Keeping the home fires burning - Part 2

Posted on Tuesday 23 April 2019 @ 19:54 by Commander Caroline Miller & Captain Melody Jones & Commander Save'ena (Sav) Tillatix & Lieutenant Michael Ki MD & Lieutenant Marbim Rejal & Lieutenant JG Artis Lomar & Captain John "Apollo" Barstow, M.D.
Edited on on Wednesday 1 May 2019 @ 19:11

Mission: The New Collective
Location: Bridge
Timeline: Current
1390 words - 2.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Previously on in Keeping the Home fires burning,

"No I don't want fries with that Lieutenant," Caroline stated when she finally got a word in, "but carry on and I WILL leave you a tip. Spoilers it has the words insubordination and court marshal in it. Or perhaps I should re-evaluate my decision that you were okay to return to work. I fear I may have jumped the gun there if your still going to carry on in this manner. Shall I call the marines to come return you back to sickbay?" she stated firmly not believing she had given the woman a chance and she was already squandering it.

And now the conclusion,


"If your staying go use the ready room and get yourself properly attired for bridge duty and then sort your attitude out so thats sufficiently attired for a bridge officer. In terms of your new shields we will talk more if it looks like we are going to need something like that."

Stephanie grimaced. "As ya say," She said simply, then went over to the equipment locker and withdrew a Tricorder.

Caroline took a deep calming breath. Obviously O'Hara couldn't bring herself to say the words yes sir so this was her way of getting round that. She waited patiently for an explanation on why she was getting something out the locker rather than immediately going where she had been told too.

"If I'm t' go t' th' ready room, I figure I may make use o' th' time an' scan f'r our wayward Commanda," She explained, then took the tricorder and crossed the bridge and entered the ready room.

She turned to the Science chief. She hadn’t had any interaction with him yet so it was unfortunate their first interaction was when the Captain and 2O were off the Merlin on a dangerous task and the XO was MIA. “Lieutenant scan the vicinity for anything unusual, any anomalies and can you go through the sensor logs from the last hour as well please?”

"Already complying," Lomar replied nearly instantaneously. He had allowed himself to be distracted by the Engineer's discussion on the new shields, taking mental notes on what she had said. Shield technology was an area of interest for the Science officer.

"There's a thousand and one unusual things going on at all times," he added quickly. "But I'll search for the one we care most about, if its there." He offered the woman a firm nod before splitting his own computing power between the now-two missions at hand. The Borg tracker and the disappearance.

=/\= O'Hara t' Miller. Could ya join me in th' ready room at yer earliest convenience, please Councilor? =/\=

Caroline kept her face neutral. At least she had been polite but she was pretty sure this wasn't going to be an apology for the engineers earlier behaviour.

"Commander the conn is yours again," she said to Sav before going in the ready room.

Sav called out, "Aye Aye, Ma'am, I have the Conn." Sav sighed, wondering what else was going to happen. With all the events that happened on the Starbase, she could use a routine mission, but, this was the Merlin, so, get ready, here comes the universe's twisted sense of humor.

O'Hara had still made no effort to change her clothes. She was actually down on her hands and knees staring intently and aiming her tricorder at a three inch section of carpet.

"Have you found something Lieutenant?" She asked simply walking to stand by the replicator and requesting a uniform for her.

"Residual transporter trace." Stephanie said in reply. "Whoever did this knew their way 'round a transporter pad, that's for damn sure. I'm actually in awe o' their work. From what I can tell, they managed t' beam him away with a signal so feint that it wouldn't trip any alarms. With conventional transporters, t' do that, they would have to have been super close. So we're either lookin' f'r a cloaked ship followin' us, or someone with a new kind o' Transporter tech that can beam body away with ultra-low power consumption. Without more data, I can't tell where he went or who took 'em."

"I don't like the sound of either of those," Caroline said placing the uniform down next to her. "Get changed into uniform, return to your bridge console and do everything you can to find some data or evidence for either eventuality. We don't want any other crew being transportered away by parties unknown."

She turned to walk back to the bridge and stopped. "No more games Stephanie. No uniform, no staying on duty. I'll have you escorted back to sickbay. I don't want to have to do that, I want to know that my faith in bringing you back on duty is warranted."

"I gotta admit, I'm really gettin' some mixed signals here, Councilor." Stephanie said as she stripped off her top, not caring that Caroline was still in the room. "Ya tell me ya wan' me t' pull my head out an' stop actin' like a Debbie Downer, but when I do, ya smack me in th' gob an' tell me not to."

"No," she told the woman simply carrying on walking not wanting to have to look at her happily flaunting her indecency AGAIN. "I keep telling you to believe in yourself and have some respect and pride in yourself both personally and professionally. This is NOT professional. You still have to follow the rules of Starfleet if your in Starfleet.

You should have pride in yourself for being allowed to wear that uniform, not stubbornly pushing and pushing a more senior officer because you have a personal problem with or feel threatened by her. That's the crux of it Stephanie and its childish. Not only that but we have a situation, a serious one and there's no time for this. You are wasting precious time. So put your ego to one side and do your job."

Returning to his station, Marbim begins a complex series of scans in the immediate region, muttering under his breath in Cardassian he smacks his screen twice before looking up and then moving towards the Ready Room doors where he pushes the button to ask for admittance, rather than just bursting in ...

She wasn't expecting a chime, "Come in."

Without warning the Borg cube came to life in the distance and on the view screen a green light lanced out, grabbing the small Griffin fighter-bomber, =/\= Apollo to Merlin, launch alert fives and and start attack run! =/\= Barstows voice called over the comm.

Sav made sure to reroute the command to the Fighter Bay to the current CAG and to the Helm Officer helping with fighter ops as she waited orders from Caroline on what the Merlin's role would be in this situation.

Sav hit the com for the ready room, "Commander Miller, Helm, the Borg Cube has snagged the Captain's fighter with a tractor. Orders please."

"Plot an intercept course, raise shields, ready weapons," Caroline stated as calmly as she could before pressing the comm. button.

"All hands, battle stations," she informed the ship as the red alert klaxon sounded on the ship.

Entering the Ready Room had already been forgetten as Marbim scrambled back to his Operations station. "All shields at 100%, Phasers at 115%, which we can hold as long as O'Hara doesn't go messing around with the shields. I also read that non-essential personnel are being redirected to safe areas." Pressing several buttons at once his voice comes over the comms, "All engineering and operations work crews not presently attached to anything, grab your gear, make sure you're armed and prepare to fix whatever the Borg try to break, that's an order!"

Just then the comm from the fighter cued one last time, =/\= Well, at least we'll see where they're goi-=/\= Barstow said, getting picked up by the comm and getting cut off as the Borg transporter ripped him from the pilots seat the same time as it grabbed Melody.

OFF

Commander Save'ena Tillatix
CFCO/Bridge Command Specialist
USS Merlin

LTjg Marbim Rejal
Chief of Operations
USS Merlin

LTjg Artis Lomar
Chief Science Officer
USS Merlin

Commander Caroline Miller
Acting CO
Uss Merlin

LTjg Stephanie O'Hara
Chief Engineer
USS Merlin

Lt Michael Ki MD
Chief Medical Officer
USS Merlin