Propositional

Posted on Wed May 4th, 2022 @ 4:17am by Captain Calypso Skyie & Lieutenant Mark Valleroy

Mission: Pirates! (Or Yo Ho Ho And A Bottle Of Yum)
Location: Holodeck One, Sauna

Calypso settled back in the hundred-sixty degree pressure of the sauna, closing her eyes for a few moments as she breathed the steam in and out. She'd done her exercising, she'd seen the doctor, now it was time to get those muscles relaxed as much as possible and the humid heat of this place worked really well. But they were on a bit of a time crunch, well, a little bit of one, and she could take care of some business as well.

She glanced down and adjusted the towel wrapped around her body slightly, emphasizing her cleavage just a little bit before leaning back just a little bit. "Computer, open comm to Lieutenant Valleroy. Good afternoon Mark, could you join me in Holodeck One please, at your earliest convenience?" She put some emphasis on the last words, making the request more of a 'get your ass here right the hells now' rather than anything else.

Mark had been spending a bit of time in his office, going over the recent reports. The cleaning and repairs on the waste reclamation systems had actually been going on ahead of schedule thanks to the additional helping hands, so at least one thing was going right around here. Then he go the summons from the captain to report to Holodeck One. Taking a deep breath and getting up, he made his way to Holodeck One, wondering what this could be about and considering whether it might be a good tie to expand on just what Admiral Towers had wanted him to do while on the Chimera.

He arrived at Holodeck One and entered, and ran into a wall of heat and humidity. "Captain?" he said before noticing her seated on the bench of what quickly became obvious was a sauna program. "You called?"

"I did!" She said cheerily, making a moue of a face at his uniform as he all but staggered at the change of atmosphere, "I'm winding down from some physical therapy, but I really needed to talk to you about a few things, so I figured multi-tasking was a good option. Make yourself comfortable, please." She leaned forward a bit, "And while you're doing so, tell me about how your nephews are doing in their time on board?"

Mark somewhat hesitantly sat down nearby. This was certainly an unusual way to conduct business, but then, he was learning that Captain Skyie was an unusual person. "They seem to be fitting in well," he said. "I would like to apologize in advance for any mischief that you may hear about on their part. I wish to note that I was never that wild and rambunctious at that age."

"You may not have been, but I certainly was." She smiled at him, "Kids will be kids and it's been quite a while since either of us could be counted among them. I still remember a couple times when Raiden would prank me by unstringing my racquet before a match, so I'd have to use a different one." She shook a wrist out as a trickle of sweat ran down the side of her face "That jacket must be getting hot, need to change into something a bit more fitting for the environment? I can close my eyes."

"No, that's quite all right. Things are hot and steamy enough as it is in here already," Mark deadpanned. "Best to get the business over with."

Cally laughed and rolled her eyes, shaking her head slightly, “Oh, you’re no fun, Mark! All right, tell you what, I promise that I won't try to flirt with you so long as you’re here with me. Purely professional and appropriate, I honestly just figured that since I’m going to be in here a while, I should get a few things done while I’m just sitting.”

"I'm not sure that this ship is ready for my idea of fun," Mark said. "But despite our little banter here, something tells me that this little meeting isn't to discuss my recreational habits. What can I do for you, Captain?"

"Well, it's kind of a combination of rec and officialness, because I really do want to know more about you." Cally admitted, "It'll just about be a prerequisite. I really do want to know what makes you tick, what sort of decisions you make in a pressure-cooker situation, anything that could be of use to me to be honest. I know that Dexic was really rough on you, but you still fought back despite being held in captivity. I want you to know that I consider that whole situation MY fault, not yours in any way, shape or form."

"Yes, I'm certainly upset over what happened on Dexic," Mark said, "but personally, I don't consider it to be the fault of any of us. I read over the mission information provided by Starfleet Command, and while it did discuss that there were those opposed to the planet joining the Federation, nowhere did it give any indication that they were so opposed to it that they would be willing to resort to killing people - including assassinating their own leaders - in order to get their way."

"There is that." Cally agreed, leaning back against the wall of the sauna again, "I certainly didn't expect to catch a bullet, much less three of them." She exhaled deeply, "But, that being as it may... You kept your head in that situation, which I can't say about most of the rest of the crew, not that many of them had a lot of experience in the matter." She scooted back to be sitting up, "But keeping your head cool in a crisis is one of the hallmarks of command. Which is why I want to offer you the position of my Second Officer to go along with your current duties. In case Commander Esperson and myself aren't available, I want you to take care of my ship and my people."

Mark thought for a moment. "I am honored to be given the position. I hope that I can only live up to the expectations." After a few moments, he said, "There is something I feel I should bring up. Remember when we first met, and I said that the reason I was here was because Admiral Towers told me about needing someone to 'babysit the bunch of loons on the ship'? Well, a part of that included him expecting me to send back regular reports directly - not to mention discreetly - to him about the goings on around here, and particularly the conduct of yourself and other crewmembers on board. I don't know his reasoning for it, though I suspect, considering the nature of this ship and its personnel, he may be looking for excuses to remove one or more individuals in the crew from Starfleet altogether, or at the very least to essentially destroy their careers to the point that they will never be given any position worth noting ever again."

Calypso’s polite smile had faded at the description of what Mark had been ordered to do. To be a spy among her crew; to give information back to Admiral Towers that could be used against her crew and herself. Her mind flicked across what she could remember from her first meeting with Mark, then everything that had happened since. There was no doubt that she was one of the intended victims, but who else? Her former Exec was already gone, Wayne had gone as well, Davenport was cashiered by her own hand, even the original medical personnel were gone. Her tone of voice had changed to flat as she asked, “What sort of information have you already passed to him?” Clinical, emotionless.

"Largely information that would make people look...maybe not outright incompetent, but to at least appear that they were in over their heads," Mark said. "Some crewmembers more than others, and yes, you were among the ones that I was to pay more attention to. I don't think Admiral Towers cares all that much about, say, some random low-ranking enlisted crewman who's assigned to Waste Management on Deck 16 - he seemed to care more about the more senior officers, the ones who he could make examples of, so he wanted information that could be considered 'conduct unbecoming' to anybody who cared to review his decisions. I kept copies of all my reports so far to him, and can quietly make them available to you."

"I would, please." She replied softly, her mind whirring at the potential damage that could have been done. If it was just aimed at her, that would be fine, she was the proper target for the wrath of an Admiral, not her crew, not her people. "He mostly wants me, I think. Put someone of his in my slot, 'rescue' the ship." She tried to effect a shrug, to brush it off, "What are you planning on sending him from here on?"

"Yes, I think he was particularly interested in you," Mark said. "The rest of us? I think that as long as he could transfer everyone else to some far off assignment where we'd all be someone else's problem, he'd be completely fine with that. In some way, I'd like to be able to send him reports that aren't entirely accurate, so that it would either prevent him from really being able to do anything at all, or if he does try to use it against any of us in the future, it could be used to ensure that it blows up in his face. The only thing I'm working on is making sure that he doesn't become suspicious as to what I'm actually doing."

"Or what about just not sending him anything at all?" Calypso suggested, "We're nowhere near him and he's got nothing to do with Eleventh Fleet, nor Task Force Fifty-Six. Fleet Captain Dalgaard made that very clear to me when he surprised me with pip number four. Unless he gets out of his squishy chair and gets a task force command and manages to pull us into his command area, there's nothing he can do to you if you stop sending him reports." She didn't expect it to go anywhere, but it was the truth and perhaps... Perhaps it would make a difference.

"It's not quite so simple," Mark said. "You have to keep in mind Towers is still a Starfleet admiral. You don't reach that rank without making a few connections along the way. Think of it this way - we've had some of the ship's original crew who have been transferred off, including some of the senior officers. How many of those were sudden and without having any good explanation provided to you? I guarantee you he's responsible for at least some of those. He's also making certain threats against me if I don't carry out his wishes, and among those is that I nearly lost custody of my nephews after what happened on the Comfort, and Towers has implied that it might still happen." Mark paused for a moment. "It would be better if we could come up with some way to make sure he never has anything to hold over us."

"I can think of one..." Cally grumbled aloud, then gave a slight apologetic smile, "But it would be illegal and would get at least me in a lot of trouble. Still." She exhaled fully as she bought herself another couple seconds to think, but decided she had to be honest about it all, "I don't like having someone on board dishing information on us to an Admiral that wants to use it to hurt us. I understand why you've been doing it, why you still intend to do it, but I sure as hells don't like it. It definitely puts both of us in a difficult situation, doesn't it?"

"Yes, it does," Mark said. "As I mentioned before, most of his actions seem to be directed largely at you, and that anyone else in the crew who he kicks out are only being removed to ultimately provide him with more evidence to get rid of you - 'She's so incapable that she can't keep her crew in line,' that sort of stuff. Perhaps, though, I might be able to put to good use those writing classes I took at the Academy. Maybe convince the admiral that having some place where he can dump all the 'undesirables' is not such a bad thing - less paperwork than getting them discharged, perhaps? - and if he gets rid of you, this ship might get shut down by Starfleet Command and he'd lose that dumping ground. At the very least, do you have any idea of what happened to earn you his ire? It would help if I knew what to avoid mentioning in my reports to him, or at least spin things in such a way that it lessens any damage that might come of it."

"I can only think of one thing that it might be, Mark, the fact that I used to be a Marine." She shook her head slightly, "I've heard he hates those that wear or wore the green, especially those that started off enlisted rather than go off to the Academy to become at least officers. I don't know enough about his history to really know anything better." She exhaled deeply, "I'd rather he keep his target on me in any case, it takes it off of the others."

Mark nodded. "As I said, maybe there's a way I can make our dear Admiral Towers and, well, maybe not completely take it off of all of us, including you, but at least have him think that we're so beaten and battered that he doesn't really need to pay all that much attention to us any more. Let me see what I can do. Who knows? I just might surprise us."

"Very well, Mark, I'll trust you to do what you need to do.. Just keep me updated." Calypso stood up and started her way towards the holodeck door, then quirked a smile back at him, "See, I bet you never thought I could keep myself professional, did you." She winked as she walked out and back for her quarters.