Posted by Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Ready Room - Who Has The Hatchet? (Tag Wyatt)

Posted by Lieutenant Luke Wyatt (Chief of Security) in Ready Room - Who Has The Hatchet? (Tag Wyatt)

Posted by Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Ready Room - Who Has The Hatchet? (Tag Wyatt)
Posted by… suppressed (10) by the Post Ghost! 👻
It was the morning after the medal ceremony, and Cochrane was in his office. Instead of the usual report reviews and such, the Captain of the Manhattan was leaned back in his chair looking out of the window as the stars streaked past. His brow was furrowed, and his thoughts centered around a single figure. Now that they had (for the time being) dealt with the fake Intel Officer and managed to not get Calloway killed in the process, Cochrane was thinking about how the situation had been handled up to that point…

And it didn’t make him happy. Oh, he was relieved by the final outcome… but there were issues that needed to be sorted. Without looking he reached over and pressed the comms.

=/\= Lieutenant Wyatt to the Ready Room, please. =/\= he said flatly; and continued to look out the window.

Cochrane, CO

=^= On my way Captain =^= Came Lukes own flat reply, someone was bound to ruin his happy mood especially having just watched Faye depart. He hoped she was going to have a far better day than he because something told him he knew what was coming. maybe she should have killed me last night he thought throwing on his tunic in some slight discomfort from the nights rather athletic activities.

The walk to the Captain’s ready room was very short, shorter than he hoped, but at least he showed he was punctual for all that would do it. He pressed the doors to control panel where it was labelled ‘bell’ and waited. He sucked in a deep breath and went over everything in his mind, he knew he couldn’t make apologies for something that A) didn’t happen and B) got results it just seemed that everyone had some sort of protective bubble when it came to Faye and well.. she really didn’t need it.

The doors slid open silently to reveal Cochrane in the same position as when he called for the Securiry Chief

Upon entering Luke looked around before standing to attention, “Reporting as ordered sir.”

• Lieutenant Luke Wyatt

Without taking his eyes from the window, he gestured to a chair and said “Do take a seat, Mr. Wyatt. ” and he waited for the Lieutenant to do so.

As asked Luke moved across the room and took a seat which was opposite to where the Captain would be sat if he were to take a seat himself, he didn’t speak but waited his turn patiently.

Once Wyatt was seated, Cochrane turned away from the window and leaned up straight and clasped his hands together on the desk before him. He regarded Wyatt for a long time before speaking. When he did, his tone was even and steady; almost conversational.

“So… Lieutenant Wyatt. I have a problem, and you are the only person that I think can help me with it.” and he regarded the man again for a long moment. “Do you know what that problem may be, Lieutenant?”

Cochrane, CO

Thats some way of putting it He thought before engaging his mouth, “I belive the problem youre referring to is me sir, I haven’t exactly been at my best lately, distracted and distant.” The security officer offered not showing any sign of feeling uncomfortable, he really was trying to be better, or atleast bevekme the person he knew he had been before the Manhattan.

• Lt Luke Wyatt, CoS

“Well… you are half-right. Yes, the problem is you. But even more so… it is you and me. That being said, let’s talk about you first. You say you are not at your best. I won’t argue that point with you. So what is causing your distance and distraction? If we can address that together, that may help alleviate my own personal problem… and in turn make this -” and he pointed back and forth from Wyatt to himself,”- turn into a productive and effective working relationship. Which, at the end of the day, is what you and I… and this ship… need. Make sense? So… speak freely, Luke. Let’s get this sorted.”

Luke nodded, he didn’t want to come across as rude and to be honest this was a little bit of a surprise to him. He never felt that the Captain was ever an issue, after all, he was the Captain and made agreeable and disagreeable decision all the time. That being said Wyatt might as well respect his question and speak honestly and truly, he hoped we wouldn’t offend. Something that was simply something he never set out to achive.

Alex was sincere in his words and demeanor. He did want to be able to work with the man; and he knew Wyatt had it in him to be a good, if not exceptional, Security officer. But two things prevented that: Wyatt himself, and the fact that since Wyatt tried to (inadvertently or not) kill Faye… Alex just simply did not trust him at all.

Cochrane, CO

“I have never had a problem with you Captain, the situation was quite frankly out of control, especially when having half the picture. The issue I have is ever since I came here I have felt like a third wheel, someone who no matter what can never live to the crew expectations, fill the boots of the previous chief and someone who certainly couldn’t be trusted and that went both ways. I felt I couldn’t trust you or the crew and honestly how can you blame me?” He sighed, maybe there was more going on in his head.

“I’m not second-guessing your decision to leave me out of the loop, I’m also not going to second guess the decision I made either, if we didn’t make mistakes we would never learn. I keep asking myself did I make the right calls, was I to heavily invested in proving a point and would I make the same decisions. Lt Calloway at the time had just shot several members, on the run with sensitive knowledge and a far superior understanding of the ship. I did what I felt was right at the time.”

“But from the moment that happened everyone was against me, either helping her knowing the real reason or out of some loyalty to Faye, I wasn’t just up against Faye that day I was up against the whole ship and if anyone thinks for an instant that I would have seriously killed her… They’re wrong. Fail-safe were in place and I may not have liked Faye but knew how she worked, enough so that I knew she was never in any real danger and I can’t be solely to blame for what happened. I’d never kill anyone, not again unless is absolutely had too.”

“I’ve come to terms what has happened, myself and Lieutenant Calloway are very much on the same page and have a mutual understanding, she gets it and I get it. I’m just asking to be allowed to do my job, have some trust and for people to stop thinking I tried to kill her, when its far from the truth. Seeing what you want to see and what actually happened are two different things, Did I Kill her no? Did I try overriding any systems that would prevent her life from being persevered, no, did I know that if by some chance that my calculations were wrong and she did end up in a section that we were attempting to vent the computer wouldn’t allow it, not only preventing her from dying but telling us where she was, yes and finally and I being judged by something that not only never happened but wouldn’t have happened, yes. “

“Lieutenant Calloway doesn’t need protecting from anyone, of all against me, she’s more than capable without having the whole crew treating her like some queen who at all costs must be protected.” He shook his head, “That being all said and done, I’m learning and I’m adapting and I’m trying really hard to take onboard everything people have told me, I’m not beyond changing but changing for the wrong reasons, doesn’t sit well with me.”

Luke was certainly interested in hearing the Captains side of the story, “I know I’m not just the innocent victim sir and I may also be tunnelled vision so please tell me what I’m doing wrong.”

• Lt Luke Wyatt

Cochrane pursed his lips together and thought about what the man had said before responding. After a few long moments, he spoke up calmly… but the frustration he felt was slightly evident, not directed at Wyatt but more at himself.

“Ok… lets take that unpacking one suitcase at a time. Let me respond to all that, and then we can drill down together, ok?” and he looked at Luke for acknowledgement.

“First, you know you have had a problem with me. You said so sitting in that very chair. And I don’t think your problem at the time was unjustified. After all, I was intentionally keeping things from you… but it showed to me that you weren’t comfortable taking orders unless they were on your terms and that you didn’t trust me as Captain to make the best choices I could for this ship. Now, that assessment may be wrong on my part. But that, coupled with your disregard of my orders during Faye’s run… well, I hope you can see how that may have generated an unhealthy degree of distrust. The situation was in control… for the most part… and then you started venting. And while normally the computer would override any attempt to vent a space with someone in it… those overrides are automatically suspended in the case of an intruder alert when the computer knows who the intruder is. That’s how we can vent spaces when boarders get on the ship… which you know is standard tactic straight out of the manuals. That’s why she had to hack her way through the tubes… she was no longer recognized as ‘crew’, but as a threat. The fact that you don’t see… or refuse to see… what you could have done is problematic to me. And yes… we have to be responsible for what we could have done as well. That’s one of the burdens we carry as leaders.” Alex took a deep breath and then continued.

“Now. You say you have felt like a third wheel since you have arrived. I can actually see that and agree. But I also see that you haven’t really taken any steps to bridge that gap yourself. I’m afraid in that situation, the responsibility lies on you. To more than a few of us on the Senior staff, you arrived and immediately expected to be treated as an equal in all matters. Well, that just doesn’t happen. Trust has to be earned at almost every level. Very few positions come with a need for immediate, unearned trust. In fact, the only one on this ship is mine. And even then, it’s not trust in me specifically that is relevant… it’s trust that the Brass made the right call in putting me in that chair. The burden then falls to me to prove them right. And that is a heavy burden to carry, believe me. We accorded you your due as the Chief of Security for this ship… but that’s all you did, Luke. The job. You never bothered to step outside and make those connections that would have encouraged us to look at you as something more than Security Chief. Did you go to the CSO and introduce yourself? The Chief Engineer? Our Diplomatic liaison? No, you didn’t. Because the regs say you check in with the CO, XO, Medical, and the Counselor… so that’s what you did. Even though your team is all of them. Hell, Luke… you even had a stick in your aft section when you checked in with me… and I like to think I am pretty lenient when people come and see me for the first time.” and he gave the Lieutenant a friendly half-smile. “I chalked that up to your former Marine days, but now? Now I think it goes a bit deeper than that.”

Alex leaned back and said “You said you won’t ‘second-guess your call’… I will tell you point-blank, Luke… if you aren’t second guessing yourself on decisions of that magnitude afterwards; and aren’t replaying again and again the vast majority of your decisions when you are in charge of others, you are doing yourself and them a great disservice. Yes, we should learn from our mistakes. But you can’t learn from them if you don’t acknowledge that you made them in the first place, right?” and leaned forward and set his hands flat on the desk and looked at Luke, and his tone became more serious and more emphatic.

“Now to Lieutenant Calloway… You are so very, very wrong. She does need protecting. And if the lengths that that group took to get access to her doesn’t show you that; then you are either blind, inept, or willfully ignorant and I need to find another Security Chief. Yes, she is capable. She is cunning. Yes, she is intelligent and courageous and adept. But she is also a target and very fragile in some ways. She is getting much stronger, absolutely, and the way she handled her ‘incarceration’ impressed the hell out of me. But that doesn’t mean she is whole yet. She has a lot to work through. Star Fleet wants her protected because of her intellect. Intel wants her protected because of the data she has in her brain. But I and many members of this crew want her protected because she is our friend… our shipmate… and because we look after our own no matter what.” and he leaned back and looked at Luke, his blue eyes on fire.

“That’s where you and I disconnect. This ship is my home, this crew my family, because I made sure to make it that way when I arrived. You? You are doing a job. Making this ship home brings a level of trust people outside this ship won’t ever know. You want that trust? You have to give yourself to get it. Not just your job. You. You need to be invested in this ship as much as you are in your own flesh and blood family. Because out here? Luke, out here no one is coming to save us except us.”

Cochrane

Luke nodded, instead of trying to fight the points he absorbed what the Captain was saying. He knew it all wasn’t meant to be a personal attack just like his own, “I think in there lies the question, I am trying to give this ship more than my own flesh and blood I failed my wife and I can’t do that again.” The chief security officer avoided any direct eye contact with the man opposite. “I thought my way of giving myself to this crew was to get completely enveloped in my work that I guess I just avoided everything else, including thinking rationally” He didn’t like speaking about how he felt to anyone, a counsellor was bad enough the Captain of the ship, that was awkward.

• Lt Luke Wyatt

Cochrane looked hard at Wyatt and then softened and then said “Lieu… Luke. Look at me.” and he waited for the man’s eyes to focus on him. Once they did, he spoke.

Doing as asked Luke looked to Cochrane, he hated this and maybe that was half the problem he’d never admitted before but maybe he did have a problem connecting with people.

“You are going to fail. Hell, man… you already have because you were scared of failing. But we all fail, Luke. All of us. I have failed more times than I can remember. It’s not avoiding failure that makes us successful… it’s how we deal with that failure. How we learn and grow from it. Failures are not a reflection of your character or your abilities. What is a reflection is how well you allow yourself to work through them. And from where I am sitting, it seems to me that you won’t let yourself even acknowledge that them so you can learn. And personally… I couldn’t trust anyone who didn’t screw up from time to time. Neither should you.”

He nodded, and honestly Luke knew that was the truth. Of course, he had failed. once, Twice and too many times and that’s what bothered him the most. He was well regarded before but now he was an outsider. Trying not to show how uncomfortable he was Luke continued to listen to what the Captain had to offer him in advice. The good and the bad hit him each time like a pin.

Alex leaned back and smiled slightly. “You are a good officer. You have the potential to be even better. The only thing keeping you from reaching that level is you. You need to allow yourself to make mistakes. To try and fail. To show your Department, your fellow officers… your shipmates… that you are more than the job. Because if they can’t see past the job, then the job becomes so much harder. Especially as a Security Chief. There are very few people on this ship that can do what you do, but always remember when I talk to you that I speak from experience, here. I’ve done your job, Luke. A lot longer than you have. I know what it takes to do it and do it well. And I want to help you do it well. So when I give you some direction, don’t look at it as correction… it’s advice, that’s all. And I give it because I want you to succeed… but I don’t expect you to be perfect. No one does. We want to know that you are with us, not just some red-shirt automaton we bust out when there is trouble. No… I for one want you to be a part of this ship. To know faces and names and who people are as people. I want you to be able to diffuse a situation between two people by talking to them as individuals, not just barking ‘Knock it off or else!’. That only gets you so far. You will get much further if people know you care about them as your crew, not just the job.”

Luke felt like saying , Of course, I am with you, that’s the point! I am trying to be a part of this crew but there’s so many lies and deceits how could he possibly know what turn to take but he didn’t he’d agreed to listen and he was going to do just that. As hard as this was all to swallow Luke knew he needed to hear it, the ugly truth in all its ugly-beauty.

Cochrane smiled a broad smile and said “I want to tell you something, and it may sting a bit, but I want you to take it… again… as advice . You have a Petty Officer Bruldi on the night shift bridge watch, right? I see her every time I leave this office late. Good Watch Officer, by the way… but did you know her husband is expecting their first child? Should be spawned in the next few weeks. She is very excited. Smiles every time I ask about him. She said she hadn’t told you because you always seem so busy and she didn’t want to interrupt you. That tells me two things. One, she respects you and your time. That’s good, right? But it also tells me that you aren’t approachable. And if she isn’t comfortable talking to you about something that makes her that happy… how will she talk to you about things that aren’t happy?” and he sat back and waited for Wyatt’s response.

Cochrane, CO

Luke’s calm and frigid composure fell away, how couldn’t he know that someone in his own department felt like that, hell how didn’t he know that’s how perhaps all of them felt. He thought he was doing well, at least within his own department. He knew Bruldi or at least eh thought he did. Everything Luke thought was a misconception of the truth, he’d been working harder so that his department didn#’t have to but it seemed that meant disconnecting from the people he was meant to be looked up to. “I’m sorry, I didn’t… I dont…” He sucked in a breath.

“I have been struggling, I have failed and I want nothing more to be apart of this crew, in its entire capacity not just as the chief of security. I was blinded by my own pursuit of professionalism and instead, I created a wall around myself. I wasn’t thinking about the emotional welfare or effects that had on those around me. I see that now, I was wrong to have done what I did, I was wrong.”

• Lt Luke Wyatt

Alex looked at him and smiled. He reached down and opened a drawer and the sound of glasses clicking could be heard as he lifted a bottle and two glasses. “Yeah, its early. But I think we both could use one. Besides… my ship, my rules.” and he chuckled as poured three fingers in each glass. Sliding one to Luke, he said “You weren’t wrong, Luke. You made a mistake. Wrong would have been trying to kill Faye to stop her. Wrong would be telling me that you know best and I should go $#@! myself. That’s wrong… you just made a mistake. And it happens… to all of us.”

Luke was certainly not going to argue against the time of the day, after this conversation he needed more than just one drink, he took the glass eyeing the three-finger contents. The captain drinks he thought to himself, maybe we do have more in common than he first thought.

He raised the glass to Luke and said “To our epic successes… and our even more epic failures. May each take us a bit closer to where we need to be.”

Cochrane, CO

Raising his glass, “Here here” And downed the contents, he didn’t expect there to be any more toast but something was happening, change and Luke could feel it there in that room that though a very small he felt like things were looking up. “Thankyou Captain.” He placed the glass down, “I’ll try harder to engage with the ship, and with my department, I promise.” And that was a promise he hoped to keep.

• Lt Luke Wyatt

“I hope so. Because not only will it make you a better officer, you’ll end up finding people who you enjoy. Friends. And in those you’ll find a way to make this place more like home. Because like it or not, you’re stuck with us for a while. You may as well make the best of it.” and he drained his glass.

Setting the glass to the side, he said “Now. I’m going to make you a deal. I will give you a clean slate. We start fresh from this moment. The past is done, so we move on as if that didn’t happen. In exchange, you trust me that when I give you an order that seems… let’s say ‘out of the ordinary’… that I always have the best interest of this crew and this vessel at the forefront. I can’t promise that I will always be able to tell you everything, but I can promise that I will always tell you what I can. And I want full disclosure from you as well. If there is something on your mind, let’s discuss it. If you have a problem, professional or personal, and you need another perspective… call me. I won’t think you are a failure for asking for help. I will be pissed if you need it and don’t ask. Fair enough?”

Cochrane, CO

He regarded Cochrane for a short while before finally nodding in agreement, “You have yourself a deal, let bygones be bygones” Wyatt smiled, the idea of finally clicking into the puzzle that was the Manhattan had a satisfying end and he was going to make the most out of this new found vigour. “Thnakyou again sir.”

• Lt Luke Wyatt