Wrapping up the day's work

Posted on Mon Oct 16th, 2023 @ 7:38am by Commander Chalan Kendri & Ensign Ivitha zh'Vaoreth

1,697 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: Campor III - Resupply
Location: Grabok Settlement, Campor III
Timeline: MD C11 0700 hours 1930 hours, After Market

Alex and Ivitha were securing the field lab for the night so that everyone could get some rest, per the First Officer's orders.

"You've been really quiet today. I'm sure the Chief and the XO were expecting to hear more from you on this mission. If you want to keep getting selected, you have to learn to speak up. I know you're smart and have ideas," Foley said.

Ivitha sighed. Yes, she'd been off all week, and she knew damn well that it was showing in her behavior. She certainly felt somewhat crappy, and for pretty good reason. Sighing, she muttered, "My thaan is coming to the ship. Rumor has it he's coming with the Andorian ambassador that's joining us soon as her aide. He's... not very nice to be around." 'Not very nice' hardly covered it. Kanaoss Th'rinnihr was a hard-nosed Imperial Guard officer who placed his job on an altar, while his family and personal life sat at the base of that altar untouched and mostly forgotten. She'd heard from his colleagues that he'd only gotten his rank by muscling his way up the ladder with hardline adherance to military order. He'd tried to shove that same discipline down her throat multiple times - even as a little girl. She'd never been his daughter - only a future soldier that needed to be pressed into shape and hardened.

"He was furious when I told him that I'd commissioned into Starfleet. Called me a disgrace to what it means to be Andorian." She murmured. "I don't know what his problem is."

Alex stopped what he was doing and frowned as he looked at her. "I'm sorry that you have that on your mind, but you can't let that effect your work down here, Ivitha. We all have stuff going on, but we're Starfleet officers, we face life threatening situations every day, and on this planet right now, there are people who don't want us here, we need to be on our A-game," he told her, he wasn't trying to sound harsh, just straight forward.

"If you want to be a field officer, you have to figure out how to deal, because there are worse stuff out here than having to face a father who was a jerk to when you were a kid. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but that's the truth. It's clear Chalan isn't going to work us to death out here, save the moping for the end of the day. Or better yet, don't let that asshole take up so much headspace at all."

"Yes, sir." Ivitha fell silent and returned to work. Mope at the end of the day, right? She could do that. Besides, there were better things to worry over than the prospect of seeing her father again.

"Hey now, since when do we call each other 'sir' and crap when people aren't watching. I'm just trying to look out for you. If you want to talk about stuff right now, I'll listen. I'm just saying it didn't look great today, but there's still time to turn it around. You're going to the water source tomorrow with all three senior officers tomorrow. I think you should show them what you can do. Be your badass self." Alex said.

He stopped what he was doing, and touched her arm gently and pulled it back so she would stop as well. "You're out here against your father's wishes right? So what if you do something really amazing down here and get to brag about it? Or better yet have your COs bragging about it for you."

"Won't be good enough for him. He thinks Andorians should stay warriors. Makes you wonder why he married the rest of my parents at all." Ivitha's antennae twisted either way like dowsing rods. "But I suppose we can just screw him, huh? I'm out here doing my own thing." She tried hard to meet his eyes. "Catch dinner together later? Maybe a distraction might work."

"If you think it will help you be more yourself tomorrow," Alex said, raising his eyebrows in earnest as he looked at her. "You all need to be careful tomorrow, we don't know what's causing this, but it's looking more and more like it's bio-engineered and not here naturally. Meaning someone is going to try to stop us." Alex turned to watch the screens still churning out information.

"And if you don't mind eating out here? I thought I'd sit here for a while in case the computer gets a hit on anything," Alex said gesturing to the area out in front of the lab they had built earlier in the morning.

"I suppose we can stay." Ivitha replied softly. The lab's computer had been trawling through its databanks for hours now, and it'd been just them watching lines and lines of data and text go by. Progress was being made, of course, but at a snail's pace - that is, if that snail had also been doused in salt and was dragging its slowly dessicating body across the ground. Standing, she walked inside the shuttle to the replicator, ordered dinner and sat back down with it. The scent of the fusion Deltan and Andorian bowl of noodles that'd been popularized on Duo sent her home immediately, with the salty-sweet broth and strips of purplish meat on top. She placed the bowl on her console and slurped it up with a fork and spoon as she watched line after line scroll by.

Alex teased her, "You weren't going to bring me anything?"

"You didn't ask." Ivitha smiled. "Want anything? Aside from my company?" Or so she hoped.

"What you're having looks good. Pass on the purple meat, though," Alex said with an amused smile. He watched her go, then scrutinized the data on his PADD while he waited for her return.

"Oh, Alex. You should be a little more adventurous! Might I remind you that we are explorers? I guarantee that once you've gotten past the color, you'll love the taste of it." Ivitha was grinning as she came over with an identical bowl of noodles - with the same slices of purple meat included. "Come on, try some. I'll eat the rest if you don't like it." She said, handing over a fork and spoon for him to eat with. "I should learn to use those sticks you humans use to eat noodles - chopped sticks, they are called? I don't know why anyone would willingly use such unwieldy cutlery to pick up food, to be honest."

"I don't use chop sticks myself, so I wouldn't be able to show you either, Alex said with a smile. He took a bite of the noodles, avoiding the meat for now. "It's delicious," he commented. "So what do you think is going on out here?" he asked. "You've been quiet, but you have to have theories."

"Someone doesn't like the Ferengi. Bad business deal maybe, or something else. Ferengi tend to cause a lot of problems with their business sense," Ivitha shrugged. "There are tons in Academy history books. Maybe someone wants to get back at these people for some wrong one of their people committed. Why they'd take out one entire colony, I don't know - but that seems the most logical explanation,"

"Yeah, I'm hoping that the computer might hit off something that will lead to a cure, or a vaccine or something. If I can redirect it overnight, that would be a big step," Alex said. "You don't have to watch it, it'll sound an alert if it finds something. So when is your dad supposed to arrive?"

"In a few weeks. Apprently." Ivitha replied. One of her antennae drooped sadly - it seemed the subject bothered her more than she honestly let on. "With the Andorian ambassador. I've heard they're quite nice. Why they'd get my father as an aide is beyond me. He should be getting his own ship, not an office job like that."

"Do you care?" Alex asked. "I mean you weren't speaking very highly of him a few minutes ago."

"Well..." Ivitha's antennae twisted towards each other and made a sort of shrugging motion, even if her shoulders stayed neutral. "Er... I don't know, really. I feel like he deserves better. I know plenty of officers from the Imperial Guard barracks he used to stay in. They say he's a splendid officer, if a complete... um... I don't think the word asshole covers the insult exactly." She shrugged. "But he's my father. I feel like I should be a little more supportive."

"Family can be hard," Alex admitted. "But if he's not going to be supportive of you, then you may be just wasting your energy trying to be supportive of him." Alex took a bite of the noodles, still working around the purple meat. "I mean those sorts of things are something everyone has to figure out for themselves, but you have to ask yourself what you are getting out of the relationship."

"He's my father, Alex, how can I just-" Ivitha stopped herself there, and sighed. "Maybe I'm just tired. I'll give it some more thought tomorrow, how about it. For now we have this-" She swept her hand out towards the computer, "-to finish... hopefully it won't give us results at 0230 or something. Catch you tomorrow?"

"No, I never said it was easy. And maybe he'll surprise you this visit, and it'll be different this time. I hope so," Alex said. "If not though, I'm just saying, a lot of us come to Starfleet to get away from similar things. And a lot of people end up choosing family here that end up being closer to them than the family they are born into. Look at Commander Chalan for example," Alex pointed out.

"Anyway, if you want to talk more about what he did to you that was so bad, I'll be out here. Otherwise, I'll catch you later."

"Catch you later, handsome. Same here if you wanna talk, mmkay?" Ivitha winked flirtatiously at him and walked into the shuttle.

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