A Duty to the Fallen: Pax

Posted on 29 Jul 2024 @ 4:40pm by Master Chief Petty Officer Toren Vral & Commander Morgan Tarin

2,011 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 19 - Tomorrow's Galileo
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 2, Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD 06, 1200 hrs

[ON]

The trademark echos of Toren's heavy boots filled the corridor as he struck a suitable gait towards the Captain's Ready Room.

It had been a chaotic time, and between his own rounds and duties it had been difficult to carve out sufficient time to work on the final report he was about to deliver. But time he found - in his long career he knew how critical these kinds of accounts were for closure. If you serve and die servin' then you deserved a proper account made.

It was a regulation that you couldn't ignore regardless of the circumstances.

And he never had. He'd written these reports in the bowels of ships under attack by Jem'Hadar, planetside in a tiny tent during a plasma drift, closed off in a damaged part of the hull... Time travel was, by comparison, a minor setback in many ways. The reports had to be made and they had to be submitted.

Presently, he reached the door of the Ready Room and tapped the chime smartly. "Master Chief Toren to see y', Commander."

"Come." The door swished open to present the captain's familiar private administrate office. It was unremarkably the same as the last time the chief of the boat had observed it, yet with the addition of several small stacks of administrative PADDs neatly organized along the far side of Tarin's V-shaped desk. She looked up from her LCARS terminal when the door hissed shut behind him then tapped a button to pause her work before leaning back in her chair against its padded backrest. "COB," she acknowledged the blue-skinned Andorian with her familiar set of discerning hazel eyes.

Toren bowed his head respectfully then stood at ease before the desk. The last time he'd been in this location had been a scene of admonishment, wherein Tarin expressed a certain degree of... displeasure. Hopefully this would be a little more of a sober experience.

"Well Captain, I've come to present m' findings and to submit my report into the log. On the death of Officer Hollenday that is." His antennae bobbed slightly as he gave a small head inclination in respect of the dead.

The mention of the deceased engineer's name sent a silent and uncomfortable chill through the captain's spine. Unseen to anyone, goosebumps manifested across the hidden skin on her arms and she swallowed a wet lump in her throat. Every crew member was important to her; every death under her watch was a mark of her command she would personally bear for the rest of her life. "Yes of course." She extended a hand to one of the vacant chairs across her desk indicating for the Andorian to sit. "What have you found?"

Toren took a seat, maintaining his 'official' composure for the sake of the task. He gave the young Commander a gentle nod of his head, then fished a PADD from his pocket and placed it on the desk.

"It's all here, sah. Nothing you wouldn't've expected." He caught Tarin's gaze. "Nothin' pretty neither. Ensign M'Lyr'Zor seems... challenged by it all. Then young Ensign Asha thinks she could've saved her father had she been given the chance." He gave a sad, but resigned look in response to that.

"An' the Admiral notes her regrets. Feels as if it was a result of... tactical decision making. She's used to war, an' death." He could recall a time when he was similarly hardened, some decades prior. "Understandable given the circum-stances."

Tarin silently retrieved the offered PADD from the table then leaned back in her chair and softly exhaled. Both of her hands held the bottom of the administrative device, the contents of which she began to read in its entirety while discreetly crossing one of her long legs over the other beneath her desk. Many moments of silence ensued while her hazel eyes remained trained on the small screen and the scrolling words before she momentarily paused to look up to the COB. "Hollenday was my first. They always say they're the hardest to process," she remarked with a macabre shake of her head. The powerful and private emotions of regret, remorse and failure she'd experienced during and following the petty officer's funeral service had barely abated over the past days. She'd managed to suppress them as best she could by keeping herself occupied, but it was no easier to process this now than it had been in the immediate aftermath.

Toren kept his eyes on her as she read. He had presented reports such as this to numerous COs and they never responded the same. In every way he had found it to be the measure of a person, and their leadership, how they dealt with death and destruction.

Some officers would be the heart of the ship, the kindest and most compassionate type. Then when something went awry, a crewman dies, they'd clam up. They wouldn't know what to do. They'd get all... defensive about it too as if it'd messed with the 'serenity'.

Some would try to put on an exterior of pure steel, act like it didn't matter, that it was a risk someone took joinin' up. They'd want little to do with it after and no lessons would be learned. Each one dead would be easier than the last for 'em. Throwin' lives into the furnace.

As he watched Tarin read he wondered how she'd turn out.

As she finished and made a small acknowledgement of the difficulties of it all he nodded, his antennae bobbing a little as he did so.

"Aye, sah, aye." He acknowledged. "It probably shouldn't get easy neither. I'm no counsellor but I'd say it's best if it's always hard to process. I'm my experience anyway."

"Yes," she agreed accompanied by a slow nod, "and if the Klingons have any say in the matter, there will be more before the end of the day." Perhaps she wasn't doing Hollenday justice by looking past his sacrifice so quickly and on to the next ones, but the COB was most certainly correct that these feelings she experienced should never lose their painful edge. This short respite before the arrival of hostile forces at their position presented Tarin a rare opportunity to finally think instead of do. Many thoughts occupied her mind, each one vying for its own prime real estate and attention. She took a deep breath then exhaled through her slim lips before focusing her eyes on the senior NCO. "I know it wasn't easy to put together this report. How are you handling everything that's occurred here so far? Especially recent events."

Toren took a deep breath. It was a loaded question. "Well enough, sa'." He spoke with conviction. "Wasn't what I'd expected o' a systems test but... well... systems have certainly been tested." His mouth formed into a smile at that.

"You hear of time travel happenin' on occasion but I s'pose you never expect it to be on your own ship. I can only hope we do some good when we get back."

He thought of Vren. His whole family. Changing this future felt like an imperative. Them and how many others would avoid suffering if they pulled it off?

"It's a solid crew, sir. Though I must admit I look forward to a more... orthodox mission coming out way."

"I'd settle for a few uninterrupted hours of rest in my quarters," she replied with her distinctively dry humor and a smirk which accompanied a light shake of her head. Loosely-curled stands of her dark brown hair bobbed across her cheeks. "I can't remember the last time I was able to properly sleep. And I get the feeling I'm not the only one. The crew's running on deuterium dust."

Toren gave a sage nod of agreement. "Aye sir, aye. It's been a trial for sure." He exhaled loudly. "An' when we get back... what then? Will we be as exhausted? Will any o' this have... happened?" He gave a slightly perplexed look. "Temporal sciences were never my bag."

"It's complicated," she started to answer to the best of her own ability. Temporal science and causality were indeed difficult subjects to master and were outside the realm of her expertise as well. "According to Admiral Saalm, no. We won't remember any events from this time period. Nor will our physical states - and the state of our Galileo - persist across time, because the future won't have occurred yet in our past. The admiral won't shield us from the temporal effects the same way she did when bringing us here, because possessing knowledge of the future could potentially change the timeline even more than necessary."

"Hm." Toren gave a soft grunt that belied a certain sort of discomfort with the answer. Forgetting would be easy. To lose all of the... unpleasantness of it all. Yet... "Shame, sir." His tone took on some weight. "I tend t' think it's better we don't forget the worst've times. Makes the good times better an' builds a certain resilience." He kept his focus on Tarin. "I'm sure it's unavoidable but... we could've counted it as one hell of a systems test."

The humor in the COB's remark wasn't lost on Tarin who smirked and nodded to concede his last point. "The more time I spend aboard this ship, the more I to appreciate the thought and effort the Advanced Starship Design Bureau put into this class of vessel. She's small, but capable. A true combination of a mobile research facility and multi-mission frigate. Some of our other modern starship designs could take a couple lessons from the Nova-class."

"Aye sah," Toren nodded, "She's compact yet resilient for sure. Allows for a tight knit crew an' a efficient all round operation. I've served on bigger ships an' while they've got more firepower they'd not fare any better than we have in the circumstances." He glanced out of the window at the ships successor. "It's tellin' that when the Federation looked to build a vessel for this mission they chose another Nova."

"Indeed." The commander's eyes followed the master chief's and looked at Galileo-B's sleep eggshell-colored hull in the near distance. "I would have loved to review the Mark III's full design schematics if we had more time. The admiral shared her ship's technical specifications with me and they're impressive. If this is the next evolution of the Nova-class, at least we have something positive to look forward to in our past." She returned her attention to her desk then briefly stretched her neck from side to side. "Well, let's hope when we return, our systems test is much less...exciting. Anything else you wish to discuss?"

"No, Sa'." Toren rose from his seat and stood to attention briefly as a sign of respect. "I would be grateful if the report could be added to the log. Even if they don't survive what is yet to come."

It was the least she could do in order to provide some semblance of closure for Hollenday. "Of course," she agreed with little pondering. If her Galileo never survived to return to its own time, this computer entry might be the engineer's final testament to his service. And perhaps, for every crew member between the two crews. "Go get a meal then help finish our final preparations for this evening. I have the feeling we're going to need every last ounce of energy we can muster when the time comes."

Toren gave a respectful nod of the head, acknowledging the Captain's final words with a simple, "Yessah." As the word left him he smartly turned heel and departed. Whether the report saw the light of day or fell into the abyss was a matter for the next hours. Tarin was right - everyone needed to be sharp for the reckoning. Including him.

[OFF]

--

CMDR Morgan Tarin
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

&

MCPO Toren Vral
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Vala]

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