About Time

Posted on Mon Jul 4th, 2011 @ 10:18pm by Captain Vorn Krace

Mission: The Fate of the Swiftsure
Location: Starbase 900 - Transporter Room, Commander's Office
Timeline: MD03 0925hrs

As the transporter beam released Captain Vorn Krace onto the pad of one of the Starbase's transporter rooms, the confinement beam's disappearance allowing him free motion once again, he nodded his thanks and stepped down from the pad to the decking, and out into the corridors of the station.

Vorn always felt strange stepping onto another captain's command, and the feeling was compounded when that command was a station. Though he'd arrived into one of the top-level transporter rooms, it's numerical designation (9) was a higher figure than the number of transporter rooms that the Iapetus would ever have, and one could have fit the entire of the Luna class ship into the intervening deck space between him and his destination; the command offices. But the size on its own was not what made it feel strange, nor the increased level of busy activity - afterall, the Iapetus had its busy periods through its corridors and in main engineering. No, the point that made all of those things combine into his strange sensation was the fact that he felt like... an observer. He was not a part of these people's working lives, even remotely. He was an outsider; someone to be walked around as they went about their business, and he searched his way through the place to find his destination. It was distinctly unsettling after spending the last three months almost without stepping foot off of his own ship. He suddenly felt an odd longing to get this meeting - which he had looked forward to for some time - out of the way, so that he could get back 'home' as soon as he could.

Shrugging the feeling off, he made his way through the station (he was ever grateful to the markings on the walls indicating the way for visitors to the turbolift) until he was able to instruct the computer to take him up to level ten, the commander's office.

* * *

Ricky sat in his office, the door partly open to the waiting room just outside of it, poring over the information that Lt. Cmdr. Kh'ali had provided him on the Divitians and her first rough draft on the agreement between them. She had made it clear that it was not entirely finished, but Ricky was impatient--not necessarily in a bad way, just in a way that he kept sticking his nose in and was probably making it harder on Kh'ali than it would have been if he'd have just let her do her job.

He could see his aide, Lt. Hope Beckman, speaking to someone. She buzzed him shortly afterward. =^= Admiral, Captain Krace from the Iapetus is here to see you. =^=

"Oh, send him on in! I'm glad he's here. And close the door after him, please."

Moments later, Krace walked into his offices, while Hope closed the large oak doors behind him. The man appeared to be in desperate need of some R&R.

Standing from his desk, Ricky met him halfway across the office with his hand outstretched. "Captain Krace, finally! It's very good to get to meet you!"

"I'm sorry I'm a bit late, Admiral," Vorn replied, taking the man's hand and shaking it. "We had a few... complications during our journey over here." Though the term was putting it lightly, he knew that the Admiral would know what he was referring to - he'd been sent a copy of the report he had filed no doubt, and he suspected that the incident involving the Ra'kholh was of significant importance to make it off an Aide's desk and onto the Admiral's.

"Complications," Ricky repeated with a chuckle. "We'll leave it at that. Otherwise, you did well on your last mission. Take a load off, Captain," he said as he patted one of the seats in front of his desk and sat beside him. "So, how are you and your crew faring? Well, I hope?"

"Yes, we are for the most part," Vorn responded, taking a seat next to the Admiral and mentally noting how informal this meeting was turning out to be. "Obviously we've had the few weeks of free sailing to Union for the crew to come to terms with the friends that they lost, but we also have a very.... interesting addition to the crew in the form of our new ship's counsellor." He paused to chuckle in memory of his first meeting with the half-Klingon woman.

"Though to be perfectly honest, most of the crew's minds, including my own, is focused more on where we are now... the Delta Quadrant, truly a whole new realm of unexplored space to go diving into!" The expression on his face and the inflections in his speech made it perfectly clear to the Admiral that this man was a born explorer, taking delight in searching out the unknown and the fascinating.

"I know exactly how you feel," Rick replied with a smile. "I'm a bit upset that I'm pretty much leashed to the base here, but I'm still in the big DQ," he said, "which is good enough for me. "Hell, at this very moment we're working on an agreement between the Divitians and the Federation! Not long ago we'd never even really heard of them and now we're having to rely on each other to survive out here. Without us, and possibly even with us, their planet may not survive a disaster that has befallen it. No better way to make friends than to go out on a limb and try to help them survive in the first place."

Ricky stood and picked a PADD from the litter of them on his desk, put it back down and found the correct one. "Here we go," he said as he handed it to Krace. "Speaking of exploration, star charts and the like are very important to that aspect. Your next mission will involve one of our suppliers of star charts. He seems to have...disappeared recently. We're unsure if he's been captured and held because he's assisting the Federation, or if he's become corrupt, or is simply not wanting to cooperate anymore."

"In other words, we don't really know much?" Vorn asked, smiling at the multiple-choice hypothesis. He took the PADD and began perusing his contents. So it wasn't exactly the roam into the wilderness he'd day dreamt of whilst studying the charts last night, but it was still going into a form of the unknown. "What information do we have so far?"

"In a nutshell, we're wondering primarily if he's gone rogue. One of the star charts we'd obtained had been altered and it led to the destruction of the USS Swiftsure." Ricky shifted in his seat at that. "Of course, not having had contact with him recently, we're not sure if it was his doing, or someone else's. But, he was last seen in the Drekasta System, that only seems to have a nice, big asteroid belt in the way. But there is a mining-slash-trading station out there where he may have gone. Either way, his ship's transponder information is contained in the PADD and that should help you locate him." He looked into Krace's eyes, to emphasize the next part. "Use caution, Captain. We have no way of knowing if those that frequent that station are friendly towards the Federation, or if they want us gone. I don't want to lose another ship, so protect yourself accordingly, but we need to find this man."

"Don't worry, Admiral," Vorn said, as he tucked the PADD under his arm, to study the exact details of it later, back onboard the Iapetus. "I've had my ship for the last four years now, and managed to keep her intact throughout all of our past encounters, and I don't intend to break that streak any time soon," he said, smiling.

"Glad to hear it, Captain," Ricky replied with a smile.

"We'll definitely do our best to find him, and determine what has been going on with his supply of star charts," Vorn promised, knowing that an assurance of the fact they'll complete the task would be what the Admiral would be after. "While I'm here, though, I was wondering if you've got any advice for me, whilst I'm in the Delta Quadrant? Anything specific to keep a watch out for, anyone I should stay away from or make a special effort to become friends with?"

"It's a new frontier out here," he replied. "It's difficult to tell who is friend and who is foe, so--and I hate to say this, but don't trust anyone that we haven't already had prior contact with. However, it should go without saying that we should extend the olive branch to everyone we meet, if at all possible."

Krace nodded. As he had suspected, the Delta Quadrant wouldn't be as straight forward in how to deal with whom. Olive branches to all, but guarded caution to all as well. He nodded at the Admiral's advice, before standing. "I'll make sure that my staff are aware of that advice too," he said. "And I'll see if I can arrange for them to liaise with your own staff in their respective departments. It'll be good for them to get a bit of a head start of sorts before we head out."

"That's fine, Captain," Rick said as he stood with him, then stuck out his hand again. "Be careful, Captain Krace. And good luck. It was also nice meeting you, finally."

"I'll try not to keep you waiting so long the next time we meet, Admiral," Krace responded, shaking the man's hand once more before turning and departing the office.

--------------------
Captain Vorn Krace
Commanding Officer
USS Iapetus

&

Rear Admiral Ricky Wegener
Commanding Officer, Starbase 900
Task Force 38 Commanding Officer