The Quality Of Leadership (Part 1)

Posted on Sun Feb 4th, 2024 @ 7:23am by Captain Maho Takahashi & Commander Keisuke Takahashi 'K.T.' & Commander Ichika Misono & Captain Mikoto Misaka & Ensign Miyoko Misaka & Crewman Recruit Hanamaru Kunikida 'Maru'

1,128 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Operation Tokyo Return
Location: USS Myogi (NCC-65918), Commander Misono's Quarters, Deck 2
Timeline: Approximately 0300 hours after "The Wrap Up"

Ichika leaned back in her chair and sighed.

To say that it had been a long day was a bit of an understatement; a more accurate description, as the humans would put it, was "a shit show." It was bad enough that they now had credible reason to believe that Tanaka Miyahara was out there amassing an army of delusional fanatics; it was bad enough to discover that they had come into possession of a powerful Romulan prototype, likely with the Tal Shiar's assistance; it was bad enough knowing that they had moles on their ship who were relaying confidential information directly to Miyahara and his allies. But everything that had transpired in the last three hours? This took the proverbial shit-cake.

Where to even start? Well, the fact that Captain Aisaka had inexcusably chosen that exact moment to lock the crew out of all major systems (or so she claimed) to try and demand an apology out of Maho was as good a place as any. She'd think for someone with as much experience as Captain Aisaka's, that move would be flat-out career suicide in any other situation; if she'd pulled something like that in front of, say, Commodore Honda, Ichika had no doubt in her mind that Captain Aisaka would be receiving a full court martial for her actions, so it was all the more amazing that she was getting out of this with just a slap on the wrist.

But if what Captain Aisaka had done was brazen, then what Maho had done in response was unbecoming of a Commanding Officer, and especially unbecoming of Maho. Rather than, say, prioritizing subduing Captain Aisaka and restoring power to the main systems, Maho instead placed her self-pride over the lives of her crew and demanded that Captain Aisaka apologize to her.

Sufficed to say, when word of this altercation began to spread, there were more than a few people who were angry that the Captain would risk their lives over a stupid grudge. Some, you could say, were livid, and perhaps none more so than their Third Officer. Ichika had just spent the past two hours- two hours!- talking Commander Anzai down from pursuing a full court martial against Maho. She'd been lucky to get her to back down until Ichika got the chance to talk to Maho, and even then, she could tell that Commander Anzai had her doubts.

Oh, don't get her wrong, Ichika knew full well that with any other Captain, a court martial would be rightly warranted; but deep down, she knew that this wasn't Maho. On the contrary, the Maho she knew was a selfless woman who went out of her way to stand up for others, not because she felt they owed her anything, but because it was the right thing to do. She had seen this first-hand in the Academy, and she could attest to the long-term impact of Maho's actions. If this had been any other Captain hijacking the Myogi, she had no doubt in her mind that Maho would've prioritized her crew's safety, first and foremost. But in the anger of the moment, Maho had acted irresponsibly, and very narrowly placed over 200 lives in harm's way...

Ichika rubbed her temples. She was so very conflicted as to how to handle this....

As if to offer her a temporary respite from this moral quandry, her PADD sounded off, likely to notify her that the duty rosters she'd requested earlier today had been relayed. With a sigh, she picked up the PADD and began to skim through it's contents. Though, admittedly, she was only half-paying attention, as the matter of what had happened earlier still weighed considerably on her conscience. If only there was some way to get through to Maho...

Her thoughts trailed off as she thought she saw a familiar name scroll past her on the manifest. Quickly scrolling back up, she called up the file in question to make doubly sure it was who she thought it was.

"No way..."

She reached up and tapped her Commbadge. =A=Lieutenant Gill, could I speak to you in my quarters, please? I have a small favor to ask of you...=A=

---

[Captain Takahashi's Quarters, Deck 2]

Captain's log, Starship Myogi:

With Captain Aisaka and Commander Takasu off my ship, I can finally breathe the first free air in almost a week. While the immense weight has been lifted off my shoulders, I will continue my quest for answers as to why it was placed there to begin with.

Understandably, Starfleet has finally given us orders to stand down, and this is the first time in a long time where we've had nowhere to go or anything required of us. And for once, I'm actually looking forward to spending a night alone with my husband...

After a lovely and delicious dinner, during which Keisuke had brought up that the MFG was racing that night in Miyagi Prefecture back home, Maho had decided that together, they would sit down and watch the race. Ever since Taiga and Ryuuji had beamed out, Maho had not only been in better spirits, but had even felt better, perhaps the best she had felt since before they had set off.

"Alright, so who are we rooting for tonight?" Maho asked as Keisuke was tuning in to the race. "Clearly, Tirpitz is the crowd favorite, as that Gallardo has been on fire this season, but at the same time, we've got Kanno with home-field advantage."

"I don't know;" Keisuke responded. "I don't think you should count Shokuho out just yet: She's a slow burner at season start, but really hits her stride mid season."

"Shokuho?" Maho asked. "Isn't she that older one? Like older than the average MFG driver?"

"Yep, that's the one." Keisuke said. "I've gotta say, for an ex-Starfleet officer in her mid 50s, she sure knows how to chuck a car around a course."

"Ex-Starfleet?" Maho asked, intrigued.

"Yeah, I've seen her records: Lieutnenant Commander Misaki Shokuho turned in her combadge after the Dominion War concluded. Understandable when you hear what she went through during the war." Keisuke shrugged. "She was a contemporary of that one lady that Senpai always spoke so highly of... God, what was her name? Mikado? Mukuro?"

The moment of trying to remember the name was suddenly interrupted by the chime to the quarters going off.

"Aw, fuck me, what now?" Maho grumbled as she moved to get up.

"Suwatte Kudasai: (Sit down:)" Keisuke said sharply in Japanese. "I'll handle this."

To be continued...

 

RSS Feed