Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Janna Kingston (CNS) in Stark’s Quarters

Posted by Commander Stark Nightstalker (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Stark’s Quarters

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Janna Kingston (CNS) in Stark’s Quarters
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snips)

Janna inhaled, allowing her chest to expand fully before she let it all slowly out. “I’m up for the challenge of my new position; that I’m not worried about. And we’re well used to sudden and drastic changes, but… I never wanted to be here Stark. I had little say in the matter and I tried to find a way out of it at the time, but we were a part of that Exploratory Fleet and Kallen Reese had just been killed. I was it. This is where I was needed at the time and I’ve accepted that.” She smiled. “And against all better reason and judgement I’ve grown to love it here. So it just hurts a little to see everyone struggling in their own ways. It’s nothing against our new command team at all, either. Our crew is loyal to a fault, but I think we’d be fools to think that the transition period will be quite so smooth. I’m expecting a few bumps,” she said with a lopsided grin.

~Janna Kingston, CNS

In a rare show of emotion Stark unfolded from the chair and kneeled down in front of Janna taking her hand in his paws. “For what it’s worth when I see you I don’t see Kallen Reeses replacement.” He grimaced, “I confess I did at the start, but not now. Now, I’m just glad you’re here”.

There was something poignant about his reassurance. He had tried to say something similar when she first boarded, but it was the hope that other’s wouldn’t treat her as just the replacement. So it was nice to hear him state that so clearly and she also appreciated his honesty. While she still didn’t know Stark as well as others did, she knew enough to know that he was not this candid and open with everyone. “Thank you. And I promise not to hold your previous feelings against you. You were all going through a lot.” While Reese’s death was a footnote for much of the crew who hadn’t been there, for others it was still a painful moment that was never fully resolved after Commander Price escaped.

He moved back to his own chair and sank into it sinuously. “As to all the others, I’ve been doing my job and keeping an eye on them. They’re hiding it, trying to stay professional. The transition hasn’t even really begun, no ones being honest about it yet. We need a catalyst to start the ball rolling but I have no idea when that’s going to hit and I fear the consequences of people burying how they feel for too long”.

Stark Nightstalker CIO

Janna threw her arms out to the side and laughed a little. “Welcome to my world, Stark,” she said with a grin. “With some help from a team from the Ogawa we’ve gotten through a bulk of the crew’s post-mission assessment, some have remained more elusive. Though some just need some more direct attention,” she said with a
grin as her grass green eyes gazed intently at Stark.

~Janna Kingston, CNS

He had tried valiantly to keep the focus elsewhere but he had suspected his efforts would be in vain. He smiled winsomely, “I know better than to run from a counsellor Janna, although in professional capacity I’d rather tangle with a Gorn”.

Stark Nightstalker CIO

Kingston flashed him a smile filled with feigned innocence. “Am I so bad?” she said. “I mean, to prefer fighting a Gorn,” she said making a tsk-tsk sound. “Though I do say I’m a heck of a lot prettier.” Janna flashed him another grin.

“After all, what’s the worst that could happen out of a conversation between us in a professional capacity?”

~Janna Kington, CNS

Stark smiled, “You’re not bad, it’s your profession. We could easily bring the Gorn Hegemony to a standstill just by psychoanalysing them. As to the worst that could happen, it’s my job to predict that on a ship wide level, it’s hard to leave work out of my discussions with crew, hence I try to stay aloof”.

Stark Nightstalker CIO

“Hey, I don’t judge you by your profession… do me the same courtesy will ya?” she said with a wink. “People tend to assume I’m either going to traipse through their childhood, or go hunting for bad thoughts in their head. I promise you it’s nothing like that at all.”

Stark nodded his manner more serious, “Done.”

Leaning forward in the large chair, she regarded Stark. “You know our jobs are very similar. Maybe I’m not hunting out threats the way you are, but I too am responsible for the safety of the entire crew. And I feel that very deeply. Just for the record, I’m grateful to you for what you do, so that I am safe enough to be able to do what I do best. And given my health issue, of which I know you know all about, you can probably be certain of how sincerely I mean it.”

~Janna Kingston, CNS

“I have never doubted you sincerity Janna much as I have never doubted your courage especially in view of your unique challenges in life”. Stark sighed, “But feelings, the way people feel… those things I doubt and that’s why I don’t like to be put under the psychoanalytical microscope and it’s also why I’m worried about some of the crew. Emotions make great servants but poor masters. My greatest failures have been at the hands of my emotions when they overrode the truth and I fear that there are some out there who are near to their own greatest failures because rather than riding the waves of their emotions they are letting them drive them to the rocks of false assumptions and even worse decisions”. Stark stopped looking a little startled, “I believe that’s the longest sentence I’ve ever uttered”.

Stark Nightstalker CIO