Prologue – My Mind, My Arsenal
by Captain Isaac Smith & Commander Marta Valeris
Post Details
===Outside Marta's Quarters===
She came onboard the old fashioned way. By walking. She'd entered by one of the docking ports and had gotten her quarters assignment from the Quartermaster. Quickly tossing her dufflebag inside, she didn't even look inside the room. That would come later after she met with the Captain and handled all the formalities.
Meet the Captain. Memories unbidden came of her meeting with her last CO. That had proven to be a near fatal meeting. One she didn't care to repeat again.
~I can't handle being XO to another Hawkins~ she thought to herself as she walked down the corridor, heading towards a Turbolift. ~Courage Valeris, courage.~
"Computer, locate Captain Smith." she asked.
Main Engineering, deck 7
Nodding unconsciously, she entered the first Turbolift that had arrived and pointed it towards her destination.
Within main engineering was a fiasco of half operational lighting, an oddly pulsing warp-core that seemed to not be sounding correctly at all and a hustle and bustle of engineers pacing back and forth managing more than a dozen different last minute duties. Some wore red collared uniforms whilst others yellow, however quite a few present seemed to be in civilian garb, directing the starfleet crew. Utopia Plantitia contractors, perhaps?
One distinguished, yet agitated voice with a noticeable raspy undertone sounded above the mayhem. "Setting the molecular enhancer to seal any possible microfractures of production is part of the risk assessment to conduct before activating the damned core! Shut it down, start again."
The uniformed Commander stopped to a slow walk as she closed in on the mayhem. She couldn't surpress a smirk, remembering her own days as a manager of repairs and refits to the Science Labs on the Rachmaninov. Captain Smith was responsible for the ship's refit, his own idea apparently. By the sound of the agitated voice, the man dressed in rather uncaptainly garb, with the raspy voice was Isaac Smith himself.
Carefully, dodging around the hurried workers, she stepped closer to the man she'd surmised to be the Captain.
"I'm looking for Isaac Smith?" she said, her tone light, somewhat amused, and crisply british.
The man, rather unshaven, with grey hairs beginning to overcome his rather rough stubble turned immediately studying eyes shadowed by lack of sleep and lines of weariness. "Are you now?" He turned back to a console and was quite quick in typing in commands and scanning over results with his tired eyes.
"The Captain left a moment ago, you will only find a madman bringing order to halls of chaos." He almost sounded proud with the title.
"I wasn't looking for the Captain." Marta chuckled as she blinked. "I was looking for Isaac Smith, what's the madman's name then?"
He glanced up from his console and stared toward a series of engineers working frantically by the warp core which had just then successfully shut down and remained a black pillar of lifelessness. "One man to one job!" He called, "You will forever trip over yourselves and miss another fracture. My kingdom for an engineer of a mature age, I say!"
Staring back down to the console he sneered at the results. "A months work in forty-eight hours, a Montgomery Scott I pray for. But there is only I." He waved a dismissive hand at the console then stood straight and turned to face the Bajoran woman, staring down at her. "Isaac Smith at your pleasure."
"Marta Valeris, your pick of the litter. At your discretion, sir." she said with a nod and a slight grin.
"You twit, You twit, You twittered madly all day long
You twit, You twit, You twittered all day long!" Isaac's voice was directed once more towards engineers to get them more directed to their tasks.
"And if any were to understand I was referring to them as helpless maidens, I would at least then have some faith in their capabilities. Come my, hopefully not so helpless maiden." Isaac gestured towards the main exit and waited for her to lead in the old fashioned ladies first manner.
"Hands on kind of person, I see." she commented with a smile as they walked out.
"You must forgive my manner," Isaac began as he fumbled fingers over a PADD he took with him as they exited the madhouse of Main Engineering. "I'm afraid you caught the fox wetting its teeth in the hen house."
"Was the catch good at least?" she asked as she glanced over. "I can come back later you know...after things have calmed down? If they ever do so?" she raised a delicate eyebrow, much like a Vulcan.
"If I knew you were to offer retreat in times of need I would have reconsidered your application." Isaac replied matter-of-factly as they neared the turbolift. Entering without a second thought he called to the intercom. "Fox's Den."
Unable to comply
"Bridge."
"In some cultures it's called being considerate." she said with a chuckle. "Pardon my ignorance, sir. I'll roll up my sleeves and dig in. But I warn you, I might muck something up...I'm a social scientist, hardly a tech." she continued as she followed him inside.
The turbolift whirred to life. "Tittle Tattling lost the battling." After a sigh Isaac finally stared at her genuinely. "Our Astrometrics and Science Labs need to be brought online, they fit your resume I believe?"
"They do. No Chief Science Officer yet?" she said, clasping her hands behind her back. "Are any of the Senior Staff aboard?"
"A lone wolf amongst pups I be at this time." The turbolift gently came to a halt and the side-sliding doors whooshed open, the most well performing piece of hardware on the Ulysses so far. Isaac stepped onto the bridge, all but abandoned and only lit be emergency lighting.
"And here be your office, Miss Marta." he gestured melodramatically as if in a Shakespearian performance, before nodding with an almost conservative point towards the Captain's Ready Room, "and thar be mine."
She couldn't help a smile. "She is beautiful, inside and out. Well, will be inside."
"She be a dead fish flopping on deck if we don't meet the deadline." Isaac stood by the entrance to his ready room and gestured amicably.
Nodding she walked in first, a smile on her face on the gentlemanly attitude. Something immensely refreshing from what she'd grown accustomed to.
"Please, comfort yourself." Isaac instructed as he entered after her, gesturing towards the seat opposite his own as he circled his desk and faced the lone replicator. "At least some things work as they should around here, a refreshment you wish?"
"Thank you, I'm fine." she said as she sat in the offered chair.
"Herbal tea, variant three." A small porcelain cup on a likewise saucepan decorated in floral motifs materialised before him, he palmed the setting carefully and took his rightful seat opposite facing of Valeris.
Taking a long sip of the tea and letting it run smoothly down his throat, Isaac felt his nerves relax. Placing the cup upon his desk, he stared evenly, without disdain nor amicability towards his first officer. "You spent some time on medical leave recently. I understand it was due to psychological reasons?"
She nodded, hands placed on her crossed knees as she leaned back. "Yes sir."
She'd anticipated that her transfer and medical leave would come up. If he asked, she would tell him. If not, she would keep said reasons for herself.
"Be it not my place to pry, I only ask truth from your lips at all times." Isaac informed, "Are you ready to assume your duties?"
"Truth you shall have." she said. "I am ready, sir."
"I would knight thee, but I seem to be lacking sword and coat of arms." He replied, in a tone as if such was an every day ritual.
She couldn't suppress a grin. "As if you had, sir. As if you had."
~Where DID this man come from?~ she thought to herself. ~Like he fell out of a fairytale.~
A different tact, Isaac thought. "You were however, extremely far down in the list of candidates, to be truthful." He sipped his tea.
"Permission to speak freely, sir?" she asked, her tone getting serious.
"Behind closed doors, speak your mind."
"Why'd you pick me then? If I'm that far down." the eyebrow went up again.
"Why indeed? It was not charity I assure you," he sipped his tea once more and placed it down on the desk before him. Taking a breath Isaac spoke plainly, though his raspy undertone in voice gave depth to his words.
"Starfleet since the Dominion War seems to feel it must reward combatants before thinkers, officers with high kill counts before those who prove they can dismantle a situation with diplomacy rather than a torpedo. You, were a militant fighting against military occupation most of your young years. When you won your resistance war, unlike many of your people that sought further retribution, you laid down your arms and applied to Starfleet. Even then, you did not specialise in skill you had and joined security or the damnable marines...you chose sciences, anthropologies and humanities."
A pause.
"Such change in mindset, and dedication to knowledge rather than succumbing to violence bred into you, is what makes the ideal officer in Starfleet, a peace keeping authority above all else."
"I was the scientist first. Before war took its hold. I went back to what I really am, a seeker of knowledge." she said with a shrug. "Studied with the monks at Kiessa Monastery."
"My Mind, My Arsenal." Isaac replied, eyes still studying her. Though the way he stared at her seemed not to take note of her rather appealing womanly faculties, but the woman beneath the flesh.
"Captain, you read my file." she began as she leaned forward, looking down at her hands first, then up at Smith again. "You know I was held at Kran-Tobol prison."
"I am aware." Isaac nodded once, clasping his hands together atop the desks surface.
"I do not condone such breaches of basic Humanoid rights. And I will stop you or any member of this crew with any means necessary, from infringing on those rights." she said simply.
~I made that mistake on the Resolute, I will not make such a mistake again. I was no better than a collaborator knowing what was going on and not acting on it.~ she thought.
"Your reports on actions aboard the Resolute were vague at best, but one learns to read between the lines as if translating a poem." Isaac replied meaningfully. "How is your ability to translate?"
"I stood by and didn't do enough to stop a man from dying, and the Captain of the ship that attacked our ship, from being brutally tortured. Words weren't enough. I stood by my Captain...or Colonel, to be accurate, and I let him, by not acting torture those two men. It was pure and unrated vengeance...an act befitting a Cardassian, not a Starfleet Officer." It was evident she felt shame for her non-actions and the actions of the Resolute's Commander.
"Which leads to one other subliminal message I translated. Did you love him?"
~Truth from your lips...~ a thought ran through her head as she paused with the answer.
"I had...until it became clear that his sessions were not done. That was when I'd reported him, and Doctor Shock." she said with a sigh.
Isaac was silent for a lingering while. He knew the conversation had turned from proving her worth, but him to prove his. Clearing his throat, he spoke clearly, despite his raspy undertone in voice, yet his words sounded as if he believed each with his all.
"To live as gently as I can;
To be, no matter where, a man;
To take what comes of good or ill,
And cling to faith and honor still;
To do my best, and let that stand
The record of my brain and hand;
And then, should failure come to me,
Still work and hope for victory.
To have no secret place wherein
I stoop unseen to shame or sin;
To be the same when I'm alone
As when my every deed is known;
To live undaunted, unafraid
Of any step that I have made;
To be without pretense or sham
Exactly what men think I am.
To leave some simple work behind
To keep my having lived in mind;
If enmity to aught I show,
To be an honest, generous foe;
To play my little part, nor whine
That greater honors are not mine.
This I believe is all I need
For my philosophy and creed."
He let those words sink in.
She nodded simply, not saying a word. She could find none.
"No torture or undue malice you shall find under my command. Actions as such by any Federation member are banned by the constitution and amongst a sea of Commanding Officers who have forsaken its teachings, you shall find I am a man that still holds them dear." Isaac translated for her.
She nodded again and smiled. "Hands on and a poet. I have stumbled on a rare breed."
"That simple fact, troubles me at night commander." He leaned back in his seat.
"Why, sir?"
Isaac smirked ironically for a moment, though it quickly faded. "The values of which the Federation was founded upon favoured poets, honor, curiosity and those with a hunger for discovery. Now it seems, we are surrounded by those seeking cheap thrills and battle."
"It should make you proud, that you are like that, sir. Those thrill and battle seekers, they may be many, but they are a temporary parasite, or so I should like to hope. We should strive to make more explorers, and less warriors. That should be our legacy to the Federation, and subsequently our own races, that IS what we were before the parasite took us." she said. "Don't ever change who you are to fit what others believe."
Isaac did have an effective counter, "Ah, but humanity, unlike Bajorans were primarily barbarian throughout history, peaceful and understanding was a relatively new concept for us...though as you say, one to cling to."
"And yet, it was one of you, that was sent to my people as the Emissary." she smiled. "The Prophets don't choose without a deeper meaning. You have a potential to peace still."
Isaac's tone immediately switched to being captain once more, "Which would all be for nought if we do not meet the refit deadline. I shall expect full reports on science and astrometric facilities operational status by the early morrow, Commander."
"Yes, sir." she said as she stood up. "Permission to get on with it?"
"Permission? I thought it was an order, dismissed." Isaac activated his desk computer then as Valeris made her exit he called, "Commander...don't disappoint."
"Not planning on it, sir." she threw over her shoulder as she turned the corner and headed off the Bridge.
----
Captain Isaac Smith
Commanding Officer
USS Ulysses
&
Commander Marta Valeris
Executive Officer
USS Ulysses
by Captain Isaac Smith & Commander Marta Valeris
Post Details
| Title | My Mind, My Arsenal | |
| Mission | Prologue | |
| Author(s) | Captain Isaac Smith & Commander Marta Valeris | |
| Posted | Thu Oct 29, 2009 @ 6:52am | |
| Location | USS Ulysses - Various locations | |
| Timeline | Stardate: 64431.7 |
She came onboard the old fashioned way. By walking. She'd entered by one of the docking ports and had gotten her quarters assignment from the Quartermaster. Quickly tossing her dufflebag inside, she didn't even look inside the room. That would come later after she met with the Captain and handled all the formalities.
Meet the Captain. Memories unbidden came of her meeting with her last CO. That had proven to be a near fatal meeting. One she didn't care to repeat again.
~I can't handle being XO to another Hawkins~ she thought to herself as she walked down the corridor, heading towards a Turbolift. ~Courage Valeris, courage.~
"Computer, locate Captain Smith." she asked.
Main Engineering, deck 7
Nodding unconsciously, she entered the first Turbolift that had arrived and pointed it towards her destination.
Within main engineering was a fiasco of half operational lighting, an oddly pulsing warp-core that seemed to not be sounding correctly at all and a hustle and bustle of engineers pacing back and forth managing more than a dozen different last minute duties. Some wore red collared uniforms whilst others yellow, however quite a few present seemed to be in civilian garb, directing the starfleet crew. Utopia Plantitia contractors, perhaps?
One distinguished, yet agitated voice with a noticeable raspy undertone sounded above the mayhem. "Setting the molecular enhancer to seal any possible microfractures of production is part of the risk assessment to conduct before activating the damned core! Shut it down, start again."
The uniformed Commander stopped to a slow walk as she closed in on the mayhem. She couldn't surpress a smirk, remembering her own days as a manager of repairs and refits to the Science Labs on the Rachmaninov. Captain Smith was responsible for the ship's refit, his own idea apparently. By the sound of the agitated voice, the man dressed in rather uncaptainly garb, with the raspy voice was Isaac Smith himself.
Carefully, dodging around the hurried workers, she stepped closer to the man she'd surmised to be the Captain.
"I'm looking for Isaac Smith?" she said, her tone light, somewhat amused, and crisply british.
The man, rather unshaven, with grey hairs beginning to overcome his rather rough stubble turned immediately studying eyes shadowed by lack of sleep and lines of weariness. "Are you now?" He turned back to a console and was quite quick in typing in commands and scanning over results with his tired eyes.
"The Captain left a moment ago, you will only find a madman bringing order to halls of chaos." He almost sounded proud with the title.
"I wasn't looking for the Captain." Marta chuckled as she blinked. "I was looking for Isaac Smith, what's the madman's name then?"
He glanced up from his console and stared toward a series of engineers working frantically by the warp core which had just then successfully shut down and remained a black pillar of lifelessness. "One man to one job!" He called, "You will forever trip over yourselves and miss another fracture. My kingdom for an engineer of a mature age, I say!"
Staring back down to the console he sneered at the results. "A months work in forty-eight hours, a Montgomery Scott I pray for. But there is only I." He waved a dismissive hand at the console then stood straight and turned to face the Bajoran woman, staring down at her. "Isaac Smith at your pleasure."
"Marta Valeris, your pick of the litter. At your discretion, sir." she said with a nod and a slight grin.
"You twit, You twit, You twittered madly all day long
You twit, You twit, You twittered all day long!" Isaac's voice was directed once more towards engineers to get them more directed to their tasks.
"And if any were to understand I was referring to them as helpless maidens, I would at least then have some faith in their capabilities. Come my, hopefully not so helpless maiden." Isaac gestured towards the main exit and waited for her to lead in the old fashioned ladies first manner.
"Hands on kind of person, I see." she commented with a smile as they walked out.
"You must forgive my manner," Isaac began as he fumbled fingers over a PADD he took with him as they exited the madhouse of Main Engineering. "I'm afraid you caught the fox wetting its teeth in the hen house."
"Was the catch good at least?" she asked as she glanced over. "I can come back later you know...after things have calmed down? If they ever do so?" she raised a delicate eyebrow, much like a Vulcan.
"If I knew you were to offer retreat in times of need I would have reconsidered your application." Isaac replied matter-of-factly as they neared the turbolift. Entering without a second thought he called to the intercom. "Fox's Den."
Unable to comply
"Bridge."
"In some cultures it's called being considerate." she said with a chuckle. "Pardon my ignorance, sir. I'll roll up my sleeves and dig in. But I warn you, I might muck something up...I'm a social scientist, hardly a tech." she continued as she followed him inside.
The turbolift whirred to life. "Tittle Tattling lost the battling." After a sigh Isaac finally stared at her genuinely. "Our Astrometrics and Science Labs need to be brought online, they fit your resume I believe?"
"They do. No Chief Science Officer yet?" she said, clasping her hands behind her back. "Are any of the Senior Staff aboard?"
"A lone wolf amongst pups I be at this time." The turbolift gently came to a halt and the side-sliding doors whooshed open, the most well performing piece of hardware on the Ulysses so far. Isaac stepped onto the bridge, all but abandoned and only lit be emergency lighting.
"And here be your office, Miss Marta." he gestured melodramatically as if in a Shakespearian performance, before nodding with an almost conservative point towards the Captain's Ready Room, "and thar be mine."
She couldn't help a smile. "She is beautiful, inside and out. Well, will be inside."
"She be a dead fish flopping on deck if we don't meet the deadline." Isaac stood by the entrance to his ready room and gestured amicably.
Nodding she walked in first, a smile on her face on the gentlemanly attitude. Something immensely refreshing from what she'd grown accustomed to.
"Please, comfort yourself." Isaac instructed as he entered after her, gesturing towards the seat opposite his own as he circled his desk and faced the lone replicator. "At least some things work as they should around here, a refreshment you wish?"
"Thank you, I'm fine." she said as she sat in the offered chair.
"Herbal tea, variant three." A small porcelain cup on a likewise saucepan decorated in floral motifs materialised before him, he palmed the setting carefully and took his rightful seat opposite facing of Valeris.
Taking a long sip of the tea and letting it run smoothly down his throat, Isaac felt his nerves relax. Placing the cup upon his desk, he stared evenly, without disdain nor amicability towards his first officer. "You spent some time on medical leave recently. I understand it was due to psychological reasons?"
She nodded, hands placed on her crossed knees as she leaned back. "Yes sir."
She'd anticipated that her transfer and medical leave would come up. If he asked, she would tell him. If not, she would keep said reasons for herself.
"Be it not my place to pry, I only ask truth from your lips at all times." Isaac informed, "Are you ready to assume your duties?"
"Truth you shall have." she said. "I am ready, sir."
"I would knight thee, but I seem to be lacking sword and coat of arms." He replied, in a tone as if such was an every day ritual.
She couldn't suppress a grin. "As if you had, sir. As if you had."
~Where DID this man come from?~ she thought to herself. ~Like he fell out of a fairytale.~
A different tact, Isaac thought. "You were however, extremely far down in the list of candidates, to be truthful." He sipped his tea.
"Permission to speak freely, sir?" she asked, her tone getting serious.
"Behind closed doors, speak your mind."
"Why'd you pick me then? If I'm that far down." the eyebrow went up again.
"Why indeed? It was not charity I assure you," he sipped his tea once more and placed it down on the desk before him. Taking a breath Isaac spoke plainly, though his raspy undertone in voice gave depth to his words.
"Starfleet since the Dominion War seems to feel it must reward combatants before thinkers, officers with high kill counts before those who prove they can dismantle a situation with diplomacy rather than a torpedo. You, were a militant fighting against military occupation most of your young years. When you won your resistance war, unlike many of your people that sought further retribution, you laid down your arms and applied to Starfleet. Even then, you did not specialise in skill you had and joined security or the damnable marines...you chose sciences, anthropologies and humanities."
A pause.
"Such change in mindset, and dedication to knowledge rather than succumbing to violence bred into you, is what makes the ideal officer in Starfleet, a peace keeping authority above all else."
"I was the scientist first. Before war took its hold. I went back to what I really am, a seeker of knowledge." she said with a shrug. "Studied with the monks at Kiessa Monastery."
"My Mind, My Arsenal." Isaac replied, eyes still studying her. Though the way he stared at her seemed not to take note of her rather appealing womanly faculties, but the woman beneath the flesh.
"Captain, you read my file." she began as she leaned forward, looking down at her hands first, then up at Smith again. "You know I was held at Kran-Tobol prison."
"I am aware." Isaac nodded once, clasping his hands together atop the desks surface.
"I do not condone such breaches of basic Humanoid rights. And I will stop you or any member of this crew with any means necessary, from infringing on those rights." she said simply.
~I made that mistake on the Resolute, I will not make such a mistake again. I was no better than a collaborator knowing what was going on and not acting on it.~ she thought.
"Your reports on actions aboard the Resolute were vague at best, but one learns to read between the lines as if translating a poem." Isaac replied meaningfully. "How is your ability to translate?"
"I stood by and didn't do enough to stop a man from dying, and the Captain of the ship that attacked our ship, from being brutally tortured. Words weren't enough. I stood by my Captain...or Colonel, to be accurate, and I let him, by not acting torture those two men. It was pure and unrated vengeance...an act befitting a Cardassian, not a Starfleet Officer." It was evident she felt shame for her non-actions and the actions of the Resolute's Commander.
"Which leads to one other subliminal message I translated. Did you love him?"
~Truth from your lips...~ a thought ran through her head as she paused with the answer.
"I had...until it became clear that his sessions were not done. That was when I'd reported him, and Doctor Shock." she said with a sigh.
Isaac was silent for a lingering while. He knew the conversation had turned from proving her worth, but him to prove his. Clearing his throat, he spoke clearly, despite his raspy undertone in voice, yet his words sounded as if he believed each with his all.
"To live as gently as I can;
To be, no matter where, a man;
To take what comes of good or ill,
And cling to faith and honor still;
To do my best, and let that stand
The record of my brain and hand;
And then, should failure come to me,
Still work and hope for victory.
To have no secret place wherein
I stoop unseen to shame or sin;
To be the same when I'm alone
As when my every deed is known;
To live undaunted, unafraid
Of any step that I have made;
To be without pretense or sham
Exactly what men think I am.
To leave some simple work behind
To keep my having lived in mind;
If enmity to aught I show,
To be an honest, generous foe;
To play my little part, nor whine
That greater honors are not mine.
This I believe is all I need
For my philosophy and creed."
He let those words sink in.
She nodded simply, not saying a word. She could find none.
"No torture or undue malice you shall find under my command. Actions as such by any Federation member are banned by the constitution and amongst a sea of Commanding Officers who have forsaken its teachings, you shall find I am a man that still holds them dear." Isaac translated for her.
She nodded again and smiled. "Hands on and a poet. I have stumbled on a rare breed."
"That simple fact, troubles me at night commander." He leaned back in his seat.
"Why, sir?"
Isaac smirked ironically for a moment, though it quickly faded. "The values of which the Federation was founded upon favoured poets, honor, curiosity and those with a hunger for discovery. Now it seems, we are surrounded by those seeking cheap thrills and battle."
"It should make you proud, that you are like that, sir. Those thrill and battle seekers, they may be many, but they are a temporary parasite, or so I should like to hope. We should strive to make more explorers, and less warriors. That should be our legacy to the Federation, and subsequently our own races, that IS what we were before the parasite took us." she said. "Don't ever change who you are to fit what others believe."
Isaac did have an effective counter, "Ah, but humanity, unlike Bajorans were primarily barbarian throughout history, peaceful and understanding was a relatively new concept for us...though as you say, one to cling to."
"And yet, it was one of you, that was sent to my people as the Emissary." she smiled. "The Prophets don't choose without a deeper meaning. You have a potential to peace still."
Isaac's tone immediately switched to being captain once more, "Which would all be for nought if we do not meet the refit deadline. I shall expect full reports on science and astrometric facilities operational status by the early morrow, Commander."
"Yes, sir." she said as she stood up. "Permission to get on with it?"
"Permission? I thought it was an order, dismissed." Isaac activated his desk computer then as Valeris made her exit he called, "Commander...don't disappoint."
"Not planning on it, sir." she threw over her shoulder as she turned the corner and headed off the Bridge.
----
Captain Isaac Smith
Commanding Officer
USS Ulysses
&
Commander Marta Valeris
Executive Officer
USS Ulysses