Posted by Lieutenant Ta’lahali Akera Beveres (Counsellor) in Mess Hall - Nakuto Looks for a Friendly Face

Posted by Civilian Kara Nakuto (Civilian, Former CO) in Mess Hall - Nakuto Looks for a Friendly Face
Snip

Posted by Lieutenant Ta’lahali Akera Beveres (Counsellor) in Mess Hall - Nakuto Looks for a Friendly Face
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

IC: Tal muled over her response to the simple indication of content towards the placement of the new captain, finding a sense of a sympathy for Kara, and everything she had lost in these damning months at sea. A sea of tumultuous waves, composed of frigid lies and inescapable truths. For a moment, she grew silent, debating any remark to Kara, regarding her sullen response.

“She didn’t replace you, you know.” Tal offered to her, a faint smile breaching her solemn features. “Nobody could ever replace you,” She added, thinking for a moment. “This ship, the day you left, was never the same. We struggled, for awhile, trying to find our feet again. We stumbled. We fell. But you, and everyone on your team can agree, you taught us how to stand back up, even when the most gruesome of events forced us down to our knees, when we thought our legs had been broken.

“You, even after your departure, were always a guiding principle in our lives, even if we did not recognize it. Yes, we changed, we grew, we became different people, but I don’t think any of us ever forgot the abrasive albet fascinating Captain Kara Nakuto.” A slight chuckled escaped her lips, “I cannot imagine what you’re going through, now that you have come home.. nor what you have been through, all of those months. However, if it means anything, you always have a home of the Viking. After all, she is still, in a sense, your ship- just as she is Captain Ravenfall’s.”

Lt. Beveres
CNS

Impossible to restrain fully the waves of emotion that washed over her. For an entire year, while trapped in that dark place, Nakuto had replayed and examined and questioned every single decision she had made as the head of this crew; every action and statement scrutinised and torn apart in an attempt to answer that most vital and fundamental of questions. Had she been good enough?
But to hear now, and from the lips of one she valued so highly, was a gift far greater than she had earned. But the Klingon in her rejoiced at it all the same.

“Thank you, Tal,” she whispered. “You have no idea how much that means to me.”

Reclining into her seat, Nakuto looked down at her worn and threadbare uniform, still bearing the colours of a captain but with the insignia to signify the rank now gone.
“Honestly, I have no idea what I shall do now that I am back,” she admitted. “I am currently…unemployed. I have no position on this ship. No remit to work towards, no assigned duties to perform.”

She drained the remainder of her raktajino in an attempt to ward off the probing tendrils of sleep.
“I…have not contacted Starfleet since my return.”
A sheepish grin teased across her lips, the unspoken confession of one who knew they were disobeying the rules but had no intentions of correcting it.
“I am not sure I wish to learn of their future plans for me. Not yet. For if they take me away from this vessel then…I don’t know what I would do. You are right, Tal, this ship and I, we are…destined to be together. And I would rather be a janitor on this ship than a captain on any other.”

Nakuto removed the helmet from her head and ran fingers through her long, midnight hair.
“But I do need a job. I must speak with Captain Ravenfall and find out where she could use me. Surely a beat-up, battle-worn former captain can still have uses around here?”

Kara Nakuto

“A lowlife in a pleasant society is better than the king of a corrupt one.” Tal mused, shaking her head towards the woman she considered so dear to her. A part of her felt almost at home, knowing Kara was alive, tangible and across from her. She had not felt so content, since her departure. Perhaps it was the lack of a true friend, beyond the woman who sat adjacent from her. Why had it suddenly become so hard, coping without a friend? She had not even noticed the difference in herself, until that rock had returned to her life. Funny, how things didn’t show until their solution came.

“Where you stay on this ship or move to another, I will support your decision.” Tal remarked, “This ship is yours, she always will be, but she is old and I’m not sure she has too many miles left on her. However, should you ever need a place, Viking will always be here for you. Where she is your command, or your home, she is a peculiar ship with a cracked albeit large heart for those daring enough to place themselves into such a position.”

The half-Klingon’s laughter at this was positively thunderous. Slapping the heavy oak table with an open palm, she replied, “Not too many miles? Ta’lahali Beveres, do not mistake this ship’s apparent fragility for true weakness. It is true that her heart remains sick and her temperament peverted. But as long as there remain crew who can survive this continual battle of wills then she will continue to fly. And I will continue to travel with her.”

“Have you spoken with the Captain about anything? Does she even know you are here?” Tal wondering, knowing how daring of person Kara could be.

Beveres
CNS

Again that mischevious expression illuminated her features. Locking eyes with her friend, Nakuto shook her head.
“I have not yet announced my return in person. Although I am sure the ship’s scuttlebutt has relayed the information by now. And in truth I am eager to exchange information and experiences with one who has viewed this ship from the same vantage point as I. But…”

Her sigh was eons-deep and carried on its breath the whole, tumultuous weight of the past year.

”…it is not an easy thing to meet your successor. For a Klingon it is…”
She shrugged as she attempted to explain. “There is great shame to be found in being…replaced. I expected nothing less but still. It will take me some time to come to terms with the situation and my new position onboard this ship. Whatever that position may turn out to be.”

“Then do not allow yourself to view her position as a replacement of your own. The mind is a powerful thing, my friend, which I have every reason to believe you understand very deeply. Do not allow your mind to become your master. If you do not submit to its wishes to determine Ravenfall as your replacement, then shame might fade to pride or even potential comradeship.”

Kara nodded slowly. “Sage advice, my friend.”
Tal had always possessed the ability to tear through the surrounding chaos and reach in to the true heart of the matter. It was one of the myriad things that made her such a skilled counselor. “I would be a fool not to follow it.”

Silence ensued as the half-Klingon considered the matter more deeply.
“Pride?” she mused eventually. “Yes. There are some matters where pride remains to be found. After all, the ship is still flying and with a considerable number of the crew still onboard. Perhaps it would not be too presumptuous to share at least some of the credit for that with Ravenfall?”

“Oh, I do supposed just a smidge if the credit should go to the dear Ravenfall.” There was a smidge or playful sarcasm as it laden her voice, allowing for a lighter air to come into the dark shadow that looked effortlessly over their conversation. It was difficult, no doubt, by the return to the famed Captain— civilian, whatever she was to be called at this point in the game. Although, Tal had faith Kara would find her place, again— and in all hopes, did she wish Kara, too, to find happiness. But on a ship like this, that seemed nearly impossible.

She smiled and for a brief moment the fear and the pain and the exhaustion was driven from her features, to be replaced by an expression of primal satisfaction.
“I did all that I could to prepare you all for the peculiarities on this ship. I trained you all to withstand the torments, to block out the whispers and the shadows. Maybe the job I did was not so bad after all.”

“Bad? Ha! If it was not for you, I would probably already be dead and served in some Kraken tiramisu desert.” She grinned at the comrade she had once, not two hours before, assumed to be dead. “I think we all can say the same.”

“But still,” Kara concluded with a smile. “Still I am here, living and breathing and…surviving. I must take care not to lose sight of that amongst everything else.”

Kara Nakuto

“Living, undeniably, is a far better outcome than dying. Then again, dying is easy, living is harder.” She paused, choosing to change the subject.

Another nod. To die was indeed easier than to live. For those warriors heralded with open arms into the hallowed halls of Sto-vo-kor, nothing less than an eternity of toasting their noble deeds awaited. Had Kara proven herself yet worthy to drink and feast amongst them? For the halfling, the pledge was required to be twice as sincere, the evidence of her victories twice as compelling, her reputation twice as reknowned. Had she yet woven a tale sufficient to secure her seat at the table?

She shook her head. The hour of departing was not upon her yet. So many things still remained to be done. It was not the destiny of Kara Nakuto to die alone, weakened and suffering in an impenetrable void, where no other soul lingered to roar her on her way. No. When her end came, it would be surrounded by a crew who knew that she would fight for them until her very last breath. Only then would her place amongst the great fallen be assured.

“I do believe you once mentioned having a sister, yes? For the life of me, I cannot recall her name, but she was the executive officer of the.. Magellan? Yes, Magellan.” She only knew the base due to the precense of the woman she had attended medical school with, a certain Odraavi. “Anyways, perhaps she should be on your list of contacts. I have no doubt she might be eager to know you live.”

“Mirai.”
For two halves of a soul so entwined, their paths over the last few years had drawn the Nakuto sisters ever further from the others reach. It had been almost two years since Kara had last spoken to her sister, the older woman revelling in her position commanding a large army on Magellan. There had been whisperings back then, of a monster from the Dominion preparing a return. She wondered now if they remained as mere rumours of solidified into a tangible and terrifying foe?

“I should contact her,” was all she offered in response, reluctant yet to share such fears until they had taken undeniable form.

Tal nodded. “Take your time on that one. I’m sure she can wait a few more days.. weeks.. however long it takes for you to feel comfortable in talking to her.”

Tal would not force Kara into anything, that was not a basis in their friendship. She merely put out ideas, hoping her dear friend might take them or a least endeavor to take care of herself. That was all Tal could ask for: Kara’s health.

A body leaning back into the chair, legs crossed at the ankle, arms folded over her chest where dainty fingers wrapped themselves around her biceps, she sat across from Kara in something comparable to content. “I have missed you,” Tal finally said, admitting the truth she had been trying to put to words. “Your smile, your thunderous laugh, even your brash actions whenever you were highly for or against something. But most of all, just your company. There isn’t anyone quite like you, Kara. You somehow managed putting together ferociousness and a respectable, albeit certainly peculiar, ambience.”

She paused.

“Even if nobody elses does; I have missed you and am more than happy to know you are safe and back with us. Only can I imagine it will last longer this time, longer than your memory that flickers from time to time.” She winked, adding a playfulness to her sincere words.

Tal

“You can imagine it for as long as you can bear my company,” Nakuto replied with a grin, before assuming her customary seriousness once more and adding, “And I have missed you too, Tal. We make a formidable team, you and I. And now reunited, I find my confidence growing that, whatever the Viking throws at us we will be ready.”

Kara Nakuto

“That we will,” Tal agreed with a smile towards her. “This ship never fails to test every one of us, proving to ourselves just how persistent or how weak we truly are. This last year had been more than enough to test the fates of time and, more specifically, the fates of those who walk this ship’s ashen halls with enough bravery to allow themselves a place out of bed, each more, instead of falling prey to the fear that might keep them bound to those quarters.”

“I’m sure, whenever you see anyone that you might know and even those you don’t, you may be proud to see where they are. This crew is strong, and they are resistant to whatever comes their way. Just as we will be prepared by the strength of each other, they have been prepared for all that has come their way, every moment since you left. Admirable of them, I must say.” She smiled, a professionalism about her words as she leaned towards the Klingon woman, hands clasped before her.

“This is a singularly brave and noble crew,” their former captain agreed with a nod. “Starfleet might remain under the misguided opinion that they sent only rogues and scoundrels to serve onboard this vessel but truly the joke is now on them. For never have a served with so honourable and competent people as I find myself amongst here. But,” she added with a wink, “perhaps that is a fact best kept to ourselves.”

“Did you return alone?” The question had plagued her mind as she had never actually found a viable answer.

Tal

Understandable, to harbour questions and a bountiful curiosity on Nakuto’s experience of the past year, still shrouded in mystery as it was, even for her who had experienced it fully. But the Counselor’s words settled upon her like a shroud, the effort to recall and to examine her return gargantuan in weight.

An intense frown took form upon her ridged brow, brown eyes awash with unspilled tears as Kara cleared her throat in an attempt to speak with full and unbroken voice.

“No. I was not completely alone. Although we were long separated in the dark, I believe that NE Loki also made an escape.”

She had been fastidious in her avoidance of the Norwegian security officer since her return, the mere thought of him sufficient to cast her mind back into that impenetrable void. It was a meeting that could not be held at bay for long, the need to discuss and dissect their shared experience growing more urgent with every passing hour. But her courage remained, as yet, too intangible to embark upon the task.

“I…do not know about the others,” she confessed finally, her head bowing with the labour of such a confession. “Parker, Navidson, Akirel and…Guerin. I am yet to find any evidence of them onboard the Viking. They remain…lost. Alone.”

Almost unbearable to think of the others, held captive by a force so dark, so malevolent in its intent, that mere comprehension had almost entirely escaped her grasp. Almost unbearable…but not quite. She was a Klingon! And by Gre’thor she would not abandon her people when they needed her the most. She had already lost Declan, but the tragic Romulan would be the last.

Her fist connecting with the oaken tabletop, Kara rose to her feet and roared, “I will find them, Tal. I will bring them back. If it takes every ounce of strength I still possess to do so.”

Kara Nakuto