Pioneer rescue?
Posted on Wed Oct 3rd, 2018 @ 7:19am by Captain Winfield Hood
Edited on on Wed Oct 3rd, 2018 @ 8:31am
1,255 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Episode 4 - The Sum of Our Parts
Location: Ops Empok Nor
Timeline: MD004 1030 hrs
Tags: Empok Nor
October 14 2395 1030 hrs (actual time)
Wilhelmina Had been on Empok Nor for about a week, her and a small group of new Marines, meant to add to the already substantial complement on the USS Pioneer.
And then she had been told, much to her dismay that her new ship had in fact gone missing. And while she was sure that star fleet was doing all it could to find the poor ship and her crew. Both the act of sitting around and waiting and seeing all those nice shiny run about sitting around had given the Gunnery Sergeant a ideal. She had spent a few hours asking around, being slowly handed off up the chain of command.
And finally she stood in Ops in front of the pair of large golden doors of the captains office. Stopping herself from knocking, instead pressing the page button on the door, and waiting to be beckoned in.. or told to go away.
Hood was pacing in his office, he was frustrated with everything about this command. In six months he had lost two ships. The USS Juno to being reassigned and the USS Pioneer to god knows what. What made matters worse was that the brass was coming down on him hard. Like Voyager the refused to give up hope that the Pioneer was still out there. He hated that he had to look at some of the family members of the crew of the Pioneer, they were under his command after all. But he had to find them. When the chime to his office went off he almost bellowed for the person to go away. But, he took a deep sigh and centered himself. "Come!" he bellowed.
A young woman wearing the uniform of the Starfleet Marine Corps entered. "Alright Gunny what do you need?" Hood asked rather curtly as he sat behind the desk. He had no time for pleasantries with this Marine or anyone else for that matter.
The redhead came in gave her salute and was going to wait for the commanding officer to finish up anything he had to say. But he actually beat her to being done, Mina making a mental note that the Captain was understandably not in a good mood and that she might want to dial back some of her normal chattiness.
"Thank ye sairrr, Ah was suppose tae transfer tae th' pioneer wi' a few other marines under mah commmain, which ay coarse is difficult. oan th' coont ay it bein' missin'. sae noo Ah hae half a dizzen marines sittin' aroond wi' thaur thumbs up." She seamed to pause, clearly thinking better of finishing what she was saying. "Sittin' oan uir hans Captain, an' Ah notice th' station has some runaboots 'at are likewise nae bein' used. Ah was wonderin' if mebbe Ah coods barraw them an' some pilots tae go lookin' fur th' pioneer."
She held out a PADD to the captain. "Ah awreddy plotted a search pattern, based on th' pioneers mission, lest knoon location an' locations ay interest in th' area. an' made sure nae tae tak' to much risks with th' runaboots, would dae us nae guid tae hae tae search fur th' search party."
Hood liked this woman, she had what his great grandfather would have called balls. He leaned forward and rested his head into his hands when he looked up at the Marine he could see that she was actually serious. "I appreciate the push to get out there and do something. The thing is there is only two possibilities of what happened to the Pioneer. None of which a group of Marines could help with. The first is that the ship was out right destroyed. The other they were lost to some sort of temporal paradox or some such. What do you think a bunch of gorram Marine could do that that a fleet of Starfleet vessels, and a fleet from the DTI could not?" Winifield did not mean to burst the woman's bubble but someone had to. For a Marine she seemed to have her head up in the clouds.
She took a deep breath and unextended her hand holding the PADD, going back to parade rest as she let out the breath. "Aye, yer reit Ah suppose. cannae shit a temperal paradox Ah can ye. Ah guess aam.. we are jist frustrated, ye most likely mair than the rest. sorry tae hae bothered ye sairrr, but lit me ken if thaur is anythin' Ah can dae tae help."
She gave him another salute, holding until she was dismissed or told otherwise.
"At ease Gunny. Have a seat and let me look at that PADD." Hood said as he pointed to a seat in front of his desk. He was pretty sure he was still going to shoot the plan down, but, he would be a piss poor commander if he did not at least hear the woman out. He read what she had in silence, and in truth it was a good plan. Just a plan that lacked a scientific mind. "This is an excellent plan, but it has been done, and with scientists. However, it has been almost a year and science has gotten us no where closer to finding Malbrooke, his crew, or that ship. So perhaps the braun and bravado of the Marine Corps will accomplish what science could not." He cocked an eyebrow and smirked at her. "So you say you have a squad at your disposal?"
She did sit down, leaning forward a little to listen "aye, myself fowr other marines an' medic, Captain."
"What if I told you I was going to send you out there but with some minor tweaks to your mission plan? Your orders would be to find out what the Cardassians were up to when the station went up. They are being real hush hush about it and it annoys the crap out of me. If you find the Pioneer along the way then you can transfer over of your own accord. However, if you or any of your team are caught I will disavow giving you these orders. We cannot be caught doing anything covert against the Cardassians. What would you say to that?" He smiled broadly. Winifield Hood had thought that he could kill two birds with one stone.
She managed to hide all but the smallest of a smile. "It's a damn sham 'at Ah was suppose tae transfer tae th' pioneer, Ah woods hae liked it aroond haur." She got up taking the PADD with her, after all it would not do to actually have it left behind. "It's a damn braw plan, aam glad Ah thooght ay it. If there's nae anythin' else sairrr. i'll go gie mah search team ready."
"You do that Gunny. Inform the Quartermaster that you are leaving on a SAR mission. Take the runabout Williamette" Hood stood up and smiled at the woman. "Oh and Gunny Happy Hunting"
She gave him a simply two fingered tip of her Nonexistent hat before heading out of the office and to the turbo lift out of ops.
A Joint Post By
Captain Winfield Hood
Commanding Officer, Empok Nor
Gunnery Sergeant Wilhelmina Wilson
First Sergeant/Rifle Fire Team 2 Leader, USS Pioneer
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