The shamed and the Resolute

Posted on Wed Dec 12th, 2018 @ 9:21pm by Ensign Kara Hoffman

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: Engineering
Timeline: One week after Kara's Promotion
1007 words - 2 OF Standard Post Measure

Engineering was quiet, as the warp-core hummed and throbbed as usual. Various Engineering consoles showed various amount of data and numbers on their screens. Two people, were present in the entirety of engineering. Kara, who was standing above an open wall panel. As two feet wriggled from inside the wall his voice came through. "I'll need a...sonic driver please." Kara bent down to her tool kit, and searched through, grabbing the sonic driver and leaning to pass the tool inside the wall panel. "Thanks." The voice replied.

After twenty minutes of almost silence, Kara began tapping her foot quite loudly. "Um, Lieutenant, this job should be done by now. It was a very simple repair. What's going on?" She bent down to peer into the wall conduit, where they were repairing a minor plasma leak. Inside the panel, the repair done, however with his knees moved into his chest lieutenant Holt sat with his back against the wall his short brown hair standing up on end, sweat dripping from his wrinkled forehead into his tired looking blue eyes. He seemed very deep in thought. "Sorry, I finished ages ago. I just needed some time to think...I assumed you had left." He said, his voice had lost that Gruffness, it was quieter and subordinated.

"Lieutenant, originally I took you off of your usual duty Roster, as a sort of punishment and so I can help you retain your place onboard this ship. I have to say your Engineering skills are fine as always, but your ability to communicate has all but dissapeared. I've had no choice but to move myself, and you to the holodeck. This is supposed to be training Lieutenant. If your going to continue wasting my time, I might eventually give up on you too. Is that what you want?" Kara sighed and held her hand to her forehead, rubbing lightly.

Lieutenant Holt also let out a sigh. "Is this a test?" He remarked in a quiet fashion, his head held low. "If I say no, I just want to leave. Would allow it? If I said I did not belong here, because of my past behaviour, would you agree? I just dont understand why you are trying to hard to help me, when you by all rights, shouldn't care whether or not i was even here. I'm a nobody, a nothing. Just a bully that finally learned what he was doing was wrong. You don't need to waste your time on me." He shook his head.

Kara stamped her foot. and launched half of herself into the conduit panel. Her face irate, but with genuine concern. "Enough of this self-pity nonsense Holt! I asked the other engineers to forgive you, they did not want to, but they did because I had asked. The reason the chief hasn't thrown you off of his crew yet, is because I have not informed him, nor has the Captain or anyone else. The reason you have not been thrown off this ship entirely. is because of me. Believe it or not, even if you do wrong and have to accept to consequences of doing something wrong, there are those who care enough about you as a person, to want to see you grow and improve on your own." She reached out her hand, and grabbed a hold of his Shirt sleeve. "Now get out here, so we can get to work damnit!"

After a few moments, lieutenant Holt was out and stood to his full height, completely dwarfing Kara. "Now let's get one thing straight Holt. If you can understand Teamwork, you can understand forgiveness. If you can understand forgiveness ,you can understand empathy. It continues like that In a sort of chain. I know that you've held a particular set of beliefs ever since i arrived, but I've heard that a few years ago; the entire reason you were next in line to become assistant chief engineer, was because you had an incredible understanding of people. You could talk down or mediate disagreements with utter precision or rally a crew to a particular belief or cause when it mattered most. You even saved one of your fellow crew's lives!. I've seen the reports in your file. So what went wrong? Why now have you become the singular most hated person in the entirety of the Engineering team and have lost favour with the command staff. Think about what changed along the way. I don't think I was the cause of it at all was I lieutenant." She stood strong, both hands on her hips, gesturing with feeling as she spoke when she needed to. "I cannot have an engineering team that doesn't work well together. I cannot have one person cause problems for anyone else. We must all work together, like the Elysium itself does. Each a small cog in the large machine that keeps everyone on board safe, protected and comfortable. I was not lying when i said as long as I was here, you'd have a place in the Engineering team. I will not allow you to fail or to give up. I will not give up on you Lieutenant, no matter how long it takes, you'll be back in action once more. However first we need to deal with these issues together. If i can't help you, then you might have to see the counsellor-"

At that he interrupted Kara loudly, his voice echoing through the facsimile of engineering. "NO! No counsellors! Please! I'll do what you ask, but no counsellors." He sighed and sat down cross legged on the floor.

Kara nodded patiently, kneeling down, speaking with great sympathy and understanding. "Alright. Why don't we start with the things you did well then, let's get your self confidence back Holt. Let's try and break through these barriers. So that you can once more be a proper Starfleet officer and be proud of what you have and can accomplish. I will not give up on you Holt. As long as it takes..."