Honours - Part Two

Posted on Mon Jun 22nd, 2020 @ 5:05am by Captain Nycolas Temple & Lieutenant Kalin Brennan-Griffin PhD
Edited on on Tue Jul 7th, 2020 @ 2:41pm

Mission: Into the Wild
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: After "Heavy Is the Head"

A Mission Post by Lieutenant Kalin 'Shae' Brennan PhD & Captain Nycolas Temple
Mission: Into The Wild
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: After "Heavy Is the Head"
Sun Apr 1st, 2018 @ 4:57pm

Once Executive Officer Nash had left after their long discussion, Nyx was alone contemplating his next meeting. He had given promotions to Nash, Griffin, and Fick for their courageous efforts during the Pandora's conflicts with the Carnage. However, there was another crew member who required special recognition for her work during the mission, although Nyx remained unsure and hesitant as to how to go about it. There was a cloud of mystery over her actions and it caused the Captain no-end of headaches trying to explain it in his reports to Starfleet. But what was clear, was that without Lieutenant Brennan's involvement, he likely would have been killed that day.

It was with this in mind that Nyx sat at his desk, staring at his door, waiting for the chime to sound.

Shae could not help but feel like there was still a wall between her and Nyx; they had made nice and were talking again, but she could not shake the feeling that there was something he was keeping something from her, though to keep the peace she chose not to pry any further, hoping that her faith in him was not misplaced and that he would tell her when he was ready. With his call to his office, Shae wondered if he would tell her now, but as she finally rang the chime, she reminded herself not to hold her breath waiting for something that may simply be all in her head.

"Come." Nyx called out almost immediately. As the CSO entered, he remained pensively seated for a moment, then stood up suddenly as if suddenly remembering that's what he should do. "Ah, yes good morning, Lieutenant. Please, have a seat."

"Good morning, sir," Shae replied in a genial tone, taking a seat as he had offered. He seemed a bit distracted and that made her feel somewhat nervous. "If this summons is about the, uh, report I need to refile, I haven't been given new parameters to work with," she said timidly.

Nyx shook his head, "I submitted your original one, I felt it correctly conveyed the events as you experienced them and that's all I should have asked you for." He shrugged a little, "I may have caught some heat from the brass for it though. They don't like it when there's a body count."

"My own personal regrets regarding the issue aside, I stand by my actions; I did my best to minimize casualties where I could, and I'm sorry this has caused trouble for you, but I don't regret taking action knowing that I helped bring you and the rest of the team home safely," Shae stated, and despite her regrets about the body count, she was still resolved and resolute in the knowledge that she had done what was necessary.

“Absolutely.” Temple nodded, “As I put in my own report, we have a lot to thank you for. Unfortunately, as this is my first assignment as Captain, and our first direct engagement with the Ravagers, Internal Affairs are going over everything with a fine-tooth comb. And as we all know the entire department of Internal Affairs is stuffed with people who use the rule book as a pillow, and spent more time in an office chair than in active duty. They have sent me a complete list of all my protocol violations right from when the Pandora ventured into the killing fields, up to and including this very meeting. If you’ve ever read ‘War and Peace’, that’s a novella in comparison to this report.”

"If there's anything I could say or do to help smooth this over, I would do it," Shae assured him. "I've had my own run-ins with Internal Affairs, I know it's not pleasant and there's rarely anything one can do to appease them, but they aren't the ones here in the thick of it and it's easy for them to make judgments from the safety of a nice office; we all did what we had to in order to survive."

“Exactly! We understand the necessities of this job” Nyx replied, shaking his head. “Thankfully I have some folks in the Brass who could essentially tell IA where to file their reports, perhaps more diplomatically than I could. There won’t be any lasting damage to the Pandora itself, but I know I’m under the microscope still. There was a recommendation that the Pandora return to Carnwennan Station for a full review, but Starfleet command are still worried about the volitility of the corridor, so we can delay that for now.”

"That is a relief to hear; good to know that someone at Command has some sense," Shae replied.

“But it brings me to the reason for your visit.” Nyx frowned. “I had added your name to the list of crew I wanted to promote in the aftermath of this mission. While the others were okayed, yours was put on hold until after the review. They still believe there are questions to answer over the recall message, your space jump, and use of lethal force. I know, it’s bureaucracy and over-cautiousness, and utter crap. I’ve written a protest to this but I may not get a response any time soon.”

"Oh." Shae blinked in surprised, finding that she was dumbstruck at the news, moreso that she had earned a recommendation for promotion, because it wasn't all that surprising that under the circumstances the promotion would end up on hold. "Thank you, sir, but please don't go out on a limb for me; I appreciate that you want to reward me for this, but with IA already looking over our shoulders, I don't want to cause anymore trouble." More to the point, she had been held back for so long that she found it difficult to believe that she could ever do enough to earn any form of advancement, and she was still reeling at the fact that she was the Chief Science Officer and a full Lieutenant, so the idea of getting another promotion so soon simply boggled her mind.

"It's not okay with me," Nyx replied simply. "I see now that you put your life on the line, from only a simple request, and you took considerable risk jumping through space and putting yourself through a gauntlet of Ravager combatants, by yourself. It can't have been easy having to use those skills again and I'm sorry I didn't say this afterwards. But your actions helped to save the mission, allowed me to get home to my wife and child, and helped prevent the Ravagers from inflicting any more damage against the Pandora. It is unacceptable that we would just allow that to pass without recognition of your bravery and abilities."

In front of Nyx, though hidden somewhat by his console, had been a silver box - bigger than a normal pip container, and with a shiny glossy veneer. At the end of his sentence, he picked it up and showed it to the Lieutenant. "Don't worry, I'm not proposing." He laughed.

Shae blushed crimson at his proposal joke. "Good, because I think your wife would take exception to that; she has enough trouble sharing you with the big chair, I don't imagine she would be all that keen to add another woman to the relationship," she remarked dryly as her cheeks slowly cooled off. She made no attempt to reach for the little box, still thoroughly stunned by this revelation.

Nyx opened the container to reveal a royal blue rectangular ribbon decorated with three white stars, and attached to this was a round silver medal. On the facing side of the medal was the insignia of Starfleet, surrounded by the words 'Virtutis Officium'.

"A medal of bravery." Nyx spoke as he stood from his chair, still holding the box out in front of Brennan. "Lieutenant, may I ask you to stand?"

Shae had been rendered mute with surprise at the sight of the commendation, but rose as ordered to receive it.

Carefully, the Captain attached the medal to the Lieutenant's uniform. "For acts of bravery beyond duty, for defending your fellow crew in the face of certain danger, and for successfully halting the enemy combatant vessel, I hereby award you this Medal of Bravery. Congratulations, Lieutenant."

"I don't know what to say, sir," Shae finally said once the medal had been affixed to her uniform jacket, "except for maybe 'thank you.'"

"That'll do." Nyx laughed. "Well, unless there's anything else, I will let you go. And feel free to compare your new shiny things with Cailus."

With that, Shae smiled; Nyx was definitely unlike any other Starfleet Captain she had served under, but this was a good thing because Shae wouldn't have Nyx any other way.