After Action Report

Posted on 21 Dec 2025 @ 7:14pm by Admiral Zachary O'Connell & Commodore Harvey Geisler

2,378 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Imposters Among Us
Location: Gamma Command
Timeline: July 9, 2390 || 0430 hours

Commander Ombretta del Carlo interlaced her hands and placed them on the table on the conference table. For the last hour, she and the other officers who comprised the department heads and decision makers for Gamma Command had been listening to the brevetted Harvey Geisler. While none of the officers had spoken to each other, aside from taking notes and sending messages to each on their padds, the current sentiment was that these overnight meetings with the albatross were becoming less entertaining with each session.

With every word Harvey spoke, the bulging vein in del Carlo's forehead seemed to grow. It was enough for her to feel it, and she was growing tired of Doctor Tonnii, the Saurian medical officer, constantly looking over at her forehead and not meeting her gaze. This was the least of her worries as the Italian woman could see ramifications beyond the Commodore's lengthy report on his sudden capture and torture, the happenings of a clone in command of a task group command ship, and the visitors from another universe who nearly reshaped the balance of power in the Gamma Quadrant.

These ramifications were quite personal. Ombretta held the most important position in this group of officers, charged with overseeing intelligence operations in the quadrant. And yet, she was the lowest ranked of them all, suddenly inheriting the position after Commodore Blaise's sudden reassignment several months ago. Ombretta was even on the short list for promotion to Captain. At least, she was until just a few hours ago when Admiral O'Connell shared with her a recent update from Harvey Geisler.

Three weeks. For three unbelievable weeks, she'd been fed false intelligence and she had no idea. She would've thought that Harvey would have picked up that his wife was acting suspicious, but she'd heard that love tended to blind the objective portions of the mind. Ombretta had no excuse. Joey Geisler was the Chief Intelligence Officer for the Black Hawk not the entire Task Group Belvedere. Somehow she'd convinced all of Belvedere (and Ombretta) to funnel all intelligence through the Black Hawk. del Carlo had received some intelligence from ships like the Endurance as Captain Holmes did not trust Geisler, but Ombretta did not have her team analyze it and instead put it off to the side.

Those three weeks and that decision would likely cost Ombretta her promotion and possibly even her position. So it was no surprise that she was the first to speak once the albatross closed his mouth. "That's quite the story, Commodore."

Across the table, Harvey turned to face Ombretta. "It's no story, Commander."

"The hell it is," she said with a scoff, mustering a chuckle from Commodore Tri, the Betazoid logistics chief who could feel the emotional weight of every word.

"You are an enigma in this quadrant," Ombretta pressed. Her fingers deinterlaced, and the left set morphed into a fist. She nearly slammed it on the table, but rested the base of it on the surface for now. "Notorious. Some call you and your ship an albatross. Fifteen years of peace in this quadrant, save for the Consortium Crisis, and yet every year you come in here with some unexplainable event. Punch a hole into a universe and pay it a visit. Cross into the Finnean Convergence Zone and fight off a symbiotic lifeform. We sent you to investigate piracy so we can start to rebuild our reputation with the outer rim and you revisit this universe you punched into--"

"We didn't cross over to that universe again," Harvey pointed out, tapping his right index finger on the table.

Ombretta slammed her fist in reply. "But they came over here. And it cost us Starbase Unity. It cost us nearly a dozen ships and thousands of personnel. It cost us valuable ground that we can no longer afford to cover with supplies and material already stretched so thin."

Next to her, Commodore Tri nodded in agreement. "In the last three weeks, we've lost what amounts to an entire task group. Even Gamma Command has suffered perimeter losses due to assets we entrusted to your employ, Commodore."

Harvey grunted and leaned forward. Before coming into this overnight debriefing, he knew all too well that he'd be on the defensive, and that this would only be the first of many lengthy sessions where they would break down his experience and his failings. "A wise man once said that when the first shot of war is fired, you don't know who is going to die. Everything that transpired over the last month was a late-blooming result of the Consortium Crisis. Two years ago, I received an order," Harvey made every effort not to point or shoot a glance over to the man who gave the order, the Admiral who sat silent at the head of the table, "to engage the Cochrane and Chimera, two Consortium-controlled starships seeking a Romulan vessel carrying a Thalaron generator.

"We found it, and the hole was created not by recklessness, but by defending ourselves and removing a devastating weapon from the table. Yes, we punched through to another universe. Yes, we returned at closed the hole, or so we thought. The Crisis drained our numbers and we never got to go back and take a look at the nebula. I know the Dominion did." Harvey chuckled and shook his head. "That's right, I read up on that too after I returned from captivity. I'm willing to bet they did something that wasn't in that report, and that's what reopened the tear."

Harvey leaned back in his chair, scoffing once more at this farce of a debriefing. "I lament the loss of life. The loss of Unity, our ships, and our brethren is terrible and devastating. But I will not take responsibility for events that are not a direct result of my or my crew's decisions."

"No one is asking you to take responsibility--" the station's commander, the amphibious Virid Salire, tried to interject.

But del Carlo interrupted him, immediately protesting while glaring in the amphibian's direction, "I am! People are dead, and families deserve to know why!" Then she pointed an accusatory finger at the commander of the Black Hawk and declared, "This man is at the epicenter of three major occurrences in recent years. Yes, the Black Hawk solved those problems, but how do we know that it's not of his own design?"

"We don't," Admiral O'Connell finally spoke up, placing both his hands on the table and leaning forward. "None of us were there. Ship and personnel logs only paint a picture of effect after the cause and they're subjective to the person relating the experience." He looked at Harvey and then over to Ombretta, adding, "We do what we've always done. Match the character of those selected for command and weigh it against their actions."

Ombretta frowned, her eyes narrowing to match her mood. "So you're giving him another free pass?" She shook her head and leaned back in her chair. "Typical."

The Admiral frowned. "I'm not giving him anything." Turning his attention, temporarily, to Harvey, the Admiral instructed the Commodore to leave the room to allow the staff to discuss the matter. The debate, however, did not wait for Harvey to depart before it exploded behind him.


* * *

Harvey wasn't sure how long he'd been standing in the room outside the conference room. Behind him, a security guard stood near the exit, his posture undoubtedly inferring that he was there to keep Harvey from escaping rather than protect those still debating in the adjacent conference room.

For now, the commander of the Black Hawk resigned himself to a mug of coffee and leaning against the nearby viewport, watching the traffic come in and out of the system. His ship was nowhere to be found, which was not surprising considering it had been docked inside the station. He couldn't help but wonder how Joey, his kids, or even his crew was fairing.

And even now he realized that he'd been awake for more than twenty-four hours. Harvey blinked as he reflected upon the activities. This time yesterday, he was bracing himself for a new torture session where that Selamat from another universe attempted to pluck sensitive information from his mind. Since then, he'd escaped, been rescued, defended his character, and led a hasty (but successful) effort to stop the quadrant from shattering into chaos.

He did not appreciate what was unfolding in the room beside him, but he did understand it. Day by day the situation in the Gamma Quadrant continued to deteriorate, and D'rimo threw accelerant on the fire. Starfleet had faced an uphill battle since the 2370s and the discovery of the Bajoran wormhole, and the quadrant as a whole was getting tired of dealing with the chaos. Harvey had to wonder how much longer they'd be tolerated.

His musings were interrupted by the conference room doors opening. The headquarters staff filed out and departed the complex. Harvey did not turn his body but instead looked to his right as they passed by. None of them took the time to return Harvey's gaze, save for Commander del Carlo. The fire in her eyes had not diminished, but it didn't seem to have grown either.

Admiral O'Connell was the last to enter the room. He nodded to the guard by the door, who departed along with the senior staff.

Harvey exhaled, and his gaze turned from inside the room to look down the bottom of his nearly empty coffee mug. He wondered how he should break the ice with the Admiral. Would this matter be entirely guided by duty and professionalism, or would their friendship be able to play a part? Perhaps a symbolic gesture would serve him well. With his free hand, Harvey reached up to his breast and removed the singular boxed pip. Then he turned and faced the Admiral. "I suppose you're wanting this," he suggested.

Zachary didn't move, even though they stood ten paces apart. "Ombretta wants it." Then he scoffed, shook his head and sat down in a nearby chair.

Harvey made no effort to put it back on. Instead he closed his hand around it and kept the hand raised near his coffee mug. "Yeah, I don't blame her."

"Her girlfriend died at Unity," Zachary shared, looking across the room. "She was Chief of Operations there, and they were talking about getting her transferred here as the dockyard master."

"Damn," Harvey muttered, turning to look back out the window. He wanted to apologize, but he knew there wouldn't be a chance in hell of Ombretta accepting it. Hell, Harvey even thought there was no way his words could not sound hollow.

A sigh came from across the room, and Zach's left hand rose to rub his left temple. "There's no magic wand this time," Zachary warned. "This quadrant won't admit it, but it is in your debt. Has been in your debt. The Dominion doesn't care though. The border continues to grow cold. They're already moving in where Unity used to be. Worlds like Mellon are going to be harder to support."

"We weren't really supporting them in the first place," Harvey remarked. "Pirates took advantage of our instability over the last year. They're helping those worlds and colonies. They'll take whatever we can give them, but we can't stop the Dominion from annexing territory."

"All the more reason why I need qualified command officers."

Harvey raised an eyebrow and turned back towards Zachary. He leaned against the wall and braced himself.

"I need their trust too," the Admiral explained. "I got them to support one last chance for you as CO of the 'Hawk, but you're going to have to do the work here. That's full medical and psychological workups. And you'll have to give up Belvedere until you're in the clear."

Harvey looked down and swirled the content of the mug. "And the Black Hawk?"

"Still yours." Zachary chuckled at this one. "And remanded to Commodore Tri for the next few months. I'm afraid the albatross will be escorting cargo for a while."

"Is Mellon one our first stops?" Harvey found a smirk deep in his soul and pulled it to the surface. "And what about this?" Harvey opened his hand to reveal the boxed pip.

Zachary closed his eyes and grinned at Harvey's request for Mellon. "I'll see what I can do. And as for that," Zachary opened his eyes and nonchalantly pointed at the pip. "It'll be a reminder to you what's at stake. And I'm serious, Harvey." The Admiral rose from the chair and crossed the room to Harvey. "There's escape hatch on this one. You fail, and you're done."

Harvey nodded, slowly absorbing the heavy words. After a moment of silence, Harvey moved the coffee mug to the left hand that held the pip. Then he extended his right hand for a handshake. "Yes, sir. I understand."

The Admiral accepted the handshake and then clapped a free hand on the Commodore's shoulder. "Take care of Joey. And if the kids need a place to stay for a bit, they're always welcome with Scott."

"Thanks, Zach," Harvey replied, his smile weak. "And don't think I don't know that the inquisition isn't finished. I imagine there will be more sessions with your senior staff?"

It was Zachary's turn to smirk. "Right after lunch. Get some rack time and they'll see you then. I've got a meeting with a Vorta."

"Vorta?" Harvey echoed. "Want to switch places?"

"Hell no." With that, Zachary patted Harvey on the shoulder and then left him alone in the anteroom.

Harvey, left alone at last, looked down at his hand which still held the boxed pip. It felt heavier today, and that weight continued to grow the longer he looked at it. He closed his eyes to sit in the weight for a moment. When he opened them, his senses felt sharper and his priorities clear. Harvey placed the pip back on his breast and turned for the exit.

The longest day was over. A new day was dawning, and with it his future.

Time to make it a bright one.

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