[Jaxom/Meyers] "At The Academy"

[Clifford]

“At The Academy”

or

“Road Trip, part 3”

or

“The Long Awaited Finale to Road Trip”

Jaal Jaxom, Captain in Starfleet, currently on leave & recovering POW

Ensign Joann Meyers, counselor aka personal brain care specialist

Ensign Ben Travis, distressed ex-POW, rescued with Jaal and the others

Admiral Jeanette Brigid, SFA Dean

Captain Stovok, SFA Security

Lieutenant Buchwald, SFA Security

==Admiral Brigid’s office==

“We’re so glad you’ve decided to participate in this presentation for the cadets Captain.” Admiral Brigid had just set her coffee down on her desk as Jaal and Joann had taken some seats on the opposite side of her desk.

“Just Jaal,” Jaal told her while waving his hand flat, with his palm facing the ground as if that would make it final.

Joann tried really hard to not roll her eyes and gave the Admiral a ‘high sign’ that she shouldn’t mention Jaal’s actual rank. She knew she’d sent a message about that before this meeting.

As admiral’s do, she missed it totally. “But you’re a captain in Starfleet,” Brigid pointed out.

Jaal’s eyes made a long blink and he explained in an ever patient tone. “I have not yet decided to return to active duty. So, you can call me Jaal, or Mister Jaxom.”

It had been a big deal to get Jaal to leave his home on Trill. Joann, however, was convinced he would do it in his own good time. She knew he was not a quitter or one that would shirk his duty. Through their many discussions on the subject she also knew Jaal had to do this on his own terms, no one else’s.

Admiral Brigid paused for a moment and looked as if she’d sat on a tack. “Well, all right… if that makes you feel better…”

“It does,” Jaal quickly interrupted her sentence with a sideways glance at Joann.

Brigid looked from Jaal to Joann and then back to Jaal trying to keep a confused look off her face. “Okay then,” her expression slowly returned to normal. “As I was saying… any information on your experience as a prisoner of war will be helpful for the cadets. A recent survey of current juniors and seniors have expressed a desire for a little more preparation for that very unpleasant scenario.”

“I’m not entirely sure one can be prepared for that scenario,” Jaal stated evenly, “I mean, sure, we all know what to expect from Klingons, Romulans, the Dominion and many others… but what happened to me and the others went, I think, a bit above and beyond that.”

Joann’s lips drew together tightly, “But now, we can add the Breen to that list.” She wondered why Jaal’s usual sense of humor seemed to have suddenly evaporated. It could be anything at this point. She made a mental note to ask him about it later.

Jaal’s eyes side-glanced Joann again and then refocused back to the Admiral, “I’ve learned a lot of things first hand in my career… being a prisoner of war is one we should all get to skip.”

A Vulcan officer - a captain - glided up in the annoyingly precise walk that some of his people affected. “Excuse me, Admiral,” he interjected, each word carefully selected and polished to logical brilliance before being uttered. “Captain Stovok, Academy Security. We have a situation that requires me to inform you that the presentation you have scheduled must be reassigned to a different time.”

The Admiral and Jaxom shared a confused glance at each other. Then Admiral Brigid looked to Stovok and asked, “One of our presenters is right here. Are you willing to tell us why?”

Joann was curious as well. She had spent a lot of time convincing all the speakers to come to Earth and talk about how difficult their situations were. “For the record, I’d like to know too.”

“There is a security threat currently affecting the scheduled location and several others, Admiral,” Stovok responded. “An individual believed to be operating alone has barricaded himself in an adjoining building and activated the anti-terror systems in the structure, including the sensor block and transport inhibitor screens. They threaten to detonate an explosive device. Motivations are currently unclear, but the individual, tentatively identified as Ensign Benjamin Travis, does not seem… rational. Evacuations of affected areas are underway.”

Jaal’s head jerked towards the Vulcan, “Benjamin Travis was on my ship! He was in operations, that kid had a lot of potential.” Now the Trill looked at Joann. “What’s he doing here? Wasn’t he cleared for duty?”

“He was,” she was as surprised as Jaal, “He was here to give a presentation like you were,” she explained hastily.

“There were several who were rescued with you that were going to speak,” Admiral Brigid confirmed while addressing Jaal, “Being the highest ranking one, you were to be the keynote speaker.”

Jaal turned to face the Vulcan, “Where is he? Let me try and talk him down.”

“You shouldn’t go alone,” Joann added.

“No,” Jaal was adamant, “Too many people could overwhelm him. This should start as a one on one. He knows me. Let me go alone.”

“But you’re not exactly trained for this.” Joann protested.

Jaal gave her a weary grin. “Really? You think you have the monopoly on counseling? I’m a Starfleet captain. I’ve been trained for just about anything.” His lips pursed a moment as he reconsidered. He folded his arms across his chest. “We should have a backup plan,” he conceded.

Now Jaal realized his old command instincts were kicking in and the adrenaline rush was almost intoxicating. “Let me talk to him, alone at first. The rest just stay out of sight as long as there’s no danger to anyone else.” Turning to the Vulcan captain and Admiral he asked, “What do you two think? Can we do this?”

The Admiral let out a held in breath. “I guess so… if you’re sure you can get through to him.”

“I’m reasonably sure I can.” Jaal sounded confident. He looked to Stovok expecting some logical induced argument.

The Vulcan regarded him for a moment. “There is risk, but also logic to the plan. Even if you cannot convince the Ensign to stand down, you may be able to gather useful intelligence that would verify the existence of an explosive, its placement, and type. It will also give us time to move portable shield generators into place to isolate the building in the event that a device is present and he cannot be reasoned with and chooses to detonate it, or if direct intervention is called for.”

Jaal nodded, “I’ll do the best I can. If someone can get me a comm-badge, I’ll keep a channel open so you can listen in covertly. I won’t ask anyone to come with me,” he looked at Joann now. “IF anyone wants to volunteer, I have to suggest they stay out of sight until this can get de-escalated and the danger of a detonation is gone.” He turned and consulted Stovok and Brigid, “One other thing, is anyone working on reversing the transporter inhibitors? If we can get people beamed out, that would be a good thing.”

“They are designed to not be reversed once activated, Captain. Not from an outside source; this prevents potential threats from doing so. It is currently unknown how the Ensign accessed the Security system necessary to do so and bypassed the required activation protocols. It is possible that he has somehow suborned one or more of the duty personnel - Lt. Jynn Ferric and Lt. Paul Norton - in order to do so."

Jaal cursed in his native language. “Ensign Travis was in the operations department on my ship. That’s a trick he learned from me, damnit.”

“And since you reached command through the operations track,” Admiral Brigid added, “You have a soft spot for those in your operations department. Your record, as sullied as it is, proves you were exceptional in that department.”

Jaal looked cross, “Sullied? Admiral, with all due respect, I’ve done more good than harm during my career.”

Brigid didn’t offer an apology but did acknowledge Jaal was correct with a slow nod.

Joann’s brow furrowed deeply in an expression of disbelief, “Just what do you teach your crew?”

Jaal sighed deeply, “I teach them how to solve unusual problems encountered out there,” his arm slowly swung up and indicated outer space, “without any other support. Unusual problems that require unusual solutions and sometimes, unfortunately, those solutions can be used to bypass the ordinary protocols because sometimes the ordinary just doesn’t get it done. The people that write the ordinary protocols never seem to anticipate… well, everything.  Ask Elaithin about the anti-invasion protocols I installed on Miranda sometime.”

Joann had no words, her expression aghast, but then again, she didn’t have the experience in deep space the other three in the room had.

“At the risk of sounding conceited and full of myself,” now the Trill looked to Stovok, “If there’s any operations personnel here who’ve worked for me before, there’s a better than good chance they can figure out how to undo this. I mean, I could, but someone needs to go talk to Travis. I still think I should go because I know what he’s been through. I’m pretty sure the Breen treated us all the same. I know how he’s feeling.”

“And we’re running out of time,” Joann added and now noticing first hand how Jaxom’s mind worked at having back up plans and contingencies.

“I have no objections to the attempt, Admiral.” Stovok nodded. “Let the Captain try to open communications. His connection to the Ensign gives him an opening that a regular negotiator would not have - and logic dictates that any chance to de-escalate the situation without the need for violent intervention should be considered.”

The admiral was in complete agreement. She took off her comm-badge and handed it to Jaal, “You three get going… I’ll look for someone in operations that might be able to undo the transport inhibitors.”

Jaal pinned the admiral’s badge to his own shirt and took a deep breath remembering the last time he’d worn one. It brought back some troubling memories. Now wasn’t the time for that. Now was the time to save someone. To Joann he asked, “You ready?”

She nodded with a determined expression. “Let’s go.”

Jaal turned to Stovok, “If you’ll kindly lead the way, Captain. We can get to his location the old fashion way, right?”

“It is possible to walk to the Fredrichs Building, yes. In this case, it is preferred, as it will give the Ensign time to see you approach and prevent an unwanted incident by startling him with a transporter delivery. This way, Captain.”

Jaal bristled a bit at being called Captain but knew it was useless to argue that point, especially with a Vulcan. Instead he just followed Stovok in grim, determined silence.

Joann had yet to see Jaxom in ‘command mode’ yet and found it interesting. She could observe someone she’d aided through counseling in action. It was a rare opportunity for her to see if her technique worked. She followed the two men out into the corridor.

They nearly jogged all the way to the Fredrichs Building. Outside were numerous people in security uniforms, some even wearing riot gear. They were controlling the crowd and keeping everyone outside an estimated blast perimeter.

Stovok received an update from one of his lieutenants. Nothing had changed in the Vulcan’s absence. The three were admitted into the restricted zone followed by two other security people. As they walked Jaal asked, while looking around, “That’s quite a large cordoned off area. What kind of explosive do you think he has?”

“Owing to the scan block we have no idea what sort of device the Ensign might have, or, as I said, even whether or not he has one at all. We’re still reviewing archival footage to determine if he’s been to the building on multiple prior occasions, which would allow him to bring components of a device in separately to avoid the detection scanner.”

Jaal looked up to the top of the building. “All right then, up we go. Can we use the lifts or do we have to take the stairs?”

“Jaal,” Joann asked, “Shouldn’t we find out what floor he’s on first?”

The Trill stopped in his tracks, “Good idea. For some reason I assumed he was at the top.” He looked to Stovok, “All right, Captain. Can you, or someone else, lead us to Ensign Travis’ position?”

“The lifts in the building are still functional,” the Vulcan captain replied, “Travis is on level twenty-five.”

Jaal nodded, “All right then, up we go.” He pinned the commbadge the admiral had given him to his shirt, then the three officers headed inside the building. Once inside they quickly walked through the lobby towards the elevators.

All three seemed on edge as they waited impatiently to reach level twenty-five.

When the lift stopped the three stepped out led by Jaal. He tapped his commbadge to open a signal. “All right, you two should probably wait here. I’ll go and try to talk him down.” He took a deep breath and uttered, “Wish me luck.”

Stovok said nothing but Joann replied,”Good luck.”

Jaal walked as calmly as he could down the hall peeking into rooms as he passed looking for the distressed Ensign Travis. All the while wondering just what, exactly, he could say to the young man. As he closed in on the end of the hall, he heard some muttering.

“Yes, yes, yes, you should, they deserve it.”

“No, no, no, this is wrong, you know it is.”

Jaal crept up to the last doorway in the hall and listened. After a moment he realized Travis was talking to himself. It appeared to be quite the animated discussion.

Jaal chanced a peek around the door jamb and saw Travis was repeating the two lines while pacing back and forth across the room. He was holding something in his left hand. Was that the detonator? From that angle, he could not discern anything that looked like an explosive device.

Jaal slowed his breathing to calm himself. He didn’t want to spook Travis and get him to accidentally set off the explosive. Even though Jaal didn’t see one right away, he had to assume the worst. All he had to do was decide what the best way to greet Travis would be, tear the bandage off, or something more subtle…

TBC…