Post 29 - A Hand Up

Posted on Fri Apr 2nd, 2021 @ 9:25pm by Captain Björn Kodak & Andrew Munro

Mission: The Waiting Game
Location: Grand Delphinium Resort, Isle of Delphi, Risa
Timeline: Mission Day 42 - 1830 Hours

[Grand Delphinium Resort]
[Isle of Delphi, Risa]
[Mission Day 42 - 1830 Hours]

“Alright…I think that’s the last of it,” Björn said, letting the duffle slung over his shoulder slide to the ground. He leaned back against the wall then, looking out the expansive window of his top-floor suite. The Grand Delphinium Resort sprawled beneath, the suns setting over its interconnected network of pools, hot tubs, spa tents, and food and beverage stands, which crawled out almost to the ocean’s edge. “Not quite the same as that adorable little villa,” the Chameloid lamented, “but I suppose it’ll do, hmm?” He looked back then, away from the window and at the man who was presently putting some groceries away in the suite’s kitchenette.

That man was, of course, Doctor Andrew Munro — a biologist on longterm assignment on Risa on behalf of the Federation Science Council. Björn had met him on his very first day on Risa and the two weeks since had been something of a blur. In that time — full of dinners, walks along the beach, and fornication of an alarming frequency for some — the two man had become almost inseparable, spending most of their free time together.

During the days while Andrew was working, the Chameloid Captain would explore the various beaches and shops the Isle of Delphi had to offer. Some days, he even transported to other parts of the planet, going on hikes or touring highly recommended locales. But every day, when Andrew’s work wrapped up, the transporter would reunite the two men somewhere: sometimes it was a new restaurant for dinner, other times a certain place Andrew wanted to show to Björn. But at the end of the evening, they always ended up at the same place: the Chameloid’s little villa and, ultimately, his bed.

Except for today. Today had been moving day. Björn had spent some time packing up his things — he’d become quite spread out in his seaside home over the last two weeks — and, once Andrew had beamed into the dwelling after work, the two men began the work of ferrying everything over to the Delphinium. By modern standards, such efforts were extremely easy — a quick transport ferried most everything over to the beautiful suite Irynya helped to arrange for her Captain. But Björn and Andrew chose to carry a few items over by hand, enjoying the walk to the resort where the bulk of the Adelphi’s crew had been put up.

“So…listen,” Björn’s voice took on a somber tone as he helped Andrew put away the leftover groceries they’d brought from the villa. “Spending time with me here means we’re going to run into a lot of my crew. I promise, it’ll go better than it did with Irynya,” he held up a staying hand, laughing off what he knew would be a biting-but-affectionate remark from Andrew about their chance meeting in an adult boutique a couple of days prior. “But if you’re going to be meeting everyone, there are some things you should know about me. Including what happened to our last ship…which necessitated our extended stay over here,” the Chameloid said, his eyes growing a little sad.

Andrew moved closer and placed his hand on top of Björn's, gripping it lightly and hoping that it would provide some reassurance. "I have to admit that I've been really curious about your ship and crew," he admitted. "But I can tell that its a painful subject." He squeezed the hand a little tighter. "I'll understand if you need more time. A few pointers about things to avoid mentioning to them would suffice."

"No," Björn shook his head, offering a wan smile even as he reached to pat the hand atop his other. "I don't know why I've been treating it like some big secret. These things happen to Starfleet crews...to Starfleet Captains all the time. Well, sort of," he rasped, moving to take a seat on the overstuffed leather sectional in the suite's central living area. "C'mon boy," Björn patted the seat cushion to his right, commanding -- rather than inviting -- Andrew to come join him. The Chameloid had seated himself side-saddle askance, his right leg folded beneath him and facing towards where his burly companion had lowered into a similar position.

"The Adelphi was a large ship. Ambassador-class, if that means anything to you," Björn shrugged lightly. "It housed 700 of us. Our last mission in the Delta Quadrant was...rough," he nodded slowly, images flashing through his mind. He spent the next few minutes recounting the tale, explaining how the Vidiians had been luring ships to their Honey Pot planet and then downing them with tractor beams and a vector of attack craft. Björn explained how one of the away teams was taken prisoner, with some of its members being experiment on or harvested for organs -- two of those crewmembers dying outright from the horrors of the Vidiians' operating tables. He recalled how the other away team had come to the first's rescue, blowing up the prison complex to save both the Starfleet crewers and the Ocampans they'd originally sought to find on the planet.

But it was in explaining the Adelphi's plight itself that most got Björn agitated. Not in a mean or angry way; more so, a lament of melancholy and anxiety, which rippled through the man's body language in ways Andrew had never seen before; had never been allowed to see. "While the away teams were occupied on the planet below, we played cat-and-mouse with several Vidiian ships in a nebula spanning several light years. We were outclassed, outsped, and outgunned every step of the way. By the time we disabled the last of Vidiians' ships and got back to the Honey Trap, the Adelphi was barely functional. Gases flooded several decks, no sonic showers, holodecks completely non-functional. Replicators that couldn't replicate," he sighed, remembering weeks of ration-eating.

"We came to the rather hard conclusion that the ship just couldn't be repaired enough to stay out there," Björn shook his head, a heavy sigh slowly escaping his lips. "So I brought us home. Back through the wormhole and then to the closest starbase. Had to admit that we just couldn't keep going on our assigned mission. Granted, it was my first time as Captain. I'd been granted a promotion after our original Captain was reassigned," the Chameloid explained, something haunted in his eyes. "But as first-time Captain assignments go, mine was a bit of a failure, I think. Oh," he shook his head and rolled his eyes, "the Admirals say it wasn't but I can tell what they were thinking. And while the extra stopover here allows me a lot of wonderful time with you," Björn reached out to squeeze his boy's knee, "it says a lot that we're here for so long. Frankly, they have no fucking idea what to do with us. With me," Björn rasped forlornly.

Andrew was listening intently, his face transitioning from shock at the account of the Vidiians' actions to a look of concerned sympathy. "That sounds horrific and I'm sorry that you lost people," he consoled. Moving his hand to clasp the one still squeezing his knee, the balance between concern and sympathy in his facial expression shifted significantly in favor of concern.

"You ... are being far too hard on yourself," Andrew chided. He thought he saw confusion in the sad golden-black eyes that were still fixed on him. Whatever response was expected, he hadn't given it. "Those Admirals don't know what to do with you, not because you failed, but because you succeeded."

Andrew was keenly aware that he had no expertise in the matter, and contradicting Björn went directly against the dynamic of their relationship, but he just could not arrive at the same conclusion from the events laid out.

"You can't plan for the unknown, so the Admirals will have put together the mission on a series of assumptions that your Adelphi would be at least a match for anything you encountered in the Delta Quadrant," Andrew explained. "You said that you were outclassed and outnumbered by those Vidiian ships, so at least some of their assumptions were wrong." Andrew didn't wait for a reaction. "Yet, you prevailed, that means your people were most certainly not outclassed. Not only did you bring them home, you brought information back that will be critical to the Admirals when putting together future missions to that region."

Andrew's hand was no longer on Björn's. He'd been gesturing with it whilst trying to explain himself. He was sure he'd overstepped now, but cared too much about Björn to just accept the conclusion that more could have or should have been done. "If you had made the other choice, and were sitting in front of an Admiral instead of me, how would you justify pushing ahead and risking the crew with a ship already proven to be outclassed before it was damaged?"

The human's words were, at first, like an ineffectual spritzing of water on a raging fire. Yes, the words were moisture but their meaning -- coming from someone outside of Starfleet -- hardly affected the strength of the blaze. What did Andrew, a biologist, know about navigating the opposite side of the galaxy? What did a scientist know about fighting Vidiians or what Admirals in the highest halls of Starfleet Command would think? Björn appreciated that the man was trying to help -- it meant a great deal to him, actually -- but the Chameloid couldn't help but dismiss much of what Andrew was saying out of hand. He'd been about to put on a fake smile, say "thank you" for the attempt, and then just try to move forward. But then Andrew added something else...something that wrenched Björn's thinking from one track to another...

How would you justify pushing ahead and risking the crew?

The question hit Björn like a heavy stun blast in the chest. What if he had made the opposite decision? The Captain envisioned an alternate present where -- rather than coming home -- the Adelphi was still out in the Delta Quadrant. They'd found an alien spacedock facility and negotiated for a berth there, spending weeks repairing the Adelphi with assistive people-power from their hosts. And when they were ready, the Adelphi sailed out amongst the stars once again. Only to run into another enemy who'd savage the Starfleet ship. And another enemy after that and then yet another...

What kind of toll would constantly smashing against the rocks of the Delta Quadrant take on the Adelphi's crew? How many more people would they lose taking those kinds of risks in such an ineffectual ship? In total, Captain Kodak had lost ten people in the Delta Quadrant. Ten in just three months...extrapolated out to a year, that was 40 people. The Chameloid found himself unable to mentally process the idea of losing so many over the span of so few months. Not that such deaths were unimaginable; Captain Janeway had lost 39 of her own crew on the USS Voyager, the ship that paved the way for the Adelphi's own mission. But at least those 39 people had died over the course of seven years, not one.

Not only that, but Voyager had faced much more difficult trials than the Adelphi. The Kazon, the Vaadwaur, the Hirogen, the Borg...Species 8472 -- over seven years, Janeway had managed to stare down the toughest characters the Delta Quadrant offered and still bring her crew home without a handy, dandy wormhole back to the Alpha Quadrant available on demand. And while Voyager wasn't sent out with the intention of surviving the Delta Quadrant, Janeway's ship was a bit of a powerhouse in its own right, thanks in part to its modernity for the time as well as technology upgrades attained over time. The Adelphi had not benefitted from such factors.

"Why...why would Starfleet send a 75-year old ship -- even with some modern refitting," Björn finally spoke up, coming out of his head a bit and adding on, "to a region so known for its brutality? Knowing what we might expect on the other side of the Barzan wormhole, it almost seems...irresponsible," the Chameloid's eyes grew hard. "I'm not saying I didn't play a role. Of course I did. But you're right, Andrew," Björn squeezed the man's knee again. "Staying out there would have just compounded things horribly. I don't know that I've thought about things from that angle prior to now. And while it certainly doesn't expunge my conscience, it at least reframes it a little."

Unlike the holo-adventures modern people enjoyed, Björn wasn't experiencing a complete turn around in his thinking just from a single pep-talk. He would likely struggle with his own doubts and guilt for quite some time to come. But Andrew's words had at least started the process of examining things differently; of entertaining the notion that Björn wasn't the complete failure he'd thought himself. But even if it was just one step forward, it was a step in a better direction.

"Thank you," the Chameloid patted Andrew's knee affectionately. "I...needed some alternate thinking on this," Björn admitted lowly. "I hope that, in telling you all this, maybe you understand a little more about what's brought us all here. And admittedly," he hung his head a bit, "about why I've not exactly been forthcoming. When you meet a handsome boy like you," his eyes upturned, a slight smile returning, "the last thing you want to do is chase him off with a lot of Doom and Gloom."

"Thank you for telling me," Andrew replied with a renewed smile. He relaxed a little when it seemed like he hadn't caused any offense, at least none that he could tell. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that to sound like I presume to know about such things. I guess it bothered me to hear you shouldering the burden of blame by yourself, and then I chose my words poorly and felt that I needed to explain how I got to that conclusion. I'm sure it's way more complicated than that, and I should have said in my eyes I don't see failure."

Andrew moved in for a hug, and when it was reciprocated, he held it tightly. Although he intended it to be supportive, he benefitted just as much from it himself. When they separated from the hug, Andrew looked deep into Björn's eyes. "If it wasn't clear before now, I trust you," he confessed. "...and your judgement."

"And I trust you," Björn replied softly, holding Andrew's hands as the hug broke up. "You're a sweet boy," he rasped then, moving to lean his forehead against the other man's. "Obedient, kind, attentive, thoughtful...those are great qualities in my eyes," the Chameloid stressed. And it was true: as Dominants and submissives went, those qualities were exactly what Björn was looking for in a playful power exchange with another man.

But it was more than just that. Andrew also looked out for Björn's needs by speaking up when it seemed the right thing to do. And, it seemed, the Captain had been sorely in need of a little outside perspective on things. Even if it would ultimately take Björn many more weeks to come to grips with things, the Captain that was Kodak was at least starting to see things a little differently. And that? That was a gift.

"Enough of the maudlin," Björn smiled wide then, genuinely. "We've things to put away. And then I'm getting you into that tiny green swimsuit you left at my old place and we're headed down to the beach. You got me, boy?" he asked, his smirk accompanied by an upturned eyebrow.

"Yes Sir," came Andrew's playful response, hopping off the couch and offering his handsome paramour a hand up.


=/\= A joint post by... =/\=

Captain Björn Kodak
Commanding Officer, Unassigned

and

Doctor Andrew Munro
Biologist, Federation Science Council