Joint Personal Log - LtCmdr Waterhouse, Cmdr Dahe'el, Cmdr Archer, Cmdr PontBrillant & LtCmdr Neyes - "Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It"

Posted on Sat Oct 25th, 2014 @ 4:54am by Commander Amelia Waterhouse & Vlimar PontBrillant & Commander James Archer & Commander Tristan Neyes PhD.

3,604 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Are You Touched?
Timeline: After Titanium

The invitation was simple: ice blue twenty-five percent rag heavy card stock with matching envelope. A phoenix impressed in orange-red wax to seal it and the recipient's name printed in a neat feminine hand in a midnight blue on the front. The inside card had a quarter inch boarder bleeding off the edges, and the text was a typewriter style serif font. Where the midnight blue ink touched the page, it was recessed into the card stock, the hallmark of a letterpress printer. It said: Gentlemen- We need to discuss the Aquaman problem @ 2130. At the bottom, an icon of a pair of nunchuks in lime green. Amelia trusted that all the men invited would be able to put two and two together, and would show up at her quarters at the appointed time.

At 2100, Amelia set out on her coffee table a clear glass tea pot, and five double walled handleless tea cups, a sugar bowl, and a honey pot. Inside the mesh basket in the center of the tea pot was a red hibiscus herbal tea, just waiting for the hot water to steep in. She was barefoot, wearing a kimono style knee length dress with a Japanese inspired tableau with waves, mountains, trees and buildings, and her hair hung loose down her back.

She knew even having this meeting was a risk, especially with JAG maintaining a presence on this boat, but Mikkal needed to be handled. She also knew that these four men could be trusted to put Rochelle's well being first and foremost. Mikkal had to be pissed, and this would only spur him to more desperate measures after this one had failed.

Neyes pressed the button to Amelia's quarters and was mildly surprised when the doors opened immediately, revealing the civilian-garb clad Waterhouse seated at the center of the room, waiting patiently. Tristan stepped inside the room, wearing his own traditional Trill at-home clothes. The Dark red shirt he donned had the signature collar-wide neckline, which cam up sharply ninety degrees to cover his shoulders. Intricate inlays of gold and black spun the cloth in graceful, fluid patterns. The rest of him matched, and reaffirmed the collected nature of Tristan. Only his hair was slightly mussed.

"Good evening, Commander." He said, stepping inside.

"Please, call me Pond. This is absolutely off the record," she insisted with a polite smile.

Vlimar had received the artistic envelope as he was doing extra work in his quarters, prior to taking a much needed nap. Seeing the style of the correspondence, including the evident signature linking to Amelia, he grinned, liking the intrigue she put in there. After all, the ship had been creating this new curtain, where the actual day-to-day Senior Officers were maneuvering to avoid the JAG officers at all cost. On the other side of the veil, the rest of the crew were acting as the regulations requested, not more, not less.

Therefore, the Commander made his way at the planned meeting time. An early bird as usual, he arrived at Amelia's door at 2100 flat, debating that arriving early would signal undue excitement, which the current situation did not command. At 2100 hrs, he pressed the chime, noticing at his turn that the door opened immediately. Vlimar stepped in, noticing Amelia and Neyes sitting in the lounge area of her quarters.

"Good evening," he stated, smiling.

James set the PADD down on his desk and stared at the decorative envelope laying next to it. He knew what this meeting was about, not that he was against such things, Hell he'd performed likewise hundreds of times himself. With a sigh, he lifted himself from his chair and decided to make his way to Amelia's quarters, slipping the note in one of his pockets. At 2125, James pressed the chime to the XO's door, stepping through as the door opened. "Evening." James said with a somewhat distressed look on his face.

Almar was the last to arrive, having been buried in the jefferies tubes repairing some of the damage the little blue creature had done, tracking out wiring and replacing it was a tedious task on a ship the size of the Vindicator, he stepped up to the door of the quarters, as per the instructions on the note he had recieved, and pressed the chime quickly, his gaze scanned the faces among the group assembled as the doors opened and he stepped through slowly, only one officer registered on his radar when his eyes fell on him, the cold-blooded engineer could feel his temperature rising as he moved forward, not taking a seat, he had a different aim in mind.

"Thank you all for joining me," Amelia started, standing from the pillow she had perched upon in front of the coffee table. She'd left her couch and chairs for her guests to occupy, knowing that some of them might need a little room. Not everyone present liked each other, but she believed the subject of Rochelle would allow them to focus enough to reach a truce of sorts.

"Mikkal is a problem," she stated simply. Granted he'd been a problem from the start, but there was a difference between a thorn in the side with some degree of diplomatic immunity and a threat to their Captain's safety. Amelia returned to the coffee table with the hot water and poured it into the tea pot. She then looked to the four men, and awaited their response.

"I'll tell you who the real problem is..." the Cardassian replied as he strode across the room and struck Vilmar across the face, a sledgehammer sized fist connecting directly with his cheekbone, the first time the engineer had used his bulk in anger as his blood boiled, "If it wasn't for this... Human and his notes, Rochelle would not have been in that position," he roared as he stepped forward and followed up with another punch.

Vlimar felt his head going sideways violently. Surprised by the sucker punch, his thoughts didn't actually want to believe that someone invited to that meeting would have the cowardice to throw such a punch. As he felt the considerable blow, he took a step back, gathering his willingness to remain up, bringing his head back to his assaulter. As his eyes meet back in front, another punch connected, this time, hitting his upper cheek bone on his left side. Immediately, his left eye shut and his nose bled. Through the pain, the surprise he felt his knee jerk somewhat, struggling to keep his balance, slowly backing up into the wall, which helped him remain standing tall. Put into context, Vlimar had receive a fair amount of punches in his long career, including multiple from Cardassians while detained by the Jem'hadar during the first Insurrection War, a war that Vlimar had been recognized in the shadows as one of the important actor, along with his crew aboard the SSS AlphaGold. His body had adapted to the superior strength of the race, over weeks and perhaps months of repeated beating, ending up with a knife in his left lung, missing the heart barely, prior to be saved in extremis by the competent Medical Staff of the AlphaGold. He obviously had hold a significant hatred for the race, but, until now, had worked to avoid vacating those feelings towards the Engineer.

After the second punch hit, Vlimar looked at the Cardassian, raising both his hand, palm open, at the level of his hands. His intent was not to retaliate, as he had the professionalism not to publicly settle debts, but intended to wait for the next one, at which point, he would do what was necessary to end the attack. Coming from both a Standard Starfleet and Krav Maga Martial Art background, he knew from which way the Cardassian had hit him that the Frenchman would have the upper hand, especially in a situation that was emotionally charged as this one.

"You want to try again?" he stated, as a trickle of blood ran down the corner of his mouth. "Mind you, you don't have the advantage of the surprise, now," he stated, in a overly polite manner, hands up, eyes locked onto the taller stature.

Amelia was up in a flash as the first punch connected, the pitcher the boiling water came out of the replicator in clattering to the coffee table and spilling what little water hadn't yet been poured into the tea pot. She was around the coffee table as the second punch landed. She shoved her way between the two men, a quick glare directed at Vlimar for his comment that was poking the proverbial bear. Both of her hands reached for Almar's fist, putting all her strength into making sure it didn't swing again.

"ENOUGH," she barked, putting herself in the Cardassian's face and serving as humanoid shield for the Frenchman. He wasn't exactly on her list of favorite people right now either, but pummeling him wasn't going to solve the problem. "This asshole may have unintentionally played a part, but if he hadn't, that crafty Atlantean fucker would have found another way to corner Rochelle."

"For all we know that damned çlaykothoul was in on the whole thing, setting her up from the start!" the Cardassian shouted as he continued his attempted assault, the universal translator failed to pick up the curse spat at the Frenchman, the part Klingon before him blocking his path forced Almar to take a step back, she wasn't part of this and he had no intention of hurting her.

Vlimar turned his eyes to Amelia. "Asshole?" he asked, coldly, both surprise by the disrespect he was just shown and by the unprofessional behaviour of the one that was supposed to be the second of the ship, the logic behind the Captain's behaviour. A few seconds passed. As Almar kept the Executive Officer busy with his useless aggression, at least to the eyes of the SOC, the Frenchman bent down slightly, grabbing his padd that had fallen to the ground following the assault, then, as he stood tall, he looked back at Almar, then his eyes observed the rest of the group.

Tristan sat at the table, watching silently. Shaking his head he ran his fingers through his hair and closed his eyes in disbelief at the scene before him.

"Envoy Mikkal of Atlantis Prime is a criminal, therefore a Security Department issue. He shall be dealt with by Security at the full extent of our legislation. Anyone attempting to intervene will be arrested immediately for Obstructing the course of an investigation," he stated, as cold as ice, as his nose dripped blood onto the Executive Officer's floor.

Vlimar walked a few steps away from his position. As he advanced, he looked at Amelia and stated: "Fantastic meeting, Lieutenant-Commander.", as he walked towards the door of the XO's quarters, wanting to have no part of a meeting where such behaviour is tolerated by both the XO and the 2XO, watching them open, timing his walk out of the quarters, turning towards the turbo lift.

Amelia looked at the other three men in her quarters, almost in a panic. "I believe we're done here. Help yourself to tea if you want," she called over her shoulder, running after Vlimar.

"We are not done here!" Almar barked as he rounded on Vilmar again, "Despite his... objections, Vilmar PontBrillant is involved in this up to his neck, he cannot be allowed to lead any investigation where his own actions are to be questioned too, his notes led Rochelle to the events that happened, she believed it was another of this idiots love notes and went to finish things." the Cardassian railed off as he turned to Archer, "Surely Commander, Starfleet Intelligence do not agree with letting a suspect conduct an investigation into his own actions?"

Tristan's quiet voice managed to pierce the angry atmosphere of the room, "I agree. If this is an issue we're going to discuss, it will be all of us who participate. If Vlimar has some role in what happened, we will discover what it was." His voice rang cold, "THAT will be a security matter, but the Atlantean can't be... or else we wouldn't be here talking behind closed doors."

With amusement lit in his eyes, James leaned back against the sitting room's bulkhead and tugged a flask of bourbon from the pocket of his pants and shook his head. "Well..." He began, unscrewing the lid and taking a sip, "that escalated quickly." He said, looking between the men and held the flask out towards Almar. "I have to agree with you, Commander. If PontBrillant has been passing notes to the Captain, he could be guilty of conspiracy to set her up to be attacked. Maybe he was trying to get in on the Atlantean royalty gig, come out the other end looking like her great protector and perfect choice as King." A sly grin then pressed across his features and he looked to Tristan, "Or... He thinks like a Klingon and is trying to challenge her for succession. Either way, he needs to be relieved of duty and Intelligence will take over the investigation."

Making his way over to the couch, he flopped into the cushion beside the Trill. "As for this Mikkal character..." his blue eyes rolled towards Tristan, his head canting to follow suit, "he suffered severe head and neck trauma, didn't he? What a shame it would be if he died suddenly of an embolism." He grinned. "Wouldn't it? I'd cry."

As Amelia ran after Vlimar, she was steaming. It was bad enough that Almar had come in swinging, and she didn't watch her mouth because of her personal issues with the Frenchmen, but now the others were talking about their conspiracy openly with the doors to her quarters sitting wide open. Thankfully the corridor appeared to be empty except for herself and Vlimar. Sometimes she couldn't help but wonder if her brother was right, that there was a higher power up there — even though she highly doubted it was a ball of spaghetti and meatballs.

"Please wait," she pleaded as she closed the space between her and Vlimar. "I'm sorry, I was out of line with what I called you. And if I had any idea Almar would come in like that... I would have done something to prevent it. All I wanted was to look after Rochelle's well being, and I believe Mikkal's a bigger threat than protocol is equipped to handle." She let the words come tumbling out, hoping he was actually listening.

Vlimar stopped walking, shaking his head slightly, sending droplets of blood down as the nose was rocked side to side. "You are such a young and foolish young woman, Amelia," he stated, as he turned to face her. "The problem isn't Almar, he can believe what he wants. But you, you must know better," he stated, looking at her seriously, coldly. "You know I have nothing to do with what happened," he added, feeling his anger grow by the second, by the syllables.

"I stepped between you and a ranging Cardassian, didn't I? He looked like he was ready to pummel you into the deck plates. I half expected him to hit me without realizing I was there, he looked like he was in such a blind rage," Amelia insisted. "You have to realize that even if you had nothing to do with it, Mikkal used you to get to Rochelle. Logically, someone who knew what Mikkal was like would realize he would have found another way... but ask yourself. How many of the men in that room know him as well as you and I?" As she asked the question, she couldn't help thinking back to the coronation in the ready room. It seemed so long ago, and the overzealous backhand she'd been ready to throw him through an airlock over seemed like nothing now. Or had it been a warning of what had been to come?

Vlimar nodded and hung his head. He remain there, battling with the rage the punch had brought to his heart, reminding him of his past confrontations with the Cardassians, the idea that Rochelle was hurt by Mikkal and that he might be the cause of it, the feeling of betrayal he felt of being insulted by one he believed was at some level of friendship. After those few seconds, he looked back up, wiped his nose with the sleeve of his shirt and nodded.

"Okay, let's do this," he stated, beginning his walk back to Amelia's quarters.

"I have a regenerator, let me make sure we're not going to have an encore of the floor show, then I'll grab it for you," she said as she moved to slip ahead of him and enter her quarters first. She looked at the men assembled, and sighed softly. "Okay gentlemen, let's try this again? Can we agree to put aside any personal issues between all present right now, and deal with the bigger problem? After Mikkal is sorted, we can talk through the rest of this, okay?"

Vlimar followed in tow, refusing the use of the dermal regenerator, sitting at his initial chair, across from Almar, which he looked at upon sitting, calmly observing him, with a neutral expression.

"Talk nothing!" Almar growled as he turned back to face the door, a face like thunder and a rumble just as low, "If we deal with Mikkal and it comes out that Mr PontBrillant has been sending these notes... how soon do you think it would take for the Judge Advocate to come to a conclusion about what happened?"

Vlimar shook his head to the comment. He knew that Mikkal used the notes as an excuse, but if it wasn't from the notes, he would have used anything else at his disposal. However, deep down, Vlimar felt significant guilt regarding the issue, as it was his notes that were known, somehow.

"The Commander obviously didn't do this alone, he would have had to grease a few palms, offer a few favours?" the Cardassian continued, "The Judge Advocate is going to have a field day!"

"He can't know." Tristan's almost whispered voice said as he walked over and closed the door behind Amelia and others. They slid shut with a hiss and accentuated his statement. A grave look that countered everything the young Trill represented so far colored his pained face. He crossed his arms and stood before the others, "If Parsons finds out about this, then Rochelle will be the next to know. Who here is prepared to face her after she discovers we took this into our own hands? After we've dealt with her problem for her, without asking or informing? I know we all want what's best for this ship... and for her.

"But she cannot know." Neyes said, catching the eyes of each of them.

Vlimar observed the group. Mikkal was under his custody and being found dead would be a significant target on his back for the JAG, unless it was duly planned and organized. He had ideas, but wanted to wait prior to express them, as the other officers seem reluctant to trust him, while openly discussing about murdering a prisoner. Vlimar kept shaking his head, disapproving the train of thought of the officers, still without speaking.

"If Mikkal dies, the Judge Advocate will involve himself in the investigation, he has these powers as an officer of the JAG office and it is extremely suspicious!" Almar barked, "We can not involve ourself in his death."

"Okay, okay," Amelia insisted as she stepped in the middle of the group, holding her hands up to make it clear she had the floor. If it was just her, she'd risk JAG. One person in a penal colony for the safety of family was a fair trade. Five people, when they could be better put to use actively protecting Rochelle instead, was a waste. "It's pretty clear we can't do anything to him, at least not while he's still on the ship. Too much risk of it coming back and biting us in the ass. So we leave it to the official investigation, unless he ever recovers enough to try anything stupid again -- then all bets are off. However, there's still the issue of Vlimar's love notes..." Amelia glanced at the man sidelong as she said this.

"While I don't believe that Vlimar played a willing role in the situation, the fact of the matter is JAG will investigate it. It will be better for all involved if he steps aside from the investigation before anyone, outside of these closed doors, raises the question of a conflict of interest." Her gaze turned directly to him. "I trust that I don't need to make this an order, but if I don't hear about it through official channels shortly after everyone leaves, I'll make it happen without your cooperation." She cleared her throat and sat down in front of the coffee table.

"I think we're done here. Anyone who wants to is welcome to stay for tea. Otherwise thank you for your time."

=/\= End Log =/\=

Lt Commander Amelia Waterhouse
Executive Officer
USS Vindicator, NCC-78213-E

Commander Alamr Dahe'el
Chief Engineering Officer
USS VINDICATOR, NCC 78213-E

Commander James Archer
Starfleet Intelligence
USS VINDICATOR, NCC-78213-E

Commander Vlimar PontBrillant
SOC
USS VINDICATOR

Lt Commander Tristan Neyes
Chief Counseling Officer
USS Vindicator 78213-E

 

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