A Little Misunderstanding: We regret to inform...

Posted on Tue Sep 6th, 2016 @ 12:05am by Captain Charybdis MacGregor & Rear-Admiral Jay Dennisson
Edited on on Tue Sep 6th, 2016 @ 12:06am

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Taking Chances
Location: USS Horatio Nelson, Deck 1, Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: 2265
Tags: Ak'ahar

Sitting in front of the viewer Charybdis tried to organize her thoughts. She had stated her case simply with the Captain about taking on this duty, and now that she was getting her way, she was uncertain how to approach it. Just a few days ago she'd had a conversation with the big man to this effect, and she had expected to place this call... but not like this. Her mind wandered back to the gymnasium, and the last time she had actually spent any time with Commander McCoy Ak'Ahar...





After all of the crew disappearances, the new Captain coming aboard, their first mission and the new crew settling into their roles, Charybdis hadn't had time to chase down one of the Capellan Commander's high-gravity workouts. But now that things seemed to be settling into more of a normal routine, she was off duty and ready for a little bit of action, and she was confident that the towering executive officer would be happy to give it to her.

She pressed the door control, only to hear the computer's voice. "Verbal recognition of acknowledgement of higher gravity protocol required."

"Lieutenant Charybdis, acknowledging higher gravity protocols, cycle open gymnasium door," she said aloud.

The computer once again whirred and its mechanical voice expressed, "Acknowledged. Manual operation of door circuit required." She pressed the manual override on the door once more, holding it for the requisite two seconds before the door slid open, in the sluggish manner that it tended to when the higher gravity protocols were enacted.

Mac saw that it was Charybdis and nodded, coming smoothly to his feet from a kneeling posture. He had been dreading this moment since he received his last message from 'Latta, the mother of his daughter. 'Latta and Mac were not married nor was she his official consort of any kind. They had talked about a more formal relationship but it had never gone past talk. Still they had a child in common and an on again off again relationship.

The last message alternated between frigid contempt for 'that Vulcan slut' and fiery threats to both Ak'Ahar and Charybdis. How 'Latta knew about one of the only 'emotional' Vulcans in Starfleet serving on the same ship as Mac was an unanswered question. Vulcans did gossip though even if they didn't call it anything like 'gossip'. Ch'Latta's threats worried Mac- she was fully capable of irrational action if she decided her honor was being slighted.

For a moment he didn't know what to say and stood like a big slab of oak colored muscle and bone, "Umm, yes. Lieutenant... perhaps we should discuss something..."

The pointy-eared minx cocked her head slightly to the side and looked a tad perplexed. "Of course, Commander. Is it my workout attire? It is regulation, even though I don't think they quite had me in mind when they designed it. Is it about what happened the last time I participated in a session? I just got a bit rambunctious, that was all... or... wait, is this personal...?"

"Yes," Mac looked at a point several inches above Charybdis' head, "I, well... yes Lieutenant, it is personal. You see, I have a child... a girl. She is quite intelligent, she's half Vulcan... -ish, and she lives on Vulcan. She is the heart of my life and occasionally I stay in contact with her mother, Ch'Latta. T'Pon, my daughter, is working on her thesis in Psychic studies at the Science Academy..." Mac stopped for a moment, you can keep chasing the sand-hopper around the cactus but if you did it twenty two times you would never catch it.

"I have an issue with my daughter's mother actually," Mac looked miserable and unsure of how to continue.

Her eyebrows actually managed to come upward in the middle in a look of mild disbelief that looked remarkably familiar to him, having seen it on the face of the mother of his child often enough. In fact, it suddenly dawned on him that the two actually had a lot in common... save perhaps for the potentially murderous jealous streak.

It was not at all unusual for Charybdis to have a conversation with a male that did not involve eye contact... usually they were not staring at a point over her head, leaving her to stare upwards at the cleft in his chin, however. And she wasn't even invading his space today. Curious and curioser she thought to herself. While ordinarily her reflex would be to work on distracting him with her physicality, he seemed pretty upset... well, the corded muscles flexing beneath the skin of his big lantern jaw did at least, so she thought to try a different approach.

"Commander... McCoy, right? Why don't we sit down for a moment, and we can talk about this. I don't know if I am the best one to give advice on how to deal with woman, but I am one, so that inevitably grants me some insight. And I'm certainly willing to help you with your problem if I can..." At that she took hold his huge hand with both of hers, very gently, and steered him toward having a seat.

Once he started settling in, she held up a finger, rose, trotted to the computer control panel by the door to punch in a few codes, then trotted back to have a seat on the floor. She settled herself with her feet on the floor, knees bent and up in front of her body, arms around her knees covering most of herself up. Given the circumstances this was as much as she could do to minimize her sexuality and just make herself a sympathetic ear, so she did her best. The friendly giant sounded miserable, and her heart went out to him. Whatever was wrong, it had to be pretty terrible for him to be asking her advice and not Patrick's or even Dr. McKenzie.

"Just take a deep breath and say what's on your mind, Commander... I sealed the gym for a few minutes on a science experiment protocol, so we won't be bothered. It's just you and me, sir." That statement could very well have been delivered with her usual sultry sauciness that would have implied something quite salacious, but her tone was gentle and there was no mischief in those big violet eyes of hers... instead she looked genuinely concerned.

Mac had almost stepped back when she took his hand. It was too intimate contact with a female even if Earthers and Vulcans had different standards but he stopped himself and sat thinking for a moment. Charybdis looked nothing like the red-headed, willowy Ch'Latta... and yet for some reason he could not help but see similarities.

"You see, I have not always been exclusive with T'Pon's mother. I never said that I would be. She did not see things the same way; sometimes we argued about it. I may have encouraged those arguments for ahem, 'personal' reasons. Cappelan courtship includes an element of physical violence that is usually upsetting to Earthers."

"Our conflicts were as stimulating as our more gentle moments to me. So I sometimes sought out reasons for my daughter's mother to be angry or jealous. I was even involved in a koon-ut-kal-if-fee which was a scandal for all involved I am told." Mac kicked himself again for being used by a woman to kill her betrothed. Not that he minded the killing, it was common enough in his own culture but that he was unwitting and she did not return his feelings even if she was quite free sexually.

"When I went to Starfleet Academy, I sought out other challenges. I was young and stupid and graduated third from the bottom of my class. Mostly due to fights and sneaking girls into the dorms." That was received by a a slight rolling of the eyes on the part of the science officer, and something told Mac he should look into her service record sometime... he somehow doubted it was the very model of a spotless Vulcan career in Starfleet.

"I have returned to Ch'Latta when I am on Vulcan and she to me. I do not know why. Now she has learned there is a woman that has a reputation for a, shall we say, lack of restraint among Vulcans serving here on the Bonne Chance. I do not know how she knows this, but she does, and she is accusing me of being involved with this woman."

"She can become quite animated when she is angry," Mac finished miserably.

The woman had a Romulan name. Angry, lack of restraint... nahhhh, that's a stupid thought. Best not to tell the man- wait, Vulcan-ish... he knew she was a Romulan and was keeping her secret. The big man has a Romulan preference... no wonder he is so taut when he is near me.

The science officer pursed her lips for a moment while she considered. "So... we interact in the gymnasium during workouts... that's why you never want to spar directly with me, because for your culture that's akin to foreplay... I see. And somehow she has found out about me... which I cannot say I care for in the least, but here we are, because doubtless you haven't mentioned me to her or we wouldn't be having this discussion, because you would have achieved your ends and inspired jealousy, but instead you are far from happy about this..."

Her instinct was to get up and pace, but she was trying to make this easier on the miserable mammoth, not harder, so she stayed put and rocked back and forth a bit.

"Well... perhaps I do have a solution for you, Commander. May I be blunt with you... and straightforward?"

"Please do," he said, spreading his hands wide.

"I'll admit, when I first came aboard and met you, I was very interested in you, and I did flirt with you because... well, it is just my way, and I will admit I did hold out some hope of... climbing the mountain...?" She laughed a bit at her own joke there, then when she noticed she was alone in that expression, she cleared her throat and continued. "But when the Captain came aboard, that was it for me. I thought that everyone aboard would have heard rumors if nothing else, and I assumed that you and he... talked?"

It was patently obvious that she assumed a relationship between the two men that had not been established.

"But the point here is, I am with Patrick... Captain O'Conner, and while I may be flirtatious by nature and perhaps a bit too forward in my innuendos and even exhibitionistic in my style of dress and deportment, I assure you... you are a handsome, virile man and the idea of fighting with you until we both ended up rutting like Mugatos in heat definitely holds an appeal, I will freely admit. But it will never, ever be... I am the Captain's woman, and there I shall remain. And that is not a challenge, that is a fact- I don't understand your culture, but if that is interpreted to mean that you have to challenge him for me then you would have to go through me first, and as much as I respect you, Commander, I would not hesitate to end you before I let that happen."

"Sir," she added, realizing that she may have gone just a tad too far in her attempt to reassure the enormous executive officer, though the look in her eyes told him that there was not a shred of bluff in her statement. Apparently she also shared some degree of territorialism with Ch'Latta as well.

Mac laughed, for once relieved. "If it were only that simple. Although I do believe that killing a senior officer to secure the affections of a junior officer is frowned on in Starfleet. I will check the regulations later."

"No, I have never had a personal relationship with a fellow officer since the academy. I have learned my lessons and being older and I hope wiser, you are certainly attractive for many reasons and just as certainly off limits."

"My issue is that Ch'Latta believes there has been a physical relationship between you and I. It does not help that I have always been honest before about any such encounters with other women. She is still holding a grudge over my previous activities. I am trying to figure out how to tell her the pure truth without sounding like I am shading it. And how to mollify any antipathy she might express."

"Not that I wouldn't be honored if you offered the captain and I fruit if we were all Capellan," he added hastily, "but it is neither yours nor the captain's custom and we are not on Kohath."

She had no idea what the offering of fruit signified, but from context it sounded like... well, frankly she hadn't a clue, but it did inspire her to look it up after this conversation. She was really going to have to step up her xenocultural studies one of these days.

"I suppose I could try speaking to her directly if you think it might help? After all, I am perfectly willing to explain things to her. And if she would like to argue about it, I am willing to do that as well. And if she would like to threaten me over it she is certainly welcome to do that as well, though if she plans to catch a ship and chase us down out here, I think that she is going to be rather disappointed. While I am not afraid of her, I believe Starfleet frowns on such duels over someone being pigheaded, and she would likely just end up stunned and in the brig."

That brought a sigh, and she pinched the bridge of her nose. "I apologize, that isn't really constructive either, is it? Is there some cultural solution that I am not grasping here Commander, something from your culture or hers that could apply? I am going to assume that she is most definitely not Vulcan? Even emotional Vulcans are not this jealous and unreasonable... not that I have met many."

"Er... well, she is... definitely unique, yes. Perhaps we will arrange for a video conference call and you can try to explain it to her. If she believes you then we will have resolved the situation, and if not..." e spread his broad hands and shrugged. "As you say, if she flies across the galaxy to confront you I somehow suspect that it won't work out very well for her, and perhaps that will carry a lesson in and of itself."

The sultry science officer grinned broadly and rose from the floor smoothly. "It's settled then... we'll make arrangements for that call. In the meanwhile..."

Bouncing across the gymnasium, she tapped in the code and unlocked the door. "Best not to give them something to talk about, hmmm?"



That was then... this was now. In the past, in her memories, he was alive and vital and sheepish and uncomfortable around her, because he was strongly attracted to her but trying desperately not to act upon it. But now he was dead... slain by disruptor fire at Falchion Station in the Orion system, doing his duty. She would say that he died heroically saving others... she would say that he did not suffer, and that death was nearly instantaneous. She would say that the condolences of Starfleet went out to his family.

She would say that he died a hero, with the name of his beloved and his daughter upon his lips.

She would say all of those things, but she knew that they would bring no comfort. His widow would curse her as the face of Starfleet, and likely blame her and swear vengeance. Or she would simply weep and wail and lament her loss, and a child would know the touch of her father's hand never more. There was no possible outcome of this scenario that was remotely positive... but she had given her word to the Capellan Commander. And though he was gone, her word to a dead man was still binding in her mind somehow... she owed him this one last dignity... her memorium to him, as it were.

She opened the channel and took a deep breath as a wild-haired pointy-eared woman with her bangs cut to the exact same shape as her own hair looked out of the viewer at her with narrowing eyes and a palpable building ire. Her world would be shattered by this message, and Charybdis wished that the duty could fall to someone else.

But it was, quite simply, a matter of honor.

 

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