A new place to lay our head.

Posted on Mon Oct 28th, 2019 @ 3:48am by Lieutenant JG Kevin, Lord Kilbane of Sanquhar

Mission: Onboarding & Departure
Location: Deck 1 - Captains Ready Room.
Timeline: Current

Kevin looked at his sparsely decorated room. He didn't have much in the way of personal possessions, just a few pictures of family and friends, the odd knick knack that he'd gathered from places that meant a lot to him and 'Gondorf', his spider plant.

"Well Gondorf, he we go again" he said to the plant in his hands "a new place to lay our heads, or in your case, leaves. Let's hope we can settled in quickly and get some more decorations for the room, it seems a little bit empty don't you think?"

He gave a bit of a sigh and placed the plant on the shelf near his bed, picked up the PADD on the desk and turned to leave. Turning back again he looked at the plant and said "Don't you go getting up to mischief whilst I'm away, I want this place kept clean and tidy!"

With that, he left his quarters and made his way up to the Main Bridge. Stepping out of the turbolift, he made his way across the bridge to the Captains Ready Room and pressed the buzzer by the door, awaiting an answer from within.

Frank was chewing on an unlit cigar and reading a classic earth novel when he heard the door of his ready room sound an alert, "Enter" he said as he laid his copy of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea down on his coffee table. Seeing the young Lieutenant at the door as they opened he called him. "Come on in Lieutenant, I'm Captain Kamar," he said as he reached to shake the man's hand.

Kevin was slightly taken aback by the almost casual manner of the Captain and he found himself almost at a loss for words.

Taking the Captains hand in his, he shook it firmly as he replied "I...eh...sorry...hello, err, Sir. Lieutenant Junior Grade Kevin Kilbane, your new Chief Intelligence Officer, here are my transfer orders" he managed, handing over the PADD.

Frank took the Padd and set it on his desk, "Welcome Aboard Lieutenant Kilbane, I'm glad you could join us here on the Penn. It's been an eventful few days since our arrival here. How long have you been in the Delta Quadrant?"

"Thank you Captain, and I'm happy to be here" Kevin replied, regaining his composure. "All totalled, with the missions I've completed, and the ones still active but on the back burner so say, around two years Sir."

"So as my Intelligence Officer, what do you think your job is?" Frank asked the man to see how he would answer.

"I never presume to think Sir" Kevin answered "my job is to carry out your orders to the best of my abilities. Intelligences remit is to offer the best up to date information that we can provide about any area of space or any species we encounter as we can. Part of the briefing I was given by Captain Richardson before I was sent here was to, if necessary, become your eyes and ears. An example being, should we wish to explore an area of space, you send me in ahead so I can scout it out and report back my findings. Or, should we encounter a species we haven't dealt with before, to go in secretly and scout them out and again report back my findings to yourself" he finished.

Frank leaned forward as he listened to the young officer, "May I add that duties will also include having an advisory role in mission planning as well as gathering intelligence reports from Starfleet and sharing the pertinent data. The biggest part of your job will be developing contacts and creating ways to gather more information."

"Gathering Intel reports from Starfleet and sharing the pertinent information is a gimme Sir, I'd have done that anyway" Kevin replied "as for developing contacts, having worked in the quadrant for a couple of years, I've already done that, but there's so many other species out there we know little or nothing about so I'm more than happy to do that. Once that's done, I'm more than happy to work as an advisor in missions planning, it would be an honour Captain. It's strange, but coming from a diplomatic background, and from having to suffer the tedium of the tutelage I was given as I was expected to follow in my fathers footsteps, I now see how that can be a benefit in this duty" he finished, looking at his CO.

"Your diplomatic background will definitely help, We will be encountering races in the Delta Quadrant, that have had little to no interaction with Starfleet. I want to be sure we start on the right foot," Frank said as he sized the man up.

"It's funny" Kevin began, smiling wryly, "I always had the feeling that the diplomatic thing would become a part of my life one way or another. I fought so hard against it, probably because I've always had that slightly rebellious side to my nature, and yet it's proved useful time and again. There was this one situation, and what I'm about to say doesn't break Starfleet Intelligence protocols because part of the mission is in the open records section, where I had to pretend to be the new Starfleet Ambassador to the Armari Confederacy. My role in 'the play' had me having to give pre, during and after dinner speeches. Now because I'd had it drummed into me from an early age on how to give a speech, I wasn't frightened at all. To most, you'd think that walking into a room full of diplomats you've never met before and praising them and their culture when you don't actually really know anything about them, would be frightening and they'd find themselves tripping over their words, or their speech drying up after a few minutes. Me, I took one look around the room, picked up my glass, toasted the First Regent and his wife and launched into a long rambling speech about the latest fashions on Earth in comparison with what people were wearing on Armari Prime. You should have seen them Sir, I had them eating out of my hand, not literally I mean, but their attention never wavered, not even for a second. That took about an hour, then I moved onto the cuisine we were eating and how much the Federation looked forward to setting up a trade deal on food and drink....oh, they couldn't get enough, they were falling over themselves to tell me what best delicacies to suggest to the Federation Council and President. That took up about another hour and a half, then finally....I moved onto the subject that I was there to find out about, their dilithium ore processing and armaments sales. Being a diplomat isn't all about trade Captain, you have to get to know your subject, then and only then, do you work out your plan on getting what it is you require from them, in a roundabout manner that disarms them from seeing what it is you're really wanting to know."

“Intriguing,” Frank replied hoping that the man was half as good as he claimed. “I will need you to get with Lieutenants Xanth and Grun. They could use your knowledge as they investigate some odd findings with our recent contact with the Hirogen. Is there anything else I can do for you?” He asked.

"I'm here to help in whatever way I can Sir, please ask them to contact me whenever is most convenient for them" Kevin replied "I don't have anything else Sir besides offering my services to you also and to thank you for your time."

He took a step back, bowed slightly at the hip, keeping eye contact with his CO all the while, turned and left the Ready Room.

Frank nodded as the young Lieutenant left, "Interesting fellow," he said aloud as he returned his focus to his reports.