Next Steps

Posted on 12/01/2023 @ 10:35pm by Captain Cara Letsul & Colonel Jack Patton & Rear Admiral Thomas Rice & Lieutenant Daynah Ral

3,122 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Pages...
Location: Admiral Rice's Office?
Timeline: During Pages

When the trio arrived at the door of Rice's office, Cara motioned for both Daynah and Jack to pause for just a moment or two. She decided to drop the ranks at the moment before they stepped inside. "Jack, even though you had stated that I would or could be placed in charge of the station, it may not be what Star Fleet wants to have happen. There is no guarantee that will happen. We're going to have to see what Admiral Rice has to say." Cara looking up into Jack's face to see his state of mind.

She could see the weariness Jack tried to hide, Cara's gaze softening. She was weary herself, trying hard not to yawn. "I am glad that you arrived though, right in the nick of time I might add."

She turned her gaze towards Daynah. "Are we ready to go in and find out what will be the next steps?"

Jack nodded in agreement with what Cara had said. "You are right. However, I am sure at least for the interim the Admiral will want to do what is best for the station. And that is keeping someone familiar in charge. Someone the rest of the crew knows that they can rely on and trust."

Daynah nodded and smiled at what Jack said. She agreed fully, and thought that there was nothing further to add in that regard. "I am ready I have the sensor reports from the station, as well as other starships in the area who have possibly seen the Glan'To. It is going to be tough to locate the Captain, if we can at all." She added grimly.

Cara squared her shoulders, took a look at both Jack and Daynah, "What you say is true, trying to find a missing person takes a bit of time. Okay, lets get this next part taken care of." she stepped forward and the door immediately opened.

Cara swallowed down the lump that developed in her throat when she caught sight of Tom. She had to shove aside the feelings of guilt and other emotions that were welling up inside. She had to concentrate on the here and now.

"Hello Admiral, we've got a situation as you already know. What is Star Fleet going to be wanting to do in this matter?"

Rice stood at the back of his office and stared out into space. It was as if his staring and thoughts were all that was needed to bring Harrington back. He turned and exhaled sharply through his nose as he made his way to a sideboard. The small table was set with a crystal decanter, an ice bucket, four crystal tumblers and a pair of tongs. He took the tongs tossed a few cubes of ice into one of the tumblers and poured out a generous portion of scotch from the decanter. "Feel free to help yourself we are going to need it." He sipped and sat as a man would if they had the weight of the galaxy on their shoulders, which was how Admiral Rice felt. "Well the first thing that we are going to have to insure is the chain of command on this station. With the Breen, and the reports I have of the New Maquis I have no time to run this place as much as I may want to. So any ideas?"

Jack smiled briefly at the offer of the drink and poured himself one as he sat down. He removed the beret he wore and tussled his hair. Rather than answer the Admiral Jack decided that perhaps Cara would want to field that question.

Being lowest man on the totem pole in this room Daynah decided that she would not speak until spoken to. The scotch looked promising however, she thought it best that she should keep her wits about her right now. So she sat in the seat offered and placed her PADDS on her lap. Something told the Trill that this would be a long evening. The part of her that was former Starfleet Captain Alaryc Ral told her that the entire crew of this station would not stop until they had their Commanding Officer back.

"Well sir." Cara not pouring herself a drink, not even taking a seat as of yet. "An idea had been presented as to my stepping in to fill the gap while the search for Captain Harrington is happening. This would be temporary until he is found and comes back." Cara was hoping that Neil would come back. Already it seemed empty without Harrington being on the station.

"How the Colonel so succinctly put it, the station crew needs someone whom they are familiar with, to be filling that gap. He had also made mention that it would be best that perhaps I be that person instead of him, due to his nature as he has a more military mindset. " Care being direct. "This will all depend on what you, as well as Star Fleet has to say."

"I am going to level with you. Starfleet has written Captain Harrington off as lost in action. As far as they are concerned there is no search, and that as they say is that." Rice held his hand out to quiet any replies as he continued to speak. "All of that said I think that is absolute bullshit. They want to keep their noses clean so the Romulans don't try anything. So, I am going to authorize the search and rescue. But it will be entirely on us. First off the Colonel has the right of it. This station needs a Commanding Officer, and they need one they can trust. With all due respect Jack, the civilians on this station would never go for a Marine in charge it just rubs them the wrong way."

Jack nodded his agreement with the Admiral it was just as he had thought. He did not expect what the Admiral would do next. Rice stood, and took a swig of his scotch. He keyed in some commands into his replicator and two wooden boxes appeared. He did not speak until he returned to his desk. "For all of the reasons I have stated and for so many more I hereby promote you to the rank of Captain and give you command of Poseidon Station. That is if you want it." Rice opened the first box and a single gold pip sat on the velvet as he offered it to Cara.

Cara looked down upon the gold pip, her mind flashing back to the time she had briefly had possession of it, that time seeming to be so long ago. She looked up into Rice's eyes, a determined expression in hers. Cara reached out and took the box into her hand looking down upon it.

"Thank you. Its not the fact of whether I want it or not, its more of the fact that this is necessary. And I do accept it." Cara stated softly as she removed the single gold pip from its cradle of black velvet and attached it to the collar of her uniform. She closed the box and placed it in her pocket. Her eyes raising up to gaze at both Tom and Jack. Then she took a seat. Now that was taken care of, she had a heavy sensation in her heart as well as feeling like she had swallowed a lead balloon. Cara moved over to the table and poured herself a scotch before taking a seat.

She worried for Neil, as well as Adira. Adira... her blood turned cold and her eyes widening. Cara was needing to tell Adira what has transpired.

Rice continued as if he checked off items on an agenda. "Now with that out of the way. Every good Captain needs an Executive to support them. I feel that a military mind would do good here, one to keep this station safe and secure while we mount this extensive search and rescue operation. I now promote you to the rank of full bird Colonel and assign you the post of Executive Officer of Poseidon Station. That is if you want it. And before you ask this promotion does have the full support of Brigadier General Sobel." Rice opened the second box and the starfleet delta with wings was nestled on the green velvet. He presented it Jack Patton.

Jack took the box and affixed the new rank to his lapel. He always wanted to make Colonel. However, he did not want it under these circumstances. "Thank you Admiral. I accept. Now, I think we need to decide how to proceed. Well Captain, what are your orders." He turned to Cara with a smile on his face.

Cara nodded towards Rice's comment as to his statement of an XO, and Jack's smile it gave her comfort. Jack was someone that could be counted on. It also pleased Cara to no end that Jack had an equal ranking. It kept with Neil's desire of having his two XO's of being equal status. Cara's demeanor changed as she took a sip of the scotch, feeling the warmth go down her throat to her stomach, chasing away the sensation Setting the glass down upon the table Cara took in a deep breath letting it out slowly.

"Well Colonel, we let the crew know of the change of command, for the time being. We've got not only the investigation as to where Captain Harrington is at, but we also have the mystery of who murdered Jackson Porter to solve. Commander Valadorn has already intitiated the search to make certain that Captain Harrington is not somewhere on the station. That will be under your purview to decide if that continues or not. Normally that would be under your jurisdiction."

Cara picked up her scotch, to take a sip before continuing. "We will be dealing with some disgruntled citizens as to the shutting down of the station, I can take care of that as well. The duties of the station can still be divided between us, Jack. You still have the Marines to keep watch over as well. Most importantly, we have a strong team upon this station and if we need to spread the duties amongst our department heads in order to keep things running, then we will do so. Much like what Neil has been doing while he was on the station. In how he had divided things up to not weigh him or us down heavily. All this can be looked at is just adjusting what needs to be done."

Cara looked down a the glass that she held in her hand, the amber liquid catching the over head light in its surface, remarking "I will be the one to let Adira know what has happened." her eyes going back up towards Jack. "Another thing is I will be wanting to keep Captain Harrington's office off limits. And most definitely find out who was the last person to have seen Harrington." her voice rather firm. "Comments? Suggestions?"

Daynah stepped forward and projected her map and data to the screen on the Admiral's office. "Sirs... What you are looking at is the last known location of the Glan'To. That is Ambassador Loval's ship. The ship left Poseidon unceremoniously and without clearance. We have no proof but we believe Captain Harrington to be aboard that ship. She proceeded under cloak until she left the system. We managed to track her as the ship had a slow deuterium leak. This line here indicates the course the Glan'To took and the projected course once we lost sight of her. As you can see the Romulans are heading back to their own space. We currently have four ships in the area that could make pursuit all of them have had sensor contacts on what could have been a cloaked Romulan vessel. The USS Pioneer has just left dock and Commodore Malbrooke reports that he saw the Glan'To, the USS Grisson, USS Tomahawk, and USS Serenity all report the same. The Klingons have offered a vessel with a cloak for use in the search and rescue compliments of Chancellor Martok. We lost contact with the Glan'To about an hour ago. I will add that the longer we wait the more likely it will be that we cannot find the Captain or the Glan'To." Daynah stepped back to allow the three senior officers a look at her data after she concluded her report.

Jack stared at the data and took a deep draught of his scotch. "If we leave now it is possible to catch up. I can have two battalions of the Kingsmen ready to depart within ten minutes. However, I would also like to advise that if we get caught chasing the vessel with no proof the Romulans will absolutely take it as an act of war. If we are in a Klingon vessel, the Klingons to save face politically would disavow and state we stole the vessel. We would be in a hell of a situation both physically and politically." Jack turned to Cara when he finished speaking, it was his job to inform her of the risks. Ultimately he knew she would do whatever Rice thought was best. However, she had to made aware as the new Commanding Officer of Poseidon Station.

"Do not forget we do have a Klingon Ambassador, Major Tsinira Vishti and I had given Commander Valadorn permission to send out messages to Klingon ships that are out there. With Chancellor Martok haveing been informed as well. "Cara then shook her head, at the amount of men Jack wanted to put into play.

What had been presented by Daynah as well as what Jack had said and taking in consideration as to the station just climbing out of the repairs from the Breen attack, they couldn't afford to get into another altercation. "Colonel, as much as I would love for you to go into hot pursuit with the two battalions of Marines, and raise havoc, we're going to have to do things a bit more subtley. We have just come out of dealing with the attack of the Breen and can we really risk getting into a fray with a stronger force? I will say no, we can't risk the safety of the station at this time. However, get a small group of people, your best and see if whover you assign to track down the Glan'To and get cracking. That is my own personal feelings and perception on this matter. I do hate the dance of politics, but at this moment we need to sort of play that game. How soon can you put together a team, in order for this to be accomplished?" Cara paused then turned to look at Rice. "This is important, to see about getting the Captain back but it can't be done in a big way. Loval is about subtlety and subterfuge. And he struck whilst we were otherwise occupied."

Cara took a sip of her scotch then remarked, "We also have someone who could possibly have contacts within Romulan space, and that wouid be Lieutenant T'ra Na'vassa. "

"I can have a nine man strike team ready to leave within the hour." Jack replied. He already had the list of names formed in his head. Lieutenant Na'Vassa was on that list. That is if he could pry her away from Captain Thorrin.

"The Pioneer's mission takes them close to Romulan space. We can have Commodore Malbrooke maintain a passive sensor lock on anything that may be the Glan'To this way we have a possible lead to go on." Daynah spoke as she realized the projected course of the Glan'To and the Pioneer were relatively close.

Cara glanced over towards Admiral Rice, "I am of the mind of this happening yesterday." she turned her gaze towards Jack. "Besides T'ra, who would be on the team you are putting together.?"

For only a moment, and yet it seemed like an eternity Jack was going to say that he would be leading this team himself. However, he had a honeymoon and he was sure that his wife would kill him. Then he remembered that this was Neil at stake and Aer would want Jack to bring Neil back safely. "The team would be myself, First Lieutenant Baaru for tactics, First Lieutenant Hill as a Combat Engineer, Sergeant Fitch as our medic, Sergeant Faraday for Demolitions and Heavy Weapons. Finally if my wife will spare her Lieutenant Na'vassa as our Intelligence Officer. A small team to get in and out would probably do the trick." The wheels were already spinning on how Jack would explain all this to Aer.

"Okay sounds like an excellent plan. Time to get to work, and while you go on your mission,Jack, we'll keep things running here. Good hunting, and may you be successful." Cara uttered, she looked towards Tom to see what his thoughts were, if he had anything to comment as to the plan.

Admiral Rice simply sat back behind his desk as the officers spoke. His thoughts were always if you had people who knew their job and knew it well then best sit back and let them do what they do best. This incident was no different. He took the last swig of his scotch and smiled. "Well it seems that you all have it well at hand and the only thing left to say is: Happy Hunting. Dismissed!"

Before leaving the office Jack stood next to Daynah. "Lieutenant get Commodore Malbrooke on the Pioneer. Ask him to keep a sensor lock as you suggested and warn him that he is our first stop." Jack hurried from the office he had a mission briefing to give. But first he had to get to the Klingon Embassy.

Daynah smiled at the order that Jack gave. "Yes sir I will make sure the Commodore keeps a porch light on for you." She turned and left as she headed for Ops and the call she had to make.

Cara watched as Jack, as well as Daynah left looked down at the scotch she held in her hand, lifted the glass to her lips and finished it off. It was her turn to leave, she rose from her seat, looked at Tom, "We'll keep you apprised of the situation Admiral." With that she took her leave, to head to her quarters, before going to see Adira.

Rear Admiral Thomas Rice
Sector Commanding Officer
Poseidon Station

Colonel Jack 'BlackJack' Patton
Commanding Officer, The Kingsmen
Executive Officer
Poseidon Station

Daynah Ral
Chief Strategic Operations Officer
Poseidon Station

Captain Cara Letsul
Poseidon Operations Command
Poseidon Station




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