Comeuppance (part 2)

Posted on Tue Jan 13th, 2015 @ 9:24am by Captain T'mpest Michaels & Commander Rylie Cattmor & Lieutenant Jensen Foster

1,143 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: What Dreams May Come
Location: CO's Ready Room

[CONTINUED]

[From the Previous Post)

It was hard for anyone not to pick up Foster's nervousness which she realised that her own was amplifying his at least a little, and it didn't matter that T'mpest was not an empath, with her experience she would be able to pick it up as well. He was doing well as far as descriptions went, but she couldn't just let him hang himself. "Commander, you know since we spoke just after our mission to Landreah and the Gamma Quadrant, that I've always been uncomfortable with my abilities, ever since they surfaced." She took a short breath before going on, "Since the after effect of that mission, the situation with Petty Officer Vahn and the casual meet and greet, I've asked the question, is there anything else that can be done. Since I've already tried most of the conventional means to control my capabilities, and with Lieutenant Foster comping aboard, he presented the latest, and possibly best opportunity to contain said abilities. The hope was for this control to also work both ways; that I might help Mister Foster in tempering his own talent."

[New]


"All right," T'mpest said. "So what caused the destruction of the holodeck?" She was acting particularly Vulcan as she respected both Rylie and Jensen and knew that both struggled with their telepathy. Logic was the best way to deal with the situation.

"Well..." Rylie said faltering slightly, "something went wrong." She couldn't stop from biting her lower lip after stating the blindingly obvious, and despite general conduct dictating that she stood fast, she also couldn't fight the urge to move toward the window, stopping just shy of the stairs. She hoped that T'mpest, while being royally flicked off, her being the calm Vulcan she was obviously capable of being wouldn't mind, especially as Lieutenant Foster was sitting, and her being T'mpest's Executive Officer.

"I started it." Cattmor said plainly before her jaw clenched and she turned back, remembering, reliving the past events. "We tried an empathic link first, but I was incapable of lowering my guard to be of any use. The telepathic link was easy, easier than we thought it would be, but then..." Rylie stopped once again, thoughts flooding back to the memories that Jensen and she shared about their past; memories which culminated in pain when the link jammed, and the connection couldn't be broken. "We just couldn't stop it; I couldn't stop it." she finished quietly, feeling ashamed at her inability to control anything.

Listening to Cattmor speak, hearing and feeling the shame that shook her being, Jensen piped up, "And when the telepathic link couldn't be severed by us, it caused our abilities to go on a rampage. I'm sure you've seen the reports, both medical and otherwise, commander, so I won't go into specifics." He looked at Cattmor for a second before saying, "I tried to sever the connection at some point. My memory is still somewhat... scattered with the events. But, when I attempted to break the connection, it only made everything worse." And while he too felt ashamed, he swallowed it down and just waited.

Despite the pain coursing through her head at the time, Cattmor had the misfortune of remembering it all, she was just unable to control any of it; the thoughts and memories, the situation, and most of all the connection. But then there was little to be gained by mentioning any of this, so she kept her thoughts to herself, and she waited as well, even going so far as to actively try to block any thoughts leaking from T'mpest's head.

T'mpest nodded. She'd seen a bit of what both of her officers were capable of and while she lauded them for their attempt to help each other, it could have been planned a little better. "I suggest that in future you use a properly buffered and shielded room. One that will not suffer as much damage as a holodeck. Such a room can be created for your use with both telepathic and protective shielding. It should also be monitored by both security and medical to ensure that you don't do too much damage to each other."

Cattmor couldn't help but have the thought Okay, that's a wonderful idea, I don't know why we didn't think of that one before.

"That should have been something we took into consideration before trying to help one another," Jensen said casting a glance at Cattmor. "But since you've suggested now, and as long as the Lieutenant Commander is in agreement, I can alert my staff about medical duty whenever Cattmor and I attempt to try helping one another again."

Hearing what Jensen replied with, Rylie was pleased she didn't air her previous thought, as Jensen made it sound a lot better. "With all due respect, that's partly what I wanted to avoid. This subject is extremely personal to me, and it took a while for us to gather up enough confidence to try this even once. I didn't want to bring in anyone else; special arrangements like that require explanations, and the one that says that two of the senior staff cannot properly control their individual qualities doesn't generally instil a lot of confidence, to say nothing of keeping such a thing quiet within these four walls, so to speak."

"I'm sorry, Lieutenant," Rylie continued after taking an almost laboured breath, "I'm not sure if something like this should be attempted again, especially if special arrangements need to be made."

Jensen just stared at Cattmor, his brow crinkled in confusion. "Lieutenant Commander, I acknowledge that you want to keep this from the crew, but you do realize that the crew is going to expect an explanation for what happened down on holodeck two? Especially since they'll discover we are to blame for the destruction. And once they realize that, they'll think those thoughts anyway."

Several choices of rebuttal came into Cattmor's head, but when she went to say any one of them, nothing came; they all sounded lame and weak. Instead she just chose to say, "Maybe so, and I don't know about you, but I've gone through my whole career without any incidents such as this. Even before I joined Starfleet after I was found adrift by the Eridani, the few times that there were, the level of damage was not this severe." Even while saying it though, it sounded like such a cop out, a convenient way to say no more, and she found that she hated herself for it. She generally wasn't the type to just give up on something because it was difficult... well, since the first time... "Maybe I just got lucky, I don't know."

(To be continued...)

Commander T'mpest Michaels
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Commander Rylie Cattmor
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Jensen Foster
Chief Medical Officer

 

RSS Feed