Dinner Plans

Posted on Fri Oct 11th, 2019 @ 8:49pm by Lieutenant JG Ilan Rol & Lieutenant Commander Carolyn Corrigan MD

2,622 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 100 - A Hatred of Atonement
Location: Rol's Quarters
Timeline: MD 01 2300 hours

ON:

Smothering a yawn, carrying a bag of food in one hand, Doctor Corrigan left the promenade in search of a certain Bajoran counsellor. While it probably wasn’t the kind of dinner he had in mind, or even a time of day when dinner was normally served, they had to make do. Besides, somewhere in this universe it was bound to be dinner time somewhere.

Rol answered the door of his quarters only to find Carolyn there. He motioned her inside.

“First, sorry it is so late. The computer promised me you were still awake though so I hope you like Italian food,” the physician said by way of greeting, sitting the food down as she held out a PADD. “As promised, albeit a little later than advertised, your physio referral. They can see you tomorrow for initial assessment and then whenever fits with your schedule.”

He took the PADD oddly quiet. Placing it on the table he opened his own schedule an added it in doing a bit of changing to accommodate.

“So.... pretty insane since your message, huh? Clear sign of head trauma from the need a friend line,” she teased. “I figured you’d probably be hungry and you did say dinner. Or it is technically more like supper... Anyway, here I am.”

Now that she was here this all seemed like a bad idea. "It's been a long while. Why don't you get some rest. We can do this later." He was hoping to convince her to delay this even though his family's visit was imminent.

“And waste all this food?” she said with a shake of her head. “Nope. Besides, I’m not much of a sleeper. I stupidly gave someone my best friend when it came to sleep. But if you really want to be sad on your own, I can go.”

He studied her. "Are you actually trying to use reverse psychology on me?"

“As if,” she retorted, leaning forward to start unpacking dinner. “Although I’d rather eat with you than take this back to sickbay. They smell food and the wolves will descend. If you want to tell me why you asked for dinner, that’s okay. If you don’t just enjoy the food and the fact nobody is attacking the station.”

He sighed, "Yes there was that little incident." He scrubbed his hand down his face. "What do you want to drink?"

“Just a chilled water,” Carolyn replied, “I’ll save the strong stuff until I have time to recover from the hangover the next day.”

He hurried to fix the drinks and then brought them back and settled at the table of food Carolyn had brought.

“Thanks,” she smiled as she took a drink. “I wasn’t sure what you would like so I got a few different options. No chocolate sadly. So.... what was the little incident?”

"I meant the station thing." He sighed and sat down. He made no motion. He just stared at the table. Whatever was on his mind was weighing on him. He seemed depressed and tired. It had been an intense time on the station but....his mind was on his family and their arrival. He'd gotten a message from a friend at the Teral Monastery and thus now knew why they were coming and bringing a Vedek with them.

“If the attack on the station was a little thing compared to whatever is troubling you right now, I’m worried. Garlic bread?” She offered, trying to coax him out a little. But she was no expert. If anything she was the opposite. Taking a bite out of a slice she studied him as she ate. “I think maybe you need a mirror...”

He looked up. "A mirror?"

“Because you never take no for an answer, never give up,” she clarified with a shrug, “you need a dose of your own medicine, so to speak. Or... I could get you really really drunk.”

He smiled slightly, a tired smile. "Perhaps." The silence stretched again. "My brothers and sisters are coming soon."

Carolyn stopped chewing, remembering the abbreviated family history he had told her. “Wow. That’s -“ she tried and failed to find the right words. “Did they say why with the sudden interest?”

"No but I have a friend on Bajor and they are bringing a Vedek and Regional Arpeth."

“Kinda wishing I had studied more than just Bajoran physiology right now ... wha or who is an Arpeth?” She asked, inwardly relieved to have him talking.

"An Arpeth represents the Vedek council and government. They will have me banished from Bajor and excommunicated from the lay brothers. I will be declared a collaborator and not allowed to return to Bajor."

“But... they can’t do that!” She said, angry for him. “Why?! Why would they think of doing that to you?”

"While I was on Empak Nor...They say that I was responsible for Bajorans disappearing during my time working for the Gul who was head of the station."

Carolyn frowned, “I don’t understand - why would they think you were to blame?”

He shrugged. "A long story."

“Trade you,” she said, turning to face him. “Tell me and you get two, no three, free questions. Anything you want.”

He smiled, "Did anyone ever tell you that you create a good bribe?"

Carolyn grinned, “only good if you take it... limited time offer...”

He sighed, the sigh of a man who was defeated. "There is a man named Vorek, Prinal. He was at Empak Nor at the time I was there. We were in the mines together. I was eventually taken to work for the Gul who lead the station at the time. Vorek, when Empak Nor was liberated by the forces of my step father and Gul Dukat's soldiers... he found out that that they raided the station to get me out. Also.... While I was at Empak Nor, working for Gul Porket I visited the mining portion of the station often and Vorek said that when I did I took several Bajorans with me and they were taken off station and their families on Bajor shortly after would be taken off Bajor. Everyone just found that story easy to believe as did my family."

He stood and headed to a small cabinet. He pulled out a bottle that he hadn't needed in years. Pouring himself a healthy glass he downed it in one gulp.

Climbing to her feet, Carolyn took the bottle and now empty glass. “Well I don’t,” she said as she returned the bottle to the cabinet. “I wasn’t there and I’m no expert, but everything you did was for your family. I don’t care what anyone else says. And at best it is what? A bad case of coincidence?”

He sighed, "Carolyn I was responsible for those disappearances." The problem was that nobody wanted to hear the full story.

“Say that again?” She said, staring at him. “How could you be responsible for what the Cardassians did during the occupation?”

He sighed. "That man, Vorek, he's wrong about many things but..I did help remove several Bajorans from the station....from the mines." He said it that way because he wanted her to hate him. He wanted her to say he was nothing. Just like the rest he wanted her not to listen to his side of the story but even as he though it he knew Carolyn was different. She would ask for more.

“But why?” She asked, sure it could not be so black and white. Especially not with Rol. It went against everything she thought she knew about him. She sat down on the couch, patting the space beside her. “I know I don’t like the talking bit so much, but I’m a good listener and sounds like a story you need to tell.”

He'd kept it inside so much. Sighing he sat by her. "Remember when I said I was kidnapped, taken to Empak Nor and put in the mine processing centre?"

“I remember every word,” she assured him.

"I spent on a year and a half on that station. Some months prior to my rescue I was brought before Gul Porket and given an opportunity to leave the mines. I would need to be his assistant if I did. I agreed. I was...weak, desperate, tired of the whip, the mines, the sounds of crying, and everything. It was the first night I'd slept in my own quarters, my own bed. I felt miserable and guilty."

As she listened, Carolyn turned so she could face him, a delicate frown on her forehead. “Nobody can blame you for that. Rol, you were tortured. Why would you not take a chance to escape it? It doesn’t make you a bad person.”

He sighed. "That is when the real trouble began. Porket had a second in command, a Gul in his own right. At first I thought him cruel and nasty. One day he demanded, in front of Porket, that I prove my loyalty. My task was to choose five Bajorans for transport off the station to be examples. I refused. It was three days that I was kept in a dark hole without food or water. Eelim Galan was the second in command. He dragged me from the hole and put me on a shuttle with those Bajorans. I was angry, I was weak. I watched them reunited with family on the shuttle and then I thought for sure we were all done."

“I’m so sorry,” she said quietly. “Why reunite the families though?”

"That's just it...Galan took us to a small moon in the neighbouring system. There he let them off...there were Starfleet personnel there. They got the Bajorans on their shuttle and to safety." He shrugged "I was confused. Galan explained that he was doing this for a long while, helping Bajorans escape. Porket was getting suspicious. He needed my help. He had a plan."

Carolyn’s eyes went wide in surprise. “He was smuggling people off the station? Did not see that one coming...”

She leaned back, “What was his plan?”

"He still refused to feed me. Said I had to look weak. Porket didn't know I was taken off station. When I got back I could barely move. When I was taken back to the Gul he punished Galan for leaving me in the hole without food. I had fast become more then an assistant. He talked to me about art, philosophy. I listened and I think that twisted Cardassian slug thought I was his friend. Galan reminded him that I still had to prove my loyalty. Porket agreed eventually and ordered me to choose five Bajorans every three days. Galan knew this would happen he'd been planting the idea in Porket's mind. Porket thought it would hurt me to see them gone and know they were destroyed but they weren't. Galan was getting them off the station and to safety. So I complied. I walked through the mine processing centre every few days pick out a bunch and they would be free. The Bajorans didn't know they were going to safety so I became hated until they were free and clear and reunited with their families. Those left behind hated me though...thought me a collaborator. They didn't know that those taken Bajorans were going to freedom with Starfleet."

He sighed. "Porket left for a few weeks to replenish the Bajorans that he assumed had been killed and Galan and I were able to get more off the station. I knew that it was too fast but...we had to try. Those few weeks I found myself drawn to Galan. He was brave, strong, loving and kind. When Porket returned he was furious to see so many gone. He blamed Galan and would have done something If I hadn't read Porket's logs and figured out there was one way to ensure Galan was safe and able to help those people."

“What did you find out?”

"I became his distraction enough for Galan and those loyal to him to take the station with my step-father's help. Just as Porket was being lead away he broke free and .... he took a phaser and Galan was....gone." He'd held Galan in his arms till he took his last breath. "He saved so many Bajorans and he was gone. The Bajorans that were left were taken back to Bajor... the saw me mourning Galan and so it was I was a collaborator to them in another way." He sighed.

Standing up he headed to the cabinet and pulled the bottle out one more time. He came back to the sofa carrying that and a box. He dumped the letters out on the table.

“What are these?” Carolyn asked as she picked up one envelope.

"Letters from grateful families. They talk of all the money Galan gave to the colony, of the lives he saved, the families reunited. After we left I took him to the colony...he's body is there underneath a statue made to him. Those Bajorans never returned to Bajor. Galan is one of their heros." So was Rol. They had a statue to him too and that always made him uncomfortable.


“Then we show these to your family and this Vedek,” Carolyn said simply. “You did nothing to justify what they are doing. You suffered to help people escape. These people, these letters,,,, how many would have survived if not for you and Galan?”

"Galan was helping long before I was there." He sighed. "Carolyn...if my family didn't believe in me enough to listen what makes you think these will make a difference? I left Bajor to give my sisters a better life. When they heard the rumours, even though I raised them they left. They called me so many names...I lied when I said we spoke occasionally. We've not spoken since they left." He touched the earing on his ear and then pulled it off. He got up and placed the earing on the floor. With his foot he stomped down on it crushing the metal. He picked it up and tossed it aside. "At this point... Let them think what they will. I have fought all my life for them and they...turned their back on me. Perhaps it's time I stopped clinging to the past."

Carolyn said nothing throughout his outburst, understanding this part at least. She picked up the broken pieces, holding them together so she could remember how it was supposed to look.

“You know there is an Earth saying that you don’t pick your family and that friends are the family you choose yourself,” Carolyn mused as she set down the broken pieces. “I believe you. I will not just let them cast you out for doing the right thing.”

She paused. “No matter what, I will be here for you. And I can throw a good right hook.”

He smiled a little. She was right.

“I guess I did promise.... okay, ask your questions.”

He sighed. "I think I'll save them." He put an arm around her. "Thank you." He gave her a one armed hug.

“I didn’t do anything other than tell you what you already know,” she pointed out. Hugs were not really her thing but she sat still for what she hoped was long enough not to offend. Her growling stomach demanding attention. “Sorry about that... feel up to helping me eat some of this? It might not cure your ills but at least you won’t be hungry...”

He smiled. "Yeah. Let's eat."

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