Hard Times

Posted on 20 Mar 2019 @ 5:51pm by Commander Scarlet Blake & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark & Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Ensign Mimi

2,880 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 2, Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD -143, 0900 hrs

[ON]

Blake's whole body was coiled tight with chilling tension as she moved into the ready room. As she moved for her seat the well of anger inside of her settled to a cold, clenched fist. This was the third serious incident to have crossed her desk since they'd left. Even if it now seemed that one might be connected to the other. Either way, the only satisfaction she got from the proceeding about to take place was that it would put an end to the horrible business.

There was a myriad of thoughts that where on her mind as Allyndra arrived for the hearing. The main one was being both an officer sitting in judgement as well as a potential witness though her log and recordings were already entered in both cases that were to be heard.

Allyndra arrived and entered make a small nod to the senior officers already present. She took her seat to the left of the main middle chair. The first officer was always on the captain's right, the second on the left.

Saalm remained in her chair behind her desk while she observed her XO and 2XO enter the small office. The door swished shut behind them and she didn't say a word, instead conveying her emotions of displeasure with lackluster body language and enthusiasm. She picked up the PADD she'd saved in the corner concerning this new case of crew discipline and began to review it for the third time.

"I have little appetite for this today," Lirha candidly said to Blake and Warraquim. "Can you oversee this session quickly?" she then asked Blake, who was in charge of leading protocol for the discipline council.

"Of course," Blake's expression was as cool as ever, but the tone of her voice made it clear that Lirha would find no argument from her. She wanted this whole mess cleared up as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Outside the ready room Mimi nervously paced the corridor waiting to be called in, being called before the Captain and the Xo herself was not how she expected the resolution of what had happened with M'rthyr to go.

Gabriel watched the young officer's unrest. It was easy to see in how she moved with nervous energy. He moved a little closer to her as they waited to be called in, touching her elbow to still her. "Stop worrying...just go in and tell the truth, that's all you can do."

"But I do not know really what the truth is Gabriel." Mimi replied. "I cannot remember."

"Then that's your truth," Gabriel said firmly, moving up closer to her so he could keep his voice low, his anger at M'rthyr only growing at seeing how anxious she was. "Don't let what some waste of space did to you make you feel bad like this. He doesn't deserve that power over you," the words were whispered but filled with feeling as he met her eyes, his own dark.

Mimi rested against the wall of the corridor. "You are right Gabriel, I should be happy he is about to face what he has done." She took his hand in hers. "Thanks."

Gabriel shook his head to show she didn't need to thank him as he gave her hand a gentle squeeze. He glanced up as the tell tale comm chime sounded and they were called in. "Let's go," he nodded firmly to Mimi, leading her inside.

Taking a deep breath Mimi followed Gabriel inside the ready room, she gave Allyndra a weak smiled as she stood at attention in front of the desk where the officers sat.

Allyndra felt bad for the Nekomi. She had been through a lot and medically there was probably or perhaps thankfully very little memory. This was just going to be one more thing to get through. She turned her focus to Blake and nodded slightly herself as a sort of 'let us get this over' signal.

Blake took a breath as she sat forward a little in her chair. Her body was rigid, set with the tension of the whole piece. This wasn't the kind of thing a First Officer imagined having to deal with in Starfleet. "Ensign Mimi, you have made a complaint of sexual assault against Crewman M'rthyr, that is correct?"

"That is correct Commander"

Blake nodded, watching her with a steady gaze, her tone remaining even despite what they were talking about. "I want you to tell us, in your own words, what happened. As much as you are able to, at least," she added, knowing that there were memory issues at play.

"I was in the lounge waiting for Petty Officer John Hollenday, I was given a drink by the person at the bar, he said it was from my date." She paused for a moment when she realised she just told all the command team that she was dating a petty officer. "So I thought it was from John so I took it. Maybe 10 minutes later M'rthyr came to sit with me, I told him that I did not want to him there but he stayed so I got up to leave instead and started to feel really strange when I stood up. M'rthyr offered to help me to my quarters as I needed help, after we got there, I do not know what happened."

The captain watched the young ensign closely, holding her dark green eyes with her own while listening to her testimony. "...You do not know what happened after?" she repeated with a stern tone.

"No Captain I do not, I remember getting to my quarters with M'rthyr, then waking up in the morning in the same clothes I wore that evening with a bruised face and pain in my hip with no idea why." Mimi replied.

"So what did you do then?" Blake asked, to guide her through providing a full statement of the order of events, to get it all on record. Sexual assault charges could be notoriously difficult to prove sometimes. She wanted this seamless for the record.

"I could not get out of my bunk as the pain was too much, so I called sickbay and Ally... Commander Warra-quim came to see me." Mimi answered, she always had a little trouble with Allyndra's surname. "She looked me over and gave me a sedative and I woke up again in sickbay a little bit later."

Allyndra waited a moment and then calmly but firmly stated, "For the record traces and metabolites of rohypnol were detected in the ensigns blood. Further more traces of Caitian hair samples were also found associated with the ensign. The DNA analysis of the follicles showed only two people. The ensign and officer M'rythr."

"Yes, I see the report," Saalm replied to her second officer, now scanning her PADD to review the similarly-stated medical and forensic details. She looked back to Mimi. "And from this evidence and your experience, you believe fully that this was a sexual assault? Carried out by Petty Officer M'rythr?"

Mimi nodded. "Yes Captain, he told me of his want to mate with me and got more and more angry that I refused him, he knew I would never agree to it so tried to take my choice away from me."

Lirha wanted to ask her if she thought the crime was pre-meditated, but took a more careful approach. "Do you believe this was a sudden advance? What was the relationship between the two of you before this incident?" she asked, glancing back to her PADD. "There was another incident involving the petty officer and a member of our engineering crew...are they related?"

"To begin the relationship was alright, then as things went on he got more..... Creepy." She hoped that would be a suitable explanation for now. "The events are related. It looks like M'rthyr set it up to get John out of his way so he could not stop him from getting to me."

It was as the captain feared and her command staff most likely knew by now, but it was different to see Mimi in front of them now testifying in brief. "So this a was premeditated attack," she then added matter-of-factly, waiting for the next person to speak. Her short line of questioning was finished.

"Mimi, can you tell us what you mean by 'creepy' please?" Blake asked, wanting to get some key examples down of what behaviour she felt was unacceptable. He, most likely, would argue it was misunderstood, or blown out of proportion, or out right deny it. Key examples could help solidify the evidence.

"He would always just be there." Mimi replied, "I go to the mess hall or the lounge, he was already there, I go to the gym, he was already there. If he was not he would be there very soon after I got there. Sometimes he would be waiting near my quarters for me to leave or go there, I felt like I could not go anywhere on the ship without seeing him somewhere."

She paused for a moment before speaking again. "He would talk down to me and tell me that John was not worth my.... attention. When I refused him he got more forceful, I tried to leave when he caught me in a corridor once and he grabbed my arm and pushed me against the wall to stop me."

Scarlet nodded as she spoke; classic stalker behaviour, a lot of which was frustratingly hard to prove a malicious intent for. Mimi had been able to give a couple of more concrete and inexcusable examples though. "Thank you, Mimi. We have your interview you did in Sickbay, so that should be sufficient. So unless there's anything else...?" she looked to Lirha to be sure she had heard enough.

The captain didn't have much else to add for she'd already spent several hours reviewing the case beforehand. Everything Mimi had testified to matched the original incident reports, and there didn't appear to be any additional unknowns. She shook her head to Scarlet.

"Then you're dismissed, Ensign," Blake nodded to Mimi, her expression remaining unreadable even as the young officer left, Scarlet's gaze following her as she went.

"Aye Commander." Mimi came to attention again for a moment before turning to leave the ready room hoping she had done enough to convince the command team that M'rthyr had done what she had accused him of.

Blake let out a tight breath as the doors closed and she saved the evidence on her padd. "I believe her," she said simply, even if it didn't need to be said. "And I hate this," she added, a rare glimpse of her personal feeling whilst on duty.

"I agree a most unpleasant business," Allyndra replied. She made a small shrug. "As noted there was sabotage of the camera system in the brig. While I cannot find any record of the drug being synthesized it could have been obtained before we left. While the evidence is not direct I believe that it is sufficient enough to implicate the Petty Officer M'rythr and that such an act was premeditated and carried out with the intent for a full assault." She paused and took a breath then lightly drummed her fingers. "I am her friend but I think I can put that aside enough to say that the only thing I think the ensign is guilty of is officer-enlisted fraternization. Technically an offense but one that seems to happen with enough frequency across this and other ships. While obviously not encouraged and especially within same departments I guess I can only say that love is love. In this case both enlisted personnel were not in the same department."

The captain's light green eyes narrowed and looked to Allyndra, though she spoke to both her and Blake collectively. "...A sexual assault just happened on this ship," Lirha emphasized. "While I agree with your findings, I think we're a little past 'love is love'. Mimi is an officer and from her testimony, this was not a sudden crime of passion - it developed over some time. Fraternization or not, she had knowledge of prior issues with the petty officer and allowed herself to become vulnerable to a junior crew member," Lirha countered. "At any time, she had the authority - and responsibility - to protect herself and those around her from anyone she deemed unfit for duty. That includes any personnel who become 'creepy'..."

Blake nodded slowly as she took the words in, weighing it up as she looked to the opposite wall, staring absently. "As an officer, she had a responsibility to report aggressive behaviour from a crewman. In her own words, he became aggressive in the previous encounter where he grabbed her and pushed her against the wall. Even if you put aside everything that happened afterwards, that incident alone should have been reported. She had a responsibility to protect herself, and fellow crew, from such repeat behaviour by reporting it, and unfortunately she didn't. Especially when considering he's from security." She let out a long, heavy breath. What he had gone on to do to her was awful and inexcusable. But she knew from the regulation side of things, that didn't cancel out Mimi's previous mistake.

"I have to agree with you Commander Blake. I think that we must enforce that aspect on the ensign but now speaking as a medical person and former counselor myself, that we set the punishment low. I am concerned that it might be viewed as victim blaming. Certain restrictions and perhaps required remedial as to what an officer should do. As for M'rythr, I am not a legal person but I think sufficient evidence exists that he attempted a major crime and while we have the convoy should be transferred off immediately a reprimanded to custody to stand trial. We do not have the means to handle an individual like that when we finally split from the convoy and began a deep space exploration." Allyndra spoke with a certain amount of firmness to her otherwise relaxed voice.

"Thirty days restricted duty for the ensign, and the petty officer will be transferred off this ship to be indicted in a judicial court," Lirha stated. She was grateful for her command staff's opinion which mostly mirrored her own, and at the end of the day, it was her ship and her crew. She'd already decided on the disciplinary measures for both and nothing she'd recently listened to had done much to alter her decision.

"I will add," the Orion captain continued in a short lecture, "that reporting an incident is not enough, not for an officer. We've all been through the Academy and we all know we have the authority to directly discipline any junior crew member who violates protocol or codes of conduct. Reporting an offender to another individual is a passive approach, not an active one. It's this sort of passive attitude that breeds insubordination and weakens the chain of command," she explained. "We are officers because we have the extra knowledge, training, and discipline required to make tough decisions. If any of the officer corps has reservations or difficulty supervising their junior personnel, I want to know immediately. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes Captain," Allyndra responded. She personally vowed silently to keep an eye on the operations officer. They were friends, but friendship had to bend to the rules whether it was here on this ship in this Federation or in a House on Akkadia.

"Absolutely," Blake nodded sharply to Saalm's order, understanding all too well where she was coming from. "I'll also make sure the Ensign is referred for mandatory counselling. We're too far out to have a staff member become ill due to lack of timely treatment."

Allyndra turned her attention to the executive officer. "Sir," she said. "I have already put that in her medical record and she is to visit the counselor on a regular basis until he determines that she is sufficiently stable. The subconscious may drag up things. I will ask that if you note a particular problem with her performance to let the counselor know. As for me, I will step up her medical routine survey to look for anything physical, like harming herself. While I believe things can be resolved there maybe some hard times yet ahead."

For the first time during their candid meeting, Lirha visibly relaxed and leaned back in her chair if only for a temporary moment. She wiped a green hand across her face to reset her emotions. "I know this journey is not easy... Six months in confinement without going planetside is difficult. But I didn't expect something like this to happen so soon." She paused to do a mental calculation, "...We still have five months left." Could they keep it together as a crew, she privately wondered.

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

Ensign Mimi
Asst Chief Ops
USS Galileo-A

Cmndr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Second and Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A

CDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo-A

PO1 Gabriel Stark
Security
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Blake]

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