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"And you're telling me," Benjamin Sisko said with a clearly affronted expression, "That you are enforcing this outdated class on the senior officers of this station, when they have already passed their standard evaluations?" He had the deep glare of someone that was moments away from causing some kind of internal affairs investigation by being able to explode an Admiral's head with just a look.
"Ah, but you fail to grasp the extenuating circumstances, Captain," Admiral Nechayev explained with a small smile on her face. "I have a report sitting on this very PADD," she brandished said PADD in front of the screen, "tipped to me by someone that was witness to behavior unbecoming of officers serving within Starfleet."
She put the PADD down too quickly for Sisko to even be able to see who it may have been the snitch who had reported them, but he would bet every single latinum strip Curzon — and later Jadzia — had gotten him as gifts that it was Solok.
"What I want to know Admiral, is why are you insisting on inconveniencing this crew to such an extent," Sisko leaned forward, closer to the screen, "When you know very well that the officers you mentioned are on loan from the Bajoran Militia on the joint operation of this station and therefore, not subject to the Starfleet Operations Performance Review Board."
Nechayev just took a dismissive glance at the PADD she was holding, before turning back to her screen, "Believe what you will, Commander, the decision has been made. Nechayev out."
Sisko slumped back into his chair, a tired look on his face, before turning to his whole senior staff, who were all perched on various positions over his quarters looking apprehensive and waiting for him to address them, "It seems that the Admiral," and here he stressed the word with as much disdain as was possible, "has gotten us by a technicality," he raised his hands at Kira and Ezri's instant looks of consternation, preempting any objections.
"It was absolutely through no fault of you two," Sisko shook his head, "The Admiral just has some kind of ulterior motive with this, it's clear, and she would have found another way to do it either way." He shook his head, "I bet it was Solok."
"So, what? We'll let her do this to us?" Dax asks, tilting her head back and putting a hand on Kira's shoulder, chin set and determined even if her cheeks were slightly flushed.
Sisko just smiled, sending Ezri a brief grin, "Well, we are here now, aren't we? What better way to turn this into an inconvenience to her than to do exactly what she wants?"
He turned to face his crew, a mischievous look on his face.
"By regulation of Starfleet's Ops division, I can start the Trust and Efficiency Exercise right now, if there's no other unbiased officer. And if we hurry, we'll finish before the Admiral's appointed officer's transfer notice even arrives."
"Of course, a Trust and Efficiency Exercise! Nothing I'd love to spend my afternoon doing more." O'Brien just grumbled to Julian, who let out a small snort.
Sisko shook his head, moving to stand, "Now Chief, the sooner we do this, the sooner we can send the filed reports back to Starfleet Operations, and the sooner we can be free of this nightmare." He moved to the door, only briefly turning to the rest of the senior staff, raising his eyebrow, "Come on people! Let's go!"
As they filed out of Commander's quarters, Kira turned to Ezri, entwining their hands, smirking. "I bet that's not how you thought we were going to spend our off-duty afternoon, huh?"
Ezri let out an embarrassed laugh, "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. We had the holosuite reserved! Now there goes my latinum. You know Quark doesn't let people cancel their reservations."
Kira leaned in, giving Ezri a quick peck on the cheek, "Don't worry, once this whole affair is over I'll make it up to you."