Taking His Own Path

[NDak 0]

The Talon hummed along as it headed for the Dumok’azen system on the edge of Romulan space. In the chambers just of the Oira, the new commanding officer of the Talon, Destorie N’Dak sat brooding. He had intercepted a message meant for the executive officer from tr’Vatrix and it had, as the saying went, gone over like a ton of bricks. Whatever the history between himself and t’Rexan had been, the new found interest her jol had taken in the meddling of affairs aboard the Talon had proved to be rather bothersome. On some level, it was almost touching that he cared so much for her, but on another level, it was incredibly childish that he continued to abuse his authority to assuage her pride, and to some degree his own.

 

Of course this was nothing entirely new from the man; when Destorie had first been elevated to Daise’Erei’Riov it had been a meddling tr’Vatrix who’d threatened his life if anything had happened to tr’Rexan. And again he continued to threaten him. Destorie sighed deeply; and t’Rexan wondered why he’d so seriously considered leaving the Talon when the offer had been put before him?

 

He was tired of the threats. He was tired of the manipulation. He was tired of the micromanagement. If tr’Vatrix wanted to come ‘lay down the law,’ Destorie was ready to tell him to come right ahead, and send along his resignation notice in the process. He was the son of a powerful house with allies in key positions in the political sphere and within the Galae itself and regardless of how powerful tr’Vatirx thought himself to be, he could not stop him from leaving ; perhaps ending his Galae career, yes but that wouldn’t be forever.

 

Sighing once more, Destorie glanced back to the communiqué. The arrogance of the man was astounding, and his attempts to instill fear were even more pathetic. Destorie, frankly, did not care if he interrupted his so’droz to come be an ass or not. If he did, that was his choice, and if t’Rexan let him, then she was equally culpable. He had gone along with this entire fracas in the first place because he felt that by speaking out of turn and in the manner that she had, that t’Jhiin had violated the scared right of Mnhei’sahe. Regardless of whether or not any of the crew wanted to be there, the station which t’Rexan and tr’Vatrix held demanded respect from their social and military inferiors and the fact that they had chosen to share that moment with the crew was even more impetus to honor them and that moment; yet in their response they had not exactly been honorable themselves.

 

Perhaps he should have taken the position at Galae Command. At this point he did na know, what he did know was that he was tired of the games that verrul tr’Vatrix kept playing. If he wanted him gone, and he was so powerful, then do it. Make your power play, but stop acting like a child.

 

With a shake of his head he turned his attention back to the actual matter at hand. It had been ten days and in truth he had been delaying in the execution of the punishment; but not in some attempt to show the veruul t’Jhiin mercy. Instead, he’d spent it examining the facts of the case and looking into the implications from tr’Vatrix that he was not sure she hadn’t been a part of the mutiny.

 

Destorie was sick of hearing about that blasted mutiny. It had been an exceptionally difficult and trying time for everyone aboard the ship, and one that should have gone away already; yet like a Fenivian Slime Slug, it managed to somehow resurrect itself with but the slightest drip of blood. He had opened all the records he had access too, including the full testimonies of the crewman and had looked into her own logs, communications and access records – all to find nothing particularly interesting or new. There was no new ground breaking find that tied her to the mutiny, nothing that showed she was particularly culpable. In fact, the only piece of evidence that even possibly could be construed was her actions during the stabbing of t’Rexan and that, he made sure to note, was all from the perspective of t’Aehjae who had spent the entire time caterwauling and nearly got herself executed. What did tr’Vatrix want? For everyone to take a bullet to the heart for the woman? If that’s what he thought was required of an officer, he was going to be sadly mistaken, especially, Destorie considered, if one was ever hurtling towards tr’Vatrix.

 

Having found no new groundbreaking evidence to tie t’Jhiin to the mutiny, he had cleared that charge from her record again, noting that no credible evidence existed to even begin to question her loyalty to the Talon or the Empire. Personal loyalty, he went on to note in the file, was not a matter subject to the jurisdiction of the Galae and that even if she did not personally care for the Khre’Riov, which alone was insufficient evidence to show she’d ever acted on those feelings.

 

With that done, he’d then set about gathering the evidence to support the insubordination charge. If tr’Vatrix wanted justice, he would get it, but Destorie had long vowed to follow the order of the law and regulations of the Galae; and while he did intend to send a message to the crew, that message was not that he would be a brutal dictator, but a just one who would not tolerate behavior outside of those regulations. That was important to him, and if wasn’t to tr’Vatrix, then it would be he who would have to explain himself to a tribunal for abuse of his power.

 

Of course the insubordination charge was easy enough to substantiate, and Destorie had found sufficient evidence to warrant it. Now he just had to carry out sentencing. He glanced to the chrono on the wall and exhaled again before looking back to the communiqué.

 

“Very well,” he said outloud. “You shall have your pound of flesh.”