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Post by Shawna on Mar 23, 2017 1:06:40 GMT
Commander Raqiin sh'Hruvek
GeneralSpecies: Aenar/Andorian Sex: Shen (female) Height: 171cm Weight: 59kg Age: 28 years old Appearance (circa 11909.26): PhysicalPale blue tinted skin, much lighter than Andorian skin but not stark white like Aenar. Equally pale eyes, often giving the impression that she might be blind. Long white hair normally tied back in a braid ending just under the shoulder blades. Her antennae sit just enough back for the bases to be hidden in her hair. Some of her human friends in the Academy had nicknames for her relating to her ghost-like features, though she prefers to think of herself like snow. Her face has a pleasant roundness, full cheeks. As with any Andorian, her stalks show more than she tends to be willing to. Outwardly, she tends to be calm and centered, a softness to her features. However, she has been known to let her curiosity get the better of her, or let her joy of the job lend to an outburst, or be particularly aggressive (so to speak) with any firmly-held beliefs. It isn't wise to rile an Andorian, even one that's half Aenar, but she tries not to be quick to anger. Personal History[Pre-Starfleet] Half-Andorian, half-Aenar, four parents, it isn't easy to have sides of the family that have very different philosophies. The Aenar half fought (in the proverbial sense) to give her a simpler, more traditionally Aenar name; they never asked for anything more. Her poor eyesight worried her Andorian parents, but they didn't see a need to rush the procedure on a young child until she was old enough to start learning to read and write, which she would need if she wanted to live among Andorians given her less than stellar telepathic abilities. She was particularly close to her Andorian father, Shelhabathi, until he went off to fight in the Dominion War. News that he had been killed in the line of duty hit when she was six, and, once the grief began to abate, the family found itself split. Raqiin went with her Andorian mother, Chavrintushik, a teacher who would oversee her corrected vision and her overall education, while Thrit and Alaneb, her Aenar parents, stayed in their ancestral homeland together. Tushik was always a distant, refined woman who had a taste for the arts and didn't make much time for family even before Habathi's death, and Raqiin sometimes felt like just another student instead of her daughter. But she would remark that Raqiin had Habathi's sense of adventure, and the ice, so to speak, would melt from time to time. Raqiin was never made to enter into a marriage arrangement, despite it being socially and culturally expected of her--perhaps to save her from Tushik's fate of becoming a mother before she was ready--nor was she pushed toward the Guard like Habathi. Raqiin made sure to visit her other set of parents in her teens when she became old enough to travel on her own (or rather, be allowed to travel on her own). She, at times, felt like both a stranger in a land she had not seen in many years and like she always belonged among people who understood her more unique traits. The older she became, the more curious she got, and she slowly began to find her calling in the study of life and all of its forms. Life, she thought, had more poetry and less sadness. There wasn't any way she was joining the Imperial Guard, not after what happened to Habathi--and certainly not with her uncertain views on pacifism, beliefs picked up from her blind family and continually edited to fit her changing view of the universe--but she couldn't just stay on Andor all of her life when there was so much more out there. With a few padds worth of books and notes, she paid her way onto trade ships going...anywhere. For nearly two years, she lived like this: disembarking on whatever planet or station was happened upon, sticking around to take notes on the plants, animals, and people she saw, and working odd jobs to help pay the next ship of goods or passengers going somewhere out there, but it really wasn't any way to spend her life. A formal education would be needed, a steady job, and a more stable chance to discover what else is in the galaxy. Earth, and Starfleet Academy, the Federation's peacekeeping ways, would have to sate her appetite for discovery and adventure. [Starfleet Academy] Due to her light telepathic abilities and calm (for an Andorian) personality, it was suggested she try psychology. It wasn't something that was ever on her list of things to do with herself, but the Academy offered such a wide range of topics to sample, and her advisor suggested it, well, what could go wrong? After a few semesters, she decided it wasn't what she wanted to do with herself--too soft to appease her Andorian side, not enough doing, too much into the medical track for her liking. She quickly switched her focus back to what always interested her: biochemistry and exobiology. Life. She excelled in the science track, fascinated by the methods of gathering data, and the idea of being on a ship, informing a captain, making strides and discoveries, placated her desire for new life great and small. Her physical and weapons training went abysmally, even when she was allowed to practice only on inanimate objects, and her pacifism was noted in her files with concern. (Of course, her advisor told her, if at all possible, nobody wants a science officer to have to take up arms, but in dire situations...) Nevertheless, with strong dedication, she all but forced her way past the less scientific tests thrown at her. She wasn't about to let that kind of roadblock keep her from the stars. [Starfleet] Joined the Bremen at the tail end of a harrowing mission involving the sentient whatever-she-was Silvia and knew immediately that this ship would offer exciting opportunities to discover strange new lifeforms. Not long after, a quantum fissure and a child's "imaginary friend"-come-trans-dimensional being threatened the ship. With not much time to try to communicate with it before the ship was torn apart, she allowed herself to be fitted to facilitate telepathic communication with it. She's never forgotten the sensation of communing with such an alien being, nor the sensation of being flooded with thoughts of the crew around her, overwhelming her senses. It took several months to truly be comfortable around rooms full of people.
She met Ensign Oleg Dimitriou right around the time of an unusual temporal incident initiated by eccentric loner scientist Dr. Von Ubique. Engineer Dimitriou harbored (still harbors) a crush on Raqiin, one they've flirted about and skittered around--over the years, Raqiin hasn't necessarily pushed him away or led him on. Extenuating circumstances, as it were, have made her wary to start a relationship. (Despite coming closer to something happening between them, the fallout of the President and Section 31 and now the war with the True Federation seems to have put things on an even further indefinite hold.) After an old Vulcan probe released a parasitic fungus on the ship, a tense situation rose between Captain Griffiths and the rest of the bridge crew. She blamed herself for some of it, fearing she hadn't worked quickly enough to come up with a solution.
Her first meeting with Kesh Suder, then captain of the Belligerent, was also her last one. She hadn't known the woman personally before as some of the crew did, but she assisted in carrying her injured (dying, dead) body to sickbay. And after assisting in getting Captain Griffiths out of a busted holodeck (apparently a return of Bremen's old friend Silvia), she confronted Henry Sumner about his resignation in the face of leveling a weapon at Griffiths during the parasite incident and Suder's death, among other things. She took his leaving hard and leaned on Tony Aldaberto further, in spite of or because of their occasionally spotty history.
During a forced crew leave while incidents were assessed, let's say, an archaeologist got in touch with Raqiin with information about an old missing human colony, and with literally nothing better to do, Griffiths grabbed a beat up Klingon ship to take a trip to find it. A rocky crash severed an antenna, causing dizziness and other symptoms as well as great embarrassment to her. After a truly harrowing experience, the crew rescued the wayward remnants of humanity and brought them home. Despite her alien nature, she tried to befriend them. However, upon return, Griffiths was removed from command, putting Sara Sumner in command, Henry's sister. The ship was also refitted for a brewing war and had MACOs stationed on it, neither decision she was happy with while reeling from the loss of another friend.
The Second Tzenkethi War was not a good time for a pacifist. The Bremen was not initially in the thick of the fighting, though, but ended up on a mission deep into Tzenkethi territory to rescue the Autarch in an attempt to stop the rebelling Tzenkethi forces before the war got too bad. Hyperion saved the Bremen from destruction after the ship was crippled. And then they were to go to the front lines to a massive, hopefully final battle. Bremen didn't get to see much of it when a reaction from exploding weapons and engines alike opened up a temporary wormhole, taking the Bremen to the homeworld of the Su, far far away.
While the Su seemed like a peaceful people enchanted by new people, their true intent was to cage everyone and present them as a zoo. Raqiin had been part of an experiment as a hybrid of Aenar and Andorian genes, and was split down the figurative middle into two people--an Andorian chan and an Aenar shen. Though during the escape back to the ship, she managed to find a lab to put her back into one being, the conflicting memories and dual sensations still haunt her and make remembering that time difficult to reconcile. Though retracted, Sumner had asked her to look into her own research in order to figure out the logistics of a child with Sumner's Andorian lover. When the Bremen got back through to the site of the fight, they'd missed the end of the war and had some catching up to do, time-wise.
Kesh Suder (it's a long, long story, and Raqiin doesn't even really know all of it) showed up, caused trouble, tried to get the Bremen involved in something the Klingons were doing around Organia, shit went south, Jameson nearly bled to death, Suder got away, and...look, that was not a good time all around. And things got even worse when Andrew Harlan turned out to be...not at all who he said he was, starting with keeping the real (who can tell anymore?) Kesh's heart and brain viable in a box, oh, and also he's a fugitive who forges orders to go to Twissel, stuck in a pocket dimension, because Section 31 was dicking around with weapons they should not have, and he was trying to right that wrong he was involved in. Suder's personality was loaded into a computer program in some attempt to revive the dead, something Raqiin has major problems with.
Speaking of Twissel. After nearly destroying the ship and mucking about with star pulses and dangerous planet-destroying weapons, Twissel and its billions and billions of inhabitants returned to the proper dimension. Commendations all around, despite it being technically Starfleet's technical fault. And not long after, Tony Aldaberto takes an indefinite leave of absence. Raqiin was floored at losing yet another good friend. But no time to mourn, not that long anyway, because before the shock fully wears away, they're off chasing an ion storm that's about to kill hundreds of millions of people in and around Deneva. When they blow up a star to divert the intense storm's path, a planet with 100,000 pre-warp beings that was not identified on any map or star chart is destroyed along with it. And they find out that the storm was actually created by the pulse used to bring Twissel back, all connected. Raqiin wrote a report on the whole thing. It was intercepted. By order of Admiral Bantree, all data collected about Twissel, the storm, the stars, and everything is removed from the computers. There would be no data to back up any intel that Section 31 was involved in all of it, nothing that could be used against them.
Around the same time, a terrorist attack by the Bajoran group the Order of the New Kai (a group not heard from since her first year on the Bremen during a murder and the transfer of the Hooke crew) attacked the station the Bremen crew was having leave on. While trying to help people escape the collapsing promenade, Raqiin got pinned under a large chunk of debris, and the injuries severely mangled one leg and led to the removal of a foot, regrown and reattached. After much surgery, she was unsteady on her feet and feeling the pressure, but she was still as determined as ever to set everything right. Raqiin tried anyway. With a plan formed with Sumner, the captain would get in touch with her brother Henry and with Tony, and together they would take the cobbled together report--no data left, just hearsay, but with as many details as she could remember--and send it to people who could do something about it. Sumner insisted she would take the fall should anything happen. It became a waiting game.
In the meantime, a diplomatic escort mission with the Riani went very poorly very quickly. In spite of (or because of) the captain's temper and the restrictive rules of the Riani people, Raqiin couldn't do much to avert the inevitable disasters. Still, she provided company and advice to Sumner, perhaps now more than ever due to their collusion.
And then everything in the timeline of events happened. So. Good...job indirectly causing the splitting of the Federation and an all out war against their own people, I guess? MedicalPoor eyesight/partial blindness as a child - surgically corrected vision, complaints of sensitivity to direct bright light. Mild empathic abilities - can sense the emotions of others in her vicinity; cannot read thoughts or send messages Ability to sense and 'see' objects and surroundings around her without looking, even or especially in pitch black As of Stardate 11605.19, received severe crush injuries to her legs resulting in extensive surgery on left and right legs and the removal of right foot. Using existing tissue, foot was regrown and attached. Though discharged from sickbay, has taken to occasionally wearing leg braces, and has complaints of healed injuries aching at warp or inclement weather. Clean psychiatric evaluations, pending recent eval prior to reassignment. Evals show optimism in the face of disaster, trust in crew, determination (to occasional neglect of self). However, personal stresses as well as those of the crew are held deeply. Despite numerous friendships, remains guarded about her negative emotions. As of the 11404.23 incident, do not recommend expression of latent telepathic abilities nor suppression of empathic abilities. Unresolved feelings regarding the 11508 incident regarding disappearance during Tzenkethi War operation and the happenings therein; negligible impact on service. Personal beliefs prevent her from knowingly and willingly harming others; potential detriment to future postings. Service Record11403.08 - Assigned to the U.S.S. Bremen as Science cadet 11404.23 - Promoted to Ensign for bravery and dedication to duty 11406.05 - Awarded the Starfleet Medal of Valour for putting her welfare above that of the crew in the face of overwhelming danger 11408.11 - Awarded the Captains Letter of Commendation for ingenuity in the face of danger 11410.30 - Promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade for upholding the finest traditions of Starfleet, and for her skill and loyalty to her crew in the face of danger 11501.19 - Assigned to the U.S.S. Bremen as Chief Science Officer 11508.23 - Promoted to Lieutenant for dedication to duty 11508.23 - Awarded the Tzenkethi War Campaign Ribbon for dedication to duty during the Tzenkethi War 11508.23 - Awarded the Admirals Letter of Commendation for excellent service in defence of the Federation 11508.23 - Awarded the Starfleet Silver Palm for outstanding dedication to duty and crew 11604.14 - Awarded the Starfleet Silver Palm for exceptional, meritorious achievement in relation to the safe recovery of Twissel to our dimension 11604.14 - Awarded the Medal of Commendation for for exceptional crew conduct in relation to the safe recovery of Twissel to our dimension 11612.08 - Promoted to Lieutenant Commander for diligence of duty and loyal service 11703.27 - Assigned to the U.S.S. Chiron as Executive Officer 11801.18 - Captain's Letter of Commendation for Conspicuous Dedication to Duty 11801.18 - Ribbon of Meritorious Service for Taking Command of the U.S.S. Chiron in a time of crisis 11808.02 - Admiral's Letter of Commendation for exemplary heroism in neutralizing the USS Voltaire 11808.02 - Starfleet Command Medal of Excellence, awarded for assuming command of the USS Chiron during battle with the USS Voltaire 11808.02 - Promoted to Commander for continued exemplary performance as Executive Officer 11911.14 - Admiral's Letter of Commendation for conduct during the New France bombing
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Post by Shawna on Mar 28, 2017 2:39:18 GMT
Stardate 11703.27 w/ CJ as Sara Sumner
The viewing deck of Earth Spacedock was busy as always, but the bustle and hum seemed far away to Sara as she gazed thoughtfully at the Chiron. The ship was going through its final systems checks before taking on the rest of her crew, and her variable-geometry nacelles carefully rotated to and fro, like a bird caught in a weak stasis field.
Sara's eyes traveled her contours like she had boundary issues, and the characteristic lines both familiar and new. In her mind, Sara had overlaid her last image of the Bremen onto the vessel, and it made the Chiron felt different. Perhaps it was a different finish, or the decals were in different positions. Maybe it was just that she'd never seen the Bremen in the lights of Spacedock. Maybe it was the noticeable lack of garish ruptures in the primary hull.
Whatever it was, the Chiron was beautiful, and Sara was practically champing to get back out into the stars in her shiny new ship. First, however, she needed her crew, and she checked the chronometer on the wall. Raqiin was late.
"Sorry, 'scuse me, pard--pardon me!" Down the walkway, Raqiin maneuvered around a few people, bolting her way as fast as she could without bowling anyone over. She nearly ran right past Sara, and were this a cartoon, she'd have comically skidded across the floor and left marks.
As it was, she jogged up the rest of the way and put her hands on her knees, breathing heavy. Her hair thankfully didn't dangle in her face as normal, pinned up into a bun this time. "Sor--whew--sorry, ma'am. I just--" She held up a PADD. "Just got a little caught up in specs. Got to...make sure my science station's...up to snuff."
With a deep breath, she righted herself, taking in the view Sara had just been. "Didn't think we'd see it. A new posting. Felt like they were going to keep us away indefinitely. She's no Bremen...but we were lucky to have her as long as we did." Lucky she hadn't been blown up several times even before Sumner took Griffith's place in the command seat, honestly, much less after. And luckier still that they survived as long as they did even when the ship didn't. And that they got picked up at all. "Still...not the same. It'll take forever to get the layout memorized. What did you need me for, Captain?"
Sara had simply grinned through Raqiin's harried greeting, and when she had finished, simply gave the woman a warm embrace in return.
"That, for starters," she offered, giving a firm pat on the back before letting go. "It's been too long."
Raqiin's hug back might have been a little firmer than necessary. It didn't take an empath to feel the radiating excitement and fondness both. "Way too long." Once upon a time, something like that would've seemed out of place. Circumstances and time change all things. Not always for the better, but in this case... "How've you been holding up? Bet it's been driving you up the wall not to be out there."
"It has been less that pleasant," Sara confirmed with a nod. "The family thing has helped take my mind off it a little, but... well, you keep hearing what everyone is going through, and you're not out there going through it with them. Makes you feel a little helpless."
She took a deep, centering breath, processing her momentary grief and then setting it aside in a fluid sort of way.
"How about you? What all have you been doing?" she asked.
"Me, I've been running around like..." She waved a hand, reaching for the human analogy. "It's a chicken, right? Headless chicken. I'm sure a therapist would say that throwing myself into work means I don't have to deal with anything that happened, but hey, at least I'm aware of it. Been trying to help however I can. Pouring through data logs, assisting in research where applicable--it's a shame that with all this going on, we haven't had much time for exploration and discovery. Everything's going into ship design, weapons, and then there's the political side."
Raqiin shook her head, staring back out at the ship but with eyes distant. "And I've been trying to help with the emotional aspect, too. Going through what the Bremen went through, it...can easily take a toll on the psyche. Sometimes the thing a person needs most is just an attentive audio receptor and a cozy place to sit. It's not much, but sometimes it's enough."
Sara grinned some and nodded, deciding to forgo an explanation of the whole chicken thing for now.
"I think you're an excellent audio receptor," she offered to her friend. "You're also not terrible at the advice bit, either, which is kind of why I've asked you here early."
She motioned to a vacant table nearby and move to sit, sparing another extended look at the Chiron.
Raqiin smiled at the praise and followed, sitting opposite her. "Yeah? Oh, don't tell me someone wants me to be a ship counselor. I mean, it'd be flattering, but I just don't have the training for it."
"Not quite," chuckled Sara, relaxing into the cushy seat. "I need an XO, both because I want one and because Starfleet has 'strongly suggested' I find one. I can't think of anyone I'd rather have than you. Also I think you'd look great in red."
"...Me? You want--you want ME as an XO?" She even pinched herself, blinking a little stupidly. "Wh--colors aside, do you really think I'm the appropriate choice? Commander Jameson is the clear better choice; she's even been XO before, so if you need someone with the right skills and experience..."
There's more to being an XO than experience," Sara offered. "I need someone with a strong sense of the crew's morale. I also need someone who's not afraid to question my poorer decisions, and for that an XO has to have good judgment. More than anything else, Raq, I trust your judgment, and I need your perspective."
"But I don't--I'm-I'm a science person, and I'm--I mean, a leadership position is--it's--" Raqiin huffed, trying to get her thoughts in order and reeling from it. "I never thought I'd be cut out for a command post. You're sure that's my speed? I always called you out just fine before. And I usually give my perspective..."
Sara leaned forward and planted her elbows on her knees, staring at her friend. She understood the hesitation. Indeed, she'd had a similar reaction when she had first been appointed as acting XO of the Scimitar. She had been a counselor and a flight jock, neither of which particularly leant themselves towards command of a starship.
In truth, she suspected one never knew if they were cut out for command until they were in the thick of it.
"I believe you are capable of more than you know," she offered after some thought. "You are brave, resilient, and intelligent, and I have no doubt that you will be up to the task."
"More than that," she continued, sitting back once more, "I believe you are exactly the kind of person Starfleet needs in its command structure. Look at what's happened to us. Look what ambition and irrational fear have done to the Federation. We can no longer afford having our best people on the sidelines."
If only she hadn't wanted her hair up and out of the way, Raqiin would definitely be playing with it right now. Some habits die hard. The padd in hand would just have to suffice, turned this way in her hands and that. The sincerity was readily available on the surface, and in a way, it was almost embarrassing. Sara never minced words, even if it got her in trouble. "I hope you know--I hope you understand that I can't make some of the same decisions you do. I just can't. And maybe you need that, to hold you back, or to have another opinion logged, but--you know. I'm not...saying no, I'm just...saying."
Sara gave Raqiin what she hoped was an encouraging smile.
"That's exactly what I need," she said. "You know how I get - sometimes I get a notion and just go with it, and that's burned us a few too many times." Her smile faded somewhat as she recalled Twissel, and her decision not to divert power from Kesh Suder's brain box to the shields. People had died because of that. Her people, the ones she was supposed to keep safe.
"I need you, Raqiin," she spoke softly. "The crew needs you, too."
Raqiin smiled a little, more down at the table than anything. XO? She never imagined even getting that far. Never had plans for her own command, and this would probably be the closest she might get. She'd taken turns in the big chair when she was given the bridge, so it wasn't like it would feel entirely new. Just...a little more permanently closer to that.
"Hard to say no to a pitch like that. If Command approves you choice..." She looked back up, more determined, more sure. Oh, yes, it was a terrifying prospect, and she'd have to fake it 'til she made it, but honestly, wasn't that how Captain Sumner had operated when she was given command of a ship? "Then I will accept the position. I still think I'd be better off behind a console or in astrometrics running numbers and theories until the next caffeine boost, so this will be an experience for both of us."
"It's not all that different," remarked Sara, grinning and seeming to relax a bit. "It'll just be personnel evaluations and shift rotations instead of gaseous anomalies."
"But gaseous anomalies are so interesting!" Raqiin mock-whined. (It's also true. What she wouldn't give to just have some normal little mission studying a little gaseous anomaly.) "Guess I'll have to get used to ordering everyone else around and not just my science team. I'll try not to let the power go to my head."
"You can let it go to your head a little bit," Sara said with a conspiratorial wink. "You're doing me a favor, here, you know. The Command responsibilities are always meant to be split; having to do it all in my head is exhausting. As XO, you are the voice of the crew; their concerns are your concerns. My job is supposed to be to focus on completing the mission. We work together to accomplish that goal. With any luck, this will help us avoid getting trapped in any more interstellar zoos."
"Hey, I don't think any of that was anyone's fault. An XO wouldn't have changed anything there." Didn't like thinking about it, though. It was behind them, for the most part. Still, she was secretly thankful that Sara and Thalev adopted rather than trying to figure out how to have one based on the experiments done. "Trust me, I think I can speak up for the concerns of the crew. Sometimes I'm a little more concerned than the others, but being an empath helps either way."
Sara nodded and seemed lost in thought for a moment. It was true enough that she likely wasn't at fault for the zoo thing, but she still associated with failure. She had felt so out of her depth then, so woefully unprepared for command of the Bremen. It wasn't until the end that she finally started to feel like she belonged in the chair.
"You'll be great," she said quietly, looking back up at her friend and giving her a warm smile. "I should probably get going; still got some packing to do. We'll have a drink together once we're underway, yeah?"
"A drink," Raqiin agreed with a firm nod. "And some proper catching up. Maybe even a party if we could ever be so lucky."
Sara's brow raised at the mention of a party, her mind reflexively coming up with a terrible, inescapable idea.
"Welp, now we have to do one, and you're going to regret it," she sighed, taking a final glance at the Chiron. "I'm only kinda sorry."
"In fact, I don't think you're sorry in the slightest." Raqiin stood, as did Sara, and gave a prim salute. She only did so rarely and on appropriate occasions--promotions, mostly, or awards, commendations. Usually too stiff and military for her. "See you on the bridge, Captain."
They parted, and Raqiin couldn't help but look to the ship again. "You've got a lot to live up to." She was not, of course, merely talking to the ship. "Don't let us down."
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2017 7:01:02 GMT
I loved reading that.
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Rascal
Lore Committee
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Post by Rascal on Mar 28, 2017 22:59:05 GMT
Wow, that was really nice!
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Post by Einar on Mar 30, 2017 13:16:32 GMT
I am so excited
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Post by Shawna on Apr 12, 2017 23:14:11 GMT
Stardate 11701.19
A week.
A week floating adrift in space, with no defense if the enemy--formerly their own people--came to make sure the job was done. A week of dead crewmates, minimal power when they managed to get any at all, cramped EV suits, zero g repairs, and preparing to die. Not waiting to die, no, they busted their asses to make sure they could live to fight another day. But prepared for it. It had seemed like an inevitability at times. That as many of them made it out as they had was nothing short of a miracle.
"Commander?"
It made her gut hollow out and her heart leap into her throat, like freefall. She sometimes felt it, that she was in freefall, that she was still falling and was just waiting for the inevitable THUD of hitting the ground again.
"Commander."
Raqiin started from her reverie and blinked rapidly, focusing on the human in front of her. "Yes? Yes, sorry, hi."
"Were you daydreaming?"
Her shoulders sagged, shaking her head. Lieutenant Whitehall was not always (or ever) the most comforting man, and sometimes he tread on the very fine line of respect for the chain of command. But he had a damn good eye for details. Didn't mean she had to like him. Just admire his work. "Not exactly. But I was somewhere else."
"Yes, you were. Ma'am. If it's all the same to you, I'd rather you be here and present so we can go over this data together."
Her stalks skewed forward with mild aggression. "Laurence, for the last time, if there was something there, we'd have found it by now. I have every faith that your theories on subharmonic frequencies to locate 31 forces has merit, but there's nothing here. We have to move on to the next sector, and to be honest? I'm beat. I think if I read one more string of numbers, I'm going to flip this table."
She wasn't sure if that twist of his lips was a sneer or actual amusement, and his emotions seemed to suggest both. "It's sealed into the floor."
"I'm small but mighty; point is," she said, standing and stretching and turning off the projection in front of her, "we need rest, and yes, I said we."
"I've got some more work I'd like to do."
"Don't make me order you to have a good time."
"What if I said pouring through my data is a good time to me?"
Her arms flopped dramatically back down to her sides. She could, of course, imagine that it could be fun, but with no breakthroughs, it was beginning to wear on her, and she had two other projects she was helping to oversee. It was wearing her down enough that she was starting to drift back to the Bremen, and that was a sure sign that she was under too much stress. "Then I'll suggest, very kindly, that you go out with some peers. Outside. To another place. Out of uniform. Maybe somewhere with music and alcohol. I know that's what I want to do by now."
"Sound fun," he said, with the non-inflection indicating that he did not, in fact, think it was fun as he scrolled through a few more data points. "I'll be doing real work in the meantime."
"For the sake of whatever god or gods you might adhere to, Laurence, shut it down. Take a break. We start with a new sector tomorrow. Go home and nap for all I care, just don't drown yourself in work, or you're going to regret it, body and mind."
He didn't move at first, though his eyes, she could see, had stopped scrolling through numbers. They eventually flicked to her. "Are you doing that thing again?"
She leaned in, hands planted on the table. "Last time. Empath. It's my thing. I can't not 'do that thing'. Am I in your head? No. But the fact that you think I am means I'm right, and you need a break as much as I do." She reached the rest of the way over and shut off his screen. "Turn off the lights when you leave. Consider that an order. I'm out. Night, Lieutenant."
Raqiin was nearly out the door when she finally heard, "Good night, Commander," in faint reply.
Maybe she'd been a little harsh on him. Maybe he was right to keep digging. Details, after all. She was good at details when they suited her, but she always preferred the broader scope. Maybe it was selfish of her to demand he stop when she needed to stop, ached to stop so badly for tonight, and maybe tomorrow. They could last a day without her poking her head in, all of them. Even the most hardcore of science officers needed rest, though.
She tried to shake the feeling of the floor rattling fit to fall apart under her feet and stripped out of her uniform at the apartment. Temporary housing, until she was put on another ship. If they ever did. For now, it seemed they thought it best to keep her in research, out of the sky. She couldn't exactly blame them. Would she be any good out there now? With a tense civil war on? She wasn't a soldier; she was a scientist, and a peacekeeping one at that.
With a sigh, she strapped on her leg braces, flexed her feet down to the toes, and slipped on some comfy pants. Tight enough to look good but cozy enough to move around in, and hide the braces. She technically didn't need them, but with a lot of movement in mind, it seemed prudent. Shoes with a little bit of a heel. Not enough to trip in, and not enough to show any skin. Sleeved top, but the sleeves were slit, and when she spun, the fabric parachuted out. And one sensible necklace, for the sake of decoration.
A club would have enough people to not feel alone, enough emotions strung out to block out the sound of screeching, sheering metal. Loud music, dancing bodies. High atmosphere. Drinks. And then to sleep like the dead. Then she could set the week behind her again, and the feeling of floating outside herself would subside. For a time.
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Post by Nola on Apr 13, 2017 1:34:42 GMT
Brilliantly done, Shawna, as always.
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Post by Einar on Apr 13, 2017 8:29:10 GMT
Shawna, you´ve written some good logs over the years. This one just became my favorite. The writing is beautifully detailed and I just love it!
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Post by Shawna on May 9, 2017 20:12:22 GMT
Stardate 11702.02
"I don't do weapons development."
"We all have the same technologies here, the same ships and designs and weapons. We need to get ahead of this."
"We have all the same everythings because we're the same people! And doesn't 31 have a few edges that are technically illegal and under the table anyway?"
"That's what worries me." Captain Kazur, a deep red Saurian, slowly closed his eyes. "And as well they'll have come to my same conclusion. Commander sh'Hruvek," he continued, and she didn't bother correcting his somewhat mangled pronunciation of her name, "we need as many people as we can researching the next step in Federation technologies. Your work and dedication to it are notable, and it's been suggested that your current projects are, well, a little beneath you."
She crossed her arms, stalks at annoyed attention. Maybe Whitehall had said something about her 'daydreaming'. "Then put me on researching something else, sir. Shield modifications, sensor output, anything that isn't weapons. I'm a biologist at heart. I don't destroy life; I study it."
"We've only got so many engineers to spare. You know how many people we lost to defection, and then how many of them are actually on ships protecting what we can. We're starting to run out of options."
"You're going to have to tap someone else. Maybe you didn't hear the part where I'm a pacifist."
His eyes narrowed in thought. "I wasn't sure those actually existed. Everyone defends themselves when pushed."
"I don't hurt people."
"And you won't be hurting anyone."
"Just creating things used to hurt people. Sir, I always object going to war, and I always object participating in a war, and when push comes to shove, I get shoved. I don't do the shoving. I'll try my hardest to stay alive, and to keep everyone else alive. Always do. But I'm not going to have weapons of war on my conscience. Let 31 come at us with whatever they have. We'll fight back. Some of us just fight back in different ways. Now, you could always order me to move to your little project, and then I'll have to disobey, and then you can mark me down in my file however you like, but if this version of the Federation makes people violate their morals, then it's not one I want to be part of." She turned and walked away, not even bothering to be dismissed first. "Good day, Captain." And if Kazur had a problem with that, tough shit. Maybe Sara had rubbed off a little too much on her.
She couldn't be arsed to see it as a bad thing though.
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Post by Shawna on May 25, 2017 14:43:43 GMT
After the rescue of the Bremen crew
"I need a list."
One of the ship's nurses ran a regenerator over the poorly healing cuts along the side of her face. The light made her squint her eye shut against the brightness. The nurse was haggard and clearly running on fumes but trying to keep a calm demeanor from dealing with so many people. "You're not the first or last person to ask for it, Commander, and we're still assessing damages--"
"The captain's going to want a report. She's going to want--" But it was a poor excuse. She wasn't XO, and the captain would be the first person given a casualty list anyway when one was made. Her own emotions, not to mention those of everyone around her, had been through the wringer, but she still felt the tears starting to well up again. Raqiin's other eye squeezed shut just to try and keep composure. "You're right. You're right, everyone else is going to want to know who all we lost." She'd been searching faces. Had to stop after a time.
"What I'm sure your captain wants is to make sure everyone's breathing right and as healthy as we can make them while we take you back home."
Raqiin laughed, a little strangled. "What she's also going to want is to kick every single ass that did this to us."
"Trust me, she's not the only one." The nurse drew back with a sigh. "I've got your other people to look after. You get some rest, and someone will come check in on you later."
She nodded mutely and laid back, exhausted. They'd all done everything in their power to keep the essentials running. The beacon. The messages. She'd made sure to record a few last words for whoever ended up scraping up the computer from the wreck of the ship. Maybe she'd keep it somewhere safe. Just in case it happened again. In case of the worst. She was almost dozing off when there was a ruckus by the door.
"Sir, go back to your medbay, you should be getting rest--"
"To hell with rest, I need to find her!"
"So help me, I will dope you up just to make sure you don't hurt yourse--"
"Raq! Raqiin!" She bolted upright, though it made her dizzy. There was a scramble, and Oleg managed to not trip up on other people too badly to get to her, wrangling crutches under his arms given his busted leg. "Thank god, I was worried, I was so worried..."
She reached out a hand, which he gladly took in both of his, leaning heavily on the crutches. "Oleg, you...stupid, reckless man, why are you even here stabbing our crewmates with your crutches?"
He laughed, desperate and relieved. "I couldn't stand it, not knowing what had happened to you. I was in a state, as you can see, and we were just trying to make sure there was any power at all to spare, which was no small task. And when internal comms went down--there was too much else. I didn't know what happened. I thought maybe--I thought maybe you--"
With a smile, she leaned her forehead against his, a few tears slipping out. "I'm a little roughed up. Cuts and bruises and scrapes and burns. Nothing life-threatening this time, promise. You could've waited for the list of--"
"No," he cut off sternly. "No. I couldn't have. Because I don't know what I would've done if I saw your name on that list."
"We lost a lot of people, Oleg."
"Yeah. But we didn't lose each other."
"Do me a favor," she said after a moment of bathing in that warm feeling, "and let the nurses wrangle you back to bed before they call security on you. Elevate that stupid leg or whatever you have to do to get better ASAP."
"Yes ma'am. Gladly, now that I know."
"And don't trip on anyone."
"No promises."
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Post by Einar on Jun 1, 2017 13:26:11 GMT
More!
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Post by Shawna on Jul 13, 2017 18:23:07 GMT
Stardate 10505.18
When Raqiin had first met the young Zidan ch'Vhinnoth, she had been visiting her Aenar family, and he was on something of a historical field trip, or so he had put it. He attempted to speak in the local dialect, and she had laughed at him and tried fondly to correct him. And she supposed if she had to comment on it now, she had charmed him. They found that they even attended the same school by pure coincidence, and found themselves to be fast friends.
Which still held true two years later. "I don't know," she said, chucking a chunk of ice into the water from the bridge they dangled their feet from. "Something in biology, I know that. Maybe just go to one of the big colleges and work in a lab."
"Yeah," Zidan replied with a chuckle and a smirk, "because I can totally see you being a lab rat."
Her cheeks puffed with feigned annoyance. "Well, you're the older one, you should have a better idea of what you want to do after school."
"I like hanging out with you just fine."
She hoped her cheeks didn't flush. "You know what I mean."
"And I chose to ignore it. I don't know what I'll do, either, but it'll be offworld, I think. Be an adventurer. Fight the good fight. Find cures for common diseases. Break the next big warp barrier." He leaned back, eyes on the sky, and in doing so settled his hand casually over hers. She found she didn't mind and made no attempt to move it. They'd been dancing around a teenage crush for some time now but had hardly discussed it. Just because she was an empath didn't mean she knew how to deal with the feelings she felt, from herself or anyone else. "I think I'd like to do it with you."
Raqiin looked up at him in surprise. "You're kidding."
"I am not. You don't want to stay here forever, either. You don't even want to stay now."
"I'm not gonna up and leave at sixteen, Zi. Don't be stupid."
"No, but when we're done and ready to move on? I'll even wait for you."
"Don't."
"I mean it."
"I mean don't do what you're about to do." She wasn't a telepath, but he couldn't be broadcasting his intentions any clearer. He was halfway to going in for a kiss but had stopped at her insistence. He looked put out, but then, they didn't really know where they stood with each other, did they?
So she leaned in the rest of the way to kiss him first.
He blinked, then laughed. "You stole my thunder. Sometimes I hate that stupid ability of yours."
She stuck her tongue out at him, riding the rush of adrenaline and trying not to make a big deal about any of it. "You know you love it. Isn't that a full quarter of the reason why you like me so much? What was the phrase you used to impress me so much, something about a unique physio-adaptive genetic blend?"
"I pulled it out of thin air."
"I know. That makes it so much worse."
"I don't even need some degree in biology to make something up that sounds good. If nothing else, I can be an alicorne-shit artist, and you can do all the science on the up and up wherever we go."
She scrunched her face. "You really think we're going anywhere together?"
"Yeah." He wrapped his hand, warm and sincere, around hers. "I really do."
Which did not hold true two years after that.
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Post by Nola on Jul 13, 2017 19:17:09 GMT
Part of me is really intrigued, and the other part of me is cringing at the realistic awkwardness. Nicely done, Shawna
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Post by Shawna on Jul 27, 2017 18:02:37 GMT
Stardate 11707.27 w/ CJ as Sara Sumner
draining. She still needed to apologize to Dr. Onishi, but a bit of coping was in order first. She slumped into her ready room sofa, carefully sipping her overwarm cocoa and letting her body's natural affinity for sweetness release a pleasant burst of serotonin.
These episodes were becoming a problem. They'd been getting more frequent over the last few months, and until now she'd been able to keep it hidden from the crew. She would feel it build slowly, excuse herself to the ready room for some reason, and work through it. The sudden appearance of the Vaadwuar had caused the anxiety to spike at just the wrong moment, and it had caused her to yell at her crew, and at Dr. Onishi. Passages from the Command Course guide book had flashed before here eyes in the immediate aftermath. 'A Captain's authority is dependent on respect,' and so on. It had taken some work to overcome the barrage of self-criticism, but she'd managed it. Now she was just tired.
Almost without thinking, she laid down on the couch, deftly managing to sip her drink anyway. She had perhaps never wanted a nap so badly, and she knew it wasn't an option - not while they were trapped in some subspace rabbit hole, anyway. With a huff, she tapped her combadge.
"Hey Raq, you got a minute?" she called, closing her eyes just for a few moments.
'A minute' was something she hadn't considered having since the science team came aboard, between being genuinely interested in the project to coordinating with everyone to ch'Vhinnoth's reappearance to being stuck in a subspace tunnel with an altered hull, whatever that really meant. But Raqiin could hardly ignore her captain. She excused herself from the group of scientists, including Hamlet and their own people as well as Onishi's.
"If you need an update on the situation, I, er, don't have any updates for you, ma'am."
"Well, come tell me that to me face," said Sara. She certainly wasn't going to say what she really wanted over a comm.
"...Right, on my way!" Besides, something about too many cooks making bad food, right, surely the same could be said about too many people crowded around enough consoles and bouncing theories off each other.
It got her out of the room, anyway, which wasn't the worst thing, was the point. Raqiin wasn't afraid of the captain, of course; she'd noticed her moods, had become more used to them than she'd like to admit. The outburst on the bridge was...unfortunate, but Sara Sumner was never going to be accused of having the most level of heads.
She buzzed the room's chime and entered when beckoned, standing maybe a little more formally than she strictly needed to. "I can tell you we're running on at least five different theories, and Dr. Onishi is trying to understand the alterations to the hull, and any ideas that do seem viable I'm going to insist we put through several computer simulations first before we actually try them out ourselves." Was apparently Raqiin's way of saying hello right now.
Her introduction was met with a soft snore, the Captain's arm dangling off the couch as she slumbered, though she'd apparently had the presence of mind to set her drink on the floor first.
"...Ma'am? Ca--she's seriously asleep, wow." Raqiin sighed and plucked the drink from the floor to a more appropriate, not about to get kicked over position, namely: not the floor. And she thought that she should just let sleeping captains lie, knowing any rest is well deserved--but hey, you also don't call someone up and nap on the job. She laid a hand on Sara's arm, giving her a gentle shake. "Wakey wakey, ma'am..."
Sara's eyes fluttered open and she took a deep breath.
"Aw, son of a bitch," she sighed, slowly pushing herself up to a sitting position. She gave Raq an apologetic look before rubbing her face in her hands. "Sorry. Sleep has been elusive of late."
She gave her head a quick shake and hopped up, doing what she could to wake her body.
"Right," she huffed, retrieving her drink and returning it to the replicator. "Fill me in on what we're trying."
"I can take over, if you...need a couple hours." That was still an odd thing to suggest, for Raqiin. She'd been placed in charge of the bridge a couple times even before the position of command, but this was different. "We'll probably be sitting here for a while until your science nerds are happy with a solution or three."
Though now that she'd done her little spiel, the exact wording had left her head entirely, and she rocked back on her heels, fingers playing with the cuff of her sleeve. "Well, ah, couple of theories we're poking into regarding shield harmonics and warp and trying to set up resonance pulses aimed at ourselves if we can. Not, surprisingly, as simple a task as fiddling with the deflector and having at it. Dr. Onishi is looking into the situation with the hull, but between probes and a shuttle if someone feels up for a quick jaunt, hopefully we'll at least be able to see whatever...I don't want to say 'damage' because we aren't, damaged that is, but the situation is...iffy." Raqiin shook her head. "If we'd been able to keep one of the Vaadwaur ships intact, we could've tried studying some of their systems, but we'll still try to see if we can't also work backwards with what we have of their designs and manage something that way. There isn't going to be a short and simple way to do this, but we're pursuing every avenue that we can. When something seems viable, we'll have the computer run a few simulations. Meantime, we sit tight. I know that's not your strong suit, ma'am."
Sara strongly considered Raqiin's initial offer, but through better of it. She needed to sharp and present. Listening along to her First Officer's report, she seemed to perk near the end.
"It's safe to say that there were probably more than three Vaadwuar ships in Federation space, right?" she asked. She tongued her lip piercing in thought a moment before moving to sit behind her desk. "If we could establish contact with them, we might be able to convince them to help us out as part of an exchange."
"...Given the extensive network of tunnels, it's safe to say." Which was still incredibly worrying. "We still need to figure out what they're doing and why, for who. What kind of exchange do you think they'd even go for?"
"Something diplomatic, I think," said Sara. "They seem to be technologically challenged, at least when it comes to defensive ship systems. We don't really know anything about their economic situation, but I think it's worth it to try some kind of peaceful contact."
"Because 'peaceful' is exactly how I'd describe our encounter just now," Raqiin pointed out. "If they were interested, why not come to us directly instead? Why hide like they're planning an invasion?"
Sara gave a small shrug.
"Who knows?" she sighed. "Maybe something happened in their encounter with Voyager to piss them off, or maybe 'invasion' is their way of exploration. What we know for sure is that their ships are no match for ours in a straight up fight, and as far as they know, they've lost the element of surprise. If we can offer them a way out that doesn't involve a protracted fight, there's a solid chance they'd take it."
"...That's a good point. If nothing else, saying 'find us a way out or we'll keep blowing up your ships' holds some weight. It's not MY ideal way of handling the situation, but an effective one."
Sara looked to Raqiin, pondering her word choice. She reminded herself that she'd chosen Raqiin as her XO for a reason, and if she was being honest with herself, there were a number of ways her attempt to negotiate with the Vaadwuar could go wrong.
"What would your ideal solution be, Raq?" she asked.
"Ideal solutions never involve violence." Raqiin shrugged, looking mildly uncomfortable. It had rarely ever come to a head, and even then mostly with Captain Griffiths, but she was waiting for the day when her pacifism would end up becoming a problem.
"Which isn't possible in a time of war, generally speaking, but it's the ideal. Threatening them will only either fuel whatever agenda they might already have against us or turn us into an enemy that we might not have already been. Negotiating an exchange of ideas and technology, a seat at the table, opening official talks, we should always start with that and intend for that to be the endgame. Those are Federation ideals, Starfleet ideals. We need to stick to them as long as possible."
Sara stared at Raqiin for a long moment. Her initial feeling of exasperation gave way to a certain sense of self-doubt. She had been fairly quick to try and exploit the Vaadwuar's apparent military weakness for the Federation's own gain. Part of her might have felt that was simply the reality of the current political situation, or even life in general, but another part of her, the one she'd always equated with things she didn't want to hear but needed to, knew that Raqiin was right. The whole point of their current conflict was that the Federation had abandoned their ideals, feeling that self-preservation had been more important. Hell, she had said so herself in her now-infamous final Bremen log. It was distressing how easy it was to fall back into that mindset.
"Okay," she said, nodding as if to encourage both herself and Raqiin. "We'll offer a chance to reforge our diplomatic relations in order to prevent further conflict."
Raqiin could feel the flux in emotion but didn't comment on it. Rarely ever did. Sometimes being around the captain was exhausting in and of itself, but she'd been so used to her empathy that she only reacted to the emotions felt from others if it was needed.
Still. It was a slightly nervewracking ride to acceptance of the idea. At least Raqiin relaxed, even stopped fidgeting. "If things go sideways," and they usually did, "then other options are still more than available to us."
"Well, let's hope things don't go sideways," said Sara, putting on a smirk. "For once."
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Post by Shawna on Aug 17, 2017 17:46:31 GMT
Stardate 11708.17 w/ CJ as Sara Sumner
Sara had no real reason to be angry with Raqiin. She knew, on a cognitive level, that Raqiin had been right to counsel as she did: the Federation was not supposed to be a reactionary, shoot-first power, and that applied to Starfleet as well. She had even told herself that it may bite them on the ass on occasion, but that such was the cost of their ideals. The high road was the hard road, after all.
But, holy shit, had it bitten them the hardest way possible!
They were lost in the Delta Quadrant, not unlike another Federation vessel some twenty years prior, and they were square in the sights of the Borg to boot. This was far beyond the 'worst case scenario' she had envision in dealing with the Vaadwuar, and she hadn't even had time to process the implications of their alliance with the Cardassians.
That alliance, however, made their survival and return to the Alpha Quadrant mandatory. Starfleet needed to know that the Cardassians had a way to tunnel to any part of Federation space they wished. With the Breen threatening to plunge the Federation into a second conflict, the uncertainty around the Klingons, and their commitment to protecting the Romulan Republic, this was the perfect time for the Cardassians to launch a surprise attack that would break the Federation's spine.
Sara forced herself to take a deep breath - she was getting ahead of herself, after all. Step One was either defeat or evade the Borg Sphere. They could worry about Step Two later.
"Raqiin," she called into her tapped badge, doing her best to keep frustration out of her voice. "When you get a moment, please come to the ready room."
No wonder the Cardassians had thought they had a significant advantage. Maybe if they hadn't insisted on being a part of it, the negotiations might have turned out more favorably with the Vaadwaur. But no getting around it now--step one. Escape the Borg. By going into Hirogen space. There was a human saying, wasn't there? Out of the fire...?
Having a moment meant if she wasn't neck-deep in something really important only she felt qualified to do, Raqiin was to report to the ready room immediately. At least in a red alert situation like this. She didn't even bother replying on the badge, letting Hamlet keep doing his thing, just jogged on over to the ready room and tapped the chime.
She looked harried when she stepped into the room, strands of hair loosening from her braid, but stood as at attention as she could manage. "Ma'am?"
Sara glanced up at Raqiin as she stepped in, and furrowed her brow.
"What's this?" she asked, waving at her casually. "Relax, Raq. We've been through worse than this. Marginally, at least."
"Respectfully, ma'am, there's little worse than the specter of Borg on your tail. ...I'm also not saying you're *wrong*, because we've definitely been through worse, I'm just saying there's not much that *is* worse."
Raqiin allowed herself to relax, if by relax we mean slump like a painting of melting clocks. "We walked right into this blindly. It may have been foolhardy to think we could get the upper hand so easily, but at least now we know..."
Sara gave a tired, lopsided smile to her friend, and motioned for Raqiin to take a seat.
"If anyone asks, I never told you this story," she began, leaning back in her Other Chair (tm). "One of my earliest run-ins with Section 31 happened aboard the Scimitar. We uncovered a plot to replace one of the Romulan Praetor's inner circle, and 31's involvement meant we had to deal with it on our own. Couldn't trust anyone else.
"We disguised our transponder and illegally entered Romulan space, a decidedly stupid idea because the only way we were going to survive is if we could expose the impostor and the Praetor was feeling incredibly generous. We were getting close after a couple unfortunate encounters, including my flying an old Kaneda through an exploding D'Deridex. We received a transmission from a man named Dixon.
"He was Section 31, something of a nemesis of Captain Rome's, who was on leave at the time, except... well, he was on the screen too, bound to a chair and beaten. Dixon said that if we didn't turn around, he would kill him. We didn't, and we watched as he shot him in the chest.
"I wanted to scream. I wanted to split myself in two, and find a way to complete the mission and kill Dixon at the same time. Thalev, who was acting CO at the time, got me to calm down. He reminded us all that we were Starfleet officers, that we had a job to do, and that it's what Rome would want."
Sara sighed as she closed her eyes, the memory still vivid.
"We did it. We put our heads down, we exposed the impostor, and the Praetor let us go."
Raqiin chose the couch just so she could curl her legs up under her and give them a few moments of rest. Her legs still gave an occasional phantom ache at high warp, including 'get the hell away from Borg' speed. The story was...wow. She had never known Captain Rome personally, though had heard the occasional story, but apparently daring and impossible feats of danger were hardly anything new to his crew before Sara ever joined the Bremen. Though there were echoes of the emotions felt at the time, memory strong and in the moment, Raqiin clung to the present, to the emotions of now and here and this situation.
"I guess the Praetor was, in fact, feeling incredibly generous." It wasn't a laugh that she gave as much as a vaguely amused huff. "You did the right thing in a hard situation. You've gotten really used to doing that, and I don't think you get enough credit for it."
Sara gave Raqiin an appreciative smile and ran a hand through her hair.
"I've been lucky," she sighed. "The Scimitar had an extraordinary crew. The Bremen had one, and now the Chiron has one. Making the right decision is easy. Having the ability to follow through with it? On the scale we've dealt with? That's all of us. That's each of us being dedicated, and determined, and putting our heads down and putting one foot in front of the other."
Sara took a deep breath and got to her feet, making her way to the replicator.
"That's what got us through," she continued. "That's what will get us through now. Step one, elude the Borg. Step two, find a way to get back into underspace. Step three, report the Cardassian-Vaadwuar alliance. One at a time, in that order. Want anything?"
"Just water," Raqiin suggested, a little distracted. "Unless you want to open that bottle of kanar you were so delightfully gifted." The wrinkle of her nose might have been about the empty gesture of goodwill, or just the memory of the rancid stuff.
"We did the right thing today, too. If we hadn't found the Vaadwaur at all, we might never have gotten out of underspace, much less learned of the alliance. And going in guns at the ready would've seen us outnumbered and taking the first shot at Cardassian hostilities. The outcome wasn't ideal by a long shot, but it could've been worse." She shook her head like trying to dispel a bad thought, stalks straightening in a more attentive way. "What do you think we'll do once we cross into Hirogen space, assuming Borg actually abide by such things as galactic boundaries? Or, even if they don't?"
Sara ordered a pair of waters, scoffing at mention of the kanar.
"I don't expect the Borg to respect boundaries," she said, handing off one of the glasses. "I also don't expect the Hirogen to appreciate the intrusion. Counting on it, actually."
She sat back down and took a drink.
"We fight the Borg with the Hirogen, apologize for the intrusion, and be on our merry way." The tone of her voice suggested that she may, in fact, have been sarcastic.
Raqiin sighed down at her glass. "Easy as one, two, three. They'll see us as weak for running, of course. Borg will be more interesting prey, but...I'll see what we can dig up from Voyager's files about their society in more specifics so we can hopefully talk to them better. Instead of just getting blasted to bits once they're done with Borg. Maybe if we help them adapt a little more to fighting Borg, they might see us as equals? But I can't say I'm looking forward to fighting Borg at all." Not that she ever looked forward to fighting at all.
Sara offered a small nod at understanding. It was, admittedly, not a great plan, but their options were limited.
"I don't intend to leave the Hirogen to fight the Borg alone," she said, firmly. "If we bring this horror to their doorstep, we are obligated to fight it, hopefully with their help. If, for some reason, they don't move to intercept the Borg, then we continue to run. Hopefully the QSD can help make up for the speed difference."
She took a swallow of water before continuing.
"I went over some of the Voyager data on the Vaadwuar once we'd learned they were here. Once we've dealt with the Borg situation, we should head for Turei space. If we can't figure out the hull modifications ourselves, hopefully they can help."
"'Dealt with the Borg situation,'" Raqiin echoed with a hollow laugh, muffled by the glass before taking a sip. "Just another fun day on the Chiron. Do you ever think we might be magnets for trouble?" She had, after all, finally understood the basic concept behind a 'jinx'.
"If nothing else, the Turei will be sure to want to tick off their enemies more by helping us out. Just...wish I knew what their end game was. Is it technology they're after, or a foothold in normal space with power, or are they getting something else from the Cardassians?"
"Henry likes to say that life is trouble," Sara offered with a smile. "That you're most alive when you're resisting the universe's natural motion. I like to think of us that way - we're just a giant rock in the universe's puddle. As for the Vaadwuar, who knows? What's important now is that we inform Starfleet. Coaxing them away from Cardassia is the Diplomatic Corps' job."
"Henry would say that." Raqiin shared a smile with her captain, fondly remembering the man. He was still out there, somewhere, fighting the good fight. Hopefully he was happy. "I guess you're right. Our job is to stay alive and get the new information out there. Sometimes I wonder if I wouldn't have made a better diplomat some days, but then I'd miss out on all the fun science that gets us wrapped up in these wacky, dangerous situations."
Sara pondered that for a moment, revisiting her early annoyance with the way Raqiin's advice had panned out. In truth, the DC was probably a better place for a pacifist than aboard a Starfleet vessel, especially in this time of upheaval. There were, however, several reasons why she valued Raqiin's presence, and she considered going through the list, but really, there were only two reasons that truly mattered.
"I think you would make an incredible diplomat," she said, smiling warmly at Raqiin. "But I would miss my friend. More than that, I think you're exactly where you need to be. Negotiating in good faith with the Vaadwuar bit us on the ass, and hard, but you're right: it was the right thing to do. Without you here, I might have gone on a rampage and destroyed every Vaadwuar ship I could find. This is the exact reason I picked you as my XO, and it's already paying off. So, I'm glad you're here. This shit wouldn't be half as fun without you."
In truth, Raqiin was surprised her advisors in the Academy hadn't pushed her in that direction rather than pressing psychology on her, for all the good that did in the end. She could face an angry Klingon down with relative calm, although she still found herself panicking or reacting negatively in high-stress situations. Still, whatever temper she had from the Andorian side of her family, her fuse was still much longer than many.
She'd had her doubts, too, about the XO posting. Many of which she'd talked out with her captain at the time, and sometimes...sometimes she wanted to turn away from it, foist it on someone else, go back to sitting in Hamlet's chair reading figures and data. But she stayed just where she was. And to hear (and feel) that praised as the right choice, for reasons both professional and personal... Raqiin ducked her head, smiling with a hint of color to her pale cheeks.
"I think you're selling yourself a little short there, but...I appreciate it. I wouldn't have nearly as much fun with the diplomats. I also probably wouldn't almost die as often, but that's the price paid. I wouldn't turn back now, after all the time on the Bremen. This is just one more thing to deal with and learn from." She drained a little more from her glass before putting it aside and rising to her feet. "We'll survive, do a little more negotiating--positive, this time--and then get back to our space. Warn people. And then whatever happens after that is out of our hands. We get through it one step at a time." Saying it out loud, reaffirming, made her feel like they might not actually get blown to bits or assimilated in short order. That there was a chance.
"If there's nothing else, ma'am? I'd like to check in with Dr. Onishi and Hamlet. And make sure there's someone on the bridge not liable to bang their head on the chair."
"That's all," Sara affirmed with a smile. "Let me know if they've made any progress."
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