Heading Up River

Posted on Mon Sep 26th, 2016 @ 5:56am by Commander Bertrand Cuprum & Lieutenant Valeria Mordin

Mission: Do Not Follow
Location: Bertrand's Office
Timeline: Forty Eight hours after the events of Retribution (Pt. 2)

With the Victory back on her way, and repairs proceeding as they were on the move there was little on the rabbitess' docket except one little piece of business. Little, in the sense that it was just one report, though that was the only way in which it was 'just' anything. She stood at the door to the Security Chief's office for just a moment longer than casual, took a breath and visually confirmed that she was still carrying her PaDD, and pressed on the door chime.

Kevin sauntered up and stood beside Valeria "Room for two to be hung?" he joked as he produced his own PADD.

"We don't hang people on my world, Kevin." she said with a nod, using his first name to punctuate the tone, "But, I won't say no to a rope mate."

"Absolutely" Kevin replied "so, what's the craic, my reports been sent in to Intel HQ, have you sent yours to Starfleet?"

"I have not. Not yet. I wanted to have a talk with him and append this conversation to the report. For all we know, the invaders were compromising him with some degree of telepathic capacity. A stretch, but I have to consider all options." she paused, "From his file, an action that is tantamount to suicide does not seem within his capacity. Though, as we've seen in the past few hours, anything is possible."

"I'll add it as an addendum" Kevin said "and as far as him being compromised by some kind of telepathic capacity, you have to have a brain first in order to have it compromised! The way that moron acted on the bridge was just purely and simply venomous, bullish, cowardly and to paraphrase Klingons, totally without any honourable intent. Since when do we run away from any situation without completely exhausting all avenues of action? If he had had any decency, he'd have challenged the Captains order as well, but, being short sighted, and believing he 'must' follow orders, he nearly sentenced us all to death, including those on the saucer section. As far as I'm concerned, whatever problems our temp XO had on, or off, the bridge, he took them onto it, thus compromising his judgement, and my report reflects this. Being as my report is coded, and can't be read by anyone outside of Intel HQ, it's up to them, HQ, to decide whether or not to pass it over to Starfleet. I should get word back soon on their decision" he finished.

Bertrand opened the door himself. He was carrying a PADD and glanced up at the pair, "Ah. I was wondering how long it would take you to come to me. Good. Come in."

He stepped back into his office, gesturing to two seats in front of his desk while he finished scanning the PADD. Then he sat down opposite them at the table and placed the PADD down.

"I felt it best to give the situation time to settle." Valeria offered in response as she entered. She took a stance near one of the offered seats but did not sit. "Don't think me rude, sir, if I don't take the offer for the moment. One sits when there's conversation to be had, but they call it 'Taking a stand' for a reason."

Kevin remained walked over to the seats, but stopped beside one of them, preferring to stand.

"I was just finishing going over the report you gave to SFI, Kevin. Very comprehensive," he looked at the the junior officer. "Oh, don't look at me like that, Kevin. It may come as a surprise to you but both the Captain and I have a higher clearance than even you do. One of the privileges of rank. But I suspect, from the vibrating indignation you are both radiating, that this is exactly what you wish to discuss with me."

"Let me see if I can cut to the chase and save you some time. You believe, in your vast amount of experience that the Captain made a poor judgement call, and I compounded that with a further poor judgement call. More so that the call was so grossly in error that it should be followed by some official sanction. Would that be correct?"

"That's a very streamlined rendition of the events, Commander. The immediate option to abandon the entire saucer section while hoping that our suicidal run on an unknown enemy, and come to this course of action after a single shot failed to achieve total victory, is troubling to say the least. Your decision to adamantly support a course of action that would lead to the total death of the secondary craft and the potential death of everyone on the saucer is also troubling. I wanted to actually take the time to talk to you and find out if anything had compromised you or your emotional capacity." she paused, "And before you say that our kamikaze run was guaranteed to obliterate the enemy craft, was it?" she quizzed.

"And how far could the saucer get away before the annihilation shockwave of this craft reached it?" she asked. "These are the concerns I was hoping to bring up. Hopefully in a civil discussion."

Bert nodded, "Excellent. An appropriate response. So let me start by saying, I agree with your appraisal of the Captain's plan to ram the other ship. I felt it was an extreme response, and said as much in my report."

"However, my job on this ship is to present the Captain with all the alternatives and then follow the one he chooses. It is after, all, his choice to make. He has complete authority over this ship, even to the point that a Flag Admiral cannot counter his orders without first removing him from command. Does that come across clearly? Starfleet command has appointed him to the role because they believe that whatever decision he will make is the best one."

"That is not to say it will always be the right one, and a calm appraisal of information after the event will often identify a different and more preferable path, but that is not made in the heat of the moment."

"So," he continued leaning back in his chair, "Did my emotions compromise my role? I do not believe they did. Rather, I believe that your own personal feelings about the Captain's decisions may have hindered your ability to perform them. I was pleased to see that they did not, in fact. The wording on my report was 'despite personal misgivings the crew performed their duty fully'."

"Which puts us at an impasse on that topic, as neither side sees themselves as emotionally compromised in the situation. So, we should move off of that topic, lest we discuss it forever." a pause, "I will say that, should the heat of the moment consume us, there would be no calm appraisal afterward. Our deaths were a gamble, a full crew loss. We survived, by literal luck, and apparently that is sufficient enough."

"I would point out, though, that you offered no alternatives to the collision course. If you felt it extreme, then why not offer something? Were you afraid the Captain would address you as you addressed us? Were you concerned about a confrontation?" she paused, and for a moment there was actually a tone of concern in her voice. "I'm sorry to ask, but was the death we were almost promised something you sought?"

"Sought?" Bertrand was actually taken aback by the question. "Oh, I see. You thought... yes... now I can see how it might look like.... No, Lieutenant, I am not suicidal. Quite the opposite. There are times I find this life a difficult burden, but I am far from putting it down."

"As for offering alternatives, how do you know that I had not been? The Captain and I have been working together since the initial confrontation on a variety of strategies, discussing and ruling out options. We knew there was a risk associated with every avenue. The Captain felt, and I believes he still feels, that using the Stardrive section was the only option guaranteed to inflict enough damage on our enemy to allow the Saucer section and our civilians and wounded to escape. He also insisted on the crew being ready to abandon ship so they would NOT be killed in the incident... well not by the initial collision at any rate. So it was not a suicide run by any means."

Now if you would like me to explain to you the reason I dismissed various options, I am happy to do so, now that we have the leisure of time afforded to us. However, I need you two to remember that you are junior Lieutenants, and there will be times when the orders of your CO need to be followed, even if they don't makes sense, and even if they cost people their lives."

Finally there was a catch in Bertrand's voice. before he could catch himself a wave of remorse washed over the pair, but Bertrand quickly pulled it back into check.

"Sorry. It has been a trying coupe of days," he apologized. "As you progress through the ranks you will be faced with decisions that have no positive outcome; decisions between the death of thousands or the death of thousands, just on your say, because there is no one else to make that decision. You are it. That is what command comes down to."

Uncharacteristically, Bertrand smiled slightly, "And when that happens I hope you have some Junior officers with enough integrity and honour to pull you up and demand an account."

Kevin had listened in silence all the way through the interaction between Lt/Commander Cuprum and Lt/jg Mordin, but now decided he could add his own thoughts.

"I'm glad you read the report I asked SFI HQ allow you to see, such a shame it wasn't my real report" Kevin began. "Yes, I knew you and the CO had high clearance for reading reports, thus this Trojan horse report was given to you by SFI so that you thought you could gloat. My real report was coded and sent piggy back on what looked like a uniform request from them. Only SFI could read that report as only they know how to uncode it, still, at least you got some of it correct."

Bertrand sighed, "That is because, Mr Kilbane, it was SFI who provided it to me. They felt it was appropriate I be informed of what my Junior officers were reporting. I also have SFI clearance from my time at JAG."

Kevin continued, "Being as we're being candid, and you think you can sit on your moral high ground Sir, and look down upon us....I suppose minions would be a correct assumption....let's, as you say, cut to the chase. I've observed your reactions to various situations onboard this ship, and though I'm no doctor or councilor, I can say that you have been a touch over baring, over reactive and bullish. I firmly believe that somethings happened off the bridge that's got you wound up, and you've brought those feelings onto the bridge and taken it out on us Junior Officers and my real report has indicated this. Getting back to the situation on the bridge, yes, the Captains orders are to be followed, but, we" he pointed to Valeria and himself "would be remiss in our duties if we didn't offer the CO all the alternatives and idea's we think of that can be of help to him in his decision making. Yes, you and he will have discussed different avenues of approach to the situation, but very few on this ship are mind readers, so we don't know what you talked about, hence us speaking up if we think of something that can be what we see as a positive for all of us."

"And, if you remember your training," Bertrand put in, "You will remember that the appropriate avenue is through your department head, then XO, not directly to the Captain unless he asks for it."

Still Kevin continued, "Now, you can haul me over the coals as much as you want, you can talk down to me, be bullish, be tyrannical, heck, be yourself or you can throw me in the brig if you think that'll help, but, I will never compromise on the fact that if I can offer a suggestion in any given situation that I believe will bring a positive outcome, I 'will' do so. What you fail to realise here Sir, is that I'm merely 'on loan' to the Victory from SFI. If you wish to have me removed from being your Intel officer here, that is your choice, but we did what we thought was correct as bridge officers, and though we may not have your myriad of years of service, or climbed through the ranks to your particular level, length of service or height of rank is no guarantee of always being correct. My father always said that during his service, a good leader of any kind weighs up all options, no matter who they come from, the lowliest courtier or the highest diplomat, and I think that's as relevant to this situation now as it was to my Father then."

Bertrand waited for the man to run out of breath, "I was not under the impression you were under any sort of disciplinary action. As for browbeating and bullish, I'll just wait till your all tiraded, out shall I?"

Valeria cleared her throat after the pregnant pause hung in the air. "For all interested, there's never been a Ts'usugi with any mind reading capacity, and I hear that our presence upsets those with talents in that field, as we are difficult to read." she started, "And while I wouldn't use such enthusiasm to say such, Mister Kilbane brings up a slew of points. The most important of which is that no, we do not know what conversations occurred behind closed doors. We're not privileged so such information and, provided we ever make it up that far, perhaps one day we'll be the ones having closed door meetings."

"As a scientist, I deal in fact. Whatever I can observe, or have substantiated, is what I draw my conclusions off of. If my assumption to your mental state came as a shock, it is only because of the degree of shock it came to me. As a fellow sentient, though, I can only trust that, as you said there were reasons and that you agreed completely with the Captain as to the course of action."

"No, lieutenant," Bertrand countered. "You miss-heard me. I did not agree with the Captain's orders. I just followed them. That is how it works."

She took another breath, though held her hand up to concede the fact that she had indeed misheard, "I guess the entirety of this is... to bring to your attention our concern for the safety and well-being of the Victory. From our perspective, there was a lapse in judgement perhaps brought about either for a desire for vendetta, or abandonment of hope. We saw options that were possible and that were being ignored. If you say there were talks and reasons and conclusions that were come to, we have no reason not to believe you. Though, as it was a closed door meeting that determined the fate of our lives you can hopefully understand our confusion and frustration at essentially being told to bleed to death surrounded by bandages."

"I still plan on filing my report with Starfleet, with the notes from this meeting added as an addendum. I do not intend for it to be a career ending report, Commander. Nor do I intend for it to deny the record you served with prior to fifty hours ago. We haven't had much in the way of interaction but the Commander on the bridge then was a different man, a driven man, a man that seemed ready to give up. I want something on record, from the perspective of the Junior officer, of the events where all options are seemingly not being considered and the immediate course of action is the potential sacrifice of all hands." She stated, as unreadable as a sheet of ice, "I understand Mister Kilbane's methods are his own. I'll be filing my report in two standard hours through standard channels." she gave a smirk between the two gentlemen. "At your request, I'll provide you with a full copy, including addendum. I recognize that in the heat of the moment, snap decisions must be made and orders must be followed. The nature of the decision was what concerned me greatest, and we're only alive now because of luck."

"I fully agree, Lieutenant," Bertrand nodded. "As does Starfleet. That is why it asks for department heads to read reports of their junior officers and the CO and XO to review reports from department heads, however they are transmitted. Your perspective is important. As Acting XO, it is my responsibility to act as go between for Department heads and the Captain. I can tell you of the discussions that we had on this topic, but I do not routinely disseminate information. The discussions we had were along the lines of informing SF of options should another encounter occur. We were not expecting pursuit, so I did not see the need to inform everyone of tactical decisions that were unlikely to be relevant. Then the attack came and there was no time for round table discussion."

"Speaking of, will there be a meeting concerning the visitors to the ship?" as deft a topic change as any seen in this sector.

Kevin looked down at Valeria before the Commander could answer the 'visitor' question and said "Yes Mr Mordin, a copy of your report would be gratefully received."

He looked calmly up again at Commander Cuprum, a neutral expression on his face. Would there now be any possible threats, perhaps angry retorts or put downs that could be coming his way after he'd spoken his thoughts? He'd wait and see.

"The 'visitors'," Bertrand almost spat the word, "have returned to their ship. They have provided us with an ultimatum, which I will be passing to Lieutenant Kilbane privately for dissemination to SFI. It seems we have been spared because we are to be the messengers back tot he Federation. I am not at liberty to discuss much more until SFI and SF high command have had an opportunity to study the information we have."

Kevin simply nodded his understanding, he'd study the ultimatum once the AXO had given it to him.

"Well," Bertrand sighed heavily. "If I have assuaged your fears of my sanity for now, I do have a number of reports to take to the Captain. While the XO is incapacitated I am having to run her job and Tactical. DIssmissed."