Mistaken Identity
Posted on Apr 21, 2020 @ 4:45am by Lieutenant Eve Dalziel
Edited on on Apr 21, 2020 @ 4:46am
Mission: Last Days of Empire
“Mistaken Identity”
(Continued from “Moonshine and Music”)
=/\=
Location: USS PHOENIX
Scene: Outside Guest Quarters
Stardate: [2.20]0419.2200
Eve approached Book's quarters with trepidation. Kane had briefed her on the events that led up to the destruction of the SATET. While it was obvious that everyone had their own opinion of that decision, only history would decide if that was the best choice to have made. But in the meantime, there was a frustrated man whose mission had been severely compromised. He'd lost some of his crew and his ship. He could use someone to talk to about that. Whether or not he accepted her offer, it was her responsibility to give the option. She activated the door chime.
"Enter," he barked.
She strode into the room, focusing on the man who had gruffly allowed her to come in. “Captain Robert Book?”
He nodded.
She crossed her arms and gently shook the end of her near-black ponytail off of her shoulder, where it always seemed to rest. “I’m Counselor Eve Dalziel. As is standard practice, I’ve come to offer my services in light of the situation at hand.”
A flicker of recognition came over his face. “No need to be formal, Counselor. You already answer to one Captain,” he said darkly. “It’s Rob.”
“Eve, then,” she offered in return. He seemed very keen on taking in every detail of her arrival.
While Book examined her from head to toe, she took advantage of that to take inventory of the room. He was seated at the computer console, apparently working on something important.
A coffee cup and empty plate were next to him, but that was the only sign of disarray. He still looked disheveled, in the same state he had been upon being ‘rescued’, but a freshly replicated uniform lay on the bed. At some point he must have had intentions of getting cleaned up, but had gotten distracted.
"I remember who you are, Eve," he said with mild surprise, interrupting her silent examination. “I think the last time I saw you, you still had your JG pip. What made you decide to leave the Intel sector?”
She tried to keep her expression nonchalant, not sure what he was talking about.
“The ANUBIS,” he pressed. “I remember when Charles hand-picked you as Morningstar’s Counselor.”
Eve froze as she sat across from the South African CO. Much like Koniki had kept the secret that the Eve Dalziel he employed was a clone created by Richard Edgerton, he had also not revealed it after her dna-sister had changed her name and flown the proverbial coop. Book didn’t know there were two of them. She thought about breaking it to him, but perhaps the false familiarity could be leveraged to her advantage. The whole convo between Counselor and client was already deemed confidential.
She mentally shrugged and tried to ease her way into conversation. “I wasn’t sure if a chance to serve on the flagship would come along again,” she replied. “It was a calculated risk.”
Book sighed. “It seems to agree with you.”
“It has its moments. So, Rob, is this the longest mission you’ve been on?”
The beleaguered Captain shook his head. “The longest? No. But the longest without much to show for it, yes.”
“Do you agree with what Captain Kane did?” It was kind of an obvious question, but one that needed to be asked… even though the answer was kind of a foregone conclusion.
“Hell no,” he answered without hesitation. “But I don’t agree with everything I did in order to save that evidence. It makes me all the more ticked off that it’s simply gone.” He glanced at the console. Even though he had given her his undivided attention since she arrived, she had a feeling he longed to get back to his work.
“You would probably benefit from some rest,” she suggested. “Start fresh in the morning.”
“If you’re worried about my physical health, call a Doctor.”
“You know as well as I do the connection between the physical and the emotional well-being.”
Rob glared at her. “Come on, Eve, you don’t have to be a Counselor to know that’s a load of crap right now.” He gestured to his forehead. “Thanks to Kane, the only connection I give two shits about right now is my mind and this report! I’m relying on memory, when I had a whole ship full of information. Koniki’s not going to be happy about this.”
“Is he ever happy about *anything*?” Eve countered. “Maybe he could have provided a shred more information to us, so we wouldn’t have had to go on a wild goose chase for the last six months?”
The older man laughed. If she had been hoping for empathy, she had been sorely mistaken. “When has that man ever cared about making it easier for the rest of Starfleet? How long have you been out of the game?”
“Too long, I guess,” she admitted, both telling the truth and being dishonest at the same time.
“I can tell you one thing- Koniki’s going to think long and hard about asking for outside assistance again, if you catch my drift.”
“And Captain Kane will probably think twice before accepting orders that there’s even an inkling of Intel’s involvement in.”
Rob grunted. “I don’t have to tell you who has the better chance with that.”
“You can’t stay Captain if you refuse orders,” Eve agreed. “Even ill-advised ones.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Don’t think your weak olive branch makes us even, not by a long shot.”
"I just wanted to talk to you. I came without expectations.”
Rob narrowed his eyes at her. “No Counselor I’ve ever met has come without some sort of ulterior motive. Certainly not you.”
“I can’t make you stop working, but I can remind you that you’re as valuable a resource as the information you fought so hard to collect.” She placed her hands on her knees and pushed herself up. It was time to leave. “There is something else.”
“What?”
“I wanted to help, but there was no guarantee that I’d be able to do it." And she still wasn’t sure if she had.
“You’re not much of a liar, are you?” he said with a gleam of mischief in his eyes.
She paused in the doorway. “You’d be surprised.”
=/\=
NRPG: And another scene.
Susan Ledbetter
Writing for
Lieutenant Eve Dalziel
Cns
USS PHOENIX
