Catch Up

Posted on Wed 3rd May, 2017 @ 1:40pm by Commander Zachary Hunt & Lieutenant Ricardo Shepard

1,240 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Wrongs Darker Than Death Or Night
Location: Deck 12: XO's Office

Rico entered the Operations center of Vanguard and was met by a feeling of wanting. He realized how much he missed being on Vanguard and was glad he was back home. The ChEng walked over to Chief operations officer terminal and logged into his terminal. Once logged in, he pressed the comm button on his terminal and sent a message to the Commanders office asking is he available. After a few seconds a light on his terminal showed an acknowledgement to his question.

The ChEng then walked over to the Commanders office door and smoothed out the uniform under his engineers vest and pressed the chime button right beside the Commanders door.

Hunt had just finished at Orchids & Jazz with Biere and Jade, and plus the unexpected arrival of Shepard was a pleasant surprise. He had mentioned about Shepard coming to his office for a full brief on everything he had missed, so he assumed this was him now, "Come in."

"Commander!" Rico said as he walked into Hunt's office with a big smile on his face. He looked around and found that not much had changed since he had last been there. Shepard looked past Hunt and began admired the view from one of the windows in the office.

Hunt took a glance out of the window, "Sometimes I do just sit and look out at the vast space in front of us. It can get overwhelming at times."

There was a pause as they both continued to look. "Where are my manners?! Would you like a drink Lieutenant?"

Rico came back to his senses and faced the Commander. "No, thank you, sir. But if you don't mind, I will take a seat. We might be here a minute."

"No worries," Hunt said, taking a seat also. "So I know bits about your away mission and some of the losses you faced as well, always horrible to see." He paused for a second. "But I do need a full debrief."

"Before I begin sir, I need to know if this is an official Sigma Six debrief? Or is this just Zach and Rico talking?"

"I will let you choose that Lieutenant. If you feel more comfortable just us two talking then we will go down that route."

The ChEng took a deep breath and slowly exhaled it. "The mission was a success, but a complete disaster at the same time." Rico took a few moments before continuing on. He wasn't sure if he was ready to tell this story quite yet. It was all so fresh in his mind.

"Everything was going well till it was time to leave the combat zone. During our escape, we were bombarded by enemy ships. We thought we were cloaked, but the cloaking device that was loaned to us wasn't properly calibrated. Well, we didn't know that until recently."

Rico looked into Hunt's eyes, to see if he could read what the Commander was thinking. He couldn't, so he continued on.

" I was on the bridge monitoring engineering from there per the Captain's request. That's when the first explosion happened. Then the second occurred. The second one knocked me down on the ground and knocked me out for a few. When I awoke, I found that I was the only senior officer on the bridge."

Rico looked around the office looking for a water pitcher, or something he could get up and walk over to. He just felt uncomfortable sitting there in his seat retelling his story. But he pressed on, Hunt continued to listen.

"Once I sat in the big chair, I looked over the ship's Damage." Shepard look up to the Commander with almost tears in his eyes. "Zach it was bad. Engineering reported that the containment filed for the Anti-matter chamber was down, and that a warp core breach was eminent. So, I did the only thing I could have done."

And with a deep breath, Rico continued. I ordered for a saucer separation from the drive section. I then ordered every one in the drive section to abandon ship, and I ordered the helmsman to get us out of there as fast as he could."

Shepard looked up at the Commander, looking to see what his reaction was.

Hunt wasn't sure what to make of it. He had heard briefly about what had happened before Shepard's return but not to this much detail. "You done what anyone would have done in the situation, the best anyone could have done. Look at the lives you saved rather than the lives lost Rico. It will weigh your shoulders down otherwise. It will take a while to comprehend what will happen," He paused. "Talking to Paul Graves is my advice, he's helped me out in the past and is another good listener and would probably give you more advice than I possibly could."

Rico shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He appreciated Hunt's words but still felt dearly for the lives lost under his short command. "Thank you, sir. It's been a little rough to deal with. But I will think about talking to Graves." He admitted to himself that he was a little apprehensive about talking to a shrink that he didn't really know like Graves. He knew he's be more comfortable talking with Dr. Addams, but more so, he knew she could keep a secret.

Shepard quickly got himself together to talk about his next subject.

"I also got your message during our communications blackout. I got to give it to you Commander, that was a pretty slick way of getting a message to me. How many favors did you burn getting me that message?"

"Graves is honestly a good place to go," He replied, noticing the abrupt subject change. "Let's just say a lot for that." He was vague on the subject without going into too much detail to Shepard. He avoided telling him that he was in constant communication with Starfleet, well Rear-Admiral Drake and he was on hand to deliver communications Hunt needed or desired to send in return for information about Drake.

"Well, here is what you asked for." Shepard reached into his inner vest pocket and handed the Commander small black data chip. Everything you asked for is there. EVERYTHING!"

Hunt smiled, and picked up the data chip that Shepard slid across the table, "Thank you, Lt. Shepard. Is there anything else you would like to discuss?"

Rico returned Hunt's smile with a nod. "Only one other matter sir. About the other unused decks on Vanguard. Biere and I are about to assign teams to explore those decks and make sure we don't have any surprises before we assign work teams there. How do you feel about borrowing engineers from the docked starships to help with that matter?"

He thought about the request for a moment, "I will see what I can do. If I can get any of the resources from then I will get them to work with you until they're needed again. No promises though!"

Shepard stood up from the seat and began to make his exit. "Well that's all I have sir." He said as he turned around and made his way to the door. Before he exited, he looked over his shoulder and said, "Remember sir, if you ever need anything. Come and find me."

Shepard then made his way out of the Commanders office, not even waiting for a reply.

 

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