Unfinished Business

Posted on Wed Jul 13th, 2022 @ 4:29pm by Commodore Jacob Kane & Commander N'Garzi Zora & Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII & Lieutenant Commander P’rel M.D

Mission: Scylla and Charybdis
Location: USS Athena - Ready Room
Timeline: MD-01: Post-Departure
1950 words - 3.9 OF Standard Post Measure

With everything that had happened, all of the chaos, the fact that they'd been literally on the cusp of holding a full memorial service, it had taken far too long for Kane to make this conversation happen.

When he'd heard that Lieutenants Keating and P'rel had been recovered, alive, after the events in the Rondac system, he'd been relieved. More than anything, relieved that he hadn't lost two of his most capable officers to that lunatic Admiral. And, honestly, a little bit relieved that he didn't have to go looking for replacements. Competent officers that he felt he could trust were in short supply.

"Lieutenants. I've read the official submissions surrounding your escape from Rondac and subsequent return," he explained, as they stood in front of him. "I'm sure there are some...details...you'd rather not register officially. I completely understand that desire." He paused a moment. "Though I would very much like to hear from you both if there was anything that you wished to add...off the record."

P'rel looked sideways at Keating, who seemed to be equally as unsure of what to say as she was. Kane was a good man, certainly, and could be trusted beyond all reason, though Commander Zora was still a relatively unknown element. The seemingly shared tacit understanding amongst the group being that 'what happened on Rondac, remains on Rondac', the Vulcan weighed up the series of events leading up to their return to Athena; the mass conspiracy, the huge resources required, the Admiral's cryptic threats... "This isn't over...." she said, as much a warning to Kane that they hadn't heard the last of Operation Midnight, as it was a threat to the galaxy that she would avenge the death of her ward.

"I don't know a lot of the details, but from what we saw I have no doubt that what Lieutenant P'rel says is true," Finn said in a rare occurrence of agreement with the intelligence officer. "I have nothing else to share from our experience. I stated everything in my report, sir." She lied. Something she'd never done to a superior officer before, but they had made an agreement on Rondac. One that she wouldn't break. The real story of what happened on that forsaken planet would go with her to the grave.

Continuing to look at Keating, P'rel was settling into her newfound respect for the woman. They'd clashed before, constantly, but the past days had shown her that when backs were against the wall, Keating was someone you'd want on your side.

Kane glanced at Zora, wondering if she had any thoughts on their response. "Quite the misadventure. Formally, I am thankful that you were able to escape and return to us. No doubt Commander Zora shares that feeling, right Commander?" He hid a smirk knowing that she wouldn't necessarily feel exactly the same about their intelligence chief.

"Indeed," Zora replied, slightly tight-lipped. She was happy that both women had returned safely back to the ship, they were both exceptional officers and despite her personal feelings towards P'rel, Zora wouldn't take that away from the Vulcan. However, it seemed as though P'rel hadn't learned too much from the experience, still playing in the shadows, with her words at least. "When you say this isn't over Lieutenant, would you care to elaborate? I promise you this is a safe space, and as the captain has already stated, this conversation is off the record."

Standing easier than the stiff attention she'd postured to Kane, P'rel turned her head to look at the Commander. "We may have handed Admiral White over, and he may now be in custody - but you must realise this runs deeper than one Admiral...". She gave up on standing formally altogether and her stance relaxed, the pain in her side from the surgery on the knife wound continued to bite. "Consider the sheer number of people who must have been involved; even to divert resources....it must number in the hundreds. We may have dealt a devastating blow to the cloning operation, and Operation Midnight itself, but those corrupt officers are still here...still ready...waiting, perhaps, for another chance...". She omitted the part where she was going to hunt down and kill every single person who had a hand in Silnan's death...that could wait, that could come later.

"Agreed," Zora said as she looked from Kane, to Keating, and finally landed on P'rel. She couldn't fault the Vulcan's logic, as much as she wanted to believe that the Intelligence Officer was wrong. "So how do we proceed? Who can we trust?" This wasn't why she entered Starfleet, this wasn't what she had signed up for. She wanted to help people and weeding out internal conspiracies was well out of her comfort zone.

Offering a discreet smile to Keating, and a less subtle nod in acknowledgement of their shared experiences and newfound bond, P'rel casually gestured to the four of them in the room. "There is nobody else..." she concluded aloud, "...and we may have no choice but to wait, wait for them to make the next move. We might be relegated to a reactive position here..." she finished.

"While I understand that sentiment, I also have to recognise that sowing mistrust is exactly what a scheme of this kind would be designed to do," Kane responded. "There are people we can trust out there, and Starfleet medical is working up ways to detect cloned officers more easily. We'll root them out, but it'll take some time."

P'rel nodded once in a long, thoughtful nod. Kane was right, of course, but nonetheless the hopeful naivety of the young man was evident. Distrust and deception were the rule in the Federation, not the exception, in her experience; and though she wasn't going to argue the point with the Captain, she retained a degree of skepticism about his opinion.

"Before we're finished here..." Kane rose from his desk. "Lieutenant Keating. It's come to my attention that you handled yourself expertly under extremely difficult circumstances. A lesser officer would have folded in a scenario like that, but the commendation from Lieutenant P'rel is difficult to ignore." He handed her a small flat case. "I've seen to it that such actions in the line of fire are rewarded." He watched her open it. "Congratulations, Lieutenant Commander."

"I..." Finn looked from Kane to P'rel and back with a mix of emotions. Confusion, happiness, guilt. On the one hand, she wanted to accept it. Her family would certainly be proud and she'd be happy for the step up in her career. Yet, promotions were to be earned and all she had done was survived while allowing a friend to be tortured and eventually leaving him for dead. None of that merited a promotion. "Thank you, sir, but I can't accept." She softly closed the lid and fought to hold back the tears that threatened to emerge. "Nothing I did on that planet was commendable, just survival. And if it wasn't for Lieutenant P'rel I never would have made it out alive."

The pair had been through a great deal in a small amount of time, and P'rel knew well enough that Keating wasn't simply being humble or putting on a faux air of nobility. The engineer genuinely believed she didn't deserve praise, despite the honours commendation that P'rel had written upon their return to the Athena, and that she genuinely felt she was somehow at fault for Silnan's death. "Lieutenant," P'rel began; "Commander..." she corrected, before finally taking the few short strides over to the woman and taking the black pip from the box. "Finnley"...she corrected a final time; "you did your duty, you placed the needs of the many over the needs of the one...".

The words were a struggle for her get out, as true as they were. There was no way, logically, morally, strategically, that Keating could have justified giving away operational secrets to protect one low ranking person, however dear to the Vulcan he may have been. As they had already discussed, both Silnan and Keating would have probably been killed anyway, even if she had divulged tactical data. "This is yours" she said, forcing the pip into Keating's hand, "you represent leadership that Starfleet needs, and there is no logic in denying yourself a step further down such a path. Wear it in his honour..." she finished.

For a moment, Finn wasn't sure what to say. She stood in silence as she opened her hand to view the black pip once more. "Thank you," she finally let the words fall out. Realizing that this was happening whether she felt she deserved it or not, Finn stretched her hand out slightly towards Kane. "Would you do the honors?" She asked, firstly because it was tradition for your commanding officer to clip the new rank on your collar, but also because she wasn't entirely confident that she'd achieved the required dexterity in her new fingers for such a task yet.

Her initial reticence notwithstanding, Kane nodded brusquely and clipped the pip to her uniform smartly. If he were honest with himself, he didn't like the idea of her rejecting his offer of promotion. But he could excuse that given what she had recently experienced. He suspected Commander Zora would be insisting on some formal counselling before long. "Just think; there might come a time where you can convince Lieutenant P'rel to behave in such a manner as being deserving of one of these too," he said, a hint of humour in his tone.

Stepping away from Keating to make room for Kane, P'rel arched a querying brow in response; "As you know Captain, rank for the sake of rank holds no interest for me. I have been a Lieutenant for more than twenty years". Of the two promotions she'd taken in Starfleet, both had been to adopt a job role of that rank, and neither had been simply for the sake of arbitrary advancement.

For the first time in what felt like forever, Finn cracked a small smile. "I think it was a joke," she looked to P'rel. "I don't think anyone in this room believes you can be convinced to do anything that you don't already want to do."

Tilting her head in concession, P'rel responded with a simple "Indeed", whilst pondering the need for the entirely axiomatic and somewhat redundant statement.

Zora noted that the two women seemed to share a bond of sorts, a friendship maybe? She wasn't entirely sure how close they had been before this ordeal but she would guess that whatever had really happened during their time on Rondac, it had brought them together. She gave Finn a gentle smile, "it looks good on you." Looking at both ladies in turn, she adopted a more authoritative tone. "Ladies, we have a few days before we reach our next mission and I insist that you both take some time for yourselves." She held up a hand before either of them could protest, "I'm not stopping you from working as long as Commander Savin and Dr Ki clear you for duty, but you're both on light duties for a few days, give yourselves some time to process everything that has happened."

Finn just nodded. She didn't like it but knew there was likely no changing Zora's mind. Besides that, she hadn't outlawed work and that was really what Finn cared about most.

"Commander Zora is correct; I need you both on the ball in the coming days. Take that time." Kane returned to his seat. "You are dismissed."