SD 241501.01 || Fleet Log || Adm Hark & Adm Red || "Desperate times..."

Posted on 241501.01 @ 6:30am by Fleet Admiral Blyx Red & Admiral Alexander Hark
Edited on on 241707.31 @ 6:04pm

Mission: Reconciliation & Reconstruction [Fleet Plot]
Location: Starfleet Command / South Africa

=/\= Commander in Chief's Office, Starfleet Command Campus =/\=

Thumbing through yet another PADD that had been handed to him, Xander sighed as he placed it down on the stack, he'd been running through as many of the candidates for the positions he needed to fill as possible, but the ground was thin where time served Admirals were concerned, with Malone out in the Gamma Quadrant, he needed a solid choice to put in the Cheydinhall Sector Quad.

An area of space that was split from the main core of the Federation by part of the Klingon Empire, the Cheydinhall Sector Quad had fallen by the wayside when it came to enforcement, lawlessness had taken hold and many of the planetary systems in the area had declared their independence, add to that the high levels of piracy and the disrepair of Starfleet facilitys in the area, it made for a volatile combination.

The next PADD that made its way into his hand made him stop and reconsider, a retired Admiral, from before his time in the Admiralty, she had a very... colourful career but had a reputation for getting things done.

"Computer, connect me to Former Admiral Blyx Red, Priority transmission." Hark called out as he placed the PADD down and lifted his monitor.

South Africa was a region still rich with the unknown. It held it's own secrets well and conjured images of bloodshed, blood thirst, and pain just as much as it painted pictures of its vast open grass lands, mountains and, of course, the sea. Capetown in particular had always been a favored place for the aging Admiral. As a younger woman the culture rift between the native tribes that had managed to hold their own for centuries upon centuries, and the technology loving men of the West, had fascinated her and she'd managed to find herself a neutral position capable of watching both endure the struggles presented to them. The Westerners wanted more. The tribes wanted less and somehow the land managed to sustain them both. Space, she thought, in all of its vast reaches, could stand to learn a lot from such a place.

It was a relatively warm deep December day. The sun was shining brightly over her estate, but Blyx Red would find that the peace she'd created would once again be brought to a head, lanced, and bled dry for the sake of the stars. The grunting laughs of warning coming from the crowned cranes as they stood vigil by the lake, announced her assistant's teenage son long before the sound of his shoes beating against the wooden veranda could. She nodded to the birds in appreciation and her tea cup was quickly tabled, a book quickly finding rest along with it.

"Ms. Red. You have an urgent transmission from Starfleet." The young man huffed and held out a PADD. He'd run ten acres from the main house in what seemed like record time only to find the raven woman disinterested and looking genuinely bored with his task.

"Tell them I'm not home." She responded, motioning to the lake, "It wouldn't be a lie."

"No, ma'am, it's from Admiral Hark. The--"

"New Commander in Chief." Blyx finished for him and sighed, taking the PADD. "I'll take it from here. Thank you, Kofi and don't run!" She chuckled and shook her head when the boy smiled and took his leave. He made it no more than ten paces before kicking his heels up and running off. The joy of the moment was shot and she sighed, turning on the PADD and connecting the call to be placed face to face with the Admiral. It was one she recognized from news reports only, he had been nothing more than an officer and a puppy in the fleet when she was running missions and posturing as the face of an era from the far reaches of space. Alexander Hark wasn't without his merits, though, he was a good man by all accounts. Honesty was worth its weight in gold pressed latinum, as far as she was concerned.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, Admiral?" She asked of him, settling the PADD in her book's tabletop cradle and reached to untie the ribbon that held her sun hat firmly in place. Long ago she'd learned the value of showing your face to the enemy, and as far as she was concerned anything and everything to do with Starfleet operations was a threat to the zen she'd retired herself to for the sixth time. What the hat revealed was a human woman aging gracefully, her face framed by carefully pinned back hair the color of shined carbon and eyes that rivaled the sky above. Blyx Red was a lot of things, beautiful being one. Intelligent being another. The former had often left her underestimated by her opponents, the latter had always left them broken. Altogether, she was a dangerous being of almost omnipotent power when given the stars as a playground and as far as she was concerned, she was done, retired, and to be left alone to fade out of focus like stars tend to do. The handsome face of the newly crowned King of Starfleet sat to pose as the greatest threat of all to her carefully tailored plans.

"Unfortunately you're not going to like what I have to say next," Hark began as he looked over the face he had only seen in reports and noted the background that played out around her, "I'll get straight to the point, I have need of an Admiral to head up the Cheydinhall Sector Quad, I won't insult your intelligence by explaining where it is, but given the strife of recent weeks and months, it has fallen by the wayside slightly, corruption and piracy run quite rampant."

The right corner of the woman's mouth twitched into a sardonic sort of smile and her eyebrows rose and fell as he explained. "Then continue in your attempts at not insulting me by getting to the point, Admiral. I'm a very busy woman." She replied sharply, setting the hat down beside her and letting the sun dapple her where it chose.

"I want you to go out there, head up our forces in the area and restore law and order." the greying Admiral replied with a slight bow of the head, "In short, due to the losses suffered in the recent civil war, I'm putting the Reserve Activation Clause into effect."

Just like that, the threat was realized and just like that, Blyx Red was shackled once again. "You're supposed to buy a lady a drink before you just bend her over and screw her, you know better." She sighed and tutted him with her tongue, "Either you have a death wish or Cheydinhall is that poorly that you would risk employing my ire against you." She surmised, folding her hands in her lap and setting her jaw. "I've been following the politics closely since you ended the war, Hark, and I know how wishy washy the factors and facets are. You sent Malone out to Gamma for reasons I can only speculate on, but choose to rouse me from my sleep to do your bidding at Cheydinhall." This time she shook her head at him, the quirk of her sardonic lips slowly spread into a more daunting sort of smile. "You're either blind or desperate and neither suit you well."

"Malone is in the Gamma Quadrant because we lost Zetari, we have no control out there either," Hark replied as his face turned serious and he tapped a few buttons on the console that lay beneath his hand, "I think desperate about sums it up perfectly, I need someone who has a proven track record and honestly I would risk your ire nine times out of ten if it bought Cheydinhall back under control," his hands made out their plan and forwarded all of the necessary details to the freshly reactivated Admiral, "As for the drink, it shall be waiting on your desk at Cold Station Theta when you arrive."

"Right." The woman scoffed as the PADD lit up in her hands and brought up the specs and orders to set side by side with the Admiral's face. Being serious, she thought, hardly suited him either. A man of his caliber didn't seem cut out to be miserable and leading Starfleet, being brass in Starfleet, came with a serious measure of absolute misery. Wetting her lips with the tip of her tongue she sighed. Cheydinhall was in ruins, the lines of the Admiral's face seemed deeper creased now that she looked between the reports and the man. "Then you need to send me several ships, I don't care which aside from one. I'm requesting the Vindicator, she's a show of power and that request isn't negotiable, Admiral." She muttered, thumbing through the rest of the plans, "The rest of the flotilla need to be faster and more agile, but the Vindicator is what will be needed to hold down the fort and reclaim our hold on the space surrounding Cold Station Theta." Once an officer, always an officer. Battle tactics and fortification strategies would always come as a second nature and all too easily to the woman. They came unbidden and left her bitter and irritated as they slipped through her lips and niggled at the man's ears. "That drink better be a double and I'll hunt you down if there's a damned umbrella in it." Blyx hissed and leveled her gaze back on Hark, "You owe me."

"Captain Ivanova is due for a promotion, you'll get the Vindicator at the head of the Cheydinhall Exploration Squadron out of Beta Fleet, as for the rest of the ships, I'm assigning the Phoenix Task Force to your service, I would give you the entirety of Beta Fleet, but as it stands we can only muster Task Forces for anything other than Home Fleet." Hark countered with a slight nod of the head, her demand was reasonable and tactically sound, the Vindicator was a behemoth, a command ship worthy of it's name and it's deeds legend through the fleet.

"Ivanova?" Blyx asked, quirking a brow. The name wasn't foreign, it was one she'd known and the face to go with it since the woman behind it was in diapers. "Ah that's right." She nodded, "Captain Neyes met an untimely end and she's taken his place." Of course the rumors failed to stop there. Of all the things that had come across her news tickers, the news of Romulan involvement and the resurrection of Landon Neyes had been one of the most interesting. The clone symbiont held within the young brother posed a bit of a conundrum as well and an interesting topic to bring up. The woman shifted in her seat, tilting her head as she gazed at Hark, "Am I inheriting yet another problem?" She asked, knowing full well that the young Captain that bolstered the ship of legend was hardly an issue alone. The Trill would come, the nest unearthed with news of a clone, and Blyx knew too that she'd need to put herself in a position to crush their interests one way or another.

"Not a problem, I don't think anyway," Hark replied with a light chuckle at the veiled reference to the goings on of the Vindicator and her command, "Captain Ivanova is a capable officer and her crew are dedicated, the Vindicator will serve you well," he added as his mug of tea appeared into view for the briefest of moments, it's steaming contents passing his lips and leaving behind a satisfied smile, "You'll have more trouble with Cold Station Theta itself I would wager, their reports are few and far between and never of the quality I would expect, there are holes that need to be patched Admiral, are you up to the task?"

"Good to know." The Admiral's words satisfied her, for now. Knowing the temperature of the situation surrounding the Vindicator, and of course Hark's thoughts surrounding Ivanova, was an absolute must. It gave way to the future, allowing the light of it to shine through and shimmer brilliantly along the cold gray hull of the Vindicator and, now, Cold Station Theta. "I wouldn't sweat the small potatoes. Cold Station Theta, and her riff raff, will be dealt with accordingly." She replied ever so wryly, "Expect an invitation to tour her come spring."

"I would expect nothing less." came the reply as Xander's face relaxed slightly, "If you provide the results, I shall provide the drinks for my visit," his reply as as genuine as the lines on his face, the stresses of the last couple of months demanded more and more of him and his time in the Empire had bought to the fore the need for the politics to be tempered back into something controllable, "Do you have any other requests of me, Admiral?"

Coy was a game the Shrike could play and play well. She was heavily versed in the art of such things, and tampering with the Admiral was nothing more than a thing. If he treated her right and kept her off her chain, life would work splendidly for both of them. If he kept her in a strangle hold and micromanaged her, a bad moon would rise indeed. "No umbrellas." Blyx reminded him with a twinkle daring to glitter in her eye. So far he held her highest esteems and was beginning to curry her favor even after tempting fate by shackling her back in service. "Not at present time, Hark. I suggest you run along now before I change my mind and find a way to put you to work." She sighed, uncrossing her legs and beginning to gather her effects, "I'll find Captain Ivanova before I head to Cold Station Theta, but not before I say a proper farewell to Africa and kiss my retirement plans goodbye." She added in a most demure fashion, "for now."

"Then you'll be glad to know that the Vindicator is at Starbase 001, repairs and a bit of R&R after the recent turmoil, I'm sure you'll be able to find the good Captain fairly easily from there." Hark replied with a bow of the head, "And Admiral? No umbrellas, you have my word." he added before cutting off the channel with a single press of a button, leaving nothing but the seal of the office of the Commander in Chief behind.

"Cheeky bastard." Blyx chuckled and rolled her eyes, flicking the PADD off and getting up from the white wicker bench she loved so much. The cranes looked up from their hunt for frogs just long enough to regard her. "Yes. I know. I'm ahead of schedule. You'll just have to deal without me again." She sighed heavily, beating her hat against her thigh to chase away a bit of dust and pollen that had gathered on the brim of it. "The man says I'm wanted back up there. I leave you guys in charge." The cranes seemed to shake their heads and babble between the two of them long enough to decide that ignoring her was the best way to proceed. Her next steps, aside from the walk back to the main house, would be to find exactly where her little niece had stowed away to while the beast of a ship she commanded sat being primped on. "May the Gods help us." She breathed, shaking her head and trudging off. Alexander Hark was a lucky man. She liked him.

-FIN-

Admiral Alexander 'Xander' Hark
Commander In Chief
Starfleet Command

Admiral Blyx Red
Commanding Officer / Sector Quad Commander
Cold Station Theta
Cheydinhall Sector