Self Respect and Discretion 101

Posted on Sun Apr 24th, 2022 @ 10:51pm by Ensign Kateyo Fenn & Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII

Mission: Character Development
Location: Engineering
2349 words - 4.7 OF Standard Post Measure

Finn looked at the time and sighed. She had mulled over how to address the Fenn situation practically all day and the day was practically over. If there was one thing she hated about being CEO, besides reports, it was keeping unruly engineers in line. It was a miracle some of them made it through the academy, of that much she was sure.

"Ensign Fenn, please report to my office," Finn spoke the request and waited for a reply.

"OW!" Teyo replied over the comline. He was currently lying flat on his back in one of the service conduits. He was tinkering with the impulse manifold and he had been so caught up with his work that the call from his boss had startled him and made him drop his hyper-spanner straight on his face. "I'm just finishing up in conduit six-gamma," he replied, as he checked his nose to make sure that it wasn't broken, "I'll be there as soon as I'm done." He knew a call from Keating was rarely a good thing, especially at this time of the day.

Fifteen short minutes later he was stood outside of the chief's office, mentally preparing himself for whatever she was calling him here for. He had considered changing out of his overalls, however, he hadn't wanted to keep her waiting longer than necessary, she was formidable at the best of times, no need to make her mad. Teyo pressed the button to signal his arrival and waited for her to allow him into the dragon's den.

Finn took a second to collect her thoughts before allowing the doors to open. "Have a seat, ensign. Can I get you anything to drink from the replicator?" She asked, walking over to the device on the wall and ordering herself a coffee. Her demeanor was calm and collected. Neither angry nor happy. Finn made it a point to seem as neutral as possible, not wanting to set any biases before their conversation.

Teyo remembered the last time he was sitting in this chair and Finn offered him a drink he had asked for a pint of beer, the joke hadn't gone well then and he doubted it would now. "Just an ice Raktajino please," he said wishing that he could have a beer right now, or a Rondarian fire whiskey, he had the feeling he was going to need it. He knew where he stood with the Lieutenant when she was shouting or even happy, but this, this nothing, was unnerving. It was obviously the calm before the very big storm, and Teyo was preparing for the structural damage that was going to occur.

The drinks appeared a moment later and Finn walked them to her desk, setting Teyo's in front of him and walking around to the other side to take a sit in her chair. No words were spoken as she took a long sip of her coffee. If the silence in the room were a needle, it would've pierced the thickest of armor.

"First," Finn finally broke the silence. "I'd like to compliment you on your performance in engineering the past couple of weeks. From what I've seen and heard, you've been on time most days and performed well on your assignments."

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Teyo said after taking a sip of his drink. The Klingon beverage hit him with the kick he needed, the closest he could get to a shot right now. "You know how much I pride myself on my work," he added with a grin, trying his best to ease the tension.

Finn gave a curt nod. "That said, your actions outside of engineering leave much to be desired," she sighed as her head dropped. "Look," Finn's attention moved back to Teyo. "I don't want to be involved in your personal life anymore than you want me to be, but when your presence causes scenes in public areas of the ship, I don't have many options. I don't care who you spend your free time with or what you're doing with them, but please be more selective on where you're airing your personal business."

And here it is, the whole point of this meeting, Teyo thought to himself. He knew that Finn liked things a certain way, he knew she was all work and very little fun, in fact, he had even referred to her as the ice queen on more than one occasion, but this was a line too far. "And what scenes exactly are you talking about?" Teyo asked, all humour gone from his tone. "Is this about Mason?" He asked, already knowing it was.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. The dinner intrusion and then the bar scene," she sighed. "If you want to continue to pursue Mason, fine, just keep it civil." She held her hand up to ward off any objections. "Fenn, you have great potential. If I'm honest with myself, most of the time I actually like you. You're smart and you like to have fun. You have a real knack for engineering too. And I get that you want some excitement in your life, but save it for the holodeck or at least in private. It's not an unreasonable request and it's nothing more than what I expect from all of my officers." Her eyes met his as she awaited a response. There was no wavering in her serious expression yet internally she yearned for Fenn to just accept her words and try better. She at least hoped he wouldn't fight her on it.

Teyo knew the smart thing to do was to say 'aye sir' and leave, however, that wasn't his style. If someone was challenging him, he would see it through until the end, his fight with Lieutenant Zade proved that. "Apart from the fact that I have valid explanations for both of those situations, neither of them happened whilst I was on duty, Sir," he added quickly, there was still a chain of command here and he didn't need to forget that right now. "And since both of them happened in recreational areas of the ship, while I was off duty, I don't understand why you're so annoyed?"

"Your actions outside of engineering still reflect on this department as a whole. Quarrels will happen, I know, but do you see other officers airing their personal business and causing a scene in public areas? You're a Starfleet officer, and with that comes the responsibility of acting professionally even when you're off duty in public," Finn paused. Was she getting through to him? "What happened, happened. There's no changing that. All I'm asking is that you be more discrete going forward. Can you do that?" Finn asked, trying to be professional and polite. She'd rarely found that yelling made people change and she'd hoped that a more gentle conversation might get Fenn to lean more in the right direction.

Teyo sighed. "No offence Lieutenant, I signed up for Starfleet, not to be a Bajoran Vedek or a Trill Guardian. You're making it sound like me and Mason had a bust-up in the middle of the bridge. I proclaimed my feeling for him, he shot me down, I got over it. End of story."

I'm gonna hit him. No. Don't hit him. You can't physically knock the sense into him, Finn thought as every remaining ounce of patience she had exited the room. "You mean to tell me, you didn't know exactly what kind of pain and fall out you were going to cause by announcing clearly private business between you and Mason, out loud in front Kevan and the rest of the bar? Don't give me that nonsense, ensign." She smacked the desk in frustration.

"Fine!" Teyo shouted, a little taken aback by her reaction. If he was being honest with himself he would have known that that wouldn't work with her, and maybe it was time to be honest. "Yeah, okay I did know what I was doing, but can you please understand that I was trying to help, in my own way. You saw Kevan's reaction, you saw it with your own eyes. So did I and so did Mason. Jealousy is a strong emotion, and I wanted to kick start some feelings in the man. Besides, I had already told Mason I didn't plan to keep this quiet, I'm not ashamed of what we did, it's not my fault he didn't tell you. And I wander why that was..." He said trialling off, suddenly losing his nerve.

There was a stagnant silence for a moment while Finn collected her thoughts. "For the record, Mason is not required to tell me anything. I understand why he didn't," the sting of rejection hit once more as she thought about it. "I also understand where you were coming from. That doesn't mean it was the right thing to do. I don't care if you think you were helping him. Next time you want to meddle with someone else's private life, don't. Or at the very least, you keep it civil and private. Don't go announcing it in front of the whole damn bar and cause a scene. Understood?" Her eye's met his with a steely and unmoving gaze.

"That's a bit hypocritical," Teyo said before he could help himself. "You're meddling in my private life right now. And for the record, I didn't announce it to the entire bar, I just put my arms around him."

"Oh, that's it? You just put your arms around him? You didn't announce to everyone 'the other night was fun and was wondering when you wanted round two'?" Finn retorted. "Beyond that, I'm not meddling in your private life. I won't tell you to stop pursuing Mason. I'm only asking that you keep from announcing your ventures in public places. Specifically when you're surrounded by company that you know will be upset by the news." She sighed and leaned back against the chair. Exasperated by having to deal with the emotionally turbulent ensign. "Pursue whoever you want, just please keep the drama to a minimum."

Teyo was getting angry but for once he was trying to use his brain. He really wanted to make sure that he got his point across without getting another reprimand. Xavier had always said that he just didn't stop and think enough, that the Trill always said the first thing that popped into his mind. So Teyo decided to heed his friend's words and stop. He listened to the heart pounding in his chest and took several deep breaths until he felt it was back under its normal rhythm. He didn't want to admit it but Xavier was right, he felt calm and more in control than he had when this meeting had first started.

"It's not my fault," Teyo said, choosing each word carefully, "that Kevan is still in the closet. It is also not my fault that Mason doesn't like you in the same way that you like him. I cannot help who has feelings for whom and so if people get hurt because I hooked up with a single guy I cannot be blamed for that. And to be frank, Lieutenant, if I want to send a subspace message to all the planets in the Federation about said hook up, that is nothing to do with my duties as an engineer. I will promise to be more thoughtful in the future, but not at the expense of being me."

Maybe Xavier wasn't entirely right, Teyo thought after listening back to the words that had just escaped his lips.

"You're right, if you want to send a subspace message to everyone in the galaxy that you screwed a lonely and confused security officer just so that you could try to pull another security officer out of the closet you sure can. You know what will happen? Everyone might get a laugh out of it. It might not interfere with your engineering abilities, sure, those are still intact. But what about your respect? Do you think your fellow officers are going to respect how you've tarnished another officer's reputation? Or how you uphold yourself as an officer in the Federation? You think when the promotion board looks at your resume they're going to think, 'yea this young officer has what it takes to climb the ranks. He has the potential to run a department one day.' No." Finn paused. She wanted to lash out more. She wanted to end it with every insult she could muster about how sad it was that he was acting this way, but it wouldn't have been the right thing as a leader so as much as she wanted to continue, Finn instead bottled the remaining rage and pushed it down inside.

"Do what you want with your personal life, I'm done caring. I'd appreciate it if you were more discreet in announcing your encounters, but what you do from here is up to you. Dismissed." There was a finality in her voice, almost as if a dare accompanied it. A dare reaching out and hoping that Fenn would respond one more time so that she could feel justified in uncorking the anger she had just bottled up. Then again a part of her also just wanted this whole thing to be over and wished he'd leave without another fight.

Teyo opened his mouth to argue back but seriously thought about how another round would go and thought better of it. They were going around in circles and they clearly didn't see eye to eye on this matter, nor would they ever. Finn was clearly at the point of exhaustion and Teyo didn't want to be the one to flip her over the edge. "Ma'am," was the only word he allowed himself to utter as he stomped out of the office and made his way out of engineering without so much as a glance back. If he had to remain celibate to be in Starfleet, then maybe he had chosen the wrong career after all.