Posted by Commander Dira Myqian (Executive Officer) in SB 157- Finally a Date

Posted by Lieutenant Zoi Haven (Chief of Security) in SB 157- Finally a Date

Posted by Lieutenant Zoi Haven (Chief of Security) in SB 157- Finally a Date
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

That was always the question and perhaps at some point it would be less of a sticking point, but natural curiosity made people want to understand. The thing was that some days Dira didn’t entirely understand herself. There was the the situation and then there was what it sparked in her, what she might have been unconsciously avoiding. She twirled the fork in her fingers, the tines catching stray beams of setting sunlight. Rolling her lips inward, Dir pressed down on her lower lips and and inhaled deeply.

“Because… I was meant for more.” Myqian shook her head. “Don’t get me wrong. I loved my work, dealing with patients and I miss it greatly some days, but there was a major event that changed everything.” She set the fork down and folded her arms on the table. “A very long story short, I was on an away mission where we were trying to rescue some miners on an asteroid. There had been an explosion and the force of it had shifted the asteroid’s orbit and it was being pulled into a nearby gas giant. The asteroid field was too difficult for the larger starship to get to, so we went by shuttle. Our XO was leading the team and… well, he was an idiot. He made stupid mistakes and nearly got us killed and after he was told off by the same person who is now the Ogawa’s Chief Engineer, I realized that the XO was in no state to make decisions. He was compromised. I removed him from duty using my authority as CNS and as the new ranking officer I took over leading the team…

That rarely happened in Star Fleet. One, it was an incredibly daunting thing to do, taking someone’s command. But also, two, dealing with someone who was obstinately putting lives in danger and keeping your cool at the same time was no mean feat. She liked Orvos well enough but hearing this definitely heightened her respect for him.

Dira inhaled, her demeanour brightening. “It sucked, and yet… Oh Zoi, something shifted in me. I’d never been in that sort of position before, with something where lives were at stake and time was of the essence. We got those miners out safely and were rescued ourselves by another shuttle due to the ineptitude of the XO. I didn’t make the decision to do Command training right away, and there was an inquiry. The Commander accused me of mutiny and if he had even a modicum of credibility in the situation, I might have faced a court martial, but I was told very pointedly that I made the right decision and hadn’t abused my power.” She shrugged. “And now I’m here.” A simple summary for a complicated and emotional event.

Commander Myqian, XO

“Sounds like a crazy aftermath, but you seemed to handle it well enough. How people handle stressful situations tells me a lot about them as a person. I don’t blame some people for having a flight response or acting stupidly in the face of danger, I just don’t want them in command of my ship.” She nodded to herself and took a bite before continuing. “Command suits you even if you feel a little less than confident sometimes. That will come with experience.”

Haven, CoS

Dira smiled. “A lot of it right now is trying to find out who Commander Myqian is compared to Doctor Myqian, the therapist. There’s a lot of overlap, but I suspect the differences will be smaller and more nuanced than I’m expecting. I do know that I have to work hard to not slip into therapist mode when I see someone struggling. It’s not up to me to diagnose a situation. I can offer suggestions for paths forward and support them in their work, but I have to know when to step back and let those that are actually in those roles do their jobs. It’s a hard impulse to resist, I have to admit.”

Dira twirled her glass in her fingertips, feeling more serious at the turn of conversation. But that wasn’t a bad thing. Getting to know each other would mean sharing hard things and sometimes that meant their fun and lighthearted times might be interrupted by these necessary conversations. “Do you remember at that first lunch when I told you about my worry about crossing boundaries and how someone crossed mine and made the situation… difficult?”

Zoi nodded, chewing her food as she listened to Dira.

She exhaled, releasing some of the tension. “It was the first officer that I just told you about. Before the away mission, things got awkward because he prescribed emotions to our interactions that weren’t there. I was his therapist first and foremost, and I had to turn his case over to someone else, to regain our boundaries. After though… it was not a great situation. He was not very happy with me.”

Commander Myqian, XO

Ah, so that was the situation. Now his bruised ego was more than just his personality, but a consequence of Dira doing the right thing ethically and him getting upset over it. Slowly, she nodded again. “I can imagine that was quite a trying time. Not easy to let someone down gently. Less easy to then do the right thing and hand over his case to someone else because you know it will make the patient upset on top of the upset they already feel. I hear that happens a lot though, with therapists… their patients developing feelings for them.”

Haven, CoS