No Time To Breathe

Posted on Wed Jul 5th, 2023 @ 3:38pm by Captain Tristan Faust & Commodore Brian Anderson
Edited on on Wed Jul 5th, 2023 @ 3:49pm

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Mission 4: Through a Glass, Darkly
Location: Starbase 10
Timeline: M4 MD01 (2268.07.10) 0900

The levels of Starbase 10 whizzed by the turbolift's window. Tristan had some business to conduct during their brief stop off. He quickly stuck the clipboard under his armpit as the doors opened.

He walked across ops, which no seemed to notice. The main door on the right was Commodore Anderson's ready room. He hit the buzzer and waited.

The door slid opened and a young man in Marine Green stepped out, "Excuse me Captain." The young man said stepping sidewise in the door. "The commodore said to go on in. He'll be with you in a minute."

"Of course, thank you sergeant," Tristan responded as he entered the rather spacious office, decked out in the latest of Starfleet decorating trends. The walnut veneered steel case desk was twice the size of the meager one in his cabin. The ceiling was illuminated with wall to wall illuminated glass paneling, which complimented the rich real wood paneling on the walls. Rank had it's privileges. He sat down in the chair, which wasn't the cheap pleather on the Midway... No it was genuine Corinthian leather.

Anderson stepped back into the office with his hand on his side. "Excuse me Tris. I need to lay off the orange juice."

"With me it's the pot of coffee a day sir," Tristan responded, "Thanks for seeing me on short notice... Too bad we don't have much time. Although I would certainly appreciate a non reconstituted meal."

"It's fine. I needed to get you over here anyway. The situation I was telling you and Kitch about has changed some and there are details I need you to see." Anderson said as he sifted through a stack of memory chips. He finally found the one he was looking for handing Tristan a white chip which is used for diplomatic affairs only. "Look that over before you leave." Anderson sat down in his chair. "You're note said it was important?"

"Thanks," Tristan responded, "I know we have our mission briefing scheduled for 1500, but I needed to talk over some logistics before we can get into mission specifics... I've just lost my helmsman, navigator, engineer and science lab chief... I've sat with Zon, my personnel officer and we've managed to cover everything except Navigation and Engineering..."

Anderson looked perplexed for a moment before reaching for the comm panel built into the desk =A= Bolton, get me all the personnel transfers for this sector ... for the past week. =A= "I thought your Navigator was an old friend of yours?"

Anderson’s aide came in with a data pad. "The last update was yesterday afternoon, sir, but that's everything. Who ... where from ... where too, and why." Before stepping back out of the office.

Anderson looked down the list. "I'm not seeing anything out of the ordinary here. Tell me what I'm not seeing here?"

"Commander Stryker isn't an old friend of mine," Tristan responded, "He was Captain Chiotis's navigator for years, but word came down that the Captain put him up for an executive officer position... So he was gone in a flash. Lt. Thraxina decided to take a leave of absense and return home due to her pregnancy. And Lt. Novo..." He sighed, "Novo is a special case, as you no doubt remember..."

"Rose is right. I'm getting too far from things making sense, sitting in here." Brian half said to himself as he ran a hand through his lighty graying hair. "My congratulations to both Stryker and Thraxina of course." He leaned back in the chair. "Novo ... now that is a name from the past isn't it. It's been almost 10 years. It has to be. Tell me what happened? The last I recall he was making his way nicely. I didn't know he was aboard Midway."

"I suppose you haven't had time to read my AAR..." Tristan responded with a sigh, "To put it mildly, Novo is... or was in a great deal of trouble." He leaned back in the padded chair, "So to start with, he was the project manager for the Midway. When she was launched ahead of scheduled I tapped him to join the engineering staff, first as assistant and then as chief. But during the last mission, the ship was sabotaged once and attempted twice... Novo was the culprit." He paused for a moment, "Now as you well know he has some serious mental problems... And how he's dealt with them has left his brain so scrambled he's not competent. The Romulans are ultimately responsible for this, but he was an easy target."

"I saw Dr. Hill's report confirming Kitch and your request to have him take a medical leave of absence, but no I hadn't gone through your reports in depth." Anderson said somberly. He made a mental note to catch up on reading ever growing stack of reports. "If there is anything I can do to make his time easier .... " Brian said knowing he was for what ever it was worth, responsible for Novo.

"We kept him out of the stockade, which was tough enough," Tristan commented, "But he needs serious mental therapy and rehabilitation. We did what we could 10 years ago but the longer he goes without inpatient treatment, the worse he is getting... Some of the drug use I could overlook, but now he is being manipulated by nefarious sources to destroy the ship." He paused for a moment and took a sip from the glass of water Anderson's yeoman had provided him, "One other item to note in my report," he said, "When Ensign S'Task conducted his mind meld with Novo, he found the Romulans had made contact with him in the backroom of one of the alien relaxation businesses on your promenade... Your security chief has been notified."

Anderson looked soured. "Well that's something at least." Brian said feeling for Novo's fall from grace. "As I said if there's anything I can do ..." Brian shifted in the chair. "If there's time enough we can discuss this with Cmdr. Travers, and Representative Chun from the diplomatic service? If nothing else to get their opinions on all this."

 

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