Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in side-sim Needing Cobb’s Advice

Posted by Lieutenant Casela Synthi-er (Counsellor / RTF) in side-sim Needing Cobb’s Advice

(snip)

Casela stared at the PaDDs in her lap. Was this a good idea? Should she have come here? Cobb didn’t really feel comfortable with her, or anyone that wasn’t strickly a standard Star Fleet officer. Of course she would have rathered by strickly Star Fleet, but she’d done good work, hadn’t she? She’d saved a lot of people. She’d saved a lot of children. And that was the problem she had now.

“I have a problem, and…” Casela just sighed. “Have you read my official file? Well it’s not as interesting as my real file, and not the one that S31 keeps on me.” Retired Admiral T’Jal kept her own files on all the officers she personally trained. Those files containing information that no one else had access to, but her and that officer. This one, was even more complete than the file she’d offered McHarrie. She reluctantly passed it over to him. T’Jal, like Casela, had been trained as a psychologist and had a full psychological profile included in the file. She gave Cobb a few minutes to read it. If he asked, she’d answer his questions.

He had read her file from front to back, but allowed her a moment of stillness and peace as his eyes once more scanned that which he knew, almost by heart. Once done, he laid the PADD on the table top where it joined with the detritus from his own, painful history.

“I have a son,” he offered quietly. “Seventeen years ago, he was born. And since that time I’ve lived in constant fear of hearing his name, that he’s shackled himself to Starfleet like his father. Or followed me into the gutter and failed to claw his way back out.” He snorted and drained his glass. “My only hope is that his hatred for me is sufficient to send him down any other path than mine.”

Locking eyes with Synthi-er, Cobb allowed a hesitant smile to play across his lips. No joy to be found in that upturned mouth, but a silent pledge of understanding between two, damaged souls. A promise of secrecy and of empathy and of mutual, unyielding shame.

Casela nodded in agreement, picked up her glass again, and took another substantial swallow of the whisky. “I’m beginning to understand the appeal.” And that wasn’t good for her.

She handed Cobb another PaDD with the information she had collected on Gen: Family name McCallister sent back a hit in the starfleet archives. Commander Kenneth McCallister - Executive officer USS Phantom, his wife Doctor Anna McCallisater (neé Jones) - Assistant Chief Medical Officer USS Phantom. Their children Cadet Zachary Kenneth McCallister aged 16, adopted son Orion Jackson McCallister aged 8 and their daughter Genesis Laurie McCallister aged 11. All last on the USS phantom. The ship was last sent to investigate a distress call from near Romulan space 5 years ago. The record showed that they had reported encountering some sort of storm and then nothing. The exact nature was unknown as no records had been recovered. The ship was lost with all hands and no trace found. Starfleet command decided that it had been a warp core breach and the young girl, currently painting black and dark blue clouds onto the canvas, and her family were declared KIA. A plaque was commissioned in the Phantom’s honor at star-fleet command. Pictures were included confirming Gen at least, physically, was the same as the person in the file.

He’d seen that plaque. Walked by it a thousand times with barely a thought. The agonising miscellany of death amongst the stars. Cobb merely nodded an acknowledgement that the girl in the photograph was indeed the same who had recently invaded his briefing room.

Casela changed subjects, or so it would appear at first. “Sir, what’s going to happen to Gen? I have spent the last several days with her, and…she’s just a child. Human, but not quite. Strangely arriving on the ship, but a child non the less. No one, other than Doc Fey, has come to check on her, and I find myself perpetuating that problem. Keeping her out of sight of anyone that might threaten her. She’s…something happened to her and her family, and I’m sure RFT and ARU are going to want her for all kinds of testing.” Her voice changes, softly whispered, hard and dangerous. “I can’t allow that. Not won’t. I can not. It is not…I am not capable of letting them do that. She is mi…under my protection. I won’t let them experiment on her, interrogate her, cause her any discomfort at all. I. WILL. NOT.” Casela was trying to convey to Cobb the extent of the problem. From a professional stand point, on the subject of Gen, Casela was compromised. She knew it, but she was unwilling, or unable, who knew, to do anything about it.

Casela Cynthi-er

He moved with a speed that belied his years and, before her sentence was done he had been at her side, crouching down to meet her seated height and taking her hands into the confident grip of his own.
“It is not us who are the monsters, Counselor. And as far as the ARU are concerned, we are already in pursuit of a target that should satisfy their desire, whatever form that may take.”

Casela lactched onto his grip with one of her own. She’d been sent here, not of her own choice. She had wanted to finish out her tour and then disappear to some far flung lost backwater world where no one would bother her. And now, she was here, with more problems than she had before she came, and she hadn’t thought that was possible. “I know that, Zachariah. But monsters lurk where we least expcet them, and I’m one of them. I joined star fleet in the hopes of…” she stares at the passing stars, “of being a hero, I guess. And in most cases my time here has turned me into the things I hate most. This…” she waves her hands indicating the problem they are discussing, “is the one part of me they haven’t twisted. There weren’t supposed to be children on this ship.”

Cobb rose once more and, with his glass freshly replenished, drifted slowly over to the observation window. On the other side, space flew by at dizzying speed, making haste for the Paulson nebula. And whatever it was that lay in wait.

“But safe haven comes at a price, Lieutenant,” he continued, his back to her now. “Even for a child such as Gen. She claims to have information on our mission and I want to know every detail of it. If she can help us, then perhaps we can expend some effort into helping her in return. And I would continue to shield her from other members of the crew, as you have been doing. Or, Manhattan and McHarrie at least. I would not trust their scientific intentions around her.”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

“I’ve talked to Gen, I’ve tried to get information from her. She is willing to talk to me, but I’m not sure she understands what she’s seen or sensed. Whatever happened to her has made her telepathic to a point. I could try, with her permission to get more details. I don’t know what that would do to me though. I don’t know exactly what she is. In physical form she is human, but she is also something else. It maybe that she simply doesn’t understand how to interpret what that other part of herself knows.” She glances at Cobb, “She thinks you and the rest of the crew severaly dislike, or even hate her. She says she came to warn us not to go after the Einstien. That she tried to warn them how dangerous it was. She also says we are like the other ships, but Very different. I’m not sure if that means we have a better team, or maybe it’s worse.” Casela shakes her head, combing back hair that isn’t in her face. “I’ll take you to talk to her, if you’d like. I…I can’t say that I’m the best to question her alone. Perhaps together?”

She smiles, but it doesn’t meet her eyes. Her face showing too many years of struggle. “Well, Manhattan and McHarrie can’t get past me, and they both know it.” She winces and lifts the hem of her shirt, showing the bruised and cracked ribs, “Not a gift from them, someone else, but at least Manhattan is aware and knows the risk he would take trying. However,” here she pauses, “I’m not happy with the number of S31 officers on board. They have mixed loyalties.” She smiled ruefully, “I know, aren’t I one of them? Not by choice. My loyalty is to you, and then this crew.” And now Gen. She’s was in a hard spot and she knew she’d put herself in it.

“However, McHarrie, I like him, and if push comes to shove I think we can trust him. Time will tell. We have…an understanding. If I ask him to leave her alone, he might. But, and the crux of the matter is, I don’t trust myself to trust them. I know this is an issue for me, and honestly, you’re the only one I trust.” She wasn’t going to mention Ryder Rauuhl. She didn’t know where that was going. He was competent and cared about his crew, but that particular relationship was suddenly very complicated.

Lt. LSynthi-er, CNS