Chapter 2 – Sisko In The Spotlight
Sisko made it to Starfleet Headquarters as the working day was winding down and had just time enough to register with reception and collect his credentials before the unit shut down. He went directly to his temporary quarters, got himself unpacked and settled, took a shower, then hiked on over to the mess. His own internal clock was still set to the rhythms of DS9's day and he was ravenous for what would have been a long delayed lunch. He loaded his plates and found a quiet secluded spot far from the entrance.
Halfway through dessert, he was startled by the clamp of hands on his shoulders. He swung about and confronted two uniformed humans, both male, both grinning inanely.
"Good god. Rick and Dick!"
"Benji! What the hell are you doing hiding back here?" the shoulder-grabber exclaimed, and Sisko, laughing, shot to his feet.
There followed a moment of purely masculine reunion as palms thumped backs and forearms were grasped, then decorum prevailed and the three of them sat back down. Sisko regarded the newcomers, his friends Richard Dawe and Dick Thornycroft, with delight. They were his contemporaries, old class chums from way back.
"So," Thornycroft, the man who had surprised Sisko, persisted, "what's up, Big Ben? You back to sniff out more Changelings for us?"
"Not this time." He took a deep breath to steady himself. "Looks like I have to answer for Solosis Three," he said lightly.
His words drew a complete blank. "You know? The inquiry?" Try though he might, he couldn't prevent a slight quaver from entering his voice. "The world I poisoned to bring in Eddington?"
Thronycroft drew a hand over his prematurely lined face and pulled thoughtfully at his chin. "We know about the inquiry, Ben, just…" He petered out and Rick Dawe stepped in.
"We heard there was some sort of negligence on ITU's part. We were kind of wondering why the board was sitting here at all, thought maybe it had to do with the crash occurring in the demilitarized zone."
"Really?" Sisko blinked rapidly, stared hard at his abandoned dessert. "I—haven't been told very much."
His friends exchanged glances. "It's probably just routine testimony," Thornycroft opined. "You know these civvies. They have to drag everything out."
"I don't know… Admiral Mack is testifying."
"Huh. Mack." Thornycroft waved a hand dismissively. "Mack'd testify at anything if it got him public recognition. I think he's got political ambitions."
"Besides, Starfleet already sanctioned your actions," said Dawe. "Your name got bandied about quite a bit when Eddington got shipped back. Everyone I know thought you were a hero."
"Apparently we don't know the same people," Sisko said bitterly.
"Oh Ben, quit worrying about it. Nobody's going to charge you," insisted Thornycroft. "Look, I know these jokers. Their ass is long since covered. You'll get up, babble a bit, and that'll be the end of it."
"I wish I had your assurance."
Thornycroft laughed, leaned forward, and pointedly tapped the rank insignia on his collar. "Benji, in case it's slipped your notice, I'm a Command puke now. I know."
"Well…"
There followed a pregnant pause, backgrounded by the low murmur of other diners, the sharper racket made by entrants just arriving. Sisko felt the weight of his friends' expectations, the implacable demands of all Starfleet upon him, and surrendered to devoir. He relaxed and his set expression fell, not without relief.
"Better," Thornycroft the commodore remarked. "I swear, this Dominion thing's made you paranoid. No matter what you might think, we do look after our own. Now—what's been going on at the station of yours anyway?"
"It's been…interesting." The change to a professional subject rather than one that was personal, relieved Ben further. He began to regain his pleasure in his friends' company as he spoke and regaled them with some of his recent adventures.
"What's it like having the Klingons there?" Dawe wanted to know. "That general, what's his name, the one the Dominion held for so long?"
"Martok? He's all right. I expect he'll do well once fully recovered. The Jem'Hadar worked him over pretty badly."
Mention of the Dominion soldiers aroused Dawe's ire. He swore and his pale eyes glittered. "I wish I was out there. It's so bloody frustrating being stuck in Ops and just watching all the time. You're lucky, Ben."
Thornycroft gave Dawe a nudge with his elbow. "Now, now. They also serve who sit and plot," he paraphrased. "I'm sure Big Ben sometimes wishes he were out of that whole mess and back here, right? Right?"
"Sometimes," Sisko admitted. A few seconds ticked by. His resolve broke and a huge grin spread. "But not often," he added, and Rick Dawe swore again.
"Dammit!" he cried, and they all laughed.
The following morning, Sisko had his first meeting with the person who'd been assigned to provide him with legal assistance. She turned out to be civilian, not military, a bright, very youthful-appearing human woman who seemed far too cheerful and optimistic to have plied her trade for very long. She kept Ben waiting for quite some time while she scanned her screen and ruffled through a sheaf of printouts, humming tunefully under her breath throughout.
"Well, this all seems quite straightforward," she pronounced at last. "Have you ever given evidence at a civilian inquiry before, Captain?"
"No-o," said Sisko. The woman's breezy, offhand manner both fascinated and slightly alarmed him. He opened his mouth to speak, thought better of it, and watched her go through a second long printout, occasionally highlighting sections she'd read. When done, she favoured him with a smile that seemed at once both chipper and self-satisfied, then handed over the printout.
Sisko recognized it as a copy of the official report he'd sent in to Starfleet months ago. The pages had been stamped with a big red 'DECLAS' both top and bottom.
"I've marked all the portions the board will want to hear about," she advised. "When you give your testimony in your own words, I wouldn't bother with the rest unless you're asked."
Her client was going over his own recorded words in some confusion. "Miss Gesser, this isn't…very much."
"No, but it's all that pertains to your personally. I very much doubt that anyone would want to hear more."
"But there's nothing here which would explain the situation. It's just the final portion of the mission, our—my—actions after learning that Eddington had used biogenics."
Another perky smile. "That's quite correct, Captain Sisko. Admiral Mack will be the one acquainting the board with any necessary background applicable to the military operations that were used to capture Commander Eddington. He'll detail Starfleet's involvement and events as far as your rescuing the disabled Malinche and you can carry on from there."
"Oh, I—" He laboured to come up with some objection, some oversight to point out. "Is there not some topic I should steer clear of? Something I might say that could damage my—" He'd been about to say 'reputation', but stopped himself just in time. That would have made him sound paranoid, as Thornycroft had charged. He finished lamely, "My career?"
Gesser regarded him with puzzlement. "You're concerned that this testimony could impact on your career?"
"Let's just say I have—doubts."
"Well…" she seemed disappointed with him. "You do have the right to request a lawyer, a military lawyer, if you prefer."
"Wait a moment. Aren't you a lawyer?"
"Oh. No. Good god, no." His question seemed to strike her as intensely amusing. She could barely keep herself from laughing aloud. "I'm a legal counsel, Captain. You don't need a lawyer to just testify. You're not on trial, you know."
"I'm not?" Sisko, like a fool, exclaimed, and couldn't blame Gesser one bit for responding with a plain gawk of disbelief and another tortured effort to contain her laughter.
"Oh goodness, no," she replied, emphasizing the negative, then looked upon him with sympathy. "Captain, I think someone has given you an entirely wrong idea of what this inquiry is about."
"So it would seem," Sisko admitted ruefully.
Two days later, Sisko gave his testimony. Before a board of five civilians, watched by a large gallery of Starfleet colleagues and other onlookers, reporters and relatives, Ben explained how he had taken it upon himself to resume his chase after the traitor, Michael Eddington, and how and why he had countered Eddington's threats by poisoning the biosphere of Solosis Three with trilithium resin to flush out a Macquis cell. His counsel, Gesser, moved in to lead him briefly through the political aftermath to his successful tactics—she emphasized that they'd been successful—and then he was done and the board was allowed to question him further. But there were no questions. They simply thanked and dismissed him and Sisko was free to go. The letdown was such that he hurried confused over to base operations, needing to immerse himself in some military complexity to resettle his mind.
Richard Dawe, who was on shift duty, met him at the entrance. "Hey, Ben, done already?"
"Rick, you wouldn't believe it. Twenty-five minutes, tops. They never even questioned me."
"Told you."
He let Sisko come inside, cleared him through security and the scans, and the two began making their way into the complex. Sisko was still perplexed by the ease with which he'd gotten through his self-imposed trial. "That Nechayev," he said. "I'm beginning to wonder whether I truly needed to come back here at all."
"Think she set you up?"
"I don't know. Maybe it was all done to justify employing…well, never mind."
"You mean the Cybertron."
"What else?"
They strode on in silence for a moment. "You know, Ben, about Cybertron, I've been hearing rumours…"
"I'm not interested in rumours." Sisko's mood, already agitated, was starting to darken. "I'm tired of rumours. Any rumours. From now on, I want facts."
"Still, there's talk. About Starfleet wanting to bring Cybertron on line…" He shrugged, even though Sisko wouldn't look at him. "Against the Dominion, I guess. I don't know why. They're just machines."
"They're more than that," Sisko muttered. He expelled a loud breath in annoyance. "Rick, I don't want to talk about this. Right now, I just want to see what's happening back at DS9."
"Oh, sure, Ben, sure," Dawe said, his eyes wide, and led him on into Ops.
Ben Sisko soon had more kindling for his smouldering annoyance. The following day, he was presented with a nasty surprise that instantly propelled him over to the base's administrative section, where he accosted the first admin clerk he saw.
"This can't be correct," he insisted, thrusting a message printout at the clerk.
The clerk looked it over. "I'm—sorry, sir. It's quite in order."
"There must be some mistake," Sisko insisted, and the admin clerk he was speaking to, an Andorian, lowered his gaze. It embarrassed him to be involved in a disagreement with a superior officer, however one-sided.
"Would you like to speak to the NCO, sir?" he offered, then was spared any further humiliation by the timely arrival of an even higher power.
"I'll handle this, son," Commodore Thornycroft told the clerk kindly before turning his attention onto Sisko. "Ben! What brings you to Admin? I could hear you all the way over in my office."
"It's this message," Sisko said, turning it over with relief. "I found it in my mail when I got back to my quarters after breakfast."
Thornycroft studied it. "It's a course loading message. Two weeks, starting tomorrow."
"It's for leadership intro, level five," Sisko pointed out.
"Yes? And?"
The commodore's expression had turned completely neutral. Sisko shook his head, frustrated. "For god's sake, Dick," he exploded, "I took that course years ago!"
Thornycroft very carefully folded the message in half and handed it back.
"I'm sorry, Ben. There's nothing I can do about this."
"It's a mistake—"
"No, it's not. Look—" He paused to move closer and lowered his voice. "Ben, look, this message originated with Command, so it's no error. Now, you're here at Headquarters for an additional two weeks regardless, or however long it takes the inquiry to wrap up Starfleet's end of things. Somebody obviously thinks your time'd be better spent in a classroom than hanging around moping and worrying."
"Who?" Sisko demanded. "Who thinks that?"
"I don't know. Probably Nechayev. She commander in charge of your sector, isn't she?"
Sisko admitted that she was. Thornycroft waited and gave him a minute. At last, grumpily, he asked, "What should I do?"
"I guess I'd make sure I was in that classroom first thing tomorrow morning," Thornycroft said.
Sisko had little choice after that but to take the commodore's advice. He also knew he'd be in for a fortnight of misery the next morning the moment he saw his classmates start arriving. None of them were of a rank higher than lieutenant commander. All of them, without exception, looked startled upon catching sight of him, nodded politely, then sought out seats near the front, far away from him. Sisko sighed and sank ever further into despondency. He was well aware of his forlorn status; the solitary captain, sitting alone.
But not for long. A brisk, taut man strode into the classroom. He spotted Ben, did a double-take, then came up smiling and slid into the seat next to Sisko's. He wore captain's pips and seemed intensely familiar. Even so, it took Sisko a moment to place him.
"Ben…Maxwell?" he exclaimed, in near disbelief.
"That's right," Maxwell grinned. His face, careworn and seamed, showed the hardships he'd endured, yet there was about him an air of great cheerfulness. Sisko didn't know what to say next. He could hardly ask, how was prison? as if inquiring after someone's last posting, yet that's where Maxwell had been—still was, Sisko had thought. To his dismay, he saw Maxwell start logging onto the terminal on his desk. He evidently meant to stay right where he was.
"You're Ben Sisko, aren't you?" asked Maxwell. "Commander of DS9?"
Sisko nodded warily, although technically Maxwell was incorrect. The other officer—reinstated officer, Sisko reminded himself—nodded with satisfaction.
"I knew it. I've been following events out your way, expect I'll be out in your sector in another couple of months or so."
"You—will?"
"Sure! They've pardoned me, you know. They're even giving me back a ship." Maxwell stabbed at a control with huge pleasure. "It's those damn Cardies! Never thought I'd owe them, but I do. Command knows I understand how to handle them, even if I did miscalculate politics a time or two in the past. And now that Cardassia's allied itself with the Dominion…" He drove a finger down again, as if already jabbing at a fire control toggle.
Sisko goggled at him. Maxwell had done more than miscalculate, he'd gone on a rampage, wielding his starship like a murderous scythe during his personal glory charge through Cardassian space. He couldn't begin to comprehend why such a man was being returned to active service. It was worse than Command's appointment of Commander Optimus. At least Optimus, mechanoid though he was, seemed a sort one could trust.
Maxwell was far too delighted to simply be part of Starfleet again to take any notice of Sisko's tacit disapproval of him or to respect his reserved silence. He looked at the other officers sitting in the classroom, seemed to observe their youth and rank for the first time, then learned over towards Ben conspiratorially.
"We two old war horses ought to ace this refresher," he murmured with glee, and Sisko felt like hitting him.
Midway through Sisko's course, the board of inquiry investigating the ITU crash on Solosis Three absolved Starfleet of any wrongdoing and Sisko and the other military personnel who'd been called to testify found themselves freed from any further obligations. The inquiry was moved to a civilian court and resumed a day later, and Sisko began hearing the facts of the negligence to which his gossipy friends had alluded. The vessel, Interstellar Trade Union registered, a regular traveller through the DMZ, should have been fitted with safety and emergency comm gear which it simply hadn't possessed for reasons yet unknown. The Cardassian colony on Solosis Three had never known of the crash on their world until far too late. Even worse, most of the casualties had died needlessly, choking to death on at atmosphere made lethal to their human physiology after the ship's crew had managed a very creditable emergency landing. A few hours of breathable canned air would have saved almost all of them. It was very sad. Sisko thought of his own wife's death as he listened and was glad that her passing had not been so drawn out in suffering, so pointless and so vile.
This Sisko suffered in other ways, however. Maxwell clung to him, as like often clings to like, the only two captains taking classes intended to introduce new seniors to a whole new level of leadership. He persisted in regarding the entire two weeks as a refresher course and Sisko never once tried to argue otherwise. Sisko had closed his mind to Maxwell, the only way he could personally deal with him. He listened when he spoke, endured his company, worked willingly alongside him, but never with him, not in partnership as good officers were meant to work. If Maxwell was ever aware of Sisko's true feelings, he didn't care. He aced the course.
Ben Sisko also passed, of course, although with lower marks, and the instant he'd scribbled out a cursory course critique and borne the last instructor's nauseating congratulatory recital, he bolted for his quarters and the hope of finding travel orders back to Deep Space Nine. But none were waiting. He knocked around his rooms until he was sure that all the routine traffic for the day was long sent, then sought refuge for the rest of the evening at an obscure holoshow in downtown San Francisco. The last thing he wanted to do was run into his celebrating course mates or, god forbid, Captain Maxwell.
His spirits lifted when he got a friendly invite from Thornycroft to drop by the next morning. The same poor clerk Sisko had harangued before greeted him at once and escorted him to the AdminO's office.
"Ah! Benji! Excellent. I knew you'd show up." Thornycroft was in an expansive mood. He made a joke of Sisko's having passed his course, waved him to a more comfortable chair, and came out from behind his desk to share a morning coffee with him. Good real coffee, not replicated. Sisko closed his eyes with pleasure as he inhaled the delectable aroma. Thornycroft offered him a small crystal dish full of sweets. "Here. Real chocolate, too. Goes great with the coffee."
"Thanks, but I'll take mine straight," said Sisko. He eyed his friend, a little suspiciously. "What is this, anyway? Showing off your Command perks?"
"No, just a half-assed toast. To your survival. Surviving the inquiry. Surviving the course. Surviving…Maxwell."
"He was the worst," Sisko intoned solemnly.
"Amen to that. I would have slugged him the first day." Thornycroft chuckled as he carefully replaced the lid on the dish of chocolates. Sisko watched him, a half-smile back on his own face.
"There is something going on," he said. "Dick…" The commodore abruptly laughed outright, an infectious laugh, full of good humour. "Out with it," Sisko urged.
"Oh hell, Ben, I can't keep this in any longer. Here. Read this. But mind that it's unofficial yet. Don't go blabbing it all over."
He handed Sisko an activated padd and sat back, smug and expectant. Sisko mulled over the message onscreen for a long moment. "What is this?" he asked.
"God, can you not read all of a sudden? They're putting you on your nines course. Benji. You're getting promoted—hell, you'll be acting come Monday, see the date?"
"Promoted!" Sisko gasped.
"Straight to commodore. Congratulations!"
Sisko didn't hear or acknowledge him. He lunged to his feet, stood there with his chest heaving, his mouth gaping. "What about DS9?" he cried.
"What about it? Let someone else handle it. Besides, it's not as if you're leaving the sector. I've heard that they're opening up a post for you on Bajor."
"Bajor!"
"Military attaché or some such. Pretty impressive. Way to go, Ben! You're on the first rung of the ladder."
Sisko was still panting with emotion, but the reality was starting to seep through. His expression turned wretched, guilt-stricken. "What did I do?"
Thornycroft regarded him with curiosity. "You didn't do anything. What's the matter with you, Ben? You've been working towards admiral your whole career. Don't you want that anymore?"
"Not like this!"
"Well, how then? You can't get promoted if you're going to stick in your heels and mark time." His tone grew cooler, a little annoyed. "It's a big opportunity for you. You'll be the sole Federation rep to an important system. You'll still be right in there, right on top of things."
"I just won't be running them!" Sisko snapped, and Thornycroft's eyes narrowed then and he drew down his imposing grey brows with angry deliberation.
"No," he said, "you won't. But you'll be protecting Federation interests just as surely as do your people aboard DS9. If you can't see that, if you believe otherwise, you belittle all of us who hold shore postings."
Sisko turned his face aside, unable to meet the commodore's cold stare. The worst of it was that Thornycroft was right, but it was a truth Sisko had long feared hearing. He hung his head, defeated and suffused with grief.
Commodore Thornycroft got up. He took one of Sisko's hands as if to shake it, placed his other on Ben's shoulder. "This is the way it is, Benji," he said quietly. "Now, what you're going to do is thank me for giving you this news. Tonight, we're going to get the gang together and celebrate. And then you're going to train for your new appointment and do the best job of it that you can because you're Starfleet and that's how it's done. All right, Captain?"
Sisko shook Thornycroft's hand. "Yes, sir," he said.
Later, as planned, Sisko, Thornycroft, Dawe, and several others of the old class, all that remained and could be gathered up on short notice, celebrated Ben's impending promotion that evening at his father's restaurant. As he watched his father bustle about, so happy and proud, the years dropping away as he served out his best dishes, Ben was suddenly glad that he'd taken Dick Thornycroft's advice and began to look to his future with glum resignation.
But oh, how it still hurt inside!
The following Monday, Ben Sisko received his official promotion to commodore. It was an acting commission, dependent upon his successful completion of his senior management course, but Sisko did not foresee any problems in that department. The stresses of administering DS9 had already taught him much. He began his classes immediately and found them absorbing, even interesting, but not particularly hard. DS9 sent word that his onboard quarters would be held for him until he returned to take up his appointment on Bajor and that was that end of it taken care of as well. He settled into the academic grind after several weeks. During the weekdays, he lived in temporary quarters at Headquarters, and he spent most of his weekend time with his father.
One Friday afternoon, just as the last class of the day was finishing up, a runner brought him the message to return home at his earliest convenience. Sisko, apprehensive, always mindful of his father's questionable health, transported as soon as he could arrange for a slot. What was waiting for him was a much pleasanter surprise than he'd anticipated.
"Jake!"
His son slouched forward into his embrace, as endearingly sweet and gangling as ever. "Hi, Dad," he said.
"Jake, why— What are you doing here?" Whatever the reason, his heart already sang. He felt truly happy for the first time in a month.
Ben's own dad, standing to one side, was beaming with equal joy. "Jake's come home, home to stay," he crooned. He stepped forward to slip his own arm about his grandson, almost as if he too could barely believe in his presence. "We're all together now," he concluded with satisfaction.
"You're staying?" Ben looked from one to the other of the two, the willowy youngster and the weathered, solid old man standing protectively at his side. "What do you mean?"
"I decided to go to Pennington, Dad. So I've kinda—moved in."
"You've left DS9."
It was a statement, not a question, spoken with a certain wonder behind it. How often Ben had wished Jake in a safer place, away from the wormhole, yet he'd never quite mustered the cruel courage to order his son away. Now here he was, in the best of all places. Ben Sisko gazed at the two people he loved most in all the universe and felt better still.
"Why, that's wonderful, son. I'm glad." He remembered past incidents which had revealed the depth of Jake's dependence on him. "Guess it got kind of lonely with the Old Man gone, huh?"
"Yeah… Actually, a lot of civilians left. And then Optimus and I had this talk and he sort of convinced me I'd be better off here…"
"Optimus convinced you?"
That half-floored Sisko. In his own way, Jake had one of the most determined personalities he knew. It was never easy convincing Jake to do anything. "Well," he added, "that was…good of him."
Jake shifted around and slumped, getting fidgety with so much loving attention focused on himself. "He's nice, Dad. Oh, and Kassidy's going to visit soon, too. She doesn't live on the station anymore either."
"I see," Sisko remarked. "It sounds as though Commander Optimus likes making changes."
"Well, it's the war. Um, the one they expect, I mean. They just don't want to be distracted."
"And I for one couldn't agree more," Ben's father said. He squeezed Jake with fierce affection. "When you go back to DS9," he said, addressing Ben, "I want you to thank this commander for me. Thank him for me for sending me my grandson."
Ben watched Jake trying to tactfully wriggle out of his grandfather's embrace. "I'll be sure to do that," he answered dryly.
TBC