R and R after some major BS (Part II)

Posted on Wed May 22nd, 2024 @ 3:26am by Cadet Senior Grade Meghan Stefani & Cadet Senior Grade Daniel Weaver & Cadet Junior Grade Emma Mendez & Cadet Junior Grade Shafin Todenhöfer
Edited on on Wed May 22nd, 2024 @ 10:30am

1,322 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Cadet Cruise
Location: Unnamed Lounge

[PREVIOUSLY]

Shafin looked at Daniel "It's not like we're freshman," stated the Counseling Cadet. "Though it also helps when people don't notice you. You get to avoid their radar."

[CONTINUED]

Leon raised a brow, smiling a bit, before taking a sip. After letting it go down his throat, and taking a minute to settle, he looked back to Shafin and said. "Careful, Shaf. I may start liking if you keep up with that logic."

Daniel chuckled softly to himself, taking a bite out of his food, before sliding the glass of ale to the side. "Maybe later."

"Come on, Weaver... you of all people need to relax after that mess up there on the bridge." Leon said firmly.

Shafin concurred with Leon. "It behooves me to agree with Leon, Daniel, but he is correct. I do not condone the consumption of Romulan Ale or any alcohol to relax in copious amounts, but a responsible level of drinking especially with very few alternatives available may serve you well."

"Otherwise, I may have to make you my first test subject of a counseling patient. Though it need be, I can rope in the cadet studying to be a morale officer."

"I'm surprised you aren't offering me a juice box." Daniel said, looking over to Shafin with a slight smirk.

"Juice box?!?!" Leon asked with a raised brow.

Daniel picked up the glass as he replied. "Inside joke." Before looking to Shafin. "You said Romulan Ale? This is some pretty strong stuff. Maybe not to a Half Vulcan, like you. Are you sure you want us to be drinking this?"

Shafin sighed "I'm not half-Vulcan" said Shafin firmly and pouring more. "I have some heritage. It's Vulcanoid, but I wasn't born on Vulcan. I wasn't raised Vulcan. I don't follow the ancient teachings of some old pointed eared philosopher."

"Wait... you say your Vulcanoid, but not Vulcan? What's the difference?" Leon asked, taking a sip of the ale.

"It means he share's some characteristics with a Vulcan, but not officially Vulcan. Romulans are considered Vulcanoid. Even though they are different in culture and the extended brow... they could pass as Vulcan." Daniel replied, taking a sip of the ale, only to wince slightly a put it down.

"So... you don't know if you're Vulcan. You could be." Leon questioned. "Were you adopted of something?"

"Leon..."

"What?!" Leon said quickly. "It's an honest question."

"Maybe he doesn't want to talk about it." Daniel countered.

"Well... the guy could probably look up anything he want about us and, no offense, the secret is out about you and your dad. Why not get to know a little about him from the man himself?" Leon said firmly, picking up the glass of ale again before adding as he looked to Shafin. "If he doesn't want to answer he doesn't have to. He's an adult. Let him decide."

"There are several species that are Vulcanoid, but yes, Romulan is one of them and it is a possibility as are the others" Shafin said. "As for adoption, no. Vulcanoid heritage is marginal on my father's side of the family. Just a Daniel is half human, he could be Russian, Irish, Italian. It's just a small part of my genetics."

"And not pertinent to this conversation," Meghan interjected. "This is supposed to be a celebration, right? That we all survived the commodore's interference? I think that's worth celebrating." She took a swallow of the Romulan ale and winced. Not so great after being knocked unconscious, but she wasn't going to let the others know. She took a second sip and set her glass down.

Daniel chuckled slightly. "Yeah... doesn't exactly go down easy. I'm guessing it’s one of those... acquired tastes." He placed his hand on her back and smiled a bit as he looked around the table. "I can't help but wonder, had he not interfered, would we have been able to finish the mission."

"You shouldn't dwell on it, Captain." Leon said as he took another sip. He paused for a moment before adding. "It's over now. It's in the past." He turned around and pointed behind in. "It's back there somewhere." Leon turned back and chuckled slightly. "So, let’s not live in it, and push forward. Yeah?"

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Stop calling me that. I'm no Captain."

Leon stood up from his chair and held his arms out. "Hey... I happen to think you were pretty damn good. We have some hiccups coming out of the gate but, toward the end there, we were feeling it." He brought his hands together and smirked slightly. "I'd like to think the whole reason the Commodore started interfering is because you were doing so well and he can't scold you for doing a bad job if you weren't playing his game."

He sat there quietly, thinking about it, before shaking his head. "I don't think so." Daniel looked over to Meghan and asked. "Before the console blew and you got... you know... you had this look on your face. Like you were shocked or confused. What was it you were seeing? Do you remember?"

Megan closed her eyes for a moment, concentrating. She remembered being at the console, looking at the sound waves, trying to match a location with the computer. "Yes." She opened her eyes and looked at Daniel. "One of the segments of that distress call didn't belong with the rest. It was older, and from a different source. A different ship. It didn't come from the nebula at all. I think it was the segment with your grandfather's voice." She looked at him a moment. "If what I saw was correct, and I didn't have a chance to verify it, that part with your grandfather's voice was added to the distress call."

"Meaning, the distress call from my grandfather's ship, could have been genuine authentic just not part of the scenario." Daniel replied as he crossed his arms over his chest. "He baited the hook and I took it without question." He said before running his hands through his hair. "I didn't even question it. I just went in thinking it was part of the program. My grandfather's distress call. The Cardassians. All of it was designed to push my buttons and I let him push everyone."

Meghan took his hand. "It's not your fault, Daniel. He's a master manipulator. But now you know, you'll be better equipped to recognize when he's pushing your buttons and ignore him."

Shafin pondered if there was really anything that any of them could have really done better. Ultimately, it just seemed as though the end result was predetermined; failure was the only option. "We were put into a no win scenario, Daniel. We did what we did. You made your command decisions, but even if you had made a different decision, I don't believe it would have mattered."

"I think that would have been the outcome no matter who ran the scenario," Meghan said, agreeing with Shafin. "It was supposed to be a no win scenario to teach us to fail better."

"We failed epically..." Emma's voice said from behind them. She had approached from across the room looking rather deflated. "You going to share that?" she asked.

Shafin looked at Emma "We did fine" countered Shafin. He wasn't about to argue the point, but he wasn't going to let Daniel feel even more like a failure. "The Commodore failed us. He didn't let us have fair testing conditions. Everything was set up to be a setback" He poured Emma a glass.

(To be continued...)

Cadet Junior Grade Shafin Todenhöfer
Counseling Cadet

Cadet Junior Grade Leon DiNozzo
Operations Cadet

Cadet Senior Grade Daniel Weaver
Command Cadet

Cadet Senior Grade Meghan Stefani
Science Cadet

Cadet Junior Grade Emma Mendez
Security Cadet

 

RSS Feed