The captain, standing from his seat, clapped his hands. His mood had improved considerably the past few days and there seemed to be a renewed hop in his step. "Put me through shipwide speakers, Lieutenant Davies."
She nodded and quickly pressed a few buttons. Somehow, the thought of not seeing her friends didn't disappoint her as much as she thought it would. Her renewed friendship with Tony had taken precedent in her life. Unlike her 'groundling' friends, who were only interested in partying, Tony actually wanted to get to know her. The only thing she was truly sorry to miss was personally congratulating her sister's graduation from Yale. By pushing herself, dangerously far in Elaine's opinion, Audrey had graduated an entire semester early. Although she still wasn't quite sure what Audrey would do with a degree in European History, Elaine was confident she'd figure something out. Her graduation present would have to wait. "You're on, Captain," she said cheerfully.
"Alright, ladies and gentlemen," he announced, "let's not keep our new crewmembers waiting. There are over one hundred and twenty people out there waiting to come aboard. Let's go greet them. Don't crowd the halls, but make them feel welcome. That is all." Elaine cut the communication.
Andrei turned his attention to his bridge crew. "Okay..." He pointed to Stephen. "Commander, you're with me. The Marine contingent will be boarding starboard-side aft. Everyone else, you're free to go wherever you want. We're off-duty for the next two hours. Our peace delegation arrives in transporter room one at fourteen hundred hours. Commander Richards will be with them. Commander Kirk and Lieutenant Commander T'Nia, I'll need you in there with me to shake hands. Dismissed, everyone." With light hearts and smiles, the bridge crew boarded the left side turbolift and emptied the bridge.
Kirk and Bolerov exited using the right side turbolift. The doors slid closed behind them. "Deck fourteen, section twenty-one." Bolerov spoke at the ceiling. With a slight jolt, the turbolift began moving down, then left, then down, then back. "I'm going to have maintenance check into that jerking motion," Bolerov remarked.
Kirk nodded. His head was still trying to make sense of the adventure he had been through with his romulan... friend... acquaintence... girlfriend... spy... well, that was one other thing he was trying to figure out. If forced, he had to admit he hadn't been himself for the past two weeks. Because of the strange shift rotations lately, he hadn't been able to see his friends at all. That only added to his distant attitude. The result was an awkward silence.
Bolerov rocked back and forth on his heels uneasily. He didn't care for this silence, either. He thought he and Stephen had cleared things up. A renewed tension between him and his first officer was the last thing he needed. He was already having trouble sleeping at night. In fact, the past two nights were the first nights he was able to sleep with out neural inhibitors for over three weeks. "Those damn dreams," he thought. He was OVER it, he kept insisting. It took six months of counselling, but he was OVER it. Why were these images coming back? Deciding he didn't want to continue thinking along this line, he tried small talk. "So, Commander, you've been fairly quiet lately. You were in the Marines, were you not?"
"Yessir," he replied absently. His mind drifted back to his Marine-issue covert suit; the black one with the armored vest he used to infiltrate the romulan warbird with T'osa, the Tal'Shiar agent, three weeks ago.
"Do you know anything about this Lieutenant Colonel 'Slam' Prichard who is commanding this group?" Bolerov was genuinely interested in knowing what was about to step onto his ship. Andrei had graduated from Starfleet Academy almost forty years ago. His specialty was tactics and weapon systems, similiar to the young commander. Although he had been through basic military training, and preferred its regimented lifestyle, he knew very little about the 'true' military branch of Starfleet, the Marines.
Kirk shook his head, somewhat surprised that Bolerov was curious. "Never heard of him. I do know one of the Captains, though... Trace Connor. We went through officer's training together."
"I see," Bolerov nodded, scratching his chin. "So, tell me... what are we in for?"
Kirk raised an eyebrow. "Sir?"
"Well..." Andrei stumbled, "I'm not that familiar with how the Marines are organized. Exactly what's coming aboard?"
It took Stephen a few moments to recall the roster. "Um..." he started, staring at the floor. He squinted, trying to remember. "It sounds like we're getting a full company... forty-some."
"Forty-five, if I recall." Bolerov added.
"Yeah," Kirk nodded, "it's a little different makeup than I'm used to, though. It seemed kinda top-heavy."
"I think that's on purpose. They're supposed to be able to function without asking for orders all the time."
"That would make sense. Well, anyway... if I remember, we've got ten teams divided between four units. There are two flight teams; Trace commands them. There are two field platoons. They each have three teams. There are two lieutenants in charge of them, but I don't remember their names. Then, there are two infiltration teams. They handle demolition, computer hacking; things like that. There's a captain in charge of them."
"Captain Tonok. He's a vulcan." Bolerov added.
Kirk nodded again. "That's it... well... and their two Corvettes. That's what you're getting." He pursed his lips. He figured the captain would get along swimmingly with them.
"Ah, yes... the two Corvettes. We'll finally get those two holes in the back of our ship filled."
With that, the turbolift stopped and the doors opened. The captain motioned for Kirk to head out first. "Let's go meet Warlord's new security force."