The Awkward Moment (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 05 Jun 2014 @ 9:09pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Commander Scarlet Blake & Gul Verrok & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Lieutenant JG Wakeham Paul Alasia Ph.D. & Commander Norvi Stace & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Lieutenant Min Zhao & Lieutenant Commander Amynta Markos

2,698 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 7, Observation Lounge
Timeline: MD 02 - 2040 hrs

Previously, on The Awkward Moment (Part 1)....

Quinn set his fork down and glared at Tratar with a flash of fire in his eyes. "We didn't bow down before the Dominion like a dog does to its master, unlike you. We didn't lay siege to Betazed and rape the women and girls like raging animals, unlike you. We didn't take thousands of Betazoids and cut open their heads and remove parts of their brains while they were still alive to create a super Jem'hadar soldier that could attack telepathically and fight with terrible ferocity, unlike you! No!"

Quinn was unknowingly standing at this point, with clenched fists on the table, his voice ever getting louder. He didn't realize this, because all those years of anger and disgust at what he found on Betazed after the Dominion and Cardassian forces were driven off of Betazed. It had to come out.

"No, it was you! You animals bowed down to the Dominion like the dogs you all are! You are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of lives. You figured if you sided with what you say as a dominate force, they would let you rule the quadrant, and be their equals. It wasn't until we started kicking your asses and would not accept being yours, or those shape-shifting monsters slaves, that you finally realized you better switch sides!! YOUR PEOPLE HAVE NO HONOR, NO SANCTITY OF LIFE OR RESPECT TO ANYTHING BUT POWER AND CONTROL. Just ask the Bajorans. You are nothing more than bullies. And everyone knows that the best way to deal with a bully is to stand up against them, and we did! Now, the entire Milky Way knows you are nothing but a bunch of COWARDS!! Don't lecture me you son of a bitch about safety and the Dominion. If you weren't such cowards in the first place, the Dominion War would not have lasted a week. And it was not you that have suffered from the Borg, it was us! It wasn't you that stood up against the Borg or any other threat for that matter. So go crawl back under the rock you were hatched under and stay there!"

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Jacob did a classic "facepalm" and quickly got to his feet and walked over Quinn "shielding him" as it were from what he guessed might be a violent response to his outburst from the Cardassian delegation. He gave Quinn a hard, intimidating stare as he let his full size act as a further deterrent to any more outbursts. He growled quietly at Quinn, "Stand down Chief! Comport yourself as a member of this ship and member of Starfleet. We are better than this! Do you want our investigations of the mines to be tainted and compromised?!"

Tratar was now in full rage after listening to Quinn's tirade in which he accused his people of laying over for the Dominion as well as committing war atrocities against the Federation. Blatant lies precipitated solely by the Federation's bigotry and prejudice, in Tratar's mind.

"You dare to insult me and my people, old man?!?" the Cardassian tactical officer was suddenly furious and threw his food down onto his plate while pushing himself back from the table to stand up and confront the balding racist.

John dropped his cutlery at the sight of his CoB exploding with rage that had obviously been contained for far too long. His CRO has leapt to calm the situation but the Captain knew that if he did not step in, the Cardassians would think him weak, or unable to control his own crewmembers.

"Mr Quinn - I think you should remove yourself from the situation - immediately - wouldn't you agree?"

Holliday agreed with every word that had come out of Quinn's mouth - but he couldn't admit it, least of all publicly, and certainly not with a Cardassian Gul who had the power to make this mission very uncomfortable if he would have chosen to.

Scarlet looked to Holliday for a moment, knowing that discipline was her port of call. She took her napkin and delicately pressed it to the corner of her mouth before setting it down on the table. She stood calmly and quietly, walking past Quinn. "With me, Mr Quinn," she said softly as she moved past him on the way to the door, not needing to raise her voice to be clear that it was an order and not a request....and that if he wished to save himself from a lot of trouble, he'd leave with her.

Even though Dea agreed with Quinn's words she had to keep her composure as difficult as that happened to be. Her head turned in the direction of the outburst before she forced her focus back to the plate in front of her.

Tratar saw Galileo's research chief move to protect the old man and scoffed indignantly at the scene unfolding in front of him. "Let him go, lieutenant!!" Tratar yelled at Pendleton, his dark eyes glinting with fury. "Let the old man challenge me and we can REALLY see who the coward is!!"

Paul stood up. "Gul, everyone. Please we are..." When no one even turned his way he interrupted his own sentence. Whatever was going to happen was way above his paygrade now.

Several of the other Cardassians at the table were also not pleased and demonstrated their displeasure by following Tratar's lead and abandoning their meals to rise to their feet.

Verrok's fist abruptly slammed down on the table shaking every plate and piece of silverware with a loud 'clink'. "Tratar! Enough!" he yelled in an angered and booming authoritative voice.

Stace's eyes slowly closed as she dropped her head in shame. It was difficult for the Trill; having lived both through the Occupation of Bajor and then through the Dominion Wars through another's eyes. She understood Quinn's outburst, understood the anger that welled up in this crew's bellies from experience and stories and history. But so very few had lived both both before and after the Cardassians' prominent rise to power. She had both fought and befriended Cardassians through her lifetimes but experience gave her the calm to accept and forgive.

Quinn couldn't believe he actually told that son of a bitch what he really thought about him and the rest of those filthy animals. He nodded to his XO and stood tall and adjusted his dress uniform, kept his glare on the young tactical officer, wishing he could shove his cybernetic arm upt his ass and pull out his heart, but he knew better, but this was far from over. That Tartar guy had one coming. Just not here, not now. "I'll be seeing ya." he mouthed at Tartar, then looked to everyone in the room. "I apologize that I let my emotions and misunderstandings of events that I was present at were allowed to be provoked and shown at this juncture. Gul, Commodore, Captain, Commander. I apologize to you for my reaction. This was not the place for it, and I will not let it happen again at such a function. Forgive me."

Markum turned and followed Scarlett out the door and down the corridor.

"Well...that escalated quickly." John muttered to himself under his breath, thankful that he had an XO who was equally happy to deal with these matters as he had been himself under Lirha's command.

"Gul Verrok - I apologise for my Chief of the Boat. I assure you he will be dealt with appropriately."

"Yes...that is the least I would expect," Verrok replied in a surly tone with obvious disdain for Quinn and now the entire Federation crew which he represented. He turned to Holliday and Saalm, his playfully deceptive eyes now replaced by those of strong indignance.

"Is this why you brought us aboard your vessel? To publicly insult us at a diplomatic function in front of all your senior officers?" The Gul was clearly not pleased, and whether or not Holliday could say anything to him to repair the immediate damage Quinn had just done remained to be seen.

"I am not a fool, captain. It is no secret that our two peoples have a relationship filled with tension and mistrust. Was your chief simply stating what all of you privately think?" Verrok, of course, knew the answer in his own head, but the elephant in the room now needed to be addressed if he and his men were to remain aboard Galileo as guests any longer.

John couldn't fault the Gul for his own outburst - had the roles been reversed and he been insulted in such a fashion by a Cardassian officer, he would have been less than pleased about the situation. Verrok had however hit the nail right on the head - the Federation and the Union still did not trust one another, and he doubted that they ever would, at least in his life time.

Looking towards Lirha, and putting on his best diplomatic voice, the Captain turned to reply.

"Not at all Gul Verrok. Mr Quinn's outburst was simply the personal opinion of a man who perhaps still has some repressed issues from previous conflicts to work through. We are here to work with you as a team to solve these issues to restore the supply of a vital mineral for the Union. I assure you there is no attempt to humiliate or publicly vilify you or your people."

Allyndra had actually been having a pleasant conversation with the Cardassian across from her. It had been delicate as he wanted to know more about her people and place and she obviously could not tell him too much. Fortunately he took in stride and actually had complimented that he thought both their people's thought in similar directions, basically what other's don't know is a tatical advantage.

That is when the outburst happened. Allyndra could not believe it. Though many had memories from the War which had not touched her world, this was still a diplomatic function no matter how frustrating.

"I must applogize sir for that unseemly outburst."

The Cardassian only turned his head back to face her, dark eyes glittering. "I am only surprised it has not already happened."


Corridor Outside of Reception

Quinn followed Scarlet then stopped once they were far enough away to avoid being overheard by the dinner gusts. He quickly held up both hands in a surrendering manner. "I already know what you are going to say, Commander. I know I was wrong for doing what I did in that particular setting, and I know I screwed up, but in my defense, that...Tartar-sauce bastard antagonized me and picked that fight. First he tried it with a pregnant woman and insulted her, us, and Starfleet by condemning her right to be part of our crew. I knew you, the Skipper, or any other member of Starfleet felt exactly what I felt, and wanted to say what I said, but you couldn't. I tried to keep this stupid, old trap of mine shut, Commander, but when he called us the reason for the Dominion invasion and the Borg...I couldn't stop it. I was on Betazed after they got your asses kicked off that planet. I saw the atrocities. I'm not sorry I said it, ma'am. I just regret it was in there, in front of everyone. Maybe the Gul and the others will realize that we have their number, and aren't afraid to call them out?"

Scarlet licked her lips as she looked down the empty corridor, touching her forehead with the back of her hand as she thought over what he'd said. He was right - both in the fact he was saying what many of them were thinking, but also in that there was no point in giving him a bollocking; he knew full well what he had done, but had felt justified. Hell, she wanted to go a few rounds with them herself.

Setting her hands on her hips, Scarlet moved close to him so she could keep her voice low. "Do you know what Cardassians think about us?" she asked softly. "They think we're weak and lack discipline. The moment you lost self-control in there and spoke to them like that, in a way they know Starfleet would not approve of, you proved them right. You showed them an example, they go home and laugh about, of a Starfleet crew member with absolutely no discipline. Every time someone loses it with them, they get to feel that bit more superior.... because you know what, so far, it's been us losing control, not them. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not going to give them that satisfaction. You put your game face on, suck it up, and when you really want to scream at them, you smile some more instead."

She shook her head, holding his eyes with a frown. "Don't think I don't understand exactly what you're feeling right now. I really, really do. But while you wear that uniform, you represent Starfleet and have a duty to show us in the best light, in all ways....what you did in there was represent your own personal view instead, and it has given them every reason to go back to their ship and laugh at us. And the Captain. 'Look, Captain Holliday, the Starfleet Captain who can't even keep his crew in line,'....is that what you want? Really?"

Quinn bowed his head in shame. She was right. Dammit he hated that he let his raw emotions get the better of him. "You're right, Commander. I did play into their hand. Shit!" The CoB rubbed the bridge of his nose then looked at his XO. "If I go back in there, it will make you and us, look weak. If you go back in there alone, you can give the presumption that you tore me a new one and that I was sent to my quarters. At least then, maybe, it will demonstrate that my mouth was only my opinion, and that I've been punished? I can't go back in there, Commander. We both know that."

Scarlet just watched him for a moment before nodding in agreement, squeezing his arm. "You're going to go to either the workout room or the holodeck. You're going to do some laps, do some crunches, do some pullups. Then you're going to do a few rounds of hand to hand combat with a real hardarse holoopponent. When you've burned out that frustration, you're going to go back to your quarters and get some rest. Tomorrow, you're going to go and see a counsellor about what happened on Betazed."

Quinn unknowingly gave his XO a hug and then let go. "I think...I think it's time I do. Thank-you, and let the others know I really am sorry."

Scarlet nodded gently, giving his upperarm a warm, firm pat. "You know where I am if you need," she assured quietly before moving to rejoin the dinner party. Even if half of her wished she could follow Quinn out to the holodeck instead.

To Be Continued

[OFF]

--

CDRE Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo

LT JG Wakeham Paul Alasia
Diplomatic Officer
USS Galileo

LT Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Norvi Stace
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

LT Asahi Kita
[Acting] Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Lt Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Command Master Chief Markum Quinn
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

LCDR Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

LT Min Zhao
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

LT Amynta Markos
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

Gul Verrok
Commanding Officer
CDS Aldara
[PNPC - Saalm]

First Glinn Tratar
Chief Tactical Officer
CDS Aldara
[NPC - Saalm]

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