CDR Naxell — Who You Are
Naxell
((Captain’s Ready Room, Deck 1, USS Khitomer, Deep Space 33 Dry Dock))
Commander Agatha Stergis, Deep Space 33’s CO was human. And humans, like all species, were fallible. They made mistakes, and they made enemies, and sometimes both at the same time. Agatha Stergis had a long and bloody career in Starfleet. She had found many enemies in her years, but in Naxell's humble opinion, by holding onto them she was making new mistakes.
Edac: My Father says we must learn from the past but not live in it.
Naxell: I remember the Dominion War. Probably better than she does. And on this ship, Lieutenant, you have nothing to prove.
Edac: I know Sir : hesitating as she thinks: I think that I want to show rather than prove. that not all Cardassians are like Dukat or Tain.
Every planet had its ugly history. There was no society in the galaxy free from sin, as a fair number of Earth's humans might put it. Denobulans and Antarans famously harbored a mutual societal hatred that lasted and lingered for centuries of warfare, before it eventually faded into antipathy. Today, it was little more than a cultural bruise—a tender spot that demanded care but for the most part went unexamined and unbothered.
It, he knew, was cold comfort to today's Cardassians, mere decades removed from their most recent hatred-spawning conflict, to know that in a few short centuries things would be different.
Naxell: And how do you plan to do that?
Edac: Professor Opana had once told me ‘To show the world who we truly are is to make ourselves vulnerable’.
Naxell: But you could be vulnerable anywhere. Why Starfleet?
The tone in his voice was more forceful than he intended, which caused him to wince inside. This wasn't to be an interrogation, but a conversation. These were fairly standard questions by a Captain to understand his or her newly-assigned officers, but the context here made them carry extra weight. Naxell didn’t want to better know Lieutenant Edac’s relationship to Cardassia or Cardassians—he wanted to know her relationship to the uniform.
Edac : I believe in what Starfleet stands for. Peace and understanding. :beat: Something that Cardassia is in desperate need of. We need to see that there’s another way.
Naxell: And you think they’re going to take the example of a frontier Operations Officer? Hmm.
Edac: Response
Naxell shook his head. Whether it was the late hour or their different perspectives, he struggled to connect his meaning to her understanding. Perhaps it was best to just come out and say it as plainly as he could muster.
Naxell: I mean do you have greater ambitions for yourself, Lieutenant? Cardassia is one thing, I want to know the impression you intend to make on my enlisted and junior officers. The people you will directly lead.
Edac: Response
Naxell: It’s worth keeping in mind. Don’t lose sight of history, but don’t get lost in it. The past is important, but so is the future, and doubly so the present. Whatever else you may be, you are a Starfleet officer. Your authority can be used to end lives or save them, and the oath you swore before you donned your first pip doesn’t give one whit about which planet birthed you.
On the edges of known space and on the line of a border war, there was no room for navel-gazing. It was a distraction from duty, and a liability in combat. Furthermore, the utility of principled heroism only went so far. He didn’t need officers who would throw their lives away to prove a point, when instead they could live to prove it some other way.
Edac: Response
TBC
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Commander Nax-Ellarneii-Tellargo
Commanding Officer
USS Khitomer (NCC-62400)
A240001NH3