The Captain's Place

Posted on Sun Apr 21st, 2013 @ 2:44pm by Lieutenant Commander Kadie Mora
Edited on on Sun Apr 21st, 2013 @ 2:45pm

510 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Rumours, Promises, and Lies
Location: Bridge, USS Ranger
Timeline: Mission Day 6: 2040 hrs

What was it they said at the Academy, a captain's place is on the bridge? Well they certainly had that one right. Another one they had right was an engineer's place is in main engineering. And that certainly was where Kadie Mora wanted to be, tending to her baby, her engines, her ship. And now it literally was her ship. Captain Halliwell's idiotic thoughts behind the idea to put Mora in charge while she gallivanted of to the Forbidden Planet, begged logic, begged explanation, begged... sense. Of all the people over the last few days whom Halliwell had honked off the most, she had to pick the one person who she'd probably had the worst impressions of and conversations with.

Common sense seemed anything but, as it seemed to be in most hierarchy structures over the past centuries. Kadie sat in the captain's chair looking blankly at the view screen, warding off the overwhelming urge to order the young petty officer nervously sitting at the helm Turn us around toward Federation space and engage at maximum velocity.

But that would be wrong.

Almost since she'd arrived on board, Kadie had been having the weirdest sense of what life was like now aboard the Ranger, and that it had been different before. And battling with her own conscience of the duties and orders, going above and beyond what was necessary, what was right, giving every situation a strong moral flavour, and most of the time, a sour tasting one at that. She wanted to get a better taste in her mouth through working in engineering, where she should be, where she was trained to be. Despite her Lieutenant Commander rank, she was not a command officer, or even a bridge officer. She was an engineer, and she wanted to be in engineering.

But that would be wrong too.

Halliwell left her in charge, which meant for all intents and purposes, she was the captain now. And she still felt and fought the urge to order the ship about and head toward Federation space. This was the opportunity to save all their skins, to possibly even save Halliwell's, much that she may not want to. Even for the few hours that Halliwell and the rest of the away team had been on the surface, her support had seemed to wane--the surface thoughts of everyone on the bridge were divided, and still oscillated one way or the other, no-one having the open support to do anything either way, and so unrest continued.

Mora checked the chronometer on the central console between the two command chairs. They'd been gone almost two hours. Two hours of no contact, no report, no word. Not that she would have expected any with communications as unreliable as they were. Kadie hoped they could shred through the interference soon, if only to find out the captain would be returning soon. For better or worse, the captain's place was still to be on the bridge, even if only to watch it sink.

 

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