Let's try this again (backpost)

Posted on 29 Jan 2014 @ 7:40am by Commodore Harvey Geisler

1,421 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Echoes
Location: Captains Ready Room.
Timeline: December 27, 2387

Having now slept and sobered up, Finchley had a shower and got dressed in a clean uniform and made his way back to the CO's Ready Room.

Standing outside, he pressed the buzzer on the wall and waited once again to be able to enter the room.

Harvey was about to order a glass of water from the replicator when he heard the chime. "Come." He ordered, allowing the computer to open the door. Spotting the face of his Chief Security Officer, he looked back to the replicator and asked, "Coffee, Lieutenant?"

"If you pop a whiskey in with it as well, yes Sir, thank you" Finchley replied, then quickly followed it up with "I'm kidding. I'll have an apple tea please Commander, thank you."

"Apple tea. Hot. And 1 Water, room temperature." Two blue columns of light appeared and disappeared, leaving the drinks behind. He walked over to the lieutenant and offered the cup of tea to him.

As he was passed the cup, he added "Sorry about yesterday Sir, you didn't see me at my best..."

"True," Harvey replied, moving around to sit behind his desk. He gestured for Lieutenant Kerr to have a seat as well. "Bold move, going after a pair of Aces with a pair of Jacks," Harvey stated, hoping to use last night's comment as a way to learn a thing or two about his CS/TO.

"Thank you" Finchley said, taking the offered seat. He adjusted his position slightly as he replied "Yes, well, the whole idea was to see who would blink first, and unfortunately I was called to see. That was what took the shirt off my back as it was all i had left to bet with. It was balls to the wall, but hey, I was drunk, and I wasn't scared to show them I'd take them all on" he finished, taking a sip from his cup.

Harvey took a drink of his water, his throat having been parched by drinking nothing so far today. He had read Finchley's file overnight and had obtained a basic understanding of the security officer in front of him. But files only carried facts inserted by others, never the individual himself. "So, Finchley, are you here by choice or otherwise?"

"Not by choice Sir" Finchley replied "Captain Adams fought tooth and nail to keep me on the Crown, well, the Crown - A, the original USS Crown was destroyed at Chin'toka during the war, but unfortunately he was told that I was... being'invited' shall we say, to move on."

"How about Warrant Officer... Karadis?" Harvey led, quietly processing the differences between the night before and today. "I believe she's from the Crown as well."

Finchley paused for a moment, lost in deep thought, then said "Yes...yes she is, she...she insisted that she be transfered along with me, and she wouldn't take no for an answer, she can be quite persuasive as the 'buttons' found out. She's eh...well, we were...when we ended up on AR-five five eight, a number of us were tortu..." and he stopped talking and looked up at the ceiling, eyes blurred and trying to hold back tears as he saw in his minds eye once again the horrors carried out by the Jem'Hadar in his fellow crew mates "...not many of us from the Crown survived..." and he stopped talking as he then looked down at the cup in his hands and began rolling it slowly backwards and forwards between his palms.

Harvey had heard of the horrors of AR-558. Of course, the Dominion War had left behind no shortage of horror stories. His eyes wandered from Finchley to the framed photo of Alison, the only personal item among the sea of PADDs on the desk. "I was there at Betazed," Harvey said at last, albeit softly. "My wife was killed there."

He saw the glassy eyes of the man sitting across the desk and knew it was time for a subject change. "Many of us are on this ship by someone else's choice." As was the Starfleet way. "I need a team around me that I can trust. And so far, I've seen two sides of you, and I can't imagine which one is the worst. So," Harvey leaned forward, elbows resting on the desk, "can I trust Finchley Kerr? Not just with my life, but with five hundred other souls?"

"If you've seen both sides of me Sir, and can't tell which is the worst" Finchley said "Then that indicates that both sides are flawed and are of no use to you because you're in effect choosing the lesser of two evils. I can't say for certain that you can trust me, that's a choice only you can make. What I can say is that I always try my very best to carry out my duty and I always give one hundred percent. Can the crew trust me with their lives...in order to answer that honestly I'd have to say that we all have to look out for each other and I'll do my utmost to do that. I don't care if you call into question my character Sir, but please don't ever call into question my ability to fullfill my duty. Same as you Commander, I give of myself till there's nothing left to give and at the end of the day, if the ships in one piece, and the crew are still here carrying out their duties, I've done mine, and all I can look forward to is doing it all again tomorrow."

Harvey nodded his head ever so slightly, evaluating and testing Finchley's statements in his mind, all the while attempting to push away the drunken stupor introduced to him the night before. Somewhere, underneath all that he had seen, was an excellent Starfleet officer. It would take a while to find it, but it worth the while.

The captain stood up and walked around the table until he was standing next to Finchley. Extending his hand, he said, "Commander Harvey Geisler." With no change of expression, he added, "Welcome aboard."

Finchley looked up and saw the CO standing there with his hand extended.

Slowly he stood up, placed the cup of apple tea on the table and took the mans hand and shook it "Thank you Sir, Lieutenant Finchley Kerr reporting as ordered..."

Harvey released the hand and clasped both of his behind his back. "Mr. Kerr, I have reviewed your file. Seems you've been passed over for promotion a couple times, though I can't imagine why. We are Gamma Quadrant bound, and for many of us, it's an opportunity to turn a new leaf.

"This is a carrier, and I'm in need of strong tactical advice, not something easily found from a researcher. Starfleet chose my crew, yet it was kind enough to give me some small wiggle room. I would like to appoint you as my second officer. Consider it a second chance."

"I was passed over for promotion...Sir" Finchley almost spat the last word of the sentence out "because I have a tendancy to speak my mind, and when I'm right and others are wrong, I don't hold back on saying 'I told you so'. I have no interest in considering second chances Commander, what is...is!

I know what kind of vessel this is, and I'll be happy to accept your appointment of me as your Second Officer, but please understand that with me, what you see is what you get, and I won't change. Trust is earned, and that goes both ways. You had no choice but to accept having me forced upon you and I had no choice but to accept being forced to come here, but that's where our similarities end Sir. I hope we can work together, we'll just have to find out."

"Fair enough," Harvey replied. This was a gamble to be sure and hopefully he would not regret it. "Dismissed, lieutenant."

Finchley turned and walked away towards the doors. As he approached them and they opened, his thoughts turned away from the meeting he'd just had, to the thoughts of why the CO didn't want the Security department down on the planet with the away team. Something didn't add up with his new Captain, he couldn't put his finger on it, but something wasn't sitting right with Finchley.

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Lt Finchley Kerr
Chief of Security/Tactical
USS Black Hawk

&

Lt. Cmdr. Harvey Geisler
Commanding Officer
USS Black Hawk

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