Posted by Fleet Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Officer’s Mess- Dinner with the Captain

Posted by Civilian Sair Songz (Counselor) in Officer’s Mess- Dinner with the Captain

Posted by Fleet Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Officer’s Mess- Dinner with the Captain
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

The room was pleasant and open with tables throughout, some occupied and some not. There were people in uniform and in plain clothes. Some were alone, some with friends… some obviously on dates. The door into the Mess was at the interior side of the room, away from the hull and the large windows at the far side. It was here that table had been set and single figure sat and looked out the window. As the Songz women entered, Cochrane stood and smiled and waved them over. He was wearing a dark gray, almost black, suit with a pale blue shirt beneath, unbuttoned at the top with no tie and black polished leather shoes.

As they approached, he said “Good evening, ladies. And might I say that you both look positively amazing. I should have worn a tie.” and he smiled and pulled out the chair for Kel first, then Sair. A few of the people in the room watched and whispered. Cochrane sat after the ladies and then sighed. “Scuttlebutt… the lifeblood of any ship’s crew. By this time tomorrow, I will probably be engaged to one or both of you.” and he shook his head but grinned slightly. “And that will be the tamer of the stories, I’m sure.”

Cochrane, CO

Sair laughed openly. “I can imagine. The rumour cycle at a hospital is no different, trust me.”

“Yes, but I didn’t go out my way to encourage it either,” Kel said, a gleam in her brown eyes.

“Hey! You make it sound like I did it on purpose,” Said said, clearly not miffed at her mother’s teasing and she shook her head and smiled. “But in any case, you do look rather dashing yourself, Captain.” And he did. Cochrane was a good looking man to begin with, but there was something slightly different in his demeanour that Sair guessed had to do with being out of uniform. She herself had relaxed a bit too, though the laughing had helped with that a lot. She still felt rather awkward being in this space, even if she had bene specifically invited.

~Sair & Kel Songz

“That sounds like a story. Do tell.” Cochrane said with a twinkle in his eye. At that moment a server appeared and filled wine glasses with an amber liquid that seemed to have multicolor motes of light dancing inside it as the liquid moved in the glass. “I hope you don’t mind, I had the wine ready. Antarian Gem wine. It was a gift from a freighter captain we assisted a few months ago. If you’d like something else, just ask and I’m sure Chef Harv can get it for you.”

Cochrane, CO

Kel shook her head. “It sounds lovely, though I can only have a small amount.”

Sair picked up her glass and studied it curiously before she took a sip, knowing there was no way she’d get out of telling these stories now. What was that Terran phrase about liquid courage? The wine was sweet but not overly so and filled her mouth with something she could only describe as a brightness. “It’s lovely,” she said, before breaking into a tiny smirk. “So… there’s not all that much to say really. I was involved with someone at the hospital-“

“An intern,” Kel interjected with a grin.

“Yes, an intern,” Sair said, heat touching her cheeks. “And yes, I was an attending. There was no explicit rule forbidding it, and he worked in an entirely different department, but we weren’t interested in broadcasting it to everyone, so we were… discreet. But an event happened that I’m not going to talk about now and let’s just say that it was all everyone could talk about for weeks.” Sair shrugged. “It might not have been the best decision but I’m not sure I regret it.”

“I could order you, you know.” Cochrane said and laughed.

Sair let the comment float over her eaily. He assumed the event was an amusing one where the opposite was true. But it was as she had said: not a story to be told over this dining table.

Kel chuckled as she sipped the wine cautiously. “That’s not even the incident I was thinking of, though it showed how fast information could travel about Hopi Care Centre. No, the one I’m thinking of was far more recent, just before she left for this assignment actually.”

Sair groaned and covered her face for a moment. “Fine, go ahead,” she said.

Kel leaned forward with a grin. “So Sair did a lot of work as a counsellor at the hospital too, in addition to working with individual clients, and one day she just seemed a bit off. More determined and very focused. I was working on the ICU ward and she was seeing a patient, an adolescent girl who had just started puberty and beginning her dueridium treatments. Sometimes this does not go smoothly and there is a rough patch while a patient’s body decides to accept the treatment, so we have to maintain a close eye on them. Sair was checking in on her and that’s when I and the other nurses noticed that Sair was quietly collecting supplies from the around the ward. You have to understand Captain that supplies are heavily monitored because they are in such high demand, and Sair was no longer a practicing physician so she shouldn’t have been even touching any of it. But we nurses know that sometimes we just have to sit back and let things play out, and frankly we were just so curious what she was up to.

“And this went on for a couple days until somehow one of the hospital administrators got wind of it and confronted her, demanding an explanation. All she would say is that she was taking care of a patient and walked off.” Kel laughed. “This administrator was well known to be very difficult and abrasive and Sair’s response infuriated him. He even threatened to fire her and she just turned back, looked him in the eyes and said ‘No you won’t’ and then carried on.

“So the next day, Sair brings all the supplies she’s collected and starts using them in the girl’s room, decorating it as one might for a celebration. And that’s when we understood that Sair was throwing the girl a party.” Kel focused on her daughter. “I still don’t know how you didn’t get fired, but it was one of those stories that everyone was talking about. Still do, actually.”

Sair smiled and looked at Alex. “The girl had lost her mother the previous year due to premature cellular degradation. The woman was fairly young so it was particularly devastating and her daughter was having panic attacks over being at an age to need treatments and it not going well. So my thought was that she needed something positive to propel her forward, that we could celebrate her rather than focus on what her body was doing. I figured her mental wellbeing surpassed the few supplies I used as decorations and the wrath of an ignorant administrator who wouldn’t listen to my patient’s emotional needs.” She shrugged. “It was just before I decided to rejoin the exchange program and honestly was looking for a reason to leave. He gave me the necessary push.”

“How did you know he wouldn’t fire you?” Kel asked.

Sair’s light brown eyes gleamed as she looked between her mother and Cochrane. “He never asked who the patient was when I told him I was doing something for an ICU patient. He backed down once I told him who it was. She was his niece…”

Kel shook her head and gestured to Sair. “See right there, Captain? Don’t let this innocent face fool you. My daughter can be quite the troublemaker when she wants to be.”

~Sair & Kel Songz

Cochrane smiled and said “Being a troublemaker is a prerequisite for being on my ship, so I don’t think it will be a problem.” and he took a drink. He looked at Sair and said “But really? An intern? Taking advantage of the young and inexperienced… tsk tsk, doctor.” with a grin. “So tell me more about your people. I know the major points, but I’d like to know more about how your society works and such. I’m pretty well-versed with all the species represented on my ship, but with your people beoing relatively new to interactions with the Federation, I have to say information has been somewhat hard to come by.”

Cochrane

It was all so complicated but Sair was at a strange turning point in her life and no longer shied away from her people’s deep truths, as uncomfortable as they often were. “I can get you some more information if you’d like to read more deeply, but essentially we have always had something of a militaristic society. Very orderly. And after the formal military was disbanded after our war with Amrayans in favour of Kobliad Security, we maintained the rigorous adherence to rules. So much so that even now breaking laws carry serious consequences and even minor infractions against the government are considered treason. This has improved a bit in the last few years since everything went down with the Amrayans helping us with the disease they caused, but as you can imagine change happens very slowly on our world.”

Kel’s expression had turned somber. “Despite our teasing about Sair’s troublemaking tendency, her flouting the authority of the hospital was risky. It’s just not done. Another instance could have gotten her into serious trouble.”

Sair shook her head. “I highly doubt it. And I can only say that because I was a part of the team that utilized the information we were given in order to actually create the treatment that fixed the genetic issue. Besides, I’m a health professional, I’m hardly a political dissident.”

“Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tread cautiously,” Kel said, concern etched into her features.

“Fortunately, I’m far away and I have Sandero on my side,” Sair said before shifting her attention back to Alex. “Bir Sandero is our Chief Minister, the leader of our elected Civic Assembly. He’s one of the youngest leaders we’ve had and really been making waves trying to move us forward. He believes in our capacity to change and while he’s doing so methodically, it’s one of the things that gives me hope.”

Kel didn’t seem entirely convinced about Sair’s safety but she just sipped on her wine without further comment.

~Sair & Kel Songz

Cochrane’s expression change and became slightly more serious as the two women spoke. “I wasn’t aware of the… tendencies… of your government. Earth and Vulcan have their share of history with such times. It never ended well for either of my family’s people.” and he took a sip. “Fortunately we moved along and have, I hope, learned from our histories.” He was silent a moment and then said “Sair, I think I have a small grasp of your perspective.” and his icy eyes shifted to focus on Kel. “What about you, Madame? How do the Kobliad people of your generation view things?”

Cochrane

Kel inhaled deeply, nodding as if she expected such a question. “From my earliest memories I have led a very regimented life. It is everything from our education system we told you about to, to the fact that our physical bodies are required to have a dosing regimen or we die a painful death. Everything works in perfect order because if things stray then people get hurt, in more ways than one. That saying that Sair told you about, about service to the realm. It means something, but a very close second is also family. Family is the most important piece of our fleeting lives. When you know you can die so quickly, having a child is high above many other things we might want in our lives.” For a moment the elder Kobliad just gazed at Sair before beaming at her, even though there was a touch of sadness present. “Sair was my seventh and only successful pregnancy. But I wanted to be a mother so badly, even though I risked my life to do so, just like my mother,” she said before returning her gaze to Cochrane. “She died in childbirth. It’s very common because the hormones of pregnancy cause dueridium treatments to be less effective. When your entire society knows it’s doomed to extinction, having children seems to be an exercise in futility, but…” She took a sip of wine.

She leaned in a little, her gaze intense. “The true contradiction of our society is that we value moments of beauty too. We celebrate the fleeting through our arts. I married a musician because Sal gave me something my duty-filled life was missing: joy. Sometimes after a long shift I would go to the music hall where we was practicing and I’d fall asleep sitting against the wall just listening to beautiful music. We’re a strange people, Captain, I know that. And I understand that outsiders see our system of familial honour and shame in conjunction with how little choice we give individuals as somehow being ruthless. But it’s been necessary. Or at least we’ve gone generations being convinced it was. Now I look at Sair and Koro, and I’m actually quite envious of them, of the freedom they have. I know my generation exists in a state of perpetual fear, but it not an imagined one. It’s real and it’s very hard to set aside, even when faced with some as miraculous as a grandchild whose own children won’t have the same fears.”

~Kel Songz