Looking into the Broken Mirror - Pt. 1

Posted on Friday July 24th, 2020 @ 4:09pm by Commander Kanaka Shakura & Lieutenant Commander Freya Mannerheim

2,494 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Shakedown Cruise
Location: U.S.S. Poseidon; XO's and Chief Counsellor's Office, Deck 6
Timeline: Day 004 - 0930 Hours
Tags: Post-Departure, Post-Fighter Incident, Counselling, Mirror Universe

Having just had a very impromptu meeting with the young Medical Cadet Caleb Johnson, Kana's mind was still awash with concerns for both him and fellow Operations Cadet Chloe Graydon, who it was now obvious was pregnant with Caleb's child. It was a very precarious situation for them both, and already the Chief Counsellor was constructing in her minds the steps that she and the support structures of the ship would have to take in order to make sure they both got the support they needed. It truly was going to be a long tour of duty, in more ways than one.

Before she could even take much more time to consider the situation, Kana became aware of the time. It was time for her next counselling session of the day, and this one was one that she had been anticipating for the past few days: Lieutenant Freya Mannerheim, who since the incident of the first attempted departure had changed in quite some considerable manner, weaving a mystery that to Kana led to the very top of Starfleet. The woman was certainly an enigma beside her own mental state, and while a lot of things were still unclear, the Executive Officer and Chief Counsellor was as committed as ever to getting to the bottom of it.

As she stood to go and make herself a fresh green tea, she tapped her commbadge. =^= Lieutenant Commander Shakura to Lieutenant Mannerheim: Please report to my office for our scheduled Counselling session. =^=

Freya smirked to herself as the call arrived just as she was leaving the turbolift, and moments later she was outside the counsellor's office. She was not one to forget an appointment, after all. She pressed the buzzer, and when the XO called her in, smartly stepped into the office. "Morning, Lieutenant Commander. Let's get this over with, shall we?"

"Morning, Lieutenant." Kana smiled as she stood by her replicator, having just retrieved her fresh green tea. "No need to be so disparaging of our time together." She said playfully. Walking over to the armchairs she had next to the viewport, the Chief Counsellor took one of the seats. She gestured for Freya to sit across from her.

"So, how do you feel about this morning's departure?"

The Lieutenant shrugged. "Glad to be on our way, really, and relieved that everything went smoothly this time." She headed over to the replicator and ordered a cup of hot earl grey with some lemon, before moving over to the other chair. "You don't mind, I hope," she added, before taking a sip of her tea.

"Personally, I think leaving the starbase behind and finally getting on with the mission is going to improve everyone's mood, really. That, and putting some distance between ourselves and that whole mess with Pavan."

Kana shook her head gently at Freya's question of her minding. She was intending to approach this session with as little a formal tone as possible, due to the strictness of their last private conversation, so didn't bother to direct her to the replicator for her own drink; instead, she wanted her to feel comfortable enough to approach it herself, as if this space were as informal as the Mess.

On the Lieutenant giving her thoughts, the First Officer nodded in agreement. "Yes, I agree. I think being able to actually make some form of progress - even in the smallest manner - has given the crew a chance to let go off the knot of anxiety that festered in the immediate aftermath of Pavan's untimely passing. Speaking of which, your performance on the Bridge this morning was excellent, and a great improvement. Do you feel good about that?"

Freya adopted a more military posture when the Lieutenant Commander spoke of her performance on duty. "I was doing my job, sir. My previous insubordination was unacceptable, I acknowledge that now," she said, slightly shaking her head. "And it would have had severe consequences if this was an Imperial ship", she added, with strong emphasis. You expect every member of this crew to fulfil their duties diligently and appropriately, and I failed to do so. It won't happen again."

There was a moment's pause as Kana considered the young Lieutenant's words. She still wasn't sure what to think of Freya's apparent origin - it still sounded so impossible to her - and yet Kana's life experience had taught her to never place a limit on what life could throw your way. So for the moment she would have to indulge what she was saying, even if only in the abstract.

"From the sounds of things, this...Imperial reality wasn't the most pleasant of environments. Was it like that throughout, or only in certain instances?" Kana was searching for a potential source of trauma, linked to a potential person, environment or event.

Freya paused and took a big sip of her tea, before she took a deep breath. "You would not fare well in that universe, Lieutenant Commander. You would certainly not hold this rank. You are far too kind a person. The Terran Empire favours ruthless ambition. And yes, discipline is very strict, and very brutal. Torture, slavery, and execution are commonplace." She shuddered.

"I remember one instance in the early days of my time at the Imperial Academy. Outwardly, it looks very similar to yours, just with a few more statues of famous conquerors and more armed security. Oh, and it's walled in. There is a very strict curfew." She took another sip. "In any case, I could not have been at the academy for more than three or four months, when it became known that a handful of individuals were smuggling in and distributing illicit substances. Drugs, mostly from off-world. Academy Security was swift in their investigation, and actually caught the dealers in the act. Three second-year cadets from one of the colonies had thought to make a quick profit."

Freya paused and shook her head. "They were publicly executed the next morning. In space, Starfleet performs executions by simply using the transporters, or an airlock, to throw the condemned out into open space. At the Academy, their preferred method for cadets is a good, old-fashioned hanging. More spectacle, see. All cadets are required to attend and watch. In my time at the Academy, there were seven or eight of these. I can't even remember what most of them were for. Their methods for discipline are extreme."

While Kana's face didn't betray it, she was deeply concerned by what she was hearing. Was all of this true? Freya certainly seemed genuine in her delivery, and the Chief Counsellor got no sense from her that this was anything else but real in her mind. The memories were clearly very vivid for her. None of it felt possible, yet in the Chief Flight Control Officers mind, it all very much was. "Either this is some significant trauma that has manifested itself as a real place and event, or..." Kana considered, still struggling to fully believe the idea of a different reality.

"You're right, I wouldn't survive in a place like that." Kana conceded. "I wouldn't be able to witness such things and stand idly by. Was your life always filled with such death and cruelty?"

Freya took a sip from her tea. "That is what life in the Terran Empire is like, counsellor. It all started when I lost my parents, and my leg. Pirates attacked our merchant ship. Somehow, my sister and I got away. My parents, my brother, they were not so lucky." She chuckled. "And my leg wasn't either, I suppose." The young Terran shrugged. "I know what you are doing. You are looking for a way to explain all this away, that this is all just in my mind. You Betazoids have telepathic abilities, don't you? You would know if I was telling a made-up story."

"This session is about you, Lieutenant, not about me." Kana responded politely but with a point. "Whether what you're telling me is made-up or not, and however I may choose to explain it, is for me to determine. If you truly believe and feel what you're telling me, then focus on that, and the truth will reveal itself in time."

She allowed those words to carry for a moment before continuing. "So, your parents and your brother. I can only imagine how hard their loss may have been. How did you and your sister take it?"

"My sister was six years old. She was very, very shaken. I was more focused on the loss of my leg, really. By the time I came out of shock over that, my parents' remembrance service had come and gone, we had moved in with my grandfather. I helped him raise her until I was 18, when I left for the Imperial academy. That was five years ago. I have not seen my family since then. And before you ask, yes, I do miss them. But I have accepted that they know I am dead, and that I will not see them again." Freya sighed. "All I can do is try and make the best possible life for myself here."

The Chief Counsellor considered the young Lieutenant's words for a moment. She was surprised that she seemed so nonplussed over her parents at first, but her later resignation over the fact that her remaining family probably presumed her dead gave Kana the impression that Freya had become quite withdrawn and detached. It made a lot of sense, especially if she had experienced so much death from such a young age. It was a very typical coping mechanism. Though it was clear these things ran much deeper.

"They know you're dead?" Kana inquired. "You seem quite alive to me. Believe you're dead, sure. Or is it that you hope they think you're dead in the definitive sense?"

Freya shook her head. "The ISS Cromwell was destroyed. There was only one escape pod launched, with me being the only person on board. Said escape pod disappeared. In the Badlands. Tell me, Lieutenant Commander, why would anyone assume there had been survivors?"

"Considering all that you and your sister had been through, Lieutenant, I have a hard time believing that she - at the very least - wouldn't hold onto some hope of you being alive." She retorted. "Human beings, of all the known sentient races in this galaxy, have a great capacity for seeing light in the darkest of places."

Freya smirked. "It's as if you knew Sora. She always seemed to believe in the impossible. It took her ages to give up hope that our parents had somehow survived, too." She stared into her tea for a moment. "Still, even if she believes I am still alive, I doubt she would ever find a way here. Or me a way back, for that matter."

Finally, she looked the counsellor straight in the eyes. "I do not want to go back. Ever."

Kana shared the direct stare with the Lieutenant, her deep black pupils measuring every aspect of her expression and the emotion of her own eyes. She then gave a reassuring smile, before having some of her tea, gently reminding Freya to not forget to drink her own. After giving her a moment, the Counsellor decided to turn back the conversation to a recurring trend she believed she had come to notice in Freya, and so wanted to see how she would answer.

"What surprises me, Lieutenant," She began, "Is that you escape from this heavily regimented, brutal life; having your every move watched, jumping when told to jump, suffering the horrors of conflict from and early age...and yet here you are."

She gestured her hands to the space around them, but they both knew she didn't mean the Office in the literal sense. She meant the Poseidon. "Now, I'm sure you'll tell me it's because our Starfleet isn't anything like the Starfleet you knew, and that I'm sure is certainly true. But it's still a very regimented lifestyle. Did you never feel the desire to go anywhere else? Get as far away from this as possible?"

Freya sighed and took a sip from her tea. "Where else do I have that I could go, counsellor? Before my parents were killed, I spent my life in space. This is what I do best. I belong on a starship."

Kana nodded. "I can see that. Yet I think there's more to it then that; I think you believe in a sense of order, in a sense of things being done the right and proper way. Just not in the way you witnessed them done before, either by you or by others. I think you're here because you want to prove - both to yourself, and to those that did you wrong - that power can be a positive force for change, not a purely oppressive one."

She let the words sink in again, and then she leaned forward. "...and that's what we're going to do, together." She gave Freya a determined grin. "What do you say to that, Lieutenant?"

Freya smirked, and nodded. "That, Lieutenant Commander, sounds like a very good idea."

Kana eagerly finished off the rest of her tea, before putting down the cup and eagerly clapping her hands together as she stood. "Excellent. I'll have my Aide look at your schedule and arrange for regular sessions from this point forward - say once a fortnight - with the option that you can speak to me sooner if you wish. And, of course, we shall see each other throughout the course of our upcoming adventures together."

She then walked over to her desk and started making the necessary arrangements from the terminal she had. As Freya would go to leave, the Chief Counsellor would remark one last thing.

"I know your sister, Lieutenant..." She looked over at her as she stood in the doorway. "...because she still remains there with you in your mind. Your memories of her and affection for her are so strong, it was like feeling the presence of another person entirely. You told me earlier that being a Betazoid I'd know if you were lying; what I know for sure is that she's not so far away from you as you might think."

Almost out of the door, Freya turned to look back at Kana and gave a sad smile. "I would like to think that were possible, Lieutenant Commander. I really would."

Kana smiled back consolingly, and took a moment to watch the space as she departed, before going back to her work in earnest. "Finally, some progress in piecing this thing together..."

[END]

LCdr. Kanaka "Kana" Shakura
Executive Officer and Chief Counsellor
U.S.S. Poseidon

&

Lt. Freya Svanirsdottir Mannerheim
Chief Flight Control Officer
U.S.S. Poseidon

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