Beg, Steal or Borrow – Recruitng Party
by Lieutenant Vincent Tan & Colonel James Darson
Post Details
eutenant Colonel Jacinta Banks lightly dusted her bowl of fruit with a fine layer of icing sugar. It had been an intense morning training session, her battalion's first proper one in the week it had taken them to reach Deep Space 5. Although they were only to stop over for a short time, Colonel Banks had insisted that her unit spent some time of "terra" that was more "firma" than the deck of a troop transport. They thought she did this out of concern for them. They were not aware she had a private meeting of her own to attend to.
She had arranged to meet Colonel James Darson at breakfast. The Marine Mess Hall was an ideal location for a clandestine meeting. It was full of noisy marines, eating away, getting their energy up after a hard morning jog or in preparation for a full day's work. No one would even pay attention to two senior officers talking to each other.
Darson stalked quietly into the bustle of the commissary, both arms mysteriously in operation again, and stood in the doorway for a moment eyeing the clumps of Marines eating and joking with their squad mates. After a couple of seconds, his masked eyes fell upon Lt. Colonel Banks, sitting at a table of her own off to the side. It was she that had discretely contacted him and asked for a meeting, and he had suggested the Main Marine Mess instead of the Officer’s Mess, seeing as how there was a greater chance of it going unnoticed over all the uproar.
He quickly turned to the replicator and ordered a cup of black coffee. It wouldn’t be drunk anyway, but it would serve its own purpose. He grabbed it, along with some sugar and a spoon to stir it with, and than headed over to the table. As he approached it, he gave a small salute with his newly mobile hand, “Colonel Banks,” he said neutrally, (which from him was all the respect you could really hope for), “A pleasure to see you onboard the station,” as he finished he sat down casually across from her and began to slowly add sugar to the coffee and began to stir.
Jacinta returned the salute with a more informal one so as not to be noticed amongst the mess hall. Few things were down by the book a mess hall. "Thank you for agreeing to see me, Colonel." She eyed the man sitting opposite her. Despite his armor, He appeared to be tall and fit, as one would expect from a Marine officer, but there was a shrewdness in his eyes behind his mask that concerned her, even when he was simply stirring his coffee. Here was an animal, a predator, she told herself. Someone who is used to killing, doing so covertly and taking pride is his work, as if he believed himself smarter and stronger than his targets.
Colonel Bank's inner snob immediately led to the assumption that he had "come up through the hawse hole" - that is, an enlisted man who has risen to officer rank. She absentmindedly wondered what he had done to achieve promotion and whether or not her father-in-law knew what kind of person he was dealing with. Leaning in and with lowered voice, she pressed on anyway. "A certain admiral has special orders for you," she said. Passing across a sealed envelope she added, "There is encryption hardware in here. You plug it into your communications line and it will automatically contact the admiral on a secure line and encrypt all the messages. There is an access code on a slip of paper inside this envelope. You will read the code, memorize it and destroy the paper. If you use the hardware without entering the code first, the machine will self destruct. Do you understand, Colonel?"
Darson stopped stirring his coffee for a moment as he examined the envelope on the table and delicately tapped the spoon on the rim of the cup before precariously balancing it on the edge of the cup. He wordlessly reached out and plucked it off the hard surface and held it calmly in his hand gazing at it for a moment before slipping it inside his cloak, “Oh, I understand perfectly, Colonel,” Darson said calmly, “But…I can’t help but wonder why you in particular were chosen to carry out such a…sensitive…duty. Do you have any insight on that matter?”
"I'm afraid I cannot," Jacinta replied. She was at a loss to explain why her father-in-law had given her this task. But she was not about to reveal that to Darson. Something about him made her cautious. "Maybe because I was being deployed in this area and it was convenient? My job is not to question my orders, Colonel Darson. It is to carry them out."
Darson stared at her silently for a couple of seconds and then let out what sounded suspiciously like a chuckle, “Don’t we all, Colonel. Well then, if that is all, I must return to my duties. I do hope you…enjoy…your time on Deep Space 5 Colonel, and if you need anything at all, please do not hesitate to call upon me.” With that said, he stood up and gave her a slight mocking bow, before turning and melting away into the crowd, leaving his coffee untouched on the table.
Try as much as she did, Jacinta could shake her suspicious feelings towards Darson. He was a fellow Marine, but he did not exude that confidence, that pride, that sense of honourable wholesomeness that befitted an officer and a gentleman of the Starfleet Marine Corps. She sincerely hoped that her father-in-law knew what he doing and was secretly glad that her role in all this would be pretty much over.
OFF:
Lieutenant Colonel James Darson
Marine Commanding Officer
Deep Space 5
Lieutenant Colonel Jacinta Banks
Marine Battalion CO
NPCed by Vana
by Lieutenant Vincent Tan & Colonel James Darson
Post Details
| Title | Recruitng Party | |
| Mission | Beg, Steal or Borrow | |
| Author(s) | Lieutenant Vincent Tan & Colonel James Darson | |
| Posted | Fri Jul 10, 2009 @ 1:40pm | |
| Location | DS5 - Deck 73 - Marine Mess Hall | |
| Timeline | SD9 0730 (Backpost) |
She had arranged to meet Colonel James Darson at breakfast. The Marine Mess Hall was an ideal location for a clandestine meeting. It was full of noisy marines, eating away, getting their energy up after a hard morning jog or in preparation for a full day's work. No one would even pay attention to two senior officers talking to each other.
Darson stalked quietly into the bustle of the commissary, both arms mysteriously in operation again, and stood in the doorway for a moment eyeing the clumps of Marines eating and joking with their squad mates. After a couple of seconds, his masked eyes fell upon Lt. Colonel Banks, sitting at a table of her own off to the side. It was she that had discretely contacted him and asked for a meeting, and he had suggested the Main Marine Mess instead of the Officer’s Mess, seeing as how there was a greater chance of it going unnoticed over all the uproar.
He quickly turned to the replicator and ordered a cup of black coffee. It wouldn’t be drunk anyway, but it would serve its own purpose. He grabbed it, along with some sugar and a spoon to stir it with, and than headed over to the table. As he approached it, he gave a small salute with his newly mobile hand, “Colonel Banks,” he said neutrally, (which from him was all the respect you could really hope for), “A pleasure to see you onboard the station,” as he finished he sat down casually across from her and began to slowly add sugar to the coffee and began to stir.
Jacinta returned the salute with a more informal one so as not to be noticed amongst the mess hall. Few things were down by the book a mess hall. "Thank you for agreeing to see me, Colonel." She eyed the man sitting opposite her. Despite his armor, He appeared to be tall and fit, as one would expect from a Marine officer, but there was a shrewdness in his eyes behind his mask that concerned her, even when he was simply stirring his coffee. Here was an animal, a predator, she told herself. Someone who is used to killing, doing so covertly and taking pride is his work, as if he believed himself smarter and stronger than his targets.
Colonel Bank's inner snob immediately led to the assumption that he had "come up through the hawse hole" - that is, an enlisted man who has risen to officer rank. She absentmindedly wondered what he had done to achieve promotion and whether or not her father-in-law knew what kind of person he was dealing with. Leaning in and with lowered voice, she pressed on anyway. "A certain admiral has special orders for you," she said. Passing across a sealed envelope she added, "There is encryption hardware in here. You plug it into your communications line and it will automatically contact the admiral on a secure line and encrypt all the messages. There is an access code on a slip of paper inside this envelope. You will read the code, memorize it and destroy the paper. If you use the hardware without entering the code first, the machine will self destruct. Do you understand, Colonel?"
Darson stopped stirring his coffee for a moment as he examined the envelope on the table and delicately tapped the spoon on the rim of the cup before precariously balancing it on the edge of the cup. He wordlessly reached out and plucked it off the hard surface and held it calmly in his hand gazing at it for a moment before slipping it inside his cloak, “Oh, I understand perfectly, Colonel,” Darson said calmly, “But…I can’t help but wonder why you in particular were chosen to carry out such a…sensitive…duty. Do you have any insight on that matter?”
"I'm afraid I cannot," Jacinta replied. She was at a loss to explain why her father-in-law had given her this task. But she was not about to reveal that to Darson. Something about him made her cautious. "Maybe because I was being deployed in this area and it was convenient? My job is not to question my orders, Colonel Darson. It is to carry them out."
Darson stared at her silently for a couple of seconds and then let out what sounded suspiciously like a chuckle, “Don’t we all, Colonel. Well then, if that is all, I must return to my duties. I do hope you…enjoy…your time on Deep Space 5 Colonel, and if you need anything at all, please do not hesitate to call upon me.” With that said, he stood up and gave her a slight mocking bow, before turning and melting away into the crowd, leaving his coffee untouched on the table.
Try as much as she did, Jacinta could shake her suspicious feelings towards Darson. He was a fellow Marine, but he did not exude that confidence, that pride, that sense of honourable wholesomeness that befitted an officer and a gentleman of the Starfleet Marine Corps. She sincerely hoped that her father-in-law knew what he doing and was secretly glad that her role in all this would be pretty much over.
OFF:
Lieutenant Colonel James Darson
Marine Commanding Officer
Deep Space 5
Lieutenant Colonel Jacinta Banks
Marine Battalion CO
NPCed by Vana