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Summoning the Captain

Posted April 11, 2021, 4:31 p.m. by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) (Sharon Miller)

Posted by Lazol (Chief Science Officer) in Summoning the Captain

Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in Summoning the Captain

Posted by Lazol (Chief Science Officer) in Summoning the Captain
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻
The message was very brief, but keeping with Lazol it was on point for him. The message would appear to Cobb as follows:

Ready Room, 1200 hours. Come alone. Utmost secrecy.

Lazol

Secrets. By the gods did he hate bloody secrets! Should probably have chosen a different ship to command then, eh, old chap?
There was a time when he had hated Ferengi with equivalent zeal. But since the interaction with Olash, who continued to send highly useful information from time to time (and continued to be reasonably well compensated for it too), the captain had grown fond of the large-eared ones’ penchant for plain-speak when it came to money and profit. Even if all else was an enigma wrapped in a riddle wrapped in a…well, you got the idea.

But DaiMon Lazol was a different matter entirely. There was some truth to the rumour that Cobb was suspicious of any individual who outranked him on his own bloody ship. Also that Lazol’s proclivity for material accoutrements was something wholly alien to one so…unrefined as Zachariah. But mostly it came down to this - for all of his effort, Cobb could not gain the measure of the man. And that troubled him a great deal.

And so it was a somewhat irritable captain who entered the ready room at 12:00 hours on a hurricane-strength, steadying breath…

  • Captain Zachariah Cobb

Lazol looked up at Cobb and just glared, the old man didn’t have time for games and he was certainly going to be the weaker of the two in the room when it came to a bargaining position. He clicked his tongue in his mouth before standing to greet the man and offer a chair, always the host as he tried to prepare himself for the conversation ahead. “Captain I know that you’re trying not to drink on duty may I get you something such as…what do you hoomans call it… lemonade? Or tea perhaps?” He said as he went to replicate a pot of hot water and a clear glass followed by a simple green tea bag.

“Who told you that?” the captain shot back, as if Lazol’s mistake regarding Cobb drinking when on duty had been a deliberate attack. “And anyway, I am not on duty at this precise moment so…”
Without attempting to explain further, Cobb simply produced, from his inner pocket, his customary hipflask, and enjoyed a long sip.

Lazol just waved off the comment and said, “Just a rumor Captain think nothing of it…”

He poured the water into the glass and gently dipped the bag in as the tea began to steep. “Take a look at this Captain, the scientist in me understands the thermodynamics of the water coupled with the weight and specific gravity of the tea being brewed but if I take a step back all I see is chaos, a swirling cloud of tea taking over the clear water inside.”

“Aye. It is the same reaction I experience when I see a Ferengi orchestrating my science labs” Cobb replied silently, although thankfully kept the commentary to himself. To the Leviathan’s CSO, he merely nodded.

He set the glass down and let the tea brew. “Captain” he began, a deep breath in followed by a slow exhale. “Casela recommended that I come talk to you and you alone. Now before you assume I have another angle or I’m trying to bargain please understand this is going to be the most honest and upfront thing I’ve probably ever said to you. I’m not seeking profit, I don’t want power, I don’t want you to concede anything, I don’t want to make a deal. I simply want you to understand, and dare I say, help me.”

Lazol, CSO

“I see,” Cobb replied. “Well Mr Lazol, I am your captain as much as I am anyone else’s on this ship. So please, let me hear your request and then I shall provide you an honest response. Even if that is all I can provide you with.”

  • Captain Zachariah Cobb

The term ‘Mr’ might annoy him at any other time. It was DaiMon and Cobb well knew it but a perceived slight or a perceived slight seemed appropriate. He sat down and grabbed his pot of tea and poured himself a glass as he said, “Captain this I’m sure will surprise you but the only request I have is understanding and, perhaps, some grace. Because Captain what I’m about to tell you is deeply personal and exposes me in a very vulnerable way.” He took a deep breath and a long sip of his tea before exhaling.

Cobb sipped at his whiskey with an air of trepidation. Of all the things he might have dared to predict for this meeting, having Lazol reveal some personal secret to him was absolutely the furthest thing from his mind. But after a moment he gathered his senses and, straightening his posture a little, he nodded his consent to the Ferengi.
“Nothing discussed tonight shall leave this room,” he attempted to reassure his CSO. “Please. Go ahead.”

“I contacted the ARU many years ago about hiring them to go after the anomaly that destroyed my family and they instead put me in charge of a ship. They told me that I was ‘just the man they were looking for’ and ‘I had a motive that made me strong and would make a difference for others’. They used my research to develop the materials and policies that are now used on this very ship and summarily fired me from that post and blacklisted me from communications. It was only during the change of leadership I thought to try again. They used me Captain, they used my time, resources, research, and advancements and decided they were done with me. They waited for me to ‘slip up’ they waited for me to make one mistake and used that as the pretext to rid themselves of me. It’s taken a lot to get back here, and all I want to do is make sure no one else is affected by the anomaly that affect me or any other anomaly. I act callous because I’m always looking over my shoulder. The believable ‘greedy Ferengi’ is an easier mask to wear than one who wants to change because the last time I tried to show any soft side it got me blacklisted. I tell you this Captain because I want you to know why I do what I do. Why I tend to push scientific advancement over the ‘Starfleet’ safety concerns. Do I seek profit? You’ve seen my quarters, you know my record, I have enough gold pressed latinum to buy a fleet and that’s exactly how I got here.”

Lazol was working himself up but not in a bad way, he was getting all of this off his chest for the first time in a long time and it felt good, it felt right.

Lazol, CSO

Zachariah nodded slowly. He had believed, with every fibre of his being, that there was a financial angle to anomaly research being followed by the CSO. But now, he had to admit that he was regarding the Ferengi in a slightly shifted light.
“They use each of us in one way or another,” he replied after a time, the ease with which he found empathy for Lazol’s tale surprising even him. “The anomalies that we capture are unique, priceless, irreplaceable. The crew who risk their lives to contain and to study them? Not so much.”

He shrugged and shook his head.
“I do not command an ARU vessel for glory. I do not command it for prestige or for power or even for recognition. I agreed to be the captain of the Leviathan for one reason only, DaiMon Lazol. So that I could do everything in my power to keep the rest of the universe safe. So if you have concerns on this anomaly that you seek, if you have reasons to suspect it still capable of destruction or harm, then I am all ears for the details.”

  • Captain Zachariah Cobb

Now to be fair to Cobb, there was a financial angle but to a Ferengi it was a very different set of words in their native tongue that didn’t translate well. To be fair when a Ferengi says they ‘seek profit’ they mean to rip off the customer and squeeze out as much latinum as possible. When they say they ‘dont seek profit’ they don’t mean to rip someone off but they will still earn a little something whenever possible. This though was a fine line that was seldom seen as a distinction outside of the Ferengi.

“Captain I appreciate your candor and fully appreciate your willingness to listen and understand. I also ask for your discretion, as there is only one other person onboard who knows my true reasons for what I do.” Lazol shifted a little as he said, “I don’t know much besides that it takes the form of what one desires and regresses a person biologically till nothingness.” There was more, what had happened to his brother of course, but he wasn’t fully trusting of Cobb just yet.

Lazol, CSO

“I see,” the captain replied, still somewhat unsure of why Lazol was sharing this information with him. Or what he wanted of Cobb once the tale had been told. “I presume you have already searched the ARU database for similar anomalous behaviour? Are you requesting that the Leviathan be engaged in hunting this thing down?”

  • Captain Zachariah Cobb

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