Trial by Fire: The Coy Method pt X

Posted on Sat Sep 13th, 2025 @ 4:13am by Commander Rosa Coy

430 words; about a 2 minute read

Mission: Character Development
Location: Shuttle bay

The Peregrine fighters were lined in their berths, still warm from flight. The shuttlebay was quieter now, just the hum of energy fields and the hiss of cooling hulls. Rosa stood beside her own craft, hand resting against its scorched plating. She traced the blackened edge of a disruptor graze with her fingertips, expression unreadable.

"They flew well enough," Coy purred. "But I can still feel the sweat on their palms, the strain in their breath. Young, raw, trembling. Do you feel it too, Rosa?"

Rosa exhaled slowly. “I feel their fear, their eagerness. And I feel my responsibility. They’re mine now. My wing. My risks.”

"Yes… yours," Coy replied, a velvet laugh curling in Rosa’s ear. "But tell me you didn’t notice her —the Andorian’s glare, the flash of defiance that begged to be tamed. Or the Bajoran, trying so hard to mask her trembling? She looked at you as though you were both executioner and savior."

Rosa’s jaw tightened. She remembered. Threx, antennae tilted in challenge. Sira, lips pressed together as though a single breath might shatter her resolve. Rosa shook her head, whispering, “They’re cadets. Not… mine in that way.”

Coy chuckled low. "Not yet. But even in your reprimands, your voice caressed them. Don’t deny it. You know how to wield control, sharp when it cuts, soft when it soothes. They felt it. And one day, one of them will follow you somewhere far more intimate than a cockpit."

Rosa’s cheeks warmed, and she cursed under her breath. She hated when Coy found the cracks in her armor, when words aligned too closely with the flickers of thought she buried.

The bay doors groaned open. Rosa turned quickly, posture straightening, eyes sharp again. Veylin, the Vulcan cadet, entered quietly with a tricorder. He bowed his head. “Commander Coy, forgive the intrusion. I was tasked to run diagnostics on fighter four.”

Rosa nodded, voice clipped. “Carry on, Cadet.”

As Veylin moved toward the far berth, Coy’s whisper returned, softer now. "He didn’t even look at you the way they did. Too much logic, too little hunger. That’s why it will never be him. It’ll be the ones who can’t decide if they fear you or… crave you."

Rosa pressed her palm flat against the fighter hull again, grounding herself. “Enough, Coy,” she muttered under her breath.

But Coy only laughed, slow and satisfied. "Oh, darling, this is only the beginning."

 

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