Moment Of Weakness
Posted on Thu Feb 13th, 2020 @ 3:02pm by Commodore Ledeya ‘Ed’ Ehestri (*) & Chief Operations Kendra McIntyre
Mission:
Cosmos
Location: Starbase 621
Timeline: 2396
727 words - 1.5 OF Standard Post Measure
As the rest of the crew left Jared and Ledeya to themselves in Main Operations, the Acting Captain was left to his thoughts. His gaze fell to the viewport as he ran a hand through his three day old beard, the cuts and scrapes he had received on the first day had long been healed by a dermal regenerator. However that was not what was bothering the man, it was something deeper.
"I was on Mars," Jared stated just loud enough for Ledeya to hear. "Alexis was there too," he added after a pause even though the Captain before him probably already knew that about her own Chief Tactical Officer. "This reminds me alot of what happened there," he finished, slowly. Most people who lived through it suffered from survivor's guilt. He was no different.
"I thought you had a moment of recognition of knowing her," Ledeya said thoughtfully with a nod. She had been on the other side of the universe when Mars had happened. No one could fail to have felt it in their bones. Utopia represented billions of hours of work, research and history, let alone the lives that had been lost that day. "I know she carries a lot of scars with her. As is suspect you do."
"You never really forget something like that," Jared replied, it was a bad dream that still kept him up at night on occasion. Bringing himself back from his blank stare into the stars outside, Jared turned to Ledeya. "It almost feels as though we are helpless up here. Waiting on others to succeed or fail," he said, thoughts of things he could be doing to help were fighting against knowing that his place was in Operations to coordinate everything.
"We are not waiting for others. We are waiting for ourselves to succeed or fail." Ledeya said gently as she moved to join him at the window. "And I am not about to fail and I do not think you are Jared." Ledeya knew the command structure inside out and sometimes it was needed but there and then the man needed someone human and empathic.
"We can't fail," Jared replied. Looking back to his Task Group Leader, he asked, " Does the rest of the fleet know about what happened? We can't send or receive anything off station until..." His voice trailed for a moment. "Maybe we could run internal comms through the Cosmos. It'll take most of your ship's spare computing resources, but we won't have to rely on messengers." The idea had brought him back from breaking, having a person stand next to him and give reassurance seemed to be all that it took.
That was more like the man Rachel reported to Ledeya. The man behind the cockiness and stubbornness. "My Operations department is already linking our system to establish a more stable system. They are fully aware." It had been amazing the responses that had been coming in from ships wondering if they could support.
Nodding, Jared took a few moments to consider the next move. "How far out are the other ships?" he asked. "We may need to call for an emergency evacuation or at least have the civilians moved off temporarily so the larger repairs can get under way," he stated, looking at the displays.
"Far enough to take a little time." The woman admitted activating a PaDD to show him exactly where ships were in relation to them. "I will request an Odyssey-class be rerouted to here."
"Good," Jared nodded. "I'll put the Agrona and Bandua on standby as well as the undamaged shuttlebays to ready for evacuation. Worst case, the Macha is nearing completion and could probably hold a small number of evacuees," he added, debating whether or not to pull the smaller ship out of drydock.
Ledeya nodded quickly. "And I will head to your sickbay to excess and relieve your Chief Medical Officer." Ledeya was more than willing to get stuck into anything and everything.
"A appreciate everything you're doing," Jared called back to Ledeya. The man's gaze turned back to the displays as he carefully followed the progress of the teams around the base as well as the developing situation.
Commander Jared Rosado
Acting Commanding Officer
SB 621
(PNPC McIntyre)
Commodore Ledeya ‘Ed’ Ehestri
Commanding Officer
USS Cosmos / TG 72-B
(PNPC Gregnol)
