Difficult Decisions

Posted on Thu Mar 24th, 2022 @ 7:06pm by Lieutenant JG Faith Vianelli & Captain Calypso Skyie

Mission: Lower Decks
Location: Cally's Quarters

The knowledge that Briella was safe with Rene helped to bring some comfort, but Faith knew she wouldn't relax now until this whole situation was over and her daughter was safe again. She had returned to her quarters, washed her face before changing into clean civilian clothes.

Picking up the PaDD she had been using earlier, Faith made her way into the corridor and toward the Captain's quarters, hitting the chime and waiting for Cally to answer.

The door slid open in response to Cally’s command and she poked her head around the corner of her small kitchen area, having flgraduated to walking around and noticed it was Faith, “Come on in, Faith, don’t be a stranger!” She called out as she pulled her head back in, “Can I get you a coffee or a tea?” She’d been getting herself a rich cup of Java, slow as she was moving maybe it had additional healing powers.

Faith shook her head slightly. The kindness that the Captain had continually shown her made her heart feel even heavier. "No, thank you Captain, I won't take too much of your time, I promise," she said quietly as she walked into the room and looked around. "I'm sorry for intruding on your personal time... I.." her voice wavered slightly. "Do you have a few moments?"

“Anytime, literally.” Cally reminded her as she exited the kitchen carefully with her cuppa cradled in both hands, stepping deliberately slowly, “What can I help you with?” She asked, raising a mental eyebrow at the civilian clothes, but she herself was in a comfortable set of UFP Marine sweats and barefoot, but the tone that Faith had used, “What’s wrong?”

She drew a deep breath, trying not to start crying again. Her eyes were still puffy and red, and her wrist ached from the way he had grabbed her, but her long sleeve covered the bruising that had already started to come through. "Captain, I'm sorry," she finally said softly. "I need to hand in my resignation, effective immediately. I'll be leaving tonight on the first transport shuttle available."

It didn’t take rocket science to know that Faith was in some sort of mental or emotional distress and for the first time in nearly twenty years Cally actually WANTED to reach out with her empathic sense, but she couldn’t. Instead, she looked at Faith for several seconds as the silence drew out, then grudgingly nodded with a decision, “Your resignation is NOT accepted, Faith, for several reasons, first of which is that I need more to go on than you just saying you’re handing it in. Why are you trying to resign your commission?”

"Starfleet isn't for me," Faith responded quietly. "I don't have what it takes. We're going to go find a nice quiet little town somewhere and settle down. Briella can go to school and grow up with kids her own age and I can open a private practice." The spiel sounded very rehearsed as she spoke.

Calypso sighed and sank down into one of the chairs, her good leg curled under her as she held onto her cup of coffee in both hands, “Sit.” She said, then waited a moment as Faith hesitated, “Sit.” This time it was a command, not to be disobeyed.

Faith was about to say something, but the tone the Captain invoked the second time made it clear this was not negotiable. Meekly Faith sat awkwardly on the edge of the chair that she was directed to.

“Now. Take off your left shoe, toss it on the ground, then angle yourself in that nice, comfy chair, toss a leg, either one, over the arm of it.” Cally waited until the younger woman was more settled as demanded, “Now, try that little speech of yours again.”

Sitting somewhat awkwardly, one sandal discarded as directed, leg over the arm rest, Faith tried to hold her long skirt in place, the movement causing the shoulder of her sweater to dip, revealing the bruising from the rough grip earlier. "Captain, I have decided that Starfleet isn't for me. We're going to go find a nice quiet little town somewhere and settle down. Briella can go to school and grow up with kids her own age and I can open a private practice." The words were echoed with a tone that was equally rehearsed, just delivered more awkwardly.

Cally’s eyes were flitting across Faith and her eyes caught the discoloration even as her ears took in the same words, but she couldn’t just ask straight up, could she? She reached out and placed the cup on the side table and clasped her hands in her lap, considering the younger woman, “You’re telling me that you spent nearly six years at the Academy, then spent several weeks here on the ship and finally managed to graduate and suddenly it isn’t for you? All that hard work and you just *want* to throw it all away?”

"I'm not throwing it away, I can still go into private practice," Faith shot back, her voice rising a little with pent up emotion. "It'll be safer for Briella... I mean, better."

Calypso leaned forward in her chair, “No, you meant safer.” She stated definitively, “And I understand that a starship may not be the safest place in the galaxy for a child, but you don’t have to worry about some weirdo kidnapping them from a school or a front yard or anything, because we’ve got some rather good security personnel and some good marines to go along with them.” Her eyes went to Faith’s own, “What has you scared for Briella’s safety? And what does it have to do with that bruise?” It wasn’t her Captain’s voice, it was the voice of a woman who was actively concerned.

Faith sat upright, straightening both her skirt and her sweater. "Captain, please, just accept my resignation," she pleaded, tears welling in her eyes. "Please just take my resignation so I can go. I need to go."

"Don't make me call Doctor Rast to give you a once-over." Calypso said softly, referring to the new doctor that had replaced Syrial after they'd returned to the Starbase, "Faith, I know I'm just an old lady and I'm not at my tip top best right now, but I can protect you from whoever did that to you, but I need you to talk to me. I need to know who did that to you and I can keep them from doing that again."

"I can't." Two words. Simple, final and resolute.

"Then I can't let you leave this ship." Calypso countered.

"Then I'll go AWOL." Faith's voice wavered, but her resolution was obvious.

"You wouldn't get the chance." Cally shook her head, "Faith, I don't want you to trust me, I need you to. My only other options are to have you taken to sickbay so that Doc Rast can look you over and give me her best guess on what caused your injuries and I take it from there, or if I have to, I have Security put you in the brig while they investigate things." She opened her hands so that her palms showed, "The only other option is for you to tell me what happened to you, Faith. Help me help you, please." Her eyes pleaded with the younger officer.

There was a moment where Faith calculated the options. "And if you throw me in the brig then he takes Briella," she countered. "And he has every damned right to, especially if you have me declared unfit! Don't you see? The only way you can help me is to let me go. I can take her, go somewhere safe, somewhere he won't find her. Somewhere she'll be safe."

Calypso's eyes narrowed to slits. No name had been spoken, but it was obvious that Faith was under threat and that meant that something had to be done. "You're wrong." She said softly, dismissing the idea that she'd even consider letting Briella be parted from Faith, "If you leave the Fleet, then we can't protect you as well; you'd be on your own and when he found you again, not if, we wouldn't be there."

She made a decision and held up one finger to forestall any response, leaning over and tapping a button on the table, "Security, inform the Starbase that our transporters are down for maintenance. I want a double sentry on the docking port checking credentials for any visitors to the ship and I want every single visitor on board accounted for within the next ten minutes." She paused only as long as it took to get a confirmation, then double-tapped the button to kill the link, "You and Briella will be safe so long as you're on board Chimera, Faith. You have my word of honor on that. I'm presuming that he's somewhere on the starbase right now?"

A violent shiver ran through Faith's body and the tears started to fall, her shoulders shaking with sobs. She leaned forward, her elbows on her knees, hands covering her face as her dark hair fell, curtaining her face from view. "I... I..." she stammered between sobs. "I don't know."

Despite the aches and discomfort that it caused, Cally hauled herself out of her chair and went to her knees in front of Faith, "I don't want you going on the station again, not if you don't absolutely have to. If you do, I want you to take a security officer or a Marine with you, the Gunny would be more than happy to be an escort for you, she's saved my own rear end twice when I got shot down." The Captain admitted, "But what I also want you to do is give me a description of him and if possible an actual image that we can give to station security and try to grab him. For one, the charge of assault is a gimme if you're willing to give a statement and let the doc make a record of your injury. We are a family here on Chimera, Faith, we won't let anyone hurt you if I have any damned say about it."

Inhaling deeply and then exhaling slowly, Faith tried to overcome the emotion that overwhelmed her. She dashed her hands across her eyes, deliberately avoiding meeting the Captain's eyes. "He doesn't care about me, he wants Briella," she said quietly, her voice still wavering with heavy emotion.

"I'll burn in hell before he takes her." Cally vowed, "But I want him behind bars or a forcefield, because he's a danger to you, to Briella and my crew. I'm not willing to just settle for leaving him behind to cause mayhem when he doesn't get what he wants, not if I don't have to."

"He always gets what he wants," Faith replied quietly, her voice barely above a shaky whisper. "And in this case, he has a legal claim." She drew in another deep breath, pulling the sleeves of her sweater down to cover her hands, twisting them together anxiously. "He's her father."

"And your point?" Cally shook her head, "Has he filed for custody with the courts? Have they ordered you to give him Briella? If the answer to either of those is 'no', then if he takes Briella from you, it isn't a legal claim, it's kidnapping. If he even tried or tries, it's attempted kidnapping and that's still punishable. It's only a legal claim if he does everything by the legal process."

"His name isn't on her birth records. After the Academy dismissed the disciplinary action I just wanted to do everything I could to protect her from him." There was another deep, shaky intake of breath and she gripped her hands together tightly. "I thought joining the Chimera would mean he couldn't get to her."

"Once we get onto our real mission and not any of the errands that the Commodore has us running?" Cally gave a brief snort of laughter before settling down, "I'd like to see him try to keep up with us. We're going to go where no one from the Federation has ever been before. He won't get to her there, nor will he get to her here."

"He already did. He just swooped in and picked her up. He..." Faith's hands started to shake again. Clearly, reteling the events was not something she was okay with. "I have 48 hours to hand in my resignation and take Briella to him. I... i..." again, she stammered over words, trying to formulate what to say. "I don't even know how he knew she existed."

Cally nodded slowly, “Well, what you are absolutely not doing is handing in your resignation or taking Briella to him. I’ll be damned if scum like he seems to be Will abduct anyone from my ship. No one will get on board without positive Fleet ID or authorization, period. I know it’ll be tough, but I’m going to need you to help us with a description and where you last saw him so we can at least have the Station security people on the lookout for him, detain him if they can.”

"I had no intention of taking Briella to him," Faith clarified. "I wanted to take Briella away from him." She dashed her hands across her eyes again. "His name is David Stevens. He was at the Academy with me. There should be a photo in his academy file?" she suggested.

“That there should be.” Cally agreed, “And I’ll get that to Starbase Security as well as our sentries. I promise you, Faith, you are safe as long as you stay aboard ship. If you need anything from the base, let me know and we’ll arrange for it.”

"I wish you'd just let me leave," Faith said quietly, looking down at her hands in her lap. "I don't want or need the crew knowing my personal business. It's bad enough that I have to say anything to you."

"No. And no one will explicitly know what is going on or whom or why." Calypso shook her head, "There doesn't have to be anything specific about why he's a person of interest or who he's a threat to. Oh sure, if we get him, we'll have to go into more detail, but that would all be behind closed doors. No one can put you and him together by chance, so you don't have to worry about that."

"He isn't listed on her birth records, there's no record of anything between us ever, except the disciplinary records at the Academy that were dismissed," Faith said softly, still not meeting Cally's eyes. Finally, she looked up, tears welling again. "I'm sorry Captain."

"Don't be sorry." Calypso said, leaning forward and awkwardly getting to her feet to wrap Faith up in a hug, "We'll get this sorted out. We protect our own. Always."

Faith stood up suddenly, tugging her sweater down. "I'm sorry Captain, I need to go. I..." She shook her head slightly. "I'm only going to my quarters, I promise... I just... I need to be alone."

"Of course." Cally backed off, wondering if she'd gone too far. Dammit, she wasn't a counselor, she was just... A Marine who'd probably gotten in over her head in command of a ship. "If you need anything..."