===Captains Quarters== Several days had passed since visiting Main engineering and stetting a tone of cooperation with the engineers. Now it was time to addressee another issue in house. Major Walsh and his reputation was still churning though Keylor's mind. And since the time Jack had joined the Chimera, Keylor had been patient, watching observing, trying to get to know what drove the actions behind the officer Over the past few days, Keylor had been able to eves drop on the rumor conversations about the ship, it was not hard, it was a small ship and any thing that seemed to be a hot a juicy event spread fast and furious through the ranks. One in particular was a visit from the XO to the ODA co, Jack Walsh. Though the details of the visit were not known, the one constant in all of the stories was that there was yelling involved. This was the straw that broke the preverbal camels back. Keylor figured it was time to get things straight with Jack. He had spent the afternoon on the base, the memories of the security report of the bar brawl form many days before still echoing in his mind. Though the base security never mentioned capturing the unnamed offenders, Keylor was sure Jack was involved. After all his personnel record was littered with reprimand after reprimand of public brawls. After Stopping in the Jism, to see what the unnamed persons were drinking before the brawl, Keylor bought a large bottle of real Scotch and headed back to his ship. Now dressed din civilian cloths Keylor set the large bottle, a few glasses and a bottle of his coveted sweet wine on a coffee table. He than tapped on his comm badge. "Major Walsh. Please report to the Captains quarters at your earliest convince." He said casually. He then picked up a pad and red over Jacks service record, looking over ever detail that might give insight to Jacks character. Jack replied slowly that he would be there. Captain's quarters? Bit personal and confusing. He was expecting a visit to the General to be on the cards, that Guzman. He knew that bastard would go straight to his boss. But then that was Guzman all over in Jacks eyes. Leaving his office he made his way up to the Generals quarters and waited for a moment outside as he pushed the chime. He was sure he was in for it. As the door Chimed, Keylor tapped on the pad and locked. He then stood up and walked over to his desk and set it down. "Come!" he called out expecting to see Jack walk in. He was not disappointed and smiled at him. "Ah major. Glad you could make it. " He said motioning to a set of over stuffed chairs sitting next to each other in front of the coffee table. "You know ever since you were assigned to the chimera, I have never had a chance to really sit down and take to you. You know, tow old soldiers, swapping war stories." He motioned to the scotch sitting on the table. "Can I offer you a drink? I hope you like Scotch." He said smiling. "And it is not the synthahol stuff either." Jack was taken off guard a little to be honest. He looked the man over cautiously and made his way slowly to the desk. "Sure, I love scotch." Jack replied. "Can't stand that synthahol stuff myself either." he stifled a slight yawn and sat down slowly into the chair. "General if this is about my actions on the away mission I thought I had cleared that up with Commander Guzman" he trailed off. "For all the good It did me" he mumbled. Keylor simply smiled back. He was not ready for this topic of discussion. "Oh that. Well let's not talk about that now. " He said casually. Trying to change the topic of conversation. "So major. I have looked over your personnel record, but all I see there, are the really duty related things. Tell me something about your self that I would not read in the personnel record. For instance, loving scotch is some thing I did not know about you." He said. {Ok it appears that jack really was involved.} He though. Jack was a bit confused, what was the General after? Why did he want to know about him? That wasn't the 'marine way'. Jack didn't want to know any of the men under his command on a 'personal' level. He always felt that it would compromise his ability to send them to their deaths. Looking around for a bit he finally settled back on the General. "Why do you want to know General?" Keylor watched, as Jack looked a bit bewildered at his approach. To be honest Keylor as a bit uncomfortable as well, this was a tactic he was not familiar with, except with the women. "Any thing. I want to know the man behind the uniform. Out here in space, doing what we do, we have to rely on each other when things get tough. Knowing more about each other breaks down the barrier a little, helps us understand each other so we understand more than orders and ceremony." He said. He picked up a bottle of sweet wine and poured a glass. He then sat in the chair next to him. "For instance. I have been piloting a starship of one kind or another since I was 14. There is little I cant navigate or fly and I have a wonderful sense of direction." Keylor then leaned over and added while slapping Jack on the arm in a friendly way. "But I am shit when it comes to engineering. I never really was able to develop that building gene." He smiled and sipped his wine. "Not much to tell about me Sir. I like to kill and I like the fact that it's my job to do it. I don't like most people. I hate anyone who crosses me and I love beautiful women," Jack said waiting for the General to give him that whisky. Noticing Jack not helping himself to the scotch, he leaned forward poured a very tall glass of scotch. Smiling handed Jack his scotch. " Well that is not very descriptive." He said settling back in to his seat. He sipped his wine and then added, " I noticed one of your parents was a professor of ancient studies and that you have lived on earth and Cigna V. Seeing that I would have assumed you would have been more inclined to end up in archeology or some thing of that nature. And here you are in Starfleet as a Marine officer. So what made you choose this line of work?" "My Brother" Jack grimaced slightly. "I'm sure you're aware from the file that he was abducted from our home as a child. I started at Quantico first chance I got, I figured it'd be the best chance I had to get out there and find him" Keylor listened carefully searching his memory of the highlights he was able to recall form Jack's personnel record he nodded, "Ah yes some thing about the Orion Syndicate." He nodded, "I can understand how that might feel. I too have lost a family member, or two to that kind of situation." He said not letting on much about his recent discoveries, and actions. "But Killing people is not much of a profession. I noticed you were posted to the USS Raven as an engineer. What drew you to security and the more combat role of things?" he asked. "Well like I said, I was at Quantico but, I never completed the training. I decided that if I was going to effectively find him I'd need to be somebody, not an Enlisted Marine. Went to the academy, found I was good at fixing things. I only took security on the Archer because Commander Finn asked me to do it. I guess it rekindled my urge. Getting a branch transfer to Marine Captain was simple enough with Finns help." Keylor nodded, thinking about how he was compelled to find Bertold and punish him for his dastardly deeds. He demeanor soured a bit. "Well for me it was really my fathers fault why I joined Starfleet. He took me along with him on his cargo runs. I guess that is when I caught the explorer bug. And once he died I decided to join Starfleet. " "I never figured you for an explorer sir. It surprises me that you'd let them make you a flag officer, from what I've read you don't seem like the kind of person that likes letting his Starfleet XO get all the action on away missions." Keylor smiled though Jacks question some what surprised him. "Well Believe it or not, I never went to the academy. I was 25 when I joined Starfleet. I felt I would be out of place with the younger cadets. And since you have to pass entrance exams just to get approval to join the academy, I did not want to wait. So I joined the marines, choosing the faster way in to Starfleet and thinking I would get to travel the universe." He chuckled. "Well I was half right, I did get to travel the universe, on the inside of a transport most of the time." "And for a time I did get to explore, even if it was a planet here and an asteroid there. And as I worked my way up the ranks from private to officer, I could not pass up the chance to become a starship captain. After all there is virtually nowhere you can't go with a starship at your disposal. " His mood lightened a bit and he chuckled. "But the flag officer was a surprise to me as well. But when you turn down a promotion like that you tend to be looked upon strangely. So I put up with it." He leaned in a bit, "But there are perks to being a general." He smiled. Walsh laughed slightly, he knew what perks he'd use if he was a General, but that's another log in itself. "Ah well Sir. I guess there's always time in the future for you to 'get your gun off'" he smirked as he took a sip of the whisky. "Wow this is a good Malt sir" Jack downed the glass quickly and set it down on the table. "As for them troop transports. I swear they build them like sardine tins just to get us in the mood for killing people" Jack grinned again as he settled a bit into the chair. ===End Part one === BGen Bretam Keylor Captain & Major Jack Walsh ODA CO