The worst possible news...

Posted on Mon Nov 7th, 2011 @ 3:05am by Captain Nathan Cowell MD

Mission: These are the voyages...
Location: Commodore's Ready Room, Bridge, USS Arizona
Timeline: Pre-Launch

Commodore Nathan Cowell sat reclined in his new chair, enjoying the feel of a never before occupied seat as he read a book he'd gotten from his home in Alaska during a shore leave visit. The brief visit had been just enough to remind him of a great many things he'd left behind. There were spots on the walls in his old house that had been occupied by artifacts he'd brought with him aboard the first Arizona. Those were now lost to oblivion, never to be found again. A great many things had also been found in that twisted future, things that Nathan hoped his knowledge of would prevent their ever coming to pass. His future self had been rather vocal in his denouncement of events as they had happened in his own timeline. It was a shame that he hadn't gotten to spend more time with his future self...

"Commodore, there is an incoming priority one message from Starfleet Command for you," the voice of one of the new bridge officers the ship had gained since Nathan had taken command called out over the intercom.

"Patch it through here..." Nathan grumbled. The phrase priority one never sat well with him. If it wasn't going to be orders, it was going to be some other form of bad news that Nathan never liked getting. Needless to say, optimism wasn't foremost in Nathan's mind when he heard those words...

The imbedded desk monitor rose up and flashed on, revealing the Caitian Admiral Nathan had met a few days prior. Nathan couldn't tell off hand whether the Caitian was in a good or bad mood, and for all he knew, not even another Caitian would have been able to tell.

"Admiral," Nathan greeted simply.

"Commodore, so good to see you again. I trust you are happy with your new surroundings," the Admiral greeted in return.

"Can't complain... got some nice digs, comfortable chairs, and a place to shelve my hooch. A good day all around," the old man chuckled.

"Glad to hear it. Now then, to the reason I'm contacting you today," the Admiral said in a tone that Nathan easily recognized as bad news... for him, "Your previous posting was filled a month in to your disappearance. Admiral Wegener himself has been promoted to my Fleet Executive Officer. In several conversations with him, it seems that your reputation for being a rather flippant and crass man is nothing short of legendary. I might even commend you for your consistency in that area if it weren't against good order and discipline. All that being said, your position as Task Force 38s First Officer is no longer vacant."

"I see," Nathan said curtly. In the back of his mind he was actually happy to hear that. He never did like being anything more than the Captain of a vessel anyhow and by the sounds of things, he was about to find himself back where he preferred to be... out of sight and out of mind.

"With that said, I've been discussing where you should be transferred to. It was a very difficult conversation to be sure, given your recent encounter with some of my more senior staff. Several of them advocated your demotion back to Captain. And my first instinct would have been to go along with that..." Adm. S'iraa let the comment hang for a moment, "However, your list of proponents seems to have grown since your return. There seems to be a large number of Flag Officer children among your crew. Those that survived your ordeal had nothing but good things to report about your command abilities and such. I was inundated with requests for more than enough commendations to fill a wall. So, I'm going to split it down the middle. With a recent retirement of my Operations Officer, I'm going to promote you to Rear Admiral and you'll be taking over as my Chief of Operations. I'm sure you'll aptly suited to handle logistical matters given your background as a hospital administrator."

Nathan grunted at the comment and the entire affair itself. A promotion?! He'd done his damnedest to get demoted so he could avoid going any higher on the chain. It seemed that his plan had backfired in a very serious way...

"Thank you for letting me know, Admiral. I suppose I'll have to get with your office and find out what I need to start doing," Nathan said finally, after letting the bad taste in his mouth dry a bit.

"I've taken the liberty of forwarding you the information already. Captain Landers will be your immediate subordinate in the Operations Office, and she will handle the vast majority of your workload. You can focus on the Arizona for the time being, get your crew settled in, get yourselves back in shape. S'iraa out."

The screen went black the second the Caitian had said that, which annoyed Nathan to no end since he had a great many objections brewing in his head that he'd never get to voice. Damn his luck... right to hell!