Bad News

Posted on Fri Feb 1st, 2019 @ 8:28am by Lieutenant JG Gallia Norris

Mission: Season 2: Episode 3: Determination is not always a good thing
Location: Base Camp
Timeline: prior to "Panic Mode", during Liorga's rescue operation
1597 words - 3.2 OF Standard Post Measure

While the soldiers were working feverishly on tracking and freeing Liorga, Gallia and Estelle were in the camp waiting, anxiously. “So, Gallia”, Estelle started, unsure how to breach the subject. “Before they brought in Dorso, I was briefly recalled to the ship, by Kara. Now, she’s fine now, and so is Tayalas. I just think you should know what happened.” Estelle summarised the events, from the call to the nature of the wound to the conversation she’d had with Kara, including the fact that it had got rather heated. “I didn’t know what to do with Tayalas, so I brought her cradle into sickbay. She’ll be safe there, until you can return to her.”

Gallia was silent for a full minute, processing what exactly to say before saying in a low, near whispering, tone, “She did WHAT?” There’s no way I heard that right, Gallia decided, Kara would never do anything that stupid, especially not when she was Tayalas’ primary caregiver at the moment. “I couldnae heard ya right.”

Estelle made a face halfway between sad and annoyed, she was not happy having to give Gallia the bad news. “She did, exactly as I’ve just told you. She said she didn’t know about the details of the situation here, with Liorga taken. Which, honestly, I don’t believe. It’s a small ship, and this is the kind of news everybody hears about right away. But, even then, it’s a monumentally stupid thing to do, to go get hurt on the holodeck for no reason.”

“Aye.” Gallia nodded, her tone still even and calm, “My next question, this is important, who is takin’ care of my baby right now?”

“I’ve moved her to sickbay, cradle and all”, Estelle repeated. This was probably worth hearing twice. “There’s the nurses, and while Kara’s immobilised, they’re right next to each other. Tayalas is safe.”

“All right.” Gallia nodded, her outward appearance as serene as though Estelle was planning a picnic for them, not giving her news that her girlfriend had nearly been killed being stupid and her child endangered. She ran her hands through her hair in the only thus far open show of frustration, “Where was Tayalas durin’ Kara’s injury?”

“I don’t know”, Estelle said. “They were both in your quarters when she called me. By the time I beamed in there, she was already unconscious.” She put an arm around Gallia’s shoulder. “I’m sorry to have to tell you all this but I really think it’s for the better than you learn is now, rather than find out later.”

“Aye.” Gallia agreed, still totally calm though a volcano of rage seethed underneath the placid surface, “I appreciate you being honest with me, and I appreciate the steps you took to keep them both safe.”

“You’re not going to pull a redhead manoeuvre?” Estelle asked.

“Oh, don’t misread me.” Gallia replied, her voice still flat and calm, “I’m seething with rage right now. This was… this was monumentally stupid. I mean, I have to wonder if she even thought about our child, but, we’ll discuss that, we’ll hash it out.” Yeah, we’ll hash it out, Gallia thought, then I’ll blow my bloody warp core.

“I know redhead means two things. One, I’ll eat you alive, and two, I shag like a tiger”, Estelle said. “And I’ve seen you do one, or try to. I’m just wondering if I need to stand by for an intervention.”

“An intervention?” Gallia raised an eyebrow, puzzled, “What would we need an intervention for?” That had Gallia flabbergasted; sure, what Kara did was stupid, but she didn’t think it was anything she’d done intentionally, as far as Gallia knew Kara had no reason to want to hurt herself.

“I don’t know”, Estelle said. “I mean, responsibility for Tayalas aside, our situation aside, it was still a dangerously stupid thing to do. I’m definitely putting her down for counselling, first chance I get to speak with either of the counsellors. This is not normal behaviour for anybody. And neither is calling me a bitch for pointing that out.”

“You two were in an argument.” Gallia pointed out, “And you came in in a bad mood to begin with. This doesn’t excuse what Kara did, but I think you should both look at the kinds of moods you were in when you started batting at each other. Also, I would like it if you kept your little tete a tete out of her file. Counseling, yes, I’ll cosign that, but you were both raw nerves at that moment.” She really didn’t relish the idea of being caught between her girlfriend and her best friend in some pissing contest.

“If we get Liorga back safely, and if this hasn’t done any harm, I’ll be good”, Estelle said. Even now, as the operation was being conducted, Estelle couldn’t think of anything but ways this might go wrong. The only reason she wasn’t in the command centre looking over everybody’s shoulders was that she was convinced she’d do more harm than good, especially if something actually did go wrong and they had to respond quickly. She was too involved emotionally to trust herself with the rational decisions.

“This has been a terrible few days…” Gallia sighed, clutching Estelle’s hand on her shoulder, “Like nothin’ has gone right since the day after the Christmas party. Sami and Dorso both sick, Li missin’, Kara gettin’ herself hurt… This is why people have post-holiday depression.” She wanted to scream, just go nuts, but Kara and Tayalas were both okay and Estelle needed her, so right now she couldn’t, she had to find that reserve of superhuman strength Aunt Mary said all good Scots carried in the depths of their souls and make it available for all her people.

“Yes, it has”, Estelle agreed. “I don’t usually have outbursts of anger like that. And all the same, I dread learning what Liorga has gone through. What they did to her. Not that I wouldn’t want to listen to her tell me, but… you know what I mean, don’t you?”

“Aye.” Gallia wiped a tear from her eyes, “You dinnae wanna know, but ya cannae close yourself off from it, Li needs you. It’s one hell of a burden.”

“It’s not the not wanting to know”, Estelle said. “It’s the… the fear this will scar her for life. It has so many people, and why would she be better at dealing with it than most?”

“I cannae explain why I’m about ta say what I am, but I think she’ll do better than most.” Gallia answered truthfully, she had no way of explaining that, it was one of those things that was what it was, “I dunno what it is, but Li’s a lot tougher than most people. Somethin’ that happened in her past, I can’t say for sure, but she’s harder than most people I know. She’ll be herself again, eventually. Just be there for her like we all will, we’ll all get through this.”

“Yes, you needn’t worry about that. I will be”, Estelle vowed. “Nothing’s more important.”

“We’ll be okay, ya know.” Gallia promised, “All of us.”

“Oh, and when you talk to Kara… you can leave Tayalas with me… hopefully Liorga and me, for that”, Estelle offered.

“Well, I’ll probably talk with her over comms before we talk face to face.” Gallia explained, “But I’m sure she’d love to have some time with you two. She can tell ya all about Sana.”

“I don’t think she speaks a language I can understand just yet”, Estelle smiled. “But I’ll listen, all the same.”

“Well, as you know her first word was ‘Sana’ when she wanted to see Santa Claus at the party.” Gallia began, laughing for the first time since Estelle had dropped the bad news on her, “So far it’s her only word, but she’s makin’ the most of it.” That the child definitely was, she’d come up with about a thousand different uses for Sana thus far.

“By the time she’s two, she’ll talk your ear off”, Estelle said. “I mean, in complete sentences. We’ll work on grammar then.”

“She’s gonna be the only Andorian child in the galaxy with an Aberdeen brogue.” Gallia laughed harder, starting to feel better about the whole thing.

“There are worse fates”, Estelle decided. She thought Gallia’s accent was sexy, and a sexy accent was always good. Not that she’d tell her that, any time soon. “I can’t wait for everything to go back to normal, Gallia.”

“Me, either.” Gallia laughed, “In a few days we’re all gonna be laughin’ about this whole bloody thing.”

“No, I don’t think so”, Estelle said. At least she couldn’t see the humour in their situation, and if she couldn’t, the self-proclaimed queen of funny, who could?

“Once the fear’s over, the relief comes.” Gallia reassured her, the way her mother had always reassured Gallia and her siblings of the same thing, “In the end, there’s nothing we can’t get through and laugh at later. Celebratin’ survival my mum called it. We’re all gonna celebrate survival.”