Morale?

Posted on Thu 25th Jun, 2026 @ 8:41am by Commander Heriah Rex & Commander Mindo

3,453 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: [MAIN] Learning to Fly
Location: Lookout (of whatever ship we are on)
Timeline: During Reconstruction

It was late. Heriah was off duty. Heriah's hair was disheveled but pulled back into something of a ponytail. Her civilian attire was basic, plain. It was all she had at the moment as the rest was still on 109, in her quarters, in her closet, possibly in a vacuum for the time.

She ventured to the Lookout. Even though there were plenty of areas to look out amongst the stars, the Lookout provided the best view.

Already at the window was Commander Mindo, who had recently been removed from the position of 109's Security Chief. He felt he had failed at the job, and had asked for reassignment to Intelligence. The destruction of 109 had been a while ago, but it weighed heavy on his conscience. He was positive--ok, mostly positive--he could have deactivated the device that destroyed 109. He felt he should have insisted on it. If it had been any other Captain, he would have challenged the order. Did that make Mindo the one to blame?

He'd been so consumed in those thoughts that he hadn't been active in pursuing his more "social" habits. When he turned and saw Rex approaching, he was grateful. The two had spent a little time together back on the station, and Mindo had grown a liking to her. They seemed to share a common disillusion to life. It made talking to her easier. Still, he never knew quite what was on her mind.

"Friend or foe?" he asked Heriah as she approached. It was an attempt at humor.

"Friend."

'Foe.'

Heriah stopped, gathered her thoughts. "A little bit of both perhaps?" She said. "But more friend."

She stepped up beside Mindo but maintained something of a distance in case he did not take too kindly to the 'bit of both' comment. "After a day like today, I sometimes like to unwind by being here...looking at among the stars. Getting lost in them. You know?"

Mindo looked up at her and tried to smile. He had bags under his eyes, and Heriah was close enough to notice he was shaking a little. "You telling me to get lost? Or inviting me to get lost? Or remarking that I have already gotten lost whether I wanted to or not? Or if lost is something to be getting?" He shook his head. "I'm so lost I don't even know the name of this ship." His tone contained the sarcastic edge it usually had, but this time it felt a bit sharper.

"The name of the ship?" she replied. "Come on Mindo...It's the...uh...we're on the...um...It's the one captained by Captain Bauhaus...no...it's Severide...no..." She unceremoniously fell into the nearest chair. "Well, we're on a ship at least." She looked around. "And not one of the Romulan ships helping us out." Heriah decided to explain. "Frank's got me doing morale support. And...I don't know...at my last post, I always hated when a morale officer spoke to us over viewscreen, telling us to hang in there, we are doing a good job, and that it could be worse, all the while they are sitting behind their desk back at Command. I prefer actually going ship to ship and meeting the crew face to face. This lets them know I am not above putting myself in their situation, to face the same troubles, and still tell them that we need to keep up the good work. This one is..." she counted on her fingers, "...third, no, fourth ship in three days."

She sat in silence for about a half second before, "How are you doing by the way? And I'm not going to give you a fake 'All will be well' morale speech. I genuinely want to know...how are you doing?"

"I don't have enough energy to give you the 'I'm doing fine,' lie," Mindo said, climbing onto the chair next to her. He sighed. "I'm not fine at all. I'm lonely. I'm angry. I'm lost." There was a small moment where he paused, then added, "I'm homeless. Everything I had was on the station, including all of my tranya. If I were sentimental about possessions, I imagine I'd be an even bigger mess. Add to the mess that this is a 'dry condition' science vessel with nothing but synthehol..." He tried to find the next words to that thought, but could only shake his head. "I keep thinking what if I had disobeyed Captain Francis' orders and deactivated the device myself? I had the knowledge, and what little I didn't know would not have been hard to figure out."

'He thinks he has it bad? Try being a slug stuck in the gut of this slut.'

"I..." Heriah started, then stopped to collect herself. "I think I can make something happen for you. Given the situation...your situation...your physiology, so this is required...but, with my position as both XO under Frank and current Morale Officer...I'm sure I can get something beamed aboard for you..." she grinned, "...in secret if I have to. It's a case of Rivals Talanack; Trill beer. Not liquor."

Mindo managed a smile. He hated Trill beer. "That would be nice," Mindo said. "Now, what has you out of bed at this hour? And please don't tell me you just can't sleep. I've already deduced that part."

Heriah laughed once. "Sleeping only makes tomorrow come faster. And I have quite the schedule tomorrow, so..." she shrugged, "...put tomorrow off as long as possible."

Mindo shook his head and made a buzzer sound. "Ennnh! That's the worst excuse I've ever heard. If you had quite the schedule, you'd still be in bed. Care to try again?"

"It is something," she said, "being morale officer. Meeting people and telling them things will be alright, or getting better, or to simply hang in there, they are not alone...all that when..."

'You do not believe it yourself.'

"...when I am not sure I believe it myself. And tomorrow I have to do it all again, just to a bunch of different faces. That and..." she laughed again, "...I just can't sleep. Not that I lie there awake," Heriah explained. "I haven't a bed on this ship. Didn't put in for one. There is someone on board with whom I am...familiar with. So I decided to stay with her. Right now she..."

'Wants to do anything but sleep.'

"...is a bit too...frisky." She sluouched in her chair, let her hands fall into her lap. "So I'm tired, have no morale, and my...girlfriend would rather..." She looked over at Mindo. "Why can't you sleep...aside from being stone sober?"

"I'm a bit too frisky," Mindo replied. Before she could say anything, Mindo said, "I think most morale officers are manic-depressives anyway. You have to be happy when everyone else isn't. It's like, others are turning to you to make things better and all you want to do is join them in their misery. I suppose that's what we have in common tonight." He smiled. "Your misery might be helping mine. Dang, you're good at this."

'Well, he's right about that. Manic-depressive. You are already dead inside. You are miserable. You have no morals.'

"Morale," Heriah said, correcting Rex, but then continued so as to cover up that she was talking to herself with, "...is not something I have much of right now. I think I might have lost it 3 ships ago. And...thank you. I don't mean to be good at this."

'With me around, these things just come naturally.'

"I do not mean to add to any misery," she said, "but...I have some information that I have been carrying for a long time. Something I have not thought on in a long while, but you will find interesting." She said that last bit with a tone as though she should not have even spoken up to begin with, then added, "I can give you the 'skivvy' as Frank likes to say. Or I have the long version."

Mindo's brow furrowed. For just a moment, Mindo had seemed at ease. Heriah's sympathy for his situation, including the generous offer of alcohol, had put a lot of his agitated feelings at rest. He meant what he said about her being good at what she was doing, or trying to do. Now she needed her own morale officer. Dwarfed in his chair, Mindo pivoted to face Heriah full on.

"You know, it's only been like, a week since I started on 109," he said. "And so far, you're the only person close to a friend I seem to have." He remembered his banter with Severide, but that had ended with a lot of uncertainty. "I have no misery left to express right now... so I'll gladly handle yours." He smiled. "You have my full attention. Let's hear it all."

"If you have studied my profile," she began, "you will see that, since Refkin was rescued from the Borg and died shortly thereafter, Rex's next 2 hosts...Davmorda whom you have met aboard the Tornado and Luftine, each only lived roughly 5 years before their Joining with Rex failed. I am only on year 2 of being Joined with Rex but am assured that everything is progressing far better than," she tossed her head back referring to the previous hosts.

'But you are unsure if they are telling you the truth, if you really only have 3 years left before...'

"But I am not entirely certain they are telling me the truth," she said. "That...maybe they are hoping that me being hopeful that I will survive more than 5 years really will make that happen."

'Hope. The only thing I can hope for is a better host next time. That and they will be far away when they die; taking me with them.'

"That is something I have lived with, every day since I Joined with Rex," she continued. "In fact, I knew the risks going into this. They told me everything and let me make the choice."

'Now if only someone would care about what I want.'

"But that is not what is troubling me," Heriah said looking Mindo in the eye. Her gaze drifted away as she recalled the memory. "I find myself going back to Davmorda. Horrible person. You know. You met her. But, my symbiontic memory of her ends abruptly."

'Because the dyke let her isoboramine plummet and she passed out. Hello new host.'

Heriah paused ever so briefly. "I think Davmorda was attacked...from behind. Stunned, knocked unconscious, something, but I think it was deliberate. And I think it has something to do with the information she was digging into."

"Davmorda was a pest," Mindo remarked. "She seemed to thoroughly scrutinize me and my office on the Tornado. It wouldn't surprise me if she was digging into something. I don't think I ever saw her smile. Rex hit the jackpot when he landed you."

'This one may be small in stature but certainly not small in mind. Not sure about the jackpot though. Maybe the jackpot of short straws.'

Heriah knew, through symbiontic memory, that this was something she was not supposed to talk about...to anyone. She also knew Mindo was directly involved and knew she could trust Mindo to keep this secret.

"She did scutinize you," Heriah admitted, "on purpose. Davmorda made sure you two did not get along. It was all a facade in order to get what she was really after. You see she was handpicked by Commander Aki Shaqdac to be his right hand. Though she was 'officially' his yeoman, Davmorda was really his investigator, executioner, muscle, what have you. Being a Bajoran, he did not like Cardassians. And, seeing that Cardassia had been part of the Dominion, he also had a dislike for Changelings. So, he did not like having a Changeling First Officer on the Tornado. He could not make any actionable motions to get rid of Caradan, so he had Davmorda do his bidding. Davmorda was already the paranoid sort and she loved digging up dirt on people. She saw that you and Caradan were...an item...so she purposefully put friction between you and her hoping that someone would slip up with information...that any secrets would out."

What Heriah was saying was true. Six years ago, Caradan had been Mindo's superior officer on the Tornado. She was also a Changeling. It was also true the two of them were lovers. Separately, both of them had been involved in more than one prior scandal, and even a few more after.

"It's been years since I've thought of Cara," Mindo lied. "We had a mutual if not short affection for each other during our time on the Tornado. There was plenty of 'friction' between the two of us, but none of the kind Davmorda was trying to uncover. We were separated so suddenly when I was reassigned to the Pandora. It took a while, but I'm long over it." Not a lie. "What exactly was Davmorda trying to find?"

"She was just trying to find dirt," Heriah said. "It was Dav's way. She believed everyone had dirt and she wanted to find it."

"Well my life is a broken flower pot," Mindo said. "Plenty of dirt to dig through."

"Well, I am not Dav," she said.

'Despite my best efforts. We could have had so much fun.'

"That dirt can return to the soil and produce new flowers."

'Oh! Barf!'

"But that was all 7 years ago," Heriah said. "Those involved could be anywhere by now."

Mindo looked up at Rex. "What do you mean?" he asked. "Is there something about Cara I don't know? I haven't seen her since our time on the Tornado, but like me, she had her own scandalous problems."

Heriah thought a moment; trying to figure the best and shortest way to explain it all. "Well...to summarize it all...the second the Tornado was back in Federation Space, it was met by 2 ships. One took Caradan away immediately. The other was filled with Security personnel and escorted the Tornado back to Earth. The crew was subjected to daily debriefs and was not allowed to leave the ship, nor make contact with anyone. No ship, no family, not anyone on Earth. They were cut off and remained that way for a month as they orbited Earth. Eventually, they were allowed to leave, a few at a time, retire, get reassigned, etc. Davmorda, once she was back on Earth, got back to digging for dirt on Caradan. She slept her way into secret information, but found nothing. A year passed and she went back to the Academy where she found out that Caradan had been there studying Command, but had recently departed. Caradan had allowed herself to be subject to a Counseling class being taught by a Dr...Lauda. One of her students, an Aenar...saw...well, I'm not going to go into how the Aenar...see...but she witnessed something that Davmorda pressed her on. This student witnessed Caradan speaking to 2 Starfleet personnel. They wore all black uniforms, no rank and no insignia. One of them, the second they realized someone was telepathically looking on, somehow threw up a block. That was the last anyone had seen Caradan." Heriah looked at Mindo. "I have not dealt with them directly...that I know of...but I think you know what it means when all black Starfleet uniforms show up."

"I'm definitely no stranger to it," Mindo said. He'd paid attention to Rex's story as much as he could, but the mention of Dr. Lauda and an Aenar cadet... he was certain this Dr. Lauda had been his "counselor" at the Academy, though a lot of their counseling "sessions" usually involved nudity and suggestive content, to say the least.

The other one, the Aenar... he knew an Aenar from the Pandora. Her name was Aenardha, and she was a brilliant young officer. She was so ambitious, much like Mindo had been early in his Starfleet career. She had secrets too, Mindo remembered, but rarely shared them. While Mindo cared for her the way an older brother cares for a younger sister, he was aware that he hardly knew her at all.

Putting those thoughts away, Mindo asked, "Why tell me this now? Is there something else I need to know?"

"Why tell you this now?" she repeated his question. "Well, I never really thought on it that much. Just past host memories, is all. That was until you showed up. Then it took me a bit to fully remember, but that was only recently." She sat back and looked up. "Not sure what else there is to tell. Davmorda did come across another name that showed up in your logs; the name of Chase. Apparently he too was interested in finding Caradan. I don't know why." Heriah squinted as though that would help focus her thoughts and remember. "Davmorda's memory ends there. Rex's next memory of her was at the Joining Commission, when he was being Joined with Luftine. All of this was 7 years ago. Not sure what it could amount to now. Not much probably."

"Admiral Chase," Mindo said, recalling the name with disgust. "What would that slime ball want with Caradan?"

"Davmorda was thorough when she combed through mission and personal logs," Heriah said. "She found a mission report where you," she pointed her attention directly as Mindo to drive that 'you' home as being Mindo himself, "had encountered another Changeling; not Caradan. Caradan's logs included an encounter between her and 1, maybe 2, other Changelings. She felt they were attempting another Link in the Alpha Quadrant or maybe even another war. The only conclusion Davmorda could arrive at was that Caradan, and Chase too perhaps, was using any means necessary to find these Changelings. Lastly, Dav came across a phantom frequency. It's a comms frequency that disappears in subspace and you get a send error message. In theory, someone gets that message and then can decide to respond or not."

Heriah breathed and sat there. "And that is...oh what is the old Earth saying...'all she wrote'?"

"The Fifth..." Mindo said quietly, remembering an event from the USS Tornado, nearly a decade ago. "It was an away mission. A Changeling disguising themself as an engineer and attacked me. They went by the designation 'the Fifth.'" He shook his head. "I barely made it back alive. There was a toxin, some sort of radiation, that nearly killed me. I don't really remember anything else."

"Hmm," Heriah grinned. "Starfleet has many 'barely made it back alive' stories." She paused and thought about Garan's last away mission. He made it back alive but did not live long. "I am glad you recovered. All that was a long time ago. Whatever the situation was, it could be well over by now. Everyone involved could be anywhere by now. Living comfortably even." She sat forward with, "Well," and started to get up and continued, "I should be getting on to bed."

'Yeah that minx in her quarters is probably ready for Round 2. Or is it Round 3 now? 4?'

"For what it is worth," she said, "I do feel better. My morale is...well...better than it was."

"Mine is too," Mindo said. "Though before you go, I could really use that beer..."

"Oh! Yes," she recalled. "I will need to get that beamed...well...I do have a few bottles in my luggage case. It's in my...well...the quarters of..."

'Your girlfriend? Bed buddy? This Ensign you should not be in a relationship with? I know...say acquaintance.'

"...an acquaintance of mine," Heriah finished that thought. "You can have the rest while I work on getting some beamed aboard."

'Taken that the minx has not found it and finished it off for you.'

"Walk with me?"

"Sure," Mindo replied, activating his leg rockets. "Out of curiosity, how did you manage to smuggle beer on a dry science vessel?"

"Arrived via shuttle," she said as she started away with Mindo in tow, "instead of teleport. So, no teleport scanner to hold it in the buffer pattern. Also, being the Commander of the crew of 109 has it perks. Not having my bags scanned and searched is one of them. Don't tell anyone please."

"Don't worry," Mindo said. "I know how to keep secrets."

 

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