Posted March 5, 2022, 6:31 a.m. by Lieutenant Patrick 'Paddy' McMillan (CNS) (Kieron Hoult)
Posted by Lieutenant Commander Bethany Kovra Gadi (Chief of Security) in Setting Boundaries (Tag COS)
Posted by Lieutenant Patrick ‘Paddy’ McMillan (CNS) in Setting Boundaries (Tag COS)
Posted by Lieutenant Commander Bethany Kovra Gadi (Chief of Security) in Setting Boundaries (Tag COS)
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Patrick McMillan knew this next meeting was going to be an interesting one. Lieutenant Commander Bethany Kovra Gadi had been getting on so well as of late hen it came to dealing with her personal anxieties, but with the recent arrival of an.... ‘old friend’ of the Chief’s onboard the Asimov, Paddy was quick to answer the call and head down to the COS’ quarters. Despite the fact that they had not gone down the route of establishing a relationship with each other, McMillan was still eager to help Bethy as a close friend in whatever way he could. Arriving at Bethy’s quarters, he put on his best warm smile and tapped the door control.-Lieutenant Patrick McMillan: Counsellor-
Bethany had chewed on the decision to contact Lt McMillan. Everyone had become rank and name now, with Elias on board. The man liked to mess in her personal affairs, it was better not to have friends. Elias had been all too opinionated of them and the members of her team back then. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Paddy, she did. He had a certain charm about him, but as she said she had no idea how long she would be around. T’Jal would tell her that’s not her decision. All she could do was be honest, and allow Paddy to make his own decision. She’d accused Bethy many times of trying to control the entire universe and it wasn’t up to her to make decisions for people or withhold information from them to force their decision.
She’d managed to extract a promise from Elias that he would not harm the crew. She went over the wording again and again trying to find the trick, the turn of phrase, and was driving herself crazy about it. And whatever was going on with her health wasn’t helping. With Elias on board she wasn’t sleeping, and she’d been having trouble before. Medical couldn’t find a reason. Even though Elias ‘left’ the ship every day, he was able to get around the check points when he wanted. There was no one she could trust to keep an eye out for him. No one that knew him like she did.
The chime rang and Bethany barked out a monotoned “Enter.” The door slid open and slight warm smile crossed her face in answer to his as Paddy entered and then quickly gone. Elias had spent enough time in her quarters to now have it under surveillance. She didn’t need to draw Elias’ attention to Paddy. Though the quarters were small there was a noticeable difference from the last time Paddy had been there. Before the room had been tidy, now it was…not. It wasn’t a disaster but it was noticeably not tidy. Empty, half empty, and full glasses of drink were scattered about the room, trays of food brought back from the mess were stacked but not returned, uniform jackets tossed haphazardly around the room, books kicked off and left, couch pillows and a blanket gave the impression she’d tried to sleep there with no luck, and a glimpse from the bedroom showed the mess extended in there as well.
Bethy was sitting at her desk staring at her screen. There was a small strange palm sized device, that gave the impression of a weapon of some kind with the way she moved it to the other side, away from her visitor. And her computer screen looked strange, like the images would come into focus. In fact it could only be read if you were to sit directly in front of it. She had one leg pulled up, arms wrapped around her knee staring at the screen. There was no smell of coffee in her room, in fact the coffee pot was missing - packed away. Dark circles under her eyes and hair in disarray from where she’d run her hands through it in frustration over and over again.
“Come in, have a seat if you like,” even her voice sounded off.
Gadi, CoS
Paddy’s concern rose thorugh him instantly, he had never seen Bethy this bad before, “I see the Security team’s drill training times have been good over the past few weeks,” he said, trying to sound as if he knew what he was talking about.
-Lieutenant Patrick McMillan: Counselor-
The small cylinder sat in her hand as she raised and lowered it to the desk top. Tap.....tap.....tap..... “Yeah, for Star Fleet officers they are a well oiled efficient machine. They will never make convincing mutaniers at this point. Too by the book, unable to let go and fudge our code of ethics. It will give them away and get them killed. Running under the radar, sneaking around, quiet in and out they can do, but it’s always been by Star Fleet’s rules. This is a leap too far for some of them. Of course they can stay, but then who do they send to replace them? Can’t say I trust the judgement of those providing the resources and planning for this little sortie.” She glared at the screen and then reached out and slapped the control to turn it off. Good thing she managed to leave her palm open and not use a fist. Blue blazes she was tired and irritated and… exhausted. “You got your affairs in order McMillan? Last minute letters home to your mom and siblings, ‘just in case’?” She picked up a glass, filled with water, and stared at it as if wishing for something stronger, but drank it anyway.
Gadi, CoS
Paddy was intially taken aback by the favt that Bethy was using his last name, but realised that this was probably due to the fact that the Security Chief was in business mode, “I’m confident that we’ll get through this Bethy, but I suppose it’s always good to be prepared.
-Lieutenant Patrick McMillan: Counsellor-
Bethany quirked a brow at the use of her nickname. She knew he was making a point. She’d done the same on many occasions. She sighed, “That’s the nature of the game, Counselor. Some of us will and some of us won’t. And only whatever gods we might believe in know who falls into which category. And if there is one thing I learned, all those years chasing Balthazar, no amount of being prepared will make a difference.” She finally got up from her seat, leaning forward so it popped back up right suddenly and stood. She ran a hand through her hair, causing some accidental semblance of neatness. “Sorry no coffee tonight,” she paced and then sat. She hated this situation…and her reaction to it.
Gadi, CoS
It occured to McMillan at that moment that he had not learned that much about Gadi’s past in previous appointments, so decided that getting to the route of this issue would be the best way of solving this problem, “What’s your history with Balthazar Lieutenant?”
-Lieutenant Patrick McMillan: Counselor-
Ah there was the turn to professional connections. She’d said something to peak his concern or interest. “Ah now, Lt that would be telling secrets. Ah but what does it matter now? The task force has been disbanded and you deserve to know what’s going on.” Bethany stopped short of laughing, because she knew it would come out a bit hysterical. And why not? Three years in she’d undergone her standard psych eval. They had said she was paranoid about Balthazar. And they sent her back in. “The first six years of my career I chased that monster. The task force had been formed for a year before I joined them. I have an uncanny knack for finding him. It took a year before I finally caught up with him.”
Bethany sighed, leaned elbows on knees and then leaned back, arms stretched across the back of the chair, right ankle over left knee. “Our history is complicated. Our first ‘meetung’ he stole a bracelet from me. It was my mother’s. He still wears it. Every time after that he would steal something of mine. Then he would wait till we were gone on another assignment and return it, by singing telegram. Using my real name, my full name. I can it tell you the amount of danger that put us in, or the fact that after awhile no one would work with me.” She did laugh then it with no humor, “Hell, I didn’t want to work with me.” She waved her hand like she was clearing the air. “I was on a different assignment, the trail on Balthazar had gone cold and I was with a totally unrelated team. Short in and out, along the demilitarized zone. Caught some virus, total fluke. But we couldn’t get off planet and there were no doctors to be seen. I was dying, nothing The n our medkits could help and we all knew it. The team had isolated me in the bedroom of our safe house.” She ran a hand through her hair, again and stared at the ceiling. “Middle of the night I get woken up, insistently, to Elias Balthazar gently, gently!, but insistently waking me up. Holds up a hypo for me to see. I just know he’s going to poison me, kill me, so I can’t track him anymore, and I can’t talk or fight back. He gives me the hypo, and says, ‘Tsk-tsk-tsk… you can’t die yet. I still have plans for you.’ The whole team had been sedated, not a scratch on them. The hypo was the antiviral I needed.”
“3 years ago, I had him. In cuffs, caught and his head got blown off right in my face. Clean off his shoulders. Nothing left,or so I thought.”
Gadi, CoS
‘Are trinkets like your mother’s bracelet the kind of thing Balthazar was known for stealing? If not, what do you think led him to do it?’
-Lieutenant Patrick McMillan: Counsellor-
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