Interlude – Further Query...
by Colonel James Darson & Commander Richard Dunham
Post Details
ON:
Darson strode purposefully into the cavernous hanger that made up the headquarters of the Combat group. He had been putting off this visit for a while, but certain events were conspiring to make this little diversion a bit more urgent than originally intended. He quickly flicked his gaze around as he entered, his cloak furling around his boots. He oriented himself in the direction of a group of mechanics working on a fighter, and moved over to them while making a whistling noise.
“Oy! You there. I’m looking for Lieutenant Dunham. Where can I find him?”
An engineer rolled out from under the fighter on top of a wheeled platform, on which he lay on his back. The engineer wore oil stained overalls, He looked up at the Marine Colonel, then eyed him up and down briefly. He then pointed to the CAG's office with his hydro spanner. The man then promptly went back to work.
Dunham's office, was known as the crows nest by the pilots and engineers that frequented the large hanger bay. The reason being, that it held its position amongst the rafter like gang ways, and walk routes, that made up the upper echelons below the ceiling of the hanger.
Darson eyed the office for a moment, then headed to the open sided lift and pressed the controls, sending it up. He stepped off at the top, and maneuvered himself down the walk ways beneath the ceiling over to the unassuming office door. He looked it over for a second, then rapped his armored hand on it.
"Come in please." Said Dunham politely, from inside his office. He had his feet up on his desk, and he was reading a report on the new crew editions had received; mainly personnel files and security reports. As well as performance records, from their time in the cock pit.
As Darson entered, he gazed around the room and said in a light tone, "Well, well...looks like your new position is treating you well indeed Mr. Dunham. Congratulations on your appointment."
"Sir" Dunham said in polite agreement, whilst taking his legs from of his desk and getting up from his chair, straightening his uniform and then standing at attention. Colonel Darson may not of been in the same department as Dunham, but he was a superior officer, and was due the respect of his rank. So Dunham didn't really mind standing at attention in his own office, would of been the same if a higher ranking starfleet officer walked in. "How may I help you sir?"
Darson gave a sound of annoyance as he sat down in the single chair across from Dunham’s desk, “For starters you can be at ease. Relax, Lieutenant. Lord knows, I’m going to,” with that said, he leaned back and put his feet up on the corner of the desk and stretched his arms out.
"Yes sir." Dunham unceremoniously slumped back into his comfortable office chair. His shoulder relaxed and then tension in his frame eased out. He to put his feet back up on his desk, though unlike the Colonels they were not part of an armoured suite.
“As for why I’m here,” he said in a slightly more serious tone, “I’m afraid that it is a little bit business related. I am here to congratulate you on your promotion…but also here to talk with you about your former Wing Leader…Commander…I’m sorry, erie’Riov Rianni Monteros-t’Khellian.”
"Thank you sir." Said Dunham with a smile, though he was confused a little as to what the Colonel wanted to know about the ships former CAG. "What would you like to know about Rianni Monteros-t’Khellian?" Dunham still felt a sense of loyalty to his former superior officer.
Darson was silent for a moment and then said, “Regardless of the recent fanfare surrounding her, in my eyes Ms. t’Khellian has become nothing but a potential adversary to me. I need to get the full measure of the kind of person she is, in order to make a judgment on what should be done about her. Now, I’ve read the reports of what happened. The official ones, filed by that idiot Burns…but I’ve never been one to trust the official reports. I want to know what happened. The whole story. From someone who was close to her. Someone like you, Lieutenant Dunham."
Dunham pursed his lips for a moment in thought. He paused as he began to run the story through his head. He then spoke his tale; "Burns, fresh from telling Sector Command he'd succeeded in getting Rianni Monteros out of Starfleet, came down here and then proceeded to talk to me about starfleet security matters in regards to CAG, coming down here....Well I cut him off that that point. You see I had been kept out of the loop, I was unaware she had under gone psychological profiling...."
"You see he actually laughed about. This burns fella laughed about, he then said he had cut her a deal, rather than giving the CAG a section 8, instead allowing her to quit her commission. Well you can understand how some of the deck crew felt about there boss getting. Things got a little. But know one was hurt. He had a civilised conversation. I pointed out to him that I'd also complain that, none of Lieutenant Commanders Monteros-t'Khellian's subordinates, got to speak on her behalf at an official hearing, or interviewed as part of any psychological profiling of her. Their were major holes in his case, against her. After some convincing we managed to get out of him that Sector Command had ordered him to get Lieutenant Commanders Monteros-t'Khellian discharge regardless of the lack of procedure and proper course of action."
Dunham shrugged. "Well we weren't having any of it, but in the end it wasn't my choice to make it was the CAG's. I told her what had happened, and advised her we had a damn good case to get her re-enstated but....she didn't want us to risk our own careers over fighting for something that had come from way up the chain of coomand, and probably had more to do with the points on her eyes than her suicide attempt. She then said her aunt had given her a job. And that as they say was that."
"But don't ask me why she tried to kill herself in the first place" he said in a quite whisper. "I have no idea"
Darson was quite and stared off into space for a minute as he processed that information. Not really what he wanted, in so far as it didn’t explain the underlying reasons behind her defection, but it was interesting to hear Starfleet’s part in it. He removed his boots from the desk and said to Dunham, “Well Mr. Dunham…I think I have everything I need for the moment. I thank you for your time, and I’m sorry if I dredged up any bad memories.”
He stood up and turned to leave. But as he reached the door he stopped and turned back, “I would be remiss,” he said, “If I didn’t give you a house warming gift, Lieutenant. So,” he furled the cloak around him and dug an arm deep inside it, giving the impression that he was rummaging around a massive space looking for something.
“BEHOLD!!!” He whisked the cloak away and revealed himself to be holding a latinum-plated model of an Excelsior class starship, about the size of his forearm and attached to a stand, “Here you go. A souvenir of my tangle with pirates a little while ago. I took it from his quarters…after I beat him to death with it. Don’t worry, I cleaned off the blood…its just that after my quarters were bombed on the ship, I realized that it wouldn’t look very good with me. I’ve been carrying it around ever since, waiting for somebody to give it too. It seems you can appreciate it, so you take it. Good day Lieutenant.”
After dumping the model on his desk, Darson turned and blew out the door like a gust of wind, without even giving Dunham a chance to respond.
Dunham sat there a moment after the Colonel had left, shaking his head softly in disbelief. Dunham thought to himself that if anyone on this station needed psychological examination, it was the marine who had just left his office. He picked up the gold model, and dropped it in the bin.
OFF:
Colonel James Darson
Marine Commanding Officer
Deep Space 5
&
Lt Richard Dunham
by Colonel James Darson & Commander Richard Dunham
Post Details
| Title | Further Query... | |
| Mission | Interlude | |
| Author(s) | Colonel James Darson & Commander Richard Dunham | |
| Posted | Tue Aug 17, 2010 @ 7:51am | |
| Location | SB DS5 - Hanger Bay | |
| Timeline | Day before the party |
Darson strode purposefully into the cavernous hanger that made up the headquarters of the Combat group. He had been putting off this visit for a while, but certain events were conspiring to make this little diversion a bit more urgent than originally intended. He quickly flicked his gaze around as he entered, his cloak furling around his boots. He oriented himself in the direction of a group of mechanics working on a fighter, and moved over to them while making a whistling noise.
“Oy! You there. I’m looking for Lieutenant Dunham. Where can I find him?”
An engineer rolled out from under the fighter on top of a wheeled platform, on which he lay on his back. The engineer wore oil stained overalls, He looked up at the Marine Colonel, then eyed him up and down briefly. He then pointed to the CAG's office with his hydro spanner. The man then promptly went back to work.
Dunham's office, was known as the crows nest by the pilots and engineers that frequented the large hanger bay. The reason being, that it held its position amongst the rafter like gang ways, and walk routes, that made up the upper echelons below the ceiling of the hanger.
Darson eyed the office for a moment, then headed to the open sided lift and pressed the controls, sending it up. He stepped off at the top, and maneuvered himself down the walk ways beneath the ceiling over to the unassuming office door. He looked it over for a second, then rapped his armored hand on it.
"Come in please." Said Dunham politely, from inside his office. He had his feet up on his desk, and he was reading a report on the new crew editions had received; mainly personnel files and security reports. As well as performance records, from their time in the cock pit.
As Darson entered, he gazed around the room and said in a light tone, "Well, well...looks like your new position is treating you well indeed Mr. Dunham. Congratulations on your appointment."
"Sir" Dunham said in polite agreement, whilst taking his legs from of his desk and getting up from his chair, straightening his uniform and then standing at attention. Colonel Darson may not of been in the same department as Dunham, but he was a superior officer, and was due the respect of his rank. So Dunham didn't really mind standing at attention in his own office, would of been the same if a higher ranking starfleet officer walked in. "How may I help you sir?"
Darson gave a sound of annoyance as he sat down in the single chair across from Dunham’s desk, “For starters you can be at ease. Relax, Lieutenant. Lord knows, I’m going to,” with that said, he leaned back and put his feet up on the corner of the desk and stretched his arms out.
"Yes sir." Dunham unceremoniously slumped back into his comfortable office chair. His shoulder relaxed and then tension in his frame eased out. He to put his feet back up on his desk, though unlike the Colonels they were not part of an armoured suite.
“As for why I’m here,” he said in a slightly more serious tone, “I’m afraid that it is a little bit business related. I am here to congratulate you on your promotion…but also here to talk with you about your former Wing Leader…Commander…I’m sorry, erie’Riov Rianni Monteros-t’Khellian.”
"Thank you sir." Said Dunham with a smile, though he was confused a little as to what the Colonel wanted to know about the ships former CAG. "What would you like to know about Rianni Monteros-t’Khellian?" Dunham still felt a sense of loyalty to his former superior officer.
Darson was silent for a moment and then said, “Regardless of the recent fanfare surrounding her, in my eyes Ms. t’Khellian has become nothing but a potential adversary to me. I need to get the full measure of the kind of person she is, in order to make a judgment on what should be done about her. Now, I’ve read the reports of what happened. The official ones, filed by that idiot Burns…but I’ve never been one to trust the official reports. I want to know what happened. The whole story. From someone who was close to her. Someone like you, Lieutenant Dunham."
Dunham pursed his lips for a moment in thought. He paused as he began to run the story through his head. He then spoke his tale; "Burns, fresh from telling Sector Command he'd succeeded in getting Rianni Monteros out of Starfleet, came down here and then proceeded to talk to me about starfleet security matters in regards to CAG, coming down here....Well I cut him off that that point. You see I had been kept out of the loop, I was unaware she had under gone psychological profiling...."
"You see he actually laughed about. This burns fella laughed about, he then said he had cut her a deal, rather than giving the CAG a section 8, instead allowing her to quit her commission. Well you can understand how some of the deck crew felt about there boss getting. Things got a little. But know one was hurt. He had a civilised conversation. I pointed out to him that I'd also complain that, none of Lieutenant Commanders Monteros-t'Khellian's subordinates, got to speak on her behalf at an official hearing, or interviewed as part of any psychological profiling of her. Their were major holes in his case, against her. After some convincing we managed to get out of him that Sector Command had ordered him to get Lieutenant Commanders Monteros-t'Khellian discharge regardless of the lack of procedure and proper course of action."
Dunham shrugged. "Well we weren't having any of it, but in the end it wasn't my choice to make it was the CAG's. I told her what had happened, and advised her we had a damn good case to get her re-enstated but....she didn't want us to risk our own careers over fighting for something that had come from way up the chain of coomand, and probably had more to do with the points on her eyes than her suicide attempt. She then said her aunt had given her a job. And that as they say was that."
"But don't ask me why she tried to kill herself in the first place" he said in a quite whisper. "I have no idea"
Darson was quite and stared off into space for a minute as he processed that information. Not really what he wanted, in so far as it didn’t explain the underlying reasons behind her defection, but it was interesting to hear Starfleet’s part in it. He removed his boots from the desk and said to Dunham, “Well Mr. Dunham…I think I have everything I need for the moment. I thank you for your time, and I’m sorry if I dredged up any bad memories.”
He stood up and turned to leave. But as he reached the door he stopped and turned back, “I would be remiss,” he said, “If I didn’t give you a house warming gift, Lieutenant. So,” he furled the cloak around him and dug an arm deep inside it, giving the impression that he was rummaging around a massive space looking for something.
“BEHOLD!!!” He whisked the cloak away and revealed himself to be holding a latinum-plated model of an Excelsior class starship, about the size of his forearm and attached to a stand, “Here you go. A souvenir of my tangle with pirates a little while ago. I took it from his quarters…after I beat him to death with it. Don’t worry, I cleaned off the blood…its just that after my quarters were bombed on the ship, I realized that it wouldn’t look very good with me. I’ve been carrying it around ever since, waiting for somebody to give it too. It seems you can appreciate it, so you take it. Good day Lieutenant.”
After dumping the model on his desk, Darson turned and blew out the door like a gust of wind, without even giving Dunham a chance to respond.
Dunham sat there a moment after the Colonel had left, shaking his head softly in disbelief. Dunham thought to himself that if anyone on this station needed psychological examination, it was the marine who had just left his office. He picked up the gold model, and dropped it in the bin.
OFF:
Colonel James Darson
Marine Commanding Officer
Deep Space 5
&
Lt Richard Dunham