Finished Business

Posted on Thu May 4th, 2023 @ 9:23pm by Lieutenant Evelyn Stewart & Lieutenant Commander Keishara Davaris
Edited on on Thu May 4th, 2023 @ 9:25pm

2,135 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Prologue: Centre Predominate
Location: USS Moore - Deck 5 Corridor
Timeline: MD 004: 1800 hrs

Evelyn was beyond furious and worked up. Greco confronted her about her past indiscretions in the shuttlebay while she was doing a maintenance check with Chief Dulay on the shuttles. It was bad enough they determined they would need to do a maintenance overhaul on the majority of them over the next week.

Stewart spotted Keishara walking alone in the corridor, no doubt heading to the DMZ. “Davaris...”, she called out to get her attention. When the Commander turned, Stewart shoved the woman into the bulkhead hard. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Kei had been having a perfectly fine day. There had been some minor tactical system issues earlier that morning but they had been quickly fixed. She did thank the young Ensign who'd helped her, even if she did do most of the work.

Broken her stride and turn as she heard a yell of her name from behind she felt the hard embrace of the bulkhead behind her. Slowly she pushed herself up from the wall and rotated her shoulder. Her eyes not drifting from Evelyn's she straightened herself up, "I'd think very carefully before EVER doing that again." She said with an ice cold delivery. "You get one free one by virtue of not knowing me, sneaking up on me, and not knowing that I can put you in the ground quicker than a Q can snap their fingers." She added as her hands changed from fists to open palm and back, over and over.

Kei breathed deeply. "Care to explain why you are exploding in front of me outside The DMZ with a small audience?" She indicated to a few walking the corridor. Not that Kei minded, she rarely did about others opinions.

Evelyn ignored Kei’s warnings. She was more than capable of protecting herself and wasn’t intimidated by the Security Chief, even if the majority of the crew was.

Stepping right back into Kei’s space, Stewart glared at her. “I just got done being lectured by our first officer. Apparently I need to be mindful of your career and not bring you down with me. What the hell did you say to him?” She said quietly, mindful of the public space, but with noticeable heat in her voice.

"Step back Lieutenant, or I'll make you." Kei said closing the gap even more. "I've no idea what you're talking about. I've spoken to Commander Greco many times over the past few days and I can promise you that you were not close to being a topic. Not your career, you as a person, nothing to do with your very existence."

Evelyn stood her ground. “Apparently then you didn’t have to with the way you chased after me the other night. Had to make it obvious so that even someone as dense as Greco saw your intentions.”

Stewart’s pride still stung from the accusations she faced at the Academy regarding her relationship with Gideon Davis and how it cost her a promising career in Starfleet Intelligence and almost lead to her washing out completely.

Clearly, despite the incident being almost ten years ago, she wasn’t the only person who remembered. It was the exact reason she didn’t want to get involved with Kei in the first place.

“I would have thought someone of your age would understand the meaning of the word discreet.” Stewart said, her voice soft and threatening as she held the El-Aurian’s gaze. “But I guess subtly and discretion aren’t your strongest attributes are they, Commander?”, she asked sarcastically about the Kei’s own actions that Stewart learned from her crew mates the last several days.

Kei snorted quite loudly. She was beginning to find Evelyn's insecurity quite amusing. "Ohh that night." Kei nodded and took a step out from Evelyn's glare. "I cannot help Steve's assumption of what took place, but I did not chase you. I simply bid him goodnight once he said he wanted to unpack." She shrugged. "What he took from me leaving is on him, not me. I gave no inclination I was coming to you. If anything you are doing so now by making a scene in the middle of the corridor." Kei gestured to people trying to pretend not to look.

"I don't know why you think this is a big deal. It was only sex. We can sleep with who we want and it not mean anything or affect anyones career." Kei frowned and shook her head. "As to my reputation, I spent years building it by being myself and I will change for noone. If I wasn't discreet, wasnt subtle as you suggest then I wouldn't still be in Starfleet. Maybe you should notice the irony of your comment in how you are acting right now."

Stewart glanced at the officers subtly watching them. She roughly grabbed Kei’s arm and half dragged, half shoved the commander around the corner and into a more discreet alcove.

Evelyn gave an incredulous laugh as she shook her head. She looked at Keishara as if she was joking. “Are you kidding me? You were so desperate to get into my bed it was pathetic and I pitied you. I just capitalized on the situation and took what I wanted.”, she added callously.

In truth, Stewart was avoiding Davaris whenever possible since then. The whole situation was awkward and Evelyn regretted it immediately the next day, trying to pretend it didn’t happen.

"That says more about your lack of judgment on a lot of fronts if you thought it was desperation that led me to your door. Even more laughable to think you believe you were in charge of the situation at all." Kei scoffed. "You shouldn't feel embarrassed, feel awkward about it. I told you a small part of my history and you took pity where it wasn't needed and frankly we both got what we wanted out of it. As much as you have a guarded mind Evelyn there are plenty of times where you are as open as any book. The regret is written on your mind like paint on walls." Kei wasn't by nature a callous woman and often dealt with altercations quite calmly despite her reputation of being quite aggressive and overtly physical. "You call it what you want, but I know you wanted it to happen as much as I did at the time. You're just pissed Commander Greco is trying to tell you how to act and you're taking it out on me because you feel you can. You scream, you shout, I don't care. Just don't drag my name through things or make assumptions without getting facts first."

Evelyn felt her face get heated. She didn’t like being called out by anyone and was already lectured once about her behavior. “Greco is an idiot. Just a pretty face to go on the recruitment poster.” Stewart stepped back into Kei’s space. “Don’t presume to tell me how I am feeling. I know how your species operates. Your pheromones weren’t working so you gave me your little sob story and now when I call you out for it you blame it on me.”

Stewart was taught about empaths and how to block her thoughts from them, even hearing stories about how El-Aurians manipulate others and how they got the reputation of being listeners.

“And as far as reputations are concerned, some of us have to be mindful of who we associate with. Not all of us can fall back on a life as a....” Evelyn barely stopped herself. As angry as she was at being humiliated, calling out Kei’s life as a slave was low even for her. Despite what Kei may say, she trusted Evelyn with something deeply personal. She wasn’t to go so far as violate that trust in a petty argument. It didn’t however stop the momentary feelings of smug superiority she had over the other woman.

Taking a calming breath she glared at Kei, silently daring her to enflame her anger again.

"We share the same opinion of Greco, but to use your phrasing don't presume to know how my species 'operates'. You know nothing about my people, not really. You hear things, assume things without basest of facts. My pheromones were something that I didn't need to use, nor did I try to as I didn't need to for what was going to happen." Kei stepped back into close Evelyn's space down. She wouldn't back down either. "My 'sob story' as you so dramatically put it was no story. It was a part of my life that I don't often share so instead of calling me out for your insecure bullshit why don't you feel special enough to have had me even let you know a bit about me!" Her voice raised.

"Fall back on a life of what?!" Kei balled her fists. "Fall back on a life of torment?! A life of torture and abuse?! Fall back to being that young girl that everyone took advantage of?! Did what they wanted too?! Please!" Kei's cheeks now rosey red. "I broke free of that life and killed those that did what they wanted, killed the man that took me as a prize and you think I need pity? That I need a sob story, a phrase which you Humans love by the way when describing someone else's pain to make yourselves feel better, to get you into bed! You don't do anything you don't want to do Evelyn. You are beautiful, fierce and strong but don't pretend there isn't a little girl in there who's searching for a connection more than she finds at the bottom of a glass of bloodwine!"

Evelyn smirked smugly at first. She hit a nerve and got the reaction she wanted from Kei. She had the upper hand, both of them knew it. She was ready to make a snide comment and walk away until Keishara got just as personal about her own demons.

Stewart was not thinking when she grabbed Kei’s uniform and shoved her into the bulkhead hard behind her. She just saw red, losing all emotional control. “If you think your being security chief is going to keep you safe then you can forget about it. We both know I don’t mind being in the brig.” Stewart blatantly threatened.

“We are done here.” Stewart dictated, both her voice and body shaking with fury to keep from doing something that would actually land her in the brig. “Don’t ever approach me again.”

Kei threw her arms up the inside of Evelyn's in a swift circular motion. Her arms wrapped around hers forcing Evelyn to lose her grip by both the angle of the move and the speed at which she utilised it. With a moment of surprise as an advantage Kei headbutted Evelyn square in the face, a squelch of the nose being heard as she backed off and fell to the ground. "I don't need this uniform to keep me safe from you, and who said you were going to the brig?" She asked rhetorically as two security officers approached and held Evelyn. "This could have gone so differently if you'd actually behaved like an adult." Kei sighed and straightened her uniform as she looked at the larger more senior of the two security officers. "Take her to medical to fix her nose and release her. Do not enter this in any log Zander, you hear me?"

Zander nodded.

Stewart was blindsided by the dirty move and saw a flash of light followed by the intense pain and crunch in her nose and knew her nose was broken before she even fell to the ground. Feeling that blood that was trickling down, Stewart shouted a filthy curse in some language in reaction to the pain, but wouldn't be able to say which one in the moment.

It took a moment to realize security officers were picking her up and holding her. “You know the doctor is going to ask what happened and file a report to the captain.” She said to Kei, just further enraged, but knowing when it was best to not resist. She also had no intention of ratting out Kei, their issues were their own.

Ah yes, the Doctor. As Evelyn was carted off Kei couldn't help but realize she was right. The Doc would tell the Captain, and that would be a conversation she did not want to have at all. "Well isn't it a shame how clumsy you are when you are arguing with people. Some would say you should be more careful." Kei said with a smirk as she wiped some of the blood from her forehead.

 

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