The First Two Days
Posted on Sun Oct 11th, 2015 @ 5:53pm by Commander Jordan Gunning & Captain Liarra Von
Mission:
By Dawn's Early Light
Location: Security Centre [Deck 13, Starbase 332]
Jordan Gunning pressed his palms flat onto the desk and pressed down as hard as he could. He had been Chief of Security on Starbase 332 for two days and had worked forty out of the forty eight hours given to him by the station's internal time standard.
It had now gone 1am and as he looked out through the windows of his office, which sat in a circular pod at the heart of Starbase 332's Security Centre, he could see only a few desk lights turned on with a couple of officers working away at them. The shapes of Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Appiah was visible, probably redrafting his plan to identify Sojourner agents for the tenth time.
The big Customs Officer had been running the customs arm of security pretty much on his own for a year and now he was going to have someone coming in over his head and - to his credit - he was trying to impress him as much as he was trying to impress Gunning.
"Go home, Mike." Jordan had stuck his head around the door and decided to drop the formalities for the sake of it being past midnight. "Have a drink, get some sleep, come back fresh in the morning. You'll just burst your head if you keep hammering away at it."
"Yes sir." Appiah's booming Ghanaian accent cut through the silence of the centre. Gunning could tell he didn't want to go home, he could see the loneliness of the policeman in him - he had no-one to go home to - but sleep could be a good enough companion in itself sometimes.
Gunning returned to his desk and decided to take his own advice. He reached into the bottom drawer of an oddly shaped cabinet behind him and produced a bottle of whisky - just some rubbish that the two Ferengi who ran his bar had peddled him - and a small, delicate glass.
The glass had been his brother's and was among the only personal effects of his that he had kept. One of a set of four which lived in the bottom drawer for no reason other than a display of whisky glasses wasn't the most professional sign in the world.
"Do you have another glass?" the voice of Liarra Von asked from the doorway. Despite the quiet of the security offices, she had made her way in with very little sound, which was mostly a testament to how well she was getting to know this station. She probably could find her away around in the dark.
"I'm sure I can rustle something up, Captain." It had been around twelve hours since he had last seen Captain Liarra Von, a big change from seeing her every couple of minutes for months. She was a sight for sore eyes. He produced another glass and splashed some of the amber liquid into both glasses - he had finished his already. "Have a seat."
Liarra took a seat across from her new chief of security and reached for the glass. She was a little less casual with her drink, instead taking a sip and electing to nurse it. "So even with a change of scenery, I still find you working late hours. I suppose that's been becoming a habit around this place." Her eyes looked around the room absently, not so much looking at the office, but at the station around it. Her gaze snapped back to Jordan as she took another drink of the whiskey. "How are you getting along down here?"
"I like it actually." Jordan thought about the last time he'd slept - that was as good a sign as any. "There's no doubt that the department's in a total mess but I'm working with the Master-at-Arms to go through candidates and get some good people in. We've been playing catch up for too long down here - the crime stats are off the charts." He motioned to a pile of PADDs which lay on the desk. "I've been putting off going through them all individually."
"You don't have to remind me," Liarra replied, taking another sip of her drink. "With everything going on in the sector, I haven't been able to focus as much attention on the war at home. This department needed to have been revamped a long time ago. At least I know I've got the right man for the job."
"I hope so. The crime scene unit needs completely restaffed - we don't even have a coroner officially attached to the unit, and that's before you even think about the section chiefs."
Von nodded along. She used to be in security, but her background had always been tactical. She didn't know nearly enough about policing a space station, especially one as large as three-three-two. But she had a feeling that she was going to be learning a lot more about it. "Find out what you need and get any staffing requests to me. I'll do what I can to get us the right people."
Jordan smiled meekly as he drained another glass of the peaty liquid. "I will, thanks."
Captain Liarra Von
Commanding Officer
Commander Jordan Gunning
Chief of Security
Starbase 332
