Reluctant Confession

Posted on Tue May 11th, 2010 @ 10:20am by Vice Admiral Iluvar & Lieutenant Samuel Bishop

Mission: Episode 1.2 - "A House Divided"
Location: Main Engineering, USS Pandora
Timeline: MD15, 0804

ON: [[Main Engineering, USS Pandora, MD15, 0804]]

"Alright, lock it down," Svon (NPC) said, watching the flow rate from his position at the "pool table". So far, everything seemed to be running smoothly, which was more than he could say for himself. They had been in Romulan space for several hours and less than an hour previously, had entered orbit of a Romulan colony world. When he'd first gotten the mission briefing, he'd had a feeling it was going to be difficult, but now that he was actually here, he was finding it to be harder than he had anticipated.

"Sir," the voice of one of the technicians cut through Svon's thoughts. Svon turned and realized that they were waiting for the next instruction.

"Right...looks good from here," he replied, focusing his attention on the readouts and trying not to let his mind wander, "Pack it up and we can check this one off the list." The technicians responded in agreement and went back to cleaning up the work area.

Bishop exited the turbolift and studiously ignored the look of concern McCabe was giving him. Moving to the pool table, he put on a smile. "How are we doing Svon?"

The young assistant chief engineer raised an eyebrow at the question before realizing that it was a rather simple request. Definitely overthinking things, he thought to himself. "Pretty good," Svon replied, motioning to the green readouts on the console, "Just finished clearing out one of the auxiliary flow valves that was giving us some problems. Nothing too serious."

The Chief sighed. "Don't tell me, starboard side, number 3-A. Damn thing's been wonky since we left dock. Good job." He paused then, as if weighing his words. "And you? How are you doing?" he asked, eying the young Engineer carefully.

Same as an hour ago when you asked, chief, Svon wanted to shoot back, but that probably wasn't the best idea. The chief was just trying to be helpful and if he were to react like that, it would only confirm that something was bothering him...as if they hadn't noticed it already. "I heard we took on a couple of passengers," he said, trying to divert the conversation. Scuttlebutt traveled quickly aboard a starship, especially amongst a crew that had served together for any period of time. Rumor had it that they had beamed up few colonists, but one could never be sure if rumor was fact or fiction.

Bishop didn't answer right away, simply raising an eyebrow to indicate he noticed the attempt to change the subject. It didn't matter that the Chief would be behaving in exactly the same way under the circumstances. His annoyance overrode logic. Suddenly he shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I tried," he said with exasperation and walked toward his office.

Watching as the chief crossed the large engineering bay, Svon let out an inward sigh. Why did things have to be so difficult? It would have just been better if...well...maybe it was best not to concern himself with that right now, seeing as how he was already stressed enough. Reaching over to collect the PADD containing his report, Svon rose to his feet and followed Bishop toward the office door.

Bishop sensed more than heard the young man following him and turned, raising an eyebrow in an unspoken question.

Unsure of what else to do, Svon thrust the PADD toward the chief, saying, "The morning report, chief."

Bishop took the PADD and nodded but never took his eyes off Svon's face. "Was that all?" he asked pointedly.

"Actually, sir...if you have a moment," Svon began, not quite sure what he was thinking at the moment. He watched the chief for any signs that might indicate what his response would be. Part of him fully expected to be turned away and told to return to his work. In all honesty, he wouldn't have blamed the man for doing so.

Bishop turned and gestured the young man to a chair in his office. "Have a seat," he said. The Chief seemed almost relieved as he sat in his own chair. As he sat, Bishop removed an old fashioned photo that had been sitting on the desk and quickly put it away. "What can I do for you?"

"Is it true that we've taken on Romulan colonists," Svon asked, not entirely sure where he was going with all this. Asking such direct questions was risky, he knew. Even in this day and age, it was dangerous, being who he was. The Romulans may have been their allies during the Dominion War, but the current situation within the Empire was creating quite a stir amongst the ranks of Starfleet. There were a lot of people who still didn't like Romulans.

Cocking his head slightly at the seemingly 'left field' question, the Engineer chose his words carefully. "I don't have the details, but as I understand it, yes we have." His curiosity was piqued now.

"Ahh," was all Svon could say in reply to that. He glanced down toward the PADD which he had just given to Bishop. That should have been it. The question had been answered and now it was time for him to leave before he made a fool of himself...or worse.

"That's not why you're here," the Engineer said simply.

He's going to find out, some small part of Svon's mind cried out, Get out before it's too late! The young engineer did not move, however. Instead, he remained in his seat, trying to maintain his composure. If he left now, it would only arouse the chief's curiosity even more. At the same time, the longer he lingered meant the greater likelihood that he would let something slip. Trying to keep his voice steady, Svon replied, "Sir?"

"Look, I'm no counselor, but I can tell when someone is holding something in. You're desperate to get whatever this is off your chest, but you can't for some reason. As I said before, your personal business is none of mine, but I would hope that you could trust me a little." He sighed heavily. "If you're worried that whatever it is will be public knowledge, I can tell you that I don't work that way. Whatever is said in this office stays in this office, unless it directly threatens this ship and her crew." He eyed the young man carefully. "Now as I see it you have a choice. You can talk about it now privately, relying on my assurances of discretion, or you can keep it to yourself until you end up in sickbay from nervous tension. Good luck keeping it to yourself then."

Svon let out a short sigh. It was clear to him that the chief was just trying to help, but he couldn't bring himself to just come out with it. Years had been spent trying to bury that part of himself and he wasn't eager to cast that all aside just because he was feeling a little skittish. The chief was right, though. If he kept this up, he was probably going to end up in sickbay due to his nerves...or worse. "Veruul," he muttered under his breath.

"Excuse me?" Bishop asked, his eyebrows raised. He had no idea what the word meant, but the young man's tone and the context told him that it was probably less than flattering.

"Sorry, sir...I..." Svon tried frantically to recover from his slip of the tongue, "I wasn't referring to you, chief."

"Very well," he said with a nod. "I'm going to assume that you're going to tell me what's going on, based on the fact that you're still here."

Too late to back out now, Svon thought to himself. Better to come out with the information on his own terms and have some control than to have it exposed later. He raised his focus from the PADD on the desk to the man seated behind it. "It's Romulan, sir," Svon explained, "something I picked up...from my grandfather."

It took a full minute for the words to sink in. "Your... Grandfather," Bishop repeated, suddenly understanding everything. "Bloody hell." He pursed his lips in thought. "I'm guessing no one knows? And now you're scared that it will come out?" he asked, watching the young man intently.

Svon started to shake his head to indicate that he had never told this to anyone else, then changed to nodding in affirmation of the chief's questions. Realizing that this was probably even more confusing, he replied, "No, sir. I've never told anyone this before. When I applied for the Academy, I said my grandfather was Vulcan. If I were to come out now..."

The Chief put up a hand. "I can guess." He sighed heavily. "Normally, the fact that you lied on your Academy application would be sufficient for me to feed you to the wolves, but this... this is a different situation." He paused, gathering his thoughts, and then nodded as if making a decision. "Any idea as to how we should proceed?"

For a moment, the young engineer was a bit bewildered. The chief's reaction was not one that he had been expecting, especially given the man's demeanor over the past couple of weeks. He had seemed like the kind of person who would have gone straight to the admiral about a thing such as this. Svon hadn't really thought much past telling Bishop. In truth, he wasn't sure what he should do next. "If anyone found out about this, I'd lose my commission," Svon said, "or worse."

"Not necessarily," the Engineer said, rising and pacing the floor. "Make no mistake, you screwed up, royally. Starfleet doesn't look kindly on lying on an application, never mind the reasons. But that's in the past now." He stopped and sighed again. "Look, you're part of my team, and if you think I'm gonna hang you out to dry, you don't know me very well. So here's the deal: I'll help you deal with this, whatever happens, but I won't cover this up for you. Coming forward will be a hell of a lot better for you than having it brought out by someone else. The fact is, we all make mistakes, and I'm not sure I wouldn't have done the same thing in your position."

"Who do I tell," Svon asked sharply, though he did not intend to come across as such, "the admiral?"

Bishop fired a sharp look at the young man. "Unless you have someone better in mind, yeah. From what I've seen, he's a good man. Besides, you won't be doing this alone."

The chief's statement broke through Svon's automatic defensiveness and caused the young man to pause a moment. Now that he thought about it, the chief was absolutely right about the admiral being a "good man". It was quite possible that there would still be very severe consequences, but at least by going to Iluvar, Svon at least had a much better chance at being heard fairly. "What are you saying," he asked.

"What I'm saying, is that we go to the Admiral, explain everything and the reasons for it. You'll get your butt kicked, but at least you had the courage to come to someone about it. That counts for something in my book." The Chief had sat down again, and for a moment looked much older.

Svon's gaze dropped to the surface of the chief's desk again as he pondered the man's words. "I'm sorry to have put this on you, sir," he half-mumbled apologetically. Things had happened so suddenly and now there was no way of going back. He could only move forward, which meant that he had to tell the admiral.

"Never mind that now," Bishop said, waving a hand dismissively. It was true that he felt weary, but it had nothing to do with this situation. "Now it's up to you. Let me know when you tell the Admiral and I'll be there."

Rising to his feet, Svon started toward the door. He paused halfway there to glance back at the chief. At least the man had listened to him. "Thank you, sir," Svon said in a low voice.

OFF

A JP by

Lieutenant Samuel Bishop
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Pandora

and

Ensign Svon Bymir (NPC)
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Pandora
Played by: RAdm Iluvar