New Orders

Posted on Tue Apr 7th, 2020 @ 3:15am by Rear-Admiral John Wheeler & Captain Cynthia Jackson & Vivyra & Lieutenant Commander Charlotte Hudson & Lieutenant Xenia Windsor & Lieutenant Kevin Chambers & Lieutenant Jane Sinclair MD, DVM & Lieutenant Luke Osswell & Lieutenant JG Neza Glenn

2,315 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Mission 3 - Coming Full Circle
Location: Legacy Bridge

Having taken care of the Orions, Cindy ordered Legacy back to the closest starbase for the transferring of the Orions and additional recovery from the Orion pheromones. Without Lieutenant Eric Thornton at the communications station, Ensign Vivian Chow, a young woman of some mixed Asian descent was manning the station. She told Cindy, "We have a communications coming in from Starfleet. An Admiral Wheeler."

Cindy tried not to roll her eyes. "Please get Bec up here before we talk to him. He will not like it but I see no other choice."

Vivian put up a call through the ship. =^= Commander Hudson to the bridge, please. =^=

Bec, having just walked through the doors of her quarters only one level down, appeared on the bridge quickly. "What's going on?" She said, looking around, then leaving her gaze on Cindy.

Once Bec got to the bridge, Cindy said, "Put the Admiral through."

Wheeler was less than pleased. "Captain Jackson. Do you think yourself above an Admiral that you made me sit waiting for two minutes?"

"No, Admiral," Cindy's response came. "We were handling some imminent matters."

Bec moved to stand beside Cindy, nodding. She didn't say anything though, just stood there, looking sour.

"Unfortunately, Admiral, having been victim to a biological attack, we thought it was best to safeguard the ship prior to answering your call."

The Admiral simply responded. "Do not get cheeky with me, Jackson. If I am calling, it is quite likely an emergency. And in fact, we are having a problem."

Neza raised an eyebrow and glanced over at the viewscreen, wondering what was going on.

The turbolift doors opened, admitting Jane onto bridge. She stopped in her tracks seeing the Admiral on screen, and did her best to stay out of frame.

Trying not to smirk, Bec turned her head away as though she was looking toward someone else. When she could keep her face straight, she turned back.

"What is that?" Cindy asked, intrigued.

"We have been receiving space time distortions originating from the area of Vulcan. They seem to be weakening coming to Earth. The strength seems to be shifting. You are being ordered to investigate these immediately."

Turning back to her console, Neza tried to pull up the information in case she could see anything.

"Admiral, we have prisoners and we require some rest for the crew...."

Cindy was cut off by the Admiral growling, "What part of immediately do you not understand? Arrange for trans warp transportation of your prisoners and brief me later. That is an order. Understood?"

"Yes, sir." Cindy replied, her eyes now a solid brown. She ordered Xenia, "Helm, you heard him, set a course for Vulcan."

"Aye, Sir," the helmsman said, fingers flying across her console as she did as ordered. "Coordinates laid in." She'd felt the way some of the others obviously felt about the douche bag Admiral, but she kept her thoughts to herself. Everyone else had already stated the obvious.

Once the order was obeyed, the Admiral signed off with any warning and Cindy called to Engineering, "Kevin, would you transport our prisoners to Starbase 5, please? Bec will give you all the coordinates shortly."

"I've made arrangements for Vivyra to be transported over as well, Captain," Jane added. "She should be beamed over, too. Dr. Vörös on Starbase 5 is expecting her."

"Aye Captain," Kevin responded. "Waiting on coordinates..."

Cindy then looked at Bec, "Thoughts?"

"I cannot say them on duty," Bec said dryly, looking at Cindy. "But then, you're not looking for my thoughts on Wheeler. I don't like anything to do with space time distortions, but it is something that needs to be investigated." She moved to the nearest console and grabbed the coordinates for Starbase 5 and sent them to Kevin while she spoke.

Cindy laughed at Bec. "You can tell me your thoughts on Wheeler privately. I agree that we need to investigate this but the timing could not be much worse. Who knows how many people will be still feeling the effects of our recent encounter?" After a lengthy, pause, Cindy happily shrugged her hair behind her shoulders and said, "Still, space time distortions sound exciting, don't you think? A nice change from cloak and dagger, I should think."

The Captain then turned to Xenia and asked, "Do you have an estimate on our time of arrival at Vulcan?"

"We're about 28 hours out at Warp 4."

"I prefer cloak and dagger," Bec replied with a shrug. "I'm Security, not Science. I don't like space time distortions, they make it hard to secure the ship and crew," she added. "As for our recent encounter, I do think we should all have some time to recuperate and deal with everything that has gone on. Jumping straight into another mission is highly inadvisable. But that man doesn't care, he's doing his best to set you up to fail."

"Maybe you, too, Bec," Cindy replied with a resigned sigh. "Nonetheless, we cannot ignore the order. Can we? And," Cindy continued beaming, "I like science! I came up through it, you know! I mean, what's the worst that could happen?" Cindy asked with an amused giggle.

"Yeah," Jane said from the back of the bridge, her voice filled with both sadness and sarcasm. "What's the worst that could happen?"

Looking back at the doctor she'd grown to love, Bec was surprised that the woman had developed a sense of snark and sarcasm. Normally she was all bubbly and happy. While she appreciated a good snarky comment, Bec did hope that Jane returned to her happy-go-lucky self. Things wouldn't be the same around here if Jane were to remain snarky.

Luke, who by now stood at the ready again at his station, said: "That man is a bloody fool, we are in no condition to deal with a new situation. We are all still compromised, even with the treatment the Doc gave us, we need to get a medical checkup and clearance from a Starfleet Medical at Starbase 5, or any other unaffected medical officer. And that's just the physical part of it. Over the past few days we have all done things that some may or may not now experience mental trauma over. I'll write up an official letter of complaint, in the meantime, from the ships security and performance perspective, I recommend all of us get additional medical check-ups so that by the time we arrive at Vulcan we are our best ability as possible."

"Oi!" Jane said, glaring at Luke. "Leave you on the deck next time, then, if you're disrespecting my medical fitness," she said, huffily.

Taking on the voice of school marm, Cindy replied, "Luke. Jane. I will not have you sniping at each other. This has been a very difficult time and you are both right. We are not in optimal condition to handle this. I trust all of you, though, to do your best."

Looking over at Luke, Bec narrowed her eyes slightly, then shook her head. "Yes, we do need all of that. But as I said before, Admiral Wheeler is doing his level best to set Cindy up to fail. He wants her, and us by proxy, to be compromised and make the situation worse. So, we move forward and do what needs to be done. If you are worried about Jane treating you, then I suggest seeing one of the other medical professionals that were not affected by the Orion pheromones. But I can tell you that Jane has had a full medical check over and has been cleared for duty. Her emotions may have been affected, but her ability to be a doctor hasn't."

The doctor gave Bec a smile, and mouthed 'thank you' at her.

Cindy nodded. "Yes, Luke. What Bec says is true. We need to do the best we can with what we got. I don't know why Wheeler has it out for me or us but we have to follow orders or we play right into his hands."

Luke looked at each of them in turn. "I did not mean to question Jane's capabilities, on the contrary, it is because of her we are standing here now, and we are all in her debt. I apologise for not being more clear about that." He rested his eyes on Jane for a moment, hoping she would see that he was being sincere. "We don't know the long term effects of the cure yet, right now, we are back in charge of our faculties, but can we be absolutely 100% sure we stay that way? This is why it is important our findings and our assessments are verified by an external party. Again, this is not to say I question any of us. I only say it because this is what is supposed to be normal procedure, a set of checks and balances to ensure the continued safety of the Starfleet crews and the people they protect and serve. That is what the Admiral is forgetting, or I should say, ignoring, and that is what puts Vulcan unnecessarily at risk, and that is how I shall put it in my letter of complaint."

Xenia grinned to herself as she kept her head over her console. Even after the clarity of the cure had shown them what they'd done, she still found Luke quite attractive, but if he thought a letter of complaint was going to do anything to an Admiral, he was more of a geek than she realized. Still, she cast a grin in his direction.

Cindy caught Xenia's look at Luke, which caused her face to flush a light pink. There was going to be a great deal of reckoning for this crew in the next 28 hours or so.

As Jane observed the crew interactions, she made a mental note to run additional tests. It was possible that the Orion pheromone still had some lasting effect. Indeed, she couldn't quite look at Xenia the same way after what they'd started to do in the brig. "Apology accepted, Luke," she said. "And I'm sorry for being short with you."

Neza had been simply sitting and listening, while reviewing sensor information. She had no idea what was going on but had heard someone apologizing and someone accepting the apology. "Wait..what?"

Luke had never been more happy to be back in full control of his thoughts and feelings as now, as logic and reason had begun to be the norm again after their long hiatus. "It's okay, Doctor", he said to her reassuringly, while gesturing to Neza that everything was alright. He spied Xenia grinning at him, and Luke gave her a quick little wink, but then caught Captain Cindy looking at them both, and he hastily coughed awkwardly and pretended to remove a stray eyelash from his eye. Damn those Orions... he thought. Regarding the letter of complaint, Luke knew that wasn't going to do anything. But for anything to happen proper procedures would have to be followed, the letter being the first step of what he expected to be many. Perhaps it wouldn't lead to anything, but he could not stand idly by as some Admiral put lives in danger because of some personal vendetta against Captain Cindy. Whatever had happened between them in the past few days, it didn't change the fact that she still was, and would remain, his Captain.

Cindy looked over at Jane and said, "Perhaps you had better talk to Vivyra. Let her know what's going to happen?"

“I’ve said all I need to,” Jane said firmly. “She knows she’s going to a Starbase to stay with a friend of mine. And that friend is a well trained psychiatrist who will help her with her slavery complex. Other doctors will try to help get rid of her pheromone.”

Through all of this, Bec stood near the center of the bridge with her arms crossed over her chest. She disliked this whole situation. It had screwed with her crew, something she could not abide happening. She watched Cindy for a moment, then smirked slightly at the blush she'd developed when looking toward Luke. Maybe the pheromones had something to do with her feelings for Luke, or maybe they'd just heightened what was already there. Either way, it still amused Bec to see Cindy acting like a school girl with a crush.

Cindy looked over at Jane, more than a little concerned. "Get rid of her pheromones? Isn't that like declawing a cat? Seems a bit...." Pausing for a moment Cindy struggled for the right word, "Harsh? Cruel? Barbaric?"

Jane faced her Captain and looked appalled. "No, nothing like that. Vivyra's specific pheromone is engineered. Drugging everyone she touches, or requiring that everyone who comes near her medicate themselves first, that isn't a healthy way to live. This would restore her into a normal Orion girl, and ideally help transition her into life as a free woman in the Federation." You honestly think that poorly of me now? she thought to herself. "I'd like to discuss it further privately once we're underway, if that's alright with you. It can be after they're beamed away."

"Of course, Jane!" Cindy replied sweetly.

"Thank you." Jane made a mental note to make an appointment in the next day or so.

Looking back at Bec, Cindy noticed that her XO had her arms crossed. "That's a rather defiant demeanor, Bec? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she responded, though didn't seem quite sincere. Though whether she was being truthful or not was still questionable. "Better than standing here with my arms on my hips or hanging limply by my side," she said with a shrug.

Cindy just gave Bec a smile and decided she would save the conversation for later. For now, she was going to focus on getting Legacy fit for whatever awaited them.

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