Another Cat Nap Interrupted

Posted on Wed Oct 13th, 2021 @ 12:43am by Commander M'Mira
Edited on on Thu Jun 1st, 2023 @ 12:49am

1,912 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Mission 4 - Like a Thunderbolt
Location: Captain's Office

Having disposed of Yuri, her new Chief Strategic Officer, M'Mira was ready for a catnap. She was fairly certain out of the corner of her eye, she saw her nosy reporter, Candy Templeton go after him. The reporter certainly had the ability to do strategic ops or intelligence work if she was so disposed but she knew that Candy did not ever want to let go of her freedom. M'Mira wondered how the two would get along.

That was the last thought that M'Mira had until her chime rang again. Her tail tried to rise and failed. She looked at a chronometer and saw that less than thirty minutes had passed. Now what? She sighed and crankily called back in a tired, feminine voice, "Whoever it is, come in."

Momentarily disconcerted by the phrasing, Koz hastily checked her ponytail wasn't too discombobulated by all the travel, and tugged down the front of her tunic. She had stepped off the transport to Faltan a mere thirty minutes beforehand, confused as to why they were transferring to a Starbase of all places. Faltan had been suggested as a planet-side assignment for her.

'Lieutenant Reni Kozrehl?' she called out a little uncertainly as she stepped through the Office door. 'Your new Chief Operations Officer?' She snapped off a smart salute and waited to be acknowledged.

The sprawled out Caitian stretched each of her legs out one by one and then her arms. Even her tail stretched before she slowly rose to a sitting position on her desk. Quickly she looked at Reni and did her assessment to see if she thought that Reni was prettier than her or not. Looking at the Trill, she decided that Reni was not prettier and thus not a threat. "Computerrr what time is it?"

The computer responded, "The time is 1230 and 43 seconds."

"Damn, I only napped forrr fifteen minutes. Did you say that you arrre my new Chief Operrrations Officerrr? Well, thank the Gods. I do not know if you have seen much of the station yet, but it is a complete and utterrr disasterrr. I'm going to need you to get this place in shape in verrry little time. I would help but until this nap, I have been up forrr 24 hourrrs strrraight. Do you know the storrry?"

'I do not, Captain,' replied Koz honestly. 'When I was transferred and shipped out they told me I'd be arriving at a planetary base. I was ... confused to arrive here. Is this a staging post before I get to the surface?' She brandished her PADD, 'my orders were very clear, Captain. A planetary base.'

"No," M'Mira replied exhausted. "This is now Faltan Station." She gave annoyed hiss and groan. "I'm surrrprrrrised that Ms. Templeton does not have it all overrr the news yet. Therrre was a biological terrrrrorrrist attack on the station. Suicide biological attack that sprrread. Highly contagious. We prrresume that the planetarrrry station is uninhabitable."

'Presume?' Koz asked as she folder her arms. 'Have they not sent probes to the surface yet to check?' She looked around the office. 'I noticed that this station was also ... not in the best of shape. Has no-one been maintaining the facility at all?'

"This one was still being built," M'Mira advised. "I had been hoping to not have it completed, to be quite honest. I wanted to keep the station on the planet. Afterrr all, I put all the worrrk into making that one functional after its first crrrew was killed off. As to prrrobes, none have been sent because we werrrre too busy evacuating. You have no idea what it was like, Lieutenant. People exploding and then anything of that explosion that touched someone else caused the prrrocess to continue in the new perrrson. People werrre dying like mice. Everrryone had to get out beforrre therrre was nobody therrre to get off. We lost, as far as we can tell, so far, nearrrly 60 perrr cent of the people at the station, including diplomats and theirrr staff."

'Sixty percent!?' Koz's failed to comprehend the statistic. 'That's unheard of outside of wartime. You haven't found the perpetrators? Who's been in charge of getting this place up and running?'

"I'm now in charrrge. Therrre was some beaurrreaucrrrat engineerrrr taking his sweet time. Then again, that worrrked forrr me until this attack. We suspect the Falteans' goverrrnment, specifically Goverrrnorrr Taga had something to do with it, but we have no prrroof. She's verrry cleverrr. And, she claims herrr own population is affected, as well."

'I see. And who is in charge of Ops so far?' Koz took a deep breath decided to knuckle down to business. 'Sorry. There's little point in me rehashing a traumatic episode for you all. I just need to know who's ear I need to bend to get this place up and running properly. Requisitions don't fill themselves you know, Captain.'

"So farrr? Nobody useful that I can tell, so you. Just take charrrge of the issues."

'Just like that?' Koz struggled to prevent a look of incredulity cross her face, 'if you've got the records of what's been achieved here so far Captain, I'll happily take charge. But not before I've seen the paperwork.'

"Have my yeoman give you all the schematics. I will be by laterrr to assist until we have a full crrrew compliment."

'Yes Captain, thank you.' Koz instinctively felt that she was being dismissed and drew herself up to attention again. 'If there's nothing else?'

"Nothing rrright now. I have been up forrr overrr 24 hourrrs. I'm going to take anotherrr cat nap. So, I'll leave you to it."

'Very well Captain. I'll head out to find your Yeoman. Enjoy your nap,' Koz bobbed her head respectfully as she about turned, making for the door. Now ... this Yeoman.

Outside the door was a statuesque, human woman with short blonde hair. She was almost manly in her less than curvy appearance but her voice was a pleasant soprano sound. The voice, however, was all business. "Excuse me, did you go in to see Commander M'Mira without checking in with me?"

It took all of Koz's control not to look the woman up and down dismissively. 'I did ... As a senior officer I'm to report to the Commanding Officer on arrival, per regulations.' She waggled her PADD in the air between them. 'I can whip out the manual if you want?'

The Yeoman looked down on Koz. "You may have to report to the Commanding Officer, but there are protocols on that on every station or ship, including going through myself before getting to the Commander. She's a rather busy woman."

'Look around Yeoman. Protocols are the least of Faltan's worries at the moment - the station is a mess. Frankly, you need an Ops officer to take charge, now here I am,' Koz refused to break eye contact with the Captain's Yeoman. 'You have the schematics, according to the Captain. I would be grateful to receive them so I can begin the process of bringing Faltan up to spec.' She hooked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. 'There's no time to waste.'

"We need a lot of things," the Yeoman told Koz very frankly. "However, there is no excuse for interrupting the Commander. Keep that in mind for the future." She continued to look down on Koz. "I will have all the schematics and specifications sent to you. If you wish to make modifications, I would suggest running it by the Commander. She's particular."

Arching an eyebrow, Koz shook her head, 'no modifications for now, Yeoman, so no need to trouble her. We need to get the station up to spec first before a system fails catastrophically. Then when everyone is safe, we can look to making things more efficient and modify systems.'

The Yeoman nodded. "I believe that is how the Commander would want you to do it. She's quite exhausted. You cannot imagine the position she is in right now."

'Given that there was no briefing about this, then no I can't. Everything I've learnt about Faltan I learnt in there,' Koz jerked a thumb at the office door behind her. 'Frankly, it sounds like a mess, all of it. Were you down there?'

"If you mean to ask, was I on the planetary station when it all happened, yes, I was. If you meant was I there when the sabotage occurred, then the answer is 'no.' I was at the command center making sure that everything was coordinated smoothly."

'It must have been a fraught situation,' Koz observed as she looked up at the taller Yeoman with a little bit more respect. 'I suppose the Counsellors' services have all been swamped since the incident too.'

"They have. The situation has been draining on our resources and even more so on the Commander. We lost a great deal of people."

'All the more reason to get the station up to spec,' Koz smiled kindly, 'one more load off all our minds, right?'

"Exactly. I suspect that the Commander would want to do more, but she has worked beyond her limits. So, I must be strong for her."

Koz adopted as best of a poker face as she could. 'Of course Yeoman. Everyone has to support each other during this difficult time. Is there anything else you'd like to discuss?'

"No," she replied simply. "If you wish to make a good impression, I would suggest that you get this station operational. I will be trying to attract some shops so that we can have some commerce. However, with the rumors of the attack on the planetary station, that might be difficult."

Frowning at the issue, Koz wrinkled her nose and asked, 'how bad was the promenade deck hit? If it's not too badly damage we can round up some crew alongside my department, get it slicked up nice and you can use it in a promotional holo to advertise the station. Pick a few other choice locations like the COs office, a conference room or two, and you could be in business.'

"It is difficult to say how badly it was hit. However, our current numbers show that 40% of our staff was lost or is missing."

'Alright Yeoman. If you can spare an enlisted crewman or two, I can have an Operations Officer assess the Promenade deck to get it up and going as quickly as possible. I'll put it on the same list as the mission-critical assessments. Fair?'

"That would be appreciated." The yeoman favored Koz with a nod. "Is there anything else that you require?"

Koz shook her head. 'no ma'am. Just point me in the direction of my quarters and I'll get out of your hair.'

"I have placed you on deck 672, quarters number 28. And, you are not in my hair. This is part of my job."

'I just -' Koz smiled, 'nevermind Yeoman. I'll be on my way.' The shorter Trill spun on her heel and headed for the door.

The yeoman blinked once, wondering what the Chief Operations Officer was about to say, thought better of it and set about to making sure that M'Mira's workload was lightened for whenever she awoke.

 

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