Lack of Intelligence

Posted on Fri Mar 24th, 2023 @ 4:10pm by Chief Petty Officer Charles Stephens Jr. & Lieutenant Jackson Smith

924 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Prelude to Rebirth
Location: Intelligence SCIF
Timeline: One day into the boring 6 month

Jackson sat at his desk, staring intently at a holographic map of a section of the universe displayed over the center table. The room around him was dimly lit, with only a few soft blue lights providing illumination. Jackson was completely focused on his work, his eyes flicking back and forth across the map as he studied it closely.

The map displayed an expanse of space, with numerous galaxies, but nothing too exciting . Jackson had spent countless hours poring over this map, searching for any lead that would hint at something useful for Intelligence, anything. There was nothing.

Charles finished the last of his daily briefings he had to send out to each department. It was one of the more boring jobs of his daily routine. As he finished up he looked across the SCIF and saw Jackson looking at the damn map again. "Jaxs, not sure what you think your gonna find. Just a bunch of empty space and supply lanes." He chuckled.

Jackson slumped into his chair defeated. "Yeah, I know. Man, this tour is going to be dreadfully boring. There is literally nothing out here." He turned to face Charles, "Also, to add insult to injury. Starfleet Intelligence has put us on babysitting duty." He grabbed his PADD and with a push of a few buttons pulled up the order. "Due to the uncertainty in the motivations behind the Maquis attack, Starfleet Intelligence has deemed that there is small chance the terrorist attack was a targeted attack against Lieutenant Commander Leed." Jackson rolled his eyes and continued, "Therefore, we have assigned you to provide personal protection to Lieutenant Commander Leed in all his activities while assigned to the Firebird."

"There is definitely worse people to run a detail for." Charles replied. "Since he helped with our current side missions, it is the least we can do." He said as he walked over the Jackson's console. "Do you think their is a real threat to Leed?"

"No, I don't think so, but probably good to at least go under that assumption." Jackson tapped on his PADD, "I don't think Leed is going to be difficult. Our protection will need to extend to his family. They are going to be on the ship. I think his wife won't be a problem. She is probably used to this sort of thing. But..." He flicked the PADD throwing up a profile onto the larger screen. "His daughter, Helle, is an unknown. She did well at the academy and the Firebird is her first assignment. We should have a chat with her and assess if she will be the type to listen and follow orders or bucks authority." He turned to Charles, "Well Chief, how about you setup a meeting with her." He smiled as he obviously passed the buck.

Charles went from looking at the profile to rolling his eyes at the request. "I feel I drew the short straw on this one. Oh wait it was the only stray to draw." He let out a chuckle. "Any other threats that need our attention?"

Jackson smiled as he enjoyed passing the buck on this one. "Nothing immediate, just have some red security uniforms ready, we will probably pose as security officers when with Lieutenant Commander Leed." Then his smile faded as quickly as it came as realization of what he had to do dawned on him, "Crap, we probably should notify Lieutenant Commander Rhiana t'Aegis that we will be joining her department every now and then." His head dropped at this thought. Jackson definitely regretting having already given what is now the easy assignment to Charles. "I need to think these things through a bit more. This is not going to be a fun conversation."

"That's why you get payed the big bucks." Charles chuckled at his friend, and boss. "I mean can't be as bad as that time you went full ninja on that Asteroid base." His chuckle grew deeper as visions of Jackson doing back flips through the air as he fired off his phaser. "You got this."

"The Big Bucks..." Jackson rolled his eyes at that. "Somehow I don't think "ninja" skills are going to help me through this. I can only hope that she will appreciate the extra help watching over Xavi and remembers that we had her back." Jackson thought back on the last dangerous mission with the Firebird, it was a rough one, and lives were lost. They had done what was right, but Starfleet chose to punish them anyway. Jackson chuckled, "I think my motto needs to be "No good deed goes unpunished"..."

"That should be the Firebird's motto. Truer words were never spoken." Charles agreed. "Well let me go get this conversation handled and good luck with yours." He said with a wink as he made his way for the door.

Jackson nodded to the Chief as he left. It was good to have him onboard and definitely going to make this trip a lot more fun that they were officially working together. Now, onto the more potentially tougher situation. Jackson tapped a few buttons on his console and setup a meeting with Lieutenant Commander Rhiana t'Aegis. This was not going to be an easy conversation...


Lieutenant Jackson Smith
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298


Chief Petty Officer Charles Stephens JR
Chief of Boat
USS Firebird NCC-88298

 

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