A Son of the Empire

Posted on 09 Oct 2023 @ 12:57pm by Commander Morgan Tarin & Lieutenant JG Montgomery Vala

3,951 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: Episode 18 - Cold Station 31
Location: Regula I - Level 16, Main Corridor; Senior Office Module
Timeline: MD 18, 1335 hrs

[ON]

The newly-minted Starfleet captain, Commander Morgan Tarin, quickly walked through the main spar corridor of Regula I's primary module assembly. Level 16 contained a multitude of personnel quarters, office administration areas, isolation labs, and even communications and transporter modules. It was the central hub of the station where all personnel - Starfleet, guest and civilian - conglomerated. She herself had just departed Galileo via transporter and was on her way back to her temporary office quarters within the station with a plethora of PADDs clutched under her armpit. She navigated her path among the civilian scientists who were directly in her walkway and moving both directions with a frustrating lack of urgency. Occasionally she spotted a Starfleet uniform, usually a member of the starbase's compliment, but suddenly a new blue-collared individual caught her attention, one she wasn't familiar with. It was a man; tall and muscular in frame who possessed speckles of greying hair and green eyes...and pointed ears. A Vulcan science officer, she thought to herself. But upon further inspection, the greener coloration of his skin and the subtle brow ridges within his forehead revealed him to be one of their common ancestors. Romulan.

Vala was not a fan of crowds. They were easy to avoid on a starship, or in a lab. Unfortunately, by design stations seemed to operate around the principle of atriums and hubs. Communal spaces where corridors could be. It was inefficient. It was unpleasant. And he did not particularly care for it. Not that he disliked others, or was some kind of recluse. There was a time and a place for other people for certain, but there were too many around here.

He navigated the area, occasionally dodging this way and that to avoid people who had no sense of spatial awareness, but eventually the inevitable happened and he bumped into a civilian. He muttered his apologies then looked around, meeting the gaze of another officer. She was tall for a human, brown eyes, brown hair. Three pips on her collar. A red collar. He'd met Commander Blake earlier in the day so this must be… "Commander Tarin." He said, standing a little to attention and nodding his head. "I am Lieutenant Vala, newly commissioned to the Science Department of the Galileo."

Tarin slowed her pace when they locked eyes then stopped when he addressed her with a formal introduction. Several unwary civilian scientists walking directly behind her almost plowed into her backside but quickly averted disaster and scurried around her stationary presence. "New science officer?" she repeated with raised, accepting eyebrows. "Good. It's about time." She shifted her PADDs from beneath one arm to the other in order to free her right arm and extend an open hand for a courtesy shake. "Call me 'captain', Mister Vala. You caught me at a busy time. Let's take a walk," she motioned with a tilt of her head further down the corridor in the direction of her small office module.

"Of course captain." Vala said, matching her pace. "I am glad to have met you prior to our departure, busy as you are. I always appreciate being acquainted with the person in charge."

She fell in step next to him and the walk to her temporary office wasn't duratious. "Where are coming from? Earth? One of the other core worlds?" she casually asked while pacing with long strides to her administrative chamber.

"Earth. I had an extended rehabilitation period after my last posting. That morphed into something of a sabbatical from my duties at Starfleet - I was posted to the Daystrom Institute for a couple of years before finally being assigned here." The crowd was thinning out as the approached the office. "I look forward to being under way."

"I'm sure you do. Regula I is a long way from Earth..." her voice trailed off when she slowed and approached her destination. The captain input her security code into the door's small LCARS panel then the entrance hissed open, presenting the interior of a confined, circular office module consisting of a robust desk and computer terminal, several chairs and a couch, and several very large transparent aluminum windows which displayed a breathtaking view of the purple atmosphere and puffy white clouds belonging to the planet Remidia they currently orbited. She gestured to a vacant chair in front of her desk indicating for him to sit, then set her PADDs down on the desk with a soft clatter.

"Six months is a long time to be in transit. What did you do to stay occupied?" she continued the conversation while moving to the nearby replicator to offer him a beverage. "Water? Coffee? Tea?"

Vala would normally drink Viinerine, but Starfleet replicators required a fair bit of tweaking to get the recipe right. "Water would be fine, thank you." He responded as he sat down. "It was indeed a long journey, though I had a few loose ends to tie up on the way. I finished a paper I had been working on at Daystrom - Quantum Mechanisms Underlying the Unprecedented Magnetic Potential of Gallicite. Which really closed a chapter on a mission, well, years before where we successfully got a sample of the stuff. Hyper-Magnetised Gallicite that is. It's very rare..." He trailed off. Too much detail. "I also spent some time familiarising myself with this region of space" He gestured to the window. "It seems there is much to be done here."

The replicator whirred then two cold glasses of water materialized in the dispensary tray. Morgan grabbed both then walked back to her desk, setting one down in front of the new science officer before taking a lengthy drink from her own. She'd listened to the elucidation of the science he'd been researching but the complexities of the subject matter went way above her head. When she finally sat in her chair, she simply gave him a polite nod. "Sounds fascinating. You'll have to forgive me though, quantum mechanics aren't my specialty...but Starfleet operations is," she revealed before adjusting her long legs into a comfortable position.

"Your assessment of this area is accurate. I spent the last 20 months here aboard Regula I serving as the sector's strategic operations officer before my assignment to Galileo." She leaned back in her seat then folded her hands in her lap. "This - the Pleiades Cluster -" her hazel eyes flicked to the large windows and the colorful cosmos beyond, "is the new final frontier. Starfleet's been exploring this region of the galactic south for almost a decade now. It's a stellar nursery with the calculated potential to house hundreds if not thousands of undiscovered Class M worlds. The only problem...is the lack of resources to explore it all." Tarin took a deep breath then explained the situation. "We're understaffed out here and in need of more personnel and starships. The nearest fortified starbase is almost two weeks away at Warp 9.9 so we've been having to make due with what we have. But it isn't enough."

A captain grounded in strategic operations was a rare thing. Vala thought about all of the on-the-job officers promoted to that role - conn officers, engineers, scientists. It couldn't hurt to have someone who has a specific grounding in sector operations leading the ship. "I suppose that leaves all the more exploring for us to do, captain." He continued to look out of the window. "I've always felt that more can be done with a small ship and a dedicated crew, than a huge ship and a disinterested one. Hopefully the Galileo can trailblaze in this sector and catch the attention of those back at the core of Federation space. Maybe more resources will follow."

Tarin sipped her water again then started to sort her collection of PADDs into separate piles. "Normally I'd be inclined to agree with you but Starfleet is playing this campaign cautiously. Many of 1st Fleet's assets are still ferrying to the Pleiades Cluster but at a slow trickle." She looked back up at him to explain, "Command doesn't want to telegraph a deployment of so many starships and personnel all at once and accidentally provoke any of the neighboring governments." Like the Klingon Empire. She flared her eyebrows then let out a light breath. "And as much as I appreciate the scientific opportunities out here, my job for the last two years has mostly been concerned with logistics and intelligence management."

The organisational level of all of it was a little over Vala's head. "Starfleet ships are indeed drawn in many different directions. In our case I imagine it's like many others: one ship, many priorities." He looked back to the captain. "I'm afraid I am a little naive to the complexities of the situation. I think us science officers can get a little too focussed on the details to read the geopolitical situation." He gave a slightly sheepish smile. "I am sure we will find some scientific exploration to do even if we are assigned more critical duties. Space doesn't tend to leave anyone alone for long in my experience."

"Space is dangerous, lieutenant," cautioned the captain. "We've already lost several starships out here in the past two years. Entire crews formally designated KIA or MIA, stranded in irrecoverable locations." The expression on her face had turned slightly severe. "This isn't the Daystrom Institute or the Memory Alpha archive...this is dangerous field work with a slim margin for error. I need you to understand this and the nature of what our assignment really means. Without the politics."

Vala gave a curt nod. "I am well aware, captain." He did not particularly appreciate the assertion that he was naive to the risks of this kind of mission. "I have been posted aboard Starfleet ships on the fringes of known space twice before. I fully understand that regions such as this are far from... pacified like the core of Federation." He maintained his gaze on the commander. "During my first away mission as a new officer on the Antares we were sent to the surface of a dead planet to investigate an unusual source of Seletron Radiation. I'm not sure why scans didn't pick it up, but we ended up triggering an ancient planetary defense system. It knocked out every piece of technology we had with us, killed most of the team and I spent ten days running around a trench system from a long forgotten war, attempting to understand the defenses well enough to help my crew disable them for good." Vala maintained a sanguine look. his allusions about exploration had certainly died a death on that assignment. "My last commission ended on a crippled ship, holding on by a hair." He paused for a moment. "I may have spent time in the relative comfort of Daystrom, but I requested an assignment out here. I am under no false impression as to the dangers. I am here because I have useful expertise and experience and I intend to become an asset to your crew." His green eyes shone a little.

"We need every capable crew member available to us and it's good to have an officer with your skillset aboard Galileo," the captain agreed. "Not everyone volunteers for an assignment like this. I personally believe it reveals a certain quality of character for those who do. Qualities in great demand out here." Tarin's compliments were rare and often layered behind a veneer of obfuscation, but her sentiment was sincere. She leaned back in her chair once more then crossed one of her long legs across the other while studying the man's distinctive facial features in silence. "I'm curious about your background, Mister Vala. How does one with your," she considered her words carefully, "heritage end up serving in Starfleet?"

"It is a... long story." The question posed was one he had become familiar with. "But I will do my best to provide the headlines. Perhaps I can tell you in more detail at some point when time allows." He maintained eye contact with the commander, carefully observing her reaction as he continued. "My mother is half Romulan and I am the son of her and a Romulan so I suppose that makes me... a quarter human?" He never really understood why people tried to do the calculation but people did all the same. "I was nonetheless raised as a full blooded son of the Empire, and I grew to be a fairly prominent scientist. I worked on some highly... theoretical pieces of research and as you may surmise from my specialism, I was heavily involved with the pursuit of new cloaking technology." He could remember the heady days, working with peers, being treated as one.

"But political winds blew as they often did and in the years prior to the Dominion War paranoia flourished like nothing else in the Empire. Us 'half breeds' were easy targets." He did his best to maintain his composure - sadness about this time had long since evolved into anger. "I was forced to flee. Through more luck than judgement I was picked up near the border by a Starfleet ship and the rest, I suppose is history." He recalled the faces of the away team from the USS Invincible who had picked him up. He had barely been able to talk. Starving. Dehydrated. He owed them a great deal. "I provided Starfleet with useful intelligence, and worked closely with Federation scientists for a time. Eventually I craved something different and I went though a vast array of hoops to finally join the academy." It wasn't the full story but it was, he hoped, enough for now.

"I am now a citizen of the Federation. I am loyal to its ideals." He knew he probably didn't need to say it but he felt he should. "There is little love lost between me and my people, and I have no wish to go back. There is no going back in any case, what with the supernova." Despite his anger, Vala didn't like to think of that particular event to hard. "I hope my... heritage does not become a problem at all."

As she listened to the short chronicle of his journey to the Federation, she too recalled a similar period of paranoia within Starfleet during the darkest days of the war. It metastasized with fear, hopelessness and disillusion to almost destroy the very fabric of the United Federation of Planets from within, which had been the Founders' precise goal - victory through political subjugation, not necessarily military might. It didn't surprise her that a society with a robust culture of internal surveillance and subterfuge would suffer the same affliction. Tarin tilted her head slightly to side, silently judging the new officer with interest before lightly shaking her head in reply. "No problem from me. I was...simply curious. Starfleet and the Planetary Sciences Division obviously put their trust and resources in you, and I'll do the same." Her thoughts drifted back to his recounting of the Dominion War. "Have you met any others like yourself recently? Mixed-heritage Romulans who also relocated to avoid persecution?"

"I appreciate your trust. It is not misplaced." Vala lacked confidence in various things, but his ability as a officer was not one of them. "I have not." He said, responding to the captain's question. "I am sure there are others, though I must admit I suspect it is not many. When I arrived I got the impression that no one knew what to do with me. I think having useful intelligence I was willing to share secured my ability to remain." He wondered whether the Federation was as welcoming to those who had nothing to offer. Housing 'defectors' had a geopolitical price. "Given how patrolled the neutral zone is, I can't imagine all too many make it. I have never heard of large numbers arriving - when I was within the Empire it was more common for 'dissidents' to flee to the frontier as opposed to a neighbour." He shuddered to think what had happened to those who had ended up in Klingon space. "I imagine other individuals exist within the Federation and Starfleet, but I think my deployments have kept me away from any 'expatriot' circles that may exist."

She continued to intently watch him, still judging. Still evaluating. Still determining what to make of this unique and intelligent man who was now a member of her crew. "You've told me about your newfound loyalty to the Federation and your path to citizenship. But what about your loyalties out here?" Tarin gesticulated to the office's large windows and the cosmos beyond their small and fragile station-based habitat. "Where will your loyalties stand aboard Galileo? To your captain..? To the ship and its crew...? Or to the mission..?" she tested.

Vala tried to remain composed, though he almost raised an eyebrow at the line of questioning. It was almost the kind of question he'd have been asked when he was back amongst the Romulans. "Well I respect the chain of command, captain." He spoke cautiously, wondering what Tarin was looking to find out. "But I expect orders to be given in good faith, as any officer would." He kept a keen gaze on Tarin, trying to gain insights. "This ship is my home now. I will serve her loyally. I expect with such a small crew there is a lot of... camaraderie. I would assume that bonds of loyalty are forged very keenly between officers here. In time I hope to be a part of the 'family', as it were."

Tarin wasn't a telepath or an empath but she could discern a slight hint of trepidation within the lieutenant's reply. "A strong answer," she evaluated before the creases along the corners of her eyes subtly crinkled, "but there isn't a right or wrong one. We all serve for our own reasons and the concept of loyalty is more complicated than a single person, group or assignment. I don't want officers who are order-takers,and sometimes our mission changes despite the orders we're given. And the crew and Galileo? She's a fine starship, of course, but she isn't the first one to carry the name nor will she be the last. Crew members come and go as their assignments change. Your specific loyalties are your own and I'll never ask you about them again. I simply...need to know we can count on you when the time comes."

They were reassuring words. Vala had thought for a moment he was going to be drawn into some strange political game of who had personal loyalty to who. Old scars from the Empire still evidently remained. "I am confident in my resolve. I enjoy working under pressure and I hope to prove myself to my colleagues here. You can assuredly count on me when it comes to the crunch."

Crunch. Her hazel irises brightened while a small smile tugged at the corner of her slim lips. "There'll certainly be many opportunities for that. It's my intent to run Galileo hard and fast. We have a lot of work to do and Command's counting on us to fulfill operational goals designed for heavy cruisers. If any of the crew can't keep up with me? They should have joined the Cargo Service."

Vala nodded. Given how advanced the Nova Class was, he wasn't surpised Command were heaping on the pressure. It was easy to look at specs and expect the universe. They never seemed to account for the fact that each crewman and officer had a capacity that would end up being constantly exceeded. "I appreciate leadership that has... impetus." He returned her smile. "No sense in getting left behind. I am here because I wish to be at the forefront so I am happy to hear that we will be challenged and held to high standards."

The captain returned her attention to one of her PADDs for a brief moment. The impromptu and casual interview they were engaged in had done a lot to quell her common concerns for new personnel. The man seemed experienced and motivated with a strong work ethic. But words could only go so far, and soon they would both learn more about each other in the line of duty. "Do you have any questions for me, right now?" she asked. "Did you meet Lieutenant Ullswater, your department head?"

"None right now, captain" He said in response to the first query. He was sure he'd have some in time but it would be a few days before he had a grasp on the moving parts. "I met her earlier today, yes. She struck me as a competent individual. She mentioned she had been recently promoted and was particularly focussed on... improving security within the department? She was a little vague on that." Vala recalled his very... unusual conversation with Ullswater. The captain probably didn't need to know about their talk of the opera. "I also saw the labs. The Galileo is well equipped." He smiled.

Tarin nodded twice with concurrence. "The Mark II Nova-class series contains state-of-the-art science facilities - we're essentially a mobile research and investigative platform with comparable capability to Regula I. Some of the civilian scientists couldn't be happier." She rubbed her chin in light thought then mumbled, "...Maybe a bit too happy sometimes..." Her thoughts snapped back to his mention of Ullswater and new security procedures. Strange. But the new department head had been through enough psychological trauma recently that perhaps it wasn't strange at all. "Ullswater's a sharp officer. Young, but very smart. I want you to learn from her but also use your age and experience to help guide her."

"It's an honour to be aboard such a state of the art vessel. I look forward to seeing what use we can make of the facilities and technology available." He was sincere - he'd been surrounded by the cutting edge at Daystrom, but his two previous postings - an aging Galaxy Class and a more military forcussed Norway Class - left much to be desired out on the fringes of Federation space. "I have already sensed some of that sharpness coming to bear, captain. I am certain she will be an able leader." Sofie had surprised him, but his impression had certainly been broadly positive. Even if she had been a little cagey about missions gone by. "I believe we will make an excellent team."

"I don't doubt it." The captain clasped her hands together then glanced down at the pending administrative work contained within the many PADDs adorning her desk. "Well, I hate to cut our meeting short but duty calls and I'm already running behind schedule. We can speak again later tonight," she offered. "Mess Hall 1 here on Level 16 at 1700 - it's a casual crew gathering. There'll be drinks and food."

"Not a problem at all, I feel fortunate to have been able to take up any of your time." Vala stood. "I'm glad for the chance encounter - it has been useful to become acquainted with the CO before we're underway." He gave Tarin a respectful nod. "I will see you at the gathering." With that he walked to the door.

"Lieutenant?" Tarin spoke one final time while she watched him approach the exit. "Welcome aboard Galileo."

[OFF]

--

Lieutenant (JG) Montgomery Vala
Deputy Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

CMDR Morgan Tarin
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

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