[Galaxy] 2161.08.28 - MER/CHA JL - Finney/Spearling - "And Then There Were Two"

[Anna H.]

//  Challenger Bridge  
  \\


Captain ..." Lt Sattal said, his eyes 
  rather bleary since his shift was /almost/ over.  He was waiting for 
  Chris Stingley to come relieve him any minute now.  First shift started 
  in about ten minutes.

"Yes, Lieutenant," Sasha said, 
  looking fresh and perky in the captain's chair.  Amazing what 6 hours of 
  uninterrupted sleep will do for a person.

"Got 
  a tight-beam hail from the Meridian."

"Meridian coming up fast, bearing -70 mark 110," T'Lara said from the 
  science console.

"Good," Sasha said.  
  "Sattal, pipe her through."  It took a moment, to work out the scramble 
  code the Meridian was using and to match it, then to route it through the 
  decoder and get it to the main viewscreen.  Sasha looked at the screen as 
  a friendly-faced young caucasian man blinked into view.  He was 
  smiling.  "Captain Roger Finney, I presume?" Sasha asked, smiling 
  back.

=/\=  Rog had been looking forward to this meeting. The 
  Meridian and Challenger were the two most up to date Starfleet vessels in the 
  allied fleet. This fight would be for all the marbles, so the captains had to 
  be on the same page. He replied, "Yes, that would be me Capt. Spearling. How 
  are you this fine day, ready to kill some Rommies?"  
  =/\=

"Whatever it takes.  And please, call me 
  Sasha."

=/\=  Rog nodded and 
  said, "Sure Sasha."  =/\=

"Come on in 
  and take lead, if you would," Sasha continued, smiling.  "We'll ride your 
  port nacelle tip."  She nodded at Hannah at the Helm.  The young 
  Boatswain nodded back and eyed the Meridian on the screen, her fingers moving 
  easily over her console.

=/\=  
  Rog looked at Andre and gave him a nod.  =/\=

"Rog, my people tell me that we should arrive at our 
  destination in about 20 hours ... that's with us keeping out of sight and 
  slipping in the back door behind the Romulans.  Once we get there, I thought we could send out some scouts and see what we're up against.  Sound good to you?" 
  Sasha accepted a cup of coffee from Yuki, who had slipped in behind her.  
  He moved away as soon as she took it.

=/\=  
  Rog looked at a PADD and answered, "That matches my calculations as well 
  Sasha. Sounds good to me. No sense in running into a Rommie trap." He thought, 
  hmm she has a yeoman. I'll have to see about getting one.  
  =/\=

"Agreed.  Did the Promise catch up with you? I know 
  Captain Burroughs said she had some cargo onboard for the Meridian, 
  too."  Looking into Rog's eyes, she raised her eyebrows.  Figuring 
  he'd have been picked to carry the same load the Challenger had, buried 
  deep inside the ship.

=/\=  Rog nodded and replied, 
  "Why yes it did. The good captain did give some very interesting cargo boxes. 
  I assume she gave you the same as she did us."  =/\=

"I'm pretty sure she did.  Good."  The 
  Challenger "wagged her wingtips" as the Meridian came up alongside and passed 
  on the starboard side.  Hannah tucked the Challenger off the Meridian's port 
  nacelle, making sure the warp bubbles didn't make contact.  Setting 
  the controls to fly as the Meridian's wingman, Hannah looked over her shoulder 
  at Sasha and nodded, with a little smile.  "Good work, Boats," Sasha 
  said, then looked up at the main viewscreen again.  "Captain Finney, we 
  are in formation.  I know we can get a little bit better speed wiith the 
  modified warp engines -- but I didn't want to press it when we're going 
  to be so far from home ... or even a space dock.  Captain Burroughs 
  didn't bring me a spare engine ... did she give you one?" Sasha 
  grinned at the screen.

=/\=  Rog said, 
  "Well actually she did give us one." Smiling he said, "Just kidding."  
  =/\=

Sasha almost spluttered into her cup as she took 
  a sip of her coffee.  She recovered, laughed, and then said, "Looks like 
  we're all set, for now.  Once we hit the Coalsack, we'll get together, 
  send out our scouts, and then decide what the plan is based on their 
  findings.  All right?"

=/\=  
  Getting serious, Rog replied, "Right, sounds like a plan to me."  
  =/\=

"I think our Coalition partners are deferring to us 
  in this battle, although I'm not sure why.  You hear 
  anything?"

=/\=  Rog answered, 
  "No, I haven't heard a thing. Though their deferring to us doesn't surprise 
  me. It seems that we're the main force behind the Coalition itself."  
  =/\=

"Which has never made all that much sense to me, 
  seeing as how Humans are the /youngsters/ in the galaxy's spacefaring 
  races.  But oh well.  That's fine, actually, I don't know how well I 
  would stomach someone else trying to tell us how to do our job."  This 
  time Sasha /did/ get in a sip of her coffee ... she watched as Rog was handed 
  a datapad, which he read quickly and handed back.  "We'll share any 
  information we get with you ... this channel and code all right for now?" she 
  asked when he looked up at her again.

=/\=  Rog hated having to sign reports in the middle 
  of a conversation. He said, "Of course Sasha. Yes the channel is fine for 
  now."  =/\=

"Excellent," Sasha said.  "If anything changes 
  ... well, we both know what to do."  She smiled.

=/\= Rog smiled 
  and said, "We sure do. Meridian out." =/\=

Sasha signaled to Lt Sattal, who cut the COMMs.  She settled back with her cup of coffee, only to find Yuki presenting /her/ with a datapad for her perusal.  Setting the cup down, she thanked him and scanned the contents, then thumbed her approval.  Okay, what now? Ah, yes.  "Lieutenant Sattal, get ahold of LtCommander Cole ... have him meet Commander Hanley and I on F Deck for MACO inspection, ten minutes."

"Aye, Captain," the young Lieutenant said.

"Vic," Sasha said, getting up.  "Shall we?"


Captain Sasha Spearling
Commanding Officer
FCL-04 Challenger
&
Captain Roger Finney
Commanding Officer
FCL-06 Meridian
================

<NPC's, etc, apb Anna and John>




 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.firstera.net/pipermail/galaxy-firstera.net/attachments/20110828/550b9c92/attachment-0001.htm>