Intelligent Suggestions (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 17 Nov 2013 @ 11:21am by Lieutenant Commander Amynta Markos & Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant JG Tykhin Vess

2,146 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 1, Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD08 - 0925 hrs

ON:

Amynta frowned as she made her way to the Captain's Ready Room. She had requested a meeting with her in regards with Lieutenant Junior Grade Tykhin Vess, a former Venture Intelligence officer that had been assisting her department. Or not, as Amynta found the man disobedient, disrespectful and disinterested. And a bit full of herself. Still. Because she was unsure how it all fell, she had asked to talk to the Captain.

She rang the chime, glancing over at the Captain's Yeoman who ducked his head and didn't meet her eyes, and waited until she was allowed in. She walked in with purpose, watching Lirha Saalm calmly. For a woman who had been assimillated not that long ago, she looked good. "Captain...I was hoping we could talk."

"Enter," Lirha had called out from her seat at her desk when the chime had sounded. When the doors swished open and she saw the familiar face of her chief intelligence officer, Lirha smiled politely at Amynta and gestured to the chair across from her.

"Hello, lieutenant. Please, have a seat." Lirha looked through the mountain of PADDs on her desk realizing one of them contained the details of Amynta's presence. Something about a requested meeting? The Orion couldn't quite remember what it was about, but eventually found the PADD and began to sift through it. "What may I help you with?" she asked as she began to read through the contents of the complaint in front of her.

"It is about the Intelligence officer from the Venture Lieutenant Junior Grade Tykhin Vess. He was acting disrepectful towards a member in my department, Crewman Siren Hex, and myself. In fact, I believe his words was 'amateur hour', 'blatant unprofessionalism' and then he said something about Hex not obeying orders. Now, I don't care much for people walking into my department and telling people what to do. On loan or not, that man needs to get his head screwed on again and deal with who is in charge. Since he isn't technically my subordinate, although I outrank him, I thought this was a matter best taken with you."

"Yes, Lieutenant Vess." Lirha had briefly encountered him in sickbay when she was less than herself, and the only things she had remembered were his questioning nature and Siren and Nesh's subsequent disapproval of his presence. She tried to keep those feelings out of the equation for the moment and focus on the task at hand.

"I have not met the man but I understand he has made himself acquainted with several of our crew," she continued. "I assume you have spoken with him, based on your complaint? What were the details of your conversation?" she asked, wanting to know as much as possible about the chief's interactions with the man as well as the circumstances.

"We were going through what the away teams had recovered from the cube," she said, sitting back. "There is an additional report for you. Myself and Hex have divided the information in three different groups. Anyway...no, I have not spoken with him away from it all because he has made it clear I am not in his chain of command. When Hex entered, I noticed he did not appear very pleased. When Hex commented that we needed to work out what was relevant to the Borg in the future and what was alien influence...he told her it was not our concern and we would not be doing that job. I'm sorry, but I am an Intelligence officer. That means gather intelligence and analyse it. If every officer downstreamed full on unfiltered rubbish to the researchers, we'd need to double our fleet. I did not like his tone with Hex and I told him that this was my department and he needed to back off. And then he said we did not follow protocol and...well, the rest is quite clear."

Lirha looked down and read the complaint in more depth:


==================

To: Captain Lirha Saalm
From: Lt. Amynta Markos
Subject: Lieutenant JG Tykhin Vess

After the away teams returned, the Intelligence department had a meeting in regards with the findings. Lt. JG Vess listed his information with him, and Crewman Hex had the collected data from the other away teams, my own included. As we were discussing the various information, Hex commented rather obviously that we would have to categorize the data, as it is part of our job description.

Mr Vess remarked, out of order, that it was not our concern and we would not do this. Which in my years of experience as an Intelligence officer is not the case; part of our duties are to analyse the data received. His tone towards Crewman Hex was unacceptable. I have no idea what has passed between them previously, but his demeanor was negative the moment she entered the office.

After I told Mr Vess off, he proceeded to tell me that I did not have the power to change protocol. I am unsure what protocols he was referring to, or how different his previous posting was to what we do on the Galileo, but I proposed to change nothing except for us to do our jobs. He then continued by calling how I ran my department 'amateur hour' and called me blatant unprofessional. He then told me Crewman Hex refused to obey direct orders, a rather serious allegation, but did not give any information as to what had happened. He then said this was no place for him and left.

In my experience, people saying things like that expect others to run after them and tell them that they must stay. As the department had a lot of information to go through, I let him go.

As a senior officer, I am surprised he had the nerve to speak to me like that. It does bring to question whether or not it is a good idea to integrate the Venture crew, as they see themselves as separate. I would prefer not to have Lieutenant Vess in my department until he has realized the chain of command and apologies to Crewmen Hex, or at least clarified what would make him accuse a crewman of disobeying orders, something which is a court-martial offence.

Sincerely,
Lieutenant Amynta Markos
Chief Intelligence Officer

===================


From what Lirha was reading and hearing, there seemed to be more than one complaint, therefore she attempted to sort out the issues one at a time. "I see," she replied, then paused for a short moment to push a stray lock of hair back behind her ear. "I believe it would be best to confer with Lieutenant Vess together as to avoid any ambiguity. There appears to be more than one issue occurring at the moment; one regarding the chain of command, and the other including professional conduct," she determined, then crossed her legs and leaned back in her chair.

Tapping her commbadge, she summoned the other intelligence officer to her ready room. "Saalm to Lieutenant Vess, please report to my office."

There was the sound of laughter, some exaggerated 'uh oh's and someone hushing everyone when Tykhin replied. "On my way."

A few minutes later, Tykhin chimed at the Captain's ready room door and stepped inside when called. He saw Amynta seated with the Captain and one eyebrow went up. "Ma'am," he addressed the Captain. "May I know what this is about?"

Lirha watched the dark-haired Betazoid man enter the room and motioned towards the vacant chair next to Amynta and across from her desk. "Please, have a seat. I was just speaking with Lieutenant Markos who has expressed some...concerns regarding your recent interactions with the Intelligence department," she prefaced.

After 24 years in Starfleet, Tykhin knew how things were done. He came over to the chair. "I assume that this is informal conflict resolution only since Lieutenant Commander Wight isn't here," Tykhin said, referring to the most senior Venture officer onboard the Galileo.

"Not exactly," she replied, her green eyes fixed on the man in front of her. "I am more interested in your status aboard Galileo. From what I understand, you have been performing Intelligence duties aboard the ship yet you have not reported into Lieutenant Markos, your department head?"

"Incorrect, ma'am. I offered assistance to Lieutenant Commander Blake five days ago. She directed me to report to Lieutenant Markos which I did. At 0558 hours I reported to Lieutenant Markos who I found in her office, out fof uniform, drinking alcohol. I believe her first words to me were 'state your business and piss off'. I reported in, and went to leave as ordered. She directed me to stay and then told me to perform research and report to her when I had something. I did as directe and provided updates as I had reports available."

"I see." Lirha wasn't especially concerned with Amynta's drinking or appearance, especially considering it took place during her off hours and not in public. She was, however, concerned with other matters. "The Lieutenant tells me you have been uncooperative while working with our Intelligence team regarding information gathered from the Borg cube. Is this true?" she asked.

Tykhin considered whether to ask again if his chain of command should be present. He decided it probably was not worth it. "I classified and tagged the information I gathered , presented my report to the lieutenant and when the crewman seemed confused about our mandate, I corrected her. That was not appreciated and given the history of poor treatment I had received from the lieutenant and previous derogatory remarks she had made about my intelligence, competence and culture, it seemed clear the lieutenant had no faith in my ability to contribute as an officer. I pointed out there did not seem to be a place for me in the team. The lieutenant agreed without objection and dismissed me. I met all of my obligations, I fail to see how uncooperative would be an accurate description."

Amynta arched an eyebrow as she watched Vess, shaking her head. "I believe you also accused a Crewman of disobeying a direct order, something which is a serious accusation."

Tykhin bit back a retort about making serious accusations. "Four days ago at approximately 1150 hours after Crewman Hex spent a great deal of time bring insubordinate and interfering with my ability to research possible access to Borg communications, I gave her a direct order to find out from the captain whether the captain was at all conscious while partially assimilated and to report to me. The crewman failed to obey the order, did not object promptly to me and clearly did not object promptly to you, lieutenant."

"I am sorry, but what right do you have to request for a member of my department to report to you?" Amynta said, anger slowly creeping into her mind. "I also trust the Captain to tell any vital information to us. I understand completely why she did not report to you, as it was a conflict of the chain of command. She reports to me. You have made it clear you are not of this ship, so do not expect the crew here to report to you when you hold yourself separate. If I had known of this before, I would have shared the information she gave me with you."

Tykhin looked at her oddly. "She is not your asset, lieutenant, she is Starfleet's. And being an officer I have the authority to give lawful orders to any personnel I require in order to execute my duties."

Tykhin crossed his arms. "Look, in our first meeting you told me to piss off, then insulted my intelligence and competence and have been condescending ever since. I never claimed to be part of your crew, and I never spent time trumpeting that I'm not. I've followed your orders, reported to you and didn't say a word about your disrespectful behaviour because I knew we had a job to do and that this arrangement is only temporary. Soon we'll either be dead or I'll be merrily reassigned. And now that you've dismissed me from lending a hand after undermining me to your crewman, I don't see the issue. We will never work together again," Tykhin said and looked to the Captain. "So again, ma'am, may I ask what we are doing here? And should I invite Lieutenant Commander Wight to join us? He has seen the video logs of the lieutenant's interactions with me and has some choice words about her treatment of subordinates. Unless of course we're finished?"

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Tykhin Vess (ret.)
Intelligence Officer
USS Venture

Lt. Amynta Markos
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

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