Foistered Mysteries

Posted on Mon May 31st, 2021 @ 4:04pm by Captain Temperance Harding & Chief Petty Officer Charlton Kelly

Mission: Mission 0: Have Wings, Will Fly
Location: USS Endurance

ON

There was so much damn paperwork with taking a new Command. Temperance hadn't quite considered just how immense the administrative mountain was. Aboard the Ark Royal, she had been an Acting Captain. There to give orders, there to direct. There to learn. She hadn't officially had command, and thus hadn't had to deal with the sheer volume of information that went with a transfer.

Personnel files to familiarise herself with. Current system reports. Refot progress reports. Communique reports that got forwarded to her as a matter of course. All ships in the area were copied on certain things. The sheer volume of information was enough to make a person mad. Too much to process in any amount of time that was reasonable.

Reaching for a cup of English tea, her hand froze at the sound of the door chime. Looking up, her brow furrowed ever so slightly. "Come." She hadn't been expecting any meetings for awhile, yet here one was.

The doors parted to permit the entrance of a man. Human. Slightly over six foot, and a build that spoke of intense training. His pace was that of someone who had complete control over themselves. A dangerous man to meet, if on a dark night. "Commander Harding. Chief Petty Officer Kelly. I assume Admiral Forrestal sent you a communique?"

Temperance realized who this man was at that moment. She had indeed recieved a message from the Admiral. Pulling the PADD in question from the pile on her desk, Temperance looked it over. "Chief Petty Officer Charlton Kelly. Formerly of... classified." She gave him a look. "Previously assigned to... classified." With an exasperated sigh, Temperance all but threw the PADD onto the desk. "Why the hell are you here? Forrestal is SWC-" Starfleet's Special Warfare Command "-that makes you SHARC." The Special Hazardous Action Response Command - an especially egregious backronym if ever she had come across one. "So, I ask again. Why are you on my ship?"

Chief Kelly was impressed. He relaxed his stance, but didn't sit - not yet having been invited to do so. "I won't say you're correct." He was still bound by confidentiality. "Your speculations are yours. What I can say is, I held a security clearance - a fairly strong one. I was involved in a Starfleet operation, one that went... sideways. Command couldn't formerly charge anyone with anything, but what they could do is yank the clearance of all of the line animals involved, and have us scattered to the winds."

Temperance leaned back in her chair. She was beginning to see the picture. "Since you had your clearance pulled. You can't technically be assigned to anything that requires access to any classified material or information."

"I'm not much of a chef." Kelly admitted with a smile. "That pretty much left Yeoman. Or I could retire - I'm not much of a do-nothing person."

"The Admiral, needing to distance himself from whatever it was that went sideways, couldn't take you on his own staff, I presume?"

Kelly merely spread his hands wide, not quite admitting she was right. "He said he'd look after me. Guess he was right, after a fashion."

Temperance nodded, and sighed softly. "Very well. Welcome aboard, Chief."

Kelly came to attention, and snapped a salute. "Thank you, ma'am." With that, he turned and headed back out the door.

OFF