Working..
Posted on Tue Dec 26th, 2023 @ 6:14pm by Major Cornelius Tremble & Corporal Andrew Shy
Edited on on Tue Dec 26th, 2023 @ 9:19pm
0 words; about a 1 minute read
Mission:
Episode 15 - The Evil That Lies Beneath
Location: Executive Officer's Office - Deck 2 - USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD003 0900 hrs
Neil paced his office, glancing occasionally at Romney as she stood to one side.
Or at least appeared to. He’d ordered her to begin sifting through available external data only on secure storage sight on Solovei, a remote, moon in the Peliar system. The site, known affectionally as Site E62017Y223, was a storage hub for Quantum torpedos and had been targeted as a Red Team target.
Neil had other things on his plate and the job needed farming out. He’d thought of detailing one of the Cure or someone out of the Intel shop, but the first mission out of the gate he wanted to ensure no bias in information gathering would be used.
He was sure bias wouldn’t be on purpose, but still putting together the preliminary brief wasn’t a bad way to put the AI to use. His HUD flickered and gave him the heads up that Corporal Shy was approaching. Neil activated the door as Shy’s reached out to announce himself.
Feeling trepidation at being called to the Major’s office, Andrew tried to quiet his mind. Shore leave hadn’t been restful and he still felt like he had the Doom of Damocles hanging over his head. He’d expected a chewing out from the COB. Andrew had even expected the Captain to call him on the carpet.
He hadn’t really thought Neil would call him out… Andrew dried his hands on his pants legs as he approached the XO’s office and reached out to trigger the annunciator when the door slid open.
“Corporal Shy,” Neil said, not quite using his parade ground voice. “Drag your carcass in here, Marine.”
Swallowing, Shy complied, stepping through the door which slid shut rather loudly as he came to attention and said, “Corporal Shy, reporting as ordered sir.”
Neil let his old friend stand there for a few beats, then said, “At ease. We’ve known each other long enough that I’m not going to chew your backside more than needed. But I need to know why you’re still in Hack. I know the new Counselor is a bit…”
“Too much?” Andrew asked, trying to be helpful.
“Like a Torb offering to only chew off part of your arm,” Neil agreed, moving to lean a hip against his desk. “Still, we’ve all dealt with them picking through our brains. You still having problems from the mission?”
Andrew thought about that. Thought about how long he’d known the Major, regardless of the difference in their rank and then shrugged and said, “Some.”
“Some…like the new Counselor is something like a Tory, regardless of being an excellent counselor and your one true path to redemption? Is you drahk that chunked up, Drew? I’ve looked at your medical and it’s mostly fine.”
“Mostly,” Andrew peered at the major.
“You’re getting old and fat,” Neil told him dead pan. “Your last runs have been slow and you’re it looks like your mind is wandering on the various training SIM’s we’ve been running to step everyone back up after that downtime. The filters tell me you’re easily distracted and your response times are off.”
Andrew bit his lip and looked away as Neil’s eyes bored into his, “It’s not that bad sir.
“Aye,” Neil sighed. “And not that good. You’ve got to get this taken care of. I can’t sign you off. And you’re leaving a hole in my bridge coverage because you can’t stand your rotations while this is hanging over your head, Drew. You can train, but you can’t go on missions either. It boils down to you either getting yourself cleared or transferring out. Detachments are too small to have one member in hack.”
Andrew knew the Major was right. He met the major’s eyes and then nodded. “Yessir.”
“Make the appointment or I’ll sick Lachlan on you. And make you go to see the Counselor without filters.”
Andrew gave the major a weak smile and said, “Yessir,” again and then turned as Neil waved at the door.
“Alright, go forth and sin no more, Drew,” Neil said as he looked at his friend. “And if the counselor can’t un-jack your brain, we’ll hit the gym and see if we can’t sweat things out.”
Drew paused, almost out of the door and nodded, then headed toward his quarters.
Sighing, Neil watched the door close and pinched the bridge of his nose. He spared another glance toward the AI then said, “Right. Rommie, tell Lieutenant Vura to haul herself up here, yeah?”
The AI”s eyes opened and glanced toward him and asked in her economical tone, “Using those words or more polite, Major?”
“Meh,” Neil said as he walked over to look at one of the wall-monitors, examining the current and varied internal system sensor feeds. “Whatever gets her up here post haste.”
“Aye aye,” Major, the Ai responded, her eyes closing.
Neil traced a pathway on the monitor, opening up the feed from Engineering. If trouble was going to start, there was a better than even chance that it would star there for some reason…
Then a stray thought came to him and he said, “Rommie, also set an appointment later in the second watch for a meeting with the Commodore.”
She didn’t acknowledge and Neil didn’t feel the need to check and he went back to pulling open holo-folders on the Engineering section and glancing through crew profiles to make sure he wasn’t missing anything.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was missing something…
A Joint Post By
Major Cornelius Tremble
Executive Officer, USS Pioneer
Commanding Officer, The Cure
Corporal Andrew Shy
Tactical Systems Operator, Team 2, The Cure
USS Pioneer
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