Meetings, Marines, and... Martinis?

Posted on Sun Jul 26th, 2020 @ 11:46am by Captain Luka Mahone & Ensign Davna & Lieutenant Commander Sofia Nikedoros & Lieutenant Commander Jott Brott & Lieutenant Theodore Winslow & Cornelius Warner MS & Lieutenant Colonel Shaun Bradley

3,968 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: Equivalent Exchange
Location: The Silver Tongue
Timeline: MD 05: 1230 Hrs

Luka was intimately familiar with the Silver Tongue's wares since Cornelius had decided to establish business on the colony. A nice gift had turned into a number of orders for the Captain. While he had little knowledge of differences in his beers, it was clear that he knew what he liked. And that, of course, was quality brewed beverages. If anyone asked, he was 'stimulating the economy.'

But not even with enticing catered luncheons and various other goodies that the brewery had to offer had Luka Mahone himself set foot in the establishment. But he had his reasons. And Koplo had taken up most of the decent conference rooms, but with what he had no clue.

He almost didn't want to know.

The meeting had been scheduled and arranged to be had in one of the Tongue's private rooms, which Davna had made preparations for upon hearing that he wanted to hold a meeting with a few select people within the staff. There was a lot to discuss, and he was not going to have the whole colony hear it out of hearsay, or worse.

Luka was not the first to arrive in the quiet back room. No, as expected it was his yeoman who arrived to ensure that preparations were set. And that Lugh was sitting obediently next to her. Lugh, who he hadn't seen for a few days, and upon sight of his human could not contain it any longer, and was a fit of excited barks as he bounded the length of the room and into Luka's outstretched arms.

After their short reunion, Luka took his spot at the table, next to Davna who made no secret that she too was relieved to see him. There was chit chat and confirmation, before they settled into their typical string of commentary (with Davna nagging at him to eat more), before their arrivals decided to... well, arrive.

Sofia entered, glancing around and taking in the ambiance of the place. She had heard of it, but hadn't had a chance to visit as yet and now wished she had as it seemed a warm and congenial place. Spotting Luka and Davna, she made her way over to them and took a seat. "I'm glad to see you back, Captain," she said, and smiled at a very happy Lugh, practically glowing with contentment at having his master back. "Though not as much as your number one fan. I doubt anyone could be happier than that."

"I don't think anyone can contest with this." Luka had a hard time keeping Lugh from jumping up into his lap while he talked, reaching down to set a hand on the pup's head to calm him. "My return is only temporary for the moment, but it's certainly good to be back here instead of up on a starship." He could not tell if the small guest quarters he had been given and the lack of interaction among the Titania's crew had influenced it, but Luka was finding it a blessing that he had been convinced to take up the position on Haumea.

Someone told Cornelius that putting in holographic projectors in small areas had been a bad idea. Why would he ever need to generate small rooms for guests to have privacy. He'd of course disregarded that advice and instead installed them anyways. And now as he watched guests enter the small enclosed space close to this fermentors he smiled. Not so useless after all. Tying his apron around his waist and brushing his hands off he nodded to his bartender, picking up two bottles of sythehol wine off his counter. He abhorred the stuff, but this was supposed to be a staff meeting according to the Captain and his assistant. Stepping into the room he nodded to the guests and placed the bottles in the middle of the large table and smiled to the Captain.

"Mister Mahone, it's a pleasure to finally have you in my establishment, I have been looking forward to hosting you here for once," he said as he stood close to the head of the table and regarded the already assembled guests. "Can I grab you something Commander?" he asked, petting Lugh's head, who had bounded from his master to Cornelius for a brief second, and then back to his master.

"I would love to try your 11th Hour Alibi as I hear it's quite good, but since this is an on-duty meeting, I'll take tea," Sofia replied.

"Me as well please," Theo said softly stepping into the room. He quickly glanced around before taking the seat next to Sofia without another word. He was relieved that he did not need to walk in with everyone there.

Nodding to the pair, the brewmaster offered a wide and broad smile, he turned to look at Captain Mahone. "Surely the Captain won't mind a beer on duty, I'll even made sure it's a small one for you if I must," he said, his eyes twinkling as he pushed the budding friendship of the two a little.

Jott Brott was ignoring the people like they weren't even there. Instead, he was down on the floor like a child at the captain's feet with a tricorder in his hand, taking scans of Lugh and brazenly talking to him. "Fascinating, look at this! Fascinating creature. Hello, hello. Hello? Do you speak? Hello? Verbal communication or... Telepathic? Are you sentient? I wonder. Hmm, hmm. Hm. Scans show some degree of self-awareness. And... Oh, my. Its respiratory system is a means of temperature regulation! Fascinating." Suddenly, he looked up and around him. "Excuse me, is this creature native to the planet or an exotic species?"

Luka had his mouth open to confirm a beer or two couldn't hurt their lax atmosphere when he realized that their latest Chief of Science had not only arrived on colony, but had indeed received his invitation. How long had he been there? "Lugh is a malamute." He blinked a couple of times, eyes on the pup. Lugh's response to Brott's intrusion was to stick his nose in the Bolian's face after a good sniff of the air. "He's ... He's native to Earth. Ah -" Luka looked up and about. "Everyone, I would like you all to meet our new Chief Science Officer. Lieutenant Commander Jott Brott."

"Hello," Jott said without even a hint of self-awareness about the awkwardness of his position on the floor. "Very nice to meet all of you. Very nice, indeed. This is a lovely establishment - understated, well-appointed, cozy. Comfortable, quite comfortable." He gestured to the dog next to him. "Say, is this a standard-issue...um...molly-mute? Do we, uh, all receive one?"

"And I wish they were standard issue," Theo quickly uttered standing up trying to add some humour to his own personality after the last few weeks of isolation and self-doubt. "Nice to meet you, Sir. Lieutenant Theodore Winslow, Chief Of security." Theo said holding out his hand to shake the Bolian's hand in an attempt to bring some order back to things but to also attempt to stop the awkwardness.

Jott took his hand and used it as leverage to pull himself to his feet. He continued to hold the man's hand as he spoke, making no real move to disconnect.

"Theodore Winslow," the Bolian said, drawing out the syllables. "It sounds like a Terran statesman's name. Very dignified, very human."

Of all the words the man could have summoned to express what he thought of his name the security chief could not think of any ones better to describe him."Well, I guess I am two for two then but I do go by Theo." Theo murmured offering a shy smile as he pulled his hand back and took his seat.

Stepping about the chaos of an excited Starfleet staff, Cornelius has stepped out of the room to grab drinks. Listening to the tap banter from the open door to the temporary room, the skilled barman pulled a kettle from heat and placed it on a tray as well as a collection of transparent glass mugs, and a collection of tea bags, sugars, creams, ground coffee beans and a french press. While some of ingredients, specifically the milk and sugar were replicated, the rest was not and was as real as could be.

A moment later, and precariously balanced, with the ease of a trained dancer he stepped around the group and place the assortment of goods in the centre of the table, followed shortly by Tamara with a small bin filled with ice and a selection of local brews. "Help yourselves," he said, pointing to the assortment, and then to the door. "I'm going to give you a moment everyone, soup of the day if you decide is beef barley, fresh meal of the day is shepherds pie, and as always we have an assortment of finger foods." Ever the host he offer a bow, pausing before leaving to add, "I believe if memory has served correct, Lugh loves to be snuck chicken, so the nachos would be my recommendation of you are looking to spoil the pup without the Captain catching as easy," he concluded with a wink and stepped from the room.

Jott Brott needed no further invitation than that. He was at the table before anyone else, making himself a cup of coffee and humming what sounded to be some Bolian jazz. After pouring the coffee into the clear glass he followed it up with roughly a third of the entire sugar ration.

"Did he say Shepherd's pie? Who is Shepherd? A local purveyor of pies? Do they have a shop? I do love a good pie shop."

Sofia suppressed a chuckle. The new science officer was beginning to remind her of her much younger siblings when they were in their 'why' stage. "We do have a good pastry shop in town, but shepherd's pie is a type of meat pie traditionally made by shepherds on earth," she explained, and anticipating that that would elicit even more questions added, "If you want to know more about shepherds, you should look up LT Arnason later. He grew up in an area where that was a common occupation."

Luka, who had helped himself to a mug of tea and a plate of nachos, not hesitating for a second to give the now obediently-sitting pup a piece of the relatively pure shredded chicken from the plate. "I can also give you a piece of literature on dogs and malamutes specifically if you'd like, Commander Brott. They might be helpful on scientific expeditions."

"Why? Do they conduct research?" Jott asked.

"I guess they could, depending on how you look at it. It might be more like... sniffing things out. I picked Lugh because his breed of dog are utilized for a special form of transportation during the winter. You're lucky you've missed out on it, Jott." The Captain sat himself upright, frowning upon the realization of how laden with dog slobber and fur his hands were. "... Excuse me, I'll be right back, and we can... conduct the meeting portion of this meeting." He retreated swiftly, eager to dig into something that was not replicated from a starship, for once.

Theodore watched the Captain leave and looked at the group as a whole. "Are we waiting for anyone else to arrive?" He wondered not knowing if this was everyone or not. It felt like a small group but he was not sure what was really going on with having been out of the loop.

Luka returned minutes later, smiling weakly at the group. "Sorry about that." He wasted little time placing himself back in front of his food, looking to his yeoman. "We should be able to begin. Davna, could you?" At the Captain's command, Davna flipped on the small projector, displaying an enlarged version of her screen on the wall nearby. She gave Luka a small smile.

In turn, the Captain pointed, first with a nacho, before setting it down and nodding toward the screen. "I've gathered you all here for a variety of different reasons. The Admiral has afforded me the opportunity to come down every so often, especially after he had a one on one conversation with Commander Koplo. But I wanted to keep you all appraised of the goings on, and what's about to come down the line. Which should all be outlined in that document. We're looking at new security measures, updated medical facilities, and resources that not only replace what had originally been lost and waylayed, but also supplement on top of what the civilian populace expected to receive. We've had multiple requests, and while not all of them could be fulfilled, Starfleet's Board for Colony Affairs saw fit to fill in the blanks best they could. So expect to be seeing all of that in the next few weeks."

"I see some wonderful medical upgrades here," Sofia remarked. "But nothing on additional personnel to use it. Do we have any idea of when that may change?"

"... The moment I can get a hold of-" as he looked to Davna, a PaDD was slid in front of him. He blinked. Davna had become more efficient while h was away, or was she always this efficient? ".... I'll get in touch with Gunnar after I review this - and we can go over a few items later. I just need to review all of these documents. As much as I've appreciated Gunnar's willingness to leap into a provisional role as he has, it might do us some good to see if we can get us a more permanent Head of Medical. Or at least, one that can keep the administrators at bay while Lieutenant Arnason does his work."

"I'm sure he'll appreciate that," Sofia said with a nod. She felt a little guilty about bringing him for a temporary assignment that had now hit 7 months. If he was needed in the Acting role much longer, he might have to apply for permanent transfer. On the other hand, she'd be sad to see him go and in a lot of ways the assignment had been good for him.

"I'm excited," Luka added with a pleasant hum in his tone. "With all these scientific and medical upgrades, we'll be able to do exactly what we promised we would do this whole time. And maybe more. There's a whole planet we haven't even begun to explore. And now that we have Commander Jott here, we may not have to wait long before we receive a full science team."

"Our major concern," Luka pressed onward, "Or, my concern, is how much firepower this base is going to receive. We'll get quite a bit, and while I can't go over every detail currently, I will say we're getting a Merian-class vessel and an Orbital base. Lieutenant Winslow, at some point I'd like to go over with you Lieutenant James what that would entail on your end, but I expect, if everything goes the way I believe it will, Haumea may also see an upgrade to our military staff in the form of-" he paused, clearing his throat of a stray jalapeno zip. Yeah, that was what that was. "Marines."

Jott had wanted to ask how big his office might be on the orbital station, but the mention of Marines totally waylaid that. He gasped loudly and dramatically enough to have accounted for everyone's surprise.

"Marines? Why? What for? Are we under attack? Are we anticipating an attack? Has an attack already begun?"

"No! No." Luka held up a hand. "We're not expecting an attack, not at this stage. It's a precaution for the tine. Having Marines on base will allow us to focus on grounding the colony and helping it develop. Which we plan on doing once I've ... finished my meetings up on the Titania. But on top of our upgrades, Admiral Matthews has been strongly suggesting we add marines to the base for any potential threats. I'll go over what that exactly means with Lieutenant Colonel Shaun Bradley, but for now... Lieutenant Winslow, it'll be good to get your perspective on the matter. I'll have Davna collect the data together for you and we can discuss it later."

Unlike a lot of his colleagues on and off-world, the man had no issues with Marines. They each had a different role to place in Starfleet and sometimes he preferred the no-nonsense that they offered. Sometimes he wondered if he should have become a Marine instead of a Starfleet Officer. "I look forward to it." The man said simply not giving away how he really felt on the subject. It would be a fantastic debate and discussion for sure.

"Good." Luka looked toward the door, as it swished itself open to reveal another figure to appear. A look of relief washed over his expression as he realized that he had not forgotten to remind himself to tell Shaun that he too was invited to lunch, at the very least to field some questions. "This is Lieutenant Colonel Shaun Bradley. He's here to assist Admiral Matthews to one degree or another. And maybe help me make sense of half of what we're receiving."

Finding himself in the large meeting, the Colonel offered a warm smile and stepped in to grab a seat at the table. "Thank you Captain, my apologies for being delayed, I was caught up in other matters." Regarding the current projecting information, Shaun paused to collect his thoughts and added to Luka's bit. "The temporary allocation of Marines from Camp Falkirk is not intended to be a permanent solution for the team here. Falkirk itself underwent recent unexpected upgrades and developments, so most of the Marines coming over are here to assist with implementing those upgrades here as well." Pulling the PaDD from the kneeboard of his flightsuit, Bradley threw a bit more information. "Haumea has seen an increase of traffic due to the opening of a new border in the area, as well as ongoing increased relations with the Cardassians. This means a great deal more people and starships. Over the next year Starfleet's Department of Colonial Affairs and the Starfleet Marine Corps are partnering with the colony's civilian body to see the deployment of a small orbital processing and control station, as well as upgraded security measures."

Nodding to Lieutenant Winslow, he added "They are here to train staff in different patrol measures and use of the new planetary defense systems. No progress will happen without integration with the current security teams, and will fall under your command Lieutenant, all things considered." He keyed a few more commands. "At the behest of Starfleet Science, the new orbital facility will include a suite of new sensors dedicated to both orbital surveying of the planet, as well as deep space telemetry relaying. Increased medical facilities and labs have been allocated as well, though they will be small as most of the station will be dedicated to warehousing, refueling and local space control."

"What are we warehousing, refueling, and controlling?" Jott asked with an undertone of suspicion. "Is Starfleet reclassifying this colony to take on more regional responsibilities?"

"For civilian freighters and other transports," replied Shaun to the Bolian. "The colony is positioned well for larger transports, both to supply it and to be a stopping hub. But more ships means a need for a aerospace control system being in place."

Luka nodded in agreement, making a nod toward Davna. The latter pulled up a map, which was labeled Haumea, but was much bigger than their current colony's space, which displayed next to the information Shaun projected. "I've had various discussions with the civilian council, as well as other interested parties who wish to touch down upon the colony itself. This is what we've all agreed upon for the colony's eventual size. And the Lieutenant Colonel is knowledgeable in colonies that the citizens wish to accommodate. He's here as a resource for us. Nothing more than that."

"I'm knowledgeable about colonies," Jott said abruptly, leaning forward to make his presence more prominent. "I've written three books about colonies. So, why do we need to bring in this... this... outside assistance regarding, um, colonies? No offense to the Lieutenant Colonel, but colonial development is hardly the business of the Marine Corps, is it? We have whole civilian government agencies dedicated to that, entire departments of Starfleet. Extragovernmental organizations and corporations and so on. I feel like it's really, uh, quite very well covered, in fact, by people who don't tote around phaser rifles and the like."

"Because unlike many of those organizations, our engineers, doctors, scientists and operations staff have unique experience in the field of rapid deployment of facilities, Lieutenant Commander." He smiled. "Further, our assistance is at the behest of Starfleet Colonial Affairs. A joint operation where we don't normally get to shine. Unless of course you would prefer that all the Marine Corps is good at is slinging around weapons?" The Colonel leaned back and raised his hands. "I am not here to start a fight, quite the opposite. The Marine are often used only as a weapon, consider this a chance for us to prove we can be just as useful as the rest of the Fleet."

"Division of labor as a foundation for occupational specialization is a hallmark of an advanced civilization for a reason," Jott said. Then the lines in his face seemed to relax as he yielded to the inevitable, even easing back into his seat some. "Having said that, it might be interesting to some social scientist to see the organizational evolution as Starfleet Marines adapt into a more development-oriented division of Starfleet operations at the colonial level."

The Security Chief winced and coughed at the phrases that were being used, it was just too much. Marines always brought out the best or worst in conversations. "So how far ahead is this showing the potential for the colony?" Theo wondered aloud taking in the image trying to calculate but it was impossible to see it in his head. It was much bigger but surely it would take time to reach that.

Sofia inclined her head slightly toward Theo, grateful for his intervention.

Luka pulled his gaze from both marine and scientist, before deciding to address Theo's question. "According to the current civilian council, they say this should take five years to build the foundations, so long as they continue to obtain the resources they need and nothing unexpected occurs. This is the overall future of the colony, so I expect their goals are more long term than simply out five years, but not one person I spoke with seemed to be in a hurry about it all. Councilwoman Macae was especially clear that they had not yet planned for any unforeseen circumstances. I'm sure that's coming down the line and I'll have a better idea of it to give to all of you. Perhaps with Colonial Affairs as well, seeing as we may end up needing all the help we can get to keep our feet on the ground."

"Well," Luka gave everyone in the room an awkward smile. "I'm only here for a short time, and I'm sure you're all rather busy. Let's think on this a bit, I'll have Davna get you all the specifications and information you need, and we can go over it individually. But, I say we should end this with a satisfying lunch."

"May it be the first of many," Sofia said, tipping her glass slightly before taking a sip.

 

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