Messhall – 9:00

O’Shea made his way through the seemingly endless length of corridors. His mind kept going over the briefing that Sorek had just given the various department heads. There wasn’t any one thing that seemed to stand out as an issue; the mission itself was a standard one and having an expert per se come aboard to command the mission itself, outside the Mercy, was not unheard of but he had a strange feeling that there was something more going on.

He stopped outside the door to the main mess hall. There were several reports waiting for him in the security office and there was the training simulations at midday for the auxiliary security teams but a fresh coffee seemed to be in order. Stepping into the mess he was pleased to find that the staff had just brewed a fresh pot of coffee, and not just replicated one.  He grabbed a cup and sat down at one of the empty tables. Pulling out the PADD he usually carried with him for quick access to work he opened a secure connection to his console.  Taking a sip he began to read through the first report from Chief Pach on the last training simulation he had overseen.

Security Office – 9:30

Dougal sat at one of the tables with his feet propped up.  He had a whetstone in his right hand and Sgian-dubh in his left.  Giving the whetstone a critical eye and spat on the surface before returning to sharpening the blade.

Across from him sat Pach who was planning the training simulations, looking up at Dougal he grunted when he saw the Sgian-dubh, “What is the purpose of that blade Lieutenant? It is rather small for combat purposes; wouldn’t something like a meqle’H or bigger knife be more efficient?”

He looked at the blade critically and shrugged,  “I dinna ken, an I dinnae ken what a meqle’H is, but, this wee bugger has come in handy from time to time. It’s part of a Scotman’s kilt.  It’s tradition lad,” he concluded exaggerating the rolling of the “r” in tradition.

Pach nodded in understanding, “A traditional weapon? Then it must be carried and honoured, I can understand that better than most.” He pushed back from the station he was working at and opened a small compartment to his side and pulled out one of the pair of mek’leth he had stashed in there in case events called for them.  Holding it up he showed Dougal, “This here is a  mek’leth, a bit bigger than the meqle’H but similar design, good for close-in fighting, especially against a bat’leth.”

Dougal scratched his chin considering the weapons.  He was familiar with them, but had never seen one in person.  “A bit more substantial than a Highland dirk, but comparable reach.”

He stood and went to his locker and pulled out a blade sheathed in leather.  He drew the foot long blade of steel and presented it to Pach. The blade was double-edged, straight, and tapered for thrusting.  Too long to be a knife, but too short to be considered a sword.  The handle was black warpped leather with a polished brass pommel.   The blade itself was folded steel, and acid etched to bing out the pattern.   Near the hilt polished to a near mirror appearance was the coat of arms for the Clan MacDonald.  

“Another traditional weapon lad, but this is a wee bit harder to hide under my uniform.”

“An effective weapon, both in size and shape.” Pach agreed and then let out a deep chuckle, “But as you say, harder to hide under a uniform, especially the Star Fleet uniform, at least for day-to-day activities.” He paused for a moment before continuing, “If you ever want to practice I have several good training programmes, always happy for a battle companion.”

“I would imagine if I wore a Klingon uniform I would be encouraged to wear it openly. But. I no think I would make a braw Klingon,” he laughed. Returning the dirk to his locker he dropped back into his seat and picked up the whetstone to continue sharpening his knife. “I dinnae have a backward, but I expect the computer can do a fair approximation.  It would be interesting to see how our two martial styles stack up.”

Nodding Pach slid his mek’leth back into the compartment by his console, “I will let you know the next time I plan on training.”

O’Shea walked into the office a couple of minutes later, a PADD in his hand. Looking up at the room he nodded to Lieutenant Dougal, Chief Petty Officer Pach and the usual fixture of Ensign Pottinger who manned the security checkpoint into the brig. “Good, just who I wanted to see. We have our new orders and some news. My office in five.”

Out of respect Dougal returned the Sgian-dubh to its sheath on his left calf and stood for O’Shea. 

Five minutes later Dougal, Pach and Gerard Pottinger entered the office and took seats. “Great, first I wanted to confirm with each of you that Iziraa has transferred to a new ship; it was something she needed to do. She will be missed on Mercy and I know she will excel where she is. This leaves you three as the most senior security staff after me.” He paused for a moment and glanced at Ensign Pottinger, “Gerald, I want you to take over as head of Charlie shift, please. We will work on ensuring there is somewhere here at all times when the brig is needed.”

Gerald nodded as he straightened in his chair, “Sir, I can do that.” 

O’Shea nodded, “Good.” He turned his attention back to the others. “As I mentioned we have our orders. We are to do a routine check-in on an observation team observing a pre-warp society that has reached its two-year milestone. They are undergoing an industrial revolution.” He paused for a moment and pulled up the information he had on the planet sending it to each of their workstations for later review. “To be honest I don’t think this will have much for us as medical, the counsellors and the science teams will be reviewing the team and their date. That said if there have been any possible security issues and such we will review need to review their reports on them. The main bit of news is that we, well the ship are being given an advisory per se, Captain Grace Pottinger. She has experience doing these reviews apparently and command has asked her to join for the duration. The ship is still commanded by Halsey but she will have command of the review from my understanding only. If you do encounter her treat her with respect due to her position and rank but remember she is outside the chain of command of the Mercy and Halsey’s orders come first unless it is mission related.”

“I dinnae like a muddy chain of command,” Dougal grumbled his arms crossed in front of his chest. “One clear voice. Two can be problematic. Starfleet can be daft at times.”

O’Shea stifled a laugh at that which came out as a bit of a cough, “Let’s keep it as simple as we can. With any luck, there will not be much need for you to interact with Captain Pottinger but just remember, Halsey commands Mercy and Pottinger the mission-related aspects.”

At that Pach grunted an affirmative but Gerald frowned slightly before nodding. 

“Good, if you have any questions or concerns with anything do not hesitate to bring them to me and I will take them from there,” O’Shea said. “Before you go, do any of you have anything on your minds?”

“I think I’m good lad,” Dougal replied. 

Before O’Shea could respond Gerald spoke up, “Not sure that it means anything but Captain Grace Pottinger is a cousin, well somewhat removed. I don’t know much about her as we kept clear of that side of the family for reasons no one ever told me.” 

O’Shea nodded, “Well we all have some family members like that. Thanks for letting us know. You could always use this opportunity to reconnect if you wanted Gerald.”

Gerald shrugged, “Don’t see the need really sir.”

“Fair enough, your all dismissed. We need to get the training simulation sorted shortly,” O’Shea said.