Another Frying Pan? (Part 1)

Posted on Sun Feb 20th, 2022 @ 2:38pm by Commander Grace Vetur & Lieutenant JG Peri Valeri & Lieutenant Commander Anahera Chernova & Lieutenant Commander Yivliph Ra-Gruvloveii & Lieutenant Haruna Mizuhara & Lieutenant Zero & Lieutenant Amanda Rose & Lieutenant Percival Bálor Ph.D & Lieutenant JG Elizabeth Stone

2,063 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: The Bandits of Black Rain
Location: Conference Room
Timeline: Entering the Dreadex System

ON

It had been a week since the ship parted ways with the Relentless and the Resolute. Both ships had been turned over to their respective authorities and the Ontario was almost back to the Dreadex system.

For the past several days, reports had come in about pirates stealing Cordanium from multiple sources. Each report was different, making it harder to identify if it was one group or multiple groups.

In order to address the growing situation, Grace, under direction of the Captain, called department heads and their assistants to a briefing. A few others were also included.

Promptly arriving first was probably not a face Grace expected to see first thing at a meeting or briefing. Lieutenant Percival Bálor entered the room, discovering he had made it ahead of the others. "Commander," he said to Grace as he scooted his way around the table.

"Lieutenant," she replied with a nod. "I hope all is going well with science."

Percy nodded. "Going well, Commander. Entomologists have created a small terrarium with some of my botanists, and we've successfully begun a Terran ant colony on one side and a Klingon tak colony on the other. Ethologists are monitoring them both carefully for social interaction. We are curious if the two colonies will wage war on one another or if peaceful cohabitation will be possible. The Terran ants are stinging ants, reddish in color. I named its queen Amanda."

Oblivious to Percy's words and right on cue, the Counselor came in. She gave a small nod to Grace and then completely ignored Percy. Quietly, she took a seat as far away from Percy as possible and waited for others to arrive.

Zero entered the Conference Room and proceeded to scan the room, the blue colored mechanical iris of his eyes shifting slightly as he looked around, taking in who was there. He stopped at Amanda Rose, an unfamiliar face and officer who he had yet to encounter, identifying her rank and position as 'Lieutenant' and 'Chief Counselor'. The man simply nodded his head and proceeded to take a seat.

Peri Valeri walked in and nodded to the others, then smiled at Zero before taking a seat.

The Jeffries tube hatch swung open and out popped Haruna's head, the ship's rather 'unique' Chief Engineer. However today she seemed to be soaking wet. "Does... anyone have a towel. I forgot mine last time I went hitchhiking..." she asked curiously as water dripped off her and her uniform.

Percy looked at the wet uniform and rolled his eyes a bit. There was no telling what Haruna had been doing or what she was up to, but she seemingly had the timing of the white rabbit from Wonderland...running late, and showing up just in time, popping up disheveled out if nowhere. "Don't tell us you were trying to find the whales again, Haruna. We've been over this...we don't have Cetacean ops on the Ontario" teased Percy.

Zero shook his head slightly as he spoke. "The Lieutenant would have had plenty of time to return to her quarters and change into a uniform before appearing. This demonstrates her lack of respect for her uniform and..." He seemed to raise his hand up, hinting he was picking up an uncomfortable smell. "and the others in the room."

"I was fixing a water leak" Haruna replied simply. "On, by the way. Deck seven section four is currently flooded due to said leak. If you need to go there, take your swim trunks or bikini" Haruna suggested. She had already dispatched a cleanup crew now that the leak had been fixed, not that she told them that.

"That's my deck," Percy replied with a sigh. Not his alone, but it was home to several of the primary science labs. It also was the deck where Sickbay, Counselor Rose's office, and computer core was located. "I hope you at least have it contained?"

"Are all your repairs insufficient?" Zero said quickly as his eyes focused on Haruna.

Percy was half-Tellarite, where arguing was usually a form of flattery; however, neither Zero nor Haruna were Tellarites. So, the chances of the two of them dancing the tongue twisting moves of courtship and foreplay was highly unlikely. "If you two were Tellarites, I would think you both were a happily married couple."

He shook his head. This was not productive. "Sadly, we do not all have the capacity for Borg perfection, Lieutenant," Percy said to Zero. "We are severely flawed. It also does not help that it is 2395 and this is an Ambassador class starship. No matter how much refitting and upgrading they did, maintaining this ship is no easy task. I am sure the two of you can discuss how to be more sufficient with repairs later, but I suspect we all summoned here for more pressing matters."

Zero seemed to pause. Perhaps he was reflecting on the comment or wounded by it, but his replied seemed a mixture of the two. "I am no longer a Borg, Lieutenant. I was once a Borg and was driven by their need for perfection. Since my liberation I am just as, how you put it, flawed as everyone else. The only difference between us is you know where you came from. I do not. My past is as much of a mystery to me as it is to those around me. However, the topic was not perfection but efficiency. Knowing how to fix something does not require the destruction of something else. One would think that would be counterproductive to the job of an engineer. Why continue to use a method that only causes more work for one department?"

"That's nice and all, sounds like sunshine and rainbows. But like, seriously, can someone please get me a towel. Or a hair dryer would be good..." Haruna chirped up.

Zero looked over to Haruna. "I believe you will find all you need back in your quarters. Perhaps you should consider going there and returning when you are dry and more presentable."

Percy groaned. This ship he thought to himself. He loosened his uniform and stripped down to his tank top undershirt and tossed his uniform to Haruna. "Dry off with it, wear it, whatever. Just don't get used to the science departmental colors, they do not suit you."

The Chief Science Officer looked over at Zero. "It's more efficient she be here now than delay this meeting."

"Her smell is not efficient." Zero replied quickly.

Percy wanted to say something regarding he who smelt it, dealt it, but the academy days were well behind them both, and Percy's attitude was not that cavalier these days. "Pyrithian bat guano makes excellent fertilizer, Lieutenant. I'm sorry. I should have freshened up before I came here" he added trying to make light to the situation and get attention off Haruna.

"As to your previous inquiry about continuing to make more work for the Engineering department, perhaps so she has something to do on the Ontario?" Percy stated with a shrug. He then looked to the First Officer. "Commander, you have something for us?"

Zero let out a sigh, resisting the urge to roll his eyes, as he focused his attention to the First Officer. He felt if he continued it He would end up being reprimanded. Whether it was how he spoke up, or what he was bringing up, he found it was always dropped and he was always to blame. This situation was beginning to resemble those encounters. It was best to bring this up to a Command Officer in private. At least, in private, the feeling of being alone would be reasonable.

Haruna pulled the teal tunic over her, it was like she was wearing a tent over her tiny frame and then perched on a chair as to not soak it completely.

Siren attempted not to roll her eyes. This juvenile and unprofessional behavior would not be tolerated in the Marines, and it frankly made her uncomfortable. It wasn't her place to stick her nose in though, so she buried said nose into a mug of coffee and waited for somebody from the command team to put a couple of dunce caps on some officers and sit them facing the corner of the room.

"Now, if you're all quite done," Grace began. "Ms. Mizuhara, please excuse yourself to get changed, as has been suggested. If you don't return in time, you can meet me in my office. Better still, fix the leak. That is your top priority. And in future, that is the door." She pointed to it to emphasize your point. "Please use it."

Peri stood. "I'll go help as well. I'm not really needed here." Lieutenant Zero's contributions to whatever the first officer had to say would be more important than her own, and it sounded like the situation needed help from Ops.

Grace nodded in acknowledgement.

Anahera was running late, she'd got caught up directing people away from Deck 7 as the cleanup team got to work.

She tapped her comm. "Chernova to Vetur." She said.

"Vetur here." She watched Haruna, expecting her to take this opportunity to leave.

"Commander, I suggest you start the briefing without me, I'm currently involved in the situation on Deck 7." Anahera said.

"Thank you for letting me know. Lieutenant Mizuhara should be there momentarily. I'll meet with you later to go over the situation in Dreadex."

"Understood, Chernova out." Anahera said.

Avoiding Percy and trying not to roll her eyes at Haruna, Amanda moved over to Siren. She whispered, "It is interesting to watch everyone, isn't it?" She looked over at Zero and thought to herself, I really need to meet with him.

Grace just raised an eyebrow at Amanda.

Siren caught the gesture from the XO and kept her eyes ahead, and her mouth shut. She could gossip with Amanda later.

Striding in, PADD in hand, Yiv was slightly out of breath, he glanced about the room quickly, taking in the awkward energy, a jumper-less Percy and an odd smell. 'Does someone know that Deck Seven is mostly underwater?' He asked as he slipped into his chair. 'Never seen a turbolift so full of wet outfits since that time on Ri-' he grinned, 'but we don't need to go in to that.'

Grace's mouth twitched as she tried not to smile. "Yes. Lieutenant Mizuhara is just leaving to oversee that problem." She glanced again at Haruna before turning back to Yiv. "There is another problem in the Dreadex system. Starfleet would like us to look into it."

"Wait, I am?" Haruna asked confused. "I already fixed that leak, just didn't mop up the water..."

"Then you have yet to complete the task," Grace said coolly. "And you have yet to change. As I said, you need to finish the cleanup, then you need to get yourself cleaned up and meet me in my office."

Haruna simply sighed and then stood up and left the room still wearing Percy's jacket.

The first officer looked around the room at those still there. "We've received numerous reports from Starfleet and ships in the area that someone or a group of someone is attacking ships and stealing cargo. They appear to be targeting Cordanium. This is destabilizing the region and causing the HTA to tighten their control. We need to find out what is going on and, if possible, stop the piracy."

Imagine that thought Percy as he listened to the brief synopsis of the situation, and could not help but look at Grace specifically. "And what do they expect us to do about that?" his words carefully and closely mirroring her own regarding his personal request when he informed her about his Zenite situation where pirates had disabled the vessel and stolen most of the zenite.

(To be Continued...)

Lieutenant Commander Grace Vetur
Executive Officer
USS Ontario

Lieutenant Commander Yivliph Ra-Gruvloveii
Chief Intelligence & Second Officer
USS Ontario

Lieutenant Commander Anahera Chernova
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Ontario


Lieutenant Percival Bálor
Chief Science Officer
USS Ontario


Lieutenant Elizabeth 'Siren' Stone
Chief Flight Control
USS Ontario

Lieutenant Amanda Rose
Chief Counselor
USS Ontario

Lieutenant Zero
Chief Operations Officer
USS Ontario (I'm sensing a pattern here, lol)

 

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