Requests

Posted on 08 Mar 2021 @ 4:23pm by Commodore Harvey Geisler & Lieutenant Commander Joey Geisler
Edited on on 16 Mar 2021 @ 9:52pm

1,300 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Extinction
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: Mission Day 1 at 1430

After lunch with Camila, Joey found herself approaching the Captain's ready room. She hoped he wasn't busy, but she had to talk to him about the Security Chief's request before taking it upon herself to get the job done. And though she was married to the man that was sitting behind the door, she planned to keep things as professional as possible. With that in mind, she straightened her uniform once she got to the door and reached out to tap the chime.

The door parted almost instantly, revealing Captain Geisler sitting behind the desk with a padd in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. His eyes glanced up and a smile formed on his face when he recognized the new arrival. "Hi, honey!" he greeted.

When the door parted, Joey took that as her cue to step inside, and if that wasn't obvious enough for her, his greeting was. "Hi, sweetheart. How's your day going?" She asked, deciding a little personal was okay. Especially since his presence made her quite happy.

"First day on the job as the head of a Task Group," Harvey remarked. "I can certainly say I was unprepared for the amount of paperwork that would follow. How about yourself?"

Joey moved over to a chair, but instead of sitting on it, she placed her hands on the back of it. "It's been interesting. Camila came to see me today about some cross department work. After the crew was infiltrated, she wants to dig into the backgrounds of of those who have joined within the last year and a half," she explained, pausing long enough so he could process things. "But, that's not all. She wants to get Internal Affairs involved."

"Internal Affairs?" Harvey echoed. He could understand wanting to do a check on everyone and their mother, but Internal Affairs? "How do you feel about that?"

"I don't know to be honest," she answered. "Do I think we need to check everyone out that's joined the crew lately? Given everything that's happened, I feel the same way she does. If having Internal Affairs involved is what it takes for peace of mind, then I suppose that's what needs to happen."

Joey sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "She thinks that what happened with the Consortium, Dolmoqour and other things that have happened on the ship would be enough for them to want to get involved, and asked that I get in touch with Commodore Satie to get the ball rolling. I think she puts way too much faith in me to pull something this major off."

Harvey frowned and lowered the padd he held. He adjusted his seating in his seat, feeling like this would be a rough conversation. "Isn't Satie just with intelligence? I don't think Intel and IA are mutually exclusive, much less interested in sharing resources."

He sighed and added, "We've had over a hundred crewmembers join us since before we first left Deep Space Nine to come to the Gamma Quadrant. At this point, getting IA involved means we need to turn around and dock with a starbase for weeks. We just left drydock again this morning. We had five weeks to get IA involved, and that ship has sailed. We're just going to make do."

Joey listened as he spoke. A lot of it made sense, and she knew one thing for sure. Camila wasn't going to be happy. "Yes, Satie is just Intelligence, and if she is anything more, I have no knowledge of it," she answered. "You're right about IA, though. At this point, the best that can be done is I dig into personnel records as far as I can before my security clearance becomes an issue. That being said, if I miss anything, Camila will definitely want to hold me responsible."

"And that's only because she takes the security of this vessel absolutely seriously," Harvey observed. "And rightfully so, as that's not only her job, but there are people aboard she cares about. Not to mention, there's only so many times you can let people take advantage of you. All anyone can ask is that you do the best with the situation you've been given. And, sometimes, the things you need to look for aren't in records. People are good at obscuring details or omitting the truth."

"I take it fairly seriously myself. It's pretty hard to forget my background," she said, thinking back to another part of her life, which she was more than willing to give up until her current position presented itself. "And, that's why I'm willing to do what I can to ease her mind. However, you have me curious. If things aren't in records, where else would we look?"

Harvey found himself shrugging. "I'm not much of an intelligence officer," he remarked. "But I can only think of what Sherlock Holmes would do. Habits, interests, patterns... People they talk to or don't talk to. What they do on and off duty. All these little things can give insight into character and true motives."

It was a good idea, but something like that would take quite a bit of time as well as manpower. "I'll have to see what I can do as far as all of this goes," Joey conceded. She didn't feel overly confident, but would do everything she could to try to achieve something that would please the Security Chief.

Harvey nodded, adding, "Good, good. Anything else of note or importance?"

Joey shook her head. All she really need to speak to him about was getting IA involved, and since that wasn't possible at this point in time, that left the ball in her court. "Not that I can think of," she replied.

"How about dinner tonight?" Harvey asked. "I'll probably come home for that, but when the kids go to bed, I'll probably have to hunker down at the desk and go through some of these reports. There wasn't really an organizational system for the task group, so there's a lot to go through."

"Dinner? Yes. Is there anything in particular you want?" She asked, moving around his desk to press a kiss to his forehead. "And if there's anything I can do to help, all you have to do is ask."

"Something light," he told her. "I can't do a heavy dinner on a night I've got so much work. Causes too much indigestion. As for what you can do to help, some of this stuff is going to start trickling down to you eventually. Maybe you could work with Mila to pull the personnel files of the COs and XOs of the ships in the Task Group. I'd definitely appreciate your thoughts on them."

Joey looked thoughtful for a moment. Something light? A salad with grilled chicken breast was light, and actually sounded pretty good. "Okay, I've got dinner covered," she said. It seemed like she'd be up to her elbows in personnel files. "I'll go pay Mila a visit shortly. Chances are I'll be working a little later than normal, so I'm going to stop by our place to see Alison and Jameson for a few minutes. Do you have a few minutes to join me?"

Harvey considered it for a moment. "Just a couple quick minutes," he said to her, rising from the desk. He smiled, and gestured to the doorway. "After you, my love."

A few quick minutes was all that would be needed, but she found herself hoping that Alison and Jameson wouldn't be too upset with them leaving. Of course Eden was there, and they adored her, so Joey had a feeling they'd be just fine. With that, she smiled and walked out of the ready room to go see her two favorite little ones.

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