The Results Are In

Posted on Sat Dec 17th, 2022 @ 11:10pm by Lieutenant Commander Lyra Cassiel & Ensign Mika Petrova

Mission: In-Between (S1:E3-S1:E4)
Location: Mika Petrova’s Quarters
Timeline: Mission Day 26 at 1615
2102 words - 4.2 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

The meeting with Brasken had really gone better than Lyra had thought it would. She was expecting more of a fight, more ego; at least expecting that Mika would have to rewrite her paper. None of those things had happened and instead he had simply agreed to pass Mika as she should have been. As promised, she was heading to speak with the young woman and let her know the news but also to try and get her to see her own error in this process. She had some concerns that it wouldn't work, but she had given her word and would follow through on it. She kept her focus on what was happening right now and didn't let it wander to the meeting she would be having soon after.

Stopping outside of Mika’s door, she tapped the chime and rolled her neck back and forth slowly. She was hoping Brasken had done as she asked and simply limited his interaction with Mika during their shared shift until Lyra was able to speak with her. She assumed he had given he seemed compliant enough with her suggestions.

Following her shift, Mika had been quite excited to get out of Sickbay. Living as a cadet was embarrassing enough, since everyone knew graduation happened on Terra two months ago and her status as a cadet was becoming suspicious. Rumors were starting following the meeting with Brasken in her office that she had been rejected or, in the worst scenarios, that Brasken had tried to extort the promotion from her and she had refused. She worried people thought that about her and, more than that, she worried her parents or brother might look at a calendar and come with question.

She slipped out of her uniform top and skirt and replaced them with a presentable but comfortable long grey skirt made of fabric that fit her shapely form, a pink blouse with frilly designs, and a few pieces of jewelry. Recently, this had been something of a ritual for her as she stood in the mirror and considered herself. What would she be if not a Starfleet Officer? She could think of no sons of lords to marry out here.

When the door chimed she sighed and instructed the computer to unlock the door.

Stepping inside, Lyra looked around Mika’s quarters in an instinctual reaction to entering a new place. The only other time she had been in here was when she had swung in to gather Mika up and deposit her in Sickbay during the Vidiian incursion on the ship. She seemed to realize what she was doing and brought her attention back to Mika and offered a smile to her. “Sorry to catch you like this right after your shift, I won’t stay long since I have a meeting of my own to get to pretty soon. I had that dinner with Brasken last night and I wanted to come talk to you about it, if you have time.”

Besides the easy smile Lyra wore, Mika could get no accurate gauge on what kind of news Lyra was here to deliver.

Mika stood by her bed, her face filling with a sad concern. She lowered herself down on the mattress, her shoulders slumping in a way uncharacteristic of their class.

“Okay.” She said quietly, “he refused to change his mind, didn’t he?”

“Mika, I’m hurt you have so little faith in me.” Lyra said, obviously not hurt in the slightest. She walked over to Mika’s bed and lowered herself down to sit next to the younger woman. “I happen to know as of paperwork submitted this morning, you are Doctor Mika Petrova as soon as your brother and father sign off on it. Top of your class.”

Mika’s eyebrows raised. She hadn’t expected it to be that easy, so she was partially in shock over the news that she wouldn’t need to figure anything else out or be in conflict with the CMO.

“I thought you were just going to do information gathering?” She asked with a confused expression before catching herself. “Excuse me. Thank you, Lyra. I really appreciate it but…I wasn’t expecting the matter to be so easily settled.”

Thankfully, Lyra was extremely practiced at controlling her facial expressions and reactions, because her immediate visceral reaction was annoyance. She had expected Mika to be overjoyed at the news, and for whatever reason she almost seemed... disappointed? She let an easy smile settle on her face. "Well, it was the only thing I was going for, yes, but he saw reason quickly enough that the matter was just settled."

Mika considered it for a moment, a slight frown resting on her face as she considered whether or not she was sufficiently involved in the solution the her problem to satisfy her desire for independence. After a few seconds, however, she decided it was better to accept the gift as presented and move on. She smiled warmly.

“That’s amazing, Lyra. Thank you so much for your help. It means the world to me, and I don’t know what I might have done without you.” She said, warmly and shyly.

“I did try to have him let you rewrite that original paper - the exobiology one or whatever it was - and just make his standards clear to you, but I guess this is him seeing the error of his ways given he refused. Perhaps you could take the initiative and do it anyways if you’d like.” Lyra pointed out, watching Mika and still smiling pleasantly.

"I think I'll just take the win." Mika said, giving an unusually cheeky smile. She was tired of trying to be a doctor and was quite ready to actually do it. "Though I don't see why he would change his mind considering how stubborn he was before."

She looked away for a brief moment and then looked back.

"My family would have gone crazy if they even heard about the second paper. We aren't the most...open people in the galaxy."

"To be fair, that would be a common reaction. I do want to talk to you about that though, Mika." Lyra paused a beat to make sure Mika was paying attention to her. "While he was terrible about it, Brasken was trying to teach you something about yourself. Do you know what it was?"

"That my insecurities are a weakness people might exploit." she answered succinctly.

"Yes, and how did he do that?" Her tone wasn't patronizing in the slightest. She was trying to get Mika to really consider it now that she wasn't blinded by her own emotions over the matter.

Mika raised a questioning brow. She wasn't exactly sure what Lyra was getting at with this question.

"By...trying to make me catalogue all of my issues in a highly transferable document?"

"He didn't try anything, Mika... you did it." Lyra pointed out calmly, waiting to see if the wheels would turn or if she still wouldn't quite grasp it.

Mika paused, looking down for a moment.

"I just wanted my commission like everyone else. No one has to jump through hoops like that, no matter what he says. He clearly isn't an academy instructor."

"Mika, look at me." Lyra prompted again. "I understand that, but instead of pointing that out and standing firm, you proved Brasken's point by writing the paper of your fears in the first place. You could have graduated without writing it, but you wouldn't have been first. You let your need to be perfect drive you straight into doing something that could have seriously compromised you - on multiple levels from what he told me."

“The paper I wrote was bland and revealed little about me that one couldn’t read in my file. Everyone knows my father was an exile and, before that, he was absent. That’s why he called me into his office; because the paper was virtually useless.” Mika said, standing her ground now. “And I refused to elaborate further. It seems to me I was being punished for refusing to bare my soul…perhaps I’m not at naive as people think.”

That last part was direct, pointed, and decisively Petrov-like. She averted her gaze then and blinked, seeming almost embarrassed by the outburst. She was quiet for several seconds before speaking again, quietly.

“The truth is Doctor Brasken knows even less about who I really am than when he started this charade.”

"I'm sure he does." Lyra shrugged and stood, looking down at Mika. "You weren't being punished for not baring your soul to him, he was trying to get you to the point where agreeing to write the paper in the first place was a mistake, not standing up for your first paper more vehemently was a mistake. He wasn't good at it, but that was what he was attempting to do; and he's right. Methods were terrible, but he is right and people will prey on that."

“Maybe they will.” Mika said, nodding. “But..and I say this with as much gentleness as I can, in the end, I got exactly what I was after. I’ll take this as a learning opportunity, but I can’t honestly pretend I regret anything I did.” She shrugged, her lovely features smiling a bit. “And no one had to get hurt. It’s a big improvement over high school.”

"They didn't this time, but next time I might not be around to help you, and then you'll have to decide how far you're willing to go to get your way." Lyra pointed out. She wasn't about to let Mika pretend this was something she had - or would have - been able to fix on her own. What she saw now though was Mika was very much like her brother in that lessons could not be taught by words alone. Mika would have to learn the hard way. Truthfully, had Lyra not needed to assurance of Brasken being kept whole and healthy to tend to Lyra herself when she was wounded... she likely wouldn't have bothered with any of this.

"Take what you want from it then, Mika. I've followed through on my word to both you and Brasken, nothing more. What you both choose to do with it and the relationship you choose to cultivate is on you two." She took a few steps then paused and turned slightly to look back at Mika.

"One more thing though, Mika. Do be careful not to signal that you're willing to fuck your way out of a problem. Whether you did it intentionally or not, it happened, and had Brasken actually taken you up on it, well..." She gave one more shrug. "Be mindful of what you advertise, because the wrong man will take it no questions asked."

Mika nodded. She understood what Lyra was saying and she could tell the slightly older woman didn’t think she did. That didn’t bother her. She was uniquely single-minded about certain things, though they be few. Mika was an easy person to get along with; she was sweet, kind, and considerate, and everyone treated her like a China doll. She had always been her mother’s china doll. There was something more to her, however, and she intended to give that part of her a voice and a chance to grow. She would be first in her class. She’d worked very hard for that honor, studied tirelessly, and she wasn’t going to let Brasken or anyone else stop her from getting it. Thankfully, she didn’t have to watch him have his head dipped into the vacuum of space to get what she had earned, but she would have if that’s what it took. She might have done more besides, but she wasn’t sure.

“Thank you, Lyra. I’ll think about what you’ve said and try to learn.” She said sweetly; innocently.

Lyra simply nodded and gave a smile. She didn't buy the sweet and innocent face, though. Was she as vicious and cruel as the rest of her family? Not in the same way, no; but she had it in her. "That's all I'd advise you to do, Mika, and it is the same advice I'd give to any sibling of mine. Anyways, I'll let you get back to your day. Congratulations, Doctor Petrova."

Mika watched as Lyra departed, her smile becoming more quietly satisfied when she was alone. Doctor Petrova; finally.

END