The Man, The Myth, The Legend

Posted on Sun Jan 17, 2021 @ 9:45pm by Lieutenant JG Sydney Friedman Jr & Lieutenant Nicole Anderson

942 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Archangel
Location: Nicole's Office

Nicole looked up at the sound of footsteps approaching her office and raised an eyebrow at the person in the doorway. "Doctor Friedman," she said, surprised. "Is there something I can do for you?"

Sydney gave a friendly smile at stepped inside. "Actually, yes, there is. Could I sit down?"

"As you like," Nicole said, gesturing to a chair across her desk. *I guess this is going to take some time,* she thought.

Sydney nodded thanks and sat down, placing a padd on the desk. "I wanted to talk to you about Admiral Markus."

"Is this for your psychological profile?" Nicole said.

"Partly, yes," Sydney said. "I've done as much research as I could, and I've started to draw some conclusions. However, I thought I'd get your perspective on a few things."

"Wouldn't I be inherently biased?" Nicole said. "Because I know him personally, so everything is through my interpretation?"

"To a degree," Sydney acknowledged. "But still, given you know him best among the crew, I think it would give me some insight nonetheless. At the very least, it would give me something to compare to what I've researched."

Nicole glanced at the padd. "May I see what you've researched?" she said.

"Not yet," Sydney said, holding the padd protectively. "I don't want to color any of your answers."

Nicole briefly contemplated flying around the desk and taking it from the weak-looking human, but held herself in check. "All right," she said. "Ask away."

"When did you first meet him?" Sydney said.

Nicole's eyebrow went up. "The day I was born," she said. "He's my Godfather. He was there from the beginning."

"See? You know him better than anyone here," Sydney said, happily. "This is why I wanted to talk to you. What was it like serving under him?"

Nicole paused, looking backwards. "Nerve-wracking," she said, finally. "He wanted me on his ship because he trusted me. I was young, idealistic and very loyal to my commanding officer. Just what he wanted."

"I'm sure he appreciated having you around on a personal level as well," Sydney said.

"I'm sure," she said. "But I wasn't senior staff, so I was usually in Sickbay working my ass off."

"Why did you stop serving under him?" Sydney said.

"Because he stopped serving over me," Nicole said, flatly.

"You mean he left Starfleet?" she said.

"In a manner of speaking," Nicole said. "An unscheduled, extended sabbatical."

"You make it sound like he went AWOL," Sydney said.

"Well, ostensibly, he was assisting a group of freedom fighters against an evil empire--his specialty," Nicole said.

"What was he really doing?" Sydney said.

"To be honest, I'm not sure," Nicole said. "There were some complicated issues going on; I can't really get more detailed than that."

"I'm guessing there were some hurt feelings left behind," Sydney said.

"No one likes being left behind," Nicole said. "But we moved on."

"And now he's back in your life," Sydney said. "How did that go over?"

"As well as you'd expect, at first," Nicole said. "But it's the job. We accept that. As I said, we moved on."

Sydney made some notes on her padd. "Has he ever made a decision you've disagreed with?"

"Every Captain I've served under has made a decision I've disagreed with," Nicole said, dryly. "I find it a hallmark of the position. I suppose that's why I'll never rise to such an exalted rank. If I started to disagree with myself, how would I get anything done?"

Sydney gave a small smile. "You're doing fine so far," she observed. "You said the Admiral likes officers who are young and loyal. Does he show the same loyalty to them?"

"Yes," Nicole said, "although the Junior Officers don't always see it right away."

"How so?" Sydney said.

Nicole thought a moment, and let out a long sigh. "Alan Markus is someone who is an acquired taste," Nicole said. "He can seem aloof, even callous. What most of the people who only have a passing acquaintance with him don't realize is that while we may all be 'playing the game', he's playing six at once. He's putting together a jigsaw puzzle that we don't even know the pieces to, and it's not until you see one of those puzzles completed that you realize he was protecting his people and making the right decisions all along. See enough puzzles finished, you'll follow him to the Gates of Hell, if you think it'll complete the next puzzle."

Sydney tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. "And you think this is one of those puzzles?"

"I don't know," Nicole said, shrugging. "That's the problem: you never understand the puzzle until it's completed.

"That sounds rather frustrating," Sydney observed. "I'm sure it didn't make him many friends among his subordinates when they had no way of understanding his orders."

"At times," Nicole said, shrugging. "Still frustrating even now as a senior officer."

Sydney's ears pricked up. "You mean with our current mission?"

"For a start," Nicole said. "Frustrating enough going who knows where to track down Providence knows what. I've got to have my staff ready, deal with a self-righteous jackass' abuse of my Head Nurse, try to figure out when my girlfriend and I can have a night together...it's just frustrating."

Sydney's brow furrowed. "What do you mean abuse of your head nurse? Who?"

Nicole paused as if she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "It's...it's nothing."

"It doesn't sound like nothing," Sydney said.

Nicole chewed her lip. "I....might have made a tactical error with someone...." Nicole said.

Sydney sat back and crossed her legs. "I'm listening."

 

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