Reporting In

Posted on 08 Aug 2017 @ 2:36pm by Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Greg Mitchell
Edited on on 21 Aug 2017 @ 12:35pm

2,712 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: Earth - Starfleet HQ
Timeline: MD 16, 1315 hours

[ON]

Greg took a deep breath as he walked to Starfleet Headquarters to meet with what would be his CO for the moment. Lt. Wyatt was on LOA, so he was to report instead to Lt. JG Franklin. It had been a while since he was able to contact any member of his ship. Evidently, there had been a gag order in place and no one could speak to each other after proceedings began.

Which worked out nicely for Greg. He was able to see his mom and dad, talk to his brother, his cousin, get a medical check up, debrief with the investigator, Captain Austin, and have coffee with Jessica before she left. Now, after a few weeks of no contact, Greg was finally able to talk to report in. He was hoping to hear what had become of the crew, what exactly went on during the mission, where his security team was, and what they would do next.

After taking a deep breath, he knocked on the door.

Amaranai was still stuck on desk duty in Starfleet Headquarters. As she was not allowed access to any classified information, at the moment, she was more like a secretary for the military police. She would input information into the databases and file reports. It was very monotonous and not very fulfilling. Her saving grace was that she was finally able to be in contact with some of the crew, not Lirha, yet, but she hoped that would be lifted soon.

The brunette security officer was waiting for Greg - having been contacted by him the other day. Lucikly, Amaranai had been given an office to do her mundane work or she would have suggested meeting somewhere else. There was a knock on the door and Amaranai closed the information she had been reading.

"Come," she said.

"Show time." Greg whispered, then entered the room. He approached the Lieutenant and snapped a salute. "Lt. Franklin, Chief Warrant Officer Third Class Greg Mitchell reporting for my debrief, ma'am."

Amaranai stood up when Greg entered.

"It's nice to see you out of the hospital, Chief," she said with a smile. "At east. How is your recovery process?"

"It's going well, ma'am. I've got a sore shoulder from the battle and a headache, but I'm overall fine." Greg embellished on what the doctors had actually said, including their recommendation for bed rest and to be observed for future issues due to the probe. But he was restless to get to work, and Jessica had properly cleared him for duty. "Just itching to get back to work, that's all. It's good to see you as well ma'am."

The only people Greg had seen from the ship were Wilson and Rivetti before the no contact order was given, as well as Jacobs as Greg left the hospital. It was good to be able to talk to others again.

"Have a seat," Amaranai said and sat back down in her own chair.

As she looked at Greg, she was amazed how well he looked, considering all that had befallen the Chief Warrent Officer during their time on Kreanus.

Greg mentioned that he was here for a debriefing, but she really wasn't sure what he needed to say that wouldn't have already been said.

"You mentioned you were here for a debrief," she started. "What would you like me to know and what questions do you have for me?"

"Aye ma'am." Greg sat down. "I more or less need a SITREP on where we are now. Last I talked to my team, before they were ordered not to say anything, they managed to update me on...a lot that happened. Evidently, they were of no help whatsoever, but that's another story entirely."

He continued, "Really, what I want to know is where we stand, who all is ok, and what the future holds. Are we getting another ship or are we being transferred?"

Mr. Mitchell indeed had a lot of questions and most of them, unfortunately, Amaranai was not prepared to answer. She could respond to some of them but she wasn't sure if that was what Greg wanted.

"Mr. Mitchell," she started. "Greg," she corrected. "I have not been made aware of the current plans for the crew of the Galileo. We have only been given permission to contact other members of the crew in the past couple of days."

She thought of her contact with Lirha. It felt so good to touch the woman again. They didn't even need to have sex - though they did - because Amaranai simply wanted to be held by Lirha to know that the Orion was protecting the security officer more than anything.

"I have been in contact with Admiral Saalm, but she also had not been told what will happen with the crew and if we are to be transferred to other ships."

She had asked Lirha but in the moment to embrace and envelop the green-skinned lover, the answer had passed her.

"As for who all is okay, to my knowledge, we are mostly fine, though we did lose eight crew during the original raid. I'm not sure if you had gotten that final count."

She paused.

"I'm rambling," she said. "Do you have any questions?"

Greg could tell something was wrong with the Lieutenant, something that was on her mind. "At this time, no ma'am. I'll send you my final report when I get the chance. If you don't mind me asking, is everything ok? I mean, other than personal stuff you don't want to talk about."

Amaranai sighed when Greg asked her how she was. She could be honest and tell her that she was afraid that Lirha would be dishonorably discharged from Starfleet and that the brunette would have to make a choice between her career and her heart. Or she could be honest and admit to Greg that she hated working for Starfleet - mostly because of the kind of secretarial duty that she had been assigned. Of that she was scared of being alone with her sister after not really seeing her in person in almost five years.

"I'm just tired," she said. "But thank you for the concern."

She paused.

"With the sudden ban lifted, I've been contacted by many crew members, like yourself, asking questions that I, unfortunately, do not have the answers for." Another pause. "But that's irrelevant at the moment."

She changed her demeanor and her smile brightened.

"I am glad to see you out of the hospital. Have you been able to see any family while you've been here?"

"Yes ma'am." Greg responded, "My father and brother were both able to visit. As soon as I get a few days to myself, I'll head back to Champaign to visit the rest. It's been a while since I've actually been able to see them. I usually message them once a month." Greg remembered, as he always sent his parents, brother, cousin, and Jessica messages to keep in touch. He wondered how much the rest of them felt when he was late sending the last few. It was bad enough that Jessica had to contact his brother under the guise of missing a counseling report.

"What about you, ma'am. If you don't mind me asking. Do you have any family here on Earth?"

Amaranai listened as Greg talked about seeing his family and his intention to see the rest on a separate visit. Amaranai thought about her current leave and how it was like a double-edged sword: being able to see family but unable to do her job. The question brought her back to the conversation.

Family? Did Amaranai have family? She had parents and siblings, but did she want to tell anyone about them? She had barely told Lirha about them.

"I have a younger sister," she started. "She's here in San Francisco, so I was able to see her. I hadn't seen her in a few years, so it's been nice to catch up in person rather than via subspace communication."

"Well that must be a lucky break for you. I have to catch the first transport all the way to Illinois when I get the chance." Greg laughed, trying to lighten the mood. "A lot of people would consider us a farm family, but I'm actually from the downtown area around the University of Illinois, so I know squat about farming."

Amaranai thought about her life. She had lived in England for so long and then left for the Academy, only going back to retrieve her sister. She hadn't even talked to anyone in her family since she notified them that she was keeping Charlotte. They barely cared. Amaranai wondered how different her life could have been if she had just had a normal family.

"Illinois?" Amaranai said. "I haven't travelled much of the States, so I haven't been to Illinois. Since you're not a farmer, what sort of family life did you grow up with?"

Greg thought back to his life back home. "Well, my father was a Marine. Retired back in '78. Parents didn't want me to join up, so I remained in Champaign as a police officer. My brother was already in before dad left, but he went to a scout vessel so he wasn't directly in battles. My mother worked as a nurse at Carle hospital. We are a very close family. My dad is the complete opposite of what you would expect a Marine to be. He is very loving to all of us."

He remembered his childhood. "We lived in a small village named St. Joseph, just about ten minutes east of Champaign-Urbana, and I graduated SJO Highschool there. Those really were simpler times."

Amaranai listened to what could have been considered an ideal life, and for her, it sounded as if Greg had a good life. It made Amaranai think about her own lack of an ideal childhood with absent parents and no good older sibling to be a role model. And yet, they were family. Somewhere in her heart, despite her anger and hatred toward them, she loved them. Perhaps not love, but maybe grateful at least. Grateful that they were the way they were because they wouldn't have made Amaranai the Starfleet officer that she was.

"It sounds like a good life," Amaranai said. "So what led you away from that to Starfleet?"

"It was more or less the Reman incident, the one the Enterprise was caught up in. I figured if more threats like that one hit Earth, I'd need to be in a position to help protect the planet. Also, my brother was already in Starfleet, so I figured it was a family thing." Greg thought back, "Helped out a lot because my third posting was on a Sovereign Class, patrolling the Romulan Neutral zone after the star went supernova."

Greg recalled the bodies of the refugees in the cargo bay of the Ohio, the bruised, dirtied and bloodied faces of those who had been fired on by their own ships for even thinking of defecting to the Federation for help. "That was...not pretty to say the least."

Amaranai nodded as she listened to the story. She recalled the Reman incident and the Enterprise being in the middle of the fray. Even though it was so close to home, that was not what had led her to Starfleet. She had just felt that was the only way to get out of her situation.

When Greg talked about being on the Sovereign that helped with the refugees at the time, Amaranai shuddered. She had seen many species in many situations but Greg's telling of the refugee rescue made her realize that there was still a lot for her to see.

"I could imagine," she said quietly. "I wasn't anywhere near that sector at the time, but one of my former commanders was. She had the same feeling about it as you did."

"How did her tour in that area go? If I may ask." Greg asked the CO. It couldn't have been pretty, at least after all that he had seen.

Amaranai thought about her former commander from Deep Space Six.

"She didn't talk about it too much," Amaranai admitted. "I think, like you, she saw a lot of bad stuff and was too bothered to talk about it. Once she started talking and realized what she was talking about, she got quiet and didn't talk about it too much after that. It makes me curious, but based on her reaction and yours, I'm not sure if I'm that curious."

"It wasn't that pretty ma'am. The Romulan extremists would fire on their own people who were seeking asylum. I'll be the first to tell you that I do not have any love for enemies of the Federation, but these were civilians and we were that close to peace with them." Greg explained, "I know a lot of people who didn't walk away from dealing with that without mental scars."

Amaranai nodded as she considered the comments from Greg. She sensed that her former commander might have had those mental scars and that was why she didn't talk too much about her time helping the refugees.

"Well," Amaranai said. "Onto happier things. Do you have any current aspirations? I mean, I'm not sure what's going to happen to all of us, if we'll get assigned to a to the same ship, but it would be good to know in case we still work together."

"At risk of sounding like I have no work motivation, I don't have much career wise to speak. I've made Chief, but I don't know how much above that I want to go. I like being on the field and doing ground work." Greg had been given a lecturer by both his brother AND Jessica on this subject, but he knew testing for officer and hypothetically passing (in best case scenario) would involve more office work and less patrol. He was more into patrol.

"I don't know why. I just feel the need to be on hand whenever I'm needed. Even though our ship was without major issues. As long as whatever we do next, we are still able to remain in contact with other ships. I message my family on a regular basis."

Amaranai watched and listened to Greg. She understood his reasons for staying as an NCO and didn't even feel the need to question his motives.

"I understand," Amaranai said after a moment. "Being an officer comes with a lot of glory and honors but it comes with a lot of work."

She paused as she considered all of the extra things that she had to deal with once she became an officer.

"So, if you don't want to move upward to an officer, what else would you like to do? Do you want to have more responsibilities or are you happy with your current duties?"

Greg thought for a moment. He never really thought much about his life outside of work. It seemed every moment he was doing something, it was work related. "Some day I want to settle down and start a family. But for now I feel like I just focus on keeping people safe. Like it's something I'm supposed to do."

"I'm glad that you feel that way, Greg," she said. "I don't know what's going to happen to the crew upon reassignment, but I have a feeling that if you're with me, I'll defintely feel safer."

"Aye, ma'am." Greg smiled, "I'll try my best."

"Well, Greg," Amaranai started. "I'm glad we were able to catch up a little bit. And I'm glad that you're out of the hospital."

Amaranai wasn't sure what would happen but she knew that Greg would be an integral part of her team, so she had to hope that no matter what, she could bring him along with her.

"Thank you ma'am. If you need anything, just give me a call and I can be on the first shuttle here." Greg stood and saluted. "Have a nice day, Lieutenant."

[OFF]

--

Lt. jg Amaranai Franklin
Assistant Chief Security / Tactical

and

CWO3 Greg Mitchell,
Security Officer

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