09-10-2023, 02:40 AM
After laying her cards on the table, Tyra wasn't exactly sure what she had expected out of Elias but she could attest that she hadn't expected him to so quickly come back with a request for either discretion or her blind permission on an idea that must be less than above aboard.
She didn't answer either way initially, her blue eyes focused on the engineer in a way that suggested she was weigh his words against everything else.
Benjamin Elias was one of those unique cases where she had gotten the honor and pleasure to watch him grow from a troubled and trouble finding young man into the reliable and dependable officer that sat before her now. He'd come along ways from the young man knee deep on Pomn or who had run on the Rogue Planet. Yes, there was whatever rumble had occurred between him and Cera but when it came to her view of him as an officer, there were few she was more proud of and even fewer, she trusted as much. If he had an idea that he thought might work, she trusted it would and if he was asking for her permission to disclose something sensitive, she had no real choice but to give it.
"Of course," she answered with a nod of her head.
Ben fiddled with his PADD before handing it over to her. "I know it isn't exactly standard issue, but I couldn't help but keep a little... souvenir of that trip Nathan and I took. It's in crate C-86237 down in cargo bay 7. I know it's functional, and I've worked up ways to connect it to a modern ship. It's gotta be a small ship, however; it won't help on something as big as Artemis, or probably even Philadelphia."
Tyra stared at the PADD for a moment before her blue eyes came up, her facial expression, for once, entirely readable as an eye roll was followed quickly be a disbelieving shake of the head. The implication was that this item had managed to be on her ship for years, likely through collusion with a certain quartermaster, and she'd been none the wiser. It was impressive on the one hand and entirely irresponsible on the other.
However, the matter at hand wasn't the smuggling of contraband on a Federation star ship but whether that item could be used to meet their mission goals and whether it should be used.
When 20 year old Tyra Crawford had graduated from the Academy, she had graduated with an idealism that might have given Nathan Ramius a run for his money. She would have balked at the mere idea that an older version of her was considering such an action but the young woman had been swallowed rather quickly in the tide of war, spitting out a more hardened version. Whereas that bright young woman would have argued that the ends would never justify the means, that bitter and angry war veteran would have said the ends always justified the means because someone had to do the dirty work that allowed civilians to sleep peacefully at night.
Now, Tyra understood that the argument was more nuanced than straight black and white. Yes, she still believed that as an officer, a captain and a soldier, it would always fall on her shoulders to do the dirty work that needed to get done and sometimes, her hands would get dirty. However, she also understood that a blanket belief in justified means was a lazy excuse for not having any convictions or standards; there were still things not worth selling your soul for, as the Krynar had taught.
However, what Elias was proposing didn't require the sale of a soul; it just required the willingness to possibly be a political sacrifice when everything was said and done. There was a very real chance that, even with success, there would be hard questions and no good answers, but Tyra could say with full confidence and no regrets that there was very little she wouldn't do to make sure that Evie and Ethan didn't grow up under the banner of war.
This was a small risk in the grand scheme.
After a long silence, she finally spoke, her tone level and calm. "The Philadelphia has a Waverider. If I can get Jenny to agree to its use, is it small enough? Will you have enough time to get it installed and working during transit?"
Now, she finally looked up from the PADD and looked Elias in the eyes. "And are you sure? Even if we succeed and bring Callisto back, there's likely to be some asshole at HQ that's going to want to dig into the how. We can't claim we just found this thing laying around," she waved the PADD for emphasis. "I'll run interference, you know I will, and I will absolutely take the blame for approving it. However, there's a good chance it won't stay quiet with another ship involved and they're going to want to know where it came from."
== Tag! ==
She didn't answer either way initially, her blue eyes focused on the engineer in a way that suggested she was weigh his words against everything else.
Benjamin Elias was one of those unique cases where she had gotten the honor and pleasure to watch him grow from a troubled and trouble finding young man into the reliable and dependable officer that sat before her now. He'd come along ways from the young man knee deep on Pomn or who had run on the Rogue Planet. Yes, there was whatever rumble had occurred between him and Cera but when it came to her view of him as an officer, there were few she was more proud of and even fewer, she trusted as much. If he had an idea that he thought might work, she trusted it would and if he was asking for her permission to disclose something sensitive, she had no real choice but to give it.
"Of course," she answered with a nod of her head.
Ben fiddled with his PADD before handing it over to her. "I know it isn't exactly standard issue, but I couldn't help but keep a little... souvenir of that trip Nathan and I took. It's in crate C-86237 down in cargo bay 7. I know it's functional, and I've worked up ways to connect it to a modern ship. It's gotta be a small ship, however; it won't help on something as big as Artemis, or probably even Philadelphia."
Tyra stared at the PADD for a moment before her blue eyes came up, her facial expression, for once, entirely readable as an eye roll was followed quickly be a disbelieving shake of the head. The implication was that this item had managed to be on her ship for years, likely through collusion with a certain quartermaster, and she'd been none the wiser. It was impressive on the one hand and entirely irresponsible on the other.
However, the matter at hand wasn't the smuggling of contraband on a Federation star ship but whether that item could be used to meet their mission goals and whether it should be used.
When 20 year old Tyra Crawford had graduated from the Academy, she had graduated with an idealism that might have given Nathan Ramius a run for his money. She would have balked at the mere idea that an older version of her was considering such an action but the young woman had been swallowed rather quickly in the tide of war, spitting out a more hardened version. Whereas that bright young woman would have argued that the ends would never justify the means, that bitter and angry war veteran would have said the ends always justified the means because someone had to do the dirty work that allowed civilians to sleep peacefully at night.
Now, Tyra understood that the argument was more nuanced than straight black and white. Yes, she still believed that as an officer, a captain and a soldier, it would always fall on her shoulders to do the dirty work that needed to get done and sometimes, her hands would get dirty. However, she also understood that a blanket belief in justified means was a lazy excuse for not having any convictions or standards; there were still things not worth selling your soul for, as the Krynar had taught.
However, what Elias was proposing didn't require the sale of a soul; it just required the willingness to possibly be a political sacrifice when everything was said and done. There was a very real chance that, even with success, there would be hard questions and no good answers, but Tyra could say with full confidence and no regrets that there was very little she wouldn't do to make sure that Evie and Ethan didn't grow up under the banner of war.
This was a small risk in the grand scheme.
After a long silence, she finally spoke, her tone level and calm. "The Philadelphia has a Waverider. If I can get Jenny to agree to its use, is it small enough? Will you have enough time to get it installed and working during transit?"
Now, she finally looked up from the PADD and looked Elias in the eyes. "And are you sure? Even if we succeed and bring Callisto back, there's likely to be some asshole at HQ that's going to want to dig into the how. We can't claim we just found this thing laying around," she waved the PADD for emphasis. "I'll run interference, you know I will, and I will absolutely take the blame for approving it. However, there's a good chance it won't stay quiet with another ship involved and they're going to want to know where it came from."
== Tag! ==