So You've Had an... 'Interesting' Few Days

Posted on Mon Apr 4th, 2022 @ 4:59pm by Lieutenant Didrea Zade & Commander N'Garzi Zora

Mission: Character Development
Location: Lounge
Timeline: After "A Casual Fight to the Death"
2421 words - 4.8 OF Standard Post Measure

After the... rough first encounter with Fenn, Zade changed from her workout outfit to something more comfortable, ultimately deciding on a dark purple long-sleeved top with black pants after she cleaned herself up. Originally, she was planning to stay in her quarters, but found it too quiet for her to read, and after thoroughly checking the pink spot on her cheek from when Fenn punched her, she figured it was subtle enough to go unnoticed if she went to the lounge. It didn't seem like something worth pestering the doctor over, especially since it was on her face and not near anything vital.

She eventually found herself in the lounge, reserving a seat in the corner of the room near a window with a PADD in one hand and an iced tonic water in the other. Settling into the chair with a soft sigh, Zade turned on the PADD and began to read, taking a sip of her drink. Leaning forward, she rest her elbow on the table to gently press the cold cup to her cheek. The table she selected intentionally allowed her to position herself such that the room couldn't see the forming bruise on her cheek. If people couldn't see it, no questions would be asked, right?

"Is it helping?" Zora asked as she hovered over the Trill. She was also out of uniform, wearing a brightly coloured shawl of intricate design and sequins. Her braids were out of their usually tight headwrap, flowing freely down her back. She was holding a small cup and saucer and took this moment to take a small, delicate sip of the steaming beverage that swirled within.

It wasn't accurate to say Zade jumped at the voice, but she was certainly not expecting to be talked to. She had hoped that the table selection would place her enough out of the way to avoid conversation, but this clearly wasn't the case. She turned her head a little to address the person. "I suppose... Commander." Seeing who was talking to her, Zade put her cup on the table and started to stand.

"No need for formalities," Zora said, holding out her hand. Her long fingers, covered in various rings, were outstretched, making the 'stop' action. "Actually, I was hoping I might join you for a moment Lieutenant, if I'm not interrupting, that is?" She added, seeing that Zade was reading a PADD in the corner of the room.

Zade paused in her motion to stand before settling back into her seat, gesturing to the empty chair across from her with an open hand. "Nothing important, just some light reading," she replied, setting the PADD to the side. Picking up her cup again and pressing it back to her cheek, she asked, "what can I do for you?"

Zora's eyes narrowed slightly as she lowered herself into the empty seat. She took a long sip from the still steaming cup before answering Zade's question. "I just wanted to welcome you to the ship, officially," she said in her usual calm and collected voice, whilst her eyes lingered on the bruise on the Trill's face. "It would appear you have had an interesting few days already?"

"Oh, this?" Zade asked, catching the woman's gaze. She slightly lifted her cup to emphasize that she was gesturing to her cheek. "It was a spar that got a little out of hand." As she remembered the fight, a brief frown crossed her expression. Why was Fenn so... erratic? she thought. It still puzzled her that she did exactly what he said, and yet he'd get upset about the outcome, as if he were expecting her to do the opposite. She wanted to check on him, but her impression of him concluded that he probably wouldn't want to see her. Overall, it seemed like there was no pleasing him and he was going to be mad at her no matter what she did. A neutral expression replaced the frown as Zade shrugged. "Aside from that, I'm familiarizing myself with the security department and the ship."

"Good," Zora replied. She flashed a quick smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Tell me, Lieutenant," she continued as she circled the rim of her cup with a ringed finger. "I know that you're new to the role. What would you consider to be the primary job of a security chief?"

The air between them felt... off. Zade couldn't really explain it, but she was starting to get the feeling that this was more than just a 'welcome to the ship' conversation. She watched Zora for a moment while taking a sip of the tonic water, trying to find a hint of direction in the conversation. She was practically as hard to read as T'Lara, the Colossal's first officer, but so far their personalities seemed very similar. Calm and collected, at least until reaching the point of the conversation. "To ensure the safety of the crew, Commander," she finally replied, choosing to see where the conversation led.

Zora smiled, a more natural one this time. "I would agree. So can you explain how a junior officer ended up in sickbay because of a sparring match with you, mere hours ago?" She asked, sipping her tea and then placing the cup back on the saucer.

There it was. Zade let out a small sigh as she thought over how best to explain what happened. "Professionally speaking, Commander, it was an accident," she said, that small frown returning to her expression. "He ran into me and we had a confrontation that wouldn't de-escalate. He clearly had something on his mind and he looked like he wanted to take it out on someone. I offered a sparring match so he wouldn't take out his emotions on another crewmate, and it was fine until he leaned into an arm lock the wrong way." In hindsight, Zade knew she could have handled it better. For starters, she could have just sucked it up and apologized, even though it wasn't her fault. But she couldn't change the outcome, the Ensign still went to sickbay and this conversation was still happening.

Zora nodded as the Lieutenant spoke and when she had finished Zora let a full minute go by as she pondered her response. She liked to be careful with her words, and in truth, she wanted the Trill to sweat for a while. "There are some accidents that are unavoidable," she said finally. "These are unfortunate and we handle them in the best way that we can, in fact, it's part and parcel of being in Starfleet. However, I would argue Lieutenant, this was not one of those times. You say you couldn't de-escalate the situation, a simple misunderstanding with an Ensign with an ego," Zora raised her eyebrow at the Trill, "what if that had been a diplomatic mission with another species? A Cardassian for example. Would the end result have been the same?"

Zade gave the tonic water a little swirl, watching the liquid travel around the inside of her cup. "It wouldn't have. The key difference, Commander, is that I wouldn't let myself be off duty with a distinguished guest," she replied, after some careful thought. "With someone on a diplomatic mission, I know I must represent Starfleet and this ship to the best of my ability. My personal standards dictate that to maintain that appearance, a guest will never see me off duty." She stopped the circular motion of her cup to watch the tonic water level out. "With... crewmates," Zade added, the pause clear in her voice. Despite her efforts to mask it, there was a hint of aversion to the idea of calling Fenn a crewmate. "... it's not quite the same. We live on the same ship, and keeping up the appearances I reserve for guests is exhausting, long term."

Pausing again, Zade took a sip of the tonic water, surprised at how dry her throat felt. The long pause by Zora succeeded in making Zade uncomfortable, because the tonic water felt like the first drink of fresh water after being in the desert for two days. "I present myself differently to crewmates when I'm off duty because I don't want to be seen as 'security officer Zade' all the time. I want to try and get along with others as just 'Zade.' As a result, I tend to be more flexible in how I handle off-duty conflict." The Trill shifted her eyes so she was looking at Zora instead of the cup, searching for some relief from the tension she could sense accumulating around the table. "I am aware that I could have handled the situation better, Commander."

"You absolutely could have done and I expect to see better judgement from you in the future Lieutenant," Zora replied. She picked up her cup and finished the rest of her drink. Sighing slightly she allowed herself to relax in her seat. She had purposely built the tension because it was what this young Trill needed. She wasn't a junior officer anymore, she was part of the senior staff and certain things would not be accepted whilst Zora was around. If only P'rel was this easy to shakedown.

"Allow me to get you another drink," Zora said catching the waiter's eye. "And for future reference Didrea, breaking a crewman's arm during a spar is no short way to make friends," she said with a slight smile.

Zade remained silent, unsure of what to feel. Part of her was relieved that the Commander finally eased up on the tension, and part of her felt like she had just been slapped. Getting a scolding was not on her mental checklist of things to do tonight. Was Karav's first time as security chief this... delicate? It was going to be a learning curve for sure, because Karav spent a bunch of time helping Zade prepare to handle battle scenarios, not necessarily personal ones.

Her expression briefly changed into some combination of a cringe and heartache when she suddenly heard her first name. Aside from family, Nayisa was the only other one Zade allowed to use that name. It carried the weight of her mourning, even after twelve years, and she had found that using her last name helped to reduce that weight. The Trill slowly took in a breath as she internally trampled those emotions back down. "Respectfully, Commander," Zade said, doing her best to keep her voice neutral, "I go by Zade. Being called Didrea is too... personal."

Zora bowed her head slightly, "I apologise Zade," she corrected. "How are you finding your time on the ship so far?" She asked in an attempt to help the Lieutenant relax a bit more.

Knowing Zora didn't mean to offend, Zade mentally told herself to let it go, the visible evidence of it being a gentle exhale. "Thoroughly used," she replied, deciding to not turn down the offer for another drink when the waiter came over. After telling the waiter that she was drinking an iced tonic water, she turned back to Zora. "I haven't really had much downtime until today, so I'm not turning down a nice change of pace." While still tense from the earlier conversation, Zade did give a faint smile. "I have made the acquaintances of several people without sending them to sickbay."

"Well that's a good start," Zora replied after ordering her own drink and watching the waiter hurry away. Three pips on the collar tend to make people feel like they needed to rush more than they usually would. There were days when she enjoyed the power, and days when she wished everyone would just be a bit more zen. "Well, this is a good place to come for your first bit of downtime on the ship. Are you reading anything interesting?"

Sliding the PADD so it was in front of her, Zade woke up the screen and tilted it toward the other woman enough for her to see. On one side, about a third of the screen was occupied by text, and the other two thirds of the screen displayed Jefferies tubes schematics with a faint diagram of the ship underneath. The image was zoomed in enough to cover the distance between access hatches both vertically and horizontally, and a bunch of 8-character 'codes' were littered everywhere. If one took the time to read the text, they'd learn that the shorthand gibberish was actually a detailed description of the tubes and where they led. "I guess it's more memorization than reading," Zade shrugged, setting the PADD down between them if she cared to look at it. "It's become a habit to learn fast and alternative routes to different parts of the ship. Most of the reading is actually just reviewing my own notes."

Zora picked up the PADD and studied it. She had done something very similar on her long trip to the Athena recently too. It was good to see that their new chief of security was taking her role and duties seriously, even if she still had a bit to learn about people management. "Ahh," Zora said after a second of studying the information, "looking for the best places to hide bodies on the ship? I will need to keep my eye on you, Lieutenant."

Zade gave a closed-mouth chuckle, a little breath of air from her nose being the indicator. "I mean, if you want to get caught after a week, sure. The Jefferies tubes would be a terrible place to hide bodies because of how frequently they're accessed. On a ship, you'd want an area with virtually no foot traffic." She took another sip of her drink, then gave the cup a little disappointed frown. The liquid was starting to warm up, making it a less effective ice pack for her cheek. Maybe she'd give in and just ask the waiter for a cup of ice when their next drinks came back.

"Oh, so you have given this some thought?" Zora replied, glad to see that the Trill had eased up a little bit. "Well if I ever plan to remove certain crew members," the Vulcan intelligence office came to mind, "I know exactly who I should speak to. That's good to know," she added with a wink.

It took a moment, but once Zade realized what she had implied, she gave a sheepish little smile as her hands waved in denial. "No, no, I should clarify..."