Reflections

Posted on Oct 09, 2017 @ 1:16am by Lieutenant Jasmine Yu
Edited on on Oct 09, 2017 @ 1:16am

Mission: The Romulan Way

“Reflections”
(contd from ‘The Romulan Way’)

Location: USS PHOENIX
SD: [2.17] 1008.2343
Scene: Bridge

The Phoenix was still in Romulan space, en route to Starbase 56, accompanied by the Shai’Dan to the Neutral Zone. Jasmine stood at her station, her brown eyes glued to the readings on her screen – so far it was a smooth ride back home. But the young woman couldn’t help having uneasy feelings creeping inside her as for as long as the Phoenix was behind the empire’s borders. Maybe she would feel better once they crossed into the Neutral Zone. She knew there was nothing to worry, regarding the Shai’Dan and her crew, considering their actions in helping to stop Nevar from using the weapon and rescue them from the station.

Now that Yu’s first mission on the Phoenix was behind her, the Asian woman chose to use the long journey back to reflect. When she first heard that the ship was embarking on what could be a mission of historic consequences, the security chief recalled having a flurry of emotions: curiosity, excitement, trepidation and so on. It was natural to feel excited because they were going to Romulus, where at the start of the mission, no Starfleet officers had set foot on its soil in over half a century. At the same time, Jasmine remembered feeling anxious over the starship, without any backup, entering Romulan territory, where the risk of capture was very high and Yu knew they had to be at high alert at all times.

At the time, the Phoenix had first encountered the Shai’Dan, where Commander Jaron and some of his officers were invited onboard for a formal dinner with the senior staff. Well, that was an interesting evening with wine and delicious food, thanks to Iphie Bonviva and having polite conversations with Romulans – reminded the Asian American of formal dinners, where most guests acted stiff and displayed faux politeness. Jasmine preferred honesty and appreciated sincerity in others but also knew to follow proper etiquette in certain situations like not shooting one’s mouth off at inappropriate times. Well, that dinner went without a hitch to everyone’s relief. No one on both sides made a scene or embarrassed themselves in front of others.

Her thoughts next moved to the trip down to the Romulan homeworld – a surreal moment for the young woman as if she was witnessing history getting written. Setting foot in the Romulan Senate, interacting with Senator Aurelia Dak and taking a tour around the capital city, were experiences she’d never forget. Jasmine found the elderly Romulan woman to be interesting, even though the latter wasn’t shy about tooting her own horn, regarding her achievements as engineer and then politician. Aurelia, though, kept her true feelings, close to her chest and Yu could never discern, which faction she was part of, though from what she heard, the Romulan Senator seemed to lean more towards peace than war. But, regardless of which side of the political spectrum, the old woman fell into, Jasmine would always be grateful towards her for the tour and the visit to the seaside. The Apnex Sea was quite breathtaking in her view and the quiet time at the seaside with Dak and her aide, would always be a memorable one. Besides, Jasmine loved the water.

Her expression soured, when she thought of her time on that Romulan station. Definitely not an experience she’d forget and not in a good way, especially when there was one fleeting moment, when she believed she was going to die. The existence of a terraforming weapon and an artificial wormhole, made her blood boil but the worse feeling was helplessness and Jasmine hated that feeling. Yu wished there was something she could have done to stop Nevar from activating the weapon to destroy Earth but there was nothing she could do as it was three Starfleet officers against many Romulans. The situation worsened when Praetor Radaik joined with Nevar to send the terraforming beam towards Earth.

It was the worst feeling, nearly being witness to one’s homeworld with all their loved ones, gone in the blink of the eye and to either stand helpless or die trying to stop them. Thankfully, Jake, Kass, Jaron and the others arrived just in time to stop Nevar from pressing that button and Earth lived to see another day. In the end, the chance of pursuing galactic peace with the empire was restored, though the future was not set and it was unknown as to outcome of any peace talks.

However, Jasmine was disturbed by the Praetor’s actions – beginning from her willingness to go along with Nevar to destroy Earth and then her about turn, when she executed her political opponent. The security chief wondered, was Radaik pretending to side with the warhawk and knew the Shai’Dan and the Phoenix was going to come to the rescue or was it just to keep holding onto power by playing both sides? But then the Romulan’s words before the Phoenix departed, chilled her. So the question was whether the Romulans truly wanted peace or not, despite the Praetor initiating the road to a possible peace deal in the first place. Was D’era or the Romulan Way really about the empire’s expansion at the expense of all other species? Well, the future was yet to be written.

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Scene: Corridor, Deck 12
TI: A few hours later

With Procter currently manning the tactical station on the bridge, Jasmine was making her way to meet up with Silsby for some security drills in the holodeck. But a tense argument between an engineer and a marine, which resulted in a physical confrontation, brought her to deck 12, where the two were held in sickbay to have their injuries treated. Now that the matter was taken care of, she could now go do some security drills, which also included using the shooting range.

She stopped, suddenly getting a sensation of something brushing past her legs. The Asian raised an eyebrow until she heard a soft whimper. Yu’s eyes shifted downwards and a smile crept across her lips. A black pug, adorned in a red Starfleet shirt, with four pips pinned on it, was staring up at her, his tail wagging and tongue sticking out. With its front leg, it reached out for Jasmine’s left foot.

Smiling, Jasmine knelt down and petted the dog’s head. “Captain Smooshy, you have ventured quite far from home.” Her response was a tiny woof and more tail wagging.

“But,” she added sighing. “You need to go back. Lieutenant Arion must be worried and is looking for you.” She waved her hand, indicating to the dog to turn around but Smooshy didn’t budge and just continued to stare wide-eyed at her. It looked like the pug wasn’t ready to go home and wanted to wander even further but Jasmine knew she couldn’t allow that. “Okay, Smooshy, now if you turn around and come with me, I will give you a nice, big treat. What do you say?” Her smile widened, hoping the promise of a snack would entice the pug.

But the little dog didn’t move. Clearly, wandering around the ship was preferable to him than a treat.

“Alright, you leave me no choice.” With both hands, she gently picked up the dog and held him in her arms. To her relief, Smooshy made no protest and seemed quite content in being carried. Chuckling, the Asian woman remarked, “Oh so I guess you wanted to be carried.” Shaking her head to stifle a laugh, she resumed walking towards the Counseling department and continued to talk softly to the pug, even when his drool began dripping over her hand. Jasmine just had to wipe it off and wash her hands as soon as she handed him over to one of the Counselors.

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NRPG: A short post. RL has been keeping me busy and so I’m trying to get back into the swing.


~*~
Ranjani S.
Writing for

Lieutenant Jasmine Yu
Chief of Security and Tactical
USS PHOENIX