Posted March 24, 2023, 11:20 p.m. by Captain Sara Kiernan (Commanding Officer) (Sage Pennington)
Posted by Commander Shara Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Settling things with Intel
Posted by Captain Sara Kiernan (Commanding Officer) in Settling things with Intel
Posted by Commander Shara Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Settling things with Intel
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻(snip)
“Oh how I want to. How I want to just project confidence in this mission.” Sara decided it was the hour of ‘all cards on the table.’ “My time with Intel… wasn’t like yours is. Operatives like Strickland monitored me while I worked. I’m not used to all this cloak and dagger stuff. My ‘cover story’ is supposed to be that I turned against the Federation one day. I’ve never figured out why. Why would I do that? Why would I throw away everything I’ve done to work my way up from Cadet to Captain? Everything I’ve seen that’s disillusioned me about the Federation is classified and no small part of it is this mission. If someone asks me, some syndicate someone, why’d I turn pirate? That can’t be my answer. ‘Well I was assigned by a branch you’ve probably never heard of to do terrible things to create an image of a pirate and ended up sticking with it.’ That doesn’t feel right. I was a Starfleet brat, from a legacy family, so I went to school just to get into Starfleet Academy. I got in and graduated with honors, class of ‘87. I was so damn excited to put on that science officer uniform and go on my first assignment. I stuck with it, kept moving up. And on a brutal mission aboard the Asimov, we lost the Captain. I became Captain and it stuck. This is the culmination of my career, probably as high as I’ll go. And why did I give it up to become an outlaw? I have no idea. I just… don’t know. And the constant tug-of-war with the agents for information makes nothing any easier. I don’t know what we’re flying into or who’s going to be there. Just have to trust that they know what’s going on.”
-CO
Shara nodded, though she was deep in thought. “You need an honest story, something you can believe and throw yourself into. A cover story isn’t about adopting a name and a personality, it’s understanding their why.” Calloway sighed. “I’m sorry Sara, this is something I could have and should have helped you with had I known you needed the help. But we can rectify that right now.”
“Loss makes us do a lot of things we might otherwise not. So does love. What would make you, Sara do something seemingly out of the blue?”
~Shara Calloway, CIO
“Loss…” Sara said with a far off look “When my brother died, if the CO of the Dunkirk hadn’t granted me leave I would’ve ended up getting suspended. Grief makes you crazy.” She returned her focus to the CIO. “So who or what did I lose?”
-CO
“You tell me,” Shara said. “The way I do it, and this doesn’t work for everyone I admit, is to mine from your own life or someone you know very well. The trick to a good cover story is to be able to feel it. I’ve experienced losses I thought I’d never recover from. In fact, for a time it crippled me. So I can use that knowledge, that feeling and transform it into a story I can believe is true. So maybe you take that grief you felt for your brother and apply it to a made up person more recently. Something that would tie into the path of events that led us to be right here where we are. You need people to believe that you’re done with Starfleet, don’t believe in it anymore. What loss would convince you that was true?”
~Shara Calloway, CIO
“I almost got married once.” Sara said, staring deeply into her drink. “She, uh, she wasn’t who I thought she was. Her real life came crashing down on us, I lost her and everything else. I was offered my first XO post right after. Walked onto that ship with a huge chip on my shoulder and everything to prove. Around the time the CO was going to ship me back to earth, Intel was hiring astrophysicists. Saved my career and life.” She met Shara’s eyes again. “Of course, if it had happened later, I might’ve taken a turn for the worse. In command of a whole ship, when control of my whole world was slipping through my fingers? Who’s to say… I might just lose it.”
-CO
Shara nodded slowly. “I’ve seen people do worse with less of a trigger, so if you can go there, I say use it. Bend the story to be what you need it to be. Fill in the details with things that might have been and keep enough of the truth that you yourself can feel it. Go from there.”
~Shara Calloway, CIO
Sara lifted her glass suddenly in a toast. “To when this is all just a memory.” She didn’t dare say out loud that she thought they might make it through, but dancing around a true meaning was their game at that point.
-CO
Shara lifted her brandy in return and drank deeply. Setting the glass on the desk, she turned it in a circle with precision. “I was sixteen when I had Nadine, and by then I had already had a shit-ton happen.” She looked up at Sara. “I gave her up for adoption after a month once I realized I wasn’t equipped to care for her the way she needed to be. I was too on my own and not able to trust others enough to ask for help. And I look back at that girl and see myself now and we’re not so different some days. We both know our limits, except that now I can ask for help, and now I can let others in. You can thank my daughters and my husband for that,” she said, breaking into a genuine smile. It was the smile of someone who had found true happiness in whatever odd shape it had landed in her lap.
~Shara Calloway, CIO
A slight smile quirked on Sara’s face. “Asking for help is one of the hardest things in the world to do. I appreciate your help today. It’s been a reminder, well needed, that even without Starfleet backup, we’re not alone out here. I don’t know what turns this mission will take, but… team Rabid Pelican, right?” She was glad to know the CIO better, and have someone she knew was on the same team moving forward.
-CO
Shara laughed a rare and open laugh. “Indeed,” she said, knocking back the rest of her drink.
“I should get going.” She didn’t say ‘get back to work’, because this right here was a part of her job as much as something she felt she personally should do. “When you step onto the bridge, Sara, remember your why. Do not step out there and be the captain of this rebel vessel until you have it down pat and you feel it. And when you do, be her, be that woman, whomever she is, and I promise you the crew will follow her because they trust her to do what is needed.”
~Shara Calloway, CIO
Sara downed her own drink. “I will.” She had a sudden steely look, something beyond mere determination. She looked like someone else. She rose from her seat and headed for the bridge. “Let’s take this cruise ship.” She stepped out, this alternate version of herself, the one whose heart had been destroyed more recently than four years ago. Mere weeks it had been since Nessa’s past had destroyed their life and future together. And Nessa had disappeared.
-CO
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