Administrative Duties

Posted on Mon Sep 3rd, 2012 @ 10:56pm by Captain Benjamin Byrne & Petty Officer 2nd Class Sophie Blaise

Mission: Klingons on the Starboard Bow
Location: Cestus III - Starfleet Command Complex
Timeline: MD02 1545hrs

"Captain th'Zalhri told me that the Jesop is short of a few pieces of engineering spares that they can't replicate - can you see if engineering have any surplus aboard?" Byrne was talking as he walked alongside Blaise, once again crossing the grassy courtyard of the Starfleet Command Complex from one side to another, each officer with a PADD in hand.

"I'll check with Engineering and see what we can spare," Sophie replied. "Last thing I heard was that we're stocked pretty well, so I doubt it will be a problem." After spending a lot of time on the ship and the starbase Sophie loved to be in a new environment again. Strangely enough just having grass around reminded her of home. It had been a while since she had been on an actual planet. Then again, it had also been a while since she had to deal with Klingons and back then it mainly was their goal not to get involved with them.

"Oh I've summarized a couple of recent articles on Gorn culture and politics," she said. "Thought it might be useful." Sophie knew a fair bit about Klingons and even spoke their language a bit, but she didn't know a lot about the Gorn, apart from Kirk's famed encounter with them.

As he took the PADD from her, and gave it a quick skim, he nodded in approval. "Thanks. See if you can also dig up any information on the Klingon Houses which might be in the region. I believe that Ogat, M'char and B'rel are all systems in that region. See if you can figure out who has influence there."

"I will!" Sophie said enthusiastically. Politics, diplomacy, it were the parts of Starfleet she really liked. So she had no problem with scanning through documents and news items for hours if she liked what she was reading. It did bring her to a different line of thought. "Sir, how big is the chance that things will.. escalate?" So far she had been in relatively safe missions, but this could get dangerous real fast. It did scare her a bit.

"With the Klingons and the Gorn involved?" the captain asked, looking over at her. "Honestly, I'd be surprised if it doesn't escalate at some point. Both species are known to be aggressive, territorial and confrontational, but that's why Starfleet's sending us in there. As strong as the Endeavour's diplomatic and scientific skillset is, she was designed to combat the Borg, and her tactical abilities readily demonstrate that." Benjamin always enjoyed talking to others, even members of his own crew who may or may not know her as well as he did, about his ship and her capabilities. It was a sign of pride that he had since learnt was inherent in all but a few Captains.

"The Jesop and Catalunya are similarly armed; the Jesop's a Prometheus-class vessel, and the Catalunya is one of the brand new Ronin-type vessels. The intention is that with three such powerfully armed vessels in the region, we should act as a deterrent in order to at least delay an escalation in the conflict, whilst the Federation Council continues to try the diplomatic route."

Sophie nodded. There were three well armed and well prepared ships, but she still wasn't looking forward to be directly in between the Klingon and Gorn. She figured that this was also part of the job and that she might just needed to toughen up a bit, but after being in safe 'waters' for a while, that wasn't easy. "I hope the Council is successful." Sophie believed in diplomacy, but getting two very aggressive empires to a peaceful negotiation was a huge challenge.

"So do most of the Federation citizens in this region, as well as the citizens of those planets within the disputed region, I'm sure." Benjamin responded. "Either way, our job is to manage the situation if it does continue to evolve into conflict. The Catalunya's not due in orbit of Cestus for another four days; see if you can find out anything on her captain for me."

"I'll see what I can find," Sophie said. "Is there anything in specific you're looking for?" Given the circumstances she could think of a couple of reason why Benjamin wanted to know about his fellow captains, but she was, of course, limited to public information and news items. She grinned a bit, "anything you don't want to know?"

Benjamin chuckled. "Just get me anything that will help me get a measure of the man," he responded. "If we're going to be the only three ships in the region, I'd like to have some idea of how the captains of the other two ships will respond to a situation, and how much I can count on them in a crunch."

"I'll get it to you as soon as possible," Sophie said and added it to her to do-list. "Do you know Captain th'Zalhri better, or do you want a summary on him as well?" She had quite a lot of things to do already, but she didn't mind working hard. They just had a break, so she was full of energy again. Also, this was important and possibly interesting information, so it wouldn't be dull work.

"He left the Academy a few years before I joined," Benjamin answered. "But I know him by reputation, and I was able to speak to him earlier. On the face of it, I believe he'll come through in a jam, but if you can find anything new about him, let me know."

"I will," Sophie nodded. She looked at the things she still had to do and realized she'd better get on in. There was a lot to do and presumably not too much time to do it. "I should get back to the ship. Get this done."

"Keep me informed," Benjamin said, as the two parted ways.