The New Boss...Intriguing...

Posted on Sun Oct 12th, 2014 @ 10:35pm by Commodore Kathleen O'Shea & Lieutenant Commander Emiko Oda

Mission: Bloodpath
Location: Commodores Office: Planetary Complex

Emiko stepped off the transport and headed to the planetary complex. She of course got the usual stares that came along with eating lieutenant commander's rank while having the face of a teenager and stature even younger. As was her usual manner, she met the stares with direct eye contact that usually served to subconsciously intimidate whoever it was into looking away.

Finally making her way in, she quickly found the commodore's office and casually chimed the door.

The door opened to reveal a redhead woman, dressed in traditional fencing gear minus the headgear. She was even holding a very ornate sabre. Her disheveled hair made it obvious that she was returning from an event rather than about to leave. She actually stood a bit shorter than Emiko. She pulled off her gloves and extended a hand. "Hi...you must be Commander Oda. Kathleen O'Shea. I was worried I wouldn't make it back in time." The final bout had lasted much longer than expected. Kathleen had just came in through the back entrance to her office when the chime had sounded.

Emiko shook the proffered hand firmly. "A pleasure". She looked around the room, then back at the commodore. "Did you win?"

"Come on in. And no...but I made him work for it. He is a local, and his technique is exquisite." They made there way toward the sitting room. "Have a seat and give me five minutes or so. I need to get out of this." Kathleen waited until Emiko was seated, then moved toward the small personal area in the back of the room. "If you want something, feel free to help yourself. The replicator is well programmed." She called out over the sound of running water.

"I'm fine, thanks" Emiko replied as she took a seat.

Straight away, Kathleen returned wearing a nondescript blue dress, and took a seat across from Emiko. "Much better...so you are the young officer that Admiral Graingerfield made such a fuss about. He told me I would be quite daft if I did not add you to my cadre. I trust your trip went well?"

"Well I did get bumped up into the admiral's suite on the transport, so it was certainly comfortable." Emiko didn't mention that she was anything BUT young, and that in addition to seating upgrades, strangers always bought her drinks, somehow knowing she was one of the few survivors of Wolf 359.

Kathleen reached into the end table and pulled out a bottle of water. She stared at it for the briefest of moments...

"Much better." She took a sip of the now chilled water. "So, you were on the Saratoga. That was a bloody mess of a day. A lot of people who survived the day left the service within a month's time." Wolf 359's scars still ran deep even to this day...both mental and physical.

"Very few of us made it. I was just a green ensign, but I had to kill close to forty of my shipmates. Of course, they weren't really my shipmates after they were assimilated."

Emiko allowed the memories to come forward.

"You might want to send me back to Graingerfield, Saratoga was only the first of many ships that exploded around me."

Kathleen stood and slid the right strap of her dress off, turning so her back faced Emiko. She let the dress drop enough to show a scar that started about two inches down her right scapula, and continued on to disappear under the dress. "I was on the Liberator. Only two of us made it out. I don't remember anything after the bridge ceiling collapsed onto me." She pulled the strap back into place and returned to her seat. "Nobody was assimilated off her...nobody was left." She took another sip out of the bottle. "Besides, pretty much anybody who has been in the fleet for a decent tour has been on something that has blown up. I don't measure an officer by their failures, but how they respond to them."

"Hmmm, " Emiko started pointing at various body parts as she spoke "Disrupter wound, claw, that was fun, um, spear, oh this one was good. 12-gage shotgun full pattern to the hip."

Emi leaned back. "I guess we've both been around the block a few times. I've somehow always managed to stay standing. I don't call any of those failures though, they've all got a story behind them. Colleagues saved, dangerous criminal taken off the streets, and even killing the assimilated can be defined as mercy."

Kathleen smiled. "And that is preciously why I requested you for this position. You see, as many of my predecessors and colleagues have said...I do not believe in a no win scenario. I like my inner core to be of the same mindset. You will find that I am not like most, if any commanding officers that you have had. I don't go for all of the 'official' dog and pony show fleet protocol. There is a time and place for formalities...outside of that, I like to think of my circle as family, and I encourage everybody within to have the same mindset. It's not an order, but I have found over the years that it makes for a much better team."

"I've been Starfleet security or Osaka police for a very long time, I was surprised at the assignment to combat ops. Most of the combat I've been involved with is closer to your fencing match than anything on a ship or star base scale."

"Then I guess it would surprise you to hear that when I put out a request for an officer to fill the position...with a very specific set of criteria for that officer...time after time your name was on the top of the list. Apparently you have made some good friends and impressed the right people along the way." Kathleen sat back for a silent moment before continuing. "Either that, or this ranks right up there with the best bullshit conspiracies of all time."

As Kathleen spoke, she stood and walked slowly over to, then behind Emiko. As she passed behind her, she ran a single finger from one shoulder blade to the other. The touch was like a sheet of ice had spread across her back. "You tell me..." Kathleen sat on the arm of Emiko's chair, her gaze locked into Emiko's. The air was undeniable colder now. "...do you know what you are about? Are you the officer that everybody seems to think that you are?"

"What everybody thinks never concerned me" Emiko replied, her gaze never wavering. "I know exactly what I am about. Mine is a very simple, yet impossible path."

Emiko stood up and turned her body to face the commodore, but her eyes always locked to the other woman's.

"I am about the past, a way long forgotten and a destiny always unfulfilled."

Kathleen's eye color deepened, and the temperature returned to normal. Odd...

"You understand then...yes, I believe that you will do just fine. The job you can learn. Strength of character only comes from a place that most are to afraid to journey." She stood and leaned against the back of the chair. "And no path is impossible to travel. You just have to find a way around the roadblocks."

"Shibumi is a the word that guides me, as it did my ancestors for centuries. It is both perfect tranquility and tranquil perfection. An impossible state of being in life for life by its nature is transitory and imperfect."

Emiko held her gaze, sensing there was something more to this woman than mere humans carried. "Tell me, what do you know of perfection?"

"Enough to know that even with my lifespan I shall never achieve it." Too late Kathleen caught her slip. 'Dammit, Kathleen...control your thoughts.'

"Lifespan is irrelevant when it comes to perfection. I served with an 800-year-old El Aurian and I have to say, he had a much longer way to go than you or I."

A wave of relief flowed through Kathleen. Some things the crew knew, but others...this was ridiculous. There was no way that her secret would remain so, even with her cover story. "I would be in error to disagree with you. But still...perfection is a state of mind. Each persons idea of perfection is different."

"I've seen it once. A cherry blossom just as it fell from the tree. Before that instant it was just potential, and after, it was only memory. I've come close, be it in a movement, a thought, an action, but sustained, now that is impossible."

Emi relaxed, though her gaze never wavered. "I will say though, those who reach for perfection, truly reach, tend to at least know what it is we seek." Emi paused a moment and mental shifted gears. " I'm sure you didn't have me assigned here for Zen philosophy though. Tell me, what needs to be done?"

Every visual aspect of O'Shea became severe. "Taranok IV, a planet two systems away from here, has had an...event. Some type of WMD has been detonated in the government center. Communications are out, we have zero tactical or intel data, and the teams we have dispatched there appear to be under attack by unknown forces." Kathleen stood and walked up to Emiko. "And we don't know the planet is the mission goal, or if it is just the start of something much bigger."

"Mission goal or launching point makes little difference at this stage, we need a tactical command post forward."

"Agreed. We are too far removed from the zone of operations to be able to make and implement any plans for a given operational period. That's why I need somebody who isn't worried as much about micromanaging their shop as they are actually doing their job. I need somebody who can step into the field and get things accomplished."

"That is why you asked for me. I'll need an hour to assemble a team, Intel can brief me in transit."

"It will take a bit longer than that to get all of the components ready. We have enlisted the help of the Cerberus Logistics Division based on the station. They have their entire team working on it. Should be ready by tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully the Chesapeake will arrive by then as well, and we can task their fighters to escort duty."

"I'll make it happen" Emiko replied flatly.

"Once you reach Taranok, you will have complete autonomy in your decision-making process. You will have a feel for what is going on there more than any of us back here. If I can't trust you to make the right decisions, then what is the point of having you out there." Kathleen walked over to the main desk in the office area, retrieved a PADD out of one of the drawers, and returned. "Captain Sampson is the Marine CO. You will need to liaise with him for coordination. Commander Masters will be responsible for all of the equipment loading and prep, and Commander Von Hyden will be responsible for transport. If you are not completely up to speed with the Cerberus Logistics System, you may want to brush up a bit." She handed Emiko the PADD.

"Never heard of it, but that's never stopped me before. I'll figure it out and get us up and running on site."

"Just make sure your team has at least one person from logistics with you as a technical adviser. You will need it, especially with the base system they devised for forward use."

"I'll do that" Emi replied. "If there is nothing else, I have a lot of work to do between now and tomorrow afternoon."

"Dismissed, and...welcome to the family."

"Thanks. I think we'll get along just fine, you and I."
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Commodore Kathleen O'Shea
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Commander Emiko Oda
Chief of Combat Operations