Command Transition - Part 1

Posted on Tuesday, 26 May 2020 - 9:38pm by Captain Barret Stillwater & Commander DeVala Victrix Ph.D & Commander Soral

Mission: Operation: Recall
Location: USS Fontana | Deck 01 | Command Suite - Captain's Ready Room

{ON:}

Lieutenant Commander DeVala Victrix walked into the Ready Room section of the Captain's suite, a place she was rather used to by now. It had been her home and her office for several weeks, the journey to the Galactic South all the way through a damn risky wormhole and cutting down through Romulan Space and into the Triangle Sector. Her crew had tracked Commander Barret Stillwater all the way to the planet of Prairie, and damn it! She was both pleased with herself and her crew yet also frustrated because of how close Stillwater had been all this time to Federation worlds.

She migrated around the room pacing in a circular motion making a V line right to the replicator where she define it that her best option what's a caffeinated one albeit a simulated one; however, that was the luxury of being Commanding Officer. She knew the best override codes to get the caffeine and anything deemed ‘unhealthy’ back into the ‘healthier’ programmed sludge that the replicator proposed. Replicated coffee was something she had gotten used to aboard a starship; it was no more walking the streets of Paris and finding a delightful café to indulge herself in.

“Ristretto, hot” she said ordering the extremely strong beverage. “Override Delta-557-Red” she added quickly. It was a ‘quick’ programmed command to ensure that she was given all the caffeine the drink had to offer even if it was replicated. The nice things about food and beverage replicators was that they could replicate the good and the bad if you cooed to it in the right manner, and Victrix knew how to coo to it.

She looked at Commander Stillwater who had his back to her, his hands clasped behind his back as he stood strong, stiff, and very focused at the blackness of space from the observation area of the Ready Room where a sofa was along the viewing area. Victrix had spent may of nights nodding off on that sofa with a PaDD in hand. “May I get you anything to drink, Sir? she said politely. “The coffee is honestly not as terrible as I used to think it was” she admitted almost playfully.

He turned around and face her. He dismissed her offer with a simple gesture of his hand. “No, no. I have gone without the luxury of great coffee for a very long time, Lieutenant Commander Victrix, and even good replicated coffee” he added. “Do you know what it is like to make yourself vanish? To give up everything and lose contact with family? With friends? To return to a simpler life away from all of this…polished and synthetic scenery?” he posed his question but left her dazed with his wording. “No, no you do not, and you probably never will. I envy that in you, Victrix. You left a cushy civilian position to throw on a uniform and venture out into this dark abyss for what?” he presented yet another unanswerable question, but instead she did speak up. She did counter him.

“No, Commander,” she said crisply. “I do not know what your life has been like nor do I honestly care to walk in your shoes for a day and yet here I am” she said gesturing around the room. “I slept on that sofa…back there in the living quarters, and I sat at that very desk and made command decisions all the while working tirelessly to find you” she added. “Yes, I left my cushy civilian position and slid into a uniform again, took a command of this starship and ventured out into the dark abyss.”

Lieutenant Commander Victrix was much shorter than Barret Stillwater, but she ordered a second coffee, a plain one, medium roast, and handed it to Stillwater. He begrudgingly accepted. “I was not sent out here to hunt you down just because we need a few good men back in the fleet, Commander Stillwater. I came out here on my own accord. Yes, there were orders involved, but they did not come from sources you may be anticipating” she countered his rigid body posture with her openness. “Commander, I volunteered myself for this mission when I saw it being proposed. I wanted to be the one to come out here and find you, not some political puppet or hot shot Admiral’s son.”

Stillwater was intrigued by who or what had compelled the woman to do as she had. "What was it that brought you out here to look for me? Why try to bring this 'lost sheep' back to the flock?" asked Commander Stillwater.

"Because, I did not come looking for a lost sheep. I came looking for a man of leadership and integrity. I won't say that these new up and coming officers are terrible. Some still hold onto the yesteryears, but from the Admiralty down there are some who may have self absorbed motives" Victrix stated. "Admiral Quinteros was behind your recall orders, Sir. He believed you to be a good honest man."

Stillwater had taken a few sips of coffee. I've missed the coffee, I could do without the politics he thought. "Orfil needed an ally and sent you on an archaeological dig to find me? A fossil that time has forgotten."

"Not just me and please, this is bigger than the both of us and you know it" countered Victrix. "You went quietly into that goodnight by your own doing, one of the few who did not 'retire' or find themselves relegated to museum posts to hush them. Others gave everything and received nothing but a severance package."

"Talarn," he replied. "They took his commission. They took everything from him and tried to take the Identity he had spent years regaining" he added shaking his head. "Job 1:21 'The Lord Gave, and the Lord Hath Taken Away" he said quoting a Bible verse.

Victrix knew enough and Human religions of the past to recognize it as Christian, but she was not a spiritual individual. "I am sorry for your friend, your shipmate" she said not wanting to presume anything she was already suspicious of.

"My soulmate, Commander" he countered. "But not out of convenience and not something that happened over a course of a work week. We had been colleagues, friends, and life after Starfleet brought us closer. He's the reason why I didn't slam the door in your face or blast a hole in your chest with my shotgun" added Stillwater.

Victrix nodded and was a bit uncomfortable with the mental image. "Thank you for not shooting the messenger" she replied. "Commander Soral will be here any moment to discuss transition of command. He does not know the full extent of why I am here aside from the official orders, reactivation clause" she stated.

"Can be be trusted?" Stillwater asked. There were oh a few people in his life he trusted, most of them were dead. "I like having an XO that I can trust" he added. A small groan came from the man as he muttered something about Orfil Quinteros.

Lieutenant Commander Victrix took a sip of her drink and proceeded over to the desk. "Soral is honest and loyal, but it's too soon for me to trust him wholeheartedly. I don't think I would have been given him as an option if he wasn't a good officer. He does take some getting used to."

Soral didn't know how to feel about today. The new CO was taking over. He'd read up on the man, liked the file, but...well he wasn't sure yet. He was also thinking about Vali and her little stunt with locking him and Victrix in a room to get them to talk about comedy night. They had seen resolution of sorts but her actions still stung his dignity. It also made him question his judgement. He'd judged her a diplomat but if she'd pulled that at an ambassadorial party she'd be in the brig or at least had caused a low level diplomatic incident.

He sighed as he reached the ready room. Bones, as always, was in tow. The dog barked as if he knew that it was only seconds to the time he was requested in the ready room. 5...4...3...2...1 He rang the chime.

{OFF:}