[Galaxy] [Earth] 2158 August 18, JL Commo Thomas Garroway & RAdm Suzanna Batenburg

[blanhe2]

[ Earth, Starfleet Headquarters ]

Republic was a fine ship, Garroway had to admit.  Moreso, Republic had a
fine crew.  He enjoyed his dinners with Captain Henry, and and his First
Officer.  He liked eating in the Mess with the other crewmen, and
playing helmsman games on the observation deck.  Of course, he'd done
all that back at New Darwin -- but the difference was the he was now in
uniform again.  That made all the difference.

When the shuttlepod landed, Garroway once again said goodbye to a fine
crew, but who greeted him this sunny San Franciscan day was a fine officer.

She'd made the time in her schedule, it was important enough anyway, but
at the same time didn't want anything in the way of big ceremony. There
was enough time for all that later. "Thomas," Suzanna smiled as he
stepped out of the shuttlepod and walked towards him, "good to see you
again.  Welcome back to San Francisco."

"You know," Garroway remarked, "of all the planets I've visited, I can't
say Earth is my favorite.  There's just too many people for a colony boy
to enjoy it here."  He shook his head.  "That's probably a bad thing to
say about the homeworld, but it doesn't mean I won't to do what I can to
help it."  He smiled, "it's good to see you, too, Admiral."

There was much more she wanted to say, but not here, not in public.
Above all, she was a professional, and so was he. She shook his hand
instead of giving him a hug as she really wanted to. "How was your
joureney?" She asked.

"Just like old times," he replied.  It was a herculean effort not to
pull her into a kiss when they touched, but this wasn't the time or
place.  The problem was, when would it ever be the time or place again?
"Speaking of which, what exactly are my duties going to be?  I'm
sure you've already got a fleet operations commander, right?"

"I did, but lets talk in my office, rather than here." Suzanna replied
and smiled before leading Thomas from the shuttle landing area to the
main HQ building.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the executive area and Suzanna
requested her aide to hold all calls. When the door finally closed behind
her all she could think of was, 'finally'. She stepped closer and kissed
him, wrapping her arms around him.

Garroway returned the gesture whole-heartedly.  Uniforms be damned, he
couldn't shake the feeling this might be for the last time.  The kiss
gradually ended, and the two of them stood before each other.

"We do have to talk about us too... but I... needed that." She said and
blushed slightly.

"You and me both," Garroway said and pulled her in again.

Suzanna lost herself in the kiss. It was as if the world just
disappeared for a moment, just Thomas and she. In many ways she wanted
to stay in that moment, but also knew that was impossible. When they
broke for air, she took a small step back, returning to the here and now.

"Anyway, lets's get to business. Can I get you a refreshment?" She asked
as she walked to the small resequencer in the corner of her office. Her
standard mug of tea came out shortly after.

"Got anything with raspberries?"

"Yes, it has." She replied and a moment later she walked back with two
drinks, handing one to Thomas and then gesturing to the couches. "Have a
seat."

Garroway sipped the tea approvingly, his mind still on other things when
Suzy broke his pleasant thoughts with talk of fleet planning.

"Like I said earlier... I had a Fleet Operations Commander. I took the
time to really think about how we are set up and who is running what,
and what the backgrounds of the people are. And given the situation, I
want Stirling to take over the logistical side of things, he has that
background, he really knows that organisation there. How to get the
ships out, how to get the most of what we will need. And at the same
time, with your experience, I want you as Fleet Operations Commander."
Suzanna explained in a nutshell.

Garroway nodded.  "Seems like Stirling and I keep passing Fleet Ops back
and forth.  Didn't he have a heart attack last time?"

Suzanna nodded affirmatively, "yes, he did. And we need him too much to
have another one. Besides of that, I need your strategic mind on the
fleet operations side."

Garroway nodded.  "I can do that.  But..." he trailed off, considering
several ways to continue but decided simplicity was the key.  "I still
want a ship," he said.  "Have you given any thought about what I said
regarding Endeavor?"

"Yes, I have. Tell me how you would see yourself combining the role of
Fleet Operations Commander with that of command of a starship?" Suzanna
asked.

"I don't see how we could separate them, really," Garroway said.  "In
order to effectively coordinate this fleet during wartime, I need to be
out there with them.  I need to _see_ what's happening and feel it out
myself.  I need to talk to our allies, such as they are right now, and
aid our ambassadors.  I need to talk to our captains directly, face to
face, in order to effectively lead them.  Peacetime is one thing, but
this is something wholly different, and we have to adapt."

"I don't disagree," Suzanna said, and meant it, "how do you plan to
communicate and coordinate with Starfleet Command?" Part of her felt
envious, she wanted to be back out in space again and do exaclty what he
was planning to do.

"I'll leave a deputy here to take care of the day to day routine and act
as liaison and proxy.  I want our comms people to work on some heaftier
encryption that I and others can use for our subspace transmissions,
hopefully rotating codes to give the Romulans a hard time.   There won't
be regular reports, though, that'd be too easy for them."

Suzanna nodded thoughtfully, "We will have to find a better compromise
than to be based on a ship. Your official base will be at Starfleet
Command, but you will have the Republic available for travel where
necessary."

"Republic is one of only two warships in our fleet," Garroway said.  "If
she's not in the majority of these scattered combats I keep reading
reports about, that's a severe misallocation of 'Fleet resources."  He
shook his head.  "No, recommissioning an NX will keep all ships
available and allow me the capabilities I need to do my job."

"Thomas, do you really think that the Romulans will not know you are on
the Endeavour? You are an asset to Starfleet. We need you in one piece,
if you want to go out there and be on a ship, it will be the ship with
the most fire power. A ship worthy of flag ship in a battle." Suzanna
explained her reasoning. "Besides of that, a third Freedom class is half
finished and I have ordered that the Endeavour to be refitted as a
Freedom class. Once that is done, I'm happy for you to be on the
Endeavour, but we need you in once piece and as safe as possible while
being out there."

Garroway considered a moment, rubbing his chin and looking out the
window at the view of San Francisco.  He was content to remain a
background figure, coordinating from an otherwise unremarkable ship, and
taking part in combat only as necessary.  But Suzy was gong to give him
a new starship worthy of coordinating a battle.  He had said they would
have to adapt, but did that mean the Fleet Operations Commander would be
a battlespace commander, as well?  Suzy seemed to have not only gotten
on the same page, but read a chapter ahead rather suddenly.  Or maybe
they were reading paraphrases of the same passage?  He mentally
returned to the office and looked at Suzy.  "So I'll have a ship to get
me from place to place that will also be able to conduct a major
engagement?  And you realize that I intend to utilize every capability
at my disposal?"

Suzanna bit her lip for a moment and then pushed her personal unease
about his safety to the side. "If you are going to be in a battle, we
need you on the best ship out there, not on an old refit. As you said,
we need to adapt, I thought long and hard about it the last few days.
Given how the Romulans know their intelligence stuff, I am sure they
know what happened with the Mercy campaign, so whatever we do, it
needs to different from that. We underestimated them once already, we
can't afford to do that again. I won't let that happen. We need to
expect the worst with them."

She paused for a moment then continued, "the Republic and you will be
based out of the Sol system, it is also currently used as the main
battle ship for the defense of Earth, but you can use it as and when
required."

Garroway digested the conversation they were having.  He was getting
what he wanted, but he was also getting more than he bargained for.
"Understood, Admiral.  But under the circumstances, I don't want to
take command of Republic away from Captain Henry.  I'll wait for one
of the other ships to roll out before I fly my flag."  He stood.
"Until then, I need to get settled and caught up.  With your
permission?"

"That is your choice, if you were to take the Republic, Captain Henry
would get the next available Freedom class. I think the refit of Endeavour
is the first to be finished." Suzanna explained and nodded permission. "I
asked Duncan to put all available people on it, they are working three
full shifts a day, 7 days a week to get them finished," she added as she
stood as well, "we need a senior staff meeting in two days, it will give
you some idea of what is going on, and discuss with the others what the
plan is or at least what direction we need to go beyond what we are doing
at the moment... which is more or less defend what we have."

Before Garroway turned to leave, he set his drink on the tea table and
said softly, "And can I see you tonight?  For that other conversation
we need to have?"

Suzanna took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes, a conversation I don't really
want to have," she added quietly. "My place will give us privacy to talk."

RAdm Suzanna Batenburg
Fleet Commander
Starfleet: The First Era
"Everything fits, otherwise we will make it fit."
http://www.firstera.net

Commo Thomas Garroway
Fleet Operations Commander
Starfleet: The First Era