MSNPC Adirim Bolen - Ashamed
Laria Herren
((Adirim Bolen’s Manor - Paoike Colony, Drever IV))
Once up the stairs and in his bedroom he started to collect together some of his clothes that weren’t in the office. He pulled his luggage from his closet and looked around for anything else he needed to bring with him. There was only so much that he could carry with him. As he packed he was in a rush, perhaps not being as quiet as he should have been.
Hopefully the commodore and her crew hadn’t gone digging too deeply into the old abandoned site where his luxurious shuttle was hidden away. He had periodically had routine maintenance done and made sure the shuttle was always fueled and ready to fly in case he needed it. He’d need to stop by the kitchen and grab some food in case the shuttle’s replicator wasn’t-
Herren: Going somewhere, Mr. Bolen?!
People!? He froze in place. Slowly, his eyes glanced over to look at who had caught him in the act. Then he turned to face them. Varl, the officer formerly known as Captain T’Ama, and a Trill woman in what he now understood was command red. They didn’t look very happy to see him. And he’d been caught preparing to leave redhanded.
Bolen: oO Time to think fast. Oo
He thought of all the possible reasons why he could responsibly claim to be leaving the colony. The obvious answer was to get help. But what could he say specifically? He went through the nearby star systems and members of his social circle who could have theoretically offered help. He picked a name, Professor Bokett Rosal. He was a biologist of some kind, if he remembered correctly.
Bolen: Oh, hello! I, um- got an urgent call from a former friend of mine at Cardassian Central University. He thinks that a university on Renavi might have a promising compound that could address the blight. So I was going to go ::Pause:: pick it up.
Adirim hoped that they’d buy it. He was trying to come up with answers to logical follow-up questions that his story would provoke but knew that he’d be called out on the details.
T’Ama: Response
Bolen: Don’t remember the name, it was a call over subspace, fairly technical. But I’m sure that the staff at the university will figure out what I’m talking about.
The Trill spoke up again with plain contempt in her voice. He didn’t need to make the effort to reach out and pick up on the empathic energies in the room to know what they were thinking. The emotions were clear on their faces. Not even Varl was going to be sticking up for him.
Herren: That’s it, then? The going gets rough and you decide to leave your entire colony to fend for itself?
Those words cut deep. He wanted to say something, give some explanation for what they had walked in on. But he had nothing. No lie convincing enough to cover that they had him dead to rights. He was running away. Not that he couldn’t do that. He was perfectly free to hand over leadership to someone else and go wherever he pleased. It wasn’t a penal colony. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try to justify things reflexively.
Bolen: I…
Nothing else came after that first word, a gut reaction to the assertion that he was a coward abandoning the colony. Just a heavy silence as he kept eye contact with the trio and waited for anything that they had to say.
T’Ama: Adirim…
As the Vulcan not-captain stepped forward he couldn’t stop from feeling a sense of trust. She didn’t seem angry or what he would expect to be a lack of emotion. There was a quiet sense of understanding. The use of his given name caught him off guard. Very few people would call him that to his face. Especially on Drever IV.
T’Ama: Tell me… Why are you really running away?
Adirim sighed and spilled his guts. They knew what he was doing. But he wanted to explain. Yes, partly to make himself look better in their eyes. However, T’Ama’s demeanor was calming. She was… disappointed in him? For some reason he felt a strong drive to convince her of why he was running.
Bolen: This is getting to be too much. Giant creatures attacking people, storms, people getting sick. I can’t handle this. And I really don’t want to become a casualty of one of those hazards.
T’Ama: Is that all? It’s all just too much for you? Where do you keep the ship you’re going to leave on?
He nodded in response to the first part of her question. It was too much. As for his ship… he assumed that they hadn’t found it yet. He was worried that he had possibly overplayed his hand trying to warn the commodore away from the abandoned expansion. But clearly his shuttle was yet to be found.
Bolen: Yes, exactly! ::Pause:: I keep a luxury shuttle kept in a hangar built beneath one of the buildings in the abandoned expansion. Just in case.
As he spoke she took another step closer he could feel the disappointment, but the continued sense that maybe she wanted to understand and be more sympathetic to him.
T’Ama: ::shaking her head, sadly:: Where were you going to go, Adirim? The Sixteenth House doesn’t want you back.
Bolen: Renavi isn’t too far away. Or maybe just stick in orbit for a while and monitor the situation. Somewhere, anywhere safer than here right now. And once things calm down…
He didn’t have a great plan. He stared right at T’Ama with pleading eyes. Wanting to convince her that he did have some kind of plan. There were lots of places he could go. But then the spell was broken. Lieutenant T’Ama turned back to the Trill who was still staring at him with a much more open look of disgust with his behavior.
T’Ama: Definitely a coward and unsuited to lead.
Bolen: oO Ouch… Oo
Herren: Agreed.
That hurt too. Adirim sighed and tried to defined himself. He wasn’t a coward! He was simply being rational. There was nothing more that he could do on the ground.
Bolen: I- Look, I admit I’m in over my head. But I called Starfleet here to bring expert help. And now that you’re here I know the problem is in more capable hands than mine. There is nothing cowardly about self-preservation. It’s rational and I’m not abandoning anybody.
He felt like maybe he was getting somewhere until the lieutenant commander responded to tear his argument apart.
Herren: Just because you have a rational basis for something, that doesn’t make it virtuous or not cowardly. We’ve put ourselves at risk working to solve the mystery of what’s happening here. Lieutenant T’Ama here was hit in the eye with hail. One of our teams had a close encounter with the megafauna you’re so worried about. But we’re still here.
T’Ama: Response
Adirim dug his heels in and stood up a bit straighter.
Bolen: Think whatever you want of me, but I’m making the smart choice. ::He frowned, feeling defensive.:: And besides, you can’t keep me here! I’m free to leave if I want.
The Trill officer’s expression softened and she nodded in agreement. At least there was that. They weren’t going to try and hold him there or keep him from leaving. Although now he was debating if it was the right move. T’Ama had shaken his certainty in his plan.
Herren: That you are. You’re free to give into your own worst instincts and run away without a plan of where you’re going. We’re still going to be here cleaning up your mess. And we will be sure to fully document everything that’s happened.
Now that could be a problem…
T’Ama: Response
Herren: Of course, it might be wise to get a flight plan from him, don’t you think lieutenant? If these toxins are moving up the food chain as we suspect, you could already be sick and start experiencing symptoms during the flight. That would be very dangerous alone.
T’Ama: Response
Adirim had nothing further to say. He sank down on the bed and pushed the suitcase aside. That was something he hadn’t thought of. It was true, he had been eating the plants and drinking the water too. Maybe he was already sick. His head ached and he stopped following the rest of the conversation. His head hit the pillow and he sighed.
He stared up at the ceiling. Any further attempts to talk to him were met with silence as he retreated from the outside world and crawled into the refuge of his own mind. Who was he? What did his behavior say about him? For the first time in a long while Adirim felt something that was very not noble and far from perfect. Shame. He felt ashamed.
Sir Adirim Bolen, Son of the Sixteenth House of Betazed
Mayor and Founder
Paoike Colony
===as simmed by===
Lieutenant Commander Laria Herren
Mission Specialist/Second Officer
USS Constitution-B
A239402AG0