Taking Wing - Michael A. Martin [133]
Ra-Havreii suddenly came out of his funk. “I think I need to do this job, Commander. At least until you find a permanent replacement.”
“But why?”
“Perhaps to maintain what I have helped to create,” he said. “And perhaps…to atone,” he said. Once again, he lapsed into pensive silence—though he was staring straight at her chest. Deanna, you just may have your work cut out for you, Vale thought. I hope I don’t regret this, but I need a good chief engineer.
She knocked on the desktop, then pointed to her eyes with forked fingers. “Hey, eyes here.” Once she had the engineer’s attention again, she continued. “Okay, so the first rule, now that I outrank you, is this: no pity parties on my watch. I’ve never worked in engineering, though I’ve helped the SCE on a few missions. But I come from a long line of peace officers, and let me tell you, they were none too happy when I left the family business to enroll in the Academy.
“It didn’t seem to matter to them that I went into security while in Starfleet. Or that I’ve gotten a whole pile of commendations over the years. Hell, I haven’t even told them that I’m the first officer of Titan yet. I may not be exactly living up to their expectations, but I’m damn well doing a good job at something I think is important.”
Ra-Havreii stared her straight in the eyes, almost defiantly. “Having your peers think you’re a dangerous failure is a bit different from disappointing your family.”
“Yes, it is,” Vale said. “But the biggest difference is how you react to it. So you’ve had two tragedies on your watch? This ship, your ship, held together today, and you’re a big part of the reason for that. And there’s no reasonable way you can blame yourself for Nidani’s death. You didn’t dump that hull debris on top of Titan, and it’s awfully hard creating a contingency plan that’ll be of any use when something like that happens. An earlier class of ship might not even have survived today’s battle.”
She stood up and extended her hand. “I’m ecstatic that Titan’s designer will now be our chief engineer, for however long we are privileged to have you, Doctor Ra-Havreii. And I hope you’ll join me in tossing all the old ghosts right out the nearest airlock. I’m sure the journey ahead of us will be interesting enough without hauntings.”
Ra-Havreii stood and shook her hand, but Vale could see in his eyes that he still wasn’t quite ready to exorcise his demons.
Captain William Riker was glad that the most egregious of his chores was finally behind him. After consulting with Admiral Akaar and Ambassador Spock—the latter of whom had just departed for Earth aboard the Der Sonnenaufgang—Riker had made a complete report to Starfleet Command, informing them in detail about his delicate, improvisational Romulan-Reman peace plan. Admiral Ross hadn’t seemed displeased with the outcome of the mission, despite the unorthodox methodology, though Riker knew that all that really mattered in the long run was the Federation Council’s opinion, and that of President Bacco. Akaar assured him that when he returned to Earth after this mission, he would champion Riker’s peace plan with all the influence at his disposal.
But now, Riker had more pleasant matters to attend to before retiring for the evening with his lovely wife. He saw Nurse Ogawa exiting sickbay with her son, but they had moved down a branching corridor before he’d had a chance to speak with them. He entered the medical facilities, glad to see that things had calmed down considerably there. He’d been down here earlier, to speak to Tuvok.
Until Ranul Keru recovered, if ever, Riker knew he was badly in need of at least a temporary tactical officer and security chief. He had offered the combined job to Tuvok, citing both his assignment aboard Voyager and the advanced tactical training classes the Vulcan had taught for many years at Starfleet Academy. Thankfully, Tuvok had been easier to persuade to take a posting on Titan than had Vale. Tuvok had agreed to take over the position, at least