Penance

Posted on Wed Mar 13, 2019 @ 10:19pm by Captain Maritza Soran & Commander Caleb Ryan

967 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Doors of Perception
Location: Soran's office
Timeline: MD04 0900

[ON]

Soran waited. She didn't want to do this. Part of it felt ridiculous for her to be disciplining a man who was almost old enough to be her father, and who certainly should have known better. And she had sympathy with him. She recognised he had been sorely provoked. But there was also standards. This was the best she could do.

Caleb entered the office. Despite being on suspension, he had put on his uniform. He figured he knew something of what was coming, so he was ship shape regulation.

“Commander,” Caleb said, his usual languid ease gone from his stance as he stood at attention.

"Commander Ryan, under section four of the Starfleet Regulations, following your assault of a civilian, Daniel Riviera, on the promenade two days ago, I am notifying for you that I have reviewed the evidence and am offering you the opportunity for a non-judicial review and punishment." She handed him the padd with the written details. "You may, of course, refuse and request full court-martial."

Caleb barely looked at the padd before handing it back. “I accept whatever punishment you deem fit, Commander,” he told Soren, mastering even his lazy drawl. “I was out of line.”

"You are entitled to a representative to review the evidence and charges. Are you waiving that right?" Soran’s own inability to go down without a fight rooted for him to say no. The part of her who wanted this finished urged him to say yes.

Caleb took a breath. “I will have a JAG officer review it, but I do not anticipate any need to fight it,” he told Soran. “I trust you to be fair, Commander.”

She wanted to call him an idiot. Instead she said, "Later on today you will make a public apology, emphasizing that it is not the expected or tolerated behaviour of a Starfleet officer. No excuses. Everyone heard the reporter pushing your buttons, but it doesn't matter. Then you are going to lay low for a few days. I’m enforcing ninety-eight hours leave. I’m not confining you to quarters, but don't take the piss. Your displaying contrition, not golfing on the holodeck everyday."

“Yes, ma’am,” Caleb said.

"I’m not done," Maritza said sharply. “After some cooling off, you're going on a charm offensive. Community outreach. Career days. Educational tours. Everything i can think off to put you out there as an officer in control and dedicated to nonviolence. Any questions?"

Caleb frowned a bit. “No, ma’am.”

Soran looked at her desk for a moment. She'd hoped he wouldn't yes ma'am, no ma'am his way through this, but in his shoes she'd knew she would be the same. It was the only way to behave. But still. She swallowed down a sigh. She had no idea what she was doing. This man was more than ten years her senior, and whilst they had both seen the horrors of war first hand, him against the Dominion, her against the Kzinti, he still had far more life experience than she did. How did you begin to approach this?

"If Reyes continues to be a problem, we can remove him from the station. This is a Starfleet facility first, not a civilian one. But, for the love of all things, just don't engage. There's holes in your file I don't have clearance to read; reporters will see even less. And they will fill the gaps in with everything from informed speculation to wild mass guessing. And the more you react like that, the wilder and more insulting those guesses are going to get."

A thought occurred to her. "We both know the Symbiosis Committee. They don't take losing symbiotes lightly. Neither of us wants to deal with them taking every excuse to stick their nose in." It was the best way she could say it without saying directly what she knew. Be this stupid again, and they may start looking too closely, and then your cat is out of its bag and your daughter may never be the same again.

Ryan’s eyes darted to Maritza. “There is nothing for the Committee to stick their nose into,” he said. “I am sorry I lost my temper. But putting Reyes off the station would likely only make things worse for what we are trying to do here, even if it would protect me and my family. If he becomes an annoyance, I will take care of it,” he promised. He considered that he could let Artemis Pierce know. Pierce wouldn’t want a reporter looking at anything Caleb had been involved with too closely.

"No!" she said sharply. "No, you will not. The more you try and fix this, the more convinced they will get you have something to hide and they will dig harder. If he makes this an issue, I'll handle it. Let me handle the reporters. That's my job."

Caleb crossed his arms and stared down at Maritza. “Ah don’t need ya to handle mah personal family problems, sir,” he said. “Ah don’t want anyone, not even you, pokin’ around in this,” he warned.

"I'm not going to be poking around in your family issues." Soran wasn't surprised he didn't want that. "But I'm not letting you deal with people who know exactly how to push your buttons. Try and forget about him. Make your statement, take some time off, spend it with Aleczandra if you like. Let everything cool down, Be boring. I'll deal with the rest. I don't like people who go after my staff."

Caleb nodded. “Thank you, Commander,” he said. “If you do need me, you know where to find me.”

"Dismissed, Mr. Ryan."

FIN

Cdr. Caleb Ryan
Executive Officer

Commander Maritza Soran
CO
DS5

 

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