Expectations and Matters of Trust

[Capt Rian Kwai 0]

Expectations and Matters of Trust

Admiral BluRox & Captain Kwai

 

From the last sim.....

Blu looked at those assembled around the table, "That being said, we already have a new mission which we'll be leaving for in about a week to two weeks once we've stocked up the ship and done minor testing. The rest of the tests will have to take place along the way. It seems, that the USS Excalibur, has went AWOL.....and we're being sent...to find her and bring her back."

 

"Say what?" as Kwai raises a brow.

 

"We're going hunting people. While we appreciate the help they leant, their abandoning a known damaged ship is cause for serious concern, and frankly, I'm quite angry about them endangering all of your lives." BluRox noted Rian was about ready to pass out, and decided to end the meeting. "We'll discuss this more, but I want you to eat now. Holly will fill you in on class specs, and will hand out crew quarter assignments to you."

 

Kwai clenches her jaw, not a happy camper with either Corizon or Wydown.

 

"Captain Kwai, I'd like for you to join me in my ready room for a few minutes please. Now!" she snapped a bit, not giving her a choice. Blu turns and heads towards the door, ignoring the conversation going on between Holly and Kania, and heads towards the ready room.

 

Rian brushes off her uniform, "Here we go again," as she glances back at the rest, nods and smile, heading out the door.

 

 

 

Blu enters the Ready Room and moves around behind the large black desk, the only thing currently sitting upon it a terminal and 2 padds. On the wall behind her she had hung a set of blueprints to study the layout of the new decks, working to familiarize herself better with the new ship.

 

Feeling a bit discombobulated by the look of the bridge and the doorways, without an escort it takes Rian a moment to locate the Ready Room door. And while she'd been asked to report directly and was expected, she still took a moment to take a deep breath and press the chime to warn Blu of her arrival. Going in hopping mad about Holly wouldn't do much good, so Rian continued to mutter 'peacemaker' under her breath as a reminder of Gail's advice as she waited for Blu's permission to enter.

 

Beginning to wonder if she had lost Kwai on the way here, or if she had finally passed out and hadn't heard her hit the deck, Errrika was about to call Fenn to go looking for the woman, when the door chime rang. "Enter," as she watched the pale ghost of a Trill enter the room. "Sit down Captain," pointing to the seat across from her.

 

"Admiral" She nodded as she took a seat.

 

"Medical was supposed to look you over on DS9. Why do I get the feeling that you ignored that advice?" Blu held herself very formal and a bit reserved, trying to tell herself to be calm, not to hold a grudge, and not to yell at the woman. If she did, she might knock her over in her state.

 

Peacemaker, peacemaker, peacemaker. "I was seen by not one but two doctors." She refrained from mentioning one of them happened to be that Wydown nut. "And cleared for duty by the DS9 medic. The records are accessible in the Republic D computer." She folded her hands in her lap and waited. While she was prepared to into battle for her job, she was waiting to see if that was necessary yet.

 

"I see," tapping her claws on the edge of the stone topped desk. Someone finally gave her a desk she wouldn't destroy, but it made for a discomforting clicking sound to any sitting across from her. "And did they happen to mention how you'd be able to do your job if you were passed out? You already look like you're just hanging on by a thread, and that thread is frayed, unraveling, and ready to break. I'd like for you to speak with someone from Star Fleet Medical while we are so close, and find out why you are showing no improvement."

 

"Funny. Sounds like the same lecture I tried on you several weeks ago." She spoke pointedly. "And I have. There's not a lot anyone can do at the moment but let the meds do their work, whatever the frell they're supposed to do."

 

Blu's ears pin back a bit further at Kwai's response, eyes narrowing a bit, but she holds her tongue a moment, and then relaxes her facial muscles a bit. "I was told you were poisoned. I did not see this in your earlier reports. Why not?"

 

The warning bells going off in Rian's head that she was pushing it, she took a deep breath and tried to remember to edit herself as she spoke, "I've been kind of busy lately. Helping with a rescue mission, dealing with an injured CO, keeping a mortally wounded ship space worthy, trying to keep the crew moral from blowing up like the stardrive and worrying about the nut who decided to abandon us in the middle of nowhere. I've had little time for sleeping, let alone editing or amending my reports on the Oest business. Besides you can't have two command staff members laid up in sickbay, someone's got to keep us running and you were in worse shape." She folded her arms across her chest defensively, more to protect herself for the next barrage of questions.

 

Control, control, control. Do not bite the woman's head off..... " No, not acceptable. This could have killed you, and then where would the ship have been with me in medical and you dead. Kania could have filled in just fine while you were undergoing treatment."

 

"And I could have filled in for you when you were being treated," Holly materialized next to Rian.

 

"Holly, not now please, this is between Rian and myself. Please go see to the crew quarters and assignments for now. We'll talk after I'm finished here."

 

Holly frowned, "Fine, but I still say a stiff breeze would blow her over. Call me when you need me." Holly disappeared from the room.

 

"Sorry about that, we've been talking a lot in here lately and she's gotten used to just popping in."

 

"I can see that." Rian answered thinly.

 

Blu dipped her ears back again momentarily then brought them back to that 65 degree angle before she continued, "So, your first command, and I read that you chose Will to be your first officer. Not a bad choice, but how did you both manage to let Excalibur just drop you in the middle of nowhere?"

 

"Perhaps you should be questioning Captain Corizon's motives rather than Mr. Robinson's or my judgment on this. He is a Star Fleet Captain, there should have been no reason for me to doubt his word when he stated they'd been called out and his replacement would arrive momentarily. It was by no means Mr. Robinson's fault, nor mine for that matter, but since I was the Captain of that train wreck out there and someone has to take responsibility, then the buck stops here." She pointed at herself as she had gotten worked up about Blu's lecture, Holly's appearance and now this?

 

"Captain, trust me, I intend on doing just that. That's why I said we were going hunting. I intend to have a very long talk with this Corizon about his motives, and just what the hell he thought he was doing. That and where he's taken that ship, he had orders to return to Mars. As for you and Mr. Robinson, I was not questioning your motives; I was just asking you a question. As for that 'train wreck', that ship just survived one hell of an explosion and brought most of its crew back alive. Furthermore, why in the bloody blue blazes do you think I'm blaming you? 'The buck stops here?' Really Rian, you can do better than that. You've been watching too many old Terran holovids in the rec hall using quotes like that. I don't know what to do about you right now though," Blu stood and pacing over to the window to look out at the Republic D.

 

"Well, apparently that goes for both of us because right now I can't tell what the frell you want from me. You asked the damn question like it was our fault that Corizon went MIA us. You yell at me for looking out for your best interest. Then you lecture me for not looking out for myself. I'm getting real mixed signals here, Blu. Either you want me to help you or you don't. Make up your mind all ready."

 

"Are you sitting in my Ready Room?"

 

"For the moment, yes."

 

"Did you not hear me say 'we' were going hunting?"

 

"'We' in Star Fleet terms is loosely defined as the crew of a starship. Which, considering you've all ready replaced me with Holly once tells me I'm not quite sure if I'm a part of yet? Especially after that staff meeting you just held that told everyone that not everyone might be joining the Republic E. Remember." She answered a bit tartly, but she wanted a straight forward answer. Either Kwai was expected as part of the crew or not.

 

Blu walked back over the desk, leaning her paws against it, and leaning across the desk towards Kwai, "Damn it woman, do you know you're bloody impossible!" Pushing back she paced around the desk and spun Kwai's chair around to face her. "We, as in my First Officer, one Captain Rian Kwai. But I need to tell you one thing first. I need to know that I can trust you. Believe me, it took alot for me to ask anyone for help back on DS9, and I thought you could be discrete and help me as requested. But you totally went against everything I asked of you. I have to be able to trust you; you have to be able to trust me. And as for Holly, she was assisting me here, after you took command of my ship. It was only pure luck that they're letting me have this one and not just handing it right over to you. Were it not for my knowledge of the Gamma Quadrant and Alpha Quadrant Neutral Zones, to go look for Excalibur, they most likely would have given her directly to you. Now, you just have to wait a short bit. As for Holly, she's here, you have to learn to deal with her, and I'll remind her she has to adapt as well, but she's here to help you and me."

 

Being spun around made Rian catch her breath, she gripped to armrests to try to maintain her composure. "You don't trust me because I took you to sickbay? Blu, I'm not a medical professional and I could barely handle you as it was. Would I have done something differently if I had a choice? Sure. But at the moment I didn't know what else to do. You need more help than I could give you. If you're going to be mad at me for trying to look out for you, then that's on you, not me. You know me well enough to know I do my job to the best of my ability and aside from that one damn incident, when have I ever let you down before? And Holly? Holly's a nut. If you think you can control her, then fine. I'll deal with it."

 

"Discretion Rian, discretion. This is where I need your trust as well. I never said no to the medical help, I just wanted it somewhere quiet. I just wanted you to take me to my quarters, and then get me help. I needed to keep this quiet, which now you know why. I'm very close to riding a permanent desk assignment, and....to be honest, that scares me more than being in a room with a angry, drunken Robinson and 5 phaser rifles. And you hadn't let me down to that point. I would not have asked you if there had not been good reason. And as for Holly, she may be a nut, but I've transferred some of the ships records to your terminal to review. The only reason any of us are still here at the moment, is because of that AI. She found an anomaly in the warp core that was going to make it implode. She separated the ship, taking the star drive away from the saucer to protect it, while at the same time, defended it from several oncoming Oest ships, and intended on remaining aboard to make sure she could try to collapse that wormhole with the exploding core. You know the rest, I brought her out, but she saved most of the crew that day, and countless others by collapsing that wormhole before they made their way further into our quadrant and began taking more of our people. "

 

"You don't have to recap for me what she's done. I know." She sighed tiredly. "I'm sorry Blu. That's all I can say at this point."

 

Blu hisses some unintelligible Caitian curse and turns away from the infuriating woman for a moment. "You're impossible, do you know that!? You said the Starfleet docs said you could work, but you don't look much like it to me, but you've never lied to me that I know of. So I'll take you at your word. But I need you to tell me, that I can trust you if I ask you to trust me, will you?"

 

"As long as you're not going to ask me to violate Star Fleet protocol or engage in something that's an egregious violation of the Prime Directive, then yes, you can trust me. I'm sorry to put that condition on this, but....I value my job and what the Fleet stands for. I'm not going to go cowboying across the galaxy on a whim." Realizes she thinks she may have just described Corizon, she blinks and shakes her head. "As to the StarFleet doctors, you know how well I trust them." She pursued her lips. "Right now, that's what they're telling me. A nap wouldn't hurt, but otherwise, I've been cleared for duty. I'm just......." she stops, shaking her head, and barely audible, can be heard muttering 'no excuses, Ri.' She looked at Blu. "Let's try this again, okay? New ship, fresh start."

 

"So, do you want the job?"

 

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't want the job." She folded her arms across her chest, daring Blu to test her again.

 

"Don't be taking an attitude with me Rian," pinning her ears back a bit again. "It was a simple question."

 

She unfolded her arms, waited a few beats before she answered. "Yes. I want the job."

 

"Good." Walking away from her she rounds the desk and presses a button at the base of the console. "Computer, begin Commanding Officer's log, recording date and time. Effective immediately, Captain Rian Kwai transfers command of the USS Republic-D to the Utopia Planitia Shipyards, and in doing so, resumes the duties of First Officer aboard, NCC 1371 the USS Republic-E. Acting First Officer Holly will remain as the Emergency Command Hologram in case both Captain Kwai and I are unable to serve our functions."

 

Rian had the feeling that Blu was still frustrated with the Trill, but at the moment she was just to tired to fight any more. She sat silently, watching what the Admiral was up to.

 

Still not satisfied by the Trill's responses, but still she respected that the woman had stood up for herself, and that's what she needed here in an executive officer. Blu decided not to push the matter more at this time, but she would revisit it later if need be with the woman.

 

"Thank you, Admiral." She nodded and stood up.

 

"Going somewhere?"

 

She answered quietly, "I'm assuming you'll want the Republic E up and ready to go as soon as possible if we're to catch up to the Excalibur, sir. Unless I'm mistaken and there's something else you need?" There's no challenge in that statement by Kwai, merely her expectation that Blu would want her to get started right away.

 

"No Rian, I want you to sit and read over the ship's spec's and look at these blueprints. Holly's been made aware of your situation and we are both agreed that we need you fresh for the mission. She is seeing to making the arrangements we need to get stuff aboard, seems she has a way with the local computers to make sure we actually get everything we request, and perhaps a few more things. You'll notice we're not the old standard Sovereign class ship. We've been able to adapt some known technology to make her state of the art because of the duties we often pull. The ship has been equipped with ablative armor, We carry both quantum and normal torpedoes, and we will carry for emergency use 2 multiphasic torpedoes. We have also added 4 additional phaser banks. Holly will deliver the crew assignments and quartermaster lists to you after you've eaten and gotten some rest. I also received a note from headquarters with a very short message to pass along to you. Though I don't' know what it means," picks up one of the pads and pulls up the message for the Trill, "Rian, drink the tea." "Do you know what it means?"

 

"Who sent that?" She raises both brows, hoping to hell it wasn't Gail because if it was, she'll kill her.

 

"It was sent strangely enough, from the First Officer of the Excalibur before they left DS9 to bring you back it seems."

 

"Oh that screwy woman. She's insane, you know that?" Rian scowled. "She gave me some damn home remedy along with the meds from DS9. You know that stuff tastes like sewage sludge?"

 

"Still, if it helps, you should take it. Now, Holly's pointed out to me that you must eat at regular intervals, so use my replicator, get what you need and read over these files. I'm going to go down and see to another matter that I want to take care of before we leave. As we're home and waiting for the rest of the supplies and gear to be loaded, I wanted to take full advantage of the fact that we're home for so many of the crew, that we give them a break as well, and I want to have our annual holiday party here upon the new ship."