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Posted on Tue Sep 2nd, 2025 @ 10:05pm by Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commodore S'thenosis Gorgox

2,325 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: For Bajor!
Location: Sunfire

This wasn't a conversation that Captain Kaylen Rhenora looked forward to having. She knew deep down that there was risk, more than previous about turning up on Bajor and investigating something that was so clearly not a natural event. To the outsider, yes it looked like a bad dry spell. But to a Bajoran who had been through the dry times, and the wet, and the monsoons, and the icey times, this was not normal. Savar, Aurora and Remal would accompany her, and they would be meeting some trusted confidants on Bajor to mind the children. Still, something seemed off.

She blew out a breath and pressed the door chime of one of the most intimidating officers in the fleet - and waited for an answer.

Commodore S'thenosis Gorgox sat behind her desk drafting her 20 page report regarding the previous mission, paying particular attention to Captain Rhenora Kaylen's actions, temperament and such over the past month. As was the reason she was on board the Sunfire in the first place. When the chime alerted her, she paused briefly, looked at the door over the bridge of her reading spectacles and announced, "Enter."

The doors parted flooding the interior with light from the hall, minus the silhouette of one Captain Rhenora Kaylen. S'thenosis sat her PADD upon the table with a single clack of precision and then crossed her talon-like hands in front of her. "Ah, Captain Kaylen, come in. To what do I owe the pleasure of your company this day of days?"

For a moment the Captain was quiet, the half a dozen opening lines she had hastily planned on the way here gone in the seconds it took her to step inside.

"I...ah...need your counsel," she replied finally, standing to her full height and barely reaching the commodore's breastbone. "People on Bajor are dying from food shortages, the Federation won't help, and I fear there is something bigger at play. I fear for my family."

The imposing Dragon removed her spectacles and placed them meticulously upon the desk, on top of the PADD she had been working on. Then, in one motion, backed away from the desk and stood, her neatly packaged, never cut, braided tail of hair almost grazing the upper bulkhead of her quarters.

She turned and motioned towards the replicator, "Can I offer you a beverage, Captain? Perhaps a coffee blend of your choosing? Draconia makes a nice spiced Merlot that will put the fire back in one's belly." She offered, knowing Rhenora had asked for counsel and that in turn meant a casual meeting or a request of some sort.

She took three steps to the replicator, but it barely looked as though her legs moved beneath her, more like she was hovering or gliding to her destination. "Computer, Gorgox blend 17, mild-hot, two cups." She ordered before the Captain had a chance to say no. The replicator pad energized, and two coffee cups, each with a saucer containing a dark red chili pepper, appeared on the pad. She picked up both cups and turned to Rhenora, offering both one of the cups and then gesturing to a seat, for a more informal. "Please, sit?"

The Bajoran accepted the cup and sat in the standard-issue armchair that every quarters seemed to have, balancing the cup on the armrest.

"Thank you, Commodore," she paused as she ordered her thoughts. "Have you ever felt a sense of foreboding and done something anyway?"

S'thenosis honestly thought for a moment before answering, "I honestly can say that I have, usually in the setting of a courtroom chamber, not as a need to save everyone around me." She said, making a direct jab at the Captain's known nature to help when help is needed. " This dire situation your planet is in, I surmise, places you in a moral dilemma. While I do not pretend to play a counselor, I can sympathize with the predicament you are in."

"I understand why the Federation won't... can't.. whatever help. There are billions starving across the galaxy, and to the outside eyes this is a natural phenomenon that will most likely correct itself." Rhenora explained further, taking another sip of the concoction but keeping her expression neutral. "My gut tells me something is wrong there, that something is being hidden and someone is trying to hurt my home, my people."

S'thenosis dipped the pepper into the coffee, then placed it into her mouth where she held it in her jaw as she sipped her drink. "To that I would have to say, that is what the authorities are for. You have on more than one occasion indulged your gut instincts, for the better or worse." Her eyes slits narrowed. "Perhaps this time you will start with the organ inside that cranium of yours?"

Her tongue slithered out between her lips. "Perhaps that is why you chose to speak with me first." Her head tilted slightly as she made the connection. "What is it you are asking of me, Captain?"

That caught her off guard, but she should have expected such insight from the Commodore, this was her job after all. "The Federation have said they cannot help, the Bajoran authorities are not equipped for a planetary disaster of this scale." The Bajoran looked down at her coffee. "If something happens to me or Remal down there, whilst where digging up the truth, I would ask you to raise my child."

Nothing had ever caught S'thenosis unprepared. This did. A single hard cough escaped her mouth, along with the pepper she had still in her jawline. It flew out with such force as it passed by Rhenora's head that her hair was disturbed by the wind it carried. She had half expected 'look the other way' or 'help me find a way to bend the rules' or even 'can you pull in some favors' but never would she have ever expected...

"Your child?" She asked simply, sudden a woman of few words.

"Yeah you know the thing that emerged from my body under dubious circumstances last time I set foot on Bajor and people tried to kill me?" The tone of sarcasm was evident even if the words were truthful. "You're one of the only people I trust. I couldn't leave her with just anyone on Bajor who knows who she actually is. She would be a target" Kaylen paused for a moment, undecided if the Commodore actually knew Patina's destiny.

People always seemed to be trying to kill Rhenora Kaylen. It was a fact embedded in multiple reports over the years. So there was truth to her words. "I am familiar with your offspring Captain. I do believe it was one of the few who were left alone and crying during one of our recent... missions." She said, hesitating on the last word as she did not recall how she came to be in that position in the first place.

"Be that as it may, certainly there are others more qualified or more capable of handling the small creature. Your counselor, Aurora Vali, seems to have an affable aptitude towards those of an early age. Perhaps she would be better suited for such a role request?" S'thenosis would have never considered herself as the go-to person for childcare, having birthed her clutch and handed them off for someone else to raise. She had done her duty to the Draconian population.

"Qualified, maybe, but Aurora had her own family and..." Rhenora's words trailed off. She cared deeply for Savar and Aurora, but they had a family of their own with a young child, plus she didn't wish for them to have an extra burden with a target on her very small back.

"I trust your judgement in keeping her safe. Implicitly"

The scales upon S'thenosis' chest puffed out, not from frustration or the odd bout of bolstering, but of something else. Pride, or honor perhaps, she wondered as she pondered a response. "Your confidence is a grave responsibility, Captain, and one I will not betray. Whatever else befalls, Patina’s safety is assured. Consider her, for the time she is in my charge… under the protection of my own making."

S’thenosis then tilted her head, the usual steel in her gaze softening just slightly. An almost odd sort of smile on her face, "We both know, should something happen while you are away, your strength of character will bring you home to your offspring as it always has, Captian." A respectful exoneration.

"Whilst that is a favourable wish for everyone, one of these days my nine lives will indeed run out." Rhenora admitted with more honesty and feeling than she intended to. "One day we will not come home, I just needed to make sure Patina was taken care of if she is too young to take care of herself, and also, someone to guide her through the trials of life"

The Draconian considered whether or not Rhenora was playing a joke on her by indicating 'trials of life'. She considered her response carefully before replying, “Your fixation on progeny remains… perplexing to me. The continuation of one’s genetic line is not, in my assessment, a sufficient rationale for the cost it exacts."

"Yet, your trust, Captain Rhenora Kaylen, is a currency I do not devalue. If circumstance dictates your absence, I will ensure Patina is neither unguarded nor unguided. I cannot promise to understand her in the way you would, of course, but I can promise she will not stand alone. That is my word, and I do not offer it lightly.”

"Thank you, Commodore, this means more than you realise," the Captain admitted, emotion causing tears to prick in her eyes. It felt as though all the ends were tied, just in case.

The Commodore, her coffee now weak without the pepper, sat it down upon a nearby table, then stood up and bowed gently. "You are most welcome. And, as an adendum, should you ever need any of my alternate offerings, they are at your disposal as well. I am, after all, bound to this ship until such a time as the Admiralty chooses otherwise." Her eyes then shifted slightly before she added, "Or you expel your ninth life, whichever comes first."

"Hopefully the former, but reality predicts most likely the latter." Rhenora tried to shrug it off, but the words cut deeper than she anticipated. That Starfleet was still questioning her command decisions and had appointed a babysitter, and that her head had a price on it on more than a dozen worlds.

"Your track record might agree Captain, but the record also shows you to be stubborn even when faced with death." S'thenosis walked over to her desk, but did not sit. "I'd be more than content to display your records for you, should you wish?" After working together for so many years, there were likely volumes of said records.

"I'd rather you didn't," Rhenora chuckled as she considered just what might be in those files. "I'm sure Starfleet has enough material to fill a whole computer core." She mused for a moment, her eyes turning to the blue-beige of the stricken planet below them. "This will add more fuel to their fire."

“Indeed. But only if they possess the means to lay hands upon them—of which, I assure you, they do not.” Her tone carried the weight of finality, leaving no room for doubt. She regarded the Captain a moment longer before continuing. "Now then... is there anything else I can assist you with, or have I fulfilled the request sufficiently for which you sought my services, Captain?" She knew she had not aided in setting the Captain's worried mind at ease; the look on Rhenora's face spoke clear volumes to the contrary.

The Bajoran paused, wondering just how much she should reveal, particularly about how her daughter may be connected to all of this. How this was most likely a plot to draw the Captain and her family to their homeland, where once again their lives would be targeted by desperate and disillusioned populations. How did that sit against the Starfleet charter?

Ready to return to her reports, S'thenosis once more sized up the Captain, her pause, her worried face, her gazing at the planet below. She got the impression this woman needed something more. Possibly something no words could give. She had already gone out of her way to ask someone unfamiliar with children to guard her own, so clearly something heavy was there. Something as heavy as guilt upon the shoulders of the criminal.

Her tone, her very shoulders softened before she spoke, "I do not know the weight of that which you carry, and I do not envy you having to bear the load. You are not alone, Captain. You never have been, and I suspect you never will be." She straightened the writing utensils on her desk back into their neat lines. "Now, will you need... anything... else?" It was a clear indication of her support.

" No, Commodore, you have already eased my burden considerably. I thank you for agreeing to my terms, and I hope that they never need to be fulfilled." Rhenora replied honestly, wearing her heart on her sleeve. " I should go, they're waiting for me to shuttle down to the planet."

S'thenosis stood erect and gave a curt nod of her elongated head. "Of course, Captain. As always, I am at your disposal." She watched as Rhenora nodded in return, turned, and exited the same way she had entered. Head held high, like someone with many burdens weighing upon her mind, but determined to face them head-on. It was an admirable trait.

She stretched her neck both directions, feeling that pop, before returning to her seat behind the desk and her report, which she now felt needed a bit of a rewrite before submission. The tone suddenly felt wrong.

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