Burying The Hatchet MISSION END

Posted on Wed Oct 23rd, 2019 @ 3:28pm by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Ensign Michael Sloan

Mission: Mission 1 - One Step forward
Location: Ready Room, Deck A
Timeline: 14 hours since revelation
1260 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure

This kind of conversation would never happen in front of the crew, there was too much that could go wrong if it did. Beth was the rightful commanding officer but Michael could see that she was quickly becoming compromised. As he took the seat on the visitor's side of the desk from Beth he sighed as though something was weighing heavily on him. Looking to Beth and mustering all the sympathy that he could, Michael simply stated, "We should probably talk about some things." He did not know what to expect, the last time he was in this room he was threatened with the Brig on several occasions and he fully expected to be thrown there once this was over.

The woman looked over the mug of coffee that she had collected on her way to the office as she stood gazing out the window. She turned to look at him stood there giving her no chose but to seat in Leah's chair. "Perhaps we should. What is on your mind?" The woman said gently wondering if this was going to be exactly like the previous time they were alone in this office.

"I don't want to start another argument, but..." Michael sighed slightly because he knew this most definitely would start one. "Listen, I am not trying to undercut your command. Not every suggestion I make or question I ask is meant to take shots at you." He tried to sound calm but their disagreements were starting to become noticeable to the crew, and that would kill whatever morale they had left.

At the words, I don't want to start another argument and a but Beth felt her facial expressions falter and she found herself looking back to the window. It seemed better than allowing him to see just hos disheartening and frustrating it was. "You are doing a good job though of making it seem like that though Michael." The woman commented.

"How?" Michael stated more than asked. "I've offered tried and true Academy taught methods to deal with the current situation without once pointing out your mistakes to the crew or threatening to throw any of the officers in the Brig," he pointed out a bit more emotionally than he intended. He steered clear of saying anything about how she acted like she was well out of her depth with all of the command decisions she had made so far.

"How are there methods for this type of situation Michael. I do not think I have ever heard of a situation like this." Beth said turning around to look at him. She sat in Leah's chair and frowned. "You have made it painfully obvious that you think I am unfit to lead to people and tried to take over what else was I to do to maintain chain of command?" She asked calmly thinking that she needed to maintain her temper, this couldn't be like last time.

"There are no exact rules for being as far out as we are, but survival training with an inoperable warp core is the closest training scenario," the Chief Armory Officer stated. Turning his gaze, he asked a simple question, "When the current CO is threatening to lock people in the Brig or freezes when asked what the crew should do, how could I not step in?" It was more of a rhetorical answer, "The people need something to do and seeing us gripped by indecision and in-fighting only hurts the situation. I would never undercut you or rip command away from you, I have my own faults but I believe in the chain of command. But you have to quit pointing your finger at what everyone else could be thinking about you and start acting on what you think is best." He did his best to keep his anger in check, they had bigger problems than hurt feelings.

“Do you even remember what you said for me to comment about throwing you in the Brig?” The woman wondered. It was the sign of a good communication officer not just to know languages but remember what was said around them. Words were her life after all. “You said to me I have the experience; the crew will respect my command. But you would make a good XO, to help us communicate with anyone we meet.” Beth paused to drink the last of the cold coffee. She had been nursing it for a lot longer than she normally would have but waste not, want not was her new motto. “Maybe you are right about my faults but we cannot keep going on like this though that you are very right on.” It was the only thing that she could agree with him on.

Throwing a confused look to Beth, "I really don't see what that has to do with anything because in that conversation I also said that you were the Captain and that I trusted Leah's choices. Of course, that doesn't fit the narrative and you've left out the fact that I have never even hinted to anyone that they should disobey you or follow me instead." Looking at her, the acting XO shook his head, "It was wrong of me to assume the chain of command, but judge me on what I've done since then."

Beth wanted to argue and wanted to point fingers but it really would do no good at this stage. They were stuck here together in a situation that was not going to change and had to work out what was the best thing to do. She needed to swollen her hurt feelings and move on for the people now under her command. "I will try and judge you accordingly from now on." The woman finally said putting her mug down. "We need to find some common ground here."

Nodding, Michael replied, "I think that's all any of us can do at this point." Before he could say anything else, the Captain's comm unit chirped with an urgent tone.

Beth instinctively moved across the room to the unit and pressed the button. "Leroux here." The woman said surprised by the interruption. With a lot of ship sleeping now things had quietened down enough that only certain areas were still active.

"Cap... Commander, we have an emergency in food storage on Deck C," the voice on the other end stated. There was a certain tone in his voice that carried an urgency that was hard to miss.

"We are on our way." The woman said turning to her new partner in command and nodded. Neither of them would have missed the tone of the male voice that Beth couldn't place. Something was very wrong on Deck C.

As the comm unit was turned off, Michael shook his head and stood up. "Deck C, Food Storage, that can't be good," he commented as he gave the lead to Beth. It was her ship and she should lead the way.

"Qui I could not agree more." Beth nodded and lead the way out the door making sure that no one who passed them saw the worry on her face or even a hint that something was wrong. Whatever was happening was not good at all. Food storage was one of the primary places that they needed to protect at all cost but what could have happened on a stationary vessel in the middle of nowhere?

OFF::

Commander Bethsabee Leroux
Officer In Charge/Chief Communications Officer
NX Atlantis

Lt. Commader Michael Sloan
Acting First Officer/Chief Armory Officer
NX Atlantis