Kirin sighed as she entered her quarters, stripped off her uniform jacket, tossed it to the floor and collapsed onto her back on the sofa staring at the ceiling, her legs hanging off the end as she brought her hands to her head and placed her palms on her forehead. “I forgot how much of a pain in the ASS debriefings are after these missions! At least Kerry is now working on decrypting that datapad; hope it was all worth it. I cannot believe it has been 3 days of them” she says out loud with a shudder as she thinks back to her time on the planet before turning her head to look at the replicator, “Computer, chamomile tea, hot.”

The replicator lit up and a cup appeared with the well-recognized sound of its physical structure being reconstituted from the ship’s biomatter reserve. Laying there for a couple more minutes Kirin stared at the ceiling without really thinking about anything before getting up and grabbing the tea. Cupping it in both hands she brought it up to her face and inhaled the scent of it, “Never as good as the real thing but pretty close.” she mutters before taking a sip and sighing as the warmth from the drink washes over her relaxing her. 

Looking around her room she cannot help but think how nice it is to be back in her own quarters. Going back to the sofa she sat down and grabbed her PADD from the table pulling up her inbox as she knew there would be several messages, atleast, since she had been away; there always were…Without fail she has a number of messages, text and video, waiting for her but upon closer inspection, several were from Commander Clements asking for updates. They started 6 hours after the scheduled rendezvous and continued with a new one every 6 hours for 2 days. “You would think for someone in intelligence he would have more patience. I forgot how impatient he was. Don’t need to read them now; already sat through that… 8 hours I won’t be getting back.” she said as she selected and archived all of them for later review though she would have bet good latinum on there no point in checking them now.

Switching over to her personal inbox she groaned seeing all the messages; “You would think that spam filters would work better in the 25th Century but crap always gets through. Sign up for one leisurely week on a resort world and they send you new things every week.” quickly click on those and several other junk messages she quickly deletes them sees that there are only a handful of ones left that are worth opening; one in particular caught her eye from D’donya Tarken that was received several days ago. Tapping on the message the inbox vanished and was replaced with the Starfleet logo before quickly changing to an image of an Orion woman in her middle years wearing a command uniform bearing the rank of captain who bore a striking resemblance to Kirin.

—

The woman shows little emotion as she starts to speak, sitting stiffly in what appears to be her ready room.

Kirin, how are you? I trust everything is well?

After the first sentence, she sighs and shakes her head the stiffness leaving her posture and she smiles a sad smile.

This is stupid; let me start over. 

Kirin, I was so very happy…and well surprised to get your message given how we left things. I know it has been, well, far too long since we properly spoke and I am sorry for my part in that. I was very happy…well we both know that is an understatement…when I found out that you were no longer working with Starfleet intelligence on Kolar. Yes, I know what they had you doing. Why do you think I was so unhappy. I never wanted to you be exposed let alone be emersed in that aspect of my…well our…culture. But as you have told me many times, you are an adult and a Starfleet officer. A damn good one I will add and that we each have the duty that we must perform. It was just that mission hit a bit too close to home.

Kirin watched as her mother for the first time in a few years relaxed and lose the cold formality they had both adopted with each other since she joined SFI all those years ago. She knew that her last message helped to break the pattern as she had grown tired of the distance and wanted to let her know she was sorry. She knew why her mother was not happy with her assignment in SFI, she had always figured her mother had pulled some strings to get access to the reports but her mother never told her why. The stubborn streak in both of them had then firmly locked into place and that was the end of them talking until Kirin reached out after long weeks of debating.

I cannot tell you how excited I was to hear that were given the command of the USS Daradax and on your promotion to Lieutenant Commander. Getting command of Raven is nothing to laugh at! They are tough ships and give you a perfect stepping stone to bigger and better things. My first assignment was aboard an Aerie-class courier back in…oh, ‘64. We ran courier duties and transported dignitaries out to starships all over the place. Even got a run to the USS Enterprise though I never set foot on her or got to meet Picard or any of the others sadly; at that point anyway. Anyways it is a good place to start. 

D’donya’s smile increased at this point and she relaxed completely to the point Kirin recognized the relaxed and fun-loving mother from her childhood.

As for your question. Command is hard. I took a look at the files of your crew and you are right. They are an odd bunch but your assessments I think are correct based on the files and what you told me. All of them have the possibility to be brilliant officers though there is room for improvement…especially with Ensign Mnass. I accessed the file about the first incident and I am surprised that she was treated in such a way. A known and violent criminal fought back. She did the right thing, sure she put him in the ICU but it can be hard to disable someone without. Gain her trust and her respect and give her the same and she will be yours and will follow you happily to Gre’thor, the Klingon equivalent of hell. As for Ensign Dawson, that I think comes down to confidence and familiarity. I think she will start to open up to a small crew pretty quickly. After all, a small group of people is not something she will have been use to at the academy. Ensign Belania, honestly I am not sure why she was sent to the Daradax. She is a brilliant pilot. If you don’t want her I will take her. Could be that she rubbed some people the wrong way or just the luck of the draw. Your Xo though, you lucked out with him. A great engineer by all accounts and someone who will balance out, your, let’s just say impulsiveness. You know I am right so don’t start shaking your head…

Kirin’s mother just smiled knowingly as Kirin rolled her eyes and shook her head. 

In general listen to your team, support them when need but trust your instincts. They have always done right by you.

A chime came through the video and D’donya looked over to her right. 

I need to get going Kirin. Please message me back when you can. I do hate that we cannot actually carry on a conversation in real-time. Let me know next time you are in range of Starbase 11 and I will see if the Stormfront can make a detour.

Speak soon. Love you.

With that, the video ended and the Starfleet logo returned until Kirin closed the video file. “Well, that is better than I expected.” She said out loud before leaning back on the sofa and closing her eyes, a feeling of contentment settling over her for the first time in a long while. She had not realized how much the flight with her mother had been bothering her.

Laying there for a few moments she decided it was time to get up, it had been a long day and she needed a nice long shower and bed. “If only there was a proper water-based shower…” she muttered as she starts walking to the bedroom looking forward to some quiet time and a good night’s sleep this evening.