Indirect Directions

Posted on Mon Jun 22nd, 2020 @ 5:14am by Captain Nycolas Temple & Emilie Temple
Edited on on Tue Jul 7th, 2020 @ 2:45pm

Mission: Divided We Fall
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: After "Indigo Sky"

A Mission Post by Captain Nycolas Temple & Emilie Temple
Mission: Divided We Fall
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: After "Indigo Sky"
Tue Apr 10th, 2018 @ 7:48am

While the Engineering and Ops crews were working on the probe and the ship was getting ready to delve into the secrets of the Indigo Sky, Captain Temple was having a quiet moment in his Ready Room. He watched the neon clouds through his bay window with a strange fascination; hypnotised by this stellar event. He barely registered at first when his door chimed, and only when it opened did he snap out of his daze.

"Honey?" Emilie called out to him pensively. She watched her husband watching the storm outside, curious to see his face so at ease for the first time in weeks. Their journey had been sparked by violent storms of their own; pushing together and pulling apart. Emilie's pregnancy had undoubtedly brought this young couple closer; the prospect of their future as parents once again was exciting and full of promises. But then the battle with the Ravagers, Nyx's secret mission, had caused a terrible divide. Only now, thanks to many frank discussions, and some well-needed R&R at Mindo's Arcade, were they finally getting back their balance.

"Oh." Nyx smiled as he turned to his wife, immediately leaving his chair and walking over to her. "I didn't hear you. Everything okay?"

"Yes." Emilie replied confidently, and she drew Nyx in for a tight hug. He was a little surprised by her sudden yearn to hold him, but he sank into the moment without hesitation. Nuzzling her head into his neck, Emilie let out a sigh, squeezing his firm frame just a little more tightly.

"Well, this is the first unscheduled visit to this office I've actually enjoyed." Nyx couldn't help but make a joke. It was his way. "I could get used to this."

"Hmmm." Emilie replied, closing her eyes. She pulled back just a little to stare into her husband's greyish-blue eyes. "I just had a very good conversation with Shae. She came over so Aoife and Katrine could paint together."

"Oh that's nice." Nyx smiled, but then paused. "Paint? They were painting. So what needs replacing?" He asked in a deadpan voice.

Emilie giggled a little. "Nothing... well, the carpet could use a good clean. And we'll just say the couch is supposed to be speckled."

Nyx could only shake his head, "I'll get Ops onto his after we've launched the probe." He nodded towards the Indigo Sky.

"Yes, we've been watching this from our quarters, Katrine loves it." Emilie remarked as she finally released Nyx and turned to the window. "She may be changing her favourite colour, you know. Green may be out, it's all purple now. Although it's making it hard for her to go down for her naps, I keep catching her looking outside."

"I don't blame her." Nyx replied. "It's absolutely fascinating. We have no idea what it could be. We could be viewing the birth of a gas nebula, or the remains or one."

"Katrine believes it came from a very large space giant who popped off." Emilie said simply, giving a shrug.

Nyx laughed loudly, knowing his daughter had gotten his sense of humour. "Of course. I'll put that to the Science Department for analysis."

The two sat in silence for a moment and Emilie was happy to be sharing this with her husband again. After the slap, and their argument, it felt good to get back to the gentle calm again. She almost didn't want to bring up her conversation with Shae, lest it rehash their prior issues, but she felt she'd learnt a lot from her friend and wanted to impart that to Nyx.

"Shae and I spoke as well, about the... stuff that happened." Emilie broached it carefully.

"Oh?" Nyx said, still looking out the window.

"Yeah." She replied slowly. "She made me understand that I need to be more supportive of the choices you need to make as Captain, and not to take things - like your covert mission - personally. I shouldn't have held it against you, you were just doing what you needed to do."

Nyx nodded a little, but he couldn't smile. His wife was apologising, after obviously being anguished over their argument. And it all stemmed from his quick decision to board the Carnage. And why he chose to - the full reason why. He hated that she was feeling so conflicted by this, and now she was feeling the need to compromise her feelings when, in all truth, she was right to feel betrayed by his rash choice and the events onboard the Ravager vessel. He was no innocent party in this fight.

"I see." Was all he said at first.

"Right, and Shae reminded me that there's three hundred people onboard and you've got to make decisions for the benefit of the ship, not just my feelings." Emilie continued earnestly, she was looking up to him with sorrowful eyes. "I'm just so sorry, again, that I had yelled at you and slapped you. I had no right to feel so betrayed." Her eyes became full of held back tears, she wanted his forgiveness so much; she just wanted to go back to their happier times already.

Inside Nyx, his heart was breaking. He could feel Emilie clinging to him, he could hear the sadness in her voice. All of this was because of his choices. He remained stoically stiff for a moment, trying to hold himself strong against the onslaught of guilt he was feeling. Emilie reached up to touch his face, her fingers lightly caressing his stubbled chin, turning his gaze towards her. At this, Nyx crumbled.

"You were right." He whispered, softly. "You should have been mad at me."

"No, no." She said gently. "Come on now, we'll be back and forth like this all day. We're both sorry, okay? But I'm just saying I understand why you did it now."

Nyx took his wife's hand in his own and lowered it away from his face, biting his lip as he tried to hold back the words. "It wasn't just about the ship or stopping the Ravagers, Ems. When I saw that we had an opportunity to board the Carnage, I saw an opportunity to fulfil a specific directive from my superiors."

Emilie took a step back, knowing he was trying to say something without actually saying it yet. "For your Task Force commander?"

Nyx just silently shook his head.

"For them?" Emilie replied with a heavy tone. She and Nyx both knew who she was referring to now; not Starfleet and not Federation Security. "You're still doing the dirty work for 31?"

"No!" Nyx protested. "Definitely not. It's an Intel directive. Look, I'm not even supposed to be discussing this with anyone."

"Oh!" Emilie cried out. "Not even your wife, huh? I'm not on the need-to-know list?"

Nyx leaned in and spoke in a hushed voice to Emilie. "This is top level classification, Ems. I can't discuss it until we know more."

"About what?" Emilie asked. "What did SI direct you to do on the Carnage?"

Nyx sighed deeply, turning back to his console and instructing the computer to put his Ready Room in complete privacy lockdown. Finally he turned back to Emilie as he sat on the edge of his desk. "We believe the Ravagers were responsible for the destruction of Deep Space Seven. But we don't know how they managed it exactly. It was far too sophisticated and planned for them, they had to have been working with someone else. We don't know who yet, but there's a lot of speculation. I have a directive from SI that should I see an opportunity to gain access to the Ravager network, we are to gain that intel by any means necessary."

"So boarding the Carnage to take it from the outside?" Emilie asked slowly, helping Nyx to finish his explanation.

"The Pandora could have out-run the Carnage, and if we'd met up with the Palatine as planned we would have out-gunned her significantly." Nyx replied coldly. "But if we had destroyed the ship, or allowed it to get away, I wouldn't have been able to get that Intel we needed to track down who was really behind the attack on DS7. And it's still true that we needed to stop them from finding Salvaxe."

"But that sounds reasonable, why is that so hush-hush?" Emilie remarked, exasperated by all these layers upon layers of explanations.

"We're in a de-facto state of war with the Ravagers." Nyx said, now looking her square in the eyes. "Starfleet won't say it, and the Federation certainly won't admit it, but what crimes they have committed against us have been nothing short of terrorist attacks and open hostilities. They destroyed DS7, they capture Federation ships, and we know they assisted the rogues who destroyed Lucis. Our home. But Starfleet isn't ready to declare war yet, as we don't know who they might be working with. We could end up being taken completely by surprise and the war will devastate us."

"Nyx, that's horrible news. Why can't we talk about it?" Emilie pleaded.

"Starfleet will demote me if they find I'm spreading this around." Nyx answered. "They don't want it to effect normal operations or worry the crew until we know more. So you were right to be concerned about the covert mission, just not why it happened. But I couldn't tell you why without revealing the whole truth. It's just one of those things I have to bear as a Captain."

"Hm." Emilie replied, not quite convinced. "I still feel like everyone would benefit from knowing this. Owen, Shae, Cailus, and Smithy, they could help you!"

"Starfleet directive." Nyx shrugged. "I shouldn't have even told you, I'm simply not allowed. It's why... Never mind."

"Why what?" Emilie asked, but then realised she didn't have to wait for an answer. "It's why you're Captain of the Pandora."

Emilie took a step back and walked around the office for a moment. It was decorated so nicely, pictures of her and their daughter. All Starfleet issue furniture, and technology around. But at this moment it felt like a charade, a pretence put on to hide the true face of something else. And even worse, the true intentions of her husband. She looked to him, up and down, and it felt like that truth was finally dawning.

"You were young for a Captain." Emilie commented, mimicking the words she had said to him once in Copenhagen. "A fresh new Lieutenant Commander, given such an amazing ship on an important mission. It was a dream come true."

"Ems, please..."

"But it was yours because you came from SI, and you were willing to follow out their orders like a good SI agent." Emilie said in a mocking tone. That betrayal feeling she had before was back with full vengeance. There was another voice telling her to calm down, to listen to Shae's advice and not take any of this personally, but she was sick and tired of finding out she had been lied to.

"I earned this ship." Nyx replied, trying to hold back the growl in his tone. "But yes, this mission required someone with a strong background in Intelligence operations and the ability to carry out multiple mission requirements. I am here because I want to be the Captain of a scientific exploration vessel, and because I can handle the necessities of operating a stealth war. That's what SI is doing, working in the shadows to either stop the war or gain us the upper hand before it officially begins. I'm sorry if that means withholding the truth, but protecting the Federation has to come first."

"Yeah well, it's a little hard to feel positive about this, Nycolas." Emilie retorted. "It's just been one story after another, one tale leads to another explanation, and all I'm really getting is that I'm supposed to be happy to be kept in the dark? I thought we were going to be honest with each other?"

Nyx nodded silently. In the battle between his job and his family, he had compromised both and neither was better off. He had told classified information to a civilian, and he'd withheld the truth from his wife. He was both lying and honest at the same time, and it left him feeling like he was failing to uphold both of his commitments. He shouldn't have said anything, he knew that, but he couldn't live with lying to Emilie. The consequences would continue to fall against him.

"What Shae told you was right." Nyx tried to explain. "It's not all about you, Emilie. I'm sorry that this is hurting you, I really am, and I'm risking my career in telling you what's happening, but I'm only doing so to let you know that there is a very good reason for it. I need you to trust me."

"Okay." Emilie nodded, taking another long breath. She was still feeling uneasy in her stomach, and a lump in her throat. She wasn't sure now if it was because of the argument or the pregnancy, but she was getting tired of these conversations. "Let's assume I can compact all of that information, accept that it was kept from us for a good reason, and just get on with our lives here. What's going to happen next time we come across a Ravager vessel? Won't they now know what you've been doing?"

Nyx looked down to his feet, as he answered, "No. As part of the directive, any significant enemy combatants who cannot be turned to give evidence, are to be... eliminated as a threat."

"Eliminated?" She gasped and her stomach churned.

"The commander of the Ravager vessel, Balek, was a ruthless, violent murderer, responsible for the countless deaths and torture of innocent people." Nyx said firmly. "Now you may be angry at me for keeping secrets from you, but you cannot tell me eliminating a threat such as him was not entirely justified. It was necessary to protect against more deaths."

Emilie sat down on the couch again, holding her stomach. The nausea was continuing to build through her body and she perspired heavily. "I... can't do this right now."

Nyx immediately knelt down by her side, putting a comforting arm on her shoulder. Emilie stood up, shrugging off his attempts to console her. "You should go see Doctor Brookes." He just said softly.

"Yes." Emilie groaned, trying to hold back the sickness. "We can discuss this later."

"I'll go with you?" Nyx suggested, preparing to leave with her and the two ventured towards the door.

Suddenly there came a hail from the computer. =/\= Bridge to Captain Temple, we're ready for you sir. =/\=

Nyx cursed under his breath, the job and his family clashing once more. He couldn't delay the mission, but he didn't want to leave his wife while she was sick. He just looked to her to see what she wanted.

"Go, launch your probe." Emilie said with a sigh. "I'll be alright once Brookes has given me something to settle my stomach. We'll talk tonight, okay?"

"Okay." Nyx said weakly. He didn't want to end the discussion this way, and he knew that Emilie's nausea and her hurt feelings would be on his mind all day. As uncomfortable as the discussion may be, he needed to talk this out with his wife and he couldn't wait until that evening to hopefully resolve this. He bid Emilie a farewell as she walked off slowly into the corridor, and he watched her leave before sighing and returning to the Bridge.

Tonight, at least, they would talk again.

OFF