"Abrasive"

[Col. C.E. Harper 0]

"Abrasive"

Harper/Vaos Log 12.07.05

May 26, 2397

Keeping station with the Vacitu

 

 

Korix Vaos sat next to his locker, finishing his boot shining, and moving onto his silver oak leaves. He thought he should look polished when Harper dressed him down.

 

Colonel Harper rode a turbolift down through the Agincourt, having finally escaped the bridge. She was too careful to grumble out loud, but her internal rant was distracting enough that the slight jolt as the 'lift changed from vertical to horizontal motion didn't register.

 

Korix ran his polishing cloth over the rank pip one last time before placing it back on his collar. His fingers moved over the earring in his right ear, and he placed it on the cloth. It was silver, with an elaborate pennant in the center that attached to the lower ear. Starfleet allowed Bajorans to wear it only because it was religious, but it had never held that meaning for Korix...or at least not since he'd been wearing it.

 

The slightly larger bump when the 'lift finally stopped did register, but its only effect on her rant -- now onto insulting the ancestry of just about everyone from General Kimura, who given her this assignment, on down -- was to cause her to forget the Klingon insult she'd been about to use and revert to Federation Standard.

 

She stepped out of the lift.

 

Carefully, Korix reattached the jewelry to his ear and placed the polishing cloth back in his locker. He slid his feet into his boots, which shimmered like an onyx gemstone. As soon as Harper stepped into the room, he'd be ready for her.

 

Quick strides carried her down the corridor to the NNC. She nodded politely to the couple of crewmembers she passed, but didn't linger, even when one clearly tried to speak. Arriving, she waved a hand at the doors, triggering them open, and stuck her head in. Zeroing in at once on Korix, she said curtly, "My office," withdrew, and went next door before he could reply.

 

A slight, unnoticeable smile crossed his lips--he loved it when he was correct. He followed in measured steps into her office, letting her sit first.

 

Harper settled behind her desk, regarding Korix coolly. She pointedly didn't wave him to a seat. The silence stretched.

 

Korix stood, rigid and orderly, his training showing. He imagined this was the part that most of Harper's victims cowered in fear, but she wasn't so scary as some of the generals that had dressed him down in his younger career--though he did respect her more than a few others on this garden spade.

 

When she'd decided she'd let him sweat enough, Harper broke the silence. "Major," she began quietly, and then paused.

 

The only emotion, at least externally showing, was a slight glance at Harper. "Colonel."

 

"It's generally considered poor form to anticipate your CO's prerogative to be brutally honest, Major." Her face didn't twitch. Not even a blink.

 

Korix nodded. "Well yes," his tone respectful. "But you know as well as I do, which is probably why you're pissed, that I was correct."

 

Harper sighed. "Major, let me explain something to you..."

 

"Colonel, if your going to launch into a speech about the chain of command, or respect for commanding officers...don't. You'd be wasting your time with it."

 

"Not at all, Major. To be perfectly blunt --" She paused, eyeing him appraisingly.

 

He lifted his eyebrows, as if to say, "Oh?"

 

"If one of us is going to have the pleasure of telling a barnacle where to put it, it's going to be me." Her fingers came up to brush the rank insignia neatly pinned to her chest. "That's what these get me. Clear?"

 

Korix smirked ever so slightly. "The only reason I don't have those," Korix said

ruefully. "Is my propensity to say what's on my mind."

 

"Time and place, Major. No different from any other tactical engagement." She allowed a faint scowl to trace across her features. "If you learn nothing else from your time here, you will learn that."

 

"Perhaps, but you know as well as I do what will happen when Davies turns the prisoner over," he paused slightly. "That half-crazed megalomaniac that runs the Empire these days will demand to have him, and the 'Fleeters will turn him over, and there goes any chance of getting information out of him."

 

Brutally squashing an urge to throttle the man, and repressing a lesser urge to sink her head into her hands, Harper replied, "You studied tactics and strategy, Major. I know you must have, and I know you must have been successful, because no one gets out without having at least the rudiments drummed so thoroughly into their heads that they dream about it."

 

Korix repressed the urge to smile; it wouldn't serve his purpose. Bluntly, "And my tactical advantage, Colonel, isn't to make friends and have cookies and milk with Captain Davies... or you for that matter. Now while I realize I put you in a bad situation, which I am actually sorry for, because I hold some measure of respect for you, telling Davies he was a moron was the right thing to do, and sometimes doing the right thing is doing something wrong. And if I ruffled a few feathers along the way, well that's just my nature, Colonel."

 

The vision of leaping over the desk and slamming the insufferable git into a bulkhead by the collar was getting harder to squelch. Her fingers twitched. She folded them into her lap, and chose to ignore that little monologue. "So, then, a scenario for you to work on. A leader is facing a decision. One result would be optimal, the other potentially disastrous. There are two people available to speak with him -- one he dislikes, the other he respects. You tell me, Major -- who gets the job?"

 

"You really think he was going to change his mind regardless?"

 

"Well, there's not much chance we'll find out now, is there, Major?" she asked caustically. "I don't know how your previous COs looked on your little verbal indiscretions, but you're in my hands now, and so help me, you will learn to hold your tongue!" She came to her feet slowly, palms flat on the desk, leaning across it a little further as each icy syllable dropped from her lips. "Do I make myself perfectly, completely, crystal-clear, Major?"

 

"Permission to speak freely, Colonel?"

 

"I think you've been doing just about enough of that lately. Denied."

 

His own eyes fixed on her. "Of course... Colonel," acrid dripping from his lips. "You are crystal clear." Korix's tone sounded as if he meant something else, but his granite expression seemed to belay the meaning.

 

"And you're on report. Now get out of my office." She sat back down and turned to her computer screen, not waiting to see if he saluted on his way out.

 

"Did you ever stop to think I might have a reason to be so... abrasive?" His own limits of patience exhausted.

 

Cool blue eyes turned from the screen. "Weren't you leaving?"

 

"I thought you should get this in your report," his tone unwavering.

 

An expression she'd heard once flitted across Harper's mind: 'He doesn't just fall into a hole, he gets the shovel and starts digging.'

 

"Think about this, and consider what my...orders really are, if people start liking me, or hell respect me...do you actually think I can accomplish my mission. We both know how 'Fleeters can be about loyalty, and frankly I'd rather not have that problem crop up."

 

Korix looked at her, hoping she realized what he was trying to say to her.

 

"Well, if that's what you were aiming for, Major, then congratulations, as you've succeeded beyond your wildest dreams. I do believe there are approximately half a dozen people on board who wouldn't shove you out an airlock right about now." She paused. "None of them have met you."

 

"And if you want to get in the line, I am sorry, I respect you, know that," Korix said genuinely. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some paces the Marines need to be put through."

 

"By my count, you were dismissed three minutes ago, Major. Or 'excused', if you prefer that terminology."

 

Korix sighed ever so slightly, saluted respectfully and turned to head out of the office.