After The Review

Posted on Sat May 16th, 2020 @ 10:49pm by Captain Abigail Laurens & Lieutenant Commander T'Vek & Lieutenant Bianca Lee

Mission: Around The World in 8 Days
Location: Captain's Ready Room

Abigail stared at the PaDD on her desk before slowly lifting her gaze to look at the two officers standing on the other side of her desk. She stood up, remaining stony quiet as she walked across to the replicator, ordering a chai latte and carrying it back to her desk before sitting down again, taking a sip and setting the cup down on her desk.

"So, which one of you would like to start?" she asked, her voice almost eerily calm.

'This was Not Good,' Bianca thought to herself as she drew in a breath, eyes fixed firmly six inches above Abigail's head as she stood at attention in front of the desk, "Ma'am.." She was trying to find an explanation, "Ma'am, Ah believe that an unscheduled readiness evaluation was performed to see how ready the crew of the Astraea was to handle a crisis on absolutely no notice."

Lieutenant Commander T'Vek stood silently next to the Lieutenant, his eyes seeming to stare out beyond the room. As the woman struggled for an explanation to events she had only been a victim of in the grand scheme of things, he had to give her credit, it wasn't a horrible way to take things. He did not, however, bother to correct her or even add to the proceedings. He was curious to see if her rationale would hold any weight with the Captain sitting at her desk.

"I see." Another moment of silence. Another sip of chai. A quiet glance between the two of them. "So, who pray tell authorized said unscheduled readiness evaluation?" Abigail asked quietly.

"That would be Major General Howden. It was part of my transfer orders to evaluate the readiness of the crew, and report my findings as part of my vulnerabilities assessment. You haven't had one in an extended period of time, so I was asked to correct the deficiency," T'Vek replied dryly, producing the data fob that he had been given before his arrival.

"So," Abigail turned a firm gaze on T'Vek. "The first thing you do after coming aboard, is to start blowing my ship up..." she turned her gaze toward Bianca. "And you let him?" She leaned forward, one elbow resting on her desk, her eyes closed as she rubbed her temple with her fingertips. "Where are the results of the evaluation?" she finally asked, looking up again.

Bianca opened her mouth as if to respond, then closed it as she decided to let the Commander answer the question.

"The results of the evaluation have been submitted to Starfleet Intelligence. They are available at your clearance level, should you wish to review it in detail," the Vulcan replied in monotone.

"Should I wish?" Abigail drew in a sharp breath and shook her head slightly. "I'll make one thing very clear Commander T'Vek," she said quietly. "This is MY ship, and on MY ship I don't like surprises. In the future, if you are going to be running these evaluations, you will inform me in advance, especially if, for what ever reason, I am not aboard at the time. Is that understood?"

"I will reiterate, Captain, that I was following orders of a Flag Officer, the choice of how to execute those orders was not mine to make at the time. However, now that I have officially joined your ship, I will be able to give you more discretion over evaluations going forward," the Vulcan remarked without a change in tone.

Abigail chose to not respond, instead turning her full attention to Bianca. "Well?" she asked quietly. "Anything else you want to add?"

"No, ma'am." Bianca said quickly, then corrected herself, "Yes, ma'am. As the senior officer on the ship at the time of the incident, the responsibility for it happening is also mine. The faults that I made were explained to me at the time and I'm working to correct them, ma'am."

"Sit." Abigail ordered as she picked up her cup, took a sip of her chai and turned toward her console and activated it, pulling up the results of the evaluation and reading through them while she silently sipped her drink.

Bianca sat obediently, perched on the edge of the chair. This could either break her hopes or well... The future was uncertain, wasn't it?

Abigail scanned through the report from the evaluation, intermittently biting her lip and sighing and shaking her head. "Well," she finally said quietly. "I guess that's that then."

That was it? That was all that the Captain would say about something that could break her career? Curiosity completely overcame Bianca and she cleared her throat gently, "My pardons, Captain, but what's what, ma'am?"

"You may step out Lieutenant Lee, I will deal with you in a moment." Abigail said quietly. "Commander T'Vek, take a seat."

T'Vek raised an eyebrow slightly at the exchange, but walked forward a step and sank down into the chair in a fluid motion before turning toward the Lieutenant who had just been dismissed with a blank expression.

Bianca’s eyes opened wide, It can’t be THAT bad, can it? She started to open her mouth to object but firmly stopped it before it could more more than a fraction of an inch. Instead she stood up, ramrod straight at attention, then only glanced over at T’Vek for half a heartbeat and the short woman marched out the door, letting it slide shut behind her.