New Waters

Posted on Thu Aug 13th, 2026 @ 4:03am by Captain Calypso Skyie & Lieutenant M'Vatha Saelia Wadtai
Edited on on Thu Aug 13th, 2026 @ 4:09am

4,786 words; about a 24 minute read

Mission: Die Hard: Chimera Edition (side posts)
Location: Captains Ready Room
Timeline: Current

There were personnel files, and then there were reputations. Lieutenant M'vatha Saelia Nura Wadtai had learned long ago that the two rarely told the same story. The USS Chimera was an excellent example. On paper, NCC-80118 had been reclaimed from the remains of another vessel, repaired, mothballed and eventually recommissioned. She had hardly been Starfleet's favoured child. Neither, apparently, had many of the people assigned to her. Saelia had spent part of the journey aboard reading what she could. Career misfits. Inexperienced officers. Personnel whose service records contained considerably more colour than Starfleet Personnel Command generally preferred. And a former Marine sitting in the centre chair. Individually, Saelia suspected some of those records had caused more than one admiral to develop a headache.
Collectively? They had succeeded. Repeatedly. That interested her far more than the mistakes recorded in their files.

The doors of the turbolift opened onto the Chimera's bridge and Saelia remained still for half a heartbeat. Her first instinct was the same one that had followed her throughout most of her life. Observe. Not consoles. People. An officer crossing between stations without needing to ask another to move. A conversation ending as someone returned their attention to their console. Familiarity in the way people occupied the same space. Small things, perhaps, but small things were often important. This was a crew that knew one another. More importantly, perhaps, this was a crew that had learned how to function together. Saelia stepped from the turbolift.

She was conscious of a few glances in her direction. That was hardly surprising. New faces were noticed aboard starships, and the unfamiliar lieutenant wearing counselling colours was unlikely to remain anonymous for long. Especially once someone discovered she was their new Chief Counselor. She resisted a smile. That usually went one of two ways.
Some people introduced themselves immediately. Others developed an astonishing ability to discover urgent business on entirely different decks. Both reactions told her something. Her belongings were still being transferred to her quarters, where she had been assured the necessary Aruilaen environmental adaptations had been installed. Saelia intended to verify that claim personally before trusting her ability to sleep there. But that could wait. Protocol required her to report to her commanding officer.

Captain Calypso Skyie. Former Marine.

That fact alone made Saelia curious. Moving from the Marines into Starfleet was hardly impossible, but moving from one into the command chair suggested a life containing considerably more than could be communicated by rank, assignment dates and commendations. Saelia had learned not to make assumptions based upon personnel records.

A file told you what someone had done. Sometimes it told you what had happened to them. It very rarely told you who they were. That required meeting them. That required listening to them. She crossed the bridge toward the Captain's ready room, keeping her pace unhurried. There was something else she had noticed while reviewing the ship's records. The Chimera had developed a reputation for adapting. Not always elegantly. Not necessarily according to whichever procedure Starfleet Command might have preferred. But they adapted. They overcame. And they came home. Saelia understood people like that. They were often the ones who insisted they were perfectly fine right up until the moment someone finally gave them permission not to be.

She stopped outside the ready room. For the first time since boarding, Saelia glanced down and checked her uniform. Everything was precisely where it belonged. Lieutenant's pips correct. Hair secured. Hydration layer functioning comfortably beneath the fabric. She exhaled softly. This was ridiculous. She had counselled officers through grief, trauma and some of the darkest moments of their lives. Surely she could survive meeting one Captain. Even a former Marine. The corner of her mouth twitched. "Well, Saelia," she murmured quietly to herself, "you did volunteer for this."

She reached out and pressed the annunciator. Then she folded her hands loosely behind her back and waited. She had no idea what Captain Skyie would make of her new Chief Counselor. Saelia was considerably more interested in discovering what she would make of her new Captain.

Calypso was sitting behind her desk, flight suit-styled uniform unzipped to her bellybutton, which was (true to her form) showing. While she as a minimalist underneath her uniform, she at least had been convinced to wear a bra today. But then again, she wasn't expecting anyone to show up, unless it were a mid-shift visit by Kally, but she'd said something about being busy today, so... "Come on in!" She called out, shifting her feet to the side of the top of her desk to get a better look at whoever had decided they needed to see her at this time.

The voice from inside sounded considerably less intimidating than the rank attached to it. Saelia waited for the doors to part before stepping through. And stopped. Only for a fraction of a second. It was barely enough to qualify as hesitation, but Saelia noticed it, which meant she suspected anyone particularly observant might have noticed it as well. Captain Calypso Skyie was indeed sitting behind her desk. That much matched expectations. Almost everything else did not. Saelia's eyes briefly registered the feet resting atop the desk, travelled upward, encountered an unexpectedly large quantity of exposed skin where she had anticipated a properly fastened uniform, and immediately returned to the Captain's face. Interesting. Very interesting. A less disciplined part of her mind supplied the observation that Starfleet Personnel Command had neglected several rather important details from Captain Skyie's file. Saelia suppressed the smile threatening the corner of her mouth. First impressions mattered. So did second ones.

She stepped fully into the room and allowed the doors to close behind her. "Captain Skyie?" There was no judgement in her expression. If anything, there was a hint of warmth behind the pale silver-blue eyes studying the woman before her. Saelia had spent enough time among different cultures to understand that standards of modesty were remarkably subjective things. She had encountered species who considered exposed hands indecent and others for whom clothing itself was an inexplicable Federation obsession. A partially unzipped uniform wasn't going to traumatize her.

Captain Calypso Skyie's eyes brightened as her smile broadened, someone new had arrived, "And you are?"

It did, however, tell her something. The woman sitting behind this desk was either remarkably comfortable in her own space, spectacularly unconcerned about appearances, or had genuinely expected absolutely nobody to walk through that door. Possibly all three. Saelia decided she liked that better than finding someone sitting rigidly behind a perfectly organized desk pretending to be what they believed a captain ought to look like. She approached, stopping at a respectful distance from the desk. "Lieutenant M'vatha Saelia Nura Wadtai." She paused. There was always a moment after giving her full name when Saelia wondered whether she had just inflicted an unnecessary linguistic challenge upon someone she'd only just met. Her expression softened slightly. "Saelia is perfectly acceptable." Another small pause. "I'm your new Chief Counselor."

Her gaze flickered, just once, toward the Captain's feet on the desk. The smile finally escaped. "And I'm beginning to suspect I may have overdressed for the occasion." It was perhaps slightly bold for the first thirty seconds of meeting one's commanding officer. But Saelia wasn't entirely convinced that standing rigidly at attention and reciting her transfer orders would tell either of them anything useful. Besides, Captain Skyie had already answered one of Saelia's questions without realizing it. The personnel file and the woman were definitely not the same thing. That was usually where the interesting part began. "Permission to officially report aboard, Captain?"

"Only if you decide that you're going to pull a chair around to the side of this desk and sit down?" Calypso chuckled and kicked her feet off the desk to sit up a little bit, but did nothing to fix her uniform, "Oh, and save the 'Captain' bullcrap for when we're doing something official or in front of Admirals, my name is Calypso, but most people call me Cally. Welcome to the Chimera and may The Four have mercy on your soul, Saelia." She gave a cheeky grin as she perused the new Counselor.

The uniform was just about right, though from the personnel file that she'd actually been sent (rather than just getting the officer on board first), she knew a little bit about her and the Aruilaen race as a whole. To someone without the knowledge, she could look bulky, but that was due to the additional padding that the specialized hydration layer doing it's visual work. Even then, this wasn't as bulky as she was expecting to see from her. "Thankfully, we've gotten your quarters almost completed to the specifications you sent out ahead of you, but if there's anything needing tweaking... Call Lieutenant Jade and she's usually pretty good at getting things done. Lieutenant Kellerman, Katie that is, not Kally, is another good resource that you can call upon. And of course." She gestured at herself, "I'm available at almost any time."

Saelia's eyebrows lifted slightly at the condition attached to her permission to report aboard. A chair. Apparently she could manage that. "Those are remarkably generous terms." She stepped toward one of the chairs and took hold of it, but rather than positioning herself directly opposite Calypso, Saelia pulled it around toward the side of the desk as instructed. She angled it slightly before sitting, an unconscious habit born from years of counselling sessions where sitting directly opposite someone could make a conversation feel more like an interrogation. Then came the instruction regarding rank. That earned Calypso a longer look. Not an uncomfortable one. Saelia was simply recalibrating. Captain Skyie had become Calypso. Then Cally. Within approximately a minute. Saelia suspected she was going to have to abandon several assumptions she'd made about this meeting.

"Cally," she repeated, testing the familiarity of the name before giving a small nod. "All right." The reference to The Four caught her attention as well, though she didn't interrupt to ask. There would be time to learn what Calypso believed and why. First meetings were for discovering which doors existed, not necessarily opening all of them. At the suggestion that her soul might require mercy simply because she'd joined the Chimera, however, Saelia couldn't prevent the quiet laugh that escaped her. "That reassuring, is it?"

She settled more comfortably into the chair, crossing her ankles and tucking her feet under the chair slightly. "I was told the Chimera had a reputation. Nobody mentioned divine intervention being part of the standard survival equipment." There was humour in the words rather than concern. When Calypso moved on to her quarters, however, Saelia's expression changed. The amusement remained, but there was genuine appreciation beneath it. "They're almost finished?" That surprised her. Starfleet was generally good at accommodating species-specific requirements, but good and fast were not always the same thing. Saelia had prepared herself for several days of compromises while Engineering completed the modifications. "That's considerably further along than I expected. Thank you." She committed the names to memory as Calypso gave them. Lieutenant Jade. Lieutenant Kellerman. Katie, not Kally. That particular distinction received a slight nod. Saelia suspected confusing the two would be a mistake best avoided.

"I'll speak with Lieutenant Jade if anything needs adjusting. Hopefully it won't. Most of the requirements sound more complicated on the specifications than they actually are." She glanced down briefly at herself. "Humidity, water chemistry, somewhere large enough to immerse properly, and the hydration layer handles most of the rest." Her fingers briefly touched the side of her uniform where the specialised garment underneath added a little more bulk to her silhouette. "It's not particularly elegant, but it means I can function comfortably alongside everyone else without somebody following me around with a bucket of water." A beat. "Which became tiresome remarkably quickly during training." Whether she was joking was left deliberately unclear. Saelia's attention returned fully to Calypso. "And I'll remember that you're available." Something in the way she said it shifted subtly. Still friendly, but there was a little more of the counselor there now. "Although I should probably warn you that works both ways." Her head tilted slightly.

"My door will be open to everyone aboard this ship. That includes you." She let the statement rest for a moment without turning it into an assessment or an invitation to immediately divulge anything personal. Calypso was her commanding officer, not a patient merely because Saelia had walked through the door. "But I'm not planning to chase people through corridors waving appointment schedules at them," she added. "I prefer people to learn that coming to see me doesn't automatically mean something is wrong." A small smile returned. "And before you worry, I don't intend to spend my first week psychoanalysing the crew." Her gaze travelled briefly around the ready room before returning to the casually dressed woman beside her. "First month, perhaps." The smile widened just enough to betray the joke. Then Saelia leaned back slightly.

"I've read the official material about the Chimera. Personnel summaries. Department reports. Enough records to know that this isn't exactly a conventional crew." She paused. "But paperwork tells me very little about what it's actually like to live here." Her pale eyes remained on Cally, interested rather than clinical. "So, Cally..." She gestured lightly between them. "What should the new counselor know about your ship that Starfleet Personnel forgot to put in the file?"

Calypso had smirked at the mention of the bucket of water, which had turned into a grin and a chuckle at the time frame of psychoanalysing everyone, "Let's see, if you've been perusing the personnel summaries, that means just the very basics, but one thing I can tell you is that everybody that's been on board this ship for the last year or more has changed from what Starfleet thinks we are." She paused in thought, "We are a very relaxed outfit here, I try to keep things informal because we all have fucked up somehow and for our sins were assigned here, myself included. My sin is that I was a Marine before I turned to Starfleet instead of getting grounded. For the rest, I'll wait for my official appointment with you to give you the brief rundown and how every single person here has helped me stay sane." She gave a shrug, "Unless you desired to get that out of the way now? Because you've got me trapped at the moment." Cally didn't point out she had another side of the desk to dodge around if she truly wanted to flee.

Saelia listened without interrupting. The comment about everyone aboard having changed from what Starfleet believed them to be, interested her. Perhaps more than Calypso realised. Personnel records had a tendency to preserve people at their worst.
A reprimand remained. A disciplinary action remained. A poor evaluation remained.
The circumstances surrounding them might be buried three pages deeper in the file, but the mark itself followed an officer from assignment to assignment. Growth was considerably harder to document. Saelia had seen officers spend years trying to outrun a single bad decision while everyone around them continued treating them as the person who had originally made it. Perhaps that explained something about the Chimera. A collection of people Starfleet had apparently decided were, problems had somehow been given enough room to become something else. She liked that. Then Cally offered to begin her own appointment immediately. Saelia's expression softened.

"No." The answer came gently but without hesitation. She realised a heartbeat later that it might have sounded rather more abrupt than intended. "No," she repeated, this time with a small smile. "Not because I don't want to hear it." She gestured around them. "But because this is your ready room." Her eyes returned to Cally. "Right now, you're my commanding officer and I'm an officer reporting aboard. Five minutes ago I was Lieutenant Wadtai standing outside your door wondering what my new Captain was going to be like." The smile became slightly more amused.

"I've since discovered that my new Captain doesn't particularly want to be called Captain, considers a partially fastened uniform perfectly acceptable office attire, and apparently believes assignment to her ship requires divine mercy." She paused and a small grin escaped then she continued. "I'd call that a productive first meeting."
There was warmth behind the teasing. "But when you come to see me for an appointment, I don't want you sitting behind your desk." Saelia tapped one finger lightly against the arm of her chair. "And I don't want to be sitting here thinking about the fact that you're the person who signs my performance evaluations." She paused. "I want you to be able to walk into my office as Cally."

"And if we're going to talk about the people who helped keep you sane, I suspect that conversation deserves more than whatever time happens to be available because I've conveniently trapped you behind your own desk." Her eyes sparkled slightly. "Although I should point out that you have an entire other side available for escape. My tactical positioning clearly needs improvement." Saelia relaxed back into her chair.

"But I would like you to make an appointment." There was no command in the words. No suggestion that Saelia had already identified something wrong with her. "If nothing else, it gives us a chance to establish what you expect from me as your counselor, what I can expect from you as my commanding officer, and where those two relationships need to remain separate." She considered Cally for another moment. "And I'd like to hear about your crew." A slight emphasis fell upon the final word. "Not Starfleet's version of them." Saelia glanced briefly toward the terminal. "Yours." Her attention returned to Cally. "Because if I'm going to look after these people, I need to meet who they are now rather than whoever they were when someone decided their mistakes deserved a permanent paragraph in a personnel file." A small smile. "So, no counselling today." She settled her hands comfortably in her lap. "Today I'd much rather finish meeting my Captain." There was a tiny pause. "Cally." The correction came with a hint of amusement. "That's going to take some getting used to."

“When people find out how pretty you are, that’s not going to be the only thing you’re going to have to get used to!” Calypso chuckled as she made the observation, “I supppose that’s one of the dynamics you’re going to find with this ship and crew, is that with the casualness I let happen, it brings out the boldness in people, I suppose it could be said? I do have a strict no-harassment policy and any advances that get shut down are just that: shut down or else. So don’t be surprised if you get hit on or asked out, because some of us can get pretty bold.” Calypso smiled brightly.

“Speaking of that, of course, I’m always one who’s interested, as is my own girlfriend, but there’s no one you really have to be concerned with being aggressive. Those sorts… Get weeded out quick. Your personnel review probably saw the record of transfers to the ship? Some were really bad apples that didn’t come around, but most of them were just misunderstood or the wrong person in the wrong place, that sort of situation. Some had hard luck, this is the place for them to really be able to shine.” Cally knew she was talking a lot, but a counselor had an outsized influence with HQ and so…

“I’m no exception. A lot of career Starfleet officers dislike Marines, it goes back soooo many centuries, especially when you look at Earth’s history, so my arrival after reaching the end of my career with the Corps was never one that was greeted with the acceptance I’d hoped for.” Cally gestured widely, “My own command here was a ship that had been out of commission for nearly a decade when I was handed her, rebuilt and then mothballed and I was given about a month and a half to bring her back into service, with the expectation that I’d fail, given newbie officers and rejects from other ships, but we did it. I wouldn’t be here if not for most of these officers and crew, and where we’ve been? Each and every one of these people have proven their worth. Even if they don’t look like it on paper, I’d take them up against the best in the Fleet, including the Enterprise.”

Saelia remained quiet for a moment after Cally finished, processing everything she had just been told. Then she laughed softly. "I've been aboard less than an hour and my Captain has already warned me that the crew may proposition me and informed me that both she and her girlfriend find me attractive." A faint flush touched her cheeks.

"Starfleet really did leave the useful information out of the briefing." She smiled, shaking her head. "For the record, I don't mind being asked. As long as no means no, we're unlikely to have a problem. Though perhaps let me learn everyone's names first." Her expression softened as she considered the rest. "You're proud of them." It wasn't a question. "And I think I'm beginning to understand why this crew works. Starfleet gave you people they'd already decided were problems, and you gave them somewhere they could prove they were more than whatever was written in their files."

Saelia nodded slightly. "I'll read their histories because they're important. But I'm not going to judge someone by the worst paragraph ever written about them. I'd rather meet the person they are now." A hint of amusement returned. "As for taking on the Enterprise, I'll make sure everyone's psychologically prepared for the ego problem afterward." She paused, regarding Cally thoughtfully. "Though I'm beginning to suspect my biggest challenge may be keeping track of everyone's relationships." Her expression became perfectly serious. "Please tell me there's a chart."

"I think Kally Kellerman has that, but it's reaaaaaally complicated." Calypso laughed, "She's my girlfriend, by the way, but I can't speak for her that she'll find you attractive, but it's a safe bet. And yes, 'No means No.'" She confirmed, "That's always been the case and if anyone pushes beyond the 'No'? That's something I need to know right away so I can put the kibosh on it right then and there." She gave a sheepish smile, "They're family, you know, and out there in the deep dark, we have to be family. I'd call myself the Step-mother, because umm.." She thought about it for a moment, then shrugged with a laugh, "Sexy step-mom type thing."

The Captain looked over herself with another laugh, before looking over Saelia again, "I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't hit on you myself, it's actually a tradition of mine. It gives me a bit of an insight into how people think, believe it or not, with the opportunity to have a little fun if they're willing. How someone reacts tells me how they're going to fit in, or even if they will and what sort of personality they have."

"And I fully approve of basically tossing the crew's old reviews out of the way and judging them on who they are today." Calypso smiled, "You'll find that I'm much different than I was throughout the last twenty years. And take Fulvia Benevenuto for one, she's a Petty Officer, sure, but she's a different girl than she was when she set foot on the ship. It was just a matter of focusing her ability to get into trouble to something more productive. And convincing her that I wasn't going to view her with suspicion just because she's Iotian. A lot of the crew have stories like that."

Saelia couldn't help laughing at the description. "Sexy step-mom," she repeated, clearly amused by the phrase. "I shall make certain that particular command philosophy is properly documented." It was an extraordinarily Human expression. Aruilaen family structures didn't really have an equivalent. Divorce itself was rare, and remarriage rarer still, particularly when children were involved. The idea of a step-mother, therefore, required Saelia to make a small mental translation before she could appreciate exactly what Cally meant by it. The sexy part required considerably less translation. The humour remained as she regarded Cally. The explanation behind the flirting interested her almost as much as the flirting itself. So you're testing me." There was no offence in the observation. If anything, Saelia seemed amused by it. "Seeing whether I blush, flirt back, become offended, retreat, or perhaps run screaming for the nearest transporter room." She tilted her head slightly. "I suppose I'll have to disappoint you and not tell you which reaction you're getting ahead of time." The faint colour still lingering in her cheeks might already have provided Cally with part of the answer.

"But I understand what you're doing." Saelia considered it for a moment. "People reveal quite a lot when they're surprised. You remove the formality before they've had time to decide how they think they're supposed to behave around their Captain." Her smile turned slightly knowing. "I use silence. You apparently use flirting." Her smile flashed again. "Yours is probably more entertaining." At the mention of Fulvia, however, Saelia grew more thoughtful. "That's the part I'm interested in. Not what someone was accused of being, or what someone decided they were after reading a report, but what happened after someone finally gave them the opportunity to be something else." Fulvia's name was committed to memory. Saelia didn't know the woman and wouldn't pretend that one story from Cally was enough to understand her, but it gave her something important that no personnel review could. "And being Iotian shouldn't determine how she's treated before she's even done anything," Saelia added. "Species, culture, family, upbringing—they can help us understand someone. They shouldn't become a verdict." She glanced briefly toward the ready room doors. "I suspect I'm going to hear quite a few stories like hers." Oddly, she found herself looking forward to it. Cally's description of the crew as family had stayed with her too.

"Family I understand," Saelia said, her voice softening. "Especially this far from home. Although I think I'm going to have to learn what family means aboard the Chimera. I have a feeling your definition is considerably less traditional than mine." Considering the conversation so far, that seemed almost guaranteed. Saelia finally rose from the chair, smoothing the front of her uniform. "I think you've given your new counselor quite enough to think about for one reporting-in." A hint of mischief entered her expression. "Apparently, I also need to find Kally Kellerman and get a copy of this chart before I accidentally cause some kind of interpersonal diplomatic incident." She paused, reconsidered, and added, "Though perhaps I should find my office first. It would be embarrassing if the Chief Counselor needed directions to her own department." Her smile warmed as she looked back at Cally. "And whenever you're ready, make that appointment." There was no pressure in her voice. "Then you can tell me your story properly—not Captain Skyie's service record, not the former Marine's career history. Yours." Saelia gestured lightly toward the desk between them. "Somewhere neither of us has the advantage of sitting behind the Captain's desk." She hesitated for a moment, then added with a glimmer of humour, "And you may even flirt with me again. Strictly for psychological assessment purposes, naturally."

"Purely for assessment purposes." Cally chuckled as she stood from her chair as well, extending her hand, "Never out of any desire for anything else. You know, I think I could actually get to like seeing a counselor for the first time in... Ever. So we're going to make it sooner rather than later, I think. After I go see Kally myself, get myself checked out to make sure I'm not sick, because she'll be sure I am for thinking about this."

"Betazoid?" Saelia asked as she shook Cally's hand with a smile.

“Betazoid.” Cally confirmed, “Only recently back out in the open.” She raised her hands in a pause, “Trust me, you’ll hear the whole story behind that at our first session in your own personal lair.”

Saelia smiled. "I will book it in as soon as everything is set up Cally." She headed for the door. "Thank you for your time."

 

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