by Dabin Reece
90116.2300
Following Praise Well Earned
-=USS Serendipity=-
90116.2300
Following Praise Well Earned
-=USS Serendipity=-
“Admiral Lassiter!”
She would have known that voice anywhere.
Even without the voice she would have known the sound of the rapid but carefully measured footfalls behind her that signaled the approach of one Captain Ashton Ledbetter.
“Yes, Captain Ledbetter?” Gem sighed. She had been dreading this moment. It had taken him a little bit more than an hour to track her down since her arrival on the Sera. He must have been having an off day. She expected him to be waiting for her in the transporter room.
“When is the inquiry into the loss of my ship being held? You know I expect Zanh Liis and the Trill to pay for this outrage.”
“The death of Taris and the safe recovery of every soul from the Romulan ship? Is that the outrage you speak of Captain? And the Trill does have a name, Dabin Reece. I don’t think you would appreciate it if he referred to you as the Human.” Lassiter kept her tone formal. The somewhat narrow-minded nature of his comment rubbed her the wrong way. Then again, most of Ashton Ledbetter’s traits rubbed her the wrong way. Yet, somehow through it all, the man could handle a TI mission. For that reason he had ascended to the rank of Captain, and for that reason alone she put up with his neurotic behavior.
“You know what I mean, Gem.”
Lassiter cleared her throat loudly.
“Admiral Lassiter,” Ledbetter quickly corrected himself, for the sake of the two attendants that were accompanying the Admiral on the Sera. He pointed at her emphatically, as if to say, I meant to call you Admiral Lassiter.
“I’ve only just arrived, Captain. I assure you there will be a full inquiry into the loss of the Consequence. It is not at the top of priority list at the moment however. I’ve just toured engineering and the repairs going on there and later on I will be looking into the events that occurred on the Romulan ship.”
“What are you doing in the meantime?” Ledbetter grinned.
“Even an Admiral is entitled to pause and take in a meal. You are not going to let this go, are you Captain?”
Ashton stood up tall, and took on the most serious expression a one hundred sixty-seven centimeter, seventy-three kilogram man could muster.
“All I ask, Admiral, is that justice be done, and the truth be told.”
Lassiter turned to one of her attendants and reluctantly caved to Ledbetter’s demands. “Please inform Captain Zanh and Commander Reece that there will be a brief meeting in one hour in the main conference room, to discuss the events surrounding the loss of the Consequence.”
-=Forty-five seconds later=-
Zanh Liis sat in her ready room. Her good hand sat with fingers drumming against the top of her desk, counting down softly to the empty room around her.
“Five, four, three, two, one.”
[Reece to Liis! Reece to Liis!]
“I know Commander, I know. They already told me.”
[But, they can’t do this to us!]
“Just take a deep breath and relax.” Zanh was already preparing herself for the inquiry into Salvek’s actions on the Romulan ship. She simply didn’t have the time or the nerves to deal with a Dabin Reece meltdown at the moment. No doubt she had a persistent Ashton Ledbetter to thank for the newest addition to Admiral Lassiter’s schedule. “We’ll get through this.”
Dabin Reece issued some sort of a squeal or squawk, and closed the channel. He immediately began rummaging through his quarters for his dress uniform as February nervously crocheted faster and faster while watching him out of the corner of her eye.
“Do you think the Admiral might relieve you of duty?” She asked, as Dabin hauled the uniform out of the closet and began to change.
“I hope not. Captain Ledbetter has it in for me.”
“Do you think you really need the dress uniform?”
“Dress to impress. It might help.” Dabin smoothed out the front and made sure the gold trim was perfectly aligned. Bad enough Zanh Liis still blamed him for the loss of her Jump ship, but at least she never hauled him before the Admiralty.
Dabin began pacing and mumbling, and February shifted uncomfortably. She hated seeing him like this, especially when she knew he had done nothing to deserve this kind of treatment. The formal reports submitted by the crew should have been enough to excuse the loss of the Consequence.
If she wasn’t under strict Doctor’s orders to avoid stress she would have gone to the meeting with him, and given Ledbetter a piece of her mind. Instead, she called up a video of some old cartoons she knew he would enjoy, and Dabin finally settled down for the next hour. There was something so precious about the sound of his laughter when he watched that coyote’s futile attempts to catch the roadrunner.
He watched the shows, and she watched him, far more amused by his reactions than the cartoons.
“I think you need to get going.” She said reluctantly, as the time approached.
“I think you’re right. Thanks, I needed the laugh.” He gave her a quick peck on the lips, and pat on the tummy before heading for the turbolift.
The lift doors parted, and there was Ashton Ledbetter, on his way to the bridge as well.
Ledbetter pursed his lips and stepped to the side of the lift. Dabin entered, and leaned against the opposite wall. They rode the lift in silence, neither one looking in the other’s direction.
Finally, Ledbetter broke the stalemate.
“Lovely weather we’re having.”
Reece threw his hands in the air. “We’re on a starship!”
“Oh we are? How soon until you blow it up?”
“All right, that’s it! You know as well as I do this was not my fault!”
As the doors opened, Zanh Liis saw the pair yapping at each other like a couple of Chihuahuas in a turf war over a chicken bone. She was waiting outside the conference room for the pair to arrive, before heading in.
The bridge crew each turned to watch as Ledbetter and Reece poked fingers in each other’s chests as the crossed from the turbolift to Zanh Liis’s location.
“That’s enough, both of you.” She hissed, once they were close enough for her to silence them without the rest of the crew hearing it. “Act like that in front of the Admiral and she’ll throw you both out the airlock, unless I beat her to it.”
Ledbetter harrumphed and walked through the doors.
Dabin laid a hand on her good shoulder. “He can’t make us suffer for this. We did the right thing.”
Liis nodded slowly. “Please, Dabin. I can handle this, but I’m begging you, let me do all the talking. Do we understand each other?”
“Loud and clear, Crinkles.”
The duo entered the conference room, where Admiral Lassiter sat at the table already, along with Ledbetter.
Ashton had taken up the spot on the end of the table by the window, where Zanh Liis traditionally sat. Her eyes flashed when she saw the smug look on his face, as if daring her to tell him to move. Instead, she elected to sit across from Lassiter, with Dabin Reece at her side.
“I’ve read everyone’s reports,” Lassiter began without fanfare or delay. “Captain Ledbetter, by all accounts the sacrifice of the Consequence was justified, as it helped safeguard the Serendipity and all those aboard. So I ask you, why are we here?”
“As you say Admiral, it was justified, but it was reckless. Commander Reece had several other options available to him that could have ended without the destruction of my ship. Captain Zanh also made an error in judgment by not turning Command of this vessel over to me while she and her command crew were gallivanting around on the Romulan ship.
“Gallivanting?” Liis stood straight up out of her chair. She had promised herself she would be calm and defend Reece. She wasn’t planning on defending herself. “Do you know how many good men and women almost died over there?”
“Poor choice of words.” Ledbetter said. Liis sat back down. “If Captain Zanh had turned Command over to me, while she was bravely fighting the Romulans, I could have gotten us out of this mess without the Consequence being destroyed. Which, as we know, was a direct result of Commander Reece’s actions.”
“It was the Romulans!” Now it was Reece standing up out of his chair. As soon as he stood, Liis grabbed him by the arm and pulled him right back down into his seat.
She leaned over and whispered into his ear. “I said, let me do the talking.”
Lassiter turned her attention to Zanh, “You have something to say Captain?”
“Yes, Admiral. If I may, my crew made the best out of a bad situation. Commander Reece took the best option he believed available to him, so that he could both protect the Sera and keep the ship in range to beam our crew off the Romulan ship. In the end, we are all sitting around this table arguing about it, and I think we should all be grateful for that,” Liis shot a look at Ledbetter.
“Yeah, what she said.” Reece added for extra emphasis. It never ceased to amaze him how diplomatic she could sound at times when he knew she wanted to wring the necks of everyone in the room.
“The handbook tends to agree with you, on this matter. Captain Zanh. However, Captain Ledbetter makes a valid point. Perhaps some things could have been done differently. Perhaps we all have something to learn from this.”
Lassiter stood up and looked out the window, mentally preparing herself for what would come next.
“To that end, since he no longer has a Command, I am temporarily assigning Captain Ledbetter as an overseer on the ship until further notice.”
“WHAT?” Reece, Zanh and Ledbetter all bolted out of their chairs now, shouting in unison.
“You can’t leave me here with this group, I’ll go mad!” Ashton protested.
“Things being what they are, I would like someone to keep track of how things are run on this ship. Captain Ledbetter will have no official place in the chain of command. I want him detached from the goings on aboard this ship so he can report back to me as an observer, not a member of the crew.”
“I assure you Admiral, this is not necessary.” Liis’s words were polite, even if her expression, posture, and grinding teeth were not.
“If it is not necessary then Captain Ledbetter will have nothing to report. We’ll just see.”
“O’Sullivan is going to eat you for lunch,” Reece chimed in, grinning at Ledbetter.
“He’s a gentle giant. It’s his spouse that may be just crazy enough to kill someone. Namely, me.” Ledbetter shot back.
“I sincerely hope Captain Ledbetter will be treated with the utmost respect,” Lassiter said coldly, directing the words towards Zanh Liis rather than Dabin Reece.
“Admiral,” Ledbetter laughed nervously. “I rather thought when this was all over and it was determined the ship loss was not my fault, that I’d be given a new Command right away.”
“I am assigning no fault to the destruction of the Consequence, other than the Romulans.”
“HA!” Dabin Reece pointed at Ledbetter in triumph. “I told you.”
“Sit down, Commander.” Zanh warned.
“However,” Lassiter continued, “Jump ships do not grow on trees, Captain Ledbetter. Therefore, until a new one can be,” Lassiter paused looking for the right word, “procured, you will remain here. Dismissed.”
Reece was not about to sit around and wait for Lassiter to change her mind about having his commission. He held out a hand, and pulled Zanh Liis up to her feet. His silent way of saying thank you, as the group filed out of the room.
**********************
Dabin Reece
Chief Science Officer (Still)
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
NRPG: By special request of our XO...Ashton stays, so that he can continue writing him. How could I say no to dialogue like that?~ZL
Dabin Reece
Chief Science Officer (Still)
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
NRPG: By special request of our XO...Ashton stays, so that he can continue writing him. How could I say no to dialogue like that?~ZL