Personnel Files

Posted on Fri Jun 11th, 2021 @ 3:34pm by Captain Dirk Taggart

Dirk was reading through the previous Captain's personnel file, when an incident with the Horizon colony caught his attention. He sipped his coffee as he read the following.

Not Another Reporting for Duty
Lieutenant Commander Frank Kamar Jr. & Captain Piper Seren
Mission: Archive: New Horizons
Location: Emergency Launch Pad
Timeline: Evening

Frank stepped off of the shuttle and arrived at the new colony. He stroked his beard as he looked around and saw the sun coming up on the edge of the horizon. After stretching Frank picked up his bag and walked towards the central building, it appeared to be the largest building in the area and Frank assumed that was going to be the HQ.

On second thought Frank decided that he could probably get away with not reporting in until later, besides after transferring between several ships, including a freighter, he was ready for a real bed and some peace and quiet. As he walked between the buildings he stopped a young ensign and asked where the Engineer's barracks were. A quick inspection led him to an empty room, so Frank locked the door and took a nap.

*Computer Begin Personal Log*

Frank laid on his bed and began speaking to the computer while staring at the ceiling.

"I have arrived at the Horizon colony, today would have been our 25th anniversary my dearest June. Upon arriving to the colony I was afraid to face the day without you, I found an empty room and slept, hoping you would come to visit me in my dreams once more. I miss your smile more than I could ever put into words, I know you've been gone nineteen years now but it hasn't made it any easier.

I tried watching the sunset earlier tonight, but was caught by my new commanding officer. I know, I was somewhere I shouldn't have been and I was smoking a cigar." Frank chuckled slightly as he continued, an odd sound coming from him almost like happiness or laughter was abnormal, "I know how much you hated them, but now I smoke them just so I can remember the sound of your voice."

"Tomorrow will difficult, I have to meet with the new engineers, if only I could communicate half as well as you did my sweet June, I would have no problems. This is my last duty station, retirement is right around the corner. I'm planning on building that cabin we always talked about. Anyhow, I need to get some rest before before tomorrow, this old man needs his beauty sleep."

Frank yawned as he said, "Computer delete the log," the computer did not interpret the command correctly and archived Frank's log.

Upon waking up Frank was famished, and realized he had slept the day away. "Oh well, I'll check in tomorrow," he said aloud to no one, "Besides I'm 55 damn years old, 5 more years and I'm out of here. He tried to use the replicator but instead of a cold drink it spit out lukewarm water. He then tried asking for a Reuben Sandwich and received toasted cheese, that was barely toasted. After using a few choice sailor adjectives he decided a cigar would be appropriate for the occasion.

Frank roamed around the colony in his blue jumpsuit with a cigar in his pocket. His jumpsuit did not have any insignia or identifying marks, he also wore a ball cap to cover his bald head. Nothing sucked worse than getting sunburned on the head.

*June would have loved this* he thought to himself, though she had been gone nineteen years Frank still loved and missed her presence terribly. He climbed the small ladder on the empty shuttle pad and lit his cigar.

Sitting on the edge of the launch pad Frank's grey beard and hat were ringed in a small cloud of soft smoke. "Just a few more damn years Frankie boy" he told himself and we can retire and build that cabin." Closing his eyes for a moment he could almost picture that small cabin on the edge of a lake.

It was heading into evening already and judging by the way the sun was sinking slowly toward the horizon, no doubt sunset was coming soon. It had already proved to be a long day and she desperately needed these precious moments of peace and tranquility to reset her mojo before she went back to work. There was still a few things she needed to get done before she could get home.

The unfamiliar sight of the large figure on the edge of her roof took her by surprise and for the first time ever she found herself wishing she had had a phaser on her instead of having it in her desk drawer. Knowing full well he hadn't come up through security, because that would have meant he would have come past her office, and she hadn't seen anyone, that only meant he could have arrived from other means. "You have precisely ten seconds to tell me who the hell you are and why you're on my roof," she demanded coolly.

"Nine..."

Frank didn't bother turning around as the woman spoke, another Ensign on her high horse he thought as took a long draw on his cigar. "Listen Missy, I'm the Chief Engineer and if I wanna have a damn cigar and some peace and quiet I'm going to."

He started to glance over his shoulder as he continued, "Now this here pad is where I'm gon..." Frank didn't finish as he realized the rank of the woman counting. He stood as quickly as his bad back would allow him to move. He pulled the cigar from lips, nearly singeing his beard. As he moved to attention he spoke, "I'm sorry ma'am I didn't mean to, AAAAHHHH Dammmn" he growled as the cigar in his hand burned his wrist.

"So you're the new Chief Engineer?" Piper countered calmly as she took a few steps closer to him. "The one who arrived on the last transport from Providence last night? The one who was supposed to report in my office at thirteen hundred hours today?"

She raised an eyebrow slightly as she took a few steps closer. "Well, clearly you had no problems finding the place, so I'm going to assume that you must have had an engineering emergency that I didn't hear about that kept you from our meeting." Piper raised an eyebrow quizzically as she watched him.

"Yes ma'am you are right, I am the new Chief Engineer and I was unable to report on time due to an engineering emergency. It was a real problem, required lots of uh puzzle solving ma'am," Frank continued even though with every word he was digging his own grave. "You see ma'am, the Chief Engineer had a contusion of stamina upon arrival and needed a mandatory realignment of the internal energy core ma'am." Frank was rather proud of himself at this point for his brilliant usage of large complicated words to describe his nap.

"And I'm going to assume now that the realignment of the energy core was sufficient enough to prevent any future contusions, of course," Piper replied calmly, her arms folded across her chest. Despite her 5'0 height, she was still able to cast an imposing figure, perhaps largely because of the collar and pips, perhaps because of her stance, but either way her demeanor showed she was not entirely happy with this person who had appeared on 'her' roof, contaminating her place with his cigar ash and smoke, especially after blowing off his meeting with her to take a nap.

"Yes ma'am," Frank replied, "no future contusions Captain. He relaxed his stance a bit, not standing as rigid at attention as he had been a few minutes ago. Frank was half expecting an ass chewing, when it did not commence immediately, the hope began to build that he just might get off without any humiliating extra duty work or demerits.

"Now, how about you tell me, firstly, how you got up here? And secondly, what you're doing up here?" Piper asked as she walked across to him. "No one is meant to be up here, and I'm quite confident that you didn't pass through security or come up the internal stairs."

"I used a little bit of engineering ingenuity, ma'am," Frank said proudly, he didn't want to admit that he paid off one of the guards with some moonshine and a cigar to get up the emergency exit.

"I see, well I'm sure my Chief of Security will be happy to speak to you about that 'engineering ingenuity' seeing as how it poses a security risk," Piper said with a sweet smile. "I'll let him know to speak with you at his earliest convenience, you won't be able to miss him, with his being emancipated Borg and all."

The last thing Frank needed was a nosy security officer going through his stuff and playing twenty questions, "Ma'am I pulled rank on the Ensign downstairs on watch and bribed him with a cigar, don't reprimand him, I was just looking for somewhere quiet, to be alone."

"Very well, I'll have the security footage reviewed and have that Ensign reassigned immediately. The last thing I need to be worrying about is an Ensign that can be bribed to let any random into the command center." Piper shook her head before brushing her hair back behind her ear. "State of the art security indeed," she scoffed quietly. "In the meantime, you are aware that this area is off limits to everyone?" she asked. "So I fully expect that once you leave here, you won't be reappearing on my roof except in cases of actual emergency where you will be loading people into a shuttle for evacuation?"

"I understand Captain, I will not return here unless it is an emergency ma'am. Permission to put this out ma'am?" Frank asked as he lifted the still burning cigar. "I know it's a nasty habit but these are hard to come by out here."

Piped nodded slightly. "Once you've put it out I'm sure you can find your own way out," she said quietly. "Have a good evening Commander." Turning on her heel she started back toward the door to make her way back down to her office. There was still a lot of work to be done.

Frank put out his cigar as he watched the Captain head for the stairs, he had to prepare for his first department meeting in the morning. He turned to the rising moon and whispered," Happy Anniversary June," with a tear in his eye he left for his quarters.

=/\=

Captain Piper Seren
Commanding Officer
Horizon Colony

&

Lieutenant Commander Frank Kamar Jr.
Commanding Officer
Horizon Colony