Girls night - Love on the Rocks....part 7a
Posted on Mon Aug 24, 2020 @ 3:34am by Captain Maritza Soran & Charghwl'IH of the House of Soval
1,620 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Et In Arcadia Ego
Location: Captain's Quarters
Timeline: MD04 1800
[ON]
[Earlier...]
Having been ushered away from sickbay by the Ambassador, Geral had acted quickly and had Sha'rae put together several orders of flowers...especially the taviel flowers from their first "date".
Hating replicators, but having little options or time he keft Sha'rae to her own resources. She later reported that 3 floral arrangements were on the way to Maritza's quarters.
[Currently...]
As they left sickbay the pair was met by one of Charg's men. "Lady X'aedell, the Ambassador has assigned me as your escort."
"I have no need of a chaperone, I can take care of myself."
"No doubt my lady but there is a xenophobic human, anti-alien group, not to mention Cardassians, on the station and..."
"...and you have your orders."
"It is more than that my lady...you are the mother and future of the House to which I am sworn to serve."
"I've learnt arguing with security is pointless." Maritza said. "Best is to just nod and let them tag along. The alternative is being at the middle of a scrum of them."
"Not to mention that I'd never hear the end of it from Charg." Returning her gaze to the escort, "I am honored at you dedication to our House and would be please to have you as my escort."
A few moments later the trio was walking down the corridor towards Maritza's quarters. "...it all started when the head of the House of Varal was...well somebody got a few flowers."
Nodding to the door ahead with 3 sets of flowers around the entrance. "Wonder who the lucky person is?"
Maritza growled under her breath. "That's my state room." She told Xae. She reached to her commbadge. "Soran to OPS. Can you send a crewman to clear the garbage out around the entrace to my quarters." She ignored the bright displays as she walked in. "Would you like a drink?"
Sensing the irritation Xae answered. "Yea sure...what's with the flowers? You're just gonna have then thrown out?"
"Yes." Maritza shut the door on the offending items, and collapsed on the sofa, rubbing at her ribs. "Computer, Bloodwine for two. Medium Sweet." She shrugged apologetically at Xae. "I'm a puny trill, I can't take the strong stuff."
Snatching one of the flowers and stepping into her quarters Xae smelled the Bajoran rose as the door closed behind her. "Ok spill it...what happened. And no Bloodwine...at least until your meds wear off. I did give your doctor my word after all."
Maritza glowered at her, "Curse your honor," she told her. "Computer, swap a bloodwine for a citrus juice." The replicator hummed to life and provided the requested beverages. "There's not a lot to tell. The man I was seeing turns out to be lying scum who pursued me as bet."
Joining her at the replicator to take her bloodwine. "Give me a little credit. Once that last hypo wears off, the alcohol can flow. But you know that I know there is more to whats bothering you than that.
"While you were on the biobed I picked up someone feeling a great deal of anxiety and concern directed towards you." Tipping the rose to her. "Someone cares a great deal about you...but enough of that for now.
"Some much time has passed. Get me caught up on what you've been up to."
"Both not much, and too much. After the D'ama I had some recuperation time, and then when it was time to go back to work, they sent me here to run Strat Ops. I'd been here about three days when Pangaea popped up, T'Vaurek lost her child and went a bit loopy.
"Then she got recalled and Commander Aldrex had family needs and the station kind of got dropped in my lap. There were various issues. The cardassians tried to arrest my people for war-crimes after we found out the hard way that the portals jump through time. Then some pro-human fundamentalists sabotaged a new weapons test. And killed themselves rather than be arrested. Suicidal! Its crazy!
"And after that, some vulcans from an alternate universe came through the portals and kidnapped my science officer and my Intelligence Chief turned out to be a traitor who abandoned his away team to rescue and /or kill the Science officer, and then some people, pro humans again kidnapped my yeoman, who was barely out of high school, which lead to yet more suicide humans, and now we're here, with a riot on the prom, Trill secret police harassing my residents and something growing in the EPS." She blew out a stream of air in a sigh. "Its not boring. I'll give it that."
"Well you have been busy. Let me guess, you are still trying to do everything yourself, or did you finally get the hang of delegating?" Downing another swallow of her bloodwine she relaxed into the corner of the sofa. "Ahhh...it's been a long time since I've sat in Starfleet furniture."
"We're not allergic to comfort," Maritza acknowledged, stretching out to relieve the pressure on her still sore ribs. "And the other thing?" MAybe Xae had a point. She probably wasn't making the best use of Caleb Ryan's talents or experience. And maybe she was being unnecessarily choosy over finding a Chief of Strat Ops to take over the handling of intel, diplomacy and marines and the air group. "Its not easy. There's just so much to do."
"On a station this size...that's not surprising. Way too much for one person to handle all by themselves." Smiling with a small chuckle she got of and got another drink. "Mint tea."
Setting the cup down she flopped down into the sofa and began removing her boots before leaning back again. "You know there is something about this place. Da`nal was the Strat Ops officer and got his first command here. Charg and I took a shuttle here before our assignment on the Merlin. Then we all met you on the Dama.
"Da`nal made it to Admiral and is now back home overseeing his House. But now here we are together again. This station has been a part of all of our lives...at one point or another."
"I saw it as a stepping stone." Martiza admitted. "Something to get me closer to a decorated career, ready to go home and run for office on Trill. But I just seem to attract disaster after disaster, professionally and personally."
"Well there isn't much I could do for the professional side of things, although I have no doubt Charg, Kretog, and Da`nal would do whatever they could to aid a former shipmate and comrade in arms. Now as for the personal, you know you can always talk to me."
She spread her hand and cocked her head. "I'm not apart of your command, we've been through hell and back together, and..." tapping her forehead with her finger, "...you know you can't bullshit me. So come on...spill it."
Maritza sighed. "Its just this situaiton with Lasuma. I hadn't planned to get to know him. He was just...I can't confide in my crew, obviously. And there was so much going wrong. I needed someone to talk to, and he was there, and sympathetic and...I guess I should have been suspicious then, because he was very smooth."
She was able to pick up the mix of emotions swirling inside that petite frame. And smiled to herself remembering the rocky start she and Charg had had. "Mar... I haven't been out of the game that long to know that at first the guys ALL try to be smooth. Some are cheezy, some you just down right feel sorry for, some are good, and some sweep you of you feet. But you have to admit you've always been a tough nut to crack." Addi g with a shrug, "Maybe, just maybe, he took that tough exterior of yours as you playing hard to get.
"As far as planning... do you really think I planned to be with Charg? When we first met I thought he was an arrogant son of a bitch. In staff meetings he would push his security views as if they more important then any other aspect of any mission. He insisted on his way and his damned logic usually won the day. What made it worse was that not only did have that frustrating confidence but he was so damned personable too.
"Anyway, I finally had had enough of his logical arrogance and went to confront him on the holodeck when he was working out. I challenged him to a fight with a katana, a blade that I knew. I was so sure I can teach him a lesson and knock him down a peg but he ended up giving me a run for my money. In fact not only did he beat the hell out of me but because I was stupid he actually ran me through. After that he picked me up and actually ran me to Sick Bay and then never left my side.
"But you know, even before getting hurt the way he challenged me, toyed with me, and then stood by me after getting hurt I knew he was the one. Then on the shuttle ride from the DaVinci to DS5 we ended up taking the oath and then once on the Dama, as you know, we were married.
"Being in love isn't about plans...it just happens. Let me ask you this; before whatever happened...were you happy?"
To be Continued…
Captain Maritza Soran
CO
DS5
Lady X'aedell, of the House of Soran
Wife to Ambasador Charghl'IH
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