Posted by Ensign Luna (Security Officer /RTF) in Check in meeting the captain

Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in Check in meeting the captain
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Posted by Ensign Luna (Security Officer /RTF) in Check in meeting the captain
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

As the woman began to cry, Zachariah’s own eyes grew wide, one hand rubbing nervously at the back of his neck as his mind scrambled for a solution. Reaching for the empty glass that Luna had so far ignored, he filled it quickly with whiskey and then pushed it in her direction, following it closely with another glass filled with water and, after a few moments, a clean handkerchief.

“Come now, Miss Luna,” he attempted to soothe her, “I understand that this has come as a shock and, in truth, I could not begin to imagine my own reaction were I in your shoes right now. But you must also understand the ARU. At it’s heart, it is little more than a database. A catalogue. Names, classifications, features, body counts. It reduces all living things to their digital factsheet and devises strategies of engagement based on the same.”

“But us,” he continued after a pause, “we know better. We see the sentient consciousness behind even the most terrifying of eyes. We feel the beating heart within even the most powerfully violent of chests. We know that monsters, true monsters, are real. And we know, too, that this world was not created for the innocent. We know the dangers and the calamities that wait to befall even the purest and most gentle of souls. Ensign Luna,” he reached out and placed a hand on her arm, “as a member of my crew, both yourself and Cerenity are now my responsibility. And I will do everything that I can to protect her. To protect you both. Of that, you have my word.”

” thats a nice centament captain but I can’t trust you. Cerenity and I have not stayed free for as long as we have by trusting every one. I will turn on anyone who trys to treat her like a lab rat. I will not let her suffer the way I did” Luna said calmly. She had wiped the tears away and now felt much better. She looked back at the captain unblinking. Could she trusted this man? She did not know he would have to earn it.

Zachariah shrugged. “I don’t blame you for that, lass. Trust is not something to be given blindly. And nowhere is that more true, it seems, than on this ship!”

” I don’t want her to suffer through what I went through. I wand her to be given a fair chance and have the same optrltintys any other Federation citizen would have. But she is doomed like me I should never have let Loki get close.” She said. She did not mean her last statement. She loved Cerenity and would die before she let harm come to her baby. The ensign was overwhelmed and tired she would like for once in her life to get to just enjoy being a mom and not constantly be looking for danger or someone trying to take Cerenity . It was bad enough the consuler was possibly questioning her fitness to parent she did not need to worry that the people onboard may try and experiments on cerenity.

“Aye,” Cobb nodded his agreement. “You seek no more than any parent would wish for their own child. Freedom from prejudice, freedom of opportunity, of experience, of advancement. These are basic needs deserving of all sentient beings. And as much as I am able to grant them to her, on the Leviathan, then I promise you now, Luna, that I will.”

He studied the woman across from him, attempted to form a smile. But already the shadow was upon him, the darkness possessing his tongue and forcing the brutality of the universe once more to the fore.
“You and I, Luna,” he whispered, “we have long since lost the ability for placation by the Federation dream. This utopia that they so continuously boast of, we know it is no more than myth. A fairytale to comfort young children and dam the deluge of monsters under their bed. And we allow ourselves to forget this, even for a single breath, at the peril of everyone around us.”

Zachariah paused, his blue eyes locking with her own and searching for an indication that she agreed. That she understood.

” the Federation in of its self is not inherent or completely evil. It can be made better. But so long as organizations like section 31 are allowed to exist and are protected. The Federation will remain a horrible dark place.” She said calmly. She did not blame all of the Federation and could see where it had done some good.

Another shrug. “You hold more optimism for the Federation than I’m able to summon, these days,” the captain admitted. “But don’t be fooled into believing things to be so black and white, eh? Just as the Federation itself isn’t inherently evil, or good for that matter, neither is Section 31. The ability lies within each one of us, Luna, to choose the path of benevolence or the way of the dark. And while ‘31 and the ARU could be accused of attracting the dark-dwellers to them, at their core they remain, both, a noble idea that has sometimes failed, sometimes thrived, in the execution of it.”

” easy for you to say they did no use you as a lab rat. You weren’t subject to years of torture at there hands. Do you know what its like to grow wings and hollow bones i was not born like this. It hurt for years they bet on when I would die. And that was not even the worst of it. On top of that the admiral in charge of it is a psychopath
who used his own wife and sun in experiments. I was friends with his sun but I don’t know where he has gone. in short i have evey right to hate and fear them. Don’t let you idiolisiom blind you” She said coldly. It was clearly a subject that bothered Luna a great deal and one that the Captain would probably do best to drop.

“And don’t let your partitioning of ‘31 away from the rest of the Federation blind you into believing that you are safe everywhere else!” Cobb replied. Placing his hands on the desktop, he locked eyes with the woman across from him. “I kiss no feet in the ARU or Section 31. And you will not be granted another opportunity to accuse me of such! This one, Ensign Luna, you get for free. But I am still your captain.”

He sighed deeply, sensing that, for now, they would simply have to agree to disagree.

“Three,” his glass was drained and refilled with impressive efficiency and not a single drop wasted in the action of it, “the circumstances of your assignment to my crew have not been shared with me. As is so often the case on this vessel, it seems. But if I had to hazard a guess then I would wager that your presence on the Viking factored somewhere in the decision. But irrespective of that, you are on my crew now, Ensign Luna. So unless your intention is to put in a transfer or otherwise jump ship, I would suggest that the reasons do not matter so much at this point. Would you agree?”

” not exactly but I will drop the matter for now” Luna said there was sumthing in her tone that said she did not believe him.

“And four,” he concluded at last, “the ARU is not a branch of Section 31, but as the two most highly classified divisions of Starfleet, they operate within the same sphere. And so, individual motivations aside, I find these continual connections to be more unsurprising with every one that I discover. Although not any less irritating for that fact.”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

” section 31 is evil and should be disbanded” she said crossing her arms. She watched the captain for a moment. Before she reluctantly sat down. ” why exactly are we capturing these anomalie, I heared several members of the Viking that i thought to be dead were onbord are all transfers done suddenly and secretly” Luna asked
Ensign Luna

Zachariah raised an eyebrow at her mention of the Viking’s former crew.
“Aye. As you already know then, you are not the first of the Viking’s crew to be reassigned to my command. Nakuto, McHarrie, GLaDOS, Akirel, Gruv, all of them are, or or were at one time, a member of this crew. Why? I will be completely honest with you, Miss, I don’t have the faintest bloody idea!”

He ran a hand through his hair, a few errant strands escaping from their confines to fall around his face, momentarily softening his usually serious expression.
“As for why we capture anomalies, I…were you not briefed on this, Ensign? Are you aware of the nature of these things we hold in containment on this vessel? If you are then surely you must agree that such monstrosities can not be allowed to roam the quadrant unhindered? We do what we do here, Miss Luna, because we must. Because with every single one of those things that we capture, we save an unimaginable number of innocent lives.”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

” protect lives is why i become a security officer. Are you combat trained or do you need a babysitter during combat situations” Luna asked a grin on her face. She was somewhat teasing him now and glad to be on the topic of there job. ” very few have beat me in a fight though I will bet the anomalies will be far more challenging then Klingon’s and wherewolfs” she said calmly. She had actually gotten her but kicked by a where wolf but then again it was dark and she could not move freely because she had a egg head scientists in the way. It also did no b help that the werewolf was faster then she was.
Ensign Luna

The captain chuckled, although could not entirely prevent his eyes darting quickly to his stomach. Was he truly so out of shape as to appear unprepared for combat?
“I can hold my own in a firefight, lass,” he replied, “although it’s true I lack the thorough training of the RTF. But then that’s not my job onboard the ship. It is yours. And whatever creatures you think you have faced in the past, believe me when I tell you, Miss Luna, that you have never encountered anything like the monsters we have in containment on this ship.”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

” so you need a babysitter in a combat setting and some hand to hand combat practice good to know. Also do you run drills on this ship for containment breaches? As for these monsters I can handle anything. I refuse to be deleted because I have a child to protect and return home to” she said.
Ensign Luna
Ensign Luna

“Do you take us for no more than scoundrels, Miss Luna?” Cobb returned her teasing with his own. “Of course we run drills! And complex ones at that. I am sure you will have sufficient opportunity to participate in a few yourself, soon enough!”

Luna only smiled breafly she was glad the man could take a joke. Though the smile only crossed her face for a few moments it did seam to brighten the mood if only breafly.

Her confidence was impressive, but at the same time, alarming. Was she truly prepared for the things she would face on the containment deck? Or were her words spoken for the benefit of her own courage?
“So, do you have any questions for me on these anomalies?” he offered her an opportunity to find out more, to maybe lay some of her own fears to rest. “Or the ARU in general?”
- Captain Zachariah Cobb

” I don’t totally understand the ARU if we are not sapose to protect the crew so what is are job realy.” She asked. That confidence still the there. She did not get the loxary of considering that something was to tuff or impossible. Its ok though because that ment she could go forward even when she know there was a possibility of failing. ” captain what would you have wanted to know when you got onboard this ship for the first time” Luna asked. There was a question he wanted her to ask that she was not asking and she was not sure what.
Ensign Luna

“Now when did I say you were not expected to protect the crew?” Cobb shot back with eyebrows raised. “At the heart of it, your duties as a security officer will be the same as on any other ship. And most certainly I will look to the dsecurity team for the safety and protection of us all. But, you are correct that the ARU adds another layer, another complexity into the mix.”

” the consuler said the Anomalies lives were to be protected over the crew.” Luna said.

“Aye, that is the mission,” Zachariah nodded. “On paper, at least. The ARU have their reasons for wanting all anomalies taken alive. And while I can not claim it as an opinion that I readily share, I must ultimately believe in good reasons to be asked for such. But that does not mean that this crew are no more than warm bodies, lining up to be tossed ‘to the pit.”

Cobb reclined in his chair and lightly drummed his fingers on the desktop. “And that’s a good question, Miss,” he nodded. “What would I have wanted to know? How the hell to immediately get off again?” he roared a quick burst of laughter, before immediately falling serious. “I would like to have known how not to get lost. In a universe so vast and so crammed full of living nightmares, it feels so easy to accept our own insignificance, to quit with the excuse that nothing we can do could truly ever matter. These things, these anomalies that we hold, they could extinguish every living thing ever known with the blink of an eye. What is a single being meant to do against such a threat, eh?”

He sighed, ceased the drumming and ran fingers through his hair.
“It is something I continue to struggle with daily, truth be told. Can we make a difference? Can we, as a crew, achieve anything that truly matters? But I tell you this also, Ensign Luna, I would not be here unless I believed, deep in my soul, that we can.”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

” you make me think of a story my daughter likes its a boutique a child walking along a beach the tied has trapped hundreds of star fish. He picks up the animals and throws them back into the water. A man comes along and tells the boy that its pointless to try and save the star fish there are to many and he will never make a difference. The boy responds by picking up a star fish throwing it into the water and saying but I mad a world of difference for that one. We may not be able to save eveyone but for the once we do save it will have incredible meaning for them. Much like my situation now I can’t change my past but I can make Cerenity gets the bright future she deserves” Luna said with a smile. She thought for a long momen before speaking again. ” I don’t know about you captain but I refuse to give up. I joined star fleet because I believe no one should suffer the way I did. I know full well that I could not protect everyone in the Federation. It did not stop me. Ensign Loki Cerenity’s dad thought me that no mater how bad things get they can always get better” Luna said. She smiled at him a real smile the kind that could light up any room.
Ensign Luna

Cobb thought of the sands on his beloved Nantucket, of the swell of the ocean, the childhood delight of foraging in rock pools. And he thought of his fishtank, in the Jörmungandr Lounge, and of the colourful, sentient beings that swum in protected circles, blissfully unaware of the horrors that lay beyond their own walls.
“I like that story,” he nodded at last. “We do make a world of difference for each one that we save. And that, Miss Luna, is why we go on. It is why we charge in, again and again, against seemingly impassable foes. It is why we press forward, continuously, against seemingly insurmountable odds. And it is why, I believe, you were sent to the Leviathan. You belong in the ARU, Ensign. You need us. And we, just as surely, need you.”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb