Caretaker - Part IV

Posted on Wed 28th Mar, 2018 @ 7:57pm by Commander Mikaela Locke
Edited on on Thu 29th Mar, 2018 @ 4:40am

1,627 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Brushfires
Location: XO's Office
Timeline: The Day Drake Died - Early Evening

[ON:]

Isabella tried to wipe the tiredness from her eyes as she finished writing her report of the events of the past few hours. Her heart still heavy from watching her commanding officer being stabbed through the throat right before her eyes, she also felt sorry for Lieutenant Commander Locke. Being thrusted into the command chair lie this had to take a toll on anyone, whether you wanted the chair or not.

Perry logged off of her terminal and made her way to the newly assigned ready room. As she stood before the door, she looked at the name plate and noticed that there hasn't been enough time to take Colonel Drake's name off of the door. She made a mental note to replicate a new name plate as soon as she was done for the evening.

The security chief pressed the door chime as she thought about what she was going to say to the new commanding officer of Vanguard station.

Lieutenant Commander Mikaela Locke was nursing a hot cup of coffee as she tried to get her head around the reshuffled duty roster for the following day. These were, of course, only short-term changes until a more consistent plan could be put into place, but they still needed to work and be signed off. Until such a time came when either she was promoted to station commander on a permanent basis and a new XO was assigned (however unlikely that was), or a new station commander was sent to take charge of Vanguard, (which was the far more likely option) she was betwixt and between. Neither fully CO nor fully XO. Paul Graves was in the same boat. Neither fully XO nor fully second officer. The chime of the door provided a welcome distraction. "Come in," she called, placing her coffee mug on the desk and looking up towards the door.

Isabella entered the office to find the commander sitting behind her desk. As she looked upon her senior officer, she noticed how uncomfortable Locke looked in the big seat. Isabella felt sorry her. Not because she felt that the commander was incompetent, but for the simple fact of how command was thrusted upon her and mostly because Isabella blamed herself.

"How does it feel sitting in the big seat?" Isabella asked and the instantly regretting the question. How else was Locke suppose to feel about the whole situation? she asked herself.

"Wait, I'm sorry, don't answer that." Isabella said before the commander could even open her mouth.

Mikaela smiled. She had known Perry for a very short time, but there was something about her that she liked. It seemed there were some areas in which they were quite similar, including, it seemed, a certain degree of social awkwardness. She deliberately allowed the awkwardness to hang in the air for a few seconds - not out of spite, but just to see whether Perry would jump in, to try and 'rescue' the situation. She was pleasantly surprised when she didn't.

"Why don't you take a seat, lieutenant?" she suggested, gesturing to one of the two chairs directly opposite her desk.

"Thank you ma'am." Isabella said as she sat down in the seat across from the Commander.

Mikaela sat back in her chair and regarded the security chief. As much as she blamed herself for Colonel Drake's death, she had a feeling that Perry was feeling exactly the same. And right now, her job was to put her own grief aside and to ensure that the crew under her command were able to operate at maximum efficiency.

"Anything to report?" she asked.

"No ma'am." The Security Chief said as she looked upon Locke. Isabella stared at her new Commander, not quite sure how to ask her how she was doing.
"Look, I know you don't know me very well and I don't know you, but I really just came by to check in on you. To see how you are holding up. A lot has been thrusted on you in a short period of time. Soooo..... how are you holding up?"

"I'm fine, thank you, lieutenant," Mikaela easily lied with a gentle smile. "I mean, there's a lot to take on board... paperwork and suchlike, but at this point, I'm managing well." She knew that the security chief was just trying to look out for her, but Perry was a relatively knew member of the crew and she was far from ready to open up about her deepest fears and doubts. Secondly, she was fairly sure that Perry was carrying enough baggage of her own following Drake's death - the last thing she needed was to be saddled with a whole bunch more.

"And how about you?" She continued, turning the conversation at the first opportunity. "Your experience on that transport can't have been an easy one?"

"It wasn't ma'am, but unfortunately I can't say it's the first of viciousness that I have seen. I use to work undercover for Starfleet Intelligence for a while before my time here on Vangaurd. I've seen crime lords shoot their subordinates in cold blood plenty of times for something as small as messing up their food order. But this time it was different. Someone I was directly responsible for, my Commander was the one killed. Not some lowlife informant who was introducing me to a supplier, a Starfleet Commander."

Isabella looked down at the table that was between the two officers. Still contemplating what she could have done differently. "You know, being out there on the fringes of space, you learn to take care of yourself because it is only you that you are responsible for. But I wasn't prepared for this."

Isabella reached into reached into her cargo pocket and handed Locke the PADD. "That is why Kellian and I created this."

"The Shade Protocol?" Mikaela read aloud, as she took the PADD from Perry. She skim read the contents and nodded quietly to herself. "I get the feeling, as my chief of security, you're not going to let me have much of a say in whether this gets implemented or not, are you?" She smiled, and continued without waiting for a response. "I appreciate what you're trying to do," she said, genuinely, "But let's try and err more on the covert side as much as we can, alright? You used to be intel., - you know what I mean." She smiled again - a smile that suggested they both understood that 'goons with guns' escalated situations for more often than they diffused them.

"And actually, covertly is he way I prefer it." The Engineer stated. " The overt aspect of the Shade Protocol will mainly be for show. All except for me accompanying you when you leave the station for anything diplomatic or away team mission wise."

Locke studied Perry in silence for a few seconds, before speaking again. "It's not your fault, lieutenant."

Isabella looked Locke directly in her eyes and waited a moment before she responded. She was quite sure how her response would come across, so she waited for a moment.

"Maybe not directly ma'am. But I wasn't comfortable with the plan to start with and I didn't speak up more because I was new here and felt like I didn't have enough...." Again Isabella paused. She wanted to make sure she found the right word to complete her sentence. She sighed and started speaking again. "I felt like I didn't know enough about the Colonel, about you, about anyone here enough to say hey, this isn't a good plan. I am a Starfleet officer. The Security Chief of this Starbase. I am suppose to speak up and act if the commanding officer jeopardizes his or her life unnecessarily."

Mikaela sat back in her chair, picked her coffee mug and took a deep drink before setting the cup back down on the desk. "For what it's worth, lieutenant," she finally said, "I objected to the plan as well - obviously, not in front of the other senior officers, but in private, and trust me when I say that nothing that you would have said would have changed his mind." She paused and took a deep breath in and followed it with a heavy sigh. "For whatever reason, Colonel Drake was hell-bent on being on the transport. Like you say," she continued, trying to be careful not to hurt the security chief's feelings, "You didn't know Drake very well. I did. And, no offence, but if I couldn't talk him down..." she offered a half-smile as an almost-inaudible regret-filled laugh escaped her lips, "Well, let's just say you didn't have much of a chance either. He was a stubborn bastard when we wanted to be."

She paused and looked at Perry for a few seconds before continuing, unsure whether the chief really believed what she was saying. "Like I said," she reiterated, earnestly, "Not your fault."

"I know." Perry said as she looked into the eyes of Locke. "But that doesn't mean I have to accept it or like it. I hope you and I will form a relationship where I can come to you in private if I do have a concern. I will not call you out in front of the others unless absolutely necessary. I won't ever lie to you or sugar coat a situation."

Mikaela smiled reassuringly. “I’d expect nothing less, lieutenant.” She took another sip from her coffee mug. “Now,” she began again, her tone more business-like, “Don’t you have some work to be doing?”

Isabella stood to take her leave, but smiled at the Lt. Commander as she sipped her tea. "I do ma'am. And remember, I'm here if you need anything."

 

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