Temporary Shifts

Posted on Sun Mar 31st, 2024 @ 2:05am by Captain Min Seong & Lieutenant Colonel Shaun Bradley

1,353 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Crossed Wires
Location: Captain Mahone's Office, Haumea Colony
Timeline: MD 02, early

Her entrance to Haumea was discreet; a request made by the fellow Starfleet Captain to swing by with promise of scientific head scratchers was enough of a lure. But when she arrived, she found no sight of Captain Mahone and multiple hushed whispers about his disappearance.

And it was not until the USS Benzaiten was light-years away from the system that she received an emergency order from the upper Admiralty to step in on a hopefully temporary basis.

An hour ago, she was left staring at the order in bewilderment. As used to the flow of Starfleet change as she was, moves like this only opened up more questions for her. Through the communications she had sporadically had with Luka, she never thought he had troubles outside of the norm. Maybe there was more of a mystery than she thought. But, if she was going to start finding out, she would have to first sit in his seat and play the game.

Naturally, her first motion was to find this Lieutenant Colonel Bradley and relieve him of the 'chair'. And she imagined, with a career like Shaun's, he wanted nothing to do with all the paper pushing. But that was an assumption, and one best validated by walking into the office itself.

On her way up, she already heard whispers. Gossip was common on a starship, and it seemed just as common on ground level. She paid it little mind as she rode the turbo lift right up to the top, singular PaDD tucked under her arm. Luckily, the ride and subsequent walk into the office were just as uneventful.

As the door slid open, she narrowed her eyes as the light from the window hit her. She was never going to get used to a sun setting. "Hello?" She asked, her hand moving to shield herself from the light. "I believe I'm here to relieve you."

If Shaun heard the woman enter, he didn't so much as flinch in the moment, reading the document in his hand. It seemed like something in him had reconsidered, so he held up a single finger, a polite request - to him anyways - to wait. "Thank you Chief, tell the Fleeters if they need support we can send Charity and Stitches, they'd probably relish the opportunity." There was another long pause, and he nodded. "Chat soon Chief, Spectre out." It was somewhat unprofessional to refer to your callsign when you were not in the seat, but the Marines preferred it, it kept them from feeling like the Colonel was too much of a hard ass. "Computer, set room to meetings," he said, standing.

The windows polarized, blocking the light, and lights came on to bring the room to a comfortable ambient lighting. "Apologies, I have gotten used to these bone conductive communicators, and I haven't had to share my conversations. I can imagine it might come off a bit rude." He crossed the room and extended a hand towards the Starfleet Captain. She was, in all manner his superior, but there was something about the conditions of her being here that made it feel a bit odd to jump to formalities. "Lieutenant Colonel Shaun Bradley, you must be Captain Seong," he said gesturing back towards the desk area. "I wish we were meeting under better circumstances, but I am going to be rapid fire getting you up to speed. I hope you are well rested and ready for a big brief."

Her brow rose, but she took the hand offered and gave it a firm shake. "Pleasantries aside, I would love to hear that brief." Already, there were a number of questions in her head. She should have fired off a message to the Benzaiten about getting some scans of the area before they disappeared. "If I had known my little trip was going to turn into an assignment..." She trailed off, head tilting to one side. "Well, you know more than I do. Let's hear it."

"Well, we'll start with the obvious. The Captain has been missing for about three days now. We have signs of a struggle, with inconclusive evidence in relation to what happened. A pair of terrified pups, and one hell of an angry cat. That's all the lead we have. He wasn't transported off the planet, no signs of a cloaked ship, and no one has so much as hair of him anywhere. His biosign is just gone." Shaun took a sip of the water on the desk. "So far the official story is that he is missing, registered as Missing-in-Action. That is the easier of the two pieces to deal with, as it has moved to being the secondary concern we have." He tapped the desk and holographic projection of the planet's local space showed up, including the projections of the incoming ship.

"This is by far your largest concern at this exact moment. This ship is massive, unresponsive to communications, and on an uncontrolled approach for Haumea. It'll enter the upper atmosphere in thirty-two hours, where aerodynamic forces will cause a slow down enough to degrade its orbit. It'll pass through, and fourteen hours later will enter the atmosphere again, where it will lithobrake two hundred kilometers from the colony site. Assuming it remains intact through atmospheric reentry, it will probably explode and cause minimal damage to the colony, though I recommend an evacuation of the Eastern part of the city, which is mostly low-density residential." He paused, and looked at the woman, and offered a weak, professional smile. Fleeters liked it when people smiled, and so did non-telepaths. "Those are the major incidents."

To say that Min's expression seemed much less enthused than Shaun's attempt was quite an understatement. Instead, she took a prolonged moment before rubbing her temples with a hand. "Alright," she started with a sigh, giving Shaun a hint of understanding with her eyes, "I am more than happy to authorize an evacuation. Whichever staff we need, from wherever we need it. Maybe some staff from mess can put something together to console the people as well, or I can reach out to the local businesses. Or both." Likely both. "Any schools or anything in that area? We could easily divert them to tour a facility that will be out of the potential site as well, as not to alarm the children."

She paused, brow raising. "Is this normal here?"

The Marine offered a shrug. "It really depends on your definitions of normal. We have had a lot of events in the last few months, which would lead to a simple 'yes'. But the truth is, what Starfleet crew hasn't had their fair share of chaos and disorder?" He gestured towards the windows outside. "It's mostly civilians, and I'd argue about fifty percent of our issues are caused by them opening cans they shouldn't. As for the ship, who's to say?"

"Oh there are plenty of Starfleet officers who open cans they shouldn't either," Min added with a chuckle. "I only ask because I want to make sure that I'm ready for any ... what was that old tale... Chicken Littles? Though I suppose that might be on the nose if something is falling from the sky. But, I'll do my part to help mitigate that. Let me know if there's something else I can do to assist - whatever I have to authorize to make sure we don't end up with a diplomatic disaster or a half a colony - I will."

Shaun nodded, producing a PaDD and placing it on the desk. "Sign on the dotted line and the colony is yours for the time being," the Marine said, pressing his own thumb to it to relinquish command. "And if you need anything else, I will be at the Marine headquarters. They are on a hot standby waiting to help."

Hesitant as Min was, she pressed her own thumb on the line. "Let's hope we don't have to worry to much about that."

With a quick nod and a sharp salute, the Marine was gone.

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