Lt. JG Natasha Cole - Patient Enough to Be Dangerous
Natasha Schell
(( Shuttle Griffin, Berth Delta-7, Spaceport Alpha, Betazed ))
The shuttle touched down lightly.
Betazed Greeting Message: =/\= Welcome, travelers, rest your mind.
Leave your guarded thoughts behind.
On Betazed, where hearts are clear,
Every soul is seen and near.
Feel the calm, no need to hide.
Truth and peace walk side by side.
Step ashore, let silence speak.
You are known the moment you seek. =/\=
Jira glanced at Storm with a puzzled expression on their face. While Nat tried to not let the jingle get stuck in her head.
Jaran: Does that happen every time?
Storm: No…Yes?
Alex paused.
Storm: I can feel the gathering. I need to get going.
Cole: That somehow made me feel both greeted and monitored.
Jira opened the shuttle's door.
Jaran: Fair enough! We have work to do. I'm leaving my bag here. Prophets grant we'll find what we need and be on our way again quickly.
Natasha rose, smoothing the front of her jacket once before stepping toward the hatch.
Cole: Leave it. First stop’s still records, then whoever signed off on that delay.
Storm:: Nila!
The two women met in a quick embrace.
Storm: Jira, Nat, this is Nila.
Jaran: Response
Natasha’s gaze swept the berth in one quick pass: arrivals staff, baggage crews, station security, and one woman in a slate-gray station jacket holding a data-slate like it might protect her from difficult questions.
Cole: I want the first person who can explain why we circled while outbound traffic cleared. After that, I want the person who told them to make it happen.
Alex touched Nila’s arm.
Storm: They’ll need help getting answers.
Nila: Because you’re…
Storm: I’ve got a funeral to attend.
Nila: Aren’t you a little overdressed?
Storm: That will be remedied shortly.
Jaran: Response
Cole: Let me talk first. People tell you interesting things when they think you’re only half suspicious.
Natasha’s eyes settled on the woman by the berth marker, dark hair pinned neatly back, smile already halfway into place. Her badge read **Senior Traffic Coordination Clerk – Lysa Pell**.
Cole: Ms. Pell, right? Lieutenant Natasha Cole. I’m sure this is all perfectly ordinary, but there’s one little thing about our approach delay that keeps bothering me, and I was hoping you could save me from overthinking it.
Pell adjusted her grip on the data-slate, her smile holding a fraction too long before she answered.
Pell: I assure you, Lieutenant, your shuttle was never in any danger. We were instructed to delay inbound clearance for just a few minutes while a priority departure window was maintained. It was administrative, not personal.
Alex stepped up behind Pell
Storm: It may not have been personal…
The woman hadn’t expected Alex and swung around quickly with her hand on her chest.
Jaran: Response
Storm: But it was intentional, and …
Nila’s words overlapped Alex’s.
Nila: … And my friends and I here would like to know why.
Cole: Why a Starfleet shuttle with a filed funeral visit was kept circling while outbound traffic cleared. Start there.
Natasha didn’t raise her voice. She didn’t need to. She simply turned her attention fully onto Pell, and the effect was somehow more pressuring than if she’d stepped closer.
Jaran: Response
Pell: You’d like to know why…what?
Alex breathed in…then suddenly turned to Cole and Jaran.
Storm: I’m sorry. I need to go. ::Turning her former shipmate:: Nila?
Nila: I’ll help them get to the bottom of this.
Cole: Go be where you need to be. We’ll handle this side of it.
She softened by a degree for Alex and only Alex, which was enough to make the reassurance real without slowing anything down.
Jaran: Response
Storm: The funeral’s already underway. I…
Alex turned to go, but stopped, walked back, and gave both Nat and Jira a quick hug. Nat held the hug a fraction longer trying to give Alex some extra courage.
Storm: Thank you both. I have to go.
Natasha watched Alex go and let herself feel the tug of it for exactly one breath. Then she turned it into focus.
Cole: Alright. Then let’s make sure she didn’t get lied to in orbit for nothing.
Jaran: Response
Nodding toward Nat, Nila refocused the group.
Nila: ::To Pell:: I think you need to answer the woman’s question.
Pell: I’ve already explained the hold, Lieutenant. There was outbound priority traffic, and your berth assignment was delayed accordingly. It happens.
Natasha tilted her head slightly, almost mild, as if they were finally getting somewhere pleasant rather than into the part of the conversation Pell was trying to avoid.
Cole: You said you were instructed. That’s useful. Let’s start with by whom.
Nila/Jaran: Response
Pell: Station Operations issued the instruction through standard traffic channels. I don’t personally originate berth holds, Lieutenant, I carry them out.
Cole: I don’t need the whole station’s secrets, Ms. Pell. Just the part where our hold pattern became somebody else’s escape route.
The trick, she had learned, was not to sound angry too early. People shut down around anger. They leaned into silence around disappointment. But they often kept talking when you sounded merely patient enough to be dangerous.
Nila/Jaran: Response
Pell: Escape route is a serious interpretation. I had no manifest naming anyone of concern, only a flagged departure window that was marked priority and time-sensitive. That is all I knew.
Cole: One way or another, I’m getting the shape of this. I’m simply offering you the chance to be on the useful side of it.
Pell’s careful smile faltered at last. Her fingers tightened against the edge of the data-slate, and when she answered, the words came out lower and faster, like she was trying to get rid of them before they could become hers.
Pell: …The instruction was signed off by Berth Operations Supervisor Teren Vos, but it didn’t originate with him. He said the request came down from Station Operations with a diplomatic priority marker attached. That’s all I have.
Natasha gave the smallest nod, as if Pell had finally remembered how to be helpful. Teren Vos. Diplomatic priority. Station Operations. Better. Now the lie had structure.
Cole: Good. Let’s go ruin Teren Vos’s afternoon
Nila/Jaran: Response
((OOC: I feel like this is a good spot to end))
Tags/End Scene for Natasha Cole
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Lt. JG Natasha Cole
Security Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240205NC4