White Lies, Honest Reflections

Posted on Thu Mar 5th, 2015 @ 11:35am by Ensign Corrine Steiner
Edited on on Thu Mar 5th, 2015 @ 2:48pm

Mission: Ill Tidings
Location: Crew Quarters, SB332
Timeline: Shortly after shift

[ON]

The following day's duty shift was one of refreshing normality. And while the enormous workload made it feel like 'one step forward, two steps back', she reveled in boring routine. She barely had time to go back to her quarters to begin unwinding, however, when her previous night's activities caught up with her. A worried quartermaster clerk chimed at her door.

After she invited him in, he showed her an inventory list, "Ma'am, all these items are missing from warehouse. And..." He was hesitant. "Well, you were the last visitor." He became more worried, "The... security cams were temporarily down... some kind of maintenance problem. They're all... restricted category."

Corrie quite readily nodded, "Mhm! I couldn't sleep last night, so I decided to make myself useful. These confiscated weapons were slated for disposal, so I went ahead and took care of it. I apologize if I missed somebody on the notification list. But, I don't know how our previous tactical commander organized things."

The clerk sighed with relief. "Oh! Good! Yeah, operations is in a bit of chaos during this transition."

She smiled at him, "Don't worry, we'll work out the bugs."

"I'm sorry for overreacting, but at an inner sphere starbase, this would've been a security crisis."

"I quite understand. You can safely scratch that list off our inventory."

The clerk apologized for bothering Corrie off duty and then bid his adieu. As he traversed the corridors, he decided it would be better if he didn't make any log entries about this incident. It wouldn't be kind to crack the procedures whip at a new Ops chief who's trying to settle in to all the chaos.

Reflecting on the events inside her cabin, Corrie sat down at her console, "Private Log entry... I am more confident that I did the right thing, arming Gobkick for the pending attack on his freighter. He's a man of despised reputation. I doubt that many would miss him if pirates took him out. But then again, that might be the exact reason he's being targeted. I don't think I'm being paranoid by believing that we have wolves looking to exploit any weaknesses that this starbase exposes." Corrie sat back and pondered, "Gob'kick... I wonder if his actions are so worthless because that's that's how he feels? A freighter jockey who's been conditioned all his life to believe that only warriors can call themselves real men. I wonder... I wonder how the man might change if some real honor came his way. He certainly has the chance now, if he survives. He doesn't strike me as being very bright, but even a slow man thoroughly trained as a warrior can still be dangerous." Corrie's head dropped forward in grief and she whispered, "I just wish I could do something to save the men who are doing to die. But I can't." At length, she sat back and sighed. "Close log."

[OFF]

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Ens, Corrine Steiner
Starbase 332
Pegasus Fleet