Meeting the XO

Posted on Wed Sep 30, 2020 @ 1:11pm by Commander Caleb Ryan & Lieutenant T'Lul

1,963 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Et In Arcadia Ego
Location: Caleb's office
Timeline: MD04 0830

Having met the captain, and leaving her office, T'Lul debated her next step. Two were logical: one was meeting with the Chief Medical Officer next. The other was meeting with the XO. She asked the computer, “Computer, location of the Executive Officer.”

“He’s standin’ right behind ya,” a baritone voice rumbled from behind TLul. The Human male standing there when she turned around towered over her by nearly a foot. He had tanned, weathered skin, black hair starting to silver at the temples, and dark eyes that looked over a coffee mug that read COWBOY DAD LIKE A REGULAR DAD BUT COOLER. He leaned casually against the door frame by a sign marked EXECUTIVE OFFICER next door to the captain’s office.

T'Lul turned around, slightly surprised that he was able to sneak up behind her. She looked at the coffee mug and wondered at it. At least she already knew something about him, that being that he was a father. Facing him, she raised her hand in a Vulcan salute. "Live long and prosper, Commander." By way of further explanation, she continued, "I have just recently arrived from shuttle to be DS5's new Chief Counselor and have completed reporting in to the captain. I believed it would be logical to meet you next."

“Well then, c’mon in,” the tall man said, gesturing to the door to his office as it opened on his approach. “An’ welcome ta Deep Space Five. Caleb Ryan,” he introduced himself, though he didn’t extend his hand in the usual Human manner. Vulcans didn’t like shaking hands. “Make yerself comfortable. Can Ah get ya anythin’?” He gestured to the replicator.

The office was fairly standard, though the large desk was made of wood and looked old. Besides the usual stack of padds and the computer, there was also a small cedar box with a glass lid. Inside the display box, nestled in black velvet, were two polished silver antique Colt .45 Peacemaker with pearl handles. On the wall above the desk, just over a black Stetson cowboy hat, was a Winchester 1873 antique. The other walls had pictures of a ranch and some horses. Prominent on the desk was also a framed holograph of a young teenage girl with irregular Trill spotting with rainbow colored hair.

"I do not require any sustenance, thank you," T'Lul told the XO as she sat in a chair. The fact that he told her to make herself comfortable usually implied that one should sit, and thus, the Vulcan did. She looked over the room and noticed all the American Western paraphernalia. "Is the girl your daughter?" she asked, noticing the holographic picture.

Caleb smiled and picked up the holograph of the girl. “Yeah,” he said. “They grow up too fast, don’t they?” As he put the holograph down, it shifted to the next picture, the same girl, though younger, and with blonde hair, standing with Caleb and a blonde Trill woman. “You have family?” he asked T’lul as he settled behind his desk.

"If your question is asking whether I am married or have children, then the answer is no. However, I do have a mother and father back on Vulcan." T'Lul wondered for the proverbial millionth time why most other species were not more clear on their speech patterns. It made advising them much more difficult. T'Lul noticed the shift in the picture and asked, "Am I to presume that is your wife?"

Caleb looked over. A pained expression crossed his face. “Yes” he said, sweeping his hand through the image to change it to the next, another one of the rainbow-haired teenager on a horse. “She is no longer with us,” he told T’Lul.

"Where is she?" T'Lul asked, initially missing the idiom. "Or are you stating that she has died?"

Caleb looked at T’Lul. “Yes, Counselor,” he said dryly. “Mah wife died in a shuttle accident. Mah daughter an’ Ah nearly did, as well.” He shuffled some stacks of padds and straightened them again before replacing them back in his outbox. “I hope you’ll understand it ain’t somethin’ Ah like a dwell on.”

"I understand. How long ago was it?" T'Lul asked quietly.

“Six years,” Caleb said.

"So, how old is your daughter, now?" T'Lul continued her questioning. She wondered if the XO had been dating in the last six years. It would not be healthy for a Human to continue to dwell on his wife's death. Raising a child would be difficult, but certainly, the need to accept and move on would also be important emotionally for a Human.

“She’s nineteen now, nearly twenty,” Caleb said.

"Is she on the station or has she gone off to seek her own path?" T'Lul wondered aloud.

Caleb paused, suspicious. The woman wasn’t Trill, but with the Symbiosis Commission poking around on the station, the question had his hackles raised.

“Zandy is still considering what she wants to do,” he said, avoiding the question as to her location. “But Ah suppose that’s neither here nor there,” he said, picking up the padd with her transfer papers on it and signing off. “Ah’m sure you’ve got lots ta do yet with movin’ in an’ gettin’ settled, so Ah won’t keep ya from it, Lieutenant,” he said, handing the padd back to her. “Thanks for stoppin’ by.”

T'Lul noticed the pause. She also noticed the change in Caleb's demeanor. What had she said to offend him? It had something to do with his daughter, somehow, she suspected. "I have very little to unpack. I presume that I can get the medical and counseling codes from the Chief Medical Officer. Perhaps we could have dinner soon? I would like to complete the picture of your family in person. She seems like the apple of your eye, as the Human expression goes."

Caleb frowned. “She is,” he allowed. “Ah’m not sure what mah daughter has ta do with anythin’, though,” he told T’Lul. “But we can have dinner, if ya like. Ah’d offer ta cook, but that usually means me grillin’ up some steaks, an’ you’re likely a vegetarian, so Ah won’t subject ya to that,” he said, smiling at the Vulcan woman.

"Vegetables also may be grilled," T'Lul noted. "Perhaps one of the local restaurants, or my quarters, if you are uncomfortable cooking, however."

“Always love an excuse ta go to Gino’s an’ not have replicated food,” he said. “He always includes some vegetarian food on his menus. Feel free ta let me know when ya’d like, an’ Ah’ll check mah schedule.”

"I just arrived, so any time is fine. Perhaps tomorrow or the next day?" T'Lul asked.

“Ah’ll set it up,” Caleb said with a nod. Hopefully by then she would be done asking questions about his daughter.

"There was a reason that I was looking for you, Commander. The captain told me that you would brief me on the recent developments on the station."

“Ah,” Caleb said, leaning back. “Did she mention anythin’ in particular, or just want me ta run the gamut?”

"She was rather vague, Commander. I was given less than five minutes with her, and I got the impression that she was in a rush. So, please, 'run the gamut,' as you colorfully stated."

Caleb nodded. “The main thing ya might be dealin’ with is the increased tension on the station,” he told T’lul. “We’ve got a vocal cadre of Humanity firsters on campus. They’re upset with the privilege they perceive given by the Federation to alien races an’ what they consider the neglect of Humans. There’ve been some outright clashes on the Promenade, an’ it hasn’t been helped by things the Cardassians have been pullin’ in the sector. The hotbed of all this seems ta be the Dilithium Chamber an’ the Raddon Corporation. But the Raddon’s are careful ta keep it all just talk, at least as far as we’ve been able ta prove. Plus Raddon senior is a politically connected man. We have ta tread delicately with him. The rest of our problems you probably won’t run into. Issues on Pangea, the portals there, Xi’Cadian secession an’ Cardassian scheming. The Ferengi ambassador’s second was murdered a few months ago. Case has stalled. We think it’s related ta the Human-alien unrest. A couple other murders of Humans occurred around the same time.” He sighed and rubbed his forehead. “An’ now we got the Trill Symbiosis Commission pokin’ their noses into everyone’s business.”

"Why does the Trill Symbiosis Commission have to do here?" T'Lul wondered aloud. "I presume that the rest of the information that you gave me, I can research on the computers. I should like to know as much as I can about everything you said. I would be remiss in my duties as a counselor if I was unaware of something and tried to assist and inadvertently caused harm."

“Xi’Cadia an’ the Cardassians are matters for Starfleet Security an’ the Federation diplomats,” Caleb said. “As for the Trill, they’re apparently lookin’ for some rogue symbiote that they say is on the station. Ah didn’t even know that could happen, but whatever. An’ the Trill Symbiosis Commission don’t exactly care about anyone else but those damn worms,” he said, with more vehemence than was apparently warranted.

T'Lul wondered at the exuberance, but made no comment. "Well, certainly that is not something that should concern you or your daughter. It is my understanding that only full Trill can host the symbiont."

Caleb gave T’Lul a sharp look for a moment, but then it faded away. “No, yer right,” he said. “But they kicked up a dust storm when Ah wanted ta marry Aleczandra’s mother,” he said. “Concerns about reassociation an’ all that,” he said bitterly.

"She was a joined Trill, then?" T'Lul asked curiously. "So, after the shuttle accident, did the symbiont die, as well? Or was it able to be transferred to a new host?" Silently, T'Lul wondered why Caleb glared at her. There was a common theme in here somewhere, and it had something to do with his wife.

“We started datin’ at the Academy,” Caleb said. “She wasn’t Joined then. But we got married right before we graduated, a quick thing. That was when she also found out she’d been accepted inta the Symbiosis program -- she kept quiet about our relationship -- an’ when they found out, they kicked up a stink. Ah almost didn’t get her back.” He sipped his coffee before answering her other questions. “Naqiis died with mah wife,” he told T’Lul coldly.

"That was an unfortunate accident, then." T'Lul shrugged. "However, death is part of the natural cycle of life. As hard as it might be, the wisest course is to accept it and move on. I believe that might be more easily accomplished for Vulcans, though, I admit. Other beings have greater emotional reactions to death. So, I apologize if I seemed insensitive."

Caleb’s face grew a bit colder at the unwanted advice to accept the death of his wife and move on. “Yes, it is more difficult,” he said coolly. “Especially when you’re a teenager who just lost her mother.”

Caleb took a sip of his coffee to compose himself. “I think we’ve about covered everything,” he said. “Unless you have any more questions for me.”

"No, Commander," T'Lul responded. "I shall look forward to dinner at Gino's with you and your daughter tomorrow or the next day."

FIN

Lieutenant T'Lul
Chief Counselor

Commander Caleb Ryan
Executive Officer

 

RSS Feed