An Elder's Counsel

Posted on Tue Jun 23rd, 2020 @ 4:34am by Cailus Griffin & Huyo & Ensign Emmanuelle Larose
Edited on on Fri Jul 10th, 2020 @ 5:24pm

Mission: Death in Paradise
Location: Pandora's Box
Timeline: 2000 Hours

ON

Ensign Emmanuelle Larose arrived early at Pandora's Box. She hoped to arrive before Lieutenant Griffin, who had invited her to a late dinner to discuss the day's mission, her first as Security Attaché to the Diplomatic Department. Emmanuelle had received multiple evaluations from the Security Chief. After all, she'd been a security officer aboard Pandora for well over a year now. She stopped being nervous during crew evaluations after the first one. But this was the first time she'd been trusted with a real, solid assignment. Not just VIP escort duty or brig duty, but a real, long-term job that she would be able to grow into. She couldn't help feel her stomach knot.

She had changed out of her uniform, into a simple blouse, skirt, and leggings outfit with flat shoes, her brown and purple hair left down and relaxed. She showered and changed promptly after leaving John at his door, before she'd gotten the Chief's invitation, which specified that she come as she is and not worry about a uniform.

The hostess brought Emmanuelle to a table where the Chief awaited, although he politely stood up as she approached. In keeping with the invitation, Cailus was also in casual attire fitting the lateness of the hour, a simple white buttoned-up shirt with comfortable black pants. He still looked as stern as ever, as if the man had never smiled in his life, although he did appear more relaxed than usual, his blue eyes less intense.

"Good evening, Ensign," he greeted Emmanuelle politely.

"Bonsoir," replied Emmanuelle, nodding in return, with a nervous but friendly smile on her face. She took the chair opposite the Chief. The sternness of her boss' expression didn't bother her; she was used to working with the overly terse man. She'd be her usual friendly self, and hope the nervousness went away. "Thank you for inviting me out this evening, sir. Were you looking to eat while we discussed the day's mission? Anything good on the menu?"

"There usually is," Cailus said as he sat, glancing over at Huyo, the bald Deltan woman who ran the Box. It was a professional dinner, so to speak, but it was still a dinner. The ever-elegant Huyo caught his eye to indicate that she'd seen him, and Cailus returned to considering the woman in front of him. "Quite frankly, Ensign, I had planned to eating with others, but circumstances conspired against us. Apparently there was an especially exciting event down on the science deck, while my daughter's love for her flute is growing stronger by the day." The words were spoken conversationally, but it was the first personal information that Cailus had relayed to his subordinate in all the time that they'd served together.

Emmanuelle nodded silently, looking at the menu.

Then Huyo arrived, dazzling them both with a smile that was unfazed by Cailus' stone look. "What can I get you, dears?"

"The venison dish, please," Cailus replied, his tone still relentlessly iron-like. "With a berry cider for me, Martian blend."

“Hmm,” said an interested Emmanuelle. She found the venison on the menu and saw what it was. Looked good. “The same for me, please.”

"Lieutenant Sandoval has been very satisfied with your work," Cailus said again, assessing the short French woman across him. "Are you satisfied with him, and his department?"

“Yes, sir,” she replied. “The department does interesting work. I feel like I can learn a lot about the politics of the galaxy by accompanying them in their missions.” Just then, a server came with both ciders, placing the glasses in front of them. “Merci,” she said to the server. “Santé!” she said to Cailus, lifting her glass to him.

Bemused, Cailus lifted his glass in salute. "Santé," he echoed with a surprisingly good pronunciation.

“As for Lieutenant Sandoval,” continued Emmanuelle after taking a sip, “I like him. I like working with and for him. He”s a capable diplomat, and did good things for the suffering Irokari today. Sometimes it seems like he’s, how shall I put it, always on? But I think he’s sincere about wanting to do good.”

She took another sip. “He doesn’t like that his injury limits him. He’s physically capable, but I’m hoping to help him get stronger. He should be joining the self defence classes soon.”

"That's a good first step," Cailus said with gruff approval as he had some of his own drink. "So long as you understand that such things are secondary. If your subject is ever in a position where he has to defend himself, then you have failed your mission."

“Not sure I agree, sir,” replied Emmanuelle. “If the worst should happen to me in the mission, but I’ve prepared my charge before the mission, and he survives because of skills I gave him, then I believe my mission was successful. The mission, the survival of my charge, comes first.” She leaned back a bit in her chair. “You taught me that, sir. Hours of drills in worst case scenario situations.”

"And how to speak your mind to your superiors, apparently," Cailus commented wryly, his eyebrow raised in a remarkable imitation of Vulcans. Huyo glided over at that moment, placing their meals down with her trademark smile before leaving as silently as she arrived. Disregarding his food for a moment (and earning the silent ire of Huyo as the Deltan chef served a table nearby), he considered Emmanuelle with a cold analytical eye.

"Larose, I'm going to be frank with you," Cailus said quietly. "You were already doing good work as a crewman, but then you joined the Academy. You pushed yourself harder than most cadets to get a posting here, right out on the frontier, under one of the toughest security chiefs in the fleet. Command doesn't throw ensigns my way unless they've got determination. So what are your long term plans, ambitions? Captain's chair? Admiralty? Politics?"

“Long term?” asked Emmanuelle. “Command. But that’s on a ten or fifteen year timeline, I imagine. In the medium term, bridge positions and ideally your job, one day.” She smiled at that. “If not yours, then the chief of security on a different ship. I feel like the best way to do this is to excel at my job and to diversify my experience. With Lieutenant Sandoval, I’m learning about diplomacy and politics that will serve me well when I become senior staff, or XO, or CO.”

Emmanuelle began cutting into a delicious-looking piece of venison. A nice medium-rare. Before putting the piece in her mouth, she added “And senior officers like yourself and Lieutenant Sandoval are seeing me work hard and well. And they seem to like me. Well, Mr. Sandoval does anyway.” She smiled at took her bite, and her face betrayed the pleasure she felt at the juicy cut of meat practically melting in her mouth. “And I do enjoy Mr. Sandoval’s company, too. I’ve guarded some boring and annoying people over the years. I could see myself spending time off duty with him. As a friend, of course.”

"I expect that he'd be a good friend to have in several respects," Cailus agreed as he speared some boiled carrot slices. "A Marine who suffers that kind of injury in battle, then chooses the diplomatic path, is someone to be respected. He's also exactly the type do something monumentally stupid and risk his own life, precisely because of his combat experience and training. That will make your job all the harder now., but it will be good practice for whenever you are assigned to protect captains and flag officers. There's something about that fourth pip that drives them to be big damn heroes, requiring people like you and me to keep them safe as they do so, despite their best efforts to their contrary."

Emmanuelle couldn't suppress a light chuckle when Cailus suggested John would do something stupid because of his training. Not because she thought Cailus was wrong, but because she could imagine John getting himself in over his head, whether because he thought a victory would be worth it or because he thought his training would protect him. She also thought of him standing up to that giant alien to defuse the situation that imperiled Mindo's life. Emmanuelle was prepared to intervene, of course, if John's words didn't work. But still, that was quite the risk, when she could've disarmed the alien and exfiltrated Mindo with barely any risk.

"Do you have any advice, sir?" she asked her superior officer. "Anything else I should be doing, whether to keep my charge safe or work my way up the chain of command?" She took a quick sip of her cider. "To put it another way, say I wanted to be Assistant Chief Security-slash-Tactical Officer by this time next year or even sooner, what would you expect of me?"

"Even sooner?" Cailus repeated wryly, eyeing Emmanuelle with bemusement as he neatly cut the last of his venison. "You certainly don't lack for ambition, do you? Well, Ensign, the answer is boring and you already know it. Do your job and the rest will come as it will. If I catch you doing some fool stunt for glory, however, you will never have authority in my department again. I don't want heroes, and neither does Starfleet. Heroes are damned fools who get themselves and often many others killed. I want a professional."

Emmanuelle nodded respectfully, listening to every word.

"Beyond that?" Cailus paused, frowning as he finished off his glass of cider, both their plates quite finished. "Mindset, Larose. Your attitude is your greatest asset and that smile can be a better deterrence than any weapon, but it's also your biggest weakness when on a mission. It's the reason why your small unit tactics is lacking so badly compared to T'Kemi and the others. We both know you have the intelligence, but that big heart of yours interferes with your brain. You hesitate to put your people at risk, or to deliberately risk their lives when the mission requires it. Sandoval is the same thing. If during a mission, you see him as your friend and boss, not as your charge, you risk compromising your judgement and both your lives out of sentiment."

The security chief sighed, leaning back in his chair. "I'm not suggesting that you should change who you are. You're a fine young woman, the future of the fleet, and we need your positivity. Long term, however, you need to develop the skill to separate your decision-making from your feelings so that you can make the hard choices. Nobody gets to the big chair or rises up the ranks in Sec/Tac without it."

"Thank you, sir," Emmanuelle said. As she said earlier, she was beginning to think that Sandoval could be her friend. She would need to think hard about whether and how she could keep the friend and charge as separate elements, able to socialize while off duty while deadly serious on mission.

"I've never needed to put someone at risk," she said. "I know it's in me to do it, and I hope I can prove that when the time comes. And I know it is when and not if." She finished her cider with one final big gulp. "In the meantime, can I ask how you separate mission-critical decision-making from feelings? Please tell me if I'm entirely out of line, but I've seen the evidence of these feelings under the gruffness. I've seen you interact with your partner and little one. Most people are risk-averse regarding their families, but you'd never divert ship's resources to keep little Aoife specifically safe during a battle. How do we separate our feelings from the mission?" It wasn't a hypothetical in her mind; Emmanuelle really wanted to know Cailus's strategy. She was grateful for the opportunity to ask these questions and plumb the well of her senior officer's years of experience.

Cailus was very still for a moment, deep in thought, his eyes oddly unfocused. "Everybody is different. They deal with it in their own ways, and you will find yours in time. In my case, since you have asked..." His cold blue eyes flicked to meet Emmanuelle's with a surprisingly powerful intensity. "I concentrate, Larose. It's that simple. I concentrate on the job, on the mission, and everything else becomes irrelevant. From there, the decisions are instinctive but logical. That is how I deal with command. It took twelve years, my right hand and more bloodshed than you can conceive of to develop this skill. I hope that-"

And then Cailus was rather rudely interrupted by the chirp of his combadge. =/\=Davies to Griffin,=/\= said the female voice, prompting a sigh from him. =/\=Cailus, I think that Aoife has had enough music for one night. She's exhausted, but she had a lot of fun.=/\=

=/\=Acknowledged, I'm on my way,=/\= Cailus responded promptly after tapping his combadge before tapping it again to close the channel. He stood, looking down at Emmanuelle with an utterly neutral expression. "Well, Ensign, as of 0900 tomorrow, you are officially on permanent detached duty to Lieutenant Sandoval's department. I'll expect weekly reports and you are welcome to come down to Deck 17 at any time for drills and training, or to seek advice, either from me or others. You are, however, no longer under my direct command. You are responsible for your own duties and will be expected to act in accordance with the trust that you have been granted."

Then the security chief relaxed fractionally, although the intensity of his gaze never wavered. "And think about what we've talked about, Larose. Have a good night."

And with that, Cailus turned and left, striding out of the ship's restaurant/bar.

"Thank you, sir!" she called back to him, huge grin on her face. Making this assignment permanent was a great step forward for her career and she knew it. She would take the chief's advice to heart and ensure that, when the time came, she could take the decisions that kept her charge safe. She might seek out further advice on the subject, from the Counselor or others. Maybe from John as well during the next mission. He was her direct superior now, and so the two would need to have a frank conversation about the department.

Emmanuelle stood from her seat, grin still on her face. As she left, she took a wide arc around the room to bring her close to where she saw Huyo standing.

"I know Lieutenant Griffin didn't say anything," she said to the Deltan. "But that food was amazing. Thank you."