The Warning

Posted on 22 Dec 2015 @ 6:31am by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Greg Mitchell
Edited on on 27 Dec 2015 @ 12:34am

2,254 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 10 - Symposium
Location: Jupiter Station - Security Office
Timeline: MD15 - 1545 hrs

[ON]

Lt. Edgarson, one of the command officers in Jupiter Station's security department, watched rested his head in one of his hands while reading the last report to come in. The fifth one this week from the same guy. The fifth one made by CWO2 Greg Mitchell, the temporary security officer, stationed on board until his new shift arrived. This was getting monotonous.

Edgarson knew it was a bad idea to allow him to temporarily assist the officers on board, but with the big event coming up he decided he needed as much help as he could get. Of course, he didn't realize that help was going to be a pain in the neck. Less than a day into his temporary assignment, and Greg had already broken up a bar fight in the entertainment deck....by rounding up as many station tough guys as he could, mercenaries, gang members, a few Marines, and complimenting the security force he proceeded to stop the fight....by putting a couple of the suspects in the infirmary and causing massive damage to the bar. The fight was over within a few minutes, but the methods were....extreme.

That being said, it was apparent that the men who were thrown into the infirmary were the most violent offenders who wouldn't go down easily. But still, there were easier ways to do things than fighting fire with fire all the time. This Mitchell reminded him more of a cowboy than a disciplined Security guard.

Greg wasn't the best guard on the station. It would even be a stretch to call him one of the best in all of Starfleet. He was a mostly by the book officer who kept his head down, avoided actively looking for promotions, and made little mention of himself. He was a good officer, but to get ahead in this department you had to act right, follow the rules, make yourself noticed, and try not to stir up trouble. Well, he was doing a good job making himself noticed alright.

The buzzer to the office went off. Egdarson looked up. He had called Mitchell to a meeting to evaluate his performance so far. No wonder they wanted him off 418.....

"Come in," The Lieutenant ordered.

The doors hissed open as Greg Mitchell walked in. The guard saluted. "Sir, Chief Warrent Officer Greg Mitchell reporting as ordered sir." he stated.

The Lieutenant returned a salute. "At ease Mr. Mitchell. Sir down."

Mitchell walked up to the chair and took a seat.

"Mr. Mitchell...can you guess why we are here today?" The Lieutenant asked.

Mitchell thought for a second, "You're promoting me to Ensign?" he asked. The question was a sarcastic joke, part of his normal humor. He knew why he was here.

"Knock it off Chief." The Lieutenant ordered. "Can't you be serious for one friggen second?"

"Yes sir, when the situation warrants it." Greg half smirked.

"Well it warrants it right now!" Edgarson firmly stated. "Mr. Mitchell, your actions aboard this station need serious consideration. How long have you been here?"

"On the station sir?" Greg thought back, "About four days."

"And in those four days, you have somehow managed to rack up not one, not two," Egdarson looked through the files again, "But five disturbance reports. Five. By yourself. I mean...how does that even happen? My best guards rack up about three...on a bad day." Edgarson looked back at Mitchell. "Do you go looking for trouble?"

"Sir, if you look through those files, you will see that I acted well within the procedure...." Greg started.

The Lieutenant cut him off. "I have read your reports thoroughly, Mr. Mitchell, and I have watched the security feed. I am well aware you did not break any procedure. But you sure as hell bent it. Take the bar fight three days ago."

Mitchell thought back and laughed on the inside. Oh yah....that was fun. Painful, but fun.

"You got the toughest men you could find nearby to take down six drunk college kids. What you should have done was wait for your own back up and then handle the situation yourself. As is protocol." Edgarson reminded him, "We do not involve civilians."

"Sir, you will see by the feed that the suspects were getting out of control. They were already yelling and throwing things by the time I got there."

"It doesn't matter what they were doing. You are a law enforcement officer. You are supposed to keep the peace. Instead, the resulting damage from the fight had to be paid out of pocket!" Edgarson threw his hands in the air. "Do you realize how hard it is to pay for a whole business when your own government does not use money?" Edgarson asked, gritting his teeth.

"But we stopped the fight, and got the suspects into custody before they became violent outside the bar." Greg defended.

"One of you knocked three teeth out of one, and then broke another's leg." Edgarson said.

Greg responded back. "Oh, are we talking about the one with the hidden knife, or the one using the table leg as a baseball bat? 'Cause I just want to be clear...."

"Knock off the attitude Mitchell. You have phasers. With stun settings. Use them." Edgarson looked at the next file. "How about two days ago, when you ticketed that visitor who parked his ship in the wrong airlock?"

"Ah yes." Greg remembered that one, "Mr. 'I am an important buisness man who is required by people well above your pay grade'. He was set to go to Airlock 07. Instead, he parked at 05, because it 'was closer'." Greg air quoted.

"All you had to do was tell him to move. If he did not comply, you have the vehicle towed." Edgarson reminded him.

"I did tell him to move." Greg said.

"And after that?" Edgarson asked.

"I did threaten to have it towed." Greg replied.

Edgarson rolled his eyes. ".....and after THAT?"

"He moved the vehicle." Greg replied.

Edgarson looked through the file. "You were reported calling the suspect, and I quote: 'a bull headed, stubborn, smart-ass who doesn't know when to shut up'." He looked back at Mitchell. "When is that language EVER allowed while in uniform?"

"O.k, can I say something?" Greg asked.

"What?"

Greg explained: "I had told him to move. He told me no. I told him he needed to move or I would have it towed and him arrested. He still said no, then insulted me for being a cop. I told him one more time, and he proceeded to insult me, insult the Federation by calling it a 'bunch of warmongers', insult my accent for being from Illinois by calling my an 'uneducated farm boy' though I've never been on a farm in my life, and then insulted a passing woman who was trying to calm down here crying baby."

"You......" Edgarson put his head in his hands, smoothed his hair back, then looked back at Greg, "It was the comment to the woman that pushed you over the edge?"

"You can call me all those things, and I would gladly admit to most of them, but you don't call a woman those things. Ever." Greg explained.

"And, just to ask, what did he say to her?" Lieutenant Edgarson asked.

"I....would rather not repeat it sir." Greg said.

"Fine...you know what? Fine. We have it on recording also. Now, skipping over the thief yesterday you had another run in with....oh dear Heavens." Edgarson rubbed his eyes, "You had a run in with a couple of Ferengi merchants who were trying to con a Vulcan."

"Yes sir." Greg admitted.

"So....I don't even want to ask this, how did that go?" Edgarson asked.

"It went....well. The Vulcan didn't fall for any of their bull so he left. I always liked Vulcans." Greg stated.

"Ok, ok. They tried to con you next, you refused, they repeated and...." Edgarson started.

"Things, may have got a little heated when I tried to walk away." Greg said.

"A little.....they followed and harassed you. You proceeded to lead them into an out of earshot area where this proceeded to happen." Edgarson turned the monitor on his computer around to show Mitchell the feed.

In it, Greg was seen, in one of the service hallways, yelling at the top of his lungs at the Ferengi, drawing on every swear word he knew. Fortunately, the security system had automatically censored all of it."

"You uneducated *beep* pieces of *beep* try to con every *beep*ing person and every *beep*ing species you come across! DO YOU NOT HAVE ANY *beep*ING DIGNITY ABOUT YOU? How hard is it to just settle down and open up a nice quiet *beep*ing shop somewhere where you *beep*oles can *beep* the *beep*beep*beep* without breaking the law? I mean, how do you not know how to run a normal business without being obnoxious..."

The Lieutenant let it play in the background while he looked at Greg.

"To be fair, I never called them any racist names or said anything derogatory about them. I'm not like that." Greg said.

"Thank the Lord! Or else we would have discrimination on our record!" Lt. Edgarson said.

"*beep*ing pieces of crap salvage that you *beep*ing find in every *beep*hole of the universe*. Son of a *beep*ing *beep*. Why the f*beep* does all this f*beep* stuff keep happening to me?"

"You understand we have standards we have to keep up and you have broken a great many of them. Now, when not encountering anything that tries to challenge you, you are calm, fair, and according to most civilians: friendly. I will admit, you are not a bad officer and that 95% of the time you do your job right. But this has to stop RIGHT NOW!" Lt. Edgarson explained. "Do you understand?"

"Yes sir..." Greg said, looking down.

"Well those *beeps* can have their picnic, with a DAMN PIG!" The feed actually missed one word out of all that he said.

"Now, the Galileo has started on its way here. You will transfer there in..." Lt. Edgarson looked at his chronometer, "seven days. That is one week. And in that week I don't want any of this..."

"PIECE OF MONKEYSH*beep*!"

"...to happen. You have been warned for the last time. Any further attitude from you and you WILL be reprimanded. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir." Greg responded, relieved that he hadn't taken this too far...yet.

"You have an attitude problem, and you need to get it checked the moment you board your next posting. I will make sure to forward that recommendation to our counselor who will then send it to your ship when he gets the chance." Edgarson said.

Greg sat up straight. The last thing he needed after everything that happened was more counselors....

"HALLELUJAH!!! HOLY SH*beep*!!! Where's the Tylenol?"

The feed finally came to an end.

"Now, you are off the rest of the day, starting now." Lt. Edgarson ordered, "The only reason we don't fire you on the spot is because you have little to no issues on your service record. Consider this your final warning on this station. Any other issues and it will be out of my hands. The Chief of Security here will take it into account. Understood?"

Greg felt a wave of embarrassment fly over him. Even he had to admit, he took that last call way to far. This wasn't like him, he never lost his cool before. What the hell is wrong with me lately?

"Yes sir..." he mumbled.

"What was that Chief?" Edgarson asked.

"Sir, yes sir." Mitchell responded.

"Good, now go back to your quarters, get some rest, try again tomorrow. And when your ship gets here, you will be on the best behavior. Understood?"

As much as Mitchell hated being talked down to, he didn't push the issue. All he did was nod.

"Good. Dismissed." Edgarson said.

Mitchell got up, turned around to leave, then paused. He looked back at Edgarson, "It was a fake replica of an ancient Romulan artifact the Ferengi were selling sir. I don't remember what it was, but the Vulcan explained it was of great value to their people. The Ferengi were trying to profit off of the Romulan's current situation."

"Mr. Mitchell, what does that...." the Lieutenant stated.

"The Vulcan was the first to point out how tasteless it was to try to pawn it after what happened to the Romulans. You know you've screwed up when a VULCAN says it would hurt someone's feelings. That's why he left. I tried to get them to shut up about selling it, but they wouldn't. So I led them to that back room so no one else would hear me. So I wouldn't dishonor the badge."

For the first time, Edgarson actually looked at Mitchell with a softer face, "But that does not excuse the behavior. You need to be more mature than that."

"I know sir, and it is no excuse. I just....it was wrong of them. They needed to know that." Greg turned and left the room.

Edgarson watched as the doors closed, rubbed his eyes one more time, then went back to the rest of his paperwork.

[OFF]

CWO2 Greg Mitchell,
Security Officer
USS Galileo

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