Your New Assignment

Posted on Wednesday April 3, 2024 @ 5:27pm by Commander Telas (Tel’hasu) Jaxx of the Eighth House of Betazed & Captain Vott Mrall & Admiral Jacob Samson & Vice Admiral Yazmin Moogana
Edited on on Friday April 5, 2024 @ 3:28pm

2,530 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Prologue: First Steps
Location: Starfleet Headquarters, San Francisco, California, North American Continent, California

Sitting in the waiting room outside the office of Admiral Samson, Captain Vott Mrall waited to be called in. He looked over the PADD that he held as it tried to ascertain the reason for this call. He had been promoted to Captain, and promised a command.
Not many officers survived Wolf 359, and those that did had been honored. A few even given commands, just like him. Vott had not been given his assignment, and he assumed that that was because they were trying to find one, or something. Just then the doors opened and a man walked in. Someone he recognized. He stood up to see Telas walk in. "Telas?"

As the doors swished open and the Vulcan/Betazoid hybrid stepped off the turbolift, his head swiveled quickly to the large, blue skinned Bolian standing in the Starfleet dress uniform, four golden pips on his collar.

“Captain Vott M’rall??” Telas said, surprise easily heard in his voice only to those who knew him quite well, arching an eyebrow severely in surprise. Walking over to the large Captain, he reached out a hand to him in greeting as he stopped before him. “Good to see you sir” he said, recovering from the shock of seeing his old CO after a year’s worth of time and recovery. “How have you been?”

Telas himself was quite eager for a return to active duty. Too much R&R could ruin his focus, which for him, was… not ideal. He had already spent a year off of a starship and he needed both the distraction of meaningful work and the focus it imparted. He was always mindful of maintaining both his Kholinar mental blocks, and his Betazoid meditation techniques; both were necessary to keep the ‘voices’ out of his head. It was past time to get his ‘sea legs’ and get back to work, or he would go mad.

"I have been well." Promoted to Captain. He pointed to the 4th pip on his collar. "They haven't found me a command, but they keep promising me one. I was finally cleared by Starfleet Medical to get back into the field. How have you been?" Glancing back at the PADD, he was nervous about getting back out there. What if the Borg came back? The Enterprise was able to take care of the Borg, but Starfleet Command kept warning them of a possible Borg attack.

“Ready to work, sir” Telas admitted, an earnest look on his face. “I have been awaiting word from Command about an assignment after clearance from Starfleet Medical, myself.” He looked at the Bolian Captain and his movements seemed anxious, almost overly so. “Eager to get back out there, Captain? I am as well, if I am honest. I assume if we are here together that we will be stationed together. That is certainly agreeable, to be sure.”

He noticed that he was rambling with that last sentence and stopped talking. He also noticed he seemed to be anxious himself. More than likely Telas did not telepathically pick up on Vott’s own anxiety. During times of severe stress or duress, he could subconsciously telepathically sense someone’s own anxiety, causing a negative feedback loop with his own feelings making it surge even further. He had trained many years to keep the that from casually happening, but sometimes it still did.

Before the Bolian captain could answer, the Admiral's door opened and a woman of Iranian decent walked out. She was middle aged and held the rank of Vice Admiral. Vott recognized her as Admiral Moogana, and he snapped her attention. She looked irritated, but composed herself, "At ease, Captain. Commander. Admiral Samson will see you both now." She turned on her heal and almost stamped back into the office.

Vott looked at Telas and then followed her into the office. Sitting behind a desk was another middle aged admiral, only he was a full admiral. "Captain Vott Mrall, reporting as ordered, Admirals." He said snapping to attention.

Telas followed suit, following both the Captain and the Admiral Morgan’s into Admiral Samson’s office. His telepathy wasn’t needed to pick up on Moogana’s irritation; it was palpable even at distance, though he did pick up traces of it, emanating from her almost as an aura.

“Commander Telas Jaxx, reporting as ordered,” he said, immediately after Vott. The moment he stepped inside the office, he was telepathically hit with a bevy of strongly mixed emotions; rage, contempt, loss, dissatisfaction, and resignation. It made for an uncomfortable sensation within his mind, but quickly did a Kholinar technique to suppress them and stood at attention to the Bolian’s right side, parallel to him.

Admiral Samson did not stand up, but looked at the two men before him, "At ease." He first turned to the Bolian, "I am not one for small talk so I will get to the point. We have found you a ship to command." He glanced at Admiral Moogana, who looked abnormally uncomfortable for an Admiral. "The USS Mohawk." He handed Vott a PADD.

Vott took the PADD, not sure if he was excited or not. It was then he realized it was not... the USS Mohawk was a Springfield class. He wasn't sure what to say. This Springfield class was from the early 2350s, and was recently decommissioned and then recommissioned.

"We need ships, so we had to bring a few out of mothballs. She will be a good first command Captain." Admiral Samson said looking at the other Admiral in the room, "Anything you want to add?"

"No." She said abruptly. Her hands crossed over her chest. Yasmin was obviously not in agreement with Admiral Samson's decision.

"And Commander Jaxx will be your Executive Officer."

Vott wasn't sure what to say. The only thing that he could mutter was, "Thank you sir. I will not let you down..." he handed the PADD to Telas, not sure what he would think.

Telas took the proffered PADD, activated it and briefly looked it over.With a start, he looked first at Admiral Samson, then to Vice Admiral Moogana, and finally at Captain Mrall.

“Springfield class, sir?” he asked Samson, briefly, looking down to the PADD then back to the Senior Admiral. “Were’t they decommissioned due to some fairly significant design flaws? If I remember correctly, the class had problems with the mission pods and maintaining a static warp field bubble.” He closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them as he recalled said report from a few years back quoting from it. “According to the Starfleet Corps of Engineer inspections and subsequent reports, ‘the class suffers from significant structural integrity anomalies past safety tolerances, specifically due to the Mission Pod rattling the superstructure of the Springfield class past Warp factor 7.1, leading to an emergency shutdown of the warp field so as not to tear the ship in half’. And without the mission pod we would lack the Shuttlebay, including a significant portion of our defensive capability. It was these flaws that subsequently led to the class being decommissioned which in turn, led to the advent of the Nebula class.”

It was at that moment, seeing Admiral Samson’s face during his comments, that he realized his biological Vulcan imperative of adhering to logical, scientific fact and his Betazoid nature’s penchant for blunt, even brutal honesty, was landing him, and by extension his old and new CO in hot water. With that, he lowered the PADD and appeared somewhat chastened, though within his mind, he was fuming, trying every discipline he knew to keep it off his his face.

"Commander," The Admiral started, "We are short on ships after the massacre at Wolf 359. So unfortunately, if you want a command, then you have to work with us. While, yes there are design flaws in this class, with the role that your crew will be serving, they won't necessarily be noticed. The Mohawk will focus on planetary surveying, exploration, and second contact. Faster warp speeds may not be needed."

Vott looked at the Admiral, "Sir... while I am honored that you were able to find me a command, how are we supposed to complete our mission in a ship... with these flaws." He reached his hand out to Telas to get the PADD, once it was in his hands, he opened the report, "One turoblift is down, starboard sensors are at 67% operational capacity, LCARS is having gliches, and warp acceleration is 9?low standard. I am not sure how with these and more, we are going to be effective out there."

"I am sure with your First Officer's engineering experience, as well as your Chief Engineer’s, you can make it work." Standing up and smiling at the two men, "Now go and make Starfleet proud."

As soon as the Admiral stood, Telas snapped to attention, eyes fastening to the wall above his head. “Aye, sir,” he said, trying his utmost to fill his voice with conviction. He was reassured that voicing his concerns was the right move, especially after Captain Mrall did the same. Having his old friend and former, now once again, Commanding Officer be of like mind, allowed him to find his center. Thankfully, his emotions were not telepathically being projected outward, however rarely it may happened.

A brief, yet rather strong spike of disgust to his immediate right heralded the husky voiced Admiral Moogana’s thought in Telas’ mind, as he picked u quite easily. “Hmm! Bullshit”! That thought must have been incredibly strong for him to have easily read her thought; She definitely was not in agreement, but held her tongue. She must have already had words with Admiral Samson, he surmised. He would be sure to bring that up to the Captain as soon as they were alone, unless Moogana wanted a word with them.

The stress and anxiety was accompanied by a deep dark whole of dread. Vott was not sure what he was going to do, why did this happen? He wasn't sure why the Admirals would put him on such a ship. He was a new captain and it was not uncommon for a first command to be glamorous, but the ships were at least working. Vott stood, "Thank you for this opportunity, Admiral..." The Bolian forced out as he looked over at Admiral Moogana, seeing distaste on her face. It was that moment he knew that this was planned, but why... He didn't want to ruffle feathers here and now. "If the Admiral permits, I would like to prepare my quarters to transfer to the ship."

"By all means, Captain. You two are dismissed." Admiral Samson said with a smile. Almost like he was enjoying it, "I look forward to reading your reports Captain."

Snapping to attention and turning on his heal, Captain Vott Mrall turned to leave. Once they were fully out of the Admiral's office and waiting area, he stopped and turned to Telas. His face turned 3 shades darker blue in anger, "What kind of shit is this!?”

“Honestly sir,” he said as he looked down the corridor to the Admiral’s office, then toward the large Bolian. “I do not know, but we may yet glean some information. I got a strong telepathic sense that she was… the best way I can describe it is disgusted. She was filled with contempt over this situation for some reason. You might want to reach out to her and see if she can, or will tell you anything.”

An uncharacteristically deep sigh escaped Telas as he thought for a moment, briefly stroking his trimmed beard deep in thought, then continued.

“I may have some solutions that could possibly help with our now significant technological problem, sir,” the Vulcan/Betazoid hybrid said, still deep in thought. “Federation materials science has come a long way from the days when the Springfield class left the yard, as has SIF generator technology.Good to know the Chief is on our crew; he is an outstanding Chief Engineer. I will work with him to begin looking up schematics and getting a team of both Ops and Engineers to start on the modifications, with your permission. If we are fortuitous, we might be able to submit a rush order on the parts we need replicated using the industrial replicators at one of the orbital yards. I’ll get a list what we will need for your approval , prior to our departure.”

"Good to know." Vott commented about Admiral Moogana's feelings. "Yes, do that. Have a plan on my desk before we get up to the ship. I am sure we are going to want to make sure that we don't fly apart at the seems at warp 2." The Bolian stopped for a second, "I am not sure why or what is going on, but we need to be vigilant. Like what you felt from Admiral Moogana, I feel something is wrong with this situation. There are at a least 3 more up to date ships in the dry dock or 6 at Utopia Planitia within 3 months of being ready. I did my research.”

“My contacts in the Corps of Engineers said the same, Captain,” Telas said, nodding in the affirmative of Vott’s orders for the repair plans. “Why Command saw fit to give us such a… subpar assignment, I cannot speculate. But I can tell you that there is definitely something going on between the two Admirals, and we seem to be caught in the middle.”

"I agree. Let's keep our heads low for now." Vott said, "I will connect with Admiral Moogana shortly. She is scheduled to inspect the ship." The Bolian took a deep breath, "I can imagine Admiral Samson will send a spy with her." He looked around, "Let's not talk about this anymore. Too much security and who knows who is listening."

“Yes Captain,” Telas said, nodding in the affirmative, dropping the subject immediately. “I’ll have that report to you within the hour. With your approval, I will be sure to requisition the parts necessary. Once they arrive, the Chief and I will get a group together and begin the necessary modifications and work on the repairs. With your permission?”

Telas was eager to see who else was now assigned to the Mohawk. Hopefully most of the old crew that survived would be assigned to them. It would be agreeable to work with them once more. Thinking of the work that they now faced, Telas, the Chief and the others would have a significant amount of work. He was determined that they would do their level best to get the ship on track for their departure.

Nodding, "Granted Commander. I have a few things to wrap up around here. Once I am done I am beaming up to ESD then over to the Mohawk." Vott said with a nod. "Let's see what this is going to look like."

“Yes sir,” Telas said, turned away from the CO and headed to the nearest turbolift.

Captain Vott Mrall
Commanding Officer
USS Mohawk

and

Commander Telas Jaxx
Executive Officer
USS Mohawk

 

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