Combat and Away Mission Training

Posted on Wed Jan 31st, 2018 @ 7:54am by Fleet Admiral Donatella Figueroa & Commander K'Niras Sh'howul & Lieutenant Junior Grade Robert "Rob" Grey

Mission: S01E02 D-8 With the Devil
Location: Security

One thing about this assignment Rob was required to be on away missions as a field medic. His skills in this area were rusty at best, and Rob has a particular reason for visiting security. He had a friend who had been promoted to Chief Security officer. He walked up to the deck where the security department was located. He walked in to see the office was rather quiet. "Excuse me Ensign, is Lieutenant K'Niras Sh'howl on duty?"

The woman smiled. "Aye sir, he's in his office."

Rob gave the woman his best smile and said thank you. He walked up to the office door and rang the door buzzer.

"Enter!" K'Niras called out. The small Caitian was sitting behind his desk, going over the weekly attendance reports and shift reassignment requests. As second officer, it was his duty to keep track of such things. He knew that there were new crew members onboard, but he hadn't had the time to introduce himself to any of them. He looked up as the human medical officer entered and smiled a little, just showing his front teeth, his long whiskers twitching. He stood from behind the desk, his slender tail bouncing up behind him. "Greetings, Lieutenant."

Rob extended his hand to the security chief. "Lt. Rob Grey one of the medics from sick bay." He tried to gage the officer's face. It wasn't easy trying to read a Caitian's face at the best of times. It wasn't like he had come across many of them. In fact he had only ever met two. This was the second one. "I am sorry to bother your sir." He muddled his words only cos he found hard to talk to a cat.

"The reason I sought you out is that, in my job, I am expected to go on away missions and having not ever been on them from my previous assignment, I thought I had better get a refresher course on combat training and away mission protocols."

K'Niras came around the desk and took Rob's hand, shaking it firmly. His paw was much like a human's hand with more fur and one less finger. "It's a pleasure to meet you Lieutenant, but I do believe you're in the wrong office for combat training. You are however in the right office to check in and I'd be more than happy to go over away mission behavior and protocols with you. I can take you to the security office later. I do have extensive combat training if you would like to learn from me though." He smiled again.

He thought about the man's question for a little while. "Well, I consider myself useless as a security officer, but a pretty good medic. I have never been on away mission as my last posting was more research." He stared around the room. "I don't want to go on away mission and not protect myself or my team members I would like some weapons training and some first contact protocols." He wondered if he had bitten of more than he could chew. "I did pass basic weapons training while at the academy, but I haven't used one since."

K'Niras sat on the edge of his desk, his ears laying back a little with uncertainty. "I can definitely get you started in the right direction." He grinned. "I think maybe we should start with protocols and move on to the combat and weapon training. Do you agree? Do you have any questions for me? Anything at all, I'm totally willing to answer." His long tail twitched back and forth next to him and he tipped his ears forward again.

Rob sighed. "No time like the present." He smiled as he had a long road ahead of him to get this right. As research assistant than a medic his skills sorely lacked the sharpness his role required. Away team missions were now part of his mission statement and profile. "Ok so where do we start?"

"Well... I have time now. We can go over what you know of Away Mission protocol if you'd like and have time and we can accomplish that one of two ways." K'Niras stood from where he had been sitting on the edge of the desk and walked back around to sit behind it. "I can give you scenarios and you can tell me what you should do in those situations... or you can just tell me what you already know and we can go from there. Do you have a preference?" He tipped his head to the side. "To be honest... I believe that protocol is the more serious of the two. If you don't know protocol then serious mistakes could be made and combat training won't mean a lick."

He questioned himself for a second. "Ok now you can do it the way you see fit as I am happy to follow your lead," he smiled "I am going to take this that I haven't done this before."

K'Niras tipped his head to one side, his whiskers twitching. Sometimes he wasn't so sure that the translators worked correctly. "Well... if it is my choice then why don't you go ahead and tell me what you already know and we can figure out how to fill in the gaps."

Captain Donatella Figueroa had been in the command nook when some of the initial reports came in, and they came urgently. They had taken longer than anticipated and she finally understood why. Her people were good. They were damn good, and when they overturned the rocks and what was underneath made no sense to them, they thought they made an error. So they ran the tests again and again, but now there was hardly any room for mistakes. Either something was seriously corrupting the results or there was something seriously and deeply disturbing that took place.

She read everything thoroughly. Commander Samuels. She would need to discuss this with him very soon, but right now she needed to get this information high up the line of admiralty. There was no time to waste. The Captain did not even finish her coffee. She sat the mug down on the table and snatched the data PaDD and darted out of the command nook on a heading for the nearest lift. I have to get to K'Niras, she thought. Being Second Officer gave him a lot of responsibility, but also being Chief Communications Officer gave him a security level clearance that was nearly on par with that of Figueroa and Samuels.

Several minutes later, Fig entered the man's office. She found that he was not alone. "Lieutenant Grey," she said addressing the man from medical. "You have to leave Lieutenant," she said without much of an explanation given and no apology. Captain Figueroa was in Captain mode and she meant business. "This meeting can be rescheduled. Right now, I need to talk to Lieutenant Sh'howul alone," and she was very firm on the 'alone' part as she made a gesture for Grey to leave.

Fig waited a few seconds until the doors closed behind Lieutenant Grey and he was well out of sight. "Your team has been burning that midnight oil, Lieutenant. Your findings were not a mistake... not as far as the Chief Medical Officer is concerned. Lieutenant Grey and Nurse Vinia's autopsy reports were looked over by Doctor Hill. He performed an autopsy himself when he saw the results. Medical results match all technical results," she said her face a pale chilling white.

K'Niras had stood when Fig had entered his office, but now he sat down heavily again. "So, it wasn't Klingons or wild cats? What was it?" He laid his ears back in concern and had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Watching the Captain's expression and paleness of her face had him worried that it was much worse than Klingons, although he couldn't think of any species that were currently being worse than the Klingons.

Donatella shook her head. "No, but damn do I ever wish it had been. More now than ever," she replied. After pacing the office for a few moments, she stopped in front of K'Niras and looked at the lieutenant. He had come aboard a while back as a transfer from the Enterprise's Operations Division in their Communications section. "Those people were killed by weapons fire... Federation weapons fire. Lieutenant McGowan has been running scans from the orbital facility. They found Federation warp signatures in the vicinity that do not match our own."

It took a moment for the information to sink in. His eyes widened slowly and then all of the hair in a straight line from his head to his tail started to stand on end. He didn't do anything to stop it, but just stared at Fig. "Excuse me, sir? You... Federation? Sir. How? One of our own?" He stood from behind his desk again in alarm, his bushy tail rising up behind him.

"So it would appear, Lieutenant. This does not leave this room. I need to discuss it with the XO of course, but nobody else. It needs to stay among the three of us. Doctor Hill knows only what the autopsy reports show and I have ordered him to seal those reports immediately on my order. They can no longer be accessed by anyone except for the three of us and Hill," she explained.

K'Niras nodded and took his seat again. "Of course, Captain. You can count on me. Do you think that the Federation will try and cover this up?"

She looked at the lieutenant. "I need to report everything to the admiralty, but I do not have time to piss around with a Commodore. I want to minimize the people who hear about this. I know that there is no way I am getting to the President of the Federation, but can you get me a secure channel for a priority one message to the highest damn Admiral you can? I don't care if you have to interrupt their back swing in the middle of the 18th," she said. "I need to go above sector brass and above the Task Group. Hell, above the Task Force," she said firmly.

His fingers were already tapping out the all of the link ups that he would have to access to put them in the most direct and fastest contact he could. "It will take a moment Captain. I'm sorry. Even with the new relays we have to bounce signals back and forth. Fortunately, I have recently aligned ours... so our signal should at least be clear. I will do my best to secure it... we will start with encryption that they will, of course, recognize." He stopped for a moment, his clawed fingers resting on the keys as he waited for the next connection. "There is a channel open... that I can connect you to, sir. Starfleet Security, their department head. It will be just a few moments..." he paused again. "... and they're granting me clearance... It is very early in the morning there, sir. Just be aware." He turned his console around and tapped the final button with one claw. "Your channel is open and secure, sir... do you wish me to leave?"

Captain Figueroa scoffed and blushed. "Robert Wesley," she said aloud. She looked at her Second Officer to explain her remarks and actions. "Commodore Robert Wesley. He was recently appointed Interim Chief of Starfleet Security. He used to command the Constitution," she explained. "If you do not mind, Lieutenant. I would like to take this in private with Commodore Wesley," she said politely but professionally.

K'Niras stood and bowed to the Captain. "Of course, sir. I will await further instruction..." His fur had started to smooth out again, at least along his tail. He headed for the door of his office, waited for the doors to open, stepped out and let them slide shut behind him. He put one paw to his chest to feel his pounding heartbeat underneath and took several deep breaths before stepping away from the office door and heading for the lounge.