2364
"What the hell happened, Ro? Why weren't you at the suttlecraft?"
Captain Pucer was shouting at her, their noses almost touching. He was enraged. He was grieving. He had just lost eight members of his crew.
He was asking her the same questions he had when he and the rescue team have found her unconscious beside the crashed suttlecraft. At that moment, she had been too confused to answer most inquiries and had mainly mumbled nonsense.
Now, a few hours later, at the captain's ready room, her mind was as sharp as ever. The problem was she could still not answer him.
He took two steps backwards and circled around her once before facing her again. He was red with fury.
"I tried to contact you, when we received the distress call, to inform you that we were leaving orbit." A pause. "You didn't answer. I called for Lieutenant Fougeroux then, he told me the rest of the away team have been trying to contact you, but you didn't answer their calls either. He also told me you have gone alone. Against my orders." That last line was said pointedly.
She was standing at attention, her gaze fixed forward, but he looked for her eyes and forced her to meet his severe stare.
There was no point in denying it.
"Yes, sir."
"Why? Why did you go alone? Why didn't you answer the calls?"
She wondered about the last question, truly puzzled.
"There must have been some element in the area blocking communications, captain. I didn't receive any call."
In spite of the anger, Captain Pucer mulled over her words, and then commented, "When you didn't answer I tried to locate you using the Wellington's sensors. We could only identify eight lifeforms, the ones of the rest of the team."
Ro realized she must have been already at the Romulan outpost when that happened, but that was not an explanation she could give.
"That must be it, sir, some natural material blocking sensors where I was at that moment, or maybe the ion storms being stronger in the atmosphere above."
"And where the hell were you at that moment, lieutenant?" he raised his voice again. "And why were you alone?"
"I..." She had thought about how she could answer that question since she realized she had to disobey him, but, still, she had not been able to come up with any decent reply. The best she had managed to think of was to tell her captain she wanted to cover up the larger possible area, but it was a very weak excuse.
Unwillingly, she lowered her eyes for a moment.
"I thought it was the best course of action," she finally stated. At least that was the truth.
"In spite of my orders." The captain insisted on that.
She mustered all her courage and replied firmly, "Yes, sir."
Pucer paced once more, back and forth, this time staying in front of her. Ro realized the situation had to be stressful and confusing to him. He just had no idea how distressful it was for her. He stopped again inches apart from her.
"And then, what happened? Why did the other crew members boarded the suttlecraft? Why didn't you? Why did they crash?"
Ro set her mouth shut and kept quiet. She really could not answer any of his questions, especially the last one. She clenched her hands at her back as she stayed ramrod straight.
Her captain was also standing upright, looking down at her.
"Doctor Zolt says you didn't suffer any head injury. You remember what happened and you can think straight, so answer me, lieutenant," he ordered.
The chief medical officer had also been part of the rescue team. The pale blue face of the Bolian physician was the first one she had seen when she had woken up, but she had barely registered her soft words. She had showed confusion at first, because in her dark thoughts she had believed the Wellington destroyed, then she had felt relieved.
But the next instant, the stern face of her captain had replaced hers, and he had started to interrogate her mercilessly. And the happiness of knowing her ship safe, had been replaced by the grief of the death of the other members of her away team and the seriousness of her own predicament.
She had been unable to answer Captain Pucer's questions, and only the intervention of the doctor had helped her then. She had reminded the captain that she was injured and she could have suffered some head trauma, and then both the doctor and Ro had traveled back to the ship. Behind were left the captain, a pair of security officers and a team of engineers who were studing the ill-starred shuttlecraft.
Once in sickbay, Doctor Zolt had given her some treatment against the intoxication she had suffered due to the smoke she had breathed, mentioning that could have been the cause of her faint. Then, she had checked for another injures but hadn't commented a word with her. And, finally, she had let her in the hands of a nurse to cure the several minor burns and lacerations in her arms and legs. Laren could guess what was the next task Doctor Zolt had ahead: the autopsies of the rest of her away team. She was glad that the medical personnel were discreet and they did not allow her to see them as they were brought in.
She was left alone for a while, staying on a biobed in spite of having been healed already. Then Captain Pucer came to talk with the doctor at her office, and when he went out, he ordered her to report to the ready room. She just followed him there.
And there they were now. And she could guess what had been part of the conversation between the doctor and the captain.
She could not have been at the suttlecraft when it crashed. She had sustained her injures later, when she had broken into it. Her brain did not suffer any harm. She could remember. She just refused to speak.
Captain Pucer waited for another few seconds, but since she did not say a word, he went on.
"You were in command of the away team, lieutenant. They were your responsibility." He stressed the words. "You were also the assigned pilot for the mission, that was your responsibility too."
Again, he was looking intently at her, but somehow, his fury seemed to have melted away to be replaced by something different. Sadness? Disappointment?
"You did not just disobey my direct orders, Ro. You neglected your duties and by doing so, eight members of your away team are now dead. So, you better break that stubborn silence of yours and start defending yourself, or this will end up really badly for you."
But there was nothing she could say in her defense, at least not to him, so she just kept quiet.
"Damt it, Ro! Do you realize how much trouble you are in?" And his anger surfaced again to be mixed with those other feelings she was having difficulty to identify. "You are going to be court-martialed!"
She gulped, but stayed at attention and simply replied, "Yes, sir." That was what she was afraid of, but if Commander Sloan or Admiral Kennelly didn't save her somehow, there was no way around it. She would not answer her captain's questions. She would leave him in the dark, even if it pained her. Those were her true orders.