New Day, New Hangover
Posted on Thu Feb 13th, 2014 @ 4:27am by Admiral Deela T'Lar & Lieutenant Colonel Jillian "Phoenix" Sullivan
2,415 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
Mission 85 - Q-uality Time Aboard Starbase 400
Location: Station XO's Office
Timeline: Day After the Bachelorette Party
The night before had been a blur, as the usual night of binge drinking went with Phoenix. Good news, was that she did not end up in a stranger's bed. Or a stranger in hers. So no awkward exits needed to happen.
Bad news, was that she had the worst hangover she'd had in the past four years. Earth's northern polar cap, could not cure her pounding headache. But her aviator Ray Ban-styled glasses did wonders for the light sensitivity, as she passed through the brightly lit corridors of the admiralty offices.
What Phoenix really wanted to do, was extricate all the alcohol churning in her stomach. But she had set up this appointment with the XO to discuss upcoming training and transferrs of her fighter wing pilots. So with a lot of grit, she tapped the chime button on the outside of T'Lar's door and braced herself.
Phoenix knew she was not a popular officer of the Admiral. So she understood she would have to make a lot of personal concessions in order to get what she wanted.
"Enter." Deela looked up from her PADD at the door and saw Phoenix walk in, "Hi, please come in and have a seat." She waited for Phoenix to sit down, "What can I do for you?"
"CAG requests," Phoenix started simply, rubbed her temples a moment, and then went on to explain, "New advanced fighter tactic that would allow a single squadron of fighters to theoretically take out a single capitol ship... Problem is, it requires a level of finite piloting accuracy that most the nuggets just don't got. So I want to transfer the ones that are only par in pin-point flying, out."
"I see." Deela observed her for a moment, "I'd have to talked to Admiral Bremer first but I think it can be arranged."
Phoenix nodded. "Essentially, I'll be breaking the flights and reforming them into trios. Leap frog, essentially. Merge the shields as one unit, doubling their defensive capability, while the trio member in the rear's cooling down their shield projectors to prevent overload."
Deela couldn't help but smile, "Hangover?"
"Err..." Phoenix could not lie to what was visibly obvious. Thus she regrettably nodded while she rubbed her temples. "Nothin' that ain't normal for me."
Deela continued to smile, "I'm not sure if that is something that you should admit to a superior officer." Deela leaned forward, "Why do you do it?" Deela wasn't much of a drinker and didn't understand the need to drink to the point of passing out.
"Bottle's my only friend. Been that way since the day I was busted for being a Maquis," Phoenix answered with a shrug. "I aint liked by the clean, shiny, civilized folk, like you, as a result Admiral. I aint much better than a terrorist, in Feds' eyes. An' someone like me aint really accepted in normal company. So.. Just me an' a bottle, sometimes a whore."
"I do not believe that. And how do you know that I do not like you? Are you a mind reader? Just because other "civilized" people do not like you, does not mean that I do not as well. I do not believe in stereotyping. Have you even given anyone a chance to like you?" Deela leaned back in her chair and folded her hands into her lap.
"You can't say that you do like me either," Phoenix countered very simply. Mostly to evade the personal question. Phoenix was not about to fink on the CMO. And even if she did, Phoenix had already figured no one would see her side of it. "Why I drink, is personal. And I never fly while intoxicated. I know where my priorities lay, Admiral."
Deela wasn't about to let her get away with it. What Phoenix didn't realize is that Deela was a Counselor long before she was ever a Captain. And being Betazoid and Vulcan gave her an advantage. Once again, she observed her before replying, "Oh, I know you do. As for how I feel about you, I don't know you, the person, except for what you have allowed me to see. You put on this tough facade but I think that there is another side to you. But it is easier to be this loud mouth, tough as nails, angry bitch than to make friends and risk being hurt by them." She unfolded her hands and rested her elbows on the chair arms, "Or I could be wrong and this is exactly who you are."
"Cute. Reverse psychology," Phoenix grinned back, then pulled an apple off the desk and started to eat on it. "So either you're an interrogation specialist, or a shrink... In which case, I can't answer your questions because I aint a fink."
Deela grinned, "Very good. You are pretty sharp. Yes, I was a counselor a long time ago. Habits I guess are hard to break." Deela sat forward in her seat, her hands now folded together on the table, "To tell you the truth, I get a great deal of complaints about you. But I have never heard any complaints on how you do your job. And that is what I care about. But if you ever get in a fight with anyone on the base, I'll have your butt out of here so fast."
Deela flashed her a smile as she sat back in her chair once again, " You know, at some point, you are going to have to try and get along with everyone. One of these days, you are going to find yourself in trouble and no one is going to help you. You may want to make nice with the CMO to start with." Deela knew that Tressa was upset about the incident in sickbay. She felt that she needed to address the issue between Tressa and Phoenix but didn't want Phoenix to feel like she was being attacked.
"She told you then," Phoenix laughed rather harshly as she tried to brush it aside. "I can already see you've prejudged the situation, so I aint bothering explaining my story to someone that is biased from the get-go. Which I sorta knew would happen. My record sorta has that result on people, after all."
What Phoenix really felt, was hurt. Morality be damned. Tressa assaulted her with a hypospray to illegally detain Phoenix in an attempt to cure her. Maybe not a strike with a fist, as was the pilot's method of assaulting folks. But just as troubling. Illegal, really, for doctors to continue on a patient after a patient refused.
"First if all, she came to me as a friend. She has been a member of my Essex crew for a long time and we have always talked to each other about things that are troubling us. It's not like she came to me to trash talk about you. Let me make that clear. As for prejudging you, my comment to her was from my experience dealing with you. I told her that you make me crazy and that it's hard to reason with you. My statement was based on facts. Tressa was very upset with herself and was going to resign as CMO. In all my years of serving with her, I have never seen her lose her temper...ever. Then you come along and she loses it just like that."
Deela sighed, "Don't get me wrong. I don't condone what she did but I can't fault her for it either. You seem to have that effect on people." Deela looked straight at her, "Now if you want, you can press charges on her for assault if you'd like."
"...It's sorta hard to trust folks that threaten to chuck me fer hitting folks that bully me for being Maquis, when they're perfectly fine defending their friends for assaulting me," Phoenix sighed as she rubbed her temples again. "Be as it may, I put your doc in front of the medical board to have her credentials removed? It aint gonna bode well for me here. Cuz as you say... She's got friends here. I'm a lone wolf. So I aint gonna do nothin' about the situation but talk to my shrink."
Deela let out an exasperating loud sigh, "Like I said, you make me crazy and that is hard to do. You are twisting my words." Deela shifted in her seat as she grew aggravated at her, "I was talking about you starting a fight, not self defense. You have the right to defend yourself. And I was not threatening you, saying that she has friends so you dare not try to charge her with anything. You have the right to do that as well." Now she could feel anger swelling up inside her.
Deela quickly stood up and slammed her fists on the desk, "Damn you Phoenix. Quit playing the victim. You choose to be the lone wolf. You only have yourself to blame." Deela rarely lost her temper. She let out a slight growl.
Phoenix chose that moment to eat loudly on her apple. She did not understand why Deela was pressing on her. Nor what Deela wanted out of Phoenix, other than being polite.
"Being hard is how my kin survived tha Federation-Cardassian War... Friendships come last. An' I'm in this monkey outfit, because it was this, or prison again," Phoenix explained coolly, once she'd eaten half the apple. "Cardassians took away my childhood, and prison stripped me of a lot of my humanity... I am the way I am because it's all I know to be. Softness, gets you killed. An' a fighter pilot can't afford that."
"I get it but I am not asking you to become soft and I do not expect you to be friends with everyone on this ship. There is an old earth saying that if all you get is lemons, make lemonade. In other words, you have to be here, so make the best of it. Just ease up on the feeling sorry for yourself and everyone hates me so screw you kick. You say that your humanity is gone but I believe that it is in there somewhere. It is just buried deeply. Maybe you'll find it one day." Deela hated to see anyone miserable. It was hard enough to be among humans with emotions, some of which were disturbing to her.
"I'm not sorry for myself. I'm angry with myself," Phoenix corrected quietly, then looked to her gloved, metal hand. "Feds gave me a second shot in life, but my parents are going to die in prison, work'n in the mines that made me sick... It's not right I reap the rewards while they suffer from my mistakes."
Deela was beginning to understand why she is the way she is. She sat back down in her chair, "Have you talked to Bremer about it and see if there is something we could do?"
"It's a prison for political enemies of the UFP and terrorists," Phoenix explained as civilly as she could. Mostly because the warden was an ass and would not bring Phoenix's parents to any parole board unless there was a favor for him. "UFP President has to sign pardons for them to get out, from that sort of prison. That, or the warden would have to feel charitable and let a parole board decide their fate."
Deela nodded, "What about your parents? Were they also involved in the Marquis like you? If not, what were they imprisoned for?"
"My parents ran the cell. I was in charge of gathering intel on Cardassian movement throughout the DMZ," Phoenix admitted none to comfortably. "The information I pulled from Starfleet Intelligence databases was eventually linked to aiding four Maquis bombings - High-profile Cardassian Military targets, guilty of attacking Federation colonies along the DMZ. One of which, occurred on a UFP government building."
Phoenix scratched her neck in nervousness. "We did what we did, because the Feds didn't see what was happening to our homes and were more concerned with trying to keep the armistice with the Spoonheads. So we took up arms to push the spoonheads back and my mom, especially, gave our cell hope... Which is now gone, since the Dominion War obliterated what was left of Raxus VI, and several other worlds that used to be rich and fertile."
Deela was at a lost for words as she felt bad for her and her parents. She could see that there were extenuating circumstances, "I cannot promise anything but I'll talk to Bremer and see if there is anything we can do."
"They deserve a parole board hearing at least," Phoenix spoke with pain in her eyes. "Warden Yeager withholds a lot of prisoners that deserve their shot, because he wants favors... But the gesture is appreciated nonetheless."
In all reality, Phoenix knew Yeager wanted her to call him and force her to perform a specific favor. It was a favor that was not usually any different than Jillian's one-nighters. But the main difference with Yeager, was that he abused Phoenix on many levels. That was why she wrestled so much with even contacting him.
Deela could sense several strong emotions from Phoenix when she mentioned Yeager's name. She was sure that this Yeager had done something to her. "When you mentioned Yeager, it upset you. I am not going to ask but I want to assure you that you will not have to deal with him again. I can guarantee that at least."
"Thank you," Phoenix spoke after a long pause to mull on Deela's promise. It felt weird to show gratitude, and yet relief. "Wing changes are priority though... Can tackle the other stuff whenever."
Deela was pleased with the progress they made with each other, "You are welcome. There should not be a problem granting your CAG request. I'll pass it on to Bremer." She smiled at Phoenix.
"It's not easy for me, to be personable," Phoenix admitted as she stood up to leave. "Not easy to trust either... But I will try to work on it, Admiral."
Deela stood up, "That is all I am asking for. If you ever have the need to talk, you know where I am."
"Thanks for the time then," Phoenix nodded and then exited the office.
Deela watched her go. "T'Lar to Bremer, we need to talk."
Major Jillian "Phoenix" Sullivan
CAG, SB 400
Vice Admiral Deela T'Lar
XO, SB 400
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