Forgiveness (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 31 Mar 2025 @ 4:31pm by Commander Morgan Tarin & Lieutenant JG Hovar Kov

3,093 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 21 - Helix
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 1, Chaplain's Quarters
Timeline: MD 03, 1800 hrs

[ON]

Hovar was in his quarters after talking to his boss for some time. He was about to go on his shift, and he was in his uniform ready for his shift. Again, he was still confined to quarters. He was on his knees, praying, rosary in hand, praying for mercy, asking for forgiveness. His eyes were closed, trying to be calm, as the Klingon within him wanted to scream at the heavens demanding justice. However, there was no justice to be had from the heavens. Any sense of justice had to come from the temporal plane of existence, something that he did not want to deal with. His mind was busy trying to focus his mind on one course of action while his mind demanded another.

Such was the life of a peaceful warrior.

=/\= Chaplain Kov to Captain Tarin, will you please meet me in my quarters? =/\=

The worst she could say was no, he summarized. And so he sat on the couch, waiting for his response.

There was a silence - a void of communication which seemed to last a short eternity before the semi-muffled distinctive and dry inflection of the Human captain spoke a reply. "...Father...I'm in the middle of dinner..." The sound of chewing interrupted the sentence fragment before she continued, "...is it urgent?"

Hovar listened to Captain Tarin, and he was curious as to what eating. However...

"Please enjoy your meal first."

A much shorter pause followed this time which included several more chews. "Acknowledged. I'll stop by when I'm finished. Tarin out." The comm transmission terminated leaving the Nova-class' commanding officer back in a peaceful place of silence while she continued to consume her meal consisting of potato dumplings and tomato soup freshly prepared from the galley. She wasn't a slow eater by any measurable standard, which meant it only took approximately ten minutes before the tall Human woman was standing outside of the chaplain's door on deck 1. One of her long fingers reached out and tapped the chime on the entrance's small console.

"You wanted to see me, Father?"

Hovar took a deep breath, made the Sign of the Cross, and understood his assignment.

"Please, come in."

The door to the senior officer quarters swished open and Tarin slowly meandered several paces into the living room. Her hands were loosely clasped in front of her waist while a pair of hazel eyes discreetly snapped from side to side while taking notice of the furniture arrangements before focusing on the familiar large and robust stature belonging to the Klingon chaplain.

Hovar stood in front of the Captain. It was an interesting thing that Tarin addressed him by his ecclesiastical title. While appropriate, Hovar did not want to have any rank or title get in between them.

"I was wondering if you and I could discuss what happened under more calm circumstances..."

Hovar then took his communicator off of his chest, holding it up to her before setting it on his desk,

"And off the record."

A slight tilt of Tarin's head betrayed her curiosity despite her neutral facial expression and body language. "I wasn't aware we needed to discuss anything. What happened in the holodeck is done and yesterday's news." The dry inflection she possessed seemed to grate across the bulkheads inside the quiet room before she exhaled a light sigh. "But if you want - or need - to revisit it, my open door policy stands. Speak your mind."

Hovar nodded as he had to swallow the irony of that statement, his lips being pulled to the side. Next to where the communicator laid was a PADD. He grabbed the PADD, which was small in his hand, and tapped it for a moment as if in reluctance.

"It is hard to utilize your open-door policy when I am confined to quarters because I spoke my mind. Remember?"

The Klingon then shrugged, the PADD coming to a stop.

"And I wish to apologize to you for judging you unfairly, as well as my belief of I inability of trusting you or any member of this crew, my department head included."

Taking a deep breath handed her the PADD, which was on a page that would be familiar to commanding officers. It was a "Request for Transfer" form, pretty much filled out. All he needed to do was to send it to Tarin officially and whatever happens happens. Hovar had quite the serious expression on his face, wanting to express the gravity of the situation.

"A Chaplain who cannot be on equal terms with the Commanding Officer is a useless one, and for that discord I will take full responsibility for."

Tarin opened her mouth to rebuke Kov by explaining there was a time and place for such candor - the holodeck, in front of another officer, not being one of them. Yet she closed her mouth when he procured a slim silver administrative device then expressed his regret at the incident. There. Hopefully everything was settled. "Apology accepted, Mister Kov." She then noticed the PADD being handed to her and slowly took it with a glint of suspicion in her irises.

"What's this?" she asked before beginning to read the contents of the administrative document. Her brow furrowed ever so slightly and her eyes tightened while she scrolled. "You want off this ship?" The question was more rhetorical in nature and followed by a curt shake of her head. "No. Request denied." Several taps of her slender fingertips against the PADD ensued before she touched a large red confirmation box and deleted the form's contents. Tarin lowered her hand while looking up into his Klingon features. "This isn't how we solve problems on this ship, lieutenant." She handed the PADD back to him.

Hovar looked at the PADD as all of his efforts on drafting his request for transfer went up in smoke. As much as Hovar prayed and fasted and performed acts of penitence to let go of what happened. However, it was this type of frustration that Hovar was fighting with for days. He took the PADD back from the Captain as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Hovar had to. He did not want the “other guy” to come out.

“So you solve problems by ordering your officers to fire on another in cold blood?”

Taking a deep breath again, Hovar’s eyes never left her while his voice remained calm.

“I cannot trust you, Captain. I have been trying to ponder why you put us through that exercise in the first place. I never had an answer as to what triggered this whole mess. Is that ever going to be answered or is it just Captain’s prerogative?”

In an act, Hovar did take a step back, gaining some distance between the two while he set the PADD down on the desk.

“Do you also not care for how that affected me and how much I had to hold back from defending myself?”

Tarin's arms crossed atop her breasts while she listened to the flurry of questions; the burning desire to contemplate what she rarely spoke of to others in her life. Had she wronged him? Perhaps. Had it been undeserved? Maybe. Had there been a pertinent reason for her actions? Undeniably. "'Trust'," she repeated with a layer of grit in her voice. "You're right. You don't trust me. And Ensign Mimi doesn't trust you. But I put a phaser in her hand and despite my order, she refused to shoot you. Words matter but actions reveal the truth of affairs. I needed to know the depth of Mimi's prejudice and if the two of you are compatible aboard this ship. Officers who don't trust each other are a danger to the crew's integrity and I won't permit interpersonal conflict under my command."

Galileo's commander broke eyes with the chaplain then slowly wandered through his quarters' living room while focusing her gaze on the streaking stars outside of the nearby window. "I solve problems by any means necessary within my authority. The phaser was holographic and your life was never in any jeopardy. That you thought it was real was the necessary deception. You're a chaplain, a man who follows the teachings of your god - I witnessed you use your faith to overcome a difficult challenge. I saw a side of you I hadn't seen before which only existed on paper beforehand."

Hovar set the PADD down on the desk and moved into a further corner of his quarters to look out into the vastness of space, a reflection of God's glory and power. The Psalmist declares that God knows every star by name, and Hovar had seen his small share of stars. Yet, even in the face of the creation, Hovar could not help but to attempt to stay humble.

"The Prophet Zachariah says, "Speak the truth to one another; judge with honesty and complete justice in your gates. Let none of you plot evil against another in your heart, nor love a false oath. For these are the things I hate, thus says the Lord." Do you count deceiving your subordinates as being an exemption? Has it ever crossed your mind to ask me first about what is going on first rather than doing what you thought was best?"

Hovar turned his head to her,

"The sins of the flesh in word and deed are weighed in equal measure as the sins of the mind and of the soul. Whether you like it or not, your deceit comes from your soul, and under the circumstances, you killed me the moment you came up with your plan."

Raw anger boiled inside of Tarin for the first time in several months - years. Judgement through scripture was difficult enough for her to comprehend, but the associated questioning of her orders and judgement as a commanding officer was beginning to bring this interpersonal conflict to a boil. She turned to face him then walked toward his position until she was within arm's reach. "You killed yourself." Her words again echoed across the room. "You're a Klingon who defers action to some mythical higher power - you couldn't accept the truth of Ensign Mimi's words and now you blame me. You'd rather walk away from this ship than face your own demons." She walked sharply up to him with no regard for his feelings then pushed a heavy finger into his firm chest. "You coward."

If there ever was a word that would be a trigger for any Klingon, it would be "coward." When that is added with a physical gesture, the only response is to kill. Hovar took her finger in his hand and bent it back with force. Not enough to break it, but enough to distract her. Pulling his hand back, he smacked her hard across the face.

"I find your lack of wisdom concerning."

Hovar's posture was that of he was ready to kill, not just fight.

"Ensign Mimi and I had an understanding and an agreement long before you decided to get in the way. You placed us in a position by your hand, and you call me a coward?"

Hovar's words were low with his hatred for the captain fueling his breath.

"Klingons are killers, proclaiming the glory of Empire. If you are strong, you survive. If you are weak, you die. Mimi's entire clan proved themselves weak and they died. Mimi proved that she was strong, so she survived. The nightmares that still plagues Mimi's mind are a Klingon's wet dream. That is the Klingon way. I renounced that way for a way where the strong protects the weak, nurtures the sick, and honors the dead, cloths the naked, visits the imprisoned, to love the stranger. I have to do all that, and more, and you call me a coward?"

Needless to say, Hovar was pissed.

Tarin reeled from the impact across her face which forced her head to the side and staggered her stance. The sting of his admonishment and the grip on her hand forced a retaliatory exchange not meant to be seen by anyone. She used his grip on her extremity to pull herself back into his chest then grip his collar with mutually-intense eyes. "You're not Klingon - you're half-a-Klingon who worships another god. You've forsaken your people and the most honorable of them...Kahless. You're a disgrace to your Empire and stand here complaining about a holographic phaser pointed at you. You're as soft as a tribble...and know nothing about true honor."

“Kahless means nothing to me. The Empire means nothing to me. Your insults mean nothing to me. If you have to resort to insults, you have no standing.”

The Klingon then looked at his desk, thinking about smashing her through it, and he saw his stole resting gently on it. A series of events then flooded his mind. He remembered the day Yasmin told him about a wedding, of which he received no invitation. He then heard of other members of the crew going to the wedding. He thought of coming, and he wanted to show up to pay his respects and good wishes after the ceremony, but due to a last minute confession he could not attend. The events in the holodeck took place shortly before the wedding. A perverse thought entered his mind.

“The wedding.”

Hovar’s speech was matter of factly, and his eyes narrowed at her. His voice was also raised in disbelief,

“Does any of this have anything to do with me not being invited to her wedding?!”

"You're a chaplain - of course your presence was needed. That's part of your job on this ship, and you let this crew down for whatever selfish reason you deemed more important at the time," scolded Tarin. "What's the next duty you're going to run away from? What's the next thing you're going to claim 'means nothing' to you?"

The anger that emerged from the Klingon was intense, and the Klingon demonstrated why he was a valuable resource for the Security department.

"Are you serious?!"

By sheer force of strength, Hover backed her up, spun each other around, and pinned her to the bulkhead next to the viewport. It was such a height that Tarin and Hovar's eyes were at even keel, raising her slightly above the ground. His hand was gripped tightly around Tarin's neck. Hovar wanted to kill her, his eyes wanted to kill her. Yet, Father Hovar was not yet gone.

"You like to play god with this crew, to be the ultimate arbiter of our lives, to declare that your word is law and to hell with anything to the contrary. I obey a higher law, and right now that law tells me I should not kill you, to turn the other cheek, to watch with you during your darkest night. If you wish for me to be the Klingon that you want me to be, I will happily oblige you."

Hovar snarled.

"My life means nothing to me for the sake of this crew. My sleep means nothing to me for the sake of this crew. My hunger, my thirst, my sanity, and my off-duty time means nothing to me for the sake of this crew. Like you Captain, I do not have an off switch. I do not have "time off." I am always on duty; I am always at the ready. If someone did not need me at their wedding as an officiant, or even invited to the same, that is their call, not yours. If that is a concept you do not seem to understand, then you are a disgrace to your uniform, your family, Star Fleet, the Federation, and any child that has the misfortune of coming out of your womb."

The Klingon shook his head, his grip tightening,

"If you still want me to be the Klingon that is not a disgrace to the Empire instead of the Klingon who abandoned the Empire for the sake of your crew, the only question I have for you is what do you want me to tell your family what your last words were?"

The force of chaplain's grip against her throat pressed into the blood vessels of her neck and her eyes reddened with both fury and physical distress. She'd called his bluff and now finally he responded...like a true Starfleet officer. His admonishments rang across the quarters' walls while she kept her hazel eyes locked into his fury-ridden dark irises. For the first time in many years, she felt proud - proud to have an officer with gravitas under her command who could match her drive. Proud to see a Klingon warrior reveal himself as an asset to her crew.

Tarin grit her teeth then displayed a subtle smirk. A streak of blood stained one of her pearly white upper incisors from a cut inside her lip. "Tell them you finally grew a pair and I was afraid your God had neutered you." Her feet lightly kicked toward the ground which still remained out of reach. "I want you to be an officer on my ship...and act like one. I see who you are, now. A man of vigilance."

Hovar kept his grip on his captain's neck, wanting to smack the smile off of her face. Instead, Hovar kept his gaze on her eyes, moving closer to her face, his grip remaining tight.

"I worship the same God who slaughtered entire civilizations for one reason or another, who slew the firstborn of Egypt, guilty and innocent alike, due to the actions of a king with a hardened heart, who beheaded a giant at the hands of a shepherd to save a kingdom, who sent his only-begotten son to be the ultimate sacrifice, to experience pain beyond comprehension, to be scourged and crucified for our sins, for me, and for you."

Wanting to make his point clear, he spoke with a voice that he hoped got the message across.

"Call him whatever you like, be it merciful or tyrant, my God is not a bitch, like you."

And with those words, he let her go, stepping back a few steps waiting to see what she would do next, to see what she dared to do next.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CMDR Morgan Tarin
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Hovar Kov
Chaplain
USS Galileo-A

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