Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Brenner “Bren” Satis (Doctor/specialty in neuroscience) in Alt Timeline - Ready Room

Posted by Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) in Alt Timeline - Ready Room

Posted by Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) in Alt Timeline - Ready Room
Posted by… suppressed (9) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Bren knew little to nothing about his new Captain. He’d done a cursory search after he received his assignment to the Atlantis. Still, the fact that Aurra was the ship’s Chief Medical Officer had been his primary concern from the moment he realized that information.

So, here he was, outside a stranger’s office door palming the chime uninvited. And the stranger was the most powerful person on the ship.

Satis, MO

“Come,” Kelly yelled out. She tended to have an open door policy but that meant if you walked in unannounced you were getting her probably hip deep in something. Reaching up with one hand, she motioned for the person to come in and come forward as she signed off several PaDD’s that were sitting in front of her.

Looking up she saw it was the new doctor. “Dr. Satis,” she smiled. “What can I do for you? Coffee,” she asked taking a sip of her own as she pushed the few PaDD’s scattered on her desk to the side.

Kelly Bordeaux CO

The fact that he sensed nothing but welcome from the Captain calmed a fraction of the nerves that were firing his anxiety as he entered the Captain’s Ready Room. Had he been assigned to any other ship in the fleet this meeting would not be happening. He’d been a fool to think Aurra had approved, or even requested, his assignment aboard the Atlantic, and now here he was ready to defend his career only hours after boarding his new ship.

As Bordeaux retrieved him a mug of black coffee he pondered just what it would mean to board a shuttle off the Atlantis within 24 hours of reporting for his new assignment. It would be one more thing future commanders would question about his record.

His anger at Aurra was growing in the pit of his stomach.

“Hello, Captain. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I apologize for coming here without warning. I’ve only recently reported for duty on board the Atlantis and Dr. Talisse, ” he paused, looking down at the comfortingly warm mug cradled in his hands. “Well, she’s ordered me here to request a new assignment. She would strongly prefer I not be a member of her staff.”

Satis, MO

The man was Betaziod and Kelly learned a long time ago not to worry about this fact. Yes, they could read one’s emotional state but so could a lot of other counselors and diplomats that weren’t Betazoid. Hisrace gave him an edge but nothing Kelly was defensive about. “And she was suddenly promoted to Captain to order this,” Kelly mused with a curious expression on her face. This was not the first time an officer demanded that a crew member be removed from a ship they did not command. Usually, it was the one requesting the transfer and not the person in question to be transferred as it seemed in the situation currently. Typically a demand for transfer only involved one of two situations.

“Did one of you steal a promotion or how long were you sleeping together?” The question was blunt, but her tone indicated a casualness to the question, indicating that Kelly had not taken a side or even knew why the man was in her office. None of the command courses covered love and breakups in a floating tin can but it was as real of a problem as being attacked by an enemy. If Kelly was keeping a tally sheet, which secretly she was with her long-time friend Dante, they both had had more command emergencies involving personal tension among crew than with outside enemies. Kelly had come to realize long ago that Starfleet was filled with ambitious and highly intelligent people. These people, when spread out in the civilian fields, could move about to make their mark on the world as being a top dog. In Starfleet, these people were concentrated on a ship or station which meant things could and did at times get competitive. Kelly had no idea what the reason was for Bren to be sitting across from her but he did not seem too upset about the request.

Kelly Bordeaux CO

Despite himself and the anxiety he felt at the situation into which he was thrust, Bren cracked a smile at the Captain’s question.

“I can assure you that neither of of those reasons are what brings me here. Dr. Talisse and I knew each other well at Starfleet Medical, but my romantic inclinations point in the opposite direction. While she had reservations about more than one man I dated back then, it was never more serious than a friend looking out for the best interests of another friend. As for the other half of your question, we were competitive with each other, but Aurra was a year ahead of me and our specialties differed.”

Bren raised the steaming mug of coffee to his lips and took a small sip, pausing for time as he ordered his thoughts about the best way to approach the confessional part of this meeting.

Kelly waited for Bren to continue. She was slightly surprised it was not one of the two options she mentioned.

“Shortly before Dr. Talisse completed her time at Starfleet Medical I was recruited into a research program at the Daystrom Institute. The project itself is classified, but I was careless during its initial phases and I crossed a boundary with Dr. Talisse…Aurra. I was wrong. I let my passion for the new project and my closeness with Aurra cloud my judgement and she has, apparently, never forgiven me. I had hoped that my assignment here was a sign that enough time had passed. Your Chief Medical Officer has made it clear to me that it hasn’t.”

Satis, MO

“So it is a personal matter,” Kelly took a sip of her own coffee. She used the cup to hide her slight frown. Personal matters were always so much more sticky than professional ones. Kelly tended to avoid interpersonal matters, especially with her officers, like the plague. “Did it ever reach HR?” The words had almost a physical reaction as they left Kelly’s mouth. It was not that she hated HR but no one really jumped up and down excitedly when you got a comm or memo from them. HR was like that family member you knew you had but only associated with when you had to because it inevitably created more drama than you thought possible.

Kelly Bordeaux CO

Bren appreciated the directness of the Captain’s question, even though he felt a growing resentment to Aurra that she was forcing him into this conversation.

“No, as far as I’m aware the incident stayed between us. Aurra graduated soon after and I continued my work with the Daystrom Institute. I imagine we both thought it in the past until this morning.”

Satis, MO

Kelly took a sip of her coffee. “So I have a question,” she looked at Bren curiously. “Did you come down here because she ordered you to or because you wanted to get your version in first?” There was no anger in Kelly’s emotions but only a slight twinge of irritation that could be surmised at having to get into a he said/ she said situation. “You did say she pulled rank and told you to come here so unless I am reading this wrong you are not looking for a transfer Dr. Bren Satis, are you?”

Kelly Bordeaux CO

As much a junior officer could relax after pushing his way into the Captain’s Ready Room uninvited, Bren felt himself relax. Captain Bordeaux was asking the questions he had hoped she would, even if he hadn’t had time to fully realize just what he hoped for from this meeting.

“I am not. I am here at the orders of Dr. Talisse. I recommended that she be the one to broach this subject with you and she preferred I do it myself.”

Was he pushing this too far by adding that last line? He wasn’t sure. He didn’t know the Captain, but from what he could sense and from what she had said, it seemed to be the information she was after. He could only wait and see if he’d read her correctly.

Satis, MO

Kelly wasn’t a Betazoid but she could read people. It was clear, Dr. Satis was relaxing more into the conversation by his posture and word choice. This was not a bad thing. Kelly had an open-door policy with her crew. Bren was just new and probably didn’t realize that impromptu one one-on-ones were the norm, not the exception. Now that they were hip deep into the he said/she said, it was time to wade through the muck to come out the other side.

“And why would she request that?” The question and the expression on her face showed Kelly’s confusion. “I only ask because while there are times I throw two crew into a locked room and state two men enter one man leaves, I don’t see that approach working here. I also don’t tend to blindly accept the word of a higher ranking officer as gospel so help me understand why you think she wanted you to come hat in hand to my office.” Picking up a stylus she fidgeted with it as she spoke. “Rank is off the table and I want you to speak freely. It is the only way I can figure this out and decide what to do.” Kelly was placing Bren in the situation for him to vent like a middle school teenage girl about the unfairness of life. It was not that she wanted to hear the dirt about the intimacy of Bren and Aura’s past relationship. It was more about whether Kelly was going to send this down to counseling or make them sit through specially chosen HR inservices. The latter tended to make people beg and plead faster for it to stop than someone in an interrogation cell. One only had to sit through the eight-hour course of He said/ She said: An in-depth analysis of daily interactions between co-workers where we question did anyone say anything that anyone really heard to know they were never getting those eight hours of their life back again.

Kelly Bordeaux CO

Bump

Bren took in both the Captain’s words and what his other senses could discern of her intentions. A part of him was still reeling from the maelstrom he’d walked into this morning and, while he pondered paths of limited truth that could downplay events from years earlier, he didn’t want to start off his new assignment with lies of omission, so he decided on the truth, consequences be damned.

“Dr. Talisse won’t tell you a story different from mine. Her recollection of what happened is accurate,” Bren leaned back in his chair, his posture opening from whatever defensive signals he may have been giving off up to this point. “During my penultimate year at Starfleet Medical I was recruited into a now defunct research program. I was chosen for two reasons: my specialty in neuroscience and my Betazoid heritage. I signed up without hesitation. I was a child when the Dominion invaded my homeworld. My people have often been seen as passive. Some of that generation began to see passivity as a weakness. More of my generation came to same conclusion. That included me. We are committed members of the Federation, but the Dominion War showed us we have to be able to defend ourselves.”

Kelly was rarely formal in these impromptu one-on-one meetings. The more Satis spoke, the larger the scope of this situation became, and the more Kelly saw the complexity in it.

Bren took a breath, his dark eyes looking to the ceiling for a moment, “And now I’m ranting. I suppose I’m only trying to provide context. The project I joined aimed to discover ways Betazoids could use our unique abilities to defend ourselves against attack. I was as much prototype as researcher. That alone should have alerted me to the ethical problems with the project, but I was young. I crossed that ethical line with Aurra. She was my closest friend. Sometimes I felt like her mind was my own. I crossed a very stark ethical line with her. I invaded her mind. For only a moment and with no ill intent, but those aren’t excuses. It ended our friendship. She graduated and I continued my work. Until today.”

Bren could say more, but he’d said enough. His cards were on the table and it was up to the Captain to make her judgments.

Satis, MO

Kelly stretched out in her chair buying her time to think and to shift her position. Prior to this, Kelly was more reclined as if they were chatting in her home versus her office. Turning her body so that she could face him, Kelly clasped her hands in front of her taking on a more Captain-like appearance. “I am starting to see why this is a bigger issue.”

The Federation was still reeling and healing from the Dominion War even though it had been years since it ended. Scars that occurred from it would take generations to heal with the possibility of the Betazoid race never collectively recovering. That would be something history would have to deal with; however, Kelly had to deal with it in real-time. Taking a breath she continued, “Did Starfleet recruit you into the project or was it something more nationalistic driven? I don’t care if it was intelligence-sanctioned, medical-sanctioned, or classified-sanctioned but more was it in any way Starfleet-sanctioned?” She assumed the answer would be yes since Bren referenced he was in his senior year but assumptions often caused more issues than not.

Kelly Bordeaux CO