Lt. JG. Gnai - Properly Chastised
Lich
(( Captain’s Ready Room – Deck 1, USS Artemis-A ))
Gnai had not been expecting to be promoted, and it certainly had not been expecting Captain MacKenzie’s response to its hesitance.
MacKenzie: Do I look like the kind of person who haphazardly issues promotions?
It swayed back and forth in its tank, trying to imitate the same head shake that humanoids used so much.
Gnai: But why now? This didn’t do anything important during Frontier Day… ::pause:: Or anything at all. Except watch, unable to do anything, as the previous suit was assimilated.
Even if it had puffed up under Lt. Cmdr. Jovenan’s praise after the ceremony, Gnai still felt that this wasn’t entirely right. It hadn’t proven itself, not in the way that it wanted to. The captain had only seen it in the worst of times, and now here it was, pouring its feelings out to her about how stressed it was after barely being assimilated - Niev and the others had had it far worse. This was a disaster of a meeting.
MacKenzie: Why do you call your worthiness into question? Particularly as you define it according to a singular event?
That… was a fair point. It was focusing on Frontier Day - but only because Frontier Day had been such a shock for it, for the entire Federation. What happened there seemed to make all the rest of what it had done pale in comparison.
Gnai: ::shrugging its suits arms:: It just feels… unearned. Not when there are others who have been here longer. Or better officers who aren’t here anymore because of what this watched its previous suit do…
Captain MacKenzie folded her arms and leaned back in her chair, obviously not amused with Gnai’s excuses. But that’s how it felt! The others on the Artemis, on the Kitty Hawk, on all the rest of the fleet, they’d done far more to combat the Borg and save the Federation than it had. All it had done of note was shock one of the other drones, and it had barely meant for that to happen; stinging was an unconscious reaction to being grabbed without warning.
MacKenzie: You had no control over what the Borg made your suit do – any more than anyone else did who was assimilated. You, and the others, would do well to remember that.
It hadn’t had control, but it just sat there! And let everyone else die and do the work for it!
Gnai: That’s fair but…
The sharp percussive sound of her hands ringing through the desktop cut off Gnai’s words mid-sentence. Its suit’s speakers died out on the word as it waited to hear why she had stopped it from continuing.
MacKenzie: Alright, I’m ordering you to knock it off. ::pointing:: Your first order of business, if you want to demonstrate you deserve the pip I put on your suit, is to stop acting like you don’t. Do I make myself clear?
Gnai: Aye sir. ::slight pause:: Aye sir.
That appeased her, it seemed. It still felt apprehension about… everything, but the strength by which she held her conviction that it was right for it to be promoted made it feel just a smidge better. As she had said, she wasn’t one to issue promotions haphazardly. There had to be a reason behind it, even if Gnai thought it was shaky.
MacKenzie: That’s the thing about Starfleet – we explore the unknown. And sometimes it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. We can only do our best in any given moment.
Gnai: Understood, Captain. ::pause:: This is just still struggling a bit with everything after Frontier Day. But you’re right… This is letting that stress get to it and distract it.
MacKenzie: Response
It felt properly chastised for all the frantic emotions it had been feeling, and how it had let those spill over onto its meeting with the captain. This was hardly becoming of an officer, wasn’t it?
Gnai: This won’t even try to hope that the next mission is calm anymore. As you said, Starfleet is there to explore the unknown… even if that unknown is dangerous.
Hoping for a calm mission seemed like it was inviting bad luck in, not that Gnai believed in such superstitious things. So all it could do was agree with the captain, and hope for another chance at exploration, calmness be damned.
MacKenzie: Response
Once again, talking to the captain in her ready room had felt like a wave of emotions, rising up in tension only to crash down at the very end and fade back to normal. Gnai stood up from where the captain had gestured it sit, slightly antsy to get out of here before the conversation swelled up again into something uncomfortable.
Gnai: Thank you, captain. For believing in this.
MacKenzie: Response
With a bobbing nod in its tank, Gnai left the captain to her new desk and ready room, feeling both ashamed of how it had acted, and strangely a little better about the promotion. Life in Starfleet was a life of excitement, and confusing, conflicting emotions that Gnai had never really had to sit down and feel back amongst other Galadorans.
Tags/End scene for Gnai :)
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