Water Quality
Posted on 22 Aug 2020 @ 12:11am by Captain Corvus DeHavilland & Commander Calliope Zahn
Mission:
M1 - Emergence
Location: Bariah'nal, Former RNZ
Timeline: MD1 - 0845HRS
2160 words - 4.3 OF Standard Post Measure
The crunch of gravel was all anyone in the party heard as they traveled down the path, the greys and browns of the prefab city of Bariah'nal popped up five years ago now marking the otherwise overgrown hillsides.
Lt. Commander Calliope Zahn lifted her shades up from her face and attempted to situate the glasses on top of her head, her volume of hair interfering as usual. She gave up and tucked the folded arm into the half unzipped jumpsuit collar instead.
"Site 12-D is just a few dozen more meters down here, Dr. Davit." She explained to the Tellerite specialist and his assistants as they crunched along.
"This is where you collected those bizarre samples?" The Tellerite was average for his species, rounder-bodied overall, and he was laden with sample kits. His arms flapped a little like wings with each step, jostling all of the equipment straps.
"One of the places, yes. Science has been pulling it out of multiple sites at different times."
"I guess Starfleet found it takes a lot more to properly map underground aquifers than some shoe polished uniforms phoning it in by button pushing scans from orbit, doesn't it?"
Calliope's instinct was to bite her tongue and allow the under-girding insult to slip by. But she recalled Tellerites preferred a little tete-a-tete. "Well, we aren't crawling with lazy-ass specialists who take four months negotiating a contract and take a sightseeing detour on their way. So we have to make due."
The Tellerite snickered a happy sound. "Starfleet. Traveling the galaxy so fast even Warp speeds are not enough to make the sights blur enough through the view ports. Now you've got to pass everything by with Slipstream. What next? Just winking yourselves here to there?" He was huffing for breath as he came to the bottom of the hill where the rest of the team was waiting for them.
"That is the dream. Dr. Davit, this is Lieutenant Fernandez, our chief of Science, and this is Sallah, from the local public works department."
"Jolan tru." Sallah greeted him. She didn't carry any of the airs many people used to affiliate with the old empire, dressed instead very practically and wearing a bright kerchief around her neck. "We're so very glad Starfleet was able to procure such an expert. Your father's contribution to the water project for planet Obsidian's irradiated supply was quite notable. Am I to understand you worked alongside him?"
"My old man—" Dr. Davit began as he set down his kit with some attitude, his upper arms flapping into place. "—was a hack compared to me."
Unsure, Sallah looked between Davit and Zahn. Had the son just insulted his father?
Commander Zahn cleared her throat. "Sallah will be happy if you can live up to even a tenth of your father's acclaim. Or are you just blowing gas out your—"
"Oh my." said Sallah.
Davit looked Commander Zahn up and down and stuck his belly out even further to be more assertive. "Well. At least I don't look like a warty toad person. I can see now why you preferred audio only when you requested my services. Give me that—" He grabbed the metering device from the assistant to his right. "Ugh! graduate students! What is this? The presets are all in reverse order! I can't operate like this! What? Is your head on backwards?"
"I had it ready," The younger Tellerite said, "before you 'fixed' it with the wrong settings."
"Excuse me, Commander Zahn." Sallah moved to whisper with the Starfleet officer in a sidebar. "I'm not sure I can work with this person. He's so..."
"Rude? I know. In his culture that's how you express your pleasure and wit."
"He called you a toad!"
“I know, the irony, right?” Commander Zahn tucked her padd under her arm and motioned with both hands like containing brackets around the problem. "Once it degrades to insulting your physical attributes, you know they're conceding. When he gets busy with the work it should calm down some. He's just making his greetings."
The project manager looked dubious about this.
"Just let Lieutenant Fernandez do the bickering and hang back for now. Once you see his progress, I'm betting we'll start to crack this mystery. How is the filtration system holding up?"
"Very well. I'm just concerned about when we come to the peak of summer. With crop watering, my department is worried the filtration won't keep up, and it would be much easier to use decentralized pumps than having to shunt the whole water supply through the filtering stations."
Zahn nodded. "That's why we brought in the egghead."
"Egg-head?"
"Just a Terran slang for someone with a big brain."
"Oh, you mean Dr. Davit."
"Yes."
"Egghead." The meek Romulan woman smiled slightly. "I may use that."
"Just remember the schoolyard rule. Don't dish it if you can't take it." Her comm chirupped and Commander Zahn excused herself, walking a few paces from the gravel into some meadow grass, the loud chorus of bugs making her have to raise her voice a little. "Zahn here, go ahead."
“A Captain DeHavilland is asking for a conference call at your earliest convenience.”
“DeHavilland? Corvus DeHavilland? She made Captain?”
“That’s her, yes.”
Zahn looked back to the well cap the grad students were helping to lift off, Davit pacing with his short arms on the equator of his hips. Fernandez was already managing the scene while letting Davit feel he was in charge. “I don't want to play comms tag. Is she on the line right now? Put her through."
Zahn switched to a holographic mode on her comm. It was going to be a little ghostly without a full holo-emitter at her disposal, but it would be nice to see a visage of her friend.
The holo-projection resolved a moment later to show a red-haired woman smirking back at her, “Well that took long enough,” she joked, waving at the other woman’s hair, “Maybe less gel next time, huh?” She laughed, looking to her old friend. It might have been the better part of seven years since she’d seen her, but it put a smile on her face just the same.
Calliope had been a close friend during their Academy days, and years later they’d served on the Challenger together; a particularly difficult time for Corvus overall. Zahn had been the single bright spot in all of that darkness - something she’d be forever grateful for. It was just another reason among dozens why she was making this call.
"They made you a captain? What did they pull out of mothballs now?" It was only half of a joke. Everything they could plug the holes in had come out of mothballs for the Fleet's efforts leading up to and following the Hobus disaster.
“It wasn’t what they pulled out, it’s what came back,” Corvus answered. “Starbase two-oh-one. Obsidian Command,” she smirked. “About a week ago. I’ve been given command,” she declared proudly, relishing the look on her old friends face at hearing that.
"Get outta of town!" Calliope was gobsmacked and gave it a beat to see if Corvus would admit to pulling her leg. "OC's recovery is the biggest news out of the sector! It's supposed to change the whole game out here." Calliope looked down at the ground and kicked the dust up into a cloud. "It's hard enough to do this work without all the raiding and contention setting us back."
“I bet,” Corvus smirked, “It can only get better.”
"Wow. Well, Congrats. Stardock class— a couple thousand decks of pain-in-the-ass. Have you got a beast on your hands. I'd shake your hand, only—" Calliope reached through Corvus' hologram arm.
“Shake it when you get here,” Corvus smirked back, “I could use your help. Someone I can trust to get things done right,” she added, folding her arms across her chest as if daring her to say no. “Like you said, its changing the whole game out here. Help me stay in front of it, number one.”
"I'm honored, flabbergasted you even thought to ask me, Corvus...." She put a hand over her thick hair and then looked over the waving grasses into the tree cover beyond, processing the offer. "All ribbing aside, It's a tremendous opportunity. And I want to say yes! It's just... I've been serving with Captain Winters seven years now. Our senior crew is tight-knit. I don't know if I could just up and leave on him."
"I get it," Corvus nodded, "I do."
"I know you do." They'd been through thick and thin as Department Heads together before. That kind of chemistry wasn't a given anywhere.
"It's just that I need a Chief Engineer too, and the officer I'm considering isn't going to leave Daystrom and take the posting unless you take the posting," Corvus explained in faux despair, "And I really need the best on this posting." Corvus met Calliope's gaze, knowing damn well she'd jabbed just the only soft spot the woman had. Part of her felt bad for it, but at the same time, she knew that this was what she ultimately wanted. Corvus just had to dangle the carrot with a little more force.
"Ngugh..." Stunned, Calliope held her hands out in a but-wait expression. "Lance? Come out from Sol?" It made some sense. It would be the first posting Calliope had been offered where he could likely also conduct his work. But Lance as Chief of Engineering? He'd have to learn to live in disruption and activity. And the strangest twist of all, she'd... outrank him. Not that she wasn't used to being senior to ingenuous officers who outstripped her IQ by seeming orders, but... to her own husband? "I mean, if Lance were to accept the offer."
Corvus nodded in agreement, gesturing for her to go on.
"Well, you really would be getting one of the best minds in Starfleet if he agreed."
"I know, there's skippers who'd give a nacelle to have his expertise," Corvus nodded, aware that she was really a spectator at this point.
"And it's been seven years. Maybe it's time I gave someone else the chance to work with Captain Winters."
"When's the last time you shared a home with your husband, Calliope?" Corvus asked, offering the proverbial nail in the coffin and trying to keep the smirk off her face. She knew she had her now, it'd just been a matter of leverage but... there was still a chance it could turn so she kept her expression as neutral as she could.
Back on the Challenger Calliope had confided to Corvus about the compromise she and Lance had arrived at in order to accommodate the marriage of two Starfleet professionals. That had been before Corvus' own marriage had ended so shockingly, when they'd seemed happy. Calliope had said something about envying Corvus for being able to share a posting with her Engineer husband. It felt like an awful faux pas in retrospect, but no one had seen it coming. "Never." Calliope said, trying to resist getting choked up and failing. "We never shared a home before."
A Cheshire smile spread across Corvus' face, "Never could be over. Today," she replied softly, "What do you say?"
"I say you're awful. And wonderful. Yes. Send me whatever I need to read on the Shuttle ride over. I'm sure you're under pressure to reopen fast so I'll need to hit the ground running and you know how much I hate being unprepared. Captain."
Smirking still, Corvus picked up a padd from the table not on the holo-presence and began transmitting the relevant data, "It's on its way, along with your transfer orders, Commander," Corvus grinned. "I've also sent you Lance's transfer orders. I figured you'd want to be the one to break the news to him," she chuckled. "Rather than a random transfer in the night," she added, folding her arms over her waist once that was all complete. Her smile faltered, turning into the more serious mask of an officer issuing commands, "Calliope, I need you there as soon as is humanly possible. Bend whatever sails you've got to get there. I should be there in a few hours, it'd be great if you were right behind me."
"I'll do my best."
"I'll let you figure out the details then," Corvus replied, pausing a moment to look at her old friend. "It's good to see you, Calliope. I'll see you when you get here," she grinned. "DeHavilland, out."
Calliope watched the hologram wink out and sighed. Letting the waves of bug noises play over her for a minute to collect her thoughts. Between Lance and Winters, she had two very difficult conversations and no time to put them off.
She signaled the ship. "Zahn to Paracelsus. One to beam up."
