Debrief

Posted on Wed Jul 15th, 2020 @ 4:48am by Lieutenant Commander P’rel M.D & Commodore Jacob Kane

Mission: In the Family
Location: USS Athena - Captain's Ready Room
2437 words - 4.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Kane waited patiently at his desk. He'd flicked through some of the reports from Commander Taeler and Lieutenant Sar, as well as a brief conversation with Hamilton Broll, who had nothing but praise for the Starfleet personnel. Before things had gone south, as it were, their behaviour had been reasonably good. Aside from some overambitious comments from Lt Savin, the team had performed well.

That just left this engimatic intelligence officer, P'rel. He'd received a brief document from Starfleet regarding the matter, though as with most intelligence personnel their records were full of more holes than swiss cheese. Even Brand, the Starfleet Intelligence officer already assigned to the ship, had little else to share. And Taeler's report mentioned they'd butted heads a little, which didn't bode particularly well.

He took a sip of coffee as the door opened and revealed the new arrival - now back in uniform and herself once again.

P’rel entered from the bridge, noticing as she did that it had a layout more reminiscent of traditional Starfleet bridges, with a seat for the CO in the middle of the bridge, and nowhere for discreet conference with an XO. The Captain was sat behind his desk, PADD in hand, looking expectant. The Vulcan, pleased to once again look and feel like one, stood with her arms behind her back as she met the man’s eyes, “Captain”, she stated plainly, her nature being to allow others to lead the situation whilst she observed and participated as little as possible.

"Lieutenant." He didn't offer her a seat. "I find myself in a dilemma." He tossed the PADD. "On the one hand, I see you already have a reputation for being unorthodox, loathing authority, and you've certainly rubbed Commander Taeler the wrong way up." He let the statement hang in the air as he watched for a reaction.

P’rel kept her head straight, focusing neutrally on a spot on the wall behind the Captain’s head; he wasn’t entirely accurate, but then again not wholly inaccurate either...

"On the other hand, you saved the lives of my landing party and helped extract them from a potentially fatal situation," he continued. "Contrary to most Commanding Officers in Starfleet, I appreciate honest and pragmatic officers. Sometimes the ends do justify the means."

The Vulcan moved forward and took the seat which hadn’t been offered. A useful and subtle tool of power play, his reaction would give her a good deal of insight into the Captain’s mentality and attitudes. “That is a far deeper philosophical and nuanced argument to have than I suppose we have time for her, sir”; she crossed a knee over the other, “or patience for...” P’rel barbed, again probing for what kind of reaction the Athena CO would offer. Commander Taeler... P’rel mused inwardly, reflecting on her dealings with the Bajoran so far; for someone who was likely a former terrorist she seemed to have very little in the way of the kind of operational theatre skills valued by the Vulcan. Perhaps she hadn’t been a resistance terrorist after all P’rel wondered, her style seemed more that of a desk bound manager, than a tactical leader. “...sir.” P’rel finished coolly, eyeing the bearded man for signs of reactions which might just flicker up his face to be hidden by a fraction of a second of better judgement, or perhaps there would be none and he would be straight with her. Either way, she needed to size this man up, and the ethnographer within her was hard at work trying to analyse and categorise him.

He was surprised by the rather minimal response, given her reputation. "Thankfully, an unorthodox approach and particular distain for authority are two traits I've been accused of in the past as well. Which means that they don't preclude anyone from achieving success." He paused, allowing the comment to hang. "How would you feel about remaining on board for a little longer?"

P’rel tried to hide that she was taken aback, and shifted slightly in her seat looking for her words carefully. She was quite sure that he hadn’t intended to be taken literally, but playing naive might just get her out of here and back to Earth. “I would consider it an axiom, that I am here until we are within shuttle range of a Starbase” she replied with a feigned innocence. “From then I can return to San Francisco and await my next assignment.”

"What if you extended your stay?" he asked. "From the fragments of information I have, I see an extremely capable officer with some...personality friction?" He tested the phrase to see how she might respond. "You'll find I'm a little more realist than your typical fleet officer. No doubt your own intelligence connections can attest to that."

P'rel frowned, very much not liking where this was going. "No" she said flatly, having genuinely intended to contain her rising panic. "I mean..." she fumbled for phrasing "...I, no..." she concluded, unhelpfully briefly, lost for words P'rel needed a few seconds to gather herself - "Can I speak freely Captain?" she asked, using the moment to gather her thoughts on the unfolding calamity in front of her. It was certainly true, what little she did know of Kane suggested he was somewhat maverick though not recklessly so, pragmatic but far from amoral; a long way in some respects from the hypocrisy and vanity of the modern day Federation and Starfleet. He was to her mind, however, in the brief exchanges so far and what she already knew about him, a deeply paradoxical man. On one hand, he embodied the honest and consequentialist directness which Starfleet had lost over the last century-or-so, yet on the other hand he also represented everything wrong with it too; the militarism and self-surety of the 24th Century, the brashness and self righteous dogmatic mentality. Whichever side of the coin he ultimately came down on, P'rel found him interesting nonetheless.

This should be interesting, Kane thought to himself, leaning back in his chair. "The floor is yours, Lieutenant."

P'rel steepled her fingers for a moment, a subconscious tell that she was contemplating her words carefully; "Sir... Starfleet and the Federation is dying, it has been dying for some time, and it's probably time it should, too". She took a pausing breath and continued "I am very much content in my current role, based in San Francisco and being able to indulge my anthropological interests with the ethnographic assignments. With respect too, sir, a warship is the very last place I would want to serve; the Prometheus Class is quite possibly the epitome of Federation hypocrisy". She scanned Kane's face, looking for the subtle reactions again which might just give him away, though he seemed to be straight talking so far, admittedly...

"Well." Kane considered, a very faint smirk crossing his lips at her remarks. "I can't say I entirely disagree with your sentiment, however I feel that some of your viewpoints could be somewhat miguided. I agree the Federation could be seen as decadent in some quarters, but the difference is that I choose to fight for what I believe it should be. To be the change, as it were." He straightened. "Lieutenant, do you really think that you're going to get very far? A single Lieutenant tucked-away in some office on Earth? Nobody would listen to you. Now if you tempered that with a tour on board the Athena...I can guarantee people are taking notice of this ship. And her Captain."

P'rel's head involuntary cocked with genuine surprise; it was unusual for anyone to admit agreement with her, far less so for a command officer. True to perceived form however, Kane had let himself down as it were with the sheer hubris he finished with. "Captain Kane, let me ask you..." she began, leaning forward as if it would somehow garner his closer attention "...in all of Starfleet's existence, how much of it would you estimate has been spent either at outright war or in open conflict with other species?" - she sat back again, emphasising her point with her hands which still seemed curiously unfamiliar after weeks as a Paratan; "Worse so in the last century; Romulans, Klingons, Cardassians, The Dominon, Tzenkethi...how long do you really think the Federation can endure? More to the point - it seems human arrogance to suggest that one ship, nae one man, can prevent it...". She stood up and began to pace, uninvited, across the ready room and noticed Kane's eyes following her "Do not misunderstand me sir, and I don't believe you do; I believe in the principles of the Federation, but the practice is far short of the ideals...self serving, outright malevolent in cases, militaristic..." she gestured up the ceiling and around her, as if pointing out the entire ship to make her point "and a Prometheus Class... , come on..."

"You're a walking contradiction, Lieutenant P'rel," Kane replied with a shake of his head. "You openly preach anti-Federation beliefs, yet you serve in Starfleet - as an Intelligence officer, no less. You passionately oppose our 'malevolent' nature, yet you yourself vaporised a Paratan with a phaser just a few hours ago." He leaned forward himself, closing that gap as though challenging her. "Sounds like you have a lot of ideals of your own. But I'm not sure they really make sense when I see and hear your actions."

P'rel nodded contemplatively, she was aware of the illogical process in some of her values, nonetheless "Logic, is the beginning of wisdom, Captain, not the end" she thought aloud. She turned around to look at Kane "something I read" she waved a hand dismissively. "Something else I read, is that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" she began, placing a hand on the back of the chair she had moments ago occupied; "if you're talking about those Paratans, they were already dead when they were vaporised - there was simply no logical reason to leave a trail which would have lead militants to the team and their subsequent execution". She had briefly written up what she'd witnessed in her mind meld, whilst the Duke himself seemed a relatively moderate commander, there were extreme factions on either side with warped ideologies. Feeling backfooted a little, she returned to the chair and asked "what are your ideals Captain?"

"Normally, Captain's perogative would allow me to sidestep that question," Kane replied. "But given the nature of the discussion - and because we're speaking freely - I suppose that's a fair ask." He dropped back into a contemplative pose of his own. "I'm a student of history. I think that we gain nothing by ignoring the past. The only reason the Federation still stands is because it has learned and adapted very quickly when required to. When we look back at the real threats we as Starfleet have faced, those willing to show courage and sacrifice have been the ones facing those threats head-on." He allowed a brief pause. "For me? If a threat does appear, I want my crew to show that same fortitude."

P'rel acknowledged him with a thoughtful nod. He was perhaps something of a contradiction, not unlike herself in some ways, and at the least not one of the usual acolytes of the Federation zeitgeist. She regarded him for a moment, unhappy at the thought of leaving her ethnographic assignment with Command, but sensing this Captain was definitely heading in a particular place - “What do you have in mind Captain Kane?” She enquired.

"I have a vacancy. Chief Intelligence Officer," he said bluntly.

P'rel opened her mouth to begin explaining that she had no interest in joining the Athena; a Chief Intelligence Officer was something of a dull assignment compared to the fulfilment and enjoyment she found in her current job -

"Don't bother trying to argue your way out of it; Command cleared the transfer an hour ago. You're officially assigned to me." He let that hang for a moment. "I thought about leading with it, but I figured I would let you make your pitch first."

- P'rel paused for a moment to consider her best response; it seemed pointless to argue, Kane didn't seem like one to budge from a decision, and if Command had already approved the transfer then she had very few fronts left to fight on at that particular moment. "Yes, sir" she settled on, her head racing with ways she could try to get out of this once she had left the room. "I require quarters with a window" she stated, partly out of preference and partly to just be awkward "for cultural and spiritual reasons" she added, just to complicate matters. "I also require a working space, not on the main bridge, with the usual facilities and encryptions packages". P'rel was thinking, buying time for herself, surely Captain Bennett would get her out of this. "Will there be anything else, sir?" she asked impatiently - standing on the presumption that she would be leaving momentarily.

Kane held his nerve for just a fraction longer than necessary. It was useful, while he remained seated, to maintain that notion of control. "Perhaps a maid and chocolates on your pillow too..." he murmured, aware that she could likely hear the offhand remark. "No. Nothing else. You may want to touch base with Mr Brand. He's one of yours, though he's strictly an observer from Starfleet Headquarters. Just to make sure you're both clear on your relative roles."

“Spy” she corrected Kane, turning for the door. She paused before the activation threshold to turn back to the Commander; “nobody in Intelligence merely observes Captain” she began to elaborate, “we see, analyse - and believe me we then report. Who Mr. Brand is reporting to and why...well, who knows.” P’rel pulled down her uniform, ruffled from being seated, “Good day Sir” she said with a half sincere polite nod, turned on her heels and left through the opening doors to the main bridge. Having, for the most part, held it together in front of Kane, her seething anger was beginning to creep out as she barked “quartermaster!” at the turbo lift.

Kane smirked just a little as she left. This was either going to be a terrible idea or a brilliant one. Only time would tell.

OFF

Commander Jacob Kane
Commanding Officer USS ATHENA

Lieutenant P’rel
Chief Intelligence Officer USS ATHENA