Good News, Bad News

Posted on Wed Aug 5th, 2026 @ 1:37am by Subcommander Kaiae t'Lien & Centurion Nancy Gable & Lieutenant Commander Savin

2,563 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Intermission: Safe Haven
Location: Medical Center

Deciding that it would be better to have Kaiae meet Savin at the hospital (if for no other reason than that emergency services were close to hand), Gable tapped her comm. "Gable to Kaiae, I have a doctor sent by Starfleet. I just cleared him medically and he needs to report to the CO. Could you come here so I don't have to spare anyone to take him to you?"

"Sure." For a moment, Kaiae wondered exactly why - given she hoped at least that Freya wouldn't have cleared anyone to come here without knowing who it was, or at the least, if the identities hadn't been able to be shared in advance, that Gable wouldn't have failed to looked into them when they got here - that the doctor felt anyone would have to escort the newcomer. Except that since she did trust that Gable would have looked into the new arrivals - General Dorvaela would never have given Nancy the rank he had back when she'd come over, or let her keep it while she served him, if she didn't have that sort of follow-through and awareness - that would seem to imply something that would, in fact, make that a bad idea. She sighed, downed the last of the tea in her mug in one gulp, and started out.

---

Once at the hospital, Kaiae simply grabbed the nearest member of the staff she saw and asked where Gable was, then stalked through the corridors to the office with the gait of someone who expects some sort of trouble at the end of the trip. The door was shut, so she reached out one closed fist to rap on the doorframe, then stepped back and to the side slightly to wait, because while she was almost certain it was overkill in this case, only an idiot stood close to and in front of a closed door about to open if they didn't know who or what was on the other side of it.

Hearing the knocks, Gable tapped the control to open the door. As expected, Kaiae was there and showing the wariness that Nancy had learned to expect from someone with her service in the Galae, not mention service working from within to undermine Tal'Shiar and government policy to keep people from fleeing the RSE. "Subcommander, may I introduce Lt. Commander Savin," she said, signing for Savin as she was looking directly at Kaiae. "He is deaf," she explained. "But can read lips as well as sign language."

"I prefer counselor or doctor," Savin answered quietly, "and while I cannot hear, I am able to speak." He bowed minutely towards Kaiae, offered a faint smile. "It is a pleasure to meet you ma'am."

Kaiae gave a equivalent minute bow...or an almost equivalent one, that is; and since she didn't know exactly what the man could lip read - but if he'd come from the Federation, there was a fairly sure bet of one thing at least - decided to trade fairly ruthlessly on one of the benefits of her former specialty: Like most comms officers, she had actually learned both Klingonese and Federation Standard; there were benefits, after all, to being able to hear, read, or intercept things in the other side's own original language; nuance could get lost sometimes in the translator. Her accent was fairly pronounced, she knew - her training had focused more on being able to understand than to reciprocate - but hopefully sufficient.

"Welcome." Kaiae kept a rather artificially blank expression on her own face for now and considered that yes, people wouldn't exactly be thrilled to see a Vulcan around, but given the expressions of actual emotion on the man's face, he seemed at least less uptight than the usual so far; so there must be some other issue in play too, for this meeting to be taking place in the closed office, as she was fairly sure doctors had better things to be doing with their time given the limited number of them.

"Thank you." The answer was simple and the scrutiny was mutual. Any accent she did have when she spoke was lost on him for obvious reasons. He offered a small bit genuine smile. "I am not here to get people to confess their secrets to me and pass them on," he assured her, "I am sent here to help and anything a person does tell me will be treated with the same confidence as I would have on a starship. Anything revealed remains between me and the patient, with one obvious exception. If the patient's life, or the colony's safety is at risk. Then I will only inform the commanding officer and the chief medical officer."

Now the surprise showed on Kaiae's face, as one eyebrow shot up: 'I'm not here to get people to confess their secrets to me and pass them on' was....an alarming thing to lead with, even in the negative, but she supposed she could see how one might feel the need to try and state that up front, when coming from inside Federation space. The rest, though, was just confusing. "...You believe people will be sharing confidential information with you that frequently enough in the course of their medical treatment?"

"That usually happens when one speaks with a counselor ma'am," Savin offered with the same gentle smile as before. "As I said, anything discussed with me is confidential and will remain such barring aforementioned exceptions. Thus far in my career, I have had to inform a commanding officer only once of a potentially dangerous development." To show such an occurrence was indeed quite rare. "I also do not require people to speak with me even if it is evident they really need to. One must feel safe to do so, and trust is earned, not given."

Kaiae blinked, forcibly reminded that the Federation Starfleet had specialties within its medical corps that theirs most certainly did not, and this revelation was certainly a mark against whomever in the Federation chose the personnel having thought this one through at all. She suppressed a laugh at the incredulousness of it all: There couldn't be that much need among the other species here, given they were a minority of the colony, and she doubted anyone else was going to utilize such a...service. Hopefully the man had other medical skills, at least, as well. Still, if proof of a rather boneheaded move on the part of whomever back in the Federation had selected the specialties of the doctors who came, it wasn't a problem she envisioned being worthy of this sort of meeting with this level of careful handling. There had to be, as she'd heard one of the humans say awhile back, another shoe waiting to drop, and she looked over at Gable. "I thought there were two doctors sent? Where's the second one?"

"Doctor tr'Rehu had opted to visit the children's ward and familiarise himself with the staff and the patients," Savin answered, "if summoned I have no doubt he will report when able. As for myself, I am both qualified as psychiatrist and medical doctor so I can assist where needed."

"Gunnar is showing him around," Nancy added by way of giving some reassurance before providing the rest. "Dr tr'Rehu isn't Starfleet, but his history is something you need to be aware of," she explained. "He was Tal'Shiar. Much like the cousin who fled and joined us, he escaped, though he came much closer to being killed in the process." It was the best she could do to convey that and limit the alarm she knew Kaiae would feel. She could also see, despite how well Kaiae was at controlling her expression, that the subcommander realized exactly why the door was closed and why she had not had both doctors present.

Savin nodded in confirmation. "I have been working with him for over six years now, and if needed I can vouch for his dedication towards helping those in need. I have also spoken with him on numerous occasions and I can confirm his near death experiences following his escape from the empire. His own son can also confirm some instances as he was there." He paused, glancing between Gable and Kaiae. "Contrary to appearance, I am also Romulan," he finally spoke, "though born on Romulus, I was raised on Vulcan after my parents fled the empire. I did not know this until approximately six years ago, when I briefly served on a Romulan vessel as exchange officer. My genetics were discovered there and I have been trying to adjust since. I can use all the help I can get to be more Rihanssu and learn of custom and tradition."

Kaiae said absolutely nothing for a long stretch. The 'other shoe' had not dropped; the other shoe had entered at high velocity and was now it seemed repeatedly beating her over the head. With regards to Savin, she gave the man credit, she supposed, for the attempts to now unlearn what he had on Vulcan; actual shows of emotion were a good start, if nothing else. The rest, however....Her first instinct had been to exit the room, go find tr'Rehu, and eliminate the potential threat. It was one she stepped hard on, however; because the dire trouble posed by Tal'Shiar on the colony - or, if this was to be believed, 'ex'-Tal'Shiar - was unfortunately balanced on the other side by the dire trouble that would occur if they killed Federation personnel. So. All she could do now, then, was play the hand she had been dealt; however bad a hand it was.

"You say you will vouch for him." It was a statement more than it was a question, one which Kaiae paired with a penetrating stare at Savin, and which she reflexively switched languages back to her native tongue to make. "I will hold you to that. Because they - " she gestured non-specifically beyond them to the colony at large " - will hold me to that."

"I do not say so, I am," Savin re-affirmed. "As long as I have known him, he has put others before himself. He has risked his on life on numerous occasions, willfully undergoing infection to test a cure. If you doubt me, I suggest you question him. He will answer any question you have to prove his honour." Savin's eyes narrowed a fraction, as if he was reigning himself in.

"You say you wish to learn custom and tradition." Kaiae's eyes were still fixing Savin with a hard stare that when combined with the man's own gaze left the pair locking eyes, and she switched back to Federation Standard and decided to lay out things as she would never have had to previously, on the off chance the doctor didn't grasp what had just occurred here. "Consider this the first lesson, then - you just staked your life to your statement and to his actions and intentions as you have vouched for him. Because I will have staked mine on them in turn, by allowing him to remain here."

"Understood." He was clearly willing to do so, as he had confirmed his own statement. "Talk to him, get to know him," he suggested calmly, "same as you talk to me, and get to know me. Trust takes time, by being here, risking our own lives because Starfleet sent us here, we are putting trust in you."

Expecting a bunch of traumatized Romulans to not react badly to some with a Tal'Shiar past dropping into their midst struck Nancy as less trust and more wishful thinking. But despite not being an optimist by any means, she was feeling a bit more hopeful about this not being a typical Starfleet naivete disaster. After all, this meeting had gone better than she had expected.

Though she now had questions of her own. A doctor who deliberately got infected to test a cure?? Even Gunnar wouldn't pull anything that boneheaded. She was feeling like she'd need to keep a close eye on him for reasons entirely unrelated to any suspicions about his time with the Tal'Shiar. "I will be keeping a close eye on things here. Gunnar has been read in too and is willing to work with them. And he probably has more direct experience at spotting undercover Tal'Shiar than nearly anyone here."

This, Kaiae considered, was possibly true - Gunnar and T'Ango had been making runs in and out of RSE space for quite some time in the lead up to the disaster; they would not have been able to survive doing so for long if he hadn't gained skill and experience in that. She did also take a moment to consider that, with how insane the universe had gone of late, it was she supposed theoretically possible that someone had actually left the Tal'Shiar and survived doing so. She certainly wasn't willing to count on it, however, and beyond that, everyone else's reactions on this would be a problem, regardless; others would undoubtedly feel exactly the same urge she had suppressed when they first learned who was now on the planet, and some of them would probably be less successful in weighing the complications before acting.

"How many other people know about this, yet?" Kaiae sighed.

"At the moment, unless he's told others he was introduced to in the medical center, only the two of us, plus Gunnar," Nancy replied. Then thought a moment. "Though as soon as Gunnar has a chance to speak with T'Ango, I'm sure she'll know too."

"Alright." Kaiae suddenly looked and sounded weary enough to be a lot older than her young 42 years, as she considered how to end-run, or at least significantly reduce, the possibility of anyone deciding to challenge the man, or for that matter simply just assassinate him, on the grounds of posing the same threat she had first considered the action for, and tick off the Federation in the process where they couldn't afford to. "If possible, keep it that way today. I'll gather all the adults tonight and inform them in a controlled environment, and make my expectations for their behavior clear." If she was far from comfortable with the rank and role she'd somehow found herself in so young, she was becoming somewhat more comfortable using it, at least, as time went on; and it was well within a commander's prerogative to get between two personnel who otherwise would have tangled and veto it. That these were civilians was a wrinkle; but everyone for the most part seemed to disconcertingly listen to her regardless of that, so. Time to spend some of that capital.

"Since he was told not to disclose this information, you can trust Doctor tr'Rehu to not tell anyone, no matter how guilty he might feel about it," Savin said, looking from one woman to the other. "And as it is not for me to share, neither will I."

"Good. Then I'd say this report in is complete for now," Gable said. "And I need to get back to seeing patients."

 

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