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Cptn Swain

Going All In

The ready room of the Excalibur was almost deafening in its silence. Asher Swain sat contemplatively as the whirling, golden parabola of Starfleet spun on its axis. It had been nearly five minutes since he’d connected to Camelot Station via the Bedivere Array and he wondered if perhaps they were keeping him on hold just long enough for the communications link to fizzle. The silence that had made the five minutes seem like five hours was suddenly shattered with the crackling, baroque baritone of Vice-Admiral Misha Abronvonvich.

 

“Captain Swain,” the Russian said, his tone almost cold. “About damn time you phoned home.”

 

Swain couldn’t hold back his indignation. “Excuse me?”

 

Unflinching, the Russian’s dark eyes narrowed. “I don’t know how your previous commanding officer’s handled things, but I expect regular field reports to be filed with your fleet commander, Capt...”

 

Blinking, Swain cleared his throat. “With all due respect, Admiral,” he said with an emphasis more to remind himself who he was talking to than anything else, “we’ve filed numerous reports in the last four days and have heard exactly zero back from your station. In fact, I’ve spent the last five minutes on hold, wasting valuable time on the instant uplink...”

 

Misha Abronvonvich wasn’t used to being talked down to by anyone, let alone a pony-tailed science geek. “Maybe you should check your equipment then, because according to the records we have, you have done no such thing.”

 

“Maybe you should check yours,” Swain said before he could stop himself. “I would be happy to show you mine, as well as operational logs for my damned communications arrays, which are clearly working perfectly fine, sir. Though personally I’d rather deliver my report and get my orders, unless of course you’d like to continue to act like an ass.”

 

Now it was Abronvonvich blinking. He hadn’t expected Swain’s outburst and it clearly caught him off guard. “Captain,” he said harshly. “I would remind you that you’re speaking to the ranking officer in the quadrant and strongly suggest that you check that attitude right now. I don’t take well...”

 

“Frankly,” Swain said, completely losing whatever restraint he’d been showing. “I don’t give a damn.”

 

“Captain...”

 

“Don’t ‘Captain’ me,” Swain said, feeling his hands beginning to shake. “I get that you don’t have to tell us everything, but you know, I am getting rather tired, rather quickly, of being sent into missions without all the information I need to keep my crew safe.”

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about...”

 

“You know damned well what I am talking about, Admiral. There was a damned quarantine on the planet …”

 

“How the hell do you know about the quarantine,” Abronovich said abruptly. “That’s classified information.”

 

“Oh, was it now...”

 

“Captain...”

 

Straightening in his chair, and perhaps a little too smugly, “A little birdy told me about it Admiral. Which is a hell of a lot more useful than anything we were told about this mission before being sent out here.”

 

Despite being known for a somewhat surly demeanor, it was rare for the Admiral to be so effusive with his emotions. “Mister Swain,” he boomed. “I suggest you lose that attitude before it costs you more than just my good will. That information was classified and was not intended for you, so you had better you tell me where the hell you got it.”

 

Swain considered, for a moment, using any one of the glib remarks that were on the tip of his tongue before settling on something more demure and accurate. “We intercepted a data packet being sent this way,” he said. “As I said, you might want to check your communications equipment because ours is operational.”

 

The Russian’s glare remained intact, but he waited several long moments before responding. Swain couldn’t tell if it was a good thing or not, but at this point he didn’t care. He’d gone all in and it didn’t matter if he’d overplayed his hand.

 

“Captain,” Abronvonvich finally said. “I see that there are a number of issues I need to address with the station’s communications team. In the interim, I want a full report about the situation without your attitude getting in the way. Am I clear?”

 

My attitude? Swain managed, despite himself, to keep the first response from coming out of his mouth and nodded slowly. “Of course, sir. The Augustine is orbit, however their crew appears to be missing. We have found absolutely no trace of them on the surface or aboard. An away team to the ship found evidence that they had beamed several samples found at the Dominion base aboard and were conducting research into them. A second team had beamed over to continue the investigation while another team beamed to the surface to begin exploring the base for clues and to determine if the Augustine crew had transported there. The team on the Augustine investigated an anomaly in the EPS system and found live creatures similar to those the Augustine had been researching siphoning energy directly from the plasma grid. We believe that the resultant anomalies damaged the Augustine’s computer core and data records.

 

“The team on the surface encountered the same creatures in the lower levels of the base...”

 

“You sent a team to the lower levels?”

 

“Yes,” Swain said. “There was a dampening field in place...”

 

“A dampening field?” It was clearly news to the Russian.

 

Swain picked up on the surprise. “Yes,” he said, “It appears to be, from what we can tell, similar in some ways to the shroud technique that the Jem’Hadar use -- but a little more complex. We’re still in the process of researching it.

 

“The team that encountered them barely survived, in fact four of them didn’t. The damned things can metabolize nadions from what we can tell and they had to blow up the Augustine’s sickbay just to make it out. The data logs from the Augustine are a mess and with what little information we were given, it’s hard to tell just what the hell was going on. I assume that they either brought a live sample to the ship or that one of the samples they thought was dead, was well, not.

 

“Admiral these creatures are incredibly deadly. Our own investigation has shown them to be incredibly resilient to standard weapons and my science people believe that they have the ability to adapt and mutate nearly on the fly...”

 

“What does Dr. Svejk think...”

 

Swain blinked. “Excuse me?”

 

“He was sent out there for a reason, you know...”

 

Mustering a modicum of restraint, especially given his feelings for the aforementioned ethicist, Swain took a very deep breath before responding. “To be honest I don’t care what the man thinks...”

 

“You should...”

 

“Well I don’t. He’s borderline psychotic and my crew is ready to throw him in an airlock. The man actually suggested we send another team back to the surface to continue investigating...”

 

“I was just about to do the same thing, Captain, does that make me a ‘psycho?’”

 

For a minute, Swain couldn’t even respond. He opened and closed his mouth several times before finally saying anything. “With every due respect, Admiral, I could not follow that order. I wouldn’t go down there, and I am sure as hell not going to send any of my crew down there.”

 

“You have the full resources of an Akira-class warship, Captain, are you really saying you can’t handle some alien creatures in a cave?”

 

“That’s exactly what I am saying. Unless of course by ‘handle,’ you mean exterminate.”

 

“Out of the question.”

 

“Well then,” Swain said. “If you want someone to order my crew down there, you’ll have to find someone else to do it. And I wouldn’t count on finding that someone aboard this ship.”

 

Abronvonvich didn’t like that answer, but despite himself, he respected it. “Then what do you propose?”

 

“That if you want to continue investigating this planet and those creatures, which I highly recommend against, that you send a full bio-hazard team with a full complement of marines to do it.”

 

“That could take months to put together...”

 

“Well, they’re not going anywhere, now are they?”

 

The Russian’s frown deepened. “And the Augustine?”

 

“Its not safe to leave it out here,” Swain said. “And to be honest if there are creatures still aboard, it’s not safe to bring it back to Camelot either. Not unless you have that bio-hazard team on standby already.”

 

Abronvonvich sighed. “Well then there aren’t many options, are there?”

 

“Not as I see it, sir.”

 

“Very well,” he said, “but try and recover as much information from their data logs as possible before you destroy it.”

 

“Well ahead of you. Was there anything else, sir?”

 

“No,” Abronvonvich said curtly. “Once you’ve disposed of the Augustine, you are to place buoys in orbit warding anyone off from the system. Then return to Camelot Station. Once you’re back, you and I need to have a very long conversation, Captain.”

 

“Understood, sir...”

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You're a man after my own heart, Captain Swain. What is the expression? "Those who can't do... become admirals?"

 

Well done.

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