No News was Good News

Posted on Sun Dec 16th, 2018 @ 9:35pm by Lieutenant JG Jaya Maera Garlake & Lieutenant Colonel Storr Garlake

Mission: Season 1 Interlude I (E2.5)
Location: Memory Theta (Overwatch), Deck 8, Garlake Residence
Timeline: ID 0 - 1315

"...therefore, the Council of Six requires and requests your presence before us within 1 month of receiving this message. That is all and good day."

Storr pushed the power button on the chair's control panel causing the screen to go blank, the Deltan man in a traditional maroon gabardine kaftan seemingly sucked into a black hole in the middle of the display.

The two Garlakes sat across from each other in a much more somber mood then they had their last location, their regal outfits having been replaced with utilitarian gray jumpsuits Storr had thankfully found in the locker by the holodeck entrance...to say that their previous clothing was unserviceable would be an understatement. Laena had left the room between receiving the message notification and them arriving, the Orion likely discerning the nature of the important call and politely making herself scarce, creating more silence then either of them had been used to in several weeks. Storr was first to break the ice.

"Well, I suppose there's no way to pretend we were flying through a negatively charged nebula at the time and didn't get their message, is there?" Funny, he was a man whose job both in and out of the trenches involved great deals of conflict but when it came to his wife, he wanted to protect her from it as much as possible. Thinking about it momentarily, maybe it wasn't so funny after all.

Jaya shook her head and stared at the blank screen. Her husband was doing his best to cheer her up, and she loved him for it. "At least I'll get to see home again," she said. Perhaps for the last time, she left unsaid. Turning to face him, she changed tack. "Speaking of silly excuses, how will we explain our service history over the past year? We were separated for a few months, and we can't exactly talk about our current placement."

"That...is a good question," Storr answered, leaning back and idly running his hands through his hair. "Computer, what is the current official duty station and title for Storr and Jaya Garlake?"

"Lieutenant Colonel and Lieutenant Junior Grade Garlake are currently assigned to the USS Ticonderoga conducting long-range patrol and survey operations along the Gavarian Frontier.
Due to frequent outbreaks of low-intensity conflict, various stellar phenomenon, and the staggered re-deployment schedule from the USS Vindex, there was a break in joint-spouse assignment for approximately 75 days." the computer briskly replied. Seemed plausible enough he thought with a shrug. He was no expert at life in the shadows but figured that enough people were that their cover was good enough for government work.

"I'll be honest...the only thing I'm really worried about is getting to Delt...Seyalia," Storr said, catching himself to use Jaya's native term for the planet. It sounded much more graceful and in-line with everything he knew about Deltans and their love of everything sensual, to include proper names.

"What concerns could they really have?" He asked, patting his thigh for Jaya to join him on his lap. "It's been a year, I haven't gone insane, you haven't violated our monogamy via your expanded Oath of Celibacy and I think that we're quite happily married if I do say so myself."

After ending her vigil into oblivion, Jaya turned to Storr with fear in her eyes. "You're looking at this through the courageous eyes of an innocent man. The Oath of Celibacy is what allows Deltans to function within Starfleet. The Foreign Ministry takes it very seriously, which is why an ambassador personally subpoenaed me a year ago. That is also why the tribunal's decision was a foregone conclusion, until we broke decorum and challenged it." She let out her conflicted series in a protracted sigh. "They don't want this to work, my love, so if they cannot find a reason, then they will make one."

"Don't worry, I hadn't forgotten," Garlake returned her fearful gaze with one much more rooted in anger, "Ambassador Kontos is near the top of my list for good reason." There was a common misperception that the Station Commandant kept a ledger of people that deserved, required, needed, or simply demanded extermination in a little black book he kept in the top drawer of his office. Speculation abounded concerning its existence and contents during his last three assignments and Storr did nothing to quelch it. It was false, anyway. The book was green.

Standing and scooping his bride into his arms and returning to his seat, he held Jaya tightly as he kissed the top of her head. Garlake knew that he held no ability to do what Jaya did but he at least imagined pressing warmth and protection through his touch and the bond that they shared. "Listen, Lief, if they truly didn't want this...us to work, they would have struck it down then and there. They didn't. Think about it...we were able to get a one-year exception to something that has never been excepted in the history of your people, ever!" He chuckled as he remembered the looks on the Council's faces when Jaya mounted the table and read them the riot act. Great things do indeed come in small packages.

Jaya nodded and nuzzled her head against Storr, taking shelter in his faith as her own.

"Besides, it's not you that should be worried...this evaluation is more about my stability and mental state which will then determine if you live or die. How exactly are they going to determine that?! A verifier? Truth serum? Neuro-synaptic field?" A pregnant pause. "Rubber hoses? You saw how they treated me lower than something they stepped in on the way to the hearing."

The Marine pressed back down the trepidation he didn't realize he had been harboring for a year now and refocused his churning gaze. Barely surviving the most intimate and potent connection with a Deltan that loved and adored him was one thing. Being forcibly opened like a tin can to have his mind and emotions poked and prodded like a sick plaything for some bureaucrat's pleasure...that was another thing entirely.

"I will love you always," Jaya said at last. "Even if you fail their test." Quickly returning to herself, she looked him in the face. "Not that I think that's possible. You can do anything." She kissed him slow and soft to promote an assurance that, to herself only, felt fleeting and unreliable. Together, perhaps, it would be enough.