Prologue - A Parting Lesson

Posted on Sun Jun 23rd, 2024 @ 1:21am by Lieutenant Lirien
Edited on Mon Jul 1st, 2024 @ 12:10am

1,507 words; about a 8 minute read

For the first time in months, Lirien raised her unsheathed sword, gripping it in both hands with the measured confidence of someone trained from childhood in the art. While she was surrounded by a wall of blossom trees and shrubs, a single pagoda off the the side standing under a late afternoon sun, she knew she was still standing on a holodeck at Spacedock, preparing to leave for her new assignment. It was a beautiful illusion, but the doubts about what lay ahead gnawed at her and didn't allow her to fully appreciate the moment.

Her opponent stood opposite her, taller and older and with a gleam in his black Betazoid eyes that matched the pointed 'stare' of his Andorian antennae. Both clues informed her this would not be an easy fight. "The first move is yours, Lieutenant."

"Is that an order, Captain?" She circled, keeping her distance from him. While they were matched in strength due to her Romulan heritage, he was still faster, more agile, and had twice as many years of experience behind him. "Or a ploy?"

"A sugg-" he started, but she stabbed her blade forward in a feint before angling upward toward an antenna. His chaka, a traditional Andorian weapon with three blades, parried the blow with a centimeter to spare. Maybe he wasn't as fast today. She suppressed a cocky grin; he didn't bother to hide his. "Feeling bold, I see."

"I'm just helping an old man relive his glory days." Fighting against a chaka wasn't like fighting against another sword. It could catch her blade if she wasn't careful, and it had three very sharp points. "After all, what's folded steel when you've got a phaser at your side?" She pressed the attack, and he deflected with more speed, stepping back on the soft grassy illusion that was the holodeck as they moved in a circular dance.

"You wound me," his voice was like velvet, though there was still a touch of gravel to it.

"I am trying."

The half-Andorian let out a short laugh. The shift in his body language was barely detectable, but she caught it all the same, and was soon on the defense, pushed back and retreating with less grace. With hair as black as hers, though there was graying at the temple, he did not seem to lack the vigor of youth at all. Lirien wondered if he'd been even quicker when he was a young officer.

Her heel dug into the dirt as it took all her strength to keep his blade from closing in. Pushing off, Lirien appraised his stance change. Three years serving under Captain Jau'Hua Qiri aboard the USS Reznik, two years since they'd started sparring after he discovered her hobby, one year after her one and only defeat of him in a match, and he was just now showing her something new?

With a twist of his wrist, her honor sword was ripped from her hands and plunged into the nearby earth.

Tumbling past him to gain some distance, she grabbed the hilt and brought it up defensively, but Qiri gave her no quarter. He feinted with his weapon, then brought his empty hand up to strike a nerve on her forearm. The sword fell again, and his chaka halted just short of her neck. "Final lesson. Never let your enemy know what you're fully capable of."

The words struck a chord with her, stirring an old memory of her father, when Lirien still lived on Romulus as a small child, 'Skill wins a battle, but secrets win wars.'

"And here I thought this was one last friendly spar," she chided.

He smiled again. "Isn't it?" Qiri took a step back, then sheathed the Andorian blade on his back.

She retrieved the honor blade from the ground a second time, sheathing it more slowly. "I'm confused. I had the impression there was more to this meeting."

"There is," he replied. "I know you've been cleared by Starfleet Medical, but I wanted to weigh where you were at with my own senses. In my experience, shrinks get you spending way too much time in your head. Thinking quickly becomes overthinking, and then a prison if you're not careful. Instinct is as important a muscle as self-awareness."

"I can see the logic in that." Whether that insight was a benefit of her Vulcan upbringing, or her Romulan upbringing, was a question for the sages, Lirien mused to herself. "But why at this hour? I'm transferring to my new position soon."

"Well, I did want to see my sparring partner one last time."

From Lirien's observation, he certainly was more sentimental than was probably logical to be. It was nice to feel wanted, though. "You don't have enough swordfighters in your life," she jested.

"There is that." He scratched his beard thoughtfully. "But I also wanted to hear from you directly: do you feel ready for this assignment? Absolute Candor."

She sighed and furrowed her brow. He would pull that card. Lirien's time with the warrior nun sect made it difficult to prevaricate when Absolute Candor was invoked. An annoying compulsion paired with the Vulcan commandment to speak no lie. *Especially* after Captain Qiri had just finished regaling her of the benefit of deception. "I've never been in a leadership position before. Not formally."

"You were a leader when it truly mattered."

Emergency lights flaring, screams in the halls, the drone of friends repeating 'eliminate the unassimilated' over and over again. The weight of a door pressing against her aching fingers as she forced it to remain open just a few seconds longer. The flash of phaser fire. The smell of smoke and burning flesh. The dead eyes of lost shipmates. All of those memories flashed in her amber eyes, during the Borg crisis on Frontier Day. She had stepped up out of necessity and helped save the bridge crew, including Captain Qiri. "I... know."

"Good, and I'd like to think you won't forget that. It's okay to have doubts, but don't let them lock you up. You're going to do fine."

Lirien let out a sigh of relief. She didn't know she'd needed to hear that, and she wasn't sure it would have mattered if it hadn't come from her former Captain. "I need to do better than fine," she said, her voice shaking.

"We all do. Until Starfleet regains its strength, it's going to take those of us with the ability to lead to do so. The Federation still has enemies, and there's blood in the water now that the fleet's been weakened. That's why I recommended you for this assignment. The Kepler is going to overturn some stones, and who knows what it's going to find? I think it'll be better with a Tactical Chief who acted with valor in our darkest hour."

"No pressure."

"You sound like my oldest," he laughed. Lirien smiled at the comparison to his daughter. What he'd said before wasn't the first time he'd reminded her of her father. Perhaps there was a universality among fathers and daughters. She only knew it was a welcome feeling, one she allowed herself to embrace rather than suppressing it in the manner of her adopted Vulcan parents. "I take it we still don't know why you didn't change?"

She shook her head. "The doctors didn't have a lot of answers. Only that about a dozen or so of us across the fleet were unaffected by the corrupted transporter code."

"A mystery worth solving." In some ways it felt like Frontier Day was only days ago. In other ways it felt like nearly a lifetime since the attack. The two officers stood on the holographic grass as a light breeze danced in the simulation, a pregnant silence between them. "When do you return to the Reznik, sir?"

"I don't. I'm going to spend a little more time with my family on Earth, but I've accepted reassignment with Intelligence." His face darkened a little at that. Old memories, she gathered, but none he'd ever shared with her. Her curiosity piqued, but that was one emotion she did file away. His secrets were his own. The only thing she knew for sure was there was danger laced into his words.

Qiri masked his expression with pleasantness, and he offered his hand. "Good journey, Lieutenant."

She shook the hand, but craved the comfort of a father. "It's been an honor serving with you, Captain." She replied, keeping the intonation in her voice steady. Qiri nodded, and what little ability he had as a half-Betazoid more than sensed her feelings. He opened his arms to offer a hug, and Lirien quickly accepted it.

When she stepped back, her cheeks must have flashed with color, because she saw understanding in his eyes. He shifted to a more comfortable formality. "The honor was mine, Lieutenant. Dismissed."

With a brusque nod, she crossed the threshold from the illusory garden onto the hard deck plates of Spacedock, and proceeded to her destination. The USS Kepler awaited.

 

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