[Carlsbad] Lower Decks: "Coming Clean"

[Jeremy A. Reynolds]

"Coming Clean"

Master Chief Petty Officer Michael Harriman

Chief of Operations

Lieutenant L'Aren

Chief Science Officer

***
USS Carlsbad NCC-73110

California-Class Support Ship

En Route to Starbase 80

Stardate 69453.17

Harriman stretched and yawned as he and L'Aren entered their quarters back on the Carlsbad.  Both were still wearing the traditional Vulcan wedding robes that they'd worn their entire time there; Harriman in the brown robes with hood and wide shoulders and L'Aren in the softer purple silks with matching sheer veil draped over the top of her head, yet left her face uncovered.  

"What the hell, Chief!?  Wedding robes!?" Captain Maier's voice shocked Harriman so much that he tossed a nearby statue next to their quarters doors over to the desk where Maier was at.  "HEY!" Maier shouted in protest as he dove to avoid being hit.  "CHIEF!  DAMMIT!  What's your problem!?"

"Jeez-us!  Don't scare a man like that, Cap'n." Harriman said, holding his chest as he calmed himself down.  "What are you doing waiting in our quarters this late, sir?"

"Just wanted to make sure that I talked to you first before you two settled in for the night," Maier said, grumbling as he got up off the floor and tugged down on his uniform front to straighten it.  "But it looks like you two have more to talk about than just ship matters."  He motioned to the two of them.  "Care to elaborate?  I thought I was going to get to do the ceremonies for you two?"

"It wasn't much, sir," Harriman said simply.  "It was just me, L'Aren, her family, a priest and all of the naked Vulcan temple women under sheer white dresses."

"Sheer... white... dresses?" Maier blinked, dumbfounded. 

"Wait!" the Mask of Ixchel shot up from her place on display at the shelves to float over.  "You all had a wedding complete with sex and nubile young Vulcan women and you didn't invite ME!?" she wailed, her aura pulsating pink and red with the ranting.  "We had a deal!"

Harriman pointed up at the mask.  "Quiet you, or you're going back in the display jar!"

"Awwww..."  Ixchel seemed to deflate at that as the mask turned and slowly floated off back to her spot.

"At any rate, Captain, we still wish for you to perform the shipboard ceremony when we arrive at Starbase 80.  The aesthetics of the Quantum Fissure Gateway through the Front Bar windows should be quite pleasing," L'Aren interjected, ignoring the banter going on beside her.  "As my family would be unable to rendezvous with the Carlsbad for any formal ceremony that would be conducted primarily for crew morale, it was only logical that we have a more private ceremony at my home settlement for their benefit."

"Oh..." Maier blinked.  "Okay, that makes sense.  So did you have your family come in from Earth to be there as well, Chief?"  When Harriman stiffened, Maier cocked his head slightly, picking up on something wrong.  "You... do have family... don't you?  Chief?"

L'Aren arched her eyebrow.  "We thought that you already knew the Chief's history, Captain."

"Not really considering that he hardly talks about his past," Maier growled.  He spun the computer console around on the desk and punched in a few commands to call up Harriman's service record.  He then turned it to show them.  "And what I can find out is so f(bleep)ing classified that it's hard to figure anything out."

Harriman let out a heavy sigh and walked over to the computer console and punched in a few commands himself, releasing the computer block on it.   He then crossed back across the quarters to sit down on the side of his bed, L'Aren coming over to put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Maier turned the console back to him and read.  He paled visibly.  "Salva Two, Chief?  But... I thought that you were from Earth?"

"I am from Earth, sir... originally." Harriman said, his voice low and even.  "After I enlisted, my family decided to relocate as colonists since, you know, Earth is always facing a population crisis.  So they moved there when I got assigned to the Kalandra Sector so that it'd be easier for me to see them while on leave.  Then the war broke out with the Cardassians and Salva Two was attacked about the same time as Setlik Three.  I was serving on the Copernicus at the time."

"The Copernicus?" Maier wracked his brain for that ship.  "I'm not familiar with that one."

"It's a Ptolemy-II Class Refit, sir.  Precursor to the Cali Class.  One of the last tugs in existence from the 2260s," Harriman clarified for him.  We were operating along the front when the distress calls came in.  Since we were based out of Starbase 310, we responded to Salva first since it was closer.  The Cardassians didn't know what we were, only that our mass was big, and so they ran off, thinking that we were a Galaxy Class or something.  But... the damage had been done at that point.  My family had been killed in the attack."

"Damn... Chief... and that's how you got involved with the Bajoran Underground and Black Market?  Then, later, the Dominion War?" Maier asked, reading along as Harriman explained.  "s(bleep), Chief, this reads like you were involved with the formation of the mother f(bleep)ing Maquis!"

Harriman nodded.  "Yeah..." he gave the Captain an even look.  "We continued to help the Bajorans and any other world inside and around the DMZ long after the war.  But we knew that the Cardassians were indeed gearing up for another offensive and we had solid proof of it.  If anyone got caught doing our little care package runs, they were labeled as Maquis and cut loose from the fleet to be more... shall we say... visible.  It allowed more of us to work in the shadows while people were publically chasing after the Maquis."

Maier shook his head rapidly and waved his hands in the air for the Chief to stop.  "Woah, woah, WOAH!  You sayin' that the Maquis was made with the full endorsement of Starfleet!?"

"No, sir, I'm saying that if our totally legitimate business ventures in supplying wayward worlds with the means to defend themselves was in any way discovered, Starfleet would publicly disavow our actions and any and all knowledge of such operations, sir." Harriman said, glaring at him. "If one was caught, they then became the Maquis, get me?"

Maier's mind was racing now.  "So... the Phoenix... Captain Maxwell... he..."

"Got caught, sir." Harriman cut him off.  "So then what were we going to tell the Cardassians who were on the bridge of the flagship, sir?  Oops, our bad?  No.  He got sloppy and so he got court martialed and drummed out.  But he was, at the time, operating within the bounds of his orders.  It was his own dumb fault that he did it in such a way that Starfleet had no recourse but to offer him up as a sacrificial lamb for the Cardassians."  He let out a heavy sigh.  "By the time the Dominion War had come around, I was so good at my job that I just continued to do it by getting our people all of the things that they needed to wage the war."

"God Daymn..." Maier said.  "No wonder you never show up at any formal functions in your dress uniform.  For starters you'd need a yeoman to walk behind you to wear all of these medals and you're not even allowed to publicly state HOW you earned them in the first place!"  Maier paused and then glared at Harriman.  "Wait... you're not distracting me with all of this classified bulls(bleep) to get around the fact that you rigged the gravity plates to bounce Ensign Barker off of the ceiling, are you?  I mean I had this whole rigorous schedule and nefarious plan to get even with you but doing it now just wouldn't be right with you sharing your past like this!"

L'Aren glanced down at Harriman.  "You were responsible for the Ensign's stay in sickbay during the Baryon Sweep?  Curious that I was unable to discern that from you while our minds were melded during our coupling."

"To be clear, dear, I do believe that you were too busy screaming to Surak while you were orgasming to know what was going through my mind." Harriman countered.

"Hm... a fair assessment."

Harriman looked back at the Captain.  "So... you had revenge in mind for me, sir, for something that I allegedly did?"

"Well I did until you took all the wind out of my sails," Maier threw his hands up in the air, exasperated.  "And I know you did it even if I can't prove it.  I just don't know HOW you did it."

"Well, I might as well come clean with everything, I guess..." Harriman sighed again before looking up at the ceiling.  "Computer, reverse gravity polarity at the desk in these quarters and reduce it to one quarter Terra Three-A gravity."

"S(bleep)!" Maier called out as he was suddenly drawn up into the air slowly, softly hitting his back on the ceiling as he flipped.  "What the hell!?"

"Fascinating..." L'Aren said, arching her eyebrow again.  "I was not aware that one could do that aboard a starship."

"Anyone can do it, it's just a matter of knowing the correct phraseology commands," Harriman huffed as he stood up and walked to just outside the localized gravity displacement that he'd created.  "Engineers, repair crews, and damage control personnel know a lot of these tricks so that we can move through a starship or space station efficiently.  Now if I were to issue a command for a different moon or planet, say, Jupiter, and to have the computer do it continuously..."

"A person can be slammed repeatedly like Ensign Barker had," Maier nodded.  "Computer, restore gravity back to normal orientation and magnitude at this location."  The computer beeped its acknowledgement and Maier did a flip in mid air to land on his feet gracefully.  He glared at Harriman.

Harriman shrugged.  "Like I said, sir, I never touched the boy and he shouldn't have used his rank to countermand my leave.  And now that you have my confession and motives, you do have enough to have me drawn up on charges but I would like to remind the Captain that he would have to draw Barker up on charges for violating Starfleet Labor Code Section 47 Alpha-5."

"No officer or enlisted crewman shall have their leave revoked after obtaining prior authorization from a superior officer," Maier quoted.  "Why do I have a feeling that you've quoted the law to get out of situations like this before, Chief?"

Harriman nodded towards the computer console.  "You already know the answer to that, sir."

"You can be really evil sometimes, you know that?"

"Maybe," Harriman conceded.  "But I'm a necessary one so that people like you can continue to do good things."

"That's the God's honest truth," Maier muttered.  "Alright, Chief, we'll sweep this one under the rug.  But you got to promise me that you'll lay off of Ensign Barker and I'll make sure that he knows that he needs to check schedules before changing them."

"And that he can't change the schedule of another department head without going through said department head, the XO, and the CO first," Harriman added.  

Maier glared at him suspiciously.  "Is there a law or labor code that you DON'T know."

"One has to know the law to operate within its bounds so that you can cater to the greater good, sir.  It's what made Kirk so effective as a Captain back in the day.  You could learn a lot from him, sir."

"Oh yeah, because Kirk NEVER violated the Prime Directive or anything." Maier said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"I wouldn't say 'violated', sir." Harriman said.  "Ignored, perhaps."

"Circumvented," L'Aren chimed in.

"Finessed," Harriman added.

"Broadly Interpreted."

"Forgotten."

"Followed the letter, if not the spirit of the law," L'Aren clarified.

"But certainly never violated it, sir." Harriman finished.