to your quarters I do want you to think it over." Jason said then adding "I know things went off a cliff but I want you to think it over."

"Thank you sir, I think this is the right move for me now my mind won't be changed." Annika said as she stood up, "Thank you sir."

Jason stood up and looking at Annika "Good luck then."

As she exited Jason sat back down and looked at the report he was writing, It was Annika's evaluation. He looked at the report and reread it. He made two amendments and read it to himself;

Should Ms Wiseman decide to return to Starfleet, especially intelligence I would like for her to be given the chance to pursue the command program in the future as she shows the calm and collected behaviors' that would make an excellent team leader and eventually ships captain.

Jason closed the file and sat back he saw Mario standing at the door "Looks like she's out." Mario said pointing at the desk.

"Yup, she wants out." Jason said pulling out a bottle of whiskey and two glasses

Mario sat down "I'd be surprised but you were a mess after the Blackburn, so was I, that wasn't exactly what we signed up for."

Jason slid the glass across, "I don't think she's going to leave, she needs too process and having bodyguards doesn't help, I'll give her a few days and let her make a final decision."

Mario had a bit of a glazed over look so Jason decided to take a shot, "Has that nurse been keeping you up?"

"huh...what....Uh...sort of." Mario said sheepishly "She has a lot of energy at times."

Mario snapped back into the moment, "Why the hell am I drinking this? I'm on stand by today."

Jason looked at his friend, "You haven't been this mixed up since Hong Kong, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think so." Mario said setting the drink down.

Jason looked at his friend, "I think you need to see a doctor, you might be under the other influence."

Mario shot a glance over at his friend, "She assured me she's doing her injections maybe the chaos is just finally catching up too me."

"If you start showing signs of green fever I'm having locked in the brig." Jason said "You get a little nuts when it comes too the women regardless of race, don't over do it okay?"

"Deal." Mario said as he was about to stand, "I think I'll grab a coffee, you want one?"

"Yeah...I don't think I should be drinking this stuff either." Jason said as he set down the glass.

As Mario filled two cups with coffee he paused, "Is someone there?"

"Just me, gentlemen, stay as you are," Kendri said as she walked in the Chief Intelligence Officer's office. "Celebrating something?" she asked as she noticed the still full glasses of whiskey.

Jason looked up, "Not exactly, Ensign Wiseman just stepped down, I think she spent too much time internalizing a lot of things and it started to creep out in various ways."

"Stepped down?" Kendri questioned. "I haven't seen her put in a request for reassignment. Does she need a leave of absence?"

Jason shifted in his chair as Mario slid a cup of coffee over to him, "I told her to take a couple of days, think things over, and if she didn't want to change I'd file her request as part of the evaluation I was filing on her." He took a massive haul off the coffee, "Mario and I were comparing our own experiences after the whole Blackburn matter and how things changed."

Mario chimed in "Our respective career paths' changed, she's a capable officer and will be up there some day, I'd hate for her to leave."

"I'll have her come in for a chat before her evaluation is due. It's not been an ideal set of circumstances for our youngest officers to be out there on their first missions during a lot of what's been happening here," Kendri opined. "Especially what happened to you. A stabbing is a lot different than taking a hit from a phaser fire. The person behind the knife usually carries a lot more malice. To see that first hand as one of your first Starfleet experiences... I don't know. Maybe we should have pulled her altogether for awhile," Kendri wondered out loud.

Jason mused on his reply "After Deep space three got bombed I did take some time off, again, I was going to resign, maybe go teach history or something but I got brought back, here to be exact."

"Yes, I know," Kendri responded. "We knew exactly who we were bringing aboard for our senior staff. Jason was on the short list to command of picks for their Chief Intelligence Officer. Even so, she had checked in on Jason often during his early days back just to make sure he was emotionally ready.

"We won't let Ensign Wiseman slip away that easily. I'll see if she will talk to me. If not, I know she has several friends on board," Kendri stated, genuine concern for the young officer in her voice.

Kendri's tone changed as she shifted topics. "I'm sure you didn't think I popped in just to say hi, we've got some leads. Lieutenant Pranjić, I'm glad you're here. One of them involves assessing the risk of sending out the recon flight team."

Mario's tone changed, "What kind of flight did you want to plan Commander?" he said with a wicked grin.

Kendri put a holoimager on the table and turned it on, a map of the Western Hemisphere of Campor III appeared in front of them. She zoomed in to Campor City and the surrounding area.

"There is a large pyramid shaped structure just a little over 11 kilometers north of the city. It's a drop off point for large shipments of armaments. From there they go to discreet places for interested buyers to purchase," Kendri explained.

"If we can figure out when the next shipment is due, it might be useful to determine as much as we can about them. If we can figure out where they came from and where they were headed that could lead us to who is behind the attacks on Campor III," Kendri explained. "I want to emphasize that any recon work needs to be minimal risk. This information is not worth anyone's life. If the risk level heads that direction, whoever is running the mission needs to pull the plug."

Mario looked at Jason, "We could do a couple of passes, get a lay of the land, get some infrared images and other stuff, then make a second pass if we have too to come up with a plan," looking to Jason "We'll need to come up with an insertion plan afterwards."

"Since we don't want to have a repeat of that other time we should get Buster and Crunch to fly cover on pass one..." Jason said looking at Mario

"I assume we're going to put boots on the ground if we get the desired results?" Mario said then added "Are you looking for vehicle traffic as well?"

Kendri shook her head. "I'm not sure I want boots on the ground that close to a weapons warehouse during a shipment. I'm hoping security and ops will be able to handle any ground traffic - if any - with our ships sensors. We have marines watching the major cities around the clock."

"We still suspect the Breen." Kendri zoomed out on the global map showing the surrounding space. "But we don't have any evidence of the Breen -- putting their own boots on the ground -- so to speak. The shuttle delivering the shipment should have a ship nearby."

Mario looked at some of the images, "Smugglers moon?"

"The outer planet if they are doing that, but why wouldn't we have seen them by now?" Jason commented.

Kendri shrugged, "They could be coming and going. Or possibly using cloaking technology outside of range. There are a lot of unanswered questions. Maybe this will get us one step closer. Starfleet isn't going to let us make a move without hard evidence."

Mario pondered the displays, "Let's hit the outer planets, I'll have a mission plan on the board in a couple of hours."

Kendri nodded. "Very well. You have whatever resources you need at your disposal."

Mario stood up, "I'm assuming we're on the clock?"

"The Captain's source is a Ferengi named Nez he met in Campor City, who we happened to run into again when the Ferengi in their settlement hosted us for dinner," Kendri stated. "The shuttle with the new shipment is scheduled to arrive in two days at approximately 1430 Federation Standard Time. It'll be dark in the city then."

"Two day window and that's not knowing when the ship would turn up." Jason commented

"That's at least eight flights in 48 hours, we're going to be spread really thin." Mario concluded.

"Only as much as you can. I don't want a group of sleepy pilots out there. Reach out to flight control if you want them to do any preliminary sweeps," Kendri stated. "I thought the easiest way would be to try to track the shuttle after it makes the delivery and see where it goes."

She looked at Mario, "Nothing fancy this time. We've been out here this long, we can wait for the next round if this one is a bust. Same goes to you, Elliot." She looked at the two officers. "Send me what you come up with, and let me know who and what you need. Anything else before I get out of your hair?"

Jason looked at the Commander "I think we'll need to find a way to reduce the flights in half, but other than that I think we're good."

Kendri smiled. "You must be reading each other's minds right now, because I don't know what number you're talking about halving," Kendri said amusement in your voice. "I'll take a look at what you guys get together." She gave a nod to them both before leaving the intelligence office.

End

Commander Chalan Kendri
Executive Officer

Lt Jason Elliot
Chief Intelligence Officer

Lt Mario Pranjic
Reconnaissance Pilot

Annika Wiseman
(Inactive)

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