Duty Log | CO | Capt. Eric Carpenter

Posted on 241402.18 @ 9:20am by Captain Eric Carpenter

Mission: Where no man has gone before.

= London, Earth =

Life had been rather unfair to Eric, and that wasn't strictly limited to his upbringing either. After the USS Gordon had been laid up, he'd been put on the half-pay list of 'available' CO's for a while. The war was entering its anti-climatic state, and the need for experienced tactical CO's should've been high - but yet he found himself languishing on Earth, doing dull ground assignments.

His running theory was that somehow he had displeased an Admiral somewhere, who had put a block on his career. That was the only explanation he had for why he hadn't been given another command after the Gordon had been forced to be retired - given that only the scarred and holed saucer section had been towed back to Utopia Planetia a year ago. He'd faced his inquiry into the loss of the stardrive section of his Galaxy class starship, but given that he'd lost it in combat, in a daring move that had saved the lives of a civilian refugee convoy, the inquiry had acquitted him of any negligence or wrong-doing.

Oh, sure, they'd given him a nice medal, and said all the nice words. He'd still lost people under his command, and he'd felt bad about it. But his cure for that was to get back on the horse and dedicate himself in their honor. This... sitting around... only enabled him to brood over his mistakes. Something not calculated to produce positive results. Even with the seemingly endless visits to the counselor, he still had nightmares about the losses.

Arriving at the Officer's Club on Piccadilly Circus, he nodded to the doorman and headed into the radiated luxury of the club set up to cater for the large number of Starfleet officers who frequented London these days. However, he'd barely walked through the door when the maitre' de, approached him.

"Captain Carpenter sir, this message arrived for you in expectation of your arrival." He said, with a rather stiff upper-class accent.

"Thank you Henry." Eric said, accepting the PADD. He pressed his thumb against the scanner, so that it recognized his identity, then displayed the message.

====

Captain Carpenter,

You are hereby directed and required to report to the office of the Commander-in-Chief of Starfleet as soon as is practicable.

Kind Regards,

Amelia Thomas, Cmdr
Personal Aide to the Commander-in-Chief

====

Well, that was cryptic and also straight to the point. Getting a summons like this was tantamount to a direct order to get his butt to the CinC's office straight away - without delay. So, braving the English weather, he turned up the collar of his coat and stepped out to the public transport centre - where he'd have himself transported to Starfleet Command.

[ To Be Continued.... ]

Captain Eric Carpenter
Commanding Officer
USS Enterprise