New Leaf, Same Birch

Posted on Fri Nov 8, 2019 @ 4:38pm by Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit

1,013 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Nibiru
Location: Captain's Ready Room

Penny walked onto the bridge, a padd in hand, her uniform sharp, boots polished and pips in place. She stopped outside the Captain's ready room and rang the chime.

Kennit had been in her new ready room for all of 13 minutes. Feeling a slight surge of annoyance at the chime ringing already, she answered with a gruff “Enter!”

As the doors opened, Penny stepped inside, walked straight to the Captain's desk and stood at attention. "Captain," she said, "i know in the past I've done some things that may have caused you to lose confidence in me, and I wanted you to know I apologize and I'll be working to better my professional side going forward, and any advice or help you can offer would be appreciated."

Dressed about as casual as it was possible to be, the Captain just stared at the Lieutenant. She blinked. “I’m sorry.. what?”

Penny tilted her head. Based on previous conversations with the Captain and others on the ship recently, she'd calculated a fifteen percent chance the Captain would show confusion. Still, it surprised Penny that it had happened.

"During the months of leave we had," she said, slowing down a bit, "I had a lot of time to think. I mean...a lot. Four months is an eternity. And I realized, there are a lot of things about my life here that I'm not happy with. I talked with Cassandra and she said I should get 'closure' on some things. One of them is...well...you. You always seem upset with me, and I don't want you to be. I want to do better here, and...I would appreciate your guidance."

“I have no idea what you are talking about Lieutenant.” the Captain said. “If I was upset with you..not only would you be 100 percent certain of it, you’d know exactly why I was upset as well.”

Penny frowned. "That statement is a paradox," she said. "Because I am sure, and the statement says that, therefore, you've been upset with me, but the implication in the statement means you think you aren't and therefore I don't know it." She shook her head. "You scowl at me almost constantly when I'm on the bridge, almost never a positive comment, and I know I've overstepped protocol at times, but even when I haven't you are...well...intimidating, and not nicely so." She was starting to shrink back, fear taking over. "I can give you documented occurrences if you want, but those are simply my observations based on all observable data. If my analysis is incorrect then...why are you always so irritated?"

“Maybe because so many unqualified personnel spend so much time trying to analyze me.” the Captain replied smoothly. “If I am intimidating...” she paused for a moment then chuckled. “Good. Do you know who I am? Who I really am..” Kennit said. “I have almost 30 years of experience in Starfleet. I also have thousands upon thousands of memories which are mine, and not mine. I have memories of worlds I have never seen, planets destroyed and gone and yet I was not there even though I can see those worlds destroyed, coming apart into fragments if I close my eyes. Life and death. Creation and utter destruction it’s all up here and things even worse which I will not discuss. Be thankful I am, because one of my jobs is to keep my crew safe. I take that seriously...even to being willing to walk back into hell to protect one of mine. If that makes me intimidating..that’s a good thing.”

Penny tilted her head. "You sound like Nicole," she said at last. She thought a bit more. "Do you regret it? Having to carry those memories and be so above and removed people to protect them?"

Kennit surprised herself when heard the honest answer escape her lips. “My only regret is that I was too late to save John.”

Penny's mind raced through several encrypted files to determine the name. "Your husband? You loved him," she said, not needing to ask. "I can understand why that loss hurts. If it's not too personal...why do you regret it? What could you have done?"

“Answering that would require revealing details which you do not have authorization to hear.” Kennit snapped back.

Penny opened her mouth to offer a work around, but thought the better of it. "Okay," she said. She blinked as she ran through possible responses. "Are you lonely?" she said at last.

"You did not come in here to discuss my personal life. You asked a question, I've answered it. I am not going to go into details which are simply not relevant nor appropriate. Is there anything else?" Kennit asked.

Penny bristled a bit and sat up straighter, standing/sitting her ground. "I came to discuss our relationship as shipmates," she said. "So yes, there is something else. I asked you a second question, because I am trying to understand you. But if that was an order to go, I'll leave."

'Who is the android snooping for?" the Captain wondered as she studied the Lieutenant. 'Anderson, Markus, Bennett, Mitchell..' The list of possibilities was long.

"And there are some things, Lieutenant, which are simply personal, and no one's business by my own," was all she said aloud.

Penny nodded, having her answer. "Good day, Captain," she said, leaving the ready room quietly, and the Captain alone.

Once alone, the Captain tried for a brief time to focus once more on the reports and other tasks associated with the preparations for getting under way once more. She failed. Her thoughts continued to rotate and return to another time, another place. Memories she didn’t have time for demanding attention..

Giving into the simmering ire, she let out a rough curse and hurled the first thing in reach.. an ornamental glass globe someone had thought would make a good addition to the readynroom... across the space to shatter against the bulkhead across from her.

 

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