Friends, Now in High Places
Posted on Mon Jan 30th, 2023 @ 4:43pm by Captain Ewan Darrow & Rear Admiral Yoshi Minawara
Mission:
Between Realities
Location: TFCO72's Office
Timeline: MD01 2030HRS
2826 words - 5.7 OF Standard Post Measure
One final piece of paperwork.
Officially, a member of the Brass past Commodore couldn't be the permanent Commanding Officer of a Starship. Sure, they had a Flagship, which effectively they commanded, but they were not her Commanding Officer. One of the small graces allowed to him in all of this, was that the Vesta remained firmly under his grasp. Not that they hadn't tried to switch him into an Obena, or worse, a Curiosity, but it was only by some intervention by higher up members of the Fleet that the Vesta was to remain his flagship. There was also a pervasive belief that, as a result, he was less likely to get into trouble, and maybe the experimental ship could fade into the background. But that meant that Yoshi had to officially pass on the reigns, and that was easy. There was no one in the galaxy he trusted more with the ship than Ewan.
Again, there had been pushback, but when it was pointed out that not only was Captain Darrow extensively familiar with the ship, not promoting him to her Commanding Officer meant that they would have to move him to another ship somewhere as a Commanding Officer. And when it was noted that he was as responsible for the Vesta and her antics as Yoshi was - while also being attached to her core staff, that maybe moving them all around wasn't a good idea. One ship of dramatic reproach was enough, but the potential for several made the Brass stir uncomfortably. It had been a three hour debate, but eventually the Admirals had relented, under the conditions that Marine Captain - soon to be Major - Amelia St Lacroix stay on board to supervise and assist. Yoshi was pretty sure he'd almost seen MacTaryn smile.
An invite had been sent to Ewan's quarters, hand delivered the old fashion way as a summons to the Office. It had simply said, "At your earliest convenience, report to Task Force Commander's Office aboard Esquimalt." It made Yoshi smile in a coy way, about the invite, and for now he sat, watching space drift by outside his display, back to the office and the door.
------
Allison had initially answered the door, chuckling to herself as she had called Ewan out of their new quarters study to collect the invitation that had arrived. For a pair of tech-minded engineers who had assisted in the design of one of the most advanced ships in Starfleet, for such an invite to arrive in an old-fashioned way amused her. So had Ewan's interrogation of the poor Ensign that had been assigned with the task, his inability to answer any of her husband's questions. After the very flummoxed Ensign had departed, Ewan had sipped at his cup of tea reading over the rather plain and uninformative invitation.
With a sigh of inevitability, Ewan had pulled a sweater on overtop of his old Vesta design team t-shirt (yes they had indeed been that nerdy) and ensured his jeans were clean. If the Task Force CO wanted earliest convenience, Ewan wasn't going to waste time changing back into a uniform, especially with his own curiosity piqued by a need to know what was going on. Walking down the expansive corridor from the senior officers' quarters towards the central turbolift shaft grouping, Ewan tried to consider what might be going on. He was sure the Task Force had wanted to know what had happened but he was sure it could have waited, and yet here he was waiting for a turbolift.
The lift arrived and soon he was cruising to the top of the starbase to the command centre. The more he tried to consider what was going on, the more he didn't understand what the Task Force CO could want. Half through the long ride the Captain had resigned himself to the fact he would simply have to wait to find out; alone in the turbolift, the familiar rumble of the lift as it moved caused Ewan zone out. It wasn't until a Lieutenant called to him through the open doors of the lift he snapped back to reality from his mindless stance, thanking the young Rigellian, Ewan walked with purpose through the command centre towards the door at the far end, the one marked Task Force Commander. None of the junior officers tried to stop him or question him, his stride with purpose causing them to pause, no one in civilian wear walked with such purpose that wasn't sure of their spot in a location such as this. The Senior Watch officer recognized but simple smiled, knowing, having heard what was going on but didn't speak, simply turning his attention back to his console.
Stopping at the door, went to look at his dress but then remembered here he stood in jeans and a sweater. With a shrug he hit the call button.
"Come," the voice called back.
Ewan stepped forward, the door opening as he did to allow him to entire. The room was large, expansive and befitting on a Task Force Commander, and there sitting behind the desk at the far end was Yoshi....
Yoshi?
"What the hell," Ewan said as the doors closed behind him.
Yoshi smiled at his friend, standing to approach. "You get a summons from the Task Force Commanding Officer and you show up in your day-off best. I'd say I'm surprised, but you know my poker face better than any," he said, actually laughing, before gesturing towards the collections of couches that made up the two corners. "I'm sorry I kept you in the dark so long," he added, grabbing the bottle of port and two glasses, before seating himself into the chairs. With a practised ease, he poured two glasses and slid one across. "So, get it out of your system."
Ewan moved towards the couches that Yoshi had motioned towards, "When did this all happen? We've been back for a total of like a day." He said as he stooped low to grab the glass that had been slid across the table. Taking a small sip from the glass he savoured the taste and feel of the liquor, it wasn't a cheap bottle, no not with that taste, "And the expensive bottle."
"Logistically?" Yoshi asked, pausing to take a sip himself. "This morning was the official transfer. The move was positioned before we left on the last assignment. Command thought it was going to be an entirely more relaxed affair, thinking the Tholians had no idea about their lost ship. After Harrington... caused himself trouble, there was a need for someone in a position of power who the Task Force was familiar with. Someone decided our spot as A's former Group Commander was enough to shoot me into the spotlight." The smile shrank, a hair, but still it wavered and shrank nonetheless. "I also feel like there is a whole lot of push to keep me from causing any more problems. Admirals don't get to wander face first into trouble on a daily basis, so they want to tame things down." He placed the glass down, and cross a leg as he reclined a little more into the seats. "The bottle is from Alice's private collection, something we were saving for a time that was fitting. Being a proper Admiral felt well enough to open it."
"Well someones made a mistake, they gave you even more pips after all," Ewan responded with a grin as he settled into one of the couches and leaned back into the soft cushy seats. He considered the rest of what Yoshi had said, what had happened with Harrington had been regrettable for many. "Definitely a good time to open it though, nice and smooth. Earth classic? Tastes like a Japanese Whiskey." He took another sip from his glass before setting it on the side table.
"The brandy used in the port is made from mizunara grown on my Uncle's estate. The place imports their wine to make it from Château Picard. My wife found out about the brandy from my Uncle shortly after our wedding and picked up a collection of bottles, this one being a fifty year bottle. Pre-Dominion War," he admired the colour for a moment, and smiled. "My uncle would be furious to know I had opened it."
"As for the whole problems' thing, I'm not entirely sure what they mean there... We've never actively sought out the issues that have happened to us, they just seem to find us," He stopped and thought about it, "Oh we're cursed."
Taking another sip, Yoshi chuckled through the glass, placing it back down. "Curses are part of Starfleet, and I think they know that. We've never gotten into trouble doing something immoral, and more often than not have done so under orders. Which is one of the reasons the Oversight Committee loves me," he said, a grimace adding to the sarcasm of his words. "Nothing makes them happier than a Starfleet Officer that insists on doing the right thing."
"Well they do tend to be very careful about who they select to be the Captain of any given type of starship," Ewan replied as he relaxed a bit more into the couch, "My lord this couch is comfortable." He said offhand before he continued, "Can't give the Captaincy to any type on the larger deep space explorers, they have to have good heads on their shoulders etc, doing the right thing in tough situations isn't something anyone can do."
Nodding along, Yoshi smiled as he watched his friend talk. When it seemed to have come to a natural pause, he reached back on the couch and grabbed a PaDD. "Speaking of Captaincy, there is another matter I need to address. And it does pertain to the Vesta," he said, passing the PaDD forward to Ewan. "I have managed to maintain her as my Flagship, there seems to be a good faith understanding that it would make sense for her to remain under my pervue. However, I can no longer Captain a ship, so she'll need a new Captain." He nodded to the PaDD, the understanding that Ewan would take the post, should he accept.
"Well that makes sense, Admirals cant command a ship," Ewan took the PaDD from Yoshi, holding it up with one hand while the other picked up his glass again and took a sip from it, savoring the taste and letting it sit for a moment as he read the PaDD and its contents. His eyes went a bit wide as he swallowed the drink hard, starting to cough trying to set the glass down and the PaDD at the same time while covering his mouth. After a moment of hacking he looked back up and Yoshi, "I... well then.. I..." He took a moment just staring at his friend, "I honestly didnt even consider it when you said it."
"You were instrumental in her final development, as well as in all her adventures to date. I couldn't imagine a better commanding officer, and you're already used to me bossing you around," Minawara said with a sly smile. "It won't be official until she is spaceworthy again, and definitely is going to need a full overhaul before that's the case. Though the transfer of the Commanding Officer position in the crew is official as soon as you sign. Then while the crew is on leave and off the Vesta you'll be responsible for them. And that means Jack too," he said, laughing a little to himself. "Which is the last thing. Your crew's commanding officer posted a whole bunch of promotion recommendations before he dipped, like some kind of ass. So I've reviewed it, but as the new Commanding Officer you'll need a last check before it's official," he finished, sliding another PaDD over.
Ewan took the PaDD and started to scroll through it, "Rufus... yes he definitely needs a promotion." Ewan said before setting the PaDD down, he'd have to read through it more later to see who else had been promoted, "I take it though, that this means you will not be leaving the ship all together? Let me guess, still the flagship of your little group?"
"Computer, transmit Flagship modifications to holoprojection," he called out, waving to the display that appeared. "There was talks of actually putting Vesta into drydock for a long while, doing a full front to back rebuild and overhaul. I convinced the Corps to instead let me keep her as my flagship, and do some retrofitting. I'll be gutting the space around the strategic operations offices, and converting it into a command centre. Plus I'll get a bigger room now too," he said with a wink. "Not a huge change, but enough to make it a proper flagship. It'll come with some perks, priority parking and all that."
"She doesn't need a rebuild, half the tech in her is only just coming online as standard in new builds what would they do give us the less powerful production run stuff?" Ewan scoffed as he leaned forward and reached out to pull at the projection, "We didn't need that strategic operations office anyways not with a starbase as a base of operations, which I'm assuming we will now be based from Esquimalt. We could probably do with reinforcing the structure around the heat sink since we have to cut it out anyways and rebuild while we're at it."
He leaned back running through quick additions and builds they could easily tack on to a retrofit while the ship was being repaired, "Also you and Alice willingly gave up those quarters to us, I seem to remember the 'there is four of you and two of us' being apart of it," changing back to the topic of hand though, "Even with a retrofit this is going to take a few months."
"The frame damage is pretty aggressive. They're saying the super structure appears to be twisted and warped, that's going to be the most of the work," Yoshi agreed, taking a sip. "Esquimalt's repair facilities are brand new - top of the line too. So a lot of that work can actually be done with focused construction. With the new nanobot based repair systems, which came from the team at the Artifact, we are going to be seeing some of the work that would have taken months only take weeks. Which is where a lot of the calls for us to be rebuilt came from, the stuff that's becoming standard that Vesta already has was experimental with us. A lot of it has been refined, even reduced in size. Estimates are with some of the upgrades we'll gain internal volume actually. New injector assembly from the Curiosity and Inquiry programs actually seems to offer us massively improved intermix. Let Jack at it, and I bet you we could push a Quantum Slipstream Velocity of five and three-quarters out of her." With a wave of his hand, he dismissed the diagrams. "But all that can wait. Take some time and think on it, and then give it your thumb. And pick out your temporary Executive Officer. Once you have that settled, we can discuss how my team here is going to cut up my- your ship. Talk it over with Allison, she'll want to be a part of it. And then we can celebrate with the families?"
"Let's be honest here, she'd probably slap me if I didn't take the job but also slap me if I didnt talk to her, I lose either way," Ewan said with a laugh as he picked up the PaDD again and bounced it in his hands. This indeed was alot to consider and he had no doubt that he would be taking the job. How could he not? This was a place he had hoped to be one day and to continue to be able to work with Yoshi and keep this crew together would just be a bonus. First though he did need to talk it over with Allison, there was no way he couldn't this would change their lives a lot and yet very little at the same time.
Then the stress of picking a temporary Executive Officer, and figuring out what to do in the meantime while the ship was fixed to keep the senior staff together. The list went on, but it was all things that could wait for later, for now, he need to talk to Allison. "A lot of things are about to change." He stood and stretched lightly as he did, "Ill let you know in a few hours, maybe see if Alice or Karrun has something good in stock that's a little exotic we can have and then dinner tomorrow for sure."
