Change in Place

Posted on 25 Apr 2020 @ 3:46pm by Captain Mallory Thorne & Commander Kristiana Petrova

999 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Changing Faces
Timeline: MD 05 - 1130 hours

"He went where?"

Captain Thorne just stared across her desk at a young yeoman from the admin pool aboard. She had yet to choose a dedicated command yeoman after the last one died during their trip back to Earth circa Hell, but it was working well enough...until now, when this particularly young man looked rather terrified by his captain's perturbance.

"I'm sorry, Captain, but Commander Gant...left with the Seelie Coalition," the yeoman stuttered, although Mal could tell that he was trying to sound less concerned.

"What the fuck," Mal muttered, rubbing her temple as she looked at the PADD in her hand with Roman's farewell letter. Camilla Rau had, apparently, been a relation of his--a woman with a life span that stretched all the way back to the time they took Roman from and then further still. An aunt, or something, that he'd thought lost and so he had gone with her. Without talking to Mal. He just upped and left. She tossed the PADD on her desk and dismissed the yeoman, much to his relief.

"Captain Thorne to Commander Petrova. If you could come to my ready room at your earliest convenience, it would be much appreciated."

Kristiana made sure to wait with answering the channel until after her string of Russian, Federation Standard, Klingon and Ferengi curses. "On my way," she simply replied afterwards. Yet another thing on her docket, more work to do. With everything that had been going on, she considered herself lucky if she got four hours of sleep a night.

Not minutes later a tired Petrova stepped into the Captain's ready room. "You rang?"

Mal looked up as the other woman looked in and offered a weary smile. "You look as tired as I feel. Get some coffee. Have a seat."

A wry smile. "I feel worse than I look." Petrova mused, heading for Mal's replicator, getting herself a rather strong coffee with a dash of vodka, sitting down and just closing her eyes, shoulders slumping. "Waddya need, boss lady?"

"Our exec is gone," Mal said flatly.

Kristiana just opened her eyes and looked at Mal with a 'you got to be kidding me' look.

"Apparently, he left us a dear john letter and went off with Secretary Rau who apparently was his aunt and he never bothered to mention it," the captain said with no small amount of sarcasm as she gestured irritably at the PADD on her desk.

"That's - ... How - nevermind, I don't even want to know. Alternate universes and time travel shit always got my brain in a knot in movies and holonovels, now that I'm living through these things I'm just - " Petrova trailed off, heaving a deep sigh. "And you want me to take over, right?"

Mallory smiled wryly. "How'd you guess?"

"Call it a sixth sense, I can foresee the stupidly obvious." Kris smirked, though it was an empty, tired smirk. She took another sip of her coffee before continuing. "The Seelie death case is solved, Lieutenant Jay-Gee Sexton agreed to take over security, so - yeah, I can step up."

"Hopefully that at least alleviates the extra tasks you've had," Mal commented, making a mental note regarding Sexton's rank. "Although I'm as pissed at Bran leaving as I am about Gant leaving! Traitors." This was obviously sarcasm. Maybe... "It seems that our science officer from the Union was also recalled. That department is a little thin now, but don't worry, I'm not going to have you cover that."

"Smart girl," Kris smirked with actual humor in her eyes now. "Most I know about science is how you spell it."

"At least you have that going for you," Mal said with a smirk which faded after a moment. "We also now need a new chief helm. But." She gestured to one of the two dozen PADDs on her desk. "I have been informed that our one passenger--Sovok, who was just catching a ride aboard and got stuck with us--is actually retired Starfleet, former helm officer and flight instructor. I'm going to talk to him about re-upping his commission to help cover the department."

"Sovok, Sovok - " Kris mused to herself. "Don't think I've met the man. Sounds Vulcan." She made a face.

Mal met her gaze dryly. "Good reason for that," she deadpanned. "He is Vulcan. But he was very highly recommended by all previous posts, so he can steer a ship."

"Never liked Vulcans. They're so - creepy." Kristiana sighed. "But good at their job, so I'll take it."

"Just don't say that around him, if you don't mind," Mal said, waving a hand at Kris. "Not good for an XO to do."

"Of course. That's why I'm saying it here." Kris tilted her head a bit.

"Indeed," Mal said simply. "Well, in line with the various changes I'm enacting as basically the sole representative of Starfleet in this universe..." She almost rolled her eyes at herself as she reached into the drawer and pulled out a box, which she tossed to Kris. "Welcome to life as XO and full commander."

Kristiana was entirely too tired to do the whole 'Oh, master has given me a box, I'm a free elf' spiel - or, more accurately, she was too tired to entertain the kinds of looks that joke would get her, so she simply accepted the box, almost fumbled it, and offered a tired smile. "Thanks, boss lady," she mused, replacing the black pip on her collar with the new gold one. "Appreciated."

Mallory nodded with a tired smile of her own. "You earned it after this mission," she said. "Now, go get some rest. Who knows when the next shit-storm will stir up..."

"Knowing my luck, it already has." Kris mused, rising to her feet. She quickly finished her coffee, moving to recycle the mug and exiting the ready room with a nod to Mallory.

=/\= End Log =/\=

Captain Mallory Thorne & Commander Kristiana Petrova

 

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