Behind Closed Doors

Posted on Thu Jul 14th, 2011 @ 11:48am by Admiral Ricky Wegener & Master Chief Petty Officer Daniel Brooke

The Hammond and the Takei had only been gone an hour and Ricky sat in his office looking over the information they had obtained so far about the Divitians. So far, there wasn't much other than the initial contact reports from the Excelsior in 2384. The one pressing issue that stuck out in Rick's mind was reports of their local law enforcement's handling of Rheger Tuhg refugees, and handling was a much nicer term. Once the Divitian government announced that they had reached the maximum amount of refugees on their planet, immigration crackdown became high priority and confrontations between the Tuhg and the Divitians became very intense. Reports in isolated areas of local law enforcement units exterminating entire illegal Tugh settlement, reports that were confirmed by the USS Excelsior.

"Extermination," he said, shaking his head and reading the word over and over. "What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?"

The large doors to his office swung open and Master Chief Brook entered. He'd advised Lieutenant Beckman to send him on in once he'd arrived.

"Danny," Ricky said. "Have a seat," he said as he pulled out two glasses and an old bottle of whisky. "Have you read this information from the Excelsior on the Divitians and their little problem with the Rheger Tuhg refugees back in '84?"

"Can't say I've given it much more than a once over, Ricky," the Master Chief said as he took the offered drink and eased into a nearby chair, "Why, did I miss something I shouldn't have skimming it over?"

Rick highlighted the parts about the exterminations on the PADD he was reading from and passed it over to him. "Have a look. Honestly, if I'd seen that part when we were in the conference I would have brought it up."

The Master Chief glanced at it and almost chocked on his drink, "The hell?! How could we miss something like that?"

"Yeah," Rick said as he watched Danny finish reading it. "It doesn't say anything about it being government sanctioned, but it's all just a bit too weird for me. Any race that has no qualms of just killing people when there become too many of them has serious issues. And now we're thinking about casting our lot in with them." He shook his head and sipped his drink. "This just keeps getting better and better." The sarcasm was thick in his voice.

"Well, I hate to be devil's advocate, but hasn't a great many of our own members at one point or another done the very same thing? Can't say I condone the shit, lord knows I don't... But the fact remains that every culture before they had anything to do with us has had a past that might not be considered... proper. But if that's all you know, who's to really say it was wrong. It was right for them before we came around, and I can't say the Federation's been right every day since it was founded. It does beg looking into, don't get me wrong, but maybe they can change. Worth a shot, don't you think?" the man said in a casual manner.

Rick smiled, somewhat, and raised his glass to the Master Chief. "That's why I keep you around, Danny boy. Level headed thinking." He downed the last of his whiskey and poured a bit more. "Well, there's no telling how long qeraQ's going to be gone, so you may as well get started with filling in for him. I know the higher ranked officers may want to give you a bit of a hard time telling them what to do, but I'm sure you can handle them." This time he smiled fully, almost wickedly. "And if they give you any shit, I'll be more than happy to stomp a mud hole in their asses. I haven't gotten to do that in a while."

He drained the glass in one large gulp. "Whoo...I think that's enough for me. I'm getting angry."

Danny laughed, "That's the problem with young people, can't hold their liqueur and they can't hold their fire. Ah well... Just a sign of the times... I'll handle the job well enough, I think. Don't imagine too many of the people around here giving me that much crap, but if I encounter something I can't handle, I'll turn you on to it and you can work your magical mud hole stomping trick."

"Aww, you say the nicest things," Ricky replied, "considering I'm 105 years older than you. I guess now I can go down the corridors with a little more spring in my step." He pointed at Danny and his ribbing of him and smiled. "Fucker. But at least I'm not as old as our beloved Commodore Cowell." He grinned widely. "Handle your business as you see fit, Danny. I trust you as much as I do qeraQ'."

The two continued talking about the status of the base and the potential for danger that the Hammond and Takei crews could get into.

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A joint post by:

TFMCPO Daniel Brooke

&

RADM Ricky Wegener