Calling in

Posted on Sun Feb 27th, 2011 @ 2:30am by Captain Nathan Cowell MD

Mission: Hippocratic Hijacking
Location: Captain's Ready Room, Bridge, USS Arizona
Timeline: The evening after 'Rectification'

Captain Nathan Cowell had, in the course of a day, spent more time engrossed in medical duties, patient treatment, and just general good old fashioned doctoring than he had in a decade, if not longer. The sense of accomplishment that he got from it was undeniable, the nostalgia of centuries standing over patients administering care unmistakable. The only thing left to him now, after all the work was finally done and nature was left to do her thing, was the administrative task of reporting in to Command. His earlier attempts at contacting Admiral Mooren had been dismally unsuccessful, which led Nathan to assume that any such attempts would be in vain. Having never taken the time to actually look at the chain of command for the Task Force he'd been thrust into, Captain Cowell was forced, as he sat behind his desk, to do research. His labor bore fruit when he located a name, one Commodore Brandon Leary. Having done enough work, he instructed the computer to seek the man out and waited comfortably in his chair until the image of the Federation Seal shifted to that of the man he had been hunting for.

"Captain Cowell. I heard you were looking for me?" Although he had been in the sector for months Brandon had never seen this captain or his ship before. He decided to keep things professional for the moment while he judged the man's character.

"Actually, I was looking for the Efrosian woman, but she's gone off the grid. Didn't even know you existed until I looked it up. No offense but the pass down around here blows..." the El-Aurian said with a frown before changing the subject, "So anyhow, don't know how much you know about what's been going on so I'll sum it up nice and fast for you. We were sent out here to the Brakken system to check out a missing transport. Found the transport, but no cargo. Brakken was suffering a plague, come to find out, some kind of Romulan offshoot virus, no clue where it came from or who made it. Left half my crew on the planet to tend the sick and find a cure while I sought out the supplies. Ran across a mercenary station just this side of the border, went in, my people got shot at for looking, we chased down a transport that I ended up wasting half my tricobalt devices on to get the cargo back. Supplies retrieved, cure found, it's being passed along right now, and that's about where we are right now. With me so far?"

Brandon nodded. It sounded fascinating. He liked that the Captain was honest and spoke his mind. It was a refreshing change from the politicians that frequented his old posting on Utopia Planitia. "Go on."

"Right, well once we get everyone back above the dying mark, we're pretty much done here, which leads me to my reason for reporting in, what kind of follow-up are you planning to send to these people? I don't want to tell them that now that our ship, a warship no less, is done, no one else will come to check on them. And anyway, I'm getting the feeling something is fishy around her but I don't have the resources or the people to waste trying to find out. Plus I need a major resupply because I'm about out of everything but kitchen sinks... and I think I might be low on those too..." Nathan continued.

Brandon chuckled at the joke. He pulled up a report on the ships and supplies close to the Arizona's current location. "We might be able to get the Hippocrates to your location in a few weeks. Their medical facilities should be able to handle anything these people need. As for your ship, I'm going to order you to Pacifica for a resupply. The local base there should be able to get you stocked with everything you need and I'm sure your crew could use the rest."

"Mandatory fun, sounds good to me. Cowell out," Nathan said, cutting the link abruptly before sinking back in his chair. Whether he liked it or not, their involvement in the Brakken situation had just come to an end...