Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

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Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

May 20, 2022, 02:40:50 PM

[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Security Lounge | Security Centre | Deck 7 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy]

Attn: @Brutus @Nesota Kynnovan

Lieutenant XamotZark zh’Ptrell didn't have an office in the Security Centre, and it was times like this that she wished she'd gotten high enough have one. It had been almost a week ago when Lieutenant Madsen had asked her as a favour to look into how well a couple of the diplomatic staff would be able to take care of themselves in a less than diplomatic situations. Zark being a good friend, at the time had agreed without thinking it over too hard, specifically since she didn't know the two names. It should be relatively straight forward she'd thought, just pull up the relevant portion of their personnel files, then tell Enyd, they should be fine or not. Except it hadn't turned out to be that easy, especially when a reader could find the name of the other person in their personnel jacket along with the terms 'insulting', 'stubborn', 'competitive' and a plethora of other adjectives that described a Class A bitter rivalry. The reading of their actions and the security review of how the two had handled themselves during the crew's trip to Qo'nos had given the combat medic a good indication of their general capabilities. Someone is watching over them. Lucky and alive is still alive. Still, as annoyingly bureaucratic as it was, these were qualification gaps in both their files. One was never followed up after her surgery, and the other was simply incomplete. Still, Lt. Zark had given her word that she would do her best to evaluate, so a request had gone up one chain, side ways, and back to have Ensign Faye Eloi-Danvers, and Ensign L'Nari evaluated and if necessary any gaps in their self defence knowledge base rectified.

The result was in front of her now and the combat medic's face was blank as she surveyed the Betazoid and Caitan on the other side of the table. If this was a social occasion, the Andorian would have regarded how striking the two young women were, but at the moment, she was working to keep her mind open and empty to draw the most objective evaluation possible. Even though Zark was not psychic in any sense, she didn't need to be to feel the tension that was emanating from the two women. It was so noticeable that another security officer had taken one look at Zark and the other two women, given a commiseratory grimace and promptly grabbed his coffee and decided it was better to be somewhere else leaving the Andorian alone with the two diplomatic attachés. Still, there was no sense in procrastinating and wondering and she wasn't one to back away from challenges, so on the show went. At least I can fall back on outranking them if need be.

Fingers that had been unconsciously tapping on the table stopped and the Andorian took a deep breath before offering both diplomats an crooked smile as blue fingers steepled themselves. "Ensign Eloi-Danvers, Ensign L'Nari, thank you for coming today. In case you haven't deduced why you're here today, a few gaps were found in your personal defence jacket and it was found necessary to have you two evaluated as quickly as possible in light of the situation the crew finds itself in." A blue hand waved airily before fingers tapped the small PADD in front of the security officer bringing up her list of tests. "Most of what I'll be testing today is fairly standard. Can you breakdown and re-assemble all three types of phasers, Your firing proficiency while stationary and on the move. Tactical sense in combat." Sea foam eyes came back up and an easy smile graced the Andorian's blue face. "mainly do you know when to duck and when to run when being shot at. Do you know how to operate Federation standard grenades. Basic first aid, and proficiency in hand to hand combat with and without implements like knives and batons."

Zark closed the PADD and regarded her two evaluees for a moment. "Under any other circumstance, these evaluations are usually pro forma, but given the amount of fighting this crew has seen recently and given the number of dead we have, it's imperative that we fix any knowledge gaps as quickly as possible." Blue Green eyes settled on Ensign Eloi-Danvers first. "I know you survived combat with a Klingon came out on top and it was well done under the circumstances, but that could have just as easily gone the other way. On top of that, if you get sent off the ship, the Captain needs to know he's not sending someone to their death because they weren't qualified to head off ship in the first place. We also need to make sure that your bionic arm will work properly under undiplomatic conditions." The combat medic's head swivelled to Ensign L'Nari. "I read the reports of your encounters on Qo'nos and spoke to your superior about what went on down there, both times. Needless to say, you did well too, but Lieutenant Madsen is concerned for your safety and wants to make sure you'll come through this fine, and that does mean you survive without needless sacrifice, such as your death."

Lt. Zark took a moment to let what she said sink in before smiling once more. "Since that's an outcome we're all hoping to avoid and live long productive lives, we might as well get to know each other better while we do this. So before we begin, do you two have any questions?" the security officer asked the two diplomats.

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #1 – May 31, 2022, 05:23:39 AM

Compared to the previous evening's affairs, in which Faye had spent a few hours in the company of her immediate superior, Lt. Enyd Madsen, this mornings unexpected assignment carried with it a nasty surprise. Privately Faye had to wonder which particular deity she'd managed to offend, and how she'd done so in the last 12 hours. Especially considering she was asleep for a large part of that time frame. And yet, from last night's simple delights, to this morning's conundrum, Faye must have done a dozy to find herself two hours into the Alpha shift, seated across from a junior Lt. for the security department who was about to tell her how much she was out of practice in the arts that were exactly the opposite of what her job was supposed to be. And worse still, was the occupant of the seat next to her:

L'Nari.

Over the past few weeks, Faye had felt the occasional spark of sympathy toward the Caitian, whom she had known since their ill gotten days in Starfleet Academy. After-all, Faye - whom had been running the Diplomatic Department all on her lonesome after the events of Jupiter station - had managed to meld in with the new dynamics of the department fairly easily. Sure, she missed having the space that came with the quarters generally assigned to the Department head (Lt. Commander Rutherford had taken over those once she'd come aboard, and rightly so), but on the flip side of that equation had been the relief that came with not having to shoulder the burden of the Theurgy's mission from a diplomatic front entirely by herself. That consolation had done wonders for her ability to adjust to her new situation, and other than the fact that she had to deal with L'Nari's presence in her department, she'd gotten along swimmingly with everyone else.

The same could not be said for her rival, who seemed to make even more of a nuisance of herself than she had back at the Academy. On the one hand, Faye supposed that she (begrudgingly) respected L'Nari's adherence to her own principles. On the other hand she thought it damned stupid to butt heads with ones direct superior as often as L'Nari did with Lt. Madsen. (It needed to be noted that Ens. Eloi-Danvers was suffering a double helping of bias, having had a wonderful evening conversing with said Lieutenant, compounded by years of bitterness in regards to her fellow Ensign - when she thought of them at all. None of this was something that she was willing to admit to herself in the moment, however, as she sat stiffly, eyes trained on the blue beauty in front of her instead of the annoyance next to her).

The Andorian began with a typical gambit that Faye had encountered time and again - and used herself - across her career. Being thanked for something she had no choice in complying with had always seemed hollow, but formalities had to be followed and this was one of those. And she could hardly argue that she had been evaluated after she'd come out of stasis, because that hadn't happened. By rights, that should have occurred during the long stopover in the Aldean system, but even then, Faye had been busy as a bee, helping to stabilize Theurgy's position relative to the local governments, along with negotiating stronger ties to the Klingon Empire, whom saw the Aldean's as a protectorate polity.

For a moment, Faye thought she might get a word in edge wise when the Androian shifted their gaze over to her, but the crafty Lieutenant took the wind out of her sails and stole the very argument she was about to raise right out of her lips. After all, she had successfully defended her commanding officer during a covert mission behind Klingon lines, rescuing the scion and heir to the House of Martok from a rather nasty situation. If she could take out two fully armed Klingon warriors with a rock, clearly that ought to be enough to justify her skipping these qualification trials. Never mind the fact that the act had made her sick to her stomach and she'd spent entirely too many hours on the floor of a sonic shower when she'd gotten back to the Theurgy forcing herself to get over the delayed horror of the moment.

Lt. zh'Ptrell clearly had other ideas.

Glancing down at the arm in question, Faye drummed the fingers against her opposite elbow, as both arms were now crossed under her modest bust. There was a point to be had there. After-all, was she not still undergoing physical therapy to help better her control with that limb? Wasn't she still hesitant to use those digits when...well, that was neither here nor there, she had to admit, even if that sort of thing was an excellent test of dexterity. Huffing slightly, the insolent Betazoid could only nod in agreement and cede the point to the Security officer. Though she had to repress the urge to snort when Zark made a comment about wanting to make sure L'Nari didn't needlessly sacrifice herself because she couldn't take care of herself.

Not that Faye actually wanted the Cait dead. But off ship would be nice.

Glancing over at said fellow diplomat, Faye squared off her shoulders a bit and turned toward Zark, pursing her lips slightly. "Since pointing out that I took those Klingon's down with a rock because my commanding officer refused to let us bring along a phaser won't get me out of phaser training, I suppose I should ask how exactly you plan to help me with this," she raised the arm in question. "Beyond what I'm already getting in my physical therapy sessions, that is." A pause, and then a sigh. "And do you prefer Sir, or Ma'am? I know Starfleet has us default to 'sir' but in my line of work you're better off asking all the same."

Maybe if she ignored L'Nari she'd be lucky enough to get out of this quickly. Looking at the Andorian Lieutenant however, Faye sensed that would hardly be the case.

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #2 – May 31, 2022, 03:04:41 PM

[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Security Lounge | Security Centre | Deck 7 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy]

Attn: @Brutus @Nesota Kynnovan

Lieutenant Zark's attention was brought back to the young Betazoid Ensign and the tone of the questions wasn't lost on the security officer. If she were put in the same place, she would fully expect to be; irritated; at the very least. To be fair, as part of her species passionate makeup, that irritation would have been expressed more forcefully, probably with Zark in the brig for being insubordinate if not actually striking the person who put her in this position. However, that intense passion, or Extra as some had termed Andorians also lent itself to all their other emotional traits. The security officer had plenty of experience in dealing with surly subordinates in the past, and this was just one more in her mind. This meant she dipped into her very deep well of patience and using her knowledge of other species, made sure to project utter serenity to the Betazoid in case she was reading reading her thoughts (not likely for that was rude), but more likely emotions (couldn't be helped at times) as a warm gentle smile graced her blue face. The Andorian linked her fingers together as she leaned on the table and leaned in. "I'll answer your second question first. Ma'am is my preferred mode of address You can call my 'husbands' sir, though they prefer their names." Zark knew this was not genial to the topic of conversation, but she hoped by introducing herself as well, she'd put the two women at ease through the testing. "Also, unless I insist otherwise, you can call me Zark instead of zh’Ptrell. I've been that for a long time now since joining Starfleet."

The choice to go in unarmed was a little more delicate in the Andorian's mind as she didn't believe in going ANYWHERE unarmed and she decided not to mention it as it had been the diplomat's superior's decision. The smile disappeared to be replaced with a look of concern. "Ensign. The main issue with your prosthetic is we don't know how it will respond to you using a phaser, or any other implement. Will you crush some of the phaser's more delicate components?" The Andorian's right hand came up in the universal stop sign to forestall any argument. "Not likely I know, but we also simply don't know how accurate or capable you are with the thing till you if you'll forgive the saying, get into action. Our biological signals are the development of decades of training. In this case, the engineer's gave me the calibration program to help you tune the arm to your liking, that way we hope it'll have the dexterity you want sooner with additional practice."

The security officer gave the diplomat a moment to absorb what she was going to be doing before continuing. "I want to make it clear Ensign Eloi-Danvers. I'm not here to time you to see how fast you can do the task, especially in light of your arm, but I need to see that it's done with some proficiency." Zark realized that gave the Betazoid quite a bit of latitude to take all the time she wanted to complete the stripping and re-assembly of the weapons, but she also hoped that her competitive spirit and/or her dislike of the L'Nari would make her to go more quickly. Thinking about it though, Zark wondered if there was a way to get these two to dislike each other less. It was something that she would have to ponder on.

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #3 – June 24, 2022, 12:13:33 AM

[Ensign L’Nari | Security Lounge | Deck 07 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy]
Attn:

To say that L’Nari didn’t want to be there was probably as much of an understatement as calling their overall mission against the Infested threat a ‘precarious situation’. When the Andorian Lieutenant sitting on the business side of the desk initially requested her presence in the Security Lounge, the black furred Caitian had actually been right in the middle of processing data with one of the Chief Diplomat’s Aides, Petty Officer Second Grade Abel J’olan, and Junior Data Analyst Ensign Niccole Holland of the Intelligence Department. It was far from the most glorious work in Starfleet and mainly consisted of updating the files of possible Organisations and People Of Interest with information retrieved from first-hand sources like previous missions, or second-hand information obtained through different means. While it was unlikely to earn someone a medal or recognition, it was nevertheless work that needed to be done and, before joining the USS Theurgy in their fight against the Infected threat, this was what the black furred Diplomatic Attaché had always done; preparing detailed files for the higher ranking Diplomats to help them in their negotiations. Truth be told, L’Nari actually enjoyed the peace and quiet of that kind of work, especially now that it proved even more crucial to their overall safety because one of their Assistant Chief Diplomatic Officers preferred to let her fists do the talking.

L'Nari still hadn’t forgotten the disastrous mission to Qo’noS only five days earlier, when she witnessed Lieutenant Madsen’s abysmal sense of diplomacy on a first-hand basis and found herself caught in a fight to the death in the middle of a rebel encampment. With proper care to careful data processing and maybe, just maybe a Diplomat who actually understood their business, they wouldn’t have gone to the Central Mountain Range without a Security detail and none of that nasty affair would have happened in the first place; in fact, L’Nari was convinced that Lieutenant Commander Rutherford would have taken a different approach and avoided such violence altogether. She was also fairly certain that Lieutenant Foval would have forgotten about their entire purpose for being in the Central Mountain Range in the first place the minute he laid eyes upon an attractive-looking Klingon, but that was an entirely different grudge for an entirely different time.

It was inconvenient enough that L’Nari had to leave the data processing to Ensign Holland and Petty Officer J’olan to begin with but, when she heard that Lieutenant Madsen had requested this because the woman was ‘concerned for their safety’, it only added further insult to injury. Maybe the only good thing was that Faye decided to speak up first and, as the black furred Diplomatic Attaché turned her green eyed attention towards her fellow Diplomatic Attaché, she could hear that the other woman was just as annoyed to be there.

While it was hardly a secret that the two of them didn’t exactly get along, her deeply rooted dislike for Faye Lintah Eloi-Danvers had actually began to pale in comparison to the issues which L’Nari faced when dealing with Enyd Isolde Madsen. In fact, over the last couple of days the black furred Caitian had repeatedly found herself wondering if she shouldn’t just make common cause with the brunette Betazoid and settle their childish differences. However, such thoughts of reconciliation and forgiveness had always come to an abrupt end the very moment L’Nari’s eyes came to rest upon Eloi-Danvers’ face and she was reminded of the reason for their differences and that they weren’t childish at all.

”If I may, Miss Zark.” As she spoke, L’Nari’s Caitian-accented voice was as friendly as the smile that adorned her face. ”I understand the concern over Ensign Eloi-Danvers’ prosthetic arm and I appreciate that you’re taking the time to bring her up to par on these matters, but I fail to understand why I am here. I mean, I already passed the basic self-defence training course at Starfleet Academy,” Albeit barely, but that aside. ”and I don’t have prosthetic limbs myself so that can’t be a concern.” The black furred Diplomatic Attaché carefully observed the Andorian at the business end of the desk and briefly thought of a good approach. ”I won’t say that I am as great in matters of defence and combat as you are, but I don’t have to be. That’s why we have Starfleet Security, to escort us into potentially dangerous situations and protect us if necessary.” She decided to appeal to the woman’s sense of logic and, what usually worked with Klingons in general and the somewhat more gruff and burly colleagues of Starfleet Security alike, the pride ad confidence in their physical prowess. ”That being said, I was actually working on some rather important things in the Diplomatic Council Offices, so if I could be excused…?”

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #4 – June 25, 2022, 05:28:33 PM

[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Security Lounge | Security Centre | Deck 7 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy]

Attn: @Brutus @Nesota Kynnovan

The Andorian let the Caitan finish and she understood both their positions. However, where Eloi-Danvers was generally being surly and had required a dip into the well spring of patience, L'Nari was effectively refusing an order veiled as a request and had just drawn a bucket. Zark gave the black cat a blank look as she sat there deciding if the Caitan was deliberately being insolent and insubordinate. Zark understood that many of the non tactical branches of Starfleet did tend to regard their Starfleet ranks as a cumbersome addition to their responsibilities, yet those ranks did exist, and they implied a certain level of responsibility and more importantly, chain of command position within the ship. The Andorian was going to give L'Nari the benefit of the doubt as she was still young, but there was only so much she was willing to tolerate, especially from a junior. The blue woman's smile turned absolutely beatific after a moment. "Ensign L'Nari" the Andorian began with a very intense emphasis on the rank before the smile disappeared below her frozen icy jade eyes. "You are not excused, and you are not finished here. You're being here has been required by your superiors as a necessary part of your duties. So, whatever you thought was important has been overridden by your senior officer. You can take it up with them after we're finished here." A cobalt finger stabbed the table. "As you have pointed out so obviously, you're an Academy graduate and you took the necessary courses at" stab "that" tap "time." hard press into table. "It's been a while and this is normally an annual check. However, based on your statement, this should be a quick evaluation and you can go back what you were doing before being ordered here."

Lieutenant Zark crossed her arms over her chest as she relented slightly while leaning back in her chair before settling down into what was generally known as lecture mode. "Miss L'Nari. I appreciate your faith in Security and we do try to live up to those expectations, but the department is stretched thin. It usually is, that's the main issue with Security all the time, and without the usual channels to replenish personnel, we have to hope that each and every person on this ship can at least hold out till we can come to your aid, assuming we don't die in the attempt. At that point, we hope you can run away fast enough or if necessary, fight your way out, to find others like us. At the end of day your opponent gets a vote in life and death matters. In the heat of battle, they're not likely to be choosy how they ensure their own survival whether it's killing an armed security guard, or an unarmed diplomat."

The blue security officer leaned on the table and fixed the Caitan with a hard stare. "Now Ensign, I'm going to overlook this outburst and write it off as you now knowing how I operate. Each of you." and hard ice jade eyes fixed Faye for a moment before turning back to L'Nari "gets one pass after this. That's it. If you need help, that's one thing. Be insolent, insubordinate, or don't follow an order of mine in any way after this and I will simply ask you to leave, declare you unfit to leave the ship for away missions or participate in any active negotiation sessions with foreign powers where security is a concern. And I will inform Lieutenant Madsen as such. She can decide your disposition after that." Zark let that sink in for a moment before continuing. "Putting it simply, it would be my judgment as the evaluating security officer, that whoever does not complete the evaluation, cannot be trusted with the safety and lives of the crew. It's that, plain and simple."

The Andorian's face relaxed and softened noticeably after this as she stood up and grabbed the PADD before configuring it to timers, checklists, and the adjustment program for the bionic arm. "Ladies, hopefully that's all the unpleasantness we have to deal with. If you'll follow me to the armoury, you each have some phasers to disassemble and put back together." Lieutenant Zark gestured for the two evaluees to follow indicating that the discussion was over and she was now no longer willing to invite any sort of comment as she led them out.

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #5 – July 07, 2022, 06:26:57 AM

Miss - or would that be Missus, given she's married, she supposed zh'Ptrell was certainly intriguing. She extruded a confidence and professionalism that Faye could both respect, and be annoyed by. And be attracted to. Faye was hardly one to pretend she didn't like what she saw when she saw it, but she also knew this was hardly the time or the place. She'd ask Riley what the nurse knew about the Security Officer, whom was listed as a 'combat medic' in the brief file she'd glanced at prior to heading down to what she presumed would be an utter cluster fuck of a meeting, since there was no way the summons was a mistake. If the Lieutenant had any interest in the diplomat - either of them - she was doing an excellent job of hiding the fact. Not that Faye was looking, of course.

What frustrated her more than anything was that Faye had to concede that the Andorian Lieutenant had a point. She looked down at her arm and flexed her fingers again, wondering how she would actually fare. For her day to day tasks, the artificial limb was behaving just fine. She hadn't put a finger through any LCARS display system, for instance. She'd only torn the buttons off a shirt once or twice, and that was all before Aldea. Surely that had to count for something. She was naturally right handed, so it wasn't like she'd be shooting a phaser with her left hand, but her obstinate nature could only go so far in the face of the fact that she'd likely need to use both hands to repair one in a pinch.

"I suppose pointing out that it's my 'off' hand is a moot point, given everything you've just illustrated." At least she could take some solace in the fact that she wasn't going to be judged on just how expert her marksmanship was. Perhaps simply hitting the board side of a shuttle craft would be sufficient. Surely she could do that at least. She was a lover not a fighter but she wasn't a total push over like some diplomats.

It likely did not go unnoticed that she shot a sideways glare at the Catian next to her before the woman even opened her mouth to speak. The longer the other diplomat spoke, the deeper the glare turned, and Faye stopped trying to be subtle about it. Typical of her to throw me under the shuttle, she thought darkly, sitting up straighter in her chair. She had to resist the urge to cross her arms; there was no need for her to appear obviously petulant. L'Nari was doing a good enough job of that all on her own, and the Betazoid decided that she'd best be served by letting the Cait draw the Andorian's ire. No need to ruffle the security officers feathers if she could let her colleague act the fool.

No stretch there. It was a good thing she was the only telepath in the room.

Wondering if a smirk would get her in trouble, Faye let her gaze bounce back and forth between the Security officer and her fellow Attaché. Not that she moved her head all that much, just her eyes really. The fine art of observing without appearing to give undue attention to the subjects being observed was a skill that most diplomats picked up on fairly quickly. The successful ones in any event. And young though she was, Faye still had the confidence in herself to claim to be quite successful. Besides, 'just call me Zark' was too busy giving L'Nari a much deserved ass chewing to take note of how Faye was basking in the warmth of it.

At least until those icy eyes focused on her, snapping her out of her happy place and forcing a shiver down her spine. She pursed her lips but decided against pointing out that she hadn't tried to up and walk out. She didn't take all that kindly to the ultimatum leveled either, and allowed a bit of that to show in her expression, a pursing of the lips, a narrowing of her brow. "Understood, Ma'am."

When in doubt, keep your response short and succinct. The 'and fuck you too' can't get you in trouble if its silent.

Repressing an urge to sigh, Faye pushed her own seat back once the ranking officer had invited her to stand and adjourn to the armory. In truth, Faye had never been in the Security Center before, despite having talked about the place a time or two with her friend Mickayla. She knew the Chief Petty Officer spent plenty of time here on rotation, but hadn't ever visited her on duty. She tried not to cause trouble for her friends (with benefits or otherwise) when they were on shift. So as she fell in behind Zark, she kept her head on a swivel, taking in the place. It looked like any other subsection of the Theurgy, in coloration at least, though it was clear to tell this place could be easily, and well defended in a pinch. And she was just a diplomat, yet it was obvious to her.

Of course, by looking around at everything, she was able to keep from just watching the Andorian's ass sway. It was a nice ass, but now wasn't the time to let that become a distraction. A shame, but duty - even unpleasant ones - called.

At least I've held a phaser more recently than L'Nari, judging by her attitude. This was in fact an incorrect assumption, but no one was going to be able to correct her, as the trio entered the confines of the ships armory. Faye had not been around this many weapons in...well, ever, and flet very out of place among the racks of phaser rifles, pulse grenades, and other firearms that she couldn't actually identify. As Zark took up position on one side of the main work table, Faye and L'Nari naturally found themselves next to each other, across from the superior officer. A gesture had them sit and Faye waited to see just what kind of phaser they would have to take apart. As a diplomat, she would presume that in the event she had to go out armed, it would be with one of the type-1 'cricket' phaser, the usual allocation for someone of both her rank, and occupation. A hold out weapon was not entirely frowned upon in diplomatic circles, after all, when half the species she dealt with clutched ritual daggers while orating to their Federation counterparts.

Somehow she doubted she'd be that lucky today though.

Oh well. The tuning for the arm will actually be useful. And at least the eye candy is nice, if icy.

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #6 – August 09, 2022, 01:22:30 AM

[Ensign L’Nari | Security Lounge | Deck 07 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy]
Attn: @Brutus @RyeTanker

To say that L’Nari was a little upset by the Andorian’s answer was somewhat of an understatement. As she stared at the white-haired Lieutenant with a mixture of surprise and utter disbelief, in no small part because her perfectly reasonable request to be excused was downplayed as ‘an outburst’ and because the Andorian woman associated her with terms like ‘insolence’ and ‘insubordinate’, the black-furred Caitian could feel how a muscle just beneath her right eye began to twitch ever so slightly in sheer annoyance. It was clear that Lieutenant Zark had allowed herself to be charmed by the Assistant Chief Diplomatic Officer, L’Nari knew that she wouldn’t even have been here otherwise, and it simply wasn’t fair; she was now wasting valuable time brushing up on skills that weren’t even part of her job description, and if anyone would end up in trouble because she hadn’t been able to complete the data processing, it would somehow end up being her own fault for not focusing on her duties.

In fact, until Enyd Isolde Madsen had blundered her way aboard the USS Theurgy her service record had been nothing short of stellar and exemplary. Just because she actually preferred talking to violence however, as opposed to a certain vertically impaired Assistant Chief Diplomatic Officer’s particular style of “shoot first, talk with whoever survived the shooting”-style of gunboat diplomacy, L’Nari suspected her personnel file already read like a horror novel nowadays. Again, it simply was not fair.

Deciding to choose her battles, and knowing that refusing to cooperate with this farce would be an unwinnable fight from the start, L’Nari grumbled a bitter reply and began to follow Zark and Faye down to the Armory. While the black-furred Caitian would never openly admit it, there was actually one good part to this waste of time and that was her gut feeling that it would most likely be over soon; back at Starfleet Academy, she’d surprised not just herself, but both fellow Cadets and even Instructors alike by showing a remarkable proficiency at disassembling phasers. While she performed dramatically worse at the shooting range and was still unlikely to hit anything smaller than the side of a Runabout, disassembling and maintenance was an entirely different story. It was actually quite soothing, really, and L’Nari had been quick to discover that there was a certain logic to it that wasn’t much different from games such as chess or even kal-toh if she really put her mind to it.

As such, when she took up her position at the main work table, Lieutenant Zark became subject to L’Nari’s most impatient green-eyed stare while she waited for the disassembling part to begin. The sooner they would get started, after all, the sooner she could return to more important work that actually contributed to the overall mission.

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #7 – August 17, 2022, 08:36:54 AM

[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Armoury | Security Centre | Deck 7 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy]

@Brutus @Nesota Kynnovan

The Andorian Evaluator walked through a short familiar hall and through a set of doors to nondescript room full of lockers where evidence was kept from investigations. This led to the the armoury and the door opened to reveal the large lockers for the security exosuits. A few crewman were calibrating someone else's armour and they gave a brief nod of acknowledgement to Lt. Zark before quirking eyebrows or staring at the two diplomatic attache's following in her wake. "Daaamn" one of the crewman muttered "The Lieutenant must be pissed." The discussion as to why was cut off as Lt. Zark led her two charges into another room that housed the plethora of ready phasers and crates containing other assorted gear that Security kept on hand for everything from being armed to major combat. The Andorian rounded the work table and pointed at a pair of chairs on the opposite end for the two Ensigns to sit. Placing her PADD on the table, the combat medic took a few trips to various racks and shelves to pull out the various phasers that Starfleet issued to their crews. Laying them in front of the the two diplomats with the Type 1, aka cricket, on the table in front of them with the easily recognizable curved Type 2, and much larger Type 3 Rifle off to one side, the medico went back around and laid the weapons out in the same layout.

"Alright ladies. Here we are. I'm sure you recognize the phasers in front of you." A gestured widely at the implements in front of everyone. "So, for review, we'll start with the Type 1." The combat medic narrated as she popped the back of the holdout phaser splitting the casing in half revealing the internal circuitry of the device. Through long practice, and mindful of the review, Zark gently pulled the emitter crystal, prefire chamber, control circuitry, power cell, and recharge coil apart before laying them neatly in a line across the table. "When reassembling the parts, everything should just snap into place. If something doesn't fit, it's being reassembled wrong." Zark reversed the process and the sound of alloy snapping together with metronome precision that came with years of long practice bringing the phaser back together. "We'll power up the phaser after to make sure it works" and blue fingers began pressing the beam intensity button causing the power lights to increase and with long practice again, she brought the weapon to max setting before cycling it minimum. "And of course we'll need to test it. Computer, test target to my right." Thea was smart enough to materialize a target against the wall that Zark casually took aim at and depressed the trigger. A thin orange beam lanced out as the weapon shrieked and struck the target on the centre, maybe slightly to the left, and Zark squinted at the result. Maybe she needed a little more practice with the Type 1s on the range.

Turning her attention, she casually began disassembling the phaser once more and laying the parts in front of her as she spoke. "Once again, this is a test of proficiency, not efficiency, so if there are no questions, you can begin." As she lay down the recharging coil, Zark picked up the PADD to record the results and if necessary make arm control adjustments as Ensign Eloi-Danvers requested.

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #8 – September 12, 2022, 02:51:14 AM

[Ensign L’Nari | Armoury | Deck 07 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy]
Attn: @Brutus @RyeTanker

When the Andorian Lieutenant pointed at the chairs positioned at the business end of the work table, L’Nari chose to remain standing. Even back at the Academy, during those mandatory courses where she had been required to disassemble phasers as part of her basic tactical training, the black-furred Caitian very much preferred to have a top-down view over her work that was otherwise taken from her by the comfort of a chair. That, and it just might have been a somewhat petty show of defiance towards the Andorian Security Officer who had dragged her down here in the first place.

In all fairness, L’Nari knew that she shouldn’t really hold it against the blue-skinned Security Officer. As she listened to Lieutenant Zark’s review on disassembling weapons, it became ever more clear that the woman was genuinely doing her best to help them and even performed the job with an enthusiasm that was… refreshing. The woman made it clear that she was there for them and even though she could have been a little more charismatic about it, Lieutenant Zark was a Security Officer and not a Diplomat; the finer arts of charisma were as foreign to her as combat was to L’Nari, so that couldn’t really be held against the woman.

After the Lieutenant concluded her review by test firing the type-1 phaser she’d just reassembled, they were finally allowed to begin. Making the best of the situation, mainly because L’Nari knew that she really didn’t had a choice in the matter anyway, the black-furred Caitian decided that she might as well attempt to have a little fun and outdo Faye while she got to work. Using the nail on her right index finger to quickly and efficiently pop the back of the holdout phaser, the Diplomatic Attaché looked at the exposed internal circuitry of the weapon and tried to remember the basics of her slumbering Academy training. It was basic knowledge that one first had to remove the power cell before further disassembling the weapon and, just like that, L’Nari got around to it.

It wasn’t long until the entire weapon was laying in front of her on the work table, completely disassembled down to its core components just like Lieutenant Zark had requested of them. This was just one of those moments where the sensitivity of her hands and the increased mobility of her fingers allowed L’Nari to shine; her long retractable nails could quickly and efficiently remove the parts where others might need tools to do the same. In fact, as the black-furred Caitian briefly turned her green-eyed attention towards Faye she began to wonder if that wasn’t how their mutual dislike had started in the first place. Hadn’t it been Faye who had mentioned “I wish I had claws like that!” in reference to her hands? In all honesty, after so many years of intense dislike L’Nari couldn’t even accurately recall how their bickering had begun and she really didn’t want to either.

With a soft sigh, the black-furred Caitian turned her attention back towards the work table and began to reassemble her phaser again.

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #9 – November 14, 2022, 03:15:09 AM

Clearly lacking enthusiasm for the task at hand, Faye did her best to ignore her counterpart sitting next to her, and focus on the task before her. Of the standard kit out options that most Starfleet officers encounters, as a diplomat Faye was most familiar with the type-1, as this was often the weapon of choice for members of her department, in the rare event that they went armed anywhere. Not for the first time, Faye thought back to the fiasco in Klingon space in which she had helped abdu-rescue the grandson of the current Chancellor. She wished that she had been armed for that, but Rutherford, her boss whom she presumed was at least partially responsible for her current predicament had disarmed them by leaving the firearms behind and insisting on going ahead empty handed. Faye wasn't a fighter, but a small part of her resented the human woman for that choice, as in the end she had been forced to kill, in a brutal fashion to keep them alive and allow them to escape.

Had she been armed with a small, hand held and easily concealed type-1 phaser, the warriors that had cornered Rutherford and the brat could have been stunned, instead of smashed under a boulder.

Putting those thoughts out of her mind was something of a challenge. Focusing on training she had not actively practiced in years was another matter all together, and she allowed herself to prize the phaser open. Perhaps too eagerly, as part of it shot up into the air. Surprised, Faye had to scamper to catch it before it hit the ground. Face flushed, she ignored both the Cait next to her, and the Andorian across from her, as she knew very well she had just made the security officers point about the fine motor control - or lack there of - that Faye possessed in regards to her artificial hand. Despite some serious therapy at the hands of Nurse Patterson, and others within the Theurgy's medical department, it was clear to Faye that she had some distance to go.

Quietly fuming, Faye put her parts out in front of her. By the time that was completed, L'Nari was already well on her way to putting her device back together. Those damn claws, Faye thought, remembering a joke about wanting a set back in the Academy. She did envy the Cait's dexterity in this task, but promised herself she would do better in actual target practice. And besides, as long as she managed to get the thing put back together, really that was all that mattered, wasn't it? It was at this point that she failed to notice one of the smaller components slide off the side of the table. Equally unnoticed was the swift way in which the Caitian next to her simply slid her foot over the component and hiding it from view of the others. Perhaps she didn't even consciously act on it, and none of her thoughts broadcast what had happened to Faye, whom continued to put her device back together.

All the parts did seem to click together, though it seemed oddly light in her palm after, as Faye placed her finished device in front of her, just as L'Nari had done about 30 seconds prior. The cat looked like she'd gotten the canary, and Faye presumed that she felt some satisfaction at having completed the task before the Betazoid. Huffing, there was little she could do about it as she crossed her arms and awaited Zark's evaluation. She didn't have to beat L'Nari in this, she just had to perform good enough to pass. She was sure that a moment would arise for her to put her long-term rival in her place eventually.

OOC: Not sure if someone is going to pick up L'nari or not, but on the off chance we do, I figured I'd dump a reply in here while I had a spare moment.

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #10 – November 14, 2022, 07:09:11 PM

[Ensign L'Nari | Armoury | Security Centre | Deck 07 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy]

Attn: @Brutus

Ensign L'Nari couldn't help but preen as her rival carelessly fumbled the disassembly and given the Caitan a clear advantage in the whole process. The black cat did feel a twinge of sympathy for the loss of control as she hoped it wouldn't be anything she would have to experience herself, but as soon as she saw the dark mop on top of the furless skin, a flood of insults came back and her sense of sympathy evaporated as soon as it had arrived. It was as she was looking at Faye that she noticed one piece, the central power junction, had slid near her feet. Faye was too busy looking the other for some of the larger pieces when L'Nari took a side step with one boot and swept the circutry towards her. Locking her legs together, the Caitan smiled as she continued working. She finished a whole half a minute to a minute and was able to take the time to watch her rival fumble along in her work. She was a diplomat after all and it wouldn't do to call it gloating, so she watched as her tail merrily swung back and forth. This made her oblivious as a quietly enraged Andorian snuck up behind her.

[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Armoury | Security Centre | Deck 07 | Vector 02| USS Theurgy]

Lieutenant Zark had seen many things in an internal personal aspect during her life. She had handled hostage negotiations on frontier worlds. She'd separated fighting crewman. She had seen pranks gone crazy. She had not seen someone willingly place the life of another in harm's way by sabotaging their means of self defence. She'd initially been dismayed when Faye's phaser had popped into pieces all over the place, but to her credit, the young Betazoid Ensign had sprung into action to retrieve everything. The Security Officer though had spent altogether too much time around the weapons, and as her mind began cataloguing what was being put back on the table, she realized she'd come up a piece short. The Andorian squinted as she looked at the two evaluees and outwardly, the Caitan seemed to be just working on her phaser. It was always the tail of the species that gave it away. It was too jolly. The Andorian took a moment to pull up the security feed on her PADD and watched. When she saw the foot go up, over, and slide back, Zark was half tempted to grab the younger woman's head and smash it into the table.

Instead, she opted to wait, and didn't quite manage to tap her toes as she put the PADD down. While the Caitan watched Faye fumble along, Zark quietly moved to behind the Caitan and dropped her hands to her side. Zark's smile was getting close to feral when Faye finished. As soon as the Betazoid's phaser went down, Zark snatched the Caitan's completed phaser off the table and powered it up. Fast blue arms then went under the Caitan's and placed the young woman in an arm lock that left her precious little space to breathe and the phaser was jammed into the black cat's chin. L'Nari did try to struggle out of the hold, but this only increased the pressure the strong blue arms placed on her instead. "Easy there Ensign." the Andorian cooed to the attache as she began to stop struggling. "Now, out on the frontier, the rules are generally a bit different. There was period in the human's history where they had something called the Wild West, where the gun ruled who was right and who was wrong. I've been out there and I've seen it. A place where they don't have any respect for people who can't backup their words with phasers and the willingness to use them."

Lieutenant Zark kept L'Nari in the arm lock and she couldn't get out. "In this training scenario, you were to meet with a delegation of Nausicans to release some Federation hostages. Instead, they've killed your security detachment after a fire fight and the last one standing has grabbed you. Miss Eloi-Danvers here is your only hope of living through this episode. I read the report on her last encounter with the Klingons. She beat them with a rock, so she has the capacity to pull the trigger in her, and this isn't so bad, just a quick stun and everything will be over." The hard blue green eyes looked up at the dark coal ones. "That phaser she's holding is the exact same one she just put back together right now. Well Ensign Eloi-Danvers. Go ahead. Shoot me and save your colleague here."

OOC: L'Nari rolled 2 on Sleight of Hand. Zark rolled 18 on Perception.

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #11 – December 11, 2022, 04:08:03 PM

Summoning up her composure and tightly reigning in her mental abilities - she didn't want to drown in the satisfaction that she could already sense from her rival any more than she might wish to get hit with a wave of disappointment or disapproval from the security officer in charge of this well meaning farce - Faye struck a pose suitably comported and fell back on years of training and experience in one of the most used diplomatic skills on the book: waiting patiently.

She did not fail to note the way that her colleuage's tail lazily flicked back and forth in purrfect pride for her own perceived prowess. Faye was a diplomat after all and had to take note of body posture as much as, if not more so than, what was (or wasn't) being verbally communicated at any moment. She just refused to let her ire at the smug superiority radiating from the Cait get to her. Even if said superiority complex was actually less present than the Betazed assessed through her own biased view of the officer in question.

That there was something irking the Andorian didn't quite to unnoticed either, though Faye chalked that up to the other woman having to essentially babysit two obstinate diplomats who had little desire to sit through the training they were assigned. All in all it was not an assignment designed to please anyone involved, and as a diplomat Faye knew she ought to appreciate the fine art of compromise in action. As a junior officer felt put upon in the moment, she had little sympathy, and far more desire to be anywhere else but here, with anyone else.

Well, a different circumstance and Miss Icy Blue Sternness over there could be quite enjoyable, she allowed. But only briefly.

By that point, she belatedly realized that said Security Officer was now behind her and L'Nari, and blinked a few times, wondering at what point during it all the blue skinned woman had actually moved, and how she herself had failed to track that. You're slipping Faye. Perhaps there is some justice in this assignment after all. Not a pleasing thought in the slightest, the Diplomat never the less squared her shoulders off once more, and simply satisfied herself with a glance back over her shoulder. That smile set off a wave of warning bells (and a spike of startled arousal that she was not going to analyze in that moment) which set her gaze resolutely forward at the fall wall. Something was about to happen and she would be damned if anything she would do could add to the trouble.

The explosion of activity that followed the final placement of her own device, and the sudden sweeping of the Cait into a combat trained lock by Zark completely befuddled Faye, who stared in dumbfounded surprise. She had sensed something, but the outburst of violence (controlled, focused and targeted as it was) was still stunning. An aptly human aphorism that her mother had cause to utter on precious few occasions slipped right out of Faye's mouth as she scooted her chair back from the unexpected confrontation. "Oh fuck."

In the end she stood up, fumbling for a moment before her grip settled on the cricket phaser. For half a second she pondered questioning the order. Being told to fire on a superior officer was asking for time in the brig, but not firing would do the same thing. And she wanted to believe that she had put the thing back together right, and that at worst L'Nari might end up getting stunned if she accidentally twitched at the wrong time. And really that was hardly a bad outcome, just mildly embarrassing and yet she hesitated briefly. She saw those Klingon's, flattened into a pulp. She saw the phaser going off, the setting reading stun, only to turn both women in front of her into atoms. She saw L'Nari flinch in a fashion Faye found herself not entirely unsympathetic toward.

And then her thumb pressed down on the activation stud all the same, felt the phaser throb in her hand and...and nothing. There was a buzzing fitz-pop noise, a small spark, and that was it. Confusion flashed over Faye's face, as those coal eyes looked up at L'Nari and Zark, and she again, so eloquently babbled, "Well fuck."

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #12 – December 13, 2022, 05:10:31 PM

[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) & Ensign L'Nari | Armoury | Security Centre | Deck 07 | Vector 02| USS Theurgy] Attn: @Brutus

The upset Andorian leaned in to the Caitan's ear and whispered. "Zap. You're dead. Hole in the bottom of your jaw and the top of your head." The hand holding the phaser extended itself ever so slowly and held the weapon as if to hand it to Faye. "Zap. Ensign Eloi-Danvers now has a hole in her shoulder and will be lucky if we can get to her in time before she's ends up in a ditch." Lieutenant Zark stood up and tossed the phaser on the table. "Ensign Eloi-Danvers, go ahead and sit down. The security officer then went under the table and pulled the missing piece before placing it in front of Faye. Her expression was neutral as she turned to the Betazoid. "Go ahead Ensign, finish putting your phaser together while we have a chat."

That neutral face turned stormy as the blue jade eyes bore into the Caitan who at least had the sense to squirm before she decided to address the Andorian. "Lieutenant, that was uncalled for. You had no right to..." "Ensign, shut up." said Andorian delivered in a flat cold arctic bite. The security officer stood tall and and crossed her arms over her chest like a parent addressing an errant child. "I showed a large amount of leniency in not reporting you right away when you tried to disobey a direct order from not just one, but two superior officers. I may only have one more grade on you, but that's still one grade that's easy to see." The Lieutenant JG pointed at her collar to emphasize the dark pip next to the gold one. "Even in situations where I am not the senior person in the room, the one's learning from me have the sense and respect to know that they are under my watch to learn something and listen appropriately." L'Nari couldn't believe that she was being talked to as if she was a kitten and despite all her training, she huffed, which caused the Andorian's nostrils to flare in response.

"Do not test me Ensign. I've thrown Captains and full Commanders around the ring and shot them to make a point, much as Miss Eloi-Danvers should have been able to do if her weapon worked. You're a corpse with a fried brain and the Ensign is now probably dragged somewhere to be raped by the survivor before he decides to kill her and make a run for it." L'Nari's world was in a sense very sheltered and she managed to stare incredulously while blanching at the Andorian's blunt assessment, as if such a thing was utterly preposterous in real life. Trade and treaty negotiations were never like that, especially across the conference table. With her mouth hanging open in shock, Ensign L'Nari's brain had to work to get going again and when calmed down a bit, the Caitan did grudgingly admit that the Security Officer was a hard woman and wouldn't have made such an example unless there was experience behind it. Lieutenant Zark saw the brain working and it also gave her a chance to calm down a bit before she continued, her voice no longer as coldly furious as it was before. "Ensign. You've just used your pass." L'Nari nodded a bit jerkily at this. "If you pull something like that again, you can leave and just be an analyst. No need to go on away missions or actual negotiations. Very safe in the confines of the ship. I hope you realize the universe has much to offer in it's own way though, but it's an imperfect universe we live in and it cares very little for your survival. I care quite a bit as do many others, Ensign Eloi-Danvers and Lieutenant Madsen among them. Please don't do something like that again."

The Caitan was very confused as she stared at the Andorian and saw something that looked like warmth in those eyes. Deciding to give her the benefit of the doubt, the black cat nodded moved to try to be the bigger person. Very reluctantly turning to her rival she very stiffly ground out "My apologies Ensign" and turned to find something else more palatable to stare at. Lieutenant Zark closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead before deciding to let it go and turned her attention back to her other evaluee. "Ensign. How's it coming and do you need any adjustments for your arm?"

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #13 – December 22, 2022, 10:10:42 PM

Harsh. The word bounced around in Faye's mind as she flopped back into her chair, her face having gone pale, and then flushed with embarrassment. What had I missed? How did I fuck that up that bad. I am so fucking screwed. Usually that much profanity was the sign of a good time for the fun loving diplomat, but now it was just accompanying dread. It took her a moment to realize that she hadn't actually fucked up all on her own. That was another unwelcome surprise that evoked a myriad of different emotions, none of them the kind she actually liked to experience or dwell on. The kind most of her species shunned.

The kind L'Nari often evoked, in truth, and the kind that Faye often brought forth in the Caitian in turn. A vicious little cycle began again.

This realization came when Zark bent down, and then up again, placing a control diode onto the top of Faye's desk. It had clearly been under L'Nari's desk and Faye could sense the storm of emotions bubbling under the surface from the Andorian as the Security officer ordered her to take the phaser apart and put it back together again. She swallowed again and nodded in silent acquiescence. She didn't trust her voice right now, and thankfully the Lieutenant didn't seem to hold that against her. With a bit of shaking in her hands - that she was quite upset over - Faye took the phaser apart, piece by pain staking piece, laying each one out in front of her, in the center of her desk, taking more time than before, to ensure that nothing bounced away.

She kept her head down the whole time, not daring to look up at the Cait was reamed out and raked over the coals. Yes, it was glorious to see that bit-woman get her comeuppance, but Faye was still embarrassed that she'd missed the component in the first place. Even though this had just been a demonstration, a test and nothing more, it had done a grand job of illustrating just how far Faye had to go to be considered competent, and she wasn't happy about that. The truth was, had she failed to put things back in a real life situation, she would likely be dead. Or in stasis. Again.

Squeezing her eyes tightly, she forced her walls to snap into place, silencing the emotions from the other two women in the room. It was not perfect. It could never be perfect. Such silence was anathema to her species, an impossibility. But it was a close as she came to forcing it all to be background noise. Left with her own thoughts instead, she completed the task, noting with some satisfaction the slight hum that had been missing before in the small device. She flinched all the same as some of the tirade washed over her by proxy.

Thinking perhaps that Zark was being a bit too charitable with how Faye felt toward L'Nari - though in truth she had no desire to see the other woman dead, just very far away from her - Faye nevertheless kept her mouth tight and shut, lips pressed thinly as she set the phaser aside. What supersized Faye was that she struggled as much to accept L'Nari's apology as the Cait did to give it. In the end, the words were spoken and acknowledged and each woman put the other out of their thoughts for that moment. Instead, Faye focused on the Lieutenant, looking up as the Andorian posed her question.

"I believe I have assembled the phaser ma'am. Properly this time. At least, nothing has fallen on the floor," she added sheepishly. Curling her fingers into her palm, she looked at her artificial hand. "I did almost send another piece flying into the air however. So...I might, yes. Need tweaking, that is." She wasn't terribly pleased about that fact either.

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #14 – December 27, 2022, 07:59:26 AM

[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Armoury | Security Centre | Deck 07 | Vector 02| USS Theurgy] Attn: @Brutus

Lieutenant Zark gave a wan smile to the Ensign as she completed the re-assembly. Zark gave a power and firing test of the device and marked off on her list that Eloi-Danvers as good in that area. The question did remain though of how the hand was to be calibrated. The Andorian stood there for a moment. The miffed Caitan seemed intensely focused on trying to ignore the two of them and wouldn't be of any help. Looking around, she spotted a weapon case and her mind noted how cubical it was. This triggered another series of thoughts that led her down memory lane to her war service and she stopped guessing as her idea began to focus. "Ensigns, wait here, I'll be back.". The Andorian left to find a replicator and smiled at the idea. "Computer, 500g raw silken tofu split into 12 cubes. And a towel." A shimmering light in the alcove produced the requested item on a black square plate with a white towel beside it. Lt. Zark grabbed the items and carefully carried them to the room where her two charges were waiting and placed the plate in front of the Betazoid.

"Okay Ensign Eloi-Danvers. Here's how this gonna work. This is an Earth food called tofu. It's really soft and falls apart if handled too roughly. We're going to try to dial your hands and fingers to the point you can pick these up without breaking anything." The Andorian gave one cube a semi-gentle squeeze and the white cube split and mushed at the same time. "I'm going to work on how sensitive your fingers are combined with the speed at which they move." Zark stuck her blue fingers in her mouth and sucked the food off to clean them before using a corner of the towel to clean off any debris.

Picking up her PADD, Lieutenant Zark entered pulled up the modification application "Okay, just let me know what you need increased or decreased, whether it's sensitivity, or the speed that the parts of your hand move." With that, Zark held the PADD up and watched Faye get to work picking up the very soft white cubes.

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #15 – February 25, 2023, 07:31:11 PM

Becuase this isn't awkward at all, Faye thought to herself as she confessed her issues with her hand. She did not want to be here any more than L'Nari did. She did not like that she needed this training, even if the necessity had just been put on full display for her. Clearly she needed some fine-tuning. She was not a fighter, but a lover, and proud of it. And she wasn't even sure she faulted L'Nari for her actions earlier, sabotaging her efforts to rebuild the phaser. Admittedly that might have been because the Caitian got caught and reemed out in such a thoroughly effective fashion that it was hard to feel anything other than pity. Sabotage was clearly not the way to get ahead in this little endeavor.

Though her focus was less on the results on her efforts than it was on her complications and the tension that still permeated the room, Faye did feel a modicum of satisfaction when the Andorian Lieutenant snapped off a quick shot with the recently rebuilt cricket phaser. The beam struck true, and Zark too seemed satisfied with the results. Knowing that she could accomplish something, if not dealing with deliberate malfeasance was reassuring.

Confusion and surprise blinked across Faye's face. She even shared a sullen look with L'Nari. It was not as if either of them were going to be able to go anywhere else. Certainly not after what had just happened. The Betazoid wasn't going to try and push her luck by bugging out. A quiet, "Aye ma'am," was all she managed in the whip lashed wake of the Andorian - well, she didn't scamper off, but seemed to move with impressive purpose all the same - as she headed to the replicator.

The confusion that had been there before was nothing compared to the puzzlement that Faye felt looking down at a plate of ...tofu? Breakfast hadn't been so long ago that Faye found herself terribly hungry, and she tilted her head visibly."Not my first choice for a lunch date, ma'am," she quipped, looking from the tofu to the Lieutenant, who plowed right on through with an explanation that had Faye's eyebrows shooting up toward her hair line, and a flicker of respect passing across her face. And something else as well, slightly darker, when she watched the blue skinned woman lick her fingers clean.

Did she do that on purpose? A glance to L'Nari, who watched with a put-upon, bored expression. The lazily flicking tail was a major tell, and the Betazoid repressed a sigh, and moved to take one of the cubes in the fingers of her artificial hand. "My mother - well, adopted technically, but the one I've ever known - was born on Earth," she explained. She tried turning the cube around in her fingers and they pushed through almost without thought, making a mess. A scowl formed, her eyebrows furrowing tight toward the center line of her face and her lips pursed to one side. "I never much cared for tofu, no matter what mother cooked it in. She'd be giving me grief for playing with my food like this.

"Sensitivity, I think? I couldn't feel how much pressure I was applying. I thought I was being rather gentle and well..." She wiggled her fingers back and forth in a vaguely suggestive fashion. "Needless to say there are circumstances where I wouldn't want to over apply myself."

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #16 – March 04, 2023, 07:42:31 PM

[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Armoury | Security Centre | Deck 07 | Vector 02| USS Theurgy] Attn: @Brutus

The Andorian security officer was wholly focused on getting the Betazoid's hand working, and her antennae seemed to be stuck in a permanent position of being pointed at Faye while she tried to work the little cubes of food. Her mouth frowned when the first cube was demolished with the barest touch and her antennae shot up in surprise at the same time that Faye scowled at her lack of success. Lieutenant Zark narrowed her eyes speculatively as she watched the hand keep trying to apply pressure, and listening to Faye's description of what was wrong, the medico began to wonder how therapy was actually being conducted. More out of curiosity, she pulled up the records and began reading over the notes and the metrics. A quick perusal of the notes confirmed that while the diplomat was making progress, someone was being too soft on her, and given the gossip that tended to float around, the Andorian could guess who.

Ignoring the motions being made by the fingers, the medic began to fine tune the fingers sensitivity, and responsiveness. Zark watched as Faye made her way through the food cubes as she squeezed apart one after the other. It was more intuitive guess work, but Zark stared blank faced as she worked the program regardless of her patient's frustration with the process. Any gripes were generally handled with "We're getting closer, just keep working the tofu." She worked the slide bars measuring sensitivity, strength, rate of turn, and several other factors as minutley as possible. There might have been an element of conservatism in the previous therapy sessions, but Zark wanted it fixed now, especially since she viewed it as a shame that those dexterous fingers should be so rough on something so soft.

The Andorian's antennae began to twirl on their own despite the owner's lack of expression, and she didn't really notice subconsciously what was happening. After one demolished plate of tofu, Lieutenant Zark went back for one more, the continued the adjustment process. The Caitan's tail began to lash harder impatiently and the black cat turned to say something to the blue woman who was keeping her away from her other duties, but a baleful look quelled any reply and she went back to being bored. "I think we're almost done." The medico called out loud as the foodstuffs soon stopped instantly disintegrating under the younger woman's touch. "Just a few more minor adjustments, then we'll lock the settings, and head to the firing range." Zark concluded brightly, happy to get moving with the rest of the evaluation.

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #17 – March 16, 2023, 03:18:21 AM

Sensing frustration and impatience from L'Nari was nothing new. It was ironic that someone whose profession often required them to wait patiently lacked so much of it. Faye of course chose to ignore her own tendencies toward similar feelings on waiting around while others were attended to. Pot and kettle syndrome, her mother would have called it. Faye decided it did not merit any further thought. She frowned slightly as she mashed another cube, if not quite as poorly as before. She had clamped down fairly hard on her extra sensory perceptions, but she was still getting bleed-through from the Catian and Andorian. That was going to be a distraction, but in truth there was only so much she could do to force a false sense of 'white noise' into her own brain.

There are so few species that register as totally silent for me. Having one of them to focus on would be ideal, but given the only one aboard that I am aware of is currently in the Brig for his own safety as much as everyone else's...That isn't an option. Another cube smashed. Focus.

"If you say so ma'am," Faye replied, pursing her lips. The combat medic was the specialist, and Faye wasn't going to argue, even if whatever progress might have been happening was...subtle. Difficult for Faye to discern. Still, the next cube took a bit longer to squish, so that seemed to be a bit of progress. Maybe. There was something on the edge of her perception and she raised her eyebrows up to look at the Andorian, watching her antenna swirl about. It was distracting, and she had to swallow and refocus. Was it her imagination, or did L'Nari quietly scoff? The Cait was more perceptive than Faye liked, the the brunette Betazoid resisted the urge to huff.

Turning her gaze back to yet another decimated block of bean paste, Faye watched as she picked up another cube. She pressed and it didn't immediately explode. She could feel the texture there - off-putting as it always was - and applied more pressure. Slowly. Then it did crumble, but in a more controlled fashion. "You may be right after all, Lieutenant," she confessed. This process repeated a few more times, until she could squeeze the cube almost to the point of destruction, but then stop just shy. It was misshapen, but intact, as she slowly set the tofu block back down on the plate, and rubbed her fingers together.

Cocking an eyebrow up on her forehead in a reasonable approximation of one of her superiors, she noted, "I'm afraid I won't be putting on a show cleaning these off. I cannot stand the taste personally. Did you happen to replicate a napkin?" Or would you just like to clean it up yourself? The words caught in her throat at the last minute as she reminded herself that she was technically on duty.

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #18 – March 23, 2023, 04:15:27 AM

[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Armoury | Security Centre | Deck 07 | Vector 02| USS Theurgy] Attn: @Brutus

As one class mate had told then Cadet Zark at the time, she was hot, knew it, but at times, was utterly oblivious to it. Thus, when Ensign Eloi-Danvers made a comment about making a show of cleaning up her fingers, Lieutenant Zark's head came up slowly and her eyes narrowed at the Betazoid while her antennae pointed themselves at the junior diplomat while wondering what she was implying. She'd moved her fingers around so much on the PADD that she'd essentially waved them dry. Instead, she chose to give the Ensign the benefit of the doubt, and simply picked up a napkin and handed it to her silently. This was not to say she was entirely immune to the younger woman's charms. and it had been a little harder to avoid since coming back from Brestant, though for the life of her, Zark couldn't figure out why. Her hair framed her face quite well.

The Security Officer mentally shook off this line of thought again and punched in the codes to lock the current setting and initializing the self learning auto adjustment module for the arm. Offering the two ladies a small smile, Lt. Zark tucked the PADD underneath her arm. "Bring the phasers, the next part is going to be straight forward." The Andorian waved for the two women to follow her the short trip to the range and she talked as she walked. "You two are going to shoot a humanoid sized targets at the usual engagement range of between ten and twenty five meters. Security frequently has to shoot out to 100 and 250, so this isn't too bad. Anyway, I'll give you five shots to get used to shooting, then you'll shoot targets they appear." The trio entered the holodeck that served as the range. Turning to a console on the wall, the Andorian began pulling up the program parameters. A standard Federation cargo bay with crates strewn across the floor appeared. "After you've hit ten targets, the targets will shoot back. You have to hit five targets. If you're hit three times, I will mark this segment as a failure. Enign L'Nari, you'll go first." With that, Lieutenant Zark gently pushed Faye towards to the wall to wait.

[Ensign L'Nari | Range | Security Centre | Deck 07 | Vector 02| USS Theurgy]

The Caitan was nervous. Weapons were for brutes like the Andorian that had been inflicted on her. The diplomats tools consisted of the word and the pen, something that required more elegance and thought rather than just pushing a button and blasting away the problem. She'd considered protesting again, but each time she'd raised a reasonable and valid point, the Security Officer felt the need to stretch out any sort of explanation by a factor of ten. Calling it an explanation was also being generous since it was more of tongue lashing as if she were a mere kitten. Taking a breath, the Caitan gripped the unpleasant pile of alloy and circuitry of a type one phaser. Looking over at Andorian, nodded being ready. Her eyes flicked to her rival for a moment and her competitiveness seemed to be rekindled. If she was going to suffer through this, she'd at least do so beating that smug grin off her rival's face.

A round target appeared and Ensign L'Nari took aim and depressed the trigger. The shot missed the target by scant millimetres and she mentally scowled as she lined up the phaser again. Another shot clipped the edge of the target. Adjusting her shoulders, she fired once more and the shot went low about half way. Suddenly, there was a presence beside her and she saw the Andorian looking intently at her. The Cait began to bristle at the suddenly closeness, not even considering how easily she'd snuck up. "You're grip is too tight, and you're over compensating. Here." Blue hands suddenly gripped black ones and L'Nari watched as Lieutenant Zark made a few micro adjustments. "Now try." The Andorian commanded and L'Nari looked at her target and depressed the trigger once more. The shot struck the inner ring, as did the next. Neither was a bullseye, but it was a significant improvement. "Thank you....ma'am." L'Nari grudgingly ground out. Whatever her other traits, at least the Lieutenant knew how to help people. With that, her tail began to sway faster as she locked eyes with her rival and smirked. Said Lieutenant seemed to have missed the exchange as she nodded and pulled the next segment. Ensign L'Nari's green eyes watched as a Klingon male materialized. She stared at him for a moment, then he disappeared, and L'Nari cursed under her breath. She could almost feel the gloating coming from behind her, and she resolved to do better. A Cardassian appeared and L'Nari took aim and fired. She shot struck the target in the arm and disappeared. A Jem'Hadar appeared, and she fired again, but missed in her haste. Re-aiming quickly a second shot struck the warrior in the chest and the target disappeared. The segment seemed to go on forever as targets appeared and were shot at, and in many cases, missed. When she shot the last target and the a buzzer signalled the end of the segment, the Caitan turned around to give the Betazoid a preening smile at her success, till she noticed the utterly blank look on the Andorian's face. It was the hand on her mouth that gave her situation away. "How did I do?" Ensign L'nari asked while trying to keep the trepidation out of her voice and the Andorian shook her head from side to side for a bit. "Definitely room for improvement. You're shooting at around 60% accuracy. Lots of room for improvement."

Shaking her head, the medico pulled up the final segment. "Make sure to use the cover provided." L'Nari nodded as she noticed the Andorian place an arm across her rivals chest to pull her out of the way. The buzzer sounded and the Caitan was not an idiot, so she went for the crates. A green energy ball flew past her head and she ducked involuntarily. The fact this was a holo program wasn't calculated to make her feel any safer since if she got hit too many times, her ability to leave the ship to influence galactic events would be severely diminished. Peaking her head over as her tail lashed frantically, green eyes searched. A shadow crossed her vision and L'Nari hissed as she stood up and began firing phaser blasts in the general direction of the shadow. There was a grunt and the Caitan held her breath as the target fell. She stared at what she'd done. She'd shot something. This was not her purpose or a how a diplomat conducted them self. She whirled on the Andorian prepared to demand an end to this barbaric trial when she was bowled over and hissed as pain flared in her shoulder. "You're in a fire fight Ensign. Never show your back to the ones trying to kill you. Two more and you fail." the infuriatingly calm security officer told her. Ensign L'Nari looked into the blue-green eyes and saw no sympathy what so ever for her position. Her gaze then flicked to the coal black eyes and the Cait huffed as she could feel them laughing at her, mocking her attempt to remove herself from the violence as any diplomat would do. With not much other choice, she whirled back onto her feet to take cover.

[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Range | Security Centre | Deck 07 | Vector 02| USS Theurgy]

Lt. Zark watched the black cat get back on her feet and back into cover to keep shooting. The technique was frankly horrible, and shot were screeching all over the place. It was to be expected though. She really wasn't trained for this. The Andorian just stood there and watched with her arms folded over her chest and her back pressed against the wall. In a way, it was immensely frustrating to watch since it was taking way too long. It felt like the Ensign was expending ten times as many shots as needed and wasn't watching for patterns that would make it easier for her to pick off her targets, she was simply blazing away. There must have been a sense of shared frustration. When Zark began tapping her boot on the ground, L'Nari suddenly stood up just as a Romulan exited cover with a pistol. Both fired and hit each other at the same time. The Caitan grunted as she was knocked over and the holographic target crumpled, then disappeared. The Andorian shook her head, sorely tempted to tell the Ensign she'd failed as that was one of the stupidest things she'd ever seen, but the rules were the rules and she'd only been shot twice. "Alright Enisgn, get up and come over. You're finished with this segment, and if you want to stay alive, stay in cover. You're dead twice over, which is twice more than you'll ever get. Don't lose your cool in these situation and make sure to keep an eye out for behaviours that can help you get out of the fight faster, like shooting your opponent." With that, Lt. Zark simply marked the necessary completion and waved Ensign Eloi-Danvers forward.

The process is:
1. Five warm up shots from 10-25 meters
2. Hit ten moving targets at the same range
3. Hit 5 targets that will fire back. Get hit three times, and the segment is a failure.

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #19 – April 11, 2023, 04:36:12 AM

Still prickly I see, Faye noted, clocking the other woman's reaction, restrained though it was. The Betazoid resisted her own urge to hum, and delicately plucked the napkin from the Andorian's grasp, taking her time with cleaning her fingers. She checked her nails, and was satisfied to find that none of the tofu had gotten up underneath them. That would have been frustrating to clean out without the proper tools. Having dodged that bullet, the lithe woman made short work of the mess. No point in dragging it out, after her own little quip.

Besides, she could sense L'Nari's impatience slowly mounting. Given the scolding her counterpart had already endured, Faye wasn't really feeling a need to drag things out for the Caitian. The sooner they were no longer confined in closed quarters, the better for all parties involved.

The Androian stood, and Faye followed her gait with her eyes, not turning her head, as she didn't wish to be obvious about her attentions. Yup. Nice ass, she concluded, reaching up and tucking a stray bit of hair behind her ear with her newly modified hand. She kept making a fist and letting it go, rubbing her finger's into her palm before shaking her hand out a few times as she herself stood. Scooping up the cricket phaser, she took a moment to double check that it was on its lowest setting. Apprehension bubbled in the back of her mind, and she knew it wasn't just her own. In this at least, both she and her counterpart were of a like mind. If any part of this test was going to outright fail her, this was probably it.

Doesn't' matter that I've managed to keep myself alive in firefights till this point, she mused. Then again, it hadn't really been a fire fight, and she had been lucky not to get caught, sneaking up that ledge. And that the rock had fallen where it needed to. Again, there was the sound, that gods-awful sound of the impact, but as she was usually able to, Faye pushed it aside, back into its little cage. Her stomach fluttered, unpleasant and unwelcome, but other than that, she presumed she would be fine. For now.

Mastering herself for the time being, she hid what remained of her discomfort behind a curled smile, gracing her face with a kind of satisfaction. At least she wasn't going first. Unfortunately for her, L'Nari saw the smile and took it to be something a bit more smug than it was. Nothing Faye could do about that. She shrugged her shoulders, phaser carefully tucked away, and crossed her arms just under her modest bust. She might as well get some insight from all of this, and let her gaze follow the Caitain. Even if there were more pleasing sights to behold. Focus, Faye.

It was clear to her that L'Nari had not fired a phaser in quite some time. Not that Faye could throw all that many stones on the subject, but she began to suspect she was a bit more up to date. Still, within a few shots, the Lieutenant moved in to correct the other woman's stance and positioning. Faye tilted her head, a notion forming. While the other Attaché might not appreciate it all that much, Faye watched the placement of the hands. She noted the shifts to the stance, wondering if she could mimic that herself. And wondered if perhaps she shouldn't.

After all, If I'm going to be stuck doing this I might as well enjoy a bit of it...

So caught up in her musings, she almost missed the look the other diplomat shot her. For someone whose profession was supposed to be about getting along and being polite, her rival was anything but. That Faye often fell into the same habits was something she tactfully ignored. Case in point, she shot the other girl a swift, unseen rude gesture. At least unseen by the Lieutenant. She couldn't tell if L'Nari had caught it or not. A few moments later she was smirking as her counterpart failed to shoot her first target. Still, she did hit over half of her shots. Which was better than Faye had expected. That her expectations were hardly fair mattered not at all to the Betazoid, who was so engrossed in watching her rival flounder about (unkind and not entirely accurate) that she missed the approach of Lt. Zark, until the other woman was pulling Faye out of the way and green bolts of energy were beginning to fly about.

Startled, she nearly jumped at the touch - really, she was a telepath, how had she been caught off guard - but leaned into it, letting the other woman steer her off. She winced at the first shot that landed against L'Nari, and took to heart the words that Zark shouted back. Running and hiding was tempting but it was hard to dodge if you turned your back on the person shooting you. Watching L'Nari shake off the hit, she felt a momentary bout of sympathy, quickly quashed. L'Nari was all talk - sometimes useful in their profession, but right now it was nice to see her struggling, after she'd gone out of her way to try and sabotage Faye's own chances at passing the impromptu evaluation.

In the end though, the other woman managed to make it through, nailing the last target but getting blasted at the same time. That smacked of gaming the system to Faye, but what did it matter? She'd do the same if she had to. Watching the other woman come back, she scowled, and squared her shoulders. And then, letting her hip cock to one side, she strode out to the center of the room, knowing the first part of the training would start once she was in position. She took a few moments longer than strictly necessary, to put an extra sway in her hips. She figured a bit of wiggle couldn't hurt her chances of getting through this. Oh, it wouldn't help her hit anything better, but might entice the Andorian into being a bit less...strict.

Taking the phaser in hand, she took a deep breath and waited. The light flashed in front of her, the target materializing and she snapped off her first shot. It wasn't dead center, but it did hit. Elation flared which, ironically, caused her next shot to miss. A pout pulled at her lips there, and she was sure that someone was laughing, but that might be in their (and/or her) head. After scoring twice more, she remembered that she had wanted to try and act like she was failing at the task to get Zark to come over and reposition her. Instead, she'd fed off the negative emotions of the other Ensign and pride won out over guile. Damnit, she groused, tension building in her shoulders as she completed the stationary target phase.

Shooting a look over her shoulder, she caught an angry flick of the tail from L'Nari. She wanted to stick her tongue out, but something out of the corner of her eye told her that it might not be the smartest thing she ever did. Instead she turned back to the range in time to see a...Breen? Interesting choice, she hit it as it went to the left, but missed the next one that did something weird (she didn't even recognize the species, how could it jump that high?), refocusing on the one after that. She realized that she couldn't feel anything from the targets and it was throwing her off. Finally, however, the bell rang and she shook her artificial hand out and swept her hair back, glancing at the others again. This nearly cost her as she heard the whine of something from in front of her and only just managed to flatten herself on the floor as the room changed, cover sprouting up.

"Too close..." she swore, rolling, and started snapping off shots in turn...

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #20 – April 16, 2023, 05:51:23 PM

[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Range | Security Centre | Deck 07 | Vector 02| USS Theurgy] Attn: @Brutus

Lieutenant Zark stood by, and as much as it frustrated her to do so, adjusted her expectations way downward when Faye stepped on the firing line and began going through the qualifications. L'Nari stepped out of the way with a huff, rubbing the area where she'd been shot and gave the Andorian a dirty look. Said Andorian ignored this is irrelevant since dirty looks didn't actually cause harm, and she crossed her arms under her bust as she watched the Betazoid get ready. Zark's eyes watched Faye in general when she felt her eyes begin to track downward to the gently swaying butt and she stared at it for a moment. Zark shook her head to clear the stray thoughts that were forming, but a bit did slip through the cleaning and a well formed question of how much bounce that lithe butt had given the very nice sashay it was producing. Sighing, the Security Officer reminded herself that she was here to evaluate the diplomatic attache on her combat merits, not on her ability to beguile others, though it did seem to be quite a useful tool in their line of work. This reminded the Andorian why she generally disliked politics and diplomacy. Going to single handily clear a Jem-Hadar battlecruiser was much more preferable that trying to nuance out every last detail in a meeting for meaning.

Lieutenant Zark's face resumed it's neutral posture as she watched Ensign Eloi-Danvers take up position on the firing line. It soon became clear that the Betazoid had done a much better job of staying current in her qualifications, or was at least was naturally far more proficient than the Caitan was and Zark's mouth pulled a small smile as Faye moved more quickly through the tests. Maybe this wouldn't take as long as she thought it would have. The misses didn't count for much in the Andorian's mind since there wasn't supposed to be a very high level of proficiency with the weapon in general. Zark could feel the Caitans tail lashing in annoyance beside her as she watched her rival. The Andorian's antennae fed her subconscious to keep a general sense of what was going on around her. For finer details though, she did have to focus on her subject. In this case though, Lieutenant Zark got the sense that L'Nari had let out a hiss. The security officer couldn't be sure of this though since it seemed to be quite quiet. On the other hand, maybe she'd imagined it, but given the level of rivalry between the two, it was entirely possible the two Ensigns would go out of their way to show their distaste of each other, and spite each other.

As the non combat portion of the test was completed, the evaluator saw Faye turn around. The hair flicking was nice and it really did nice things to frame her face. The Zhen wondered what the tanned woman would look like if maybe she tucked her hair behind an ear instead. Movement behind Faye drew her attention and Zark stood straighter as she pointed back down the range while cocking an eyebrow to communicate Are you sure you're done? while a grin tugged the blue lips.

[Ensign L'Nari | Range | Security Centre | Deck 07 | Vector 02| USS Theurgy]

The Caitan stood by in a huff as she watched her tanned skinned hairless (the mop on her head didn't count) effectively breeze through tests compared to her. Despite her best efforts at self control, she had let out a hiss of disgust. Granted, Eloi-Danvers had been better with a phaser in the academy, but she'd lost an arm. L'Nari remembered with bittersweet satisfaction those times that the other attache had become fumble fingered. Dropping her beverage mug, or taking longer than necessary on her analysis due to the amount of time she spent editing. There was no way the woman standing in front of her was the same person. Looking at the Andorian, she noticed the much less severe look on the blue face. Were those two? Not possible. Maybe she'd changed the difficulty level? L'Nari thought acerbically to herself. L'Nari shook her head at the preposterous line of thinking. Still, one couldn't be too sure. The Caitan knew her rival had serious skills in the seductive arts, ones she wouldn't even consider, or even knew how to use since she had a real working brain. It felt at times that Eloi-Danvers was drawing her information more from interpersonal discussions rather than logical analysis, and it annoyed L'Nari at times that such an erratic method of data collection was given equal weight to her carefully considered and well thought out work. This of course ignored the first class brain behind that furless face that had generated the analysis in the first place.

Taking a sereptitious step backward, L'Nari turned towards the terminal just to make sure her rival wasn't receiving unwarranted assistance. Only to be stopped by a statuesque but cold looking blue woman who quirked an eyebrow inquisitively at her need to move. "I'm not a telepath, just aware of my surroundings, and you should be watching Miss Eloi-Danvers. She isn't the best, but she can teach you a few things if you watch what she's doing. " L'Nari turned back to watching her rival with a huff and continued to wonder how Faye could possibly teach her anything.

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #21 – April 20, 2023, 03:06:37 AM

Annoying L'Nari was bread and butter for Faye; the Cait's ire simply fed the Betazoids ego. She could feel resentment behind her, and it was distracting, doubly so since the targets she was trying to hit - and avoid being hit by in turn - gave off no real emotional presence. There was only so much a holodeck could do along those lines before it accidentally created a fully sentient being. And there were protocols and counter balances coded into the programming to prevent that kind of thing. So. Many. Protocols. There was such a difference between the two - she could feel, on occasion, emotions from the ships Avatar, Thea. She could not feel anything from these emotionless simulacra of various hostile entities.

A sickly green bolt smashed into the barricade in front of Faye and she could swear that she felt heat coming from the beam. Her breath was coming in faster and faster as she stood up and snapped off a shot. And nearly took another beam from the side. Frankly, it should have hit, but she'd already started turning after her first shot and this second bolt passed close enough that she aught to have lost a few hairs in the process - had the disruptor bolt been real. Scampering in a less than dignified fashion, she bent low, hands steadying herself and half crawled to the next set of cover. She'd given L'Nari and Zark an inadvertent eyeful of her rump, but for once it hadn't been on purpose.

Sweat broke out across her brow as Faye panted, catching her breath. She realized that she had thrown herself into this with more enthusiasm and a moderately unhealthy amount of panic. Certainly she was more engaged than she wanted to be with such things. But then, she'd lived through this not terribly long ago, and the memory of that moment was feeding her anxiety and adrenaline as much as her desire to do better than her rival.

Never mind that she was just barely picking up interest from the security officer administering the test. It wasn't something that she was focusing on, because if she did, she'd get shot. But she had felt a burst of interest.

Blowing out a burst of air in an effort to clear some of the sweaty strands from her vision, the red collared diplomat peeked out and saw a Ferengi creeping past. An easy shot. Not so easy was the Orion that had been using the Ferengi to screen its own movements. That was unpleasant, as the green-skinned man lunged forward, making a grab for her with one meaty hand and the other bearing a small, nasty looking snub-gun with a glowing emitter - that was getting awfully close to her midsection. Not wanting to find out how the holoprogram was going to translate that into unpleasant physical sensations, she rolled up, planted her arms on the ground and kicked out with both feet. Her heels connected with the hologram's chest and shoved him away, long enough for her to get her phaser up and blast it.

She landed flat on her back and groaned, rolling head over heels a moment later, phaser raised, only to be greeted by silence and the arena around her returning to its original, empty configuration. Flopping down to her ass again, Faye let out a loud 'whump,' and raked her hair back, fingers gliding through the sweaty locks. She knew she was flushed and slightly breathless, and very much looking more of a mess than L'Nari had. But she hadn't been shot. A wide grin pulled across her lips and she looked up from the floor at the others.

"So that's a pass, right?" She even batted her eyelashes.

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #22 – April 25, 2023, 11:29:13 PM

[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Range | Security Centre | Deck 07 | Vector 02| USS Theurgy] Attn: @Brutus

Lieutenant Zark grinned after the test ended. The display the Betazoid attache had put on certainly wasn't smooth, but it had shown awareness and adaptability. Two good traits to have in a fight. Overall, Faye had shown that she had what was necessary to survive. Zark made a visible show of working with her PADD "Very much so Ensign. I do believe you have a wider range of options available to you for away missions in the future." There was definitely a hiss from the Caitan's direction now, but Zark paid it no mind as she made additional notes that Faye would benefit more from additional training than L'Nari would.

"Okay. That concludes the ranged portion, so now on to hand-to-hand." The security officer gave a wry grin at the looks she received, though it seemed that L'Nari's wasn't as pronounced as she'd expected, but that was likely because of her last misadventure with Enyd where she'd actually needed to use her fists. The combat medic did get the feeling that the two would enjoy the next segment even less, though what could follow afterwards could lead to out right mutiny. The Andorian would deal with that when the time came. "We'll head to the lockers first for you to change, then we'll make sure you still have the basics." Signalling for the two ladies to follow her, Zark made her way to the communal change room, and beelined for the locker with her name on it. She waved absentmindedly at the two lockers beside hers. "Go ahead and grab the outfits from the lockers with your names on them. After your changed, just go through those doors and take a left. That'll take you to the ring."

The buxom Andorian proceeded to start stripping off her uniform in what was for her, a matter of fact manner. Anyone else watching her could have been led to thinking that she was stripping in a slightly suggestive manner. Her own nudity didn't bother her in the slightest, and being seen by others generally didn't either. Her choice of attire wasn't something she thought about since she'd had that fight and won every time with the general argument of her high intensity workouts necessitated the need for increased air circulation, and since most environments she ended up being posted to tended to be too warm for her species anyway, her choice was appropriate. This led to her pulling out a comfortable sports bra that had the habit of displaying a nice amount of cleavage as well as a pair of gym short shorts that left nothing to the imagination on what her long toned legs were like. It also helped that Zark was generally friendly and helpful.

With that out of the way, the medico went to ring while giving friendly waves to some of the staff that were working out. The ring was placed in what amounted to a cubby hole in the ship's layout since there was barely a meter of space on any of the four sides, so it was a tight fit. Nonetheless, Zark started grabbing the necessary testing equipment, which amounted to a large combat pad and a pair of focus mits. A mouth guard was considered mandatory, though the helmet was not. Throwing everything into the ring, Zark bent over to get herself onto the raised surface when she heard the door open behind her and paused with one hand on the lowest rope. "Welcome to the Ring. Faye you're up first. Grab a mouth guard and MMA gloves; the ones that look like regular gloves with pads on top, and a helmet." The medico paid the rest no mind as she continued climbing in and was getting ready to drag the rest of the equipment in when she heard the thumping of someone entering the ring behind her.

"Faye, it's for your own safety..." Zark began before turning around and seeing the Betazoid come right up to her. "You know I've bested Klingons in combat, do I really have to do this?" Zark stood there for a moment in shock as she started to drink in the casual sensuality of the tanned woman. It had also been a long time since she'd been approached so brazenly and the Zhen's universal sign that she had pre-arousal kicked in as she bit lower lip and her antennae pointed right at Faye. The blue woman nearly shivered as she felt hands brush her arms, so it was a good thing that the Ensign was standing in front Zark's body since she could feel her nipples begin to harden and started to press against her top. For the briefest moment, the Andorian was tempted to gather the woman in her arms and help remove the bothersome bits of clothing that covered the sensuous lithe body.

The feeling rapidly disappated as her sense of duty fought to get back for control of the situation and she could hear the thwapping of a tail hitting the wall in annoyance. Taking a deep breath, Zark smiled at Faye and placed her hands on the other woman's hips. Eyes twinkling dangerously for a split second before the combat medic spun Faye around and jumped up to wrap her slender yet powerful thighs on the smaller woman's waist, then hauled backwards with her entire weight. Zark actually took the brunt of the initial fall as the two crashed into the mat, but the acrobatic Andorian kept going and trained reflexes took over as her feet slammed into the ground and Zark kept rolling till Faye was underneath her and the Betazoid's face planted on the ground. It was a violent looking move, but the Andorian had taken great care to make sure that Faye hadn't been crushed in the roll.

Lying on her now though, Zark felt little compunction towards gentleness as she twisted Faye's arms into a lock behind the Betazoid's back. The free hand gripped the dark hairs in top and pressed the head to keep it down, then yanked back so she could have access to the attache's ear as she whispered dangerously "Miss Eloi-Danvers, never presume on your own safety in combat." Zark twisted the hair in her hand just a touch more as she unconsciously added a sensual edge to her voice. "There is a time and place for everything, now is neither one of them." Sitting up, Zark let go of the attache. "Ensign, we're going to do this properly, consider yourself warned."

[ Ensign L'Nari | Gym | Security Centre | Deck 07 | Vector 02| USS Theurgy]

The Caitan attache couldn't help but be body conscious when she'd seen the Andorian casually strip to change. It was one of those weird tricks of genetics that someone so deadly could also have such an attractive physique as well. At least it was a better sight than her rival that she had to change beside. The form of the Caitan also didn't help since she had to navigate her own tail and while she knew it had an owner in her own person, the subconscious sometimes made it move in ways that were counter productive.

Nevertheless, she manged to finish changing, though she dreaded the need to make this gladiatorial arena test as she followed behind Eloi-Danvers as far as she could get away with. There was a breath of relief when she wasn't called on to go first this time, but L'Nari couldn't help but be surprised when Faye opted to go into the ring with the amazon with such alacrity. As soon as she heard what Faye was proposing though, her tail began to lash the cramped walls hard. Of course she was going to use her carnal skills to avoid a test of this nature and L'Nari was about to raise a protest when the Andorian flashed into action.

The attache was astounded at the speed and grace with which their evaluator had reacted to the proposal, and when she saw her rival plastered on the ground, humiliated, and under control, she couldn't help but laugh at the reversal of fortunes. Even when she got her butt kicked here, she would go down happy as she had acquired a memory she could relish for a long time to come.

Zark's typical gym wear since it's always too damn warm!
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Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #23 – April 27, 2023, 05:27:03 AM

With her head spinning and a fire still smoldering between her legs - not to mention the shiver down her spine and the sharp pain in her shoulder, Faye couldn't help but take a moment to try and ponder how she got here. Pinned beneath a sexy Andorian flaunting a hell of a lot of skin and broadcasting a wave of frustration and desire was hardly a bad thing. Except that in this case it absolutely was a bad thing. A very bad thing, leaving Faye wondering just how she had so thoroughly misread the signals that Lt. zh'Prell had been putting off.

Certainly, things had been going grand when she'd managed to show up her rival, and come out on top of the fire fight drills. Faye would never win any marksmanship competitions with someone who did this for their day job, but she'd proven better than L'Nari, and at the very least validated that she'd have a chance of surviving any future firefights. She knew Zark hadn't thought her performance anything to write home about but she had sensed easily enough that the Andorian was pleased with her performance, if somewhat surprised. And she knew she'd felt someone checking her ass out at one point during that. Her confidence in the culprit being Zark was reasonably justified; there was too much bad blood between her and the Cait for it to have been the other diplomat.

Learning that they would have to do some 'hand-to-hand' combat wasn't exactly a thrilling prospect for Faye. She was a lover, not a fighter. There were so many better uses for her hands than thrashing someone, and she was sure that some of the elation at her earlier performance faded away. She didn't much like having anything in common with L'Nari but neither were thrilled as they were marched into the dressing rooms. Having to change right next to the Cait wasn't her idea of fun either, but Faye was never one to be shy in her own skin and merrily stripped down to her panties, before picking up the standard issue gym attire offered to the crew. She glanced over her shoulder as she was pulling the shorts up, catching a bare blue back and bottoms tighter than she thought regulations allowed for sports wear.

She also nearly got a face full of furry tail, and quickly stood up, dressing the rest of the way in a hurry as she followed Zark out to the ring, trying not to huff at the accidental assault. Stupid cat.

In the end, it was the way that Zark had radiated casual sensuality as she entered the cramped ring that led Faye to believe she might have a chance of getting out of this. After all, she had very recently defended herself, her boss and two civilians from certain death, and used a bloody rock to do it with. Surely that had to count for something. And she was positive at this point that the Andorian had an interest in her. Why shouldn't she use her best skillset to their mutual benefit? Her words had some merit, didn't they? They were true? She wasn't lying. Fluttering her lashes up at the Andorian, tentatively reaching out, letting her hip tilt to the side, a smile graced her lips. The way the other woman's antenna pointed right at her. She knew a little bit about Andorian biology, and that made her smile all the warmer.

It was almost comical how fast it fell.

As she groaned on the floor, face pressed into the mat, and arm locked in a fashion that she had to worry the damn thing might pop off at the elbow, Faye blinked away a spike of anger and tried to tamp down the humiliation she felt bubbling up. She'd been told no before. Wouldn't be the first time, wouldn't be the last. It was the first time that 'no' had been so violent, and made it so clear that she was way out of her league. But seeing the Cait snickering...that really did it. She let out a little gasp that was as much pain as...something else that now caused her embarrassment as her hair was yanked. Being chastised was not supposed to be arousing.

As soon as she was let go she picked herself up and attempted to dust off her arms and legs. She didn't meet Zark's eyes, and sure as shit didn't look at L'Nari. "Crystal clear, Lieutenant," she snapped off, turning and marching out of the ring with her head held high in a false bravado. She wanted so very badly to reach up, rub her shoulder, and roll her arm about, as pain lingered from where her arm had been twisted, but she would be damned if she'd give either of them the satisfaction. Her nostrils flared as she passed L'Nari, sensing the smug amusement coming from the other diplomat and reminded herself that whatever else had happened today, she hadn't tried to stab anyone in the back.

It was a cold comfort, but a comfort nonetheless as she strapped on a pair of gloves and shoved a mouth-guard into place. If her mouth was full, she couldn't very well say something else to get her in more trouble.

Re: Day 10 [1000 hrs.] Hard Feelings, Harder Heads, Hardest Fought

Reply #24 – April 30, 2023, 06:32:37 PM

[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Boxing Ring | Security Centre | Deck 07 | Vector 02| USS Theurgy] Attn: @Brutus

A bit of the spark that Faye had seemed to have gone out after Zark's restraining demonstration. It did make the process smoother as the Ensign seemed intent on getting through the exercises with a minimum of fuss, but it was almost automatic and to a degree that worried the Andorian. If she wasn't giving her full attention to what she was doing, and taking mental short cuts to finish quickly. It was possible there were details that could be missed, and in the battle of life and death, that could be dangerous. On the other hand, the combat medic also felt that she was being too harsh on the expectations of the attache. Faye generally followed the commands, and though she came within a hairs width several times of getting hit, she dodged or blocked well enough. It was when asking the Betazoid to hit stuff that Zark was surprised. For a sensual lover, and the Zhen did know about Faye and Riley and everyone else, it felt like she was hitting harder than was expected. She could also be working out the frustrations. This boded well in the Andorian's mind.

The overly enthusiastic demonstration earlier gave Zark an idea and she gave the attache a small smile. "Alright Ensign. That covers pretty much everything, but I want point a few things before I ask L'Nari to step in. " The Andorian turned to the Caitan in question. "Pay attention, this could save your life." Zark projected a friendly presence as she started. "Okay Ensign, you've got the basics, but there are a few things you can do to increase your chances of getting out of a bad situation." The Zhen picked up the tanned hand and balled it into a fist. "You're not in the fight to subdue your opponent, just to get away, always keep that in mind, so feel free to fight dirty. Hit your opponent in the neck" and the security officer guided the tanned hand towards her own bare blue one. "eyes" Zark then pulled out the thumb and raised it to her own eye without blinking. "on females, the chest" The blue hand balled the fist up again and pointed it right at her breast before dropping the tanned hand and using her own hand to circle the juncture between her exposed legs "and just hit that if the opportunity arises. You'd be surprised how many times that's left exposed. When I uhhhh threw you, I made sure to keep my legs in the way so you couldn't swing back and kick me in the ovaries." The combat medic smirked at this one. "that move had gotten me out of trouble plenty of times."

The medico proceeded to demonstrate a few more evasion techniques but her attention was being drawn to the intense dark eyes and the simple, but elegant way the dark blond hair framed her face. Damnit Zark! Why do you have to be so Andorian! Maybe I shouldn't have tossed her. Fucking unruly passions! she mentally groused as she had to stop herself from placing Faye's hands on her chest as part of the demonstration. "Ahem, so keep those weak points and dodges in mind if they get too close to you. That's it. You can step out. L'Nari, you're up! "

[Ensign L'Nari | Boxing Ring | Security Centre | Deck 07 | Vector 02| USS Theurgy]

The emotional high of seeing Eloi-Danvers get put in her place had abated, and boredom and disgust returned. In a slightly similar vein to what the Betazoids had been thinking before her head had impacted the mat, L'Nari groused that her hands were those of a crafts woman designed to smooth out the difference in understanding of various species. Not this brutish pugilism. She wouldn't have even had to deal with something like this if Enyd Madsen had a gram of actual diplomatic sense instead of that instinctive penchant for violence.

As the demonstration moved on, L'Nari felt her viewpoint about her rivals unsuitability for a diplomatic posting was vindicated as she moved though the exercises. The fact that Faye was much more proficient was not a viewpoint that was acceptable. Much like their current trainer the Caitian thought to herself, but at least she'd chosen this line of work, which was a good thing considering her lack of tact. The Caitian sniggered to herself once more as the blue alien picked up the Betazoids hands like a truant imbecile to demonstrate other more violent methods. Maybe it would awaken something in Eloi-Danvers and get her out of the diplomatic corps, allowing real diplomats like herself to get on with real work.

This fantasy line of thought ended when the security officer called her up and a small grimace pulled at her face as she passed her rival at a distance and climbed into the ring. "Lieutenant, I hope this will be quick so we can both get back to more important matters." she told the Andorian as an honest view of the whole exercise. The blue woman's antennae peeling back against her head meant nothing, but the slits her eyes turned into and the tightening of her mouth said something else entirely. Before the Caitan could correct her intention, the security officer had raised the focus mits. "Then we'll need to up the pace. Punch where the pads are Ensign. I hope you're fast enough." "Uhhh Lieutenant, that's not what I meant. "Time's a wasting Ensign, strike!" The mits went up and L'Nari tried to figure a way out of the more difficult. "Uhmm Sir, perhaps..." L'Nari's next attempt to resolve the situation ended when the mit hit her in the side of the head with a thwap. "I said strike Ensign. Time is wasting."

L'Nari huffed. Obviously the brute wasn't going to listen to reason, but at the same time, she had a job to do, and the Caitan had orders to follow. Taking a breath, L'Nari put herself in a semi remembered ready position from a long time ago and formed fists. With a lunge she struck at the mits above Zark's shoulder. The mits moved to the front of the chest, and L'Nari struck again. A mit came in and she felt leather push the side of her head. "You need to be prepared to block or dodge the incoming strike. Let's try again." Another quick mit came in again and L'Nari ducked under this one. Another target came up and L'Nari threw a punch at it that grazed leather before another target came up. The Andorian was placing the targets thick and fast to the point L'Nari was starting to have trouble keeping up. A mit came in and she barely ducked in time, before another smacked her shoulder. The suddenness of the impact stunned the Caitan for just a moment and she froze. L'Nari grunted as Zark hit her still form in the stomach and she tried to curl before feeling something pull her leg and she yelped as she flew backwards and crashed onto the mat.

L'Nari lay there for a moment wondering what had just happened when she oofed and curled as Zark landed on her and smacked the mits the mat beside her head with a bang that hurt her hearing. The Caitan winced and tied to curl up as she was breathing hard, the sliver of terror winding it's way though her. But the security officer had her locked and pinned as she stared coldly, waiting for the attache to calm down. "It's now over Ensign, you've been knocked out, or if it was a Klingon, they'd have stabbed you. Now let's get this segment finished before we move on to the really hard part."

The security officer got off the Caitan and made her way to the giant pad for a wider kicking and contact exercise. L'Nari watched the blue woman move away and when her heart beat began to settle, the slow churning resentment of her mistreatment bubbled to the surface. "Lieutenant! You had no right to hit me! The fact that Eloi-Danvers had gotten the same treatment and grimly ploughed through the exercises was irrelevant. Her sentence had barely finished when the Andorian bent over a PADD and whirled on the attache before tossing it at her, eyes narrowed dangerously. "What does the first line of the testing segment say? " L'Nari stared bewildered, wondering what bearing some checklist could have on the situation. "Read it!"

L'Nari looked at the PADD "This segment is designed to ensure the candidate still retains at least minimal capabilities of defending themselves in situations where they are close quarters combat range using basics taught during basic training. This segment will test hand to hand capability. Proficiency is not expected. Addendum: In light of conflict experiences with species and polities not friendly to the United Federation of Planets, it is the testing officer or NCOs discretion to determine what additional tests are required for the situation. Starfleet Regulation 2268-5-B" The Caitan looked up from the last line and felt her principled argument fall out of her as her stomach dropped. The combat medic was covered and perfectly right in what she was doing. The athletically clad Andorian had a hand on one hip and the other held the big cushion while she was furiously glaring at the Caitan. "I don't have time for your bullshit Ensign, and we haven't even gotten to the tactical awareness test." Lieutenant Zark swung the bag to her front. "Now, strike when ordered, and if you dawdle again, I will knock you on your ass! "