"Dear Buddha, Bring Me A Pony"

[Kansas 0]

Note: this log directly follows the events from the 04.22.09 Agincourt sim.

 

04.25.09

USS Agincourt NCC-81762

“Dear Buddha, Bring Me A Pony”

 

“Dear Buddha, please bring me a pony and a plastic rocket.”~Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Serenity Commander, Serenity (2005)

 

The first wave of the disaster response teams from the Agincourt went about their business on the surface of the planet Avaros. The security, marine and medical teams were busy setting up triage tents, equipment tents, and personnel tents within the confines of the huge parking lot, while the ships executive officer Commander Kansas “Will” JoNs, senior NCO Master Chief Petty Officer Keltex, and NCO medic Master Tactical Sergeant Michael “X-Ray” Boone, and a few others went about setting up the remote ground based command center.

 

The remote command relay area was to be located in the eight story corporate office building that was the central fixture of the main parking lot as well as the other office buildings and warehouses that made up the corporate park. The ground floor suite that signaled the entry way lobby and main office area of the building had been earmarked by JoNs as the most likely area to set up shop, and the work was moving forward inside the building almost as fast as the teams were moving outside. And though the building was deserted, obviously, when the inhabitants had evacuated when the warning had gone out over the emergency broadcast system about the roiling quakes, the interior of the office building was in remarkably good shape, albeit a bit messy with printout papers or data Padds strewn about as the workers had disbanded.

 

The golden furred feline Ex Oh was currently located in the main lobby, keeping an eye on her internal work team as well as the external teams in the parking area through the large clear plasti-glass window that made up two thirds of the reception area. Flimsy printouts, chart graphs, and data Padds were strewn all about the coffee tables and overstuffed chairs and couches as she reviewed the latest tectonic scans from the ships science geeks. She picked up a particular Padd and used the flat devices flush mounted control panel wheel to scroll through the latest series of scans, her big paws looking out of place on the smaller device. Master Chief Petty Officer Keltex worked at the large reception desk, located just past the lobby area, setting up some monitoring and communications equipment.

 

The corporate park was located in a relatively stable area set a few miles from the main city of the colony world, and had escaped the worst of the rolling earthquakes that were shaking, rattling, and rolling across the world. The onsite tricorder scans performed by her ground teams had confirmed that the structure and foundation of the building were secure as well. Sure, with the way things were rolling, literally, on this planet, that relative bubble of safety could change at any time – the building could be hit and collapse, or a huge lava fissure could open up in the middle of the parking log. Or the main city could suddenly go boom and puff out of existence if the planet blew itself apart.

 

Whoa, happy thoughts there girl. Positive thoughts. Sciences was working on the issues. Odile and her geeks would find out what was going on with the geologic indigestion that seemed to be nailing the gastro intestinal track of Avaros. As long as the planet didn’t break wind or something and blow them all into space, things were good.

 

Kansas drew her attention away from the data Padd she held to visually track the officers and crew running to and fro across the outdoor parking area as they got the disaster response site up and running. She spotted CSEC Caine out there along with Doctor Socom and a dozen other departmental command and line officers such as Lieutenant Messner as they got their teams and deployment assignments up to snuff.

 

Her initial orders to employ the ground floor of the office building had met with some concern from the various ranking senior officers that had flown down with the first wave of squads, and that was understandable. But, there was a difference and a fine line between concern and outright defiance; if one on site senior officer who represented the marine contingent didn’t quit questioning the feline’s orders, the gastro excrement could still impact with the rotary oscillating device.

 

And at that thought, her gaze wandered to latch onto one Marine Captain Owen “Buddha” Matthews as he spoke to the squad leader of the marine Alpha platoon, no doubt relaying her orders to his soldiers stay behind and assist the security squads with protecting the Agincourt’s command and triage site.

 

In the time that JoNs had served with him, Owen Matthews had been a passionate and capable soldier and officer, eager to do his job and determined to see an operation through to the end, a trusted squad commander who brought his people back from a skirmish or mission alive. However, he was often mouthy for lack of a better term, bulldogging his way through a conversation as he tried to convey his own tactical approach or solution to a particular problem or situation. There was a point where concern over the situation went combative, and Matthews had a habit of taking that predilection to an extreme, so sure in his convictions that he was.

 

The last such encounter that JoNs had had with the marine captain, during the emergency clean up scramble just after the terror attack aimed at the ‘Court Sciences department, had been one such incident. The passion and desire of his soldier calling had caused him to go full bore and go dangerously close to insubordination. To be fair, Matthews had lost family during the Soltan attack on Earth, and that hurt would take a while, if ever, for him to overcome; it was no wonder the man was determined when it came to any sort of rescue or response work, but if his losses dictated his every move and emotion from here on out, that could be problematic out in the field.

 

Oh, who the hell was she kidding with the overanalization of the situation?

 

Since taking on her senior command posting as the ‘Courts Ex Oh, she had butted heads with the marine captain once already. It would probably happen again; Matthews seemed to push the Cait feline more so then he ever pushed either Colonel Harper or Lt. Colonel Day.

 

JoNs was one of the few younger - under thirty five - senior command officers serving in the ‘Fleet, and she had come up through the security ranks, so perhaps it was a knee jerk reaction for the ground pounder marine to question her orders and authority and such. Yet, JoNs had been practically adopted by the marine contingent of the ship, and she and Matthews were close enough to the same age so that the age and security factors were effectively canceled out as reasons for Owen taking her on.

 

The two of them had come up through the ranks together; they had been shoulder to shoulder on any number of operations, equals on the battlefield. But now, JoNs found herself Matthews superior. That could be a hard situation to adjust to, on both sides.

 

Kansas had already seen the brewing signs of the man’s discontentment prior to the team launching from the shuttle bay and just after making planet fall, mainly manifesting in the looks he kept winging towards her, or the slouched body posture that he wore while leaning against the shuttle prior to launch for instance. To be fair, JoNs was not all knowing and all seeing, but she had been trained to read body language … and Owen’s body language was not thrilled with her or her decisions right now. He was working himself up to questioning her again, she was sure of it.

 

The Caitian feline didn’t want a repeat of the first blow out they had had a few weeks back. He had taken her on during that rescue operation response below decks when the Sciences section had been hit by a terror attack …. He had wanted to go into the section prior to the air recyclers clearing out the area, and JoNs had ordered all teams to maintain position until the protocol programs had run their course so poisons floating in the air could be cleared out through the vent shafts.

 

That encounter went down during a field op. Now, Kansas found herself in almost the exact situation again, during another field operation … what if he questioned her orders during a firefight? What should she do if he crowded her again? How would the Ex Oh react? How would she need to react?

 

“ … oNs.”

 

Order him off site and back to the ship to co-ordinate with his teams via the wireless uplink and tracking systems? That wouldn’t look good considering he was the ranking on site officer after JoNs.

 

Sneak up on him, punch him out and hide the body? Like, she could probably beam him back to his quarters or something until he regained consciousness.

 

Whoa whoa! Seditious thoughts may be fun but they have absolutely no place in this universe.

 

“Will.”

 

Write him up? Granted, that wasn’t so much a deterrent as a slap in the face to the receiving party, and either the written warning worked out very well or fizzled and died.

 

“Commander Kitten … “

 

Dangit – there he goes again. Matthews, from his vantage point out in the parking log had looked over at the leonine Cait as she looked out at him through the large lobby picture window, and his expression was caught somewhere between pissed off and down to business serious. He then turned back to the crewman he had been addressing. Seriously, the officer candidate classes do not cover this sort of thing back at the academy. At all.

 

Kansas was so intent on her inner thoughts, as well as Matthews off in the distance, that her lack of attention to her immediate surroundings had failed to register that Master Chief Keltex had been calling her name; the Klingon NCO now employed Plan A - shock therapy.

 

“Commander JoNs. Oh you sexy feline you … I want you take me now and take me hard.”

 

MCapt. Matthews was a good soldier, a good officer. How in the hell was she supposed to balance discipline, the chain of command, and being a fellow comrade officer if she needed to dress him down again … Harper had done it plenty of times with the Cait officer when she had stepped out of line, why wasn’t it coming easy for JoNs to reverse employ the methods?

 

Very well then. Keltex would employ Plan B - incoming object.

 

A wadded up printout flimsy flew on a precise trajectory at Kansas, impacting squarely with the side of her head. Totally jarred from her private thoughts, she processed the fact that something had just whacked her, and whirled around to be greeted by the sight of said paper flimsy winger – MCPO Keltex. The big, silver haired enlisted Klingon had been working to access and upgrade the working computer system contained at the front reception desk, and had uplinked wirelessly to the various open ports that had allowed access to the Agincourt’s on board computer systems and sensors.

 

Seriously, lobbing a wadded up piece of paper at the head of a command officer was total grounds for a command level unleash of boo yah disciplinary tongue lashing. But, this was Keltex, and even though he could be slightly off kilter at times, he also employed an important quality in all of his dealings with his fellow officers, command level, enlisted, and crewmen alike – respect. He had become somewhat of a mentor to her, and JoNs knew that he had respect for her as well as her authority, as she did for him and his rank of master chief. With Matthews, even though the Caitian Ex Oh respected his role as a senior soldier … she wasn’t too sure of that reciprocated respect factor towards her or her methods as of yet.

 

JoNs huffed out through her nose and smirked as she walked over towards the desk area. “Sorry Master Chief. I went a million miles away there.”

 

“No worries Commander. I have completed our wireless uplinks. The latest updates have been received from sciences, and we also have a link established with the local rescue authorities, and our perimeter teams are starting to coordinate with them as well.”

 

Kansas had zoomed over to the desk quickly to check out the work of the elder enlisted officer, pushing the one personnel issue to the back of her mind, for now, so she could effectively deal with the hundred or so more incidents and updates that kept popping up.

 

Her keen green eyes took in the various computer monitors and security monitors that had been set up in one quick look, and her mind was off and running with about a dozen tactical co-ordinations that needed to be relayed and implemented. “Okay … let’s have Katt and her team link up with that one police squad over in the northern area of the city. Contact the bridge and let the Colonel know how we are progressing down here. I’ll let Lieutenant Caine and Marine Captain Matthews know that the perimeter squads need to … “