The Captain's Judgement
Posted on Sun Mar 29th, 2020 @ 11:08pm by Commander Isabella dei`Silvisi & Captain Alistar McKeon & Lieutenant Jera'turak Ros
1,713 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission: Distant Shores
The morning came with the majority of the usual activities of a star-ship coming to full active status. An air of quiet unease had settled throughout the Endeavour, in part because everyone knew of the actions that had occurred on the planet. Two senior officers had been arrested, and anyone who had served aboard the Endeavour for any length of time knew that while the captain was fairly laid back, he came down hard on disciplinary issues. For Isabella, that usually meant she had to try to maintain an equal and distant balance. To say that she wasn’t looking forward to today’s proceedings was the understatement of the year. She had arranged a security detail to meet the detainees in transporter room one and have them escorted to the captain’s ready room. She waited for their arrival outside in the corridor, mentally preparing herself for the coming hearing.
Jera remained quiet as the planetside security marshal and the security force escorted her and Commander Sato from the detention block to the transporter facility. Not one of them had offered either of them anything to eat and only a few cups of water to drink, which meant that she was glad that there had been little real alcohol drunk the night before. Hangovers were usually not all that fun to deal with. As they arrived at the transporter facility, Jera held up her hands and shook the cuffs at one of the guards. “I think we can get these off now,” she said.
Remaining quiet, Akira stood beside her fellow officer and quietly thought over the events that had led her to this point. The captain was quite well known for how he treated disciplinary breaches and she wasn’t sure if the fact that she and Commander Ros were senior officers would make the situation worse or not. Either way, today was not going to be fun. After the cuffs were removed, Akira stepped over to the transporter pad beside Ros and waited for the transporter beam to whisk them away to the Endeavour.
A full security team was on standby in the transporter room, waiting for the arrival of the two commanders. The team leader, a full lieutenant, nodded as the transporter beam released the two commanders. “Commanders, please come with us,” he said.
“As if we have a choice,” Jera muttered under her breath before she moved to the center of the formation.
Akira glanced towards Ros but said nothing as she stepped down from the transporter pad and took her place beside the outspoken engineer. “Let’s go,” she finally said.
Isabella had started pacing outside the captain’s ready room as she waited. She wasn’t usually such a worrier, but she knew her captain and his temper and she knew the charges that had been brought up against the two officers. She understood the situation, and at the same time she longed to be anywhere else but in the middle of the lion’s den trying to keep the peace. She finally managed to stop pacing, just in time for the security detail to arrive with Commanders Sato and Ros. Giving the Lieutenant in charge a nod, she cleared her throat quietly before she spoke. “Thank you, Lieutenant. Please wait outside with two of your team. The rest are dismissed to their normal duties. Commander Sato, Commander Ros, if you’ll join me?”
Turning, Isabella reached out and touched the door controls, opening the doors to the ready room and walking inside. She crossed the room and stopped, standing to one side where she could move to intercept the captain should the need arise for her to do so.
Alistar sat at his desk and practically seethed with anger. He had spent the majority of the night looking up regulations and going through procedures and most of his morning talking to Starfleet Command. The events of the previous night had not done anything but anger him during what should have been downtime for the entire crew. Instead of relaxing, he had to deal with the fallout of two of his officers, senior officers at that, getting into a brawl. He had been surprised that the Inti administrator had left the resolution up to him, but he was also grateful. Either way, he wasn’t going to like the coming proceeding, but at least he could deal with it his way to an extent. The doors to his ready room opened and he looked up as Silvisi marched in with Sato and Ros in tow. As the group stopped before his desk, he stood and picked up a PADD.
“LtCommander Sato and LtCommander Ros, both of you had a busy night last night,” Alistar said. “Fighting in a public establishment on a Federation civilian colony, disturbing the peace, assault and battery, use of excessive force against unarmed civilians, conduct unbecoming of a Starfleet officer, disobeying Starfleet regulations, disobeying direct orders from a superior officer,” he finished by slamming the PADD down onto his desk. The device bounced twice before resting on the desktop as Alistar turned a cold glare towards the two women. “Do either of you have anything to say for yourselves?”
Isabella flinched and almost moved against her will away from the captain. She knew that he was angry and that anger was justified, but she was beginning to wonder if he was letting it cloud his judgment. She clasped her hands behind her back and kept quiet, hoping that this would be over quickly.
“Sir, Lieutenant Walker was assaulted by the civilians we fought,” Jera said, trying to keep her voice level. Clearly, the captain wasn’t in the mood for anything but direct honesty. “I moved to defend him from further attack, and I guess I got a little carried away with it.”
“Carried away?! Dammit Jera, you shattered a guy’s knee and at least three ribs along with his face AFTER you rearranged his elbow to a ninety degree in the wrong way. And you!” he turned his full attention towards Sato. “You cracked the skull of one civilian with a bottle. From the medical reports that were passed on to me this morning, your guy has fractures all along his skull and will be recovering for several months. And you’re a trained security officer and second officer on this ship! The two of you have enough training and knowledge to know that this is completely unacceptable, but you both still had to go beat up the first three guys who gave you any excuse. So now I have to pick up the pieces, but before I go any further I’m going to ask just what the hell am I supposed to do with the two of you?”
Jera glanced first at the first officer then towards Sato before she turned towards the captain. “A full court marshal would be the logical next step,” she said.
“Captain, if I may?” Isabella spoke up. “There’s no need for a full court marshal to be held. Starfleet regulations allow for the captain of a Starfleet vessel to distribute disciplinary measures if the civilian authorities allow it. Miss Dawson has regulated this matter to your authority, so there’s no need for it to go any further than here.”
“Fortunately, Starfleet Command agrees to a certain point,” Alistar said, giving his first officer a nod. “Lieutenant Commander Akira Sato, you’re being demoted to the rank of Lieutenant and transferred. Pack your gear and report to transporter room two in one hour. You’ll beam over to the USS Arberdeen for transport to your next assignment. Dismissed.” As Sato left the ready room, Alistar turned towards Ros. “Lieutenant Commander Ros, you’re hereby demoted to the rank of Lieutenant JG and barred promotion for a period of a minimum of one year. You’re also reassigned to the position of engineering officer aboard the USS Endeavour. In addition, I’m sentencing you to two months confinement in the ship’s brig while you’re off duty, effective immediately,” he said as he reached out and removed one of the solid gold pips from Ros’s collar. “Dismissed,” he said.
Jera blinked, stunned by the sentence. For a brief moment, she stood there but she finally nodded and turned. She had expected far worse, but not by much. Heading out of the ready room, she paused and glanced at the security guards outside. “Ok, guys, let’s go,” she said.
Watching the doors slide close, Isabella stood in stunned silence for a moment before she turned towards the captain and raised her eyebrows. She had expected a strict and harsh punishment, but somehow what had just transpired was even worse than what even Isabella had expected. For a moment, she didn’t dare speak; however, when she did she spoke softly and disarmingly. “I take it that Starfleet Command agreed with your decision only to a certain point?” she asked.
“Starfleet Command wanted both of them reassigned, however I argued that Jera Ros had been on the Endeavour for a long enough period of time that she had a full in depth knowledge of the ship and its systems and was a valuable member of this crew,” Alistar said as he sat down. “Unfortunately, they only agreed to that point. I couldn’t argue that a security and tactical officer couldn’t be replaced after that. Both of their replacements are already en route. Once they arrive and settle in, we’ll move on with our mandate here.”
“I take it that we’re still on for the exploratory mission to the nebula?” Isabella asked.
“If Ms Dawson doesn’t mind, yes,” Alistar said. “There are several exploration projects I need to address, so I’m going to look through them for a few hours.”
Isabella nodded. “I’ll leave you to it, then,” she said. Giving the captain a parting nod of her head, she turned and started towards the door. She had a number of projects to take a look at herself, but the hope that the Endeavour would soon be conducting a true exploratory mission held hope that the incident of the morning would soon be behind them.
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