"Do you have some evidence to suggest that Admiral was acting criminally or
incompetently?" t'Llhweiir asked coolly.
"My intention at bringing this up is not to mar the Admiral's image or
reptuation or to challenge his right to make decisions. My understanding
is that we have been asked to this Briefing to bring forth our perspectives
of what happened out there and why. Things went very bad out there, and it
does not necessarily reflect on the direct actions of anyone in this room.
We have a leak, that is clear. I have more experience with the Brotherhood
than anyone else in this room, and I am concerned at the fact that requests
and reports of officers on the scene did not seem to be taken into account
with what was happening. The cover of the mission was already blown and we
were ready for the picking if the Brotherhood had planned adequately. The
Centurian is a wonderful ship with a wonderful commanding officer and crew,
but she is not the largest of ships, if you don't mind my saying, Captain,"
said the Klingon as he looked toward Fitzgerald. "What was to say that a
larger starship was not going to appear. I don't know about you, but the
starship that appeared was much larger than I thought the Brotherhood had>
access to. To put it simply, we got lucky out there, sirs."
Ariel had been quietly listening to the conversation. She was surprised to
hear K'Tael bring these types of concerns up in front of the whole group.
It was the type of conversation that normally took place one-on-one in the
CO's office. She wondered if the Klingon would be keeping his position for
long.
t'Llhweiir knew that K'Tael was a very competent officer; however, she could
let him provocative comments go unanswered, nor was she going to allow them
to divert the purpose of the meeting.
"Calling for reinforcements could well have turned your 'luck' bad,
Commander," she replied. "If you wish to pursue your concerns about Admiral
Smallwood's decision, I suggest that you address them with him privately
after this meeting or request a board of inquiry into the matter. This
meeting, however, is not the appropriate forum."
Anyone paying attention could see that Smallwood was not about to let the
matter drop. Commander K'Tael had questioned the orders and decisions that
Smallwood made during the incident, and by extension, his abilities as an
officer in charge of combat forces. No, he most definately would not let it
drop.
"Oh, the Commander and I will continue this discussion after the
debriefing.", he said coldly in response to t'Llhweiir.
{response}
"In light of the leak, Commander, do you have any thoughts as to where the
leak may have occured.", Smallwood said moving the meeting along.
K'Tael accepted that Smallwood was not happy with him. He did not take it
personally. He was there to do his job, and he felt that there was a
mistake made. That did not mean that he felt the need to air all these
grievances with an audience. If the Admiral wanted to continue the
conversation in private, he would be more than willing to do so. He would
continue with Smallwood's question.
"There are any number of possibilities, sir. Things became greatly
complicated, when the Nile crashed down on Mars. More people were brought
into the mission than were necessary initiailly. That was not planned, but
necessary with the changing events. At that point, it is evident that our
cover was blown. The Brotherhood had to have an idea of who we were and why
we were there. There is a possibility that the leak is either here in San
Francisco or on the station. It would be a logical place to look since so
much information and personnel goes through these two points."
(response?)
}}}=) Lisa
_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE!
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/
_______________________________________________
Spacedock mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.starbase1.org/mailman/listinfo/spacedock_starbase1.org
