An Unlikely Friendship

Posted on 09 Apr 2015 @ 3:05pm by Commander Norvi Stace & Lieutenant Benice Gyce Ph.D.

1,518 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: Security Office/Brig, Deck 3, USS Galileo
Timeline: MD -01: 1800

ON:

As Norvi Stace made the slow yet tediously short walk from the bridge to the security office and brig, it suddenly dawned on the Trill that in her months of service on the Galileo she had never had reason to visit it before. Lieutenant Wyatt hadn't been promoted long before Lieutenant Benice Gyce had stepped in to take his place for their current assignment, but even her familiarity with the Chief Security Officer hadn't invited her here. And gladly too. Norvi was always a little nervous around brigs. She stood before the door and then walked into the open space.

"I don't bite, Captain," Gyce smiled to Stace as she stood up from her desk in respectful greeting of the current CO of the ship.

Stace stepped into the office and smiled warmly to the Bajoran woman, worried that she had disrupted her work. "Apologies," she prefaced, stepping further into the room and in front of Benice, her back now to the vacant brig. "I hope I'm not interrupting. I just thought it wise to have a brief meeting if you were free about the upcoming games. Do you have a minute?"

"I'm all ears, Ma'am." Gyce smiled brightly at the other woman.

Stace then indicated to the vacant chair opposite Gyce with a nod before she sat down in it, crossing one leg over the other and settling down with a little shuffle. "This isn't anything official, mind, but I just wanted to have an informal chat with you as you are the ranking security officer left on aboard Galileo for this mission." She paused and then regarded Gyce with a smile. "Stepping into the Chief Security position must be an easy transition for such an experienced officer as yourself. And with the NIMBUS games upon us, Security and Tactical are going to play a keen role in what we're up against. Have you read the mission notes more thoroughly yet?"

"Yes. I've tried to come up with simulated means of using some Maquis explosives tricks," Gyce added. "I have not had any luck yet. If I had a better picture of how the wargame is being judged, then I could probably operate a bit better with my ideas. Prophets know if I share that information with others, it might leak out to our opponents. And surprise is the best weapon we have against superior weapons and numbers."

"It is," Stace agreed, "but don't forget that this is just as much about reacting to what we find out there and successfully." She paused for a moment and then with a piqued eyebrow, leant in. "What kind of Marquis tricks are you considering?"

"Coolant bombs," Gyce smiled hugely. "You take containment module containers, normally used for transporting illness for studies, and fill the whole thing up with plasma coolant. Let it go gently out the back of your cargo bay doors, and then fire on it once the opponent is about to reach it."

Gyce made an exploding animation with her hands. "Very volatile to flesh."

Stace winked with an almost concerned expression and said, "We might have to keep an eye on that, considering the Klingons are our allies." She dropped back into her chair a little and took a more relaxed stance, placing down the data padd she'd been holding and regarded the Bajoran with a more familiar tone. "And how have things been since our last discussion, Lieutenant? Now that you're heading up the department?"

"Most of the officers who did not like my work ethics, are on other ships. So in some ways, it's better. In others, not so much," Gyce admitted. "It is a shame they cannot see me work to understand why I work the way I do."

"But that's one of the trappings of working in a collective of individuals," Stace replied, a even tone to her words. "It's give and take. And sometimes in order to fall in line with the majority, you have to give a little more than you're comfortable with."

"I feel like all I do is give a lot on this ship. Not many people give back," Gyce admitted quietly. "That being said, it's not really something I'm bothered with. Because I know once people realize they need my skills of deduction and reasoning, they know where to find me."

"The best way to be invaluable in to be useful," Stace agreed. "But you also have to be amenable to the feelings and opinions of others. But I'm sure things will get easier for you. You know that you always have my ear, whether that be on the bridge or in the lab."

"I do, which is all the assurance I need right now." Gyce smiled. "Speaking of which... How do you like having command?"

"It's haunting," Stace admitted, a softening look adorning her features. "I've done it before but as a previous host. And sitting in that command chair brings it all back. The good and the bad. But it's like everything in this life. I chose this path; to come back to Starfleet. And this is why the Symbiosis Commission dissuade Joined Trills from picking up threads from previous hosts."

"Seems to me that no matter if past hosts served, you, as in Norvi?" Gyce smiled. "That's the one whose experiences differ from the rest. Else you'd not be able to evolve as a being."

"But you reassociate with old friends, with old colleagues and a Galaxy class starship is still a Galaxy class, no matter how many refits it has." She paused and then smiled fondly. "Sometimes, when I look down at my younger, feminine hands as they hover over a LCARS console, it takes a nano-second to realise that they're actually mine. I've spent so long as a man using them. Far longer than I have as Norvi. But it can be nice too. It's not all doom, gloom and jarred memories."

"I envy one such as yourself, Norvi." It pained Gyce to admit that, and knew it was too late to take back such sentiment. "To be able to have so many lifetimes. Good and bad. It takes a whole new meaning to one's personal evolutions. Where as I will always be Benice Gyce. And can never hope to have the sort of symbiosis that has the potential of holding several great lifetimes to look back on."

"If there's one thing that you learn living multiple lifetimes, Gyce, it's that you really only need to make the present matter. The rest just flitters away into memories and dreams. Nothing really matters but where you are now." She paused and then furrowed her brow. "Your culture is one of vast diversity and harbours such a wealth and a depth of kindness and enlightenment and grace. Your occupation with the Cardassians has brought you out of Bajor and placed you on a universal platform. You have fought in the fields and out in space; you developed art and spirituality far beyond any other culture I have come across. Don't waste that heritage being envious of someone else's path. You don't need to. And you shouldn't."

"You make my people's heritage sound all well and good when you put it like that," Gyce admitted with a small smile. "Still... For Bajorans of my generation, we carry far more scars of the Occupation, than the children we brought into our world, after it. To be able to have other past life experiences the way a joined Trill does? Well... I would like to think one can think on a really great memory of a past life in order to push through, when Hope cannot be found in this one."

"But it can also frighten you off doing something that you might enjoy but have never tried before," Stace added, "in your current incarnation at least. It's not without its pitfalls." She smiled and went on. "It's a balance of many things. Not without its rewards of payment."

"I used to fear the water above anything else. Cardassians banned the people in my province from swimming, long before I was born," Gyce admitted none too proudly. "Then when I got hit with the neurotoxin that bound me to this cane? Well... Water was one of the few things to free me, if only occasionally of my prison. I had to learn to swim in order to attain that brief moment of normalcy on any given day. Vulcan doctors must of worked with me a full four months before I felt fully comfortable in the water."

"But that is how we grow as individuals, Ms. Benice." Stace smiled and then nodded. "I've taken up far too much of you time though, Lieutenant. And I'm needed back on the bridge. But if there's anything you need from me, you have to only ask."

"I believe I'm fine for the moment," Gyce spoke very happily. "Stop by anytime, Captain Stace."

---

Lieutenant J.G. Benice Gyce
Security Investigation Officer
USS Galileo

AND

Lieutenant Commander Norvi Stace
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

 

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