Confessions (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 24 Mar 2017 @ 6:41pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Ensign Miraj Derani & Ensign Mimi
Edited on on 24 Mar 2017 @ 6:42pm

2,609 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 14 - Statecraft
Location: IKS DuJa'Q - Forward Turbolift
Timeline: MD 06, 0700 hrs

Previously, on Confessions (Part 1)...

Lirha stayed silent and didn't speak. Beauty was in the eye of the beholder and not to be judged by some arbitrary metric. It'd taken many years for Lirha to recognize that, and she didn't fault Miraj for her comment. But she'd already professed her desire for the woman. Several times, in fact, including in her quarters. She didn't know how much more she needed to say or how to further convince the ensign of her true feelings. "I want to be with you, Miraj," she said with finality. "I don't want you to think of me as you do right now. It...is a terrible feeling."

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

Miraj sucked in a breath. She hadn't seen that coming. It also made no sense to her. "But you don't know anything about me?" Why would anyone have feelings beyond lust for someone they didn't know?

"If you saw a Tholian shuttlecraft sitting in a hangar, a shuttle that no known species has data about or has ever stepped foot inside of...would you stay away simply because you don't know anything about it?" Lirha posed to the ensign.

The admiral had her there. "I'd probably be offering them a vital organ if I can take it for a spin." Miraj admitted looking a little guilty for such an admission. "At least one kidney. Maybe both. Who needs to wee anyway?"

Saalm let out a quiet sigh. She didn't have anything else to say at the moment -- everything she'd wanted to express to Miraj, she'd just done. The ball was in the other woman's court now, as the Earthlings liked to say at the Academy. Lirha wandered over toward the turbolift console to try it again in the hopes that it'd somehow been fixed. But several taps on the keypad produced nothing except the similar error codes she'd seen the first time the lift had malfunctioned. Where was Ops?

"There's not much to really know." Miraj blurted out as she realised her joke had fallen flat. "I mean, unless you want to discuss the impact of singular vs multiple mass points on warp flight, or why most modern ship design is rubbish, I kind of run out of conversation pretty quick. And unless it was the flying bits, I had a hard time at the academy too. Bottom of every class. If I'm special, then I'm special."

"Well...you managed to graduate and immediately find a posting aboard a front-line science vessel. I think that is a special accomplishment in itself," Lirha said, looking over her shoulder to the seated young woman. "Starfleet Academy is very selective about who they accept, afterall. And the graduation rate among officers is still in the low 70's." It was quite an accomplishment to not only be gain entrance to the prestigious school, but to successfully complete it and not wash out, Lirha thought. Starfleet officers were some of the best and brightest minds in the galaxy, and those who served in the fleet had the distinction of knowing they were the privileged few.

"I wanted to fly the really fun stuff." Miraj explained, underlining just how bad her need to fly was. "Can't do that without graduating. I think it nearly killed me. I did eighteen hour days for four years. Extra tuition, practising. more practising. It took me over two hundred hours to pass the marksmanship qualification. The rest of my intake did it in a quarter of that."

Lirha admired Miraj's determination. Especially in the face of adversity. It'd never been easy for the Orion to struggle with course work or qualifications, and the fact that Miraj had persisted and applied herself to get the job done was a sign of a strong woman. She couldn't help but give the young officer a small smile. "All things considered...do you regret any of your experiences in Starfleet so far?" Of course there was the huge elephant in the room -- the fact that their starship had been destroyed and they were now aboard a Klingon battlecruiser. But even that held its own semblance of adventure into the unknown.

"Well," Miraj thought about it. "Having Galileo shot out from under me wasnt fun." She thought some more. "But I can't say I regret it. I'm annoyed. I've never not outflown anything before. Not even in battle sims." She thought about it, found she didn’t like the feelings, so changed the subject. "Do you have any regrets?"

Lirha's mother had never envisioned that two of her daughters would someday become Starfleet officers. And neither had Lirha when she was young, for that matter. The outbreak of piracy during the Dominion War had forced their small family to abandon their trade vessel and settle on Earth for safety, but it took her years to finally acclimate to the planet's strange people and customs. When she became of age, however, Starfleet was a chance for her to return to the cosmos and travel the stars as she had when she was child. "Not about joining Starfleet," she answered with a shake of her head.

Miraj let go of the death grip on her knees and stretched her legs out. She'd been barefoot on the bridge, and her feet were black with muck. It sounded to her that the admiral had some sort of regret there. "That sounds like it should have a 'but' in it?"

"I think every soul has regrets at one time or another," said Saalm somewhat philosophically. She'd slowly wandered back over near Miraj and cast a glance at the soot on the soles of her feet. There was something refreshing about the ensign that she couldn't quite put her finger on -- the pink head of hair, unorthodox dress, and passionate verbal expressions all seemed to promote a youthful and carefree aura which Lirha found to be very refreshing. She leaned against the wall next to the other woman and slowly slid herself down in order to sit next to Derani.

"One of the burdens of being a commanding officer is always having to present one's self as confident and in control even if they have doubts or feelings to the contrary," Lirha admitted in a quiet voice. "I've been in Starfleet for more than ten years and served on many different postings; Not every decision I have made ended up being the right one. So... Yes, there are things I regret. Some were in my control and others weren't." She paused then gave Miraj a sideways smirk while glancing over at her. "And I probably shouldn't have told you that, in hindsight," she jested. The last thing she wanted was for one of her crew to think she was unsure of herself or not in control, and usually she'd never think of telling anyone about her doubts and frustrations. But she liked the young ensign and wanted to be open with her -- she wanted to somehow explain to Derani that she was more than just an authority figure, and that behind all of the protocol, she was still a normal woman.

"Well, you make it look easy" Miraj said. "And you can't have made too many mistakes. You're an admiral." Miraj looked over at Lirha, thinking about it. "And a young one too. They don't hand the fancy hats out to just anyone."

Lirha couldn't help but nod at the strange way her career had progressed. She slowly progressed through the ranks over her first seven years until she reached lieutenant commander. And then in a matter of two and a half years after being transferred to Command operations, she'd been promoted four times. "I don't feel like an admiral much of the time," she revealed. "It has all happened so fast and I would rather tend to my own ship and crew instead of entire task forces. But...after we complete our mission and return to Earth, I doubt I'll be an admiral for long," she added with a light laugh and a shake of her head. "Starfleet doesn't look well upon renegade admiralty who commandeer Klingon warships and fire on other Starfleet vessels..."

Miraj frowned, her brow arches flexing as they drew together. She hadn't thought of consequences. She was pretty sure that nothing would happen to her, or the rest of the Galileo crew. After all they had been nothing but victims in all of this, surely? But then, the Commanders were held to a higher standard. "Will you get cashiered?"

Saalm tilted her head curiously at Derani. She'd never heard of that expression before. "...'Cashiered'?" she repeated, letting the unfamiliar word roll off her tongue with a slight Yrevish accent.

"Its an old earth word, for being chucked out of the military. Only with bells and whistles on. They tear off your epaulettes, break your cutlass, pull the feathers off the fancy hat. That sort of thing. Dishounorable discharge with ritual humiliation." She doubted Starfleet would go for the ritual degradation really, but being dishonourably discharged over this was a real probability. "I read about it in a novel I read once."

Lirha swallowed a lump in her throat after hearing the full history and description of the word. While she knew the archaic method of demotion wouldn't exactly apply, a dishonorable discharge coupled with penal colony duty was a significant possibility. And of course, that carried with it much shame to both herself and the rest of her family -- and potentially any future Orions who decided to serve in Starfleet.

"I..." Lirha paused, not quite sure what to say. She didn't want to worry Miraj with her own future fate, especially not in the middle of their current perilous mission. "I hope it won't be that bad," she finished, forcing a small smile to the ensign to try and reassure her. "And I promise nothing will happen to you or the rest of the crew."

Privately Miraj did not share her commander's confidence. Just following orders wasn't considered a defence. But that was in the future, and she couldn't do anything about it. She put it to the back of her mind. "With luck." She didn't think about being slightly short on that at the moment.

Landing gracefully on the roof of the turbolift with just a slight clunk of metal Mimi knocked on then opened the emergency hatch in the roof. "Rescue has arrived." She called down to Lirha and Miraj.

Miraj stood up with relief, "Doesn't rescue involve opening the doors, rather than the roof?"

"That is next on my list." Mimi said and dropped into the turbolift landing on her springy legs before transition back to standing normally. "With the lift being stuck mid deck I can't get to it from outside." She slipped the toolkit off her shoulder and examined the control panel, clipping a diagnostic tool to the circuit board behind it she plugged it into a Padd she'd had the klingon translation matrix added to. "mhhh." she said after a few seconds.

"'Mhhh'?" Lirha repeated, raising an eyebrow at the Nekomi rescuer before turning to Miraj with raised eyebrows with a sideways glance. "What is the problem?" she inquired further.

"It looks like the emergency brake servo's activated." Mimi said. "Maybe shook up from the damage we took."

It would make sense given how abruptly yet smoothly they'd come to a halt. Normally such mechanisms were able to be manually disengaged, and the Orion hoped the toolkit the ensign had brought would allow her to access the correct circuitry. "Can you release the locking mechanism?"

"I think so." Mimi replied. On a federation ship this probably wouldn't have happened at all but Klingon ships weren't as well backed up as federation ones.

After a few more seconds Mimi tapped out a string of commands into the Padd and the lift juddered a little but remained stuck.

"Try disengaging the secondary power relays and try again," Lirha said. Klingon ships had a series of inter-networked backup circuitry that was foreign to most Starfleet Operations personnel. The only reason Saalm knew about it was due to her experience as an Ops officer and her familiarization with the vessel several days before they departed Kreanus.

"Secondary power relays." Mimi said to no one in particular and after consulting the Padd pulled off a panel in wall of the lift. Finding the relay's in question she grabbed her toolkit and started to disengage them.

After she'd finished Mimi repeated the string of commands and the turbolift jolted back to life.

The sudden movement surprised Miraj, throwing her forward and she grabbed for the nearest things to steady herself. She ended up grabbing Lirha's arm. "Sorry," she stuttered, and let go, leaving her other hand on the wall, in case it moved again.

The Orion gave Miraj a squeeze on her shoulder to indicate it was alright, then walked over next to Mimi to inspect her repairs. The lift was moving which was a good sign, and in a few seconds, they arrived at their destination on the correct deck. The turbolift's doors parted and allowed all of them to depart.

"Thank you, ensign," she said to the young Nekomi woman. "I trust this is a permanent fix, and that the next person to use the car won't get stuck as well?"

"I am not sure." Mimi replied. "I will have a look over all the turbolift system to be safe.

A prudent decision, Lirha silently agreed. "I fear we might have taken more damage than we thought after escaping through the binary system," she commented with a soft sigh. "Klingon maintenance shafts aren't exactly places where we want to be spending our time. See to the turbolift diagnosis as a priority." She then looked over at her recent company. "Was this your deck?" she asked Miraj, wondering if they were both going to the same floor.

"Yes, ma'am," Miraj fell back into the honorific out of habit, being in the presence of another crew member. She nodded towards the door to her cabin, just past Lirha's own. "I was going to go to bed. I had to wake up early."

The thought of a deep sleep sounded appealing to the Orion. She'd only been getting a couple hours on-and-off over the past few days, and knew she couldn't keep going much longer on short rest. Miraj was probably fatigued as well, and the intense encounter with USS Sentinel was nothing short of stressful. Saalm gave a curt nod to the ensign then flashed the smallest of private smiles to her. "Rest well. I will see you in the morning."

Miraj nodded, relieved that Lirha wasn't going to say anything more, but also that her commander didn't seem vexed with her either. Maybe the whole horrid incident could be forgotten, and they could start again when they got away from the Klingons. "Sleep well, ma'am."

Lirha turned to Mimi after watching the conn officer depart. It was time she head to her quarters as well, and as much as she wouldn't mind assisting with the turbolift repairs, such a task was the ensign's domain. "I must depart as well. Be sure to get some rest, yourself, when you are finished here."

"I will Ma'am." Mimi replied. She watched as both Miraj and Lirha left then turned back to her diagnostic Padd.

[OFF]

--

GEN Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

Ensign Mimi
Operations Officer
IKS DuJa'Q

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