Small World Afterall...

Posted on Thu Jan 26th, 2012 @ 9:37am by Captain Nathan Cowell MD & Lieutenant Colonel Anastasia DeVries & Commander R'eilani K'Riov-Deveraux & Lieutenant JG Elizabeth Marion

Mission: Crises and Consequences
Location: Various
Timeline: Following 'Happy Homecoming'

[Bridge, USS Arizona]

Admiral Nathan Cowell stepped onto the bridge after his conversation with the new doctor who had come to the ship due to their present circumstances and took his place back in the center chair. Events were slowly moving forward, and yet they still had time. Time to plan, time to prepare, and time enough to assess the situation from a fairly objective point of view, at least for the moment.

Nathan took notice that his Chief of Operations was absent, replaced by his adopted daughter, Lieutenant Junior Grade Elizabeth Marion. Such a thing was not uncommon even when there was no immediate crisis. Lieutenant Broca was nothing if not attentive in his duties to the ship, and there were more times that those duties took him away from the bridge than not. Nathan mused on the subject for a moment before the sound of a chirping console stole his attention.

"Sir, we're getting a coded message from the surface. It's a Starfleet code, heavily encrypted. Shall I put it through?" Lt. Marion asked as she turned to regard the old man.

"Who is it from?" Nathan inquired.

"Someone by the name of Arturo, Admiral," Liz remarked.

"Don't know him..." the old man mumbled.

From her own seat where she had been busying herself with schematics as to just how in the hell they were going to shove a thousand some people into various small rooms, Stace felt her attention being jerked away and instead towards the crusty one and his makeshift kid. "What did you say?"

"I said an individual by the name of Arturo is hailing us on a secure channel," Marion repeated for the First Officer's benefit.

Stace blinked a few times - a puzzled look upon her face. "Put the damn thing through already!"

Liz spun around and complied with the request, while Nathan turned toward his XO and gave her a look. The screen shifted from the image of the Romulan home world to the face of the man who had hailed them, Mr. Arturo.

"Can we help you, boy?" Nathan asked.

Almost immediately, as if she knew exactly who would be appearing on the screen, Stace was on her feet and nearly plowing over the Admiral. "What the hell are you doing on Romulus?!"

There was a sheepish shade of red washing over the onscreen face as he diverted his eyes towards the ground as a child would after a good scolding. "I... er... it wasn't my idea! You see... Lani heard about the commotion... she went to the old man... next you know we're both here and this vacation sucks..."

"For Fates sake!" Stace exploded with a twitch of the brow. "Who else is with you?"

The man shook his head quickly. "No one. I guess they weren't expecting anything to really go wrong..."

"I take it you know this kid," Nathan said as he watched the veins popping out of Col. DeVries' head.

The Lieutenant Colonel thought for a moment to deny everything and cut communication at once, blaming it on psychedelic drugs... but considering their predicament... she sighed instead. "This... fine gentleman is my son-in-law. Quite a catch... don't you think?"

"He looks like an idiot..." Nathan grumbled, "So anyway, what does he want?"

Stace felt her eyes rolling into the back of her head. "Obviously they'd like to visit! Perhaps we should beam their asses up. Besides... did I mention R'eilani is only the best damn engineer you could possibly hope to find... and we seem to be short one of those?"

The old man considered it for a moment before shrugging, "Sure, why not. Go ahead and beam them up here." Liz nodded and began to make the requisite preparations from her console. It wasn't every day that people got such a stellar recommendation from the Colonel. In fact, people rarely ever found themselves being spoken of in any real positive manner when Stace was the one doing the speaking. Nathan really was curious about this one.

"Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking," Stace retorted with a glare.

"No you don't," Nathan declared as he pushed himself out of his chair, "Ain't thinkin' a thing." All the while he was moving toward the rear of his bridge toward the turbolift.

"Which transporter room you using, kiddo?" the old man called out from the rear of the compartment.

"Transporter room one," Liz called out without looking back.

"Thanks," Nathan said before entering the turbolift.

[Transporter Room One, USS Arizona]

Admiral Cowell, with his First Officer following closely behind, entered the transporter room just as the patterns of the two people for whom Stace was very much familiar with were solidifying. Nathan looked them both over with a suspicious eye for a moment.

"Yeah, I was right, he looks very much the part of an idiot," Nathan declared when he caught the widening of the boy's eyes at seeing Stace. The mixture of fear and adoration was really hard to miss. The old man decided to ignore him and focus on the woman he was with, Romulan by the look of her.

"You must be something special if Mrs. DeVries is talking you up a fine bit," Nathan addressed the woman.

It took several moment for R'eilani to speak as her eyes quickly widened and then shrunk back down to normal. Despite his brilliance at times, Daz had yet to learn the cardinal rules when dealing with her and surprises. "I... wasn't aware she was aboard. Someone clearly left that part out."

"Nonsense!" Daz retorted as he quickly removed himself from the woman's reach and took a few steps towards their hosts. "Lieutenant Daz T. Arturo!" he greeted the Admiral. "I'm sure you're familiar with me now."

"Yes... you're a loud idiot," Nathan grumbled, "Aside from that, I don't know you from a hole in my deck."

Nathan turned to Stace, "Does he come with a mute function?"

Stace chuckled a bit at the notion. "This is the mute function."

"Oh dear lord..." Nathan groused, "Anyhow... welcome aboard the Arizona. Since I hear you have some Engineering chops, maybe you can find your way into a uniform and get down there before my warp core craps out from overuse."

Directing her attention to the elder man with her good eye, the dark haired woman contemplated his words for several seconds before shaking her head. "I didn't exactly come here to pick up your obvious slack... there are several issues I need to have taken care of."

"I'll have someone send word to the old man," Stace interjected knowing at once those at Starbase 11 would appreciate an update on two of their officers. "In the meantime, what grumpy is trying to say is... our ship is about to go to hell, so if you'd like those issues to be resolved perhaps you can help us first."

Daz frowned at the mention of engineering. He was an operations officer after all and knew next to nothing in terms of actually maintaining the vessel. "What about me?"

"Oh yeah... you," Stace retorted. "Um... Lukas is somewhere around here... perhaps he could use your help."

Daz felt better at the mention of an old friend, however, he still turned to the Admiral. "Unless, I'm needing somewhere more urgent?"

"Don't let me stop you from seeing your friends, boy. Go on, hop to..." Nathan shooed the man away.

The young man felt slightly discouraged from the rather sudden dismissal but nodded his head slowly in understanding. "Very well. I shall excuse myself."

"Perhaps I shall too," R'eilani joined in, glancing back at the Admiral. "You do have a rather competent engineering team, don't you?"

"We have a bunch of raw people in Engineering right now, had a big transfer recently. Didn't get a Chief Engineer out of the trade, and while I'm sure Ms. Russo can do a decent enough job, she's only just been made an Ensign. It would help to have someone who's been doing it a while get things squared away down there. Think you can do it for us?" Nathan asked, far nicer than normal.

The Commander narrowed her eyes a minute before relenting. The idea of working with a bunch of new recruits wasn't exactly high on her agenda but considering the circumstances she supposed she too could be 'nice'. "Very well. It will be difficult... having to do a majority of things myself... but I suppose that's why I have talent."

"There you go, that's the can do attitude I'd expect from someone Colonel DeVries thinks so highly of. Go ahead and beat feet down to Engineering and start getting things sorted out. I'll be on the bridge if you need me... try not to need me," Nathan said before he headed for the exit.