Hanging out with the Cardassian

Posted on Thu Mar 19th, 2020 @ 2:06am by Lieutenant Taselle Dragon & Lieutenant JG John Kemal

Mission: Mission 98: Building Our New Home
Location: Various Locations - Starbase Vanguard
Timeline: 0900Hrs - July 1st, 2393

Lieutenant Taselle Dragon tapped the display before her, she smiled as she finished the check to power conduit twenty-two-seven which indicated the system was working well inside intended parameters before the young woman tapped at the PADD in her left hand as she inserted notes with her right hand. The young woman heard someone approach her. "Hey Taselle, hows the conduit doing?" asked Lieutenant John Kemal as he placed one of the two thermos containers he carried, onto the worktop next to the young woman.

The young woman lifted her eyes as she smiled at the man who had become one of her closest friends, despite the fact that she was a Cardassian and he was an augmented human but he had never treated her as anything less than a fellow officer, with respect and trust. "What's in the drink?"

"Red leaf tea, extra strong and double sweet," Kemal commented with a smile. "Do you need a hand with anything?"

"Oh, the nectar of the gods." the young Cardassian snatched up the thermos, she opened it and drained a mouthful. "Mmmm. I could kiss you for this!"

"That good?. Mmm." Kemal smiled as he regarded her with his eyes. Dragon was easy on the eyes and he liked being around her as she was down to Cardassia and not one of those stuck-up types that he had run into time and again, there was something about this Cardassian female that he really liked.

"Yeah, well red leaf tea is the Cardassian equivalent of your coffee or that Klingon drink my mother seems to crave. Raktijino." she paused. "One wonders what that sludge does to her insides, on second thought, I don't want to know." Dragon smiled. "Mom has a one night stand with her body, I try to take care of mine," she added with a soft giggle as if laughing at her own joke.

"So, hows things here?" Kemal inquired of her.

"Well, the power conduit is badly defective, it is in dire need of replacement." Dragon gave him a mirthfull look. "The Chief will be so disappointed."

"So all is well?" he regarded her as he sipped his drink, the display indicated that nothing whatsoever was wrong here, he smiled as he regarded her. "It could be worse right?"

Dragon drained another mouthful as she looked up at the human male before her. "Mmm... Oh. We're all about to die a horrible death." she responded, with a gentle smile on her lips. "Let me finish my drink first. One thing at a time."

Kemal chuckled softly. He couldn't help himself. "You seem to love your work."

"Oh, I do, very much so." the Cardassian female answered. "You seem to be easier to get along with rather than most."

"Well, I have my reasons. I am a human but I'm not from Earth or the Federation. I'm a Heran as my people left Earth in the late 21st century and we decided to start again." he explained. "We reencountered humanity again about sixty years ago and found ourselves getting the cold shoulder regarding our augmentations," he explained with a shrug. "This was one of a series of events that very nearly started a war between the Federation and the Heran's. My mother was instrumental in stopping this dispute before it got out of hand." he paused. "That's when she found out hiding her augmentations, was not needed, wanted or desired." he slowly smiled. "The crew of the Enterprise taught her much as did her future husband when she met him, this led me to join Starfleet. Mom told such tall tales about them. I imagine it was much the same with you?"

"It was." Dragon answered, a gentle smile tugging at the corners of her lips as she regarded him. "I was one of the fortunate ones, to be off-world during the final days of the Federation Alliance's war with the Dominion, so I was the only one of my family who survived and escaped, I was on a transport that was loaded down with several hundred thousand Cardassian civilians, we were heading to Getha when we found ourselves being swarmed by the assault fleet... Thousands of ships and the vast majority didn't even pay us any attention but a Galaxy-class starship stopped us, we were boarded and the crew told us not to fight them. That choice saved all of our lives... and protected us from the Dominion's revenge for our betrayal." she paused as she set down her thermos onto the display before the Cardassian female sat down in a chair. "It was several hours later that we got the news... Cardassia was in the process of being glassed, hundreds of millions were being slaughtered and I was safe... I later found out that my entire family had been exterminated, the entire city had been erased off the face of the planet with a multi-megaton weapon." Dragon regarded him as she spoke.

"I'm sorry, for whatever that's worth to you," Kemal answered quietly. "I've never been through anything like that, I have no idea of how I'd process anything like that" he added honestly.

"I had no family left so I went into the Federation and I quickly found myself in their foster care system, myself and several dozen thousand others." the Cardassian female explained. "Mom was looking for a child to replace the blood child she had lost to her first husband who was downright abusive to her. She needed to find a way to resolve her issues with the Cardassians so she adopted me." Dragon gently ran her fingers over her jawline. "Mom and I had our issues... I was ten years old, who was in the fetal position permanently and she was in pain from her own losses. But we were able to resolve our issues and she became the mother I had lost. I joined Starfleet as a way to thank her and everyone else."

Kemal nodded as he gently picked up the thermos that she had all but abandoned as she was finished with it. "Fair enough." Kemal smiled. "You gonna head to your next job?"

"Yeah." Dragon paused. "I didn't mean to dump all that on you. But, thanks... thanks for listening." Dragon commented softly.

Kemal nodded. "Its okay, sometimes we all need to let go of what's holding us back and sometimes sharing is the best way really," he commented as he regarded the Cardassian female before him. "I'll head on back to Engineering and ask the watch chief for work."

"No, what don't you come with me?" Dragon surprised herself with asking him, mostly she preferred to work alone but this was something that surprised even her.

"Alright, if you're sure." Kemal sounded unsure of this but he was not about to argue with her. The Cardassian indicated the door with her head. "Come on, we can get to know each other better as we work." and with that, the two set off for her next destination.