Handle it!!

[STSF_BluRox 0]

A joint log between Rear Admiral BluRox and Captain Kwai

 

BluRox exited from the sickbay, and furiously stalked towards the lift, seething with rage at having to wait for the blasted contraption to arrive. The doors opened revealing two other crewmembers, who upon seeing her ears pinned flat to her head, decided this was their stop after all and quickly exited, stepping out of the way of the obviously displeased admiral. "Bridge," Blu stated as the doors shut. Watching the numbers slowly creep by, it finally ascended to the bridge and she stepped out, assessing the situation and looking quickly around for Kwai. Not seeing her, she turned and inquired of Ayumu as to the Captain’s location and was told she was in the Ready Room.

 

Just as she turned to head that way, BluRox saw Lt.jg. Jamieson exit the Ready Room, shortly followed by Captain Kwai.

 

Rian spied Blu as she exited the Ready Room. She’d just opened her mouth to say something else to Jamieson, but changed her mind in light of what she saw with the Caitian appearance. "Admiral," she nodded. Oh yes, she looks happy. Now what happened? Rian smiled tightly, taking a slight step to the side to allow BluRox to pass.

 

"Are you finished with your other business?" Blu saw Heather moving off.

 

"Aye," Rian hesitated, "Do you need me?"

 

"Ready Room, now," BluRox hissed as she stalked past her. Her ears were not even noticeable they are so flat to her head.

 

Rian took a deep, deep breath and followed the angry Admiral. She thought better of speaking at the moment, feeling it was better to let BluRox to start the conversation when she was ready.

 

Meanwhile, a hush fell over the bridge as an almost perceptible feeling of malice in the wake of the stalking feline. That hush was broken once the Ready Room doors slid shut, as the crew began to speculate what had gotten the Admiral into such a state and whether Captain Kwai would survive the encounter. The moment BluRox heard the door whisper shut behind her, Errrika whirled about towards Kwai, "I've had it up to here with this crew and their contemptible attitudes!"

 

"Ooooooooooh-kay." Kwai’s eyebrows rose up into her bangs.

 

"We are NOT running a luxury cruise here, or someplace for them to better their scientific writings and personal experiments. No, this ship, if they've not noticed, is one hell of a lot different than our last one. Maybe the armor and extra weapons would have given it away to them, do you think? But evidently not, they’re just not getting this. Oh no, no, no boys and girls, we're not just out here for a pleasure cruise, we're out here trying to avert a war that just may come to be, due to the foolhardiness of some other lame brained idiot going off on his own without proper authorization!"

 

Rian opened her mouth to say something, but Blu kept going.

 

"Oh, and to make things better, they have to then go making a liar out of me in front of our diplomatic guest!? Not once, not twice, but three times all in the same day that we sat there and told her how the Federation 'embraces' other cultures. I mean, right now I sort of wish I had a whole ship of Vulcan's so that we actually had SOMEONE that might actually practice IDIC!”

 

Kwai’s eyebrows rose even higher, "What happ--," then sighed as Blu ran over her with the rant again.

 

“We sat there and tell our Romulan guest that our people are brought up and taught to be tolerant, and then I have 'SENIOR STAFF' make derogatory and demeaning comments towards her, even in light of the fact at the one point, she was trying to 'ASSIST' me!” Blu turned and let out a rarely released string of Caitian curses, most of which she had already had Holly deactivate in the universal translator for just such an occasion, and then an angry Caitian roar and hiss.

 

While she’d heard the roar before, it still surprised her. Kwai flinched ever so slightly; thankful she’d not had over reacted. Oh spite, Rian watched Blu’s outburst continue. She wanted to help, really, she did. But she wasn’t able to get a word in edgewise. "Holly told me ab--," she chewed on her lip as Blu continued on further.

 

“What happened?! What Happened!? I'll tell you what happened, first there was that incident in science, which from what I just saw I think you were taking care of. Then there was that 2nd incident with science, and that had best be handled as well. He's a senior officer, he has no excuse for that type of behavior, unlike the new girl who may not have known better, but either way, neither really have an excuse. But the last one, I've had enough of the woman, and by the way, she's on Report!”

 

Rian scratched the back of her head, wondering if now was the time to inform Blu of the Holly/Heather dust up. "So, now the Doct--,"

 

"I will NOT HAVE my crew acting so disrespectful to our guests, let alone towards the command staff, or myself! YOU have got to get this crew under control Captain, and I mean NOW!"

 

"What do you suggest I do? Beat them into submission?" Rian raised a brow. Throughout this ordeal, Rian had remained ridiculously calm. However, she did have a snarky nature when pushed. And a sarcastic sense of humor when stressed. She winced ever so slightly as she realized that sense of humor should have been muzzled before she had uttered the words.

 

"I was thinking more of the airlock,” the Caitian continued with a dead serious look at her executive officer.

 

Going with it, trying to bring some light into the conversation, Kwai continued. "The airlock would be good. So would be throwing them into the warp core," Rian smirked. "So I know the Doctor was, well...had issue with the Arrain. I haven't had a chance to address it with her as I had another issue to deal with first. Is that wha---," and then Blu went off on a tangent again.

 

"Oh no, no, no, no, no!! You do not know the 'half of it''! That woman,” Blu hissed, “--that woman has some serious issues and I should have left her back at Earth to finish healing up. She’s still bitter at what happened to her, and she’s taking it out on the crew. But it’s not just that, she's always had an attitude problem and she feels entitled that due to her position, that she can sit there and bully anyone she likes. And she likes to throw threats that she'll remove people from duty if she doesn’t like their response. She may be an excellent doctor, but there is no excuse for how she treats the members of this crew, or our guests! Perhaps it's time to bully her back a little, and see how she likes it. "

 

"What did she--," Kwai tried yet again to get a word in.

 

"She's rude, abrasive, curt, has no respect for anyone, she speaks ill of senior crew members and even children, and even today when I broached the subject of her recent behavior towards our guest, threatened to remove me from duty, when I told her I was putting her on report," Blu continued.

 

"She didn't have--" Rian should have known better than to try to insert herself into the conversation. She should have let Blu vent, then asked questions. But she was curious as to what had set her off, and right now all the facts are still all up in the air.

 

"I was so angry about the earlier incidents, I felt the need to go to the gym and work out some of my anger. However I forgot to hydrate and after working out too much, I ended up being a bit light headed and evidently passed out on the locker room floor. Now that annoying woman is threatening to pull me from duty, saying that she feels I'm not fit for duty, and that you should be running the bridge due to this being a delicate situation?! She doesn’t even 'know' what the situation is! Let alone just how delicate it is. Do you think that perhaps the personal request by the Romulans to have me in charge just might be a reason, you know, to have me in charge? How do you think our guest would respond if she knew that the officer who’s care she had been entrusted to, had been removed from duty?”

 

"Well, we didn't exac--,” Rian futilely tried again.

 

“Perhaps we should bring the know-it-all doctor to the bridge and let her deal with the other Romulan ship when we find it, and hope she doesn’t' offend them enough that they decide to blow us from the stars as well.”

 

"I'd rather not." the Captain smirked. "I like to stay in one piece, please. We're just starting the payments on this new bird...let's not destroy it 4 months out."

 

Blu pointed a claw towards Rian, "And just what are you planning on doing about this? Do you realize she actually pulled me aside and threatened to pull me from duty if I put her on report!? Blazes, I'm a FLAG ADMIRAL! I’ve been out here doing my duty for countless years, and then I get this, this woman,” Blu hissed again, "I'm not out here trying to have fun, I have a job to do, and I plan on doing it. With or without her approval.” Errrika's ears were still pinned flat to her head, showing she'd not let up on any of the anger just yet, "And just where do you stand if she tries a foolish stunt like that on me?"

 

Trying to ignore the anger in Blu's outburst, knowing that the yelling was just frustration, Kwai attempted to answer at least the one question directed at her. "The good news is that so far Security is handling t'Mirok's stay here relatively well. They've been a good diplomatic corps for us. And, I convinced t'Mirok to lock up her weapon to see if that will lessen some of the tension around here. As for the Doctor, she'll need my approval to remove you from duty." Rian motioned to Blu's chair as if to suggest she take a seat. "Unless you're acting irrationally, I don't see that happening. Peeved, you every right to be. But irrational or incapable of doing your duty...........ah........no."

 

"I will NOT be threatened aboard my own ship!" Blu started again, then abruptly stopped as something Kwai said sunk in. "Wait, what did you say? You got her to give up her weapon?"

 

"Yes,” the Captain continued with a bit of a smile.

 

Reaching up to rub her brow, she realized Rian was trying to get her to calm down a bit, and moved around to the chair to take a seat. Blu rubbed the side of her head as she did, as her outburst did nothing to help the perpetual headache. "Ok, just how did you manage to do that?"

 

"Um...you really want to know?" Rian hesitated. Not that Holly wouldn’t tell her later, but still…

 

"Indulge me, yes," Blu responded.

 

Rian sighed softly, sitting on the arm of the guest chair. "Please don't be angry with me. But I sort of gave her an ultimatum," she winced. "Told her either disarm or she'd spend the rest of her voyage in her quarters. That and a *lot* of talking with Bardolph and I to convince her she wasn't in any danger and she could access her weapon at any time."

 

Rian continued. "She has a lockbox in her quarters for the disruptor. I think that might help with some of the tensions. I, er, hope. I'm sure Holly has the video footage if you wanna watch."

 

"An ultimatum?" Blu sighed. "I bet that didn't go over well. Do me a favor, can you grab me a glass of water please?" Blu motioned towards the replicator as she reached for her desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of pills she had been given at Star Fleet Medical to take when needed.

 

"No, not at first.” Rian admitted. “And I didn't intend to do it either. But I think she was expected it too." The Captain went to the replicator and requested two glasses of water. "I gotta hand it to Bardolph, he did a good job handling t'MIrok. It was kind of an unintentional Good cop/Bad cop scenario. And he handled it quite well. I’m sorry I put him on the spot like that."

 

“Thank you Rian,” Blu nodded as the other woman went over to the replicator. “Yes, I've been impressed with his work of late. That's why I approved those promotion papers for him the other day. Thank the stars we have at least one person on this crew who isn't having paranoid delusions just because we have a Romulan aboard. "

 

"Mr. Fenn has been doing a good job too. I'm surprised, I thought Will only taught his people to shoot first and ask questions later. Apparently he's done well teaching them other diplomatic skills." She grinned.

 

"He's had his moments, but his people so far have been exceptional, for the last several missions as well. He's done a good job with them. We’ll have to make sure he gets some extra leave time to help deal with those new children.”

 

"So there is light here. Yes?" Rian returned with the glass.

 

"You mean other than the quantum torpedo that I envision coming straight towards me?" Blu leaned back in her seat.

 

"Yes, Admiral." She smirked behind her water glass.

 

"Thank you Rian," BluRox took the glass, quickly swallowing the pill and rinsing it down with the water. "And you don’t need to call me Admiral in here, we’ve spoken about this. Alright, so what do we have to do to set this crew straight? Meetings with the department heads to reinforce basic Academy and Diplomatic training? Then have them talk to their people? I don't think a huge meeting in the cargo bay is going to have much of an effect, but this crew has gone totally paranoid when it comes to our guest. It has to stop and I mean now. And Rian, I do want the situation with the doctor taken care of. This is not the first time I've had this discussion with her."

 

"An all staff meeting with department hands will help. And I'll see what I can do in the medical front."

 

"Yes, I may have missed some of my medicines while tending to the business at hand, Holly will help me keep up with that, as well as I've now got a scheduled appointment with the new nurse each morning now, but in the end, this mission is more important than my headache. And I mean to see it through. But there is no excuse for the attitude I've seen her take of late with several of the crew. I believe most of the ship has seen her reaction to our Chief Engineer and her children. Granted, I'm not a fan of families on the ship, and we've cut back on them extensively here. However, I cannot afford to lose both my chief engineer and security officer, because she has an attitude about it.

 

"I understand that,” Rian nodded.

 

Blu lowered her voice, "And I’m damned sure, that I will not.....have some little doctor threaten me, on my own ship. Am I clear? She tried bluffing me as well, told me to take it up with Star Fleet Medical. Fine, attach a copy of your report and send it to Mackey for me. Admiral Mackenzie Hardwick, Star Fleet Medical. He's aware of my situation, he pulled me before, and he cleared me back for duty. But I think I'd like for him to respond as to her lack of a compassionate attitude with her patients. And you can let her know your sending it too, I don't care.”

 

"Let me try handling it first, aye? Before having to go that route?"

 

"Fine, but if things don't improve, I want Mackey informed. Yes?"

 

"Oh I understand." Rian nodded, not looking forward to what needed to be done, but knew the conversation had to take place. "Anything else?"

 

"Ship’s status report? Have we found anything new now that we've moved to this sector?"

 

Rian sipped her water, "We encountered two Romulan Merret-class warships. Arrain tr'Mirok was able to give them our access code and stop them from shooting us."

 

“So she's done her job all ready as promised, and what do we have to show in return to her. I'm embarrassed Rian. For the Federation, for this ship and for myself that I can’t control my own crew.”

 

"Agreed. Like I said, I hope removing the weapon will help. So will be a senior staff briefing. And as long as security continues to do a bang up job, we might actually get through this with the skin of our teeth," replied the Trill.

 

"Alright then, give me a moment and you go deal with that situation, I'm going to take a shift on the bridge for a bit," Blu motioned towards the door to give Rian permission to depart..

 

Rian nodded, "No problem. I'll go see what kind of trouble I can get into." She smiled. "Take it easy, Errrika, please. We'll get this all sorted out. Just relax." She nodded again and then headed back out on the bridge.