Skulduggery, Pizza and Bare Midriffs - Part II

Posted on Sun Mar 3rd, 2024 @ 5:49pm by Commander Irene Vincent "Rally" & Lieutenant Freya Michaud

931 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Season 1, Episode 2: War, Peace, And All That Jazz
Location: Deep Space Station K-9- Commander Vincent's Office, Deck 9
Timeline: Continued from Part 1

Previously on Star Trek: Deep Space K-9:

"You and me both," Rally sighed as she sat back down. "Anyways, I should probably ask, seeing as Starfleet Command has had a bad habit as of late of under-informing my charges before they send them out here: what exactly have they told you so far regarding the situation with the Eifie Republic and the Rheuysian Reich?"

'Not much,' Michaud admitted in her drawl. 'Command seems to have their hands full these days. They gave me some basics, and I read a few briefing papers on the way over.'

She looked to the floor for a moment as she recalled those notes, then snapped her eyes back to her new CO. 'As I understand it, both civilisations are relatively recent First and Second Contact candidates - within the last two decades.'

Michaud took a breath, 'the Rheyusians are autarkists and seem to have suffered from resource scarcity. It seems their driving mission until now has been to secure resources for their polity whatever the cost.' She shrugged, 'seems to be a standard drive for warp speed technology - outrun the resource-death of your civilisation.'

'The Eifie, a republic I recall, with a fascinating male-to-female birth ratio,' Michaud smiled and relaxed a little, 'I'm sure you can appreciate I find their notes the more interesting of the two.'

And now... the continuation!

"Spot on," Rally nodded. "And if I'm being perfectly honest with you, Lieutenant, you're probably the first Chief of Sciences I've received whom Starfleet's been courteous enough to provide that information to in advance. The last two I pretty much had to debrief on arrival."

Folding her arms, Freya shrugged. 'I'm not one to cast aspersions ma'am, but personally I find the more information I have when entering a situation, the better I operate.' Pulling a face, she carried on, 'I understand Starfleet is increasingly busy at the borders, and may not have had the time for a full briefing, but a responsible Chief Science Officer would at least have been inquisitive as to the lie of the land locally.'

"More like any responsible department head, period," Rally lamented. "I've pretty much had to debrief every senior officer they send through here, my XO included... I'm kind of starting to take it personally, here."

'That's ... I'll be honest, Commander, that does not fill me with great hope about the other officers aboard,' Michaud replied after a quiet moment of grinding her teeth. 'I trust they've been better since?'

"Oh, yeah; no major hiccups or anything like that," Rally answered. "At least, not so far as I'm aware..."

Nodding, Michaud smiled, 'I see.' She was still unsure what to make of Rally. That would come with time though. 'Would you care to fill me in on the border situation - we're situated fairly close, and Command were keeping their cards close to their chest on that one when they assigned me here. Told me I only needed to know once I got here.' She shrugged, 'one of the pitfalls of being a scientist.'

"Eh, well, see that's the thing," Rally sighed, scratching the back of her neck. "Given the highly-sensitive nature of Klingon activity along the border, there are a few things I'm currently not at liberty to say, at least not without the proper security clearance. What I can tell you right now is that we have confirmation that the Klingons have been expanding well into neutral space, and it's gotten bad enough that the Eifie and the Rheuysians are jointly seeking out our protection."

Nodding in response, Michaud swallowed a retort. 'I understand, Commander. It doesn't do to open up the circle too far.' She gave a thin-lipped smile, 'having been part of classified projects before, I understand the dilemma. I trust, however, you'll read me in on anything before it becomes an emergency.'

"Oh, of course," Rally smiled. "I'm not that sort of Commander- at least, I think I'm not..."

Michaud raised an eyebrow and a smile quirked, 'we'll just have to wait and see then, won't we, Commander.' She lapsed in to silence for a moment, then stated, 'we seem to have covered the main points Commander, and I'm sure I've proven I have pulse enough to be recorded as having reported in. Would you have any further questions for me?'

"Well, seeing as we've got ambassadorial contingents from both the Republic and the Reich having already converged on the station... perhaps I could interest you in getting acquainted with the neighbors?" Rally offered.

'Of course,' Michaud replied quickly. She was eager to meet with the Eifie in particular. 'Is there something in particular you wish for me to learn? Or, are you simply asking me to get to know our new acquaintances?'

"Well, you could say it's a bit of both," Rally replied as she got up from her desk and began leading Freya back to the Turbolift. "Getting you acquainted is a start, but we're also looking to understand as much about these species as possible before we admit them into Starfleet; we've only got some very preliminary notes taken during the Excalibur expedition into Sector 813 over a decade ago, so it'll help us greatly in learning more about their respective biologies and customs..."

To be continued...

 

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