Sneaky Pirate

Posted on Sun Sep 9th, 2018 @ 12:43pm by Commander Rita Paris & Captain Enalia Telvan

Mission: Holographic Horrors
Location: USS Hera, Deck 1, the Bridge
Timeline: 2395, in drydock at Artan Fortress, Kabul system

While she wasn't exactly walking on sunshine, the Starfleet career gal was fairly bouncing along today with a considerable spring in her step. Life was good. Life was better than good, it was amazing. The universe had proven itself to be not unkind, and her lover had been returned to her through deliberate and methodical improbable machinations of time and space. While she had been working to build a life in the future and dimension into which she had found herself thrust, the addition of one grey-eyed stoic Vulcan science adventurer officially made Rita Paris' life complete.

While she wouldn't mention it, no longer being demoted helped too. Rita took considerable pride in her rank, hard earned over the years, and having the captain return it to her had done wonders for her ego. Now she knew without a doubt that the captain recognized her efforts and her worth, and her dedication to the woman and the job were both quite firm in the mind of the lost navigator.

Today, she had exited her quarters just ahead of the handsome blue-clad scientist, who had strode in step with her to the turbolift, where he had gotten off on Deck 6 to speak with the Chief Science Officer. As for the fulsome first officer, she had business on the bridge, with the personage currently holding the duty shift for her.

Arriving on the blue and grey bridge, Paris smiled as she took it in. This was where she worked, this marvel of isolinear and holographic technology that mastered a mighty starship undreamt of in her day. And there, sitting in the center seat, looking like the cat that ate the canary, was one leopard-spotted Trill woman with captain's pips on her collar. Approaching the chair, Rita tried to play it straight, but the grin that blossomed would not be denied, and she looked giddy as a schoolgirl by the time she stood before her commander.

"Well ain't you the sneaky pirate," she whispered, low enough that the rest of the bridge crew, still on skeleton staff while at dock on shore leave that was wrapping up, but still loud enough for the captain to hear.

Enalia was looking over a PaDD when Rita came onto the bridge, and when she called her a sneaky pirate, the buxom captain looked up, curiosity showing clearly on her face. "Correct on both counts. Did you enjoy playing your role in that little interdimensional predestination paradox?"

"Depends on when you asked me. You knew... did you know the entire time I've been aboard?" Again, Rita spoke in a conspiratorial whisper. Being familiar with the captain was fine in private, but on the bridge a sense of decorum should be maintained, and she wasn't about to encourage the ensign sitting at Ops to start calling the captain names. "I assume you knew even before I arrived, given that you had my search results blocked by the next morning."

There was no malice nor accusation in the voice of the comely commander- if anything she admired the deft handiwork of manipulation to which she had been subjected her entire service aboard the Hera.

Enalia leaned in, whispering herself. "No harm in revealing a few details, I suppose... When we returned from a mission to the four years war era in this timeline, we used an unconventional method to return to our time but we missed the mark by four years. We also got a report of an interdimensional time traveler that was looking for not only my ship, but knew the location of my family's fortress for some reason. Intel Command and I couldn't quite piece it together, but we suspect that Temporal Investigations was hard at work already. The sneaky bastards were deep in our chili. After we found you, things were piecing together and within the hour I had confirmed that you had the same quantum resonance. After that, it was a simple matter of getting you to fulfill your role in his history there, so he could fulfill his role in yours, here."

"So this whole time that I've been freaking out and panicking and moping, you had to keep mum because otherwise it was likely to break the chain of events," Paris nodded, working it out. "That's... impressive, Captain. Just when I think I'm making some headway with you, turns out I am just a little more in your debt." Again, she spoke with no rancor nor grudgery. If anything, her respect for the captain had risen another notch.

"It's all part of the Temporal Prime Directive. We have to maintain the timeline. I mean... Timelines..." Enalia gave the busty blonde navigator a meaningful look. "And this isn't the only one we're currently involved with, either. Thankfully we've ended our involvement with most of them that I know of, but I'm pretty sure we still have one more to deal with. If I go missing, there's a set of coordinates in my quarters desk..."

The crewman at ops interrupted at that inopportune moment. "Captain, incoming call from Intel Command. It's Admiral Faringway."

"Ah yes, onscreen, if you please." Enalia replied.

The viewscreen lit up with the image of a female Saurian wearing a dress uniform with three admiral's pips. "Captain! It's good to see you alive and well! I assume our little issue has been resolved?"

"Admiral, it's a delight to see you hale and hearty as well. My first officer was just reporting successful completion of that issue, right now." Turning to Rita, Enalia smiled brightly. "Would you care to brief both of us on how your reunion with interdimensional time traveler sierra one twelve went?" Leaning in a bit closer, she whispered, "That's Sonak's intel code."

Stepping forward, the gold-clad commander slid into a parade rest stance, to square off and deliver her report. There was no hesitation nor anxiety evident- Paris looked just as confident as if she were addressing a midshipman rather than a full sitting admiral of Starfleet. After all, she had grown up around officers, including admirals, all her life. Respect the rank, then learn if the man beneath it is worth a damn her father used to say. Although taking a page from his book, she did open with a nod of deference.

"Admiral Faringway? Lieutenant Commander Rita Paris reporting." It may have seemed redundant, but this was an impromptu report to an admiral and procedure was called for her to at least identify herself for the record.

"ITT Siera 112 has been added smoothly to the current timeline. I have worked extensively with him for the past thirteen hours, and I can quite firmly state that he has been quite thoroughly acclimated to the era, the situation and the command." There Paris half-turned to also face the captain, who had asked for the briefing, and offered a rather unsubtle smirk and a bit of a blush. Turning back to the Saurian admiral, Paris continued.

"Assuming yours was a hand in this as well, I extend both our gratitude for your efforts. The coordination of all involved in this endeavor all seem to have played their parts perfectly- an outstanding Starfleet joint exercise, Admiral." The first officer glanced back to her captain for another nod, this not of deference, but of thanks.

Meanwhile, Rita was avoiding using gender identifications because she didn't know if the Saurian admiral was male, female or other and wasn't about to make a undiplomatic move now. So she smiled a close-mouthed smile- to many races baring your shiny teeth was not considered a show of friendship- and faced the reptilian admiral on the big screen expectantly.

"Quite excellent to hear, Lieutenant Commander. I look forward to not having either timelines unraveling any time soon. Thank you for your outstanding service during this incident. Captain, the next time you return to command, please try to have a bottle of your finest Rasmanarian brandy with you. I've obtained a case of something you may be interested in trading for it."

Enalia grinned knowingly. "I'll have it with me until then, Admiral."

"Excellent. Until then, Admiral Faringway out." With that last, the transmission was cut and the viewscreen returned to the view of the Artan family orbital fortress.

"I think that went well," Enalia said, leaning back in her chair and stretching a bit. "Did you have any other questions?"

"I think they might be inappropriate for the rest of the bridge crew- actually, that's a good question right there, ma'am," Paris cocked a hip, draped a hand on it and raised a finger as if requesting permission to ask a question. "How transparent do you prefer your command? A lot of captains plot in their ready rooms because the ship is grappling with Matters Beyond Mortal Ken and such. Some commanders do everything in there and seldom appear on the bridge at all. Some do it all on the bridge. What's your preference, Captain?"

Bold and direct she was and bold and direct she asked, clearing the air.

"I'm normally in my ready room or quarters. This is an intel vessel so most of what we do is classified." Enalia replied simply as she picked up her PaDD and clicked it back on. "However, I like teasing people in public. It makes life more interesting. Do you have a question we should adjourn to my ready room for?" Clicking the PaDD back off, she tucked it away. "I have a lot of transfer orders to take care of anyway so I should probably be in there working on them."

"Aye ma'am. At your pleasure, I've a few questions whose answers may be classified in nature." Paris stood, slightly out of the way on the right side of the chair, and gestured to the Captain's ready room. As the captain stepped off, Paris fell in step, a half pace behind.

Enalia entered her ready room and took the few steps to her desk. For being the Captain's office, this was by far the smallest office on the ship. It was a standard Galaxy class ready room, but in the same colors as the bridge. The fish tank was nice and the lighting was somewhat subdued, but it was definitely cramped compared to the rest of the ship.

Flopping into her plush velvet chair, Enalia leaned back and clicked on the desk's holographic display, making it ready to pull up whatever information she might need to pull up. "Have a seat and ask away."

"If you don't mind, I like to pace ma'am?" Paris asked, and at the indulgent nod, she began to slowly pace back and forth. "So how did you learn about me and him four years from now- you met me, or him, or both of us, and we may yet have to fulfill those roles to make all of this work?" Paris paused to entreat the captain. "How'm I doing, Cap'n?"

"Uh... no," Enalia shook her head. She'd have to take it from the top. "In 2388 we were sucked into a temporal rift and got to witness the Battle of Axanaar. We then had to save them from temporal hopping aliens that eat people. We used their tech to get home but missed the mark and landed in 2392. Shortly after that, in 2393, we learned of the return of the Jellyfish and the arrival of Sonak. What we couldn't figure out was his connection to my family. Intel likes to snoop, so they knew a lot more than we let on. As the Hera officially doesn't exist in most records, we left it that way. When we rescued you, things lined up and we slipped him the last bit of info he needed to put in a transfer request for the Hera. The USS Pastak from the 29th century only had to issue us one warning as well, so I count that as a win."

"So you knew to block my searches, so I wouldn't discover the one at Starfleet Academy, just the one native to this reality. Otherwise I would have bolted to Earth and never sent him the message in a bottle, which was necessary to bring this whole affair to come to pass, which I could only do with the intel pod and Dedjoy aboard the Hera. Plus," Paris had resumed pacing, now wagging her finger as she spoke. "I asked Stuart for a transfer and gave the Hera's call numbers, which meant that Sonak knew what he was looking for when he got here, so that it all ties in together."

At that, Rita flopped onto the small couch against the wall. "Time travel is exhausting. I'd really like to not do anymore if we can help it, ma'am. Just the reports alone are a nightmare. Which reminds me, I still have to write all of this up. It might all end up classified beyond my pay grade, but it still has to be reported."

Shaking her head, Paris sighed. "You knew the entire time and you couldn't say a word. All that time whining and moping about my boyfriend and all you could do was just wait it out. With all we've been through, the whole time you know he was coming, and you just had to keep me in one piece until then. That's..." Paris choked up a bit. "That was... very impressive, Captain. I think you've saved me in every way that someone can be saved... apparently it's a habit of yours, I hear."

Leaning forward on her desk, Enalia pointed at Rita meaningfully. "Not to mention I poured my heart out to you to get you to stay while you were plotting to jump ship with a runabout. That's what the Pastak warned me about. You tearing a hole in the fabric of space-time with a slingshot. They didn't mention the details of your plan, just that I had to stop you before shore leave. My wife gave me the idea of how."

For a few seconds, Paris blinked rapidly as she processed all of that. There was an unusual, at least in the presence of Rita Paris, moment of silence. Shaking her head, the all-too-human woman donned a wry smirk. "So not only was I going to fail spectacularly, but I was going to rip open a breach in spactime doing so. Because Rita Paris."

"Yesterday I found out the man I love spent two years of his life making his way to me at a point he knew I'd be because I told him where to find me. That... is very impressive. What you've dealt with to keep me in one piece..." Rita Paris hung her head a bit. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I thought I was making the right choices, and I just didn't know you. Pretty sure I do now, for what it's worth."

"After that talk, you may know my heart better than my mother and my wife..." the busty captain replied, unsure whether that was a good thing or not.

"No ma'am. I just know the name of one of the wounds on it, that's all." the blue-eyed bombshell offered. "Should you ever need to talk, about anything... I owe you, Captain. I welcome any chance to repay you for what you've done for me. Listening and giving you a chance to just be... mortal? I can manage that, and never think any lesser of you."

"Fair enough." The spotted woman leaned back in her chair and popped her uniform jacket open, revealing the bright red undershirt. "I might take you up on that later, then."

The gold-clad first officer cracked a smile at that. "I'm all ears whenever you want me, ma'am. Oh, I found a compromise for Sonak's uniform that I can live with, and we're the blue and the gold once again. You look good in red, Captain. You could always try out the top without the jacket, combo it with the skirt? You do have the legs for it, ma'am."

"It's an acceptable variation outside of formation and main shift bridge duty. Trill body temperature is a lot lower than humans or Vulcan though so I couldn't do it. You didn't notice I'm colder than you when you saved me from the tribbles or when we had that heart to heart?" Enalia quirked an eyebrow and a corner of her mouth.

"Well, to be fair, with the tribbles I was mostly focused on keeping us on top of them and trying to not be mortified by the whole naked thing. And when we talked, I was more worried about you than your body temperature, ma'am. That was when I learned to trust you, and you to trust me, I think."

"Fair point," Enalia replied, shrugging it off.

"Everyone always feels cold to me but Sonak anyway," the forthright first officer offered. "I'm still working to catch up on most of the races that are in the Federation, as I'm not a very good xenobiologist, Captain. But one did just come aboard with whom I have a working relationship. Oh, which reminds me," Rita leaned in a bit closer, focusing on the moment.

"I can move him in with me, and we are allowed to carry on a relationship so long as it does not interfere with our professional relationship, correct?" Rita asked it as a question, not an assault. "Our little reunion kiss aside, we keep it professional on the job, I promise you ma'am."

"I'm fine with that. You're not his direct supervisor, so yeah, no problem." Enalia grinned slowly. "You can even have kids if you want."

"Apparently not," Rita deflated that one with a shrug. "According to him, it would require extensive engineering with the whole copper based versus iron based blood lifeforms trying to reproduce. I think he told me I had better odds of reproducing with a rose, as I share more DNA with it. That's fine though, I don't want kids any time soon. We're young, in our prime, on a great assignment. I'm decades away from settling down and fostering a little pack of blonde-haired pointy-eared munchkins while he teaches at the Academy. We just got here, and we've got work to do."

At that, Rita cocked her head slightly, and asked in a bit gentler tone. "How about you, Captain? I assume the family expects heirs so the line doesn't die with you. How does that work if you and Maica want to have kids?" For the life of her Paris had no idea if she was about to learn an impracticality of biological and technological species intermingling, or if she was just setting the captain up for disappointment. Or a laugh, but she suspected not.

"Ambassador Spock was half human and half Vulcan... Many more have since joined Starfleet. Our Security Chief was as well. These days it's a simple procedure if you two want to have a kid." Enalia took a deep breath. "As for Maica and I... we're working on that. It might come down to just naming an heir."

Although she was definitely filing that 'Vulcan/human hybrid children are a simple procedure'? Good to know...the curiosity won out over decorum, since it was just the two of them. "No offense and very much none of my business but, how does that work with you being flesh and blood matter and she is kind of... not? Plus there's no seed in there from either of you?" Paris knew she wasn't on very thick ice here, but if she was going to understand the future she'd have to ask questions. And she cared, because she realized this was likely something important to the captain's mind as well.

"Maica Prime is trying to come up with a way to create a fertilization zygote using modified DNA from the Orion she was modeled after to match my wife's uniqueness. It's tricky and experimental science at best, but if it pays off..." Enalia averted her eyes as if she wasn't entirely comfortable discussing it. "It's also borderline illegal in the Federation... Eugenics laws being what they are..."

There were rules and laws, and they were often in place for very good reasons. But these were changing times, and the rules and laws, Paris decided in that moment, needed to adapt to them. Besides, given how she and her brother had turned out, Rita had often suspected that her father had tried tampering with his unborn children, and the complications from those procedures were what had actually killed her mother. She had no proof, only suspicions. But girls built like her didn't seem to just 'happen'.

"Well, if you decide to pursue it, let me know what I can do to help, Captain Telvan. I suspect the Artan family line is pretty demanding about such things, and I suspect Maica likely has pretty strong opinions about it, too. As for me, I support your choices, ma'am. We're on the cusp of the 25th century, and the laws must change with the times to accommodate new life, and new civilizations. No one wants you raising another Khan Noonian Singh, but the Baroness doesn't seem to be carving out an empire of conquest, now does she?" Rita brought up the genetically engineered super-soldier because clearly the captain knew about her and Rita also knew, and it was obvious she hadn't filed any reports with Starfleet over the easygoing pirate's enhanced status.

Many things might have changed in the dozen decades Rita Paris had missed, but loyalty was one that hadn't changed at all. A lost navigator she might be, but her moral compass pointed unerringly in the direction of her heart, and Paris always knew whose side she was on in an argument. The pirate princess turned Starfleet captain had saved her life too many times in too many ways, and if the captain chose a course counter to Starfleet Command, well, sometimes starship captains did such things. It fell to their crew to choose whom to support in such moments, and Paris had long ago learned a great truth of the universe.

Sometimes you had to do a bad thing to do the right thing. Loyalty was your given word, and if your word wasn't worth anything, then neither were you. Offering one of those earnest smiles to the starship captain, Rita resisted the urge to offer her a hug.

Enalia sighed again and pulled up a holographic rendering of several strands of RNA that in no way lined up. "The Baroness aside... Modifying the Orion's genetic code to match that of a hologram's and then impregnating me with it is a bit riskier than you might think. For one, we have to stay within humanoid norms of intelligence for her side of the DNA rather than just implanting straight up subroutine copies. Second off, though Trills have shown a knack for being able to mate with most species, Orions tend to pose a difficulty because of the pheromone differences. Normally, a lesbian relationship like ours with a real Orion and a Trill would be impossible - we'd literally kill each other after a week - either through passion or from the migraines. The donor DNA would have to be completely rewritten to line up with mine because of that alone. Maica Prime thinks she has a few solutions and is running simulations now, but I'm not too hopeful. In the end, it might be easiest if I just found a compatible woman that looks like her, talk them into a bone marrow sample, and use that."

While Rita was certainly built like the rather spectacular Orion hologram, she was definitely not green, which she assumed would be a deal breaker. “Well, if it’ll help, I’d offer, but I’m rather the wrong shade of emerald, and who knows what mess you might get from the withered branch of the Paris family tree,” she joked.

"Actually, you'd be perfect, green or pink. Trill and Human biology is close enough to need very little help and might need only minor tweaking to get Maica's uniqueness into your DNA..." Enalia was thoughtful for a moment. "But that's completely up to you. If you want, I could have her run a few simulations. I'd have to be retired before anything could happen, either way."

“Just a bone marrow donation?” Paris briefly considered- it would be one thing if they were asking her to carry their children. But the holographic entity definitely created issues in reproduction, and Rita certainly understood family pressure to produce heirs. She did owe the captain quite a bit, as she had pointed out moments ago in this very conversation, so...

“However I can help, Captain, I’d be happy to do so,” Paris volunteered. "Just warning you, if I had something to do with it they might be a little headstrong and not terribly fond of transporters,” she offered to lighten the mood a bit.

“May as well get some use out of the fact that your wife looks an awful lot like an emerald-skinned version of a sister I never had…” Rita muttered.

"Say, about those straight up subroutines. You can't put them in your child... what about your little kangaroo you've got in your pouch?" Hopefully this wasn't going to be one of those moments where Rita made fun of something taboo in asking about the captain's symbiont.

"Ah, that's a separate matter altogether... Telvan will go on to another host and do probably crazier things." Enalia couldn't help but grin thinking about all the trouble she'd get into in the future as other people. "This host will live on in her progeny and this symbiont will live on in other hosts. That's the way Trill live. We're one and the same yet two distinct life forms."

"Why not keep Telvan in the family and pass them down to your descendants?" Rita asked plainly. It seemed like simple logic to her.

"That's for the Symbiosis Commission to decide." Enalia nodded. "They're the ones that decide if a host is compatible or worthy. A bad match can kill both the host and symbiont."

"Just seems like keeping it in the family would make sense. But hey, Earth girls don't come equipped with pouches for sidekicks, so you are most definitely the expert, captain." Shifting in her seat, Rita laid her back on the half-couch and hung her legs from the knees down over the side. "It's a lot to take in, the future. The universe has grown so large, and science has come so far. And all of the alien cultures and all the diversity they bring and we all mix and mingle in a social experiment of existence and exploration, looking for who else is out there looking for us."

"At least the mission is still the same. We're still Starfleet. We're still explorers," Rita added with a sigh. "And Sonak is here with me, which makes it kinda perfect for me. Him too. Two years..."

"Over sixteen hundred member worlds in the Federation now," Enalia commented idly. "Sometimes I'm amazed so many of us are so similar. Most have ten fingers, ten toes, two eyes, one mouth, two ears, hair, two or three sexes, warm blooded... Like ninety percent fit that description."

"Hasn't someone come up with a theory about that, like we were all seeded worlds or something?" the ancient astronaut asked. "I'm not even looking for humans anymore. I have an advantage in that at least the officers went to Starfleet Academy, so they've been to my world. But I'm an alien representing my culture out here, just like the rest of us. It's a lot more fun that a ship full of mostly human men, I can tell you that."

"Yes, actually. An ancient race called the Preservers did it. They evolved into the general form first, then seeded the galaxy and waited millenia in stasis for us to evolve to the point we could be on equal footing with them. We're still not there, but we at least know they exist." Enalia chuckled softly at the idea. "Except for the Iconians and a handful of other races. There are always exceptions."

"See?" Rita waved her hand idly in the air over her head. "I think that was a nutty theory a scientist or two had that nobody really took seriously back in my day. Yet science fiction gradually becomes reality, because at least in part we dream what we will achieve. I think that was Aasimov, but it might have been Heinlein. There was a course on it, back at the Academy, an elective. But the crux of the course was that we conceive of it as we try to puzzle out the laws of the universe and we apply them to create the future we envision."

"For us it was Gerion. Then Picard's Enterprise found a Preserver archive and proved it right before pirates destroyed the planet surface. A few years ago, another Preserver archive was found in Defera space. That was almost wiped out in the Temporal Cold War." Enalia rubbed her face with her hands and groaned softly. "So many discoveries out there getting recognition and here we are saving literal reality without so much as a nod..."

"Aw, it's not about the credit, ma'am," Rita sat up, leaned forward and offered a smile that made her look like a simpleton farmer's daughter. "It's nice, just like the medals and the commendations and all that. But the real reward is that we've seen things people who spend their entire lives on one planet will never see, and we will know wonders they will never know. We're explorers in every sense of the word, and the generations beyond us will compound our knowledge, and a hundred years from now, we won't even recognize the state of the galaxy."

"But there will still be starships, and they will still be Starfleet. They'll be there if there's trouble, they'll be there to lend a hand. They'll be on the frontier, wherever that is, discovering and exploring and seeing just how far we can go and still come back home to tell about it." Idealistic to a fault, Rita Paris genuinely believed every word she'd said, and believed it because she had seen it already. Four generations later, this Federation was far greater than the one she had known, and the future was only brighter.

Enalia grinned widely. "The next time we get a call from the twenty-ninth or thirty-first centuries, I'm volunteering you again, just like I did a few minutes ago."

That made the color drain out of the comely cosmonauts's face, and it was evident she was less than enthusiastic about time travel. "Volunteered... ma'am...?"

Enalia grinned mischievously. "You just spoke with the comm officer of the USS Wells from the twenty-ninth century."

“The full sitting admiral there? Wow… well, no worries there. Ma’am. I thought you were volunteering me for time travel, and I really could live a long and happy life just moving into the future in a linear progression rather than mucking about in time. Bragging about my age has limited appeal to me,” the bombshell blonde giggled. “I’m also not really keen on dimensional assignments either… Mirror Universe Rita is kind of a bitch, although hopefully I’ve outlived her now.”

"I have a feeling our mirror universe is a different pairing to yours, but with any luck, we can avoid that." Just then another notification popped up on Enalia's desk terminal and she groaned in dismay as she leaned her head back. "Goooo awayyyyyyy.... More transfer orders... Command is swapping out almost a full third of my crew..."

“Have no fear ma’am, you have a first officer on the job! I’ll pull welcome wagon duty for the officers, then send them to speak to The Captain and make their onboardings smooth. How I was greeted always made a big impression on me about the command, and I want the new crew to feel welcome, like I did.” Rita offered the captain a solicitous smile. “Maybe they are gearing us up for mission-specific specialists and such? If the transferred a third of the crew off, perhaps that is a reflection on you, that personnel under you are highly sought after in the fleet.” It was reaching, but damned if Paris wasn’t going to look on the optimistic possibilities. Particularly when the captain was groaning.

Clicking the notifications up, Enalia started looking through the new transfers list. "About half of the transfers off are PTSD related. The other half are something to do with not wanting to die. The incoming crew, a fair number are specialists in theology and mythology at least. I'm pretty sure that will come in handy. On the down side, almost the entire security department is being swapped out. Do you have any idea how hard that is on an intel ship?"

“We’ll run phaser and self-defense drills to get the crew better ready to defend themselves, captain. A shortage of Security personnel might make us a bit more cautious. And considering we’re very likely to be going where angels fear to tread, that might not be the worst thing?” Still Rita was aiming for the bright side. “Hey, I’m the PTSD queen and I’m still here…”

"I had an XO named Angel. She was pretty fearless when she came aboard." Enalia mused over that turn of phrase and reminisced a bit before clicking her desk terminal back off. "Anyway, she's retired and married to a Vulcan and I think she has a couple kids now. I should look her and Sinek up and see how they're doing."

“You should. And I'm not particularly fearless ma’am,” Paris offered with a shrug. ”Frankly, Sonak has said on more than one occasion that my fear was what kept us alive on missions. And like I said, I’m not about to go run off and start a brood anytime soon. Afraid you’re stuck with me, ma’am. We’ve got places to go and wonders to behold.”

There was a pause, then Paris rose from her seat, sliding into a pinup pose as she so often did when not thinking about it. “Again… thank you for everything. You may not want to hear it all the time, and I’ll drop it after today. But I owe you my life, in quite a few ways, ma’am. Remember that when you consider your course and you wonder how your idealistic first officer might react. Because I trust you- you’ve earned it tenfold. And while I know you won’t always tell me everything, I’ll expect that.”

“After all, you are a bit of a sneaky pirate…”