Final Adjustment - Joint Log Part 3

[Dvokr chim Hok 0]

[uSS Challenger Crew - Please take a moment to go through the logs because it does set up some of the Chain of Command, and setting for this new plot line. If you read through them, I think you’ll get a better understanding of its beginning. Thank you. Commander Erika Rinax]

 

Final Adjustment

Part 3 - Joint Log - Rinax, Morrison (Dvokr) and Granger

Cass sidestepped Tasha in the narrow hallway, almost running into Commander Morrison.

 

He jumped. “Oh, pardon. I did not see you there. I can’t stand early mornings and this qualifies. So…” he looks her over a moment, “Cass I believe? Are you adjusting to this time?” Morrison asked, putting on his awake face.

 

After backpedaling, Cass grinned. “Time as in ‘morning’ sir, or the 1960’s?”

 

“Hmm,” he thought. “I should choose my words more carefully. The 1960’s.”

 

“Think I might adjust to it a bit more after another cup of coffee, sir. How about you?”

 

He laughed. “You mean a pot each. Come on.” Cmdr Morrison walked past everyone else without a word. He made a beeline to the coffee maker. “This beats the replicated ship brew for sure. Smells really nice too.” He inhaled from the top of the canister, then switched out the old coffee and brewed more. Pouring the last two cups from the old batch, he took a seat away from the others to sit with Cass.

 

“So any questions of the mission?”

 

“Always questions, Commander,” said Cass, slipping into a chair opposite him at the table. “Most don’t get answered until they’re on top of you and some not until you’re pinned down. But we try to avoid that last bunch by putting things in line beforehand.” Her hands curled around the cup to warm them. “But I have noticed you seem to stay on the outside of the group, Commander. I figure observer. Maybe even embedded journalist?” She took a sip, her eyes never leaving his. “As mission security it might be good for me to know.”

 

“That’s a good way of putting it. I get to set the chess pieces, but I don’t get to make any of the moves. Someone has to stay back and take in the whole picture. This is not my first go around in another time either. Don’t ask what others,” he answered broadly. He watched her as well, shifting from the hands around her cup to her eyes. Eyes, which would need makeup if to fit the historical norms of the time.

 

“Wouldn’t think of asking, sir,” Cass replied, pausing as her eyes fell to stare at her cup. “Some things you just don’t want to remember.” She reached for the sugar and emptied a packet, still staring at the cup, speaking as she stirred. “So tactics, logistics, what we call ‘Watchdog.’ You’ll wander, or stay in CC? Watch the blue?” *

 

“Unless I’m needed in the field I’ll have to keep tabs on everyone’s movements, provide intelligence or actual provisions. I’ll be close by. I remind others how even tiny actions can ripple outward, causing other events to happen. Once we find our temporal terrorists we have to be sure we aren’t bigger danger.” Morrison, who never went by a first name, took a brave drink of his coffee. He suppressed the urge to spit it all out, getting the grounds. “Tracking will be more difficult. While we will have several hundred years of more advanced technology to use, they still will be watching frequencies we will be covering.” He laughed and looked into his cup. “I wish I had more information to give you. Part of going back in time to wreck someone else’s timeline is to be as discreet as possible. If we knew exactly what was planned we’d either get them in our time or arrive in the past just before they do. I was expecting them to greet us actually. Perhaps their method of time travel is too crude. I apologize; I’m taking up all the conversation.”

 

“No problem, sir. Just so long as I know where you’ll be and where you fit into the picture, I’m good. Call sign Watchdog work for you, sir?”

 

“Sounds good Cass,” Morrison, or rather Watchdog answered. He thought well of this woman in the short time he had spoken to her. She knew what questions to ask. “What is your call sign? I’ve spoken to you the most other than Murphy.”

 

“Ordinarily I go by Striker, sir, but for the mission I’ll be Hera,* just to keep things on the Apollo wagon. I’ll get with Gunny Matheson to fine tune and shoot it to you for verification.”

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*CC - Command Central

*watch the blue - Blue Force Tracker (BFT), a digital display showing friendly (blue), hostile (red), and neutral (yellow) personnel on the ground.

*Because the mission involves NASA’s Apollo 11 Mission, Challenger’s mission became Operation Zeus Boy, Apollo being the son of Zeus. Cassie’s call sign is Hera, the wife of Apollo.