An Understanding
Posted on 12 May 2021 @ 6:09pm by Commander Calliope Zahn & Major Declan Finn
Mission:
M2 - Sanctuary
Location: Marine decks
Timeline: MD 03 ~1600hrs
841 words - 1.7 OF Standard Post Measure
A cane was a strike to Calliope’s pride, but she had to admit still not quite so much of a strike as the hover chair. She found herself trying to surreptitiously lean against the turbolift wall as it made the trip to the marine decks. She was meant to be meeting with Lorne upstairs, but she figured she could make a short detour and be a few minutes late to meet with Lorne before anyone got concerned enough to ask the computer where exactly she’d gotten to.
Calliope had to pause rather frequently. She hadn’t recalled the corridors seeming so endless. She pretended she didn’t care that the guys and gals in green noticed as they cut around her.
“Commander?” She was addressed by a Corporal as she turned into the offices.
“Is Captain Finn in?” She asked. Having checked the computer, she knew he was or she wouldn’t have gone to all the effort. Still, it was polite to ask.
“Yeah, he’s… in the armory,” he said, pointing down the corridor. “First door on the left.”
“Thank you, Corporal.” A series of breaks against the wall got Calliope the rest of the way to the armory where she spied Finn through the observation glass of the firing range, among a line of other Marines getting their ballistic target practice in. Folding her arms, she rested against the back wall and watched, feeling the minutes pass and growing more nervous of being called out. What would they do, though? Send Winslow’s guys to escort her back? Her anxiety about it faded as she played out the scenario in her head. She was investigating something. Winslow would understand.
Eventually Finn turned as he was reloading and from the way he froze momentarily, Calliope knew the instant he spotted her out of the corner of his eye. He had to know she was waiting to speak with him.
Clearing his weapon and unloading the charge canister, he set it on the range counter and then checked himself out of the range. He stepped through the doorway on the end to the observation side and walked towards Commander Zahn, not at all looking forward to any conversation they might be about to have. Their last meeting had been… painful, to say the least.
“G’Day, Commander,” Declan offered as he approached. “Something I can help you with?”
Calliope remained leaned against the wall, tucking the cane out of view to the side of herself. “I’m trying to locate something. Doctor Mazur pointed me your way.”
“That right?” he shrugged, “What’re you after?”
“I need to find the robot that breached the Infirmary. It’s my understanding that the Marines cleared that deck. Would you happen to know anything about it?”
“What do you need with a beaten up combat robot so full of ordinance that the tech’s can’t figure top from bottom?” he asked. Outside of the marines working on the bot, or those that had been there or helped bring it down to the marine decks, few had seen it. If he had his way, he’d keep it like that. The last thing he needed was a tourist attraction in his decks.
“I want to see if I can trace some of the parts.” Mazur didn’t think Calliope should open that can of worms, but surely Finn would see the value in it.
“Look, now’s not a good time for this, Commander. I got the Major General on station, still got wounded in the hospital and dealing with the loss of others,” he shook his head. “And I really don’t want to explain to Captain DeHavilland why I’m giving you access to tech the experts can’t work out.”
At Finn’s resistance, Calliope leaned forward, no longer concerned about the cane or hiding weakness as she supported herself on it and lowered her brow seriously, choosing to go out on the shaky limb of her hallucinatory recollection with full confidence. “Maybe you can’t make heads or tails of the combat robot because it didn’t begin life as a combat robot. It’s a Cardassian mining design at it’s base, stripped and repurposed.” She took a couple unsteady steps forward to close the distance to Finn, her voice lowering. “Somebody funded and carried out the redesign and I want names for my shit list.”
Declan shook his head, “Sorry, Commander. I can’t help you,” he declared before turning and walking away. The Captain got about three paces short of the door and as he reached out to hit the panel, he looked back with a cold expression. “I don’t want to see you three decks down in engineering storage going through that robot, Commander,” he warned her, and with that hit the button and stepped through.
She watched him return to his firing practice without looking back at her and nodded to herself. They had an understanding. Calliope could work with that.