Not much to go on...

Posted on Mon Jan 15th, 2024 @ 3:05am by Rear Admiral Dylan Freshour & Captain Remy Johansen

1,249 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Mission 0: Where do we go from here?
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD: -4 Days to launch, 0700 Starfleet Standard Time

Remy walked onto the Bridge of the USS Imperator to see a small crew of security officers were familiarizing themselves with the layout of the weapons systems, and various other protocols that the Security Chief was implementing, and several operations officers were spread about the various stations running systems checks. Several had started to turn to attention as she had taken her first step, but she had waved them down with an 'as you were,' and gave a nod of approval to see everyone busy. Rather than bothering with her own office, she helped herself to the unused Ready Room and let the doors shut behind her.

Remy sat behind the desk and opened a comms channel to the Task Force Unit in charge of recommissioning the Imperator. As that was firing up, she turned on the holographic screen for a visual, and waited impatiently for someone to answer.

=^="Chapman here."=^= the older man spoke.

Remy sat a little straighter. "Admiral, I was hoping to reach you. Any word on who's taking command of the Imperator yet?"

The older man frowned slightly, =^="The good news is the Candidate has been assigned, they're currently wrapping up on their current assignment and attending a number of the mandatory briefing sessions, I'm hoping to have them out too the Imperator in the next two and a half days if everything continues on schedule."=^=

Remy looked at the holoscreen expectantly. Hearing no additional information she continued, "Well who is it, and why weren't we informed?"

=^="Commander, I'll be upfront, there's a degree of pomp and circumstance around this promotion, so it's being kept under wraps for now, plus his previous assignment is currently without a captain due to an incident and we can't leave that ship without a captain, it's a very odd situation, I'll assure you this though, you won't be disappointed."=^= The Admiral replied.

Remy smirked. "With all due respect, Admiral, for all intents and purposes the Imperator is without a Captain, and we're starting to get the point where we are counting by the hours, not days before we leave this docking port. The crew is antsy. I'm antsy. I'm over here making decisions that the new CO should be making. I don't really give a damn about pomp or circumstance and this other ship's status quite frankly has no bearing on what you can or can't tell us."

Remy was frustrated now. She and Vila had waited long enough - put up a face for the other officers for long enough. They were less than 5 days from launch and they were just keeping the identity of the new Captain from them. Ridiculous.

Showing his own frustrations now he spoke again =^="These aren't exactly the most normal of circumstances, I'm hoping to have the new Captain out to the Imperator within seventy two hours, that's the best I can do, He's as of this moment in a briefing with Fleet Captain Wallace, and from what I understand he chose you when he assumed his promotion, so I think you have his confidence Commander..."=^=

Remy smirked again as she shook her head in disbelief. "That's just ripe. You have known THAT long? Starfleet's been dishing out a lot of crap lately, so I'm not going to say this is the wildest thing that has been done lately, but it is still pretty crazy. There is a team of senior staff here, and you can't even trust US with the information about who we're about to be taking orders from? Leaving us as ignorant about everything as the res of the crew? Mind boggling." Remy took an angry breath in, and shot daggers across the empty room. "SIR," she added.

Deciding to defuse things Ed looked at the image on his screen =^="Fine you want a name,"=^= the admiral paused keying in some commands =^= "Morgan Conroy, he managed to barely escape with the Jacksonville after a Tholian ambush two weeks ago, he only made it back to the Sol system a few days ago, the Jacksonville looks like someone took a shotgun to a beer can, he managed to take out two of the Tholian ships and disable the third, so as you can imagine, he's busy, am I making myself clear Commander Johansen?"=^=

Remy smiled at the Admiral over the holoscreen. "Now, that wasn't so difficult, was it?" She asked sweetly.

Before he could reply an aide leaned in whispering something, the Admiral nodded, =^="Your departure schedule has been pushed up by possibly twenty four hours, we're going to need the Imperator on eight hour readiness, we're changing the Captains briefing schedule, he might be departing within the next thirty hours or sooner, your two weeks in dry dock just got shortened."=^=

Remy threw her hands up in the air as a sign of helplessness. "So, how does that look to the crew. Hey, I can't tell you who the Captain is, but here's your new eight hour readiness roster, and we're pushing the leave date up. Admiral, you can't possibly expect me to keep the crew focused under these conditions. Vila and I can barely walk around the ship without being stopped by a dozen crew members wanting questions answered." She started at him, wanting him to throw her a bone of some kind.

=^="The situation has changed, we figured we would have more lead time on this situation, we're pulling from ships in dry dock to fill out the roster, a briefing package is being prepared as we speak, we didn't plan on a Tholian attack delaying your captain, we sure as hell didn't plan on synthetic workers destroying the Mars shipyards and I sure as hell didn't plan on this jack-in-the-box situation from developing, you're not the only ship with staffing issues, yours is just taking priority now."=^=

"Well, I'm glad I called," Remy said dryly. "Anything else I should know then?"

Holding a pad just out of view Edward glanced down then into the screen, still mildly irritated =^="Fleet Captain Wallace will be personally bringing Captain Conroy, a transport is being dispatched with new personnel as we speak it's scheduled to arrive at zero three thirty with various crew and supplies."=^= he said with an evil look then added =^="At the request of Captain Conroy Ensign Rose Wilson is temporarily assigned to cover ops bridge duty."=^= he sat up straight =^="Starfleet out!"=^=

The comm link was cut, and the holoscreen went dark. "But wait, what am I supposed to tell the crew..." Remy said to an empty room.

"Damn it," She muttered. She tapped her communicator. "Commander Johansen to Commander Lorut and Ensign Rose Wilson, meet me in the Ready Room."

She stepped out onto the Bridge to wait for their arrival.


===== Rear Admiral Edward Chapman's office =====

Morgan poked his head in the door, "That didn't sound good, what's going on?"

"Things are moving faster then anticipated, we're going to need you out the door after your final intelligence briefings, Captain Wallace is going to get you there faster than if we put you on a transport." Admiral Chapman said

"Okay, so I should cancel the catering and string quartet?" Morgan said

"You'll be lucky enough to brief your staff, the closest ship is six days away, so it's the Imperator and it's the slipstream drive or bust."

[End]

Captain Morgan Conroy
TBA Commanding Officer
USS Imperator

Commander Remy Johansen
First Officer
USS Imperator

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