Questioning the Witness

Posted on Tue Oct 29th, 2019 @ 10:47pm by Captain Cynthia Jackson & Lieutenant JG Neza Glenn

1,209 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Mission 2 - Love ORION Mistaken
Location: Captain's Ready Room

Cindy had pulled out Neza's report again. Much of it did not make sense. She said that she saw nothing wrong with Vivyra. She said that she believed that the Orion and her were truly in love. Noticeably absent, though, in her report was any mention of Jane confronting the petty officer. Was Neza compromised? Or was there carelessness on her part? Or, was she trying to protect Jane. None of the answers seemed to be good ones for Cindy or for Neza's career.

On a fact finding mission, now that Eric was in place, she called over the comm for Neza to come to her Ready Room.

Neza had known the moment she got the message to report to the Ready Room that she was in trouble. She grabbed her second report that she'd been working on late the night before and headed straight there. Knowing she was in for an earful, she pressed the chime on the door and waited.

Pleasantly, Cindy told the person on the other side of the door to come in.

Pressing the button to open the door, Neza stepped inside and let the door close behind her. "You wanted to see me, Captain?"

Cindy stood up to her full six feet in height and told Neza pleasantly, "Thank you so much for coming. Please, make yourself comfortable."

The pleasantness threw Neza off a little, but she went over to one of the seats with a nod.

"I called you in here to discuss the report that you filed regarding Vivyra. I was hoping that you could explain some things to me."

Neza handed Cindy the other report she had, about what happened as they were leaving, the confrontation. "I take it you're curious why I left Vivyra go with Jane, and about what happened as we were all leaving?"

"Those would be very good places to start," Cindy told Neza.

"I figured as much," Neza said as she sat back, "I let her go with Jane because I felt it was the right thing to do. I know what you were trying to do, but at the same time, I hoped you would trust me to follow my instincts with the two of them. Looking at it from an outsider's point of view."

While Cindy was far from opposed from officers exercising judgment, this seemed like much more of a lapse or a complete disregard for it. Her eyes darkened but her voice remained pleasant and cheerful. "Let's start at the beginning of the day. Did you get any information on Vivyra? Perform any scientific analysis? Do any tests on her?"

Neza shook her head, "We went for breakfast and then I was called to the labs for something. I left her to finish her food and came back and...you've seen the report. We had stopped by the lab but all we did was talk. A few trying to figure out what things mean in one culture to another, but beyond that, nothing. Though..." she bit her lip, "I'm concerned about some of what I'm seeing around the ship, not just with her."

"I'm concerned, as well," Cindy answered honestly. "And I wonder where your report fits in with all of this and why you did not notify me about the incident after you let Vivyra go with Jane. Did you think that was normal?"

"I thought about it overnight. Its in that report I just handed you though. I had planned on sending it in this morning until you sent the meeting request. I was using my best judgement on the situation, and reported what I felt I needed to report at the time. I'm sorry if it doesn't seem like I reported it correctly but I still did what you asked me to do."

Cindy strolled back to her desk. "I'm not sure that you did, Neza. Remember, this used to be my department. I know that I would have run Vivyra through multiple tests. The reason that I had you do this was because I had reason to believe that Jane's objectivity was compromised. I wanted another look at the tests and you to run your own. I don't see that any were performed on her. I see a pleasant conversation." Cindy threw her long, platinum hair back behind her head.

Neza sighed in frustration, "Neither of us had eaten, we went to do that first, and then I got called away. Then you obviously know what happened after that. I can't try to figure out what tests to run after talking with her and getting to know her as a person? I don't just jump into random experiments and tests without knowing other things. That might be how you ran the department, Captain, but it isn't how I do so."

"Do you lack creativity?" Cindy asked, her eyes darkening. "She did not need to know what you were doing." I feel sorry for whoever she ends up in bed with. She has the imagination of a white wall. Cindy took a deep breath. Why am I so on edge? "Anything you had at the lab could have waited. Your duty was to handle Vivyra." Cindy took another deep breath, as her eyes neared brown, the outsides of her irises darker than the dark green interiors.

"I don't! Observing, isn't that a rule of science?! I wouldn't be where I am without that!" Neza wanted to hit something but did her best to keep any cool she had left, "I am still handling Vivyra, did you not think that just maybe my letting her go with Jane in the end wasn't part of what I was observing?! I was called to the lab as an emergency, what was I supposed to do? Abandon my team? No, that isn't who I am. But now I'm wanting to add concern about you to the list, because this isn't like you. Getting so upset about this one thing. It's been one damned day."

"Neza," Cindy replied coldly, her eyes darkening to a complete brown. "I do not believe that you are yourself. I do not want to place a reprimand on your record. I do not want to relieve you of duty. You are my friend. But right now, you are very much out of order. I would suggest that you leave right now and take the rest of this shift off. You need to seriously consider your choices right now." Without waiting for Neza's response, Cindy simply said, "You're dismissed."

Without another word, Neza calmly got up, though she wasn't calm at all. She didn't need to consider her choices, as she'd done nothing wrong but it seemed many on this crew were not thinking clearly, including the captain. But, she didn't want a reprimand on her record so she gave a polite nod and walked out. She had things to do that she could only do off duty anyways. But, there was somewhere she had to go first, and that was where she was headed.

Cindy shook her head as Neza left. What am I going to do with her? Perhaps I was wrong about her becoming a Chief....

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