Operations in Red

Posted on Wed 12th Oct, 2016 @ 3:19pm by Colonel Horatio Drake & Lieutenant Ricardo Shepard

830 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Cloak & Dagger
Location: Deck 12: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: Prologue

Shepard stood before the Colonel's office door smoothing out the wrinkles of his crimson red uniform. he still couldn't get use to the fact that he had changed from the standard engineering cold to the path of command crimson. But he did think the color suited him.

"Well, it's now or never." He thought to himself as he extended his arm to push the chime on the outside of the office door.

Drake felt like he was buried in a pile of PADDS... that multiplied like tribbles. The second he got rid of one, ten more seemed to take their place. How did anyone run one of these stations? Surely you had to come from a managerial background, not military? Perhaps things will quieten down as we get more operational, he mused to himself.

"Come in", he spoke loudly as the chime sounded.

Rico walked through the doors and found that he had entered an office much bigger than what he expected. "Well this isn't a starship, so why wouldn't the CO's office be bigger." He thought to himself. Rico continued to walk to a desk which the Colonel was sitting behind.

"Rico Shepard reporting for duty sir!"

"Ah, Mr. Shepard!", Drake rose and extended his hand. Who on Earth was this? He hadn't had a chance to really go over the Senior Staff in detail yet... Operations? No, Engineering? But... Operations... yes?

"Chief Operations Officer, if I'm not mistaken?", he smiled bravely hoping he was right.

Rico relaxed for a second and looked at his new commander in the eyes. "Yes sir. Chief of Operations. It's still taking a bit if getting used to the red uniform." Rico pulled on the crimson red uniform he was wearing. "I've worn a gold uniform for several years now." It was then that Rico noticed the amazing view of space and the planet below Vangaurd. "Pardon me sir, but you have one heck of a view behind you." He gave a quick nod towards the window behind the Colonel's desk.

Drake smiled, "Quite so, Lieutenant... the view is spectacular." If nothing else was, he smiled to himself.

He gestured for the officer to take a seat, "Lieutenant, forgive me for asking, but why are you wearing a red undershirt?"

Rico instantly looked down upon his uniform and then looked backed to the Colonel with a perplexed look on his face. "Uhmm, well sir when I received my transfer orders, they came with the standard Starlet stares uniform protocol. There, it red that the Chief Operations officer was the standard red undershirt."

Still confused, Rico hope he hadn't stupidly misread the uniform standard in the protocol.

"I see", Drake furrowed his brow. "I think the mix up may have been borne from this being a Marine run facility. The correct colour for Operations is still a gold undershit." He smiled, "I hope you're not too disappointed!"

"Tell me, what are your first impressions of Vanguard?"

"Dissappointed, no sir. Gold is the standard for me." Rico responded. "And as far as Vangaurd goes, I must say I am impressed. I haven't spent much time aboard starbases. And the time I have spent has been spent moving from one place to another in a hurry."

"I know you feel, Lieutenant. This is my first station posting as well..." His voice drifted off... would it also be his last? It was certainly unusual for starship crews to transfer to starbases and vice versa. Despite Starfleet technology being universal, the disciplines couldn't be further apart from each other. Drake always found it easier and less phsychologically demanding being on a ship. There was often the opportunity of planetary away missions and every day was different. On Starbases, this posed more of a challenge.

"Where was your last posting?" He asked as he ordered a coffee from the replicator. "Would you like a drink, Lieutenant?"

"No thank you sir." The Chief Ops officer responded as he found himself continuously distracted by the breath taking view of the planet in front of him.

Rico quickly snapped out of his daze and began to answer the question posed to him. "My last station was as Chief Engineer aboard the U.S.S. Bandit. I was there for five years. So you can imagine my surprise when I received the transfer orders here to this Starbase."

"Indeed, I think a lot of personnel were quickly whisked away from other assignments in order to crew the base..." His voiced drifted off as a comm. channel opened.

"Ops to Colonel Drake"

"Drake here" he responded

"Sir, there is a Captain Dra'Lopus from the Engineering Corps in Ops, to see you" The voice sounded somewhat confused.

His response was equally so, "Understood, I'm on my way."

He put the fresh coffee on his desk. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut this short, Lieutenant. But it was a pleasure meeting you and I'm glad you're settling in."

 

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