Coffee with the boss

Posted on Sat Aug 27th, 2022 @ 7:27pm by Lieutenant Jonathan (Jon) Riley & Lieutenant Marina Tanger & Lieutenant T'Plana-hath

Mission: Shore Leave
Location: Intelligence Office
Timeline: 239508.07 (0645 hrs)

On:

Jon walked in to the empty intelligence office, that was slightly generous, it was a couple of desks that looked lightly used, his office that was very empty, an oversized desk and chair were the only contents. He walked to the back counter, no coffee pot, just a replicator. "Yuck replicator coffee."

He grabbed the synthetic dark fluid, he made a mental note to get real coffee and a pot because the replicator did a horrible job of making the cup he had in hand. He sat at the desk, the computer terminal came too life, the display had the usual random reports, overnight updates, and so on. There was a few new updates on the Romulans, a Klingon ship had a run in with an as yet unidentified attacker, a few sketchy reports from some mission in the Shackleton expanse.

Last was a message from admiral Wallace, although it was a general update, he did include the footnote that Jon had been assigned too the Leto, along with a running joke included in the message. He started to plow though some other reports and a couple of information requests, he looked up too see nothing, no staff. Where is everyone?

Moments later the door opened to reveal Marina, she’d had a more restful night than of late now she’d made up her mind to move back to infiltration officer. She stifled a yawn nonetheless as she offered a polite smile. “Good morning.”

Jon sat up, "I'm Jon Riley the new intel chief aboard ship, you are?"

“Marina Tanger, Sir” She offered a warm smile. “I was Chief for a short duration, I requested a move back to Infiltration Officer.”

Jon shifted slightly forward in his chair, "If you don't mind, why did you step down?"

Marina took a seat. “To be honest, I didn’t feel ready for it. I was sent straight under deep cover with the Caliphate when I graduated from the Academy. I spent years working that cover, and in the process ended up hooked on ability advancing narcotics. Which I’m glad to say the Doctor sorted out. I also had a daughter, whose still out there somewhere with some of the remaining Caliphate females.” She paused. “As much as the Captain Agreed I’d earned the position, I don’t feel I have. I’m medically trained so I also volunteered to be a field medic when needed.”

Jon sat back, processing the information, "Well, I'm glad you chose to stay, but I'll be honest, I would like for you to be my assistant chief for right now, I need someone familiar with ship operations and the crew, plus I'm still trying too close a large number of case files that were open when I left Earth so I would appreciate the help." he stopped too take a sip of the coffee.

Marina looked at Riley in surprise. “Assistant Chief...” she paused to take it in. “I...” She was going to refuse before she nodded. “If that’s what you need then that’s what I’ll do.”

T'Plana-hath sat back in the 'Dark Room' away from her duty station and looked at the chronometer on her workstation. The new Intelligence chief should have arrived and was most likely in the Intelligence Office, a typical place Starfleet officers worked if they had never served on a Starship for long periods of time as an Intelligence agent. She knew that Lieutenant Jonathan Riley had only served on a Space station Outpost 22 and Starfleet Intelligence Headquarters, but that he was fairly confident officer, only missing twelve of the fifty ships his task force was tasked to track along the neutral zone. Of those twelve, six were Romulan Intelligence ships and the other six belonged to the Eau de Nil and Captain Arwella, all doing "business" with the remnants of the Romulan Tal Shiar and their Naval Tal Diann counterparts. Well I need a break from my research on the Eau de Nil. Time to meet the new boss. She got up and left the Intelligence Suite, past the two security guards by the pressure hatch and down the hall to the Security Office, she stepped through to see both Lieutenant Tanger, whom T'Plana-hath felt made a poor decision in stepping back from her post as Chief Intelligence Officer, and Lieutenant Riley. She made a mental note to check on the V'Shar's efforts on her behalf to find Lieutenant Tanger's missing child. She overheard the conversation they were having and smiled Good, I would hate to be saddled with being the executive intelligence officer, been down that road once and did not care for it. Bonus will be Lieutenant Tanger will grow more comfortable as an Intelligence Officer. "Am I interrupting?" she inquired.

Jon grinned, "Come on in, are you Lieutenant T'plana-hath? you wrote the paper on criminal counter intelligence?"

T'Plana-hath smiled "Yes, I wrote that paper a year after I graduated. I have a Doctoral degree in Doctor of Terrorism and Counterterrorism Operations (Ph.D.), Doctor of Strategic Intelligence (DSI), Doctor of Science Explosive Engineering (Ph.D.), as well as having a Doctoral degree in Diplomacy. I graduated from the Vulcan School of Diplomacy, a family tradition so to speak. I am intimately familiar in criminal counter intelligence, as well as military and political counter intelligence. I have performed undercover in the past, acquiring valuable intelligence." She looked at Lieutenant Tanger, "I am also familiar with the difficulties one has to readjusting from such missions."

Jon leaned back, "There isn't much I can tell either of you except for a few updates that haven't been in the daily updates, the Romulan groups that are resistant too this new uneasy peace are using what could be called a 'Q ship', it's a reference too an ancient earth term where the ship is either very convincingly disguised as a freighter or other ship but is heavily armed, USS Cornerbrook ran into one and was severely damaged, it's making conventional fleet tracking harder now, for the moment we'll include it in the captains normal briefing package, I hate getting down to business so quickly but," pausing to cue up the data file "The Cornerbrook was caught off guard, as you can see the damage that was inflicted is quite devastating, I'll try too get everything for a full break down and case study, this would only be academic if it wasn't for the level of violence in this incident."

Marina nodded. “That’s all we need, totally innocent looking ships that turn out to be armed to the teeth. That could turn into a nightmare scenario.”

"So far we only have the one logged incident, let's hope this is the only one too." Jon said shifting in his seat "Next matter of business, where can I get a decent cup of coffee?"

Marina couldn’t help but grin. “To be honest I’ve no clue! I never drink the stuff. It makes my head buzz, for a telepath and empath with my training that’s not particularly a good thing.”

"The bunker used too have coffee on the move twenty four hours a day, one of my imaging specialists a Vulcan grew some crazy hybrid that tasted great without the caffeine hang over, but those days are over, maybe I'll get a tech too expand the menu." Jon said with a smile "So is it just you two or is there anyone else?"

T'Plana-hath smiled and replied, "You will find a conventional coffee maker as well as several types of coffee beans and a grinder in the 'Dark Room' or Intelligence suite, though I would not recommend anything out of the refrigerator unit. No replicators are allowed in the Intelligence suite. As I am sure you have noted the Intelligence office is not used much, it is more a facade, used as a prop, especially on Diplomatic Ships. Also Diplomatic ships tend to have the fewest Intelligence officers, least we offend some diplomat."

"So do you think the head diplomat would like it much if they found out I had a bridge officer rating too?" Jon said testing the waters.

T'Plana-hath looked at Lieutenant Riley "No 'Diplomat' has a say in who may have a bridge officer rating. There is also precedence of Starfleet Intelligence Officers obtaining bridge officer rating and commanding a non-intelligence starship." She was sure the Lieutenant knew this fact, and thought he was testing his subordinates.

“I don’t think Kasey would mind that much” Marina offered a smile. “But if needs be I can always ask my brother and find out.” She smiled a wry smile.

Jon leaned back, "I know the ship is on shore leave so if you're partaking in any activities just let me know, I haven't seen a schedule as such and I'm going to be spending my time closing some case files before we get underway."

"I have no need of 'shore leave' and would like to formally request permission to take the scout ship Nightstalker into the system and investigate the subspace buoy and the decaying warp signatures. There is valuable information that can still be gathered. If you would please ask the captain for permission." replied T'Plana-hath

"That sounds fine, clear it with the proper channels and stay out of trouble." Jon said turning

“If you don’t mind I’ll take my Shoreleave, I haven’t had Shoreleave in....Ohh ever!” Marina grinned. “I’m intending to enjoy myself.”

"Enjoy, if something comes up I'll be in contact." Jon replied "Anything else?"

“Thank you Sir, and nothing else from me.” Marina smiled warmly.

"I think we're good, hopefully we don't have too leave early." Jon said as he stood to shake hands.

{OFF}

Lieutenant jg Marina Tanger
Asst Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Leto

Lt Jonathan Riley
Chief Intelligence officer
USS Leto

Lieutenant JG T'Plana-hath
Intelligence Officer
USS Leto