Insubordination

Posted on Fri Feb 8th, 2019 @ 9:13am by Commander Rita Paris & Captain Enalia Telvan & Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox

Mission: Earthly Visitation
Location: USS Hera Radiation Treatment Ward
Timeline: 2396
Tags: Accountability 2

Brows furrowed, jaws set and resolute, Rita Paris strode into the captain's semi-private sickbay room.

"Captain, I believe we have a situation," Paris opened with, as she so often did, regardless of the crisis at hand.

Opening her eyes slowly, Enalia peered out of the treatment chamber, looking a bit worse for wear. "Commander? Hey. EMH cleaned up your delta shield. It's on the counter there by the door. What's the situation?"

"Computer, please give us a privacy bubble, 3 meter radius centered on me," This would diffuse all sound, ensuring that while the Hera's recording sensors were still at work, crewmen nearby would not hear their conversation. With the chirrup of the computer to confirm the order had been enacted, Paris looked down at the radiation-burned Trill captain who had just very recently saved her existence and likely the planet Earth and the sol system, depending on whom you asked.

"Captain? Would you please recount the last order you gave Lieutenant Dox?" By the book, Rita.

"Ah shit..." The spotted woman closed her eyes and furrowed her brow. Laying on her back in a minty blue medical robe, she was at a distinct disadvantage, but she did her best as the medical equipment continued to fire its healing beams into her flesh. "I gave those orders to Baroness Dox, didn't I? Specifically the orders to have Baroness Schwein von Alcott interrogate the prisoners that tortured Asa and were going to sell them off to the Collector and then handle their employer... Right? Not the last orders I gave to her specifically as Lieutenant Dox which were, I think... Something related to the shuttle rotation between here and Mars? Is that assumption correct, Commander?"

"Computer, gimme a playback, please," Rita called out, and from the overhead came the audio.

"The Collector then? Baroness Dox, as soon as you're able, please relay everything about this to Baroness von Alcott. Have her interrogate the prisoners and... Handle... the Collector."

"So a Starfleet officer was kidnapped, rescued by a Starfleet officer, the culprits were placed in a Starfleet brig under Starfleet custody. Citizens of the Federation. Whom you ordered your LIEUTENANT to turn over to a civilian with no authority in this matter to interrogate them," Rita stressed, because it was very clear that Baroness Dox and Lieutenant Dox were one and the same when orders came from her Captain. "Do you know where those three Federation citizens entrusted to the care of Starfleet are now, Captain?"

"I've been confined to this treatment ward this whole time so unfortunately, the only news I've been told of is what the EMH deigns to inform me of. I take it by your presence and demeanor that their current status is not a good one though." Taking as deep a breath as she dared and letting it out slowly, Enalia stared up at the ceiling. "So where are they now, Commander? What has my lapse in judgment wrought?"

"Three dead men who'll tell no tales, as the Baroness' apparent companion killed them? I need to run through the ship's logs and check some scans on certain quantum frequencies, but apparently, Death becomes her, and is now the Baroness Alcott's companion as well as her personal assassin." Paris leaned in closer to the spotted captain. "Ma'am, this is serious. You may not have said the words, but your order certainly implied that you wanted your lieutenant to dispatch your personal pirate to assassinate those men, then to assassinate the person they work for once located. That's certainly how a Starfleet tribunal would see it."

"She's only supposed to be here as my family's attendant and adjutant... And technically we're barely even pirates anymore..." Enalia was just splitting hairs now and she knew it. But there was another issue she needed information on. "As for Schwein's companion... Who are you talking about? She's always worked alone since she lost her crew."

"Lieutenant, report," Paris stepped aside to let Dox explain this particular bit of strangeness. "Prologue as well as what happened in the brig, as you explained it to me."

Stepping forward, Dox took a breath then spoke. "Schwein is... somehow... connected to the literal embodiment of Death itself, Captain."

Then, the conflicted young pilot recounted the tale as she had just told Commander Paris. Of how Death has come on board the U.S.S. Hera, bonded to Schwein. How Dox and the entity had become acquainted. And how that entity had followed the red-headed Romulan and the pirate Baroness into the brig to have her final say with the three men.

Then Dox added a final detail that had not come out in her conversation with Commander Paris. "And... when it was over, she told me... she said that they would have died within a few weeks anyway and that she was showing them a kind of mercy..." As she spoke, Dox let out a single, mirthless chuckle as her professional demeanor was beginning to crack ever so slightly. "...to try and make me feel less... responsible. Less responsible for having said and done nothing to prevent it."

Then, Dox decided to speak slightly out of turn as she begun to full understand the cost not just to herself, and not just to the Baroness and the Captain but to the women she saw as her friends. To Schwein and Enalia Telvan. "Whatever the consequences, Captain. That isn't... we can't allow ourselves to become that any further."

"I wanted those men to pay for what they had done to Asa. I wanted them to pay beyond....beyond just what I had done to them when I brought them in." Dox glanced to Rita as she spoke, revealing then her ultimate weakness during the incident, hoping that by doing so she might help keep the Captain from going further down that same path.

"But I have to be better than that. WE have to be better than that. So that this means what it's supposed to..." Dox gestured to the Delta on her breast. "...for both of us."

As Dox spoke, the Captain listened without interruption. When she was done, she closed her eyes and would have nodded if her head wasn't secured. When she spoke next, she was a bit hoarse. "I'll be honest. I wanted them to pay as well. I knew Schwein would get the information out of them and then shuffle them off somewhere. She's done it before, but using bluffs and fear tactics. Now you're telling me she's bonded to some invisible spirit of Death that's been wandering this ship this whole time and didn't think to warn someone?"

"I'd like to say that if I had known I wouldn't have given those orders... But I was so pissed... So full of cold rage... I probably would have given those orders anyway. She's been like family to me and I've trusted her with my life like you wouldn't believe. She's stood up to my mother when even I couldn't." Enalia took a moment to gulp back the emotions trying to boil out of her. "So whenever I need someone to take care of something in the underworld, she's always the one I go to."

"I normally keep things under control better than this. I guess with the tribunal, having lost so many crew on the last mission, nearly losing you and Sonak, then hearing about Asa... I felt like no matter how hard I tried, the universe was going to take everything away from me like it always does." The spotted woman took a shuddering breath. "And now you tell me my closest friend is walking around with literal Death as her playmate? Commander... What's the Starfleet answer?"

Taking a moment to inhale a long breath, a carefully considered reply formed. "Executing prisoners is a violation of the Khitomer accords, which reinforced the Starfleet code of ethics. Not my strongest suit, but..." fingers tapping at the PaDD which somehow Paris always seemed to produce in such moments she scanned for her answer. "Violation would result in a trial and court-martial for Starfleet personnel, civilians guilty of such crimes or the agent thereof would be tried and convicted in military court, not civilian... the long and short of it is that makes her guilty of murder, ma'am, and a wanted woman by the Federation."

Looking up, the Starfleet siren looked the spotted captain in the eye. "You know the Starfleet answer, ma'am. This was murder. Not a casualty of wartime, not a matter of universal crisis where the ends justified the means. This was a revenge killing, using Starfleet personnel and facilities to accommodate it. Those men would have seen justice, as all criminals deserve, but that was taken from them." Paris turned the PaDD around to show the prisoner with his jaw wired shut shrinking away from an invader he could not see.

"Please, we don't know anything, it was just a job!" One wailed painfully through his shattered jaw, staring at his approaching assassin they could not see- the manifestation of Death.

"That was murder, ma'am, Not vengeance, not justice, and not Starfleet by any stretch of the imagination," the throwback officer explained, as an ethics lesson was clearly called for here. "As we are a classified Starfleet Intel vessel, I'm sure you have the capacity to sweep this under the rug, deny its existence. You can continue to promote your Starfleet officers with Pirate rank, and order them to do things that violate the Starfleet Code of Military Justice. You can welcome Baroness von Alcott back aboard with open arms and pretend it all never happened. This is most certainly a possibility that I recognize."

"But when I was ready to run, because I didn't know if you were Starfleet or a pirate, you gave me your word. You explained to me why you were Starfleet- because you were determined to be your own woman, to be better than what you'd been raised to be capable." Rita Paris paused, letting her words sink in to the Trill starship commander. "Because as I explained to you then, I am Starfleet. Being a Starfleet officer is my life, and I cannot compromise that for something like vengeance, not even for one of our own. We are a standard to uphold, one of proud and noble traditions. We're the good guys, ma'am. Because if we're not, then we aren't Starfleet."

"That's the Starfleet answer, Captain Telvan."

"You're right, it is. It's a bit more complicated for us at times being under Intel Command, but it is." The spotted and radiation burned woman knew her first officer was right but there was still one more issue to bring up. "We still have one problem though. The galaxy at large isn't allowed to know about the existence of the deity class beings like Hera or the Asgardians. This Death falls into that category. How do we bring the spirit of Death up on charges of murder for doing what they'll claim is their job? How do we enforce it? Do we punish Schwein for that? Hera is apparently influencing the crew into the family way. How do we prove that Death isn't influencing the crew similarly?"

Taken slightly aback by the idea, Dox forced it out of her mind. She refused to entertain the thought as an excuse for herself. But like Rita has said earlier, this wasn't about her. "Captain... this may be the case for Schwein."

"They... Their connection is deep. Schwein's accent is gone. She said that Death gave her her own accent... like she's being... overwritten. And... there's more. Just before this all had happened, when we were with Captain Magnus at the starbase, something happened."

With a slight crack in her voice, Dox continued. "The was a vendor. An elderly man that was passing. Death touched his cheek while he slept and he... he died. He died and Schwein winced. She lied to us about her injuries being exasperated, but as she walked away I heard her whispering to Death that she FELT that man die. That it caused her pain."

"I was trying to find her in the station that night to find out what happened when I received Asa's distress call. But... in the Brig... If Schwein felt those men die, it didn't show. Or worse, she did feel it and it didn't bother her this time."

“It sounds very much as though we need to separate the two of them for the good of the Baroness,” Paris posited. “While her actions may be influenced by this entity, there is a surefire method of separating them. Assaulting a Starfleet officer, manslaughter and removal of Federation prisoners from a Starfleet facility are all serious charges, but they can be addressed. For right now, I am concerned with the fact that the Baroness may well not be herself."

"I propose she be recalled and separated from the Death entity. I’ll do the research and see if it is possible, but I’m not willing to give up on her if the Baroness can be saved. That woman saved my life, and I’ll not let her go into the darkness without a fight. If that means defying Death, it won't be my first time," Paris added with firm resolution. Baroness von Alcott was her friend, and she wasn't about to write her off if she was in trouble. Especially if she was in trouble- because that meant she needed her shipmates more than ever.

"If you call her, she'll heed you and come, won't she Captain?" If they had to lay a trap for the noble pirate, so be it. Paris was already committed to the course and getting up to speed.

Thinking for a second, Dox interjected. "She's on her way to Risa. That's where he said the Collector was. And the Fluffernuttenfaust has a solid cloak, but I know how to crack it."

"If we chase her she'll run, fight and evade. No, Miss Dox- she'll come if summoned by the Princesszin. The question now becomes, will the Captain call her back?" Paris turned to eye the radiation-burned Trill captain in the biobed.

The Trill woman's eyes were closed and tears were rolling down the sides of her face as she considered all that she had just learned and realized the implications of. If this went poorly in any way at all, she'd be losing one of her closest friends and her best ally for the Tribunal. She really had no choice though - this entity of Death and Schwein had to be recalled and her lapse in judgement corrected in any way possible. She had prevented the loss of two of her newest family, but the universe was trying to take one of her oldest from her now.

"Maica... She has the comm codes," Enalia croaked out. "She can send a message in my name recalling her. I doubt I'll be out of this damned thing before she gets back, so... Good luck..."

“First I have to take a consultation with Hera and detailed sensor analysis to see what the metaphysics of the situation are, and what can be done. We’ll recall the Baroness as the final component of this plan, assuming it comes together,” Paris countered, her mind working overtime to arrive at possibilities and solutions. “Meanwhile, Miss Dox, would you be so kind as to step outside and stand by? I need a few words with the captain,”

The return of polite manners to the friendly First Officer was likely a positive, but given her usual open door nature, actually requesting privacy was a sign in and of itself.

"Aye, Commander." Dox replied, as she left the room to wait nervously at attention outside the room.

When the first officer turned on the captain, her eyes were blazing with fury. “We’re going to skip the protocol of speaking freely, because you’re going to listen to me, Enalia Artan Telvan, and I am going to be heard and understood.”

“How… DARE… you!” Paris fairly roared, which, unbeknownst to her, could be heard clearly by the junior officer in the corridor outside the room where Lieutenant Dox stood at attention. “I take a great pilot with so much potential, teach her how to be an officer, teach her pride in herself and her accomplishments, teach her duty and sacrifice and honor, and you! You come in and decide that she’d be better off as a damned pirate! I warned her,” Paris began to pace, as she often did when speaking, but this was more of a predatory stalking around the biobed where her friend and captain who had been injured saving her very existence lay.

“I warned her not to get caught up in this pirate business, to keep an eye to her duty,” Paris muttered, practically a grumble. “Then Asa Dael is in trouble. Does Dox alert Starfleet? No, the Captain gifted her with her own unregistered vessel, so she doesn’t bother to wait for backup from the Hera. Does she stun and capture the accused? No, she breaks them, physically brutalizing them like a black ops professional. Because that’s what pirates do. Only then does she bring them back to toss them in the brig, to get them medical attention, then report to her captain.”

“Her captain, who immediately indicates that she does not need a Starfleet officer, but the ‘Baroness Dox’ to carry out her orders, wherein she clearly implies that she wants all of these men dead,” Paris was talking with her hands now as she ranted, a full head of steam going. “Assassinated. Murdered. Frontier justice- no judge, no jury, just executioner. You send in the Baroness, not Starfleet personnel, for interrogation. Which ends with three dead men in the brig, when she absconds with the bodies, as if that eliminates the evidence, as she sets off for another Federation planet. Because the Starfleet officer relayed to the private citizen pirate orders from the captain to assassinate the party identified as responsible for all of this.”

“What about any other victims does this ‘Collector’ have who are going to need to be rescued? Victim counseling? Returning them to their families, native environments, homes? Is the Baroness von Alcott and her little pirate sloop going to be equipped to handle all of that? What happens when those victims start talking? What happens when Asa Dael finds out what was done in their name? Have you even considered that both von Alcott and Dox have both been genetically manipulated, and that is illegal in the Federation? Did you consider how much danger this would expose both of them to with one careless act?”

Leaning in to the head of the hospital bed, Paris pressed her point. “This piratical tribunal is going to ruin us all, Enalia. Your damned granddaughter risked wiping herself out of existence because she’d rather not exist then let what’s going to happen to you come to pass. You can be a pirate and a Starfleet officer, but you’ll still be held accountable as a Starfleet officer. The Starfleet officer who just ordered assassinations and spoke in rage, and is trying to ruin more lives than her own.”

Realizing the irony in her own harshly spoken words, Paris stood up straight, visibly calming herself from her righteous wrath. “It’s not too late. We can make this right, and we can deal with the fallout. But I need your word, Enalia Telven.” Regarding the Captain through half-lidded eyes, the voice of the career Starfleet officer became choked with emotion.

“When I was going to run, you assured me, you SWORE to me that you were Starfleet first, a pirate second. You worked so long and so hard to get away from becoming your mother, and here you are, doing precisely that. Now you are corrupting Dox with that exact same madness,” tears rolled down the angry executive’s face. “You are committing murder on a Federation starship, and that isn’t Starfleet. That’s not who we are.”

“So right here, right now, you swear to me, Enalia Telven. You swear to me to comport yourself according to your Starfleet oath. Which means not corrupting the officers beneath you with your pirate business when you get angry and want to circumvent society’s laws. I won’t have it, Enalia. I won’t be a party to it,” Paris stated with finality. “So you make your choice, and you make the decision and you give me your damn word, and you by all that’s holy you mean it. Starfleet first, period. We do things the lawful Starfleet way from this moment forward.”

“Because if not, then it is my duty to remove you from command and bring you up on formal charges,” Paris said stiffly, her voice thick with regret, her chin dimpling as she restrained the emotions saying all of this brought forth. “It is my duty to do the same for Miss Dox out there. It is my duty to have the Baroness von Alcott brought to justice, to answer for her crime. As vague as the logic may be, I suspect the sensor date will be quite convincing. I am a Starfleet officer, and I know exactly where my duty lies. If you desire a different outcome than that, you had better swear to me by whatever’s holy to you that we will never, EVER have this discussion again. Am I making myself perfectly clear?”

Enalia was silent for several long moments as both women cried. When she finally tried to speak, she couldn't find her voice at first so she had to try again a couple times, swallowing hard between each time and straining the field holding her in place. "The only other person... To ever talk to me like that before..." She then tried to nod, but again, she was stopped by the medical fields holding her in place. She felt so weak and helpless right now, just like she used to when she was a little girl, and it showed. "I swear... I just want to get through the Tribunal, name a successor, and leave it all behind me... Get on with my life in Starfleet..."

“So long as it doesn’t involve murdering your matriarch in order to become her, I will help you with every trick in my bag, every ounce of resolve that I possess,” the ancient astronaut offered. “But you swear to me, Enalia Telven, by whatever you need to swear, that moving forward you are a Starfleet captain, not a pirate princess who dispatches her Starfleet officers on errands that will ruin their careers. You give lawful orders that can be obeyed without compromising the principles of Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets.”

“You swore to me once that you might ask me to do some questionable things from time to time, but those orders would be handed down from Intel Command, and in the best interest of the Federation as a whole. ‘I promise they will not be personal’- your words.” Hands balled into fists, the betrayal Rita Paris felt was evident in every word, every gesture, every nuance. “Now you swear to me that same promise for your entire crew, from the second officer down to the lowliest crewman. We will not have this discussion again, Enalia. We won’t, because if you ever pull anything like this again, I won’t say a word to you. I will simply do my duty. I swear that to you, on my honor as a Starfleet officer.”

While she seemed to be agnostic at best, the one defining characteristic of Rita paris was her dedication to her duty, to being a Starfleet officer. Thus a vow on her honor as an officer was the strongest oath by which she could swear. Her persistent honestly made it abundantly clear that she was neither bluffing nor would she give an inch on this.

As her first officer berated her, something inside Enalia's eyes slowly died like a light going out. She knew exactly what she had to do to just finish this whole Tribunal without anyone in her crew getting hurt and as soon as she was out of here, she'd do it. Rita Paris was right. Her mother was right. she had made all of this personal. She'd have to give them both what they wanted. Staring up at the ceiling she spoke like she no longer even cared what happened to her own body - she just wanted this all to end. "Fine. I swear it. When I get out of here, I'll give my mother the daughter she wants, then cut all ties to the Artan lineage. Baroness von Alcott will be removed from the entity of Death. I will never give another order to another soul pertaining to my pirate heritage after that and if I ever give another illegal order, I'll resign."

“I didn’t say anything about you giving your mother what she wants, Enalia. I swore I wouldn’t let the joy drain out of your life to become just as bad as your mother. Don’t martyr yourself here- that’s not what I asked for, and punishing me for it is brutally unfair,” Paris explained, seeing how this was playing out and struggling to prevent it. “I didn’t demand you give it up, I just need you to put Starfleet first. Choose your next words very carefully, Enalia Artan, because if you follow this course, you’ll unmake someone I’m rather looking forward to meeting someday. No ma’am, you don’t have the luxury of just rolling over and giving up. That's not the starship captain who talked me out of rending space and time. That's not the starship captain who travelled in time to save me from destroying Earth. That's not MY captain.“

Enalia thought on that for some time as she stared at the ceiling, slowly going over everything that had been said, before moving her eyes over to Rita, her eyes widening. "Grand... Daughter?" That realization finally sunk in and implications of that also started hitting her. "So now you're telling me we broke the Temporal Prime Directive as well?"

“When do we not?” the time-tossed officer from 2268 replied with a self-effacing shrug.

Closing her eyes, she thought on it some more, trying to turn her thinking around. "Then I have to win the Tribunal... As a Starfleet Captain... You know I'm going to need an Angel in Gold to pull this off, right?"

Taking the captain’s hand gingerly in her own, Rita Paris offered a small smile. “Did you miss that part? Every trick in my bag, every ounce of resolve that I possess. You told me once that you needed me beside you. That no one else could serve as your first. I promised you then, and that promise holds today. Where you lead, I follow. When the Hera is in danger, I’ll stand for her. And when my captain needs help outmaneuvering her tyrant of a matriarch, then she’ll have to contend with Enalia Telvan and Rita Paris.”

“You’re not alone in this. You’re never alone. So long as we do the right thing, stick to our principles and do the right thing.” Reaching between the bands to stroke the Trill woman’s hair, Paris smiled that reassuring smile. “Hell of a mess you made, Captain. I’ll help you clean it up, because that’s why I’m here. I’ll help you with your Tribunal, because that’s why I’m here. And I will keep you on the path to being your own woman, the noble Starfleet officer who risks everything for the safety of those who will never know of her heroism. Because that’s why I’m here.”

"Thank you... You'll probably never know just how much that means to me, but I'll try to make sure you do someday." The Trill woman smiled weakly up at her human first officer. "Now... How about you get with Maica and recall our lost little piggy before she does something we'll all regret? Oh, and uh... Please don't be too hard on Mnhei'sahe... She apparently just watched three people get eaten by the literal spirit of Death. That's got to take a toll on the psyche."

“Research first, then recalling the Baroness,” Paris reminded the captain, who was still reeling from the rad burns combined with being thoroughly chewed out by her first officer. “As for Miss Dox- if we don’t punish her, she will punish herself. She failed in her first true moral crisis as an officer, and she witnessed the results of her actions, yes. Three men are dead because of her choices, and all of this could have been avoided had she known to comport herself as a Starfleet officer, not as a ‘baroness’. With that said, I am recommending busting her back to LTJG. It will provide a reminder for some time that her actions have consequences, and make her more mindful of her duty.”

“Assuming that the Commodore doesn’t bring you all up on charges,” Rita added, knowing the unlikelihood of that course.

"I don't think I can punish her like that for my mistakes as a Starfleet officer. That would imply a coverup on my part." Enalia sighed as best she could, locked in the radiation burn torture device. "But I'll take it under advisement. Magnus said he'd register her ship to her, but we can at least control when she can leave the Hera with it. How about we start with confinement to quarters while off duty and extra duties in the lower decks and when I get out of here we can review the case together?"

“With all due respect, no ma’am,” Paris stood upright, defending her choice. “Dragging it out will only further damage her self-esteem and worth as an officer, and give her time to find more and more reasons to punish herself. She may have in part been acting on your orders, but these were her choices, not yours. This isn’t messing up a duty roster or showing up drunk on duty. This is an important turning point for her, Captain. She needs to understand that the rules exist for reasons and that there are consequences, but also that justice is inherent in the system, which should never be circumvented for personal reasons. The decision is yours, of course, and I will abide by your order. But that’s my recommendation.”

"She's one of those self-harm types, isn't she?" Enalia asked, thinking it over. "Fine. Three months demotion one rank pending a performance review. Extra duties and confinement to quarters for the same time. And Rita? If you EVER recommend we take shore leave in the Sol system again, I'm throwing you in the brig. This system is built on way too many cursed mass burial mounds or something..."

"Ah, and if you need an idea on extra duties, DTI mentioned they needed someone to help sort through old historical records from the early twenty first century and try to restore them. Particularly about someone named Donald Drumpf."

“Understood ma’am, that’s fair and it should do the trick, thank you. Although I think we should probably prepare to get underway before DTI looks too closely at Kodria Mizu's presence here,” Paris expressed. While she didn’t want to punish the junior officer, her duty was clear and no favoritism should apply. The Captain’s choice was just, and she felt good about it. Moving to the door, Rita turned to make a vow, to leave the spotted captain with some hope.

“If there is a way to save the Baroness, ma’am, I’ll find it. We don’t let our own go gentle into that good night… not in Starfleet.”

"Thank you... I'd at least like to see my piggy again." Then another thought hit Enalia. "Rita... You're at the door, right? I can still hear you. We're still inside the same privacy bubble. What radius did you set it at again?"

“Three meters ma’am, why?” Opening the door, Rita realized that Dox was standing rigidly at attention just outside the doorway.

Facepalming, Rita grasped the bridge of her nose and sighed, shaking her head. “Heard every word, didn’t you?”

Rigidly, Dox stood in place where she was ordered to stand, eyes locked straight forward. Those eyes were slightly glassy and the young woman's body shuddered slightly as she struggled to maintain her composite. But even through the door, her Romulan ears picked up the entire conversation.

"Aye, Commander." Dox replied.

“Walk with me, Lieutenant. The night is long, and we’ve many miles to walk ere the dawn,” Paris said, moving with a purpose on her way out of sickbay.