SD241809.06 || Joint Duty Log || CO & MEU CO || "Reporting In"

Posted on Thu Sep 6th, 2018 @ 5:04pm by Lieutenant Colonel Kya'shina Tenatha & Brigadier General Jonathan Grey

1,913 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Tremor Trouble
Location: Starbase Versailles
Timeline: Current

Kya'shina was struggling to control her temper by the time she finally set foot on board Starbase Versailles.

She had come a long way since leaving Sal'kiir, but she knew that she'd never stop being who she was. Everyone had their base nature, and she would never fully escape hers. Kya had learned to control it, but she'd never be rid of it. In this case, it meant her temper was flaring after being delayed just trying to get to the station. Apparently, the field around the station wasn't in the best state for smooth transit...

Once they were there and she was off the ship, she was forced to wend her way through something like bodily mayhem. She was grateful her sister was not there yet, however, since the presence of her twin would make her temper twice as hard to control.

Lieutenant Colonel Tenatha didn't waste any time and she found a computer to tell her where to find her new commander, and then she made her way to his office...

"Enter!" bellowed the General, joyfully tossing the last padd from his desk into his yeoman's arms. The drifts of paperwork had snowed him under for far too long, and he was quite elated to finally be out from under it all. The lines of delegation had finally been solidified, and now he hoped to prevent such bedlam from occurring again.

As the thick, glass doors to his temporary office hissed open, General Grey was a little surprised to see an unknown species on his doorstep. Red-tinged skin surrounded a pair of red eyes, and she (he assumed it was a she) looked to be wearing a marine uniform.

"Lieutenant Colonel Tenatha, sir." whispered Lieutenant Rogers; the General's yeoman. "She's your new MEU CO, sir. Sal'kiiran." he added, with a little nod.

"A Salwhattian?" Grey whispered back, before turning his attention to the crimson-eyed newcomer as she came through the open doors.

Standing before her new commanding officer--and a Marine general no less--Kya came to stiff attention and inclined her head once, but then made and kept eye contact. No one intimidated her, but she would always show the proper respect. "Sal'kiiran, General," she replied. "From the planet of Sal'kiir, the newest member of the Federation. Lieutenant Colonel Kya'shina Tenatha, reporting for duty, sir."

The General's eyebrow twitched at being overheard, and a selection of thoughts passed through his head as the new officer spoke. The "newest member of the Federation" already had people who had gone through the full hmm-years of training at quantico, followed by years more to earn the rank of Lt Colonel?

Like hell they had.

More likely she'd had "equivalent experience" in some elite force on her homeworld, whatever that meant, and a cadre of their best had been inducted into the Corps as a diplomatic gesture. He had to believe that someone was convinced she could do the job, else she wouldn't be here, but he had little doubt that such a risky move had paid massive dividends for the Federation. You didn't give strangers a high rank right off the bat unless something more strategically valuable than Versailles itself was on the table.

Briefly, the General started to wonder what in the hell was going on here, before crushing that curiosity under his mental bootheel. He was well aware that having a new department head assigned without his say-so required an Admiral to approve the transfer. Asking questions could come later. Right now he was outranked, she was here, and he had to accept that.

Still, he bit back a sigh. They hadn't even taught her to *salute*.

"At ease, Colonel Tenatha. Welcome to Versailles." he greeted her, in cool but pleasant tones. "How was your flight? Any pirate trouble?"

Once acknowledged, Kya offered a stiff, formal salute and then let her body shift back into a parade rest. She certainly wasn't going to relax too much. She was too new here, and she was uncomfortable with something about him. The way he looked at her. She had a feeling this wasn't going to be the happiest of postings, but maybe she was just jumping to conclusions.

"No pirate trouble, sir," she replied, just as cool but polite and respectful. "Although the space around the station seems to be, what is the old Earth phrase, a parking lot."

"I see." replied the General, who didn't. He had never seen a car, let alone found himself having to park one, and thus was completely unfamiliar with the nature of those antique amalgamations of concrete used to store said cars.

He was also possibly unique among Starfleet officers in that he did not possess an encyclopedic knowledge of 20th-century earth.

"No pirates though. That's good." he admitted, belatedly returning her salute. Perhaps they had taken the time to teach her the basics. "Could be they spotted our enhanced fleet and wound their necks in. Or they're busy hunting down unarmed refugee ships and we're about to be very busy. We'll only know when someone starts finding debris."

Taking a moment's pause to stare off into the distance, the General blinked and refocused on his new MEU CO.

"So, I haven't read your file yet. What's your story?" he asked, sitting down in his chair and gesturing to the one on the other side of his desk.

Kya took the seat, although she still sat up straight. It would take a while before she felt like she could relax around anyone here.

She also took a moment to wonder if commanding officers ever read personnel files, since they invariably always asked this question.

"I was born in a desert city on the planet of Sal'kiir," she said simply. "Hence the red." She gestured slightly to her face and eyes. "I and my twin sister, who were lucky to survive infancy, were one of the few Sal'kiirans to leave our home system. On Earth, we applied to the SFMC and even though Sal'kiir had not yet chosen to join the Federation, we were accepted. I've served primarily on colonies, but I have also served on ships and stations. My sister will be coming to the station soon. She is my First Sergeant. Medical clears us to serve posts together because of the genetic nature of our being twins. We are stronger when not separated for long times. Only I attended officer's candidacy school, though."

It was the much shortened and much rehearsed version of her life story. "Now I have been assigned to your starbase to lead your Marines. And here we are, General."

"Here we are indeed." replied the General, mulling over what he had been told. Allowing non-Federation species into the marines was rare, but it did happen, and it would explain her advanced rank despite the ink still being wet on Sal'kiir's Federation membership forms. Anyone from outside the Federation would have needed a command-level sponsor, so that was a topic for later, but her record would speak for itself when it came to her skills.

As for her sister...

"You and your sister are 'stronger' together?" he asked, curious for solid, military reasons. "Could you elaborate on that?"

"I can assure you, sir, that neither of us are feeble or disabled without the other," she said first, because that always seemed to be the concern. Not that she could blame people of course, no one wanted a liability.

Her mother certainly hadn't, which was she had never been thrilled to have the twins in the first place. They were just lucky she'd had enough conscience to not let them burn to death in the desert flames.

"The comparison most doctors have is substances and medications that enhance one's abilities. We are normal on our own, but together, we are improved. Our physical strength and stamina, our reflexes, our strength in our innate Sal'kiiran abilities all improve while we are nearer to each other."

The General raised an eyebrow at the Colonel's word choice. Expressions typically used to sell a prospective buyer on a new back-alley drug were now being rolled out to describe this woman's sister. However, since this woman didn't appear to be "jonesing" for her sister, or suffering from her absence, he decided to forgo comment, and returned to his original thought.

"I'm less concerned about you growing 'feeble' in your sister's absence than I am about you uniting and telekinetically ripping out a bulkhead, Colonel. I assume my bulkheads are safe from you and your...first sergeant?" he asked, a faint smile crinkling the corner of his eyes.

After all, the Colonel was a marine. Bulkheads would never be safe from her, mind powers or not.

Kya arched one brow slightly, amused. He didn't even know what a Sal'kiiran was, but he assumed they were telekinetic? If only... "Yes, sir. They will be quite safe. The only abilities we have that would be considered extrasensory by human standards is elemental manipulation. For us, we have some ability to control fire. We cannot create it. But if you have a fire, we can control it to some degree. We have a much more limited ability with other elements, but they are far more limited than telekinesis. Your station's CMO will of course have the full profile on our abilities, and us as sisters specifically."

"Huh." the General mused, partly over the Colonel's whimsical reference to fire as an element (marines often had little poetry in their souls, let alone an education in classical alchemy). The other reason was because, yet again, a marine had found a new way to destroy things.

By this point in his career, he thought he'd found all the ways a marine could wreak havok.

Apparently not.

"Well, I won't keep you from your duties." he declared, suddenly finding himself without a next topic, and wrapping up quickly to avoid awkwardness. The General stood up from his chair to usher her out, and was suddenly presented with a padd from Lt Rogers.

"What is...oh. The Colonel's dossier and a note." said the General, skim reading the padd. "By order of...hmm...Lieutenant Colonel
Tenatha is now assigned to Versailles as Commanding Officer of the starbase MEU. And why wasn't I told about this earlier?" he added to the Lieutenant.

"Sir, you gave orders not to be presented with new paperwork not originating from your department heads."

"This one is from Starfleet Command."

"They are not department heads, sir."

"I gave that order to thin down the spam and nonessential padds covering...my...wait." the General stated, something occurring to him. "How many padds do I have waiting from Starfleet Command?"

"Eighty-seven, sir."

"For the love of...." he muttered under his breath, before catching the Colonel's eye and remembering he had a guest. "Ahem. Thank you for coming. Good luck with your new post. The computer should know where your new office is. Dismissed." he rattled off, disgruntled that his own orders were coming back to bite him.

"Yes, General," Kya said flatly, although one brow rose again. She came to attention and fired a quick, formal salute before turning on a heel and departing...as the commander so obviously wanted her to do.

She wasn't sure how this posting was going to, when all was said and done, but it was going to be interesting at least.

=^= End of Log =^=

Brigadier General Jonathan Grey
Commanding Officer
Versailles

&&

Lieutenant Colonel Kya'shina Tenatha
Marine Commander, Starbase Versailles
Resident "Salwhattian"

 

RSS Feed