Not on Korix anymore...
Posted on 06 Jun 2023 @ 1:24am by Chief Deputy Marshal: Ridge Steiner - FMS & Chief Petty Officer Ibis Xeri
Mission:
M3 - Into the Deep
Location: USs pathfinder - Mess Hall
Timeline: MD 10 1630hrs
2423 words - 4.8 OF Standard Post Measure
Steiner entered, joined the line and grabbed himself some lunch, late lunch, early dinner more like. He went for a tuna mayo sweetcorn sub, a cup of chowder and a soda.
He looked around for a table, over by one of the forward windows he saw the Betazoid woman from Korix, Chief Petty Officer…Xeri!
She was sat with two children, a teenage girl, darkly tanned with a crazy mass of brown dread-lock like hair. She was pulling a face, one hand tugging at her clothes and the other pushing her plate around the table, a burger and fries, as though the food was poison.
The other child was younger, a boy, equally tanned, with hair as long as the girls, but his was a rather more orderly mass of dark curls. Unlike the girl he seemed to be enjoying his bowl of dessert. The Chief Petty Officer was looking somewhat stressed herself, her own lunch hardly touched.
Steiner strolled over, “Good afternoon Chief.” He gave her a smile “Must be a shock to the system, ship-food after…, how many years were you guys there?”
Ibis had eaten half of a salad, but the dressing hit with a vengeance and she felt herself fighting indigestion. She had pushed it aside in favor of helping the children. In truth,it would have been easier to eat in their quarters, but Ibis wanted to be sure the kids could acclimate as soon as possible to not just the new ship, but all of the people. Recognizing Marshal Steiner, she thought it would be a good opportunity for the kids to start meeting more people.
“Would you care to sit with us Mr. Steiner?” She invited.
Olivia glared daggers at Ibis for adding the interloper.
“Sure thanks” he slid in next to the teenage girl who gave him a scowl and rolled her eyes, before moving over. “Hi, I’m Ridge Steiner, I do like Security type stuff” he gave her a grin “And you are?”
Disinterested in him, Olivia treated Steiner to her Korix name with a whistle click and a short screech. She started to add some additional commentary for him in Korix about what she thought of his name.
“That’s… enough, Olivia.” Ibis said gently.
“Huh, pleased to meet you, never met a real-life castaway before” Steiner replied, keeping the grin, and nodding at her plate “Want me to send that back, have the chef thrown in the Brig? I can do that kinda thing you know”
“I think we should maybe trade it for a plate of sushi,” Ibis answered for her.
"Maybe, but it would be replicated and I'm thinking Olivia here would rather spear something herself" He offered, picking up of the girl's vibes and realizing how strange this must be for her.
Ibis suppressed a smile at the jibe. Teenagers hated being the butt of a joke.
“Interesting jewelry” Steiner referenced the chain and seashells around the girl’s neck “make that yourself?”
“I traded for them.” She said haughtily. He had no idea what they meant. And she wasn’t about to tell him either.
"Ah, yeah looks like they took some skill to make, what did you trade for them?"
"Shell carvings," Olivia said, proudly. She had learned to carve pictures into shells, and her designs were fascinating to her friends who found the motifs she'd copied from the grave shells curiously alien, particularly ones with land mammals, and land based plant life, which she'd never known in real life either.
"Must have been a ready supply of shells around, the Korin must have liked what you were carving, if they were willing to trade you the necklaces for them. I'm sure they valued your work" Steiner commented
"I copied mine from the grave yard."
"As art went, we... only had a few things to look at." Ibis tried to explain. "Amos, our old Quartermaster, used to carve the grave markers on large shells. Carving was a hobby of his."
"Huh, well art's art right, even if a little... yeah" Steiner turned to the boy. “How about you fella, what’s your name?”
Ikemba just looked at him with a grinning mouth caked over in dairy confection.
“His name is Ikemba.” Ibis made the introduction for him.
“Ikemba? Looks like you developed a taste for ice cream Ikemba” he smiled “I like it too, that your first time eating it?”
“More like his first time wearing it.” Ibis said, her heart full while she didn’t feel anxiety over a little wasted food and could just appreciate a happy child.
“What flavor you got?”
“Chocca.”
Ibis beamed, pleased he’d found a new word to say.
“Yeah, that’s good, I like Cherry Garcia!” Steiner grinned “Chocolate and cherries, and you probably have no idea what those are, huh? Well fella, you’ve got like a million flavors to experience for the very first time, that’s gonna be really cool”
“Chocca.” Ikemba replied again, as if the word was it’s own new sentence. He rubbed more of it on his shirt with a sticky hand.
Steiner turned to Xeri “So these two ..yours?” The children didn’t have Betazoid features but he was not sure.
“Yes.” She said firmly, unwilling to dilute Olivia’s feeling of family with the nuances while everything else in her life was changed. “Just. Not by birth.”
Steiner nodded, he figured it was something like that, realizing the children's parents had not made it. "Must have been tough, but hopefully keeping these two going must have helped"
Ibis wrung her hands together and nodded with a sad smile. "They helped more than they know." She wouldn't be able to explain there in front of the kids, but she had the sense the Marshal had to know that as the hope of rescue waned, there had been little more to live for than one another.
Although she wanted to share in more depth with him, Ibis felt for the kids' sake she needed to turn the subject away from their sorrows. It had been so long since she had held this many conversations with new people, and she found herself a little knotted up inside, trying to relearn the art of conversation. She cleared her throat and resettled herself in her seat to sit up better, eager to model for Olivia how to speak with a friend. "Do the Marshals work with Starfleet often?"
Steiner shrugged "Off and on, usually depends on the case. I'm actually on long term secondment - " 'Cos some criminal lowlife went poking around in my apartment to set me up for a hit he did not mention "- my day-job is Assistant Chief of Security back on Obsidian Command, I'm only on the Pathfinder as a ride-along." He took a bite of his sub.
"Cubo was a Marshal guy." Olivia blurted. "But he's dead."
"Olivia," Ibis whispered.
"What? He was dead when he came. Everyone said so."
"You had a Marshal on the Sunrise?" Steiner asked, surprised, mouthful of sub "I thought it was a deepspace surveyor?"
"No. He wasn't on the Sunrise."
"You mean this Marshal was on the planet?" Steiner swallowed and clarified "If he was not part of your crew? How did he get there?"
"He was airdropped. I was sick at the time. I only heard the stories. But he's the only other person that was left with us, not from our crew."
Intrigued now, hand still holding the sub in the air "And what was his name Cubo?"
Trying to think if he knew the name, he did not. "That first or last name?"
"I.. think it was his second name. But he was Bajoran so, it would have been his familiar name. Unless he went by them in the other order. I know a lot of Bajorans that enter service will switch their name order for simplicity sake." Ibis pondered, uncertain.
Steiner nodded, meal forgotten as his mind clicked into interviewer mode. He quickly reviewed what he had heard and repeated it. "So a male Bajoran Marshal, named Cubo; who was not a part of your crew was there on the planet with you...
You said he he was airdropped from where or what? His own ship?" he asked Xeri
"I... I don't really remember if anyone said they saw what ship dropped him off. It was probably one of the Z'ala aircraft. I'm not sure."
"And what did you mean by he was dead when he came?" he turned to Olivia, "He wasn't alive when they delivered him?"
"He lasted a day. I heard he was beat up like a pineapple." Olivia confused the fruit reference for the paper mache party feature, but she'd never seen either and was just using words she'd heard grown ups say. "And cut up like ribbons. And drowned in his own blood." She had practiced retelling horror stories to her friends who always liked more of those kinds of things.
Ibis bit her lip.
Steiner did not like where this was going but kept the emotion out of his voice and recapped again "So the Marshal was brought there, probably by a local craft. He was injured, beat up, cut up and may have died from internal injuries, drowned on his own blood shortly after arrival...
But neither of you actually saw him, or the craft, you just heard this from others?"
"Olivia didn't see any of it." Ibis clarified. "She was as young as Ikemba is now. I'm sure no one let her see something like that. I was very sick at the time, so I only know of Cubo by accounts. We had wondered if more would show up and had tried to talk about what we would do if it happened again. But it never did."
"And when was this, four, five... six years ago?"
Ibis nodded her head. "About that, four years ago, maybe bit more"
Steiner listened, trying to sift out the factual core parts, since neither of them seemed to have a first-hand account "How did people know he was a Marshal?"
"He was branded," Ibis said quietly. "With his badge. Amos included the marshal star on the gravemarker."
"Like a tattoo?" Steiner asked, it was not unheard of, some people got badges, numbers, flags and symbols tattoos. Meant a turn under a dermal-regenerator if you ever wanted to do undercover work but he knew one or two colleagues who had that kind of thing.
Ibis shook her head. "Not a tattoo."
"You mean branded branded? Like burned on?" Steiner was surprised at that, he had heard of species who went in for scarification, but that did not sound particularly Bajoran.
Then again some people enslaved by the Orions and Breen could be marked with a number.
"Did any of you, the Sunrise crew, get marked by the Z'ala when you were enslaved?" He asked
"They..." Ibis was trying to be delicate in spite of Olivia's edgy front. The girl was more fragile than she would ever let on. "They weren't especially kind to us when we were interred on the island. We were searched for devices and technology. Some were... handled roughly in the process." In truth it had been terrifying in ways she would never forget, and there had been injuries. Ibis seemed to suppress a shudder rooted in her nervous system at the memory. "But no one was branded or brutalized anything on the order of what I heard had been Cubo's treatment."
Steiner caught her look towards the girl and her tone. Clearly there appeared to be more that was not for young ears. But he needed to understand what the Chief was trying to tell him.
"I understand and this must be unpleasant for you" he said gently, "One more question, for now, just so I understand, you're telling me this Bajoran Marshal, Cubo, was... treated differently to the way you and your crew were, he was... -" he used her word "- more brutalized, including being branded with his own badge?"
"Yeah," Ibis nodded. "From what I was told."
Steiner sat back in the seat, lunch forgotten, as he let that sink in.
According to what he was being told, some four plus years ago a Bajoran Federation Marshal had been brought to the camp, he had been brutalized, more like tortured by the sound of it, mortally injured and died within a day or so of his arrival.
Korix was way beyond Federation Territory, what had he been doing there, how had he even got out there? It was a long way for a regular Cutter and Steiner knew there had not been a larger ship loss for years.
This needed to be checked out, he had a partial name, that was start. If the man was really FMS he could find him in the personnel records. From there he could learn more.
"Umm ok, well there's some things I'll need to check out" He said coming back to the present. "We will maybe need to talk more, that be okay Chief?"
"I... Can try."
"Good thanks" He started to get up "Miss Olivia, nice to meet you, do try the replicator sushi, it's not sea-fresh like you're used to, but maybe you'll like it more.
Young Ikemba, you're gonna enjoy exploring the dessert menus I can tell" he gave the young boy a wink
"Chief, thank you, enjoy the rest of your meal." He took his plates and drink, gave her a nod and stepped away.
"Thank you, Marshal." She said. Her plate didn't look any more appetizing to her with the recent conversation topic. She lifted Ikemba's icecream totaled shirt carefully over his head and used it like a rag to wipe the chocolate from his face and arms.
"Chocca." Ikemba said, stabbing his spoon at her mouth. "Bibi, Chocca!"
Ibis shifted back for a moment, before recognizing he was trying to comfort her. Then she smiled for him, giggled and with an over acted munching sound effect, snapped at the spoon and licked it clean.
Ikemba had the right idea, she thought, as she let him spoon feed her a few more.
Steiner dropped his uneaten meal in the recycler and left the Mess Hall, walking quickly.
