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JOURNEY THROUGH THE BAZAAR
Kyle
by Edward H. Bart IV
“Have a seat, Lieutenant,” Johnson motioned for Kyle to sit. The captain sat in his plush chair, behind his black desk.
Major Raven was already sitting in another seat in front of the desk. His hands were clasped together on his lap. His stark white hair cascaded over his shoulders.
Janet Kyle nodded and sat down in the other seat in front of the captain’s desk. She tucked a strand of blond hair behind her ear as she sat up attentively.
“I called you in to discuss something that I’ve been pondering for the past few weeks,” Johnson said. “First, congratulations are in order.”
“What for?” Kyle asked, as she watched Captain Johnson push a small black case across the desk towards her. She had a suspicion as to what was in the case. She reached out to take the case, opening the hinged top. Inside was a rank pip, a black inlaid circle ringed with gold.
“Recent events have conspired to disrupt the chain of command on my ship. Major Ironsides’s death has left a void,” Johnson explained. “So I pushed through a promotion for you in light of your exemplary work as the executive officer. You’ll forgive me if I don’t hew to tradition pin it onto you, Lieutenant Commander.”
“It’s allright. You can pin it on me when I make Commander and Captain,” Kyle smiled.
“The next thing I wanted to discuss has to do with something I’ve been thinking about for several weeks. As you know, I don’t have a first officer. Both you and Raven have picked up the slack very well. I want you two to know I appreciate your work very much.”
“Not a problem, sir,” Kyle said. She gripped the rank pip in her hand as she tried not to be too excited.
“I can’t go on indefinitely without a first officer. Along with Kyle’s promotion, I have also received Starfleet Command’s approval for my choice as my new first officer.”
Johnson looked over at Raven. “Major, effective at the end of shift today, you’ll be the first officer of the U.S.S. Courageous.”
The word escaped from Kyle’s mouth before she was aware of it. “What?”
“Did you have a question, Kyle?”
She blinked and looked at Johnson. “No... yes. I was next in line, sir. I thought I would be...”
“Technically, yes you are next in line since the major is not an officer of Starfleet, but of the Bajoran Militia. However, I don’t think you have enough experience to serve as my first officer, and I’m not inclined to babysit a new first officer. Major Raven has decades of experience and my trust. HQ has approved my choice and given me the special dispensation so that he has dual ranking in Starfleet.”
Johnson leaned forward onto his desk, interlacing his fingers together.
“Commander Kyle, you’ll remain the officer on duty on the nightshift, and the XO. In a few years’ time, you’ll be a fine first officer for someone. I need a good first officer now, not later. Do you understand?”
“I see... I understand, sir,” Kyle said quietly.
“Thank you for coming in, Janet. Again, congratulations. Dismissed.”
Kyle stood up slowly, gripping the case and her new rank pip. She slowly walked out, not listening to the captain’s new discussion with his new first officer, Raven.
Dismissed is the right word, Kyle thought darkly to herself as she stepped into the turbolift. When the captain had summoned her for an impromptu meeting, she developed butterflies in her stomach when she realized it was probably a promotion in rank and position. Yes, she was young, but this is what she was working towards. She wanted the captain’s chair. Today was supposed to have brought her a step closer.
She didn’t bother to affix her new rank pip on since it was pointless. She still had the same job she woke up a hour ago with.
The captain had dismissed the notion that Kyle would have made an excellent first officer.
“Congratulations.”
Kyle blinked and looked away from the viewscreen. She realized that Lieutenant Dawson, the second in command of the Marines, was standing near the captain’s chair where she sat.
“You got promoted to lieutenant commander, I see,” Dawson said, gesturing towards her collar.
“Yes,” Kyle said, “the captain gave it to me a few hours before nightshift began.”
“I have to admit, when the captain made his announcement about the new first officer, I half-expected it to be you.”
“You’re not the only one,” Kyle muttered.
“Well, cheer up. Rank hath its privileges, as they say,” Dawson smiled.
“The privilege of another pip on my collar? That’s not much,” Kyle said.
“Well, now you’re a superior officer, so traditionally I would need to salute you. You’ll just have to settle for me calling you sir. Or ma’am, whichever you prefer.”
“James, I’m not in the mood,” Kyle said.
“Fine,” Dawson sighed. “I’m going to run the diagnostic on the tactical station Chief Bogarde asked me to do.” He walked around the brown railing behind Kyle, making his way to the central tactical console.
Kyle looked away from Dawson, fixing her attention on the other members on the bridge. Only two other crewmembers were present other than Dawson and Kyle. The helmsman had little to do since the Courageous was holding stationary position in the berth the commerce station assigned them to. An engineering technician was conducting a routine EPS conduit flow check.
Kyle looked down at the console next to the captain’s chair. The duty logs lined the monitor. As much as she tried to focus on the work, her mind kept going back to Captain Johnson’s casual dismissal of her service.
She had lost her focus. Kyle made a fist with her hand, then pursed her lips. She stood up and walked over to the side of the bridge, heading for the door to the conference lounge.
“Lieutenant Dawson, I need to speak with you in here.”
Dawson looked up from his work. “Allright.” He looked back at the tactical console and tapped several commands, then followed Kyle into the conference room.
Kyle led him past the large curved table and out into the other doorway, which led to a deserted hallway. Dawson frowned in puzzlement as she continued to lead him to another door. He knew what was behind the door- the head for the conference lounge.
She stepped inside and tugged Dawson in after her.
Before Dawson was able to form a coherent thought beginning with “Holy Cow!” Kyle pressed her lips savagely onto his mouth. He barely had a moment to react and soften his lips up to match her kiss.
The kicker of it was- she was a lousy kisser. His fantasy of kissing her was a lot better. Still, a fantasy couldn’t slide her hand down his uniform to grab his crotch, massaging it... which was exactly what Kyle was doing.
Kyle had maneuvered him around so that she was between him and the washbasin in the head. She slide up onto the counter of the washbasin, unzipping her black uniform overtunic as she maintained lip-locked with Dawson.
He surprised himself when he realized that he had already gotten his uniform half off without even thinking.
“That’s good,” Kyle said in between kisses. Dawson wasn’t sure what she was referring to. “I know you’ve wanted this for a while... glad to see you’re raring to go.”
“After this... shift... do you want to have breakfast? I know a great holodeck program,” Dawson tried to get out as Kyle pulled his body to hers.
“What for?”
“Breakfast. Food. A date,” Dawson replied.
“I already told you, no dating,” Kyle said as she tugged down Dawson’s standard-issue boxer shorts.
“Well... call me old-fashioned but a date usually leads to sex, or vice versa.”
“Don’t get any delusions, lieutenant. This is just a fuck.”
Dawson pushed her away. “Hold on. Just wait a damn minute!”
“Now what?”
“I don’t want to do this.”
Kyle looked down. “He says otherwise.”
Dawson bent down to pull up his underwear. “You’re angry about being passed over for the first officer post. That’s why you’re doing this. I’ve been asking you out on a date for weeks. You’ve made it clear that you aren’t interested in dates, with me or any other crewmember on the ship. It would only get in the way of the only thing you care about, your career.”
Kyle stared at him, and he could see the muscles of her jaws clench. “That’s not--”
Dawson continued on, letting the words spill out of his mind through his mouth, before he had any second thoughts.
“I’m not about to be used for instant gratification. At the end of shift you’ll still feel as shitty as you do now. What are ya gonna do then? Find someone else and fuck ’em? Go to the holodeck and run one of your virtual boyfriend programs? You’re just putting a bandage over the hurt.
“I like you. I like you a lot. I don’t know why, but I do. That’s why, against my obvious instincts, I’m going to leave this head before we do something really stupid. I’m going to forget about this. You’re right, I’ve wanted this for a long time. But if it ever happens, I want it to be for the right reasons. This ain’t it.”
“Fuck you, Dawson,” Kyle spat out. “You’re entitled to your own opinion, but you know what? You blew it. You overthought things. A cigar can be just a cigar and a fuck can be just a fuck.”
He only shook his head as he zipped his uniform back up. “I think you better have some words with the captain before you go toxic like Ruiz did. Think about it, Janet, huh?”
Kyle listened as the captain stepped onto the bridge at his usual time. He walked down to the command seat. Kyle stood up dutifully, giving up the chair to him.
Johnson sat down, then looked up at Kyle. “You’re free to go.”
“Sir, I need to talk to you about something.”
“Go ahead.”
“In private.”
Johnson sighed and stood up. “In my ready room.” She followed him into the captain’s ready room. The door closed behind them.
“Sir... I’ve been thinking about it all night. I know I would make a good first officer.”
Johnson sat on his desk and crossed his arms. “The matter’s not open for debate.”
“I’m not looking to argue, Captain. I just want you to know that. I know I need to come to terms with the fact that you passed me over.”
“Kyle... Janet. If I had passed you over, you would not even be on this ship,” Johnson said. “Out of nearly a hundred candidates, you made it onto the senior bridge crew. There were other officers higher in rank than you, but I chose you.”
“I- I wasn’t aware of that, sir.”
Johnson stopped leaning back against the desk and stood up, uncrossing his arms. “What’s your ultimate career goal?”
“Well... my own ship.”
“That’s your problem, right there,” Johnson said. “Being a captain is not just having a ship to command. Being a captain is having a crew to command. You have excellent skills, but you spend too much time looking to the people above you for approval than to the people below you. In my book, that kind of person shouldn’t be promoted... until they prove themselves ready for it.”
“Then, what do I need to do to get ready?”
Johnson smiled. “That’s a very good question. I’m glad you asked that question. Yesterday I told you I didn’t have time to babysit a first officer. But I do have time to babysit my second in command, a certain new lieutenant commander. With Major Raven taking care of things, I have the time I need to spend on working with you, Janet.
“You have the makings of an excellent commanding officer. You need time to get there, and a mentor to help you get there.”
“That’d be you, sir?”
Johnson tapped his nose with one hand and pointed at her with the other. “Just promise me one thing,” he said.
“What, captain?”
“When Command gives you a ship of your own, you take it- you don’t hang about here out of some misguided sense of loyalty.”
“Only if I’m ready,” Kyle smiled.
“Fair enough.”
FONDA/JOHNSON
| RAVEN | SECTION
31 | HARTMAN
KYLE | FAVOR/JOHNSON | BOGARDE
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