Reports Unlimited

Posted on Sun Nov 16th, 2014 @ 10:24pm by Captain Enalia Telvan & Staff Warrant Officer Nexi

Mission: Something Amiss
Location: Enalia's Quarters

Enalia had just sat down to some dinner after a long day of paperwork and red tape. SI was a tough mistress, but it was the assigned lot of the Hera. Oh well. Maybe her meatloaf and potatoes would cheer her up a bit. With extra mustard, of course.

Nexi had just gotten Aewia to lay down and sleep, then she headed to Enalia's quarters. Nexi was worried that Aewia was going to think she was leaving like she did before, so that's why she waited until her little sister went to sleep, though she took the precaution of setting an alert in case Aewia woke. She had no idea what she was doing, she'd never had to take care of another person before, so her trip to see the Captain was just a ruse, an excuse to talk to someone for advice. Nexi was so out of her element that she wasn't afraid to admit she needed help. When she arrived at Enalia's door, she rang the chime and waited nervously.

Enalia sighed and looked down at her meatloaf. No rest for the weary, it seemed. "Come in." she called, the doors opening. "I just sat down to dinner. I hope you don't mind if I eat."

"Go ahead, eat" Nexi said as she stepped in to Enalia's quarters. "You mind if I grab something and join you? Aewia wanted hasperat and I just couldn't eat it."

Enalia motioned towards the replicator. "Please, help yourself. Hasperat, huh? An interesting choice."

"Yeah... Apparently, she loves it, but I can't stand the cabbage," Nexi said as she got a bowl of potato chowder and sat at the table. "But, uh, she's the reason I came to talk to you," she added uneasily.

"Let me guess," Enalia started, waving her fork in the air before eating the mustard drenched meatloaf off of it. "You've never had anyone have to rely on you for everything like she does."

"No..." Nexi replied awkwardly, obviously defensive. "I, uh... Has she been debriefed?" Nexi asked as a cover. "Or has she not been lucid enough for that?"

"She hasn't had a moment of lucidity since you brought her aboard that I know of. No one's discussed anything more important than not swallowing comm badges with her." Enalia said sadly.

"Well, she dropped a couple of bits while we were talking," Nexi said as she stirred crackers into her chowder. "First was something about a virus, a silmaran virus. Do you know anything about that?"

Enalia shook her head as she chewed, clearing her mouth with a sip of tea. "Not a clue other than that the Romulans have been putting a lot of research into biological warfare."

"She said the silmaran virus reanimates the dead, similar to Kobali reproductive methods but she didn't say much more than that. Then later she mentioned Research Station R-134A," Nexi said as she ate.

"It's a start at least. I honestly didn't expect her to remember anything useful. Any idea where this research station is?" Enalia asked hopefully.

"She didn't say," Nexi said. "But I can look into it. I'll need to do something useful now that I'm mooching off of you."

"Mooching?" Enalia couldn't help but laugh at that. "Don't worry about trying to earn your keep. Just being with Aewia is enough, I think."

"Even so, I'd like to do something," Nexi said. "I'm not used to doing nothing and I've got skills I can contribute. Not saying I wanna put on a uniform or nothing like that, but I can help."

"Then work with Fairchild when you can. See if you can find anything else out." Enalia said. "And no uniforms, but I do recommend trying to blend in at least."

"I ain't giving up my jacket," Nexi said firmly. She wasn't currently wearing her nice, brown leather jacket she usually wore, but she would wear it whenever she damn well wanted to! "But I'll get some better clothes so I don't look so shabby," she relented.

"Thank you." Enalia took a few more bites before speaking again. "How are the quarters? If you need something bigger, I think we can do something. Knock out a wall maybe."

"It's fine," Nexi said. "Aewia likes it, though she ended up sleeping on the couch... after I talked her out of sleeping on the floor..." Though she'd probably find her sister on the floor when she went back. "Really, it's more than I know what to do with. But, maybe you can help me with something else..." Ok, now was the part where she needed to ask for help and advice, but she didn't know how.

Enalia set her fork down and leaned back in her chair, wiping mustard from her mouth. "Go on." She could definitely tell this was something uncomfortable for Nexi.

"How do I take care of another person?" Nexi asked bluntly. "I don't know what the hell I'm doing, but I can't just leave Aewia with someone else, it just don't feel right. But I don't know the first thing to do to take care of her."

There it was. Enalia smiled as warmly as she could. "Just be there for her and help her relearn things and to recover. There are hundreds of books on it, but in the end, that's all they're really saying."

Nexi nodded. "I just don't wanna fuck this up. She's been through enough..."

"Then just be patient with her." Enalia said. "I know you're patient and I know you won't do anything to hurt her. If I thought you had some ulterior motive, I wouldn't have let you back on the ship."

"Fair enough..." Nexi leaned back in her chair and thought about Enalia's advice. Nexi was patient. "She seemed lucid for a moment and I told her about what happened to her parents. I can't say she really understood, but I tried. I don't know if it was the right thing to do and I'm worried she might forget about it and I'll have to tell her again later, but at least I tried..." It was all she could do, the least she could do...

"Maybe she'll remember for you." Enalia mused.

"Maybe... I don't know why, but it felt like she was trying to remember things, not for herself but for me. Like that stuff about the virus, it just came out..." Aewia confused Nexi, but given her lack of experience caring for another person it probably wasn't all that hard to do. Nexi sighed and took her soup bowl back to the replicator. "Anyway, thanks for taking care of her while I was gone."

Enalia took her plate back to the replicator as well. "Any time. You're both family so I'll do whatever I can. "

Nexi cast Enalia a dubious glance, but didn't try to refute her statement. "There's one last thing I wanted to talk to you about," Nexi said. She wasn't sure how Enalia would receive this information, but it couldn't hurt to throw it out there. "I'm not sure if I'm ready to give up my old life just yet. I have contacts I can make use of for information, but to do that it would be useful if I was still taking jobs. Am I free to continue my line of work or is my being here contingent on putting all that away?"

"Do what you feel is best. Who knows, I might need to ask a favor of you before long and you'll need those contacts." Enalia said honestly. "Besides, I can't expect you to change your whole life overnight. That's insane."

Nexi nodded. "I would like having the means of entering and exiting the shuttle bay without prior clearance. It would be a simple matter of giving my ship the command access for that bay." But she wouldn't press the issue if she was denied, she just wanted the freedom to come and go as she pleased. Not like she would leave Aewia often, but it would be nice to know that freedom was there.

"I'd rather not," Enalia said wryly. "We do have to think of security. Just let docking control know when you want in or out. As long as we're not on lockdown, it'll be fine."

"Fair enough," Nexi said, then headed for the door. "Thank you for dinner."

"Any time." Enalia headed to her couch, flopping on it heavily.

Nexi looked back at Enalia like she wanted to say something else, but after a moment of consideration instead chose to walk away, returning to her new quarters to keep an eye on her sister.