Difficult Decisions

Posted on Mon Sep 28th, 2020 @ 10:12am by Captain Abigail Laurens & Linza (Lin) Esni

Mission: Into The Delta Triangle
Location: Captain's Ready Room

Abigail sat behind the desk reviewing the information on the console in front of her as she waited for Linza to arrrive. Once an officer with a strong record and a prosporous future ahead of her, now apparently little more than a career criminal.

She sighed and shook her head, taking a sip of the chai latte she had in her hands as she mulled over the decision ahead. She had already spoken to the members of the away team who had all told her the same thing. While there was no doubt that Linza was involved in their abductions, none of them believed she was responsible for the explosion or their implication in the matter.

Contact had already been made with Kessik officials who would be taking Meka into custody, along with the evidence that the teams had compiled together, but the question remained, what would they do with Linza?

Having known this was coming the moment she got on board, Linza found herself escorted to the captain's Ready Room. It wasn't a surprise honestly, but she expected in the end to be sent back to the planet or locked up for her crimes in Starfleet.

Once they were at the door, she pressed the chime, but didn't like the guard breathing down her neck.

At the sound of the chime, Abigail set her cup down and stood up, straightening her uniform. "Enter," she called, watching as the doors parted and the other woman stepped into her office. "Ms Esni," she motioned for the chair across the table. "Take a seat."

With the door closing behind her, Linza went to the seat indicated, feeling a bit out of place. It had been a long time since she'd sat across from a Starfleet captain. "You had asked to see me, Captain?"

Abigail remained silent for a few moments as she returned to her own seat. "You seem to have found yourself in the middle of a predicament Ms Esni," she finally said quietly. "I reviewed your Starfleet records, you managed to throw away a promising career, but still, murder, espionage and blatant destruction don't seem to be your forte... My security officer, Lieutenant Levine, has been quite vehement that you were not involved in the explosion or the plans to implicate this crew...." She paused, leaning back in her seat and looking across at Linza. "So that begs the question, do I hand you over to the Kessik authorities or do I take you back to Starfleet? You may not have been involved in the explosion or those deaths, but you did still attack and abduct four Starfleet officers."

"You are correct, Captain. I didn't have anything to do with the explosion or anything after that. However, yes, I was part of the abduction. And, your crew rescued me." Lin looked down at her hands that were in her lap and gave a small sigh. "Honestly, I'd rather face Starfleet Command than the Kessik authorities. They've likely torn apart what I was doing down there and though I technically didn't do anything illegal, they'd likely try to find something."

"I see." Abigail watched Linza for a long moment. "And what about your friend? Meka isn't it?"

Linza shook her head, "I thought she was a friend, trusted her with probably too much. She was ready to kill me. One of your crew members warned me after Meka left that she wasn't actually a friend. She caused the explosion."

"I will be meeting with officials from Kessik in an hour, along with delegates from the Starfleet Rapid Response team that is due to arrive shortly from Starbase 332. I'll be handing Meka over to them along with the evidence we have regarding what has happened." Abigail paused again. "Do you have anything else you want to add?"

"I wish I did. It was her idea to go after your crew though. And she likely meant to kill a lot more than she did to be honest. How she did it I'm curious but she won't ever tell." Lin bit her lip. "Captain, what are they going to do with me?" It wasn't like her to be nervous but at this point, she had no direction.

"At this stage, I don't know," Abigail answered honestly, picking up a PaDD from her desk and handing it across to Lin. "I suggest you write a statement while you're waiting."

Lin nodded, "I planned on doing that, Captain. I'm just worried about backlash. Honestly, I planned to stay away from Starfleet forever, but apparently that isn't happening."

"You may leave Ms Esni. I'll let you know when my decisions are made," Abigail said quietly.

Taking the PADD with her, Linza stood and gave the Captain a polite nod. "Thank you, Captain Laurens." For the first time in a long while, she was nervous about the outcome of her life. She'd been doing her own thing, on her own path for so long now that the fact of her fate being in someone else's hands frightened her. She left out the door, back to the guard who escorted her away.