At Your Own Peril

Posted on 15 Aug 2024 @ 7:50pm by Commander Morgan Tarin & Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeysa Zeror

2,093 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 20 - Reconstruction
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 5, Observation Lounge
Timeline: MD 01, 2132 hrs

[ON]

The Nova-class starship USS Galileo-A continued her journey back to her home port of Regula I at low warp velocity. In space, the small vessel's silver hull captured then reflected the surrounding local cosmos' iridescent light origins which highlighted the humanoid-made object as it rapidly transited the sector within its own warp-field bubble removed from all local space-time dilations. The stars within the Pleiades Cluster streaked across all sides of the ship creating the well-known 'starfield effect' every Starfleet crew member was familiar with.

Such an effect's perspective, however, was vastly different when viewed from alternate angles not commonly associated with the bridge. Down on deck 5 within Galileo-A's robust observation lounge located in the aft-most quarter of the secondary hull, Commander Morgan Tarin stood in front of the large row of transparent aluminum windows which offered a spectacular view of space. Stars streaked away from the ship in her vision; a drastic change from her traditional forward-based view of warp travel from within the bridge. And while she stood there, alone in the observation lounge with her hands clasped behind her back, she contemplated several important truths she would soon have to come to terms with. The entrance to the lounge then hissed open behind her, which she did not notice.

Slipping quite quietly into the observation lounge Jeysa flinched slightly when she saw Tarin also there, not really expecting anyone else to be there, it was long after her shift was over but the woman still wore a uniform. Bar a Pt uniform she couldn't remember a time when she'd seen her Captain in anything other than a fleet uniform. "Quite the view isn't it Captain." She eventually said.

The unexpected-yet-familiar female voice from behind slightly startled Tarin whose attention to her private musing was rudely broken. She rotated her head and torso until the other woman's blond hair and rows of facial spots became visible. "Zeror," she quietly acknowledged the yeoman before turning back to the viewports to look out into the beyond. "I don't often get a chance to see what we leave behind. Not truly," she then commented both literally and figuratively.

"Serving on a station, seeing the same stars in the same place day in and day out things do seem very samey." Jeysa remarked. "The Rigel system had beautiful stellar features and the planet's were wonderful but after a few years it all seemed the same. That's when I decided to take a starship assignment... this one. A chance to see the stars again."

"What's different about them this time? A star is simply condensed hydrogen and helium - they exist everywhere and they're a dime a dozen. Pretty to look at, maybe, but unextraordinary." Tarin cast another brief sideways glance to the petty officer. "It's not the stars you're chasing out here; it's the comradery of exploration."

"To someone with only a 'my first guide to astronomy' level of science skills the stars are still fascinating." Jeysa replied. "I'm a people person. Learn their languages, assess peoples needs and fulfill them to the best of my ability." Something Tarin would barely let her do, in the few months since she'd taken over from Lirha she'd barely chipped the human womans icy exterior.

More silence ensued while Tarin remained motionless at the window and her eyes contemplated several private thoughts. She finally spoke again after many seconds. "And what needs are those? Beyond the administrative, of course."

"Can I speak freely?" Jeysa asked, her voice was somewhat hesitant.

"At your own peril," was Tarin's curt answer. Often such a request was a prelude to something she didn't want to hear, but occasionally she was positively surprised. The captain now wondered why the yeoman was here in the observation lounge; perhaps it was for this very reason.

"You need to relax some more." Jeysa said, "I don't think I've ever seen you take a break or wearing civilian clothes. The only time I've seen you book a holodeck was to PT your officers and even march two of them up a representation of an active volcano, never for something for yourself."

Unseen to the yeoman within the dimly lit recreational chamber, Tarin's eyes narrowed with indignation and she grit her teeth. Relax? What did this junior NCO know about the duties and responsibilities of command? About the administration of personnel and an entire starship while overseeing completion of every task assigned by Starfleet Command? The juvenility and false-sagaciousness of the statement forced her to turn to the Trill woman. "I'm the captain of this starship; my job isn't to 'take a break' or 'relax' - it's to see us through every one of our deployments and return with every crew member alive and well so I don't have to write to their families explaining why Petty Officer 3rd Class Zeror was killed on the surface of Tarin IV trying to outrun a sentient fungus because she was too g--damn slow and cared more about 'relaxing' than maintaining proper physical condition." Her voice had now raised in volume and projection and her physical posture squared up to the younger woman.

Jeysa flinched, she knew this was a bad idea, far too soon even after this long to go for it as hard as she had. "Sometimes a crew can be sharpened to too fine a point Sir, sometimes a Commander can too. The crew are on edge almost all the time and it is affecting them."

Tarin set her hands on her hips while taking another step closer to the yeoman. "They better be on edge, and ready at all times. We all should be," she sternly rebuked the criticism. "What, do you think we're out here to give solar system tours to civilians scientists and ferry them across the quadrant to observe some sort of rare benign supernova? You think our assignment out here is a luxury cruise?"

"No Sir." Jeysa replied then sighed slightly, In for a slip, in for a brick she thought and then continued. "And if this was a warship on a war footing then I would say the crew always being ready is vital but this is a science ship, the majority of the crew scientists not soldiers and it feels like you're treating them like they are."

For the briefest moment, Tarin wondered if Zeror was deliberately attempting to provoke her. And God help her soul if she was. "Whether or not Galileo is a science vessel or a ship of the line is completely irrelevant," she barked back. "DaiMon Nok didn't care about such distinctions when he attempted to capture the ship and sell this crew into slavery less than a month ago. We fought hand-to-hand across all decks for our lives. The trans-dimensional abominations the away teams encountered within Cold Station 31 didn't care if we were a warship or at war. And I promise you, the Klingons - as opportunistic as they are - won't care either if we encounter a rogue House and one of its captains."

The captain shook her head to dismiss this preposterous argument. "You're making excuses where there are none. Whether that's out of ignorance or misguided expectations, I don't know, but get your head on straight, petty officer. Every starship crew out here needs to always be prepared for any eventuality. This is the frontier and it's harsh and brutal. If anyone on board can't cut it, then they're a liability to the ship and I'll reassign them. You should know this by know."

"I do but I also know what the signs of stress and tension are." Jeysa said trying to steer the quite one sided discussion towards what she had actually intended her remark to be about. "The crew show signs of both, you exude it out of every orifice."

The unjoined Trill certainly had a way with words, for better or worse. Tarin predicted she could probably keep chiding Zeror for a whole nother hour and the young woman would continue to stand there and argue her point. It wasn't often the captain encountered a junior subordinate who refused to back down or disappear when her anger and irritation started to manifest. And she did express a relevant observation, as much she wanted to deny it. "Stress and tension..." Tarin inhaled a healthy breath then exhaled through her nose while turning back to look out through the large observation windows. "Maybe you're right. The crew - we - need an outlet to alleviate that." She privately pondered this dilemma for several seconds before the answer came to her. "What activity is proven to both improve physiological and psychological health? Which prevents disease and promotes longevity within our bodies while boosting endorphins?"

"Physical training is but one way." Jeysa replied knowing immediately what Tarin was thinking and trying to kick that in the butt quickly, they already did enough PT and she'd be hated if she somehow got the Co to make them do even more. "The crew need to let off steam, they need the shoreleave that was denied them, we steamed for 6 months to get here on this tiny ship and were dying for leave and we got a few days at best due to the cold station event and some of them didn't even get that as the ship needed overhauling first."

Once again Tarin's head snapped back over to the junior petty officer accompanied with acute eyes. But this time her vision shifted to present a different reality.

~~

After counting down the last few seconds till the assigned time arrived Jeysa raised the boatswain's whistle to her lips and sounded out a call that shrilled over the light gossip between the crews calling them all to attention.

The main shuttle bay's overhead lighting dimmed to approximately 30 percent luminosity as the formal ceremony began. At the head of the fallen petty officer's casket, Tarin stood stoically next to Saalm then took a step forward before addressing the room. "All hands, atten-TION!" her voice forcefully projected across the large hangar.

~~

The interior of the Nova-class' observation lounge blinked back into existence. Tarin rubbed her eyes then attempted to recall the most recent memory she'd had of the yeoman beside her. Crew liberty. Yes.

"Shore leave's a luxury, not a birthright. I've done my best to accommodate this request since Galileo first arrived at Regula I but I can't will it into existence. We have a job to do here, a job which takes priority. I expect everyone to suck it up as long as necessary in the meantime and stop complaining. When, if, that time comes again, you'll be the first to know. Orders could come down from Starfleet Command at any moment and we need to maintain operational readiness. And until we resolve what's going on with these 'hallucinations', none of us are going anywhere. Understood?"

Jeysa didn't fail to notice Tarin zone out for a few seconds, another temporal hallucination she assumed. She had been lucky so far to not encounter one but if the earlier briefing was anything to go by she was amongst the minority. "Understood."

Tarin crossed her arms over her chest then let out a soft breath through slim lips. "Good. Your advice is sound and I want you to announce a resumption of daily all-crew PT regimens. Now that we're back at Regula I, we have more than enough time to see to our physical health. Officer sessions will start at 0430 in Holodeck 1 every morning and enlisted sessions will begin at 0445 in Holodeck 2. Meet with Master Chief Vral to confirm the scheduling."

'F***' Jeysa thought, Tarin did the one thing she was trying to avoid. "Aye Sir." She simply said.

Another long moment of silence passed during which silence ensued and Tarin finally found tranquility once again in the star streaks. But it was broken by the yeoman's lingering presence. "Dismissed. And Zeror...meet me personally in Holodeck 1 in 48 hours at 0400. We're going to go for a run together." A team-building task, of sorts.

'Oh come on' Jeysa secretly fumed as she turned away from Tarin and headed for the door, she'd come here with somewhat of a plan and in only a short while Tarin had turned it against her completely.

[OFF]

--

CMDR Morgan Tarin
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

PO3 Jeysa Zeror
Yeoman
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Mimi]

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