Interviews

Posted on Tue May 29th, 2018 @ 2:23am by Captain Charybdis MacGregor & Commander Fiona McCray & Lieutenant Commander Selune & Lieutenant Commander Siivas McKenzie
Edited on on Tue May 29th, 2018 @ 2:23am

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Future Tense
Location: Starfleet Command, Interrogation Room #17
Timeline: 2285
Tags: BonneChanceTrio,timetravel

The door slid open with a swoosh and a tall, rangy figure stepped into the small windowless interview room. A human male of approximately seventy years of age dressed in a nondescript black jumpsuit bearing no insignia stepped forward to the chair, pulled it out and sat down opposite the subject. Folding his worn and rough-skinned hands before him on the table, he smiled with closed lips.

His skin was craggy and pitted, as if from years of weathering, and his civilian-cut black hair was silver at the temples and sprinkled liberally with grey and silver hairs. Bags under his eyes made him look as though he had not slept recently, and the lines around his eyes looked as though he spent a considerable amount of time squinting, while the lines around his mouth seemed to indicate quite a bit of time spent frowning. But the piercing brown eyes were unwavering, and the close-mouthed smile that he briefly wore did not seem to reach those eyes.

He produced a PDD of a familiar design and showed it to his respondent.

"Let me go on record that I am a duly authorized representative of Starfleet, and I have a letter here from Admiral Chase ordering you to comply with this investigation and to answer these questions truthfully and to the best of your ability as a Starfleet officer." The letter appeared quite genuine, as it bore the Admiral's seal and reacted to the respondent's thumbprint. The interviewer turned the PDD back around and began reading his questions off of it.


"So do you know why you're here?"

Tilting her head as she observed the man across the table, Selune idly wondered to herself, not for the first time, why she was here before simply shrugging, "I imagine this is some kind of debrief, at a guess. Not like one I've had before though..." she left the statement hoping as though hoping for him to pick up the threat but was met with the next question instead.

"Could you state your name for the record please?"

"Commander Charybdis, first officer, USS Bonne Chance NCC 1745. It's actually pronounced kaa-rib-dis, though people seem to have rather a difficult time pronouncing it, and I only correct them if they ask. My friends call me Char, as in to burn something, or 'shar', or Chary, which they pronounce as either kar-ee or shar-ee. I'm pretty amenable to most interpretations, as labels are a bit fluid when it comes to identifying me."

"Is that your real name?"

The tiny red haired engineer lazed in her chair with her arms crossed over her chest. She stared at her questioner and pursed her lips then raised her right eyebrow. A gusty sigh and a roll of the eyes were the only answers that he got for his question.

"How long have you been in Starfleet?"

"Which time?" he replied with infuriating calm and serenity. "Or collectively?"

"Where you from, originally?"

Blinking, Selune replied, "Cait," before she even thought about the oddity of the question, "I would have thought it was somewhat... obvious..."

"How would you describe your chief engineer?"

"Lieutenant Commander Fiona Mary McCray... born quite accidentally to Bonnie and... gosh I actually do not know her father's name." Charybdis replied as she crossed her long legs and settled back in her chair with a smile to wax conversational. "Sixth and final child of her line, from a long lineage of Starfleet family. Proud Scot. Brilliant improvisational engineer with an agile mind and clever, capable hands. Rises to any occasion with grace and style... and preparedness. Compassionate, hardworking, dedicated, loyal, brave, intelligent, sweet. She's the officer any commander would want under them and any enlisted would want over them, because she would give two hundred percent to either so long as they made any effort to respect her and her capabilities. A woman who earned her position in a predominantly masculine field by being that much better, smarter and cleverer by half than her peers."

"And she's my best friend," she added with a smile. "Just one of the nicest and most polite and open people I've ever met..."

"Rank and serial number please."

The engineer seemed to find her neatly manicured fingernails infinitely fascinating. She nibbled daintily at a cuticle with an almost bored expression. Her relaxed posture hadn't shifted an inch from the start of her interview.

"How long have you held that rank?"

"Since I was promoted aboard the USS Bonne Chance and assigned as Chief Medical Officer," Siivas shrugged. "Objectively, of course. "Subjectively, it's been just a couple of months."

"What is your current assignment?"

"Chief Helmsman, USS Bonne Chance, NCC 1745."

"Position?"

The stony silence from the engineer continued. She looked pointedly around the room touched the insignia on her uniform and crossed her legs.

"What's your current duty status?"

"My internal clock is a bit off so I cannot be positive, but assuming that our shore leave is finished, then I would presume that we are on medical or administrative leave right at this moment?" the voluptuous Vulcan asked in return, with a wry smile that anyone who knew her would know meant that she was making a joke.

"Have you recovered sufficiently from your injuries to return to active duty?"

"I believe so," Selune replied with a nod.

"Can you describe for me how you came to be involved that shuttlecraft accident?"

"That is above your security clearance," Siivas responded easily.

"I represent Admiral Chase," the poorly used Human responded with a slight edge.

"It is also above Admiral Chase's clearance," Siivas responded.

"Are you experienced flying F class shuttlecraft?"

Fiona gave a soft snort then sighed deeply. It was the first sound out of her from the start of the interview and a wealth of contempt was contained in that soft exhalation.

"Where did you say you were stationed again?"

Selune frowned back at him, "I'm sure that this is being recorded... check the logs? Or just remember the answers to your own questions?"

"Who is your commanding officer?"

"Captain Patrick Teague O'Conner, commanding officer, USS Bonne Chance," the sensual scientist replied, looking mildly upset as her eyebrows knitted together somewhat.

"How would you describe him?"

The engineer shifted and studied the ceiling. She seemed to be counting the tiles or inspecting the lights in the interview room.

"What's your favorite color?"

"Gray," Siivas replied.

"How long have you been assigned to the Bonne Chance?"

"Mmmm about 2 months or so, you would probably have access to a more accurate record..."

"What do you want, and whom do you serve?"

"Also above Admiral Chase' clearance," Siivas replied and then shifted, as if bored.

"How would you describe your doctor?"

The wall of stony silence from the petite redhead continued.

"Do you know the stardate?"

"Stardate: -36735.03 or somewhere thereabouts? Um, February eleventh twenty-two eighty five?" She looked at the interviewer, those large violet eyes flickering back and forth as she studied his impassive brown eyes. "Again, I apologize, I was unconscious for a while and that tends to leave my internal clock a bit out of whack...

"What can you tell me about Yuna?"

"What would you like to know? It's a fairly open question and I don't know that we were especially close..." Selune replied, she idly wondered if she'd ever be able to give a straight answer to an open question.

"Are you now or have you ever worked for a sovereign power?"

Siivas laughed, actually enjoying the irony of THAT question. "You mean a figurehead, such as a President of a Federation or are you asking in terms of Empires and Emperors?" he replied with his own question.

"You have a nickname they call you?"

"We covered that earlier. But all right. My friends call me Char, as in to burn something, or Chary, which they pronounce as either kar-ee or shar-ee." She raised an eyebrow. "Behind my back there are a number of rather crude names I've been called, but I am rather fond of the 'Vulcan Vixen', or 'the Sexy Scientist', to name a few."

"How would you describe your first officer?"

For the first time in the interview Fiona sat up. She leaned forward with a polite smile on her face and filled the interviewer's empty glass from the pitcher of water sitting in the middle of the table, Her own empty glass remained in it inverted position on the tray. Without a word she returned to exactly the same position she'd been in.

"What do you imagine your next duty station will be?"

Selune shrugged noncommittally, "I haven't thought about it... as long as I'm flying I'm sure it will be fine."

"What is the airspeed of an unladen swallow?"

Selunes ears twitched slightly in surprise, staring blankly at the man for several seconds before replying, "If I remember correctly... around 140km/h... assuming you meant the early 20th century human aircraft?"

"You have any next of kin?"

"Hundreds," Siivas replied with a broad smile, "most of them are Federation Diplomats, Medical Officers, Engineers or Helmsmen whereas my foster-family hails from New Hibernia and Texas, here on Earth.

"Any relationships- husband, boyfriend, that sorta thing?"

She gnawed at her thumbnail slightly, began to answer the question, then paused again. A cloud passed over her face and she nibbled at her lower lip as her cheeks and pointed eartips tinged a bit sage. "I... I guess I don't, no. Not anymore." She looked away and breathed in sharply, as though she were about to burst into tears. "Definitely not now... somehow I doubt he waited for me."

"How would you describe your pilot?"

"Waaarm kitty, fuuuzzy kitty, little ball of fuuurr," Siivas sang softly with a fond expression.

"Do you expect a board of inquiry to result from your actions?"

Selune shook her head, "Not really... it was pretty clear cut self defense?"

"Do you expect disciplinary action?"

That question rated two raised eyebrows from the red head and the pointed look that she gave the interviewer left no question that in her opinion she was already experiencing disciplinary action aplenty.

"How do you feel right now?"

"Anxious. A bit concerned. Worried for my friends. Out of sorts. Suspicious. Off balance. Like we are being kept in the dark intentionally. Guilty, as if we have somehow done something wrong despite the fact that is not so." The pointy-eared young woman sat up straight, folded her hands in front of her on the table and regarded her interviewer with a slight tilt to her head.

"Any questions for me?"

"Aye," the engineer broke her silence as she leaned forward, "I'm curious." She ticked points off on her fingers, "Ye hae our service records which have medical scans in them from our service aboard the Bonnie, ye hae tha shuttlecraft...also fruim the Bonnie and its flight recorder. We've been poked prodded an' interviewed tae within an inch oov our lives....precisely whut is it thet yer tryin' tae prove?"

Raising her eyebrows she shook her head at the man, "No matter how farfetched it may seem, we are precisely who we appear tae be and no amount oov testing and questioning is gaen tae change thet one whit. So why don't you save yerself and tha taxpayers soom time an money and joost release us? We're not criminals, nor hae we done anything wrong other than bein' in tha wrong place at thet wrong time and kinkin tha tails oov tha wrong people." She didn't bother waiting for his answers but stood up and declared crisply, "This interview is oover... Sir. I'll be in me bunk." Fi clasped her hands behind her back and strode to the door fully expecting it to open for her.


"A few... but im sure they will be answered in time anyway and not by you right now, so they can wait for now," Selune replied moving to stand, "I assume thats my queue to leave right?"

"I assume that given the nature of this initial interview that this is simply a testing of the waters as it were, to establish some sort of base level with each of us to see if any of our stories will immediately contradict one another. Also to establish you as a neutral presence that will be brought back later in a somewhat different role, or simply to ask all of these exact questions in a different order once more." The young Vulcan woman leaned across the table somewhat, the two gold braids on her sleeve chuffing against the surface of the table as she presented them with her arms levelled before her. "These are my crew. I am in command here, so if there is a penalty to be levied for actions that have been taken, the responsibility rests upon my shoulders, not theirs. I am the ranking officer, and as good, loyal Starfleet officers they have obeyed lawful commands. Frankly, given the circumstances I find their actions to be exemplary and commendable, and when I am given the opportunity to file a report it will reflect all of that. In the meanwhile, until you decide to either begin the interrogation or brief me, I assume that we're done here?"

"One," Siivas turned and looked at the wall to his right, a fairly innocuous wall and smiling, waved "spirit fingers" at the people he sensed behind the camouflaged wall. "I'd like for admirals Wallace and V'sar, who are standing behind the holographic wall over there observing us, to go tell my grandmother, the Deltan Federation Ambassador Relim that you're holding me and on what suspicion so she can remind the people who ARE cleared to know about what I'm doing can make this work before you ruin forty-plus years of covert intelligence work and have all of your careers destroyed." He paused and then added with a finger held up as if just remembering, "Oh, and the Orion? He's about reached the end of patience and people are about to begin dying. You should probably let him see me so he doesn't start looking for me and killing people on the way." That forcefield isn't going to stop him," he added as he sensed Admiral Wallace considering how to handle the pending situation.

The man with the bags beneath his eyes and a neutral expression that was somehow reminiscent of a basset hound ticked off the PDD and smiled a close-lipped smile. "Thank you for your cooperation, and your candor. We may have a few more questions after this, so please make yourself available, if you will."

At that he rose and left the room, leaving his respondent to their own thoughts.

 

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