#ltnsingh:asks

[owedfavors]

⤷ ✧ @ltnsingh said, ❝ who were you talking to? ❞

she had ended the call at the approach of footsteps, though some of the sudden tension drains from her shoulders at la'an's voice. not that her answer is any less evasive: ❛ someone who may be able to shift this situation back into our favor. ❜

she would not yet declare their mission gone awry, but they head swiftly in that direction, pieces tumbling that she struggles to rebalance. with enterprise out of reach, completing its own mission before circling back to retrieve them, it seemed time to reach in the direction of favors owed.

she is often close lipped about the many individuals on whom she can call at need, and she offers a smile now to la'an to soften her avoidance. ❛ did you have any luck? ❜

[cptnbatel]

⤷ ✧ @ltnsingh said, ❝ how do i shut this thing up? ❞

marie has questions aplenty too, though admittedly la'an's makes for a much better place to start. the raucous bird, which apparently possessed a parrot's gift for mimicry to accompany its turkey-like ungainliness, was nearly deafening, now that it had recalled that it possessed a voice. marie casts a sidelong look at la'an, lifting her own voice to be heard over the din. ❛ what makes you think I know? I don't even understand why we're transporting the thing. ❜

marie sighs, grimacing as the creature shrieks before resuming its jabbering. ❛ I'll speak to the ambassador. in the meantime, let's... move it someplace remote and leave it to its own devices. ❜ cassiopeia's a big enough ship. there has to be someplace they can store the bird that won't disrupt the crew...

[pathlit]

⤷ ✧ @ltnsingh said, ❝ how long has it been since you've slept? ❞

❛ can I speak freely, lieutenant? ❜ she asks out of protocol, but does not wait for a response. that, she hopes, will be attributed to the fifth cup of coffee she's on ( fifth in the last two hours alone ) and not to general insubordination. ❛ I'm not sure you have the high ground here. ❜ nyota's not sure any of the senior staff does, for that matter. she's almost certain she's overheard doctor m'benga grumble about their sleep patterns on at least one occasion.

❛ someone needs to babysit the computer until it's done. at this point, I don't think I could sleep if I tried, so it might as well be me. ❜ it had only seemed reasonable that she relieve ensign salinas and let one of them at least get some rest.

[owedfavors]

⤷ ✧ @ltnsingh said, ❝ i'm here to tell you every rejection, every disappointment has led you here. to this moment. ❞

una suppresses a roll of her eyes, and with it the ghost of a smile. surely la'an is aware how preposterous the words sound. how uncharacteristically buoyant, carrying the optimism and exuberant enthusiasm that neither of them have use for. ❛ have you been considering a new career as a motivational speaker? I would have thought you would have told me if you had an eye towards leaving starfleet. ❜ she feigns her disappointment, though in doing so perhaps she verges toward a melodrama not wholly unlike la'an's own.

❛ it is just another placement, just another ship. there's no need to be so — ❜ in a rare moment, words fail her. or, better to say, the word that springs to her lips belongs to another life, another language, one she keeps thinking she's all but forgotten until it supplants itself squarely in her mind and deprives of her of the vocabulary she requires. even after fifteen years.

instead, una merely waves a hand dismissively, a gesture meant to encompass this attitude of la'an's that defies definition. ❛ — about it, ❜ she concludes her formerly interrupted sentence. ❛ tell me what you have been up to, instead. ❜

[owedfavors]

⤷ ✧ @ltnsingh said, ❝ sorry i’m late ,  i got caught up. ❞

una raises an eyebrow, a gesture so similar to her expression of incredulity that most would miss the distinction. it is now, however, a silent question: is everything alright? ❛ I nearly called lieutenant sosa to take your place. ❜ she remarks aloud, however, tone neutral, void the disapproval another would have faced for tardiness. it’s as much for show, as much a reminder to the science team they will accompany to the planet’s surface, that she brooks no such behaviour.

yet, una knows la’an, knows that if her friend is late, there is a reason, either justifiable or unavoidable. hence, her silent question, even as she gestures wordlessly for la’an to join the others upon the transporter pad.

[owedfavors]

⤷ ✧ @ltnsingh said, ❝ about time someone hit him. i'm sorry it wasn't me. ❞

her lips don't curl in a smile, but neither do they press into a frown. for a moment, the only indication una gives of having heard the story is the faint lift of an eyebrow. it's a silent challenge: are you sure that's how you want to feel about it? aloud, una merely warns, ❛ should anyone ask me if I knew about this incident, my answer will be no. ❜ pretending a conversation never occurred, after all, is easier than sorting through starfleet code to determine if she is, in fact, responsible for reporting the incident — and then, if she is, determinedly ignoring it.

❛ you know, there are other options for setting him straight. ❜ more interesting options. from anyone else, the words might suggest the pursuit of appropriate, official channels. una has something far different in mind.

[owedfavors]

⤷ ✧ @ltnsingh said, ❝ can you walk? ❞

with any injury, there's always the briefest moment of calculation ( a moment once nearly suspiciously long, but now tallied so swiftly it's gone in a blink ), the determining not of whether she can do something, but whether she should be able to. this time, the consideration is almost entirely superfluous: she'd felt bone break in her ankle. ❛ I would consider it highly unadvisable. ❜

despite the gravity of the situation, she speaks the words as if amused by some private joke.

her words after all, she has carefully chosen so as not to be a lie. she could walk, pain numbed by a resilience coded into her dna. if she did, she would later need to walk into medbay to the very indignant ministrations of doctor m'benga, who would no doubt have many words for her about the increased damage she had done to both bone and surrounding tissue.

this, una thinks wryly to herself, rueing the decision to join this particular away mission, is why she prefers to remain shipboard. ❛ but enterprise will be back in orbit in a few hours, and I should be safe here in the meantime. ❜ there's an implicit instruction in her observation: la'an should continue on.

[owedfavors]

⤷ ✧ @ltnsingh said, ❝ everyone leaves unfinished business. that’s what dying is. ❞

una does not glance up from the manifest she peruses, the accounting of the full contents of the chests before her in the corridor. ❛ la'an, if that is meant to be comforting, I urge you to reconsider. ❜ she's not sure she agrees, either. but in what is a rare and terrifying instance, una cannot say whether it is merely the illyrian in her speaking, or whether she could craft an argument that does not reply upon the customs of a people she should know nothing about.

she sighs, at last lowers the padd tucked into the crook of her arm, and clarifies her earlier remark. ❛ what I find absurd is sending the flagship running around the quadrant concluding a man's unfinished business. ❜ even if the man was an important dignitary. she knows not to speak ill of the dead, knows to keep to herself the thought that the individual in question had known his time was approaching, should have to seen to all of this before the end.

but there's a second thing she finds absurd. ❛ how does one person have this much stuff? ❜

[owedfavors]

⤷ ✧ @ltnsingh said, ❝ i never said that. ❞

the faintest purse of her lips conceals a smile. ❛ you must admit, however, ❜ ( for una accepts la’an’s word without question ) ❛ that it is an accurate imitation. ❜ she jokes; it is exaggerated, as much of their reputations are amongst the crew, most of whom perceive them both as too severe.

while the lieutenant's complaint may have been hyperbole, una suspects la'an may not have been gentle with the away team in question. however, neither would she have been, considering the reckless folly they had engaged in, and she had left him with a severe warning of her own to consider more carefully what he wants to bring to the attention of the ship's first officer — and what would be better let go unnoticed.

not that it would have ever gone unnoticed — la'an's report would have seen to that — yet that was another matter entirely.

[owedfavors]

⤷ ✧ @ltnsingh said, ❝ why were they coming after you? ❞

una grants her a wry look, though her smile presses rather into an exasperated frown. perhaps the worst part of chris leaving stories unfinished when interrupted by calls from starfleet admirals is that it then falls upon her to conclude them. una herself lacks the flare for such storytelling, to say nothing of the dry commentary all too likely to make its way into her rendition ❛ la’an, sometimes it is better not to ask. ❜

despite her warning, and with a shake of her head, una continues, ❛ he would tell you it was because of a mistranslation by the anthropology department that resulted in us accidentally entering what the atraxians considered a sacred temple, forbidden to outsiders. ❜

una does not offer an elaboration, though her tone indicates her disagreement with that particular interpretation. it was, after all, only half the story.

[owedfavors]

⤷ ✧ @ltnsingh said, ❝ there was nothing you could’ve done. ❞

if there is a philosophy to which she would subscribe, it would not be one of those that declines agency to those who inhabit the universe. fatalism, determinism... these have no space in her conception of the universe, and perhaps in this even empirical evidence placed before her very eyes would not sway her stance.

perhaps it is merely arrogance; una has known plenty over the years who would attribute it so, or to a host of other character traits no more flattering.

❛ I do not believe that there is ever nothing we can do, la'an. there is always something. whether we see it or not... ❜ she tips her head, just slightly, in a wordless conclusion to her sentence: that is another story. for a moment, her brow furrows in a nearly imperceptible flicker of movement. ❛ and whether it is enough... ❜ she allows. but there is always something to be done, to be attempted.

❛ I don't know what it was, yet, but I will. ❜ now, or in a week, or in two months, it'll come to her. her subconscious is as stubborn as she is. what is this but one more puzzle to grasp at missing pieces to, to solve not in hopes that it offers peace of mind but because she cannot stand to leave it unsolved?

( it is so much more, yet it is easier to label it thus. )