Pretty Little Friends

Posted on 05 Mar 2015 @ 5:20pm by Commander Norvi Stace

2,315 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: USS Galileo, Deck 1, Ready Room
Timeline: MD-1, 1545 Hours

Tyrion rarely, if ever visited the Galileo bridge. In fact, it must've been so long ago that he actually had, that he really couldn't remember if he'd ever been here. The doors opened and he stepped out on the Nova class bridge, his black eyes glancing around, taking in the details. Finally, his gaze settled on a Trill woman sat in the center chair and he stepped down to her to draw her attention. "Ma'am, could I see you for a moment please?" he asked, keeping a slight distance from her. "In private?"

Stace looked up from her control display and then smiled, looking straight into the black eyes of the Betazoid. "Of course," she replied as she stood, smoothing down the front of her uniform. "Come to my ready room."

They both walked across the bridge as the doors then opened, revealing her private sanctuary just beyond the threshold. Stace walked in first and then rounded the desk, keeping her hand on its surface as she came behind it, offering the vacant seat opposite as she took her own. "What can I do for you, Chief?"

"Well...firstly I don't think we've ever met ma'am, and I feel more comfortable knowing who I send information to." He smiled nervously, desperate not to ruin anything, or first impressions. "I'm Chief Petty Officer Tyrion Faye, and I'm an intelligence officer. I'm not quite sure who's in charge of intel now that both the boss and the vice boss are out of office." He paused, sliding a PADD forward. "This is all I've been able to decypher regarding the Klingons ma'am. Fleet movement, emission frequencies, shield rotation frequency. I could find out more but that'll need your authorisation as that requires hacking into their systems."

Stace scrunched up her nose at the suggestion and took in a breath, widening her eyes a little at the officer. "Well, Mr. Faye, it's nice to meet you, but I don't think we'll be required to hack any of the Klingon's systems just yet. This is an exercise designed with fairness in mind, and with that preface, hacking anyone's systems is quite out of the question. For now at least." She paused and then decided to justify her position as she leant back in her chair a little. "We're here to see how not only the Galileo perform, but also her crew. And, as beneficial as hacking would be to us in this scenario, in the field we don't always get prior knowledge of an attack. The rear-admiral wants to test our mettle under pressure. Do you have any less invasive suggestions to give us the advantage? Anything on that cloak?"

"Well...even cloaked vessels have an exhaust and we do happen to know how to find this particular proverbial tailpipe ma'am," Tyrion smiled. "So even if we can't find them using the frequency of their cloak, we can always trail them on their exhausts." He tapped the PADD. "Everything that's useful, I've concised onto this PADD for you. The only others who know this, are the others in the intelligence team."

Stace took the PADD and smiled at the Betazoid, spinning it around so that she could quickly skim the contents. "We're currently looking into detecting not the ship but the gravitational eddies a ship with any kind of mass produces when in flight. That's what the science department are currently looking into. But this is also another avenue we can explore in tandem."

She paused and then narrowed her gaze onto the chief petty officer. "How do you find an intelligence department runs on such a small, science vessel? Does it keep you busy?"

"I normally work nights ma'am...I sift through the information and sort it so that Commander Markos doesn't spend her entire shift having to sort through it all. I also monitor all sensors at night, so for me yes I suppose I'm kept busy. but I don't mind having the office to myself, it helps me clear my mind." He tapped his temple and sighed softly. "Perks of being a telepath ma'am," he added. "Obviously, I don't quite like crowds so the gamma shift suits me."

"Well," Stace beamed, "maybe not so much on this mission but when all of the command staff return back to the Galileo for duty, I can keep you company. I'll be pulling double shifts and taking bridge duty on Gamma some days. It'll be nice to get to know the nocturnal crew a little better. How do you find your telepathy helps in your line of work, actually?"

"I try not to use it," Tyrion admitted, "I have little training in it beyond what intel taught me. I can read people, but I don't if I can help it, and I certainly avoid reading minds at all cost. I don't want to know what people are thinking, and if not asked about it, generally I don't even tell them I'm a telepath." He shrugged. "Of course...having black eyes kind of gives that away already, doesn't it?"

"You do have a certain look about you," Stace admitted with a smile, running her slender fingers down her temple. "It's something of a cross that we all must bear." She beamed back at the chief petty officer and snorted a small chuckle. "It's amazing some of the gifts our genetic legacies afford. You with your telepathy and my constant recycling of lives. It makes me realise how lucky we are."

"I'm not sure I consider myself lucky," Tyrion objected, "I'd rather not have been a telepath, that would've saved me a lot of hassle when I was a child, not to mention arguments with my mother and sisters..." He shrugged. "I'm not sure I can ever accept this as a gift ma'am." A small smile touched his features as he studied her for a moment. "What's it like, to have hundreds of years of memories? Are you somehow aware of your symbiont? Do you feel it? Is it an it or does it have a gender?" He suddenly fell silent. "I'm sorry...I don't mean to pry."

"Don't worry," Stace smiled back warmly, showing some teeth as she relaxed back into her chair. "The Symbiont is me. All of me, and yet there is a little part somewhere in myself where I, Norvi, resides. And don't worry, we're still a relatively new species to the Federation when you think of it. And there are so few of us around the galaxy that not everyone has experienced a Joined Trill before. A curiosity about us is natural." She paused and then scrunched up her nose again. "Each host, throughout the years, adds their own personality to the Stace Symbiont. Layers of memories and experiences and behavioural patterns that creates a familiar but new personality on top with each Joining. Before I was Joined I wasn't this confident. But my previous host was himself a Starfleet captain, so I draw from his experiences. From his personality. And it melds together to create Norvi Stace. Does that make sense?"

Tyrion nodded after a moment of thought. "I've met a joined Trill before," he explained, "but he wasn't as pleasant to work with as you. He was a security chief, bossy, over confident, and sometimes plain a jack-ass. Oh...and suicidal and he always argued with the intelligence chief, who was an unjoined Trill. That one was a curiosity...he was or probably still is, afraid of being joined. Were you afraid of being joined, or was it something you dreamed of since you were small?" He bit his lower lip, feeling as if he were conducting an interrogation. "Please....feel free to ask me anything, Betazoids are supposed to hate secrets...and really, beyond my duty classifications, I have nothing to hide."

"Easy," Stace replied with a chuckle, holding out her hand to him. "This isn't an interrogation, nor is it likely to turn into one. So let's just chat and see how we better understand each other in the end." She beamed another smile to him and then continued. "My mother was Joined. And so it was around me from an early age. In my family it was an hour to have two of us selected by the Commission and Joined with a Symbiont. But not all Trills feel the same pride. But what of you? An Intelligence officer with an ability to read minds. But come in useful out in the field?"

"It could I suppose," Tyrion had to admit and agree, "but I don't know how. I'm not a field agent ma'am...the last time I went on an away mission, I was forcibly taken from my station by Romulans, and subjected to interrogation. Apparently..." He looked away in guilt and shame. "...apparently they managed to somehow...control me. I need to learn not to have that happen again, but I don't know how."

"How did that happen?" Stace asked eagerly, with a lilt of concern to her tone.

"How did what happen? Them controlling me? I'm not really sure....I don't remember all of my captivity ma'am, I'm pretty sure I spent a fair while unconscious. Doctor Voutilainen discovered recently that my memory had been tampered with." He bit his lower lip, still not meeting her eyes. "It's in my permanent record ma'am, surely...surely you heard I was stripped of my commission? Rumour spreads fast on a small ship..." He smiled nervously, finally looking up at her. "I've killed....someone I loved..."

Stace scrunched up her nose again as she silently wrestled in her mind how to proceed delicately. The Janel in her would have raised an eyebrow and scowled. But that wasn't her style. And neither was intimidation. "I don't tend to judge people on permanent records, Tyrion," she said, using his first name to allow a sliver of familiarity between them. "Situations change, people change, and there are three sides to every story. And context. I wouldn't presume to know who you were because of anything as official as a report, Mr. Faye."

"I have changed," Tyrion murmured, "a lot...and hopefully, I've changed for the better. I want to be a better man ma'am...I want to learn to be a better man than I was before. I've even reached out to one of my sisters. You see, I haven't spoken to my family in about eighteen years. I've never been back to Betazed, I never wanted to go back. But now that I have a few friends, and even someone I care greatly for, I'm sort of...uhm...reviewing my life. And my friends tell me that you just can't go without family. Would you agree with that assessment? Do you have someone ma'am? Someone you care greatly for? Love, I mean, someone you love?"

"I've been married twice," came the Trill's flippant reply, "and, at times, I do miss it. But if there's something that the years and lifetimes have taught me it's that you create the family you want. What was it my old grandfather used to say? 'Friends are the family you choose...' or something to that affect. He would then add, 'because you sure as can't choose your family' and then roll his eyes." Stace then chuckled to herself as she remembered him fondly. "But I'm a scientist at heart. And posted on one of the most advanced science ships in the entire Fleet. And that requires sacrifice. You have to pour some water out of one vessel to fill another. But I'm happy with that choice. And there are always people you can talk to should you be feeling unsupported or lonely. Starfleet is a compromise. You can't always chose who you're posted with, but we're still a family. And a rather large one at that."

"Create family," Tyrion mused, "that's a good one. I have one good friend here on the Galileo at the moment." He rubbed his bald head and grinned. "My roommate Pieter, he's odd but he's the first real friend I've ever had. And well...the other day we kind of had a dare, because I gave him this naked pet, due to his allergy of fur...and now well...we're both like this. It was fun though, and I'd do it again. For him, I mean. And there's someone I love but Im not sure it'll last. You see, he just went off with his family, back to his assignment. He was here to visit the doctor, his brother, Doctor Mott. And uh...I guess I'm oversensitive to Bolians. Their uh, fluids, I mean..." Tyrion blushed in embarrassment. "Too much information?"

"Uh..." Stace replied, swallowing hard as her eyes blinked in astonishment. "I'm sorry?" she asked rhetorically. "You can keep that information between the two of you, I think. I'd rather not know about it, if that's all right."

Tyrion nodded, still blushing. "Might be best. Perhaps I should return to duty," he murmured, clearly flustered by such a private admission (by himself no less).

"You don't need to go, Mr. Faye. I'm not suggesting that for one moment. It's been nice to talk to you. Colourful, but nice." She smiled widely and softly to him.

"I know, but I've kept you from your duties long enough ma'am," Tyrion replied formally, "I'm sure we'll have another opportunity to catch up on matters, on or off duty."

"My door is always open to you. Whenever you feel you need a little guidance with anything. Or just to talk."

"Thank you ma'am, I'll remember that." He smiled a little brighter. "I'm sure that time will come. And if you need me for anything, just call."

OFF:

Chief Petty Officer Tyrion Faye
Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC T'Vanna]

AND

Lieutenant Norvi Stace
Chief Science Officer / Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

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