PLOT - JDL | Commo Ivanova, Cmdr Dahe'el, Capt Neyes, Cmdr Neyes, Cmdr Coo - "Down the Rabbit Hole"

Posted on Thu Aug 11th, 2016 @ 12:30am by Admiral Rochelle Ivanova & Commander Almar Dahe'el & Commander Tristan Neyes PhD. & Commander Rozen Coo PhD & Captain Landon Neyes

2,531 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Resurgere

The Vindicator's ready room was... Different. The lay out was ridiculously strange compared to what Rochelle had been used to, acting more as a den than an actual office. It was almost cozy, even though it should have been business oriented. Admiral Red had joined her for the initial walk through, strolling the corridors and nooks and crannies the new ship class had to offer. She certainly wasn't the massive brick that the Discovery class had been, but she was every bit as posh and downright beautiful. Where the Discovery class had been heavy and cumbersome, the Vindicator class was sleek and polished, streamlined and ready for action. Rochelle had wanted to hate the damned thing, ready to chalk it up to another casualty of life within Star Fleet even if Almar had been responsible for the design and build. Hating it, however, simply wasn't an option. It would take getting used to, but the ship commanded her imagination and intrigue, beseeching her to begin to relax within its hold - perhaps even to allow herself to fall in love with the massive vessel. Still... She had not been able to allow herself to decorate the ready room, not just yet. Not with paranoia riding so high and so much hurt lurking in the shadows.

It would come, all in good time, but for the time being she remained perched beneath a stereotypical desk so super unfitting of the Commodore's style and personality. Regardless, the members of her crew that sat across from her cared not about the type of furniture, or lack thereof, in the room. They waited with rapt attention for her cue, a hand feeding of just what it was that was getting ready to transpire; their maiden voyage with a new ship with new orders... A new beginning.

"We have a visitor among us," She began, her eyebrows lifted as she gently tossed the PADD in her fingers down onto the desk with a clatter, "Doctor Jonathan Crowe and his assistant will be joining us, at least for a little while, as we head out into the black. He's due in at his location in just a few short days and we'll be playing chaperon. I expect us to be on our best behavior and that we'll be making his stay as comfortable as possible. Given his fame in the science community, I especially expect you, Commander Coo, to make him feel at home." She drawled, sharing a pointed look with the Vindicator's new scientist.

Rozen shifted in his chair, "Acknowledged ma'am," he said curtly. Rozen had been reading up on their future guest and he wasn't excited to be a friendly face, however his duty was laid out before him. He sat with the other senior officers for one of the first times since his assignment as he had been busy getting the science labs stocked, squared away and ready to go. "So as your Chief of Science, I permitted to restrict access to our labs while our guest is on-board?"

A wary gaze cast towards Tristan and Landon before it filtered over to Almar in a silent request that she be corrected should they see fit. Rochelle trusted the three men implicitly, relying on them to set her back on the straight and narrow when thinks began to go pear shaped. "By all means, please feel free to keep them on lock down. Is there anything in them now that I need to be aware of? Anything that may be considered above Mr. Crowe's pay grade, as it were?" She asked, entirely too happy to keep the Vindicator's most valuable assets locked up and out of sight as if they were some sort of magic rose or mirror left enchanted and never to be shared with those outside of that great circle of trust. Some could have called it paranoia, a sniff more profound than it was latent, but the little Phoenix called it being ready for the coming storm she knew was building with Tr'Bak and his men. None of that was a concern for Commander Coo, or at least it wasn't a concern right at that very instant.

"Well I just prefer to be on the safe side," replied Rozen. "Especially with just getting experiments up and running, and transferred items online." Rozen had heard of Doctor Jonathan Crowe, even crossed paths with him a few times, but he remembered that he seemed pompous, but again, he knew his duty.

The Neyes brothers exchanged a quick look, and Tristan's mouth opened slightly. Landon lifted a hand to scratch absently at his temple, and looked up to Rochelle and Almar with a wry grin. The two men shared an odd moment of remembrance, and each looked to the other to see if the other would remember.

"We remember him." Tristan said, his voice laced with a subtle distaste. The mere mention of Jonathan Crowe, M.D., PhD. ChD, and Chairman of the Interstellar Commission on Interstellar Disease Control, was just not a pleasant thing to have to hear for Landon. "Though personally, I don't have firsthand experience with Doctor Crowe, Landon had to take a three part course under him. No doubt he is a brilliant practitioner of practical medicinal applications, and one of the foremost minds the Federation has in xeno-virological studies. I've read his studies on the development of neosynthetic viroid prions using ingeniously inspired crosses of various genomic pathogen classes and bacterium. It's all very promising. His projects often lead to bounding discoveries in treatment for virulent agents.

"But...-" Tristan held back for a moment, his brow raised as if a second point had to be considered.

"He's a massive blowhard. As you would expect with someone who has even more advanced degrees than you." Landon finished, looking to his brother as Tristan failed to rally the insensitivity necessary for such a statement.

The younger Neyes nodded once. "He can be difficult to say the least, yes that's true. I expect if he requires resources, you will be the first to know, Captain."

Rochelle's brow furrowed in an attempt to mask the budding amusement such statements brought her. Tristan was the sweet one, gentle and easy going. To know that even he held a degree of distaste for their charge said enough... In fact it said everything she needed to know. "I see..." She nodded and pursed her lips, "So we've been saddled with arrogance for the better part of our shakedown cruise. Lovely." The redhead's mouth hung on her final word and her chair sighed as she leaned back in it, plucking a blue Almarian Fox hair off her uniform's pants as she did. It had been Admiral Red's idea that the Vindicator take Dr Crowe to his destination. 'It's far enough away to let your ship test systems and stretch its legs, but close enough that if you have major mechanical and systems malfunctions we can reach you in a jiffy. The Vindicator class is an anomaly. Commander Dahe'el is a talented man but every new class and new ship is bound to have kinks. Enjoy this, Rochelle, or at least try to, alright?' Her aunt's words rung clarion in her memory, imploring her to take pleasure in the coming journey and the act of breaking in a brand new ship. She couldn't help but scowl. Any chance at enjoying the act was likely to be bastardized by this so-called 'blowhard' doctor that had already left a bitter mark against Tristan... Unless of course Landon had a point to his tease about potential jealousy. She studied Tristan for a moment, weighing the option against him.

"But." She began anew, using her index and middle finger on one hand to point at the brothers, "You two know him. Commander Coo, you've seen him in passing. How hard can it be to contain him with some sort of dog and pony show for five days? I'll admit that I don't exactly like the idea of playing ferry, but we're stuck with the task which means we somehow have to make the best of it and not let it get out of hand. I'm open to options on how to keep him out of our hair. And no," the bright frost of her eyes snapped to Landon's, "we cannot just tie him up or throw him in the brig or have the doors to his quarters magically malfunction."

"Its possible," said Rozen. "But I can assure you the 10,000 changes he recommends will be ignored, however respectfully acknowledged."

"We could seal him in his quarters and pump the room full of all his precious viruses..." Tristan muttered softly, his eyes passively locked down at his hands on the table. He looked up, immediately realizing he'd said it out loud. "I mean, yes. I will see what Lieutenant Ch'Valenvok has. Maybe there's something he can bother Crowe with for a while."

Lifting her tea to her lips, Rochelle choked on the hot amber liquid and quickly set it back down on her desk with a clatter as it met the ceramic saucer. "I..." She wheezed, resting her hand on her chest as she worked to catch her breath, "I'm going to pretend that didn't just come out of your mouth, Commander Neyes, and move on to saying that yes, seeing what Ch'Valenvok has would be a great idea." Everything she'd thought about Tristan being the sweet one quickly flew, like a cuckoo, out the window. Not much surprised her anymore, but that little quip most definitely had. Her head gave a finite, surprised shake, both eyebrows risen as she fully absorbed what had just transpired, and reached once again for her tea, "Safe to take a sip or are you going to come out of left field with something else that might kill almost kill me?" She'd laugh later, probably long and hard, over Tristan's brilliant overtaking by the green eyed monster known as envy.

"Points for poetic creativity though, brother." Landon teased, nudging Tristan, who was now an embarrassed shade of ruby red. The counselor quickly thumbed through his PADD in a futile effort to busy himself with anything else. "On the old Vindicator there were at least some civilian scientists on board that would love to chat this guy's ear off for a week. Now though, we're a little dry on those types of things. We do have one of the most advanced sensor and laboratory suites though, so that might help."

"Points for something..." Rochelle quipped quickly, eyeballing the counselor warily, "At the price of sounding like a braggart, we have the most advanced of just about everything Starfleet has to offer and then some," she added as she found herself leaving her seat and making her way over to the rather large floor to ceiling observation window that highlighted the ready room's elegant architecture, "while she isn't nearly as large as the Vindicator-E, she holds her own. Between Ch'Valenvok and other goodies that aren't off limits, I'm sure you'll find something for him to occupy his time with. And when I say you," The woman paused, folding her hands behind the small of her back as she came to rest in front of the window, gazing out at the ship yard and the hint of star-punctuated blackness peeking out from behind the worker bees and scaffolding that held her ship hostage with last minute details, "I mean all of you."

He'd been silent for most of the meeting, the Cardassian stood idly in the corner as he watched people discuss the scientist that had been set to arrive on-board, "Yes, Ma'am." he replied simply with a slight smile as he smoothed his hair down again and tugged at the collar of his uniform, shifting it back into place on his fans, the new uniform was not quite right, there were a few issues with the sizing of the replicators. "I'm sure that we'll be able to find plenty to keep him entertained."

"I do apologize, allow me to clarify," said Rozen finally pipping up. The Doctor and I have met once, however, the reason we met is because he tried to get my university to reject my PhD thesis. Odd you might think because he went to a university that wasn't the academy to do this, but he likes to power trip. We have crossed paths a few times since then he doesn't remember or acknowledge he tried that maneuver. I heard that he likes to try to get peoples work rejected just because he can. Its been years since that, and I know he doesn't remember, however, I will keep my respectful distance," there was a slight awkward silence. "I did successfully defend my thesis, I do have my PhD, for any interested parties."

"I have more than a few general nonsense tasks in a fresh science department to keep him occupied," said Rozen. "Plenty of menial tasks I am sure I could convince him we need his 'expert' hands to manipulate."

"Beyond babysitting this scientist, what else does the Admiral have in mind for our shakedown cruise? She ran a couple of proposals across me as potentials but left the final choice intentionally masked so that we'd be prepared for anything she can throw at us." Almar questioned as he finished adjusting his uniform by tugging on his sleeves, the red was something that he was still struggling to get used to, he'd made the mistake of replicating himself a yellow uniform before it had clicked with him that he wasn't really an engineer anymore. "I'll be quite disappointed if we do not get the chance to stretch our legs slightly, the Quantite Fusion Core will need a few power cycle runs to be sure of it's performance and I'm still not sold on your want for a Slipstream drive."

"It's a need, not a want, Almar." Rochelle snorted, "We're out so far into the black that if we need to get back in a hurry it'd be near impossible without it." Her arms folded defensively as she spoke, defending her choice for that particular piece of technology. The ship they held was far from traditional in any stretch of the word. It was advanced, cutting edge, and begging for write ups. In short, the Vindicator Class was the future. "She wants us to open her up, put her through her paces, turn around, come back. If we have bugs, we fix them. Typical shakedown, I suppose."

A slight sigh passed the lips of the Cardassian as he rubbed at the ridges along his neck, "We can certainly do that, I'll be happy to push her to the limits."

"I trust you will." The Commodore grinned, knowing full well that the Engineer's distaste for Slipstream would never wane.

---

Commodore Rochelle Ivanova
Commanding Officer
USS VINDICATOR, NX 78213-F

Commander Almar Dahe'el
Executive Officer
USS VINDICATOR, NX 78213-F

Commander Tristan Neyes, PhD.
Chief Counselor
USS VINDICATOR, NX 78213-F

Commander Rozen Coo, PhD.
Chief Science Officer
USS VINDICATOR, NX 78213-F

Captain Landon Neyes
Command Liaison
USS VINDICATOR, NX 78213-F

 

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