Chance and Change

Posted on May 26, 2014 @ 9:20pm by Captain Siobhan Reardon
Edited on on Jun 05, 2014 @ 8:50am

Mission: The Tangled Webs We Weave
Location: EARTH
Tags: Siobhan

"Chance and Change"
(Continued from "Sucker Punches")

=/\=

"Change is the essential process of all existence."
-Spock, ST:TOS, "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"

=/\=

Location: EARTH
Stardate: [2.14]0427.1500
Scene: Reardon Home

The lanky teenager took a satisfying bite of his spinach and mushroom omelet. "Mom?"

A few moments of silence. "Mom."

Another awkward pause. "*Mom*."

Sio finally looked up from the double mocha cappuccino she'd been uncharacteristically nursing for the last half hour. "Oh, sorry, Drey."

"You've hardly said an entire sentence since we got back from Secretary Bonviva's last night."

The redhead tried to think of a retort or a snappy comeback, but it was all she could do to agree. "Yeah... just trying to process what happened."

Drey grinned. "Starfleet gave you orders, that's what happened."

"You sound excited."

Drey tossed his head slightly in an attempt to get his hair our of his eyes. "I guess the question would be, why aren't *you?"

She put the cup down on the table, but still continued to grasp it, examining its murky brown contents. "Oh, I am... I just don't like being caught off guard."

"You weren't expecting this." It might have been a question, but Drey delivered it like a statement.

"I can't put my finger on it, but this doesn't feel like a typical assignment." The only thing she knew for certain was the need in Xana's words and actions. There was no pretense there.

"What's your position going to be?"

Sio gestured to the stack of PADDs in front of her. She honestly didn't know. It didn't matter, really. The vessel already had a highly capable CO. And hopefully, she would be able to balance between being an asset to the team and staying out of his way. Although the real trick was learning when to be a pain in the ass and when not to be. If you didn't speak out when it mattered, you might as well not show up. They didn't once bestow the center seat upon her for being a doormat. "When I find out I'll let you know."

Drey, appeased with this small bit of information, went back to his breakfast. But it was Siobhan's turn to interject.

"Promise me you'll come to the party tonight." A going away gathering had been thrown together for tonight in one of the holodecks on campus. Of course, she had a heavy hand in instigating it.

The pale green youth held his fork in the air, a little slackjawed. "Uh... it's not really my thing."

"You're about to travel in outer space again. You can't expect to be hiding in your quarters the whole time. It would do you good to see how the cadets blow off steam, especially since it may be something to aspire to." Sio had made many attempts to ease Ondrej's socialization, but it was still something they both had to work on. The half Supai youth preferred solitude to a fault.

"But you're an instructor, and my *mother*." It sounded like an indictment. Some things, apparently, were universal.

Siobhan shrugged. Music was one of the few things that had her heart before... well, *before*. "Don't think of me as your mom- Just consider me the party facilitator. The entertainment."

Drey groaned. "Let's compromise. I'm only staying an hour. And I'm bringing the PANDORA's specs with me to study them."

She smiled. At least he was getting out of the house. "Deal."


=/\=

Location: Starfleet Academy
Scene: Gymnasium
Time Index: 90 minutes later

Sio tugged at her workout clothes, lightly bouncing from one foot to the other. "Couldn't resist one more fight?" she goaded her adversary, a woman taller and younger than she.

Lieutenant Eve Dalziel regarded the older woman with pure gray eyes. Her ebony hair was tied back in a shining queue, showcasing her near translucent skin and exquisite bone structure."I can train with anyone. But I don't know when we'll be seeing each other again in person."

"You never struck me as the sentimental type, Eve," Sio retorted gently, as the two women began to move around, each looking for a point of attack.

"You forget I'm a Counsellor too."

Dalziel had minored in that at the Academy, but that certainly wasn't her focus these days. "Don't give me that. You're much better in Intel."

"I could say the same about you."

"Only it wouldn't be the truth." It was a part of her training that Sio had chosen to downplay for the most part, with the exception of her undercover work, which appeared to be relegated to first contact scenarios and snooping pre warp cultures for signs of development. Certainly she was capable of more, and had done more on rare occasion. But very few knew about it.

The redhead tried to sweep Eve's legs out from under her, but Eve countered by trying to grab for Sio's right ankle. Reardon quickly broke free and turned to face the unnaturally pale woman again. "Nice try."

Eve reassumed a defensive stance. "You would win easily if you fought someone of the same build as you." Dalziel was about 4 inches taller with broader shoulders and more muscle.

"I don't want to win. I want to improve," Sio huffed, once more pushing forward, this time arms and hands meeting arms and hands. "Besides, in the real world I would never be that lucky."

"They're always bigger and tougher out there," Eve had to agree before twisting Sio's left arm behind her back.

Siobhan almost instantly elbowed Eve with her free arm and pushed away from the taller woman.

But Eve easily up-ended Sio, causing the older woman to fall flat on her back on the padded mat. "Oof," she breathed as the wind was knocked out of her. "Best two out of three?" she asked weakly.

"Sure," Lieutenant Dalziel offered her a hand up.


=/\=

Time Index: 40 minutes later

"Ugh-" Sio grunted as a well placed foot hit her solar plexus. The score was tied at two a piece. Frankly, the redhead was exhausted. But she could see that Eve was nearly as fatigued, and that gave her a willingness to keep pushing.

Eve had lowered her stance, partly to keep more in line with her mentor's shorter stature, and partly to conserve the energy she had left.

Sio charged, trying to throw Eve off balance, but it wasn't happening. Luckily she was able to spin to the right before Eve could get a hand on her.

However, Lieutenant Dalziel wasn't worried about where her hands were at that particular moment. With a sweep of her leg she was able to knock Reardon down and move over her, preventing her from rising. Then, neither woman said anything for at least 30 seconds. They were both "resting" on the mat.

"You dropped something," Dalziel finally managed, pressing a small data chip into the Captain's hands, along with a towel.

Biting her lip as she rose to a seated position, her lower back throbbing, Siobhan mopped her forehead, then cast a puzzled look at her sparring partner.

"People and resources are on the move," The junior Intel officer said in a soft tone. "A gift in light of your recent assignment," she offered without further explanation.

"What does it all mean?" Sio asked, examining the tiny emerald colored rectangle in her hand.

Eve just shook her head. "I don't know. It's like the fates are touching multiple threads at the same time, tying them together in a new pattern. Like there is something being prepared for."

"Something good, or something bad?"

Eve sighed. "I think it depends on which side you're on."


=/\=

Location: Starfleet Academy
Scene: Holodeck A-33
Time Index: that evening

Ondrej tried to focus, but it was nearly impossible in the crowded and at times noisy venue. Most of the guests were wearing uniforms of some kind, but there were also others in completely civilian garb, and from multiple historical eras. With the many races also being represented, it was somewhat like an otherworldly anachronistic stew. Siobhan's reluctant guest had taken a seat near the corner as to have a good vantage point. Observation was definitely one of his pastimes.

There were ebony and mahogany tables and chairs, a full service bar, and a dance floor. The lighting was low and soft which gave everything a nostalgic glow. But the centerpiece of the room was a raised grandstand stage with a full orchestral swing band. This was where a certain redhead held court, singing whatever struck her, although for the most part that consisted of standards from the early to mid twentieth century.

It was customary for her to be dressed to the nines, and tonight was no exception. Sio wore a strapless dress in ombre shades of purple, from lavender at the bodice to darkest violet at the ankle. It was sprinkled with sequins, bugle beads, and Austrian crystals which caught the ambient light, glistening with each movement she made.

Her long copper curls were free of their usual more duty appropriate style, adorned only with an ivory and purple orchid.

She grabbed the microphone, walking across the stage as the music swelled. She tried to spot Drey in the crowd, but was unsuccessful. He had texted her earlier that he was there, so she took it at face value and began to sing. After all, the show must go on.

"I was walkin' along, mindin' my business... when out of the orange colored skyyyyy- flash! bam! alakazam! wonderful you came by-"

Drey stopped his studied approach to their soon-to-be new home to look at what his mom was doing, then turned back to the schematics of the reverse engineered transwarp drive aboard the PANDORA. It took a few seconds, but he managed to tune out the majority of the cacophany going on around him.

"I was hummin' a tune, drinkin' in sunshine, when out of that orange colored view- wham! bam! alakazam! I got a look at you...

One look and I yelled timber- watch out for flying glass

Cause the celling fell in
and the bottom fell out
I went in to a spin
and I started to shout
I've been hit, this is it, this is it!"

Perhaps this was an unusual hobby. But Siobhan just didn't care. During her Cadet days she came to be known as 'the singing psychologist' and 'the crooning counselor' among other things. Through her career, the music had come along. It was a great comfort in the hard times, a great way to celebrate the good times, and a great equalizer. She wasn't an Instructor or a Captain while she was up there on that stage; she was just a person, a singer with something to say, or rather sing, in 132 bars or less.

"I was walkin' along
mindin' my business
when love came and hit me in the eye- flash! bam! alakazam! Out of the orange colored sky-"

=/\=

NRPG: Party crashers are welcome. So sorry about how long this took.

Captain Siobhan Reardon
Instructor
Starfleet Academy


"I savored those stories; I read them slowly, one each day. And when I was done, I wished I hadn't read them at all. So I could read them again... like it was the first time."
-Melanie to Old Jake, DS9, "The Visitor"