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A Mirror Shattered #1 #2 "Meeting of the minds."[On] [Chief Counselor's Office, USS Pegasus] Andrew felt the movement of the ship taking off. <Hmm, there goes my home, and here I am stuck in a cramped office again.> He sighed, and looked at a PADD filled with complaints regarding the acting chief of security. <They want me to investigate her ideas on the matter? So be it...> =/\= Ensign Kennedy to Lieutenant Sulan. If it wouldn't be too much trouble, could I see you in my office? I have some... reports about your actions, requesting an analysis on the matter. It shouldn't take long, I hope. =/\= He waited for her reply. Sulan pauses on the way to security. Hearing the counselor's message, she hits her com badge. =/\= "Actually Counselor, I'm quite busy at the moment. Some of my maggots are about to regret their previous actions. Can I schedule at another time?" =/\= =/\="Unfortunately, that IS the problem." Said Kennedy "The complaints are from most of your security team. I understand that you have a different set of ideals, but humans have their limits. From what I'm reading, you're trying to push them far beyond those limits." =/\= Sulan is silent for a moment. =/\= "Understood. I am on my way."=/\= She said a little irritation bleeding into her voice. A few moments later she entered into the counselor's office. Thought to an untrained eye she seemed calm, she was actually boiling with rage. "You're certain will not this take long?" She sits, tapping her fingers. "It shouldn't, I just want to hear your side of what you're doing, if you understand the kind of pressure and stress you're putting on the security personnel, and the pain of training. In essence, I want to see why you're doing this training so fiercely." "Why I'm going this so fiercely, Counselor? The Jem' Hadar. The Klingons. The Founders. The Romulans. The Breen. To name a few. Those are the reasons. I'm doing it to save their lives, and yours. None of my maggots are required to remain on the security staff if they cannot handle training." She squeezed the arms of the chair with her hands, so hard that her knuckles turned white. "But if they're too tired to fight, then what's the point?" He was letting his emotions run slightly unchecked, but she really irked him whenever they talked. " I know you have the ship's best interests in mind, but still. No human can take this kind of training for more than a couple of days before feeling the negative side effects of it." He paused. "Oh, and could you not destroy my chair?" She forced herself to relax. "Counselor, I know how to train those under my command. I highly doubt that a pilot of a desk has anything he could instruct me on." She realized how close her emotions were to the surface of her consciousness, and fought to push them down. She remembered the young ensign's words about her becoming a raving lunatic, and felt a thrill of fear. She touched the healing wound of her cheek, using the pain to try and calm her mind. "I may not be able to instruct you in how to train your men, but I can tell you that we humans don't have that kind of stamina." He glanced at her face. "And what happened to your cheek?" "An altercation with a former associate." She said, waving the comment away. "You believe that humans are weak. I do not. Though they are emotional, I believe they have the makings of fine warriors. But first, I have to beat the weakness out of them. If it means making them bleed a little, so be it." She said the last coldly. "I'm sure Commanders LaBrie and Petrova would disagree on that last point. Based on what I've seen of your mentality, you think anyone, with brutal and painful training, can become an elite warrior like what you appear to be. I'm telling you that isn't possible." "And again, I must point out to you ignorance on the matter." She stands, moving close to his desk and glaring down at him. "I have seen warriors, Counselor. I've made them, fought alongside them, and slain them in battle. I am the one who will judge what is possible, not you." Andrew also stands, returning the glare. <I'm not backing down to a Vulcan with a superiority complex> he thought before talking. "I sense anger in your voice, Lieutenant. Certainly a 'superior race', as you call Vulcans, would not let themselves succumb to an emotion such as this. You may have been alongside warriors, but now that you're aboard this ship, you follow other commands, not your own. I will be sending a report to Caelen stating this, and expect after that I will NOT be getting more complaints about the ferocity you're putting fellow crewmembers through. You may think you have the best intentions, but I've studied humans longer than you. I know them inside and out. You don't." Sulan's left eyelid twitches slightly, in the effort to control the murderous rage she now feels. Wouldn't be so simple to reach across the desk and yank him over top of it, then throw him across the room into a bulkhead? Perhaps beat him with the framed psychology degree on the wall behind him? She almost laughs at the irony of the thought, before forcing the thought away. As calmly as she can, she returns to her seat and folds her hands in her lap. "Perhaps that is so, but my job is to teach them to protect this vessel and, by extension, you. I will accomplish this goal. No matter what you think of me, or my methods..." Her voice has a forced flatness. "Very well, I think I've got what I require for a response to these complaints. If there's anything you wish to add to this, do so now, otherwise you can go about on your merry little way, possibly harming the men in the brig in the process." He said the last bit cynically. <She really, REALLY irritates me, but I don't have any other choice but to work with her.> "There is nothing else I wish to add, Counselor." Sulan says deadpan. "Very well then, you may leave." He began writing his report as he said this, remembering every word said in the conversation. She nods, leaving without a word. [Hollodeck, U.S.S. Pegasus] Sulan entered the Hollodeck in a rush. "Attention on deck!" Miller shouted as the squad comes to attention. All of them wear light grade space suits for today's training. "Smith, Johnson, step forward. Now." She says, hotly. They step forward looking fearful. "Drop your weapons, and strip your suits. Your spending the next three weeks in the brig. Move out." "But, sir-" Johnson starts to say, but doesn't have the chance to finish before Sulan grabbed the front of his suit and yanked him off his feet, throwing him toward the double doors of the hollodeck like a sack of potatoes. He flew nearly the length of the hollodeck before coming to rest in a heap at the foot of the doors. Smith flees, running as fast as his feet can carry him. Sulan watches them go before speaking again. "Today seems to be a red letter day for people who wish to question my authority. Does anyone else want flying lessons?" The squad is silent. "Good. I thought not." She walks up and down the ranks pacing. "Today we will practice simulated space combat on the ship's hull. The enemy will be a group of aggressors posing as a repair crew while the ship is in dry dock. Ready weapons and equipment. Miller, you will once again be leading the squad, with Rodriguez acting as your second-in-command." She watched as they secured their weapons and check each other's suits for integrity. When they all gave the thumbs up, she continued. "Remember, there is no up or down in space. So, use the ship's hull as you horizon, and try not to look into interstellar space if you can avoid it. Doing so will cause vertigo, and make you a target. Any questions?" There were none. "Very well. Computer: Begin program 'Drydock'." Sulan and the hollodeck fade from view to be replaced by the ship's ventral hull. Rodriguez instinctively looks 'up' and is hit with a wave of dizziness, that causes hit to loose the magnetic lock on his boots. Miller grabs him to keep him from floating off into space. "Get it together, Rodriguez!" He says angrily over the suit's comm channel. "Alright everyone, spread out and keep your eyes peeled." He orders quietly, while his eyes search for the hostiles. They all move quickly and quietly in a crouch. No one spoke but when necessary. The Saucer section seemed like a vast field of grey broken by a viewport every few meters. "There!" Miller shouted, pointing ahead to the forward part of the saucer section near the main phaser. People dressed as starfleet repair crews were attaching something to the main phaser array. "Light 'em up!" Miller shouted, and the squad fired as one, each finding separate targets. The phasers cut through the enemy suits as if they didn't exist, Red blood flowed from the suits, which froze instantly, forming a red frost which drifted away like morbid snow. In space combat, wounded were rare. If your suit was breeched, you died. A simple hard fact. As brutal as the vacuum itself. Miller dashed forward, jumping into the trench,and blasting away at the bolts that held the device. The bolts would not be severed, not matter how often he fired. Dropping his phaser, he began severing wires with his utility knife, monitoring the devices power output with his tricorder. "ENEMY CRAFT APPROACHING!" Rodriquez shouted over the radio. "Fall back to the hatches." Miller said calmly. "Once I get this thing offline have O'Driscoll vape those bastards." The rest of the squad ran back to the hatches and safety while Miller calmly sliced wires. The tricorder hummed a single note, indicating the devices power output was zero. =/\= "O'Driscoll, burn those guys for me, okay?" =/\= Miller sent to the bridge. "Get out of there!" Rodriguez shouted over the radio. "Nah." Miller said quietly. The radiation would bake me before I got ten meters. Been nice knowing you guys. Miller out." He closed the channel. The sound of the phaser array was a deadly hum. As the energy cells charged, there was a feeling similar to ants crawling all over his body. Then a sudden feeling of intense heat, light and pain. Then the simulation ended. "Miller why did you sacrifice yourself in that manner?" Sulan asked as she stepped away from the control panel. "Well sir, I knew that that thing was probably a trilithium bomb. If the phaser array had been fired while that was there, if could have taken half the saucer section off the ship. At the very least, it would have knocked out the ventral phaser array, leaving the Peggy vulnerable in that spot. I knew if they'd waited till I got clear, lots more people would have been killed while they waited till I was at a safe distance. Like the man said sir, 'The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.'" he said sheepishly. "Excellent work ensign. Truly excellent." Sulan said "Squad dismissed." [Sulan's quarters, U.S.S. Pegasus] Sulan entered her quarters, still thinking about Miller's performance. The maggot's training was coming along nicely. Though, she admitted to herself, she wouldn't be called them maggot's for much longer. They were quickly on their way to becoming true security officers. A message light blinked on her personal processing unit. "Computer, play message." She said absently, as she got a fresh uniform from a drawer. She froze in midstep when she saw the face on the screen. "Hello, my dear Sulan. This is Angel. I'm sorry I never got the chance to give you my name when we met last time, but you know how it is, right? I have your orders from out mutual friend. He tells me to let you know that your going to follow them just as I'm going to outline, or you'll die. Ohhh Scary huh?" It was the young ensign from the park in San Fransisco. The one who'd hurt her. Sulan listened to the rest of the recorded message with growing horror, finally in desperation, she covered her ears with her hands in an effort of block out the horrible words. When the message was complete she dashed over to the desk and grabbed the device from the desk and hurled it against the bulkhead with all her might. It practically exploded against the wall in a shower of sparks and plastic. "No... I-I...won't...I refuse..." She said to herself, unaware that she had even spoken aloud. She collapsed in the middle of the floor, weeping like a lost child, for the fist time in years. [Off] A joint post by: Lieutenant Telek Sulan (Acting) Security Chief U.S.S. Pegasus "The Counselor thinks he can figure me out? Let's see if he can figure out where I hide his arm after I rip it off?" & Ensign Andrew Kennedy Chief Counselor U.S.S. Pegasus "Good thing I'm above people with superiority complexes"
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