Handling the Helm

It was the day after the arrival of the Hippolyta, but the first time T'Pren had been given the Captain's permission to board the ship and get used to her. There was exploring to do and technology to double-check and a science station to calibrate and diagnostics to run -- because even though she was sure Starfleet had already done all that, it was important that she know exactly where things were for herself before Tal'Ara starting toying with the ship's insides.

The bridge was empty at the moment but for the lieutenant, who sat the helm in her uniform, thumbing through the controls while she waited for the results of her internal systems scans. She resisted both of her most intense urges for the moment and most definitely did not sit in the Captain's chair or act out some kind of high speed impulse drive chase that would require her to maneuver the ship like she was in the Red Squad.

The doors hissed softly, opening to admit the half-Klingon Counselor - now Tactical Lieutenant Commander - onto the bridge. Akhil wanted to get the lay of the land as soon as possible, and was not expecting to find that someone had beat him to it. At least it wasn't the Romulan. "Lieutenant Inabnet," he greeted.

It was a while since T'Pren had seen Akhil or he had seen her and in that time, her entire life on the station had changed. She looked buoyant and young, but her energy was calmer and more mature. She was in infinitely better shape emotionally and physically than he'd yet seen her. She had looked up in surprise when the doors had opened, but it was quickly replaced with a relieved smile at finding the Klingon there instead of the Romulan. "Lieutenant Commander Akhil," she greeted with a grin. "I imagine you're here for much the same reason I am."

Examining the future battlefield, Akhil thought. "Yes. I imagine I am," he said more diplomatically, with a wry, significant look. "You are looking well, Lieutenant. Ready for the task ahead?" Akhil circled the bridge, checking the controls.

Not even a little, is what T'Pren did not say. But she let her face say it for her. "I'm sleeping, finally," she admitted with a slightly shy smile. "Apparently it's helpful."

She pushed out of the helm seat and moved to the station next to it, fingering expertly through the computer for whatever data she was seeking. "I'd feel better if you were coming." She glanced up at tactical. "But the Captain is right to put you in charge of the station."

Akhil looked up at her last words. He did not know what Rai told Pren about the Romulan, but he knew from their encounters at the Eel the half-Vulcan was not especially fond of the station's new Commander. "I will keep a close eye on things," he said tactfully. "And I'm sure you will do well here. You have already proved yourself under pressure. Do not forget to practice mok'bara, you will have to keep up when you return."

"I practice every morning," the lieutenant told Akhil, though she was looking at a console. "I won't forget." There was a pregnant silence then as clearly T'Pren was thinking something of particular weight and importance. She slid her fingers across the screen and then made her way to the communications array, which was already running several calibrations for her. It was also considerably closer to Akhil. "This camp we're going to liberate..." she began more quietly, "some of these prisoners will have been there...since before the War began. What do you...what do you think we'll find?"

Akhil looked at her. "I can not know. But it will be difficult. Brutal, even. You will have to be mentally prepared to witness and deal with a lot of suffering."

T'Pren's heart throbbed against her lower ribs and she had to look away from Akhil to collect herself and her thoughts. Her face burned green, but with emotion rather than embarrassment. The computer made pleasant background noise as she fiddled with a diagnostic.

"Our intelligence," she murmured to the console, "suggests very strongly that in addition to numerous Federation and Bajoran prisoners...we may find my..."

Nope. Whatever she was about to say didn't come out. She stood and tugged at her uniform collar and twisted her hair up and off her neck because it was suddenly very warm in here. "I wish you were coming," she said again.

Akhil watched her carefully. "Find your what?"

"The intelligence suggests," T'Pren explained to her console, maneuvering settings as she talked, "that when I saw my family's ship explode...it was empty." She wasn't falling apart or even looking like she might cry. It was just difficult to say the words.

She stood up straight and looked Akhil in the eye, expression vulnerable but impassive. "They may have been alive the whole time."

Akhil's eyes widened as he went through several stages of processing this information. He wished to congratulate her, prepare her for the worst, tell her not to get her hopes up, celebrate. He cleared his throat, and placed a heavy hand on her small shoulder. "This... potentially... is wonderful news. But I understand now how much more this mission means to you." His fingers tightened their grip. "You know you can reach me at any time if you need to. I wish I were coming too."

"The Captain thinks I should hope," T'Pren admitted, taking a deep breath and letting it out with a forceful relaxation of her shoulders. The weight of the Klingon's massive hand was definitely helpful in that regard. "But I know how the Cardassians work. And I know how the universe works." She shrugged sharply. "I'll hope when I can see them breathing with my own eyes and not a moment sooner." Her expression softened a little and she smiled at Akhil gratefully. "Thank you. I know you won't tell anyone, but I do feel the need to ask you to please keep it to yourself. I don't want anyone to know. Especially not anyone who might use it to their advantage." Like a Romulan.

"Of course," Akhil replied, letting her go. "I wish you luck. And I hope you will find your parents."

"Me too," the lieutenant admitted quietly. She rolled her lips in on each other and glanced at the nearest console, which was blinking to get her attention. T'Pren sat down to deal with whatever it wanted and had touched all kinds of buttons before she addressed Akhil again.

"You seem calmer. More centered."

"Do I?" Akhil asked thoughtfully. "My obligations have increased. I suppose I feel like my work has more purpose than ever right now. I have a lot to do, and no time to be distracted."

T'Pren grinned at that, glancing up from her work. "Am I distracting you?"

"No," Akhil almost smiled, "That is not what I meant. It is more my own thoughts and frustrations - I have more work to channel them into."

"Good," T'Pren declared, sliding three fingers in a diagonal motion across the screen and then getting up to stand next to Akhil at tactical. "Because I was going to ask you run a full diagnostic on our weapons systems before we start turning this ship into Frankenstein's monster."

"One of my favorite human novels," Akhil smirked and sat down at the controls.

"Really?" T'Pren wondered in surprise, pausing in her work to look Akhil over thoughtfully. She grinned cheekily: "Is it because you, too, are impossibly tall?"

"It is a very poetic work that speaks of a challenge to god that is dear and familiar to Klingons," Akhil replied, a faraway look in his face, "A monster abandoned by his creator... He takes revenge upon his god in a way not dissimilar to a Klingon. And yet, he is so very human." Akhil's fingers ran over the diagnostic panel. "I think we all have some of Frankenstein's creature in us."

"My dad loved it," the half-Vulcan admitted, letting her gaze drop back to the console she was using so that she could speak about her father without also having to think about him and where he'd been and what he was doing and whether or not he was still alive or if he even wanted her. "When he would be in his lab for hours at a time, lost in his work, my father would call him Dr. Frankenstein." She grinned despite herself, letting her fingers move on autopilot on the screen. "Apparently when my heart beat for the first time, he yelled, 'It's alive!'"

Akhil chuckled, "And now look at you. I think you have done better for yourself than the creature."

"Well," T'Pren returned glibly, "that's just because you haven't seen me around fire." She grinned sideways at Akhil and returned to his side to peer over his shoulder at the diagnostic progress. As she went back to her own work at a different console, she wondered, "What's your favorite human novel?"