Security Review, Part 3

Posted on 10 Oct 2016 @ 5:28pm by Lieutenant JG Rayze & Lieutenant JG Eelim Galan
Edited on on 11 Oct 2016 @ 11:58pm

2,869 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 12 - Recluse
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 3, Sickbay
Timeline: MD -04, 1000 Hours

[ON]

Though he'd only been on board a couple of days, Rayze felt like he'd gotten a lot accomplished, especially considering that this was the first time he'd ever taken on the large responsibilities of running a full, if small, department. He'd met with a few important people and got some work out of the way already, had started to get situated in his quarters, and was putting together his plans for the Security Department. Rayze had big ideas, things he wanted to try out, to mold them into what the Risian felt would be the most effective and Starfleet group of Security personnel they could be.

There were just a few issues that he couldn't help, of course, and though that was to be expected and he had received them with equanimity as he did most things. This matter about one of the Security detail being stabbed, for instance, was a complete mess. As soon as he could get away from the bridge, after Rayze got the call from the Sickbay staff that Lieutenant Eelim Galan was coming out his coma, he'd assigned someone to take over his station. With as delayed as he was, the Cardassian was already awake, though still weak. Rayze strode through the doors into the Galileo's little hospital.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," Rayze said with an overly cheerful tone, peering down at the man on the bio bed, a smile on his unfamiliar face. "Or in this case, the deck plates of the living. I don't think this qualifies as land, exactly."

It took a moment for Eelim's eyes to focus. He observed the man as he spoke and chuckled a bit at the joke. He'd heard that Gyce had been replaced but didn't know the details. Tuula had filled him in on what was going on and that Rayze was the new Chief. "You must be Lieutenant Rayze." He said somewhat weakly. He tried to sit up but that didn't work.

"Hey, hey, take it easy," the blonde man put a gentle hand on Eelim's shoulder to keep him where he was, gentle but insistent. "Don't go messing up the good doctors' work now!" He lowered his voice to a theatrical, conspiratorial level, "I've never been more terrified of a ship's Medical staff than I am of this one. Best not to upset them."

In a more normal tone, and with a big grin tacked on for good measure, Rayze continued, "Your incredible deductive talents have lead you to the right conclusion, Detective. I am Rayze, as well as pleased to meet you, though I wish it were under better circumstances of course. How are you feeling?"

Eelim smiled. "Ahhh so you've met Tuula and her bone saw." He chuckled as he eased back. "It's good meet you as well, Sir. I'm...alive I can say that cause I feel enough pain to make a Klingon purr."

The attempt at humour made Rayze chuckle, though he did cast a sidelong glance towards the Sickbay's offices, as if watching out for the physicians. "I'll make you a deal, Eelim. Drop the 'sir' and 'lieutenant' bit, and I'll see what I can do to about getting you some more of the good drugs. Honestly, you're going to make me cringe, or worse, give me grey hairs before I'm ninety if you keep up with the formality."

Rayze turned away for a moment to snag a rolling stool that some of the medical staff must use during examinations, dragged it over next to Eelim's bed, and plopped himself down on it. "There. Now, my young friend, if there's nothing else you need right away, tell the nice policeman all about it." Though his still joked with his words, something in Rayze's expression grew serious, as what Eelim had been through was no laughing matter.

Eelim grinned at the formality remark. He sighed at the question. It had been a rough few days. "I was at my station. I relieved Nelis from her post and while doing routine scans I noted a combat dagger was missing. We'd tagged all the weapons so I tracked it to Airlock one." His eyes got that glazed look as he went into the memory.

As the recitation began, the smile on Rayze's face slowly vanished, replaced with a look of compassion and concern. He remained silent, though soft beeps came from the PADD he pulled out of a pocket and recorded the conversation on for the official log. Though he knew much of the details already from the others who had handled the matter before he came on board, Rayze needed to get Eelim's statement down for the record. If only it didn't cause the Cardassian such obvious discomfort, maybe he wouldn't feel guilty about doing so. Rayze nodded encouragingly for the man to continue.

Eelim went on seeming to be back at the airlock. "I got there, looked inside saw what I thought was the knife. It was a plastic replica. I turned and...she...she was there I didn't have time she ...she stabbed me and again...I " He was recalling the look in her eyes, the hate and pain in her voice. "She ripped off my communicator and I remember getting hit in the head...I blacked out and then Gyce was there. She was trying to keep me alive." He unconsciously rubbed his abdomen where the knife had gone in.

Rayze watched as Eelim touched his stomach and winced in sympathy. He'd been stabbed before, by an alien's blade during a mission on the Tethys, and recalled just how horrible the sensation was. Ever so gently, and without leading Eelim to give anything other than an honest answer, Rayze asked, "Can you tell me who 'she' was? I know it can't be easy, reliving that moment, but you are safe now and no one is going to hurt you." Though they had the perpetrator in custody, the victim's statement and identification was still important of course.

"Petty Officer Nelis Laldari," he said. Eelim let out a sigh. "Is she okay?" he asked.

"Consider this an order if you have to, Eelim, but I want you to focus on yourself right now," Rayze said, tapping the PADD on his thigh. "You've been through something terrible, and have a ways to go yet to get back to full strength. Follow the doctor's instructions, maybe talk to a counselor. No one's going to blame you for being a bit selfish right now." Rayze hadn't mentioned Nelis Laldari at all in his answer.

Eelim gave a nod. "I will heal, I am just resting." He noted that Rayze said nothing about Nelis. "Is Nelis okay? I mean they didn't hurt her while she was being captured did they?" He understood her anger. "She's in a lot of pain, you know. It wasn't easy during the occupation."

At the Cardassian's persistence, Rayze sighed, "She is safe and secure, Eelim. No one's going to hurt her either." He didn't like that this young man, who had no fault in the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor, who cared enough about others that he was concerned with even his attacker's welfare, had been treated as the object of hatred and an outlet of violence from someone with mental illness. It wasn't fair, it wasn't just, and that bothered the Risian.

"Okay. The brig can get a bit cold can you please take her some pillows and a thicker blanket? Don't be too hard on her. The Cardassians did horrible things during the occupation. My father was there too. A Gul, second in command at the Kendra camps. That's where Nelis was."

"Remember what I said about focusing on yourself?" Rayze said, a little more firmly this time. "Don't worry about her, she's being treated as gently as possibly. In fact, I think that's enough of this for now." He lifted the PADD and turned off the recording, then tucked it away into a pocket once again.

The Risian shifted on his stool and intentionally lead the subject to other things, and his tone had become slightly teasing, "You missed the briefing we held for the Security department yesterday, being all lazy and stuff, taking your ease in Sickbay, likely being fed chocolates and the like from the lovely, scary doctors, so I better bring you up to speed. Like you probably heard, I've taken over as the new chief with Gyce's departure, and Luke's covering in the meantime. There's also a new assistant chief, Amaranai Franklin. I wanted to meet with everyone on the team and get to know them some, find out if there are any issues I need to be aware of, try to learn your strengths and your areas you might need help in. Why don't you pick? Want to talk about you first, or what horrible things I have in store for everyone?"

Eelim smiled. "You're the boss. You pick."

"Okay, Eelim. I noted in your file that you're a pilot," Rayze began with a smile. "So am I. What made you want to focus on being a Security officer instead of pursuing piloting as a career?"

He shrugged as best as he could, which looked a bit awkward on the bio bed. "I wanted to really help people. To be protect those that are weaker, to make sure that justice and right always wins. I think one of my counselors called it superhero syndrome but I see it as duty. My people failed so many I wasn't going to be one of them."

"Hmm," Rayze watched the other man's responses closely, and though he might have seemed a bit silly at times so far, now it was plain that the Risian saw more than he might let on. Rather bluntly, he asked, "Do you think that you're change anything your ancestors did by that? Is it your duty to sacrifice your own wants to service, or do you really want to be here, doing this job?"

"It changes nothing of the past but I do believe that I make things safer for my co workers and the crew. I believe that each officer sacrifices something to do their job and I really do want to be here. I enjoy my job. It's hard to explain but...I feel that no matter what is turbulent in my life when I get to work it just kind of brightens my day." He smiled awkwardly. "I know it's weird but it's how I feel."

"That doesn't sound weird at all," Rayze said, satisfied with the answer for now. "Not when you're doing something you are meant to. So, why did you leave the Allen for the Galileo?"

Eelim smiled. "Routine transfer."

"That's it? Starfleet just up and decided to take a promising young officer and pack him off to an itty bitty science ship?" Rayze asked while peering thoughtfully at him. "You didn't sleep with the captain's daughter or something? Got in a fight with the ship's chef? Insulted your old chief's toupee?"

Eelim laughed. "No. But there were many that didn't like a Cardassian on board. The Captain was nice about it. He said he had to make sure his staff was comfortable. In all fairness he tried to make it work by putting me on Gamma shift and then brig duty permanently but many officers had fought in the Dominion war and there was a petition that went around saying that the staff would prefer to have me transferred." He smiled. "But it's okay...this is the first Starfleet ship where I have been put on Alpha shift and been allowed to see the light of day so..." he chuckled. "It worked out."

"That seems rather unfair," Rayze said. He'd fought in the war and hadn't thought anything about Eelim being a Cardassian besides acknowledging the fact when reviewing his personnel file and how it pertained to the incident with Nelis. "But their loss, our gain. Plus Alpha shift is nice for sure, though comes with an earlier bed time than I'd like." He tapped a finger against his lips for a moment. "So, plans for the future? I can't imagine you want to stay a junior lieutenant for as long as- I mean, for long."

Eelim shrugged. "I take it as it comes. I'm happy where I am and where life leads me." He wasn't that good with small talk but he was getting better at it. "So what brought you here, sir?"

"I've asked myself that a bunch of times since getting the transfer orders, Eelim," Rayze admitted freely. He saw nothing wrong with getting into personal or professional details with someone who was supposed to be a subordinate, likely one of the reasons for his own low rank despite years in the fleet. "The Tethys, the last ship I was assigned to, had it's mission cut short, and the repair times were too long to have so many people waiting around. That's at least why I was transferred, but your guess is as good as mine when it comes to how I managed to get a senior position."

As if he hadn't made a comment that might be construed as self deprecating, Rayze continued on, perhaps showing a bit of the leadership Starfleet evidently expected from him, "I'd like to hear from you what your own expertise is, in Security. What do you think you're best at? And what do you think you need to work on? There's no judgements here or now, so be as honest as you can."

"My strengths are hand to hand combat and I've been flying shuttles since I was 14 years old. I'm well versed in both Bajoran, and Romulan techniques of fighting and strategy as well as Starfleet. I was what they called a defender and protector when I was with the Romulans as a kid and young man....which is coincidentally what my names means. Eelim, protector. Weaknesses I guess I'm a good marksman but not great, I hate brig duty with a passion but it has to b done." He thought back to what Rayze had said. "And I dislike when senior officers talk bad about them selves. You got a senior position because you are good at your job and you do have great leadership skills you showed that with your compassion and the care you are taking talking to me now." He smile. "I am also good at observation and am right 90% of the time." He laughed at his joke.

Rayze laughed along with him. "Well, maybe. I half suspect there's someone behind a desk somewhere that is laughing at making a joke, but either way I'll do my best." He thought quietly for a moment, bringing to mind the training schedules and duties he'd been assigning to the department. "We have a lot of combat expertise on our team, and while it's good to be prepared, there's a lot more to Security than knowing how to fight. With that in mind, I'd like to set you up with a personalised training regimen; it's something all of us, including myself, will do to make us better at our jobs. That sound like something you'd be interested in? When you get better, of course."

Eelim smiled. "Sure. I'll do my best not to disappoint you but you are dealing with a dumb Cardassian." He laughed. "Keep that in mind."

"I'll make you a deal right now, Eelim," Rayze said as he stood up and patted the man's shoulder with a hand. He was smiling, as seemed a frequent thing for him, but it made the words more friendly than judgemental. "I'll stop second guessing why I was picked for this job if you don't sell yourself short like that again. You're Starfleet, and that means you're the best. Remember that, and rest up,"

Eelim smiled. "Deal."

Rayze nodded, and turned to go, but stopped short about halfway to the doors. He snapped his fingers of his right hand and spun about, came back over to Eelim's bedside. "Almost forgot. Lieutenant Amaranai, my second, and I have come up with some new training schedules for the department as a whole. Twice a week we're going to run some simulations. Maybe combat training, maybe drills with other departments, or maybe something unexpected as the mood strikes me. Beyond that though, you'll find a meditation schedule as well on our computers; I want everyone practising, either together or with someone you would like to, or on your own. The computer should have some details on different methods if you need any help." An odd order, making his staff meditate, but Rayze seemed as serious about that as he'd been about the rest.

The news delivered, the statement done, and his curiosity satisfied about a member of his staff, Rayze headed out then, letting Eelim get the rest he needed and hoping the Cardassian would never have to experience something like this again.

[OFF]

Lieutenant (jg) Rayze
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (jg) Eelim Galan
Security Officer
USS Galileo

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