Final Report (Backpost)

Posted on Tue Oct 28th, 2025 @ 1:58am by Lieutenant JG Kally Kellerman & Lieutenant Mark Valleroy

Mission: Lower Decks
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Concurrent with Engineering Arrangement

Kally had been in her office, trying to catch up with paperwork. To be fair, she hadn't been blessed with an over-abundance of staff since she'd arrived, but being down two people was putting a strain on the daily to-do list. Playing host and tour guide hadn't done her any favors either, and she was glad to have a moment to sit by herself.

The chime at her door interrupted that and she sighed, sitting back in her chair. "C'mon in!" she said, activating the doors.

Mark entered the the CMO's office. He admittedly hadn't had much of a chance to interact with Dr. Kellerman (or most of the other medical personnel, outside of a certain amount of contact with Dr. F'Arra), which had been pretty much the complete opposite from his previous posting (and in fact he was thinking this may have actually been the first time he had been in the office of the CMO of the Chimera).

"Doctor, I hope this isn't a bad time," he said, "but I'm trying to finish up a couple of things and I figure that the sooner I had the chance to talk to you, the sooner these things could be over and done with."

Kally had a sinking feeling what it was about. She hadn't had many interactions with their Security Chief, save for staff briefings, but given recent events, she had a good idea what was going on. "Please, come in, Lieutenant," she said. "Have a seat." She gestured to a chair across her desk. "What can I do for you?"

Mark took the indicated chair. "Well, as you might be guessing, this is about the incident involving Nurse Taylor in the shuttlebay from a couple of days ago. I hate to have to be the one who keeps bringing this up, but you know how Starfleet Command loves their reports in triplicate. When someone does something that results in a physical altercation and gets them tossed in the brig afterwards, even for a short time, there's a certain amount of follow-up that I have to do, especially when it's not me or my staff doing the tossing."

Kally nodded, rubbing her eyes. "Yeah, I had an inkling. All right, shall I just start from the beginning?"

"The beginning is usually the best place to start in situations like this," Mark said simply.

"Mister Taylor was engaged in a quasi-romantic relationship with our guest, Miss Tessa di'Orion. It was a mutual relationship, and while they knew it had a hard expiration date, they wanted to see where it went." She let out a sigh. "The problem was an apparently miscommunication. Tessa had told Henry she wanted him on the second shuttle that left yesterday, not with her on the first. Evidently she'd told him it was to smooth things over on the ground before he showed up. Apparently brunettes are the 'lesser' in society down there." She rolled her eyes a bit. "Henry went to the shuttlebay ready to board, but while he was en route, Tessa came to see me. She confessed she didn't want him going down there at all, because she didn't trust herself with him there. If they were in proximity of each other down there and anything had happened, even a glance, there could have been deadly consequences. So, I beamed to the shuttlebay to stop him. I also contacted Chief Enor as backup since Henry's quite a bit taller than I am."

She took a deep breath and sighed, remembering how she'd felt. "Henry was...distraught. He didn't understand, and he was too upset to let me explain. He'd been mentally preparing himself for that moment, and he was determined to see it through. When Chief Enor came in and saw me trying to hold him back...he charged in to take control of the situation." She winced, remembering Henry hitting the deck. "It all just escalated so quickly...I know Jadizon was just trying to get the situation under control, and Henry was suddenly thrust into a conflicting set of orders and everyone's emotions were just dialed up to eleven. It was a clusterfuck that shouldn't have happened, and frankly it's as much my fault as anyone else's. If need to be put on report, I understand, but please make a note that Henry was not acting out of malice or had any intent to cause a problem. He was caught in a miscommunication that was affecting him deeply and there was little time to come to terms with anything." She looked up at Mark, trying to gauge his response.

Mark thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yes, it does need to be go on report. There's not much I can co about that, since it's...as an old human term goes, adjustments on things like that are above my pay grade. It will be noted, though, that you do not wish to press charges against him for disobeying your orders on account of it being a misunderstanding. Though I can't condone what he did, we all make mistakes at time. Heck, none of us would be on this ship in the first place if we were perfect, and that includes me as much as anybody else here. It should be noted that my oldest nephew and the teenage brother of the individual who was my assistant chief at the time Tessa and Cass came on board apparently also developed crushes on Tessa as well. She just seems to have that effect on some people. And admittedly, I remember my first crush as well, and how that ended was...well, probably not my finest hour either, so I don't want to come across as if I'm being entirely unsympathetic here from a personal level."

Mark made a few notes on his padd. "Now, is there anything you do want to occur here as a result?" he asked when he finished. "Maybe I give Nurse Taylor a good talking to, man to man, or maybe he gets to help clean the waste extraction system for a couple of days? Or do you feel that the time he spent in the brig and the dressing down he got from Senior Chief Enor is more than sufficient punishment under the circumstances, and you'd just rather have the report get filed so that we can put all of this behind us now?"

"Definitely the latter," Kally said. "He just watched the love of his life fly off never to see her again, and for his trouble he's gotten a punch, brig time, and now he's pretty much restricted himself to quarters. Figure I'll let him stay there until we leave orbit next week."

Mark nodded. "If there's anything that I can do to help on that, let me know. Otherwise, I'll just file this and call it a day. I think the captain and Commander Espersen will consider the case to be closed as well, and we're too far out for Starfleet Command to really do much more than grumble a bit about it if they have any issues with it."

Kally smiled with relief. "Thank you, Lieutenant. I appreciate your understanding." She stood up and offered a hand.

Mark took the offered hand and shook it. "I do aim to please," he replied.

"And don't be a stranger," she said, giving him a friendlier smile. "I wouldn't mind having you stop by again."

"I'm not sure," Mark said with a bit of a smile. "Would my stopping by again in such a capacity get me taken down by Senior Chief Enor?"

"I'm sure he'll restrain himself in here," Kally said, grinning. She walked him out of the office and to the door of Sickbay, giving him a friendly wave and a smile. As he walked out and the doors closed, she let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding and shook herself a bit in relief.