Captain, Counter Captain

Posted on Sun Apr 10th, 2022 @ 2:40am by Captain Calypso Skyie & Captain Dominic Dalgaard

Mission: Pirates! (Or Yo Ho Ho And A Bottle Of Yum)
Location: Starbase 614

Calypso wandered the main promenade area of the Starbase as she considered what actions to take. She was most definitely feeling better than she had after their return from Dexic, but that was hardly a surprise. Her eyes swept the crowd again, not that she expected to find anyone of interest, but they laid themselves on one figure that she hadn't expected to see, at least not this soon after her arrival with Chimera.

A slight smile crossed her face as she changed her path at the sight of the red uniform that differed from hers only in that he wore an additional pip to hers. Of course, she'd been warned in her orders that this Captain was going to want to meet with her at some point, because he was the senior Commanding officer in the entire area. The formation was called Task Force 56 and it was spread out throughout the region, not just the sector and this was it's overall commanding officer.

She knifed her way through the crowd, murmuring the occasional apology as she still couldn't dodge everyone in time to not bump them. But then she was coming up on his nine o'clock and finally squared her shoulders to him and quirked a smile at the man who was only a couple years her senior in age, "Captain Dalgaard, it's a surprise and a pleasure to meet you. Commander Calypso Skyie, USS Chimera, at your service, sir."

Dominic was still rather new to his position but her had taken the time to go over the dossiers of each ship under his purview, including the service records of their commanding officers. This meant their faces were familiar enough to him that he wasn't entirely take aback by the introduction. "Relax Commander." He found himself saying without much thought. He reached out his hand in greeting. "Good to finally meet you."

Calypso hesitated a moment before she reached out and took it, "I'm pretty sure I'm one of your newest Cee-Ohs, sir, sorry that Chimera's still a bit under the weather, but I've got..." The traditional reassurance of a great engineering crew to fix it would have been a lie from Cally and fidelity was one of the hallmarks of a marine, "My engineers are good, but primarily inexperienced." She admitted. "The starbase's are better and in a couple weeks, they'll be able to get us in for a full refit. The girl wasn't kept up to date when she was retired, so they'll be working hard, sir."

Nodding, Dominic grasped his hands behind his back. "I'm sure the staircase will get you sorted out." He looked up and down the Commander and then said. "Tell me about the ship's most recent mission. I've read the reports of course, but I've learned that a first hand account takes it that one step further."

"Oh, boy..." Cally said with a grimace, "And here I was hoping to make an actual good first impression." She said quietly, tucking her thumbs in her beltline, then sighed. "To say it was a clusterfuck would be the most accurate word for the mission to Dexic, sir. We were taking Ambassador O'Connor there to mediate a true unified government for the planet between the two major Corporations, brought the two delegations on board the day we got there, while I sent a pair of away teams down to investigate some protestors that were against it. I didn't expect that the guards that one of the delegations brought was going to open fire on both delegations and us. I lost both delegation heads, the Ambassador and both myself and my exec were wounded badly. Without my doc, who got reassigned, I wouldn't have survived." She was solemn about the admission, "I got hit three times."

Dominic wasn't surprised, after all, the reports outlined it all. "Well, I trust you're on the mend?" He asked, not wanted to blatantly ask if she was fit to continue command.

"Walking, talking, planning on how to eradicate this group of pirates in the area." Cally nodded, "I had a great doctor before she got transferred off to another ship. Without her, I'd be just another bit of star-food, sir. But I also lost my Exec due to wounds in the same ambush, I've repurposed my new Chief Engineer to that slot in addition to running my engineering section. If he can take care of the ship, I can take care of the tactics. I'll have everything under control, sir, have no fear on that. Chimera will be up to any task we need to perform."

"I'm glad to hear you say that." Dominic said, reaching his hand into his pock and grasping for something. He smiled, and looked around them before calling out."Attention everyone, I have a very important announcement to make!" His voice resounded around them and caught the attention of most of the Starfleet personnel who had been passing by.

‘Oh, this can’t be good…’ Calypso took a quick glance around as people turned towards them, the Captain’s voice resounding throughout the promenade, a skill learned by most command type officers to give orders clearly in the midst of chaos. Unfortunately, she also didn’t see any sort of escape route from what she suddenly began to fear was coming: He was about to make HER the center of attention.

When he determined that there was enough attention in their direction, He turned his gaze to Skyie. "Commander Skyie, based on the accounts of your command, and your unconventional methods..." He paused to allow her time to overthink.

‘And that’s it, I’m screwed.’ Calypso told herself as she fought back a grimace. The asteroid prank, walking right into a trap on Dexic, that ever-be-damned engineer Lieutenant Davenport. Perhaps she could deflect the damage from the others, take it all on herself.

"It gives me great pleasure to promote you to the rank of Captain, with all the rights and responsibilities that go with it." A soft smile crept on to the man's Face. Her withdrew his hand from his pocket with a small black box. He opened it to reveal a singular pip. "May I?"

“Wait, what?” The words that had come from Captain Dalgaard weren’t the ones she’d expected to hear. And this? This was impossible, “Rear Admiral Towers is going to flip his lid when he hears about this… But I’m guessing he doesn’t have a say?” Her face had gone from pale to crimson in the span of heartbeats as she presented her neck by canting her head slightly to allow him access to her lips.

His voice was lowered so only they could hear, as he reached to fasten the pip to her collar. "While I admit some of your methods are unorthodox, we do applaud thinking outside of the box. I'm happy to have unconventional Captain's in my charge, I’ve no need for a bunch of automatons who can't think for themselves." He let his hands fall back to his side and admired the four pips on Calypso's collar. "Congratulations Captain."

Cally broke her own pattern and reached up to feel the new one alongside the original three, “Thank you, Captain.” She said softly, “I’ll admit that this isn’t bad for an eighteen year old girl who enlisted in the Marines to eventually get to. I won’t disappoint you, sir, nor will Chimera. We may be a bit rough around the edges, but we’ll get the job done, guaranteed.”

“Rough around the edges has worked out well for plenty of crews in the past.” Dominic smirked and looked around, suddenly aware that they still had an audience. He cleared his throat. “Thank you all for your attention. I’m sure the Captain appreciates your support.”

The crowd began to disperse and Dom returned his attention to Calypso. “You said that Chimera is being refit?”

"Well, sir, right now we're being camouflaged as a freight-hauler and I'm playing a bit loose with the recommissioning report in the system." Calypso gave a micro-shrug, "These pirates are deliberate, a bit like the last group I hunted a couple years ago, so I'm going to bring them in close where I can get at them before they can run off, run the Q-ship gambit. When we get back from this operation, the station is going to give us most of the upgrades the ship missed in the boneyard. Chimera is primarily original-build with a few of the standard upgrades after the hulk of the Aegir got brought back in, but they're still a few years out of date. Station Operations estimates it'll take a couple-three weeks to go through the cycle before we're clear to go off on our primary mission, sir."

Dom’s combadge chirped. ”Dauntless to Captain Dalgaard, Priority Two communication from Commodore Donnelly.”

Dominic tapped his badge to respond. “I’m on my way.” He looked to Skyie once more. “Well make the most of the downtime.” Dalgaard smiled. “I’ll make plans to see the ship when you’re back from this assignment.”

"Of course, sir, you're always welcome aboard Chimera, sir." Cally came to attention as the Fleet Captain walked away, then sighed. "Well, that just happened."