New Sheriff In Town

Posted on Fri Feb 15th, 2019 @ 4:53am by Rear Admiral Aerilyn Nyel & Captain Akiva ben-Avram

735 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Season 1 Interlude I (E2.5)
Location: Administrator's Office | Deck 4 - Overwatch Station
Timeline: ID 71

Akiva stormed into his office, sealed the door, and immediately began throwing things. How could he? How dare he?! Akiva knew Mrazak to be a horribly selfish sentient being, but never in his life had he imagined the depths of cruelty that led the Vulcan to do what he had done. How had he known? And how had circumstances conspired to hand Mrazak the biggest and worst weapon available to him?

The Vulcan had been certain to make known that this was beyond Akiva's ability to rectify. Short of a criminal action, Mrazak's Faustian deal with JAG could not be undone by even the Memory Theta administrator. Mrazak, in his diabolical planning, had found Akiva's rival for Laena's affections and then classified him as essential personnel to the field team. Though Laena had sworn up and down to Akiva that there had never been anything between her and Ryland Dedeker, the incessant whispering of insecurity would not be silenced. What if? And just when he and Laena had begun making ground in rebuilding their broken relationship.

"Elohai, ekra yo'v'man ta'aneh valeylah velo dumiyah!"Akiva raked his hands across his desktop and flung its contents to the floor.

Just as it hit the ground, the desktop display chirped with an incoming message. Akiva scrambled through the clutter and set the display back on the desk, then ran his hand through his hair before he accepted the transmission. To his surprise, it was Admiral Nyel. She hardly ever sent him a personal communique.

"Hello, Admiral," he said, trying to hide his partially disheveled and emotional condition. "What can I do for you?"

"You've looked better," the woman said through the comm link.

Akiva couldn't hold back a small, bashful smile. "Well, it's been a long 24 hours..." He meant to say more, but his words caught in his throat. Shaking his head to clear it, he said, "But I'm here, Admiral."

Aerilyn raised an eyebrow. "No hard feelings, I hope?"

"No, Admiral..." Akiva frowned. "I had hoped JAG would back me up, but you can't win them all. It's just..." Did he really want to gripe to the admiral over a personnel matter? That was, after all, why she had installed him as the administrator--so she didn't have to concern herself with such petty matters. "... a different internal matter that I hope to resolve soon."

"I don't want you to think we don't have your back," the woman said. "But...which we might disagree with Mrazak on a moral level, he is more valuable to us in his role than in the brig. The rank thing...well, let's just say that was out of my hands. But I can do something for you."

"Do tell, Admiral Nyel," Akiva said. "I could use some good news."

"In your second drawer, on the right side of your desk, you'll find a small box. Open it," she said.

Akiva did as ordered, and discovered a shiny new pip. "How did... So... Is this mine?"

The Admiral nodded, "Yes, that is for you. You're being promoted to Captain. You've proven yourself quite well at the helm of Theta, and have made my job a hell-of-a-lot easier. Please keep it that way."

Having heard the JAG's ruling that Akiva was of insufficient rank to perform a unilateral Captain's Mast, Admiral Nyel's subtext here was loud and clear. "I won't let you down, Admiral."

"You better not. I would hate to have to supervise you, Captain." Without another word the screen went blank, the Admiral's face being replaced with the spinning logo of Starfleet.

Left to himself, Akiva palmed the new pip. He could put it on now, but there was nobody around to see it. Not Laena. Not Mrazak. No one. Deciding to wait for a more savory moment, Akiva slid the pip back inside its box which he returned to his desk drawer.

And, then, a plan formed in his mind, a bit of poetic justice. While he had no immediate grounds for a Captain's Mast, what with JAG resolving the previous investigation in Mrazak's favor, Akiva determined to use his administrative clout to right one of the wrongs to which he had been an accomplice. And in so doing, he would show Mrazak just who he was messing with.

"Ferrofax... patch me through to the asylum administrator on Elba II."

Memory Theta would have a new sheriff.

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