The Morning News

Posted on Friday April 17th, 2020 @ 6:28pm by Lieutenant Carmina Barbossa & Ensign Murray Campbell-Mckay & Captain Cayne Morrigan

Mission: Two Sides of Every Story
Location: UMS42 | Vorl | Deck Three | Captain's Quarters

Lieutenant Carmina Barbossa had 'taken the bullet' as it were by reluctantly being the one to press the door chime at 0400 in the morning, earlier than Captain was known to get up. He technically wasn't due back on duty for some time, and it had been Carmina's night to hold down the fort and run the station. Murray had been asleep, but as this was somewhat of a security matter she had summoned him before the two of them proceeded to wake the Captain.

Of course they could have been impersonal and done so through the communications system, but something this important and direct from Union Central was serious and Carmina felt it warranted actually breaking the news to the Captain in person. She and Murray waited to see if the Captain would stir or if they would have to dare ring the door chime a second time.

"Pops is known to be a heavy sleeper," stated Murray. "He's not a morning person either from what I've come to learn about the man. Aye, ye know actually I think he's not an any time of day person. He might not even be a people person," added the Security Chief. He had to admit that even when he initially met the Commanding Officer that Captain Cayne Morrigan was a bit prickly of a personality.

Inside, the captain was dreaming that an alarm had sounded on the ship that he was currently dreaming about. It looked sort of like the station, but it was definitely a ship and moving. He groaned in his sleep, unable to find the alarm in his dream and his lack of ability to find the source gradually pulled him from sleep altogether.

Once Cayne was sort of awake he was pissed off that he was awake. He had only been asleep for a very short amount of time after his overnight shift. When the second chime rung he was up and headed for the door, mostly undressed and not caring about it at all. He pressed the button to open the door just in time to hear Murray say, "He might not even be a people person..."

"This better be good," Cayne said hoarsely. He rubbed his face, trying to fight off the haze of sleep.

"Good mornin', Pops," said Murray with a smile. "I had wanted to get ya a nice hot cup of coffee, but she wouldn' let me," he said looking at Carmina.

Carmina ignored the ensign. One of these days she was going to get a lieutenant assigned to the security personnel and knock Murray down to a lowly junior officer in the department, but for now she was stuck with him. "That depends on your definition of good, Captain. We have orders from the Union and the situation on the Keribex home world is escalating at an alarming rate" began Carmina. "However, they are ready for peace talks. The Union has been able to make arrangements for two Keribex representatives from opposing sides of their civil 'dispute' to sit down and talk. They've chosen our station as the venue for the peace talks."

Cayne stared at the two officers. Then he shook his head, like he was trying to shake off water. "Okay! First, never call me "Pops" again. Never ever. Got it? Second... What the fuck? Are they serious?" He looked up and down the hallway. "Get in here..." he ordered and stepped back out of the doorway.

The two stepped in and let the door close behind them. Carmina took the lead. "Yes, they are serious... quite serious," she said with all seriousness herself. "We need to brief the Department heads, your staff, and prepare a shuttle as soon as we can. This is our chance... the Union's chance to quell this."

"Fuck quelling anything... are we ready for a Diplomat to be aboard this station??" Cayne was definitely awake now. "We're going to have to be very careful about who those diplomats get to interact with..." He ran both hands over his head, his fingers through his hair. "They're crazy... the Union has lost its mind."

Carmina nodded as she understood his panic. "Captain, my background is in diplomacy. If anyone can get this station ready it is myself and Gypsy. My recommendation would be to immediately hold a meeting of essential personnel. We have to inform them all, and make sure Mavet is on his best behavior."

"I'm not sure we can keep the gelly on his best behavior no matter what we do," Cayne responded. "I'm sure that we have no choice in this matter? Right?" He picked up his tablet from a side table and started to look through it. "So what do we need to do to prep aside from a staff meeting?" He lifted his gaze from the tablet and looked at the two officers in front of him again.

"You need to clean up" Murray said sarcastically. "You look like you just rolled out of bed."

Carmina glarred at him. She had to agree though. "You look fine, Captain. I just would recommend waking up a bit. I'll summon the necessary personnel and have them assemble."