Special Delivery

Posted on 19 Dec 2018 @ 11:01pm by Lieutenant Soraya Rezvani
Edited on on 27 Dec 2018 @ 2:02pm

1,225 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: USS Kissinger - Deck 3, Lounge
Timeline: MD -173, 1203 hrs

[ON]

Against her better judgement, against the advice of friends, Soraya had decided to waive Starfleet's offer of transportation to her next assignment and hitched a ride with her mother instead. She didn't know where her mother was going - she refused to tell her - but it was somewhere sufficiently close to the Galileo and traveling at a sufficiently high speed to allow for the brief rendezvous needed to transfer her to the ship. She surmised it was somewhat out of the way, but her mother assured her she could divert the course of the ship. ("Federation Councillors can do that sort of thing, dear," she'd explained in such a way that left Soraya feeling vaguely ill.)

It was her first time aboard one of the Diplomatic Corps' courier ships. It was one of the excuses she'd told herself when she decided to accept the offer - she wanted to appreciate the finer design points involved in a ship purpose built for travelling at high warp. It also kept her from having to wait months to reach the Galileo by other means. Unfortunately, it meant more time in confined spaces with the Rezvani matriarch.

"I don't drink coffee," Soraya said, gently touching the rim of the saucer. She applied no force but waited for the yeoman to withdraw the cup himself. "I take tea, my dear."

"Darjeeling black, double strong, double sweet," Naadia Nakhjavani interjected. "She wouldn't tell you herself until you'd come back with the wrong sort. She'd have fussed at you and made you do it all over again. She's a particular brand of difficult." A brief pause and then, "I'll have another vodka on the rocks."

"Mother, it's lunch," Soraya admonished.

Without missing a beat, Naadia added, "And some crackers. Off you go now."

Soraya watched the poor yeoman totter off. She did enjoy darjeeling black. She enjoyed it double strong, double sweet. But that didn't make it any less grating for the woman to have placed the order on her behalf, sidelining and insulting her in the process. Being a festering thorn in her side was a talent among many for Naadia Nakhjavani, her mother and current representative to the Federation Council for Setareh VI.

Though blood related they were diametric opposites. Soraya was unassuming in her uniform and half-hidden behind the veil of her traditional society. She'd chosen very little cosmetics for the day, and she spoke in soft tones. Seated across from her was a woman with many years worth of practice in projecting her voice as well as her personality. She wore large, gaudy jewelry, decorated herself in heavy but tasteful cosmetics, and hadn't worn a veil a day in her life.

As Soraya's tea arrived, so too did her mother's third vodka - at noon, onboard a Starfleet vessel.

"About your court martial-"

"It wasn't a court martial," Soraya said, calmly but abruptly. It was against her nature but one had to be abrupt to get a word in edgewise. "That implies some criminal misconduct."

"Well, if it wasn't criminal misconduct then what was it? Civil misconduct? As I understand it they don't just drop someone from captain to lieutenant for a few bad decisions now, do they?"

Soraya could usually ignore her mother's quips but this one stung. Much to her regret, it must have shown on her face.

"Oh, darling, come now. You're disgraced, not degraced. Have some dignity and keep your head up for goodness sake. All this moping doesn't do anyone a damn bit of good. Your veil droops in your face when you do that, and you look like some sort of brooding cultist. All that does is reflect poorly on you," she said. She brought her drink up to her lips and added, "And me. No one wants to be the mother of a cultist."

"It was a hearing," Soraya corrected, ignoring the other statements. "It's a disciplinary measure, it's commensurate with the concerns of command over my abilities as an officer, and I'm happy just to have been retained in Starfleet."

Naadia drained the rest of her glass and let a chunk of ice make its way past her lips. She chewed it loudly, drawing the attention of the table next to them. The woman didn't care what other people thought of her - especially not know, insulated in power as she was - and they both knew that; it made her earlier remark all the more of an insult.

"You know-"

Soraya sighed. She could tell from the wind-up that her mother was likely to launch into another round of breaking her down. It had been like this virtually the entire voyage, day after day. This had followed months and months of the same thing on Earth, when she stayed with her mother in her Parisian accommodations pending the outcome of the investigation, the fallout from it, and the anxious wait for new orders. It was her mother's way of being a mother, rubbing her children the wrong way to form the sort of thick calluses that let one shrug off the criticism and accusations of others.

"You know, you always were the least ambitious of the children. Accomplished, yes. Eager to learn, attentive, all that. But you lacked ambition. Or do I mean to say you lack ambition?" Naadia mused. "Either way, we see where it's gotten you. You hardly put up a fight. That line of questioning from Admiral Tanaka about the Mother incident was easily refutable. Frankly, I think that whole mission showed some of your finer-"

"So you did read the transcripts?" Soraya asked. Her face wrinkled accordingly as she raised her eyebrows questioningly. The entire voyage - during the entire incident - her mother had claimed to have no special knowledge of the proceedings, the subject matter, or the judgment against her. She further claimed she played no role in persuading Starfleet to retain her as an officer or securing Soraya a senior staff position aboard a science vessel ahead of a three-year deployment. Her mother may have rejected many of the traditions of their homeworld, but she embraced its cultural proclivity toward half-truths and deception with vigor.

"Did I read the transcripts?" Naadia repeated. "Well. I suppose I probably glanced at them when an aide put them on my desk." She picked up a cracker and made a show of eating it while looking around the room. "It's my responsibility as a member of the Starfleet Affairs Subcommittee to remain informed about the goings on within the fleet."

"I doubt that extends to disciplinary hearings and personnel reassignments," Soraya replied.

"We have a broad mandate. Speaking of broad, are you sure you want to order lunch? It's your belt that you want to buckle, dear, not your chair. You were at the patisserie virtually every day when you were living with me." She smiled to herself as Soraya adjusted her weight in her chair, probably against her will. "But if we are having lunch then I'm going to order another drink."

"Mother, they have a limited supply of that, you know."

"Do they? Now see, this is why everyone hates the Federation."

[OFF]

--

Lieutenant Soraya Rezvani
Chief Engineer
USS Galileo-A

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