Looking In A Mirror

Posted on Sat Jul 27th, 2019 @ 2:51am by Commander Logan Vance & Cadet Senior Grade Kit Kacy
Edited on on Sat Aug 3rd, 2019 @ 3:58am

Mission: Preludes
Location: Starfleet Academy, Earth
Timeline: 2385
Tags: Prelude

-----------------------------------------------
MD: 2386
Time: 1312
Scene: Earth, Starfleet Academy, Kit's Quarters
-----------------------------------------------

It had been a standard operation at the beginning. It wasn't his operation but things like this went on all the time. Usually when the went as badly as this one, Starfleet Intelligence would distance itself as best it could. Whatever families were left behind would be notified and given a cover story. Those that didn't accept that were discredited so any accusations would be ignored as crackpot theories. Logan Vance never liked it when it came to that and he did his best to find other ways of dealing with it. Luckily it rarely happened that people didn't buy the cover and so far Logan had found another way to handle the situation.

He hoped today was not the day he would have to break that streak. This young woman he decided to handle directly. Not only were her parents MIA but also her younger brother and sister. The wrong thing said, the wrong gesture and it would turn this whole situation into a giant headache.

She'd been asking a lot questions and making a very big deal of not getting clear answers. He didn't blame her. He felt the same way when Kaitlyn was threatened. The difference was, he'd been in a position to do something about it. This young cadet was not so fortunate. He wanted to change that.

He hit the chime and waited for someone to come to the door.

Kit paused in the middle of shoving the last few shirts into her go bag and glanced back over her shoulder at the door. It had been four days since she'd gotten word that the Innovation, the ship her parents and siblings had been on, had exploded. No one could tell her what had happened or if there were any survivors. The only thing they would say was that they were looking into it. That wasn't enough for her. They were her family, her everything.

She had only been at Starfleet Academy for about three months and she knew that if she just up and left it could jeopardize her place there, but she couldn't find it in her to care at the moment. She was going to go out there and look for her family herself.

The chime chirped again and she frowned, tossing the shirts on top of the bag and moving away from the couch to answer the door. "What?" she snapped as the door slid open.

"Cadet Kacy?" It was more rhetorical as he recognized her from her picture in her file. She was certainly upset and he saying the wrong thing would make this go very badly. "My name is Logan Vance. I'm here to talk about sensitive information you have asked about. Is there someplace private we can talk?"

Kit squinted her eyes at him, then took a step into the hall, glancing back and forth before she retreated back into her dorm room. "You can come in, I guess," she said. "My roommate is in class right now."

Logan walked into the room and looked around a bit. A typical cadet's room but the picture on her desk is what caught her eye. A full family photo of Kit, parents and a younger brother and sister. He picked it up and took a hard look, reminding himself of his job he was here to do. He set the picture back down and turned to her. "I'm from Starfleet Intelligence. I'm here to talk about the Innovation. I know you have a lot of questions. I'm here to answer what I can."

"I've only got two questions," Kit said, crossing her arms, "what happened and where the hell is my family?" She wasn't going to beat around the bush, she wasn't going to try to be polite. She wanted answers. No one could tell her if her family was alive or dead and the state of limbo she was now in was almost more painful than the idea of them all being dead.

He folded his arms and acknowledged her with a silent nod. "There was an accident," he started. "One of the experiments on the ship got out of control. There was a lot of damage. The ship couldn't be saved." That was the cover story anyway and hopefully enough to satisfy her first question. "As for survivors, we're still trying to sort that out. I've already sent a team to the area to search. However, initial reports are not… promising. If we find your parents or your siblings, I will notify you immediately."

Kit narrowed her eyes. "Yes, thank you for giving me in person the same exact message that I've already received over comms. Very helpful." This was stupid, so fucking stupid, and she knew it wasn't this guy's fault, but she was just over it. She turned back to her bag on the couch and started packing again. "Unless you have something that I haven't already been told, well, you know where the door is."

"Cadet, I know you're upset but going on like this is only going to end up hurting your career before it's ever started." His voice was deep and candid. He started to continue the speech then stopped. "Look… I know how you feel. I have a sister. She was in a lot of trouble and no one would tell me anything either. So I took it in to my own hands because I had no one else to turn to. It might not look it but trust me that didn't turn out so well for me. And it's not going to turn out so well for you either if you keep this going. The difference is, you have me. If your family is still out there, I will find them. I promise you." He hoped that was enough. If he had to actually go into the details of what happened, who knew how she would react.

She whipped around to face him fully again, angry tears in her eyes. "You promise?" she spat. "Trust you? I don't even know who the hell you are!" She shook her head. "My family is missing. They could be–" She couldn't even say it, couldn't say that they might be dead. She swallowed hard at the tightness in her throat. "What do you expect me to do? Sit around, wait for word? Go to class?" The idea of latter seemed almost laughable.
Ok, so the gentle approached didn't work, Logan realized. Now for something different. "Yes. That's exactly what I expect you to do!" he shot back. "Because that's all you can do!" She opened her mouth to argue with him again and possibly throw him out but that wasn't going to happen. "Stop it! Just stop!" he roared at her. "You are a Starfleet cadet! You need to start acting like it!"

Logan stepped closer to her. Despite standing a full six inches taller, she didn't back down or look intimidated. His move become more calm but still serious. "Think about what you're going to do. You'll leave the Academy and be AWOL. That right there means you're done with Starfleet. Forever. All your work, everything your parents sacrificed to get you here was for nothing."

He paused for a few seconds to let that sink in. "Let's say that doesn't matter to you. Your family is more important than your career. Understandably. But you have no ship. So now you have to either steal one or you call in a favor to someone you know and you try to find them. Can you fly it? If not, how will you get a pilot? Do you know where you're going? Do you know if it's safe? What happens when you get yourself or the people you're with in danger? Have you thought about any of this? Because I have. And I'm the only one you got who will give enough of a shit to find out."

Kit clenched her jaw hard and wiped angrily away the tears she couldn't keep from falling. "Why though?" she croaked out. "Why do you care?" She loved Starfleet, she really did, but she also understood that in the end, to them, a small loss was acceptable in the grand scheme of things. So why did this random man, who was clearly a proxy of Starfleet, actually give a damn?

He leaned back against her desk, "because when I lost my dad, I did the same thing you were about to do. I went off half cocked with no plan trying to save my sister. I got myself and her tied up with some really bad people. I'm sure you've heard of the Orion syndicate. They used us, threatened us, they would have killed us. I managed to get us away but as a consequence, Starfleet had to put my sister into hiding and she's still not safe. I haven't seen her in ten years."

He paused again. "Logan Vance isn't even my real name. I had to take on a new identity just so they wouldn't find me or her." He knew he was taking a big chance telling her that but he needed her trust, so he needed to trust her. "All because I didn't stop and think. When I read about you, read your file? I could see it all over your face. You weren't going to just sit back and wait. So that's why I came. To help you and keep you from throwing away a bright career and going down the path I did."

Kit crossed her arms again. "You still found your sister," she pointed out. "And you apparently still did fine in regards you maintaining your position within Starfleet." Still, she had to concede, ten years without seeing her siblings? That must be terrible. It might be forever, the other part of her brain reminded her, if you don't do something about it. Clenching her jaw, she dropped down to sit on her bed and rubbed a hand roughly across her face. He was right about resources and intel. He had it, she didn't. But could she really trust this man to find her family, or at the very least, find out what truly happened to them? His expression was genuine and he had come to her. She'd never heard of a member of Starfleet Intelligence coming to visit a cadet (or anyone else really) just to promise that he was going to do his best find the truth. She mentally shook her head, frustrated, terrified, and confused all at the same time. She didn't know, she just didn't know.

"Only because I'm useful to them and right that might be on the edge of being true," he said quietly. "You're pissed. You're scared. I get it. But believe when I say, your odds of seeing your family again go up exponentially with my help than without it. And you don't have to sacrifice your career my way."

Kit sucked in and blew out several deep breaths, trying her very best to quell the wrenching anxiety twisting her guts. "One week," she said in an explosion of her final deep breath. "I will give you a week. If I don't hear anything from you–" She shook her head. "I can't just sit, so you gotta be quick. Please." That was honestly all she thought she could manage and even that was pushing it. She would risk it - her career, her life, her everything- for her family. But it was still true that this man had a hell of a better chance of finding them than she did. So, she would risk her sanity by waiting. For now, at least.

Logan nodded. "One week," he repeated.

There was a brief silence before he pulled out a small comm device. "This goes directly to me. No one else. I can only give this to you if you keep quiet and keep going to class. You can use twice, maybe three times to reach out to me before its traced. When I know something, I will use it to contact you." He extended it to her and then pulled it back slightly. "Agreed?"

She paused, staring at the device in his hand. This was all so much, all too much, but she had little choice. She took another breath. "Agreed." She met his eyes and then snatched the device out of his hand.

Logan hid a slight smirk as she snatched the comm. She really did remind him of himself twenty plus years ago. Brash, uncompromising and fierce. "Just remember what we agreed to and I promise you'll get your answers," he reiterated as he turned to head for the door. He knew she probably wanted him out of there as quickly as possible.

"I know," Kit said as she rose from the bed and followed him to the door. He turned his head back and stared at her for a beat before stepping out into the hall. "Bring them back," she whispered as the door slid shut.

-----------------

Agent Logan Vance
Intelligence Officer

&

(Eventual) Cadet Senior Grade Kit Kacy
Security Officer