New Orders, New Repairs

Posted on Tue Feb 25th, 2020 @ 2:40pm by Fleet Captain Torilla Yamaguchi

Mission: Mission 15: Old Ghosts
Location: Tane's Ready Room
Timeline: 0800Hrs - December 2nd, 2390

One thing Captain Tane did not like, was early-morning meetings. But that was what Rear Admiral Jonus Brooks was there for. Her new XO had arrived, and after Tane's last, dangerous mission, a lot of new crew were coming in.

"So you're just going to sit at your desk and ignore me?" the slightly-pudgy, white-haired admiral asked her while he looked around her office with entertained blue eyes.

The walls were littered in think, glass-cased shadowboxes that housed rare and special weapons. Mostly knives and swords. But there was the occasional gun.

"I lost two-hundred and seven evacuating the colony on Felnor II, before you ordered me into dock. So what I'm doing, is writing letters to the families of these people," Tane corrected without looking up.

Jonus knew Tane was pissed. The earthquakes on the colony claimed a lot of her senior staff and took out many of her fighter pilots.

"Command assigned another XO for you. In fact, she should be here soon," Jonus spoke with a careful tone. While he did sponsor Zara's entrance into war collage for Zeth's sake, he knew she was an unstable character at times like this.

"At least tuck your shirt in under your vest? Your XO is likely to receive you better if you look more... Military," he suggested, but knew that would get him no where.

"I've a reputation for disorderly, in the fleet. So no, I don't intend to placate someone brass wants on my ship," Tane corrected shortly, still consumed with writing condolence letters.

On the outside of the door stood Lt Commander Torilla Yamaguchi, today she was wearing her regular uniform with the pants rather then the skirt. She had heard stories about her new Commanding officer, one Captain Zara Tane but she decided she wanted to meet the woman first, to put things into perspective.

Torilla tapped the doorchime and she settled in to wait.

"Open," Tane remarked without looking to the door. She looked very much like a nine-to-five cubical employee, entrenched in paperwork.

Torilla stepped forward into the ready room as she regarded her new commanding officer. "Lt Commander Torilla Yamaguchi reporting for duty sir..." she addressed herself to Tane because Tane was the skipper of the ship.

"Have a seat," Zara spoke without looking up. She wanted to be anywhere but where she was, given the notices of deaths she had to write.

Admiral Brooks just shook his head at Zara and stood up so as to be polite and offer the newcomer a seat. "I assume you read your new XO's record?"

"Nope," Zara spoke without a care. "Commander Yamaguchi can tell me if she likes."

Yamaguchi raised an eyebrow. "Do you need help with the paperwork Captain?" she inquired, at a loss for anything to really say.

"Loss of Life letters," Zara answered once more without looking up.

Brooks shook his head. Long ago he tried to get Zara's head straight and fly right. In the end, it was realized she was best left alone and as one of those "Plausible Deniability" cases to toss aside (if needs be).

"I just came by to give you both your next mission, but also to see to it Captain Tane doesn't flush you out an airlock," Brooks laughed lightly to the tall woman. "All jokes aside, the Ro just lost a lot of good people. One of which, was Tane's former XO."

At this point, Zara was deliberately tuning out the conversation. She would grieve and talk about that in her own time.

"So have you spent much time in a carrier before?" Brooks asked Yamaguchi while he stood up and dared to walk behind Zara's desk.

He pulled three brandy sifters from the shelf behind Zara, and then bent down and reached under Zara's desk. From a small cooling chest, he pulled out a brandy bottle.

"Two assignments of mine was on Carriers. The Ovathan and the Stalwart Dawn." Yamaguchi explained. "I was Strategic Ops Chief for one of them and Chief of Security for the other." she then raised her hand. "I can't drink with you... I'm pregnant."

"One's for me. The other, for Him," Zara corrected dryly. Tane did not appear impressed at all with her XO's resume.

"You'll have to excuse your new boss... She's a bitch," Brooks noted candidly as he pulled out another brandy sifter and a bottle of grape juice for Torilla. "She is more approachable after a Klingon cigar, and she's probably the best CO qualified for carrier commands."

"Two cigars," Zara quipped and finally looked up to take in the massively tall woman with her annoyed brown eyes. "She's too big for the kiddie rides here."

"She's only here until we find a long-term replacement. So a temporary assignment," Brooks explained to Tane, like a father would talk to a two-year-old about to have a tantrum.

"You've joined the crew of the damned, Miss..." Zara drew a blank, which showed she had little desire to get to know anyone.

Yamaguchi raised an eyebrow, a temp assignment indeed. "Only if you think that this is the ship of the damned." she commented as she regarded the woman sitting at the desk.

"Right then..." Brooks just shook his head. Tane rarely shone in personality these days. "Given the last mission, we have upped your crew count and fighter wing to better deal with unruly colony worlds. And for your next mission, we are wanting the Ro to pick up a fair amount of space trash, left over from the war. Along the RNZ."

"So now we're a garbage truck. Greaaaat," Tane spoke dryly as she poured herself a glass of brandy and passed the glass of grape juice to her XO.

"It is starting to disrupt the space lanes and your ship is certainly large enough to pull in the bulk of it," Brook pointed out rather mildly.

"So once all the new crew and fighters comes in, we'll go get the trash then." Zara gave a nod to that. "This should be fun then. What say you, XO?"

Yamaguchi merely shrugged her shoulders. "It matters not, I'm still pregnant either way.... " clearly she had gotten used to this being only a temp assignment as she lifted the glass and took a sip of the dark liquid contained within. "How long before you turf me out of here?"

"How ever long HQ says I have to keep you," Zara answered mildly. "Why you ask?"

"I ask... because in about six months... you'll need a replacement for me anyway... I'm carrying twins and... well my species isn't exactly set up for it.... "

"I'll never have kids. Too much of a headache," Zara admittedly bitterly. "And while this ship is designed to have families aboard, the crew by majority are all fuck ups and screwballs. So I would not be bringing all your caravan of kids here, if it were me."

"Three of them are off at the academy and I have one with me, the twins will be looked after by their father, he's a much better parent then I ever was..." Yamaguchi sighed softly.

"So how does he put his career first and still become the supposed better parent?" Zara asked rather directly.

"Because Jake put his career first and got a command thanks to the war... me.. I got passed over a few times because I told various Admirals to fuck off.. Plus it didn't help that I have some issues crop up... like my species having a reproductive issue... and I have three, soon to be five kids... so my homeworld's government wants a piece of my ass... quite literally.."

"I'd kill 'em first, before they got near me, if it were me." Zara spoke soberly as she began to drink on her booze.

"I can't... it would cause a major diplomatic incident... but i'll admit... its still an option.." Yamaguchi responded dryly.

"I'll see you and the transporter room, for my departure, Miss Tane," Brooks bowed politely as he left with his brandy glass in hand.

It took almost five minutes of silence before Tane felt the need to talk. Although she made it a point to bring a cigar out and light it before she started.

Behind a billow of smoke, Tane began, "I don't like telepaths all that much. Mostly because they pry into the lives of others. So if you agree to respect the privacy of others, in all regards, then we'll get along. Deal?"

Torilla slowly smiled. "Well..." she then slowly raised her glass to her lips before taking a sip. "Allow me to explain a couple of things... I don't like poking myself into someone's mind... Other people tend to broadcast and I tend to get bombarded with a lot of crap..." the larger woman sighed. "So I tend to keep my psionic shields up at all times and I hide from others..."

"Fair enough," Tane replied. She truly meant it.

"My daughter is almost as strong as me." Yamaguchi explained evenly. "My eldest is a strong telepath where as my son is a telekinetic." she explained. "I can do both.."

"Doctor Furban is also a telepath, but she can stun people into a drooling vegetable... Though that normally happens if you accidentally touch her skin," Zara spoke with a shiver. "Don't even let me get started on the other minor adverse effects on touching that freak of nature."

Yamaguchi nodded. "Fair enough.... no touching Crome dome." she paused. "do I even want to know what happens...?"

"Let's just say there is no need for a pharmaceutical that boosts the sex drive," Zara answered with a half-grin. "Which is fine to touch her when you want to fuck. But when you're in the middle of a ship crisis? It's not a good idea to come in contact with the nymph."

Yamaguchi blinked, this was a suprise. "Really... Okay, I will not touch her." she commented. "My husband isn't here and my species mates for life." she then shrugged. "Others however might try to mate with me after they touch the Deltan." she then shook her head. "Idiots."

"It's a major reason she never eats among the crew, I think," Zara laughed at the memory of the fidgety, scrunched up woman that would try to avoid contacting anyone when she had to attend meetings with large crowds.

"She doesn't like any sort of form of touching," the Trill added with a roll of her eyes. "No hand shakes, either. Just a total nut ball."

Yamaguchi nodded her head. "so... no touching the Furban, got it..." she then nodded her head. "Anything else I should know about this little corner of Purgatory I should know about?"

"We are part of the independent operations of the fleet," Zara answered, this time respectfully as she looked up at her XO. "Brooks gives us the shit list of missions others pass over. So what we might see on occasion, might be a bit disturbing."

Yamaguchi did not know Admiral Brooks and the look on her face said as much. "Sounds like he doesn't like us." she snorted in contempt before she sighed. "So we do the jobs nobody else wants.... lovely..."

"Now you begin to understand my sour disposition," Zara spoke dryly. "I graduated a talented engineer, but all I do now is clean up the Federation's shit piles."

"Lovely... I'll go get the guys in Ops to take an inventory but I feel we will require massive quantities of Bleach." the tall woman responded. "also... we need mops..."

A smile actually formed on her face. "I think you'll get along well in this crew, Commander."

"That's good to know..." Yamaguchi commented evenly.

"Oh!" Zara dug around in her top desk drawer until she found a small velvet box. Then she opened it up and pulled out a fill-in pip. "You are out of uniform, technically... Assuming that means anything to you."

Yamaguchi raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" she inquired. "It means only that I have options with the uniform." Torilla commented. "but how am I out of uniform?"

Zara smiled brightly as she tossed the tall woman the pip. "You're a full commander now."

Yamaguchi blinked as she caught the pip. "Commander... nice. thank you."

"The last XO died... And was a dear friend of mine." Zara paused as she fought back painful tears. "It'll take time for me to let those memories rest. But I will always respect your point of view."

Yamaguchi knew what it was like to lose people as she slowly nodded. "I understand." she responded in a knowing tone. "Is there anything further I should know before I leave you in this....?" she indicated the insanity of the ready room.

"You're free to go," Zara said as she waved the woman out with a hard intake of smoke from her cigar.

Torilla rose to her feet as she frowned, the scent of the cigar smoke was making her sick to her stomach. "I'll be on the bridge.." and with that the six foot tall woman walked out the door