FAdm. Cerywyn - Duty Log - No Time fo Good-byes

Posted on Sat Aug 21st, 2021 @ 8:49pm by Fleet Admiral Cerywyn

Mission: The Black Planet Rises
Location: Admirals Office
Timeline: SD 242108.20

Cerywyn didn't know what to say. When she closed the comm link, it was all she could do to hold her small frame upright and not collapse into the depths of her chair. If ever there was a blow she hadn't seen coming, this was it. The orders were final. Her rank didn't matter. Unbidden, the memory of the conversation she'd had with Hailey a few days after the false transmission stating her mother had died replayed in her head. There has to be a connection. What did she miss….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Flashback Begins~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"First things first, how are you feeling?"

Hailey almost choked on her tea at the question. How was she feeling? How did she THINK she was feeling? "I'm getting by, Admiral. I wasn't going to breach the subject as I wanted to give you time, but have you discovered anything else about the transmission? I'd really like to have a conversation with that 'petaQ'". It was the only word in Klingon that Hailey knew. But it didn't in anyway diminish what she felt. Hailey took a mouthful of tea to keep her from saying anything else.

Cerywyn raised an eyebrow. "You know, I do know how you're feeling, but I'd hoped you'd verbalize it" she said in typically counselor like fashion. Some habits die hard and sometimes never at all. "Keeping it bottled up, afraid, isn't going to help. And while we're at it, if you're going to swear in Klingon, you need to make sure you get the pronunciation right." She leaned back and sipped her tea. "To answer your question, it'll be a day or so before I can get confirmation. I have a hunch and you know me well enough to know that I'm not going to act purely on my hunch." She sighed quietly as she placed the delicate cup on the table and then lifted her gaze. "Let's work through this logically for a moment. First, the human pscyhe is delicate, about as delicate as this tea-cup. What would happen if I threw the cup against the ground?"

Hailey sighed. "It would shatter, of course", she said somewhat indignantly.

"Just so" Cerywyn nodded. "So, imagine Cyrga as the tea-cup for a moment. . . What's stands between 'us' here and anyone out 'there"? She motioned to the portal. There was an ancient Earth tactician, Sun Tzu who said, "That the impact of your army may be like a grindstone dashed against an egg--this is effected by the science of weak points and strong." She sipped quietly from her tea-cup, finishing off the remains. "What gain would there be were you not to be here, now, in this moment? What would happen if you were grief stricken and distraught? How might someone use such a moment to their advantage? To what end?"

Hailey frowned. She never had thought about being so incapacitated that she wouldn't be able to fulfill her duty. Additionally, she knew all to well what her absence from the station would mean at this time. It would leave a proverbial and critical "chink in the armor". Hailey looked at Cerywyn as if she has been scolded and nodded in agreement. "I know", she said solemnly. She quickly added, "but I'll have you know in NO WAY was I thinking of offing myself!" She regained her composure and took her last sip of her brewed beverage. "As for how someone might use it .. well .. I shudder to think the opportunity it would pose to the less scrupulous factions out there", she said as she nodded towards the stars. She eyed Cerywyn carefully. She knew all too well she was about to be checkmated in her mind game of chess. She was just trying to figure out what piece was going to perform the coup de gras.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~End Flashback~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Had their unseen enemy achieved the same result a different way. Cerywyn frowned. It didn't matter. After that fiasco with the transmission, everything was checked and rechecked. The real time conversation with Starfleet Command couldn't have been false. Still, something nagged at the back of her conscience. It just didn't feel right but regardless of that feeling, or her own, the Federation's need was greater than her own and the orders were signed, sealed and delivered. Effective immediately her executive officer, a woman who had served along side Cerywyn for many years, Captain Hailey Konuha was being reassigned by Starfleet Command and Fleet Admiral Cerywyn was being sent one Captain Beth Rasmussen as a replacement. A replacement. Cerywyn was left more than a little indignant. With the rare exception here and there, she had always had some say in who her executive officer was in large part because there had to be a level of trust that only grew out of a shared connectedness. Add to that the complexities of a gifted telepath and empath and a Starfleet record that stretched back further than most people were comfortable, the need for Cerywyn to have some say in the matter just went without saying. Now, she'd all but just been told to suck it up and deal with it. She didn't know whether to admire the audacity or to throw the object nearest her at the back of the closed doors across from her desk. Logically she understood but it didn't lessen the shock. She found herself suddenly questioning a million little nuances, questioning if she'd missed the tightness of drawn lips on Hailey's face; the worry of deeply furrowed brows or the paler than usual complexion. Cerywyn pursed her lips as she replayed events through the last few months. They'd all been pushed beyond their limits since they'd found themselves back on Cyrga. Putting out one fire after the other will do that to any one, not the least of which were the rising tensions along the border between the Federation protected territories and the spreading tendrils of the Klae system.

She stood up, releasing the grip on tea cup she had white knuckled while trying to justify why sending just any officer to Cyrga was a futile endeavour and more than a bit unfair to the the 'un'lucky officer stuck in that position. Starfleet Command didn't see it that way. Instead, they thought it would be an excellent chance for the Admiral to act as mentor and guide. They reminded her she'd had XO's come and go and often they went on to be excellent CO's, division leaders and more. Captain Konuha was a prime example. Her skills would be best utilized by her reassignment as a commanding officer of her own vessel in a very fractious part of the Gamma Quadrant. The damnable part was that Cerywyn knew they were right. She shook her head and released the pent of sigh as she walked across to the larger viewing screen, running her hands across the console. The matte blackness gave way to the blinking twittering dots denoting stars, asteroid belts, planetary bodies and a colonies. A few more taps and the image perspective changed. From this vantage point she could see the varied celestial bodies as they were in motion and relative distance to one another. Also in this view, she could examine the data they'd gathered from inside the Klae system. Captain Jissa Tanner still occupied somewhat sparse quarters under guard by SEC at all time. Cerywyn wandered if the best course of action for the woman wasn't the penal colony after all. Everything started the moment she and her ultralight craft had been 'chased' out of the Klae system. The last few months things had been quiet, the kind of quiet that builds before the oncoming storm can release its fury. Survivors from the colonies that the Klael had captured and now held, the lucky few who had managed to get to a ship came to Cyrga seeking refuge; a safe haven. Cerywyn had evacuated all the Starfleet personnel on several scientific outposts located on the furtherest edge of the space where the Klae and Starfleet boundaries met. They data they'd been collecting could be picked up later and she needed all hands on the station. She stood staring at the virtual map of the Delta quadrant. "Computer, locate Admiral Korin and tell him it's urgent." The computer twirped its acknowledgement and then went quiet. She walked back to her desk, her gaze falling to the PADD with Hailey's new orders and the information regarding Captain Rasmussen's reassignment to her command. She could feel the frown deepen and altered course to the doors which opened without pause as she neared. She stood there a moment and cleared her throat. "Lt. Grace. I need you to do something….."