An Honest Proposal

Posted on Fri Feb 15th, 2019 @ 11:12pm by Captain Charlotte Averis & Captain Michelle Bartlett

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/5
Location: Captain's Ready Room

Charlotte was starting to get annoyed being escorted while on the Wellington, but she still knew that the reasoning and well, it wasn't her ship. It had been four days since they'd arrived and after Sabrina's return? She wasn't sure how to bring THAT up yet.

The entry procedure played out just like it had the few times before and Charlotte smiled genuinely as she saw Michelle, "Good evening, Captain, I'm sorry to bother you, but there were a few things I'd like to talk to you about, none of it bad, I promise."

"Not a bother at all." Michelle said with a grin. "And nothing bad? Hm. That's a good start. Can I get you something?" she asked, gesturing to the replicator.

“Coffee? Just sweet, for some reason the cream doesn’t sit well with me and coffee.” Charlotte shrugged and continued as Michelle started on the drinks, “But no, nothing bad that I’m aware of.” She’d come back from Sabrina’s quarters and wasn’t about to bring up that ‘training mission’, despite the Wellington’s casualties, that was a matter between Michelle and the Major. “I want to start off by thanking you and your crew for all of the help, medical and engineering, that you’ve given us. Everyone of my crew is now either fit to return to duty or can be handled until we get back to our own base and Icarus herself can get back easily enough now.”

"You're welcome." Michelle replied. "Happy we could help. Most of them were very appreciative of our efforts. Seems you have a good crew."

"I do." Charlotte said, nodding, her voice a bit odd, then repeated softer, "I do. But that's part of the reason I'm here. I was talking to Lieutenant Moran, the officer who you had under quarters arrest, and he was bringing up good points. As I'm sure you know, he wants to remain here on this side of the rift because of the conditions in our reality." She took a deep breath, "And I'd like to encourage you to accept his request if you feel it's the right course of action."

Michelle breathed a sigh of relief. She'd expected things to go off the proverbial rails the minute she brought it up. "Commander Tang will certainly appreciate that. As do I. I've had a look at his record and he seems a good officer.. Just one perhaps shattered by the realities of your universe. It seems strange to consider granting someone from the Federation asylum against the Federation but, the odd legality aside, Lieutenant Moran is bound to get someone killed in your universe. If he wants to serve, I'm happy to have him. What points did he make?"

"That it's endless on our side, there's no 'victory' point we can see yet and as a medical officer, he's the one who sees the broken and battered bodies, sees people he knows and loves right there in front of him, then watching them fade away despite everything he can do." She took another sip of coffee, then leaned back and crossed her right leg over her left, "But speaking to his capabilities? He's a very good officer and I have no doubt he'll excel here. And I'd also like to make a general announcement to the rest of my crew and see if anyone else would have an interest in remaining as well, since they've had even just a small taste of what peace feels like again. That is, if you'd be willing to accept potentially more."

"So long as we don't leave your side of things undermanned." Michelle replied. "I would hate to be the one that leads to the end of the Federation in another reality."

"My 'intuition' tells me that it won't be the life or death of our Federation if a few personnel leave us." Mentioning that was a bit uncomfortable to Charlotte, "But as a quid pro quo: I'd also like you to give the reverse option to your own crew. See if anyone wants to come over the other way. I'd want to talk to each of them, lay out exactly what the situation is, our prospects, the dangers, make sure they'd know what they were getting themselves into. It could be that no one wants to come back with us, all I'd ask is the option for them to come."

"I'll circulate it to our crew and see if anyone wants to join." Michelle said. "I hope any volunteers can be of use to you." Michelle replied. "A lot of us are used to things being a little more... peaceful."

"But there are those out there who might enjoy a bit of chaos." Charlotte chuckled, "I hear your Sergeant Valentine had a 'blast' on the mission your Marines and mine took, basically asked your Major Weston when they could go back and do it again."

Michelle chucked as well. Sounded about right. "Sergeant Valentine certainly has a flair for, ummm... the blood and guts aspect of the job. I was a science officer and a diplomatic officer before getting put in command here... I can give the order but to be honest, I usually hope like hell the tactical officer knows what Firing Pattern Gamma 4 actually is."

"Your guess would be as good as mine, Captain." Charlotte shook her head, "I may have come up through security, but things are... Just so different on the other side, but that may have just changed. I believe your science team is just about ready to coordinate with my chief engineer to get the rift closed, so I'd say about twelve hours before we depart your space and return to ours. I think that should be long enough for anyone else who wants to go either way?"

"Indeed." Michelle said. "I'll let them know they have to make up their minds fast."

"Is there anything else I can do for you?" Charlotte asked, "A solid excuse for your Department of Temporal Investigation or something of the sort?"

"If you could generate one, that would be appreciated. Not every admiral or official in this sector will be enthralled with what we've done here." Michelle said, dreading already the amount of screaming she was going to hear from Marquette or even Vice Admiral Haggerty.

"Given that the temporal infraction was from my side of the rift? And that the only personnel of yours that went to the other side were a group of special operations Marines?" Charlotte shook her head, "I think a report, an honest report, from myself and some of my senior officers could actually work for you and at least most of your people, but Major Weston might have her own issues." She paused for a moment, "But there is one more slight issue I must bring up." She look a little chagrined, "Technological contamination. Your sensors and database now have some of the details of technology that is quite frankly more advanced than your own. I need my chief engineer to put together a very specific virus to upload to your computer system that will hunt those references and sensor readings to destroy them. It would cause no harm to your ship or computers, she's very good."

Michelle nodded. "Proceed. I'll have Lieutenant Cordale coordinate efforts if needed... The less we have to deal with Temporal Affairs the better."

That caught Charlotte up short. She had expected a long and possibly expletive-laden argument from Captain Bartlett that would eventually have ended up with a less-than-appropriate action needed to perform the job. "I'll have her do that right away." She said after a hesitation, "But I'm going to provide you with as much information about the Shalti that we have. I don't feel bad about that at all, because they're here in this universe and who knows if they're going to come down this way. But either way, I don't want the same thing to happen to you all. Call it a gift from a far-flung civiliazation in contact with them who decided everyone should know about them?"

"Works for me." Michelle replied, taking note at her surprise. "And don't be too surprised... At the end of the day, even if this was technically playing fast and loose with the Temporal Prime Directive... It was still the right thing to do. To allow others to be slaughtered and having to do nothing really isn't my cup of tea to be honest." she added. "I'm sure we can figure out a way that we found out about them."

"I can give you a couple of systems that could be reached with a couple of wormhole transits, wormholes you might not know about yet, and if you use a really stealthy probe on a ballistic course, you could probably get a hint of their presence. If you need that sort of proof, that is." Charlotte offered, "But explaining the coincidences of finding both wormholes would be a bit awkward itself."

"I wonder what the odds are that the Shalti will be able to mount an attack against us out here..." Michelle replied. "I mean eventually they're going to find new prey if they've held the Borg back."

"The good news is that the Borg are on a direct path between them and you, which is part of why the Borg expanded out your way, but only sent a handful of ships your way. It's more that the Borg are holding the Shalti back, so don't go on an anti-Borg crusade if you don't have to. But if they do make it around, hopefully this will buy you the time you need to come up with something to stop them before they reach the core of the Federation."

"I suppose if nothing else we can just call it Ts'usugi surveillance... Shared by one of their officials concerned about this. But I might be looking a bit more favourably on the Borg for a while..."

"I know they're not a factor any more over on our side. Micro-collectives, basically local forces and combine their abilities, but leave the star system and poof, no longer part of the collective again." Charlotte shook her head, "Really a pity, to be honest about it."

"Compared to what came after?" Michelle asked. "I don't blame you for thinking that one bit. Thank you so much for all of this. And I'm glad we could be of assistance."

"No Captain, thank you." Charlotte reached out a hand, "Would we have succeeded without you? I don't know, but because of you, because of your Marines and that damned crazy shuttle pilot of yours, we definitely did."

"I'll pass your commendations along." Michelle replied. "And... we've got a few of those." she added as she extended her hand to return the handshake. "Good luck."

OFF:

Captain Charlotte Averis
Commanding Officer
USS Icarus

Captain Michelle Bartlett
Commanding Officer
USS Wellington