Hectic Day

Posted on Thu Jan 2nd, 2025 @ 12:46am by Captain Alistar McKeon & Lieutenant Commander Kenneth Hunt

1,745 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Relics of War
Location: CO's Office

Lt. Commander Kenneth Hunt found himself at spacedock with an insanely amount of Starfleet Cadets. There had been rumors of Starfleet Command cramming Cadets on the USS Endeavour but being among this crowd. There were clearly a lot of truth in that rumor. Being a senior officer, it take much for him to find himself pushed immediately to the front of the line without issue. Upon entering the ship, he found himself face to face with the Quartermaster who he handed his orders over to.

Accepting the PADD, the Chief Petty Officer looked it over then looked at the PADD he had been carrying. "Welcome aboard the USS Endeavour, Commander Hunt." The older gentleman then proceeded to download some information from his PADD unto the Commander's.

"Thank you," Kenneth replied. "So how many Cadets we expecting?

"Around one hundred and fifty they say," the Chief answered. From the tone of his voice, the Quartermaster sounded a bit annoyed by that fact.

Hunt simply smiled. "Should make things a bit interesting and nerve racking. Is the Captain onboard?"

"As far as I know, yes." After the download completed, he handed the PADD back to Kenneth. "There you go Sir. Everything you need to navigate around here is on there. Your belongings will be transported to your quarters at 0930 hours."

"Appreciate it." Accepting the PADD, Kenneth proceeded to step into the turbolift. A few minutes later, he was off the lift and found himself, standing in front of the CO's officer. Before settling in, he was found it best to introduce himself before things continued to get busy and hectic. Pressing the chime, he waited to be summoned in.

Alistar had spent most of his time since the senior officer briefing stuck in his ready room, either going over reports or engaged in another meeting with someone at Starfleet Command. The latest assault had been some idiot from the Academy who was concerned about the fact that Endeavour wasn't a training ship and the cadets would be isolated in their assignments to the ship. Alistar had simply informed the instructor that on a ship with a crew of over 700, that would be impossible before he had killed the commline and refused to take any more calls from the Academy. The calls had finally trickled down to hardly nothing and he was finding the time to get caught up on some of the reports that had all flown in all at once.

Halfway through reading the latest intelligence report that had been transmitted to Endeavour on the region surrounding Starbase 11, Alistar heard the door chime ring out. Leaned back in his chair, he raised his eyes from the padd and cut them towards the door with a heavy sigh. "Enter," he called without bothering to move otherwise.

The door opened as the man entered the room and stood in front of the desk. "Captain McKeon, I am Lieutenant Commander Kenneth Hunt reporting in."

Alistar felt his eyes narrow as he tried to place the officer before him and the name on any list of officers being transferred to the Endeavour and he suppressed a sight of annoyance as he came up with nothing. It wasn't surprising though, given that the Endeavour had mere hours before her departure and Starfleet was trying its best to fill out the ship's roster. Setting the padd he had been reading onto his desk, Alistar turned his chair around so that he was facing the officer and nodded. "Commander Hunt, at ease and take a seat," he said, keeping his voice flat and neutral. "I trust you have a copy of your orders for me?"

"Yes sir." Kenneth handed the PADD he was carrying over the Captain before taking a seat.

Alistar accepted the padd and leaned back in his seat as he read through the contents quickly. He was surprised that Starfleet had managed to find someone to fill the Endeavour's Straops department, but he supposed that he should have expected it. The recent attack on the Federation and the destruction of ten Starfleet ships had everyone at Starfleet Command spooked.

"I see you've followed the security and tactical fields since the Academy," he finally said with an observational tone. Glancing up at the commander, he nodded. "Although I have to ask. Most officers who accept a position on a starbase often stay there. So why the change from security and tactical on a starbase to strategic operations on a starship?"

"Honestly when I accepted the position on the Starbase, I had no idea that I would have remained there for so long," Kenneth Admitted. "My goal is to one day have a command of my own. Strategic Operations is an interest of mine, plus it will help me reach my goal. I just happened to be on Earth when I heard you had a position that needed to be filled and kind of worked out."

"With recent developments, I'm not surprised," Alistar said as he set the padd down onto his desk. "I actually hadn't to be assigned a stratops officer for some time until this morning. But now," he shrugged. "You're here, so we'll definitely have to put you to work. I also noticed that you were assigned as second officer in addition to being strategic operations officer?"

"They stated you were in need of one of those as well," Hunt smirked. "And I am interested in taking on more command duties."

Alistar raised his eyebrows. He was mildly curious as to who the they the commander was referring to was, but he decided to leave it alone. Technically, a second officer on a ship such as Endeavour was helpful, and given the complications of the ship's current compliment he would take all the help he could take. "Well, I'm sure we can try to see what we can do to make that happen," he said. "And it would be nice to have someone help Isabella out during this mission. I'm not sure how much you know about what we're facing, but it's going to be difficult given the additional problems of having the cadets on board as well."

"Still mostly in the dark regarding the mission," Kenneth admitted. "But I have become fully aware of the situation regarding the Cadets. I'm assuming they will be remaining on board permanently?"

"I hope not," Alistar grumbled. "If I have it my way they'll be gone when we reached Starbase 11. As for the mission," he sighed. "We've been placed in charge of the investigation of the destruction of the Federation and her escort squadron. With the death of the president, Starfleet is on high alert which is most likely why they rushed to fill your position."

The Commander took in the news that was given to him. "That explains quite a bit. Does Starfleet have any idea who might be responsible and where to start looking?"

Alistar shook his head. There were the endless rumors already flying around, everything from a Borg attack to the Cardassians trying to reassert themselves as a dominant power. Most were just that, rumors, but all were being considered. "No," he answered. "That's why we're the only ship being given access to the debris of the squadron and given the assignment of investigating the attack," he said. "We'll start off being based at Starbase 11 while we begin the investigation, but from there there's no telling where it'll lead."

Hunt thought briefly. "Definitely not Borg. They would just push through with their forces. Taking out the President of the Federation wouldn't make a difference to them. They are Cardassians who have shown interest in possible Federation membership, but there are those against it. Romulans or Breen perhaps."

Alistar held up a hand to bring any further thought to a stop. "Until we know more, I don't want any discussion or speculation on the matter to be entertained," he said. "I know everyone is going to be thinking about it, some are going to be talking about it quietly, but I don't want anyone drawing any conclusions until we start getting facts from the investigation. Otherwise, we run the risk of opening this investigation to interference and starting a witch hunt, or worse a vendetta."

"My apologizes. You are definitely right about that. I for one should know better than to try drawing conclusion. The facts will steer us in the right direction. So when do we ship out?"

Alistar checked the time and sighed a little. "Here in about an hour," he answered. "We're going to be pushing the warp drive to its limits, but Starfleet wants us at Starbase 11 immediately. So I'm giving the order to break orbit at 0700."

"What do you need from me in the meantime Sir?"

"For now, settle in and get to know the crew," Alistar said. "Until we reach Starbase 11, we know very little and I want to proceed only on facts. We also have a pack of cadets on board to babysit so eventually I'll need to figure out what to do with them, but that's a problem for later unless you want to take care of them."

"I'm sure they will be divided up in the departments their majoring in," Kenneth acknowledged. "Not sure if any Cadets are going to be sent my way. If so, I'll keep them busy."

"I honestly doubt we'll have many officers sent your way either," Alistar said. "But yes, most of the cadets are supposed to be assigned to the department that corresponds with their major field of study. There might be a few who haven't chosen a major so if you find one of them put them to work. You'll probably also pull some bridge duty as well, since I'll be dealing with the investigation."

"Aye Sir."

Alistar nodded and glanced at the time. There was still a lot to take care of before they had to break orbit, so he stood. "I wish we could give you more time to settle in, but we're all getting a crash course today. Go ahead and take a few minutes to get familiar with the ship. Dismissed. Oh, and commander. Welcome to the Endeavour."

He watched the newly assigned officer head out of his ready room before he sat down again. Not for the first time, he wondered just how many more surprises he was going to be given before the day ended as he picked up another report and sighed as he started reading.

 

RSS Feed