Gassed up and ready

Posted on Mon Feb 15th, 2016 @ 5:09am by Commander Bertrand Cuprum & Captain Elijah Michaels & Commander Cor Cordale & Lieutenant Mickey McClane & Lieutenant Ishan Satele & Lieutenant JG Elliot Keller

Mission: Vipers and Scoundrels
Location: Bridge, USS Victory - docked at DS9

Victory was docked at DS9 following her mission with SFI, but barely within days of arriving they had new orders. Victory was ordered to Cardassian Space to work with the Cardassian Defence Force in Anti Pirating operations. There had been little chance to acclimatise.

Elijah stepped onto the Bridge of the Victory.

"Captain on the Bridge!" An Ensign called out.

Valeria Mordin snapped to attention at her science station. She was getting the Victory's databases updated with the latest star charts and navigational calculations. "Sir. Science division standing by."

Bertrand was finalizing the audit on the weapons load. It had been hard to get a replacement runabout without having to explain how they had lost the last one on a Zombie infested Station. His head still hurt, as well.

"Tactical standing by," he reported, his voice a lot scratchier than he had intended.

An operations officer from Mickey's department saw the commander in pain. Mickey, had tried to make sure he kept cool and noticed he had a headache.

"Hear you go, Commander" The operations crewmen threw him a bottle of aspirin for the headache.

Bertrand's right arm flashed out and caught the bottle without Bertrand even looking. A moment later he glanced at the bottle as if only realizing he was holding something. He grunted and pocketed the packet. Right now he felt that paying the price for indulgence was better than brushing it away, but he appreciated the gesture.

"Helm ready" Satele reported

Mickey arrived on the bridge after most of the majority of the senior staff arrived. He and Acting Ensign Aladdin took their station on the bridge. "Operations, standing by."

Dr Hood was in sickbay and finally happy with the way that it was looking. Everything had its place and all was in order and easily reachable. She was pouring over medical reports on the crew and it appears that some have missed their most recent checkups. She'll be popular when they find out.

She looked at the empty sickbay around her hoping that it wouldn't get to busy on this mission.

"Dr Hood to Bridge."

"Michaels here." Elijah said pressing the Comm.

"Sickbay all ready and prepped Captain"

"Understood, thank you Sickbay."

Deep in the heart of the ship, the massive Matter / Anti-Matter reactor hummed. Magnetic shielding was optimal, intermix emitters were primed and the ramscoops were degaussed and set. "Engineering to Bridge, this is Cordale. We're set for all speed on your order."

Kevin sat back in his chair. He'd been in contact with SFI HQ over a secure channel, getting the brief he'd asked for, and now he had to try and make sense of the information he had.

"Well, what did they say?" Karadis asked him.

So deep in thought, Kevin failed to reply.

Picking up a piece of scrunched up paper, Karadis threw it gently at her boss and said "Hey, Little Lord Fauntleroy, did you hear me, what did HQ say?"

Kevin glanced down at the piece of paper, then at Karadis, and replied "It would seem there's been...concern is probably the best way I can describe it...about this Admiral Gates for a while. He's a pretty powerful Senior officer in the Admiralty, got a lot of friends in high places, but..."

The pause went past the ten second mark so Karadis prompted him "But what?"

"But SFI have him making an unscheduled trip a few weeks before this incident on the station we just came through" Kevin replied. He tapped his bottom lip with his right forefinger and continued "It doesn't say where he went, no log of the trip was made, and Gates hand picked the crew that went with him. Why would you do that unless you wanted to hide something. Doesn't it make you wonder why he'd go to such lengths unless he was hiding something?"

"So what now?" Karadis asked.

"Well, if we're supposedly going after this guy, best to take this to the Captain, see what he thinks" Kevin replied.

Karadis turned to her console as it beeped, read something on the screen then turned back to Kevin "Looks like you might be doing it soon then."

"Why soon?" Kevin asked.

"Looks like we're about to get underway...." Karadis said.

Kevin sighed, rose from his seat and made his way towards the door "Ok, well, I better let him know then."

The turbolift doors opened onto the bridge, and Kevin stepped out. He did admit to himself that he was a little trepidatious as he approached the Captain.

"Sir, sorry to interrupt you, but could I speak with you privately for a moment, I think there's something you should see" Kevin said to Elijah, indicating to the PADD he was holding.

The two of them stepped a few paces off, and Kevin handed over the PADD "SFI passed me some recent intel on Admiral Gates movements. It would appear that he....", and Kevin had to think carefully "...went off the grid a few weeks ago for a short time. My primary concern though is 'how' he did it. Hand picking his crew, no flight plan recorded, I mean...c'mon. Anyway, I thought you should see this right away Sir, given what we've been through recently and the Admiral being mentioned by Commander Smith" Kevin finished.

Elijah nodded. "Thank you Lieutenant, forward it to my Ready Room and I will take a look." He said with a nod.

Kevin had the information on the PADD he was carrying, and could have given it to the CO instantly. However, he took the order as read and replied "Yes Sir."

Mickey saw Commander Bertrand, he felt good knowing he did what he could for him. He typed a text over his station, "Just being a concerned Lieutenant." He was and he genuinely cared for humanity a little more each day. "No more drinking for you. I don't need to see you die of Liver poisoning. Yes, I know you have a filter to clean you out, but human bodies aren't perfect. But, glad to see your well. Sorry for the hangover. So, I shall stick with my fruit punch and you stick being the best damned officer you can be ok?" Mickey's text was a bit odd but he hoped the Commander got the message.

Bertrand felt a flash point of anger. How dare some young upstart lecture HIM on being a model officer or order him about drinking? But it lasted only a second, and he remembered that it had been Mickey who had stood up and tried to help in the bar. If anyone had earned the right to offer aid it was probably the Chief of Operations.

In the end he just nodded. This was not a topic he wanted to discuss and certainly not on the bridge before a mission.

"Alright focus everyone." The Captain said interrupting the conversation. "Inform DS9 we are ready to undock from the Station."

"Aye,Sir. DS9 has received the message" Mickey announced as they're ready to go

"Commander Cuprum, set condition for Departure and have all Stations standing by." Elijah said turning to the Tactical Console.

Bertrand nodded, "Umbilical disengaged, we are under ship's power. Departments report green across the board."

"Helm, once we detach set a course for the Cardassian Border at Warp 5." He said with a nod to the Conn.

Satele nodded, "Understood, Warp 5" she said setting speed and destination.

His job finished on the bridge, Kevin left and returned to his office.

"What did the CO say after reading the information?" Karadis asked.

"He didn't read it, he just asked me to send it to his Ready Room" Kevin replied.

"He did know it was to do with Admiral Gates?" Karadis asked.

"I didn't get a chance to mention him, I'm sure the Captain will call us once he reads the information" Kevin replied.

"Mmmmmmmmmm...." Karadis said.