Posted by Ensign Tath’ihl Sharvi (Security Officer) in The first night

Posted by Lieutenant Kalika Darz (Chief of Security) in The first night

SNIP

Kalika sighed mentally. She had those feelings, too. But she hadn’t expected the newcomer to voice them as well. Thankfully, the room he indicated drew her attention and saved her from needing to respond. Frowning, she nodded. “Yeah… it’s supposed to be empty. The lights aren’t the only thing erratic. Sometimes the atmospheric controls go out deeper down the hall. There is a barrier set up at that perimeter though.”

She moved forward and was about to palm open the door when she looked back at Sharvi, “Ready?” she mouthed to him.

“Ready” he said, as they raised their phasers up, she opened the door. They entered the room, and there was a ghostly appearing male in the room with his back to them. He pointed to her, and then disappeared. “Ok, you know what, no disrespect, but before we continue, you and I need to talk.” He said to her.

Kalika froze as the image pointed then faded. Her phaser was down and she blinked a couple times as she tried to brush it from her mind. “No…” Came the barely audible whisper from her lips.

It took her a minute to register that Tath had spoken. “What? Yes. Ok. Talk about what?” Despite looking at him now, her eyes kept flickering to where the ghostly image had been. It couldn’t be ‘him’ because he was dead on a planet in another portion of the quadrant. Obviously the ship was just playing with her again.

Kalika looked back at Tath, but this time there was a hint of fear and uncertainty there.

“I will be honest with you, I don’t know what is going on with this ship. Last night a weird thing happened and I’m pretty sure I seen him last night. Do you know who he is,what he wants with us?” The Ensign didn’t know how to fully ask what he wanted to know, wasn’t sure if he should reveal all of what happened last night.

Kalika shook her head. “He looked like that?” She pointed to where the ghost had been. Her first instinct was to tell him everything. After all, he just said he had seen the ghost as well. But then her protective shell kicked in. “It’s nothing. My old Department Head. He’s dead. Died on an away mission.” She started back for the door, trying to go around him as she made two failed attempts to holster her phaser before succeeding. Her words were clipped, sharp, she didn’t want to get into this with him. Everyone she got close to got killed. She had to focus on protecting them. That was all that mattered.

“Ok, then we should move on. Looks like we have a long night of checks ahead of us.” He said as they turned the light off in the room and closed the door, making sure it was locked.

Kalika sighed. “I’m sorry, Tath. You deserve more. Let’s finish our rounds and I will tell you. For some reason, this ship has tied us together. You deserve to know why.” She looked at him and tried to smile. “Is that all right?” She wasn’t sure if he would agree to wait, wouldn’t have blamed him if he stood his ground this moment. This was the most honest, most vulnerable he had seen her. It was for just a second, just a moment, but he’d see it if he had been looking.

“That’ll be fine, Ma’am.” He said nodding his head. He saw how shaken she was by all of this, and wished he could hug her, but he thought better of it, considering she was his superior officer. They started walking down the hallway again.

“And Tath… call me Kalika, unless we are on official channels or others are around in official capacity.” She tried to smile as the moved on to the next room.

**
A couple hours later, they had finished the sweep. Flickering lights where there was no power anywhere else, a sound system that activated music when they entered then suddenly stopped, and a couple more shadow chases that ended in empty areas were all that they ran into.

As she called a stop to the rounds, she looked at him. “Let’s head back to the office. I’ll try and answer your questions.” She turned and moved towards the corridor. Once there, she sealed the room’s door and then lead the way back. They reset the barrier to the off limits area and took the lift down to the brig. She didn’t say anything on the trip back.

Once there, she set her phaser on her desk and turned to a small cabinet behind the desk. “Come on in and have a seat.” She pulled out a bottle of Andorian Ale and smiled as she produced two glasses from the same cabinet. As she closed it, if he looked, he would see three other bottle in there. One was easily identifiable as a special Klingon drink, but the other two bottles weren’t so easily made. “It’s funny. When this arrived in a cargo container, I thought it was kind of odd. Perhaps it’s a sign.” She poured them each a half glass and sat down behind her desk as she waited to see if he would take the seat opposite and take the offered drink.

Kalika
CoS

He sat down and took the drink. “That was an adventurous first night.” He said. “Ma’am, observing you, and that whole ordeal yesterday with reading your service record, I think you are being too hard on yourself.” He said after a few moments of silence.
Ensign Sharvi
Security

Kalika had expected may questions, but that statement completely blindsided her. “My service record! How did you get a hold of my serv…” she shook her head and closed her eyes as she realized she had stood up in her moment of rage. “The computer… you read the report, didn’t you. About the Away Mission gone wrong?”

She couldn’t sit back down. Her drink ignored, the bottle and glasses on the table between them, she turned to pace the small space behind her desk. “I… it’s not the whole story, Tath…” she shook her head and finally looked back at him. “He was my lover, and he had asked me to be his mate. He was full Klingon but didn’t care that I was half Orion. I was strong, he said, more than enough for his desires and definitely enough for his mind.” She was suddenly blurting out the whole story. “The Away Mission was to an unexplored asteroid with planetary ecosystem. An anomaly to be sure. He wanted me to stay behind because I could pick a bug off a plant in someone’s hands with the transporter and never move the leaf. I kept insisting I should go. He was my supervisor, I was his Second. It should have been me protecting his back. Something happened. Out of the eight that went down, only one came up. It wasn’t him.” She shook her head and clenched her fists. “The Ensign barely survived. And only because Tar’no forced his comm to beam him up before he died. I had to leave, transfer. The memories, and guilt were too much. I thought the Viking, the furthest post from Earth I could get, would be a place to heal. But the ship had other ideas. I see him, his ghost, wandering my quarters, the halls, every room I am alone in. He says if I had been strong I would have forced my way onto his team. Since I bowed, I was weak. His death was my fault. I wasn’t fit to save, or even serve, anyone. That the only reason folks follow me is because I use my Orion persuasion. Otherwise, everyone would lock me up for my inability to do my job. He says I should take my own life.” She hadn’t meant to admit the last, it was just rolling out of her so quickly.

“Now he wants you to know, I imagine. That I’m not fit… that people under me die… That’s why you see what you do.” She slumped back against the locker behind her, she couldn’t run this time. The room was too small and Tath was in a chair almost completely blocking her way. She looked at him and waited for his departure. She expected he’d probably tell the Capt about her crazy, insane outburst. She was expecting a lot. Kalika half held her breath as she waited for it to happen.

Kalika
CoS