You’re in Big Trouble.... Maybe

Posted on Tue Feb 18th, 2020 @ 6:11pm by Captain Benjamin Ingram Dr & Lieutenant Commander Mara Ricci

Mission: S0E0: What Came Before
Location: Ingram’s Office
Timeline: MD4 8.00

Being summons to the captain’s office meant one of two things: you were getting a promotion or you had made him angry. Mara didn’t suppose Ingram would give her a promotion already- and besides, there was nowhere else to go except XO and she was definitely not XO material- so there could only be one thing he wanted.

And she had a pretty good idea what that was.

So, she presented herself outside his office door. Not seeing the yeoman in evidence, she shrugged and pressed her thumb to the chime herself.

The door hissed open, revealing the glass roost of Ingram's office that overlooked the main station operations floor. From previous experience, she'd know there room had exceptional soundproofing.

"Good, you're on time," Ingram said stiffly and gestured to a chair in front of his desk. He was stood to one side, studying a holographic data slate. "You'll pardon me a moment, just going over some geographic survey data for a side project on Carpathia."

“Take your time,” said Mara, a slight grin on her face as she entered the office and chose a seat by his deck. “I’ve got nothing else going on except another replicator repair.”

"And an issue of appropriation by imminent domain. I read the morning briefing about what happened on the Media yesterday," Ingram noted. He nodded at the slate, and it vanished in a blizzard of pixels. "I'll need you to begin assigning a work crew to a project on the southern hemisphere of Carpathia. Ground working equipment, industrial replicators for local fabrication. I'll have the computer spin up plans and supply lists for what I have in mind."

“Absolutely,” answered Mara. “I’ll get right on it.” This couldn’t be what he’d called her here for. This could be just as easily communicated over coms or even sent o her PADD as an attachment to the duty roster.

"But before that," he said as he walked back behind his desk. "There was one more line item on the morning dispatches that caught my eye."

With a flick of his fingers as he sat down, as though he were dispelling a smear of dust from the glistening black finery of his desk's surface, a holo pane opened up between them. One it, framed with a logo and news ticker of the Federation News Service, was Stephen Spire's face.

"Reporting on military operations without approval from ranking officers in the Chain of Command, the dissemination of wild rumours in regard to the presence of the Freedom's Legion in the Carpathia System, and the release of information vital to ongoing diplomatic relations with what appears to be the only peaceable race in Messier 4," Ingram had stopped counting on his fingers and looked at Mara, as the holographic Spires kept speaking with the mute on. "It goes without saying that his source of information would not be within the bounds of my good graces if I had to go hunting for them."

Mara feigned shock, and did a very good job of it, too. “Did he somehow get wind of classified information?” she asked. “That’s exactly why I forbade him from visiting the engine rooms. If I find out he has more cameras...” she added in a mutter, almost to herself.

"Chief Ricci." The voice Ingram used could have been used to keep supercooled helium from evaporating. "I hold numerous PhD's from a great many prestigious establishments of higher education, and I am known in some circles as something of a scholar on certain topics. You would do me a great honour by not assuming I am some variety of moron place in command of this facility due to my charming good looks and my ability to outwit a house plant four out of five times."

He gestured with one hand to the now stilled holographic report of Spires.

"This is an embarrassment," he said cooly. "And I do not take that sort of thing well"

It was time to drop the act. Ingram was far too intelligent for it. She would have to tell him the truth. “All right,” she sighed. “I’m trying to keep him out of trouble. You see,” she added, leaning forward slightly. “I figure if I can keep him distracted with enough information that doesn’t really matter, he’ll keep his nose out of anything top secret or classified. None of what I told him matters. Absolutely none of it! But maybe, just maybe, if I give him enough, he won’t find out about device B. You see?” she finished as if it should make perfect sense to anybody.

"So you intentionally leaked information, privileged information at that, to a media correspondent connected to the largest media outlet in the Alpha Quadrant? Do I have the bare bones of it? Is the outline suitable bold enough for you to see the hole into which you have dug yourself?" Ingram asked, tapping the tip of one finger against the desk as he began to list his points. "Starfleet Command is beholden to the Federation Council, which is made up of duly elected councillors from every member state of our polity. Member states whose opinions sway like wheat in a wind, swaying to and fro on the cusp of popular revolt or pure apathy. Those member states are then informed by the media, the FNS being one of the more vocal heads of that particular hydra...I mean you can see where this is going? Spire's tell's the AQ that a terrorist group is fomenting rebellion on a colony under my jurisdiction. That terrified the peace-loving sheep of the Federation, who then panic their councillor, who demands that Starfleet do something. Anything."

He closed his fist and wrapped his knuckles hard against the table.

"There is work that must be done here. Important work that will benefit all of the Federation, but it will be harder to accomplish if I am replaced by some bungler from Starfleet Command who thinks a binary pulsar's light shines out of the ass of someone like Commodore Grissom," Benjie snarled. He then took a breath to cool his temper. "Spires has transitioned to being my problem now, Chief Ricci. Would you like to know how I deal with problems that embarrass me publicly?"

"I didn't tell him anything that would be considered privileged information!" she countered hotly. "And I certainly didn't say anything about terrorists! If that's what's in his report, he didn't get it from me. So don't go pinning that on my head!"

"But it was your plan to feed him tidbits, lead him along to keep him under control," Ingram said and gestured to the stilled hologram of Spires report. "I have seen uncontrolled fusion events with lower blast yields. Single-handedly your tame mutt has undermined the authority of my command and potentially jeopardized the success of this expedition. So to that end, consider what I am about to say with grave solemnity."

He looked her in the eye.

"He is your responsibility from now on. His words spoken on behalf of the FNS will be yours, and vice versa. His success will be yours, and his failures...well. You get the idea," he said simply. "You are a good Chief Engineer. Your record is exemplary, and your work on the alien ruins you undertook singled you out for this Expedition. Do not throw that all away because of a paramour who doesn't know when to keep his facts to himself."

Mara’s mouth has dropped open in utter astonishment. “You can’t hold me responsible for everything he writes!” she countered. “I’m not his only source! I can keep him out of your hair, but I can’t control what he writes, nor any editorializing! He has his one mind, you know!”

"Well if that's the case I could put him in cryogenic storage. There is actually legislation to allow me to do that," Ingram said airily. "You see the Long Jump mission planners knew that with any frontier settlement there would be problem elements, malcontents, rabble-rousers: what have you. They also knew that traditional penal code stipulations would not suffice, at least until a two-way flow of material could be established. To that end in certain edge cases, as Station Administrator, I am within my rights to order the judicial cryogenic freezing of Mr Spires until such time as he can be transported safely back to the Alpha Quadrant to await trial."

He waited a beat before continuing.

"You either solve your problem and keep him on side, and playing by my rules...or I solve the Spires Problem."

“And what good would that do?” she asked. “They’d just send someone else. At least I have some measure of influence over this one. I told you I’d do my best to keep him out of your hair and I will. But don’t hold me responsible for what he writes.”

'Well for starters it would keep his purple prose from gracing my terminal screen when I wake up. I see that as a rather large gain. And it would, for the time being, keep incidents like this from happening. Expedition 5 is still in the planning stages, and won't launch for at least half a year. Six months of peace and quiet, a small price to pay to have the FNS lawyers baying at my door," Ingram said lightly. "And I am not holding you responsible for what he writes, I am holding you responsible for how he writes. Get him on our side and change the narrative from a list of mistakes to our successes. Carpathia is growing, succeeding, the growth of the station's orbital infrastructure. Hell, take him on a tour of the Pollux Shipyard plans in the holodeck. Show him what we have come here to do, instead of what has followed us through from the Milky Way."

Okay, so that seemed fair, actually. Mara sighed, still agitated, but at least not yelling anymore. “I’ll do my best, sir,” she replied.

"See to it that you do," Ingram said, turned in his chair to face his terminals. "I'll have those plans and logistical lists sent to you, and I want action taken no later than midday tomorrow. Dismissed."