Part of USS Mariner: M1: Into The Gamma Quadrant and Bravo Fleet: The Lost Fleet

20) Facing Reality

USS Mariner - Sickbay > Brig
March 2401
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Walking through the hallways, Silina gave a friendly nod to some crew members filling in the gaps of those either in sickbay or in the brig. It has been a rollercoaster the last few hours, and lucky enough, ship operations were back to full capacity. She had to hand it to Adrián in the choices he had offered regarding the Chief Operations Officer, and Drata was managing it well so far. However, her duty was starting, as she needed to deal with personnel issues. 

Sickbay

Walking into the sickbay, Silina could already see the number of people waiting for treatment. The hallway beds were empty, so that was good. She walked to Kossaal who was tending to a patient. “Doctor, got some time?” Silina softly stated waiting for his response. 

Kossaal nodded to the patient and then looked at Silina. His eyes darted to the wound on her shoulder. “Hop on the bed” He turned his attention to get a medical tricorder. “I better not ask how you got that burn, seeing the indication is a potential phaser shot” He turned back to her who now sits on the bed and starts scanning her wound.

“Yea, it’s that particular event that caused this” Silina didn’t frown at the pain that her shoulder did. She was used to it kinda. “How are things down here?” 

He opens her uniform slowly and gently pulls the fabric off her skin as he grabs a sedative placing it above the spot. “It is clearing up. People are returning to their duties. However, I had to send some to our esteem counselor” He was not a particular fan of the Vulcan, but if it meant that it got the job done. “No deaths if you are wondering, though if those idiots are telling the truth that there was phaser firing in the engineering….it could have ended quite differently” 

Nodding in agreement with that last statement “Commander Valerio was well aware of the situation and got it quickly under control” Silina narrowed her eyes briefly as she felt a pinch of pain. “I heard from him also that you had a request. But it was based on the amount of work that was here, which is….lowering” She looked at him. 

Slowly scanning her burned tissue and repairing it as it went, Kossaal took a deep breath. “Well, it would have helped to get some of my medical personnel back. Including my assistant” He placed the device down and checked the wound carefully. 

“You do realize that she is not to be your assistant anymore after what she has done” Silina looked around careful with her words.

The Andorian gave a stern nod. “I am well aware of the situation she has brought upon herself. But…” Kossaal looked at her. “She is the most gifted officer I have worked with so far. Sure she acted foolishly. But I believe I have seen it were more the young officers and enlisted that got convinced of the felony the command team suppose to have done.” Kossaal shrugged a bit looking at his sickbay and seeing the mess. “Demote her from her position, do whatever you want but get her back to work” With that he taps on the bed. “You are clear to go. Rest with that arm for the coming days and if it hurts let me know”.

Hopping off the bed, she appreciated the feedback that Kossaal gave to her. She closed her uniform and her shoulder felt indeed better. Silina pats him on the shoulder. “I see what I can do doc” With that being said, Silina left the sickbay leaving Kossaal behind with his work to attend to. In the hallway, she was reflecting on his words. There was truth in his words. They were only young ensigns or enlisted starting their careers and acted on misdirection. Would this fall under the bias of leadership? She turned around in the turbo lift when entering “Brig” The door closed, and it started to move.

Brig

Walking into the brig area, Silina nodded to the brig officer and noticed some people in various emotions. Some are sad, depressed, and others angry or frustrated. Common reactions for those that break the rules and get caught in their acts. In her previous profession, she would have compared it with the cycle of death, extreme to compare but it made sense. 

Walking past the brig seeing a young petty officer talking to himself and shaking his head. First was the denial of what they did. They were not wrong. They were doing the right thing. Why would they be punished for something they were doing for the right reasons? A man slammed against the wall demanding to be let out. The second phase is anger. They were held unjustified in these cages. They acted to save their comrades and stop the tyranny of the command team. 

Silina kept walking as she stopped and looked at a young Ensign “Ma’am I think we can talk about this. This is one big misunderstanding Commander. Please listen to me. I have so much to offer” Ah the third one is bargaining, Silina forgot about that. A person with the slight hope to make the situation less painful for themselves or that they would be traumatized. Silina ignored her and walked on. 

Phase four, which most people in these brigs were, is depression. They state that what they did was wrong, and they overthink conditions regarding what it means to them and in some cases worse what it means to others around them. Silina noticed a few that were already in the last stadium, acceptance. She saw in their eyes that they were ready to hear what would happen to them. These officers and enlisted had grown up in these heavy conditions.

Her journey stops at the most secure brig of them all. Silina looked at the security officers and nodded as a signal for them to leave. She grabbed a chair and placed it before the flickering blue transparent field. Taking a deep breath “Lieutenant…” 

The man opened his eyes as he held his hands together, leaning on his knees with his head lowered. He glares slowly upwards at Silina. “I see the doctor did a good job of patching your shoulder up” Rami spoke. “But it makes me wonder why the XO is here to attend my arrest” He bows slightly. “I feel like this is a privilege by itself that you are making your appearance” 

“What happened to that sweet goofy man that was causing trouble on Deep Space 17? Where is that caring man that did anything for his fellow officers, friends, or even family” Silina felt taken by this attitude, more than she had expected. Looking at him “But to answer your question, Adrián is doing to keep everything going, and seeing your posture tells me that your ribs still hurt so having Sazra here would not benefit that pain” 

He laughs and grabs his chest narrowing his eyes and swallowing the pain. “You got a fair point in that observation. I could handle myself well enough to the good ole Captain…depending on how long she will be staying in that position that is” Rami had a grin on his face.

So that confirmed that they did play right into his hand. The mutiny was merely a distraction from the real goal of making the ship force dock at Opaka outpost. She looked slightly over her shoulder to the other brings where the other mutineers were sitting. Were they truly guilty of the puppet play of this man? She looked back as Silina didn’t show that in her emotions and placed her legs over each other and her hands on her knee. “So you realize that your career within Starfleet is over, not even regarding what will or will not happen to anyone else” 

Rami looked at Silina with contentment. “I do realize that Commander. Suppose it means that I would save the 120 souls on this ship from the delusional and fabricated information provided by the Command Team. Some minor skirmishes of Breen acting brave and hardy on the borders. The prophets destroyed the lost fleet. Or will you now tell a Bajoran that they are also a lie?” 

The state of mind that Rami still believed to his heart that the given evidence and everything said to him was still fabricated made Silina wonder. She needed to talk with Miki about a potential investigation into his quarters, office, and personal computer. “If that is what you are willing to believe, we have provided you with the needed evidence of what is happening in Deneb and Captain Kobahl gave clearly what it was a secrecy” 

“Why was it a secrecy Commander?” He boldly asked leaning back on the bench “Why would a Command Team keep valuable information that is key in operating this mission to themselves? It doesn’t make sense to keep the Chief Security out of the lope, let alone the intelligence officer” He looked in the direction of Keeyiro who couldn’t hear them.

Taking a brief moment to answer that as Silina shrugged “Because the principles of following orders stand before one need for information. We knew the information provided was a high risk and anything between Alpha to the Dominion borders could have gone wrong. Keep this in mind. We are on a new ship and barely know the crew as only a portion had transferred from the Damascus. So what other choices did we have?” 

“The choice to give the trust to us, making our fish for information and creating puzzle pieces that don’t fit the bigger picture doesn’t help. It built frustration, anger, and distrust in you” Rami looked at her with no compassion. “I did what needed to be done to stop the madness you guys are doing. I don’t care about my rank or position as Sazra held me down for all those years already so who cares now?”

Silina blinked at that statement. “She never held you down Rami. She encourages you to improve yourself. You were making basic mistakes at Jaxartes. You were harsh to your fellow officers on the Damascus…those elements held you back to …promote with us. Your arrogance to reflect on your actions held you down, not me, Adrián, or Sazra. You did that to yourself” She shrugged. “And now you dug your own grave by doing this”

A quietness came from Rami as he looked down to the floor, realizing the past things that had been done by himself and he was in no position to defend himself against it. “Get it over with Sil…” He leaned his head against the wall. 

Narrowing her eyes in his direction as she slowly nodded to the request “You are charged with leading a mutiny against the command team of this vessel. The penalty for this is that you will be detained until you are turned over to JAG officials. The penalty that hangs above your head is to be stripped of your rank and position, dishonorably discharged of the service of Starleet and you will most likely serve 15 to 20 years in a penal colony.” 

He gritted his teeth while hearing that. “What about the others?” Rami showed slight care for his actions and what they might have caused others. 

“Including yourself, we got 26 people involved in this mutiny. Potentially 6 of them will face the court marshal. 18 will get demotions in some way or form and the rest will get a formal warning. But we are still looking into the matter to see what is the damage of this mutiny” Silina stood up ready to get going to her next conversation “I am sorry to see you in this state of mind. If you just had talked to us this wouldn’t have gone down like this” 

“No Silina” Rami looked at her. “It had to go down like this…we both know that” Rami looked away.

Standing there for a second or two as Silina nodded to herself and left his brig area with the two Security Officers returning to the position of guarding. 

Comments

  • This post was a gem! In past posts, you have captivated me with a multisided story full of action action, intrigue and suspense, but where this post shined was emotion. Ruslanovna's walk through the brig was perfect, the way you created an analogue to grief and then had her physically walk through and observe the stages of it. And then, in the dialog with Shew, this was my favorite line: "the principles of following orders stand before one's need for information." Shew sat there, justifying in his mind and his words, that he was doing this for his crewmen, and yet in this one statement, you flipped the script. He was himself being selfish in his insistence to know the whole picture or else assume the worst. While Shew 100% looks like the fool here, and Ruslanovna is clearly angry, I am curious if our XO here will be able to look past that to take the one nugget in his words: "The choice to give the trust to us, making our fish for information and creating puzzle pieces that don’t fit the bigger picture doesn’t help. It built frustration, anger, and distrust in you." Or will this experience just make Ruslanovna and the rest of the command staff less likely to trust in the future?

    June 2, 2023
  • Cashiered out of the fleet and 15 years is going easy on him. But I digress, keelhauling is likely frowned upon in 25th Century Starfleet. He calls the command team "delusional" but he's the one that is indeed delusional. Sure, not trusting the crew was an error on Sazra's part. I don’t think they should have lied to their crew, but that in no way justifies Shew and his follower's actions. I disagree completely with giving any of the conspirators leniency. They made their beds and now it's time to lie in them and leave the rest to the courts to decide.

    June 2, 2023
  • Great choice to parallel the arrested crew members to the stages of grief, seomthing they are suffering; grieving a future they now won't be getting. I enjoyed the interplay between Shew & Silina, he still thinks he's won and that must be hugely frustrating for command team. It's a good reminder though that Shew isn't wrong in everything and that perhaps the team haven't approached this mission in the best way, Silina argues its a new crew and they weren't sure but maybe they were overly protective? Or perhaps its the trauma of history looming over them.

    June 8, 2023
  • I liked the walk through, for reasons stated in the other comments, but I particularly liked the conversation between Shew and Silina. He definitely laid a trap for them, which was awesome in and of itself, more complex than a one-shot-and-done mutiny, but there is logical reason and thought processes there. It’s totally understandable that he managed to sucker others into the mutiny. And then you added a little bit of backstory and grievance between Shew and Sazra. Nicely done!

    June 9, 2023