New Faces

Posted on Mon Dec 7th, 2020 @ 8:42am by Lieutenant Xia Idris & Major Ashley Rogers

1,972 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Shore Leave: Welcome to Drozana
Location: Mess Hall

Ash was sitting in the mess hall sipping her coffee, reviewing the files of all of the new faces on board the Raven's Claw. Two she knew, young Miles and Mila, and she smiled as she was still stuffed from the dinner they shared together the night before. She had just finished reading up on the new communications officer, Xia Idris, when the Betazoid walked in. Ash raised her mug in her direction with a nod as a greeting.

“Good morning,” Xia greeted with a smile, going over to the replicator. She studied the inventory, still getting used to the difference in menu selections on a Romulan ship. Obviously a lot of Romulan food. Some Reman dishes that looked more nutritious than edible. Not much from any other culture, unlike on a Federation ship, with its myriad of species’ food, both Federation members and not.

“What do you recommend, as a Human?” Xia asked as she studied the selection of Romulan teas.

Ash took a sip of her coffee and smiled at Xia. "In general, or from the replicator?" She put her mug down and walked over to the replicator next to Xia.

Betazoids had always made her uncomfortable. They're not supposed to read your thoughts and emotions, but the fact that they had the ability to do so always put her on edge. Granted, in her previous life Ash had plenty to hide, leading a double life as a Starfleet officer and as a Section 31 operative that enjoyed her assignments a little too much. Nancy may not have ever really said it to her face, but she knew that most medical and psychological professionals considered her possibly sociopathic. It was probably one of the innate things that the Section picked up on in her psych tests before she was accepted to Starfleet Academy, something that made her perfect to be an assassin for them.

Ash shook her head, trying to control her thoughts and emotions as she continued her conversation with Xia.

"In general, the chef made some delicious food last night. As for the replicators? It doesn't matter what you order, it all tastes... ungood. Feel free to give our engineer crap about it. Maybe one day she'll fix the damn things. Anyways, I'm Ashley Rogers, in charge of security on board. You're Xia Idris, I gather?"

“Ungood is...oddly descriptive,” Xia said, turning to Ashley. “Yes, Xia Idris. It is nice to meet you.” She shook Ashley’s hands. “And you’re worrying that I am reading your mind. It practically screams out, even if it is common to many species when they get around Betazoids. Let me reassure you that it is not something I would just idly do.” It wasn’t exactly something ethical in Xia. Sure, she was raised that way by Betazed society -- but her Thalion training had broken down many of those ethical barriers. It was simply that most people’s thoughts were just not that interesting. Or you got a look at something that you really just didn’t want in your brain and wanted to be able to take a steel brush to your mind to wash it out. “But if you do have an interesting thought, please feel free to share it,” she said, giving Ashley a wink before Xia headed over to where the real food was stored. She picked out some tea and a slice of what looked like eggs benedict and a side of bacon. There was an unusual amount of Human and Federation food here. How did a Romulan chef learn such things, she wondered.

Ash raised an eyebrow at Xia, "I don't think my interesting thoughts are really fit to be shared." A wink. So this is how its doing go...

“So how does a Human woman get put in charge of security on a largely Romulan vessel?” Xia asked curiously as she settled down across from Ashley again, and started to nibble rather attractively on a piece of bacon.

Ash took a deep breath and leaned back in her chair. "A simple, but loaded question." She smiled and picked a piece of bacon off of Xia's plate. "Nothing comes for free out here. Short story? Raven hired me. Long story? I'm former Starfleet... or more notably, former Section 31. So years of leading a double life makes me a little antsy around Betazoids. The mental discipline to maintain a facade around telepaths is exhausting, and I'm done trying to hide who I am. Things never work out when I try to be someone I'm not." She took a bite out of the bacon. "And Human woman or not, who I am and what I'm capable of is exactly why Raven hired me. So what brings you on board?"

“Section 31? Interesting. Most don’t admit such an affiliation. But I suppose it doesn’t matter, now that they’ve been uprooted.” She gave a wry smile. “Much the same. Raven needed a communications officer,” she said. “I speak multiple languages, and am familiar with Romulan technology. And this isn’t my first -- what do Humans call it? -- rodeo in the grey areas of the galaxy. I’ve done freelance work for Artemis Pierce and Blackwatch.” She sipped on her tea, watching Ash’s reaction to the name of Pierce, one of the few publicly pilloried Starfleet officers drummed out of service during the post-war Section 31 witch hunts.

Ash raised her eyebrow at the mention of Pierce. Now that was a name she wasn't expecting to hear. To say they don't like each other was an understatement. "The Section and I have... had... a complicated history. When an organization uses you for your skills and then betrays you to the enemy and abandons you to die as a POW, that sours one's relationship with them. Not to mention they framed me for the destruction of my ship and killed my best friend. " She sipped her coffee. "But yet... I still worked with them after all of that. Witch hunts or not, they're still around. They trusted me because I didn't trust them... ironic. The operative they tried to terminate was the one they needed the most after all of that. I tried to walk away. I had my life back, my career, Renee. I thought it would be enough. But..." Ash ran her hand through her hair. Mars still weighed heavily on her conscience. "Happily ever after is myth. I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't be happy even with everything one can ask for. Not with the knowledge that I would be living a lie. I'm an assassin. I make things dead that don't deserve to live. That's why I'm out here. That's why Betazoids make me uncomfortable. I’m a very unpleasant truth. While I do apologize for unloading all of that on you, if I ever see Artemis Pierce, I make no guarantees about how unpleasant I can be."

Ash looked the Betazoid in the eyes, trying to gauge her loyalty to Pierce.

Xia smiled and sipped her tea. “Pierce isn’t so bad,” she said. “He doesn’t leave his people. I got the vibe that he and Section 31 aren’t exactly friendly, either. He’s back in Starfleet in the captain’s chair again. Don’t know how he pulled that off, but there he sits in the Nemesis. He’s good at picking talent and loyalty. He doesn’t like to waste that.” She reached over and pressed Ash’s hand, giving her a smile. “And don’t write off happily ever after so quickly.”

Ash chuckled as she gently squeezed Xia's hand. "I've learned that if I set my expectations low, I stand a better chance of being pleasantly surprised. Keeps the ratio of pleasant to unpleasant surprises a little more manageable." She leaned in to Xia. "But it's still not going to change the way I feel about Pierce, or what he thinks of me. We definitely took sides back in the day... opposite ones. I'll try not to let that affect my opinion of you, if you don't let him jade your perception of me." It seemed inevitable that Ash would run into people that didn't like her, or people that worked for people that didn't like her. She liked working for Raven and this crew. The least she could do is try to be cordial to everyone.

“I think I can live with that arrangement,” Xia said with a chuckle. “A lot of things were done during the war that people might want to forget.” There was a hollowness to Xia’s voice and gaze as she sat back and focused on her tea, a bit of her dark hair falling into her face.

Ash followed XIa's lead with her body language and leaned back in her chair as well. "War does that to people. War or no war... I've done my fair share of things most people would probably want to forget. It's all a part of who I am, at this point. You couldn't have been more than a teenager during the war. Did you do things you want to forget? Or lose someone?"

Xia gave a wry smile. “Both,” she said. “You ever hear of Crell Moset?” she asked Ash. “Cardassian scientist wanted for war crimes during the occupation of Bajor. He came and set up shop on Betazed. He wanted to see if he could develop telepathy in the Jem’Hadar Alphas they were creating. I got to play guinea pig for him.”

Ash raised her eyebrow. "Well, damn." She sipped her coffee. "It seems like the war wasn't kind to either of us. What the hell did they do to you?"

“I don’t remember half of it,” Xia admitted, leaning back and sipping her tea. “A lot of time was spent drugged to the gills so we would be compliant. Some of what they did enhanced my abilities. I learned how to learn things while sleeping. It’s how I learned how to speak Cardassian and Jem’Hadar,” she said. “I also eventually learned to do this.” With a gesture, her hands released her tea cup, which remained floating there in front of her. Then it drifted toward Xia’s full lips and tilted slightly as she took a sip, drinking the tea without using her hands.

Ash's eyes widened, "Now that's an interesting skill." She looked at Xia and considered the implications of having someone with telekinesis as an ability on board. "You're full of surprises. I have a lot of questions, first of which is, anything else I should know about?"

“About what?” Xia smiled. “You know I’ve worked for Blackwatch. You know I have telekinetic abilities. I have the standard Betazoid telepathic abilities -- maybe a little enhanced. I’ve been trained to do...more with them than most Betazoids,” she admitted. “There are...certain parts of Betazed that said ‘Never again’ after the occupation. They didn’t want to go back to the status quo antebellum where we stuck our heads in the sand about the dangers in the universe. More proactive, more...offensive, and be damned with the rules of Betazoid polite society.”

Ash chuckled. "Oh, that's all," she said sarcastically. "I'm glad you're on board. There are definitely some people in the galaxy that I'd rather have on my side than not. Because you're right, the universe is a dangerous place...." She trailed off, leaving an unspoken line of thought that such a universe has allowed people like Ashley Rogers to exist. "Well, I'm glad that you've joined us out here and didn't stay in your polite Betazoid society."

FIN

Lieutenant Xia Idris
Chief Communications Officer

Centurion Ashley Rogers
Chief Security Officer

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