There's more going on here than you know...

Posted on Mon Mar 31st, 2025 @ 7:46pm by Captain Jason Elliot & Lieutenant Commander Jorel Torin II

1,303 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: A new era - Time for change
Location: Officer's mess
Timeline: Day 1 1644 hrs - 7 hours after arriving

On:

Jason was sitting at the large table in the officers mess hall, he hadn't eaten since very early in the day. He found himself eating a sandwich and salad. He'd managed to dodge a large number of reports about system damages, the debris field that was was about a third of a light year away. He sat back taking a drink of lemonade he'd ordered. He managed too finally relax. His thoughts were interrupted by the hiss of the door.

Jorel walked into the mess hall and walked over to the replicator to order a Bajoran meal that he remembered from his early years working with several Bajoran diplomats back on Earth. Once it came out fresh, Jorel grabbed the plate and headed out to see where he could seat.

Walking over to the Captain, Jorel said, "May I take a seat with you, sir? The rest of the Mess Hall appears to be crammed pack."

"Sure thing Jorel, it's been a long day huh?" Jason said trying to be informal in this setting.

Jorel put his plate on the table in front of him and pulled out a seat to sit down. Thinking about it for a moment, Jorel chuckled and replied, "Everyday is a long day when you work as a diplomat or a Captain. There's always something going on. How about yourself? Long day with everything that has happened?"

"Today wasn't exactly what I expected, I figured a little flag waving and we could just coast through the rotation on too our next assignment truthfully, Then again I've started to expect far worse of late." Jason said he plunged his fork into the salad "I guess since the Campor fiasco I should learn to expect anything."

"Well, at least we can't say that we're bored or anything. It seems like we've always got something fun going on!" Jorel replied as he took a bite of his own meal as he thought about everything that has happened over the last few weeks and months. Looking back at Jason, Jorel asked, "What's our next steps out here anyways?"

"We're far enough from federation space that a trip back through the corridor is the only way home, but I want to get a look at the debris field, including why we got Romulan readings." Jason paused to sip at his beverage, "There aren't many records that we have access too of this part of space so some base line scans for a follow up mission."

"I'd like to see what those scans say as well because I'd like to know why the Romulans were doing out here too. I'm going to see what species are around, so I can maybe reach out to some of my contacts out here," Jorel said, taking a few sips of his own drink.

Jason looked too the diplomat "I'm tempted to launch the Lancaster to allow for the repairs to continue, it also keeps the resource drain to the minimum." he hinted too the other man.

"Oh? I'm intrigued with that! If you go, would you mind if I tag along? Cause, otherwise, I'd just be doing paperwork and reaching out to my contacts. I'd love to be more helpful than with the paperwork," Jorel said with a chuckle.

Jason felt he had made a decent decision, "I can spare Ms Wiseman and three maybe four of the relief crew I might be able to scrape up a full crew engineers to." Jason paused "How soon can you fill the other vacancies?"

Jorel had to think about it for a moment, as it wasn't something he had worked on in a little bit. "I could probably get some people in within the next few days to a week. Just depends on how many we're looking to fill out and where."

Jason smiled, "We're out in the middle of nowhere and this isn't a major mission at the moment, it's a simple recon mission, thirty minutes out couple of hours to poke around and see if we need a more extensive follow up and back, Wiseman is fully rated on an Aquarius class and I think it's time for you to be more than just a diplomat, you're more than a capable officer." Jason paused taking a sip off the drink "Personally I think it's time you step out into a larger role here, you're more than capable."

"So you ready for the center seat?" Jason said looking squarely across at Jorel.

Jorel almost choked on his own meal for a moment and looked at Jason. He pointed to himself and asked, "Who, me? I've never actually thought about it. It would be an awesome and amazing experience, as it's something that I've never done before."

Jorel thought about it for a moment, remaining silent as he thought. Once he was ready, Jorel asked, "Would you ever trust me in the center seat?"

Jason smiled and looked across the table, "I think your ready to prove to others you can be trusted and they'll trust you because I'm letting you take command of this mission, plus I need someone to keep an eye on Lieutenant Wiseman and it can't be me." he finished with a laugh.

Jorel smiled for a moment before he replied back to Jason. He never knew that he was trusted in such a way, but glad that he had the confidence of the Captain. Jorel looked at Jason and replied, "Okay, lets do this then. Also, what's going on with Wiseman that I should know about?"

Jason paused for a moment, he didn't want to get into what he was fairly sure that Annika had suspected about a number of things, "She's ready to start spreading her wings as well, she scored insanely high with the bridge officer exams, she beat my score by twenty points alone, but she doesn't have the experience and I don't want her getting trigger happy."

"I actually took the Bridge Officer's Exam with my Diplomatic exams when I was at the academy. I think that I scored somewhere in the top 10% of my class for that exam, but I'd have to look back to see what I actually scored on it. But, I can understand wanting to be diplomatically sound before fighting," Jorel replied, as he knew the importance of making friends, especially in a new area of space.

Jason snickered, "That's why you're going, she has the tactical know-how but isn't a strong diplomat and to be honest you can't learn diplomacy from a book."

Jorel chuckled and replied, "No, it's definitely something you've gotta learn. Over my few years in the universe, I've learned that forging alliances is one of the toughest jobs you could ask for and it makes for a good Captain. I definitely appreciate you trusting me in the center seat. Just let me know if and when you'd like me there and I'll be there."

Jason smiled "I'll Let Annika know to meet with you soon as possible, she has a rough mission plan for the debris field."

"Yeah, just have her meet me down in my office whenever she's free and we'll go from there. That way, we can discuss this plan of hers," Jorel offered up as he took the last few bites of his meal.

"Done deal, I'll let her know." Jason said as he stood spoke "Good luck."

"To all of us. Lord only knows we'll all need a bit of luck," Jorel said with a smile before he got up and returned his plate back to the replicator and headed out of the officer's mess to get some ideas together before meeting with this Intel Officer.

[OFF:]

Lieutenant Commander Jorel Torin II
Chief Diplomatic Officer
USS Columbia

&

Captain Jason Elliot
Commanding Officer
USS Columbia

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