[ussbansheec] Threats and Promises
- From: Andy Maluhia <CaptainAndy@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ussbansheec@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2007 06:37:51 -0500
_Threats and Promises
_by Cadet Gareth Lehnsherr & Lieutenant Li Nalas Zachary Kabuki
***takes place just before Banshee's departure for the Badlands
First time on a starship barring those to his father's space station and
Gareth had to admit he was nervous. He knew his report card would say
he had an attitude problem and issues with taking orders but he also
knew it showed his keen intellect and high grades in all of his
subjects. Now he was on his space semester without any other mutants
aboard though he knew Aunt Marie's grandson was here. He'd stowed his
kit bag and the trunk his father had packed for him under his bunk and
now he was on his way to report to his very first superior officer,
wondering if his reputation and attitude had preceded him.
It was impossible not to be pleased with how Banshee's science labs
looked. Zachan was practically bouncing on his toes. New toys to play
with was how Andy had described it and he couldn't disagree. It wasn't
just the equipment, though. He had several new officers aboard (what
was this about a Borg/Human/Ninitchik fusion?), his former cadet from
years before, and now a new cadet on his semester in space. "Ah,
Prophets, this is going to be good," he said brightly.
The Science labs were nicely set out and clean, something Gareth could
certainly appreciate. He eyed the office where his boss was probably
waiting and he sighed. Now or never, Lehnsherr, he thought as he
marched over, straightened his uniform and pressed the chime.
Z supposed it wasn't dignified for the chief to be swinging around in
his chair nor to have his feet on the desk so he sat up straight and
composed as sober a face as he could before he said, "Come in, it's open."
Gareth moved into the room and offered the smartest salute he could,
despite the sinking feeling when he saw the man was an alien. Papa, I'm
not telling you even if you do ask. I won't hear the end of this.
"Cadet Lehnsherr, reporting for duty, sir."
"At ease, Mr. Lehnsherr. Have a seat if you will," Z said warmly,
trying to bite back his amusement at the salute. He really hated
those. "If you aren't aware already, I'm formally known as Li Nalas
Zachary Kabuki though the common way by now is just to use the last name
from Bajor."
"Yes, sir," Gareth said carefully. He sat down and held his gloved
hands in his lap.
"So, tell me, Mr. Lehnsherr, a bit about yourself and why you're here,"
Z said simply. He then offered the boy a bit of a crooked smile. "Yes,
it's a trite and boring question but it does convey it all."
"I'm here because I was sent here," Gareth said, trying his very best
not to be snide. "The positions I applied for for this semester turned
me down, for one reason or another, all pretty much summed up in these,"
he lifted his gloved hands. "I am a mutant, Lieutenant, and I'm also
the son of one of the most outspoken of our kind, a man some would call
a terrorist. As a Bajoran, I would expect you to at least understand
that what one man calls a terrorist, another calls a freedom fighter."
"Mr. Lehnsherr, I can address everything you've said but I'll do so one
at a time," Z said neutrally. "But first things first. You are, before
anything else, a cadet in Starfleet and that would entail some degree of
solicitousness and respect. Keep that in the back of your head because
I'm a decent sorta guy. Ask the last semester cadet I had."
"I'm trying, sir," he said honestly. "Trust me when I say that this is
way and above the most respectful I've ever been to an officer."
Z had to chuckle at that, even if it was counter-productive. "Well,
keep it up then. As for your family member, he sounds very much like
what they used to call my grandfather."
Gareth clenched his jaw at the laugh. Great, he thought, I'm a figure
of ridicule already, this is gonna be real fun. "Papa is Erik
Lehnsherr, not that I'd expect you to have heard of him. He's a mutant
freedom fighter. He built the space station around Venus and he owns
the island of Genosha."
"Actually, I have heard of him simply because my previous cadet's
mentioned him. After that, I made it something of a point to look into
the man's history. I admire a man who truly believes in his people even
if I don't necessarily agree with his tactics," Z explained. "Like I
said, the same thing's been said about my grandpa."
"Then we have something in common," Gareth said stiffly. He stared
flatly at the man, waiting for the rest of the speech.
"Grandpa's Li Nalas and unless they've changed the galactic history
class in first year since I was at the Academy, you have to have heard
of him," Z replied.
"I've heard of him," Gareth conceded. "I even recognised your name.
It's an impressive thing to live up to, sir. You must have the same
weight on your shoulders as I have on mine. I'd hope you have the same
love and respect too."
Z nodded slowly. "To me, he's my grandfather, the man who told me
stories when I was little, who left the Emissary just to be with me.
Being who we are, respectively, can be a burden, Mr. Lehnsherr, but it
doesn't have to be a heavy one. I live up to what my grandfather is,
not to what the Narvach is. Huge difference."
Gareth was fighting with himself each step of the way. This man was
telling him how to behave and how to feel about his own father. How
dare he? Before he said something he'd regret, he clenched his fingers
even tighter together. "Yes, sir."
"Will your father be coming to the pre-flight gathering?" Z asked.
"Family members are always welcomed."
"Only if you want him staring at everyone like they're less than bugs to
flick from his cloak," Gareth snorted then he sighed when he realised
how obnoxious that sounded. "Sorry, sir, no, he won't be attending. My
sister Argemone will be here though. Papa... he isn't as tolerant as we
are, and if you speak to my tutors, you'll think there can't possibly be
someone less tolerant than me, but trust me, there is."
One auburn brow went up at the last part of the cadet's statement. "Why
did you join Starfleet if you have a tolerance problem, Mr. Lehnsherr?"
"Because I have to better myself, don't I?" he said simply with a
shrug. "If I don't strive to fight the intolerance inside myself, how
can I possibly expect baselines to have the tolerance we demand?"
"Admirable but you have a long way to go. If I were an Eeauioan, I
could probably smell disdain coming off of you in waves. Let me ask you
something," Z said carefully, his eyes warm with curiosity. "What part
of me is more offensive: the Bajoran, the Human, the religious..."
"Offensive is probably the wrong word to use," Gareth smirked as he sat
back, his pale gold eyes travelling up and down his superior officer.
"I would be a hypocrite if I said the religious as I am, myself, a
religious man. The Bajoran..." he shrugged, "beneath notice to my
father. Aliens are to be looked straight through. He doesn't see them,
he doesn't even think about them very often. That part makes no
difference to me. The Human, well, that part is baseline. Baselines
are what spawned me, they are my genetic donors but that is all they
are. Baselines are the ones who round us up, force us to register our
names and powers, make us carry an identity card declaring to the
authorities what we are. They are the ones who put my father's people
into camps, made him operate the gas chambers to murder his own family.
Baselines fear us and they make us fear them in return by their
persecution. They call my father a terrorist and he is but they call
those of us who seek to protect them from mutants like Magneto
terrorists as well. They fear us and therefore we must be evil. I take
no offence at your being human but I still fear it, knowing that, if not
you, then someone here will see what I am and persecute me for it."
"And yet you cannot seriously think that all baselines are that way.
Absolutes are rare in social sciences. You know that or you ought to,"
Z countered. "I can name several people off the top of my head on this
ship alone."
"Of course," Gareth said easily. "If I believed all baselines were like
that, or even the majority, I wouldn't be here. I would be at my
father's side, helping him complete his goal of putting a mutant
President in place, a final act of equality."
"Is there something wrong with Zha Thernavretha other than she isn't a
mutant?" Z asked. "She's a lovely lady and, it seems so far, a wise
leader."
"And that would be the clincher," Gareth said with a shrug. "Or at
least for my father. Papa has no respect for aliens, whether they're
wise or not." Then he held up his hand and shook his head. "Let me
rephrase that. Papa gives no thought to aliens at all. They have no
mutants themselves so how could they possibly understand what it's like
to be one? At least a baseline could use their imagination. For him,
equality will only exist, when mutants have the same rights as baselines
and aliens in the Federation."
"You know I understand that position even if I don't agree with it but
on this ship we're all the same," he said sternly. "You aren't a mutant
and the son of Erik Lehnsherr. I'm not Li Nalas' grandson and
the Blessed of the Emissary. We are /Starfleet/, Cadet."
"Then I will remind you of that the moment one of your people treat me
differently because I have to wear these or people die," Gareth said, a
spark in his gold eyes as he lifted his gloved hands. "Fear is a
wonderful unifier, especially against something that really is
dangerous. I can control myself, what will you do if they can't?"
"Do not threaten me, Cadet," Z said coldly. "How I discipline anyone is
not your purview and, if you feel in the future that I'm being unfair,
you can certainly feel free to bring it to the captain's attention."
"Threaten you?" Gareth let out a laugh that did nothing to warm his own
eyes up. "Excuse me, sir, but if I was threatening you, we wouldn't be
sitting here. I would be in the brig for assaulting my superior and you
would be in Sick Bay. No, sir, my intention was not to threaten, merely
to inform. My own gift is dangerous, that is all."
"You threaten my integrity with veiled accusations of prejudice, Cadet.
It's the same thing. I am not afraid of you or what you can do. The
only thing I fear is a lack of my own faith and that isn't to be
seen." He leaned forward and shook his head. "You're a young man, too
young to be so vitriolic. Do you think I haven't met other mutants before?"
"Met them, sure, but you've never served with one," Gareth told him,
also leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. "You've
certainly never commanded one before."
"If I've served with one, I wasn't aware of it but it still doesn't
matter. The previous cadet I referred to ...his mother's a mutant.
Nice lady, very polite and an engineer though I try not to hold that
against her," Z said with a chuckle.
"Rosie," Gareth said with a nod, though his eyes narrowed at the comment
made. "She's the best engineer Starfleet's ever seen and it isn't her
fault her children are baselines. Even Papa likes them, which takes a
lot. David's a good guy. And your point?"
"Right now that would be Captain Le Beau and Mr. Lynley to you, Cadet,
and the point is go ask either one of them if I ever cared about
anyone's genetic background. I can promise you that you will be treated
with the same respect that every other officer and cadet would receive
but, by that same token you have to do the same. Anything else is just
not acceptable."
"Yes sir," he said flatly. The man hadn't been listening, how typically
baseline. All he heard was personal insult when the real issue wasn't
his feelings at all, it was the feelings of everyone else on the ship.
Where will your precious values be when the lynch mob comes looking for
me, he wondered.
"And what of the gloves then?" Z asked. "I could look up the
information in your file but that is entirely too easy. I'd rather hear
it from you."
Gareth raised one eyebrow and smirked as he reached to very slowly
remove one glove, revealing a hand that appeared to have tendrils of
silver running over it where veins would normally protrude. "I am a
cyberpath," he said with a note of pride. "If I touch any computer, I
will instantly merge with it, transferring my consciousness to it. Even
without touching, I can link to a computer and make it do pretty much
whatever I want. I can access records that even you can't, I can find
information so deeply hidden that even the designers weren't aware it
was there. If I merged with this ship, I could kill the crew without
even knowing it. Which is why I wear my gloves. I'm not evil, sir, I
would never deliberately hurt anyone." To make his point, he pulled his
glove back on.
"I never thought you were, Cadet," Z said gently. "How thick a barrier
do you need? Does it have to be a physical one like that or can it be
energy based like a localized force field?"
"A force field wouldn't do any good," he explained. "It conducts
electricity and therefore can be used to transfer information. It has
to be physical and it has to be made of natural fibres. These are thick
cotton. The best are silk but these are the only ones the Academy would
allow so I wear them rather than the black ones that my sister made me."
"Then wear the silk ones," Z said with a dismissive snort. "That's
crazy. Silk's lighter and more breathable. And I don't care what color
they are so long as they match the uniform. White's for the dress ones
after all."
"Can't help it if my tutor's a moron," Gareth snorted. "Scuse me but he
is. Wouldn't matter if he was a mutant, he'd still be a prick."
At that, Z laughed out loud, his eyes dancing. "That's just perfect!"
he cackled. "Now, I think I'm also responsible to make sure your
scholastics stay up to snuff. I sincerely doubt that anyone's ever
called me that but I can admit to hyperactivity. It's apparently rather
annoying."
"Hyperactivity I can deal with," Gareth grinned. "Growing up half at
Xavier's, half on Genosha, you learn to live with lots of people. A lot
of mutants tend toward to hyperactive end of the scale. Either that or
monosyllabic."
"One more question of a technical nature. How does your ability effect
nanites?" Z asked.
"I can control them if I come in physical contact with whatever they're
infesting," Gareth said slowly, his brows furrowed. "Why?"
"Interesting choice of words and it's usually appropriate but not in the
case I'm thinking of." Z sat up straight again, his thumb casually
flicking at his earring. "We have a crew member whose mother was Borg
and, as such, she, too, has nanites though she has no other
manifestations of the collective."
"Interesting," Gareth mused. "Again, I would never hurt her
deliberately. I would have to touch her with bare hands to control
them, but I have theorised that I may be able to actually transfer my
consciousness to such nanites and control someone. Not that I would try
it with a living being."
"Again, I wasn't inferring that you would hurt the lady in question,
especially since she's also in this department. You'll enjoy working
with Lieutenant Ecitsuj, Cadet," Z said with a smile. "She's a very
perky and very bright soul."
"And hopefully not as bigoted as a lot of baselines," he snorted but
then the name sank in and his whole face brightened up. "Ecitsuj, as in
the Scottish Ecitsujs? I know her brother! He teaches at Xavier's.
He's a really cool guy. I'm too old to be one of his but I've met him
lots when I go back during vacation."
"I don't know that I've ever met her brother but it certainly sounds
about right. She definitely said her brother was a teacher," Z agreed
with a nod. "I think you'll find there isn't a mean bone in the
lieutenant's body, Cadet. In fact, you might ask her or Mr. Lynley
about a particular incident from their cadet days..."
"I might do that," Gareth mused. "And I wasn't implying anything about
the Lieutenant."
"I understand your tendency toward paranoia, Cadet, but nothing I said
was implying anything about your intentions toward the lady. Or have
you never heard that expression used before about nice people?"
"Not often," Gareth mused. "My father prefers the term goody two shoes."
Z snorted in outright amusement again. "That'd be me then," he said,
his nose wrinkling all the more. "In any case, if you're looking for
officers who might, at the least, take you at face value, Lieutenant
Ecitsuj and Mr. Lynley are two of them, along with Lieutenants Aigremont
and Menkara. Ah, yes, and Lieutenant Le Beau, too. They may not be
mutants but they are good people."
"If David likes them... excuse me /Mr/ Lynley, then I'm sure they're
good people," Gareth said with a shrug.
Smart ass, Z thought to himself. "That's a start," he agreed. "Any
questions from you?"
"Only one," Gareth said slowly, "what should I do if one of the crew
takes a serious dislike to me on grounds of prejudice? I'm assuming
here that reprogramming their computer to poison their dinner isn't
acceptable," he said with a grin.
"Ah, you would definitely be right on the count," Z said with a smirk.
Then he let out a sigh, and rested his chin on an upturned palm. "If
that happens, and may God and the Prophets fore fend it, tell me.
Immediately." Anger from Zachan was a rare thing but there was a hint
of it at the thought of people being picked on. "I dislike bullies, Mr.
Lehnsherr. You deserve the opportunity to learn just like anyone else
and I will not tolerate bigotry. It pisses me off."
"I'll do that then," Gareth said though he still smirked as he added,
"Rather than zapping them with my death ray..." Then he laughed lightly,
"not that I have one but it'd be cool. That's my cousins-in-law Brent
and Fin who can zap people."
"I have to admit it does sound pretty interesting. The closest we've
come on Bajor is the old man who could partially control the Sixth Orb,"
Z said with a shake of his head. "But that didn't come from within
him. No, Mr. Lehnsherr, leave off the rays of destruction. The
paperwork would be entirely too much."
"Pity, could've been fun," Gareth teased.
"Then when you're the one on this side of the desk, you let somebody zap
somebody else. Then, when you dig yourself out of the unholy amount of
paperwork, come see me. I'll be the red headed guy on the beach," Z
said with a snort. "I do mean that, though, Mr. Lehnsherr. You have
every possibility of being on this side of the desk one day. I have
faith in you already."
"Which is a hell of a lot more than my tutors at the Academy do," Gareth
said with obvious warmth for the man in front of him. "I'll do my best
not to let you down."
"I'd appreciate that," Z said brightly. "I think you'll find it
challenging but you won't let yourself down either."
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