Handoff

Posted on Thu Feb 3rd, 2022 @ 8:28am by Lieutenant Colonel Azhul Naxea & Captain Natacha Patani
Edited on on Thu Feb 3rd, 2022 @ 8:48am

Mission: Season 5: Episode 3: CAPETOWN
Location: Marine CO's office; Marine Country
Timeline: After mission
1116 words - 2.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Natacha gave her tunic a tug, the hint of a smile momentarily appearing on her face. After having to traipse around the Elysium in a state of undress that called itself a twenty-third century uniform, Natacha would never take a proper duty uniform for granted again.

With a small stack of PADDs tucked under her arm, Natacha signaled her presence at the entrance of her CO's office.

"Enter," came Naxea's reply from within her office. At her replicator, she watched as a hot cup of raktajino materialized on the replicator's buffer pad.

"Colonel Azhul, good to have you back, ma'am," Natacha stated as she presented herself in front of the Marine CO's desk.

Grabbing her cup as she turned, she held up her free hand. "At ease, Captain. Thank you. Care for anything to drink?"

"No ma'am, I'm good," Natacha answered, taking a seat across from the Colonel. Hefting the PADDs in her right hand, she added, "If you don't mind getting down to business, there were a few things I need to review with you, Colonel."

Taking a seat down behind her desk, Naxea finished taking a small sip of her drink before setting to mug down. "Ok, what have you got for me?"

"This is the report on the temporary effects of the temporal distortions on the Detachment," Natacha began, handing over one of the PADDs. "The upside is our Marines are up to date now on antique weapon use. The downside is I might have caught a minor respiratory ailment due to overexposure," the Marine captain added dryly, remembering her Kirk era uniform.

"Oh? Have you visited sickbay to get it looked at?" Naxea asked, concerned.

"It cleared up once I was able to put on a uniform that actually had some material," Natacha advised. "On the same note, Gunnery Sergeant Nenaa's normal suppression system wasn't available. Fortunately, medical countermeasures to Orion pheromones were developed two and half centuries ago by a Denobulan doctor serving in Earth's pre-Federation Starfleet. So it was just a matter of passing out pills to the members of the detachment until the replicators could reconstruct her personal suppressant system."

Naxea nodded and grinned. "Good, I don't need the men of the detachment fighting each other over Gunny Nenaa. Are the weapons and equipment in working order?"

Natacha nodded. "Which brings us to the next subject. One of the Elysium's operations officers pulled a prank and, in doing so, circumvented the deck's security measures. Specifically, she was able to "cloak" a small delivery system and get by our independent internal sensors. Once the gap was detected, the fix was simple enough. This deck's internal sensor bands are now continuously randomly changed using true random number generation, not pseudorandom number generation, based on localized background radiation. It's simple chaos theory. And with true random number generation, nobody short of a Q or a Mary Sue Moriarty character from a cheesy holonovel can crack that pattern. Couple that with small, stand-alone probes..." Natacha held her left thumb and index finger four centimeters apart "...forming a three-dimensional Brownian web in our conduits, and that's at least one hole plugged. And for the record, Colonel, all I did was provide the abstract idea. Our techs made it concrete."

Naxea looked at her XO for a moment before replying. She was seriously impressed with the woman's dedication to the detachment. Naxea wanted to know who pulled the prank but had a suspicion as to whom. She would have to have a talk with Lieutenant Redal about her conduct. "Excellent work. Who was the operations officer who did the prank?"

"Immaterial, Colonel," Natacha answered. The hint of wry humor which had been present in Natacha's speech and behavior had disappeared. Natacha handed another PADD to the Colonel as she continued. "That is the information for an Article 32 hearing on myself, which will need to be given to the JAG officer upon our arrival at Starbase 351. Potential charges to include behavior unbecoming and dereliction of duty."

There was a pause before Natacha continued. "The Operations Officer came to our deck as a guest of mine. I knew her behavior was erratic..." Natacha's countenance became took on a serious countenance "...I suspected she could pull a stunt like this, but I didn't say anything. I let my sentimentality set aside my duty to the detachment. I have no excuse, Colonel, and an apology at this point would be worthless."

Frustration began to stir within Naxea as she purposely took a longer sip of her drink, setting the mug back down on the table carefully, bearing an expression that was unamused with what she just heard. "Captain, as this is my detachment, I will decide what is or is not inmaterial. Now, I will ask only once more. What is the name of the officer that pulled the prank? I already have an idea as to whom, I just want confirmation on her identity."

"With respect, Colonel, both to yourself and your authority, I have no desire to shunt the blame for this to another party," Natacha answered. "Blame for this falls on me and me alone, ma'am."

Clinching her jaw, Naxea leaned forward, placing her hands on her desk. "Someone plays a prank in my detachment, bypassing security measures in the process that I had in place, so I don't have to face a situation where I lose half of the damn detachment again or worse, and you are taking all of the blame?" her voice was just below yelling. "Captain Patani, I can easily access the ship's sensor records and confirm the person's identity myself. Your unwillingness to name the person tells me all I need to know about you and your commitment to this detachment, myself included, which violates your oath as an officer. If you wish to continue down this course of action, you will force my hand and it will not be pretty. Am I understood?"

"Understood perfectly, Colonel. And you are correct, ma'am. I have violated my oath both as an officer and a Marine." Natacha stood up and removed both her railroad tracks and her globe and anchor and placed them on the Colonel's desk. "I'll consider myself confined to quarters until we reach Starbase 351. If there's nothing else, Colonel?"

"Go," she ordered before watching Captain Patani exit her office. She stared at the door in anger. "Computer, pull up security logs. List Starfleet Officers in the company of Captain Patani in Marine Country are correlates with the breach in security protocols."

The computer chirped its response as it accessed the countless logs of information stored. "Only one officer fits those perimeters: Lieutenant Myne Redal, Assistant Chief of Operations; USS Elysium."