I'm leery of you...

Posted on Fri 24th Aug, 2012 @ 12:07am by Colonel Horatio Drake & Senior Chief Petty Officer Fihnrilk'Hob"ledn-ardol (Fin)

1,295 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: http://sb109.sim-station.net/index.php/sim/missions/id/2
Location: CO's Office
Timeline: 2nd day

OOC: Sorry this has taken a while to finish! Completely my fault!

ON:

After the briefing, Fin thought it was important to meet her new Captain face to face. She had no idea how the meeting would go. Over the years she'd found that commanding officers were not always what you expected. Not impressed with the star base, or the staff so far, she was wondering what she'd gotten herself into when she'd asked Elgin to 'get her out of sight' for a while. She'd be more careful with her words the next time she asked him for something.

Dressed in the black and gray uniform of the day, she palmed the chime of the CO's office and waited.

For the past day the Ready Room had been busier than a Klingon's celebratory feast... on reflection he should have conducted his meet and greets in a conference room. His office was looking even more messy than it had been before he arrived... which was a feat in itself!

Had had just collapsed into his chair, with a cup of coffee, awaiting the second wave of the onslaught, when it began!

"Come in" he mustered the energy from somewhere.

When the doors parted, Fin saw their fearless leader sprawled in a chair looking a bit tired. "SCPO Fihnrilk'Hob"ledn-ardol, Sir. I just wanted to make sure we had a face to face before we lost track of each other while getting the star base up and running." Her stance was somewhere between 'attention' and 'at ease' on purpose. It was always interesting to see how people gave themselves away by mentioning it.

Ashton perked up a bit and pulled himself up in his chair... perhaps this particular meet and greet was going to be a short one. This particular officer certainly seemed to get straight to the point. He found himself caught on her pinkish, gold hair for a couple of seconds before replying.

"Thanks for popping in Chief! How are you settling down so far?" He resisted the urge to offer the chair opposite his desk to her... perhaps it was impolite but it would take a greater man than he to be the epitome of politeness with this many people to meet.

It was the first time she'd gotten a really good look at the Colonel. During the briefing there were so many officers in the room and so many differing points of view that her eyes had darted from one to the other as fast as they'd spoken. Now, there were no distractions from the man in front of her. As she studied him, she was quiet.

The silence was finally stretching into uncomfortable territory. "I can actually settle in with very few comforts. I have met my dept head---he seems like a nice enough boy." It was probably odd for Drake to hear that comment from someone who only appeared a couple of years older than Patterson, but looks could be deceiving.

"I am surprised at the state of disrepair of the starbase and the decision for us to host an important delegation so soon."

"Indeed... if it were up to me we wouldn't even be classed as operational yet. Starfleet thought that the FCDA would be handing over a gleaming, fully functional starbase to us. It would seem that our resource allocations seem to reflect this train of thought".

Drake had a wonderful voice. It might not impress others the way it did Fin, but she'd experienced many different timbers and volumes when speaking her own words in various life forms. A voice was a special quality to her. It was her favorite thing about her latest Cam h'lan body, even though it was quite superior physically to the others she'd had before. Unexpectedly, the intelligence officer felt something relax inside of her. The pitch and speech patterns of Colonel Drake had a surprising effect on her.

"Hmmmmm...that's interesting." The comment was said out loud although she was really talking to herself and it had nothing to do with the shape the station was in.

"Our resource allocation?" Drake was almost certain she wasn't talking about their allocations, but couldn't think of anything else the remark was meant for.

She chuckled, "Not hardly." Fin walked over to his desk and rested her hips against it. If he wasn't going to ask her to sit, she would make herself comfortable. "It was just an observation I made about something."

Her eyes traveled around the room trying to get a feel for the man who sat in the chair. "I am picking up an odd vibe from you but I can't quite put my finger on it. Why are you here?"

"Why am I here? Do you mean why have I been posted here? Well... it's to head up a Marine base in this sector... as you know it used to be a key location and Starfleet feel that one day it may serve that purpose again. That... and the fact that the FCDA's contract had expired". Again, Drake had the strange feeling that his answer was unrelated to the real question asked.

Still leaning against the desk, Fin looked at him pointedly. "I know what your mission is Colonel, just as you know what mine is. I meant why are YOU here. I think we all have something that made Protector sound like a good idea at the time it was offered. What was YOUR reason?"

It seemed there was no way around it and something about the Chief Petty Officer, just made Drake want to talk. "Honestly, Chief... I wanted to get away from everything... from Earth, from the Federation, from Starfleet. Protector was the farthest transfer that was available. Promotion was just one of the conditions and not one that I was very excited about taking."

Fin nodded, understanding his motivations perfectly. "I'm hiding out too. Although the Admiral knows where to find me if he needs me, I just needed to drop out of sight for a while. There is another Cam h'lan interested in finding me----and I don't want to be found."

Ashton's interest in Fin had suddenly increased... which was unusual as nothing really interested him anymore these days.

"I see... something to do with Starfleet or something that happened in your personal life?"

She laughed. "I don't have any problems with Starfleet---well, not anymore, but there is a certain male who has been chasing me through the galaxy for the last couple of years. He's tried to convince me that he is my cosmic match. I don't believe it for a minute though. I think he's after my assets and my connections. Cross isn't a nice man and he just won't take 'no' for an answer. So, like you, I got as far away as I could."

"Indeed. So is this, Cross, a danger?"

"Only to me." Fin was still smiling but the quality of it had changed subtley. "We're pretty far out here, Colonel, I doubt he'll find me."

"You should know that I've made my fair share of enemies since coming to work for Star Fleet, but there are very few of them who can identify me because of the nature of most of my work."

"I'm glad to hear it..." Drake's brow, once again, furrowed. Had any officer come to Protector to actually serve Starfleet? Or is everyone just running away from someone or something?

And that ended their meeting. They both had an idea about each other---something to build on---or not, depending on what happened from day to day on the starbase.

"Thank you for your time, Colonel. I'd better be getting back to work."


OFF:

Senior Chief Petty Officer Fihnrilk'Hob"ledn-ardol (Fin)
Infiltration Specialist

&

Lieutenant Colonel Ashton Drake
Commanding Officer

 

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