05-07-2024, 08:14 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-07-2024, 08:28 PM by Peter Jensen.)
Peter felt himself getting increasingly annoyed. Every time he tried to pay the Captain a compliment, he got spat in the face as if it had been an insult. He had been fairly relaxed and optimistic when he entered this room. Now, not so much. Though he wasn't stupid, and wasn't about to tell her where to shove her "charity" and how far into that place she was not to shove it.
"Look at the situation from my perspective for one moment, Captain", he said calmly, but there was a fierceness there.
"We'd just sent the shuttle into hostile territory. And then gotten orders to leave them there, to turn around. Every single person on that bridge - myself included - felt that those orders were equine excrement. But they were orders.
Your close relationship with Capt. Crawford is well known. And by following these orders you'd be leaving one of your closest friends holding not just the baby, but the entire nursery. The "hospitality" of the Cardassian Union is infamous. What, pray tell, was the conclusion I was supposed to come to under those circumstances when you stood on that bridge and basically said "To hell with our orders"?", he asked, then paused for a moment, taking a deep breath and looking at her:
"Had our positions been reversed....seemingly legitimate orders in one hand, and me having just sent one of my close personal friends into the lion's den because of the previous orders that had just been rescinded and me completely refusing your pleading for a private meeting on the matter while announcing my intention to disobey clear orders in the other...I ask you, Captain... What conclusion would you draw?" , he asked, leaving the question hanging in the room for a moment while he looked pointedly at her, before continuing:
"The conclusion I drew was that you were so angry - rightly I might add - that you'd lead the crew to its death or worse, and start an interstellar war to save your friend. I invite you to look me in the eyes and tell me that you would have thought anything else had our roles been reversed because I don't believe you would. This was not just a Picard'esque skirting the line of the Prime Directive, or even a Kirkian one. Both of which I would have gone along with because I do trust your judgement. But you are not a god. You are not infallible. And you can't blame me for acting on the information I had. I can act on nothing else, especially when you don't give me anything else and refuse to tell me. Had you just told me in private that you had gotten secret orders and it wasn't just your own anger taking over, but that you couldn't elaborate, this entire unpleasantness could have been avoided", he said, pointing out once again what he had pointed out in the Ready Room.
This was a far cry from the Peter who had come aboard his first ship post-graduation as something of a yes-man who had been so afraid to stand up to superiors that he had made a mistake that had cost a crewman their life. He still thought of that incident from time to time. And he had come a long way since then and sworn never to repeat it. He had lost people again, of course, but never because he had been too afraid to stand up to a superior. That was a mistake he'd only made once.
He finally sighed.
"I would be honored to serve as your XO again. As I said on the bridge of the Philadelphia when we were taken into house arrest, so to speak: It has been an honor to serve with you. And we make a good team. You are an exceptionally competent soldier, and an equally competent Captain. But I did what I had to do based on the information available to me, and I will make you a promise, a pledge, that any Captain should accept:
I will obey any legal order you give. I will offer my opinion, my advice, but when you make a call, I will carry out any legal order you give. I have no problem skirting the lines because I have also been out here long enough to know that those lines occasionally do get quite blurry. But there are lines I will not let you cross. And if I did, I would not be a good First Officer", he said, then looked at her:
"Or would you say that the First Officer and crew of the USS Pegasus were in error acting against then Captain Pressman and should have just trusted him?", he finished calmly but with a certain degree of steel in his eyes and voice as he pushed her words back in her face.
"Look at the situation from my perspective for one moment, Captain", he said calmly, but there was a fierceness there.
"We'd just sent the shuttle into hostile territory. And then gotten orders to leave them there, to turn around. Every single person on that bridge - myself included - felt that those orders were equine excrement. But they were orders.
Your close relationship with Capt. Crawford is well known. And by following these orders you'd be leaving one of your closest friends holding not just the baby, but the entire nursery. The "hospitality" of the Cardassian Union is infamous. What, pray tell, was the conclusion I was supposed to come to under those circumstances when you stood on that bridge and basically said "To hell with our orders"?", he asked, then paused for a moment, taking a deep breath and looking at her:
"Had our positions been reversed....seemingly legitimate orders in one hand, and me having just sent one of my close personal friends into the lion's den because of the previous orders that had just been rescinded and me completely refusing your pleading for a private meeting on the matter while announcing my intention to disobey clear orders in the other...I ask you, Captain... What conclusion would you draw?" , he asked, leaving the question hanging in the room for a moment while he looked pointedly at her, before continuing:
"The conclusion I drew was that you were so angry - rightly I might add - that you'd lead the crew to its death or worse, and start an interstellar war to save your friend. I invite you to look me in the eyes and tell me that you would have thought anything else had our roles been reversed because I don't believe you would. This was not just a Picard'esque skirting the line of the Prime Directive, or even a Kirkian one. Both of which I would have gone along with because I do trust your judgement. But you are not a god. You are not infallible. And you can't blame me for acting on the information I had. I can act on nothing else, especially when you don't give me anything else and refuse to tell me. Had you just told me in private that you had gotten secret orders and it wasn't just your own anger taking over, but that you couldn't elaborate, this entire unpleasantness could have been avoided", he said, pointing out once again what he had pointed out in the Ready Room.
This was a far cry from the Peter who had come aboard his first ship post-graduation as something of a yes-man who had been so afraid to stand up to superiors that he had made a mistake that had cost a crewman their life. He still thought of that incident from time to time. And he had come a long way since then and sworn never to repeat it. He had lost people again, of course, but never because he had been too afraid to stand up to a superior. That was a mistake he'd only made once.
He finally sighed.
"I would be honored to serve as your XO again. As I said on the bridge of the Philadelphia when we were taken into house arrest, so to speak: It has been an honor to serve with you. And we make a good team. You are an exceptionally competent soldier, and an equally competent Captain. But I did what I had to do based on the information available to me, and I will make you a promise, a pledge, that any Captain should accept:
I will obey any legal order you give. I will offer my opinion, my advice, but when you make a call, I will carry out any legal order you give. I have no problem skirting the lines because I have also been out here long enough to know that those lines occasionally do get quite blurry. But there are lines I will not let you cross. And if I did, I would not be a good First Officer", he said, then looked at her:
"Or would you say that the First Officer and crew of the USS Pegasus were in error acting against then Captain Pressman and should have just trusted him?", he finished calmly but with a certain degree of steel in his eyes and voice as he pushed her words back in her face.