Post Number: 142 *Getting Some Things Straight*

Posted on Wed Oct 23rd, 2024 @ 9:49pm by Captain Marius Pontmercy & Commander Jordan Haines & Major Charlotte Thrace
Edited on on Wed Oct 23rd, 2024 @ 11:33pm

2,843 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Obsidian

On:

As the mission briefing concluded, Marius stood from his seat at the Conference room table, not checking to see if Haines and Thrace were behind him. He strode the short distance across the deck to his ready room, opened the door, and then took a seat at his desk as he waited.

Jordan walked in and took a seat. He knew Marius was irritated, possibly even mad. He wasn’t going to put it off, if he had something to say then Jordan would hear him out and respond as best he could.

Charlotte was already not in the best of moods, and she had her reasons, maybe they were better described as concerns, if it weren't for the seriousness of the situation it would be almost comical. Walking in she stood there looking from one to the other.

"Stop standing there and have a seat," Marius said gruffly. When the woman complied he looked between the two of them. "We don't have a lot of time, so let me get straight to it. First, let's discuss your mission to rescue the General. I read your report," he said to Jordan, "and I would love for you to explain your decision to put a crew member directly in harms way without knowing what you were walking into."

“I learned from the best.” Jordan replied, his eyes on Marius. “We didn’t have a lot of time and had to come up with a plan. I take full responsibility for putting the First Lieutenant in harms way but I knew it would work and it did.” He smiled at Marius. “Isn’t this what you taught me, to fly by the seat of my pants. It worked and the General is home safe and sound.” Marius frowned.

"You got lucky, Commander. Did you even attempt other options?"

“We went over every scenerio.” Jordan replied, confident in his decision. “The majority agreed it was the plan to go with and ultimately I made the decision to move forward.” His eyes met Marius’. “I am no longer someone who jumps in without considering the consequences if there had been a less risky way I would have taken it.” Pontmercy needed to trust him, to realize he wasn’t that reckless security officer any longer. “I stand on my word, Captain.”

"If I may we took the only possible option." Charlotte said "The only alternative would have been to assault the pirate base, which would have meant involving personnel who are not trained to the required standard in an assault on an unknown facility where we didn't know the layout, what the defences are, number of hostiles and so on. In short it would have likely been a bloodbath, likely resulted in fatalities and you'd now be writing letters to next of kin and myself and the commander could conceivably be hiding from Joel and/or waiting for a court martial. Tactical decisions in those scenario's which are time sensitive are based on available personnel, it was tactically appropriate therefore to choose the battleground and get them to come to us, it was tactically appropriate for me to be the bait because I was the only thing that could conceivably have tempted them and I was of those available the best qualified person to be at close quarters with a hostile force because I know how to handle myself in that situation I am trained for it and with the greatest of respect to the others on that team, they're not. I have every intention of changing that after we get back from Qon'os."

"Lieutenant, let me stop you right there. You and I have other things to discuss, but I brought you here because you are a good Marine, and a good leader. From what I have read and what has been disclosed to me, this is pretty much the first and only plan you all devised. We are in a long war, folks, and to have you jump in immediately without considering other options is not how I want my staff to handle situations. Not to mention, you waited until you were back from the mission to even tell me what you all had decided to do, let alone already done. I do not expect you to run every decision by me, but you let officers with little to no training be key players in your scheme." Marius sighed. "This, ultimately, led to an idea that will be put into action. Upon your return, Lieutenant, you will work with Security to devise a training regimen, and I want every crew member on this station that has not had security or marine training put through the paces. I want them trained and ready to handle whatever away mission or battles, or situation they get involved in going forward."

Jordan listened to what Marius had to say. He agreed with the plan to train everyone. “It was my fault for not contacting you.” He said honestly, “I knew we had a window that was about to close and I didn’t want to report back here without the General.” He took a deep breath. “If I had to do it again, Captain, I would do the same thing, except send you an encrypted missive or have the crew who stayed behind inform you.” He wasn’t going to lie and say he’d sit on his hands. Marius sighed, and then nodded.

"The other thing I would like to discuss," he said as he turned to Charlotte, "is why you allowed an Ensign who is an Anthropologist, plan the mission and give out assignments? Are you not in charge of battle strategy and defense, along with Lieutenant Haines? That was completely inappropriate."

"Yes." Charlotte said "As such is my responsibility if I wish to delegate the briefing to someone who has knowledge that could prove useful then I will do so, especially when the person in question is an anthropologist so has more than enough understanding about the Klingon Empire, which when travelling to Qon'os is significant, and is also an intelligence officer and is therefore well versed in how the Romulans and Cardassian's operate. To me that's highly appropriate. And for the record Hannah made recommendations she did not give out assignments because there are five people with that authority assigned to this post three of them are in this room and she's not one of the other two."

"You would be wise to watch your tone, Lieutenant," Marius warned. "You may have the authority to assign people to the briefings, but you do not have the authority to disrespect your Commanding Officer. Furthermore, this is not the first mission briefing in which you presented information you have gathered without disclosing it to me. If this happens again, we will have a different kind of meeting. You, V'Lar, Hannah.... you are not an insular group. You are part of a crew of individuals, and you damn well better start acting like it and respect the Chain of Command."

Jordan listened to the captain, expecting something like this. “The captain is correct.” He turned to Charlotte. “He needs to be apprised of information we are bringing to a meeting ahead of time, to give him the time to decide how to handle it. And at all times he is respected as our captain, Lieutenant.” He took a deep breath. “I noticed while on this mission that the crew as a whole does not seem to understand working as a team. I believe that is something that we need to stress and work on when we return as well.”

Charlotte sighed "Ok what the heck happened to the pair of you?" she said "Because heavens know you haven't missed me enough that you need me to go into speech mode." she looked at Marius "You are not the lovesick fool that your fictional namesake is, you are an experienced Starfleet captain with a medical background, you know the potential uses of the General's DNA better than either of us, Commander Haines has a security background and despite appearances he's actually a reasonably decent first officer, he knows how important DNA is as evidence of crime, and all three of us have whether as an elective or due to promotion completed the command course so we all know how to assess this situation with the DNA." she paused "You wish to say Hannah gathered fresh information? No sir she did not, what she did was based on information that you already knew attempt to answer a question that we are all trained to think about when we assess it 'what are they going to do with the General's DNA?' We don't know that but all three of us know that whatever it is has to be big and is very likely to go down on Qon'os, that's the rationale. It's an educated guess and an interpretation of, and I'll say again, information you already had." she took another breath "Now if we had uncovered information that specifically identified the methodology in question then yes that would be disclosed ahead of time but that is not what happened. You both knew in advance that there is reason to believe that whoever has the DNA, most likely Romulans or Cardassians, is intending to use it in a manner to fracture the Khitomer accords, I was in the room on the Arcadia when Jude and V'Lar disclosed that and I believe that was after they reported it to you Captain. All Hannah has said and all I've said is that if we want to stop that we need people on Qon'os because right now we are hours behind in the chase, if we don't go straight to Qon'os we fall days behind it and probably don't stop it. That's logical reasoning based on information we already had and that everyone knew. You want to go over my decision making in planning the General's rescue? Fine. You want to discuss how to get this crew working as a team? Fine I'm all for it. But don't either you even think about scapegoating my sister for something she hasn't done."

“I don’t personally think this has anything to do with blame.” Jordan spoke up. “It is about consistency, rules and consequences. We need our people to be a team.” He looked at them both. “Half the time on this mission it was someone trying to outplay another. There shouldn’t have been any surprises for most of the team we all should have been on the same page. I want to know the team is not holding things back and assuming I don’t know what I am talking about.” He looked at Charlotte. “And don’t tell me that didn’t happen in this mission. If you want to do research or go with a plan, then you need to include others. This isn’t a one or even three person show it’s a team, everyone needs to be connected for it to work. Even when I was a smuggler I knew the importance of teamwork.”

"And your assumption is I don't?" Charlotte said "Let's be clear the marines rely on team work more than any other department does. You want to make this about consistency? Was any part of this mission so far inconsistent with Starfleet protocol? No. Have any Starfleet rules been broken? One which is the required away team check in regulation. Was anyone attempting to outplay another? Again one person and they are not in this room."

“I never said you didn’t.” Jordan replied evenly. “Our teams don’t. Even with the interrogation of the Cardassian, things weren’t shared and the crew didn’t work as a team. You know I am right, there are no lily white crew members. I listened and I know what I saw, during the rescue I saw some but not enough. You and I have trust and know we can count on each other, they don’t have that and after this mission we will beat it into them.”

"Enough," Marius said, biting back a harsher reply. He glanced from Jordan to Charlotte, giving himself time to calm down. "What I am trying to get through to you, Charlotte, is that there was an Ensign in the Science department that is not even Senior Staff giving recommendations for strike teams in the Romulan Neutral Zone and the Maxis system, and not my Marine Commander. She is not the tactician I rely on, you are. Your sister is a good officer, and I am glad that she is a part of my crew, but we all have roles here. I feel that maybe it is the war, or everyone being tense and stressed, but lines are getting blurred about responsibilities and assignments, and it may be time for me to address it. Hell, I just found out that a Civilian apparently was allowed to pilot the Arcadia at some point during your away team, which is so far past protocol I can't even begin to describe it. We are a team, and we need to learn to work together as one. One of those things, is handling our assignments as we are given. If Hannah would like to be given more responsibilities and leadership, I am more than happy to discuss a potential change in her role here, but until then- in a Senior Staff meeting, we follow the rules."

"I have no issue with following the rules but with respect sir." Charlotte said "What I'm trying to explain is that she should not have needed to do that because the conversation should not have needed steering in that direction, it should have started there and it didn't." she paused "And I believe unless I'm very much mistaken that the civilian in question is supposed to be gaining experience in various departments ahead of her academy entry which isn't without precedent, I would recommend you formalise her acting ensign standing to avoid repeats of that." she paused again "If you want to know why I choose to involve Hannah in these things it's twofold, firstly as she works with an intelligence brief in some respects she is someone who can relay information upon which I base operations such is the relationship that marines and intelligence have, and secondly she has an ability to keep a cool head and make the right decisions on a broad scale, but I'll sound her out and see if she wants that conversation."

“So we throw out the chain of command and just let whoever wants come to a meeting.” Jordan said sarcastically. “And everyone throws out ideas! Hell, we can invite that cute Mexican restaurant owner and the Ferengis and make it a free for all.” He shook his head. “I have a mission to get moving so let’s get on with this.”

"We have missions to get moving." Charlotte said "But no not everyone you know as well as I do when considering a mission to Qon'os that having the anthropologist in the room is probably a good idea." she sighed "That said if there's nothing else we do have the small matter of a twenty fifth century version of the changeling threat to put an end to."

"Not quite yet," Marius said, quietly fuming. "First, is it your impression that the mission was not held... correctly? Is there some standard that needed to have been upheld? She needn't have guided the discussion, that was not her place or her job. The conversation starting whichever way was not her call or decision," he paused for a moment. "Charlotte, I do not know why you are not understanding what I am trying to tell you. She shouldn't have been in a position to even _think_ she was supposed to do that. Let me be perfectly clear, It will not happen again. She can offer opinions, even facts, but she does not call the shots or dictate a briefing again. If it does, I will have to have a discussion with her." He shifted in his chair. "As for the civilian you allowed to pilot the Arcadia, I understand that the Civilian in question is in training, but on an extremely dangerous away mission? Are you serious? Absolutely not. That is supposed to be happening under perfectly controlled situations, where her teachers and instructors have the ability to intervene if necessary. If I EVER hear of something like that happening again, I will have her transferred off of the Obsidian without a moments hesitation. Now," he said, taking a breath, "you are right. We have away missions to prepare. I need to speak with the Admiralty and see what they have come up with. You both are dismissed," he said with finality.

Off:

Captain Marius G. Pontmercy
Commanding Officer
USS Arcadia/Starbase Obsidian

Commander Jordan Haines
Executive Officer
USS Arcadia/Starbase Obsidian

First Lieutenant Charlotte Thrace
Marine CO
USS Arcadia/Starbase Obsidian

 

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