Corriene was back at work the next day, Doctor McCoy healing the broken ribs and contusions to her face and hands in record time.
"Try to lay off the hero stuff for a while okay?" McCoy had glibly remarked as she had made her way out of the Med Bay. She wasn't a hero, she wasn't known for saving the day. She was known for getting on with her job. Corriene had worked in the private sector for a number of years, becoming a Fellow she had long ago reached her childhood career aspirations. On the day of the attack, when an act of terrorism destroyed most of Starfleet and what it represented, Corriene had enlisted. Four years later she had spent a year at the Academy and become an Officer, quickly rising through the ranks.
Yesterday she'd lost her friend and Mentor Oliver Meloy, he hadn't been much older than her but he'd taken her under his wing and taught her everything he knew. She was going to miss him, a lot.
Lying on her back under one of the antimatter chambers Corriene carried on repairing the damage that had been done by the attack, the warp core was working but it had sustained heavy damage and needed a full overhaul. Crew were pulling double shifts and working overtime to get the Enterprise back up to standard, throughout her morning under the chambers fellow Crew and Officers had stopped by, kicked her boot and thanked her for saving their behinds. She'd thrown back an 'Anytime' and carried on. That's about as much as you got in Engineering and that suited her fine.
"Lieutenant Lees?!" She heard Ensign Wise shout out her name.
"I'm up here!" She shouted back, carrying on with her work. A moment later she was aware of people standing nearby.
"Mister Scott, how are the repairs getting on?" Corriene froze at the sound of the Captain's voice, not moving she waited for the response from her boss.
"Aye we're getting there Captain, we canny go any faster." The two men were stood right where her feet jutted out from under the chamber, stopping what she was doing she tried to peer down over her chest and down her legs. All she could see was two sets of boots facing each other.
"I know you are Mister Scott, I know you are." Kirk replied encouragingly.
"Well, is there anything else I can do for you Captain?" Scotty asked after a moment of silence.
"I was looking for Lieutenant Lees, Ensign Wise over there said she was up here?" Corriene felt her heart pound in her chest, closing her eyes she just wished she could disappear. What was it going to look like to the Chief Engineer and Captain that she had chosen to stay put as they'd had a conversation right there at her feet?
"Aye, the Lass was here a moment ago. Way da now, I'll go find her." Corriene watched Scotty's boots turn and walk away, leaving only the one pair remaining, the Captain's. A spark from the conduit she'd just installed burst out just above her head making her jump in surprise.
"Shit!" Cracking her head on the unit she coughed as a plume of smoke billowed around her. Corriene felt two hands grab her boots and pull her out and up from under the unit.
"Are you okay?" Still coughing Corriene nodded her head.
"I'm fine, fine Captain." Waving her hands in front of her face she gave Kirk a meek smile. Rubbing her eyes with her balled up hands she noticed them covered in soldering soot meaning her face must have been also. She hastily pulled the rag from her belt and dabbed it over her face. He didn't look convinced by her initial answer.
"You sure?" He asked again, wondering if the woman was a genius Engineer or just a liability.
"Yes Captain, what do you want?" Kirk couldn't help but raise his eyebrows at her abruptness and immediately saw that her cheeks turned a violent shade of red. "I'm so sorry Captain, I mean, what I was meant to say was how can I help?" Kirk decided to let her feel like she'd pissed him off for a while longer, so kept his expression stern.
"I read your report."
"You did?" Again he was put off with her unusual style of dialogue; he blinked rapidly and tried to remember his train of thought.
"Yes, of course. Why would I not?" He was frustrated that he'd been pulled into her line of questioning and cleared his throat. Stretching out his shoulders and refocussing on her face Kirk set about again.
"I read your report." As Corriene opened her mouth once more Kirk quickly brought up his hand in objection to her interruption. Corriene looked at his hand and then back to him, seeing something in his eyes she couldn't quite read. She closed her mouth. "I had a few more questions I'd like you to clear up." Kirk took in her features, piercing blue eyes that never stopped focusing, a petite nose that sat above perpetually pursed, crooked and tightly pressed together plump lips. Every thought, reaction, idea and feeling was easily read in her features and Kirk found himself mesmerised by them.
"Questions?" Corriene said confused, as far as she was concerned everything that needed to be said was in the report. She didn't fail to notice him rolling his eyes at her.
"Yes Lieutenant, questions." He hoped by using her rank she would remember that she was talking to a Captain, her Captain. He didn't for one second believe she was being purposely insubordinate but he found teasing her somewhat amusing.
"Of course Captain, shoot." Corriene finally responded, ignoring the headache growing by the minute.
"You didn't put the reason in your report as to why you evacuated the Deck?" Kirk crossed his arms and leant against a nearby railing.
"I didn't?" Corriene replied without really thinking.
"Lieutenant, you don't strike me as the kind that easily forgets, come on. Why did you evacuate the Deck?" Corriene looked at him for a moment, something in his eyes made her not want to feed him a line of bullshit or give him the answer she thought he wanted rather than the truth.
"I didn't want anybody else to die Captain, nothing more, nothing less." Her answer caught Kirk off guard, it was brutally honest. What's more he understood, more than he cared to think about in that moment. He'd had every intention of grilling the Lieutenant when he'd walked into Engineering that day, why had she evacuated personnel carrying out essential maintenance? Why had she breached policy, not responded to a Commanding Officer's instructions? Why had she risked her own life? Now though, he decided against it. Nodding his head, he gave her a quick wink.
"Very well Lieutenant, but if I catch wind that you disobey orders again I'll have you cleaning out the waste pipes like that." With a click of his fingers to punctuate his threat he turned away.
"Aye Captain." Corriene replied, slightly amused and pleasantly surprised.
"You're heads bleeding." Kirk commented as he walked away, turning back he watched as she brought her hand up to her hairline and cringed when as she felt the small cut. "Don't get blood on my floor Lieutenant, you hear me?" Turning back round he found himself smiling.
"When we spoke last, what was it? Four months ago, I thought I'd made myself clear Lieutenant Lees?" Corriene stood stock still in front of Kirk's desk staring above his head at the wall behind him. "Lieutenant?" This time she looked at him, sitting with his arms crossed looking decidedly pissed off. He was waiting for a response she knew it. "Answer me Lieutenant?" The tone of his voice denoted he had very little patience left.
"I'm sorry Captain, can you repeat the question?" She asked leading to Kirk sitting back in his chair in resignation.
"Explain to me why you went against a CO's direct order and refused to bring the antimatter on line for analysis?" She took in his words, 'refused', 'order'. She knew at the time she was going to be in trouble but she just couldn't let stupid people make stupid decisions and Commander Lucignano was stupid beyond belief.
"I knew that bringing it on line would have overloaded the system Captain, it would have blown all seven chambers." She answered carefully.
"The report didn't indicate that that could be a possibility?" Kirk responded quickly.
"The report was wrong." The words were out of her mouth before she even realised she'd said them. The look on Kirk's face made her think he wasn't all that surprised by her answer.
"You're questioning the report of Lieutenant Commander Lucignano Lieutenant Lees?" Kirk sat forward again, interested to hear her response.
"Yes Sir."
"On what authority?"
"On the authority that Lieutenant Commander Lucignano has no idea about Engineering and wouldn't know an antimatter explosion risk case if it hit him in the face." Corriene answered quickly.
"Lieutenant!" Kirk reprimanded immediately.
"I'm sorry Captain…" Kirk opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted "…but he wouldn't!" Corriene finished.
"That's enough!" Pointing his finger at her he rose from his chair and started pacing. "He's a Lieutenant Commander Lees, you can't say that."
"But Captain…"
"No 'but Captain' Lees, you can't say that." Kirk's shoulders lowered and he exhaled slowly. Coming to stand in front of her Kirk rested against his desk.
"Captain, permission to speak freely?" Corriene looked at him pleadingly.
"Against my better judgement, permission granted Lieutenant." Kirk answered cautiously.
"Lucignano worked for me years ago, before he joined Starfleet, and myself obviously. I fired him Sir, for putting himself and whole team in needless danger. His arrogance is dangerous." Kirk's eyebrows rose higher than Spock's, he opened his mouth to speak but changed his mind.
"Lees, the report indicated no probable danger." He decided to stick to the facts.
"The report was wrong Sir." Corriene repeated her earlier statement.
"He's a Commanding Officer, he gave you an order."
"Yes Sir."
"You disobeyed that order." Kirk watched her eyebrows dance as he spoke.
"Yes Sir." She was pursing her lips again.
"I have no option but to put this on your permanent record and for the time being remove you from active service." Kirk watched for her reaction, he was surprised when she seemingly accepted her punishment without objection. He was expecting a fight on his hands. Her face though, with those lips and nose and eyes in constant flux betrayed her and he could tell that she was mortified.
"Captain." Corriene replied tight-lipped, not trusting herself not to get emotional or say something else she would regret.
"You're dismissed." Kirk stood in front of her, he could see her chest rising and falling with deep controlled breaths. She was barely holding it together, he knew, because he'd been there himself. Corriene curtly nodded and spun on her heel.
A few moments later Kirk walked out onto the Bridge, taking his seat he stared off into the space being displayed in front of him. After ten minutes or so he bolted up and strode to Spock's station.
"Mister Spock, Lieutenant Commander Lucignano's antimatter analysis report from the other day?" Kirk started.
"Yes Captain?" Spock queried in his usual style.
"Did they carry out the analysis?"
"Negative Captain."
"I want you to have a look over it." Kirk began walking away again, not happy that he was itching a scratch he knew could very easily turn into an awful rash.
"Look over it Captain?" Spock's dispassionate tone grated on him.
"Yes Spock, look over it. Tell me whether it contained any flaws." Kirk had lost his patience, knowing his tone of voice wasn't all together professional he started counting to ten in his head.
"Flaws Captain?"
"Goddamnit! Spock! I want to know if it was full of shit!" Kirk's voice had risen to quite a loud level, the Bridge crew sat near the pair of them tried not to peer up at their Captain in shock.
"Of course Captain." Spock answered with a nod of his head. Kirk sat back down and leant his head against his hand, he could feel a headache coming on and he knew exactly what the reason was, or rather, who.
A few weeks later and Kirk was in his quarters sifting through piles of PADDs, reports and diagnostics. As one of the 'To Do' piles toppled over and scattered across his floor his doorbell rang.
"COME IN!" He shouted annoyed.
"Well well Jim, is that anyway to greet a friend?" McCoy stood bemused, watching his friend kneel and pick up the PADDs.
"What do you want Bones?" Even to his own ears the words were too harsh. "Sorry, take a seat would you?" McCoy did just that, pulling his feet up and crossing them at the ankle on the coffee table.
"What's new Jim?"
"Nothing, you?" Kirk asked as he took his seat behind the cluttered desk.
"Fifteen cases of Andorian shingles this month Jim! This month!" McCoy's face was incredulous and Kirk couldn't help but laugh, as the Doctor carried on listing the array of diseases and ailments the crew had picked up from the latest shore leave Kirk continued to sort through the reports. One of which caught his eye almost immediately.
"Sonofabitch." Kirk muttered, sitting forward and looking over the PADD in front of him intently. McCoy, noticing he'd lost his friends attention stopped talking and watched expectantly.
"Care to share with the class Jim?" McCoy asked.
"She was right, the report was wrong. Sonofabitch." Kirk's index finger was swiping manically though the report.
"Come again?"
"Sonofabitch." Kirk eventually threw the PADD down and sat back to look at McCoy.
"You've said that already. What the hell are you on about Jim?" McCoy sat forward himself, nothing really rattled his friend, not really. So McCoy's interest had been piqued as to whomever this somebody was who was right about a report being wrong.
"It doesn't matter." Waving his hand in front of him dismissively Kirk picked up another PADD, trying to concentrate on anything other than her face that was filling his mind's eye.
"The hell it does! Jim, what are you talking about?" McCoy waited as Kirk exhaled slowly and sat back again.
"There's this woman…" He began.
"Damnit Jim!"
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