An Unexpected Modification

Posted on Mon Oct 24th, 2011 @ 1:30am by Lieutenant JG Michael Watters & Captain Benjamin Byrne

Mission: Old Relics
Location: Ready Room, USS Endeavour
Timeline: Mission Day 01, 1320 hours

ON: [[Ready Room, USS Endeavour, Mission Day 01, 1420 hours]]

Recent Marine Officer Training graduate First Lieutenant Michael Watters had found it quite difficult not to feel as if the last several weeks were the most mundane he had ever experienced. The Antarctic was an impressive vessel in her own right, to be sure, but even the recreational and training facilities of a Galaxy-class vessel could only satisfy a man's interests for so long. Eight weeks without any specific duty assignments was a lot to ask for someone who had always desired to make himself productive in some way. The security department had offered to let him take part in a few of their routine drills, but even that had not been enough to keep Mike from feeling rather unnecessary during the trip. There simply had been no accommodations for marines whatsoever aboard the Antarctic.

The lift slowed to a halt and Mike emerged to find an atmosphere of relative calm on the Endeavour's bridge. He recognized what had become a rather standard configuration for larger vessels within the fleet and could see many of the beta shift personnel going about their business. A few of them looked over in Mike's direction out of curiosity before turning their attention back to the work at hand. It was probably the closest he was going to get to an acknowledgement from them, but he didn't really expect there to be much more. They had no reason to make a big deal of someone coming up to visit the captain when it was pretty obvious the Endeavour was in the midst of taking on personnel and supplies.

Mike made his way around the upper level of the room until he reached the doors which led to the captain's ready room. He quickly adjusted the jacket of his uniform to make sure it was sitting straight. It was often hard enough for him to make a decent first impression without appearing unkempt. Taking a deep breath, he reached out and pressed the doorchime.

"Come in!" came the authoritative call from within, and as the doors opened, the marine was greeted with the face of the ship's CO, looking up from a PADD on his desk, and reaching up to take off his old-fashioned reading glasses as he did so. "Ah, Lieutenant," he said, a slight frown on his face. "I assume by your attire that you haven't received the full details of your orders yet?"

The question caused Mike to pause just inside the threshold of the room. He glanced down at his own uniform and then back at the captain, raising an inquisitive eyebrow as he did so. "I was ordered to report to Captain Benjamin Byrne aboard the USS Endeavour," he said slowly, "You are Captain Byrne, are you not sir?"

"I am Lieutenant," the captain said, nodding and indicating for the man to come fully into the room. "But you may have noticed on your way up from the transporter room that the Endeavour does not have a marine attachment assigned to her." He picked up one of the PADDs on his desk and tossed it, spinning through the air for the man to catch. "The orders I had sent out were for Lieutenant junior grade Michael Watters of Starfleet Security to report aboard." He smiled to himself. "I take it that Commodore Chy'ris decided to leave that latter bit out of your orders."

Mike caught the twirling PADD between his hands with a somewhat bewlidered look on his face and turned it over in his hand so he could skim through the contents. The first section was nearly identical to the orders he had received from his superiors following completion of Marine Officers Training, stating quite clearly that he was to report to Captain Byrne aboard the Endeavour. It wasn't until he continued reading into the second section that he began to see the source of his confusion. The orders he now held in his hand were exactly as Captain Byrne had described them only moments before. "I'm afraid no one bothered to mention that particular detail...sir," Mike replied.

Benjamin chuckled as he stood from behind his desk and circled it to share the centre room space with the Lieutenant. "I figured," he said simply. "The Commodore seems to like leaving me the odd surprise every now and then." As he came to a stop, he folded his arms and rested on the edge of his desk behind him. "Well, as you may know if you've read any of my service record, I came from the security field, so I am understandably intent on ensuring that the Endeavour is in possession of the best head of security that I can lay my hands on. If I'm not mistaken, it was following your service in that field on the Pandora that led to Admiral Iluvar's sponsorship for you to be accepted into the officer candidates program?"

"That's right," Mike confirmed. He supposed he should not have been all that surprised to hear Captain Byrne had done a little homework. Selecting someone to be responsible for the safety of both ship and crew was no easy task by any stretch of the imagination. Considering what he had just learned about the man's experience prior to commanding the Endeavour, he could certainly see why the captain would have been particularly selective in that regard.

"Well, in light of that record, and the fact that we need an experienced security officer out here, where help isn't exactly around the corner, I put in the request for Personnel Command to have your new commission transferred laterally to one within Starfleet, and have you posted with Starfleet Security," Byrne continued. "I understand it's probably not the assignment you were looking for when you left the Academy, but frankly I need the best people I can get out here."

"Permission to speak freely, sir," Mike asked.

"Granted," the senior officer said with a nod.

"With all due respect, sir, this isn't what I was expecting at all," Mike expounded, "I've always considered myself to be more of a doer than a thinker. Search and rescue during the war and the relief efforts on the ground afterward were a way for me to be involved. Even my work aboard the Pandora made me feel like I was doing something to help keep the situation with the Elyshans from boiling over. Now the situation with the Romulans..."

"And you think that by serving here on the Endeavour you will be too far removed from the events of the major powers of the Galaxy to feel as if you're serving a purpose?" the captain cut in, bluntly.

Mike shifted uncertainly on his feet. He had not intended to give the impression of belittling the Endeavour, her captain, or her crew and yet it seemed as if he had done just that by implying he could be of "better" use elsewhere. "I apologize, sir," he said slowly, "I certainly did not mean to imply in any way the Endeavour has not made her fair contributions to the Federation."

"I'm sure you didn't," Benjamin responded, as he started to pace the room. "But allow me to allay your concerns by briefing you on the situation in this region of the Galaxy. Firstly, the Klingons and the Gorn are in the middle of a Cold War, though they've for once been quiet enough about it that it hasn't affected any of the other powers significantly yet. The threat of Federation intervention is the only thing that is preventing an all-out conflict between the two, and that threat is becoming less and less of a deterrent with the slowly deteriorating relationship between Earth and Quo'nos regarding the provision of aid to the Romulan Empire.

"And then on the other side of the territory, in the region the Endeavour is presently patrolling, the Tholians have instigated several small border skirmishes with Federation vessels over the past year. History shows us that the Tholians treat their borders much more fluidic than most powers do, but these events have been absent from our relations with them for a good number of years, and would indicate either a desire to expand from them, or an altering relationship between the Federation and the Assembly which is unknown to us at present." He came to a stop and turned to face the man once again. "In addition, we now have the Ritorians to deal with, with reports from Starbase 332 of significant fleet activity within their sphere of influence. In short Lieutenant, a strong armed Federation presence in this region is the only thing stopping several brush fires from beginning and escalating, and the effectiveness of that deterrent appears to decreasing rather more rapidly than our analysts had hoped. Does it sound as if there is enough for you to deal with down here now, Mister Watters?"

"I do believe so, sir," Mike muttered, realizing there was much more to the situation than he had originally thought. This is what happened when he went into something without thinking things through. He had been so focused on what this assignment would be taking him away from that he hadn't even thought about what it would be bringing him to.

"Good," the Captain said, as if he had expected the conversation to progress in just this way from the beginning. He circled his desk once again, lowered himself back into his seat and replaced the reading glasses on the bridge of his nose. "The quartermaster has your room assignments, Lieutenant. I expect you to be ready to take charge of your department at oh-seven hundred tomorrow morning."

"Oh-seven hundred," Mike repeated, snapping to a more formal attention, "Aye, sir."

"Dismissed."

---------------------
Captain Benjamin J. Byrne
Commanding Officer

&

Lieutenant JG Michael Watters
Chief of Security
USS Endeavour NCC-86105