The Hebitian With a Lot of Problems
Posted on Mon Dec 23rd, 2024 @ 5:22am by Lieutenant Commander Chrirhc Chihc & Lieutenant Commander Brennyn Scott M.D.
1,867 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Captains and Contraband
Timeline: After 'From Tokyo With Love'
After getting situated and comfortable aboard the Myogi, Chrirhc decided to take Maho's advice to heart and get in contact with Counselor Scott to discuss his grievances with the Federation and their inaction concerning his people. As such, the Hebitian man had requested an appointment with Counselor Scott at her next available opportunity.
Scott was pleasantly surprised to see the Chief Intelligence Officer had beaten her to the punch, so to speak, by scheduling an appointment to meet with her. As she always did, she made a point to read his personal history and personality profile while avoiding any review of previous psych reports. Unless someone's background indicated an especially troubling psychological history, she liked to meet people on her own terms without having her perception colored by the assessments of others.
Certainly, just the man's history had proven plenty intriguing. Shaped by war and occupation, he had somehow gone from working in construction as a civilian to now serving as the senior intelligence officer aboard. She was certain there was an interesting story there, and that was on top of the potential challenges she imagined came with looking similar to, but not actually being, Cardassian.
Every indication Scott had, which admittedly wasn't much, suggested he had perhaps learned to take such misperceptions in stride, but she did wonder how he would choose to present himself.
Scott had her answer when Commander Chihc strode into her office clad in his intelligence uniform. Chrirhc had an elegant, yet commanding presence, perhaps no doubt helped by his near identical physical resemblance to a Cardassian.
"Commander Scott, I presume?" He asked as he made eye contact with the auburn-haired Human. "Thanks again for seeing me on such a short notice..."
Brennyn nodded in response to his questioning of her identity and waved her hand away at the mention of making time for him at such short notice. "Your thanks are appreciated, but not necessary. I'm happy to make myself available to anyone who would like to chat." She gestured for him to make himself comfortable in any seat he preferred. "May I get you something from the replicator before we talk about how I may be of service?
"Some Red leaf tea would be nice." Chrirhc nodded. In his book, Scott was already winning favor points over Counselor Johnson on Tokyo, as the counselor's Betazoid counterpart hadn't offered him a beverage on their first meeting.
The request was easily fulfilled, and soon Brennyn was handing over the beverage as she took a moment to sit across from him. "So, what brings you to my door today?"
"Well, that's a rather complicated question." Chrirhc admitted. "Have you heard of the Cardassian invasion and annexation of the planet Krimena in the Hebitian system that occurred about five or six years ago?"
Scott nodded. As a diplomat's daughter, and while she tried to keep abreast of major events, she wasn't as "in the know" used to be. "I was somewhat familiar, yes, and I did read about it in your background."
"Good, then I don't need to waste your time bringing you up to speed." Chrirhc replied with a twinkle in his eye. In his mind, Scott was 'crushing it,' to borrow a phrase from her species, in regards to pre-appointment research. "Instead, we can get into the hard questions other counselors seem afraid to answer definitively, such as why the Federation thinks it's a good idea to compromise its territorial integrity to appease Cardassia? If you stop and think about it- if the Federation just lets Cardassia just roll in and take Krimena, where does it stop? What criteria does Cardassia need to meet in order for the Federation to consider it a full invasion?"
"A reasonable point," Scott allowed with a nod. "It also doesn't take someone with education and training in psychology to appreci why understanding such things is so important to you. What do you think the answer is?" Instead of changing the subject, Bree used the opportunity to better understand him.
"I don't think such a line exists in the current edition of the Federation rulebook." Chrirhc stated. "I think Cardassia could march their ships all the way to Sector 001 before the Federation finally understood they were being invaded. It's frankly disgusting that our foreign policy towards Cardassia is so... Forgiving. If the Romulans or Klingons were to set a toe over their lines into Federation territory, the response would be swift and immediate. Even the freaking Borg would be addressed as the threat they are. Meanwhile, Cardassia is addressed with the sheerest hubris I think I've ever seen. It's like the Federation writes them off as if they were some pre-warp society that poses no danger to the Federation, and it's dangerous thinking like that that has emboldened Gul Amara to simply take what she believes is Cardassia's, damn what anyone else says!"
"That sounds like a very scary and hurtful experience for you and your people...to believe the suffering of others is more important in the eyes of others." The anger in his words wasn't lost on Scott, who kept her tone even and her volume normal.
"You bet it is." Chrirhc responded. "And the Federation believes that Amara's current buildup of Cardassian forces on the border at the Hebitian system is merely saber rattling, despite the fact that I and many other intelligence officers have furnished Starfleet Command with plenty of evidence to not take the Gul's word that she is merely conducting 'training exercises' at face value, and that she is indeed plotting a full-scale invasion of the Hebitian system, which again, if this were Romulus or Qo'noS plotting such an act, it would be rightfully seen as an act of war. Now, how much of that evidence was redacted by Starfleet Intelligence, only those who did the work know. But, you best believe that the moment Amara catches us with our pants down and rolls her forces over the border, it won't be an evacuation that the Hebitian people will require, but the means with which to deal with an invasion that Starfleet will refuse to acknowledge."
"Given the certainty of your beliefs, I am curious what led you to Starfleet? Based on what you're telling me, you have no reason to trust anyone within Starfleet."
"Well, before the illegal annexation, I worked for a major construction company." Chrirhc explained. "It was good, honest work, and in the aftermath of the Dominion War, business was booming, but I knew there was more I could do to help the galaxy in Starfleet. So I started as an engineer, and the work was good... Until Cardassia decided to invade my homeworld and Starfleet let it happen. That was when I decided to change career paths to Starfleet Intelligence, because I knew back then that there had to have been a reason as to why no action was taken to such a blatant violation of Federation territory. But I didn't know back then that Starfleet lacked the spine to stand up and tell Gul Amara no."
"That explains what brought you to Starfleet," Bree nodded on understanding. "What keeps you here?"
Chrirhc paused for a moment as he considered his motivations for staying:
"Perhaps it is the same naivete that brought me here to begin with: In that I can make a difference, and get the plight of my people in front of Starfleet to consider the threat of Gul Amara seriously." He said. "That being said, I have told previous captains and counselors that if the chips dropped, and Gul Amara rolled her forces over the border tomorrow, I would without hesitation return to Hebitia to fight the fight that Starfleet refuses to."
"I don't think anyone would blame you for that decision." She paused, then added, "I notice you characterize your own motivations in somewhat critical terms, referring to your decision to stay in Starfleet as naïve. Do you think you're particularly hard on yourself because of your career choice?"
"I don't believe it's because of my career choice." Chrirhc said. "If I had stayed in the construction business, it might have been significantly harder for me to extricate myself and my family from Krimena when Cardassia marched in and declared it theirs. Hell, I might not even be here talking to you right now if I had."
Chrirhc paused for a moment to carefully consider his next words.
"I believe my cynicism comes from the repeated inaction and indifference I have seen the Federation take towards my people and my government." He explained. "Our sovereign territory has been violated, and all Starfleet seems to care about is its big, shiny Armitage supercarriers and the smug midgets they put in command of them!"
Chrirhc sighed.
"I'm sorry, my last assignment was on such a ship, and the way that crew acted, you'd think their ship was some sort of galaxy-altering superweapon." He elaborated. "That was one of the reasons why I requested to transfer here: The amount of smugness on the Tokyo was stifling at times."
The counselor kept her features inscrutable. She wasn't about to take a particular side concerning another Starfleet crew. Instead, she offered, "Have you ever heard the expression 'Wherever you go, there you are'?"
"The Hebitians have a similar expression." Chrirhc nodded. "It goes something along the lines of 'you cannot run from yourself.'"
The universal translator struggled to find a an accurate translation to the Hebitian language phrase that the intelligence officer had used, and had defaulted to the literal translation of it.
Bree nodded, glad they had some basis of understanding. "I'm not saying your reasons for thinking and feeling as you do are invalid. They're perfectly understandable. That said, my goal is to help you find ways to cope with the situation you're in and whatever situations come up, which requires us to look at how you might be getting in your own way and what you can do to focus on what you can control."
"Well, counselor; that certainly sounds like a topic for a future visit." Chrirhc mentioned, glancing at the chronometer on the wall. "I don't know how long you want to be here or if you have any more appointments, and I certainly don't want to cause a backlog."
Scott wasn't sure if what she was hearing was genuine politeness or an attempt to deflect a difficult discussion while seeming agreeable. "I am perfectly happy talking with you for a little while longer, but if you'd rather take some time to think about what we talked about and meet again another time, that's fine too."
"Well, I suppose if you insist..."
Chrirhc wound up spending a few more hours talking out his grievances with Counselor Scott. They even continued their conversation over a meal when mealtime began cutting into the appointment, and while Chrirhc would never fully be able to distance himself from his people's trauma, he certainly left Scott's office feeling like he was going to enjoy the Myogi a whole lot than he did the Tokyo...
Posting by
Lieutenant Commander Chrirhc Chihc
Chief Intelligence Officer
Lieutenant Commander Brennyn Scott
Chief Counselor
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