Cold Shot
Posted on 13 Dec 2020 @ 11:46pm by Commander Calliope Zahn & Captain Corvus DeHavilland & Major Declan Finn
Edited on on 14 Dec 2020 @ 12:08am
Mission:
M1 - Emergence
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD 05 2200
2896 words - 5.8 OF Standard Post Measure
When the Captain answered the ring at her door, Calliope ducked quickly inside as if she were getting in from the rain. She peeled off her sweaty duty jacket, not exactly caring about protocol with Corvus while in private. "Reporting back, Captain." Calliope's green skin was a duller shade, a fine coat of sand having plastered itself to the sweat, which had run in muddy rivulets down the back of her neck and soaked the collar of her undershirt.
"So I see," Corvus smirked, "You get everything done you wanted to down there?" she asked. Corvus had hightailed it back to the station when their business was completed. As much as she loved shore leave, getting it on the surface of a desert planet that was friendly as a hangnail to her and her staff wasn't her idea of a good time. Especially when she had so much more than needed to be handled up here. They still weren't under their own power yet, and while Commander Quinn was making good progress, they still had a long way to go.
She nodded. "A couple of hours behind schedule, but the checklist is complete. We've got all the parts. They're being unloaded now." Calliope put a hand to her forehead, her fingertips inadvertently drawing lines in the sand over her brow. "So that's our world, now?"
"For better or for worse," Corvus nodded, "You'd have thought that after Starfleet's presence here all these years that they'd be a little more... well... friendly to us," she sighed, dropping the data PaDD she'd had in her hand on the desk and perching on the end of it at the corner. "It is what it is, I suppose."
"It's strange, just thinking of being in one place. I think I got used to the shorter missions."
She grinned, "All part of the next adventure," she replied, "I'm sure we'll have need to go and be somewhere in the nearby systems once we get things operational here," she shrugged, "We've got the Pathfinder if we get a case of cabin fever," she laughed, her mirth stifled by the ringing of her door chime once more. She cleared her throat, "Come!"
The doors opened and this time Captain Finn stepped in, looking up to see Captain DeHavilland. He was a few steps in before he realized Commander Zahn was there and so offered her a friendly smile, "Captain. Commander," he said, wagging a large data PaDD in hand. "Security patrol reports..." he said, feeling suddenly as if he'd walked into a heavy conversation and wasn't welcome. "...should I come back?"
"You're fine, Captain," Corvus smiled, holding her hand out for the data PaDD.
"How was life on the surface?" he asked as the skipper took the device. He stepped back, standing beside Commander Zahn. He gave an experimental sniff of the air and glanced over to her, "You'd fit in with my Marines," he quipped playfully.
Calliope snorted a laugh. If there was any way her situation could be more complicated, living and bunking as a marine would be it. She folded her arms self-consciously. "Oh, you guys would love it down there. It's brutal. I outran something with plate armor and ten legs and a face made of knives." Calliope noticed Corvus looked concerned and amended with, "Outran them in a rover. I mean. I wasn't on foot or anything."
"Do I need to send Finn with you next time?" she asked with concern.
"Sounds like you might want to take the next trip in a Chieftain," Finn shrugged, "I'm sure we can liberate one from the Marine storage decks. If you're willing to take an EVA walk," he smirked. "It's tight quarters, but you won't need to worry about any local wildlife," he winked playfully.
"That reminds me, I need to get refitted for an EVA suit," Corvus cut in to their awkward flirtation, waving the PaDD at Declan. "Your team has the equipment to refit right?"
"I could use a new suit. So much easier to maneuver than the bulky standard ones off of the hanger," Calliope said. "I need to do some re-quals soon as well. Not that spacewalking is one of my favorite things, but—" Calliope paused, noticing Finn's eye-line was now fixed on Corvus where the captain had flagged with the PaDD. The Marine didn't seem to be hearing Calliope at all. He was halfway to space cadet in his eyes.
"Sure," he nodded. "I mean, it's meant for the Marine equivalent, but if you've got a Fleet EVA suit, I'd be happy to size you up," he declared, realizing what he'd just said after it had come out of his mouth. "I mean, I'm sure it's standard size, but..." he trailed off, looking over at the floor in disbelief.
Letting her arms unfold, Calliope put a fist on her hip and decided to push on this for experiment's sake. "I'm a perfect ten in standard sizing. Female variant, C," she tested.
Corvus arched an eyebrow, surprised at what she was hearing. This wasn't like Calli at all, "You should check with Lance, he may need a refit as well. We all rushed to get out here. The standard protocols got ignored," she offered, purposely bringing up her husband. Maybe a little reality check would bring her off whatever was driving this shameless attempt at flirtation.
"No, sure, yeah," Declan nodded, trying to get back on an even footing. He was still kicking himself for saying something so stupid. His mind had been elsewhere, on things he shouldn't have been thinking of but had been for a while. "I couldn't tell you anything about the sizes, just can tell you when it doesn't look like it's on right. But I'll let Gunny Ione know you two and Commander Quinn might be coming by for EVA adjustments.
"What's wrong, Captain?" Calliope fell back into the cloying voice she'd learned in high school, she rolled her shoulders into a relaxed contrapposto, and tilted her head. There was no point at all in testing her theory and only going half way. "Something's eating you. Something that's got nothing to do with EVA suits. You can tell me."
Corvus cocked her head awkwardly, looking to Declan and then back to Calliope. "Don't... you think it's a little inappropriate to be... so suggestive, Commander?" she asked. "I'm not sure Lance would appreciate it," she added. This was definitely a conversation that she never thought she'd be having with Calliope of all people. If anything she was expecting to have to tell Finn to have his Marines settle down around her staff.
Finn just sort of nodded, edging away from Calliope a bit, wishing he hadn't butted into this conversation. He should have just left the data PaDD and gone on with his day. The last thing he needed was drama. He wasn't sure why Commander Zahn was suddenly being so flirtatious but it was the first time in a long time that he'd felt hot under the collar. Awkward didn't even begin to cut it here. Was this normal for the Fleet types?
Calliope broke into a half-crazed grin and looked back at her friend before turning back on Finn, walking right up close looking up almost nose to nose with a challenge. His gaze averted from hers like a repulsed magnet. Without her meds, usually, she could lead those eyes anywhere. Normally she couldn't hide from that gaze. And now it was hiding from her. She marveled. "Why don't you like me?" she whispered with genuine curiosity.
"Commander Zahn!" Corvus cried out.
"I uh... like you fine, Commander. You're a competent Officer, and your crew seems to respect you," he replied, shaking his head and offering an awkward smile as he stepped back, trying to put a polite distance between them. He looked over to Corvus, practically begging her to save him from whatever the hell was going on here.
"Calli. What the hell?" Corvus pushed, hurrying to her friends side, putting herself between the two of them a bit, "Are you alright?" she asked, her eyes searching hers.
"That's what I'm trying to find out. What's wrong with me? I thought we were getting along just fine." She reenacted his earlier wink.
"Comm..." he cleared his throat, "Commander if I've given you that impression, it's completely by mistake. I have nothing but a professional interest in you. Absolutely professional, and I apologize if I've given any indication to the contrary."
She pursed her lips in consideration. "So, you don't want *my* measurements?"
"Right, that's just..." he laughed nervously, "Commander, I can assure you, it wasn't your figure I was thinking about, i-," he stopped dead, pulling lips back over his teeth. He'd just said that. He'd just said that he wasn't thinking about her figure, which was true. He wasn't, but that inadvertently divulged the detail he'd been avoiding in his mind since he'd set foot on Obsidian Command.
Corvus guffawed, looking back over her shoulder at the Marine.
He stared at the floor for a moment, and then looked up, completely exposed. "I..." he let out a slow breath, "I have a... meeting... thing... right now. I should... I should go to that," he nodded, "Yeah," he added, clearing his throat, "Let... let me know about those security... Yeah," he said, turning towards the door. He paused as it opened and started to look back like he was going to say something else and then just shook his head and walked out.
DeHavilland watched him go, then looked at Calli, "What. The. Hell?"
Calliope grabbed her by the shoulders, laughing. "This is great! He likes you! I'm pumping enough pheromones to woo a Hupyrian moose, and he likes you!"
"Right," Corvus said, gently prising Calliope's hands off her shoulders and bringing them together, "I think the only thing Captain Finn would like right now, is to forget the last fifteen minutes of his life," she explained, talking slowly, as if her XO had become disabled and needed her to speak slow. "Why don't we go down to the Infirmary, just the two of us," she smiled.
"There's no use in going to the infirmary. I've been to the infirmary."
"If you're saying you're of sound mind, Calliope, that..." she said, waving behind her to where Finn had been standing, "Tells me otherwise. Something's not right. So either you have a world-class explanation as to just what the hell that was, or you and I are going down to see Doctor Mazur," she said, taking a worried step back.
"I'm on a medication to mute my hormones. I've been on the same medication twenty years now. Mazur says it's poisoning me and she won't fill the prescription." She held up her last vial. "This is all I have left. The last dose. I'm taking half doses every other day since I arrived here. And I'm already sick of the winking and the subtext and the posturing. It's going to get worse."
"So..." Corvus replied, her brain turning quickly to try and piece what she'd just been told with the happenings of the last few minutes, "Doctor Mazur says the medication you're taking is poisoning you... and your response is to take half doses of it? So it doesn't poison you as fast?" she asked with confusion. "Because people are winking at you?" she asked, not sure what this all had to do with Captain Finn.
"I'm half Orion, Corvus. I love that you haven't had to bother thinking about it. But every day I take a hypospray so no one has to feel weird around me. I worked hard today, like everyone else here putting this mess together. I got called a whore for not wearing a hat— well, maybe the hat's not related. nevermind. But I have to play nice with ensigns who want to impress me and act like I don't notice the added verve, I have to dance around hand touches and awkward laughter and decide if I should take advantage of unusually kind offers or if there's something more behind it. I go to try counseling and he compliments my complexion and calls me pet names and I have to try to guess if calling it out is an overreaction. And then I'm standing here, you know, like this," she motioned generally at her sweaty overtired worked up self, "and I'm supposed to what— leave the room so it's not uncomfortable? Pretend he's not winking? Entertain Freudian slips like I can't hear it?"
"I get it," Corvus said, though it was hard to tell if she was being sarcastic. "You wonder if they're looking at you, or your cleavage today. Should I wear my hair up, or down; the last time I wore it down that guy in Engineering looked at me a little too hungrily. You second guess that choice of clothes for the hover ball game because you can't decide if that Lieutenant from Operations is looking down your shirt when you go for your shot or not. Am I supposed to wear a burka to play, or can I be comfortable and play? Do I pretend like he's not looking? It's a rough go," she nodded, the sarcasm evident at this point.
"You're mocking me"
"It's called being a woman who works with men," she deadpanned, shaking her head. "You don't think I've never had to pretend a guy wasn't winking at me, or that the double entendre wasn't really deliberate. That I've always been sure I was selected for the close quarters Jeffries tube work because it was my turn?" she laughed, shaking her head. "Come on..."
"You don't understand. I still deal with all of that on the hypo." Calliope deflated. If Corvus couldn't understand the scale of her dilemma, who would ever hear her out?
"Right," Corvus said. Fine, she thought to herself. What a grand start to this command, but what other choice did Calliope really give her. "Right," she repeated, turning away from her old friend and walking around behind her desk, tapping her fingers on the corner as she came around. "I'm not even sure where to begin," she confessed quietly, "Every rebuttal I work out always comes back to the same point. The most important point I think, at least for me, the Captain of this station," she said, her demeanor tightening at the end. "That my First Officer is consciously self-medicating herself with something the station's Chief Medical Officer has informed her is poisoning her, and refuses to provide her any more of," she declared, shaking her head. "Did I miss anything in that assessment?"
"No, ma'am." There was nowhere to wiggle out of that. The pit of her stomach became rocky as she realized Corvus wasn't going to see this her way.
"I realize this is a change for you, Calliope. I'll even give you the benefit of assuming Doctor Mazur was less than gentle when she gave you this news," Corvus continued, "But I have a station on minimal power, the remnants of a Star Empire at our doorstep, and who knows what else lurking in the darkness. I don't have time to deal with a self-medicating First Officer worried about a few wayward glances. You're hardly the only Orion in Starfleet," she declared firmly, tapping the top of her desk. "I'm sorry it's come to this, Calliope, but you're going to put one of two things on my desk," she declared ominously, "The last vial of whatever it is that's poisoning you, or your letter of resignation," she declared solemnly, her eyes holding her friends firmly and hating every second of it. What choice had she left her? How could she face Admiral Sepandiyar if she gave her friend that kind of slack?
Calliope worked her jaw side to side and drew her thumb over the label. The silent internal scream was working its way through her nerves. Maybe leaving her work with Winters was a mistake. Maybe the resignation was the better thing. But if she left the vial, so what? There was more she could get from the clinic on the surface in just a few short days. She set the vial down and took one step back, her face drained of expression.
The tiniest of smiles played across Corvus' lips as she set the vial on her desk. She drew a deep breath, trying to measure her words as carefully as she could. "Calliope," she began carefully, looking up at her friend, "I want you here. You were my first and only choice to take this job," she shared, hoping to appeal to her logical mind to get her to see the simple truth she was denying herself; that it was all in her head. "Talk to Lance. Whatever the side effects are to no longer being dosed by this poison, I know you two can work through together."
Preparing to go back into public spaces with any shred of dignity, Calliope put on her jacket and zipped the dirty thing to her throat. It was nice that Corvus thought she knew things.
Corvus gave her a steely nod, "Good night, Commander."
"Captain." Calliope took the dismissal coolly and left.
