The power of hindsight...

Posted on 31 May 2012 @ 4:18am by Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Coleman

4,450 words; about a 22 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 2 - XO's Office
Timeline: MD07 - 1500hrs

[ON]

The dressing down of some of his senor staff by the captain was not something that John had particularly enjoyed. Although she obviously outranked him as the commander of the Galileo, the XO felt that when it came to ship's discipline, that this was very much his area to deal with. For now though, he would bite his tongue. Any CO in the fleet would have done the same thing regardless of the setting, and for him to be annoyed by it would be nothing short of foolish.

To curb his own annoyance, John had quickly departed the briefing room and headed straight to his office under the pretence of completing some paperwork before his Bridge shift began and he would be expected to do his part for the mission as a whole. The trip to Deck 2 was almost like a homecoming for him. As much as he enjoyed his time in command, sometimes it was more enjoyable just to hunker down in one's own space and be alone with his thoughts.

Reaching his desk, Holliday let his weight collapse, resigning himself to the fact that sooner or later he would be called back to the Bridge, but for now, he had time to himself, and could devote his resources to his own pursuits. He was concerned however, about one of his officers. Coleman. She had twice let her emotions shows strongly in the past couple of encounters he had had with her, and to be honest, John was unsure as to whether or not she was going to prove to be a live wire in a dangerous situation.

=^=Holliday to Coleman =^= He called out with a slap to his faithful combadge =^=Report to my office.=^=

=^=On my way, Commander.=^=

Evelyn arrived at the XO's office shortly after, she had just stepped off the Turbolift when he called. "What can I do for you, Commander Holliday?"

The sudden appearance of the Lieutenant went hand in hand with what he had expected from her. Appearing in his office without even tapping the chime in advance would usually have gotten an officer a disciplinary remark from their XO, but today John was feeling somewhat softer than he usually did, especially after having watched his officers receive such a dressing down from their commanding officer.

"Take a seat Lieutenant....how are you?"

Evelyn hesitated a little before moving to sit down in one of the chairs in front of the XO's desk. "I'm alright, for the most part. Can't really complain." She responded, "How are you, Commander?"

"I'm...very well Lieutenant...thank you for asking" John was a little perplexed, it wasn't usual for a junior officer to address a senior in such a way, but as he was slowly learning, this particular officer wasn't exactly all her assigned rank gave her to be.

"How did you find this morning's meeting....you were rather....vocal with our Doctor?"

Shifting in her seat, Evelyn shook her head, "Just because I was vocal doesn't imply there is an issue. I was answering the question on where is the honour for Klingons to attack the Petersham. Then the good doctor was simply getting us to stay focused but I decided to make a comment how a patient's history could be used to treat them that day." She explained, "it wasn't my intent for it to escalate."

"I'm sure it wasn't...but years of experience or not, it's my job to worry about the crewmen under my command, and right now that includes you....is there anything you want to get off your chest? You seem a little...agitated at times if you don't mind my saying Lieutenant"

John found himself suddenly taking on the role of a ship's counsellor. By any stretch of the imagination that was well outside of his usual core skills listing, and something in the back of his head was yelling at him to think why he would even think to ask such a question, but nevertheless, it was out there, in the room, and begging for a reply.

"I'd call it more opinionated, than agitated." She said, "For the past five years I've been on solo missions, I guess I'm taking slightly longer to adjust in a more... orderly position." She confessed, and then thought about her past assignments on a starship. "What about you?" she asked. "Anything you want to get off your chest?"


"Apart from being a little worried that two of my department heads were going to leap across the desk and start an impromptu wrestling match? Nothing worth mentioning....although I must admit Lieutenant...you're an interesting person to have around....you hide your thoughts well - it doesn't need a telepath to realise that."

Evelyn chuckled at his admission, "The other day in the turbolift you chastised me for being disrespectful, and today you find me interesting." She shakes her head, smirking, "I really don't get you, Commander. One minute you're strict and so professional like you have a stick up your ass," She lifted a finger, "I'm saying that with all respect sir," she added quickly and finished with, "and today, you seem, slightly more relaxed, more at peace with yourself."

"Heh...welcome to the two sides of Jonathan Holliday." He replied with a slight smirk on his face. John knew full well that he could present himself in more than one way, and in truth, he tended to reserve his stricter, more authoritative frame of mind for Bridge duty, or occasionally chewing out an officer who stepped out of line. The truth was, as much as he had a respect and in fact, an adoration, for the principles of Starfleet protocol and operating procedures, his time on the little Nova-class starship, albeit so far brief, had taught him that sometimes, you needed to relax.

"That stick...got me to the XO's chair....but I've learned that sometimes, you need to give your crew the benefit of the doubt....and you seemed the perfect candidate to start with...I guess for your people's lifespans, you could give me the benefit of being young as an excuse?"

There was something familiar with his last sentence. Evelyn's smile faded as she recalled the reply she received after asking for the same excuse, "Youth is a disease we all grow out of." she replied softly, sighing. She looked at John, "I asked for the same benefit from my parents, particularly my father. I had returned home after a decade in Starfleet. I was just assigned to the USS Lexington, and had 2 weeks' vacation prior to the posting. I travelled home to El-Auria to see my family and friends. Dad didn't approve of my fascination with the human curiosity. We got into a bitter argument the day I left. I...I didn't even say goodbye." Eve frowned, "a week after I tried to communicate back home to apologize, got no response. I thought he was being difficult. A few days later the Lexington picked up a faint subspace signal they couldn't decipher. I was able to. It was a warning that my planet has been attacked and to stay away." Evelyn leaned back in her chair, "It's not about age John. It's about choices you make, and consequences, both good and bad that result from it. You got your position not for that stick, you got it by dedication, hardships, and trial you prevailed through."

"I had no idea you were that....well travelled...Lieutenant" John replied, not wanting to make a comment about age, not directly at least. He found it a little difficult to understand how she was feeling, having not had the best of relationships with his own father, but now, with the impending loss that he himself would be facing, it was good to know that in a strange way, someone else aboard knew the same pain he would.

"Do you regret your choices...I bet you've had enough time to think through everything by now?"

"No, I don't regret my choices." Evelyn said honestly, "I would still would have left for the Lexington, and made the same choices. The only thing I regretted, even if he still hates me for it, is for him to know, when all is said and done, I still love him. If he wants to cling on hatred, that would have been on him, but I want to make sure he knows where I stood." Evelyn said confidently. "What about you, Commander? Any regrets?"

"Regrets? Yeah....plenty of them....it's not uncommon knowledge that I stuck my foot in my mouth more than once whilst I was an Instructor at the Academy...but that brashness is what led me to be here, as an XO, and not just another teacher....so in a way....it wasn't so bad a move"

Taking a moment, John looked around his office. It might have been small, and barely finished when he first came aboard, but it was his, and he knew full well that he had earned the right to sit in that chair and call himself First Officer, even if sometimes he still let his emotions run riot over his decisions.

"The last regret I've got....you might not know this Lieutenant but my father....well I didn't get on with him either....we didn't speak for many years after I joined Starfleet....and he's dying. I'm hoping if we get this mission over and done with fast enough, I'll still get back before....well you know how it goes"

Evelyn frowned, "I'm sorry to hear that, sir." The news he shared with her was revealing, and Evelyn doesn't want to say publicly, but that information about John explained his character a lot. "If... if you don't mind me asking, do you know what he's dying from?"

John hadn't originally thought he would be going into this much detail, but it seemed that after having heard the innermost thoughts of his Intelligence Officer, it would only be fair to return the favour. It was not like him to give away information like this, but something in his mind told him that a problem shared is a problem halved.

"Sharat Syndrome....final stages....there's nothing that anyone can do for him....not even our fancy Starfleet doctors have a cure for that....a legal one anyway."

Evelyn sighed, "Yeah I've heard that before." Shaking her head, "Richard was diagnosed with the same Syndrome, what's scary about it is there is absolutely no profound symptoms to it. By the time you are diagnosed it's usually in later stages. The problem is Starfleet treats it as a random genetic mutation of the T-Cell. It's not, it's actually a cancer on a cellular level."

"I'm no doctor...but it seems genetic engineering would be the best treatment....not that the Federation would ever consider tinkering with genetics again.....Kahn and his other Augments saw to that going out the window centuries ago....I guess it's just a reminder that we're all mortal in the end"

John knew full well that Starfleet, as well as the Federation and most of its allies shared the same dim view of genetic engineering. Generally the belief was that the risks and the dangers of creating another race of "supermen" was far greater than any potential medical benefits that might have been afforded. As always there were exceptions in the case of birth defects, but as a general rule, it was taboo.

"No. It's a radiation procedure." Evelyn commented. "I couldn't let my husband die of an ailment my people knew how to treat. After curing Richard I submitted the procedure to Starfleet Medical. It was one of my first instances of sharing my knowledge. They refused to look at it, and reminded me of the Prime Directive Agreement I had signed."

"That would explain why there was nothing in the Federation Medical database covering alternative treatments....as far as they're concerned there are none....and there's nothing I can do about it"

John was surprised that Starfleet medicine would be so wrong about something like this. That said, genetic abnormalities could sometimes be fixed using radiation based therapies, in fact some more primitive worlds had done exactly that before joining the Federation. As a Starfleet officer, he was sworn to obey their principles, but as a son, he would love to have ignored it.

Evelyn looked at John, "Commander, you want a suggestion?"

Returning his attention to the apparently young woman across the desk from him, looking no older than a human female of around 30, yet with the experience of centuries behind her, John nodded in silence for a moment before replying.

"I'd be a bad XO if I didn't welcome the opinions of my senior staff"

"Holliday, you need to decide what you want." Evelyn said honestly. "Do you honestly want to save your father? I can help you, with that should you decide that route, Starfleet be damned. Or do you just want to patch things up before he goes?"

Coleman may not have known it, but the words she had just spoken gave John one of the hardest decisions he was likely to make any time soon. On the one hand, saving his father would show his dedication to his family, and would prove to him that there was no reason for the feud between them to carry on, in fact his father might even decide that he owes John something more than just hatred and a feeling of betrayal.

On the other hand, to do what Evelyn was suggesting would violate most if not all of the oaths that John had taken to Starfleet on the subject of upholding principles and honour...all to do something as selfish as saving a family member.

"I....I don't know....I mean....it's not like we ever got on...but he's still my old man and....Lieutenant what you're asking me to do is throw out the entire Federation charter for the sake of one man....how is that right?"

Evelyn can see the struggle in his eyes. He wants to help his father but his deep seated principals to Starfleet is too strong. Looking away for a second, her eyes caught the replicator on the far wall. "Compromise," she whispers turning back to Holliday. "How about we compromise. While not a cure, I do have a neat little...trick that Starfleet approves of, but hasn't spent resources looking into it. When you give it to father, this won't cure him, but it'll help regress the syndrome to an earlier stage. Earlier enough perhaps so Starfleet Medical can do their treatments, if not you'll still be giving him a few extra months to... patch things up."

This conversation really had been a turn up for the books. It seemed that from out of nowhere, the Martian XO had managed to stumble onto something that he never thought in his entire career would fall to him - the chance to make a difference to his family. Years of training had taught him to pay attention to benefitting the greater good, the larger picture, but now, he could afford to be a little selfish.

"Very well....a compromise it is....send the information across to me when you get a moment and I'll relay it back to Mars...secretly of course"

Evelyn chuckled and reached in for her pocket and pulled out a small vial, filled with a white substance, and gently stood it up on his desk. "That's it." She said with a smirk as she rose up and headed to the replicator. "Computer, two glasses of water." With a familiar hum the device materialized two clear glasses of cold water. Picking both up she walked back to the Commander. "You up for a little, experiment Commander?" she smirked.

John had to admit that his interest had been piqued. It was not the most common thing imaginable for an intelligence officer to be carrying vials of unknown elements amongst the rest of her uniform accessories, much less to simply offer it up without any hesitation.

"Experiment? What kind of...experiment Miss Coleman?"

Evelyn took the vial and one of the glasses of water. "You've seen this before." she said referring to the white contents in the vial. "It's sodium chloride, also known as salt." She opened the vial and tapped the side with her index finger to drop a crystal of salt into the water. The crystal dissolved instantly. Evelyn proceeded to do the same for John's glass, "Don't touch it yet." she instructed. She took a deep breath as she capped the vial, placing it down on the table.

She let her index finger touch the glass, and the moment she did, the water transformed from a clear liquid into a vibrant violet. She lifted the glass to her mouth and drank. "Mmm" she moaned as she swallowed, pulling the glass from her lips. "El-auria Ale. Been centuries since I had the stuff." She mused, and then lowered the glass, looking at him. "What's yours?" she smirked.

The XO had to admit he was a little perplexed over what exactly was going on here. It seemed that the Lieutenant's people had developed technology a little further along than just parlour tricks and medicinal remedies. Of course to John, the glass was going to be nothing more than salt water....what else could it be? Convinced it was going to be a prank of some sort, he gingerly reached out and picked up the glass, before lifting it towards his mouth. As he did so, the liquid changed from the clear form it had been in before, to a deep, vibrant brown liquid that excited his taste buds the moment it hit his tongue.

"Root beer!" He exclaimed, almost spraying the desk in what had once been water as he tried to contain his amazement, and confusion at the same time. He had not had this particular beverage since he had been a student at the Academy, and had almost forgotten quite how much he enjoyed it, even if it wasn't alcoholic as the Lieutenant's drink had somehow chosen to become.

"What...what is that stuff?"

"Call it one for the universes many treasures." She smirked, "It's a salt found in a nebula with a pulsar at its heart. The cosmic radiation released by the pulsar changed the atomic behaviour of the compound." She educated him while taking another sip from her drink.

"Not being a stellar observationist I'll have to take your word for that...." John replied with a slight smirk on his face, having tried for a moment to digest the rather complex explanation that he had just been given why there was a little vial of crystals that changed one compound into another seemingly at a whim in the pocket of his intelligence officer.

"It's not like you to give something away so easily Lieutenant...anything I should be aware of?"

Evelyn chuckled, "Always looking for the catch, the hidden string attached to this." Shaking her head she leaned back in the chair, "I'm just being nice, Commander." She said honestly, "I've shown this to many officers I've served with."

"And for a moment I thought I was special" John replied, taking another sip from his beverage and doing his best to stifle a laugh.

"I just meant it's not usually in the Intelligence division's nature to be so open with their colleagues....not the ones I've met anyway"

Evelyn smirked, "You forget, I wasn't always in Intelligence. I was once a Counsellor, Chief of the Boat, Engineer, was the Communications officer, been a First officer twice in my lifetime. Did the Chief Science Officer role and even took a dab in Tactical. I taught at the Academy many times, hell I went to the academy many times." she mused at her extensive history. "I'm just in the Intelligence phase in my life. 100 years from now, I may bite the bullet and accept a command of my own someday, of course after my first mission they'd probably promote me to Admiral and stick me behind the desk and do nothing but paperwork."

"Won't catch me doing any of that sh....stuff...any time soon Lieutenant" The XO retorted. The logical step up for any XO was to eventually take a command of their own and step out from behind their previous captain's shadow. Unfortunately, the only step beyond that was a cushy desk job with the rest of the Admiralty back on Earth - something John had absolutely no intention of ever doing, he was comfortable in space, it was his home.

"The day I can't stand on the Bridge of a starship and do my duty to Starfleet is the day you can load me into a torpedo casing and launch me out into the abyss...."

"I feel the same way." She confessed, "that's why I agreed to the conditional rank. I get to reset and start over my career. More fun that way. But this time around, I don't know, feels different. Guess I'm tired of my restraints." Evelyn brought the glass to her lips, taking another gulp of her ale. "These rules and regulations, some lasted since the founding of the Federation, others were added by bitter admirals. The Captain no longer being a part of the away-team for example. They claim, "Oh, it's to protect the Captain, don't want to lose him on a planet surface." Not one instance of that happening. Of course there was an instance of a Captain tripping on a rock and his face landing in a pile of manure. That lead to a six week rash over his face and a constant reminder of that embarrassing moment. Decades later, now Admiral, introduces a policy, and the result is this; the Captain's chair becomes the only perk of the rank."

"Things change....although I guess when you've had a few hundred years' worth of things changing to watch over, you end up getting a little less....interested in the actions of whoever happens to be leading the fleet at the time..."

John couldn't even fathom having that long to watch the development of an organisation as big as Starfleet. El-Aurians might have had all the time in the universe with their seemingly never-ending lifespans, but as a mere human, Holliday wouldn't be able to make such a grandiose statement.

"I guess it's one of those things where only living for a century or so is a blessing...the upside to humanity I guess"

"More like a curse." Evelyn frowned, "I'm 229 years old, with an average lifespan of 950 years. There are benefits for living a long life, like when I see a society making the wrong choices, I can anticipate what will happen next. But then when it comes to myself personally, I don't want to think about it. I've outlived all my friends that I made when I first got here. I've outlived boyfriends, colleagues, even my first husband. In all honesty, I envy you humans. You're taking your first steps into the final frontier. You have that sense of wonder, and excitement when you see something new, detect something strange. You can ask the question "How it works?" with amazement." She finished her glass, "You're still learning. as for me, I just try to stay busy."

"Busy is good - less time for distractions" He replied, finishing off the remainder of his drink in one almighty gulp, sighing with satisfaction as he replaced the now empty glass on his desk.

"You aren't as much a pain in the ass as you make out to be sometimes Coleman....maybe we won't have to spend this voyage on opposite sides of the ship"

Evelyn smirked, "I know I can be a pain, but I like to consider myself as the good kind of pain." She said as she rose up, taking her glass and his back to the replicator.

"I'll let you know next time we get around to crew appraisals" He chuckled to himself as he watched his fellow officer take his glass from the desk, as well as her own, hearing the familiar whirr of the replicator as the glasses disappeared back into nothingness.

"Just....let me know next time you want to start an argument in a staff briefing, agreed?"

Evelyn shook her head, "You are making it sound like I deliberately wanted to get into a verbal confrontation, and I did not. I may be able to sense the future, that doesn't mean I know what is to come all the time." Making her way back to his desk, she reached for the vial, but her hand froze as she remembered why she brought it out in the first place. "That's for you sir. When you see your father, instead of water, use this on a fruit flavored drink; iced tea, lemonade... It should help him a bit. It won't cure him but..." her eyes locked with his, "It will give you more time to rebuild that burnt bridge between you two."

"Woah easy there Lieutenant" he started in reply as he saw the flash of fire in the eyes of his intelligence officer. He had only meant to get a playful jab against her in regards to the situation from the morning briefing, but seemingly without meaning to, he had instead turned it into an insult. Watching as her hand headed towards what was supposed to be the saviour of his father, at least for a time, his heart sank, waiting in anticipation for her to snatch it away, before her hand returned to her side, and John's feeling of dread subsided.

"I owe you one Lieutenant....stop by for a drink anytime"

Evelyn smiled and nodded, "Thank you, Commander, that offer goes two ways. My door is always open." She smiled as she walked towards the door. She stopped between the parted door, turning back, "And next time we do have drinks, feel free to call me Evelyn." With that she walked out onto the corridor.

"We'll see Lieutenant, we'll see" John replied as he watched her head out the door. It had certainly been an interesting way to spend a portion of his afternoon, but duty called. Picking up the small vial she had left on his desk, he swirled the liquid around in front of his eyes, before quickly transferring it into the top drawer of his desk...it would be something for him to examine later...in private.

----

[OFF]

Lt. JG Evelyn Coleman
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

Lt Cmdr. Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

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