Character Background - Just Like That, Part 3

Posted on Sat Nov 9th, 2013 @ 10:09am by Lieutenant Augustus Deakin

Mission: Picking Up the Pieces
Location: Mess Hall, U.S.S. Centurion

[ON]

Gus sat at one of the cold metal tables in the mess hall of the U.S.S. Centurion as it sped at high warp back to Fed-space. He was alone – all of the ship’s company were on watch or catching some much needed rack time – and was just staring at the bulkhead while absently stroking his freshly shaved chin. He was reflecting on the situation he found himself in, where he was, where he was going.

Did Telan get away? He couldn’t know. Maybe he’d find out someday. The greedy little Tellarite was a bastard, but he was a likeable one once you got to know him. Gus was one of the few who did know him and he was the closest thing he still had in the world to a friend. Or that’s what he thought.

Azan Pytaan, who was First Officer on the U.S.S. Discovery back when Gus was a recycled old marine fumbling his way through his new life as an operations officer, had risked his life to come all the way out to Hesperia just to get him to safety. If that wasn’t the act of a friend, what was? He had nothing to gain and everything to lose by doing what he had done. If Zee was still there, still a friend, maybe he still had other friends back in the Federation as well?

But friends coming back into his life couldn’t bring back who he really wanted in his life. Emily. Emily and the unborn child they were going to bring into this world and raise. Both had died on an away mission to Ja’Hran VI in 2383. Gus meant it when he told Zee that he died too on that wretched planet all those years ago. When Emily died, he lost the will to live. He moped around the Discovery for a couple of months before finally deciding he had had enough and resigned his commission.

The next seven years hadn’t been much of an improvement. He had been in countless fights, taken part in countless illegal activities, stolen countless pieces of property and ruined countless lives.

Gus Deakin died back there on Ja’Hran VI.

This new person living in his body was somebody else and he didn’t know if the Federation, or Starfleet, would accept the stranger he had become. What if this ‘rescue’ just led to more turmoil? What if he couldn’t find his feet again and just kept on floating, inevitably finding himself backsliding into the cold embrace of the shadier recesses of the galaxy?

The door to the mess slid open and Azan Pytaan strode in, now wearing his red Starfleet uniform. “Looking sharp, Commander,” Gus said, hiding his misery with good natured play.

Pytaan looked down and smoothed out the front of his tunic then looked back at his friend. “I can get you one, too.”

Gus chuckled as Pytaan took a seat at the table with him. “You’re a clever guy, Zee, but I don’t think you’re that clever.”

The intelligence officer gently placed a PADD on the table. “Oh, I don’t know,” he said, that checkmate smile on his face again. “I think I may just be that clever.”

Gus picked up the PADD and glanced at it dubiously. He read it and looked back to the Trill with a furrowed brow. “Is this a joke?”

“Do I look like I’m joking?”

“Never can tell with you,” he placed the PADD back down on the table. “Okay, I’ll bite. How did you manage to get these?”

“Reinstatement orders and deployment offers are easy,” Pytaan said, picking up the PADD and accessing more files on it. He tapped away for a moment until he found what he wanted to show. He handed it back, “This is my After Action Report to Starfleet Intelligence,” he said. “I’ve blacked out everything but the section that relates to you.”

Gus read it and looked up at his friend. “You crafty son of a bitch,” he said. Pytaan’s report had said that Augustus Deakin was an agent on a deep cover assignment to infiltrate Oleran Telan’s criminal organisation. During that time, he had provided critical information to Starfleet Intelligence about the strength and operations of the Telan Organisation under the codename [blacked out]. With the fall of Telan’s organisation, SI initiated abort protocols and successfully extracted him.

“None of this is true,” Gus said.

“It’s in the report,” Pytaan replied matter-of-factly. “That’s what matters.”

He couldn’t believe it. Pytaan could be court-martialled for this if the truth ever came out. “But …” Gus was lost for words. “You could go to prison for this, man.”

Pytaan leaned back in his seat and let out a long sigh. “Yes, I could. Which is why I need you to go along with what that report says. I’ve given you further info on a PADD that you’ll find under your pillow, which will provide you everything you need to maintain the cover story. Learn it, know it, then destroy the PADD.

“When you get to your next assignment,” he continued in that quiet, intense tone that made it impossible not to listen, “if anybody asks you questions about the last seven years your standard reply will be that it’s classified. Your personnel file will be amended to reflect your service with Starfleet Intelligence these past seven years, but redacted to all but those with the highest of clearance. Not even your new CO will have access to that level of information. As far as Starfleet and the Federation are concerned, everything you did these past seven years was part of your cover. If you did break any Federation laws, you have been quietly pardoned.”

Gus was dumbfounded; his head was spinning. This was a dream, wasn’t it? Surely this kind of thing didn’t happen in the real world? It felt like a bloody holo-novel!

“Any questions?”

He could only think of one question, and it burned brightly in his mind. “Why?”

“Excuse me?”

“Why?” he repeated. “Why did you do this, Zee?”

Pytaan’s expression softened and his tone went back to that one he used when he and the old gang on the Discovery would play poker or get drunk in the ship’s bar. “To save a friend,” he said. “When I saw what was about to happen, I knew I had to get you out of there. Emily would never forgive me if I let you burn down there with Telan and, worse, I would never forgive myself.”

“Would your superiors see it the same way?”

“Hells no!” he replied. “But I’ve saved a good man from certain death. I’ve rehabilitated – I hope – a good officer, who can be of great service to Starfleet at a time when we need good people. If that was the wrong thing to do, then I will gladly go down for it. But I know it was the right thing to do. And the folks down in Galactic South will agree once you’ve made your mark there.”

“So … that’s it, then?” he said. “I’m back in. Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

Gus smiled. It was still sinking in, but he was feeling a little better about it. He knew that he had to take this opportunity – this rehabilitation – and make the most of it. He would not let his friend down, he would not let Emily down and he would not let himself down.

He was going to make the most of this.

“Well then,” he said leaning back in his chair. “Tell me about Starbase Three-Three-Two.”

END


[OFF]


Lieutenant Augustus Deakin
Chief Operations Officer
Starbase 332

&

Commander Azan Pytaan (NPC: Deakin)
Director of Hesperia Desk
Starfleet Intelligence