Lt. JG. Gnai - Interrogation, Round 2?
Lich
(( Captain’s Ready Room – Deck 1, USS Artemis-A ))
One thing that Gnai had not been expecting was a call from Captain MacKenzie. She’d ordered it to come to the newly refurbished ready room over its combadge, and it had rushed to comply, even if it was confused. Why did she want to see it? Had it done something wrong…?
It made haste to her ready room as fast as the new suit would let it, despite its trepidations, trying not to be too late. It was a lieutenant now. It couldn’t be late, not if it wanted to keep the extra hollow pip. Was this some sort of debriefing, now that it was back aboard the Artemis after its temporary (VERY temporary) posting on the Kitty Hawk? That should have been done way sooner though, right?
Wait…
Was this about the crash on the moon? It wasn’t responsible for that. There was absolutely no way that it could be held responsible for that - it had been the lowest ranked officer on the bridge as they’d crashed, and it had tried as hard as it could to find a way to keep the saucer from crashing into Luna!
When it reached the door to the ready room, Gnai tried to calm down its tendrils before it signaled that it was waiting there to meet her. It didn’t need to come in, various filaments flaring around its body and flashing all sorts of worried colors. It needed to think calm thoughts. Maybe she was just trying to congratulate it on the promotion.
As the door whooshed open, allowing it entry, it marveled at the new ready room, having seen it briefly before. The nice desk that the captain had sat behind was replaced with something metal, and the wall behind her opened into a large window to the space behind. It could see a shining sliver of blue and green as the ship hung above Earth in space.
MacKenzie: Lieutenant, thank you for coming. How is your leave so far?
In all honesty, there hadn’t been much that it had done over the leave, except fix its suit. It had shown a few people around the ship, and met up with its Academy friend Niev on Earth… but the rest of the time had really been down-time. Down-time for a scientist, at least. It had bustled around the science labs, trying to get back to a semblance of normal, and then most recently, it had been focusing all its energy on moving into the new quarters it had been assigned.
Deck 3, Sector 6, Room 66. Someone had joked at the mess that it was an unlucky room, but Gnai wasn’t a creature of superstition. Not that the captain cared about that sort of frivolity, most likely.
Gnai: It’s been… fine? Just adjusting to the new rank, sir.
At her suggestion, Gnai sat across from her again. The ringing of the PADD against the metal desk started up its worries again - what had she been reading? Was that related to why she called it here?
MacKenzie: Commander Salkath did a great job with your suit. Does it meet your needs?
Gnai: ::bobbing in its tank:: Yes, it does. It’s not ::pause:: perfect, but it’s good enough for now. ::longer pause:: What did you want to see this for?
MacKenzie: We didn’t have a chance to speak much after the party. I wanted to check in and see how you were after Frontier Day…
That was not what it had expected. Captain MacKenzie was a strange commanding officer - it still had no idea what to make of her, except that it respected her greatly and didn’t want to disappoint her. But going from imprisonment with her, to interrogation, to being berated in front of the staff of the Bajoran hospital… to a promotion and now this? Gnai was never sure how to act around her.
Gnai: Thank you, sir.
MacKenzie: I’ve read the reports about what happened on the Kitty Hawk. I’ve been keeping track to make sure that every member of the crew are making their regularly scheduled counseling sessions, but I wanted to see how you were doing in light of everything that I know happened while you were over there…
Had it been scheduled for counseling?? It hadn’t seen anything like that… or had it missed that entirely. That wasn’t out of the question - moving and setting up the new tank within its quarters had taken a lot of its attention.
Gnai: This is fine! It was… stressful, but this has a new suit now so… it’s fine.
MacKenzie: Response
The loss of its previous suit was a sore spot for Gnai. That suit had represented one of its proudest moments, working with its mentor back on the homeworld, and now it was gone - reduced to lifeless scraps of metal, the various internal components burnt out from whatever the Amity crew had done to it in the end. Additionally, talking about how the suit had been destroyed meant mentioning the assimilation that it had undergone, and Gnai was not excited to share that it too had been vulnerable to the Borg, like some of its crewmates aboard the Artemis. Not with the captain, especially.
And then there was the whole question about how one of its arms had stayed on the bridge, while the rest of the suit had been found elsewhere. Lt. Sadar had made it promise to keep how that had happened secret, and it wasn’t intending to break that promise to her. But if the captain asked… No, Gnai didn’t even want to consider that thought, lest the universe decide that its word needed testing.
Gnai: The old suit? It was found on… Deck 4 of the Kitty Hawk this recalls? It wasn’t salvageable, too damaged from the fight on the bridge before the crash… and the fight with the Amity crewmembers who discovered and disabled it.
MacKenzie: Response
Gnai: Yes… The crash. This was on the bridge for that. ::pause:: But there was nothing that could have been done!
MacKenzie: Response
Tags/TBC! :)
--