Angry CMO

Posted on Sun Sep 20th, 2009 @ 4:48pm by Captain Vorn Krace

Mission: Into a Devil's Heart
Location: CMO's Office
Timeline: MD03 2100hrs

=/= LaToon to Captain Krace, would you have a moment?" =/=

Vorn tapped his combadge, continuing to read the report in his hand as he spoke. =/=What is it, Doctor?=/=

=/= I need to talk to you, if you would have a moment. =/=

=/=On my way,=/= Vorn replied, as he headed for the nearest turbolift to head down to sickbay.

As he stepped through the doors to sickbay, he noticed Ashley sleeping on one of the biobeds, the lights dimmed low to accomodate her. Stepping through quickly and quietly to the CMO's office, he made sure the door was closed behind him before speaking, so as not to wake the sleeping Petty Officer.

"What is it, Doctor?"

"Have a seat, this may take a few minutes" She motioned to the seat in front of the desk, "I wish to lodge a complaint against Acle. He could have used one of the private rooms but no, he had to take Ashley to his office and when she came back, she was a basket case. He took advantage of the fact that I had gone to get food, to take her out, even though the nurse said no. I am seeing a reaction that might be due to a small tight area, the lack of head facilities, so her electrolytes are all messed up. Her system is all messed up and subjecting her to intense questioning without medical support didn't help. I am all for finding out the truth, but jeopardizing the patients sanity was not a good way to do it."

"The approval for Acle to take Petty Officer Williams out of sickbay came from me, Doctor," Vorn said, opting to remain standing. He knew how Annalyn would react now that he knew what the talk was about, and he wanted to make sure that his body language kept him in control and the position of authority. His statement was only half-true - he'd given Acle the right to decide where would be most appropriate for her to be held after the debriefing, but even so, he needed Acle's expertise in intelligence gathering for this mission, and he didn't need him to be undermined. "It wasn't anticipated that someone trained in intelligence and in keeping her mind sane and her secrets kept inside would have any serious negative effect to her mental state. You said yourself in the briefing, Doctor, that at the time all it seemed like she was suffering from was nausea."

Annalyn stood and leaned forward, "Nausea was the visible symptom. In fact it was visible all over the place, what was not visible was the dehydration, the total system breakdown of her mental state, and the complete imbalance of her body functions. That was why the Nurse objected to her being taken out of sick bay. They were getting ready to put more fluids to rebalance her when Acle took her out of sickbay. He didn't even ask why the Nurse objected. He just pulled rank and left and brought her back curled in a ball. We have her on IV therapy now. It will take approximately 24 hours to get her body functioning as it should."

"As you said, doctor, the other problems with her weren't apparent. From the report I have, she still received a drink during the debriefing, and the worst treatment she received during the whole time she was in Acle's office was silence, which she filled in herself." He finally took a seat opposite the doctor's desk and leaned forward, his body language now becoming that of the understanding CO, rather than the 'simply follow my orders' CO that he was a moment ago. "I understand your concern for your patient, Doctor, and trust me, neither myself nor Acle want any harm to come to her. But you have to realize the seriousness of the situation; a high ranking officer of this ship has gone AWOL, and will soon be marked by Starfleet as a renegade, and he took a fully trained intelligence operative with him. We need to know all we can in order to find him, and as long as no serious harm is caused to Miss Williams, Acle has the responsibility of finding out what she knows. Time is of the essence, Doctor."

"What you need to know is what direction he went." She stood straight and shut her eyes for a moment and went looking for Peter. As she did, her body turned to face the direction he was going. Pointing straight ahead, "He is going that way! The closer we get, the better I can pinpoint where he is." Turning back to the Captain, "and that is more than she can tell you, I am sure. He seems to be going out of his way to make sure no one knows what is going on."

"It's all very good to know what direction he is in at this moment in time, Doctor," Vorn said, trying to hide his frustration. Somehow even while Peter wasn't here, he was managing to make his crew grind against Vorn. "But that's not even half of the information we need to know. We need to know where he is going to. We need to know what his intention is once he gets to where he's going. I doubt he's even following a straight-line course to his destination, wherever that is. If its a colony, or installation, then we need to be able to warn their occupants. If it's an area of dangerous or unstable space, we need to be able to prepare the ship to follow him. Just knowing where he is at the moment isn't enough, Doctor!"

"I am not intelligence but from what I see, he has done everything he can to keep YOU from following him, even to take your old ship if what I hear is true. Have you ever ask your self why he doesn't want YOU chasing him. What has he learned and what is he doing that is a danger to YOU. I read the man as protecting his team, and you are his team leader, so WHAT is he protecting YOU from? Or maybe you should put Acle on to WHO is he protecting you from. His actions are well thought out. It took it all a while to put in play. This was not a spur of the moment actions." She sat down again.

"Doctor, everything I believe in, everything I know, makes me understand that no matter the consequences to me, the safety of the Federation is my paramount priority. The Federation is worth the price of my career, or even my life. To allow a renegade officer to roam around the quadrant free with a military starship like the Lincoln, is a serious threat to that safety. It goes against my entire life's work - the very essense of who I am to allow that threat to be present. Whatever his reasons, whether he's trying to protect me from something or not, I can not simply put this to rest. Every fiber of my being is screaming at me to bring Peter in, and stop him from being a threat to the Federation; to my home." Vorn spoke with complete sincerity and conviction of his beliefs. There really was nothing more important to him than the Federation.

Annalyn sat and thought for a minute. "You know, I very much doubt that Peter is a danger to anyone but himself right now, certainly not the Federation, and I understand what you are saying, but I think you need to take a step back and think this out. Has anyone searched his quarters for clues, can messages arrive that would not come though the normal ship channels, and would there be anyway to trace them if they didn't. I know you are frustrated but Peter thought this out very well, from leaving the ship to stealing the Lincoln, to where he is going. You know how he thinks, more than anyone here, so if you were he, what would you be doing and how would you do it. If you were trying to protect your captain, what would you do?"

"That would depend entirely on what I was protecting them from, doctor." Vorn replied. He sighed, "We searched his quarters right after he left the ship - he left nothing other than the messages that were played to me and Abigail. And as far as we can tell, he had no incoming messages since we left stardock. If he did receive one, then it was very well hidden." Even so, he commented to himself silently I'll get Acle to go over the logs again while we're at stardock - it never hurts to double check.

Annalyn smiled as he thought, what he though was silently. "From the things he has done to keep you from following him, I would say someone must be threatening you with something. I really believe you have to think like him, thinking like you. Put your self into his mind set, and see what you come up with. Look deeper into his quarters for a hidden communicator or what every could be used to send him a private message, something that didn't come though our system." She took a deep breath, "and Tell Acle to leave my patients in sickbay, we have private areas he could have used"

A knock on the door, and Annalyn went to answer, whispering on the other side of the door, and Annalyn turned to the Captain, "I have to go check on something, that is all I have now, did you need anything else?"

"No, thank you Doctor," Vorn replied, standing and straightening his uniform as the CMO left her office.

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Captain Vorn Krace
Commanding Officer
USS Iapetus

&

Lieutenant Annalyn LaToon
Chief Medical Officer
USS Iapetus