Lock 'er in the hold with the Captains's Daughter

Posted on 09 Apr 2018 @ 3:08pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Ensign Miraj Derani

2,819 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: Rigel II - Avondale Production Facility Administrative Complex
Timeline: MD 103, 1151 hrs

[ON]

The Queen Anne's Revenge had sacrificed a lot of cargo space for its warp drive, but the modified Waverider was in fine shape, and the trip to Rigel was largely uneventful, with Miraj flying smoothly and elegantly despite the Borg-cube sized hangover that had left her swigging water by the pint and demanding bacon sandwiches out of the replicator every hour for the first six.

The Shipyards came into view as she dropped out of warp only a few hundred kilometers away, and swooped around to reach the docking ring. Workbees and shuttlecraft buzzed around the behemoths under construction, everything from the merest skeleton of a Sovereign to externally complete shells of Akira and Sabre class ships.

Visitor docking was away from the main work yards, in a long stack that hung from the bottom of the main administration pod, a half kilometre cylinder filled with the living quarters, labs and other necessary functions that kept the dockyards working. Flight control cleared them for a bay, rather than a docking clamp, and she guided them into the neat little box at the top end of the docking stack.

Miraj swung round in her seat, and looked at Lamar over the rims of her round black sunglasses, "End of the line, all change."

Lamar Darius had slept most of the trip away in the co-pilot seat, stirring only briefly when she'd spoken or to occasionally check the nav charts. He, too, had been nursing his hangover, and now felt much better than he had at the crack of dawn when they'd departed Earth. He'd stared out through the cockpit at all the different vessels present in the shipyards when they came within view and now let out a lazy yawn when the shuttle touched down on the tarmac. "Thanks for the ride. You coming with me, now?"

"Sure." Miraj replied, ordering a fresh uniform from the replicator. "Doesn't it feel a bit silly though?"

"Does what feel silly?" he asked, unsure of what she meant. Coming to the shipyards? Interviewing with the captain?

"I mean, you are like, giant tall, weigh twice as much as me and you're about a hundred years old, and yet I'm the one taking you to the interview. It feels all wrong."

Darius frowned and gave her a look. "Hey. I'm only 35. You're the one who's still a teen," he shot back with some dry humor and a private smirk.

She gave him a look of affronted horror the way only a teenager could. "I'm nearly twenty two!" she protested, her bunches swinging. She made a huffing noise, and moved to the bunk area of Queen Anne's Revenge, pulling the curtain across and getting changed. "I'm ancient."

While Derani was in the back, Lamar took the opportunity to stand up, stretch, and replicate a quick cup of coffee that he quickly began to chug. Dark liquid dripped down his goatee until he emptied the small mug and wiped his chin clean. It was going to be a rough morning.

She came out from the bunk space in a fresh duty uniform. She'd considered the dress uniform, but dismissed it. She wasn't here to interview herself, just give someone she cared about a lift. "Ready when you are."

"Yeah I'm good," he replied as he grabbed his two Starfleet-issue duffel bags and slung them over his shoulder. He headed to the ladder which led to the dorsal docking port then tapped the airlock access panel to begin the compression sequence. Within less than a minute, both hatches had pressurized and he climbed up the ladder and out through the exit where he stepped foot on the administrative complex's deck plating. A quick glance around at the corridor markings indicated his destination was eleven decks up and on the other side of the facility.

They found a turbo lift, and moved smoothly up from the docking rings to the administration block. It was fairly anonymous, a typical starship corridor design with the occasional break spot with a pair of easy chairs, a coffee table and small replicator. There was one just opposite the door that Lamar was supposed to report to. She held up her padd. "I've got Bloodbeard and crew to keep me company. They've stolen Commodore Hawke's fiancée and he's chasing them across the Spanish main. You go in and give that new captain hell."

He gave her a nod over his shoulder and deposited his bags next to her for safekeeping. Almost on cue, the door to the administrative wing swished open and out stepped a yeoman clad in formal Starfleet red-collar attire. "Um..Chief Darius? Lamar?" the young Human lady asked as her light blue eyes settled on the dark-skinned man. "The captain is ready."

"Oh. Okay, yes," he floundered for a brief second, surprised at the speed with which his presence was requested. Usually Starfleet liked to drag their asses, but something seemed different today. He walked over to her and as she turned to lead him into the admin ward, he gave Miraj a final glance and a wink.

She gave him a thumbs up, and settled down into the chair, flicking on her padd. Soon she was swept away...

The Indefatigable was on fire now. Bloodbeard looked past his lovely captive to see the Royal Navy ship scant yards away, his men using the sweeps to push it away as Jack Tars swung across to the deck of the Hades. Now sailor and pirate alike had three stark choices, Burn, Drown, or win the pirate ship.

Packing his pistols with black powder, he rammed the explosive down. "Your pig fiancée isn't going to go down with his ship." He laughed. "Guess I'll have to send him down to Davy Jones in person."

Cicely squirmed in the chair she was tied to, her angry protests blocked by the filthy rag gagging her mouth.

Heavy boots could be heard even above the screams of battle, approaching the cabin. Bloodbeard took position beside the door, ready for ambush. A breath later it was kicked to splinters. Commodore Hawke stormed through the wreckage, and saw his beloved in front of him, and behind her, his ship aflame.

"Cicely!" he shouted

She tried to warn him, tried to scream, but it was too late.

Bloodbeard pressed the muzzle of his pistol to the back of Hawke's skull and pulled the trigger.

Caught up in the action, delighted that the foul bully Hawke was about to get his comeuppance, Miraj didn't notice the door to the office opening again.

Lamar returned to the waiting room with a bounce in his step and a twinkle in his dark eyes. He grinned and smiled with his chest held high, then fist-pumped the air with celebration. "I'm on board!" he enthusiastically said to Miraj. "Conn officer, I got the job and passed my quals!"

Miraj put the padd down with something like regret. She wanted to find out what happened next. but this was more important. "Woot! she jumped up and gave him a hug. "We need to celebrate! We should go get drunk! Again."

If he hadn't just received his new orders to report to the dock in four hours, he would have welcomed the chance to have another cold one. And he didn't want to celebrate anything without Miraj's stubborn butt getting assigned as well. "I will if you go get your job. I told the cap'n you're here. She says she's been waiting to see you."

"Really?" Miraj said, heavy sarcasm cutting her tone. "Because I quite clearly recall the application said 'Rejected'. No explanation. So she can wait a bit longer. Perhaps until Vulcan freezes over. Or a Ferengi gets to Sto-vo-kor."

Lamar gave a disapproving shake of his head at the nonsense that'd just come out of her mouth. "No, don't do that. That's shooting yourself in the foot. Just put on your big girl pants and get it over with." There wasn't any need to get worked up over it, Darius thought. It was just an interview.

Miraj rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll go tell her she's wasting her breath in person." She tossed the padd down on the chair. "But you will be buying. You've interrupted the climax."

She walked through the open door, fully expecting some stuffy vulcan or Andorian woman with an overstarched uniform and no people skills.

A pair of light green eyes surrounded by naturally dark eye shadow peered up from behind the bowl of soup the red-collared Orion was sipping. Inside the office, seated casually behind the desk, sat Lirha Saalm, the former disgraced captain of USS Galileo. Her straight, dark hair was cropped neatly to shoulder length and tied back behind her hair in a tight ponytail, and her uniform collar now sported four solid gold rank pips. "Miraj...!" she mumbled with enthusiasm before chewing, swallowing, and setting her early lunch aside. "You found your way."

Miraj stopped dead, the wind cut from her sails. "Admiral!?" It wasn't possible. Lirha was in prison. Five years and deportation after. She couldn't be sitting here.

"Captain, actually." No flag emblems adorned her collar anymore, and Saalm strangely felt more at ease with her rank with each passing day. She then looked over Miraj's expression and her familiar pink bundles of hair. "You're surprised to see me?" she asked with a knowing look. She'd seen the same expression on Derani's face several times in the past few days from other crew members she'd served with.

The shock was flowing through her system and she could feel trembling in her fingers. How could she be sitting there so calm, as if it was nothing unusual to be sentenced for a string of crimes, her reputation destroyed, and then just get back to work, even if it was with a significant demotion. "What? When?"

The captain held up her green hand to slow down the ensign's ensuing line of questioning. "I know you probably have many questions but there will be time for explanations later. Perhaps when we're in a more private setting. But for now...as you can see, Starfleet's returned me to command with a new assignment. I assume that's why you're here?"

Questions? That was putting it mildly. And she had been put in charge of the new Galileo. That meant the rejection had been Lirha too. After everything that the crew had gone through together. People had suffered for her, risked their careers and futures and reputations. People had lost their lives supporting Lirha's decision to not surrender, and this was the payment? A dismissal out of hand? "You...." The trembling in her fingers was spreading to her voice, the bounce of tiny stones before the avalanche. "You..." Normal words were being swept away. "You...faithless..." Getting the first accusation out freed the rest, it tumbled out. "Ungrateful. Traitorous! Back-stabbing! Bitch!"

Saalm's eyebrows slowly raised with a touch of surprise to convey her slight shock at the woman's sudden outburst. Tilting her head slowly to the side with curiosity, she simply stared at the junior officer wondering what she might say next.

When Lirha didn't answer, Miraj's anger flared again. "So what was it? All a show. Or did you pull some slippery shit to get out of it?" She looked towards the heaven, so furious she didn't know what to do with herself. "You know what? I don't care. People died for you. People suffered because of your choices. And we all defended you. And then you treat us like this? Don't say anything. Just lord it over our lives with your f-----g games?"

The captain's first instinct was to double check her universal translator to make sure it wasn't some sort of a practical prank someone was playing on her. Had she just heard correctly? Games? Traitorous? Her eyes had seen Derani's lips move and the sound come out, and it began to dawn on her that the tirade was real. She narrowed her eyes, her feelings turning toward anger and sudden hurt at the way she'd just been spoken to. What could the half-Boslic possibly know of what she'd sacrificed over the past two years of her life... The shame and public humiliation of her trial on Earth, the letters she'd had to write to each dead crew member's family... The nights of terrifying dreams and the daily grind of an inmate. And yet she seemed to be here to judge, with ignorance and unjust rage.

"Ensign Derani!" she shouted as she rose to her feet and came to her full height. Her light green irises twinkled with fire at the insults that'd just been thrown her way. "Speak to me like that again and I will lock you in the brig for the next month. ...How dare you come here and show disrespect."

The red mist descended. After everything that had happened. After the nearly dying, after the torture, after losing her perception and very nearly her reason to live, Miraj couldn't believe that the Orion woman wasn't even vaguely sorry for the deceit and distress her recent actions had caused. And not just to herself. She knew Amaranai had been gutted by the rejection. And did Nesh even know? She doubted it. The Orion artist had descended into weeks of obsessional painting.

"I'm showing disrespect? Me? I'm not the one letting all her friends think she's rotting in jail after a hideously unfair trial. I'm not the one who's ignored people who care about her. And I'm not the one who thinks she's so great we should all come grovel for a job by issuing anonymous rejections out of hand instead of treating us like people and telling us you're out. How dare I? How dare you!"

The captain walked around from behind the desk until she stood less than a meter from Derani and stopped to face her, watching her squarely in the eyes with full authority. "Grovel for a job? Ignore the people I care about?" The outrageousness of it all still made Lirha question if this was real. "I told you there would be time for explanations later. Does that not suit you? How do you presume to know so much about my life and what I've done?" The young woman in front of her couldn't have any idea about what she'd recently faced nor her personal affairs. Instead, it was petulance on full display with complete disregard for the uniform they both wore.

"Get out. Now," the captain pointed to the door behind Derani with her green finger. She wasn't in the mood for dealing with half-child tantrums and flagrant insubordination, nor did she want to be. Privately, however, it pained her to give the order to Miraj. So much so that she shook her head with sadness.

Explanations? Pah! There wasn't an explanation good enough for the former admiral's action. It was nothing but cold arrogance and hypocrisy. Lirha couldn't even manage an apology for whatever justification for secrecy she was going to trot out. "With Pleasure!" Miraj snarled. It was just a pity it was a standard slide door and couldn't be slammed. She turned on her heel and marched out.

She didn't even stop for Lamar, "Thanks for the warning. Drinks are off." She snatched up her padd, and kept walking. She didn't want him to see her cry.

Darius had been watching a historical move about aviation history in the early 22nd century on his PADD in the waiting room, but his attention was suddenly diverted when Miraj stormed out into the waiting room and spoke to him. He watched her and listened to her speak, then stood up as she didn't even pause to stay with him. "Wait, Miraj!" he called out. "What happened?"

"That was Admiral Saalm!" She hissed. "Not in jail. Not deported. But sitting in there like nothing ever happened, expecting it all to be okay even though she's treated everyone like they're nothing. You could have said something!" She started walking faster, not wanting to talk. Being rejected by some autoaton in a captains suit was one thing. But the Admiral? First Luke, then her? She just wanted to crawl inside Queen Anne and cry like a baby.

He just stood there, watching her go with bewilderment spread across his dark features. What in the name of steak-and-cheeses was her problem, he wondered. It was like some sort of light switch had been flicked and the jovial young ensign he was used to was now seemingly filled with bitterness and anger. Not only at the captain, somehow, but also at him.

[OFF]

--

Ensign Miraj Derani

CWO3 Lamar Darius
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Saalm]

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

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