New Day at Midnight

Posted on Wed Jun 24th, 2020 @ 3:24am by Captain Nycolas Temple & Commander Owen Nash
Edited on on Fri Jul 10th, 2020 @ 5:50pm

Mission: Death in Paradise
Location: Deck 1 - Captain's Ready Room

ON:

The Pandora had been travelling through the Inconnu Expanse for at least a week after departing from Paradise Outpost, heading back towards the relative safety of Federation territory. During that time, Nyx had been purposely running the ship on a skeleton timetable - only general maintenance and minimal operations were scheduled, giving the crew time to relax and unwind after what had been a trying and stressful few months. Kaleri and Smith had gotten married; there had been birthdays and other events to occupy their time instead. It was as close to normal as he could allow.

Starfleet had been in constant contact of course, with their never-ending list of questions and investigations. The events on Paradise and Pandora had caused a considerable storm of consternation within the top brass, and so a series of highly-concerned people sitting behind a desk back on Earth had been dispatched to pick apart every action, decision, and potential regulation breach that had occurred. Eventually, Nyx decided to ask Lieutenant Mindo to place sub-space comms under maintenance just to give them a break.

But as the Carnwennan Corridor approached, Nyx knew he would have to get back to his responsibilities soon enough. He decided to start with some of the more positive tasks and thus called upon Commander Nash to his office to discuss a well-earned promotion for Lieutenant Griffin.

With the crew now enjoying some downtime as the Luna CLass starship made its way back to Federation territory, Owen felt he was able to relax a little and start to think about more settled matters than worrying about the current threats to the lives of the crew and to the ship itself. He smiled as he made his way to Nyx's Ready Room and once he was given permission to enter, took his usual seat.

"So, we've caught the person responsible for the murdering two of our crew, liberated an independent station from under the control of the Breen and also sent a message to the Alrakis Pact that Paradise Station will be defended by its various independent vessels and crew..." he began, before sitting down. "Not bad for the last few weeks work... I feel we've made a difference so far."

Owen looked at Nyx as he wondered about what thoughts his friend and Commanding Office held on the situation.

"Me too," Temple returned with a smile. Without speaking he twirled his chair around to the wall unit behind him and poured a couple of drinks. He handed a glass over to the XO and gave a slight sigh, "Much of the credit goes to Mr. Griffin. He was relentless in his investigation and potentially saved many more lives. If we hadn't found that bomb, who knows what could have happened to us and the station."

"I agree, Cailus proved to be invaluable during the investigation. From a crew point of view, all of the crew have stepped up during this last encounter but I agree that Cailus should be commended for his efforts and his work. What do you have in mind?" Owen asked.

“Well, he will hate it but promotion is due.” Nyx replied, giving a wry laugh. “He’ll do his typical clenched jaw reaction, especially if I embarrass him in front of others. But he has earned the rank of Lieutenant Commander over the course of the previous two missions alone.”

Owen couldn't suppress the laugh that came naturally, as he knew what his friend's reaction would be to a promotion. "Agreed, however, let me know before that meeting takes place... I want to make sure that I'm in a safe and secure position before he starts clenching that jaw & coming to find me as he'll know I was involved," he explained.

Thinking for a moment, Owen decided to put forward another idea. "If you’re r going to promote him, may I also suggest appointing him as Second Officer, just add to his woes..." Owen waiting on the look from his CO.

Nyx gave a smile, “Absolutely. Especially as your Captain seems determined to keep going on Away Missions.”

Owen took a sip of his drink before picking up on the one rule that his friend and CO insisted on breaking. "Yes, I've been meaning to bring that up in your next review..." he began. "You do realise it's my job to go on Away missions so that you can remain on board to make the command decisions? Although... I am getting used to sitting in the big chair now that it's happening more often."

He sat back before continuing. "There is also the bonus that if we make Cailus second officer, he can argue with you about going on an away mission whilst I sneak off with an away team and take the lead...There are benefits to this idea."

"I understand." Nyx nodded, giving a sigh, "And I think it'll please my family too if I'm around more. Although, I assume you want to fly your own ship one day, right? It's my job to get you ready for that."

Owen considered Nyx's question for a moment, as he realised that he'd never given proper thought to his own command someday. "You trying to get rid of me already?" he joked before carrying on. "I'll be honest, I'm not sure where the future lies for me. Right now Pandora is home and home is where my heart is...but someday I suppose, the name 'Captain Nash' has a nice ring to it despite my father beating me there of course."

"There is always the fact that the fleet is always looking out for good Captains to be in charge of Starships, however, I went from Chief Of Operations to Executive Officer pretty quickly. I'd like to settle into the role a little more before thinking about the next step," Owen admitted.

"Make sense to me," Nyx smiled, "I just like to plan for the future."

"Talking of next steps, with your permission, I'll need a few hours off the ship. I've finally managed to get dear old dad to free up some time from the USS Maiden so that I can get he and Krys to meet up. She has been working hard to get prepared for this and I feel that if I'm there, things will go a lot smoother between them. I expect James will want to go too as they've just tied the knot together," Owen explained.

"Any objections?" he asked.

At this, the Captain raised his right eyebrow up high, "A few hours? Where are you heading?"

"We're meeting him at Carwennan Station. He's managed to get 3-4 hours off from Duty before the Maiden goes out on her next exploratory mission in the Beta Quadrant," Owen explained.

"Ah, I see." Nyx smiled, "Well according to my records, you're both scheduled to accrue your annual leave. You could take some of it now and spend some time on Carnwennan Station. It'll give me a chance to break in Griffin as Second Officer and Acting XO."

Owen smiled. "Well in that case, I'll go and pack a bag and get the rest of my jobs complete for today before getting a Runabout sorted to leave," he explained. "Just make sure there's a ship for me to come back to."

Nyx laughed as he stood, "What, you don't trust me to look after the ship?"

Owen smiled as he stood up as well. "No, I don't trust you to look after.... my ship," he said with a cheeky laugh.

"Oh I see how it is." Nyx grinned. "Well, before you go risking your ship by leaving me in charge, I hope you'll stay at least until after dinner tonight. I'm holding a Senior Staff dinner in the Holodeck and I'd hate for you to miss out."

"Of course! Its been a while since we've had a good get together. I'll see you there," he finished with a smile as he left Nyx's office and started to work on the list of his jobs for the day that required his attention before the dinner.

OFF