Escape from Mount Tarin (Part 3 of 3)

Posted on 25 Jan 2025 @ 8:18pm by Commander Morgan Tarin & Ensign Mimi & Lieutenant JG Hovar Kov

2,942 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 20 - Reconstruction
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 5, Holodeck 1
Timeline: MD 06, 1212 hrs

Previously, on Escape from Mount Tarin (Part 2)...

"As for me, like you so eloquently described? I'm the captain of this starship which means the buck stops with me. I'm the final authority on this vessel and the one responsible for the well-being of all those under my command. Of course I decide life and death...with every decision I make. That's my burden and this is the Pleiades Cluster, not some Risian retreat in which to proselytize select moral values when they're convenient. People die out here. Starfleet loses starships in these sectors on a quarterly basis. That's the risk of exploring the frontier. I don't want to have to write letters to any of this crew's families explaining how I killed their son or daughter. And the two of you are getting in the way of that." Tarin flapped her hand up into the air with an obvious lack of patience. "A lack of trust between any of Galileo's crew jeopardizes our integrity and it's my job to fix that. This is my ship. My orders, my prerogative, uninfluenced by your god's or anyone else's higher power. Am I clear, chaplain?"

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

The Chaplain sat there with a confident gaze, yet he was stirred. He listened to her confession, but he knew it was not the true one. Her true confession, he suspected, would have to wait for another time. His breath was calm in the face of the woman, and his heart ached for grace to come upon her soul. However, at the end, she made the ultimate mistake, at least in Hovar's eyes. His head silently shook in disappointment as he slowly blinked.

"If you think I am as soft as a Tribble's bottom, you are gravely mistaken."

Hovar took a deep breath.

"You showed a Star Fleet Chaplain of your intent to have a Star Fleet officer, who was under extreme physical duress, to fire a weapon, simulated or otherwise, upon another Star Fleet officer, against her will and his consent, because of his race. When the victim did not want to, you went so far as to grab the Officer and told her it was a direct order from you as her Commanding Officer. You could have reignited her traumas, furthering her mistrust of me."

Chaplain Hovar stayed where he was so the Captain could continue to look down upon him. Whatever was going on, even by Klingon standards this was much.

"You further claim that Ensign Mimi and I are a danger to the integrity of the mission of the ship, and it is your prerogative to fix that. It is my prerogative, as Chaplain to report such misconduct of the Captain to the Chief Counselor and the First Officer of this action and questioning your mental fitness. It is also my prerogative, should they do nothing, to report this incident to the Office of the Chief of Chaplains at Star Fleet Command and Star Fleet Medical."

It was then that Hovar stood up, still being as calm as ever.

"Would you care to explain to the both of us...."

Hovar's head nodded towards Mimi, but his eyes never left the captain's.

"....why you felt this particular course of action was necessary and leave it here, or shall this incident reach to ears outside of this Holodeck? I am confident that I am not the only individual who wants, or will want, to know why."

Tarin took a step forward, inside of the Klingon's personal bubble. With rising blood pressure and a quickly-dwindling fuse, she looked up at the taller crew member. The volume of her voice lowered into a tritanium-like reverberation. "Threaten me again, Mister Kov, and these will be your final moments aboard this starship. Get the hell out of my holodeck and go file your 'reports'. You're confined to quarters until further notice. I don't indulge recalcitrant behavior - you should have led with your question first before denouncing me and this exercise."

Hovar looked down at the smaller human as she got close to him, real close. So close that under different circumstances, Tarin would be dead where she stood. He listened to every word as it was spoken out of her mouth, and he showed a ray of indifference.

If her objective was to scare him or make him bend, she had met the wrong Klingon. Hovar had trust in a higher power that this...creature...could never comprehend. A few verses in Matthew came to his mind, but he didn't feel like saying it out loud. Instead of talking out loud, he held his position for a moment longer. The Klingon priest was not afraid of her, at all, and wanted that silent conversation to play in their eyes. She will never break him.

"I understood then, Ms. Mimi. I understand better now."

Hovar's eyes glanced up at Mimi as he gave a gentle smile and a calm bow of the head, making it clear that he was going to give her all the space she needed. Nothing had changed.

With that, he moved out of the...whitewashed tomb's way and left the Holodeck, heading to his quarters. Wondering how in the name of God he was going to address this to his boss.

Mimi remained quiet throughout Tarin and Hovar's...... discussion, only partly surprised at how the Chaplain had spoken to her, though somewhat blunt as she'd found Klingons to be his argument was still good and she found herself in agreement with a lot of what he'd said. As Hovar walked past her to leave she desperately wanted to follow him or to speak up that she did agree with him but while the Captain's blood was up and with only just being given the Ok to marry John she darne't speak so she just stood there.

Privately taking a deep and semi-calming breath, Galileo's commanding officer released a warm puff through her nostrils then turned to face and approach the ensign. Anger was a strong emotion and Tarin was as susceptible to it as any other Human. Control of said rising temper, however, was a practiced skill she still had yet to master. "I'm trying to teach you something, Mimi," she quietly spoke to the Nekomi to break the deafening silence in the room. "I didn't put a phaser in your hand and order you to shoot the chaplain because I thought you'd actually do it - I did it so you could learn something about yourself. That eyes are always watching us and judging the decisions we make. You still don't accept responsibility for your prejudice...instead of looking inside of yourself to challenge your own beliefs, you blame 'external factors' for putting you in a situation you fail to properly resolve. You blame me for your attack on Captain Keh'G; Kreanus' environment and Klingon presence. The galaxy isn't fair, ensign, but how we navigate it requires you to overcome these challenges. Do you understand this?"

"Responsibility," Mimi said slowly, the multi syllable word always somewhat tricky for her. "I tried to be responsible, twice I asked you to remove me from a situation that both you and I knew had potential to end badly but you said no. I held my nerve and my feelings at bay for as long as I could, trying to be that Starfleet officer. My people do not like violence but there are times where it is needed and then sometimes we think with our hearts and claws rather than our brains. You say the galaxy is not fair, I know this, there are lots of challenges. My whole life since the Klingons came has been a challenge, learning Federation Standard, learning first human and then other species' customs, learning technical skills and language." Mimi paused for a moment to breathe then told Tarin something she'd not told anyone other than her foster mother. "I failed my first attempt at the Starfleet entry exam, when the rejection letter came I did not leave my room for three days and barely ate I was so heart broken, I woke up in a hospital on the fourth day."

The soft sound of Tarin's boots across the holodeck's smooth surface played across their combined ears until she stood very close to Mimi. In a rare gesture of solidarity, the captain reached out and set her palm atop the shorter furred operations officer's shoulder. "I know you weren't successful on your first attempt. I've read your Academy transcript. You aren't the first or last officer to have faced challenges along the way. Me? I failed Advanced Warp Theory in my sophomore year because I was too consumed with tactical studies...I wanted to take back from the Dominion what they'd taken from us following the attack on Earth."

Tarin turned away and released her hand from the fellow officer while slowly meandering around the compact holodeck. "None of us are 'perfect'. We aren't Borg and we shouldn't strive to be. All I ask of this crew - of you - is to recognize flaws and deficiencies and correct them. I'm willing to forgive a first offense, maybe even a second. Beyond that? It shows me a lack of personal improvement. This isn't the first or second time for you. Or third. Every encounter you have with a Klingon seems to produce chaos at this ship's collective expense. You need to do better. Not being able to trust another crew member is something I won't tolerate. You're jeopardizing the mission, the ship and this family we have here on Galileo if you can't see Kov beyond his exterior."

"If a Vorta or a Jem'Hadar passed enlisted camp or the Academy, would you trust him right from the moment you saw him? Let him know your intimate secrets, let him take care of a loved pet or something else you cared about?" Mimi asked, she caught the mention of the Dominion attack on Earth, she wondered if for all the anti prejudice she spouted she had some of her own. "I may not trust Hovar yet but I may in time and for now I will work with him where I need to."

Tarin shook her head at the attempt to distract and obfuscate from the issue at hand. The Dominion...the commander despised them. With severe prejudice. "That crew member you might not trust is the same one you'll have to rely upon when you life's in jeopardy. Not just yours, but your future husband's and possibly your children. Hesitate and you'll lose your life, possible the lives of your entire family. You'll sacrifice this crew, its integrity and yours all because you're a bigot and can't trust a Klingon." Tarin had forcefully spoken and now scowled at the troubled officer. "This is your final chance, Mister Mimi. Improve yourself or be removed. I've come to terms with my own prejudice - you're planets apart."

"Maybe now Keh'G is dead things may be easier, I have wanted for years to find anyone who was at Kemi, now the person that was in charge of it is dead I have some...." Mimi paused for a moment as she thought for the right word. "Closure? finding my own people would be even better."

"Finding your own people?" The commander creased her brow while interpreting the larger implications of such a statement. "You've...never encountered another Nekomi since your exodus? You don't know where they reside?" Tarin was familiar with the details contained within Mimi's personnel file but couldn't recall any pointed information surrounding her species beyond Starfleet Medical's species report analysis.

"No, not a single one, as far as I know I was the only survivor and no one I have met has ever seen another of my kind, we searched the Federation database, my foster mother called in some favours," Mimi replied. "I even looked through a Klingon database once, all I found was a vague reference to a species that sounds like the Bespiri, they are friends of the Nekomi."

No trace of her own kind? No records within the vast expanse that was the Federation Archives and Scientific Database? Something sounded wrong. Perhaps out of place. Or not entirely 100-percent truthful. "You're telling me...nothing about your species is present in the FASD and even your adoptive parents don't have any information about the Nekomi's whereabouts? And only the Klingons have the sole clue you've so far found?"

Mimi nodded slightly. "The only things in the archives are what Maria and the crew that rescued me put in there, from me and what they found on Kemi, which was not a lot. The orbital fire from the Klingons destroyed almost everything. No one in the Federation had met one of my kind before, I know we travelled a long way to get to Kemi and it took a long time."

For a short moment, Tarin turned away from the ensign while she paced across the small holodeck's deck. Her hands were clasped behind her back while the portrayed an aura of unbridled command - at first. After a single round, she'd moved her arms to her chest which crossed above and below the other just below her bosom. "I've always known something was different about you but I didn't know you're a lost child. No one should go through life without knowing their ancestry and people." The cutting pair of Tarin's hazel eyes snapped into the Nekomi's dark green irises. This new revelation shed a great deal of insight into the ensign's recent behavioral problems aboard Galileo.

"Do you want me to find them? Your people." The dry inflection in Tarin's voice was cut with a prominent aura of command presence and finality. "Will that truly solve all these problems?" That was perhaps the greatest question beyond the pending offer.

Though it was brief Mimi thought she saw a glimmer of humanity in Tarin's reaction. "I have been searching for nine years so far with very little luck." She gave a slight sigh, her tail drooping down a little. "If finding them will help me with Klingons, I do not know the real answer to that, maybe knowing if anyone else somehow survived and somehow made it home, any of my family."

Tarin watched Mimi, judged her short furried appearance then stared deeply into the young officer's facial features in a most judicial manner. "Nine years is too long. This crew can find them and I'll order it as the mission permits." A future reckoning, perhaps? Or a final judgement between the woman and her kind should others like her be discovered? "It won't be easy but this ship's the best environment to accomplish such an investigation. However, if I devote Galileo's limited resources to this...to you, what will you reciprocate? Will you finally become the officer you should already be? You're behind the curve, ensign, and it's a hard sell to convince me this'll make you suddenly turn over a new leaf."

Mimi held Tarin's eye for only a few seconds before breaking away, she gently paced around the green and black room, her muscles protesting slightly. "I could never convince you of that, I do not know it for myself, all I can do is try my hardest. I very much doubt this ship will be able to find my home."

The captain's feet stepped closer to the Nekomi then she tilted her head. "Are you afraid of something? A new discovery? Take my offer." She extended her hand. "This is what it means to be a Starfleet officer."

"Maybe I am afraid," Mimi eventually said. "Of what will happen if I do find them. Will I find my family, will I want to leave Starfleet and stay with them? Will they accept me, they know aliens exist but me marrying one?"

A slight turn of the head followed Tarin's momentary pause. "Fear of you and your people; that won't happen until you find out for yourself. I can't answer those questions...only you can. But only if you want to. It's time for you to make your decision."

"I remain doubtful that you can help in more ways than we have already tried," Mimi said looking up at the taller woman. "But I would like to accept your help."

Searching the young woman's dark green eyes, Tarin saw a wide range of emotions within the operations officer. Trepidation, longing, doubt...hope? "Excellent decision. Report to Lieutenant Ullswater as soon as you're showered, fed and presentable. The best time to start this search was yesterday; the second-best time is right now. Dismissed." She started to turn away from the ensign before halting mid-way and craning her head back toward Mimi. "Today's the start of a new chapter in your life. Myself and this crew are here to support you. Whatever you need, don't hesitate to ask."

"Aye Sir." Mimi replied. She headed for the exit extremely confused. Lured to the holodeck under false pretenses, forced to retell her story again in full gruesome detail then ordered to shoot another officer only to then see a glimmer of humanity from Tarin and an offer of help after all of the earlier heated discussion. Was she going to be any nicer to her now?

[OFF]

--

CMDR Morgan Tarin
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Hovar Kov
Chaplain
USS Galileo-A

ENS Mimi
Deputy Operations Manager
USS Galileo-A

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