Posted by Lieutenant Pretha Oberon (Security Officer / CRIT Leader) in Brig, Day 2- Disentanglement

Posted by Lieutenant Faye Calloway (Mission Specialist) in Brig, Day 2- Disentanglement

(snip)

“Just the toast and coffee. I think it’s all I can handle right now,” she said, her gazing flicking between Pretha and her mother. Whereas Faye had been filled with tension and even momentary rage yesterday, a lot of that had been overwhelm from the onslaught of events and emotions she couldn’t seem to keep control of. Now she was just tired and today was going to prove to being either her saving grace or her downfall. In the quiet spaces of her mind she understood a few things about her mother since yesterday had dropped on her like a bomb. How this would all go, well, that remained to be seen.

~Faye Calloway, Prisoner

Pretha got the food and watched the Commander step back to allow her to give it to Faye. Once the tray was set on the edge of the table in the cell, Pretha stepped back with a smile and nod to Faye and reenergized the force field. “I’ll be right there…” she nodded over her shoulder to the console station in the middle of the room. With lowered voices they may not be clearly heard, but Pretha could still make out tones and would step in if things got heated.

Faye nodded and while she didn’t smile exactly at Pretha, her expression was lighter. “Thank you.” She sat on the bench next to the table and grabbed her coffee, wrapping her hands around the mug. Simple thing, like the warmth spreading through her fingertips helped ground her.

Nodding to the Commander for stepping back, she smiled. “Go ahead, Ma’am…” and then the Lieutenant went to her stool at the console.

Pretha
Sec/CRIT Ldr

OOC: I’m going to post this conversation in bits and pieces with breaks for commentary where needed, because otherwise this would be sooooo long.
IC:
Shara gave a nod and went over to the replicator herself. The entire time, Faye’s eyes tracked her warily. Ordering her own cup of coffee (with a half spoon of sugar), she moved right up to the forcefield and took a seat on the floor on the side where Faye was so they could face each other.

Faye quirked her brows as she took a generous sip, hoping at least the liquid would settle in her stomach alright. All she had had in the last twelve hours was water and she still wasn’t hungry. “You changed your name,” she said. It was both a question and a statement.

“I did,” Shara said with a nod. Crossing her legs, she aimed to be as innocuous a presence as she could given that Faye needed her to be the one person she hadn’t been in decades. Faye controlled this conversation and that was the way Shara wanted it. This was not an op or some life or death fight. But it could prove to be the most important moment in both their recent lives, and she understood that she would only get one shot at this. “I did so a year before we got back to the Alpha Quadrant. It felt like the right thing to do.”

“Voyager you mean?” Faye said. Shara nodded. Faye calculated the timing and understood that reality of her easy math. There was no way for her mother to know Faye had survived the massacre at that point. Taking her deceased husband and daughter’s surname simply made sense.

They could speak few words and say little but time was of the essence here and Shara knew their window of opportunity was limited. “Look, Faye, you have questions and I have answers you absolutely deserve to have. Not everything I can speak of in detail, obviously, but where I can I will absolutely be forthcoming. After all, this was what you wanted.”

Faye paused mid-sip and felt a wave of tension roll through her. She sipped, swallowed and set the mug down with a clunk. “I asked for. By all means, don’t stay if you feel burdened. I’m not forcing you to be here.” The comfort of sarcasm softened the unease, as usual, even if at the same time Faye knew it to be false comfort.

Shara, unfazed by her daughter’s accusatory tone sat forward and shook her head. “No. Hear me and listen, so we both are on the same page,” she said firmly. “This”-she gestured her index finger between the two of them-“should have happened ages ago. Years ago, really, but… stuff happened. And while I am desperately glad we can do this at all, the present circumstances were not a part of any version of this I played out in my mind. Ever.”

“And what did you picture?” It was strange. This woman was every bit of her mother. Faye could watch the shift in her eyes, the way her pinkie tapped lightly on the handle of her mug, the tone of her voice. And yet Faye couldn’t attach herself in any personal way. She had been honest with Pretha that the woman was a stranger to her. How could anyone expect differently given they had spent more years apart than together?

Shara gazed at Faye for a long moment and then broke into a slight smile. “Many ways, but inevitably it involved some yelling and anger, some tears, and very possible a bottle of something very strong shared between us. I would tell you everything I had gone through and you would do the same. And maybe we would find common ground and maybe not. But you would have the answers you need. And I will give you those, but you have to ask the questions. I’m not a telepath Faye, though I can guess at some of the questions you have. But understand that I have no idea what will happen in the aftermath of this current situation, or where I will be asked to go next. I wish I could guarantee we’ll get this chance, but-“

“Yeah, yeah, speak now or forever hold my peace,” Faye interrupted. “I kind of figured that out already given your super vague undercover vibes. I mean clearly that bit in your file that says you turned down Starfleet’s offer of a commission was a big lie on purpose, but I guessed within about a minute of our little chat in the Ready Room that you not only were undercover, probably for years, but that you were also outside of the Federation. I can even take a guess at the region given that, ohhh boy, your lingering accent is showing.”

Shara couldn’t help but laugh, but it was a delighted one. “Ahh Faye, you always were the smartest person I knew. Even as a child your father and I knew that you were special. That mind of yours was so often working a few paces ahead of everyone, including us. It used to terrify me at times, but your father always seemed to know how to help you put it to the best use.”

Faye chewed a bit of her toast and swallowed. It was admittedly the best piece of replicated toast she had tasted in awhile. “Point for me, clearly. Lots of pointed things. Am I right?” Shara smirked and nodded. Well, that certainly changed things a little. Or did it? Faye wasn’t sure. “I take it because you’re here under the circumstances that you are that you have full access to my personnel file, probably even the classified bits. But… how much do you know?”

“All of it,” Shara said softly.

~The Calloways