Posted by Civilian Kara Nakuto (Civilian, Former CO) in CIO’s Office

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Peter Sigmundsson (Chief Intelligence Officer) in CIO’s Office

Posted by Civilian Kara Nakuto (Civilian, Former CO) in CIO’s Office
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻
The Office of the Chef Intelligence officer was simple, a single desk and chair with two chairs on the other side. A computer panel behind desk chair for further work, the basic office setup. Well, at least when the lights worked. The comically large former security chief was reading up on the newest arrival on the ship, well newest old arrival. Captain Nakuto, His old Commanding officer. He last saw her almost seven years earlier. The USS Curie, his first posting since rejoining Starfleet after the War. He leaned back and smiled to himself, a good ship with an even better crew, much like the Viking used to be… Used to.

He opened the Captain’s service record again, recently changed from missing in action to Active again. He leaned forward and looked at her picture with suspicion. He hadn’t been there, he didn’t know what happened, or better yet he didn’t completely understand the reports he’d read. He’d avoided her carefully, he wasn’t even sure that she was aware of him being on the ship. His position wasn’t exactly very noticeable. Mostly he just kept to himself giving his team directives. They were fairly isolated from the crew.

He stood up and walked to the replicator and just stood there for a few minutes, quietly pondering. After almost five minutes of just standing, he finally ordered a single Coffee. He was lucky as the replicator gave him what he ordered this time so he could sit down again and relax. It dawned on him that that was the first time he had spoken aloud for the entire day. Why was this bothering him so much he wondered.

CIO

They say speak of the devil and he will appear. And in those moments when Sigmundsson’s thoughts were occupied with former Captain Kara Nakuto, he had been like a dagger in her own mind also.

Her own words and thoughts might no longer possess any importance on this ship, but that did not mean that the half-Klingon no longer cared about events on the USS Viking. And so she had found herself studying the latest crew manifest to see who had survived and who had been lost in her absence.

GLaDOS. The former borg science chief had gone. So too had her protege, Reira. Had there been yet another mass exodus of staff? Or had they succumbed to the evil ever-present on the USS Viking.

But there were also new names, unfamiliar to her. Blakesley was a new addition to Maj’s security team. No…not Maj’s, her friend was gone, had not escaped the clutches of the void as she had done. Kalika Darz now headed that team. And two new doctors, Batario and Stein.

And then there was Peter Sigmundsson. Like the lingering tendrils of a long-forgotten nightmare he had clawed his way out of her shame-laden past and planted himself squarely in her present. Sigmundsson.

It had taken her exhausted mind some time to recall where she knew the man from. The USS Curie. There he had borne full witness to the first act of betrayal now wholly characteristic of her Starfleet career - the desertion from her post as Captain of that vessel. And now he had arrived to spectate the final act of her second abandoning. Why?

During her own short tenure as the head of this crew, she had never been assigned an Intelligence Officer. The last man to bear that title on the Viking, to her own meagre knowledge, had been James McHarrie - general mischief maker and conjuror of Reman Imps. Was this another of McHarrie’s tricks? Orchestrated from beyond the grave to plunge her back into utter confusion? Or was Sigmundsson similarly planted here by the devious Section 31 to gather intel on her return?

Either way, she needed to speak to the man, needed to look him in the eyes and prove to him and to all he reported to that she remained standing. That she remained strong and courageous and defiant, no matter what manner of hell they were preparing to cast her into next.

It was not a conversation that she welcomed but…it was one that needed to take place, to bury once and for all those ghosts who refused to stay dead.

And so it was that, on that quiet and hitherto calm evening, Peter Sigmundsson would find his soliloquy on his former Captain broken by a knock at his door from that very same hand.

Kara Nakuto

Peter was slightly startled by the knocking. He still hadn’t gotten used to knocking on a starship but with the Viking’s systems on the fritz ever so often it was more and more commonplace. He pressed a button closing the Nakuto file and turned to face the door “Enter” He wished he could be surprised by his sight but it was inevitable. He immediately perked up, practically jumping out of his chair.

“Captain” He calmed himself with a single breath “It’s good to see you again” He half-smiled like he used to when they’d served together. He gestured to the seats on the other side of his desk “Please, sit. Would you like some Coffee?” He took a step to the replicator “Do you still drink raktajino? I’ve gotten fairly lucky with this replicator since it usually works” He was nervous for the first time in a long time. Probably the first time in Twenty years that he was nervous just facing a superior officer.

Peter Sigmundsson

Nakuto stepped into the room and silently observed Sigmundsson for a moment before stating, “Stand down, Lieutenant. I am no longer your Commanding Officer.”
The bitterness in her tone was unmistakeable but there was something else tinging the edge of her words. Relief? Or was it merely apathy, the acceptance of one who had nothing else to lose.

Peter relaxed, but only slightly. However, he couldn’t help smiling ever so slightly.

Of course, being relieved of command did come with certain…privileges, like an absence of need for formalities. Which could possibly explain why the half-Klingon’s next move was to sit herself in one of the offered chairs and stretch out like it was her space to claim. Explain too the extraction from beneath her slightly tattered jacket, now devoid of any rank insignia, of a large bottle of bloodwine.

“I would say the occasion calls for more than mere coffee,” she continued, uncorking the bottle and allowing the iron-rich aroma to tease at her nostrils while she looked expectantly towards the CIO for glasses.

Impossible for the man to read, in that moment, Nakuto’s true intent. A measure of his sense of duty and moral character? A test of his courage and warrior spirit? Or simply two old friends toasting an unexpected reunion?

Peter moved back to his desk and opened a drawer, taking out two dark glasses and placing them on the desk. He was now standing on the other side of the desk, leaning in on the edge of the desk.

“I am…alive,” Kara stated triumphantly. “I have survived. Although I do not doubt there are some onboard this ship who wished otherwise. A year of absence can be like a lifetime, the changes affected in that time numerous and…unsettling. I have no call to question Starfleet on their decision to replace me, but…I resent the degree of relish that no doubt accompanied the task.”

And now she was on her feet once more, pacing, in the manner of a caged animal constantly testing the bars that held it captive.
“It seems I have acquired a certain reputation for…desertion. But those who accuse me could not begin to comprehend my reasons for doing so.”

Peter only listened. She seemed to have something she needed to get off her chest. Maybe she had doubts, maybe it was just words she felt needed to be said. In any case now was not the time to speak.

Turning to face Sigmundsson once more, the half-Klingon closed the distance until they were mere inches apart. Her height losing out by a full 8 inches to his own powerful stature, still she stood strong and confident. Challenging.

“I left the Viking to save those souls all else would have abandoned,” she roared. “I left the Curie to lure away an enemy that would have destroyed you all. Do you have any questions to ask on my motives, Lieutenant?” she dared him to ask while being devoid of any doubt that he was more than up to the task.

Kara Nakuto

Peter looked down at her and was reminded of their first meeting. A newly fangled Commander and a junior Lieutenant. Still, he’d never felt like he was looking down at her despite his size, she somehow managed to look him directly in the eyes, sometimes even look down on him. The mark of a Commander, but this one had a less than stellar reputation, not unlike his. “Only that you call me Peter” He gently took the bottle and poured into the two glasses “Or Lieutenant Commander. I haven’t been just a Lieutenant for a while now” He smiled slightly amused as he handed her a glass.

“Captain, when we first met I was returning after nearly a decade of staying outside Starfleet. Four years later I left service once more until this year. I’ve had a longer Career outside of Starfleet than in. You left for duty, I left my duty.” He raised his glass “So no I don’t have any questions. Only joy at seeing a friend alive that I’d buried.” His smile became more sombre as he thought of one year earlier during his recuperation on Earth when he was informed of his old Captain’s demise.

PEter