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T'Ana is three fingers into her whiskey when Carol drops into her chair. Stress lines combined with her haphazardly styled hair indicates that she's been dealing with a certain wild ensign again. T'Ana feels equal parts amused and exasperated by the fact that Mariner could so easily get under the skin of their captain, but makes no mention of it.
"Aren't you on duty?" Ransom asks, sitting in his chair backwards like he's William fucking Riker. Whatever, she's not going to ruin his dreams.
She throws back the rest of her drink. "And what of it?" T'Ana lets a bit of a growl into her voice.
Ransom holds up his hands placatingly. Carol eyes her empty glass longingly.
"Sorry-!" Billups yips, flying through the doorway so fast it almost doesn't have time to open for him. "-I didn't realize we had a-"
"It's fine," Carol mutters. "Take a seat."
Billups sits next to Stevens, who's been making weird eye contact with Ransom.
T'Ana doesn't want to know. She pulls her flask out of her lab jacket and takes a swig.
"Is this about the away mission?" Ransom asks, sighing. "Because I swear I didn't know the Gadaorianzes believed bathbombs were devil worship-"
"It's not about that," Carol interrupts, rubbing her temples. By the look on her face it's clear she and Ransom are going to be discussing that in great detail later.
"Okay then," Ransom glances around the room puzzled. "Then what's-"
Carol mumbles something incomprehensible to everyone but T'Ana. Sometimes having enhanced hearing is a perk.
This is not one of those times.
T'Ana pulls out her second flask from her boot and drains it.
"Uh, I didn't quite catch that-" Stevens begins.
"It's about Mariner!" Carol snaps.
T'Ana flattens her ears and rolls her eyes. "You've got to be kidding me."
Shaxs, who's been relatively quiet thus far, exchanges a commiserating glance with her.
"She's never where she should be, she disregards mission protocols, she sasses her superiors, she's not even adhering to dress code half the time-"
"Just demote her then," Ransom says, looking relieved that he's not about to be reamed out in front of the entire senior crew. Yet.
Carol narrows her eyes. "I can't," she mutters.
T'Ana raises an eyebrow. Or her equivalent of one, anyway. "What, she some bigwig's daughter? That make sense," she snorts.
The Captain's eyes get even more squinty. "What's that supposed to mean, Dr. T'Ana?"
"Oh, you let her get away with waaay to much shit for her to be anything less than an Admiral's daughter."
"I heard she's a spy for section-"
"Everyone knows you can't trust shit from the rumor mill on this ship, Billups."
"I'm saying it would make sense! Do you know how much she can bench press?"
"And she's so tiny too," Ransom says, mournfully.
"Eh-"
"Not really-"
"Actually she's taller than me-"
Ransom, who has about eight inches on everyone present, just scowls at the table.
"Cool, so Mariner's making the Captain spazz out," Steven's says, leaning back in his chair. He clearly trying to pull off casual and suave, but not succeeding due to the fact that you can only lean so far back in the swivel chairs before toppling over. "What are we supposed to do about it?"
"This isn't 'problem solving meeting,'" Ransom hisses, "it's our weekly group therapy session, Steve, keep up."
"Wait that's a thing?"
"How long have you been on this ship?" T'Ana asks.
"Four years."
"And you haven't noticed that Freeman calls us in here at least once a week-if not twice-to complain about her mentee?"
"She's not my mentee!"
"You're emotionally attached to her, just sign the adoption papers already," T'Ana shoots back, earning a chuckle of Shaxs.
"You do get this strangely emotionally constipated look around her," he adds.
"Hmm, just like the one you get when you look at Ensign Rutherford?" T'Ana adds, smirking.
"I don't have fatherly feelings toward-"
"You all disgust me," T'Ana says, shaking her head.
"Don't worry, someday you'll find an adorable, wide eyed Ensign to adopt," Carol says, patronizingly, something of a grin melting away the stress in her face.
"So you're admitting that you wanna adopt the problem child?"
Carol scowls. "I didn't call this meeting to be-"
"We are in fucking basement levels of denial," T'Ana groans. She drops her head onto the table and feels around in her back pocket for another flask.
"Just throw her in the brig again and be done with it," Ransom mutters, circling back to the original topic at hand. "It's not as if she can get up to much trouble there."
"Don't say that," Billups moans, probably remembering the last time Mariner was thrown in the brig. T'Ana hadn't been there for it personally, but she knows Carol deleted the security footage for therapy related reasons.
"Can't you just bribe her? Can she be bribed?" Steven muses.
"That's against regulation." The Captain's considering expression is at odds with her words.
"Find her weakness and use it against her," Ransom says, filing his nails.
"She doesn't have weaknesses." Carol's face is now intense.
"She has friends right? Surely they're an influence on her."
Carol scowls. "Trust me, I tried that. Her best friend has some sort of loyalty crush on her and the rest of them would sooner break the rules than try and intervene."
"You have only one choice than," Shaxs says, voice rumbling.
Everyone turns to look at him.
"Give up."
"What?!"
"Did he really just say that?"
"Shaxs!"
"No no. He's right."
T'Ana grabs the bottle of vodka ducktapped under the table and uncorks it. It's going to be a long afternoon.