What Page're You On?

[Kansas 0]

Note: this log goes out to all the readers among us, and is a general log entry for our current mission. And to my military adventure themed novel discussion partner, who gave me this idea due to our current back and forth discussion mails, all I have to say is: Get It Off Me.

12.28.09

USS Agincourt NCC-81762

“What Page're You On?”

 

Things were going as well as could be expected with the Agincourt crew’s current mission operation. Fourteen Romulan warbirds were still missing, supposedly at the hands of the Soltan, and it was the crews job to solve the mystery. Harper and JoNs were discussing tactical options with the director of the Romulan contracted military scrap yard, and as far as JoNs knew, the remainder of the away team was off exploring the station; Kansas was fairly certain that Lieutenant Caine would keep the engineers from harm with her considerable security skills.

 

During her time of service to the Starfleet, Lt. Colonel Kansas ‘Will’ JoNs had never really engaged in a war skirmish with the Romulans, had never encountered the Romulans as a true enemy, or fought with one government faction to take territory back from certain other government factions during the Romulan Civil War as had happened a few years back. Certain members of the JoNs family were old enough to remember these years, and a few had even encountered the Rihans as either enemies or civil war era allies.

 

Kansas was of the younger officer generation, and had enlisted and served for most of her military career during a time period where for the most part, the Rihans were regarded as distant neighbors who stayed on their side of the galactic fence.

 

As the stray thought regarding the semi-recent Romulan civil war flitted through her thoughts, JoNs spared a quick thought towards Colonel C.E. ‘Medusa” Harper; the ships CO had fought during the Rihan civil war, and had taken quite a nasty injury as a result - that sort of injury had to leave some sort of psychological toll. And now Harper, with her XO JoNs and senior line officers in tow, found herself not only within Romulan territory, but was responsible as the onsite Starfleet lead representative for spearheading an investigation into fourteen missing Romulan war birds.

 

Karma was funny that way, not to mention unexpected when it came to life in general.

 

Will was currently taking advantage of a fifteen minute break from the tactical planning meeting in order to stretch her legs. The felinoid currently found herself in one of the smaller observation lounges set off the main conference room, quietly biding her time until she was again required to re-enter the briefing area. The golden furred Cait had been assigned an aide (read: guard) during her time here at the scrap yard control station, a reed thin Rihan by the name of Van. She understood the need for some sort of security escort, especially considering she and Medusa were the lead line officers taking part in a rather sensitive tactical discussion meeting. If the USS Agincourt were to entertain guests of a military persuasion, said guests depending on their level of clearance would also be assigned some sort of guard slash aide.

 

Standard procedure and all that.

 

To be fair, and to pin point the real reason behind her current state of feline flare annoyance, the Rihan aide de camp/commander and JoNs really hadn’t….hit it off. He was condescending, imperious, stuffy, and Kansas wanted nothing more then to sock him one.

 

The two of them had already exchanged some mild words, nothing outlandish, but enough to draw looks from their respective commanding officers. So, he now stood at one end of the lounge, with Kansas occupying the other end as she prepped her digital slate with the necessary Intelligence documents for the next round of the tactical planning meeting.

 

The Romulan fleet commander approached the Starfleet marine lieutenant colonel, staying in her periphery vision so as not to sneak up on the predatory feline, and stopping a few steps away to respect her personal space. “Excuse me Lt. Colonel JoNs. May I make some access changes to your ISD device? You will be able to access back logs regarding our inventory…”

 

The colonel handed her data PADD to the man without a word, but watched him closely both from curiosity and general ticked off-ness to make sure he didn’t, you know, download super secret war plans that would get her arrested or something.

 

Van was entering the necessary station clearance information into Kansas’s data slate that would connect her to the system over the wireless. Then, he suddenly froze, the look on his face this side of surprised comical yet also showing excitement at finding something rather unexpected on the digi-slate.

 

“The Pirates of the Talos Sword?”

 

Kansas had always been a reader, and had started reading voraciously from the age of twelve onward: mainly science fiction novels (even though she did work in science fiction almost every day), adventure novels (adventure, which she had umpteen amounts of as part of the Fleets finest, thank you very much), military action (again, more then enough in her daily life) and whatever digital or even hard copy books that she had been able to get her paws on. Old habits died hard.

 

The Caitian feline felt herself go stiff as well as realization dawned and the spoken novel title implanted itself smack dab in her waking and horrified state of consciousness. Dear gods, I didn’t clear the last reader entry and put the application in the folder for extraction later…

 

Embarrassment flooded through Kansas in a wave. The fluffy golden fur hid her skin, but she could feel a flush creep up her neck. It had been an innocent whim on JoN’s part, downloading a fiction novel about Rihan mercenaries, written by an Andorian author (of all beings to write a Romulan merc novel). She had had a rare stretch of free time, and decided to check out the reprint adventure novel with a fiction tinged Romulan mercenary crew flavor.

 

The digital book had been intended as a completely off the record distraction in honor of the upcoming mission.

 

Gracefully, but with the movement couched in an almost frantic swipe of her paw, Kansas tried to reclaim her data slate from the Romulan with some sort of decorum. “Apologies, Commander Van; the Agincourts engineering department is upgrading my usual day to day duty slate. I’m using my personal digital PADD in the meantime, and…”

 

The smile that Van fixed on her was warm, and he interrupted her easily (just as he had during the meeting, you know), ignoring her obvious state of discomfit. “My son and I are currently reading this story. He contacts me and we read a few pages weekly together and talk all about the adventure.”

 

The respective military organizations that the two officers served, both of the organizations separated by the galactic parsecs, methods and varying levels of honor, was no longer of consequence. Their personal differences melted away in an instant.

 

Her embarrassment faded with the disclosure that Van had given her, and Kansas cocked her head to one side, universal Cat speak for please continue; the Rihan aide picked up on the gesture easily.

 

He handed her the data PADD back while he spoke, explaining further. “I was pleased when the Captain Valtor series was re-digitized and reprinted from the original work. My son is thirteen years old, and the novel is at just the right level for his level of interest; full of adventure, yet not scaled down in content or grammar.” A twinkle popped into light brown eyes. “And Pirates is enjoyable. I do not care that it is fiction, space opera Romulan fiction no less, by an Andor author of all things. Fun is a concept that we all need once in a while.”

 

The female Cait smiled as well, showing her fangs in an as non threatening gesture as she could manage. “I just…the novel just reminds me of simpler times when all I wanted to do was join Starfleet, be an adventurer out on the galactic rim or something. Before…”

 

His smile vanished, and became a sad little shadow of its former warmness on Vans features. “Before our reality of service set in. Before we matured.”

 

Kansas had sobered as well. “Yes; before our reality set in. Not that I mind my commitment to Starfleet.”

 

“And I do not mind my service to the Empire, Commander. But, things do change, sometimes rather abruptly.”

 

Wills expressive ears drooped a bit. “…things were different before the attack on Earth. I currently have no permanent residence there at the planet, but…things were different after. I just feel….older…sometimes. And call me Will.”

 

Quaint notion, these Starfleet call signs. Illogically logical as well. “Van.”

 

The two of them lapsed into a silence, though much more companionable as compared to their earlier tense silences during the meeting, their gazes again drawn outward through the observation port window and to the various Romuan war vessels in various states of repair, disrepair, and decommissioning. The fractal nature of the space station run scrap yard, with the various ships scattered throughout, was a blatant visual for the fractitious unrest that the Soltan attacks seemed to be visiting upon any quadrant within their blue reach.

 

Commander Van spoke after a few moments, turning his attention on Kansas again with that little smile back in place. “Well, now that we have that cleared up…what page are you currently on, Will?”

 

The two soldiers, Caitian felinoid and Rihan humanoid, discussed the adventures of Captain Valtor and his mercenary crew on the walk back to the briefing room and the continued tactical meeting; for a quick moment, both executive level officers were again thirteen years old, figuratively, temporarily bypassing the day to day duties and responsibilities of their respective duty stations as they delved into a world that was fake, but just as vibrant when it offered an escape from reality.

 

At times, it was the little things, the unexpected events that mattered. You might even find a new friend that shares an interest. Sometimes, the parsecs just did not matter.

 

...If Captain Valtore where here…he’d have the missing Rihan vessels located in twelve hours. Possibly less…