Facing the Music: Part 2

Posted on 21 Jul 2014 @ 6:16pm by Commander Scarlet Blake & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark & Commander Norvi Stace & Commander Luke Wyatt
Edited on on 22 Jul 2014 @ 8:40am

2,396 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 2 - First Officer's Office
Timeline: MD 06: 0810 hrs

Previously, in 'Facing the Music: Part 1'...

"Mr Stark, would you wait outside? Don't go far, we'll want to talk to you next," Scarlet shook her head with a frown as the young man left the office, clearly not pleased at being talked back to in such a manner by Stace.

And now, the continuation....

[ON]

Scarlet waited until the doors were closed before looking back to Norvi. "Lt. Stace, you don't even know when to quit while you're ahead with me, which makes me very concerned about how you might behave with lesser ranking crew. You clearly have a problem with your temper. You're going to report to a counsellor to see about some anger management sessions. And then you're going to write a paper on the importance of a senior officer maintaining a good relationship with valuable junior officers and enlisted personnel, and the influence a good senior officer has in shaping the next generation of bright young things. And it had better be good, or I might have to consider taking you off duty long enough to write a better one."

Stace admired Blake. She couldn't deny it to herself and a little smirk tugged gently at the corners of her mouth as she spoke. She looked to her with a smile in her eyes and nodded. "Yes, ma'am," she said directly, looking at her square on. "Although," she added, with a raised, amused eyebrow, "I would have added some basic physical training - academy style - to really send the message home."

"I know just the man for the job," Scarlet said lightly, looking across to Luke with an arched eyebrow. "Mr Wyatt, you shall be Lieutenant Stace's personal trainer for a week. Make sure she understands the rigours of the security department."

Luke smiled as he turned to Blake and nodded. "May I also suggest that if the lieutenant wishes to train and undergo what is essentially the academy again that she lives in enlisted quarters for the duration of this exercise?"

Stace's eyes flashed at the words coming out of Wyatt's mouth. She coughed a short, disgruntled interjection and started to shake her head. "I absolutely object to that scenario with every fibre of my being, Commander," she replied with such honesty that is came across as a little aggressive. "It would be highly inappropriate. Even for an evening!"

Luke turned to face the officer calmly and quietly he spoke. "Lieutenant it has clearly become apparent that you have forgotten yourself since you went through the academy and personally I am not fond of you which is extremely impressive since I've only known you the duration of this meeting. I am hoping that my experiences are misplaced I would also like to point out that it was indeed your suggestion to 'send the message' home by an 'academy style' regime therefor I can only now conclude that you in fact do not wish to undergo the training?"

"No," Stace retorted. "I bloody do not want to do the training, but... I'm not one to shy away from orders." She shot Wyatt a look and sighed. "Whatever the punishment will be..."

Scarlet looked between them with a small smile curling the corner of her lips. "Lieutenant Stace, you will stay in enlisted quarters for the next week while you train with Mr Wyatt. Perhaps it will remind you of what a privilege being a senior officer is and what enlisted crew have to contend with. To make it more realistic, you shall share. With Mr Wyatt," she looked to Luke, meeting his eyes. It would give them a chance to hammer out any issues.

"That's not..." Luke looked between Blake and Stace before he shook his head. He had grown accustomed to having his own enlisted quarters to himself. The space wasn't particularly enjoyable to share it with someone he barley knew and already disliked he couldn't think of anything worst. "Sounds peachy," he hoped he could have a moment with Blake alone after this.

"Lovely, well in that case, you're free to go, Lieutenant, I'm sure you have things to move. Just be grateful that I didn't make you share with Stark," Scarlet nodded to Stace, sitting back in her chair. "If you could ask him to come back in as you go past, please..."

Stace drew in a breath and held it in her lungs for a few seconds, allowing it to escape her mouth slowly in a sigh. She shook her head and looked away before replying with "Aye, sir," as she turned and left. Without even stopping, as she passed Stark in the corridor she remarked, with her back to him walking away, "It's time for your flogging now, mate. and she disappeared down the corridor to head for her quarters.

Gabriel sighed as he made his way back into the office, frowning as he came to a standstill in front of the desk. "Commander..."

"Don't say it, don't say anything," Blake said quickly, shaking her head with a frown. "Mr Stark, why do you keep sabotaging yourself? From what I've seen you are good at your job, but then you spoil it with nonsense like this."

Gabriel watched her with surprise, shifting awkwardly before finally shaking his head at a loss for what to say.

Scarlet looked to her computer screen, bringing his file up. "It is here, in black and white. 'He is to have regular counselling and medical sessions to give continued support to his problems'..." Scarlet looked to him seriously, shaking her head. "Well according to the records, you've only had one counselling session in your entire time here, and the only visits to sickbay have been for healing of minor wounds, not check ups," she shook her head, watching him with an arched eyebrow that assured she wasn't going to let it go.

"I'm fine...I don't need a shrink," Gabriel frowned, shaking his head firmly before taking a breath and looking down. "I hate it. Poked and prodded, like privacy doesn't exist anymore."

"Stark, you don't get ordered to frequent counselling for no reason. There was something they were concerned about," she said quietly, watching him for a long moment. The ex-counsellor in her had her own ideas about the young man having read his file, but this wasn't the time or place for it. "Mr Wyatt, I believe your department ran recent training programmes, in anticipation of the mining colony. How did Mr Stark perform?"

Luke took the moment to recall the training exercise that he had arranged and conducted before the teams when down to the mission. "Mr stark preformed exceptionally well, infact he is one of my better security officers but as you said things like this keep his overall performance score to the middle half of the security detachment aboard the Galileo however the training program did not prepare us for a loss of a team member therefor I apologies for that perhaps if this was so the situation would not have been as fiery. And finally why it shouldn't be used against him." Luke was all for justice and discipline but the training was clearly a peace keeping lesson not a loss of life one. "I would like to hear about the situation without any interruption from the lieutenant as this is obviously a security issue as well as a disciplinary one."

Gabriel looked between them, unsure for a moment. He was, frankly, surprised at Wyatt's good assessment of him. Hell, if he'd have been anywhere else, he might have been blushing. After Stone, he'd gotten used to hearing the bad stuff.

Stark licked his lips and took a deep, calming breath to try and gather the facts of what had happened and to try and let the emotion of that situation melt away in recall. Gabriel was a man with a quick temper and deep emotion, but he wasn't a liar. "Okay....we were in some cavern. We had lost the use of phasers and tricorders down there. We discovered a ripped up body of a miner, and various unpleasant body parts strewn around. We investigated, and soon after Lieutenant Stace realised that we were one down. It was Ruktah. I looked around close by, just looking into the openings of other tunnels but without leaving the group more than say 10-20 metres. There was nothing, I reported it. I said I wanted to go and search properly for him, even if it meant going alone while the rest of the team remained together in a secure location. Quinn told me that it was a no go and ordered me to fall in line..." he looked to Wyatt at that, he was willing to bet Wyatt was the kind of guy who would also not have a problem going and looking for a team mate by himself.

Gabriel paused to take a breath, both to make sure he was getting it right and to keep calm. "...I objected, Quinn sympathised but pointed out if we separated, we could end up being picked off one by one. That's when Lieutenant Stace cut in, she confirmed we wouldn't split up and she didn't want to hear anymore about it. She then ordered us to start walking back through the tunnels the way we came, to leave the tunnels and get back to the ship, hoping we'd bump into Ruktah on the way if he was doing the same thing. That's when I kind of...lost it..."

Stark frowned at himself, shaking his head. He closed his eyes to concentrate on the events; the young man had a photographic memory, and he remembered things through visual memory. "I was in such...disbelief, I couldn't help it. I said something like 'are we seriously considering leaving a man behind?' I suppose I was most disbelieving that we were leaving him behind without even trying to search for him....but after looking around and seeing I was out on a limb on my own, I moved to my position in the line. The rest of the team remained silent, I figured I was pretty much the only one who felt that way, or at least no one else wanted to voice it. Lieutenant Stace rebuked me for questioning her order, explained she wasn't willing to put the team at risk in a search when we had no working weapons, and that if I questioned her orders again, there'd be consequences back on ship."

Gabriel opened his eyes at that, tilting his head as he looked between Wyatt and Blake. "I was angry and disappointed in the decision. I told her that we never leave a man behind. And that's what I was being ordered to do, without even trying to find and help him. I explained that questioning the order once back on ship would be too late for Ruktah, that I had to question it while we still had a chance to find him, and if it meant I ended up in the brig, well, let's face it, that's better than a dead security team mate. I mean I work with the man for God's sake..." Gabriel took a breath to calm himself. "Worked with the man. I wasn't just mouthing off for the sake of it. I hoped she might change her mind and let us at least search for him before leaving. She reiterated it was too dangerous and said she didn't want another insubordinate comment from me."

Gabriel shook his head with a pained frown at the thought of what had happened to Ruktah. "That's when Quinn jumped in and told me to shut up and that he'd 'bust my ass' if I carried on, and to fall in line and know my place. So I did. I was silent the rest of the way back..." he looked between them. "I shouldn't have lost my temper over it, I know that. But I stand by it....Ruktah was one of us, a Security man, he'd have laid down his life to protect his crew, and I was prepared to risk mine if it meant bringing him back and not leaving him lost in the dark, in that hell that we knew miners were going missing in....I mean, we were in a cavern full of dead body parts, if that wasn't reason enough to try and find him quickly, I don't know what is. All for one and one for all and all that crap..." he shrugged with a frown, knowing it sounded childish, but he meant it. "I don't believe what she said earlier about 'all orders from an officer are right, even if they are in fact wrong'. A wrong order is wrong. What kind of a person would I be if I was willing to turn my head the other way and keep my mouth shut about bad things happening just to make sure I wouldn't get in trouble? I hate people like that."

"Anyway, I'd gone to the bar, the Lieutenant came over with a drink for me, wanting to talk it out. She was genuine, I know she was, she wasn't picking a fight. It just...sort of escalated as we talked. I said something like I was tired of people who looked the other way when people were hurt and needed help instead of doing the right thing, and she blew up. And I couldn't help it...she'd lost her temper, so I lost mine. Neither of us meant to, I'm pretty sure of that."

Luke looked to Blake and then to stark before nodding, "sorry to do this to you again Mr Stark and to treat you like a school child but I'd like to speak to the commander privately about your statement so if you'd please wait outside for a moment," he gestured to the door with his free hand.

Gabriel nodded, swallowing as he made his way out. To be honest, it gave him a moment to catch his breath without eyes on him.

TBC:


Senior Chief Petty Officer Luke Wyatt
Acting Chief of Security
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Norvi Stace
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo

PO1 Gabriel Stark
Security/Tactical
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Blake]

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