Freesia

Posted on Sun Jun 18th, 2023 @ 4:14am by Commander Grace Vetur & Lieutenant Commander Yivliph Ra-Gruvloveii & Lieutenant Percival Bálor Ph.D

1,907 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: The Bandits of Black Rain
Location: Commander Vetur's Quarters

The off the clock, off the books meeting that Percy had orchestrated had been fruitful, ripe with alternatives to Grace's orders and line of thought, but it was a meeting she had not sanctioned nor participated in. Percy took it upon himself to seek out Grace and provide her a summary of what they had determined was a good course of action as an alternative. Fortunately, Percy would not have to do it alone. Yiv was not about to let Percy jump onto the pile of ten swords alone.

Grace had not been in the Captain's Ready Room, and Zero had been the officer of the watch on the bridge. A quick consulting with the Ontario's helpful ship's computer had tracked Grace's whereabouts to her quarters. Great Percy had thought, they'd interupt her evening with news of his betrayal and undermining her orders.

He walked the corridor with the tall sturdy Efrosian to lean on which Percy had done literally in the turbolift, but metaphorically speaking, leant on Yiv often in times of woe. There was arguably no worse woe than that of disappointing the Commander. "I'll try to take the brunt of it" Percy said to Yiv as he pressed the door chime.

'Nonsense,' replied Yiv curtly. 'In for a penny, in for a pound, as your forefathers would have said.'

Percy took a deep breath. It was only a matter of time, Grace was going to answer, and then Percy would have a lot to answer for. "It's me, you favorite Botanist, Commander" added Percy with a snort.

Grace was going over the most recent sensor scans to see if she could help find a potential direction the pirate ship had taken. She was still hopeful Percy would come up with something viable, but she half expected he would once again take a short cut that wasn't strictly within Starfleet regulations. Or even close to them.

When her door chimed, she asked the computer to continue the search and then open the door.

She stood, her gut telling her she wasn't going to like whatever the person on the other side of the door had to tell her.

As the doors swished open with their customary pneumatic hiss, Yiv prepared his most dazzling smile. 'Commander Vetur,' he ventured, 'could we have a moment of your time?'

"Yes," Percy added glancing at Yiv who took the lead in politely asking Commander Vetur for a moment of her time. "Forgive me mother for I have sinned" quipped Percival Bálor jestfully. He smiled at Grace and could tell she was cautious but going to welcome them in though she'd want pretenses.

Percy glanced down either end of the corridor. "Commander, I'm sorry, but I funnily enough, got a bit pigheaded. I met with some individuals in private to discuss alternative options. Though it would have been ideal to have all options presented to you at our briefing, I felt like some tongues were being held as to not offend you. The crew respects you. I respect you, but frankly you can be a bit of an ice queen, and I believe there are more options that you should hear" explained Percy.

Yes, Grace had a few things she wanted to say to Percy, but not in the corridor. She stepped back and indicated they should enter.

Suppressing a sigh, Yiv nodded and just about smiled as he stepped over the threshold, curious as to how the room would look. Would it be as spartan and austere as he found the Commander? He glanced around. 'Pleasant quarters,' he offered.

Grace glanced around at her bookshelf full of hardbacks, her prints of New Islandica, her cello, and her collection of inks and quills for illuminating. She wasn't sure what it looked like to the Efrosian, but it was pleasant to her.

She walked over to a plush chair and indicated the small sofa. "Please, have a seat and tell me what I can do for you."

Yiv took the offered seat gratefully and motioned for Percy to do the same. He pointed at the cello, 'are you an accomplished player?'

"That is a subjective question. I play, yes, but I lack the dedication to make a career of it." While she'd spent years studying, she had too many interests and preferred her current occupation.

Yiv nodded sagely, 'our duties do have a way of keeping us from our passions from time to time.'

"They do, indeed," she said to Yiv. Then she turned her attention to Percy. "So, tell me why you felt it necessary to have a covert meeting about alternative solutions before you even tried what I recommended?" She was not looking forward to his answer. Fortunately or unfortunately, she had greater faith in Zero giving her an answer than her Chief Science Officer who prefered pole-vaulting over regulations.

She was a patient person. When Percy didn't immediately reply, she sat quietly and waited for his answer.

"Because, with all due respect, Commander, you have your way of doing things, your way of seeing things, and frankly I think that you intimidate the crew whether you intend to or not" stated Percy. "It was not my intention to undermine you nor was it to be all that covert. I just wanted to collect all options including the ones that none of the others felt comfortable giving you to your face" explained Percy.

The Chief Science Officer looked somewhat apologetic as he glanced at Grace. "The Captain is sidelined, we have missing crew, and you are in command. I'm not sure any of the others are willing to present you options that you otherwise do not want to hear. I'm going to give spread all the cards out on the table for you. I won't sugar coat anything. You need that right now, Commander."

"We need to do this the right way first. Then we can look at alternatives." It was apparent that Percy still didn't understand that you had to follow regulations whenever possible and then go outside the box. You didn't plan a mutiny before you even looked at the possibilities. "I would have accepted this if you'd tried and failed first. Killer plomeek is not my first option. Or my second."

"I'm not saying we don't do it the 'right way' first, Commander" he grunted, his Tellarite heritage surfacing. "I'm saying you turned a cold shoulder to the possibility of alternative options that are less orthodox and probably what you'd consider wrong, but I still think you should have them at your disposal. You may not like the killer plomeek way I think, but it can come in handy if you entertain it."

"I did not turn my back on anything--or anyone. I gave you an order to do it by the book first." She sighed. She needed to find some way to get both of them to understand. "My job is to do everything I can to keep this crew safe. That includes from a court martial. Before I can get Starfleet Command to sign off on anything that violates regulations I have to prove it's the only option. I'm a trained diplomat. I understand far better than you the consequences of what you're asking."

"I'll respect that and what you choose to have us do, Commander" stated Percy. "Though I'm not leaving without at least giving you a PaDD of everything that was discussed as options. We probably won't go down any of those routes, but I feel it negligent if I don't put them on the table."

"All right, but I won't look at it until it's our last option. I am not going to put your career, or that of anyone else on this ship, in jeopardy unless it's the only way to save lives."

Percy knew that he had pushed as far as he could without completely throwing his career away. He couldn't push any further. If it were you out there... I'd have that PaDD at the ready thought Percy. Maybe it was maturity or maybe Grace was just the better officer. Either way, Percy respected her firmly standing by her decision. "Hopefully, you'll never have to open my Pandora's box of alternative thinking" teased Percy.

"I'm not opposed to alternative thinking. I'm opposed to throwing away everything else." Grace sighed. "I do appreciate your bringing this to me." As opposed to trying to implement it himself, she added to herself.

The Chief Science Officer gave a nod. "My pleasure. I know I went about this... in a way. I take full responsibility for it, Commander. Yiv was just being supportive and keeping me grounded."

Grace looked at Yiv with a raised eyebrow. She wasn't sure how far he had gone to be supportive, but she was pretty sure he'd been complicit with Percy's plans. "Just don't do it again. Especially when there is time to follow the rules first. You might just be surprised at how well that works." She knew his heart was in the right place, even if his head wasn't. "And if it doesn't, then you can talk to me about alternatives. Now, if there's nothing more, I'd like to get back to looking for breadcrumbs."

Yiv looked between the two officers, then nodded, 'I don't think there's much else to say. I'm grateful, Captain, that we'll be able to discuss the unorthodox in the future.'

He stroked a long strand of moustache contemplatively. 'Out here, on the frontier, we'll be faced with the need for such solutions more often than we imagine.'

She sighed. This felt like a circular argument. She was clearly not making her point in a way that made sense to them. "The time will inevitably come when we will find ourselves in a position where we have to use...creative means...to solve a problem. But because Starfleet is held to a higher standard, we cannot discard the regulations and go straight to frontier justice. We have to do our best to stay within the regulations. Only when that fails can we possibly get absolution for having to go outside its bounds."

Percy snorted and smiled. "Wise woman says color inside the lines," he proclaimed and looked at Yiv. "We need to do everything by the book and follow all the regulations, sub-paragraphs, cross the Ts and dot the Is. Basically, be Efrosian and keep me on a tighter leash."

Arching an eyebrow in response, Yiv nodded. 'It is noted,' he replied neutrally, if only to get the conversation over with. Seems our new CO isn't quite up to listening to our input, he thought to himself.

Grace closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. "Lieutenant Bálor, do you ever consider anything that isn't one extreme or another? That is neither what I said nor what I meant." She wasn't going to try again because the more she did, the worse this got. "Never mind. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I still hope to find a more reasonable solution, but I appreciate the thought. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to my work."

___
OFF

Lieutenant Percy Bálor
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant Commander Yivliph Ra-Gruvloveii
Chief Intelligence Officer

Lieutenant Commander Grace Vetur
Acting Commanding Officer

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