A New Chapter

Posted on 30 Oct 2018 @ 9:57pm by Lieutenant Colonel Anton Markov & Major Alexandria Somers

Mission: From the Darkness
Location: Classified Starfleet Outpost/Various
Timeline: Current

After leaving Starbase 332, Alex spent a little time on earth while her father arranged a fast transport for her, it took a week for it to happen, but eventually, a fast ship was available and with a tearful goodbye to her family she boarded the shuttle that would take her up to a modified Sabre class ship that was fitted out as a courier ship.

She looked out of the Ten forward windows as the ship left orbit of earth and eventually watched the stars become starlines, the ship she was on was taking important information to the Outpost the Powell was docked at so her destination coincided with the ship's mission. Two weeks later the courier ship drops from warp at the classified Outpost and docks, those getting off did so, Alex's items that were not carriable were transported to a holding cargo bay and no sooner had the Captain obtained the latest reports the ship undocked and left the Outpost.

Looking around the arrival/departure area Alex spots the bay that the Powell was docked, "well, would you look at that, an Akira Class, knowing what ship I was going to and seeing one again are two different things" Alex said speaking to herself, she was about to pick up her carry bag when her Padd bleeped, she pulled it out and took a look, her larger items had already been beamed to Powell's cargo bay. Alex sighed heavily and put the Padd away and picked up her bags and headed to the docking bay the Powell was at. "When one door closes, another one opens" she said to herself as she proceeded forward and up into the umbilical, she knew the ship was still waiting for crew, but she figured that she would speak to the Captain first, upon entering the ship she headed straight to security so she could register her unconventional weapons and store her TR-116 rifle in the ship's armoury then getting permission to leave her bags there while she saw the Captain she left, carrying only two Padds with her.

Having served on the Tomcat, she managed to orientate herself to where things were, the only difference was the Captain's Ready Room it was not in the exact same place as her cousins on the Tomcat, sucking it up she straightened out her tunic as she approached the CRR on deck one and pressed the annunciator on the door and waited for the response.

Anton was inside still setting up his office. He had been in a long briefing all day with Starfleet Command and this had been his first opportunity to even get near his ready room. Around the wells and in some of the boxes were various bits of memorabilia from different tours along with some generic decorations. On the desk in a long glass wall case was a white dress cord from a uniform. When the buzzer went he straightened himself up and reached for the button on the desk to open the doors, calling "Enter" towards the door before pulling some books from a box and adding them to a shelf.

Upon being given permission to enter, Alex enters and comes to attention and Salutes and in a crisp clear voice "Major Alexandria Lynne Somers reporting for duty as your new Executive Officer Sir" she retained the attention and salute pose until told otherwise.

She wondered what the Colonel's reaction would be when he heard her surname, she knew he was once her Cousins XO, but the bigger question was did he remember the name Somers, time would tell. She looked around the room and so far she only saw two hanging items, one was the Starfleet seal, the other his White cord of Courage, these were given only to those who had earned a great honour, she knew that she had sewn hers around the base of her tunic shoulders.

Anton returned the salute to her. "At ease Major. Grab a seat please," he added clearing some of his things from the way before sitting down. "I hope the trip out there wasn't too bad. We are taking on most of our crew here before we head off to our patrol zone."

Walking over to the nearest seat and sitting and crossing her legs "the trip was okay, those Courier ships can move fast, and understood sir, I have my service record with me, as this is secret, I figured I would deliver my service record personally sir" Alex said holding out the Padd.

Anton took the padd from her and set it onto the desk elbows rested on the arms of his chair hands together. "Major you would not be here for a moment if I had not read your service record. Even some of the blacked out bits." He looked at her for a moment poker face firmly on point, "Well then. Give me the highlights real as you see it."

"To highlight my skills I have extensive recon and sniper skills, I am Spec Ops trained hell I have even got an executive order silencing me on a mission I once took part in, no one below CinC Starfleet security and Intelligence knows what happened, except myself and I am the only surviving marine with this knowledge all the others died in the Dominion War, but onto a topic I can talk about" she paused.

"You know its interesting what you can find out when the Admiral you work for has been in our position. Nevertheless, I won't dig into that one unless I need too. Those of us who server back then all have our demons so to speak," he added. He relaxed a bit for her before carrying on. "Ok then. Less Op Sec highlights real."

"I am the daughter of an Ambassador I grew up in that world, well when I was not training with the Klingon's, so I have some diplomatic skills, rarely used, but they are there. I have contacts that can get most things, my betrothed allowed me to use his contacts also, so I can get you most beverages, or Intel *pause* speaking of which there are two crates of surprises in the cargo bay for you Colonel, apologies for yakking away I am unusually uneasy, new frontiers and all" she stopped resting the arm that held out the Padd with her service jacket on and she added the Padd meant for him personally.

"You've been around the block a bit when it comes to where you've lived that's for sure," Markov remarked as he took the second padd. Scrolling through it he smirked. "Aye. You were talking to that cousin of yours no doubt. So down to business. What do you know about this posting?"

Looks at him with a tilted head to the right "as for my Cousin when I served on the Tomcat she had nothing but good things to say about you, she said you were the first of her active Command Staff to earn the White Cord *she indicated the white band around her shoulders*, she also said you were one of the best First Officers she had *pause* as to your question *looks at him blandly as she spoke the next words* new command, classified missions assignment First Officer under a Lieutenant Colonel Anton Markov Commander of the long thought destroyed USS Powell. Beyond that Sir I do not know anything" she finished adding animation to her voice and features.

Anton nodded to her, "I Figured that would be the case. Officially the USS Powell doesn't exist since according to the Federation she was destroyed. Technically this is correct however as you can see she is very much here." He lifted a padd from his side of the desk and slid it across. "Starfleet is concerned. The Klingons have been at peace for too long and it's taking a lot of effort to continue to keep them from finishing off the Romulans after Hobus. Even now the Klingons growth has continued while the Romulans have been focused on rebuilding and it has left a larger imbalance of power. Our job is to try and find out just how destabilised the situation has become."

"I have heard nothing from the Klingon's on the diplomatic side of things Sir, my father knew I was assigned to this ship and he knew there were issues between Romulans and Klingon's, but he has heard nothing about this from his contacts within the High Council. I do not know if we should be alarmed, or if it is just politics, if that is the case I am glad I joined the Marines" Alex said and then continued "As for Klingon aggression, I know that they like to fight and a Klingon Empire that has remained quiet too long is an unhappy one. But with the hostility of the Klingon's are they just one or a couple of Houses or is it the Empire as a whole, from what I heard when I was last on earth before coming here the Romulan Star Empire is barely holding on to what it currently has, they have a new base on Raptor two which is their new Capitol. Before I came here I also heard that there is a faction of Romulans and Remans that have formed the Romulan Republic, as of date their new homeworld is as of yet unknown, but the bit about the Republic is just whispered on the lips of my contacts, only Starfleet Intelligence will know for certain£ Alex finished.

Then had another question "apart from the basics Sir, do we know anything about the current political situation, my info seems out of date?" she asked.

The Colonel sat and listened having a strange feeling briefing would take a while with this XO. "Well. Most incidents have been kept rather quiet. The ship you stand on, for example, was officially listed as destroyed by Klingon pirates. However, they were traced back to a house still very much in good standings with the Empire." He took a moment to stand and walked to his window and stared out. "In Starfleet's opinion. The risk of war is very real. Our job at present is to establish just how real it is."

"Understood Sir, Father always said that if you can learn quickly to swim after being thrown in at the deep end, then one can accomplish anything, me I am Special Operations trained and used to more detailed briefing updates Sir than normal as in my experience briefings with too little information can get one killed, I have had first hand experience with this" she said then shifted gears "that will explain why I was told so little about this ship and the state of things with the Klingon Empire *she pauses in thought* this explains why my father seemed troubled before I left, he wanted to spare his eldest potentially bad news, Politicians sheesh glad I went straight into the Marines" she paused.

"So Colonel Markov, how are we going to go about finding out what the actual situation is out there? You also realise that the moment word gets out to those rogue Klingons that this ship survived they will be none too happy. Also, might I mention that I am not usually this wordy in briefings and such as long as the briefings are detailed and clear I am five by five with it, sir" Somers responded.

"Well, the hope is that they don't find out. We are going to be going in the dark, operating out of a small barely used Regula class station. As far as the base here knows we are the USS Gunter, so as long as we get out of here and stay in silent running we should be just peachy," he informed his new XO. "We are going to start in the triangle where the three neutral zones meet and sneak our way along the Klingon Romulan border. I figure that's the best place for us to get deep probes into Klingon and Romulan space."

Feeling a little concerned "Colonel I must advise that this is a risky mission, as the daughter of a diplomat and someone who has limited training in diplomacy, if it all goes south the Powell could be the ship that is the spark to another galactic war, but this time with the Klingon's, then you will have the Tal'Shiar seeing that as an opportunity to make things worse, if this is handled all wrong we are looking at another war and this is coming from someone with diplomatic training, and speaking in a loose fashion, the complexities of the fallout are not clear to me, but I do know it will be bad if things go wrong" Alex responded sitting back and crossing her legs as she placed her hands on her lap.

Anton held a hand up to stop his new XO. "Slow down Major. We are well aware of the risks and I'm not going to pretend this will be easy. But if you wanted easy you wouldn't have signed up to the Marines," he commented sitting back. "We have agreements with the Klingons to enter their space for various reasons because of the alliance. That is what we will use when challenged. As for the Romulans, their fleet is still busy. We rely on good fortune and the skill of the crew to avoid them."

Alex tilts her head in thought "Well if I wanted easy as you said, but also if I wanted easy I would not have agreed to go on that classified mission that cost me a very close friend" she looks up at Markov "Commanding a unit on the ground seemed easier than the choices made commanding a starship, this is why I am here Colonel to learn another aspect of being a Starfleet Officer as at some point I am going to get too damn old for ground missions and this move will be good for me" Alex said as a mental image of her long-dead friend Annabelle Graves flashed through her minds-eye laughing at something, this had her staring off into space for a moment, before she pulled herself back from that memory.

"Good. Well, that we will. I'll leave any further mission discussion until the staff briefing. Get yourself settled Major and I'll see you later," The Colonel said by way to end the conversation.

Taking this as the meeting being over she stood and saluted smartly "Yes Sir" she said waiting for his response.

The Major simply nodded dismissal to her and went back to work, pondering how she would get on over the next while.

With that, she about-faced and left his Ready Room and returned to her quarters to unpack and get settled in, this was going to be an interesting time she mused to herself.

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