Take To The Bridle

Posted on Thu Apr 23rd, 2020 @ 9:46am by Captain Enalia Telvan & Lieutenant Tyra Ironhooves
Edited on on Mon Apr 27th, 2020 @ 11:12am

Mission: Return to the Core
Location: USS Hera, Deck 6, Transporter Room 3
Timeline: 2397

“How many times do I need to tell you people that I do not belong on a starship! Look at me!”

“Lieutenant, I realize that you may have some misgivings about spaceflight-”

“Misgivings I have many, petty officer-”

“Lieutenant Commander, actually. Look, Lieutenant,” he stressed the word, emphasizing the difference in their ranks, “there’s nothing I can do about this. Orders are orders and assignments are what they are. You’ve been assigned to another starship.

“I am nearly four hundred kilos commander!” the braying alien anatomist stomped one of her rear hooves on the deck, and even with the sturdy rubber coatings she wore to muffle her impact with the deck, the reverberations still cavitated outward from the point of impact. It tended to reinforce a point, and in the case of one Lieutenant Tyra ‘Doc’ Ironhooves, it came quite naturally.

A centaur, with the entire body of a horse, save the neck which then graduated to a secondary torso with redundancy systems which appeared to be a humanoid from the waist up. Long and wide pointed ears accentuated her alien appearance. A long mane of shaggy chestnut hair shot through by a few streaks of silver was restrained behind her head in a great twist, while her stout and wide three-fingered hands planted themselves on the lieutenant commander’s desk. The glossy black flanks advanced a bit, and the desk moved a few centimeters.

“I’m supposed to be in a hospital. ON THE GROUND, Lieutenant Commander. Not on a starship. Or just station me as the liaison to my home planet, but I am not...” the desk scraped back another centimeter.

“A good match...” The desk scraped back a few centimeters more.

“For a starship,” the spirited granddam snorted, then exhaled in a remarkably equine expression. The lieutenant commander calmly folded his hands atop his desk and smiled placidly.

“Take it up with Starfleet Command. You can send a request up the chain of command and wait for an answer, but in the meantime, orders are orders. Are you refusing to report as ordered, Lieutenant...?” There was a bit of a twinkle in his eye as the routing officer waited for the impotent rage to set in. This was the good part of his job, after all.

There was that moment where she considered just bashing his skull in, but she didn’t have anything within arm’s reach that would serve as a decent cudgel. Of course, she could always reverse then buck up to kick him with both hooves. Probably at least crack his skull if not dash his brains out. Though while she found both thoughts to be satisfying, in the end she chose civilized behavior.

Another starship. Another life in cramped quarters, jamming into turbolifts while trying to keep sickbay up and running. Trying to find a treadmill that could hold her. Trying not to get claustrophobic because she could never see the sky nor feel the wind on her face. Never being able to run with all of those sharply angled corridors or the endless stream of people in the way.

“There should be provisions in Starfleet for assignment of alien life forms that are not like you humans to posts that would count as animal cruelty,” the cranky centaur muttered, her tail flicking in annoyance. “So what’s the name of this starship again...?”

“The USS Hera...”

----------

Not long after, Captain Enalia Telvan was waiting in Transporter Room Three alongside Crewman Kyle, waiting patiently and reviewing an incoming personnel file for a new ship's surgeon. She was here doing an onboarding today rather than Commander Paris, due to her First Officer's allergy to the transporter, coupled with the added mass of the incoming Lieutenant, all of which meant something different in the transporter room. While Rita would do it, better not to risk, Enalia reasoned. Hence why the buxom Trill woman had just called 'Captain's Prerogative' ahead of time and planned to meet the hooved surgeon herself.

She just hoped that she remembered how to do an onboarding. She had three PaDDs and she knew she needed to hand one of them to Lieutenant Ironhooves. The second had all the information she needed... Right, the third was for the transporter operator. With a grin, she handed it over. "Shouldn't be long now. The SS Amaterasu was only a few minutes away when I left the bridge."

"I'm getting the handshake now, Captain," Kyle noted, brow furrowing. "Uh, engaging two platforms at once for the transport... here we go..." With a twang and a whine, the transporter started up, the shimmering particles coalescing themselves in the form of a half-horse, half-humanoid hybrid. A centaur, just like the Earth legends. Only this one was wearing a modified Starfleet uniform, complete with Starfleet medical saddlebags across her equine back, now looking around with a frowning disapproval. Taking in the enlisted crewman at the console and the Captain, she read the pips on the collar and snorted.

"I rank the captain meeting me at the transporter? My reputation must precede me. Damned if I understand why you bipeds are so determined to put me on starships, but here I am. Lieutenant Tyra Ironooves, requesting permission to come aboard, ma'am," the cranky centaur sighed, drawing herself up in a salute.

"Permission to come aboard granted," Enalia replied, returning the salute with a piratical grin. "I'm sure Commander Paris would have loved to have been here, but she suffers from a transporter allergy and with us having to use two transport pads... Your complaint won't be the only one lodged with Command about you being assigned to a starship, though for other reasons."

The Trill woman then glanced down at one of the PaDDs she carried. "So... Let's see if I remember how to on-board personnel. Welcome aboard the USS Hera. I'm Captain Enalia Telvan, Captain of said vessel. This one is for you..." With that, she offered one of the PaDDs to Tyra. "It's your onboarding package with a map of the ship, quarters assignment, duty assignment, a few appointments to keep... Your luggage should be beamed to your quarters... Ah, your quarters!"

With that grin of hers, Enalia looked back up at the centaur before her. "We did our best to accommodate your physiology in redesigning your quarters. Rather than assigning you standard officer quarters on deck eight, I had a pair of overflow quarters connected and remodeled on deck twelve near sickbay so you can avoid using the turbolifts for the most part, at least for daily activities. I hope they're satisfactory."

"That's... actually the most sensible plan, and I appreciate the consideration, Captain," the quadrupedal quest chaser acknowledged, stepping off the transporter pad carefully with one hoof, then the other before bringing her back hooves down with a bit more force, which did make the deck shake and resound just a little. "Good... solid decking. The Avalon was a recycled Soyuz class in a perpetual state of breakdown. While I wear rubber hoof covers to minimize my impacts, you could still hear me decks away. That shouldn't be nearly as much of an issue here."

Prancing a bit in place, only a low thrumming came from the impacts, which seemed to please the hooved healer. "As for the turbolifts, share one with me and you'll know part of why I'm not that fond of them, but what can you do?"

"We've had a few hooved crewmembers over the years, so we've come up with ways to buffer the decks with the gravity plating. You should be able to prance about as much as you like without bothering your neighbors too much." With a grin, Enalia motioned towards the doors. "We're also several generations newer, being a Nebula class. Our turbolifts and corridors are about fifty percent bigger than a Soyuz class, for instance."

"Now... As for your actual assignment here..." The expression on Enalia's face faded slightly as they headed out of the transporter room, into the wide and vast thoroughfare of Deck 6, moving towards the nearest turbolift. "Personnel may have signed off on your orders, but I did some checking, and your assignment came directly from Admiral Wheeler. I hate to bring it up, but he's one of those in command that are none too fond of me and him sending anyone here, you have to understand I have a certain level of suspicion."

That got the captain a derisive snort followed by a whinnying laugh. "Oh, you ought to be suspicious. You've scared the manure outta that man, and from what I've read, for good reason. You look like you might be up to some pretty fast and loose hijinks out here with Starfleet intelligence at your disposal while you run a private 'trading' fleet with seemingly limitless resources? You make people nervous, Captain Telvan. Nervous leaders make for nervous herds, and nervous herds stampede."

It was abundantly clear that the fleet-footed physician was not intimidated by rank or position, not was she given to subterfuge. She was, instead, practically blunt in her honest assessment of her situation. "So yep, he sent me out to keep an eye on you, look into you and see what you're about, as an impartial observer. I'm a sworn Starfleet officer and my word is my bond, so I have my orders. Of course, he didn't order me NOT to tell you about said orders, so no reason for me to skulk about and hide it from you."

"Well that's refreshing," Enalia replied with a chuckle. "I think you're the first honest spy this ship's ever seen. In that case, you can tell the Admiral that as long as Starfleet doesn't have the manpower or resources to help those in the far reaches of the Alpha quadrant to put away the worst of the pirates and Syndicate or help those they still haven't helped rebuild after the Dominion War or any disasters since, the Artan Empire will be there."

"As the indirect leader, that's the promise I've made and the acting Queen and ruling body agree with me." Standing in front of the turbolift doors, the Trill woman looked dead serious as the doors opened and two crewmen stepped out nervously.

"Acting queen? This is news." Internally, with the confirmation of the outlandish tale she'd heard at Starfleet Command, Ironhooves wondered just what she was getting out of Starfleet that a vast trading empire did not provide, and her suspicions moved a bit further to Why is this woman here and what is she after from Starfleet that she hasn't got? Must be inside intelligence.

"Well, as a Starfleet Captain, it would be a blatant conflict of interests if I flaunted my position as queen of a privateer nation," Enalia explained as she waited for Tyra to make her way into the turbolift. "So do you have any questions for me? Or may I ask about you? We're supposed to be doing your onboarding and I'd like to know more about our new surgeon, after all."

Fishing in the saddlebags, Ironhooves brought up a tablet, tapped at then handed it to the starship captain as a collection of recordings from starship screens began playing, on a loop of Enalia in her Starfleet uniform repeatedly declaring, "As Queen of the Artan Empire..." on four different occasions.

"It would, wouldn't it?" Ironhooves snickered as she stepped into the turbolift and shuffled her hindquarters to get them out of the way as she held the door. "You're right. Roomy."

As Enalia settled into the Turbolift with her hooved companion, she tapped at the datapad to figure out when the recordings had been made. As she thought, they were all before Magnus's daughter, Elysius had taken over as acting queen and her heir to the Artan throne. "It seems I have slipped up a few times. You have my apologies. It seems I have to amend my previous statement to say that when I'm in this uniform, I do my best to represent only the interests of Starfleet, however being who I am that can sometimes be difficult."

"I can see that. It does look like you seek solutions within Starfleet when it's Starfleet's problem, and your Artan resources when it's an Artan problem. Except for your tribunal, of course, where your entire senior staff were involved. So I'm not sure where we're going, Captain, but I believe the way these things work is you call out a deck and or location?" The cranky centaur half-turned to cock an eyebrow at the pirate queen.

"Deck twelve sickbay corridor three, direct. Captain's authorization," Enalia ordered as the turbolift chirruped almost happily and started moving. "Sorry about that. As for the Tribunal, the late queen had committed several crimes both directly and indirectly against citizens of the Federation, so Admiral Meowlith authorized an investigation. As a Starfleet Captain leading a Starfleet crew, I led that investigation and did my best to bring her to justice."

"As her daughter, I admit that I wanted to make a bit of a personal statement..." Enalia shut off the datapad and handed it back. "As her heir and a princess, I wanted to make it clear to her that I intended the Artans to follow the rule of law, and that the path I chose in life would not be infringed upon by her or anyone else."

"Very convenient how that all played out for you, then," the fleet-footed physician observed. "So moving forward you've delegated things to a regent and stepped away from Artan business to focus solely on Starfleet?"

"Convenient? Nothing about that whole investigation was convenient. Adhering to Federation law while upholding Artan code and making sure there were no violations in the Artan-Federation agreements?" Enalia scoffed slightly as she made her way Tyra out of the turbolift.

"I've withdrawn from state politics as much as I've been able to, what with the change of power. Those that knew me best, know where I wanted to take the Artan Empire and they're doing so wonderfully after minimal guidance and handing the reins over to Elysius." With a wry grin, the buxom Trill woman waited for Ironhooves to make her way out as well. "They still demand I get regular reports, and they've still assigned me an adjutant. My personal lawyer is an Artan citizen as well."

"Rather than a Starfleet lawyer," the heavy-hooved healer observed as she stepped most of the way out of the turbolift, then stepped to the left, then the right. "Nearly enough room for someone to get by. Very impressive. In the interest of impartiality shouldn't you have Starfleet legal counsel working in tandem with your private personal lawyer? This way Starfleet has transparency into your dealings and maneuvers, which would make a lot of this Q&A I am putting you through irrelevant?" In her presentation of a solution, it seemed that perhaps the impartial observer was not entirely impartial. Or perhaps, true to her word, she genuinely was impartial but determined to seeing both parties amend their grievance.

"I tried that and the legal counsel the admiralty assigned the USS Hera is..." A dark cloud seemed to pass over Enalia as the memory of the man they had been assigned returned to her for a moment. "Far from impartial. Hence the choice to retain only one and having an embassy established for him to work through. They want to make it difficult for me to do my job as a Starfleet Captain, I'll play the diplomacy game. I've also answered almost all of the questions you've asked, and they're already on record. Once you're through shipboard in processing, you'll have access to almost all the ship's logs, including everything you've asked about."

The spotted woman paused at a large set of double doors, glancing down at the last PaDD she carried. "These are your quarters. At your leisure, you have an appointment with the first officer, medical, the captain, and security to be fitted for a combat EVA suit. Once those are complete, your interim computer access will be raised to full access. I would sign off on this being your meeting with the captain, but we've only talked about myself and I know nothing about your own hopes, dreams, or preferences other than your desire not to live on a starship."

Taking the tablet from the spotted captain, the physician tucked it away in a saddlebag without looking, instead eyeing the commanding officer. When she spoke, it was with a small bit of pride, and the same directness she had displayed thus far.


"Tyra Ironhooves, of Clan Ironhooves. On Arboria, I was a warrior priestess, a shaman of my people and wise to the ways of the wylde and the wood. I encountered your people when a research vessel became stranded there, and I learned of medicine- a magic that could be practiced by the common man and those blessed by the worldgod alike. An equalizer that could bring great change to our world. As I had seen them and knew of their existence, when they were rescued, I accompanied them to the stars. I left behind my clan and my people... for now." There was a bit of wistfulness at that, a hit of a longing that was old and dulled but still ached nonetheless.

"Someday I will return to them, and bring them science and medicine, and see if they will accept it in harmony with the magic native to our world, that functions only there. Here, now- I am a surgeon. I delve inside people's systems and fix what is wrong there. I believe there are six different species onboard with whom I'm not familiar, and you and your little passenger are two of them I have to study up on. Which I will, because I'm a healer. The oath I took is a bit different than your Hippocratic Oath. I will heal those who seek help, but I will defend those in my charge. That includes you and everyone aboard this starship. That is who I am, Captain Telvan." Extending her three-fingered hand in greeting, the finger s were spread wide- clearly meant to accommodate an armclasp, not a handshake. A warrior's gesture, one to another in primitive cultures.

Piratical cultures, too.

It took Enalia a moment of study to figure out that it wasn't a handshake being offered, but an armclasp, but returned it when she knew that Tyra meant no harm. Her mother had broken her arm several times that way so she was always wary of such grips. "I think that pretty much covers everything I would ask about in our meeting then. I look forward to serving with you. When you get the chance, I recommend paying a visit to the arboretum. It's not big enough to really run in, but it's good enough for a breath of fresh air at least. Besides, I'm honestly not sure even our largest holodecks could keep up with you at your fastest gait. Welcome aboard and if there's anything you need, please don't hesitate to give me a call."

"If they've beamed my belongings over, why don't you join me for a drink, Captain? I'm not on duty, and after having to push all that manure out ahead of me, I'm sure you could use one as well. They may have sent me as a spy, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends." Many of the officers onboard would have ended that with a request for a buy-in- an 'aye', or something to that effect. But not Ironhooves, who just stated it plainly. "Sounds like you could use one who's known to be... impartial."

Enalia thought it over, moving her schedule around in her head. "Well, I could use a cup of tea. Plus, I'd like to know what you think of what the engineers made of your quarters. We did our best with sensor logs from your homeworld as well as your own logs and requests, but... Sure, let's have a drink."

For the first time, a smile spread across the middle-aged matron's face, and she clapped the captain on the shoulder. "this might not be so bad after all..."