Star Trek Sim/ Star Trek RPG
USS Eagle, NCC 2185
CPT Kematsopoulos & LTjg Richards
JOINT LOGS
Joint Logs by Myth, Stoffe and Nouri
Title: O, What a Tangled Web We Weave, Part Three
Location: The USS Eagle
Setting: Captain's Quarters
LT Richards stood in the Captain's Quarters again. Hopefully the doors would
remain unlocked. But if not, at least Hanson was on the other side of them
this time. She wondered how much of a cross examination she'd have to endure
this time around. Once through with CDR Unstoffe had been bad enough.
The Captain made his way towards the partition. "Any tripping hazards about?"
he asked. This part of his quarters was not secure at the moment. It was
opened for the repair team. The inner part of his stateroom was still locked
since it had one of the Eagle's classified materials vaults. Being temporarily
blind, Captain wasn't sure what, if anything, the repair crew has moved or
left behind.
Leah glanced around. "No, sir." The only thing left out of place was the
suspiciously neat pile of bots - but the Captain already knew it was there.
Leah hoped Bob and his kiddies weren't around.
"Good. That's one of the harder things about being blind when I am not wearing
the earpiece," he said. He had taken out the earpiece because his constant
reliance on it and the other device to transmit where things were located
or reading the screens for him or what something looked like were giving
him headaches.
"Yes, sir." She stuck to simple 'yes' and 'no' since she wasn't sure where
the conversation was headed yet.
"It's difficult having new obstacles appear where you don't anticipate them.
The same for missions can be said. I usually enjoy a surprising challenge,
but there are times where too much is at stake to risk any unpredictable
variables," he said.
"Yes, sir." Leah cleared her throat. She was in enough trouble with the Chief
of Security without also dawdling down here. "I should bring Ensign Hanson's
phaser up." Explaining why it wasn't modified in the slightest would be tricky
but better than small talk.
The Captain didn't have small talk in mind. He was leading up to something.
"This is one of those times. Tell me about Hanson," the Captain said trying
to be gentle but nevertheless dropping the needed bomb. "A lot is riding
on what I need to tell you in a moment," he continued. "I need to know if
the problems with you and Hanson will be something for the mission to stumble
over," he said in a more serious tone.
Leah almost groaned out loud. Apparently hoping to get out quickly was wishful
thinking. "Well, I ... I asked him to repair one of my er... robots." She
swallowed nervously. "And he was less than helpful. Anyways we argued and
I..." Leah looked down and finished the summary at a volume only slightly
over a whisper. "I pinned him to a wall and broke his nose, sir." Constantly
retelling the story was embarrassing. Each time she felt just a little more
ashamed. Spitting it all out at once seemed like the fastest way around,
or rather through it.
(( Read a previous log for the conflict between Leah and Hanson more in detail
at: https://usseagle2185.tripod.com/rbwomzb23asechanson2.html
))
The Captain tried not to appear startled, but looked so anyway. He did much
better at controlling his voice. It was even when he spoke. "Start from the
top please," he said. To make it more clear, he asked, "How did that happen?"
He reached to unlock the partition, but paused with his hand before putting
his hand on the identiscan and entering the code.
Leah shrugged, "I don't like being called stupid." To her the insult more
than justified roughing him up a bit, but... "Didn't really mean to break
his nose though." Maybe not that rough.
The Captain sighed, "I can tell from the sound of your voice that there's
more to the story."
Hoping to sum the whole thing up and get passed it Leah added, "Anyways -
we more or less have it worked out now. I don't think it will interfere with
anything." ~Or rather 'hope' it won't...~ So far the only thing they had
worked out was the amount of laundry to be washed.
By this time, in the privacy of his stateroom, the Captain dropped part of
his façade. He looked more shaken by the news of XO's death and had
the weight of the universe look upon him. This was compounded with finding
out that two key people for the mission he was formulating would rather fight
than anything else. Instead of continuing towards opening the partition,
he moved his hand and rested it on the bulkhead. This quickly turned into
a lean as he waited to hear whole story. He had to see first how that will
affect his decision to let Richards in on more of what he thinks is going
on. If he was right about everything he guessed then the weight of the universe
was really upon him.
Leah noticed how shaken the Captain looked. He had more important things
to worry about than her minor scuffle with a certain annoying ensign. "There
isn't much else, really, sir. Uh... a couple of AMOs saw him leaving my quarters
-that's how I've wound up with er..." she dropped her voice again, "anger
management classes." The last was uttered much like the name of a despised
enemy.
Upon hearing that and catching the edge on her voice, the Captain let out
another sigh and sat down ~Maybe what I was about to do is pointless,~ he
thought. He needed to know more before he told her what was going on.
If she and Hanson couldn't be trusted or trusted to work together, none of
what he was planning for all of them would work. "Sit please," he ordered.
Leah sat, perching on the edge of her seat expecting a long lecture.
"There's more. That's easy to tell from your summary. Until we get attacked
again, we have some time. Proceed," he said. He truly wanted to know what
happened from her perspective. He wanted to give the young officer a chance
and not jump to any conclusions. At the same time in the back of his mind,
he worked out some new permutation in case he couldn't let her in on more.
Leah blinked, a bit confused. She could handle being lectured or yelled at.
But having to keep talking was unsettling. "It's not that complicated, sir.
I was stuck! I mean... I couldn't tell him where the stupid robots were from,
sir!" Leah struggled to explain why she'd done it as she had. "If I did he'd
be responsible for them being here, too. And he's gonna take them - I mean
her, with him." She slipped, accidentally alluding to the multitude of baby
botlets.
The Captain was getting one humdinger of a headache and it wasn't from the
earpiece anymore. ~So this is what command of ship was like,~ thought the
man who didn't remember ever making Captain before or being on the Eagle.
~I knew it would be a lot more than department head but still to have such
a difficult mission rest on so few people and such a personality conflict
between these two. It seems more likely for the Klingons and Federation to
become allies. Hey why not throw in the Romulans as allies too!~ As he thought
that, somehow, some part of him said it had happened already during a life
he had trouble remembering. He shrugged that odd déjà vu type
feeling away. He had experienced a lot of odd thoughts and images now as
his memory tried to return and not a lot of it was making sense.
Under her breath she added, "Plus he was askin' for it." Anyone who'd ever
been stuck with Ensign Hanson for even a short time would surely agree with
that!
The Captain skillfully avoided the obvious reaction. Instead he tracked off
to a different area to learn more. "Bots?" he asked.
Leah sighed. It might have been easier if Unstoffe had had the chance to
report the stowaways officially. At least then she wouldn't be the one stuck
explaining it. "B-Bob and his wife. The Mrs. is uh... broken," she'd almost
said 'sick. "CDR Unstoffe found out about them." She left out the fact that
Unstoffe had only discovered their presence when Bob had sabotaged a turbolift.
That detail didn't put Bob in the best light really.
"Wife?" the Captain asked, surprised by the choice and use of this word by
the security officer.
"Yeah." Leah didn't bother telling him that it was Bob who said they were
married - she already knew how crazy this was sounding. "CDR Unstoffe ordered
them quarantined for dismantling, sir. I can't let him do that." It would
be like dissecting a prisoner - and the robots hadn't really done anything
wrong.
"Hanson was going to dismantle some bots?" he asked perplexed.
"I asked him to fix her, sir. I didn't want 'em locked up with her damaged
like that." Leah looked down like a sulking kid. "It wouldn't be right. They
helped us. I owe 'em one back."
The man sighed trying to get the events in order. "You asked Hanson
to fix a bot?" he asked.
In retrospect that was the real mistake. "He's the only engineer I know,
really. I hoped he'd just do it and not ... be so annoying." Actually, Leah
had also incorrectly assumed the squirrelly engineer would be easily intimidated
into doing what he was told.
"So you asked Hanson for help and he annoyed you. Did he say no?" he asked
getting closer to figuring out where the conversation was going and what
had happened.
This was getting tricky again. Leah didn't want to admit exactly how many
robots there were now or that Hanson had used that information to black mail
her. "He ... insisted on taking her with him. I couldn't let him do that.
And things just got out of hand, I guess." She sighed. "The whole thing was
my fault, sir." Among his many demands, Hanson demanded that she treat him
decently. Getting him in trouble would break that promise.
"Did he fix it?" he asked.
~Between being beaten to a pulp and attacked by salad like aliens?~ "No.
Least not as far as I know, sir." It was vaguely possible that he'd at least
looked at Mrs. Bob after kidnapping her and half her brood. "He did agree
to do it, though."
The Captain rubbed his temples again. "Then why did you hit him?" he asked.
(( OOC: See a draft for the Captains' Quarters at https://usseagle2185.tripod.com/startrekbpcaptainsquarters.htm
))
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