Welcome to the Gamma Quadrant

Posted on Fri Jul 23rd, 2021 @ 4:42pm by Major Jennifer Griffiths & Commodore Ethan O'Donnaghue

3,051 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Shakedown
Location: New Haven Station
Timeline: MD000 1600 hours

[ON]

EJ was the most senior person available to meet the new XO For the siren, what with Kyss and Rian priorly engaged with the COB Meeting, EJ received orders to meet her at new haven station and welcome her. It had been a long while since he had done anything like this, save with his students of course. Red uniform and pips on show, he walked into the departure lounge pushing his glasses down to his nose so that he could read the padd better, his eyes sight was not what it used to be but he persevered. His office was only a ways off from the main arrivals and departure lounge, looking around and scanning the area he cleared his throat "Major Jennifer Griffiths USS Siren XO" he spoke as he scanned again "Office 213 when your ready" he said standing with the padd at his back now as he waited to see life form from the throng of people.

As she was looking around she heard her name mentioned, she looked around and saw a Commodore calling out her name oO Sending a Commodore as a greeting party, this is a strange station indeed Oo she thought to herself "I am here Sir" she raising her hand as she walked forward, she got forward and stood in front of him "Major Jennifer Griffiths, pleased to meet you, Sir, might I enquire why is a Commodore doing the job of a CoB, should you not be running this Starbase?" she asked in all honesty.

EJ smiled at her "The pleasure is all mine major" he said pushing his glasses up his nose a little, it had been donkey's years since he'd done meetings with the crew, but he knew whatever rust he felt he had would be blown off in no time. Rushing his hands through his greying hair to smooth it over "Well Major I'm a very personable commodore you, she'd rather meet all new entree's myself my old CO Admiral Llywellyn taught me that its best to for the crew of any ship to be met with a good smile and manner" He said with a wide smile "That and Rian the CO of the siren is otherwise detained for now with other meetings of crew intake, I'm actually the mystic academy director you should have been meeting with my brother Craig but alas he is also detained running crisis talks with staff about the new crescent threat" He said with a sombre look "If you'll follow me ill get you up to speed on what's been happening out here in the vastness of the gamma quadrant" He said turning and allowing her to go first "Ladies first" he said stepping back with his arm outstretched.

She gave the Commodore a surprised look and raised an eyebrow oO this officer is very different from others I have met in the past Oo she thought to herself, "thank you Sir" she responded and proceeded forward "So Commodore what can you tell me of my new Crew and what exactly did Commander Stevens do to get demoted and moved to Strategic Operations? I have read his service jacket, but it skimps on the exact details. After that what is this New Crescent issue you mentioned?" She asked.

As Ej walked he smiled at her "Well Your Crew a very seasoned Captain my son Rian has just been promoted to captain" he said beaming as he reached the door marked 215 "Stevens..... Well according to intelligence which is limited for the time being there's an ongoing investigation happening aboard the Siren right now Starfleet security ops are on their way to individually oversee the proceedings" he said pushing the door open, 215 was his office for when he was on base "Well the crescent of Sapharia there a race of xenophobic telepathic zealots hell-bent on the destruction of anything that isn't them one of there ships blew one of our admirals halfway to Abilene so right now this base and the entire task force is in the midst of war preparations unfortunately major that includes the Siren hence why a marine was asked for rather than a regular Starfleet officer"

Looking at the Commodore "You do know I have not been a First Officer since stardate 238707.12 when I was assigned to a training ship as its first officer, the Captain went crazy and only myself and four Cadets made it off the training ship, it was classified at the highest levels. But four Cadets and a Marine Captain the only survivors of an Ambassador class active training ship and the ship had a full complement of Cadets including mainline officers who were their departmental trainers, all those lives were lost because one Captain went do lally tap, he went crazier than a Klingon on a killing spree" she said to the Commodore "so as long as your son is stable Sir, we are five by five, but I do have a touch of PTSD from that experience, if not for the need of a combat vet I would still be teaching Marines at the Academy" she paused.

"I can manage that Sir, so what of these Zealots you mentioned?" She asked the Commodore.

EJ Walked into his office turned the light on still listening to major still "What an awful thing to go through major I assure you Rian is 1/4 Vulcan emotions whilst they don't come easy to him he struggles with his own, not other people" he said walking over to the replicator "Please take a seat on the sofa" he said flashing a smile at her "Computer two ups of the commodore's Irish tea" he said as the replicator formed two cups of steaming hot cups, walking over to the chair opposite the sofa "These Zealots as you call them the crescent we have had a few skirmishes with them we have two on base at the moment both being closely monitored we can't take any chances, not with one of them Kadja shes problematic unlike Orson who seems to want to help the federation"

Taking the offered cup and sitting down "what of this Kadja?" She asked taking a sip and liking the taste of it oO Must get the recipe of this drink Oo she thought to herself and sat back waiting for the Commodore to respond.

Ej took a swig from his tea and relaxed into the chair looking over the rim of his mug "She's unpredictable makes my brother Craig look like a boy scout and Craig is a scary man he's seen some awful things in the dominion war it changed him really" he trailed off he hated what the war had done to each of his brothers respectively "At the moment we are in the midst of trying to get information out of her but being telepathic she can read our minds easier than we can hers we have a plethora of Betazoids at our disposal but I'm willing to go out on a whim and say we need a Vulcan mind-meld for this one shes as tricky as Loki himself"

Taking another sip of her beverage she looks up at the Commodore, "you want me to have a run at her? I can put real malice behind what I say and make it believable, just offering my services" Griffiths simply said then changed topic, so how new is the Sovereign Class Siren?" She asked.

EJ eyed the major mulling over what she said, in all manner of speaking judging from her record she could garner results and good ones at that "I will call upon you once you've settled on the siren as much as I admire your tenacity and sheer will I will be paring you with the hardest O'Donngahue James My Other son unlike Rian he can be really handy in a tight spot and I feel with his Vulcan heritage he'll be of more use to you with his Vulcan mind tricks Odin's beard only knows his mother was forever using her mind meld on me" he said rolling his eyes a little he was an old man now and it was showing.

Looking at the Commodore "What has James have to do with the Siren Sir? Or do you mean he would be joining me in the Interrogation room with the prisoner?" She asked the Commodore while she was talking with him she could hear the noise of hustle and bustle outside the office.

EJ laughed a little looking at the major "Odin's beard you think id shove both my boys on the same ship? that's a fate worse than death" he said with a humorous face "Rian is bad enough on his own add his little brother into the mix that's a party that no Klingon would be invited too" he said taking a sip from his drink "James will be joining in the interrogation room I don't want to leave anything to chance he's well trained in hand to hand and can use his telepathic skills should the need arise and she won't open the door he'll just force it open"

Runs what he said through her mind as she looked down, then back up at the Commodore "So James can help stave off any excessive telepathic intrusion from the prisoner as I question her then?" She asked "as for the combat side I am capable Sir, but the extra backup will be good, but I will need to know the parameters that I am allowed to go, as questioning may get brutal and I would be the instigator, I need to know what boundaries I have to play within with the prisoner?" she asked as she took another sip of her drink and she asked with a neutral tone and expression.

EJ looked to her everything running through his mind at double speed "James can indeed stave off any of the telepathic intrusion as long as he keeps his mind-meld with her up things will be fine" he said with a smile, James was more adept at using telepathic skills than Rian was, its what made him a fantastic fighter pilot "James will be there to back you up should things get nasty not that I don't trust your merit or your record for that matter I just know two are better than one especially in these sorts of situations" he said grabbing some stuff out of his desk draw padds with all of the majors necessary information for the siren, quarters and her security clearance "Take these pads and your new clearance" he said fiddling around in the draw for a comm badge and another padd with his personal hailing details on them "This last one is my personal direct line at the academy should you need anything."

Taking the offered Padds she briefly looked at them, before she put them to one side "thank you Sir, so I take it I have permission to do with the prisoner as I wish then I take it?" She asked taking another sip of her drink "when am I to meet my Captain anyway?" She asked the Commodore.

EJ Looked to her "Discretion is advised but let's face it she's gonna turn the situation ugly you do what you have to major and ill turn a blind eye and act as nothing happened are we clear?" he said looking over his mug eyes full of mischief and pain.

She finished her drink and looked over at the Commodore's mischievous look over the rim of his mug oO this one has a wicked sense of humour Oo she thought to herself. "So apart from being a vicious telepath and having no morals, what else can you tell me about her? And what can you tell me about my new Captain?" She asked.

"Well let's add in the fact the woman is basically a wild card, she has every intention of marrying Orson de the crown prince of the crescents she wants power and she'll pay through the nose to get it," he said draining his mug "On top of that she's basically my worst nightmare," he said placing the mug down "Rian? He's pragmatic about everything note that down," he said pointing at the padd in front of her "He's a very kind person in fact if you ask me at times he's too kind, but you bust someone of his crew head open he will hunt you down and murder you 1000 times over," he said with a slight smile "He's loyal to the core don't worry about that he's a stable as an oak door all though Simon stevens might change that and if that happens ill come on the ship my self and frog march the little ingrate fool off my self"

Looking concerned "What of this Simon Stevens, I did not get much information on him, only that he was removed as the First Officers post and demoted and moved to Strat Ops, what could there be that was not in the personnel dossiers that I read on my way here?" Griffiths said.

EJ put his cup down for this one "Well Simon stevens as I can assure you major he was a promising officer" he cleared his throat "I even handed him a medal of honour in service to Starfleet to which I regret immensely" he looked around "Reports suggest his security access codes along with two others were used to set off a self destruct sequence of the previous USS Siren whilst she was in the battle to retake Avalon station what's even worse was this was omitted from his final report so he not only lied to my son, to me but Starfleet brass and now Starfleet security ops are making a b-line for the USS siren so id be warned when they turn up"

She thought for a moment and ran a few things through her head when she was ticking things off with her fingers "I do have some questions on that, first how did Security come by this information two who released the information to them? From my time as Security, I know that if a record is sealed for any reason then it would take someone with great power or influence to release such information and third who passed this onto you?" Griffiths asked.

EJ Looked to her "I can only assume Starfleet intelligence had a part to play in that as I don't have the full report myself" he said with a slight frown, he shifted his position to make himself more comfortable "my sister Bella is a Starfleet intelligence officer who works on the USS Valiant an intelligence and recon ship however Bella has more reach than a lot of us she has contacts in branches of Starfleet that I would never know about so in short Bella gave me the information because she clearance way above even that of Craig who is a general" he said with a brief smile.

She considered this answer "do one of those agencies that Bella speaks go by the name of Section 31 by any chance? We both know that Section 31 has a knack for releasing incriminating evidence, I am not saying Steven's is innocent by any means. But consider this before my appointment he was First Officer on the Siren and had a unique position on that ship, then someone probably section 31 released that in what an effort to recruit him! There of course is no readily proof to prove this supposition but it would fit within the wheelhouse of S31, problem is we do not know if they have an agent on the SIren keeping an eye on things and on Stevens, who while demoted and moved to another position with limited clearance may be of more use to them *pauses* and to top it off IF Section 31 are behind all this then what is to say that they do not slip Steven's some backdoor clearances to do stuff to recruit him and to undermine ships operations" Griffith's paused.

She looked directly at the Commodore "You know Sir, to quote Ambassador Spock" *pauses* "When you eliminate all the possible, whatever is left however improbable must be the truth!" she said "okay I think I might have paraphrased a little there, but just the same" Griffiths finished.

EJ listened to the major “With analogies like that you'll fit right in on the Siren” he said with a brief smile, taking in the situation EJ knew the major could handle most things thrown at her, the reason James was going to make sure telepathic abilities were stunted and that the Major had enough back up should the need arise “I think that about covers us Major I have all your pads here” he said producing the pads and trying not to fumble them before he placed them on his desk “Any last questions?” he asked with a cheery smile.

She gives things some serious thoughts as she looks down, then when she looks up "one more Sir, when do we question the prisoner?" Griffiths asked as she started to get her stuff together.

He looked at the major "Give me a couple of days to set it up I need to talk to Craig about it" he said laughing "Craig is constantly busy at the moment so ill get back to you when I get his ears so ill me hail you on the siren when I ger it all set up" he said smiling a little as he looked around "Your dismissed Major let's get you over to the siren.

Standing up and picking up her bags "yes Sir, will doI will introduce myself to the Captain" she said "thank you for the interesting conversation and the surprise of meeting me at arrivals" she added,

EJ smiled as he looked to the major "It was my Pleasure Major gods speed to you and the siren for I doubt Starfleet security ops will stand on ceremony" he said standing to hold out his hand for her to shake.

With a final nod, Jennifer turned and walked out of the Commodore's office and straight to the nearest turbolift, now she had to get to the Siren and meet her new Captain.

[OFF]

 

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