Let's Get the Hell Out of Here!

Posted on Thu Oct 8th, 2009 @ 2:56pm by Captain Elsie Halliwell & Lieutenant JG Ryan Warner & Lieutenant Commander Kaylis Kirana & Lieutenant Cress Maven

1,057 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Shoreleave - Welcoming Old Friends and New
Location: Bridge
Timeline: Current

ON:

Lane wearily picked himself up from his office chair and slowly padded to the window of his ready room. Looking out onto Citadel Prime for the last time, he viewed the marble that hung in space with reverence and anger.

So much over so little, he silently thought to himself. Time to get the Hell out of this dump.

Striding over to the replictor, the Trill fashioned himself a crisp new uniform and quickly changed, facing the door to the bridge with agitation. He ambled over and stood just out of the door’s sensor range, taking in a deep breath before confidently striding forward and onto the bridge.

“Lieutenant Warner,� he said, rounding the railings and taking a seat next to Commander Arkham in the centre, “what’s our engine status?�

"Green, Sir, all systems are functional," replied the Lieutenant with a more relaxed air. At this stage he was feeling far more like a pilot and it was showing in his demeanour.

Pressing the control panel, Lane initiated the internal comm. system and hailed Lieutenant Sheedy. “Chief, how are you looking down there?�

“A’ sys’ems opera’in’ a’ peak, s’r,� came the reply.

“Ms Montgomery?� lane continued, flicking his head to her.

Shalie sat at the operations station. Her fingers dancing over the LCARS display. She still needed to remove the last of the ghost program and run a quick diagnostic on the sensors to ensure that nothing had going wrong while Ops was blinded. With all the results showing a green light she called out her response. "Operations reporting ready as ordered, sir."

“Good work, everyone,� Lane replied, a sense of pride beaming from his smile. “Now, Mr. Warner, bring the engines online, initiate thrusters and take us out or orbit. Plot a course out of the Citadel Sectors and take us back to Earth.

"Aye, Sir." The helmsman engaged the port thrusters and eased the small Nova class out of it's orbital path, pulling the impulse engines online with a gradual tap at two of the console. He checked the astronav readout and brought the ship a good distance away from the planet before adding co-ordinates to the map and turning the ship according. "Course bearing seven seven mark twelve, warp four engaged." Then, he ran his finger up the meter and brought the warp engines online, allowing them to vector into the subroutine before he engaged.

As the pin-pricked blanket on the viewscreen halted and then streamed past at warp, Lane finally turned to his First Officer and creased his face. “One helluva first mission, Rowena,� he said, looking into her weary face. “Now we just have to figure where we go from here.�

Arkham chuckled a little, smiling genuinely for the first time in years. Shaking her head a bit, she ran a hand through thick gray hair. "The answer, I think, is simple, Coltan. Far, far away from here. Someplace I can get some scotch. God knows, after that performance, I deserve a stiff drink or two. And we can talk this out, I suppose, before I classify the details of the mission."

“I think that we need to, Rowena,� Lane replied, sighing as the weight that bore down on him lifted slightly. “I need to figure out what I’m going to inform Command when we get back... and what I decide to leave out due to its ‘sensitive nature’. For both our sakes, he thought.

"True, that's always the tricky part, isn't it?" Arkham sighed, settling into her chair. Thinking for a moment, Arkham smirked a little, "Although, we have a convenient little scapegoat hiding away in our brig, don't we? Certainly would be easier. But I don't know if I can entirely see that either. Perhaps things might not have gotten so out of hand if I hadn't stopped to play with my food before I ate it."

“Too much has happened, Rowena, for us to place the blame firmly at Harwood’s door,� Lane replied, flicking his blue eyes about her face. “She has a mouth of her own and I’ve decided that that’s not the way I want to play this. Too many lies, too much deception has occurred on this ship already. And I don’t want that anymore. You made your decision concerning Harwood on the bridge earlier, and I thank you for that. But, I need a First Officer that I can trust, that I can rely on. And I need to know if that’s you, Commander?�

"I suppose that's really up to you, Captain," Arkham sighed a little, leaning back in her chair somewhat, seemingly in great contemplation. She replied slowly, considering her words carefully, "Coltan, you know I have a past. You know a lot of it, but there are parts that even if you knew, I highly doubt you would understand. Hell, sometimes I don't understand, and I lived through it. I enjoy my role here, this ship. It's different from what I'm used to, but in a good way, I suppose. What you should have gotten through out of all this is that despite my intelligence role, I'll side with the Archimedes."

"I did what I did because at least in my...agency capacity i could act as a control. I didn't want Harwood bringing in anyone else from the outside -- we probably would have been stuck if she had." Arkham paused for a moment, cracking her jaw. "Whether or not you trust me is entirely up to you -- but know that I'm sorry that I didn't let you in on the plan sooner. But I had to keep the information secure from Harwood, otherwise everything I did might have been for nothing. My methods, at times, are questionable, I'll give you that. But in the end," -- Arkham smiled a little -- "I do get results."

“Well, Commander, we shall have to see if we can work together side by side without the… interruptions of this mission, won’t we? I guess it remains to be seen.�


OFF:

---

Captain Coltan Lane
Commanding Officer,

Commander Rowena Arkham
Executive Officer,

Lieutenant Skanda Sheedy
Chief Engineering Officer,

Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Ryan Warner
Chief Flight Control Officer

AND

Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Shalie Montgomery
Chief Operations Officer

 

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