The Archanis Campaign: USS Argonaut

jonileth

[Task Force Operations Center, Starbase 72]

Captain Jonathan Bastin sat in his office, surrounded by holographic displays of various types. Almost every one of them showed him news that was decidedly ‘bad’ with regards to their current operational standing. The Task Force had often suffered from a combination of undermanning and insufficient supplies to handle the tasks that were given to it, and their reorganization hadn’t done a whole lot to ease the burden. There were ships at his disposal, sure, but most of them were focused on important diplomatic endeavors that couldn’t be so easily dropped in favor of the issues developing in the Archanis Sector. Much to his dismay, that meant that support from his Task Force was looking to be feasible in only token gestures.

The diplomat inside Bastin clamoured for him to be out on the front lines doing whatever he could to keep the fraying relations between the Federation and those affected by the pirate-style raids from crumbling completely. It wasn’t even a wholly unreasonable impulse, since his work as the Commander of the Task Force could be done from anywhere within the Federation, not just from the seat of his office chair. The real issue would be whether he could procure a ship to serve as his headquarters afloat. Without a means to actually leave the system, worrying about how to manage things remotely was all but a moot point.

Bastin motioned for the display that housed the ship roster for his Task Force to the forefront, combing over the names and the tasks assigned to them. One name and one task stood out to him in bold green letters that stated ‘SHORELEAVE; PENDING CO REASSIGNMENT’. He had forgotten about that ship entirely, since it was no longer ‘officially’ under his command. Bastin was under the assumption that it had been reassigned to another Task Force entirely, but it would seem he was mistaken… which made him rather happy to find himself being wrong.

A swift motion of his hand brought up the crew manifest, and with it came a smirk as Bastin’s eyes fell onto the name of the First Officer. It would appear that she hadn’t taken the offer to command her own vessel, which suited Bastin just fine since he wouldn’t need to break in a new First Officer after being away from starship command for so long. Happy with the turn of events, Bastin issued the orders that would be required to ‘reclaim’ his old ship, and sent word to the crew that their shoreleave was at an end. All that was left was to notify his Task Force staff that he would be operating remotely, and he was on his way.

[Conference Room, USS Argonaut]

[Following Day]

Captain Bastin sat at the head of the table, a familiar and nostalgic position given his long tenure commanding the ship. At her customary position at his right was Commander Rena Yuri, the woman who had been his First Officer for most of his time aboard the Argonaut. On his left was a new face that hadn’t been on the ship during his previous tenure, a Lieutenant Commander Brak, a Tellarite engineer who now ran his Engineering department. It appeared that his old Engineer had retired after Bastin had moved on, which was a bit disheartening as the two had shared a very cordial friendship over the years.

Sitting beside Cmdr. Yuri was their Chief Medical Officer, a man Bastin knew extremely well. Lieutenant Commander Tal Bernan, a Bajoran, was one of the most competent physicians he’d ever had the pleasure of serving with, and it was good to see him still plying his craft on the ship. Across from him sat their Chief of Security, a rather burly Lieutenant of Saurian origins that had only just arrived on the Argonaut. Lieutenant Nieru, despite being rather built for her species, still carried herself with the peaceful dignity that most Saurians exuded. Bastin couldn’t help but muse at the irony of her position.

Sitting next to the Security Chief was the Operations Chief, who hadn’t been in that position when Bastin had left. Lieutenant T’Rel, a Vulcan, had been the Assistant Ops Officer during Bastin’s last tour, and it seemed that he had been given the position when his predecessor decided to leave active service to pursue a family back home. Across from the Ops Officer sat their Chief Helmsman, Lieutenant Paul Akron. The unassuming looking Human tended to keep to himself, but his skills as a pilot of vessels both large and small was unquestionable. At the far end of the table sat their Science Officer, a Lieutenant Junior Grade hailing from Cait, M’Ral. Bastin had never met her, nor was she a member of his crew when he’d been in command. Since his ship had rarely had to deal with missions revolving around science in the past, he couldn’t even recall well who had been in the position before. He felt just a small pang of guilt at his lack of recollection.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice. I realize some of you were pulled away from your families to report back, so I do appreciate the effort you had to expend to return so promptly,” Bastin started off, activating the holographic display to highlight the Archanis Sector before continuing, “The Hunters of D’Ghor, an extremist group originating from the Klingon Empire, have been raiding worlds throughout the sector, as well as shipping lanes and mining outposts to name a few. The Federation was caught completely flatfooted by their sudden aggression, and the victims of their raids are calling for action to be taken. The exact nature of said action varies as widely as the types of attacks that have been made. Some have called for military action, while others demand assistance, and any number of variations on those themes. Some of the harder hit independent organizations are even using the attacks as an excuse to try to wrangle terms out of the Federation that are extremely disproportionate for the circumstances. To put it one way, they are trying to outdo the Ferengi in terms of avarice.”

“Not to cut you off, but what does this have to do with the Argonaut?” Cmdr. Yuri asked with a frown.

Bastin looked over at the woman with a bemused look on his face. He hadn’t expected her to interrupt his briefing in such a blunt fashion, but something about the way she did it so unapologetically brought a wave of nostalgia. ‘Like I never left…’ he mused silently.

“A valid enough question,” Bastin conceded, “And if you hadn’t chosen now to ask it, I would have gotten to it in a few moments. The reason I brought it all up is because the Argonaut will be deployed to the area to stamp out some of these diplomatic fires.”

“Yes, that is all well and good… except we don’t have a Captain, currently, and I didn’t see any diplomatic officers on the roster of new transfers,” Yuri remarked dryly.

“The Argonaut does have a Captain,” Bastin replied with an equal amount of dryness in his voice.

“Who? Because last I recall, you were reassigned as a Task Force Commander,” Cmdr. Yuri said with no shortage of impatience.

“I was indeed, and still am. But I have also taken command of the Argonaut for the duration of this campaign,” Bastin explained.

“Oh…” Yuri seemed slightly disappointed with the revelation, “I thought you were just going to be an observer… or you were hitching a ride…”

“Why do I get the feeling you were hoping for someone else?” Bastin asked with a frown.

Yuri shrugged off the comment, “Just your imagination.”

Dr. Tal suddenly buckled under the weight of his suppressed laughter, causing all the eyes in the room to shift toward him. It took him a long moment to pull himself together, though his laughter continued to threaten his composure.

“You’re not back five minutes and it’s like the last year or so never happened,” the Bajoran remarked.

T’Rel raised an eyebrow at the exchange, “I had heard rumors as to the relaxed nature of the senior staff meetings during the Captain’s tenure here. It would seem they were not exaggerated as much as I believed them to be.”

“Suits me just fine,” the Tellarite engineer snorted, “Better than being stuffy and full of yourselves.”

“Can we return to the topic at hand, perhaps? I believe the Captain is trying to relay important information to us,” Lt. Nieru interjected. The sobering suggestion from the Security Chief was enough to bring the impromptu comedic exchange to an end. Everyone nodded and returned their attention to the display hanging in the middle of the table.

“Right, so as I said before, I will be taking command of the Argonaut for the time being, and our focus will be attempting to address as many of the diplomatic negotiations as possible. Thanks to this ship being outfitted along those lines to begin with, we shouldn’t have many issues accommodating visitors and going about the business of negotiating with the affected parties. My biggest concern is going to be whether we can handle the load, since this isn’t just an isolated event or one that is impacting just a small number of people,” Bastin continued his brief.

“Will we be coordinating with other vessels?” Yuri asked, this time with a constructive and relevant question for the topic.

“Nominally, yes. The Argonaut will serve as my headquarters afloat, so there might come a time when we will work in tandem with another vessel from our Task Force and possibly one of the others that are being asked to send aid. For the majority of this deployment, however, we’ll be working alone. And while our focus is going to be on negotiations, this doesn’t mean we won’t see any action. We’ll need to keep an eye on our surroundings even while we go about trying to broker talks with the various victims in the region,” Bastin pointed out, giving the Saurian a meaningful look.

“We will be ready, Captain,” the Lieutenant seemed to notice the look and remarked in a resolute tone.

“Mister T’Rel, before we head out to Archanis, we’ll be making a stop at Starbase 27. While we’re there, I’m going to need you to coordinate the onboarding of spare supplies that have been rerouted from our Task Force’s reserves. If we don’t have the room for them in the cargo bays, use any empty rooms that we won’t need for mission critical operations. I don’t want us coming up short just because the Argonaut isn’t on par with some of the larger cruisers in the storage area.”

“Understood, Captain,” the Vulcan nodded once in understanding.

“Doctor, I’m sure I don’t really need to say it, but you should prepare to render medical assistance to the various entities we come in contact with. No doubt they’ll have their own people rendering aid, but I’m sure they won’t turn down the assistance.”

The Bajoran officer smiled, “I’ll make sure we’ve got plenty of spare items to go around.”

“Alright… as for the rest of you, we’ll have to play it by ear as to whether we’ll need assistance from your departments. Just be ready to be tasked out should the opportunity present itself. Otherwise, carry on with your department’s individual duties as usual. Any questions?” Bastin said, sweeping his eyes across the room.

“No? Alright then, let’s get to it. Mister Akron, set a course for Starbase 27, maximum warp,” Bastin rose from his chair, prompting the room to follow suit and depart the conference room. The room emptied, leaving the Captain and his First Officer behind.

“So,” Cmdr. Yuri said when she was sure the rest of the crew was out of earshot, “you want to tell me why you’re resuming command of the Argonaut after the ship has sat around for so long in refit status?”

“The short answer is because she was available,” Bastin said with a shrug, “And because I know the Argonaut rather well, it was an easy decision to make. Here’s a better question. Why didn’t you take the offer to command a ship of your own?”

“Because I took what you said when you left to heart,” Yuri answered with unusual honesty.

“Oh?” Bastin gave her a confused look, “What did I say that was so compelling that it actually stuck with you?”

“‘If you want to lead people, try looking at all the times you’ve gone against the grain and ask yourself if you’d be able to put up with a First Officer like that.’ Well… I did some pretty hard looking at myself and I realized that had you been even a little less tolerant of my attitude I wouldn’t still be in Starfleet at all. And when I figured that out, I couldn’t bring myself to accept a position like commanding a starship because I know I don’t have the kind of patience it takes to evaluate situations with that detached attitude you seem to be able to adapt so easily,” Yuri said in a somber tone.

Bastin placed a reassuring hand on the woman’s shoulder, “The fact that you came to that conclusion on your own says a lot about how much you’ve grown as an officer. Hell, when this tour is over, you might even be ready to take the Argonaut over yourself.”

“We’ll see…” Yuri smirked at the man, “Good to have you back, Captain.”

“Good to be home, Commander,” Bastin smiled back.

Angel

[Aboard the USS Argonaut]

[One day after receiving orders to Starbase 27]

Some would say that being assigned to a new ship would be the dream of new officers that just graduated from the Academy.  For Ensign Alexis Decoto, it was quite the opposite of a reaction.  Just as soon as she came aboard the USS Argonaut, there were the pomp and circumstances of being offered the position of Ops Officer.  At first, she thought that she would be the one to order people around to keep the ship’s resources at their highest efficiency, but with her being a junior officer, that meant working in the bowls of the ship.  Sure, she can order crewmen and even some Petty Officers to do the upgrades of the ship and the meaningless tasks, but in her position, she had to make sure that everyone was doing their jobs as fast as they can.  The lone problem that Alexis had was dealing with her temper when things did not go right.

Her temper was well known in the Academy.  One time, she blasted another cadet for not putting in a energy chip in the right spot.  There were a few expletives that came out of her mouth before the instructor had to send her to the office to try to get her to calm down.  Things seemed to go in one ear and out of the other as she vowed herself to never change who she was.  Yes, she was a hard ass on duty, and she had no hesitations to let everyone else know about how she felt if a task went wrong.  A lot of times during the academy, it backfired on her and she was reprimanded many times for being too harsh on people.

Now, being aboard a new ship and having new duties, Alexis was finding it exceedingly difficult to lead people into doing the lesser tasks at hand while trying to take care of her own higher-level tasks.  There seemed to be questions among the Petty Officers if she was able to lead them.  In all her frustrations, Alexis felt everything boiling up inside of her as she finally let loose during an inspection of the communications array towards a crewman.  “What the fuck?  Conduit Beta should have been attached to Conduit P3.  What the hell were you thinking to attach Conduit Beta to Conduit P10?  That would have fried the entire damn array!  Were you not given proper instructions by your Chief… or did you do this on your own!  Explain it to me… NOW!”  She shouted just as she noticed the Chief of Ops come in during a surprise visit.  She could see the crewman shivering in fear on one side of her eye but her Chief of Ops… a Vulcan that she barely met coming in to see what was happening on his watch.