Which path to follow?

Posted on 07 Feb 2013 @ 8:55am by Captain Jonathan Holliday & Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm

1,393 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 1 - Ready Room
Timeline: MD -02 1500hrs

[ON]

PADD in hand, Jonathan made his way across the Bridge, stopping not even for a moment to acknowledge the group of officers on duty around him. Instead the Commander had only one aim, which was to discuss the recent security issues with his commanding officer.
Ensign Nicholas was of course securely under lock and key in the Brig with the ever-watchful eyes of Lieutenant Stone to compete with, which for once gave the XO a sense of safety and security. Straightening his uniform, John tapped the chime and waited for the response.

The door chime echoed lightly throughout the ready room causing Lirha to pry her eyes away from the LCARS terminal in front of her. Quickly tapping a button to minimize the screen, she turned her attention towards the door and sat up straight in her chair. "Enter." she called out.

With one last deep breath before the doors opened, John crossed the threshold and headed towards the desk of his captain, on one hand feeling guilty for disturbing her during a duty shift, and on the other feeling equally guilty that he had been unable to resolve this situation alone.

"Ma'am...we have a slight situation that I require your help with."

Lirha nodded to her XO as he entered the room, then crossed her legs and leaned back in her chair as he mentioned a 'situation'. From the tone of his voice, it sounded as if it were somewhat serious, but to her knowledge nothing too urgent had arisen lately. Perhaps she had missed something. Extending her hand and offering John a seat, she looked at him suspiciously. "What kind of situation?" she asked.

"One of our new arrivals....an Ensign Jared Nicholas performed a erm..a personal act with another member of our crew compliment in the mess hall..something that usually is done behind closed doors ma'am. If you understand my meaning?"

John felt about as comfortable discussing the matter as a parent discussing the birds and bees with their oldest child. It was never something that he thought he would ever had to bring to his CO whilst in the post of First Officer, but it seemed there was no chance of that being avoided.

"If you care to access the secure access file Holliday-14 there is a copy of the security feed from the mess hall at the time...I have restricted data access to senior staff only."

With reluctance, Lirha tapped a button on her desk's console and brought it back to life. It didn't take long before she had accessed the security file, after which she stared at the screen for several long moments as she watched the highly sexual actions being performed on the screen. She didn't even both to finish watching it all and instead turned off the feed with an angry push of her finger. It was within every crew member's right to seek out and form relationships however they pleased, however performing explicit acts in public places aboard the ship was...well, it was grounds for a demotion and possibly more severe punishment. Especially for a commissioned officer such as Ensign Nicholas.

Lirha was familiar with the man but only through his Starfleet file; She had never personally met him, and could not comment on his actions other than what she had just witnessed. "Where is the ensign right now?" she asked, wondering if he had already been disciplined.

"I had Lieutenant Stone escort him to the Brig. Suffice to say Mr Stone was more than supportive of the order and has carried his orders out to the letter. Mr Nicholas is a little less impressed at being incarcerated however."

Sinking back in her chair's cushions, the Orion captain rubbed her green forehead in frustration, then pushed her dark hair back behind her ears as she thought about possible punishments and repercussions for the offending junior officer. "The ensign's lack of judgement is somewhat alarming, especially for an officer." she agreed. "How would you like to proceed?"

"That's where my plan falls down a little....if I had it my way I would have his ass bounced out of Starfleet and sent back to Earth. I don't think somehow we're going to have quite the same liberty out here without invoking the aid of another vessel."

John sighed as he realised quite how large a can of worms this whole situation was opening up. Had this been John's ship, then he would have sent the offender with a security escort back to the nearest Starbase to await a JAG hearing, but it simply wasn't yet his time to command on his own.

"So...I need your help."

"Of course." she replied with a small smile, realizing that her XO was somewhat frustrated with the situation at hand. "I will be happy to assist. Would you like a disciplinary recommendation or did you have something else in mind?" she wondered.

"I believe in this case that the captain should be the one to make the decision. We also however need to account for the actions of our civillian half of the problem..they will not be as easy to discipline outside of Starfleet regulations."

John had been toying with the idea of how to actually deal with their chef who had thrown away just as many regulations as their enlisted officer. Whilst John didn't have the same power to discipline him as someone under his command, it was still another area to address.

Judging from the face in the video, Lirha identified the second perpetrator as Ansen Pawlek, the ship's young civilian chef. "Yes, being a civilian, Mister Pawlak does not answer to the traditional military JAG...but he is still a member of this crew and therefore is subject to Starfleet's rules of conduct. We might have a bit of trouble if we tried to prosecute him in court, but we can still discipline him accordingly as long as he is serving on this vessel." she explained. "Where is our chef at the current moment?"

"Right now? He could be anywhere. I didn't see the point of having them both in the Brig together to cobble together some sort of a story. I would assume Mr Pawlek would be in the Mess....I could have security drop by?"

Lirha nodded. "Yes, that would probably be a good idea. We should have a talk with him as soon as possible." she agreed, then turned her thoughts back to Ensign Nicholas. "As for the ensign...although it would be appropriate to demote him for his actions, this is his first assignment out of the Academy and I would hate to see his career tarnished so early on. Perhaps it would be best to show him a bit of leniency, yet still discipline him in other ways?" she proposed. "We could temporarily relieve him from duty and confine him to quarters for a couple days, and also remove his holodeck privileges for two weeks."

"If that's how you wish to proceed I shall make sure that the necessary punishments are carried out. Where would you like Mr Pawlek taking - the Brig, or brought to you?"

John made a mental note to issue Stone with his orders to imprison the Ensign for a few days - hopefully the punishment would be enough to remind him of proper conduct, but if such an event happened again, John would have him bounced straight out of Starfleet.

"Take him to the brig," she answered, "and I will meet him down there later tonight to have a talk with him. I am considering giving him the same penalty as Ensign Nicholas."

"Yes ma'am. With your permission I'll head down there now?"

John straightened himself up in preparation for being given his dismissal orders to head down to the Brig. He hoped that the ship's chef wouldn't give any significant issues, but if he did, the XO was confident that he was still in good enough shape to handle himself without much of a problem.

"Of course." she answered curtly. "Inform me if there are any more problems."

"Understood." Turning on his heel, the XO headed for the doors, the turbolift, and soon enough, the Mess Hall.

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

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