In the heat of the moment...

Posted on Sat Dec 22nd, 2012 @ 12:58pm by Captain Nathan Cowell MD

Mission: Funzone
Location: Brigadier General Brett J. Michaels' office, Starbase 11
Timeline: One Day Prior to Mission Start

[Brigadier General Brett J. Michaels' office, Starbase 11]

"...And according to the official mission reports from most of the surviving Senior Staff, Captain Haverson ordered his crew to perform duties that were ultimately fatal. I have six testimonies from officers who outlined no less than seventeen different options that would have been less lethal to the crew than those Mr. Haverson directed his crew to undertake," General Michaels concluded his report to Admiral Nathan Cowell as the men sat across one another in the station commander's office.

"Where is that piece of shit now?" Nathan asked.

"In the brig," Brett replied in monotone.

"I'd have shot the bastard..." Nathan muttered.

"I wanted to..." the Marine admitted. It was no secret that General Michaels and Lt. Colonel DeVries had been friends. Upon his first meeting the man with his then Security Chief, Nathan had known that they had a history. Her disappearance weighed just as heavily on Brett as it did on Nathan... perhaps more.

"You should have..." the old man said bluntly, "But I suppose you did what was legal and proper, Brett. Have you got any estimates on the damages?"

"Most of the damage, thankfully, can be repaired by the crew without going into dry dock. We've already shipped over the materials needed, given the Arizona a full complement of replicator matter in case they need to make other repairs that we've not been able to find thus far. Once the core is replaced, she'll be back under her own power. The only thing she's lacking is a Captain," Michaels reported.

"I've got that covered," Nathan said vaguely, "You just worry about getting her sea worthy."

"Very well... And what about our 'guest'?" Brett asked with a hint of sarcasm.

"I'll take care of that too... Well, at least the inquiry part of things. I need you to contact Earth and have a prison transport ready to ship him off to a penal colony after I'm done," Cowell instructed.

"No trial?" the Marine asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, I'm sure he'll get a trial, but I'm not sending him anywhere in luxury. He can rot in a penal facility until we arrange a tribunal... he's going to be there when it's all said and done anyway. Why not get him warmed up to the idea," the Admiral smirked.

"I see," Michaels nodded his approval, "I'll have someone escort you down to the brig, Admiral."

"No need, son. I know the way. Been in a few brigs in my time," Nathan chuckled.

"As you wish..."

[Brig, Starbase 11]

Admiral Cowell paced outside of the holding cell that contained the Arizona's most recent commander. Captain Gregory Haverson sat on the edge of the slab that acted as seat and bed inside the cell. He'd been stripped of his overcoat, his rank pips, and left in an off blue tank top and his duty slacks. His head hadn't so much as inched up even after Nathan had walked in the Brig and the room had snapped to attention for him. For his part, Nathan hadn't said a word, he had simply paced back and forth in front of the cell, measuring the man and his own feelings for what the man had done.

"You killed thirty-seven good men and women this week," Nathan finally said after a long pause to think.

"I didn't count..." Haverson muttered.

"You lost an eight man away team to include your First Officer and you didn't bother to send a rescue mission to find them," Nathan continued.

"They're all dead..." Haverson again muttered.

"You nearly lost the ship in an engineering disaster that you mishandled," the Admiral went on.

"She's still in one piece..." the man said with his head still hung nearly between his knees.

"And that makes it all ok, doesn't it?" Nathan scoffed.

Haverson finally lifted his eyes to meet Nathan's, "Doesn't it? You lost half your crew and your ship... And here you are, an Admiral... What makes me so different?"

Nathan balled his hands in anger, "I didn't throw their lives away carelessly. I did everything I could to keep them alive. You just tossed lives at a problem and hoped their deaths would make it go away. You disgraced your station and that ship with your negligence."

"Disgraced? If anyone's a disgrace it's you. You prance around acting like a god, levying judgment on everyone you see and expect people to just bow to your whims. If anyone should be in here it's you." Haverson hissed.

Nathan glared at the man, who simply glared back. The verbal battle of wills wasn't going anywhere. Nathan wasn't going to get his point across to the thickheaded child and the thickheaded child wasn't going to take any responsibility for his crimes.

"So I guess this is all just a big mistake, huh? We should let you out and give you a ship and let you throw more lives on top of the pile you've made... is that it?" the old man asked as he folded his arms across his chest.

"Yes... that's exactly what you should do. You should let me out and let me get back to my ship. Go back to your desk and your ignorance, old man. We don't need you out here. The Arizona is better off without you," Haverson scowled at Nathan.

"Ensign, drop this damn force field," Admiral Cowell ordered.

"Sir?" the Brig Watch Officer asked in a confused voice.

"I said drop the damn force field," Nathan repeated himself.

"Aye..." the man stammered before hitting the proper control. The field of energy that separated the two men cracked once and vanished, leaving little between the two but air. Before Haverson had the chance to even stand, Nathan was inside the holding cell right in front of the man.

"Stand up and say that again, boy," Nathan demanded in a cold tone.

Haverson stood up and stuck his chest out. The man only stood an inch taller than Nathan, and as such wasn't much in the way of imposing even with his chest puckered up. Nathan waited for the man to make a move.

"I said we don't need you, old man. Go back to your comfortable office chair and rot away like a good little Admiral," Haverson blustered.

"Make me, son... if you have the balls," Nathan glared.

"Gladly!" Haverson roared as he drew back his right arm to land a blow on Cowell's face. Nathan, however, reacted much faster than Haverson. Thanks to his centuries of medical knowledge, the old Doctor managed to jab the man in no less than five pressure points that sent the man crumpling to the floor in pain.

Grabbing a fist full of the man's hair, Nathan jerked Haverson's head up to face him, "What the Arizona doesn't need is a man like you. And as luck would have it, I have the power to make you go away. Maybe while you're rotting in a cell you'll come to understand what it means to be in Command... And maybe you'll die before that happens. Either way, you'll be in a dark hole and you'll be a danger only to yourself."

Haverson could do little but squint at the pain flooding his nervous system. The contorted features of his face were enough to satisfy Cowell, who threw the man's head back and sent the man sprawling back on his ass.

The Admiral dusted himself off as he walked out of the cell, "Alright, lock him up and forget you know how to open that thing."

"Roger that..." the stunned Ensign said as he reactivated the force field. Without another word, Nathan Cowell departed the station and returned to a place he called home... the Arizona.

[To be Concluded...]