That and Captain Black is a close friend of his. Black was an Ops officer
on Lasiter's last starship command. On a mission there was an incident, and
Lasiter was in a real bind. Black really stuck by him and earned not ony a debt
or gratitude, but his implicit trust. On the first serious mission of Admiral
Lasiter's tenure as CinC he really wanted someone that knew him and could work
with. No reflection on you, but as you will learn, when he has his mind made up
that is it. Even if you show him something better, he has already made up his
mind. The old mad does not like to revisit decisions unnecessarily, you
see....]>
<[I understand,]> she replied. <[And I think Black is the
right one for the job myself. I intend to have him fully in charge of
strategic planning and operation. Like I said, I don't know what's going on
out there. WHen I was a young officer, the one thing that made the angriest
was an idiot superior walking in at the last second and trying to tell me how
to do my job. That's what I won't do to Black. But, what I didn't tell Lasiter
is that I know Marrtak. Not well; he's a loner, hard to get to know. But we
were at the Imperial Star Academy together when we were all much, much
younger. And he was a genius, but liked to play by his own rules. He also has
always been a staunch supporter of the Klingon-Federation alliance, hence the
lack of promotion. He's the right one for the job. I think he and Black will
get on rather well, actually. I plan on staying the heck out of it as much as
possible,]> she grinned. <[I'm there to keep them from killing each
other. Once that's accomplished, I'll leave the real work to the ones that
know it best.]>
<[Sounds like you have a
real plan worked out. That is very good, sir. How long do you
think that you will will be off station?]>
{response}
<[Let me know if you sense any difficulties
from the Old Man about you being off station. I can run interference for
you if you think it will help.]>
{response}
<[There is one other thing..... In
tomorrow's meeting you will be asked to list a few problems with your
department. Issues that you consider to be your top 5. You may
want to brush up on those. Just a hint, but Operation Clean Slate is
about to kick off. Basically, everyone gets a clean slate in order to
show that they are working to improve their respective divisions and
departments. However, for those that do not show progress or do to take
it seriously enough for the CinC the old slate full of their problems will
come back. Come back to be used to kick them out of Starfleet.
Lasiter thinks that much of the problems with the fleet can be solved by
holding officers accountable and a 'back to basics' approach.
The Lasiter you will see tomorrow will not be
the one that you know and love, but one that is on a mission. And anyone
that gets in the way of progress will get trampled to death. You should
have nothing to fear, he likes you. However, rumor has it that you made
some command changes in Spec. Ops.....]>
{response}
