Selected Quotes Aug '23
Posted on 05 Sep 2023 @ 11:22pm by Commander Calliope Zahn
SELECTED QUOTES AUGUST 2023
Planet Obsidian - Ibn Sharjar: The wheel finds the way
Sasil steered Hrada to the right and moved away. Ibn Sharja watched them go, flicking back to check on the woman on his left. When he looked back for Hrada, there was no sign, his heart jumped in his mouth and he was about to urge Fifta after them, Jelik had entrusted him with his sons and he could not loose them in the storm.
Just as he readied to push Fifta forward, he caught sight of their beetle in through the dust. Despite the wind he was sweating under his robes with the tension of events.
The slow plodding rotation continued, even more dangerous than before, with the line of riders extended to the very limits of visibility. The storm howled and tore at them as they searched. Again Ibn Sharjar lost track of time, only aware that the solar flare was rushing across the system towards them. Aboard his ship he would be protected, if needed he had medicine to combat the effects of the radiation, but out here on the glass, nowhere was safe.
Homecoming
“ATTENTION!” Someone boomed from beyond the doorway in a voice loud enough that they might have been able to hear it on the bridge of the Ardeshir five docks away. “PRESENT. ARMS!” the voice boomed again.
The bosun blew for a returning dignitary once more, and was immediately followed by the sound of a brass band playing the Marine Corps Hymn. Stepping forward slightly to look down the gangway, Corvus saw an impressive sight. An entire honor guard of Marines in dress uniform lined the inside of the gangway, each standing at attention holding a saber scabbard in their left hand with their right, presenting their polished silver sabers up to form a corridor from one end to the other. At the far end, the brass band was formed in the entryway with a small group of Officers arranged in front, waiting for their distinguished guest to arrive. Even from this distance, Corvus could see the familiar figures of Major General MacTaryn and Admiral Sepandiyar, the latter of which surprised her considering his ship was nowhere nearby.
“You did this?” Corvus asked, looking over at Declan.
He shook his head, “I know MacTaryn. There’s no way he was letting him come back without one hell of a fanfare,” he said, cocking his head towards Major Wallace standing there, looking just as stunned as Corvus at the reception.
Ibis slipped under Wallace’s arm and looked up at him. Her face was a mess of feelings. “A brass band. I can’t remember? Was that on your coming home wish list?”
While Ibis lent her shoulder to Wallace in surreptitious support, Olivia walked on her other side, nearly stupified by the sheer number of people and the sounds and sights. All the while, Ikemba was wordlessly pointing with his free hand in all directions, as if he wanted to say, ‘look, look.’
Wallace attempted to appear as taciturn, but failed miserably. Several tears fell over his cheeks disappearing into his trimmed gray beard. Embarrassment, pride, guilt, and relief flooded through him as he hobbled forward with his small family through the glinting arch.
……
“Thank you. As all waters are connected, we will treat yours as our own,” Uanika said, declining her head slightly. She added gravely, “We hope that you and your people share the same philosophy.”
Back on the Beat
"Yes Chief" T'Sai nodded "Commander Sikan is an experienced Security Officer and also a graduate of the Vulcan Institute of Defensive Arts.”
“Huh, that a good thing?”
“Yes Chief.” She nodded “He is expecting you at eleven-thirty hours.”
Going the Extra Mile
Glutik, a giant in the room, shrugged. “I don’t know. Is all of this supposed to represent a feminine touch? If this is so, I’m not sure you have it, Brek.”
“I put flowers on the cushions.”
“Don’t I know it. It took you nearly 45 minutes to design them. But there is something not quite right... I’m not sure how to describe it... It’s... Something is lacking.”
“A bouquet of flowers?” Brek suggested. “I had in mind to have one. Large yellow flowers from Ferenginar, very fragrant. And of course, I’ll place a refined gift in both quarters, to make those guests welcome. I want things to be absolutely perfect.”
Glutik looked around him, hummed, but said nothing.
“Oh, come off it, say what you have to say!” Brek added, impatient. “What’s wrong with my design?”
“Everything?”
Brek’s lips twitched.
Read In
“I’m sure Commander Drake is up to the task,” she smiled back.
“I asked Captain Hawthorne to take command,” he replied as the lift stopped and all but one Ensign got off the lift. He was so engrossed in his data PaDD he didn’t feel the glare of three senior officers staring into the back of his head as if to suggest he get off and catch the next lift car. The doors hissed closed and they rode on with their singular guest.
“Any issues I need to be aware of?” Corvus asked Thad.
The man was always relatively cold but he seemed even more so now, staring at the deck as he tapped a data PaDD slowly against his thigh. He looked up to her as if having heard her distantly and just realized he was being addressed. “There is one,” he said quietly, clearing his throat as he spoke.
“Best discussed in private,” Admiral Sepandiyar added.
DoE or DoE not, There is No Try
Klingon vessels were not known for their roomy comforts and raktajino had grown less pleasing as the trip wore on.
……
“Head up to the sixth floor conference room. They’ll explain up there. I have to say: very jealous.”
“Jealous? Josie…I had a mandated leave coming up. Six-months, remember? I’ve barely touched down on Earth, just wanted to report in, and then I’m gone.”
Josie didn’t seem to be listening, a conversation occurring in her head that wasn’t happening out loud, “And you get to see him in his new environment. Some people think he was a long-term spy, others think he’s now a spy for us, and some people say it was his girlfriend that did him in. His girlfriend.” She snorted. “As if. The man couldn’t do a relationship to save his life. You know that, of course.”
“Who?” Honor shook her head, “No, I don’t care. I’m going home.”
“Nope, you’re going to the sixth floor,” Josie shouted over her shoulder as she disappeared into her office, the door swooping shut behind her.
……
“The heart be tendermost, and to have not is to be ever free of vulnerability.” Ernesh commented.
Hasperat First
“No I — there’s charcuterie?”
The woman handed Ibis one of the three plates she was holding, while her one free hand picked from the other two and she nibbled. Everything she said was though a kind of mechanical purr of clicks. “For you, I find. Before tables they all are cleared. You have to get while the getting is good, is yeah?”
The Family Business
Eric shrugged. Most of the time it was just drills, drills, drills. Not everyone was stationed on an active frontline somewhere. It wasn’t like they ran into the maw of death every other day. But when they did… “It’s like my teammate, Syimmi over there always says. ‘In dying, life giving’. Someone has to show up, ready for the fight. Otherwise, we lose it all. My parents did, and I can’t see a better way to spend my life. It all works out, somehow.”
Reconnecting
He nodded his head across to the far side of the compartment where the dining area was. “I’ve got the replicator programmed to produce a passable Kānga Pīrau” It was a form of Maori porridge, made from mashed fermented corn, rather strong in flavor, it was an acquired taste and one of his favorites.
Calliope stuck her tongue out and fake gagged, the way she had when he’d first sat down at a table with her and set his bowl of rotted corn out. She’d gotten accustomed to it over time— not to eating it. To him eating it. And that was as far as she was ever going to be interested. But she followed him, grinning at the memory.
“Don’t know what you’re missing!” He smiled.
……
“So best you get your head in the game! And you know that I trust you with my life.”
Calliope opened her mouth to say that it was probably just the pheromones, thinking to suggest that as soon as they went their own ways, he’d feel differently about her. But she looked at that awful bowl of barf-scented hot porridge in front of him and changed her mind. That stink was taking up all the air in the space between them. “Thanks, Tāne.”
Badmiral and the Gang
“As you rightly stated, my forte isn’t Diplomacy here.” Though, if he were a betting man, he’d say he came a strong 2nd in that category. Harshman was a fraud with too much bling; T’Sheng … the jury was still out on her. “That said, my own experience is to listen long and hard; these Korinn may not measure up to the caliber of a Starfleet embassy, but they are the best representative of the species we have at hand, and language barriers aside, the crew on Obsidian Command has shown we can at least communicate with them to a degree, so there is promise of learning some what to aid in the situation.”
All Aboard
As they came to the transporter room, there was an operations crewman already waiting at the controls. Seth took up his place. “Chief please go ahead and—”
“Do you wish me to pipe the Admiral aboard sir?” Azario asked, pulling a Bosun's Pipe from his pocket.
“We talked about this, Az.”
“I have been practicing since last time” A few weeks ago he had meant to Pipe the Side in recognition of a senior officer coming aboard and instead had somehow played Sweepers directing junior crew to clean the deck.
Seth scratched over his eyebrow. “I guess. I mean, it is protocol.”
“Indeed sir.” Azario beamed even wider, polished the pipe on his trouser leg and lifted it to his lips, giving a trial puff, then taking a deep lungful of air and coming to attention.
Bracing himself for the pitch flute, Seth motioned to the transporter operator. “Energize.”
……
Azario blew heartily into the pipe. Starting with the three seconds low pitch, rising up to hold the high pitch for the full four seconds, then dropping to low again for the last four. It was the longest of the traditional calls and should last the full twelve seconds. Though he had taken a lung full of air before beginning he began to struggle around nine seconds in. His cheeks puffed, eyes bulged and a bead of sweat broke out on his domed blue forehead, he barely managed to drag out the last couple of seconds and perhaps the final one trailed off a little short but it was an improvement over the previous attempt. He lowered the pipe and sucked in air, relieved not to have botched it up again.
We Are One
To make this time more pleasant, she burnt a stick of incense. Its notes were reminiscent of her homeworld, and gradually filled the room with a hot dry air, with the aroma of sand, lime and cactus blossom.
All things being well, she would soon receive a call from her husband. A habit kept by them for the past twenty years. This monthly call, which seldom lasted more than 15 minutes, allowed them to exchange news and keep their commitment to each other alive. Although sometimes, when she was extremely busy, this communication felt like a chore, and she expedited it.
……
She occupied her time by refamiliarising herself with Cmdr Rubens’ profile and she was getting a headache from reading about his blend of diplomacy (a mixture of empathy and manipulation, with a touch of arrogance). The man had worked on Cardassia, had rosen through the ranks quickly, had even delved in the aberration called the Romulan free state, and then, he seemed to have lost much of his drive. From a bright star, he became an enigma. She found this development intolerable, as it made this CDO difficult to understand. He would no doubt be elusive, complicated, devious.
“It would be easier to work with an Andorian,” she commented to herself.
Undeterred
Neither one of them belonged here, she thought. Neither one of them had an appreciable function any longer. Maybe she should tell him she was ready to try going to Sol with him. She'd give up whatever remained of her career, he could return to his. They could go out to dinner whenever they pleased. But she couldn't form the words to say it, a deeper misgiving binding her tongue.
……
Following that, some insufferable brainwashed church women inquired after her prayer life since they'd last spoken, and Calliope took a little time discussing with them about their empty-headed nonsense. From this he stood off, as if their cultish devotion might sully his good shirt. And when he thought they had broken off cleanly and Calliope had wished them well, promising to see them at some service or another, it was just their luck that a very slow, old goat-like grazerite happened to be crossing in the opposite direction; according to the exchange he and Calliope shared, he was the Tower Controller, off duty and out for a stroll before he too planned to meet with his wife. Wasn't that a pleasant coincidence?
Design Changes
“Would you like to see what she can do, Commander?” O’Halloran offered.
“I was promised a show.”
Sopwith gave a smile, reached into her pocket and produced another PaDD, tapping in a couple of commands the robot came active. There was an audible hum that resonated through the air. The line of three sensors on the robot’s head glowed blue. With a whine of hydraulics and servo motors gears, the robot stood up. It straightened up, knees locking thighs extending, thorax and chest lifted, the shoulders flexed, elbows and arms swung outward, and the head lifted, turning to left and right. As it rose to its full ceiling-scarping three meters tall.
Three Tests (Two Fails, One Pass)
Calliope looked at him oddly. "You hate Riesling."
"Hmm? I have come to like it well enough," he said, resigned to a certain indifference.
……
He had come to the conclusion some time ago that there were some people who were happiest when they were unhappy, or perhaps simply enjoyed the continuing conflict within a relationship as though it were a kind of sport, and he wasn’t about to judge. "I will return momentarily." Henri left the couple to contemplate the dinner menus and one another.
Stormy Night
Another ten minutes passed by, rather pleasantly, until Desha asked him who his first kiss was. He should have invented a name. A woman met while visiting a seaside town, once. Or an anonymous girl encountered during a school trip. It didn’t matter, as long as the answer sounded natural. But he hesitated, and because of those few wasted seconds, the truth, genuine and embarrassing, surfaced.
“You have never been kissed!” The way Desha said it, it sounded like the funniest thing that had ever happened on Volchok.
“I’m only 18, and I have been kept busy with numbers.” He protested.
Transfer of Care
“Respectfully, Calliope. The question wasn’t what your husband would want,” he replied simply and calmly. “The question is what do you want for your own well-being.”
……
“So we’re going to start with a hormonal boost. These aren’t the good ones though,” he warned, “This may cause emotional outbursts for the next few hours. The ‘I’m thirteen and the boy I liked doesn’t like me’ kind of emotional outbursts,” he smirked. “Probably best not to make any life altering decisions between now and dinner time.”
Instincts
He’d survived that long, that close to beings that wanted to destroy everything that the Federation stood for, by learning to be just as clever and cunning as they were. But if there was one thing above all that he was better than most at, that had helped him scale the ladder of that organization so well, it was his ability to spot a lie. Even when the Betazoids and similar sorts couldn’t. He’d survived, and he trusted his instinct on it even when it was a subtle nudge and right now, his instincts weren’t giving him a subtle bump. They were screaming at him.
Corvus was lying.
The Impass
The tears were flowing down her face freely now. "I don't want to live a lie, Lance. We can't work together, or share a social life. I can't share your passions in the sciences in any appreciable way for you. At best I've been a happy distraction for you. There's only one thing we share in common. You can barely stand my company otherwise. And even that you hold lightly enough to think I would cheat! And to decide it didn't matter to you if I did!"
……
What remained of Calliope's voice came out cracked and broken between desperate sobs. "Not everything can be fixed, Lance. Sometimes the sacrifices we have to make aren't out here," She motioned to the stuff around her. "Sometimes they're in here." She held her napkin over her heart and beat her breast bone.
Debriefed, Debunked and Demoralized
“It is said in these stories that the Po’rh’an were created. That they are the minions of the Pier’loh - the soul reapers,” he explained.
……
Tahriik stared at the feed, his blood raging as it had in the moment. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm his fury. “In Geuraani culture, to raise your Le’ur’ix against another is something that is not done. It is an insult and a challenge. To accept the challenge means one combatant will die,” he explained carefully.
Igor
Brek sampled his tea. It was sweet and curiously woody, no notes of tobacco whatsoever. Not his type at all. “Did I say that the task was impossible? I merely showed that your project possesses little to no appeal. If you want to hire one of my prestigious artists, you will have to make it worth their while, by paying a higher commission.”
“How high?”
Brek typed a rather indecent sum on his PaDD and he showed it to Novikov. High sums, in his opinion, ought to stay confidential. In a way, they were like the whispering of an insult. They were directed at one person only, not the sort of information you wanted to leak out.
“It is an ugly figure, Mr Brek.”
“I find it beautiful.”
Dinner is Served
The center of the room was dominated by a long elegant table of white and chrome, which could seat twenty-four people, more than sufficient for this trip, although sometimes they had two or three sittings, and had been set for dinner. A recessed section if the ceiling ran the length of the dinner table, it was black and set within were dozens of tiny lights depicting various constellations, the largest of which was the recognisable W shape of the five brightest stars of Cassiopeia Alpha Cassiopeiae, or Schedar, was the brightest, nearly matched by the variable Gamma Cassiopeiae, the yellow hypergiants Rho Cassiopeiae and V509 Cassiopeiae and white hypergiant 6 Cassiopeiae. A luminous outline traced out the seated form of Cassiopeia, the queen of ancient Aethiopia, who was cursed to spend her time in the stars by Posiedeon.
……
“Ensign Azario, this is a remarkable place,” T’Sheng said, her voice perhaps a tad imperious, but that had more to do with her recent family troubles, than anything she had seen in the salon. She checked tonight’s menu on one of the PaDDs that had been placed on the table and she nodded her approval. “I see that tonight’s menu is just as excellent. Vice Admiral Harshman will be pleased to see this level of attention.”
Azario beamed widely, “Thank you Commander. It was, I believe, a compartment originally used for housing data collection equipment for monitoring the slipstream drive when the vessel was a research project. Besides Engineering, it is actually one of the largest spaces on the ship”
“This is an interesting piece of information,” T’Sheng conceded with a slight nod. “I feel sure though, that by gathering most of us here, this room will retain its original purpose of data collection. For a lot is likely to transpire around this table, I suspect. At least for those who know how to listen.”
……
“Still trailing along in Gordon’s wake trying to bring peace to the stars, Ernesh?” a staccato voice interrupted. Pak Bong-Cha gave him a tight, sharp smile capable of slicing through metal as she approached. When she’d first caught sight of the pair before they beamed up, she immediately burrowed into the crowd. The last thing she needed was crossing paths with Dae-Jung’s old crowd of diplomats, but this ship was designed to throw them together at some point. “I assumed your bloviating would have ceased with age, but I can see it has only gotten worse.”
Ernesh squinted at the little terran women and a smile grew slowly over his broad mouth. “To that which is noble there is no end, the fruit of which can only be realized long after a man is manifest in body no longer, and the greater memory of the people denied ever having known him and letting him therefore rest from his labors, here and hereafter. I see you are well in wit and acute as a hawk, as ever you were. Age skips you over in portion. Does your husband fare so well? Is Dae-Jung aboard with you?”
Bong-Cha snorted mirthlessly. “Ex-husband. If he were aboard, I’m sure one of us would have jumped out lightyears ago. Better the vacuum of space. As it is, having your ilk aboard is nearly as bad, but I can ignore you if I so choose.”
……
Gordon took his first sip of soup from his spoon and looked over it at Admiral Harshman. “I see they are still turning out wise young officers at the Academy,” he complimented, knowing that she had little appreciation for the greenhorn.
“Don’t over inflate his ego, Ambassador. He may command, but he’s little more than a glorified school bus driver,” Harshman flatly replied, tucking her napkin onto her lap and plunged her spoon into her soup without little thought to how it smelled. She’d never really been a ‘foody.’
A Room With a View
“Wallace is fifty.” Olivia said off handedly, having picked up mention of their ages while eavesdropping Ibis and Wallace talking around the fire when she was meant to be sleeping. “But he feels like he’s a hundred.”
Ibis hid her face in Ikemba’s curls. Agaia was doing a good job of gaining Olivia’s trust. Even if it was going to be at their expense. That was, after all, one of the primary ways she had learned to defuse one of Olivia’s moods.
“Oh, man! He’s so old!” Agaia giggled. “Well, I hope when I’m…nine-hundred or so I’m as regal.”
Wallace snorted. Regal? He looked at Ibis who was grinning up at him. “I’m not regal,” he protested, “I’m gruff. Gruff and battered.”
Ibis, still looking up at Wallace over Ikemba’s curls as they boarded a turbolift, said admiringly, “It’s the beard trim, I think. It does make you look regal.”
“I’ll need to shave it first thing.”
Branzino de Alstroemeria
It was always finding a new rhythm in a new place. Always difficult to get comfortable in that space and come to feel as if it was home. Having personal affects always helped her. Pictures, knick knacks and of course the only children she was likely to have anytime soon - her plants. Lining the long window of her quarters on Obsidian Command was her brood of children, plants of every variety in their pots from various worlds soaking up a bit of glow off of Loki and the overhead glow of the UV lights. Just for ease of things, she preferred plants that liked low light or a little more than average light so that she didn’t have to have special apparatus’ like they had in the hydroponics bays. She wasn’t trying to grow them big and large, just have a companion of sorts.
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