All Good Things
Posted on Sat Dec 22nd, 2018 @ 8:18am by Captain Akiva ben-Avram & Captain Mrazak & Lieutenant Colonel Storr Garlake & Lieutenant Commander Kiril Nevin & Lieutenant Commander BaoJun Qiao & Lieutenant Commander Garai Fenia PhD & Lieutenant Nevada McKay M.D. & Gunnery Sergeant Roderik Kos & Ferrofax & Lieutenant Isaiah Zelaney
2,375 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
S1E2: Half Past Dead
Location: Orbital Observation Lounge, Deck 5, Overwatch Station
Timeline: MD 4
The field team returned sometime during Memory Theta's night shift. For some reason, the substitute AI that Ferrofax left in charge while he was gone did not awaken Akiva as soon as the Phantom arrived. Perhaps that was for the best. When the ship's logs auto-dumped into the Overwatch database, presumably along with Ferrofax himself, Akiva was shocked. Of course the mission was slated to be a perilous one, but he supposed it seemed an all-or-nothing situation. That the ship returned without all of its personnel with all of their parts was an outcome he should have considered, but in hindsight realized he had not.
The worst part was the unexpected wake-up call he received from the true lord of the manor.
"You have a angry letter filling the message buffer. I'd stand back before opening it, though if it's from the Stellar Cartography department of Starfleet your fate might already be sealed. Blessed are those who do not cross the map makers."
Wonderful, he thought.
After he groomed and dressed himself for the day, Akiva discovered that there was another benefit to sleeping through the Phantom's midnight arrival. A priority transmission was waiting for him in his office. Even though it was a one-way recording, it still made what he was about to do all that much sweeter.
"Akiva to Storr," he said with a tap to his combadge. "Please meet me at the orbital observation lounge post haste. And dress to impress."
Storr's brow cocked as much as the corner of his mouth did, the Station Commandant untangling himself from his Deltan bride's sleeping form enough to find the communicator on his nightstand. "Don't I always? See you there in 10." Seeing Jaya stir slightly, stretching far too sensually to be legal in two sectors of the galaxy (at least that he was aware of), Storr tapped the communicator again. "Make that 20."
Shortly thereafter, having summoned the rest of the field team, Akiva stood next to his old friend, the Marine Commandant, both in their distinctive dress uniforms. "Thank you for coming on such short notice," he said to the other. "Hopefully the others will be here soon."
The Afrikaner smiled and nodded, running his hands down the crisp front of his black dress jacket, pressing away imaginary creases. "How could I not? Staying behind to play Detective Clouseau gave me plenty of time to catch up on my ironing. Besides," he continued, his voice lower as others began filtering in, "after reading the AAR, this is more than deserved."
Bao drug himself to the observation lounge, despite, to his way of thinking, it still being far too early. Considering how the mission had gone, if left to himself, he would probably stew and process for at least another few hours, or, more likely, days.
Nevada walked in, rather bedragged and Having thrown on a Doctors coat to hide the Disarray of her Uniform.
The last to arrive was Mrazak, who looked rather rough around the edges. At first he made to join Akiva and Storr, but the administrator held up his hand. "Colonel, please order the Commander to join his team."
The Marine's steely gaze cut to the Vulcan and no words were exchanged. None were needed.
Mrazak furrowed his pointed brow, but surprisingly gave no protest. He took his place at one end of the line.
With all eyes on him, Akiva fought back his natural, inborn apprehension. "Good morning," he said, mildly proud of his even voice. "I'm sure you're all wondering why we called you here. First of all, I wish to formally express my condolences for all who have lost life and limb. Given what I had planned for today, their absences strike my heart all the harder. That leads into the second point of order." He paused to push back his mixed emotions. Feelings of grief, of pride, of a longing for justice. "I wish to congratulate you all on a job well done. Due to the nature of our mandate, the Federation may never know what you did. The galaxy may never know what you did." He looked up and down the surviving field team. "But I know."
"We will remember," Mrazak intoned from his end.
"Indeed." Akiva fought back a smirk. "When your name is called, please step forward." He turned to the small table behind him -- a cafe table sans chairs by the looks of it. Evidently, previous administrators had not made a place to do what he was about to. Akiva did allow a smile at that thought. It was good to be the first. There was a small box surrounded by drink flutes. Akiva ignored the drinks for now and took up the box. Turning around, he said, "Lieutenant Junior-Grade Nevada McKay and Lieutenant Junior-Grade Isaiah Zelaney."
Isaiah swallowed hard, unsure of what was happening. He took a step forward in front of the Commander.
Nevada stepped forward, the boredom of Ceremony making her fidget about with impatience.
"For your heroism and bravery, I am proud to promote you both to the rank of full Lieutenant." He removed the black pips from their collars and replaced them with solid gold. "Congratulations," he said with a smile. For Nevada he spared a lingering look, hoping that the misunderstanding from the other day might be resolved.
"Thank you sir," The doctor nodded slowly, a proud, yet tired smirk on her face.
Storr took Nevada's hand and shook it firmly, though sparing her female grip. He smiled as their eyes met briefly. "Congratulations, El tee. Well deserved."
"Damn straight," Nevada with a grin, squeezing his hand in her own, the Human no slouch when it came to grip.
Isaiah lifted his head just a bit to give Akiva better access to his collar.
Storr also shook Isaiah's hand. He hadn't met the computer scientist formally before he had left on the mission though it didn't keep him from encouraging him in his promotion.
As they returned to their place in line, Akiva called up the next names on his list. "Lieutenant Kiril Nevin and Lieutenant BaoJun Qiao." He goaded them forward with a nod.
Bao stepped forward, with the sinking feeling that he knew what this was about now. Nevin followed directly behind.
"For your ingenuity and courage, it is my pleasure to promote you both to the rank of Lieutenant Commander." He affixed the black pips from the previous two onto Nevin and Bao. "Congratulations." Once again, he spared another look. "Meet me in my office afterward," he whispered to Nevin.
Nevin raised an eyebrow. While a promotion was always nice, a summons to his office left an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Storr caught the small remark and broke Nevin's apprehension with an extended hand. "Congratulations, Commander. I'm sure your continued leadership here will be more than appreciated."
Bao, for his part put on a small smile, though he did not really feel it.
Storr smiled and pumped the Lagashi's hand, the men being nearly equal in size. "Well deserved, Bao. Congratulations on the promotion."
The Lagashi bowed slightly to the marine. "Thank you, Colonel," he said. "It does not feel that way now, but I hope that I can show it is in the future"
Akiva nodded to Storr, letting the Commandant have his time.
Lieutenant Colonel Garlake nodded back to his good friend and stepped forward. He cleared his throat before addressing the small crowd, noting its size being much smaller than it should have been. "Being a senior non-commissioned officer in the Marine Corps is both an honor and a privilege, but along with those things comes a great deal of responsibility. One responsibility is to see to the continued success of our institution, but another and perhaps more important responsibility is to ensure the well-being of our most precious assets—our Marines. We get the kind of Marine Corps that we expect, enforce, supervise, and mentor. If we do not like how things are going, we have only to look in the mirror to find the source. Staff Sergeant Kos, front-and-center."
Rodi stood at attention. Back straight, eyes forward, stern expression, hands at his side with the thumbs at the seam of his uniform trousers. He took one long stride forward, making sure he did not look down or to the side.
"Staff Sergeant Kos, when you look in that mirror, you will see two things. One is a Marine of great capability, responsibility, and character. The second..." Storr trailed off, taking a small back box from between two drink glasses on the table, "is a Marine out of uniform!" Opening the box, Storr extracted two Gunnery Sergeant chevrons and quickly unpinned the Staff Sergeant ones on Rodi's collar. Pinning the new rank hard with his thumbs, Garlake withdrew and smacked the new Gunny's pips with enough force to leave a temporary welt. Grinning, the Lieutenant Colonel turned away from Rodi then turned back around to produce a 32" curved blade in a leather scabbard. "The Mameluke sword was first presented to Marine First Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon by the Ottoman Empire viceroy, Prince Hamet, on December 8, 1805, during the First Barbary War, in Libya, as a gesture of respect and praise for the Marines' actions at the Battle of Derna. For 584 years Marines have proudly worn the Mameluke and with your promotion as a senior non-commissioned officer to Gunnery Sergeant, you have earned the honor and responsibility to wear one yourself."
"Congratulations, Gunny," Storr said, returning Kos' salute and shaking his hand.
The smallest of smiles graced Rodi's lips, a flutter at the corners of his mouth as he accepted the sword with both hands. He savored the weight for a short moment before holding it at his left hip, where he was supposed to sheath it with his dress uniform. He then answered the salute, as crisply as he had learned in his first weeks on Vulcan. When he then shook the colonel's hand, "Thank you sir."
The ceremony complete, Storr returned to his place beside Akiva.
Mrazak cleared his throat rather obnoxiously. "What about me? I led the mission."
"Indeed you did." Akiva folded his hands behind his back and strode right up to Mrazak. "You led people to their death, Commander Mrazak, as part of an unbroken pattern of malfeasance, dereliction of duty, and--" Akiva sniffed at the unpleasant blend of odors coming from the man. "--conduct unbecoming of a Starfleet officer. Therefore, it is my genuine pleasure to relieve you of duty--"
"WHAT?!" Mrazak's eyes bulged as his face turned to snarling.
"--and restrict your access to this station pursuant to the Article 15 charges I filed against you yesterday." Akiva let loose his boyish grin. "I do have a direct line to the JAG office, as you know. You will remit your service to Memory Theta from Deep Storage pending the hearing scheduled, oh, let's say a month from now."
Nevin did his best not to laugh, but he couldn't help but smile.
The wroth in Mrazak's face shifted from snarling to otherworldly. "You won't get away with this, ben-Avram!"
"See you in 30," Akiva said flippantly. "And give Eigthe my regards." Looking up, Akiva added, "Ferrofax, energize."
Mrazak looked up at the ceiling. "Wait, no, Ferro---"
The telltale whine of the transporter cut Mrazak off as its blue energies whisked him away to the Tartarus planetoid below.
"Thank you, Ferrofax," Akiva said.
"Oh trust me, it was a pleasure," Ferrofax said with a pleasant, self satisfied grin. "Though it's not to late for me to purge the pattern buffers? Accidents do happen with these things, statistically speaking."
Akiva shook his head. "No, Ferrofax," he said, looking at the field team assembled. "No more disregard for the lives of others. Today is a new day for Memory Theta."
"Huum. Allow me to share a saying from my people: does not compute." Ferrofax said with dry caution to his words. "Because as far as I am aware today is Thursday, and not the beginning of a new era. But for us anyway."
Bao bit back an actual smile. He looked at Rodi and Nevin, "Please tell me I just saw Commander Mrazak being sent, to borrow a phrase, to time out."
"Indeed," Akiva said. "And, if I have my way, he will be stripped of his commission and sent to a triple-max penitentiary. But let us not focus on the past. Out with the old, in with the new, as it is said." He tapped his communicator. "Commander, you may enter now."
As the doors on the opposite side of the lounge parted, a Bajoran woman made ingress.
"As we say goodbye to Commander Mrazak for the foreseeable future, allow me to introduce a new arrival to the station." Akiva smiled broadly and extended his hand. "This is Lieutenant Commander Garai Fenia. She will join the research division and serve as the field team's Forensic Science Specialist. Please make her feel welcome."
Yet Fenia felt anything but. While the return of the team was fortunate and the promotions were a thing to celebrate, the team did just lose their commanding officer. The bajoran knew she could hardly expect a warm welcome from her new co-workers. This was perfectly understandable. So, hands clasped behind her back Garai nodded. "Good to meet you all." She said, giving each of them a glance, passing the quickest over Ferrofax. He still creeped her out somewhat.
Rodi, for his part gave the new commander a nod of greeting.
As Storr handed out drinks to personnel old and new, Akiva couldn't help but smile. The very nature of Memory Theta tested the bounds of his morality every day. Some days he felt like a failure. But this day? He felt right. It would take time for his new policies to take effect, especially with the rotation and turnover inherent to the facility. As administrator, it was up to him whether the culture of necessary evil endured or if they would uphold Federation ideals in their black ops. Today marked a milestone toward the latter. Despite the apprehension among the personnel over the sudden changes, Akiva couldn't help but smile. Justice had been served.
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