From: Shawn _ (alamo_nate_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Aug 15 2007 - 00:04:09 PDT
=Calling In A Favor=
(cont’d from “Resistance”)
LOCATION: GATEWAY Station, Engineering Module
SCENE: Main Engineering
STARDATE: 2.70815.0003
TIME INDEX: Continued from Joy’s “Good Luck”, Before “Birth of a Nation”
Commander Learna Teague stepped through the doors of Main Engineering, and for a moment, she could do little but stand and take it all in. Although the Promenade was inarguably the major hub of activity on the station, Main Engineering could have been a close second. Teams of engineers hustled and bustled in every direction, while technicians stood in front of hundreds of screens, monitoring power levels and relay-outputs, keeping careful eye on the pulse and heartbeat of the GATEWAY station.
Amidst all this activity, it was hard to miss the one person *not* in a hurry. Seated at a terminal, staring off into space, resting his chin on one hand while the other punched commands in on the control console, sat a very bored-looking young man in a cadet uniform.
Commander Teague strode over to him, standing behind him and watching him for several moments before he noticed her reflection in the shiny surface of the terminal’s screen. Quickly, he snapped awake, spinning around and standing at attention.
“At ease, cadet,” Teague smiled. “I’m Commander Learna Teague.”
“The station’s new ExO,” the cadet nodded. “Cadet Jake Crichton, at your service.”
“You looked distracted, cadet,” Commander Teague said. “Is there something bothering you?”
“No,” Crichton shook his head. “Not really. This just isn’t the most challenging job, you know?”
“What are you doing?”
“Monitoring feedback levels in the primary power conduits,” Crichton said. “I’m not even allowed to adjust them if there’s something wrong. I’m supposed to bring it to Lt. Salor’s attention.”
“I’m sure Mr. Salor has good reason to have given you this assignment,” Teague said. “You are, after all, supposed to be learning.”
“I suppose so,” Crichton said. “Still, if you wanted a quick tour of Main Engineering, I’d be happy to show you around.”
“I don’t want to pull you away from your assignment,” Teague chuckled, seeing the cadet’s obvious attempt to shirk his admittedly very-boring duties, if only for a few minutes.
“It’s not a problem, really,” Crichton said. “I’m sure the lieutenant wouldn’t mind me putting it off for a few minutes to give you the tour. I’m sure this isn’t the first space station you’ve been aboard, but GATEWAY’s engineering module is unique in all of Starfleet.”
“Very well, cadet,” Teague said. “Lead the way.”
--------------------------------
It didn’t take long- ten minutes at the most- but Crichton was grateful for the break, and showing the new ExO around had given him the perfect chance to stretch his legs.
It wasn’t that the new workload was too stressful. In fact, it was the opposite. Salor had gone from riding Crichton like a harsh taskmaster to barely acknowledging him at all. During the morning duty assignments, Crichton’s name was often not on *any* of the duty lists, and he would have to approach Salor after the meeting to ask what he was supposed to do. And when he did, the Vulcan would stare at him for a long moment, as though he barely recognized the young cadet, before mumbling a half-hearted apology and giving him some useless, run-of-the-mill assignment that Crichton could have programmed the station’s computers to do automatically.
As for Salor himself, he was getting worse. He seemed spacey, almost constantly lost in thought. When his staff would approach him with questions, they often would have to say his name several times to get his attention, and even then, the instructions he gave often made little sense.
Fortunately, the Engineering staff aboard the GATEWAY was very proficient, and most of the shift-leaders could handle the day-to-day running of the station without any input from the CEO. But when questions *did* arise, Salor often had no answers. In fact, for the past week, Crichton had started double-checking the Vulcan’s orders with the shift-leaders, making sure that Salor hadn’t missed anything. And he was starting to miss more and more each day.
Crichton found himself in a difficult position- it was becoming more and more obvious, at least to Crichton, that Lt. Salor was not fit for active duty. He’d sent a few anonymous notifications to the counseling department, but so far nothing had come of it. The simple fact was that the station’s situation was too dire for them to spare a CEO right now. With all of the mounting troubles, a Vulcan with growing emotional instability somehow managed to keep slipping through the cracks.
Worse yet, Crichton was starting to lose his patience with the Vulcan CEO. Every time he spoke with Salor, it was like he had to fight to keep his blood from boiling. If things continued, Crichton worried that before long, he might even take a swing at Lt. Salor… and while that might feel *really* good, Crichton doubted it would do much for his career.
“Ma’am,” Crichton said, stopping for a moment and turning to look at Commander Teague. “Since I have you here now, I wonder if you might have a minute to talk about some growing concerns I have about…”
“Cadet Crichton,” came the icy voice of Lt. Salor suddenly. Crichton turned around to see the Vulcan CEO standing, hands folded behind his back, regarding the two of them. “I believe you were assigned to monitor feedback levels. Why have you left your post?”
“I’m afraid it’s my fault,” Commander Teague said, stepping in. “Cadet Crichton was giving me the tour of main engineering. I am Commander Learna Teague, the new station’s ExO.”
“Yes, I received that notification,” Salor said, the venom gone from his voice as suddenly as it had crept in. “Welcome to GATEWAY station, commander. If you will allow Mr. Crichton to return to his post, I’m sure *I* can complete the tour more effectively.”
“Of course,” Teague nodded. “Thank you, Mr. Crichton. Dismissed.”
Defeated, Crichton shot a final glare at Salor (the feeling of anger already starting to build in him again) before turning and moving back towards the terminal.
----------------------------------
LOCATION: Promenade
SCENE: “The Hangar” Bar
TIME INDEX: After “Birth of a Nation”
Secession.
The word had been bouncing around inside Crichton’s head ever since Kane’s announcement had come through. The GATEWAY station was now, officially, no longer a part of Starfleet or the Federation. For all intents and purposes, GATEWAY and those aboard were now their own political entity, and what form that new government would take remained to be seen.
Crichton sat at the bar, oblivious to the activity around him, staring at the tiny, silver object he held in his hand: his comm-badge, in the shape of the Starfleet Delta symbol.
He remembered how proud he’d been when he’d gotten it, only weeks before. Even with the disappearance of the wormhole, and all of the confusion and fear that had brought with it, Crichton had felt an undeniable sense of accomplishment and pride when he first affixed the tiny symbol to his uniform. Now, after everything that had happened, he wasn’t sure that the symbol had any meaning left.
For practical reasons, the comm-badges were still in use as the main means of communication between station personelle, but Crichton wondered if that would change soon, too. The shape of the comm-badge was the last, concrete link between GATEWAY and the Federation, and Crichton wasn’t sure he was ready to do without it.
Secession. It sounded so… *final*.
Crichton twirled the badge absently between his fingers, as he thought about what the future held for GATEWAY. The election for the civilian leader was the next major step, but the name of the position they’d be running for hadn’t even been decided yet, let alone what the responsibilities of that position might be. Would there be a station president? A parliament? A leadership council? Would the person elected be given 100% of the decision-making power, or would it be divided amongst a group of elected representatives?
Democracy was all fine and good, but a simple fact of the universe was that, the more people with input on the decision making process there were, the harder it ultimately was to get *anything* done. And while the ideals of equal representation and divided power were important to Crichton, he was also a realist, and the GATEWAY simply couldn’t afford to have its operation choked up by a bureaucracy. Imagine, having to vote on it every time someone wanted to move the station to Red Alert.
Then again, Crichton also didn’t like the idea of all the station’s power being concentrated in the hands of the few. Cadet or not, Crichton was *stuck* on GATEWAY station, and if this place was going to be his home, he want to have some say in what form that home would take. He was no politician, and certainly no community leader, but he at least wanted the opportunity to throw his two cents in.
**Of course, thanks to Salor, even *that’s* getting harder and harder,** he thought. The Vulcan had effectively cut Crichton off from anyone in the senior staff. His repeated notices about Salor’s deteriorating state of mind had gone unanswered, and Crichton was starting to suspect that Salor was monitoring his communications to Ops and filtering out the parts he didn’t like. Also, his second performance review with Salor was looming, and Crichton doubted very much that it was going to be positive.
Crichton had no idea where he was going wrong. Since his arrival on GATEWAY, he’d been, to his mind, an exemplary officer. All the assignments he’d been given had been completed in record time, and he’d made enough waves that the senior staff had chosen him for several top-priority assignments. But ever since then, Salor had basically stunted Crichton’s career-growth; the last *real* assignment Crichton had been given was the sensor modifications to detect changelings. Since then, it had been the types of things that a first-year cadet could do.
And now, Salor had basically vetoed the special assignment Kane had sent down from Ops. According to the “expert” Vulcan CEO, the top-secret project Kane had had in mind was “impossible”, and not even worth the attempt.
Not worth the attempt? With all the problems facing the station, and more and more piling on each day, Salor had taken it upon himself to decide what was and wasn’t possible? Crichton knew he was twice the engineer Salor was, and to *his* mind, it was *very* possible… but because he was a cadet, and Salor was Chief of Engineering, there were no prizes for guessing who’s opinion was being taken more seriously.
The way Crichton saw it, his only hope was to appeal to someone with a more direct line to Captain Kane- preferably, another member of the senior staff. And the only one of them with whom Crichton felt comfortable enough to call a secret meeting with in a bar on the Promenade was none other than…
“Nick Cannon,” Crichton said, seeing the FCO lieutenant approaching, still wearing his flight suit.
“Jake Crichton,” Cannon replied, plopping down on the stool next to him. “Been awhile, hasn’t it?”
“About a week and a half,” Crichton nodded. “This station’s a big place.”
“How’s the ol’ career in Starfleet treating you?” Cannon asked, catching the bartender’s eyes and ordering a drink.
“Haven’t you heard? We’re not Starfleet anymore,” Crichton said.
“So not too good, then,” Cannon chuckled.
“No,” Crichton laughed, ordering a beer. “I guess not. I guess I don’t even *have* a Starfleet career anymore. I hadn’t really thought about it like that.”
“Cheers,” Cannon said, clinking his beer against Crichton’s and taking a swig. “Hell, maybe the wormhole will open up again tomorrow and we’ll have a great big laugh at all this.”
“Here’s hoping,” Crichton smiled.
They sat in silence for a few moments, sipping their beer, each man lost in his own thoughts. Then, Cannon seemed to shake himself out of it, and turned to look at Crichton.
“So what’s up, man?” he asked. “I don’t think you asked me here ‘cause you need a shoulder to cry on. That doesn’t seem like your style.”
“No,” Crichton said. “Actually, I called you to talk about that directive that was sent down from Ops. About the Aurora-fighters.”
“They let you see that?” Cannon whistled. “Maybe your career in Starfleet isn’t so dead after all. That was labeled Top Secret.”
“It’s probably because somebody keeps my name floating around during company meetings,” Crichton said, casting a sidelong glance at Cannon. “Thanks for that, by the way.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“So I take it you’ve already seen Salor’s return message,” Crichton said.
“Sure have,” Cannon said. “According to the good CEO, it’s not a possibility.”
“And did you happen to receive another message?” Crichton asked. “Piggybacked with Salor’s?”
“Saw that one, too,” Cannon said. “Nice trick, by the way. Of course, I’m not sure how happy Kane will be that you’re throwing the chain of command out the window.”
“It needs to be done, Nick,” Crichton said. “Look, I know I’m new here, I know this must look like I’m just after the guy’s job, but I’m telling you- something’s wrong with Salor. He’s getting testy, irritable, spaced-out…”
“The *Vulcan*?” Cannon asked, glancing at Crichton. “Are we talking about the same Salor?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Crichton nodded. “I don’t know what his problem is, but he’s also got a real bug up his ass about me. Keeps sticking me with crap assignments, like he just wants me out of the way. I don’t like to brag…”
“You? Brag?” Cannon smirked. “Never.”
“…I *know* I’m a better engineer than Salor is,” Crichton said. “It’s nothing against him- I’ve probably got twice the education, after all- but when I’m starting to catch all the mistakes of the guy who’s supposed to be in charge of my training, I’d say something’s way wrong.”
“So you’re saying this business with the Aurora-fighters *is* possible?” Cannon asked.
“Yes,” Crichton nodded. “Not easy, don’t get me wrong. But definitely possible. And hell, there’s no reason at all to not even *try*.”
“Look, I’m no engineer,” Cannon said. “You know I respect you, kid, but Salor *is* the senior officer. And he didn’t get the CEO job in a raffle.”
“Nick,” Crichton said. “Trust me. We could do this. Salor’s wrong.”
Cannon sat for a long moment, staring at his drink. Finally, he sighed.
“Alright, kid,” Cannon said. “Show me what you’ve got so far, and I’ll do my best to get it on Kane’s desk.”
“Thanks, Nick,” Crichton smiled.
“I take it you’d rather Salor *didn’t* find out about this for now,” Cannon asked.
“That’d be helpful.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” the FCO said, standing. “Look… no promises, okay? If Kane wants to go with Salor’s recommendation, my hands are pretty much tied.”
“I understand,” Crichton nodded. “I’ll send the schematics I’ve drawn up as soon as I get back to my quarters.”
“No rush,” Cannon said, looking behind Crichton, a grin spreading across his lips. “I have a feeling you might be sticking around for awhile.”
“Why?” Crichton asked, turning to see what Cannon was looking at. Moving through a crowd of people was an attractive, red-haired young woman, a sparkle in her eyes and a smile on her face, heading straight for where Crichton was sitting. It took him a moment, but Crichton recognized her as the woman he’d woken up next to the morning after the last time he’d gone drinking with Nick Cannon.
The woman who’s name he couldn’t remember, Crichton realized. It must have shown on his face, because Nick leaned in and rested a hand on his shoulder.
“Her name is Stephanie,” Cannon whispered, winking at Crichton before grinning at Steph Ferrell and turning to leave. “Good luck, cadet.”
NRPG: Sorry it’s pretty heavily character-centered, but of course all our character probably have a lot on their minds right now.
Jerome- I wasn’t sure how much you want the rest of the crew to know about the Top Secret project you gave Nick and Crichton. I kept it vague, but let me know.
Steven- Hope I did okay with Nick.
Joy- After this post, I’ll be taking you off the mailing list (unless I hear different from you or Jerome). But I wanted to make sure I did okay with Learna.
Shawn
a.k.a.
Jacob Crichton, Cadet
Assistant Chief of Engineering
GATEWAY Station, GS-2
“Remember to believe in magic… or I’ll kill you.” – Mystery Science Theater 3000
---------------------------------
Need a vacation? Get great deals to amazing places on Yahoo! Travel.
From HyperNews_at_youth.net
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sun Feb 17 2008 - 03:10:18 PST