Operation: Pacifica, C'mon kiddies, gather 'round.
by Rear Admiral Yearnshaw, TRES Corps


 A loud, shrill noise pierced the darkness for several seconds
  before a hand reached out and seemingly crushed the device that it was
  coming from.


 "What bloody time is it?" I growled into the comm unit next to the
  bed.


 "1430 sir.  You're needed on level five, and Vice Admiral Svartalf
  wants to see you." said the comm tech on the other end who had drawn the
  short straw for the happy chore of waking me up.


 "Yeah I bet he does..."  I grumbled and slapped the comm again,
  closing the line.  Svart knew I didn't like to be woken up, especially at
  this time of afternoon, and who knew what else was wrong? "What do they want
  now?" I grumbled again, thinking out loud as I got up slowly and made my
  through the dark to a pair of jeans.


 "What is it?" came a soft voice from the bed where I had recently
  been sleeping.


 I stopped, smiling softly at Sabine's dark form still half-asleep
  on the bed.  I'm still amazed sometimes at how nice it was to have that soft
  voice and at how suddenly it had come to be there.  "Nothing, somebody just
  can't solve their own problems somewhere." I sighed before bending over to
  kiss her softly on the cheek, "This shouldn't take too long."


 I quickly finished dressing and headed out the door of the darkened
  room, pausing briefly at the doorway to grab my comm, sunglasses, and yo-yo
  to place each in an appropriate pocket or place over my eyes as I finally
  exited with a last glance to the bed and Sabine laying in it.


...


 The elevator doors opened on level 5 and I was met with air that
  seemed just a bit warmer, muggier, and slightly more stale than it should
  be.  Especially for an area that housed some pretty sensitive technology.  A
  tech ran up to me after a few seconds and paused briefly before reporting.
  "Sir, another malfunction in the environmental systems, big one this time."


 "No shit, Sherlock."  I replied in what was a rather customary tone
  for me.  "Who's in charge so far?"


 "Vice Admiral's waitin' for you in the next room." he said before
  quickly returning to whatever job he'd been doing.


 I made a mental note to add his name to the officer prospects list.
  For being new he was pretty good, seemed to be doing his job well and he
  wasn't intimidated by a rank insignia (I did at least attach a small one of
  those to the collar of the flannel flannel or t-shirt that most probably
  thought was my official uniform.)  I walked into the next room, looking for
  Svartalf.  "What's up?" I asked in greeting upon seeing him standing off to
  the side of the room, examining a datapad.


 "Looks like environment's crapped itself again." he answered, not
  looking all that pleased.


 "Yeah, noticed that. I assume you wanted to see me about something
  else, too.  Else you wouldn't have gone to the trouble of waking me up, damn
  you."  I replied with a grin.


 "Yeah, I'm on the next Templar up to Ithaca, I need your brief on
  what you got done up there."


 I quickly filled him in on the progress that had been made during
  my recent two week stay in orbit overseeing the completion of the newly
  christened TRES space fleet and then said a quick goodbye before moving on
  to try to figure out what was up with the environmental control systems.


 After spending the next two hours coaxing the level five
  environment systems back into something resembling functionality, I finally
  managed to get back to the quarters I now shared with Sabine.  I would be
  able to get another hour or so of sleep before I had to get up and resume my
  work in the ongoing repair of TRES HQ after the damage from X'hirjq
  invasion.


...



#"Julius" - Phish, _Hoist_


 A loud *****CLANG!*****CLANG!*****CLANG!***** managed to filter its
  way through what was probably the slightly frightening blare of my portable
  stereo, interrupting the repair work I'd been doing in a crawlspace.


 I glanced at my watch, 3:00am.  I'd been working for three hours
  already, and on the job before that for two, and one and a half on the one
  before that, and so on, what fun.  "DS!" I yelled from the crawlspace,
  "Watch it with that lathe!"


 "I AM watching it!  I'm watching it do nothing!" ****CLANG!****
  came the reply...  I didn't really blame him, those things were a pain in
  the ass, and he was using my favorite repair technique for such things.


[around an hour later]


 I managed to finish up just as "Demand" was closing and also just
  before my comm chimed.  I opened the requested channel, "Yeah?"


 "Jim?  How's it going down there?" came a voice I recognized as
  that of Admiral FoxGlov.


 "How much more work do you have left to do if you've solved half
  your infinite number of problems?" I replied sardonically, "What's up J?"


 "You seen any briefings about the island yet?"


 "Um, island?"


 "Guess not.  Anyway, seems we've found something rather important,
  there's a briefing at seven."


 "Important?"


 "Hamster"


 I could almost hear J's voice crack as he said the name of his
  missing XO.  "Wow, I'll be there then."


 "Thanks, and ask Sabine along too if you will."


 "See you there."


...


 I walked into the briefing room at about 7:01, only nodding in
  response to the annoyed looks I caught from both CP and J.  I took a seat
  and scanned the room as the briefing began.  It wasn't the first time I'd
  walked into a room full of some of the more well known people in the Jihad,
  but given the circumstances we were all still dealing with after the
  X'hirjq, this was an interesting gathering.  Hmm, Andrews, Korth, DS.. I
  smiled warmly as I briefly made eye contact with Sabine.. Geir, nobody too
  unusual.  My eyes moved to the non-TRES personnel present.. Samhain with
  Warrior Perazim and Trooper Aphrodite, Windigo and Shardik, and Malaclypse,
  someone I didn't think I'd ever seen at TRES HQ before.  It was when I
  finally looked back to CP that I noticed he was wearing the rank insignia
  reserved for the Grand Admiral, something I knew he wouldn't do lightly.
  This was big.


 A few hours later I was arguing half-seriously with Sabine about
  who was going to drive the TARAV.


-Jim