The Right Detour

Posted on Sat Jan 12th, 2019 @ 12:40pm by Captain Enalia Telvan & Commander Rita Paris

Mission: Section 31-B
Location: USS Hera, Deck 1, Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: 2396, en route to the Sector 31 base

Like any forward-thinking officer on a modern starship, Rita Paris did a lot of her work through shared messages and datapackets. And of course, a calendar, that enabled her keep the Starship Hera running like clockwork. Things had changed, but the job remained the same. Keep the ship running properly, deal with problems and bring big issues to the Captain, as well as tend to whatever orders she sent down.

Another element of this particular skillset job, which had so been for Rita Paris from the first starship posting she achieved, was to be a conscience to those above her. While she was no saint, the plucky explorer from another place and time had always felt strongly about what was right, and what was wrong. While there were always to be shades of grey, her moral compass seldom required alignment, always pointing truly north. Thus she often found herself counseling her superiors in the delicate art of right and wrong. In this particular case, she had made a discovery, and the reaction of the Captain was yet to be seen. But she was prepared to defend her request if need be. Because in her heart of hearts, Rita Paris usually knew what to do, in the spirit of the Federation and Starfleet.

Enalia also had a moral compass, but due to her upbringing, it was a bit more skewed at times than she cared to admit. She'd sacrifice anything for her ship and crew, and do just about anything to complete the mission, which sometimes meant that some rather grey decisions had been made in her past. In the end Intel Command had deemed them necessary, but she was the one that had to live with the decisions, even if the results were deemed the best possible outcome. This was another reason she valued her new first officer- you needed checks and balances on everything and she saw Rita's moral compass as a perfect balance to her willingness to make the hard decisions.

On that calendar that kept the ship running, an 11:50 meeting with the Captain had been scheduled, which would end with lunch. Thus Rita Paris chimed the door of the Captain's Ready Room at 11:50 hours.

"Enter," the spotted captain called, looking up from her desk terminals hopefully. She was about done with reports for a while and was ready for some lunch. "Is it that time finally?"

"Almost, not quite, Captain," Paris strode in, stopping short of the Captain's desk. She debated coming to parade rest, but this wasn't a formal report. "I've got a little moral conundrum, and I think my moral conundrum might be our moral conundrum."

A nod from the ship's mistress and commander was all Rita Needed from there to get to the point. "We encountered a reactive sentience in the Holodeck who could reproduce memories from my mind, that never existed here. Things it would be impossible for just a holodeck recreation to accomplish, to rule out computer malfunction. Doc, Dox and myself spent a very weird trip back to my old ship, and my theory is that whatever chunk of the dark matter ion storm, that we later found out was the forming body of a Titan? I suspect that when we successfully created a warp bubble, we accidentally trapped the tendril of itself that was manipulating the holographic system. It isn't able to communicate per se, but we believe it is trying to tell us that it is alone, and it is lost, and it wants to go home."

It took Enalia a moment to process this, but when she did, her eyes widened in realization. "Ohh... That's... Oh my... I guess we'll have to go back there soon then. We'll need a way to separate it from the ship and a better method of scanning though." Motioning for Rita to sit, she tapped all her terminals off and leaned back in her chair. "What sort of communications have you been able to engage in?"

"Ehhhh, mostly it was interpreting what it was showing us. It ran us through what looked like problem-solving exercises, but the exercise wasn't the mystery it was trying to get us to solve." As she spoke, Rita waved off the offer of a seat to pace slowly, talking with her hands. "Eventually, locked in the brig, we figured out that it was communicating with us, and we deduced the how and why... and the entity turned our comms back on and allowed us to leave."

"I've visited it again to insure it wasn't a fluke, and it showed me my old San Francisco from the Academy nature trail. With the differences in our universe, every detail couldn't have been right unless it was from memory. So something's in there. It isn't malicious, it didn't try to hurt us. I believe it has power over the holographic system, what it was put here to do, but that's about it other than a rudimentary sentience. Or it might be cosmically aware for all I know, but it doesn't speak directly through holodeck characters. Just experiences and stuff pulled from your head."

"I ran a series of tests, and it seems to be relegated to Deck 11, Holodeck 7. It doesn't seem to be manifesting anywhere else, although Science can't verify the presence of any dark matter, but there could be lot level ionic energy that would be practically impossible to detect in the holodeck's circuitry web. According to Science. So," Rita shrugged and spread her hands. "Can we take it home...?"

"The USS Amaterasu is running scans of the dark matter ion storm now. It may be some time, but we should be able to pass that way again before too long." Enalia steepled her fingers in thought. There was an alien entity living on her ship that showed clear signs of intelligence and she had responsibilities to see to. "You say it's stuck in holodeck seven... If so, we shouldn't have to worry about security, but does it have any dietary needs? Companionship? Should crewmen be mindful about how they use that holodeck? When we get close to the storm, how do we transfer it?"

"I restricted access to myself and lieutenants Dael and Dox, as we had already managed peaceful first contact with the entity. Dox verified an experience, so we knew it wasn't just me. Doc hasn't been back, but they're pretty busy actually running sickbay quite often. Workaholic, our wee physician- not that anyone is complaining, they're doing a fine job." The First Officer stopped her pacing and lowered herself down onto the bench off to the side of the Captain's desk that she tended to favor. "I think this is going to be one of those 'we'll have to get close enough to find out' how to transfer it back. We'll get Science on it and I'm sure Sonak will have an idea. He has all of Vaemyn's research from our last encounter to work with."

"Wow. I really liked that cheerful scientist. A Vorta from the Founders culture who were clones created to serve the Dominion. But he was a brilliantly eccentric genius who honestly seemed to delight in exploration. I miss him," Paris, prone to distraction, rambled a bit since the subject had come up, and the Earth girl wore her heart on her sleeve, always.

The Joined Trill captain couldn't help but chuckle softly at the thought. "I miss him too. If he knew we were going back, he'd kick himself for not being here, but I'm sure he's doing good work for the joint operations between Starfleet and the Dominion. We've got a lot of smart pastries on board though - I'm sure we'll crack this walnut."

"Indeed. So far... we visit it. Them? Doctor Dael is making me more pronoun aware in describing alien life forms. The future, amirite?" Paris quipped. "I'll let them know that we're getting there, but it will take us a little while to get there. In the meanwhile we'll visit with them and try to keep them from being alone. That much we can do for the entity. Welcome to investigate yourself, ma'am. It reproduced my entire office from the Exeter in the kind of perfect detail Sonak has. It was surreal."

"Ah, no thanks..." If it read Enalia's mind, it might think twice about being friendly. "I have enough issues in my past that I don't need a mind reading entity reproducing it for me. Let's just stick with people we know it's friendly and comfortable with and go from there. Besides, being raised to be the heiress of a pirate family might not be the best ambassador to such an entity."

"See, there I think you might be selling yourself short, Captain," the first officer spoke frankly. "You are a good person, you make good choices and you work for universal harmony. You might have had a violent past, but in our line of work, most of us do. We lead dangerous lives. That doesn't disqualify you from being a good contact with another life form, be it with an alien race, or a child, or even the crew..."

It was at this point that the alarm in Rita's head went off. This was the one that said she'd overstepped her bounds. and rather than being preachy, she had made it a bit personal, mentioning that conversation with the Captain's mother she'd forwarded to Rita. Or pointing out that she could engage more with the crew, which was something of a sore spot for Enalia Telvan. But the words were out there, and to her mind they were the truth. So now she waited to see just how they would be received.

Enalia thought on that for a moment before sighing and dropping her hands back onto her arm rests. "I was raised to lead from a position of power... A veritable pedestal, as it were. Being in Starfleet there are many leadership styles, but mine got me to this command in near record time. It's not perfect though. I'm having to learn many social skills that I'm sure most of the crew take for granted. Like how to make friends with someone rather than intimidate them."

The Trill woman then turned to stare at her aquarium. "And then there's the matter of my family. With that issue on my mind, I'd rather you be our ambassador for now. Though if you have some advice on that front, I'd welcome it."

"Donate some eggs, procreate through a surrogate with whatever genetic donor your mother wants and satisfy her desire for an heir or any number of them while you continue your career." The words were out of Rita's mouth before she realized it, and once they were spoken she realized she had been speaking from a position of scientific logic, sans emotional content. Although the facts were still true.

Enalia turned back to glare at Rita for a moment before returning to staring vacantly at the aquarium. "If I actually do that, she reclaims the family and I surrender my claim to any part of it. It would all pass back to her and my so called offspring with whatever genetic tampering she did to it... No, the best answer would be to find a way for me to provide an heir before then. Unfortunately, we still haven't found the genetic template that the original Maica was based on, let alone a doctor that would attempt a hologram-Trill DNA hybrid. I suspect my mother has her hand in foiling that effort. She sees Maica as nothing but a sex toy after all."

“Ah,” the first officer held up her hands in surrender. “I apologize, I had no idea that’s how pirate family politics worked. I thought you had a solution in my DNA or something? I apologize, I was never quite clear on what you had in mind.” Already having misstepped, Paris wasn’t keen on venturing further into the subject, but she figured if it only made the captain madder, her reproductive woes were not actually Rita’s problem.

"Only if you're volunteering. There's a doctor on Earth that we think could do it, if you're willing..." Enalia trailed off, not even sure if that's what she wanted any more. "But Then I'd be pregnant... Have to raise a child... We'd have to make sure it's female..." Leaning her head back against her chair, Enalia groaned softly. "Stupid archaic matriarchal rules..."

“Somehow I doubt insuring the chromosomal mix for genetic gender determination isn’t exactly much of a trick for modern physicians,” Paris ventured. “Well, back at the Academy this was what we called an example in values decision making. Do you want a child? Do you want to keep the family business. Do YOU want a child. Does Maica. Are you willing to be… I will admit I have no idea how your people reproduce, but if it is anything like mine, it’s 9 months of discomfort and raging hormones. All of it is possible, it seems. The question is more to the point- what do YOU want?”

"Ten months, but otherwise, almost identical to humans, other than the symbiote pouch issues. I'm joined so there are a few extra complications there." Pausing and thinking it over some more, Enalia still didn't know. "Maica and I have discussed it quite a few times. We do, but not yet. We also don't want to subject any living being to my mother's parenting skills. I'm also not getting any younger..."

“All of which evades my question,” Paris redirected, keeping the conversation on topic. “What do YOU want? Your mother cannot force you to reproduce, and if you are the key to the heir question then she still has to be dependent upon your decision, correct? So the question remains, how do YOU want to move forward? What is YOUR take on all of this? What do YOU want?”

"Honestly?" Enalia stared at the aquarium for several long moments before replying. "I'm happy with the way things are. I'd rather name a successor than an heir. I'd love to have a daughter someday with Maica... But on our own terms. And I'd like to raise her without the pressure to be the leader I was expected to be."

“So with that said, what’s the solution to your maternal problem, Captain?” Hopefully Rita had provided enough of a sounding board with her directed questions to give the starship commander the answer via the logic exercise she had been engaged in by Paris.

Enalia's brows raised hopefully, only one solution springing to mind. It was a despicable, piratical solution, but it was a solution. "Defeat my mother in a duel to the death?" she asked, looking to Rita, hoping that was a good answer.

“Does that solve your problem, or leave you trapped as the matriarchal head of the Artan family?” Paris countered. Likely Enalia was just needling her to get a rise because she didn't want to face the answer- the woman was notorious for distractions and misdirections, particularly with uncomfortable subjects. But Rita lived with the greatest comedy straight man in the universe, so she wasn’t that easy to rattle or to throw off the point. “Or does that mean that you get to change the rules because you are the head of the clan, and you can do away with the parts of which you feel are no longer viable?”

"It means I can change the rules uncontested. I could probably even name a man the head of the family if I wanted to." The spotted woman was definitely serious. "As for killing my own mother, she did it. I kind of figured I'd have to one day have to do it as well. How do you think she got the name Artan the Black Thorn? She's ruthless and merciless."

“Uncontested- is there a way to contest the rules then?” Now this was getting interesting. While piratical politics and matricide were not her strongest suit, manipulating a bureaucracy was something the career Starfleet officer from the days when women were considered ornamental on a starship was a subject with which she quite a deft hand. Maybe there was a non-murderous solution available.

"I could demand a tribunal..." Enalia began. "Which would be overseen by the current ruling body of the family. Headed by Captain Magnus, the thirteen or fourteen Baronesses... Depending on if they recognize me making Lieutenant Dox a Baroness for this. If one side doesn't have a nine tenths majority after six months, it'll still end in trial by combat, the method of her choosing."

“That would buy you time, then, which makes it seem like a viable option that might not necessarily end in bloodshed. Of course, she might also challenge you to a test in which she knows without a doubt you have less proficiency than she herself which could be completely non-combative, no? Taking a step back, her whole 'pushing you to meet with suitors' and all- does she have recourse if you are obstinate and refuse to comply?” Paris was into it now. She’d maneuvered around her father to finagle an Academy posting, and had been working the system ever since. Unjust and unfair that could be overcome by knowing and taking advantage of the rules was something she seldom had call to use anymore, but this was definitely bringing old skills online.

"This is true. I think I have the backing of most of the family already, especially Captain Magnus, but I'm worried about the old crews that still fear my mother." Enalia tapped her desk a few times thoughtfully. "They may decide to back her or abstain. As for getting the tribunal moving, that would only take three of them, which if Magnus backs Melanie's appointment and the Tribunal, her hands will be tied for a while at least and I can at least worry about convincing the ones that aren't on my side to support me. I'll also have to worry about my mother killing the ones that don't support her..."

“And here I thought Starfleet politics were brutal,” Paris muttered. “Well, again, let’s take a step further back- is that something that you want? Or would you be happier letting go of the family business? Or naming a successor? You do seem to be working hard to straddle both worlds.”

"Well, I have the castles on Earth and Trill I'd like to keep... Those I earned myself. Plus I have a lot of my antiques inside the orbital fortress that I have nowhere else to store." Enalia shook her head. "No, as far as I can see, she's likely determined to do just about anything to get me into... Just about anything... But not completely destroy the family..." A sly grin spread across Enalia's face. "I think a tribunal is exactly what we need, but for a different reason. On the grounds that her actions are trying to tear the Artan Family apart and she should be completely removed from all power. That sort of investigation by the Baronesses would take a while longer than six months and be a lot harder to disprove. Plus her attempts at fearmongering would just add proof to it. On top of that, if I name Magnus's daughter as my successor..."

“I like where this is going…” Paris smiled, encouraged that the captain was seeking a bloodless solution in the rules of politics and using them to her advantage. “So why name the daughter as the successor? That’s the only part I don’t understand.”

"It would show less favoritism. She's been mentored by my mother, myself, Schwein, her father, most of the other Baronesses..." Enalia waved one hand in the air as she spoke. "Even by my late sister to take over for her father as Captain of the Fleet - the person that runs the show when I'm not around. That way, when she's ready to take the mantle herself, she can just step in and take over. Plus the old guard would have fewer complaints about things if I named a woman as my successor than if I named Captain Magnus."

“So wait, I don’t understand. It sounds like that solves the problem- so why the Tribunal?” This was like chasing a chicken, since clearly where were labyrinthine politics abounding in all of this and now Rita just felt dumb and ham-fisted asking questions that were clearly obvious to the captain and left her clueless. Suddenly she was reminded of how she felt during her first month aboard the Hera, when every conversation was just her asking more questions whose answers she didn’t understand half the time.

"Because even retired, she still has a large say in the family because I'm in Starfleet. If I go off and name someone successor rather than provide an heir, she can start a tribunal for the same reason, forcing my hand in either doing what she wants or my retirement to run the family directly to force her out." Enalia explained. "It's... Likely going to end with one of us trying to kill each other either way..."

Raising a finger, Rita prepared to launch into some cracker barrel philosophy about how turning an enemy to a friend was always a better option. But then, her own father had spent a lifetime discouraging her, gotten her turned into a warp ghost, tried to brainwash her, then poisoned her...

"I really want to say there must be some way to win her over, but frankly ma'am, if you're both hellbent on it... maybe that's a discussion you two ought to have? Just have it out, say everything while you slash at each other with sabers or however this is done by your people. But it might solve things, from what you are saying." It was odd to be the one advising violence, but it seemed like the right thing to say to Rita Paris.

"Sabers... Starships... Phase pistols... Yeah, whatever the duel entails." Enalia nodded solemnly. "The last duel was with sabers and was rather civilized. Well... Other than someone dying... I suppose that wouldn't be considered civilized by most people."

"Some families are more violent than others. Well, sounds like you have a plan. Oh!" Paris snapped her fingers then wagged her finger. "I almost forgot to ask you, I'd like to get Hera out of her cell and walk her around a bit, let her see the stars and people and more than 4 walls."

"I'll be responsible for her, of course. But I honestly think she's reforming, Captain. She's still imprisoned, and she seems pretty depowered... it's something that I think would be good for her, ma'am. She was supposed to be in prison and went willingly, and it's my fault she's here now, and... I feel responsible, Captain." Of late the friendly first officer had been quite confident in her declarations and decisions, but on this topic she sounded less sure of herself, and more guilty. "I busted her out by accident, when she was content to just do her time. I feel like I ought to do right by her, ma'am."

The spotted captain pursed her lips in thought, debating the wisdom of such an action. In the end, she relented though. "Ok, but only for a short walk, under guard, and under controlled conditions. That being said, some time in the arboretum might do her some good."

The first officer nodded respectfully to the captain. "Thank you. I'll not endanger the ship, but it just seems like the right thing to do. Thank you for trusting me, Enalia." When she said the captain's first name, Rita's face contorted a little as if she was a bit unwilling to spit the word out, but while the syllables were a bit elongated, they still managed to form the captain's first name. In private, at least, she was making progress.

Enalia gave a lopsided piratical grin, having easily caught how uncomfortable her first officer was using her first name. "You're welcome, Rita. And let me know how it goes."

"Aye ma'am," Paris rose, smoothing out her skirt before pivoting in place before striding to the door.

"You get all the best reports..."

 

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