Posted by Lieutenant Commander Kastarak (First Officer / Navigation Officer) in One-to-one with the captain

Posted by Captain Chris Taggart (Commanding Officer) in One-to-one with the captain

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Kastarak (First Officer / Navigation Officer) in One-to-one with the captain
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻
After the Romulans had left the ship, the Chernov was still in Klingon space, under cloak. However, they had lost Dawson. He was nowhere to be found. An escape pod was missing, but it was also possible that Dawson had been kidnapped by the Romulans.

Kastarak needed to talk to the captain about what they were to do. They had needed Dawson on this mission, to help find his sister’s ship, and the cube. Would it be possible for them to continue with the mission, or should they return to Federation space to reassess?

For all of these questions, Kastarak sought the captain’s advice. He buzzed the door to the captain’s office and hoped the captain would have time to speak with him.

Kastarak, Lt Cdr
First Officer and Navigations Officer

Chris was in his office sitting over by the tank that contained his leg, arm and his best friends hand (Kane). Reminiscing about the good and bad times in his life he had mixed tears of joy and sorrow streaming down his face when he heard the chime to his office. Quickly wiping away the tears and trying to compose himself but poorly he yelled out in a slightly broken voice. “Come in!”

He quickly took a sip of his now cold coffee as he waited.

Captain Chris_Taggart
Captain USS_Chernov

Kastarak entered and immediately spoke:

“Captain, I wish to discuss with you the situation we are in. The Romulans have left, but I determine they are still a risk for us while in Klingon space. Moreover, Lt Dawson is disappeared. Preliminary investigations are inconclusive. Dawson’s presence was vital for the mission to function. Moreover, Starfleet Command has already given us names to pick up: A new chief weapons officer, Lt Koycheva, and a new science officer, Lt Rurru jan Skahlem. Then, I have been informed Ngokav Sega’a will return too.”

Kastarak felt a slight flutter in his gut upon saying those words.

“I recommend we head to Federation space immediately to reassess, confer with Starfleet command, and pick up our new crew, as well as Lt Lovejoy (if she is fit to return to duty), and bring an end to the skeleton crew regime for the duration of the reassessment.”

Kastarak spoke quickly but succinctly. Perhaps this was the Vulcan way of showing stress.

Kastarak, Lt Cdr
First Officer and Navigations Officer

Chris was a little shocked at what he just heard. How was it that Kastarak got all that info but he didn’t. He was the Captain for Celestia’s sake. Then it hit him. He was in the Brig for a long time and Kastarak was in charge.

The other feeling was that Kastarak seemed frightened.... No. No, that was not it. Stressed out a bit sounded better and who could blame him. Here he was staring at his list limbs almost dead to world. It seems that they have been doing a lot of pirating and being a skeleton crew as of late. Almost all their missions were. And if a Vulcan could show this much emotion if it were, then the human crew would’ve been even more so. Chris could tell his First Officer was edgy because Chris has been around Vulcans his whole life.

Nodding Chris stood up. “You’re right. What’s the point of it anymore?” He gestured both his hands to encompass the entire universe. “We’ve been doing a lot of Pirating lately and frankly I’m tired of it. Tired of Admirals with enormous egos, Section 13 trying to kill us, Romulans trying to kill us and Klingons trying to kill us. We’ve all been through more than enough in the last years.”.

He let out a heavy sigh. “I’m tired of it Kastarak.”. He looked at the tank again and placed his cybernetic hand on the glass. “I’m tired of losing crew due to stupid and extremely dangerous missions. I’m tired of losing people that I love and friends that I make.”. He took his hand off the glass and turned back to Kastarak. “And I’m sure you are as well.”. Walking up to him and putting his real hand on Kastaraks shoulder he squeezed it gently. “But I’m very grateful that you’ve been by my side the entire time. You’re a good being and deserve the best in life my friend. Permission granted for everything that you’ve just said. It will be nice to see Sega’a again and taste his wonderful food. I’m sick of these rations.”. He laughed as he took his hand away from Kastarak and walked over to his desk.

“I’m sorry about Dawkins. He was a good man.”. He looked down at his desk and his collections on it and around the room. Picking up one of the glass cases containing one of his autographed Hellraiser Cubes he brought it over to Kastarak and handed it to him. “Here. You deserve this my friend. I won’t take no for an answer. And after you’ve informed the helm of our destination I want you to take two days off in a row as rest. You need it more than me. Again. I won’t take no for answer. And tell the Helmsman maximum warp.”

He then went back to the tank and sat down staring at it.

Captain Chris_Taggart
Captain USS_Chernov

The captain’s orders were clear even if laden with exaspiration, sadness and frustration. Kastarak agreed with it all.

Kastarak looked at the cubes he got. He did not understand the cultural significance of it, but the personal significance for Taggart. He accepted the gift with a slight nod of his head. “I accept your gift with gratitude,” Kastarak said.

Chris smiled. ” I’m glad.”

“I will execute your order momentarily, as soon as our meeting here is concluded. And indeed, sir, I, too, am tired.”

Kastarak, Lt Cdr
First Officer and Navigations Officer

Chris looked up from the tank and then back towards Kastarak. “Oh. Well then, come over and have a seat and talk my friend.”

Captain Chris_Taggart
Captain USS_Chernov

Kastarak nodded, appreciated the invitation, and took the seat next to the captain.

Sitting in silence for a while, Kastarak took a slight breath, and pierced the silence with his question: “What is Hellraiser, sir?”

Kastarak, Lt Cdr
First Officer and Navigations Officer

Chris blinked a few times and then let out a hearty and genuine laugh. “Oh. I’m sorry Commander. I didn’t mean to laugh. Just I thought you were either going to lecture me about aloofness or tell me more bad news!”. He laughed again and looked up at the ceiling and then back to Kastarak.

“Hellraiser was a book written by a British fellow named Clive Barker. The book is much more visual than the movie because of budget constraints and technology for him back then. It is about a guy that wants to feel something, anything and the more exotic and painful the better.”

“The guy is a real piece of work and already seduced and slept with his brothers wife on multiple occasions. Anyway. One day he was in a foreign land like Morocco or something like that and finally found a guy who has this box.” He pointed at the one in Kastaraks hand. “The guy said that if he could open it he would be down pleasure and delights out of this world. So this guy bought the box and went back to England where after many tries, hours and days later,…”. Then Chris looked around and leaned in and whispered......”he opened it.”. Then looked around again to make sure they were alone.

“A strange light and darkness bathed the room he was in. A tall wooden pole materializes out of no where and starts rotating. The pole is about a meter in circumference. Then these long thin chains with razor sharp hooks at the end come flying out of nowhere and start embedding themselves into this guy’s skin. Keep in mind this guy was naked at the time. And the his went everywhere. And I mean everywhere. The guy was lifted up in air by these chains and pressed against that wooden poll.”

They guy was experiencing a brutal combination of pain and pleasure whole he was being torn apart. Then four humanoid beings came into that guy’s view. Three males and one female and all very pale white colored skin and black leather clothes. The female had her throat ripped out but pinned open. Only her and the high priest could speak.” He held up a hand to forestall the obvious question. “She’s a demon like being and could still talk plus Hollywood. Anyway. The males. One was very obese and had his eyes sewed shut. The other had no eyes but could see and his teeth were exposed and he chattered all the time. The most evil if them all though was their High Priest. He had pins with hooks shoved through his head and that’s why people called him Pinhead.”

“These four beings were called Cenobites. They actually come from Hell. They were all once human and now do this to people. They all took that poor bastard apart. And I mean that there were only pieces of his pieces left. Then they took all of him back to Hell with them. Or so they thought. They left the box of course. How were they going to get other victims right but put the box back in it’s regular box pattern and accidentally left a very small amount of that guy’s blood under the floor boards.”

“Well. The guys brother and his wife that the now dear dude was doing were moving into that same house. It belonged to their parents. While there the wife was in the attic and her husband accidentally cut himself real bad and ran up the stairs to get her. His blood fell on the floor and they left. The brothers blood reacted to the other brothers blood and that brother started coming back to life. At first just a meat sack and then soon he could talk and move and then eventually he became a whole new person. All that was thanks to his brother wife. She heard something in the attic and checked it out. Found the guy and screamed until he convinced her it was him. All she had to do was bring men home and up to the attic for him to consume their flesh and become whole again. She did this because she loved him and she thought he loved her back.”

Meanwhile. The good brothers daughter came by to visit and found the box. She took it back to her place and opened it. The Cenobites came out and she escaped them. She managed to put the box back into the box form and sent them away…or so she thought. Scared, she ran back to her dad and found her was gone but found that her stepmom bright someone home. After a while she went inside the house and snuck upstairs and found her uncle which has no skin yet, eating another man. She ran right into her stepmom, they fought she ran away and fainted in the streets of London somewhere holding that box tight.”

“She woke up in a hospital and the doctors were questioning her about what happened and why she had blood on her and what this box was. She refused to tell them anything and only wanted to call her dad. They wouldn’t allow it and locked her in the room… With the box. Like any good horror movie, people leave behind rational thinking and she opened the box again and this time went inside the Cenobites domain. Coming across a huge thing with two heads scrapping towards her, she ran back to the opening and closed the box again. But the box didn’t want to be closed and it opened itself up and all of a sudden she was in the hospital room with the four Cenobites. They are about to show her such wonderful sights when she talks to them and asks if anyone has ever gotten away. They say no and she tells them about her uncle and to strike deal. She gives them back her uncle and they let her go. Pinhead just said maybe but let’s get go.”

“Anyway, her dad is home and Frank is one person away from becoming complete again. He then kills his brother and leaves his carcass in the attic and now assumes his brothers body. The daughter finds out,tricks her uncle into telling her about what happened and all he wants is to kill her and get the box back. Once the Cenobites hear this, they appear and utterly destroy him again and then the daughter leaves but the Cenobites are waiting for her downstairs. They’re not letting her go. So she fights them off,closes the box and leaves and then throws the box in a fire. Where a demon flys in and picks up the box. And then the story repeats itself elsewhere.”

Kastarak listened carefully to the captain’s monologue, his gaze fixed on the small puzzle box resting in his hand. The captain’s explanation of Hellraiser stayed in his mind as an intricate web of conflicting ideas that refused to untangle. The box itself, a seemingly innocuous object, had been central to the narrative—a gateway to chaos, to beings who thrived on suffering. Why had the captain chosen to gift this to him? A gesture of friendship, perhaps, or an attempt to provoke thought. Humans often layered their actions with symbolism, sometimes unintentionally.

He turned the box over slowly, his fingers tracing its ornate engravings. A puzzle. That much was clear. But puzzles carried meaning; they were more than their mechanics. For humans, they often symbolized a deeper journey—unlocking something hidden, facing the unknown. In the narrative the captain had described, solving the box brought torment, the ultimate price of curiosity. Was the box, then, a warning? A caution against delving too deeply into desires or mysteries that were better left untouched?

And yet, humans were not a species to shy away from risk. To them, curiosity was a virtue, even when it brought suffering. Perhaps especially when it did. The box seemed to encapsulate that philosophy—a challenge to confront one’s fears, to accept the consequences of seeking answers, no matter how dark. Was that what the captain intended him to learn? Did the box represent humanity’s peculiar way of embracing the chaos within themselves, of making peace with it?

It was not logical, this fascination with the interplay of pain and pleasure, of order and chaos. Yet the box intrigued him, not as a harbinger of torment but as a symbol of choice. It posed a question: what would one risk to understand the unknown? Kastarak’s fingers hesitated on its surface. Was this what humanity saw in the Cenobites? A reflection of their own recklessness and strength, their willingness to embrace the price of discovery?

Kastarak’s mind turned to the events of the destruction of his planet – that could have been well represented by the experience of hell in Hellraiser. The Cenobites had come from humans themselves, just like Romulans were an off-shoot of Vulcans. But the Romulans had apparently also suffered hell, in the future of the parallel universe, where their planet, Romulus, had been destroyed by its sun going nova. Similarly, the Romulans, just like Cenobites, returned to their origins to cause pain and suffering on them. A chill went down Kastarak’s spine. He tried to make sense of the symbolism of the narrative and the gift that he had received.

He set the box down carefully, his brow furrowing in thought. It was illogical, irrational—and profoundly human. Like his own metaphor of the Cenobites and the Romulans, and the pain and suffering transferred between Romulan and Vulcan, the box was perhaps not merely a puzzle but a mirror. What it reflected depended on the one who held it. But so, what would the lesson be for Kastarak himself? He decided he needed to meditate on this a bit more.

Chris points to a picture of all four Cenobites with their autographs. “That’s what they look like. So. Want me to show you how to open your box?”. Chris smiled.

Captain Chris_Taggart
Captain USS_Chernov

“Sir, I have listened to your narrative of the story. While it is full of contradictions, just like reality, it to me that––” Kastarak paused a bit, trying to frame his thoughts in a way that would make sense to the captain, “the Cenobites seem like a metaphor for Nero’s people who wished to bring suffering upon the Vulcans. The Romulans, after all, are an off-shoot of Vulcans, like Cenobites from the humans. In their reality, the Romulans experienced hell. Their planet was charred, like mine, and they, like my people and I, experienced hell and that intense suffering. Yet, they wished to inflect that suffering upon my people. For me, this box symbolises the reality of that experience. What would the significance, then, be if we decided to open the box? Would it symbolise a furthering of that hell, or a way to reconcile the pain and suffering? I am struggling to understand the significance of the gifting of the box and the opening of it.”

Kastarak, Lt Cdr
First Officer and Navigations Officer

OOC: Very well written buddy.

IC: Chris gave a sad smile at his friend. “Kastarak. opening the box was meant to be a joke. You never want to open the box. You can open this one because this is just a model of the one in the movie that never existed in the first place.” He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I did not once think about all that you just said and I should have before giving you the box. But let us imagine for just this time that the box was real.” He readjusted himself in the chair and then got up to touch the pot and it was still warm to the touch. While he poured himself a cup of joe he said, “Water. Hot.” and the machine next to him produced a cup of hot water. he reached for it and put it down next to Kastarak as well as setting down his own mug. Walking back up he grabbed the tin full of tea leaves, the one his XO keeps in the office to sip on while he is in here and brought it back and placed it down next to his friend before sitting back down himself.

“I figured a cup of tea was in order to continue. To answer your questions, yes. What the Romulans, Vulcans and you went through and are still currently going through is what we humans would call Hell. It is torturous to you mind and soul to think that someone could do what they did to an entire race. Every day you and the other survivors go through this agony whether or not you would admit it, but I know. I can see it in your eyes, and I can sometimes hear the anguish in your voice. The box will not have the same effect for each user per the lore and the movie. The box will give that person or being what the desire most and what not most humans realize, it will come with a price, or it will come as something that they did not expect.” He took a sip of coffee and wiped his chin. “I did not again, mean to hurt you or bring up painful memories by giving you this box my friend. I only wanted to give you something special of mine as a way of saying how much you mean to me. It would not hurt my feelings knowing what I know now if you want to give it back to me. But know that you nor any of your race did anything to deserve what happened to you by a Romulan throwing a tantrum. I hope you can see that.” He looked Kastarak in the eye while waiting for his response.

Captain Chris_Taggart
Captain USS_Chernov