Transitioning

Posted on Sat 7th Apr, 2018 @ 1:54pm by Commander Mikaela Locke

1,775 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Brushfires
Location: Deck 12: Station Commander’s Office

The lift door opened and Suzuki Hikari stepped off the lift, wincing as she forgot to use her cane. She leaned on it for a moment, watching the busy swirl of motion in the station's bridge... no, she thought. Operations center. New terminology, old dog.

A first class petty officer in an Operations gold tunic stopped near the Captain. "Ma'am? Can I help you?"

"Yes, I suppose you can. Is one of these folk Commander Locke?"

"Lieutenant Commander Locke is in Colonel... I mean, in her ready room." The petty officer pointed.

"Thank you," Suzuki answered. She limped in that direction, taking care to use her cane properly, splitting her weight between it and the braced leg. She walked into the outer office, glanced at the vacant Yeoman's desk. That, at least, I can immediately remedy, the Captain thought, walking to the inner door and touching the annunciator when it didn't open automatically in front of her.

"Come in." Mikaela answered, looking up from Doctor Addams latest report on the Samurai crew members, most of whom had now been discharged with only minor on-going issues. She placed the PADD down on the desk in front of her as the doors slid open and Captain Suzuki Hikari entered. Mikaela had been aware that Suzuki had been released from the infirmary earlier in the day, but other issues had prevented her from formally following up with the former-captain of the Samurai.

"Captain," she smiled warmly as she stood and rounded her desk to meet her guest half way across the room, "It's good to see you up and about, sir."

"Thank you, Commander." She paused. "I'm Suzuki Hikari -- Captain Suzuki. But I presume you already knew that, as there aren't a great many injured Captains wandering around the base. You, I presume, are Lieutenant Commander Locke?"

“I am,” Locke replied, as she motioned to a large semi-circular sofa - a part of the more informal area of the office, off to one side of the room - "Please, do take a seat. Can I get you anything?" She was already heading the direction of the replicator. The coffee cup on her desk was only half-empty, but it had already begun to go cold and she felt like a fresh one was in order.

"Thank you, no," Suzuki said, limping to the sofa and having a seat. "Don't let me stop you, though." She arranged her cane within reach, wedging it between two sofa cushions so it wouldn't fall over or slide down.

Mikaela replicated the drink, brought it over and placed it on the knee-high table in the centre of the sofa. "So, I guess this is the part where I formally welcome you to Vanguard."

Suzuki sighed. "I suppose it is. And for more reasons than I suspect you're aware at the moment. Check your message traffic and see if you have an encrypted file from Fourth Fleet or BuPers."

Locke raised an enquiring eyebrow. She’d had so many messages in the last few days, it wouldn’t come as any surprise for something to slip through the net - even something as important as a message from Fourth Fleet. She returned to her desk and keyed a couple of commands into her console. It didn’t take her long to find the message Captain Suzuki was referring to. She consoled herself that it had only arrived in the last half-hour, so she could barely consider it missed, but that didn’t change the way she felt when she read the contents. A knot tightened in the pit of her stomach. She knew it was coming, she just hadn’t expected it to be so soon. She transferred the message to a spare PADD and returned to the sofa area, reading aloud.

“Lieutenant Commander Mikaela Locke, you are hereby requested and required to relinquish command of Starbase 109, and to transfer all command codes and corresponding responsibilities to Captain Suzuki Hikari.” There were some platitudes which followed, but she didn’t bother to read them. She sat back down, swallowed and offered as genuine a smile as she could muster. “Well, it was fun while it lasted.”

It hadn’t been fun. It was something she hadn’t asked for; something she hadn’t really wanted and something she knew she couldn’t keep. But now that it was being taken away from her... she was disappointed, hurt and relieved - all at the same time.

"I'm sure you'll get another shot at it, Commander," Suzuki said. She shook her head, remembering how unready she felt when she was thrust into command. "In the meantime, I'm hoping you'll stay on as exec. I know there are difficulties to face in doing that where you've been in command, but..." she spread her hands, "I could really use someone who knows the ground."

Locke winced. She had made her decision to resign her commission some days ago. ‘As soon as a new station commander is in place,’ she had told herself. That time, it seemed, had now arrived. Without a word, she returned to the desk one more time, this time retrieving a PADD from a print-locked drawer in its left-hand side.

She came back and sat. “I’m sorry, Captain,” she said, her voice tinged with regret, “But I’m afraid that won’t be possible,” and she extended the PADD in Suzuki’s direction.

Suzuki glanced over the displayed document, enough to get the gist. She set it beside her on the sofa, and examined the young woman across from her. "Why?”

Mikaela suddenly realised that Captain Suzuki was probably completely unaware of the events that had led her to this decision - although experience had taught her never to underestimate what others might know. “How much have you heard about the events on Vanguard in the last few weeks?” she asked.

Suzuki spread her hands. "Last week, Vanguard was just a place I intended to give my crew some liberty while resupplying."

So Locke began at the beginning: The trauma of the Bretagne. The questionable decisions Colonel Drake had started to make leading to his untimely death. Her role in the events that led to him being aboard the transport and her sense that she had been negligent in her duty in not preventing him from leaving. Her feeling that that negligence was incompatible with a continued command post, not just on Vanguard, but, ultimately, anywhere in Starfleet.

“I can’t stay,” she finally concluded. The sense of guilt and failure threatened to overwhelm her again, but she managed to keep control. She met Suzuki’s gaze, with a steely, almost defiant look. “I just can’t.”

Suzuki sighed and rubbed her eyebrow. "The decision, ultimately, is yours. Starfleet doesn't keep slaves -- or serfs. But I would, selfishly, prefer that you stayed. May I share an anecdote with you?"

Mikaela sat back and opened her hands. "By all means," she offered, with a hint more sarcasm than she had intended.

Suzuki nodded. "I wasn't supposed to be Samurai's Captain, initially. My previous tour was as exec on a border patrol frigate. Total crew of seventy-six. I wasn't ready for a large exploration cruiser, not as the skipper. I was assigned as Samurai's exec. But then the skipper was caught in a compromising position, and Fleet recommended he resign. He did. The admiral in charge of Fourth Fleet then, Admiral Gann, opted to put me in the center seat." Suzuki smiled wryly.

"I muffed it, the first week in the job. A minor disciplinary issue blew up into my Tactical Officer getting court-martialed and drummed out of the service. Because I had not handed the situation effectively, a man lost his career, the Fleet lost a good officer, and Samurai lost its second executive officer in less than a month." Suzuki was silent for a moment, looking back through time. "You know what Admiral Gann said?"

"Go on," Locke replied, shaking her head a little. Clearly the question was intended as rhetorical, but even so, it seemed rather unnecessary.

"He said, 'you can't change the past. All you can do is take this experience and use it as a guide while you move forward. In the future, do better.'" Suzuki smiled slightly. "So. Will resigning your commission change anything that happened? Will it restore your faith in yourself? Or will it just rob me of an experienced officer, and you of a career?"

Mikaela sat for a long time without answering. She had to admit that the captain had a valid point, but it didn’t immediately change her mind. “Even if I stayed in Starfleet,” she eventually said, “I’m not sure I could stay here.”

Suzuki nodded. "I understand. Truly. And I respect that. But I'd like to ask you not to make any immediate decision. Can you give me one week?"

“Fine,” Mikaela replied, briefly putting her hands up in mock-surrender. “In the meantime, I’ll aim to make your transition as easy as possible.” She thought for a few seconds. “I presume you will want to tell the senior officers yourself?”

Suzuki nodded. "That's probably for the best."

“Of course, sir,” Mikaela replied with a half-smile. “And... um...” she gestured over toward the PADD-strewn desk, “I’ll be out of your office as soon as is practical.”

Suzuki waved a hand dismissively, "Take your time. And Commander..." she waited half a beat to make sure she had the other woman's attention. "I am of the opinion that Humanoids with breasts should be called ma'am."

After the seriousness of the conversation which had gone before, Mikaela couldn’t help but smile. While she understood Captain Suzuki was being absolutely genuine, somehow the comment had lightened the mood slightly. “Of course, ma’am,” she nodded slightly, taking care to emphasise the last word just enough, but not too much.

"Thank you," Suzuki said with a smile. "Computer, link me to the 1MC, please." There was a chirp of compliance, and Suzuki's voice was heard throughout the station. "All hands, this is Captain Suzuki. As of this hour, I have assumed command of Starbase 109. Stand by for a reading of my orders." She paused, taking a PADD from her thigh pocket and pulling up the relevant file. "Captain Suzuki Hikari, you are hereby requested and required to proceed to Starbase 109; there to take cognizance and responsibility of all Starfleet assets until properly relieved. Fail not, at your peril."

 

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