Hot Splashes
Posted on 14 Oct 2020 @ 7:13pm by Admiral Zavareh Sepandiyar & Captain Corvus DeHavilland
Mission:
M1 - Emergence
Location: Captain’s Office
Timeline: MD05 - 0805hrs
1580 words - 3.2 OF Standard Post Measure
It was not shaping up to be a good day, all things considered. She’d hardly eaten a breakfast worth stomaching, she had any caffeine and to top it off she’d just embarrassed herself to bits in front of Chief Barmeadow. All in, it was barely after eight am and she was ready to go back to bed and try this again tomorrow. It was going to make for one very, very long day.
Corvus walked through the doors into her office already feeling like she had the weight of the station on her shoulders. She walked around her desk, set the carafe she’d previously wielded as a cudgel on it and hurriedly unscrewed it to pour a cup. Heaving a profound sigh as a tightness crept in around her shoulders she raised the cup to drink. She turned on the spot, just trying to savor the one good thing she had going.
“Is it normal for you to start your day this late, Captain?” A heavily accented voice rent through the silence of the room.
Corvus choked on her tea as she jumped in surprise, slopping half the cup over the front of her uniform. Looking up she saw Admiral Sepandiyar sitting in one of the chairs to her left with his own cup of tea in hand, saucer in the opposite. He set the cup onto the saucer and leaned forward to set them both into what appeared the be thin air, where they disappeared in a flash betraying the fact that he wasn’t physically present. He stood up and approached, hands behind his back as if casually observing a train wreck. He wasn’t far off in that.
“Admiral,” she replied quickly, trying to clean herself off. “I’m sorry. You… caught me by surprise,” she added, flushing with embarrassment for the second time today. That’s it, she thought to herself, I’m going back to bed.
“Clearly,” he nodded sagely.
It was the first time she’d been face to face with the man who’d given her this command and she had to admit, she had been expecting… more somehow. He was just as tall as she was, but spry for an older man. Not an intimidating physical presence, yet he managed to convey so much in his simple posture and countenance than she could remember seeing in any other officer. The simple intimidation of it was staggering, even when she wasn’t dripping tea down her uniform.
Corvus gave it up as hopeless and just unzipped the vest and laid it on the desk, taking her commbadge off and affixing it to her shirt quickly. She had preferred the alternative officers uniform variant and had chosen it as the duty uniform for the station based on aesthetic and movement but she hadn’t considered it might make spilling her morning tea easier to clean up. “Sorry, sir. You have my undivided attention.”
He nodded silently, looking her over then briefly looking about the room. It was empty, save a few small personal belongings. She simply hadn’t had the spare time to decorate, and she wasn’t sure yet if that was a good thing or a bad thing to Sepandiyar’s eye. More than likely she was about to find out.
“What is the status of the station?” He asked finally, turning his attention back to her. It had only been a few seconds of silence but to Corvus they might as well have been hours.
“Not much different than my last report, Admiral,” she answered quickly, trying to be polite about it even though she herself was frustrated. Frustrated with their slow progress, with their seemingly aggressive neighbors who’d yet to come calling and with her day so far. “I was able to contact Major General MacTaryn, however, and requested additional support as I said I would. He sent something like eight-hundred Marines on the Exeter to reinforce us. They arrived last night,” she declared. “The Caelian is here as well, supporting us with their Engineering teams.” In truth they had almost as many Engineers aboard as the station would have if it was fully staffed - a metric that hadn’t gotten past her reinforcing why she felt justified in pressing Fleet Personnel Command to get her more staff as soon as they could. If she had the manpower she wouldn’t have been leaning on outside commands to get her station online. Plus, if they were her own crew, they had extra skin in the game to get things done quickly so that their own quality of life could be improved.
“Eight hundred?” The Admiral asked, raising one eyebrow curiously. “Of what sort?”
“Medical, Engineering and Military Police,” Corvus answered quickly. “I wanted to give Commander Quinn the night to figure out how to deploy the Marine Engineers and the Caelian’s effectively before asking for a status,” she explained, “My First Officer was able to make contact with the stations former Chief Engineer and she’s been helping us bring things online via holo-presence. We’re bending every sail we have to get this station fully operational, Admiral.” she added. Clearly Sepandiyar was familiar with the technology as he was here with it now; her only question was why had he ignored her first call forcing her to report in written form and then not respond until now. Days later.
“I see,” he replied simply, “and your crew?”
She gave a confused shrug. Why was he asking about her crew? He was a four-star Starfleet Admiral with the weight of the entire 9th Fleet on his shoulders. What the hell did it matter how her crew was doing. Uncertain as to why that was relevant, she answered. “Holding up as well as I can expect. Emergency rations. No replicators or sonic showers. We’ll all be happy when Commander Quinn can get power restored fully. Every spare bit we have is focused on life support and defensive systems.”
“Speak with Xoldun and Markstrom. Use their facilities as needed. Your crew needs as much attention as the station, Captain,” he ordered in a way that made it clear he wasn’t just saying it for the sake of it. He meant for her to make it priority.
“I will,” she nodded. Corvus certainly wasn’t opposed to a hot bath or a sonic shower. A non-emergency ration meal sounded even better. Already she was thinking about how they could rotate personnel onto one of the two ships for meal times during all shifts and possibly reserve a handful of crew quarters of each size to rotate personnel in and out of to use the facilities.
“Am I correct that Pathfinder has not arrived on station yet?” Sepandiyar pressed on, his image fuzzing for a moment. He turned his head to the side to look at something on his end before the image flickered outright.
”Admiral to the bridge. his commbadge declared, “A Pyrryx battle-fleet just dropped out of warp. We’re under attack.” the voice of his first officer declared tonelessly.
Sepandiyar turned back to DeHavilland, who had perked up immediately at the simple declaration. “Keep doing as you are, Captain. Defend this station at all costs. Sepandiyar out,” he declared. The holopresence vanished and she was left staring at the empty space with a knot in her stomach. What did she do now? Did she report to someone else that the Alexander was under attack? Did she tell Xoldun and Markstrom that they need to power up their QSD drives and ride out in defense of the Admiral or did she just stay put?
She hook her head. No. No the Alexander was an Ascension-class vessel that dwarfed even the long, sharp lines of the Vesta class vessels in their docking ring and they weren’t alone. She was with some of the finest Captain’s in Starfleet all exploring that sector of space together beyond the Federations borders. She’d read the reports from Falkirk and from the Alexander about these Pyrryx and their Imperium - what little that they had on them. It accounted for why so much talent was in such a confined area. No. If the Alexander and her support ships couldn’t handle this than there was very little that she could provide to change that.
Corvus heaved a sigh and turned back to the carnage that was her uniform vest. Frowning, she tapped her commbadge. “DeHavilland to Captain Xoldun,”
”Go ahead, Captain,” a gravelly voice responded after a moment.
“Captain. I’ve just spoken with Admiral Sepandiyar, do you have a minute for us to discuss?” She asked. The Admiral’s orders notwithstanding she had business with the Captain, the most pressing of which was helping her figure out just where in the hell the Pathfinder was. She should have been on station by now, but with sensors weak as they were they hadn’t been able to determine that. She was hoping to convince Xoldun to help.
”Not at the moment, Captain. However. Lunch in the Exeter’s lounge?” he countered.
DeHavilland smiled to herself on her side of the call, “Sure. That sounds great. Noon?”
”Noon. Xoldun out.”
