Disappointment

Posted on Mon Jul 8th, 2013 @ 5:37am by Captain Daniel Butterworth & Commander Connie Butterworth
Edited on on Tue Jun 28th, 2016 @ 11:17am

Mission: Nothing Stays the Same
Location: Butterworth’s Quarters USS Pacifica
Timeline: 21st of December 2382 20:30 Hours

ON:

~~~~Butterworth’s Quarters USS Pacifica~~~~

Commodore Daniel Butterworth sat at the desk in his quarters and stared blankly at his desk monitor. He had been speaking with Admiral Amanda Grayson on Starbase 99 who had dropped a bombshell on him. She had transferred the Pacifica’s Chief Diplomatic Officer Lieutenant Commander Matthew Horne, one of his friends and most trusted officers to Starbase 99 to assist Ambassador Kingsley with the ongoing diplomatic talks. He understood the reasons behind why the Admiral had decided to transfer Horne but the timing of it all stunk. It left the Pacifica who was already missing a First Officer without the services of its Chief Diplomatic Officer ahead of one of the ship’s most important missions.

The Admiral’s aging face had long ago disappeared from the monitors screen had been replaced by the blue and white great seal of the United Federation of Planets. He tapped his fingers gently on the glass desk, pondering what it meant for the Pacifica’s upcoming mission to the Isis Arm. The Admiral had gone out of her to assure him that it was only a temporary reassignment but in truth those were hollow words and Butterworth knew it. The Pacifica was scheduled to depart for the Isis Arm in little over a week and he knew that any transfer back to the ship after that point would be virtually impossible. The only way that Horne was going to make the trip to the Isis Arm was if peace was declared in the next 48 hours and somehow he didn’t see that happening.

“Is everything all right?” Connie asked breaking the silence that had filled the room. The sound of his wife’s voice brought him back to the present. He looked across to where she sitting cross legged on the floor. An unopened box of Christmas decorations sat on her lap and she wore a expression of concern on her beautiful face.

He wanted to smile, to recapture the festive mood of fifteen minutes ago before the Admiral had called but he couldn’t. All he could was quietly shake his head in disappointment. Connie didn’t say a word, instead she sat quietly and looked across at him with her brown eyes. He assumed that she had heard some if not all of his conversation with the Admiral and was waiting for him to confirm it in his own time. Finally he broke the silence, confirming to her what he expected she had already knew.

She listened quietly and intently as he explained the general gist of the Admiral’s call to her. She waited until he was finished before speaking. Her first question was simple and straight to the point, “When?”

“Tomorrow the Tranquility will be arriving tomorrow at 14:00 to transfer him to the conference,” he explained. He could see by the expression on her face that she was surprised by the news as well.

“That is awfully short notice.”

Butterworth sighed and rubbed his eyes, “I know, tell me about it.”

“He’s not going to like it,” she pointed out.

“I know!” He shot back, his voice was loud and full of a day’s worth of frustration. He quickly pulled himself up and reminded himself that it wasn’t Connie’s fault she was only telling him what he already knew. Horne was not going to like the transfer one little bit. The Lieutenant Commander had been looking forward to the Isis mission for weeks now and had been preparing his department for the long term deep space assignment for just as long. He also knew that Horne wasn’t Ambassador Kingsley’s fan. “Sorry,” he apologised, “It’s been a long couple of days.”

“It’s ok,” she smiled. “When are you going to tell him?”

“Tonight I suppose.” He shrugged his shoulders and ran a hand through his hair, “There’s no point in waiting until tomorrow.” He stood up from his chair and was about to check with the computer to see where the Lieutenant Commander currently was when Connie raised a hand to stop him.

“Ah, you might want to leave that until the morning.”

“What? Why?”

Connie smiled a knowing smile and carefully placed the box of decorations down onto the carpeted floor. “Because he is meeting up with Francine tonight. Remember?”

Butterworth paused for a second and thought about it. In all of the excitement he had completely forgotten that Horne was having dinner tonight with Lieutenant Francine Hart.. Now was definitely not the time to inform Horne of his reassignment as it would no doubt wreck his night with the ship’s young Chief Operations Officer. “On second thoughts maybe it would be best to leave it until the morning,” he said with a sheepish grin.

“I had a feeling that you would say that.”

“How did you know about that anyway?” he asked as he watched her get up from her sitting position on the floor. “I don’t remember telling you about that.”

Connie shot him a bemused look and started to brush herself down. “The ship rumour mill of course,” she explained quietly, “As you should well know nothing on this ship stays quiet for too long. Especially when it involves members of the senior staff.” She was right, as nothing ever stayed quiet on a ship of this size were rumours and gossip would spread quickly like an out of control brush fire. He remembered what it had been like for him and Connie when they had first starting seeing each other. Of course there was nothing quiet about as they had shared a kiss together in a very crowded Jadda’s. Thinking back to that moment brought a smile to his face. Connie crossed the distance to where he was standing an offered him a hand. “So are we going to finish this tree or not?”

“Of course,” he smiled.

He reached out, took hold of her hand and he let her lead him back to the half decorated tree. As he started to hang some decorations on the tree’s pine branches he started to think forward to tomorrow’s conversation with Matthew. It was not a conversation that he was looking forward to.

OFF: This was a Joint Post by.



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