Taffy's Gamble

Posted on Fri Mar 6th, 2020 @ 3:17pm by Division Admiral Thomas Lasky & Post Captain Vasily Borodin & Colonel Hadar "Jem" J'Herim & Colonel Anthony "Ironhide" Raynor & Chief Warrant Officer Ryi "Taffy" Amlari & 2nd Lieutenant F'ianna "Firefly" t'Tahn & Colonel Jack "Dirty Jack" Hassel & Staff Warrant Officer Hana "8-Ball" Nakamura
Edited on on Fri Mar 6th, 2020 @ 3:42pm

Mission: Mission 63: Second Nature
Location: Various Locations - USS Roanoke
Timeline: 1400Hrs - February 13th, 2392

Frosty looked at the results from F'ianna's tests. She smiled as they were well above average even for a Federation pilot. "These results are really good. No way they can not make you a pilot."

"I'm not sure about this." F'ianna told her.

"Your almost in." Ryi told her. "You want to be a pilot don't you?"

"Yes, of course." She replied.

"Good." Ryi told her. She then went of to find J'Herim.

Hadar was seated in her office, reading a letter from her children as she heard a knock on the door, she bade her guest or guests enter and in walked the Andorian and her friends. "Ladies.. Whats up?" the Bajoran inquired.

Frosty handed Hadar the results. "Look!" She said to Hadar. "She did great!" before she cleared her throat. "I'm sure theses will be good enough for a place in the fighter corp."

Hadar accepted the PADD in silence. "Take a seat ladies.." she commented as she read the scores quickly, then she re-read them. "What difficulty was the training program on?" the small Bajoran woman inquired.

"Just normal." Ryi told her. "It was her first time and we didn't want to overwhelm her."

"Her first time." Hadar responded. "and you ran the test once.. and she produced this?." the Bajoran looked confused. "Am I understanding you correctly.?"

Yes, is there a problem?" Ryi cautiously asked.

"Nope." Hadar responded. "I wanted to be sure there was no misunderstandings.." she commented. "Right then..." she turned to the Romulan. "First... I must know if she has a tongue... Do you wish to fly for us.. and fight for us if needed?" the small Bajoran asked of the Romulan female who was much larger then Hadar herself was.

"Yes, of course." F'ianna replied.

"Good." Hadar responded. "I'll draw up the recommendation and ask Ironhide to cosign." she paused. "Then I need to get you out of your quarters and from under that shroud for good." she commented. "If you can fly like this... on a training exercise that most fail their first time out... then I want you in my squadron."

"Thank you." F'ianna told her.

"She will come into our squadron, right? I mean we need the pilots." Ryi asked.

"If her test scores from training are good enough... and we need the pilots at that time... Then yes." Hadar explained with a smile. "Besides.. At present, we do need the pilots.."

"Okay, so do we have to tell those intelligence guys about this?" Ryi asked.

"Commander Borodin is from what I have heard... quite reasonable... If he gives you a hard time.. then tell him to come and see me.. but yes, you'll have to go see the intel guys about this." Hadar explained. "I'll be busy writing up a letter of recommendation for you." she said to the Romulan. "Also ladies. you'll need to go and inform Ironhide as well."

"Yeah, I can tell Ironhide." Ryi replied. "That sounds good." She was avoiding the fact that Dirty Jack was her commanding officer.

"Alright.." Hadar commented. "I will recommend however that you 'not' mention this around your Wing Commander until its all been sorted out." Hadar looked up at everyone since she was the smallest in the room. "If... anyone asks... I put her through the training program and not you, you two were involved because I ask for you to be involved.. clear?"

"Yes, thank you." Eight Ball told her.

"We owe you." Ryi replied.

"You three do indeed owe me." she indicated the Romulan. "You can pay me back by showing me that my faith is not misplaced," she responded. "Go on ladies.. get outta here and let me get back to work..." which there were only two PADD's on her desk. "such as it is."

"Thank you Hadar," Ryi told her. "So are you going to go to intelligence?"

"Oh probably in an hour," J'Herim responded lightly. "I want you two to go explain yourselves to various people."

"Explain ourselves to who?" Ryi asked.

"Commander Borodin and Ironhide are the two main ones," J'Herim explained. "I need to write up this letter of recommendation. Then I'm going to go and see the Chief of Security and the Exec."

"Thank you." Frosty replied and headed for the office of Commander Borodin. She chimed the door.

Borodin bade his guests enter his office, to find out what they wanted and why they were coming to him.

"Hello Commander, I have a request. That is, if you don't mind me being so bold?"

"I respect boldness." he regarded the young Andorian Shen. "What is it that you need from me?" he sat back in his chair. "I hope its not going to be boring... I have sat here on my ass for too long.."

"I need security clearance for one of the Romulan defectors. One F'ianna T'tahn." Frosty told him.

Borodin pulled his terminal to him. "F'ianna T'tahn... Wait.. I remember her... I thought she left the ship awhile back... Is she still here?"

"Yes, she is in the pilot's training area." Frosty replied. "She is a very good pilot."

Borodin simply facepalmed. "Kak chudesno." which the translator turned into "How wonderful." he then sighed. "Okay." and with that he turned back to the wall mounted display before he typed in her name, sure enough it showed that she was still aboard ship and everyone present had seemed to forget about her. He then tapped the display which flashed red, highlighting her security restrictions. He called up the list and one by one, he checked them off, moments later he turned back to Frosty. "Okay... Her restrictions have been removed." he commented. "I hope that I am not making a mistake on this... However you came in here vouching for her.. so I will let it be.."

Taffy smiled. "Thank you Commander. She will make a good addition to the crew."

"Very well..." Borodin responded. "Anything else I can help you with?"

"No, thank you for your help commander. I'll take my leave know." And Frosty left the office.

Borodin went back to his paperwork as he began to hum a soft tune.

About a minute later Borodin's door chimed again.

"Enter." Borodin called out.

Dirty Jack entered. "Hi Commander. Look, um, I have a favor to ask. Can you look into getting a security clearance for one of the Romulan defectors for me? I know this is a little unorthodox but we are short pilots."

Borodin raised an eyebrow before he inquired. "I assume you are talking about F'ianna T'tahn..." he inquired in a dry tone of voice.

Jack looked surprised. "Yeah, how did you know?"

Borodin quickly realized that the Andorian Shen that had just left didn't have the support of others. "I got a call from Starfleets security saying that she can be released into the ships general population." he added. "Also I need to give her some paperwork saying she is now a legal resident, this would allow her to become a pilot." Borodin rose to his feet as he picked up a PADD, he then brought up the paperwork.

"Really, what an odd coincidence." Hassel replied skeptically. "You haven't seen an Andorian female pilot around have you?"

"Nope." Borodin responded evenly. "Not recently anyway." he added. "Why do you ask about a certain Andorian pilot?" as the Russian male smiled before finishing his drink.

"The whole reason I asked about the defector is it was brought up by the Andorian pilot. She wanted her to join our wing." Hassel replied.

Borodin shrugged. "Well like I said... I got a call earlier from Starfleet Security about her. I released her lockouts and I'm going to give her this paperwork that gives her landed migrant status.."

Frosty made her way to Ironhide's office. She chimed the door and waited.

Ironhide regarded the curvy Andorian pilot before him. "Whats on your mind Frosty and why aren't you seeing your own Wing Commander about it?"

"Hello Sir, I just wanted to bring something to your attention." Taffy told him.

"By all means.." Ironhide responded with a smile.

"I would like this pilot cleared for flying." Taffy told him while handing him a PaDD.

Ironhide accepted the PADD from the Andorian female before him. He then read it quickly and then read it slowly. "You know Dirty Jack is gonna tear you a new one right?" he inquired of her.

"Um, I'll worry about that when it happens." Taffy admitted.

"Fair enough.." Ironhide responded. "However about the pilot candidate... She still needs to go through Federation warrant school and she also needs to go through flight school, our new craft are much more complex then the older craft... Sorry Frosty."

"I know but she shouldn't take that long. She will still be a valuable addition." Frosty told him.

Then, the door chimed.

Ironhide smiled. "Enter"

Dirty Jack entered. "Hello Ironhide." He said said warmly. "Hello Taffy." He said in a less warm tone. "I take it Taffy is here for the Romulan pilot F'ionna T'tahn?"

Ironhide regarded Dirty Jack. "Well.. Dirty Jack... I was just thinking of you." he rumbled. "I assume you do not want F'ionna T'tahn?" he inquired. "Then I'll quite happily take her."

"Chief Amlari did the leg work to bring her in and seems to be friends with her. We will keep her." Jack replied. "I do need to talk to Taffy about what she did."

Ironhide raised an eyebrow. "I'll believe it. However it takes guts to go out and do what you did Frosty."

"Thank you Ironhide. Could you also please call my Taffy? That is my proper call sign." Taffy asked.

Ironhide was impressed, he had never known the Andorian Shen before him to have a spine of any kind. "I'll do that... My apologies Taffy." he tone even said he was impressed.

"Thank you Ironhide." Hassel interrupted. "If you don't mind, I will take my pilot and go."

"Of course." Ironhide responded.

The two walked down the passageway to Dirty Jack's office. The was an awkward silence between the two. Finally Taffy spoke up. "I'm sorry for going behind your back."

"We'll discuss this when we get to my office, until then, be quiet." He replied.

Taffy kept her head down until they both went onto the office.

Taffy spoke up after she entered. "I'm sorry for going behind your back to get t'Tahn into the Fighter Corp."

"All right, let's get something straight," Jack told her, "You don't apologize for doing what is best for your unit. Second, I'm proud of you Taffy. You went above and beyond for your squadron." Jack's words made Taffy light up.

"There is one issue though: I'm not happy that you didn't trust me to help you." Dirty Jack told Taffy.

"I'm sorry but when you said no..." Taffy replied but was cut short by Jack.

"I know, I said no but I didn't mean it." Jack told her.

"I....don't follow." Taffy confessed.

"I'm used to dealing with my own unit back on that cesspool Nechayev left us on. That know what I was saying even though I didn't say it." Jack told her. He thought about what he said to her. "Yah, I know. That doesn't make sense."

"No, I think I understand. You didn't have to use the exact words. They knew what your intentions were?" Taffy asked.

"Yes, that's it." Jack confirmed. "Glad you understand. Get back to work, we're done here."