Latrine Duty

Posted on Mon Apr 11th, 2022 @ 12:45am by Lieutenant Mark Valleroy

Mission: Lower Decks
Location: Security offices, U.S.S. Chimera

"All right," Mark practically thundered at the assembled security personnel. "Anyone mind telling me what in the blazes just happened?!"

There was a lot of nervous shifting around among the personnel, but no one spoke up. They'd never seen Mark quite so infuriated, even after the disastrous away mission on Dexic.

"Anyone? Anyone at all?" Mark said. When he still got no response, he said, "All right, here's how I see it. You were the ones on duty last night who were charged with making sure of who came on board or left the ship. In addition to the usual monitoring of comings and goings, we were to make sure of the protection of Counselor Vianelli and her daughter from someone who has made at least one known attempt at kidnapping the daughter and who has made threats against Counselor Vianelli. Instead of doing that, we let one of the very two people we were supposed to protect simply waltz off the ship, shortly after which she and a civilian on the station were assaulted by said suspect. And instead of us going to get Counselor Vianelli, she and the civilian wind up having to be rescued by the Marine CO and had to be beamed to the station's sickbay! Do you have any idea of how that makes us look?"

There was still more nervous shuffling among the personnel. "But at least station security nabbed the perpetrator, right?" someone hesitantly said.

"Oh, thank you so much for reminding me about that part, Crewman Peterson," Mark said practically through clenched teeth. "By the time 1st Lt. Markova's report made it to the appropriate people on the station and security went to the quarters in question, the perpetrator had already fled the scene and has reportedly gone AWOL from the posting aboard his ship. Station security is conducting a sweep, but several ships, not all of them Starfleet vessels, have already departed from the station, and it's believed that he may have had time to stow away on one of them. Perhaps one of you would care to go pay Counselor Vianelli and tell her why we not only failed to protect her, but that her attacker is still on the loose and may very well strike again."

After some silence, Mark said, "Hmm? No one? Well then, here's what you will be doing. I've spoken with engineering. The waste reclamation systems on a couple of decks have been on the fritz lately, and they could use a few extra hands to help clean up while they concentrate on fixing the problem. Guess who just got volunteered for the job." There were several groans. "Hopefully, this will help everyone to remember to be more diligent in their duties. You will find the details of when and where you're to report sent to the terminals in your quarters. Dismissed."