Something feels out of place (Part II)
Posted on Sat Aug 4th, 2018 @ 10:49am by Ensign Dana Wakefield
Edited on on Sat Aug 4th, 2018 @ 6:33pm
3,770 words; about a 19 minute read
Mission:
Episode 4 - The Sum of Our Parts
Location: Federation Transport Ship
Timeline: MD001 2000 hrs
“You will express my disappointment to the Captain at the way he dealt with my objection, I shall retire to my quarters and you can have the rest of the night off, let your hair down, have fun, your only young.” She said with a smile.
Again, the young man blushed, “Yes, Ma’am.”
Dana nodded at her secuirty detail and as she turned and prepared to leave the bridge, she heard the soft tone of Aiden’s voice.
“Captain, a word if I may please, in your ready room.”
A smile crept across her face, normally she would of loved to give a Captain a dressing down, but her headache had returned and something about watching the operations officer made her feel out of place, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
May 28 2394 2000 hrs (relative time)
Dana’s security escort took up their usual positions outside of her temporary quarters, however before entering she paused and turned to them with a smile.
“Gentlemen, thank you.”
They quickly glanced awkwardly at each other, their initial reaction was that of surprise, did Dana really not thank them or speak to them often?
“You're welcome, Ma’am.” The same man who had earlier stepped in front of her with his phaser raised when the Captain had gone to approach her on the bridge replied. So she assumed he must be her Head of Security.
“Well you can all have the rest of the shift off, go have some fun.”
“With all due respect, Ma’am, not going to happen.”
“But it must be boring just guarding a door, I mean we are on a Federation ship, you're not protecting me from the crew of this vessel.”
“Protocol dictates…”
“Fine, I’ll make it an order if you insist.” Dana snapped, cutting the man off before he could finish.
Again the eye contact between the men was intriguing like this was something out of character for her, but they were beginning to sense that it was quite clear that she was now getting annoyed.
“Wartime rules apply Ma’am; you are a Fleet Admiral in transit, a high-value target. I appreciate the sentiment for my men and me, but we go where you go, even if you're only staying in your quarters, then we stay outside your quarters, you go to the mess, we go to the mess, you go to the holodeck, we go to the holodeck.”
Dana gave a loud audible sigh “Very well; well you can’t say I didn’t offer.” She replied before turning towards the doors; the man smiled pressing the keypad for her.
“Offer appreciated Ma’am, but not needed; we will be relived after our shift, by the next detachment.”
The doors wooshed open, and Dana slowly walked inside, and they just as quickly closed behind her. Glancing around she was amazed; her quarters were spotless, just how on earth did Aiden do it, he hadn’t left her side all morning. ‘impressive’ she thought to herself as she again headed to the replicator.
“Computer, tea, earl grey.”
Dana closed her eyes for a moment, the image of her drinking the tea while curling up on a sofa with some first edition books came to mind, like it was something that she liked to do. But opening her eyes slowly and looking around, there were no bookshelves or books, or rather she hadn’t brought any with her for this mission.
Reaching for her tea, again that feeling that something felt out of place hit her. “Computer, do you recognise my voice?”
The computer gave an acknowledging tone, before responding. “Affirmative, Fleet Admiral, Chief of Operations Dana Wakefield, Sutherland.”
“What? Repeat that last statement.”
The computer gave another acknowledging tone, “Fleet Admiral Dana Sutherland.”
“Computer, is there a record for Dana Wakefield on file?”
“Negative, no current serving or deceased personnel listed as serving in Starfleet as Dana Wakefield.”
Dana gave another sigh, was she going crazy or were things just taking a toll on her, she gently took a mouthful of the earl grey tea, the headache was back and she really did feel like shit, perhaps a quick nap would help, after all, there wasn’t much for her to do until they arrived at the rendezvous coordinates, plus she could dream of the dressing down the Captain would be receiving by Aiden.
-- Captain’s Ready Room –
The two men walked into the Captain’s ready room, both looked full of hell. However Aiden took his position as the Admiral's Executive Assistant extremely seriously, and whatever he had to say had the full weight of the office that he represented, so he didn’t make idle threats. He was always to the point and direct and was never afraid to carry out the promises he would make.
“Captain, about your little outburst on the bridge.”
Everdeen glared at the young man in front of him, he barely looked old enough to be in the uniform, never mind be giving a Captain a dressing down.
“It wasn’t an outburst… I….”
“You questioned the orders of a superior officer, publically on the bridge. You know as a superior officer she could actually take command of your vessel if she so wished. Like any member of your crew, you are expected to follow orders, without question or hesitation when it comes to a superior officer.” Aiden paused for a moment, showing his clear disgust. “I’m sure you would not like to be court-martialled for disobeying orders, especially from a Fleet Admiral.”
The anger in the Captain was building, oh how he hated babysitting and running the brass around, he longed for battle, to kick the Dominion where it hurt, to get revenge for all his lost friends. Then to be dictated to by some young punk ass who was threatening him with a court-martial.
“It’s alright for the errand boy, isn’t it, I bet you haven't even experienced this war first hand, seen your friends die in front of your eyes, spoken to families whom you’ve known for years to tell them that their loved one is never coming home. I look at the casualty list every morning praying that there isn’t going to be any names today, but guess what.” He paused for a second, clenching his fists “There are always names. Every single day, name after name, loss after loss. Hell, there are some at Starfleet that believe we can’t even win this war, that we should surrender, I’ve always followed orders, I will always follow orders, I’ll lay down my life for the ideals of the Federation, but I will also voice my concern or raise concerns when a valid order I give is countermanded, after all, you were the one who gently reminded me that the concern for the Admiral was my number one priority.”
Aiden glared at Captain Everdeen, yes he was young, yes he had a good position, but that didn’t make him any less of a man.
“You may me right Captain, instead I have grown up through the war. Said goodbye to friends who have never come home, to take part in a pointless war, because the Federation needs more fodder. My home planet was taken and destroyed by the Dominion, before the Federation gracefully stepped in to help, then I settled on Earth. You don’t know anything about this errand boy. In the presence of the Admiral you will show her the respect she deserves, you will not question her orders, hell you won't even look at her wrong because if you do, you’ll have me to deal with. And the next words I want to hear from your mouth, are yes sir.”
Everdeen squeezed his fists even tighter until they started to go white, the anger, frustration and the dressing down he had just received from some pumped up smart assed boy was certainly testing his control. “Yes…sir,” he replied through gritted teeth, trying not to let the rage take control.
Aiden smiled “Good, now we both understand each other, I’ll leave you to your business, just inform us when we reach the rendezvous coordinates.”
“Yes, sir.”
Aiden quickly made his exit, but he waited outside the ready room for a moment, just long enough to hear things been flung around the room and the angry scream from the Captain, there was nothing like a fit of range to get the adrenaline pumping and with a smile Aiden headed off, the Admiral had told him, he could have the rest of the day off and to let his hair down and have fun, and well he had the perfect idea, with a smile on his face and twinkle in his eye off he went.
-- Admirals Sutherland Quarters – One Hour Later --
Dana had spent the afternoon going over a pile of paperwork that did not seem to be going down, reports that needed signing off, reassignments, casualty reports. Classified reports from Starfleet Command. Then came the interruption from the door chime, ‘phew, what a welcome break’ Dana thought to herself.
“Come in.” she gently shouted, as she got to her feet.
The doors opened and, in walked Aiden, hands behind his back, Dana had to do a double take as the young gentleman certainly looked more handsome out of uniform, he gave a nod to the security officers as the doors closed behind him.
“I thought I gave you the night off?”
He laughed as he walked closer. “You did.” He said producing a bottle of wine from behind his back, the same bottle that was on the table earlier that morning.
“Then what are you doing here?” she asked, watching as he put the bottle down on the table and approached her.
“Well I thought…” as he suddenly grabbed her and pulled her close for a kiss.
Dana’s heart raced, she wasn’t expecting the kiss, she gently pushed him back with her hands as her instincts kicked as she slapped him firmly across his face.
“What the…” he shouted in shock.
“Security,” Dana yelled at the top of her voice.
Within seconds the doors to her quarters opened, all four security officers darted in, phasers raised as they scanned the room for threats, they didn’t seem concerned about Aiden been there, still scouting the room with their eyes, not noticing a threat. “Ma’am,” the lead security officer asked?
Aiden stood a red handprint firmly visible on the side of his cute, boyish face, two of the security officers couldn’t help but chuckle as they clearly understood the situation. “It’s okay guys, clearly a misunderstanding, the Admiral and I…” he paused not wanting to finish the sentence.
Dana did not look impressed, the kiss had caught her off guard, the security officers were not surprised to see Aiden out of uniform in her quarters, yes there were bottles of wine on the table when she suddenly woke up, but she didn’t recall having a partner, or boyfriend, or lover, in fact, she didn’t even recall the previous day, her head all over the place.
“Sorry, yes, just a misunderstanding, dismissed.”
All four of the security officers smiled as they left Aiden stood there, clearly just looking at Dana with disappointed eyes.
“I’m sorry, but what did I do to deserve that, I followed our agreement to the latter.”
“Agreement?”
“Yes” he said looking at her with puppy-dog eyes, he clearly wanted to hold her or hold her hand but he was reluctant after the slap “We keep our working relationship separate from our personal one, on the clock I’m your executive assistant, off the clock, well for the past several months, I thought we were going well.” He said himself, somewhat confused. “Are you alright Dana, you’ve seemed distracted and not your normal self today?”
Dana didn’t comprehend what was going on, she had clearly upset this young mans' feelings and she felt overwhelmed, tears began to stream down her face. “I’m so…so…sorry” she sobbed as Aiden rushed in a grabbed, placing her head on his chest.
“Hey, it’s fine. You're fine.” He said stroking her hair and kissing her head. “The slap was just a shock, that’s all.” He said just holding her tightly in his scrawny arms.
“Something just feels out of place, I….I…..”
“Shhhhh, it’s okay sweetie.” He said putting his head against hers “Let it out, I know things have been tough on your lately, and this upcoming showdown with your father, I know it's all getting on top of you, but I’m here and don’t worry, in work time I’ll be all professional, but in our own time, I’ll always be here for you.”
Dana rested her head on the young man’s chest, for once she felt reassured, safe. However something in the back of mind was telling her she hadn’t felt like that for some time, suddenly the voice of the computer interrupted the embrace.
“Admiral Sutherland, you have an incoming communique from the Warship Pioneer on a secure channel.”
Dana moved her head and looked at Aiden, she gave him a gentle kiss on the lips and his smile returned. “I’d love a glass of that wine, maybe with something to eat.” As she slowly began to walk over to her computer terminal.
“Of course.” He said with a wide grin on his face.
The Federation logo was displayed as Dana entered her authorisation to decode the transmission onto the terminal.
The logo on the screen was soon replaced by the face of Sophia Meridhia, strategic operations officer for the task force. In this timeline, ranked Commander, she had stepped up and taken responsibilities which in a calmer and more peaceful environment she had wholeheartedly rejected. "Admiral, we've had a problem", she started. "We're detecting a temporal anomaly at the site of the Cardassian station we've come here to neutralise. We're also noticing several Cardassian starships forming up and heading its way."
"Disturbing news Commander, but nothing I can do until I arrive and take command of the Pioneer, speaking of that, how is my father Captain Sutherland going to take the news, and what the about the crew, can you envisage any problems?" she asked, as the last thing she wanted on a warship was a disgruntled crew.
Sophia shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't spoken to him about it." And it wasn't something that was first and foremost in her mind. "Admiral, the task group is reporting full readiness. Once you have arrived, we'll be able to proceed at Warp 7, the speed of our slowest ship, the Guernica." The ageing Excelsior class was long overdue for an overhaul of her warp engines, but pressing war concerns had always delayed that. However, the Guernica was still capable of Warp 8. Sophia's data was inaccurate on purpose. She didn't trust that the channel was truly safe and secure, and enemy responses to intercepting patterns should tell her later whether her suspicion had been correct.
"Good work Sophia, this mission has to work or the Federation could just be something assigned to the history books, no matter the positive spin we put on things, we are losing this war and we need a victory." Dana shook her head, "However, Commander, I need to know about the Captain, I know you haven't spoken to him about it, but you are there, you're serving under him and with his crew at the moment, how do you think they will take it, the last thing I want is a mutiny or some daft loyalty to their Captain bullshit." she stated just as the sound of a plate breaking interrupted the seriousness on her face.
"They're trained Starfleet personnel", Sophia responded. "Yes, we've been at the front lines longer than most, and the stress is showing, but we all know that our survival depends on our ability to work together as a unit. The rest is between you and your father. I will not get involved."
"Well, you're not one to usually hold back. This anomaly must have you worried, old friend. I want you to get as much information on it as you can, upon my arrival I want a full briefing and update, coordinate with the rest of the Task Force, update them on the situation, if we don't destroy and neutralise this threat, then this war is all but certainly over, the Federation will have no option but to surrender, that's if the Dominion would even consider a surrender, or if they would just wipe us out, something I do not want to contemplate"
"It is disconcerting. Something's not right. I can feel it isn't", Sophia said. "But I've never been one to trust in feelings alone. I should know more by the time you get here. If you can, I think it would be better sooner than later."
Dana nodded, in agreement. She was glad that she was not the only one who felt like something was not right here, things were just not adding up, some things felt familiar like when she was at the operations station on the bridge and other things felt off, like Aiden. "I feel the same, a feeling I can't shift or something I can not put my finger on, but I feel uneasy. Something strange is going on Commander and we need to find out, in the meantime, I'll get the helm to increase speed to maximum warp, I want you prepared for my arrival Commander, we do not have time to waste on this one."
"Depending on how we play it, we might have all the time in the world", Sophia responded. It was a temporal anomaly, after all. "Certainly enough time for you to properly chastise whoever just broke your precious china."
Dana blushed for a moment "It better not be my best China, I think he knows that would be worth more than his life." she said with a grin "Right, sweetie?" she yelled slightly turning her head towards Aiden.
"It's not your china," a sweet, young voice shouted back.
"See I'm getting him trained," she said with a blush, she could never keep anything from Sophia, and even if she tried, somehow she always managed to find out.
"Makes me wonder if you wouldn't be better off doing these things yourself", Sophia remarked. Of course, she knew there was a different game at play, but she pretended not to understand. She wondered how much trouble all this inane chatter would give Dominion analysts trying to figure out what the content of their conversation was. All of this was being transmitted encoded, and the more nonsense was sent along with the actual content of the message, the harder it would be for them to make sense of it all.
"You've tried my cooking first-hand Commander, why do you think we normally stop by a replicator or restaurant these days." she chuckled, but then her expression changed, she remembered enjoying cooking, having lessons from a Chef, but they seemed displaced, out of order, much like the whole day.
"Maybe you can recommend someone who'll help organise my things as well", Sophia said. "But not some pretty face who drops everything left right and centre, that seems to be more your forte." The sarcasm was obvious in her voice, but it was accompanied by an amused smirk.
"I don't think you would be content with just the one," Dana replied smirking back. "Anyway Commander, you have your orders, I'll be arriving by the morning at the latest, sooner if we can remain cloaked and pick up speed, but we just encountered a large fleet of enemy ships that nearly detected us," she said recalling the incident on the bridge.
"It will give me time to compile a full report of the situation and our capabilities", Sophia replied, her tone back to business. "I'm looking forward to going over all of it over breakfast if you think you can stomach food from my trusty old replicator."
"You know, as long as there is coffee, then there will be no stopping me, and be careful Sophia, try and stay in one piece until I arrive."
So far, they had the Dominion chasing sensor echoes half a sector away. Cloaked probes, emitting enough subspace signals to pretend to be an entire fleet. It was an old trick but as long as the Dominion vessels didn't get too close to identify the signals as phoney, it would work to keep them occupied, wondering what target Starfleet was preparing to strike. "Definitely my preferred state of being", Sophia agreed. "Enjoy your aide. Meridhia out."
Dana reached for her communicator and gently tapped it,
=/\= Bridge, take up to maximum warp, we need to get to rendezvous as soon as possible. =/\=
A few seconds went by before she got a reply.
=/\= Ma'am, I can maybe shave a couple of hours off our arrival, but anything higher and we risk detection, or we could drop the clock and go straight to warp 8 but we would ping every enemy ship and sensor net. =/\=
Dana sighed, =/\= A couple of hours earlier is better than nothing, Sutherland out. =/\=
Turning and giving a weak smile to Aiden, she looked exhausted, he gave her a smile back as he plated up some food and poured them some wine.
"How about we eat, have a glass, then just cuddle up until morning," he said noticing how weary and exhausted she looked.
Dana smiled and walked over to him and kissed him on the side of his cheek "That sounds wonderful and a welcome distraction."
Aiden pulled the chair out for her, like a proper gentleman "Well you deserve it my love." he said and he leant in for a kiss as she sat down.
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Junior Grade Dana Wakefield
Chief Operations Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Junior Grade Sophia Meridhia
Chief Counselor, Empok Nor
PNPC Niall
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