Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Siobhan DeNaris (Sub-DH Xeno Biology) in Side Sim - Ummm… hypothetically speaking, of course…

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Sage Brennan (2nd Officer - CMO) in Side Sim - Ummm… hypothetically speaking, of course…

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Siobhan DeNaris (Sub-DH Xeno Biology) in Side Sim - Ummm… hypothetically speaking, of course…
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

She waited as long as she dared. Siobhan had been checking on the CMO’s location off and on for the last hour wondering just how close she should cut it. She wanted to talk to the woman, but wasn’t sure she wanted everyone else around. As the end of the shift drew nearer, she knew it was now or never.

Heading into the corridor, she tried not to break the flimsy PaDD in half that she had in her hands. The way her fingers worried over it, one would think she wanted it broken. She passed everyone with smiles and salutations like nothing was amiss. But when she stepped into medical, she paused. Maybe she shouldn’t. Her heart started racing with the question of privacy versus someone’s career and safety.

She nodded to herself and took the last few steps to the Medical Chief’s office. She came to Sage less because she was the CMO and more because she was the Second Officer. Her thought being that she was asking Command, without pestering the CO or XO. She just hoped she wasn’t doing the wrong thing. Poking her head in, she rapped on the side of the wall. “Ma’am… forgive me. If you are about to leave, I can come back tomorrow.” She bit her lip not realizing she was already second guessing herself.

Lt JG Siobhan DeNaris
Xenobiologist

Sitting behind the desk, catching up on some of the charting from the last two days, Sage looked up in surprise. She noted the pips on the woman’s collar. “Lt? Is there something I can help you with?”

Usually, visitors to sickbay stopped in the actual bay and stated their needs so they could be directed to a biobed or particular doctor that best suited their treatment. This woman, dressed in the teal and black of medical and science, had bypassed that option to speak directly to her. With her background in counseling and facial recognition of emotions, the CMO knew the Lt had something specific on her mind.

—Sage

“DeNaris, ma’am. Siobhan. Forgive me. I checked in during the recent chaos and I think my actual checkin was merely checked off by a shift supervisor when all was said and done. New xenobiologist, by the way.” She took a step that placed her just inside the threshold of the office. “But it’s actually because of you being Command staff that brings me here, if you have a moment.” She was once more worrying the PaDD as if about to snap it in two.

“Ummm, hypothetical, of course.” She quickly added it, though the Chief would probably realize the non hypothetical taint behind the qualifier.

Siobhan
Xenobiologist

Sage was suddenly intrigued—because she was ‘command’? “By all means, Lt DeNarris, come in and have a seat. I was just going over this weeks patient notes, so you aren’t interrupting anything that can’t wait.”

She motioned to the seats across from her desk and waited for the woman to sit. “You said this was because I was in the line of command? Is this something you think I can handle better than the Captain or First Officer?”

—Sage

She sat down, the PaDD coming to rest on her knees as her hands clasped together on top of it, saving it from being ruined. “Well, I mean, I don’t want to trouble them with this, but I think I need someone…” she thought of the right word, “higher? I mean, more than just the head of Science or Medical.” She realized how silly that sounded since that was, technically, who she was sitting in front of. Swiftly she once more covered her nervousness with more talk. “I know someone that’s in a bind. Well,” her eyes widened as she corrected herself without missing a breath, “in a bind with a figurative issue, I mean. Something I wan… we wanted to check on with someone else. I mean.”

She didn’t give the Lieutenant Commander a chance to speak before running on headlong into the issue. “She is having a problem with, ummm if someone she knew, or heard of, I mean, that was being blackmailed or strong armed into something by someone in a high enough position there wasn’t anyone over them they knew of to go to for filing a grievance, what would she do, to ummm tell them to do?” She looked down at the PaDD realizing how stupid that sounded. “Just curious, I mean, not that it’s probably happened to anyone, I mean.” She closed her eyes and winced with a sigh hoping she didn’t sound as foolish in real life as she sounded in her head.

Siobhan
Xenobiologist
(oh yeah… ridiculously foolish sounding)

Sage sat quietly for a moment. The amount of nervousness and stumbles over the choices of words, told her that the Lt was speaking about a real problem, not a hypothetical one.

“Just to make sure I understand… You have a friend who is being put into a questionable position by someone with significant rank, and they want to know who to take their grievance to?”

—Sage

Siobhan turned red in the cheeks. It highlighted her freckles and her nervousness. “I mean, I was just…” she sighed realizing lieing was by no means her strong suit. “Yes, Ma’am. An Admiral to be exact. She’s no longer technically in his structure, in Ops.” She knew if she didn’t come clean with as much as she could, that it wasn’t going to help her friend any. “But everyone says you never really leave. And he wants her to do something for him, to spy on her current CO for the Admiral. And if she doesn’t, he claims he can ruin her. There’s no one she can go to. I don’t know how to help her.” For just a moment, there was a helplessness to the lilt of Siobhan’s voice that spoke of a desperation to help her friend. But then it was gone before her words finished as she pulled herself back together.

Siobhan
Xenobiologist

She’d listened in silence, trying to piece together exactly what the xenobiologist was trying to tell her, and cypher what DeNaris wanted in return. In her mind, Sage traveled back to before the amnesia that had almost torn her and Calvin apart. She’d gone on a secret mission, in the middle of the night, for Admiral Draper—a man who really hadn’t given her a choice about accepting the assignment—and something that should have only taken a few days, had turned into months, a brain injury, six months of amnesia and almost losing the love of her life. She’d never received any word from Draper after she’d departed the secret ship. Not a ‘thank you’ or ‘good job’. Just silence.

DeNaris’ situation was sounding a lot like what Sage had been through, herself.

“Tell me the name of the Admiral.”

—Sage

That’s what she had feared and why Siobhan had wanted it to be anonymous and hypothetical. She took a deep breath and looked at the PaDD for a long moment. Slowly she picked it up and tapped the button to bring it to active mode. She wanted to be sure she said the name right. Last thing she wanted was to accuse the wrong man. After pulling it up, she shut the screen down and set the small computer back on the Lieutenant Commander’s desk.

She looked at Sage and took another deep breath. “Do you really need to know? I don’t want her in trouble. And I certainly don’t want to accuse someone without proof beyond the fact my friend’s never lied to me and I know what’s she is going thru.” The way Siobhan phrased the last statement would make Sage think she had been in the same spot as well.

Siobhan
XBgist
(cause it’s easier to type and looks cool)

Sage licked her lips before she began. “If this was really a hypothetical discussion, I’d let it go. But your friend really experienced this. It’s possible that you’ve experienced something similar too, if my training isn’t deceiving me.” She sat straighter in her chair and clasped her hands on top of the desk. “Someone who uses their rank or position to force compliance or favors from others, needs to be exposed. So…who is he?”

—Sage