Chapter 2: The trip there
The messhall was alive with activity. The buzz was more buzzing as usual, as everyone was deeply involved in gossiping about what everyone knew about their sudden change of mission. Britjeh took a moment to overlook the crowd in the large room. When she spotted an empty table she walked over in a brisque pace and set down the plate filled with food she was carrying. As she was about to sit down, a shadow was cast over her. She looked up to find Lt. Jg. Tass standing next to her. "Can I join you? There seems to be no other place free at the moment" he asked her apologetically. "Sure" she replied, actually wanting to be alone, but finding the young Lt. was right. There were not other free places left. That's what you get for trying to eat dinner during 'chowtime'.
"So…. I've seen a lot of you on the bridge, but actually don't really know that much about you." Lt. Shake Tass asked her. "There's really not that much to know." Britjeh answered. "Ohkay….. is there anything you'd like to know about me?" Shake tried again, hoping to start a conversation. Britje wasn't having any of it though, determined not to make friend this time round. "Just what it would take to make you realize I have no interest in conversation."
Shake was taken aback somewhat at the rude reply of the lovely woman in front of him but then he regained his composure. "Just a little friendly chit chat to pass the time, then I'll leave you alone" he told her. Britjeh sighed at that. She had seen this coming and knew there was only one thing for it. "In that case, I'll have my dinner in my quarters" and standing up she added "Good day." And walked off towards the Messhall doorway. "Hey wait up!" Shake yelled, picking up his tray and following her. As he cought up to her he rounded her and stopped in her way. "Listen, I'm sorry. I should've respected your need for quiet. I'll leave and you can have your conversationless dinner… unbothered. I apologize"
Christ rounded the corner on his way to solve yet another trivial but inevitable computer problem. He was willing to bet this was another one of those user errors that didn't really require anything but knowledge of how to operate the computer to fix it. As he walked into the infermary a cacophany of curses greeted him. It was the chief medical officer who was so pissed his head seemed about ready to explode, standing in his private office in the back of the infermary.
"You bloody piece of shit! What the hell is wrong with you! Raise lighting by 5 or I'll ripp every piece of circuitry from your guts until you die!" the older man shouted. "What seems to be the problem?" Christ asked. "The bloody thing doesn't listen to me, it doesn't respond" snapped the doctor. "When did this start?" Christ asked in reply, allready having a suspicion as to what was going on. "It's like the bloody thing has it in for me personally. As soon as I step out of the office it does respond but when I get into my office… it hates me!" explained dr. Geddry.
"What was the last thing the computer did respond to when you were in the office?" Christ asked, surpressing a sigh, now sure the computer was working perfectly. "It was when I told it… oh my… I am so sorry." The doctor said, his cheeks coloring with appearant embarressment. "let me guess, you asked it to stop responding to vocal input in this room?" Christ pushed for an answer. "Yes" was the short, soft but resigned answer. Stepping outside the office Christ adressed the computer. "Computer, resume responding to vocal input in the doctor's office" The computer responded crisply and immediately "Now responding to vocal input in the doctor's office".
"I am so sorry. I didn't really think about it" the doctor said as Christ stepped inside the office again. "Computer, display medical files for Lt. Jg. Christ van Silfhout" the doctor ordered to test the workings. The computer chirped happily confirming the command had been received. Immediately the viewscreen lit up to show the medical record of Christ.
"Well, no problem but I do wonder… why'd you turn off the computer in here in the first place.?" Asked Christ. "Well, I mumble a lot when I am trying to diagnose an alement. The computer kept answering questions I was asking myself." Answered the doc, adding "So I told the computer not to listen to me in my officer… so stupid of me to forget that!". Christ could only nod. Then his communicator chimed. "Silfhout here." He stated. "This is commander Briated. Please report to my office" said the disembodied Cardassian voice of the Chief engineer. "Acknowleged." Christ answered and headed for the doors.
On his way to the Cmdr. Enabri Ated's office Christ wondered why the Chief engineer would want him in his office. Usually Christ never got to deal with the Chief, only with the Lt. Commander in charge of Usersupport. By the time Christ reached the office he'd succeeded in nothing more but make himself unreasonable nerveous. As the doors to the chief's office opened he stepped through and stood at attention. "Lt. Jg. Van Silfhout reporting as ordered, sir"
"At ease, please at ease Lt." the chief said, offering Christ a seat. "There is something I need to discuss with you. I am sending you on an away mission." The Cardassian chief stated. This shocked Christ enourmously. "Me? Why? I mean…" he started to say but was cut off when the Commander raised his hand.
"Because I think you're capable of it. And I feel that when a man of 33, with 15 years of Starfleet service under his belt, is still stuck at the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade there is a problem." He explained. Christ swallowed at that. He had been wondering when this issue would start to become a problem. Fact of the matter was that Christ was Happy where he was. He liked running around the ship and fixing people's problems with the computer systems. Problem was that Starfleet, like any other environment which was based on archievements thought of standing still as being going backwards.
"Sir… I…" Christ started to say, but again was cut off. "I'll make this as simpel and as clear as I can make it. You need to improve yourself or I will have to transfer you off of my engineering team. So either you step up to the plate, or you'll be sent off and out of the game." The Cardassian stated. Christ looked at him puzzled. "Even though I haven't got the faintest idea what plate you're talking about I do know what you mean." He said, and after a deep sigh of resignation "I guess I'll just have to do as ordered."
The chief frowned at that. "Come on. You know I need better than that. What happened?" he asked. Christ was surprised at that question, and his expression showed it. "I may not know you personally, but that does not mean I don't care about my people. I know that this attitude of yours would have never carried you through the Academy so I know that at one point you had a passion for your job. What I don't know is what happened to make you loose that passion?" the Cardassian said.
Christ frowned. This was the last thing he wanted to be thinking of. What had happened to the nice and quiet flow at which the day had begun?
Considering the possebillity of being transferred out to some backwater 'dump your useless starfleet officers here' position of which Starfleet denied they existed, Christ decided there was nothing for it and to be honest with the man on the other side of the desk. "Ever since the war I have serious doubts about having 'the right stuff' to be anything more than what I am now. I buckled… I failed… When the call came, I didn't answer it and failed my fellow officers. They died, I lived." He said, tears welling up in his eyes as the emotions he had been burying for the past few years. The look on the Cardassians face changed to that of concern.
Enabri was wondering if he'd done the right thing when he decided he would confront the man he was now facing. He'd never even considered the possebillity that an incident during the war was the reason for the man to be so complacent in the position he was working in. Now he was facing the possbillity of having forced the man to relive memories and tell them to a member of the species he was fighting. "I am sorry. If you'd rather speak to someone else about this, I could.." Enabri was starting to say but this time it was the Lt. Jg. That cut him off with a wave of his hand. "It's allright. I hold no grudges agains you personally. I know about your history. I would not have been able to work in your departement if I didn't" Christ told the Cardassian.
When Christ found out twelve months earlier that he would be working under a Cardassian he had allmost resigned his commission without further thinking. When he had looked up the Cardassian's public record he reconsidered. It turned out that Enabri Ated had been one of the earliest Cardassian rebels to take up arms against the Dominion. He had been a close friend of Legate Damar and had worked under the new legate Garak for a few months after the war before signing up with Starfleet. Christ took a deep breath before telling the tale he'd shared with no one so far.