[snip]

Joe had finally gotten out of sickbay, but it hadn’t made his mood any better. He had wanted to grab a quick cup of coffee from the mess hall but the smells coming from that general direction quite frankly frightened the be jeepers out of him. He was quite sure he was having olfactory hallucinations, so he avoided the area altogether. This would have to be one of those odd occasions where he would take advantage of the fact that he had a replicator in his cabin.

So, it was then that despite himself he found himself sitting in his cabin with a cup of very good coffee. He had to admit that Mullins had done a bang-up job with the replicator system. Now though being in his cabin he could find no excuse not to write a report on the away team mission to the captain He’d send it off to him and then go to see him for any questions he had or to see if he wanted any changes made to his report or the recommendations he had made.

After sending the report Joe left his cabin and headed directly toward the captain’s office. He buzzed the door and waited impatiently. He was in a hurry to be done with this day.

Glen was busy reading a large military assessment of Klingon capabilities, Federation responses, and on the progress of the Klingon withdrawal from the Sector. He was only a third of the way through it, and so he had not even picked up Joe’s report on the landing party when the door chimed. He had not had a chance.

“Yes,” Glen called, “Please enter!”

When Glen saw it was Joe, he had two immediate thoughts. Firstly, he hadn’t read the report, even though it had been sitting in his inbox for some time. Secondly, he hadn’t bothered to enquire again from Hunter or Cross about Joe’s condition (and microscopic friends). Since He had got back to his Quarters he had become so engrossed in the assessments of various Klingon threats and ambitions, and their proxies, that the fact that Joe might be seriously ill had escaped his mind completely.

“Ah! Joe!” Glen said, looking away from the report on the screen towards the door. “How are you? How serious is the infection?” he asked, thinking, Not too serious, if he is allowed to wander the ship now, anywhere that he wants, without a mask or a control plan that I’ve been shown.

Joe’s eyebrows shot up at the question. Considering that he looked like a one horned ram with his only horn broken in two thanks to the look of that patch on the side of his head he was doing only moderately miserable. But instead of carrying on in this vein Joe forced a smile and said,” Not too bad sir, I’ve been blessed with the superpower of improved hearing so that I can eavesdrop on those gossiping about me. A side effect of the infection it seems.”

John Glen wasn’t sure if Joe was serious at first. He hadn’t read the report, though to be fair it had only just arrived, and he puzzled that almost anything was possible with an unknown space-borne micro-organism. He wished he could read Joe better, but this seemed to be one of his deadpan jokes.

Joe then took it upon himself to sit down as he reasoned, ‘what can they do break me down to an Ensign?’ “Yes sir,” he began. “I just sent you a report on the away team action. ” Joe took a deep breath and plowed ahead as he said,” I’ve taken the hit for everything. I’ve stated that the XO was responsible for giving unclear orders to the security detail, which resulted in a mission failure and everything that has happened since. “

“Sorry, but do sit down,” Glen said belatedly. “I apologise that I haven’t yet read your report, but while I did expressly say ‘no contact’ I was told down in Sickbay that this child just jumped out of the vegetation, and something had interfered with the life-signs detectors. Under the circumstances, you did the best you could. Let me read your report in full first, and then I can determine if you could have prevented anything, but it certainly wasn’t a failure - you observed the natives from a distance in a conversation or argument. You’ve confirmed that the Starfleet intel seems correct for once, and there are no Klingons left behind. Now we can think about how to tackle this mission with that knowledge for certain. In the meantime, you need to follow Doctor’s orders, get some rest and get better. I’ve a report on the military assessment of Klingon capabilities here if you would like some reading material?”

Joe rubbed his chin and frowned as he listened to Glen. “Whoever knew an Englishman could be so full of blarney?” he thought to himself. ” Yes.” he finally replied. “Life sign detectors and foliage. That sounds reasonable.” It didn’t of course, given that the whole area was baren but who else would know? Joe nodded and went over the re-write he would have to do for the final report where against equipment failure and all odds the away team had come through looking moderately not too bad.

“Starfleet intelligence, right? ” Joe pondered. “Well insofar as there being no Klingons sir perhaps. About the people I think they may have left out a few details. They all seem to be running about down there trying to shoot one another. Arguing, shooting into the air and all manner of madness. These are people who have been given their freedom and now they want to kill one another off faster than the Klingons were. ”

“Projectile weapons?” Glen asked. “They cause a lot of tissue damage that is difficult to repair. If they go through a vital organ, that can be catastrophic. They obviously hold life to be next to worthless !”

Joe frowned for a moment before once more speaking as he said, “Sir I would have to recommend that any future away teams apply the old iron fist and velvet glove method. Just go in and blow something up before you try to make nice and talk to them. After all those years under the Klingon it may be all that they understand. “

“I’ll have to think carefully about that,” Glen replied. “If we appear to be too powerful then they’ll make us into Gods, as they did the Klingons. You are correct though, we can’t just turn up and expect them to treat us as equals. They will see our friendliness as a sign of weakness, and they will attack anyone they perceive as being week. Somehow, we need to make them see us as associates and partners to do business with, without appearing to be an easy walkover or subordinate to them. No, it will not be easy.”

Joe laughed then and pointed to the obscene looking thing on the side of his head. “The docs say this isn’t anything spread easily or anything. They say it’s some sort of symbiote. It even makes my hearing better. But you are right sir I could use a bit of rest. “

Joe glad that all this had worked out so well, stood and snapped off a salute to Glen and said, “Thank you sir. Feel free to give me a call on any follow ups. The place will be a challenge and we’ll need our wits about us.”

“We will,” Glen agreed, “So, if you think of anything do let me know. I’ll read your report now.”

Joe smiled, turned and left.

Glen closed the Klingon assessment and opened the report written by Joe.

-Glen, CO