Catching Up

Posted on Tue Jul 17th, 2018 @ 10:17pm by Captain Michelle Bartlett

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/4
Location: Guest Quarters

Bowman looked out the window at the empty space around the ship, still a bit tense but relieved. The trip home and the rescue had gotten the worst of everything out of her head, but in some ways, it was almost like coming back to a whole new assignment.

Movek, Meru, Captain Ross... All were gone. Say nothing of T'Pral, Del... People who she only knew as junior officers she used to do Crew Evaluation Reports on now were senior staff. From the old days it was just her and Commander - Now Captain - Bartlett. She sipped her tea, staring at the planet below. 'Is this really better than the Cardassians?' she thought to herself. The restlessness, tense stares by members of the crew... It was a bit much. And here she thought she would have enjoyed retirement.

The door chime interrupted her train of thought. She turned sideways, looking toward the door. "Come in." she called out.

"I hope I'm not interrupting." Michelle said.

Bowman seemed to forget Michelle's change in rank and position for a moment. "I don't know what you think you'd be interrupting. It's seriously just me and the window at this point." she said. "Ma'am."

Michelle smirked a bit. "You needn't be so formal. You're supposed to be dead, after all. You can relax a bit."

"Guess I look pretty good for being dead, hey?" Bowman added, loosening up rather morbidly.

"I can't really argue that one." Michelle said with a laugh as Bowman stayed quiet and contemplative.

"There must be so much you want to know." Bowman said.

"I'm just not sure where it's polite to start." she added. Whatever happened during that time must have been dreadful, never mind everything else before it. Her silence spoke quite clearly to that.

"The detainment was dreadful. Gul Kasella was a very.... sadistic woman. I'm sure you all found her quite charming." Bowman said.

"Not entirely sure that's the word the Captain used, but there were others by the end." Michelle replied. "But... that's all over now. There will be time for you to recover and then, I suppose to pursue any plans that were put on hold."

"With all due respect, Captain... I'm not entirely sure it's over." Bowman said. "There's a lot I have to work through." she said in a mixture of disappointment and irritability. "The hell of being a Cardassian prisoner... Everything else that's run through my head since my rescue. Disappointment... To be honest? Even resentment."

"Resentment?" Michelle asked.

Bowman put her cup down firmly on the coffee table. "How in the hell after six months did nobody figure out that Kasella was a fraud?" she asked. "How did she pull off such a convincing caricature of me that you all bought it? People who I served with on this ship for 7 years couldn't tell between me and her?"

"Olivia...." Michelle said, trying to be more comforting "You have to remember what your last few years here were like. Captain Ross assigned me to basically coach you to be less wound up. But after your father died...."

"It all seemed believeable." Bowman replied. "That doesn't make me feel better."

"Also, to be honest... Kasella didn't take on the severely monstrous personality at the start. We don't know how she studied you, but she must have analyzed hours and hours of ship's logs and psych profiles. As far as Starfleet Intelligence has been able to tell, they researched everything with a fine toothed comb. Plus, we all knew your father was a huge influence on your life. We felt maybe you were just grieving."

"Do we know where she escaped to?" Bowman asked.

"Unfortunately, our intelligence is a bit scarce on that. Though I have a couple tricks up my sleeve to try and get more information. Starfleet is just hesitant to allow us to take point on it because of what happened."

"We're the best ship to handle it BECAUSE of what happened." Bowman said. "Nobody who served under Owen Ross is going to let that thug go unpunished. Although, once they correct the record of my death, I'm not quite sure what's in store for me. You have a Chief Engineer, and from what I hear a First Officer. I'm considering some options. It's just adjusting to... This."

"You're not the only one." Michelle said. "Nothing's been the same since the memorial. And while I won't pretend that I have it worse, I still wonder if all this is really happening." she paused a moment to look outside the window. "But... you can't show shock. They all smell fear."

"First lesson. Seems you've learned it well." Bowman said.

"Once you're ready, you should go down to Engineering. There's a few of the old staff there that I'm sure would love to see you. The real you, that is." Michelle said. "And perhaps you can join us on the bridge."

"Captain to the bridge? We have an incoming vessel.” came Major Weston's voice over the commbadge.

"On my way. Bartlett out." she added. "Duty calls. Come join me for dinner later tonight."

"I'd like that." Bowman said. "Oh... and Captain?"

"Yes?"

"For someone seemingly so intimidated, you just wore that pretty damn well." Olivia said with a small grin.

"Thank you." Michelle replied as she headed out of the room. Bowman continued gazing out at the planet, almost curious as to what had brought them here in the first place.

END:

Captain Michelle Bartlett
Commanding Officer
USS Wellington

Commander Olivia Bowman
Former Executive Officer