In the Hands of Fortune

Posted on 07 Aug 2024 @ 8:51pm by Commander Morgan Tarin & Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor

3,895 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Episode 20 - Reconstruction
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 2, Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD 02, 1920 hrs

[ON]

USS Galileo-A's new first officer departed from the captain's ready room with a soft swish of its doors. Inside the small administrative chamber, Commander Morgan Tarin continued to process the ship's various personnel transfer orders in methodical fashion, signing off on each one after a thorough review and ensuring the ship's crew database also matched. For as many new officers, NCOs, junior enlisted and civilian members who were coming aboard, several others were on their way out, most having received orders to a new starship within a nearby area of operations. Such was the life of Starfleet - an ever-fluid and unpredictable career which prioritized the needs of the many and rarely afforded a stable lifestyle.

"Tarin to M'Lyr'Zor, report to my ready room," said the captain in her usual authoritative yet dry and neutral inflection after tapping her commbadge.

"Acknowledged, captain. Reporting presently." Sera responded quickly and changed direction back to the turbolift that would take her to deck 2. Although supposition was illogical, Sera was curious as to why her presence would be requested in the captain's ready room.

It wasn't long before Sera stood before the closed doors of Tarin's office and that curiosity would be satisfied. Sera reached out to the small LCARS pad at the side of the door and pressed the chime.

The small and slim door hissed open following a faint approval from the woman on the other side. The interior of the ready room presented to be as unremarkable as it'd always been throughout Tarin's starship governance, and her familiar athletic Human form sat behind her desk which contained several more stacks of PADDs than usual. "Ensign. Take a seat," she greeted the tall Vulcan engineer. "It's been a busy day for all of us. And Lieutenant Fynn."

Sera's ears perked up at the mention of the ChEng. She hadn't seen him in some time. "Aye sir." Walking over to the desk that took up a large piece of real estate in the office, she took a seat in one of the two chairs facing the desk. Quickly arranging herself, Sera hoped that her expression was suitably curious, but not too curious. "It has been busy. There is much to go over before we are ready to depart."

"Yes, I've read your department's latest reports. Hopefully the fused plasma relays aren't too much of a setback. It's always important to know what our starship's full capability is. Better to find out during a systems test than when it really counts. I'm sure you agree?" This was Tarin's Schrödinger's apology for recently pushing Galileo to it's warp speed limits.

"They will be replaced by the end of the day. It is a straightforward fix given that we are stationary." Sera stopped talking and tilted her head slightly, considering. "Generally speaking, it is illogical to operate technology outside of their pre-established safety parameters, captain."

The fair-skinned New York City-born captain lightly shrugged her shoulders. "Since when were Humans - or Starfleet - logical?" A self-deprecating smirk tugged at the corner of Tarin's lip. Logic was a noble yet flawed philosophical edict in her opinion; one too rigid and unaccepting of deviation to properly promote true exploration of the stars. "If we never test our boundaries, how can we know our limits or what is beyond? How can you - an engineer - learn to push this vessel to its maximum potential without destroying it?" A test. A Human philosophical query.

"Your words, not mine, captain." Sera quipped in response to Tarin's comment regarding Starfleet and humans and logicality. It was unusual to hear a human admit to their illogicality. Tarin apparently was more self-aware than most humans. "I--as an engineer--respect my fellow colleagues enough to adhere to the safe operating parameters of the technology already in place. Those numbers were not decided upon in an arbitrary manner." It was tedious work to test an experimental engine to determine the operating limits. Sera spent the first year of her career on such a vessel doing just that.

"However captain, am I to parse from your inquiry that this should be my goal...to push this vessel to its breaking point?"

Tarin leaned back in her chair and tented her fingers in front of her chest while she continued to observe the Vulcan junior officer. She was young for one of her kind yet sharp as a nail and extremely intelligent. All excellent traits for an engineer in her experience. "That depends. You tell me how you would manage Galileo's systems if you were the chief engineer. Would you heed to caution and defer to technical specifications at all times? Even if it put this crew and the mission in even greater jeopardy?" Where was her line drawn? What was her breaking point?

"Much more efficiently, that is for certain." Sera replied easily. "Given our distance from any meaningful assistance, it would be prudent to operate within the safety margins...unless the ship and this crew were in imminent threat of demise - then perhaps it would be reasonable to continue beyond parameters in the...hope that we will escape the danger and not suffer catastrophic damage." Tarin asked some very interesting questions.''

"Much more efficiently?" repeated the captain with slightly raised eyebrows which betrayed her surprise. That was quite a statement which could certainly be interpreted as a critique of the Bajoran chief engineer. "Do you find any fault with the way Mister Fynn's been running the department?" Or was it traditional Vulcan arrogance, she wondered.

"If I had any concerns regarding Lieutenant Fynn's performance I would have brought them to you immediately, captain. I speak more of systems' inefficiencies...engineers are often products of their environments. I learned under a much different school of thought than the lieutenant."

Much different school of thought? The intricacies of such a statement sparked Tarin's curiosity and maybe something was lost in translation. "Elaborate," she gestured with an open hand to the ensign. "You're both Starfleet Academy graduates last time I checked; separated by only six years between your graduation dates. Or are you referring to your Vulcan upbringing?"

"I refer to...mentoring, sir, although my upbringing no doubt had some influence over how I manage engineering responsibilities. I process, organize, and document far differently than the Lieutenant. I would like to discuss with him some suggestions to improve how the department is run...specifically regarding work allocation to the crew."

"I see." Tarin's hazel irises looked down to a nearby PADD on her desktop which contained the chief engineer's PCS orders. "I'm afraid that won't be possible. Lieutenant Fynn's been reassigned and is no longer aboard Galileo."

Sera's only outward reaction was a blink. Fynn was...gone? Why was no one informed? She opened her mouth to issue a barrage of inquiries but thought better of it. "Ah. Will there be a new ChEng coming over from the transport, then?"

Curious, Tarin pondered in a slightly Vulcan manner. For an engineer in charge of the starship's critical propulsion systems, she'd hoped the ensign would have greater observation and deduction skills. Maybe it was a cultural barrier. "No, Engineering hasn't received a new department head. That's why I asked to speak with you, and the reason we're currently having this conversation."

Sera did not consider this an ideal situation...at all. She had less than a year of engineering experience under her 'belt,' as it were. She was just beginning to become familiar with the crew and the workings of Galileo. Now it would appear that Tarin was saying that, what, she was going to be in charge?

"I come to serve." It was 'safe' to fall back on Vulcan decorum in times like these. At times living behind a facade of emotionlessness proved to be beneficial.

Sera was considering saying more, but suddenly she was somewhere else...

"I do not believe I will be 'fit for duty' for much longer, captain."

The tall red-collared commander's eyes widened at the engineer's revelation. Six days. Six days with no sleep or meditation...if what Sera was telling her was true, it was preposterous. Vulcans by their very nature required constant meditation to control their emotions which were often an order of magnitude more powerful than those of Humans, and every humanoid life form required REM sleep on a regular basis to prevent psychosis. That Tarin was just learning of this now enraged her and also terrified her - for the health of one of her valuable crew members. "Have you reported this to sickbay? Or Lieutenant Carlisle?" was her next question which came in an urgent inflection.

"I tried... I think?" Sera had spoken with Carlisle, she was sure of that. But it never occurred to her to report to sickbay - it has all been so insidious at first, until things had gone well beyond simple exhaustion. "We were already down a man, captain...so much is at stake. I just...pushed on. The needs of lives aboard this vessel outweighed my needs. Just as this time's needs outweigh our own."

Tarin turned away and pushed both of her hands up through her hair with a combination of supreme vexation combined with anger. She then turned back to Sera, her pale freckled cheeks slightly flushed and her eyes narrowed with a sharpness which cut through the periphery. "You are an officer aboard this ship and you have allowed yourself to be compromised," she loudly rebuked, "without seeking help or informing anyone in your chain of command." How could this have happened? What could - and hopefully should - have been a correctable medical issue seemed to have spiraled out of control to its breaking point. "The 'needs of the many' mean nothing if you're not fit enough for duty to help us get there!"

Sera suddenly blinked rapidly as she returned to the present. Was this a hallucination or a vision, offering up a warning?

"Captain, my apologies, but I have been experiencing some...unusual episodes."

A discerning frown pulled Tarin's brows together and slightly wrinkled the bridge of her slender nose. "Another hallucination? Like those the rest of the crew are reporting?" she asked. Galileo's officer corps had convened the previous evening to discuss similar reports from other crew members, and their collective investigation of the phenomenon was currently underway.

Sera nodded silently, not trusting herself to speak as the residual feeling of psychological compromise lingered, making her doubt reality for a moment. "It is most...disconcerting." She took in a measured breath and then slowly exhaled in a controlled manner.

Back to business. "When will this changeover take place, captain?"

"Immediately. Well, as soon as I'm convinced you're up to the task," Tarin's sharp voice quickly replied. "We all seem to be experiencing these hallucinations, but in the meantime, I need a new chief engineer. You're young and still raw, only two years out of the Academy, but it's time for you to step up and meet your potential. Where I come from, there's no better way to do that than learning than on the job. Unless you have any objections?"

Would any objections matter? Did anything matter? wait, what? Sera tilted her head at that rather random, nihilistic thought. Inwardly she adjusted her mental schedule, allotting more time for meditation than she had initially budgeted.

Back to the business at hand. There wasn't a chief on the transfer, so that meant she was the senior officer. There wasn't much in the way of other options. Kaiidth.

"I have no logical objections to offer you, captain. It is your command. I defer to your knowledge and expertise in this."

Tarin opened her mouth to speak again but it slowly closed while her mind drifted away from the present reality.

~~

"And the mission?" Tarin slightly tilted her head to the side with intrigue. The engineering officer hadn't commented on perhaps the most pertinent of the options presented. "If I'm killed along with others of the crew, who will you serve then? What will you serve? Do you believe in accomplishing our objective as instructed by Admiral Saalm? To return to our past to change this future?" She allowed a short verbal pause before clasping both of her hands together in her lap, then continued. "I ask because loyalties are easy to define. They were drilled into us at the Academy and we don't hesitate to fall back on them during times of peril. They're instinctual, in a sense. But understanding exactly what we are loyal to - what we are pursing as a crew and why - is more nuanced and difficult."

"What are you trying to determine by this line of questioning, captain?" Sera responded calmly as she placed the empty coffee mug on the low table near her. "I do not think it such abstract terms. You are alive. To consider such a...scenario is counterproductive and illogical."

The captain's eyes tightened. "You're a department head aboard this vessel overseeing perhaps its most critical function right now given our circumstances. Understanding how dynamic our situation is," Tarin glanced down to her mug then back up, "and the peril we face here along with our need to get back to our own time period...is the opposite of counterproductive. The opposite of illogical. It's practical, and where I come from, we call it doing due diligence. So I'll ask you again, Ensign Sera: based on what you've now witnessed, do you believe in returning to our past to change this future, and believe in this Starfleet's mission which brought us here to do so?"

Sera tilted her head to the side as she regarded Tarin with an unblinking gaze. Time ticked on and an uncomfortable silence formed between the two women.

"No. I have never believed that following the orders of Admiral Saalm were in our best interests. She sees us as a piece to move across a board in a game that has already been lost...and I am concerned at how you perceive us."

Sera saw a shift within the woman and pressed on, knowing if she did not get this out, there would not be a second opportunity.

"You have, without reservation, been exceptionally vocal against our collective--and individual--concerns regarding what is being demanded of us here. We are being asked to violate numerous Starfleet regulations, and our concerns were summarily dismissed as needing to look towards the larger picture, and yet you sit here and question if I believe in what we are doing here?"

Sera continued to press her case. "We are here because you failed in your duty as a command-level officer to follow the orders you were given to turn over classified data that is apparently the entire lynch pin to everything unfolding as it has up to this specific moment. That you are questioning me now about mine is...curious."

~~

USS Galileo-A's ready room seemed to instantly and imperceptibly change when the captain suddenly shook her head. In front of her was indeed the young engineer, M'Lyr'Zor, but the setting was...different. What had she just witnessed? Tarin reached up and massaged her forehead before wiping a dry hand down her face. "I think we've had this conversation before. At least, that's what I just recalled," she quietly said. "You've never served with Captain Saalm, have you?"

"No. I do not know a Captain Saalm...I..." Sera's brows furrowed in consternation as she thought back on some of the strange visions she had been experiencing. "I recall an Admiral Saalm - but that...that was a hallucination."

Strange. Tarin's vision seemed to corroborate what the engineer said - that Saalm was in fact an admiral despite holding the rank of captain last time she'd checked. She'd have to remember to review the Orion CO's service history file during the next free opportunity she had, as well as record what she'd just experienced in her log. In the meantime, her thoughts returned to the matter at hand.

"Objections..." she audibly reminded her self, re-focusing on the brown-haired woman across from her. "If you say have none, I believe you. You're a Vulcan, after all. But choose carefully. This is an important step in your career that'll define your future in Starfleet. It won't be an easy position to perform and I'll ask a lot from you and the rest of the department. Your responsibilities will grow and you'll be held more personally accountable than at any other point in your life." Tarin remembered when such a speech was given to her upon her first XO assignment. "I have confidence in you and the position is yours if you want it. I wish I could give you several days to think it over but I need your decision right now."

Sera was concerned that she did not have enough hands-on experience to be ready for such a promotion. However, Captain Tarin apparently believed that Sera was up for this task--or rather perhaps she was simply being...practical? Tarin did seem to be a pragmatic sort.

"Your logic is sound. I will accept, captain."

Tarin's acute gaze studied M'Lyr'Zor's youthful features. This was an important decision to make which would most certainly affect the future of Galileo in the present and beyond. Many engineers were technically qualified to perform the duties of the CHENG, yet what separated those in command of their departments from their subordinates was often the intangible. Tarin wasn't a seasoned commanding officer, yet she'd spent her entire career within the command track whose duty it was to make such evaluations. She didn't have any immediate second thoughts or private reservations. In fact, she felt the opposite.

"Good. The engineering department is yours."

Just like that. Inquiry, acceptance. The department was hers. Simple. Easy. What could go wrong?

That answer was also quite simplistic. Everything.

Sera dipped her head a in non-verbal gesture of assent. "I come to serve, Captain."

Privately, Tarin felt a morsel of relief wash over her following the Vulcan's verbal acceptance. If there was any position aboard the ship better suited to pragmatic and logical operational methodology than the chief engineer, she couldn't think of one. "Any questions? About your new rate or my expectations of you and your department going forward?" Tarin asked, affording the ensign an opportunity to inquire about whatever might be on her mind.

"An explanation of your expectations for the department and myself would be beneficial." Sera responded serenely, while inside she felt a twisting of her stomach. Why did she feel like she was out of her depth suddenly? Quashing that line of inquiry as it was unproductive to the moment at hand, Sera returned her focus on Tarin and awaited her response.

"Of course." Tarin briefly rummaged through several PADDs atop her desk before finding the correct one she'd previously prepared specifically for this moment. She reached out and handed over the large and slim silver administrative device which contained the engineering department's new duty team assignments, required maintenance intervals, emergency drill testing frequencies, standard repair protocols, damage control priorities, and inspection and operational safety assessment schedules. "This might be more than you've been used to overseeing both here and onboard Juneau. But this is a small ship, and like most of our other departments, you only have a handful of personnel with which to operate. Every engineer will need to pull their weight. I trust you can do this ? To do your job?"

Tarin's eyes suddenly became distant for a short moment.

~~

She tightened her hazel eyes and dug her short fingernails into the palms of her hands with begrudging fortitude. It had been a battle well fought during which her starship had achieved its own personal victory. But now, without power to the shields, weapons and auxiliary systems - and with a disabled impulse engine - she could hardly foresee victory. Only their certain demise at the hands of the Klingon heavy cruiser about to enter weapons range and fire on her defenseless vessel. Anger, remorse, trepidation and morbid humour combined and threatened to overwhelm her senses. She stood from her chair and stepped into the center of the bridge with practiced formal posture and hard stoicism. Was this what Admiral Saalm's final moment's had been like as well? She slapped her commbadge.

"All hands, this is the captain. We're currently disabled and defenseless. Until Engineering restores our impulse reactor, we have no way of reaching the temporal anomaly and returning to our time." she curtly explained with haste in her inflection. "Prepare for incoming fire and remember your duties to your shipmates." Another strong slap against her breast closed the ship-wide communication then opened a new one to engineering. "Tarin to M'Lyr'Zor, it's time to go. Do your job and get our impulse reactor back online!"

~~

The captain looked around the ready room again, her conscious mind returning to process the reality surrounding her and the ensign sitting on the opposite side of her desk.

Sera took the padd and began studying all of the requirements and failed to notice Tarin's distant gaze. As she skimmed over the data, her brow rose imperceptibly. The level of command oversight was rather...unorthodox. "These requirements are quite...comprehensive, sir. They far exceed Starfleet standard operating procedures."

"Comprehensive? I prefer the term 'diligent'," Tarin replied. New SOPs were often difficult to adjust to in her experience, but they ultimately existed for a reason. "We can't afford mistakes out here. There's no margin for error if something goes wrong aboard Galileo. The nearest Federation starships in this AoA are almost a week away and we can't rely on outside assistance during our investigative evolutions. The only ones we can rely on, are ourselves. And that means running a tight ship and making sure this Nova-class is operating at full operational capacity at all times. Understood?"

"Aye sir." Sera automatically replied. Tarin was the "Master" of this vessel. Her word, for good or for ill, was law. "I will ensure that the engineering department is in compliance with these operational requirements. My..." She paused for a moment, feeling uneasy referring to the engineering team as hers. But they were hers now, were they not? "My team is quite competent. This was made clear immediately upon my arrival to Galileo."

"Excellent." The tall Human commander pushed her chair back then stood with a professional upright posture including both of her hands now clasped behind her waist. The formality of the engineer's position promotion was punctuated when she again spoke, "Then congratulations, Ensign M'Lyr'Zor - "Sera". Our ship is in your hands. Do us proud."

Sera mirrored Tarin's action and stood as well. She was uncertain if a 'thanks' was in order. Sera recognized the gravity of the situation; she had just assumed a whole new set of responsibilities and obligations. She dipped her head in an a solemn acknowledgement. "Veling."

[OFF]

--

Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor
Chief Engineer
USS Galileo-A

CMDR Morgan Tarin
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

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