"Agitation"

[Col. C.E. Harper 0]

"Agitation"

Davies, Harper, and Korix Log 03.01.06

May 30, 2397

Departing Alamis

 

"Captain, as of..." Korix paused briefly. "…one hour from now, I will be taking full possession and control of the wreckage in your cargo hold, and all information pertaining to it, the aliens, and any other data you have, pursuant to code §3546-9.8 Part B-II... You can look that code up, but your hour would be up after you found it."

 

Davies glanced over at Harper, who sighed. "Captain," she began, "the wreck has valuable alien tech on it."

 

"In that case," the captain said, "I'd like to have our engineers examine it."

 

"You have one hour," Korix said firmly. "After that, I am afraid all of the 'work' will have to stop and the cargo area will have to be restricted to those with command level or ATAG clearance."

 

"Unacceptable," Harper snapped, before the captain could respond. "One hour will barely be enough time to sort out the pieces, let alone learn anything of substance."

 

"Well, Colonel," he said with a glance. "That's just too bad.

 

"Look," Korix added after a few moments. "I am giving you the hour; I don't have to."

 

"I'd like to see you enforce that ban, Major." Harper folded her arms. "This isn't your ship, and you haven't made many friends here."

 

Davies held up a hand to the two squabbling marines. "Major," he said tiredly. "Is there any way you can give us some more time?"

 

Korix glanced at Harper again, then turned to Davies. "I could send a request to ATAG Command, asking them to send you official orders to enforce the action..."

 

"How long would that give us?"

 

Thinking, calculating the time it would take to draft a letter to ATAG, send it, have it taken to the proper authorities, and then for said people to send the response to Davies. "Thirty, forty minutes more."

 

Exasperated, Harper slapped an open palm against the captain's desk. "Captain, there's no reason for this. The cargo is in our possession; we can do what we please with it. If he wants to have it offloaded for ATAG once we reach 621, fine, but in the meantime we'd be fools to pass up the opportunity."

 

"Colonel," Davies said. "I don't like this any more than you do..."

 

Korix interrupted. "Colonel, with all due respect, in this matter... you're out of line. I have every authority. In fact if I really wanted to make you mad, I could order you to guard the damn thing."

 

She shot a venomous glare at Korix. "It will be a cold day in hell, Major, before I take orders from you in my own command."

 

"I am no longer under your direct chain of command, Colonel."

 

"Then you're a guest on this ship and you are subject to our authority."

 

Davies cleared his throat. "Both of you, stop."

 

With a visible effort, Harper calmed herself, straightening up. "Captain," she said slowly. "The major and his associates are not the ones who will be dealing with the smugglers and their clients. We're on the lines here, and if we're going to come up against that stuff..." She shook her head. "If we let it go without studying it, it'll be months -- years! -- before we hear anything more about it."

 

"That's not our problem, Colonel. We've been given legitimate orders," Davies added. "Once they've been authenticated as the Major has suggested, I'll have no choice but to follow them... and you know that."

 

"Due respect, sir, it's about to become our problem." She looked from Davies to Korix and back again. "Sir -- delay the authentication. We're two days out from 621 -- take twenty-four hours, at least."

 

Davies looked at Korix. "No," Korix said firmly.

 

Davies frowned, but said, "Then our hands are tied, Colonel. I suppose we might be able to keep the major from having access to the wreckage either, but if he has legitimate orders to secure it..."

 

Korix looked at him. "Unless you want to be brought up on charges, I wouldn't suggest it."

 

Flashing a mild smile, Davies responded, "You can have the wreck; we still own the cargo bay."

 

Korix leveled his glance, letting the point go.

 

"I don't believe this." Harper's fists clenched until the knuckles stood out stark white against the skin. She whirled on Korix. "You, Major, I would have expected better of. But clearly you've spent so much time skulking around the dung heaps of the galaxy that you've forgotten what it's like to face your enemies and to aid your comrades like a Marine!"

 

She glanced over at Davies. "With your permission, Captain, I have a debriefing to get to." Not waiting for a response, she shouldered past Korix and stalked out of the Ready Room.

 

Korix looked at Davies, and then headed after Harper. Davies sighed. "Marines."

 

She was vaguely aware of Pilot's surprised look as she stormed past to the turbolift, but she ignored him. Korix followed a few seconds behind; he pushed quickly to the lift, grabbing it just in time to get in. For a moment she considered ordering a different deck and changing lifts, but he would probably follow her, and she'd be damned if she'd be chased around the ship by one of her officers.

 

Korix looked over. "NNC."

 

Harper gave him an arch look. "Oh, are you attending the debriefing, Major?" she inquired dryly. "Seeing as you insist you're not under my command anymore, I had wondered."

 

"Halt lift," Korix said harshly.

 

"Major, I don't want to hear it."

 

"Yeah well," Korix said turning to her. "You can dish out just fine, but by Prophets, when someone else wants to give you an earful... 'you don't want to hear it.'" He paused, then went on, "You once gave me a speech about the tactics of addressing an issue, right?"

 

"I do seem to recall that," she agreed, crossing her arms and drumming the fingers of one hand along the other arm.

 

"Well, you just completely ignored it."

 

"I beg your pardon?" Frost issued from the words.

 

"Tactically speaking," Korix said leaning against the wall of the frozen lift. "The cards are all in my hands. You know as well as I do that Davies isn't going to subvert me, or go all James Kirk with the rules."

 

There was little to be said to that, so she just waited, staring coldly at him. He had more to say, she was certain.

 

"Now," he said trying to avoid the lecturing tone. "Had you waited till you and I were alone on our way to the NNC to bring up your objections, instead of making an ass out of yourself and forcing me to be... well... an ass back -- I might have considered 'deputizing' the Agincourt engineers and letting them do some work on it. But now... I really don't want to help you in the slightest."

 

"I hardly had reason to expect help from you, Korix," she snapped. "You've been nothing but an obstructionist prig since you set foot on board. You've been out on your own too long, Major -- you've forgotten what it means to wear this uniform, and to hold that rank."

 

"And you're all too eager to pass judgement on anyone who comes between you and your goal, Colonel." He paused. "You also should know that pissing me off isn't going to get you anywhere... Do you have any idea how big of a thing this even is?"

 

Harper scowled. "I know it's going to make trouble for us. Trouble we won't be able to do anything about, because you spooks will have whisked our only lead off to some hush-hush lab."

 

"You're a soldier..." Korix paused. "You're right though... I really don't care if this makes your life out here a little harder for a few weeks. Why? Because this isn't about the Agincourt -- it's about the bloody Federation, or have you forgotten that fact?"

 

"I haven't," she snarled. "You seem to be another matter. Since when does a soldier side with the government's lock-mouthed bureaucrats? What's sitting in that cargo bay could save lives, Major, and you'll excuse me if I don't want to wait for someone up in channels to decide we're ready to be granted the information!"

 

"Colonel," he said strongly. "I am helping the Federation. This isn't something for one ship to go out cowboying about. This is something that's preoccupying everyone. I was going to help you out, but you just have to ###### me off at every turn."

 

"Oh, for the love of all things holy!" Her fist slammed into the bulkhead. "What harm does it do to have our people look at it while it's aboard? You'll still be able to deliver in to your precious ATAG when we reach the starbase. And in the meantime, we'll be able to do something when -- when, not if; you know as well as I do -- we encounter that tech."

 

"Well," he said firmly. "Maybe if you bothered to ask reasonably instead of flying off the handle at me, I would have thought about letting you do that, Colonel."

 

"Ask reasonably?" Her voice reached decibels that would be perfectly audible outside the lift. "Major, let me remind you that you were the one who came strutting aboard demanding a lockdown on that material! Material you wouldn't have been able to salvage if it weren't for us!"

 

"There you go again." Korix shook his head. "Instead of flipping out and demanding Davies subvert me... in front of me... you could say these things to me directly. Not in front of Davies. As for that, well Colonel, I would have been able to have the wreckage salvaged one way or another, and secondly... there's protocol to follow. It wouldn't have worked any other way if this were the Agincourt or the Enterprise, and I am sorry if that upsets you.

 

"Besides... If you hadn't came stomping about," he said directly. "I would have been able to determine just how linked up the smugglers were with the Tal'Shiar, and I bet you really could have used that information, wouldn't you, Colonel?"

 

"You are not," Harper said, shifting from white-hot rage to glacial coldness in a heartbeat, "going to blame us for Alamis. You are not."

 

"I can if I want to," Korix said, quite correctly. "I am not inclined to, but I could." He motioned with his hands. "Point remains though. You disrespected me in front of the Captain, and that pisses me off, and pissed off somebody isn't going to do you any favors, as an officer... you should know that.

 

"Basically it comes down to this," he finally said. "I am willing to let Agincourt's engineers tinker with that thing, as long as their findings go to ATAG as well, but it will have to be under supervision."

 

Harper was silent for a long moment. "Then why," she asked at last, "did you insist on restricting access to the wreck in the first place?"

 

"I told you," he said. "Protocol says it -- but that doesn't mean I can't give ATAG clearance to people. It just can't be a lot of people. The last thing we need is every tom-dick-and-hairy poking around that thing, writing logs about it, and telling their friends. It's a security issue."

 

"You think we don't understand 'classified', Major?" Harper demanded, heat coming back into her voice. "We're not going to make it a tourist attraction."

 

He shook his head. "I am not trying to say that, quit being so defensive."

 

One brow quirked upwards. "With reason, I think."

 

"It's a moot point," he moved on. "Give me a list of five or six engineers and a couple marines, I'll get them clearance. And they can work on the blasted thing, okay?"

 

"Very well." Smiling slightly, Harper turned to face the lift door again. "Resume lift." Obediently it hummed into motion.

 

Korix sighed, and turned towards the front of the lift.

 

"Next time, Major..."

 

"Don't push me, Colonel."