Reassignment (Part 1)

Posted on Fri Aug 30th, 2024 @ 11:50pm by Captain Maho Takahashi & Lieutenant Alisha Reno

1,086 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Captains and Contraband
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: Post- "A Matter Of Intelligence"

Alisha was genuinely nervous as she stepped onto the bridge, still in her grey Intelligence uniform. It was haphazardly on and unsealed from where she had just slipped it on again after throwing Captain Martine out of her office and the pips of a Lieutenant were missing. The only reason she'd even put it back on over her tunic was that her commbadge was on it and she hadn't the wit to just remove THAT and put it on. She looked over the rest of the crew there on the command deck but didn't see Maho anywhere and one arm crossed over to the other as she felt a chill run down her back and she wanted to just step back into the turbolift and run to her quarters, but no.

It was a wild guess that made her walk around the perimeter of the bridge and slink into the lee of where the ready room door was and press the chime. She spoke softly so that no one could hear her aside from the pickup microphone, "Captain Takahashi? It's Lie- It's Reno, I need to see you if you're available?"

Maho had been working late, and was just about to call it a night when the ready room chime rang, followed by Lieutenant Reno's voice coming over the pickup microphone, which had rarely been used since Maho had assumed command of the Myogi- implying that whatever it was Alisha needed to see her about, it was urgent. Maho looked around for a moment trying to remember where the answering button was for the pickup microphone before she found and pressed it:

"Okay...?" Maho responded over the microphone, an uncertain inflection carrying in her voice. "Come in."

Alisha’s shoulders sagged in relief as the Captain’s voice came back and the door slid open in front of her. If she’d had to wait until the next morning with what had happened, there would have been no sleep for her and the already red-stained eyes would have been worse. She walked into the office a haphazard mess and tried to draw herself up to some sort of attention. “Thank you for seeing me, ma’am, I wanted to.. Needed to tell you something.

Maho sized Alisha up and quietly made note of all the dress code infractions that would have gotten the Lieutenant written up - missing rank pips, improperly worn tunic... If it hadn't been such a late hour, Alisha probably would have been written up over it. However, as the hour was late, and the Lieutenant's body language displayed an obvious sign of distress, Maho would be willing to let the infractions slide if Alisha could provide a good reason for it.

"Of course, Lieutenant." Maho nodded. "What's the reason behind the late call?"

“I just- I mean there was a-” Alisha closed her eyes, this was nothing she’d rehearsed. Start from the beginning, go to the end, fill in the details. “Captain, approximately fifty-five minutes ago, Captain Azalea Martine arrived at my office to ‘debrief’ me on the situation from Gamma Zednor.” Her muscles tightened up even thinking about that, “Apparently my written report didn’t convey what she wanted. In the course of our conversation, she gave me the information that while my part in the movie we filmed was genuine, Starfleet Intelligence contrived to force the filming to be on Gamma Zednor for the intended purpose to have someone there, me, on the ground, especially given the makeup of the filming crew. That’s why they came to me for the mission, and pressured me into actually going on that undercover mission. I was really just trying to take some leave, ma’am, that was all..”

Alisha stopped, realizing she was rambling and took a deep breath, “Sorry, ma’am, I didn’t mean to… twenty-eight minutes ago, Captain, I told Captain Martine that if I ever saw her again, that I would kill her and I meant it. At that point I… Removed her from my office, or at least tried to, and I resigned from Starfleet Intelligence.” The Intelligence Officer, or was she anymore, “I’m here hoping that we can arrange an internal transfer to another department… Myogi has become my family, Maho, I don’t want to leave my family… I can’t, I, I…” Unbidden tears came to her eyes and she turned away from the Captain, not being able to control them.

"I understand." Maho said in a sympathetic tone.

Alisha fought with this particular demon for a few seconds and brought herself under some sort of control, "I'm sorry, Captain, I.. Didn't think it would come to this."

"Under Miyahara, we were more than just a crew: We were a family." Maho explained. "Then Starfleet tried to break that family by reassigning everyone. And while it's not been perfect under my leadership, I'd like to believe there's been some sort of restoration of the Starship Myogi family, and as head of that family, it's my job to ensure that everyone is happy and healthy."

Maho grabbed a PADD and pulled up on it the Myogi's available openings.

"Here's all our available department head and assistant openings:" She explained, sliding the PADD forward for Alisha to look at. "I won't ask you to fill our marine complement, because the corps would most certainly object to your appointment."

"And I wouldn't be much good to them." Alisha confirmed that she wouldn't want to join them as she accepted the PADD and finally sat down, "Just like being a security officer, I couldn't do the job properly. I wouldn't be able to be an engineer," She tabbed down the list, "Before I went into Intelligence, I started the Academy as a cadet in Flight Control, but I don't know if I could do that because of Jane, but I am certified on several shuttle types, mostly due to data pickups in remote regions." Her voice was trembling, "I did have significant time in a role as an Operations Petty Officer and three months posing as an Ensign in Science in Astrometrics. I do know the stars really well, both for astronavigations and makeup, because the role really needed in depth knowledge and I had to study hard for it."

The former Intelligence officer placed the PADD down gently on the desk in front of her, "I don't know.. I really don't know what I'd choose.. What do you think, Captain?"

To be continued...

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