Straight Talk

Posted on 14 Oct 2017 @ 12:57am by Lieutenant David Moreau Jr & Lieutenant JG Catherine Cooper

2,172 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: The Finnean Crisis
Location: Lounge
Timeline: MD 6 2000

Lt. jg Catherine "Ciege" Cooper walked into the lounge briskly, she never tended to stroll anywhere, in civilian clothes. She'd been working hard, like many others, in helping with the recent situations, training efforts and the like. So after a very long shower she decided she needed a bit of a break,especially as she was off duty and no pressing needs of the moment. She headed to the bar to get a drink as she took a glance to see who was around.
It was somewhat crowded but not overly so the babble of voices a gentle backdrop to the scene.

David sat at a table by himself with a triple decker bacon cheeseburger in front of him, a side of potato wedges and a large drink of some kind. He wore black pants, boots and a black shirt which had a pair of hands ripping it open to reveal a Starfleet combadge under it and had just reached for his drink when he saw the Assistant Chief of Tactical come in. "Hey, Cooper," he said in greeting before he took a drink.

Cooper turned at the voice and saw her Lt. "Hey Chief..." She walked over, "Not having to eat at your desk, that's a good sign."

"You're telling me," David said. "Good work on the station, Lieutenant. Have a seat and take a load off," he invited.

"Thanks Chief..." She sat down and a waitress came over she put in an order, the waitress walked away to collect the order. Cooper turned back to Moreau, "To be honest, I'm happy it was peaceful as I hate to risk personnel but I didn't expect them to fall like a house of cards in the wind. All that suffering they caused only to fold like that..." She shook her head briefly as though not quite sure what to make of it.

"When you're surrounded by the enemy and the person in charges kills themselves, your options are to surrender or die fighting," he said. "They chose to surrender." He picked up his huge burger and took a big bite of it.

Cooper shrugged, "That they did,good for us I suppose. Mission when everyone comes back is a good mission..." She said, she wouldn't back down so easily but then again she, and no one she knew in Starfleet was a waste of space like that lot. Then her order arrived, a dark drink that fizzed with a plate of Pasta, "Come to me carbs...." She said a little gleefully and picked up a fork, using a spoon in her other hand to twirl it.

David picked up his huge burger and took another bite. After he chewed and swallowed, he gave a nod. "It is," he said. "I've been on missions where some of us didn't come back and I relish the opportunity to lead a department where we all come back."

Cooper finished her bite and took a drink then nodded, a somber expression on her face. "May it be so." It was a sincere hope but not one Cooper expected to happen all the time. Asking someone about their bad missions and what went wrong was not usually the best idea especially with ones new Chief they didn't know well. So Cooper focused on the positive, "On the note of helping people to come back, now that things are quiet for the moment will the new training schedules take full effect? Especially the SAR training, I think that'll be well useful."

She tried to get a classical song to play in her head to help settle her as it usually did but all that would start was (OOC: edit into a link maybe later) WHAM!'s 'Wake me up before you go go'. Which did have the benefit of removing the Klingon Opera piece that had been in there previously. Training her brain to behave was an ongoing process it seemed. At least her foot didn't tap this time.

"I'm not entirely certain about the SAR training, Lieutenant," David said. "I haven't had that training for it, but I did see in your record that you are certified in it. You should talk to Lieutenant Corwin about that."

She nodded, "Planning on it" Her mind already highlighting a mental note, if one could look at Cooper's mind sometimes it did resemble a wall of sticky notes. Mental notes stuck haphazardly but, for her, effectively in her mind.

"From what I saw in Di Pasquale's notes, only a few people had signed up for it," he said after another big bite of his burger which he washed down with a drink. "It's a grueling class from what I saw, even though I personally think that the Rapid Response Teams have more training."

Cooper continued eating and nodded to acknowledge she heard then took a drink of the fizzy stuff of the gods ancient ones called 'coke cola'. "I was one, I hope some day to go for rapid response as well time permitting, always seem to have more plans than time..." she joked, "More training in what way?" She asked curiously. She'd always meant to do more research but kept getting distracted by other projects, the SAR re-qual and so on. As always her mind swirled with plans and ideas, it was always a matter of priority with finite resources.

"Rapid Response teams are the Starfleet equivalent of special forces," David told her. "SAR is trained in a wide variety of areas, but we're the ones who get sent behind enemy lines or areas that are extremely dangerous."

Catherine nodded, "Some cross over but different focuses, I can see that..." She nodded. In her mind they were both pretty tough though SAR was a bit more about surviving an environment than a hostile force, though that was part of it. "Are you planning on running any RRT training concurrent or after Lt. Corwin's SAR training?" She asked as her mind finally slid into a Bach concerto.

"That all depends on what Captain Geisler wants," he said. "You know how that goes. Rapid Response isn't exactly in the standard training guidelines."

Cooper nodded, "True but we can get close within current guidelines, sort of preparing people to do better in the RRT training should it occur like more with decision making under pressure, more physical training that sort of thing. What an old instructor called 'crossover skills'. Not the same but couldn't hurt?" She said thoughtful as she worked at the last of her pasta.

"Rapid Response training focuses more on combat ability and it was more or less phased out slowly after the Dominion War," David told her. "The need for special forces and the former soldiers who specialized in that area were slowly incorporated back into the Security division of Starfleet and some of us were even reassigned permanently to other areas. I've been on ships and bases, but I spent a lot of time back on Earth since then, too. I'll see what the Captain says about it."

Catherine agreed, "True enough but it's like damage control teams, they may not be needed but are usually handy when they are." She finished her pasta and took a drink of cola before continuing, "I haven't seen what you have so I'd be interested in your opinion but with me I think we need to have that as an optional training. Recent events shall we say of an 'unusual combat nature' have proven that to me and anything that allows flexibility in response and aids survivability can't be all bad."

"You don't need my type of training on starships and bases, though," he pointed out. "All you have to do on a ship or base is have the right protocols in place and teams that are ready to meet and neutralize the threat. Any properly trained Security personnel can do that. Isolate the intruders, gas them and round them up."

Catherine nodded, "Yes in the normal course of things but there are away missions, unusual situations can crop up. Never hurts to be prepared. Still I guess we can't go too far down this path until the Skipper approves the idea." Still she made a mental note to review her schedule for any time she could put toward extra training just in case. Unfortunately it was rather full at the moment with her current load and the SAR items, that might have to wait until Lt. Corwin's SAR training had completed.

"Rather than use brute force, Rapid Response Teams rely on precise attacks, surgical strikes, and 'intelligent warfare'. Deception, trickery and accuracy are the name of the day. When confronted with a superior enemy force, Rapid Response Personnel finds a way to use the environment, the principles of science, or some other unorthodox tactic
to tip the balance in his favor and win the battle," he said. "All you have to do is use your nugget as something other than an object to hit walls with."

Catherine was focused, she'd forgotten about her cola. What he was saying resonated with her. Her mind was absorbing the information like a sponge. "So if nothing else could we do training on that sort of creative thinking, maybe the basics? Not like it could hurt anything and it'd be something while the Captain mulled a full program. Do you have an example? At the very least reference material you'd recommend?" She asked now very curious, curbing her words through long practice. As well knows the more excited she gets about something the more and faster she tends to talk. So actively works at curbing her speech to more normal patterns.

"The next time you go to the holodeck, request program Moreau AR-558," David said quietly after a moment. "It's in the Chin'toka system. It was a real dirt ball and we had to hold it from the Dominion for five months without relief. A hundred and fifty went in and only forty-three of us came out by the time relief showed up. If you run it, you can do it as an observer or as a team member, but don't expect it to be clean. It was a dirty, wretched place and people were the walking wounded and starving while fighting the Dominion."


Cooper said nothing for a moment, respecting what he'd gone through. She nodded somberly. She'd been to young to serve but not so young as to not see the aftermath in the wrecked lives all around her. "I will Sir thank you." She said sincerely, she knew enough not to ask for details on what it was like but she did ask, "Sir, What do you think best helped you to survive that?" Her combat experience had all been short hops but one day she may have to go in for a long haul and she genuinely wanted to know. Despite the fact she had some experience she was after all still a young officer, there were things not yet experienced.

"Easy," he said with a grunt. "The desire to live and the willingness to do everything it took to ensure that I didn't die. I went hand to hand with Jem'hadar soldiers at times and beat more than a few to death with whatever was at hand. It wasn't pretty, but when it's you or them, civilized rules of combat fly out the window. A very wise man once said that a battle plan is only good until you make first contact with the enemy. After that, it's anything goes."

Catherine nodded making careful mental notes, it all seemed quite logical to her at any rate. Occasionally when she was feeling self reflective she wondered if her own need to win or protect had limits. Would she be able to do at length what Lt. Moreau had done? Previous experience led her to hope she'd acquit herself well but until it happened who could know for sure? "I've heard the same Sir. I will do my best to prepare for such things but I'm hoping that level will not be needed again." Her tone said she wasn't entirely sure her hope would be answered. She was also sorry for what he had suffered but was inclined to keep it to herself. He didn't give the impression he either wanted or encouraged sympathy but was giving a straightforward account.

David finished the last of his burger and wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Just remember the most important rule of all," he said. "You can think twice but you can only act once. Make sure you choose wisely before you act. If you'll excuse me, I need to go on a patrol one last time and then call it a night. It was nice talking with you."

"Yes Sir I will remember." She promised and nodded, "See you around Sir." She worked on finishing her own carbtastic feast even as her mind mulled it over, the food for thought she'd been given.

He returned the nod, then headed out.

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