driftfleet | 003

Entry tags:

kai gracen

003 | Video

Who: Kai Gracen and Open
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Caprine
When: Now

Look, I think it’s great that we all survived, and that there was some coordination was obviously fundamental to that. So was rescue.

Still, this whole experience brings up a rather pressing question. Do we have a basic battle plan?

[ A pause, and then Kai’s voice dips sardonic, sarcastic. ]

Or at least an entertaining one? Maybe that’s where we failed. Being rescued was more amusing than anything we’d managed to come up with on our own.

We’ll have to do better. Ideas welcome.

[ For anyone that would be looking for him, Kai's in the kitchen with a glass of some kind of liquor he'd gotten on Corona, and the bottle is about half-empty. He really didn't like how close they'd come to losing the Caprine. ]

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[ Kai would share easily enough even if it weren't his captain. After all, it saves him from having to drink alone. Although it might already be too late for that. Still, Kai tips a generous portion into McCoy's glass. ]

It was hard enough anyway to think through how to react. I'm sure drills would have helped, but more coordination in the moment just...wasn't possible, not with what we had.

[McCoy nods and slowly spins the full glass in his hands.] This many ships, we have a lot of resources. Only trouble is, the more people you have, the harder it is to coordinate. Blessing and a curse. We can't draw up a sort-of buddy system; there's no guarantee sister ships won't all be damaged. Not all the ships have pilots, or engineers, or security. Hell, I think the best we could do is assign those ships with pilots to quadrants within the Fleet and try to get each position covered within a quadrant, but...

[He shrugs.] There's a few things we could try, but plannin' means almost nothing when the shit hits the fan.

[ Kai drains his glass and pours himself another. He's going to show some signs of slowing down at this point, at least, looking at the alcohol instead of emptying his glass again. ]

Sometimes I think we'd be better off just stopping at a planet. I trust myself more than I trust the hull of the spaceship to hold out.

[He makes a note of the alcohol consumption slowing a bit. He doesn't comment - he's not one to talk when it comes to the desire to get as drunk as possible.]

You'd never get anywhere stuck on a planet. This may be a tin can, but at least it's goin' somewhere.

But going where?

I lived my whole life on a single planet.

[ More or less. Having that world combine with another isn't quite the same as leaving it, if pieces had gone missing to who knew where. Kai had been on the part that survived. ]

Goin' somewhere, at least. I can't stand the thought of not tryin' to get home.

You think we'll find where we're from by traveling to it?

[ Kai sips at his cup again, checks if his captain needs a refill. ]

[His captain's cup is still fair.]

I know where I'm from and it's not here. [Implied: which means he's not staying here.] It wasn't so long ago that I lost my ship -- back home, the Enterprise. Crew was scattered, tryin' to find their way back together after escaping. [And that's the shortest of short stories.] That's what I mean. Not lookin' for a place to land. It's trying to make certain all the people involved find their way.

Where I come from we don't have ships, not like this. It's hard for me to imagine getting back with one.

Then again, as long as we don't take that kind of damage again, I'd not be so put off by the idea of staying.

Yeah, that wasn't great. I'm hoping the Fleet can figure out how to defend against attacks like that.

I'll work on it. I promise.

[ Not one made lightly, or something he knows how to figure out, but Kai can't give his captain less than this. ]

So will I. [Also a promise not made lightly.]

Good.

[ That's taken care of, then. Kai tops off both their glasses and settles back into drinking quietly, unless Leonard has more to say. ]

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003 | Video

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