Stay Awhile
Posted on 31 Oct 2023 @ 5:20pm by Commander Calliope Zahn & Captain Corvus DeHavilland
Edited on on 31 Oct 2023 @ 5:21pm
Mission:
M4 - Falling Out
Location: Obsidian Command, Captain's Office
Timeline: M4 D6 Afternoon
3191 words - 6.4 OF Standard Post Measure
Somehow when she thought about being the Captain of a starship, or a starbase, Corvus had allowed herself to be convinced that the minutia that the Executive Officer waded through kept it off her desk. That all those years screening Captain Dansby meant that she now would get to enjoy a clutter free desk devoid of the mindless dribble that had occupied her life as First Officer. Corvus was very disappointed to have to accept that was not the case at all. If anything, it was worse which made her shudder at the thought of the state of her desk if Commander Zayne hadn’t been screening it as part of his job.
Yet, while the stack of PaDD’s on her desk was daunting, there was a sense of accomplishment to goin through them and solving the issues at hand. There were requests from vendors for different suppliers, extra deliveries to the docking bays, requests to hold various conferences from all over Starfleet, ships requesting refit, Starfleet commanding ships to be refit and even a traveling circus that wanted to set up their ‘big top’ in the Environmental Ring. But the most numerous were the personnel requests. So many officers and crew that wanted to serve at the Fleet Command Starbase. Naturally, the station required a massive crew and so for the most part openings were filled without a major review by her or Commander Zayne. Thad made a pass looking for anything of concern, with varying intensity depending on the position, and then all of them had to pass muster with Corvus.
The personnel coming in wasn’t the hard part as they had so many openings and so many yet to be filled. No, the hard part was those that were requesting to leave; thankfully that list was quite short. The only down side was that list bypassed Commander Zayne and went straight to her as he couldn’t, by Starfleet regulation, screen that at all. That was Captain’s prerogative to determine if a transfer out should be objected to. Tired of the pile of other work to deal with, she decided to start with the short stack - those requesting to leave.
Corvus quickly approved the Medical Officer who had requested to leave after the death of Doctor Mazur, citing the desire to have a fresh start somewhere that didn’t have that lingering specter over the command. She could understand that, the Lieutenant was young and fresh out of residency. She’d do better somewhere where she could focus without thinking about Doctor Mazur. It was an easy decision and she tossed that PaDD aside as she complete the transfer request and grabbed the next one. She read carelessly as she walked to the replicator PaDD and ordered a black tea, hot, with a splash of milk. She approved an Engineering officer, tired of the consistent nagging from Commander Quinn and moved on to the next, reading as she picked up the tea. She had just raised it to her lips when she read the name on the Padd: Quinn, Lance - Lieutenant Commander. Corvus paused there, drink slowly lowering from her lips as she read. The current Chief Engineer was requesting to return to the Daystrom Institute with immediate effect without citing any reasons for the request. Maybe he didn’t have one, maybe he just had had enough, or maybe he accepted that he’d never be able to get Corvus’ trust back after the stunt he pulled on the Pathfinder. DeHavilland was eager to accept the transfer and was a moment from hitting the button when she wondered: what about Calliope?
If she approved Lance leaving, what would that mean for Calliope? She needed that man to hold her to the ground. Sure they were having their troubles at the moment, she remembered their last conversation on the topic all too well, but every couple had their drama. Their ups and downs. That was the nature of for better or for worse. He was her anchor, poor as he was, and right now she probably needed that more than anything. She set the PaDD down on her desk next to her hot tea and let out a long, slow breath as she started to wonder what kind of mess she would create when she released Quinn (something she was keen to do). Who would be able to take the reins of Engineering and of course, what would happen with Calliope. Could Corvus be the rock she needed? Would Calliope let her? Would she stay? As soon as the thought the latter, she leaned forward and shuffled the stack, finding it with a groan of disappointment. The last transfer request read: Zahn, Calliope - Commander.
No, Corvus thought. No, Quinn could go as far as the Fleet would take him for all she cared but she couldn’t let him go and leave Calliope in his wake. The cold-hearted bastard would have to take care of his wife or she would personally eject him from the airlock. He wasn’t running. She wouldn’t let him and she wouldn’t let Calliope go either, no doubt running from the shame that her husband was leaving her high and dry like the coward he was.
She took a moment to collect her temper, even taking a sip of tea to settle it, then tapped her commbadge. “DeHavilland to Commander Zahn. Please report to my ready room,” she ordered.
“Acknowledged. Be there shortly, Captain,” came the reply through the comm.
Corvus sat back and held her tea, turning her chair to face the large windows looking out of her office to the void of space beyond.
In the time it took to grab a proper jacket and ride the lift up, Calliope was chiming the office door.
“Come in,” Corvus called to the door, turning her chair from the window. Presuming it was Commander Zahn, but prepared for anyone.
It wasn’t difficult to guess the general topic Corvus had in mind. There were transfer requests stacked up on the Captain’s desk and Calliope expected since she had put hers in that there would be an ensuing conversation, even if she couldn’t guess which way Corvus would fall on the matter. Her eyes lingered over the desk and then lifted back to Corvus to try and get a sense of her expression. But the Captain just looked tired.
With a sigh, Corvus gestured to the data PaDD on her desk that contained Calliope’s request, trying to measure her words. To offer something profound and thought provoking, but all that came out of her mouth was, “What the hell is that?”
Limiting her reaction, Calliope folded her hands. “The Pollux has an opening for first officer. And the Diligence is awaiting a commanding officer. I’d like to be considered. If not for these, then there are other openings.”
“Just like that you’re going to go back to the way things were before? Calli you finally got to a place where you and Lance were together. The chance to be with one another for more than a quick visit. I know you’re having some troubles but who doesn’t? After this long apart, surely that’s expected?” Corvus said, almost pleading with her friend. She shoved the other request out. “Lance going back to Daystrom and you trying to find something else? That’s… I refuse to believe that you honestly think that’s the best thing for your marriage. For you,” she said, jabbing a finger at her.
“You don’t understand. I told you back on the Pathfinder that I’d make sure Lance chose the path back to Daystrom.” Calliope pushed Lance’s request back across Corvus’ desk, as though she meant to deliver it. “And I’m not going back. Not to Sol. And not to a long distance marriage.”
“Calli, we were talking about… trouble not… divorce. Is that what you’re saying here? You’re divorcing Lance?” Corvus asked, taking back at the sudden severity. Had she read it all completely wrong? Had she really misunderstood her friend's pain that dramatically? Clearly she had.
“I retained a lawyer. The process is underway. I moved out a couple of days ago.” Although she wasn’t trying to be cold about it, Calliope felt numb to it anymore. Maybe that was just self preservation kicking in, protecting her heart from all the pain she should be emotionally reeling from, but for the moment it sufficed for her. “I know it seems sudden if you’re standing where you are. I really was over the moon about us being together back when the opportunity presented itself. But now I know. There’s no ‘together’ with Lance. And I don’t want to spend my whole life trying to be a part of something that just approximates a relationship. He needs to be free to pursue his research. And I need to start over.”
Corvus sat back with a profound sigh. She was going to have to spend some time with her own thoughts to piece together how she’d misinterpreted this whole thing so completely, but that was a her problem. Right now she had a Calliope problem and needed to focus there. There really was no love lost from Corvus regarding Lance; she would have punted him straight away had the whole incident with the Alabama not been covered up. So him leaving was nothing to her. Calli leaving, however, was.
She couldn’t lie to herself and say the bridge between them was mended or that there was an easy path, or really any path, to get her back into the role she’d brought her here for. But Calliope was far from useless. She’d proven she was capable of operating at a high level regardless of her ongoing personal medical issues. Corvus didn’t know if there was a future in her command for Calliope directly, but she did have something.
“Stay here,” Corvus finally said, nodding internally at the idea. It could work.
“Here?” Calliope couldn’t track. She barely had a role, and with her marriage dissolving she had no reason.
“Stay on OC. Help me by running one of the garrison vessels. Take… take command of the Pathfinder,” Corvus offered, sitting up a bit more as she formalized that in her head. “Take command of the Pathfinder, assigned to OC. That gives you the chance to stretch your legs on a ship command, which is what you’re looking to transfer for, and keeps you here,” she explained. “Here where the Admiral can see what you’re capable of directly, and maybe… just maybe… you can dig out of everything that’s happened recently. Make it abundantly clear that you might have had some missteps, but you’re back on track.”
Her expression didn’t brighten. Calliope disliked dragging around the bag of rocks that was her reputation, coming out of the trail of collapsed dominoes that was her past. She’d gotten her heart set on a clean break on all fronts. And that Corvus still pictured Calliope’s professional comeback as a slim ‘maybe’ made her bristle. Still, she considered the offer like a peace pipe. The Pathfinder was Corvus’ ride, and while others rotated through taking the ship out on patrol, Calliope knew Corvus was keeping those nacelles warm as her own Captain’s consolation, having been taken out of the track for a ship command. A pilot promoted to a Stardock was a cruel twist of fate, no matter the prestige involved.
“I want to pick my crew rotations,” Calliope said after a long, tense silence. “And I want access to the Tactical briefings. Top level with you. I’m not zipping around these waters on faith.”
Corvus surveyed her for a moment, trying to think through any tactical missteps in that. Her gut reaction was to accept it as a pretty basic condition of her taking the role - to treat her like a ships’ Captain assigned to the area not the erstwhile commander of DeHavilland’s garrison vessel. But she had to be sure she thought through all the angles.
“I have to ask, Calli. Are you confident you can work with Commander Zayne and not have the… situation be an issue?” she asked. She had faith in Calli, sure, and certainly had no qualms about Thad being the same ice cold block he always was. But Calli was on her back foot with all that was going on and being thrust into that position, having to deal daily with the man that was in the role she’d come here for wasn’t likely to be easy.
“I’ve never had an issue with Zayne.” She said quickly, before amending. “I mean, he wasn’t taking my reports to him as seriously as I would have liked when I was first… reassigned. Which is how I ended up… freewheeling a little looser than any of us preferred.” Between her long distance information sting on Freecloud relying on unofficial aid with the Rangers, then her investigation into the ort cloud for pirate spiderholes in the rocks, and looking into missing persons on Obsidian with an off-duty Kensforth as her only available companion— Calliope had been left without any official or substantial means to carry any of it out, but also didn’t see that as a stop sign to her almost solo investigations. Now, she was admitting she’d been something of a loose canon, but they both knew that wasn’t really how Calliope preferred to act. With her limited reinstatement as Pathfinder's XO, on Korix she’d wrested the specialists and gear she’d needed and run a proper away mission, just as she had for years. Just how she intended to operate now. “I was freewheeling looser than I preferred, Captain. I needed a team then, but in emergent situations, I ended up working with all I had. If you’re giving me a crew now, and if my reports are taken at face value, we’re not going to have a problem in that regard. Thad is your first officer. His word is as good as your word.”
Corvus just nodded patiently.
“You gave me a chance here. I let you down. I’m glad you have Zayne.” If anything Calliope felt Zayne was being underbilled when there were commands of his own he could hold. But when she’d braved the thought to the Admiral, she’d been dismissed. She was left without any insight to the situation there. And really, no one was asking her. As far as she was concerned, the job was Thad's and that was that. “Admiral Sepandiyar was right to match you guys for command. I’ve never resented Thad.”
“Ok,” Corvus answered finally. “You can pick your rotations, and you’ll have a seat at the briefings,” she said, agreeing to the limited terms Calli had offered.
Calliope pursed her lips slightly, looking back at her transfer request on the padd on the desk. Command of the Pathfinder was a half step to nowhere, and Calliope wasn’t sure why Corvus didn’t put her request through and see her out of her hair entirely. They would just be back to the same place in a few months at most, when Calliope would resubmit it. But she wasn’t going to goad against it. Corvus was probably right that it would help clean up her recent record, and maybe her options for the next billing would benefit from that. It still left her unsure about unpacking or not. But she'd been living in limbo for so long, in her marriage, and on the station. What difference was it going to make staying on a little longer? At least she could catch up with a few of her friends... and run the triatholon she'd signed up for... and finish out another round of therapies with the medical team she already knew. the pros column was filling out.
“Then I guess it’s settled,” Calliope said. “Just get me the schedule.”
“Calli…” she added. “I really am sorry that it’s come to this with Lance. If there’s something I can do to help you through it…” she shrugged as if she couldn’t possibly imagine what that might be. “Let me know?”
Calliope’s shoulders fell from an internal sigh. “I just need to move on. I feel like if I dwell on it, I’m just back in the same place.”
“If you don’t have new quarters settled, I can make sure you’re relocated,” Corvus offered, taking the data PaDD with the transfer request and deleting the request in front of her. She put it away and grabbed the one for Lance and accepted it, wondering if she could send him along with it right that moment.
“It’s taken care of. Rhian set me up.” Calliope smiled a little at the thought of all the friends she had to lean on, though her heartstrings twinged as she watched Corvus complete Lance’s transfer and set it on her finished task pile. It was over now. The rest was just between the lawyers. “Operations, you know. We always figure out our own arrangements.”
“I have a meeting with the Admiral in an hour or so,” Corvus continued on with a half smile. “I’ll let him know you’re staying and that Lance is leaving. Obviously the details of why I’m not upset about Lance leaving are between us,” she clarified.
“Goes without saying,” Calliope confirmed. “Haven’t even told my priest.” She crossed her heart.
“In the meantime, I recommend Chief Edgerton for the Science station on Pathfinder,” she sighed, standing up to bring an air of finality to it all. “Maybe… we can make noodle soup a… weekly meeting?”
“I’ll ask Chef KevaQ to save us a place at the bar.”
Corvus smiled tightly back, unsure how to proceed now, and opted to just move forward. The same thing she always did when things got rough, or awkward. “Keep me posted. I’ll let you get to it, Commander,” she declared, stepping around the desk as an afterthought to offer her hand. That’s what you did when you gave a person a command, right? She just went with it, her own emotions and concern for her friend making it a little hard to be sure.
“Thank you, Captain,” Calliope said, shaking her hand. But there felt like a repelling force field was keeping her from clapping her old friend around the shoulder; withdrawing her hand again she stepped away without further pressing it. “I’ll check on her repair progress as soon as you log the assignment, and I’ll see you bright and early for tomorrow’s briefing.”
Captain DeHavilland just returned a steely nod, “See you tomorrow, Commander.”
