JDL | Com Ivanova, Cmdr Waterhouse, Cmdr Archer - "We're Going To Need A Bigger Boat"

Posted on Fri Feb 27th, 2015 @ 11:18pm by Admiral Rochelle Ivanova & Commander Amelia Waterhouse & Commander James Archer

2,082 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: A Spot To Kill

Hammering. Rochelle could have sworn her brain was hammering against her skull from the inside out as she made that long, arduous walk back to her sleeping chambers with Archer yapping and snapping at her heels like some sort of pissed off and over grown Chihuahua. Amelia, she figured, was close behind from the sound of another pair of feet keeping time with them. The shortest of the trio was silent as the grave for the entire duration aside from the occasional sigh.

Once inside, however it all stood to change. She knew Archer would have something bigger to say. He was practically oozing irritation, and Amelia? Likely the same. She paused long enough to set the offending piece of cranial jewelry they called a crown down on an end table and pinched the bridge of her nose, folding her free arm around her rib cage.

James, not caring who was behind him, slammed the door behind him. “Of all the selfish, stupid, inconsiderate, and careless things you could have ever done,” he shouted.

James started pacing back and emphasizing every word with his arms and hands like an angry Italian. “First of all, sleeping with your Commanding Officer? Not only have you destroyed your integrity as an officer, you have also jeopardized the safety of your ship and crew!” Pausing briefly, “He turns finally looks at Rochelle, “Don’t you realize, that there are people who are just itching to get their hands on this type of information? To try and ruin your career?”

“And then,” James scowled, “And then for you to say that you’ll stay on this Gods forsaken planet over one crew member. What the fuck, Rochelle?


Rochelle's eyes reopened as his final question rescinded back to silence. Red and glassy, they were still bitter cold as they found his. Amelia had barely made it into the room without having her ass taken off by the door, but Rochelle caught sight of the willowy woman out of the corner of her eye. It didn't make any difference. "What the fuck?" She asked, parroting the question back at the irate officer. "First of all, Commander Asshole, I slept with a retired officer after he'd lost his commission and I was named Commanding Officer of the Vindicator by Malone. Who.the.fuck.cares." She hissed the correction, tabling her night with Landon in one fell swoop of a broken give-a-damn.

"You want to talk about losing integrity?!" She was getting loud now as she pivoted on one cold, bare foot to face him, "Let's talk about how you're known throughout the fucking Federation, and then some, as a manwhore. I slept with one ma in the last four fucking years and you go absolutely apeshit? Really? But let's forget about that. That's not the fucking issue right now." Her 'F' bomb quota for the year had easily been topped in one paragraph, a litany of the offensive four letter word certainly showed the diversity of it, but it also highlighted the level of irritation and stress plaguing the tiny redhead.

"I will NOT allow a member of this crew to be assassinated simply because these bronze skinned nematoads want to keep me here and playing a never ending game of Pretty Pretty Princess." It was her turn to flail now, her fingers pointing in the last known direction of Kyym and the others and each extended motion of her arm saw her rising on tip toe with the force. "I don't give a sweet flying fiddler's fuck whether you like Commander Dahe'el or not, but if it comes down to me having to stay here so he and the rest of you get to go home, so be it! Get the fuck off your high horse and get the fuck back up on the ship and go.the.fuck.home!" She wouldn't cry, how ever badly she wanted to. Her lower jaw trembled and her eyes stung hot with unshed tears as they threatened to betray her.

"What's to say, once Almar is back on the ship, that we can't find a way out of this situation anyways?" Amelia asked, giving both Rochelle and Archer space, but raising her voice enough to be sure they'd pay attention to her. She chose to ignore the other topics, she didn't agree with Archer, but they were practically negligible in the greater scheme of things currently. "I'm not ready to leave, and you certainly can't order me to leave if you're claiming to be stepping down from command to be monarch of this horrorshow."

"We're not talking about my integrity or my command or my crew," James yelled, ignoring Pond. "You really truly do not understand how these creatures work, do you? They're not going to let him go. They're going to end up killing you. You've played yourself right into their hands." James took one look at Rochelles face, "And you don't have a plan. You just jumped feet first into this without thinking. God dammit!" James growled as he walked over to the balcony, threw open the doors, and stepped outside.

James tapped his communicator, which he had placed on his waist band, "Vindicator, this is Commander Archer. Contact Admiral Blyx Red on a priority one secure channel and put her through to me."

Vindicator replied, "Aye, Commander, stand by."

---

The diminutive redhead only watched as James continued his tirade and she was helpless to do or say anything of any real merit. Nothing would stop him, slow him down, or make his words any less true. Instead she simply let him go and turned to look at Amelia as the first of her angry tears scorched a path down her cheeks. "And you have a plan?" She asked, waiting for the next onslaught to come after the balcony doors slammed shut behind James. Rochelle didn't flinch.

"Not yet, at least not beyond making sure Almar has successfully beamed up to the ship and does not step foot on this planet again," Amelia returned with a frown. She reached up to wipe Rochelle's tears with the sleeve of her robe. "Yelling at you, even if some of what he's saying is right, doesn't fix a fucking thing. They had you backed into a corner, and while it's a shitty situation, the only thing I can fault you for is not talking to Almar about what happened between you and Landon."

A thick mixture of surprise and relief seemed to paint itself over Rochelle's somber features. She'd been expecting another fight and another round of blathering explosive bullshit to come flinging from her friend's mouth. "I don't want Almar anywhere near this place ever again." She sniffled as the silk of Amelia's robe graced her cheeks, "I don't want any of you to come near here again. It's not safe. They're absolutely nuts." Her head shook and her shoulders finally drooped. The fight was on hold for as long as Archer paced the balcony, and she'd been taken to her corner to wait for the next bell to ring. "I tried to talk to him." She said, searching Amelia's face, "but I could never get it out. I knew it'd hurt him, but..." The little Queen shook as she drew another breath and tried to settle herself, "I always thought I was just an extension of the ship. He's so bent on keeping the Vindicator up and running and happy, I thought I was just another part of that system."

"As soon as all of us are back on the ship, I want nothing more than to head home and collapse the damn worm hole once it's in our rear view mirror." Amelia drew back, crossing her arms and shifting her weight to one foot. "As for Almar, what happened back there absolutely shattered him. Anyone watching him could see he loves you. He took the ship, our fat bottomed girl Vindicator, into the atmosphere of a planet for you, for fuck's sake. While he insisted she could take it, he was putting the ship behind you when he did that. I know that sometimes it's hard to see something right in front of your nose, but fuck..." Amelia sighed and shook her head.

The sigh that racked the Commodore's itsy bitsy frame was a big one, filled with emotion and anguish as it slipped through her lips. "I killed him." She mustered, "They threatened to, but I pulled the trigger." There was anger there now, budding again in her voice as she spoke those haunted words, "Five months passed, not a single word other than 'we just feel right'. No. That doesn't work!" She yelled, balling her hands into little fists. "And Landon..." Rochelle's head shook, "God... Landon..." It was over in the sound of a choke. All the threats of tears had finally come good in violent wracking sobs that stole and sucked the strength from her very core. "What the fuck have I done? I came here to throw the Symbiosis Commission." She cried freely, her hands coming up in question, "I sent him and Tristan away, chased them off so they could escape and have a shot at living the lives they've been granted. They're probably in Cesparia now... I hope to God they're in Cesparia now..."

"I'm sure they're in Cesparia now," Amelia insisted, even though she had no way of knowing — for now, they didn't have time to worry about things they had no hope of having control over. She stepped forward and pulled Rochelle into a hug. "Hopefully, once we get out of this mess, you and Almar will talk this through and figure yourselves out. And hopefully you'll hear from Landon to confirm that he, Tristan, and Zed are all somewhere safe. For now, we really need to focus on the problem at hand, and how to get you out the clutches of these assholes. Do we have any confirmation that Almar's actually made it to the ship?"

Rochelle's head shook no as she let Amelia pull her in close for a much needed hug. "No." She strained, but she had faith that the he and Logan had made it safely back to the Vindicator. There were no signs to the contrary, no guards had followed them as they'd beat a hasty retreat away from the freak show that had played out. "We have..." She sighed, sniffling as she drew her head back to look up at the tree-like quarter-Klingon, "We have to play their game. We have to play it and play it well... Buy us time. It's all we can do right now."

"Indeed," Amelia agreed. "Until we get you out of this, I don't want you going anywhere other than the bathroom without either Archer or I at your elbow. Agreed?"

"I can't agree to that. They won't accept it." Rochelle shook her head, knowing the fight Kyym would put up and simply not wanting to deal with it. "But..." She swallowed the knot of emotion in her throat, "I can wear a listening device or something... Put it in my bra, somewhere they won't look and one or both of you can lurk just out of focus?"

"Keep us as close at hand as possible, and we'll shadow lurk when necessary." The XO shook her head, not liking the compromise. "I'm going to slip out to call down reinforcements. Since Teá is pretty much a limp dick right now, because she forced Archer to need to discipline her, I'll call Barnes, and Rik has some experience that should help gathering information too. I'll have them slip down without drawing attention to themselves."

It was starting at least, the changing of the tides. Rochelle hadn't thought it would begin so quickly after such heartache and misery, but comforted herself with knowing that the crew was competent and strong. She loved them. Needed them. And now? Now they'd rise to the occasion and do their damnedest to end the madness. "Hurry." She nodded in approval and released her friend. From the corner of her eye she could see Archer pacing back and forth, ranting and raving. Knowing him, it was in tongues. Knowing Blyx, she was pissed and refusing to accept the current events. Things were happening.

---

Commodore Rochelle Ivanova
Commanding Officer
USS VINDICATOR, NCC 78213-E

Commander Amelia Waterhouse
Executive Officer
USS Vindicator, NCC 78213-E

Commander James Archer
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Vindicator, NCC 78213-E

 

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