Promotions & Travel Plans

Posted on Thu Jun 11th, 2015 @ 3:09pm by Admiral Ricky Wegener & Commander Patrick Leroy

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Deck 6 - Wegener's Office

* * * Deck 6 - Wegener’s Office * * *

“Ahhhh.”

Rick was excited to be back in his own office, the way things should be. Not many people really knew how much he loved Starbase 900 and his personnel on station but he felt so at home here. He’d just left Lucius in Saturnalia and walked with a very wobbly Lt. Beckman to his office. He didn’t expect many visitors so he told her she could dim the lights considerably, at least for a while.

Now he was sitting at his desk with his feet propped up on the corner, which took a bit of weight off of the still healing wound on his hip. A large, steaming mug of hot tea was handy as he skimmed through reports from while he was suspended. He paid close attention to the reports that Leroy had attended to, making sure they were completed to his satisfaction. He wasn’t at all surprised that they were all well handled and he wouldn’t have done anything differently.

After a few attempts with the heel of his foot failed, he finally tapped the comm console with the end of his cane. “Hope, can you please summon Commander Leroy to my office?”

“Ugh, you don’t have to yell,” she said and closed the comm.

He couldn’t help but chuckle. She was likely going to have a bit of a hangover all day and her shift was just starting.

* * * Leroy’s Quarters * * *

Patrick heaved a sigh. Sitting on Wegener’s personal gridiron had been an experience. One he could now put under his belt and Ms. Beckman’s call hadn’t been unexpected this time.

As per regular procedure, a debriefing session was in order... A thing he did not dislike for, at the moment, more pressing matters weighed on his mind and he could only feel relieved by the closing of this parenthesis.

He gently detached the third full pip from his collar and put it in the box, then donned his old empty one for his former Lt. Commander rank. Straightening his uniform a last time he left his quarters on his way to the Admiral’s office.”


* * * Deck 6 - Wegener’s Office * * *

“The Admiral… Is waiting for you Commander”

Patrick raised an eyebrow in wonder regarding Ms. Beckman as she rubbed her temples.
She hadn’t even raised her eyes to look at him and seemed somewhat suffering. Still the Admiral couldn’t be left waiting so he set aside his curiosity and stepped inside Wegener’s office.

“Commander Leroy,” Rick said, still seated, “I hope you’ll forgive an old man with an extra hole in his rump for remaining seated. Getting up and down is sort of a pain.”

“No problem with that Admiral.” Patrick responded nodding “I’m glad indeed to see you recovering. The first reports coming through about what happened were a bit worrying.” He ended and, motioned by the Admiral, he took the seat in front of the desk.

“Well, first things first, I want to commend on you on the job you did while I was out. I’ve gone through all of the reports and I wouldn’t have done anything differently.” He smiled. “Excellent work.”

“I’m glad you’re satisfied, Sir.” Patrick replied easing himself as Wegener’s assessment of his period in charge turned out positive then stopped some instants considering his next words “I have to say though that a great deal of Damocles’ Factor is coming with the position.”

Wegener perked up his brow interrogatively and Patrick explained better his attempt to comparison:

“Being CO of an entire starbase in the situation presented by this quadrant is not the cakewalk every cadet dreams of... Thinking of the day he’ll attain the rank. By perusing the various reports I’ve seen that we have few friends and many detractors here. Every political decision could easily lead to a pitfall if not weighed correctly… Kind of having the legendary sword suspended on one’s head. Not always an enviable position, especially considering the other problems you had to cope with recently, Sir.”

“That is probably the most accurate description of a starbase commander’s position,” Rick said with a nod. “Thankfully you didn’t have to deal with one of those detractors, but you did have quite a bit on your plate. Thank you for performing so well. However, I wouldn’t have put you in the position if I didn’t think you were up to it.”

“I’m happy of having been deemed up to the task and I’m relieved to have relinquished command to the rightful hands once again, now that all of this madness is over.” said Patrick placing the little box on the desk.

Rick furrowed his brow, took the box and opened it. He was surprised to see the gold rank pip he’d placed on Patrick’s collar. “Have you been relieved of this promotion yet, Commander?” he asked, snapping the box shut and sliding it back over to Patrick. “If not, then you are currently out of uniform.”

Patrick started to reply but Rick cut him off. “One thing that I cannot abide is one of my personnel being out of uniform.” He stood with assistance from the cane and slowly made his way around to the front of his desk and sat on the edge. “Now, I realize, initially, I said the promotion was temporary. But one thing that I have done while taking my respite was to look through all of my senior staff’s files, something I should have done a long time ago.” He winced a bit at the pain in his fundament and adjusted how he was sitting on the desk. “I paid special attention to yours since you were running things for me and something that I noticed was that you have worked diligently in your position, made great strides in the sciences and have had zero corrective actions given and also have received zero complaints from your subordinates--quite the opposite, actually. Your people seem to enjoy having you as their department head.”

He took the box and stood. “Now, you may be young at thirty years, and there aren’t many your age who have attained full Commander rank, but I would be completely remiss if I did not make that temporary promotion into a permanent one. Unless you have some sort of objection?”

“Er… No I don’t have any objections of sort, Sir.” Patrick replied slightly surprised by the turn of events. “Thank you, Sir.”

Well, about the fact of having the staff of Galileo completely happy with his being in command probably that would have been matter of discussion but it didn’t seem opportune to Patrick to bother the admiral with comments and ‘lower decks’ tripe.

Instead he chose to bring forth the other matter. The one that had started mining his sleeping hours.

“Admiral... “ He started trying to get the words right “I would take this occasion to ask for an extended leave. I do not want to neglect Galileo but some pressing personal matters have come at hand…”

Rick nodded slowly. “Okay. Anything that I should be aware of?”

“There is one report about a Klingon diplomatic delegation that you’ll see among the others of these days. All the details for their coming to SB900 are specified therein… What the report does not say is that the leader of the delegation is a relative of Commander Kh’ali and that she has posed some questioning about our relationship.”

Patrick paused as bringing personal things to the CO’s attention wasn’t easy for him. Then, breathing deeply he reprised: “The Commander has been threatened and insulted with the flinging of all this Klingon honor and family stuff… leaving her little option. So, in the end, we decided to go to Qo’nos and regularize our situation with a Klingon wedding…”

Patrick stopped then, leaving to the Admiral the guessing of the possible other options left by the ‘Klingon’s way’, sure that he would know.

“Ah,” Rick said, then shuffled back around to his chair and slowly lowered himself down and wiggled a bit, to get the right angle. “I take it you have appropriate personnel in place to substitute for your leadership,” the Admiral said, but not as a question. “It will also require Kh’ali to be off at the same time.” He inhaled deeply and exhaled forcefully, tapping the desk, as if he were considering it. Finally, “I’ll approve it. I need happy personnel here on the station. And if this smooths some things over for you and yours, I think it worthy. Since Li isn’t here, both of you submit your requests to me personally. When do you leave?”

“My desire would be to leave as soon as possible and get it over with this thing. Of course I’ll set up everything in Galileo before leaving. Commander Kh’ali will do the same then we will submit our leave requests.”

“Okay. And I’m sure Kh’ali has told you, but watch your back, Commander. You may be there for honorable reasons but I’m certain that there will likely be people there who may have murder in mind for you two. It wouldn’t hurt to take along a few of our own for backup. This may be a personal errand, but I don’t mind assigning staff for protection.”

“Thank you, Sir. I’ve alerted security and also requested the help of a specialist from Intel. Lieutenant Marcinko has been assigned to the task, I think is very prepared and will be a worthy addition to our unwanted vacation group. If he wants to get along, that is.”

“I’ll make it an order so he won’t have a choice,” Rick said. “He’s a good person to have on your side for things like this.” He adjusted in his chair once more. “Well, try to enjoy it, Commander. The planet really is fascinating, but watch your back at all times. And a personal weapon might help.”

There was a moment of silence between the two. Rick knew it would be a tough thing to get through since Klingons could easily take something as a slight, and reason to challenge you to a fight to the death, but he had faith in both Kh’ali and Patrick. And there was Nick.

“Bah, you’ll be fine. Dismissed.”


******************************
Admiral Ricky Wegener
Back In The *ouch!* Saddle...


Patrick Leroy
Full-Time Commander & Groom