Posted by Lieutenant Commander Bethany Kovra Gadi (Chief of Security) in Deck 5- Hiding Out

Posted by Lieutenant Miranda Martel (Chief Engineer) in Deck 5- Hiding Out

Posted by Commander Shara Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Deck 5- Hiding Out
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Bethany stepped into the darkened room, passing by Martel and squeezing her shoulder. “Smells like we’re drinkin’ shine. If you want different you know where I keep it. Help yourself.” Bethany slid down beside Calloway, picked up the shimmering jar and blinked as the fumes burned the eyes and nose. Good Stuff. She tipped the jar back for a swallow, set the jar down and then her whole body shook and twitched as it went down.

Gadi, CoS

There were all sorts of hiding places, even in a smaller cabin like this. Especially if one knew their way around the innards behind the bulkheads. Engineers and Security/Intelligence folks tended to know where all the ‘slicks’ were. The former because they always stumbled across stuff when working and made notes. The latter because they were the ones having to find the hidden stuff. Or secure it away for themselves when on an operation. While Miranda hadn’t’ had to fix anything in here, Gadi was good about doing her own repairs and was no doubt certified in Tactical Engineering, she could imagine where to look easily. More than that though, she’d been on ths hip long enough, and given free-reign of the space that she did know where most everything was first go. Randi considered for a moment then decided to pass, ultimately. Wasn’t the first time she’d wound up drinkin’ absolute hooch shine. This couldn’t’ be any worse.

Eulailia waited for Gadi to finish taking her drink then she held her hands out for the jar. She had never drunk shine but what the heck she was down for it and when in Rome Do As the Romans Do, right?

“I have a second jar here unopened but I don’t trust everyone else with it yet not to be knocked on their asses, so I’ll wait and see who can handle it.” Tipping her head back and her gaze to the ceiling, Shara closed her eyes and sighed. “Sixteen goddamn years. Sixteen! Never once have I ever broken character. And hell, I’ve sworn in meetings before. Usually it’s this jackass of an Admiral in Intelligence I clash with. We can’t stand each other, but he knows how good I am in the field and he was rather unhappy with my decision to retire from field work. But who gets me to break character in all of this mess? Some punk-ass kid counsellor.” Shara reached for the jar and took a swig, putting it back where the others could grab it. “I am not looking forward to sleep tonight.” A simple statement but one for Shara that was more ominous with her issues.

Commander Calloway, CIO

Bethany groaned…growled?…made some kind of frustrated noise. “I’m not sure if he was trying to push your buttons or just can’t read a room. Because first he tells you you find this whole thing a game and funny and then he tells me we need to be nice and kiss and make up. There is a time and place to force people to hold hands and sing kumbaya, this isn’t it.” She took her own swig of the shine and passed it on and bumped Calloway’s shoulder with her own. “That’s alright you can hang here all night. We can both not sleep.” She reached and stretched for a PaDD and tapped on it. =/\=Computer where is Cmdr Calloway?=/\= =/\=Cmdr Calloway is in her quarters.=/\= =/\=Computer rescan for her bio signature.=/\= =/\=Cmdr Calloway is in the ship’s Galley.=/\= Bethany grinned. “No one is gonna bother you.”

Eyeing the second jar and before taking a drink, Eulailia finally asked Shara, “What happened to you?” It wasn’t supposed to sound like it sounded but she really wanted to know. “I mean I don’t want to be all in your business but....are you okay? If I did anything in the conference room today to....irritate you. I am sorry. I was just surprised because you seemed....angry. However, there is more to it than that… isn’t it? There is something bother you.”

She smelled the shine first then closed her eyes and took a large drink. First, her eyes watered, a lot, then she started to cough violently as the hooch spilled from her mouth and some of it from her nose too.

Dacascos, COO

Bethany smirked and shook her head. “First time is always the worst. There’s fresh towels in the bathroom.”

Eulailia heaved as she stood up. She ran to the bathroom to get a towel. There was NO WAY she could drink more. Just after that sip, she was already feeling lightheaded. After cleaning up she walked back to where the three women was gathered and reclaimed her spot on the floor.

Randi scooted over to the others, settling next to Dacascos but closer to Gadi and sighed, partially decompressing, and partially from her own stroll down the terrible side of memory lane. When she had a chance she took the jar and took a good swig, letting it trail fire all the way down, drawing out a couple of quick coughs. “Ugh, wooo, that’s pretty stout.” Then again, it had been two years since she’d had anything stronger than a beer or two.

Martel, grease monkey

“From our still,” Shara said, allowing a smirk to touch her lips. “Never thought I’d be married to man who owned a still, but hey, life Is surprising.” She took a sip and passed the jar on.

“I think your man and my uncles learned from the same person.” Bethany took another sip as the jar came back to her. A sip this time. They were all going to have hangovers for days, but there was no need to rush to get there.

After a moment, Calloway looked over at Dacascos. “You know, sometimes the emotion on the surface isn’t the one that’s actually there. You didn’t make me angry, you made me scared, kid. And I don’t say kid to be derogatory. It’s the reality that I’m sixty-five years old and I spent most of the last two decades having the fear trained out me. Existing in situations where fear gets you killed. It’s not that you don’t have it. It’s there. But you learn to stuff it down so far that it can’t play a role.”

Fear trained out of her. she couldn’t even wrap her mind around what that meant. Eulailia wondered what her Starfleet career would look like when she was 65 years old. Would she be like Shara? Honestly, she because a little frightened maybe her cousin was right, did she really have what it took to be in Starfleet. Her mother tried to warn her that her duties would go beyond what she “signed up to do”.

“What happened to me is that I retired from covert work, from field assignments and I had some knock down verbal arguments with my uppers to get to have that. I’m not supposed to be doing this work, Laila. I’m supposed to be doing a normal duty assignment so that my daughters know where their mom is. I’m supposed to be moving froward from a really chaotic time where I upended one daughter’s life and got to finally meet my other daughter. Instead, here I am, doing the same old work but without the safety mechanisms. I can’t stuff it down the way I need to. Not fully. And that makes me a liability because what’s wrong is that, and I’m not ashamed of people knowing this, but I have PTSD. It’s a result of the last Op I went on and I had it under control until recently. Now?” Shara shrugged. “I’m just trying to not be a liability and get people killed here.”

Commander Calloway, CIO

Hearing her call her by her nickname Laila made her smile. “You have children? Daughters?”
However the fact that she said she “upended” on daughter’s life and “finally got to meet the other” was not lost in her mind. Eulailia wondered what she meant by this. The more Shara spoke the more of a mystery she appeared to her. How did she upend her daughter’s life? Did her work keep her away? And what did she mean she just met one of them? None of it made sense to a girl who was raised by two parents who basically held the status of “politicians” in Starfleet.
Eulailia stammered a bit trying to make sure she didn’t offend Shara with her questions. “Ss..so how did you sup…posedly upend your daughter’s life? Um…did you have to be away a long time on these covert missions? Also.... you said you finally got to meet one of your daughters. Did something happen that caused you to be separated from her?”

Bethany shook her head, “You aren’t. Even on your worst days you are better than the rest of us.” She took a swig on this pass, “You’ll make it back to your girls, I promise. You have your skills, I have mine.” She patted Shara’s shoulder and looked at Lailia. “And I’m not blowing smoke. I don’t give compliments unless earned. Nor am I blowing smoke to make her feel better. I’ll tell you the truth. Now Beth, my alter ego, she’ll tell you the truth, but as you experienced she’ll be cruel about it. UGH Shara remind me to tell you why I get to play the double - double agent this mission.”

Miranda sighed, a mixture of decompressing some, and in empathy. “Well, you’re not alone there, Chief. I’ve not really done any cloak and dagger work. Not my specialty. Making stuff is, and making sure everything works like it’s supposed to is.” She glanced between the three of them. “Gadi already knows this. I don’t know if you’ve looked at my file. I’m sure you could get in there too,” she said, focusing on Dacascos. At the same time she decided she liked the name Laila, it actually made her smile a little, internally. “Couple years ago, the Shamshir was on patrol, and we were near a nebula a lot like the one we just left. Got hit with an electronic warfare package and an ion beam that tore down most of our defensive capabilities. Oh temporarily of course. Well they boarded us. Hit us with anestazine. What holdouts there were folded up fast. The rounded us up, put us in the cargo bays. Our chief engineer managed to lock out the main computer before they went down. So they wanted ht codes to get back in ” Her expression dropped and she snagged the jar, taking a long drink. the fumes burned her nose, and made her eyes water. Or at least that’s what she told herself.

“I have not looked at your file. But now I understand why you are concerned about those of us who are hesitant about this mission. You are worried that some of us will fold.”

She’d told the story enough that she knew she could get through it. They didn’t need all of the worst details. But enough. “I knew my chief. Was a good person, but would crack like an egg. We couldn’t afford to lose such a vital piece of military hardware like a Federation warship. So I stole his rank pip, put it on, told them I was the chief and had locked out the computer. I hoped it would give time for rescue or for the rest of the crew to re-take the Shamshir.” Her expression dropped and she took another smaller sip, then offered it to whoever wanted. “They had a hold of me for a long time. Did pretty much whatever they wanted, and whatever they thought would get me to talk.”

Miranda let that silence hang for a long time, like acrid smoke.

Eulailia clasped her hands together, in a ball, close to her mouth. Miranda’s story was terrifying to her. What did she mean they did whatever they wanted. Goosebumps being to emerge on her body and she shifted uncomfortably, reaching for the jar.

“So… This whole operation is pretty triggering. I went through a year of intensive therapy and flew a desk, until it was starting to chafe. I wanted to get out and back to … exploration. But either somebody higher up in Starfleet really believes in me, or this is some cruel, sick joke. Or I’m in one elaborate nightmare that I can’t wake up from.” She took a deep breath and let it out slow, shifting a little to get more comfortable on the floor. “I do remember that the only thing that got me through the initial things was clinging to task and purpose. The medals and awards are cold comfort. I didn’t do it for that, but to protect the people next to me.”

She focused on Calloway for a moment. “So it’s different, but… You’re not alone on the PTSD front.” She looked over to Laila. “So while I don’t know this specific group, I’ve met plenty exactly like this. I could have become one of them if I hadn’t decided to join Starfleet instead. It scares the hell out of me to be back in a similar position. At the same time, it scares me that I could wind up just like ‘em, after all that’s been done to me. And then with Starfleet breathing down our necks, the very people I sacrificed so much of myself for, likely to wind up as stardust… or enjoying a prison somewhere… for doing my job. It’s a real effin’ pickle.”

“I am starting to understand,” she said quietly and sadly.

Gadi put an arm around Martel’s shoulders and squeezed before letting go. Hers was a hard story, but she had made it through when she wasn’t prepared for it or trained for it. She survived a whole lot better than most others could have.

“But at least these two can help, rather than stumbling around completely blind when things are bad. They’ve been here before.” That brought out a momentary and wry if not sardonic smile. Just for a second or two.

Martel, messed up monkey

Bethy shook her head as the stories came around to her, “I’m not drunk enough yet.” Calloway knew, Martel knew some of it. Her hesitancy though was partly she was still struggling with coming to terms with the mission, another part was she didn’t want to overwhelm Dacascos too much. That someone worse than the people who attacked Martel was helping them and training them and could turn on them any second. That was something for herself and Calloway to deal with. Well mostly Bethany, she was the expert there after all. That thought made her reach for the jar again. “But to give you some idea, my psych file says I suffer from ‘Reasonable Paranoia.’ In other words ‘just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean someone isn’t out to get me.’ My skill set is a little different from Calloway’s, and I’m still a kid compared to her. And our life expectency is 35-40 years old. She’s 65, that should tell you enough right there.”

Gadi, CoS

Eulailia was starting to be overwhelmed. She’d never had to chance to experience even a little sorrow or grief yet. This made her feel a little guilty. She imagined what she must have looked like to them, some kid in Starfleet probably because her parents pulled some strings for her. The truth was Eulailia did not get her current position by doing covert operations, cloak and dagger work, or surviving a starship jacking. She had gotten where she was based on her communication and operations skills. All administrative types of work. Although trained in basic defensive tactics and maneuvers, she honestly didn’t expect to have to encounter too much danger in her line of work. How naive she was!
Miranda was right, if she was going to get through this mission she was going to need to rely not just on Shara and Bethany, but on her as well. They had been there and had the experience to pull them through this mission. Up till this point she had only trusted Ryley but it was time to expand that circle of trust. She didn’t have anything to fear from either of these women.

She took another drink and again coughed violently, however this time she was able to keep it in her mouth and it didn’t come out of her nose. After she got her breath, she grinned and said, “Never have I ever tasted anything that has as much bite as this shine here.”

Dacascos, COO