Back to Blue

Posted on 12 Oct 2014 @ 10:54am by Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Olsam Mott
Edited on on 12 Oct 2014 @ 7:05pm

1,343 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 3, Quarters 03-1305 JO
Timeline: MD -27: 0600hrs

[ ON ]

Olsam had only just made it back to his quarters after his encounter with the ship's diplomat, so the door chime had come as a surprise. He assumed it was someone from command come to dress him down for not staying in his quarters like he was told, but he'd gotten hungry! His replicator was still down, Teth was nowhere to be found, and a Bolian had to eat. Dammit.

Tired of waiting, John punched in his authorisation code into the door panel and ordered the doors to part, before stepping inside. He had been given his XO's report, and with eyes burning like plasma fires, he locked eyes with his Bolian target.

"Doctor Mott. I think we need to talk, don't you?"

Olsam actually gasped. Holliday? What was he doing here? Did Commander Blake call in the big guns? Were they putting him down? Kicking him off the ship? Going to stuff him into an airlock and falsify a death report?

"Uh," the doctor managed, looking around with some uncertainty. "We do?"

John placed the palms of his hands together and nodded as he paced from one side of the room to the other, looking at the floor, and then looking back towards the Doctor.

"My XO tells me that she had to relieve you of duty - and confine you to quarters...I think that warrants a talk? Or an explanation at the very least?"

Olsam huffed a little, momentarily lapsing back into being quite upset with Commander Blake. Had she sent Holliday in here to do her dirty work? The audacity! Now he was going to have all three members of the command staff after him. Could he successfully argue his way out of that? Naturally, but that was hardly the point.

"Well, yes, she did that," the doctor admitted. "But she started it." His head tilted to the side as he reviewed that, thinking it sounded a little too petulant in the end. "I mean to say, she was really overreaching her authority - in my opinion - and I was merely expressing my dissent over her directives, particularly regarding the conduct of the medical staff and the manner in which we, the medical professionals on this ship, chose to treat the sick and injured. It's just plain rude to suggest that after, at minimum, ten years of training we don't know what we're doing. And especially to hear it from someone outside the field. Just...rude."

"She started it? and was rude?"

John replied, trying to figure out exactly where such language actually belonged on a Federation starship. Had the vessel been equipped with a kindergarten then the Captain could have found a home for such things, but otherwise he was at a loss.

"She is the Executive Officer of this vessel and my right hand. Commander Blake is also your superior officer - in my books that gives her the right to be as rude as she feels necessary. I don't expect to have to come down because my physicians are locked in their quarters for bad behaviour."

Olsam, of course, disagreed completely, and it was written all over his face. As far as he was concerned, one should really try to maintain some level of decorum and pleasantness between crew and command, otherwise things got...well, they got unpleasant. But the more important part was having someone butt their nose into your professional business without much background or evidence to support it and then having the audacity to suggest you actually went against the physician's creed - "Do no harm" - and put crewmembers at needless risk.

"I'm not locked up in here for bad behavior, I'm locked up in here because she didn't want to hear any sort of dissenting opinion regarding something she doesn't know anything about," Olsam said, huffing in frustration. Was he going to have to repeat this whole ordeal all the way up the chain until it reached Starfleet Command? "I'm a doctor, and I know what I'm about. She's a Marine. I respect very well her authority as my superior officer, but she doesn't begin to know a fraction of what any of us in Sickbay know about medical treatments and procedures. And she can review those security logs until she's as blue in the face as I am and still not be in a position to make qualified medical judgments. She's just not! She's not the Starfleet Medical Board of Inquiry, Captain Holliday. I never said I wasn't going to do what she told us to do, but I really resent the way she went about it and the implication that I don't have the right to disagree with someone on this ship and suggesting I'm not a qualified medical professional with the best interests of this crew at heart."

Ordinarily, he'd avoid the captain at all costs. He put Olsam on edge, especially with that scar that made him look so sinister. But this was important, a matter he didn't intend to just shut up and back down about, so he stared the other man directly in the eye the entire time he spoke and continued to do so thereafter. He really didn't mean any disrespect to the command staff, though the pitch and pace of his speech was passionate, but he firmly believed in an officer's right to stand up for himself and his colleagues while still respecting the chain of command by following orders.

John had heard enough from the reports on both sides, and in reality had no intention of opening up a whole can of worms over who had been right and who had been wrong. As far as he was concerned the situation was black and white - the XO had given orders, and the crew were to follow them as if they were his own, anyone who wanted to disagree with that could pull him up in front of the Admiralty or make their way to the nearest airlock.

"Confidence Dr Mott is a useful character trait - useful, but sometimes futile. In this case it is the latter. I didn't come down here to continue the argument, the time for discussion is over and the decision is made. Now I need my ship's Doctors at their posts, not locked up in their quarters. I want you back at your post this time tomorrow - is that clear?"

John took the opportunity to straighten himself up to his full height, locking his gaze back at the Bolian as he spoke. In reality errors had been made on both sides, but he would be a poor Captain if he did not agree that his XO had made the same decisions he would have made in her place.

"Yes, sir," Olsam said, seeing the futility in carrying on the argument. Not that it really mattered at this point; getting reinstated was about as much of a concession as he was likely to get, and he supposed it was better than being thrown in the brig. They probably served terrible food in there. "Uh, thank you. For coming, I mean. I'm sure you have more important things to do than separate two squabbling crewmembers."

"Indeed...." John replied with a judgemental glare, before separating his hands and pacing towards the doors.

"Consider yourself returned to duty - and with my eye watching you. Good day Doctor Mott."

And with that he turned on his heels and headed through the doors, the two metal plates succintly snapping shut behind him as he left.

Olsam watched the doors close and finally exhaled; he hadn't even realized he'd been holding his breath. Well, that went well, he thought. At least this isn't a Klingon ship. Otherwise, I'd probably be dead by now.

[OFF]

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

&

LT Olsam Mott, M.D.
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

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