[ Lieutenant Elro Kobol | VIP Quarters | Deck 11 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] @chXinya @CanadianVet
Elro had extended his telepathy to the man in front of him before he had even begun to deliver his side of the evidence. His thoughts already overflowing with a miasma of emotions that Elro struggled to traverse without becoming lost in the sheer blizzard that was raging in the Human's head. A face predominantly occupied his mind’s eye, a human female with coppery hair, blue eyes and alabaster skin. Dewitt. The source of the man’s internal torment.
But with a passing beat, hostility dissolved, Dewitt’s face swallowed up by a new face foggily moving through his mind, one that smiled wide and joyfully. Heather. It was a haunting image for Trent, one that brought sorrow fulminating through him with the force of a hurricane, despair drowning all of his other thoughts, flashes of Heather’s foggy face becoming mired in pools of his own despondency. Dead. Elro felt the pain flow through the both of them, making his own eyes prickle with tears. To share such intimate thoughts was a harsh reality for both parties.
But the man seemed an expert on calming himself once again, even as he spoke, beginning his evidence, his mind was slowly draining away thoughts of Heather and strange aliens with dark eyes and large cranial domes, even a wisp of hope that darted around like a dragonfly was quashed in exchange for hard facts and evidence. Dewitt returned, disdain surrounding her face. In Trent’s mind’s eye, Dewitt was a harsh-faced woman, her face creased and sour, as though she spent the majority of her life chewing on hornets. Elro wondered if the woman truly presented herself so grimly, or whether Trent’s mind had inadvertently twisted her based on his own experience with the woman. The Betazoid had to assume the latter.
“Dewitt, told me my own honour and integrity were irrelevant to the nature of the mission. Of course I want to rescue Heather, but I also know I don't have the same hold on the crew Captain Ives has. A hold you don't have either, and Dewitt certainly doesn't either and there is no way we can continue this mission if the crew breaks because we abandoned their shipmates. So I told her my intent was to make an attempt at a rescue, not the hell-for-leather suicide run she claimed I was dead-set on.”
As Trent spoke, Elro could see the events unfolding in his mind's eye, his emotions growing volatile as he painfully recalled the events that had led to his current status, his mind disgusted with itself for ever letting Dewitt lend him her ear. Elro noted how she told him so bluntly that the mission was more important than his personal honour and his ability to live with himself come its conclusion. How she pried into his personal thoughts and inappropriately asked him whether Heather MacMillan was the reason for his determination.
Elro saw that Trent had informed Dewitt of his intent to rescue the crew and watched as she buttered him up with promises of hope and friendship. He had complimented her abilities as an XO and told her how much he would be relying on her. As Trent thought back on these moments, he felt nothing but resentment and fury over the words that were leaving her lips, at the way he had trusted her when she was probably already plotting her betrayal. His calmness shuddered with anger at her hypocrisy and her sheer lies. But back at the time, from what Elro could sense from the memories, he’d felt some true companionship with the woman. Something that only served to make the sting of her betrayal more brutal for the man.
But everything he had said thus far corroborated with his thoughts, his emotions. It was all honest. He wasn’t making anything up to make his story sound more favourable. What he was telling the Captain and what he was revealing to Elro were honest depictions of his versions of the events. At least, as honest as anything could be when viewed from a singular perspective.
"Now, when we arrived to the RV site, elements of Task Force Archeron intercepted us. Dewitt meant to run at the first sign of trouble, as if the the least of Sankolov's units could not run down the Helmet at leisure, and then leave you to run into him and his ships. I meant to give you your hour at the very least, and to contact you, so I gave Sankolov an engagement like he had never seen before, and that would invalidate most of the enemy's advantages."
Trent’s story continued to remain honest, and whilst Elro certainly couldn’t comment on the man’s tactical plans in the moment, he was again delivering information that he believed to be entirely true. Elro could see the way that the man believed wholeheartedly that his decision had been the only one worth attempting, and the only possible option that he would have been able to consider in the moment. Elro was surprised to sense nothing smug about the man’s memory. His decision had evidently been the correct one, to wait, otherwise Elro, and the rest of the crew from Vector two and three might have stumbled into an ambush.
No, the man didn’t have anything smug about him. Just quiet resentment as to how his strategy had been undermined, how only half of his bridge crew had supported him, and how the other half had eagerly turned against him to side with the harpy who had turned the tables on him. He was ashamed, but it was his rage that burned brightest of all, but even that was eclipsed by his sheer determination to ensure that the right story was told.
"When we started taking fighter fire, my judgement was that we could take their fire; they were shooting at random, from a long enough range; given one, perhaps two more maneuvers, we would have broken contact and been able to wait for you in peace. Now, I doubt she told you this, but she unilaterally deployed a handful of small craft against the enemy fighters and two starships, before she opened direct fire and negated our stealth advantage. At this time, I was forced to take direct action lest the small craft she deployed without orders would be massacred, so I ordered Commander Marquez to plot a mission-kill strike on Bellerophon; I do not know what happened when she was hit to cause catastrophic damage, it's not like I had a chance to review the tactical log. I gave the order to prepare for a similar attack on Dauntless and end the pursuit we were under.”
His words were truthful, filled with scorn for the woman who'd usurped his command so completely from him, having to think on his feet to recover from the losses that she could have caused them. Elro saw so clearly in his mind, the last commands that Trent delivered before the viper struck. He’d ordered a Commander Marquez to open fire at a longer range, in order to give the fighters supporting fire. He’d order Mister Veradin to intercept the Dauntless. Elro committed the names to memory. They’d be good to pass on to Captain Cinn to corroborate Trent’s perspective.
Veradin?
Elro’s throat suddenly felt a little dry.
How many pilots with the name Veradin could there be in Starfleet? But then, what were the odds of Elro having ended up on the same ship as that particular Trill after all so many years. Elro did his best not to let the thought distract him; he was there to check the validity of Trent’s claims. Not to telepathically stalk his Ex. But what if… No. Focus. He had umpteen ways to find out whether the Veradin aboard the ship was the one he’d dated back at the Academy. Right now, Trent was the priority.
“That is when I was relieved."
His feelings of betrayal, frustration and anger were overwhelming. Residual feelings of nothing less than absolute malice bubbled up through him and made his internal emotions shudder with a violent fury that gripped at him and threatened to take control. In his mind, Trent relived the feeling of so many layers of trust being shred away. He’d put faith in Dewitt, trusted her, listened to her council and fought for her allegiance. She had thrown it all back at him, discarded each promise on the floor of the bridge as she had usurped control from underneath him, summoning forth a security detachment that was far exceeding what was necessary to apprehend him, perhaps as a show of power, or perhaps as a way to solidify her mutiny to the members of the Bridge crew who would have agreed with him.
"First, she violated my trust by revealing a conversation we had in confidence, and then outright lied about my intent. She declared we had to be the last Vector, so she wrote you off, as well as effectively gave the order to murder our people held by the Savi."
Trent recalled so clearly how she had stood and sited regulation in her cold voice. In front of all of his colleagues, she berated his decision’s, blaming him for countless deaths and ripped his personal life into all of their eyes. Because of you and Heather MacMillan. Trent could barely recall the memory without anger spilling over, ripping through his calm mask once again. The woman was a harpy from how Trent painted her in his head. She lied and manipulated her Captain, used the trust he placed in her to overthrow him.
She slandered him, informed the entire bridge crew and security detachment as to how he was emotionally compromised, how Trent had told her himself in a confession made in private. Whilst Elro could see clearly that Trent did have a personal attachment to Heather that did push some of the drive behind his actions, according to Trent’s recollection, it wasn’t to the extent that Dewitt was showing. According to Trent, Dewitt had used her authority as XO as a power play to get control of the ship. To govern the crew with her withered cowardice and deceit.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the memories that Elro could see, were the parts where Dewitt announced to the bridge crew that Vector One was the last Vector still standing. She forced the issue, talked about how clearly it was to see that the other Vectors would have been destroyed, citing the command of a Captain Ives, to say that their orders were to protect the truth. Elro again could confirm that what he could see in Trent’s head was honest, and that Dewitt’s play could have ruined the chances for both other vectors entirely.
Elro heard Trent’s own voice ripple out through his own memory, a clear image, his voice filled with naught but discontempt for the usurping Officer. He told her with a cold and heartless voice, that she was a hypocrite, a coward and a murder. How she hid behind her orders. How ashamed he was to have ever had faith in her. How she was a disgrace to the very uniform she wore. Elro saw it from an outside eye, one that could look back on the memories of what Trent had endured, the way he had looked around and seen dozens of crewmen, some traitorous, some aghast with the decision that had been made. Elro could not place any stock nor commentary in the tactical decisions made by Trent; Elro was no strategist, that would be Cinn’s job. However from the recall of the events, Elro could find himself in nothing but agreement with Commander Trent.
He knew his objectivity was required. But Trent had been correct. The woman was nothing short of a viper.
But Elro wasn’t there to pass judgement.
“First,” Trent began to conclude his story. “She violated my trust by revealing a conversation we had in confidence, and then outright lied about my intent. She declared we had to be the last Vector, so she wrote you off, as well as effectively gave the order to murder our people held by the Savi.” From viewing his memories, Elro had been cleanly able to come to the same conclusion.
His mind ached with the torment of the events that that passed, but what seemed to sting the keenest, was the way that Trent had held the best interests of all of the crew who existed aboard the Theurgy at heart. Dewitt only had cared for those she could see. In his mind, she had abandoned everyone who considered themselves a part of the crew, who were not aboard Vector One to death and torment.
Elro quietly withdrew from his mind as silence fell upon the room.
“I can confirm that everything Commander Trent has said is the truth, as he can perceive it.” Elro turned to Captain Cinn to deliver his verdict. “As far as I am able to confirm, whilst Trent was deeply concerned about the status of a Ms Heather MacMillan…” Who wouldn’t be concerned about someone they loved? Or someone they had loved… “He firmly believes that all of the actions he took were in the absolute best interest of the entire crew of the Theurgy. His interests were never intended to be self serving, but rather, to ensure the entire crew would have the chance to reintegrate as one.”
Elro drew quiet as he finished his verification, glancing quietly at Captain Cinn, waiting for his response to the information he had been provided.
Topic: CH03: S [D06|0901] Final Pieces (Read 8672 times)
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