Allegiances 4 – What was that about
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Ensign Jason Hawk

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Title   What was that about
Mission   Allegiances 4
Author(s)   HoD Ro' Matlh & Ensign Jason Hawk
Posted   Fri Sep 02, 2011 @ 11:38am
Location   Ro's Quarters
Timeline   After fighting the Red Army
When Ro was in his quarters he usually left the door open. This ship was too small to be bothered keeping secrets. Besides the damage the FHew had sustained had warped the frame. Jason found himself inside, picking up pieces of furniture and other personal items that had been dislodged in the fight.

"HoD! I need to speak to you."

Ro' glanced around and signalled for him to enter while he bent to pull a large but twisted blade from under a fallen table, "What do you want, Ne?"

Jason stood in front of the table Ro' was bending over. "What was that about on the bridge? I gave you a better attack plan. As a matter of fact I have Advanced tactical training something you should know all too well from my file. With the condition the FHew was in my plan would have worked much better. Your lucky the FHew survived at all. I know you want a glorious death and all but why die when you can win?"

Ro' was still examining the blade in his hands. It was old and now bent out of shape.

"See this blade, Human? I took this of a Gorn in the Cresnak system in 2350. I was barely 20 cycles old. It has saved me many times. I came to rely on it's strength and it has never lost it's edge. It is bent now, what should I do with it?"

Jason looked at the blade "Unbend it? A weapon can always be repaired....unless it's vaporized, which could have happened to the FHew."

Ro' shook his head, "No, the metal is fatigued now. It could fracture along the bend line. It is only good for one thing now. Scrap."

He threw the sword into a growing pile of broken bits by the door.

"That is how it is with warriors too. No mater how good they have been in the past, once you can no longer trust them, they should be discarded; killed. That is how it has always been with our people."

"That way, when you receive an order, you have two choices; trust the blade of the commander who is giving it, or discard him by killing him. Discussion is idle breath and wastes time and lives. If you are not warrior enough to kill your superior, then you are not warrior enough to question his decisions."

"You talk to me of 'advanced training'. How many battles have you fought. real battle, where lives were at stake?"

"A few, I was at the academy when the dominion attacked it, I was red squad. I have no problems killing, do you really think they would stick an inexperienced officer here? I have battle experience. Yes, not as much as you, but I also have training. My plan would have worked, and we would have taken less damage."

Ro' ignored the tirade, "I have been in 483 major battles, not counting brawls and minor skirmishes. In all that time I have never lost my ship. I am Captain, so I get to make the call about what the best plan is. When you are captain you may try any plan you want."

"Starfleet encourages you to be outspoken and voice your opinion. I tolerate that when lives are not at stake, but you need to understand what you are doing from my peoples point of view."

"When you challenge or refuse my order, you are stating that I cannot be trusted to make the command decisions and must be removed. Also, any officer in rank above you, who has not attempted to remove me, is derelict in their duty, and should also be removed."

"By saying, 'No', on the bridge you challenged everyone on that bridge to a fight to the death. By knocking you down, I saved your life. I knew you were just ignorant."

Jason listened to the captain and waited until he was done.

"I also knew you were ignorant of the Nausican Trilanium lacing. It is a particular substance used in the metals around the bridge head to resist transports. You also didn't know about the Radiation leaks we get from shield overload. If we had tried your plan with my ship we would have killed the entire bridge crew within three minutes."

"For the record we could have beamed it to the engine room or anywhere else for that matter. No I didn't know about the radiation leaks, but with our port thruster down we didn't have many choices."

"You think I was unaware of the choices we had? You still think your plan would have been better? You are still wrong. You may be a good study, and have lots of head knowledge, but this is my ship, and I know her and those who crew her."

"With all due respect sir, you don't know me and what I know and what I can do may surprise you."

Ro' laughed, "Foolish boy. Who do you think helped design those training packages you vaunt so highly? Do you think I would have let you on my ship if I had not read every performance review, watched every flight recording you made? I know you better than you know yourself. I know you favour the Port thrust because that is your good hand. In two separate occasions during your final year you aborted a manoeuvre because you did not trust the port stabilisers. I know that you have pulled the "beam on the Bridge" trick in simulations seventeen times. I also know that the simulations are out of date and that manoeuvre will not work unless your target is totally stationary for the 1.8 seconds it takes the transport to complete. Also, both ships would have to lower their shields for the transport."

"Feel free to take any further concerns you have to a superior officer, who in your case would be Thor'nan or Marla. If you challenge me on the bridge again, I will let them kill you. "

Jason thought to himself {They can try but they'll lose.} "Anything else, HoD?"

Ro' stopped and turned back to him, "Ask yourself, Boy, are you hear to teach or to learn. If you have nothing to learn from this ship or crew, and you can't learn to respect our ways... get off before you get killed."