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Una had been on Mars for two days. It was shore leave mixed with a survey mission that she'd requested to be a part of, she didn't do shore leave, her Captain had discovered that not long after she'd been assigned to the ship, and though the survey mission was more scientific than in her skill line she'd argued that she could be useful for overseeing or repairing any equipment. Her Captain had done his best not to laugh before approving it: if that was how she wanted to spend her leave he knew she'd do it anyway.
The mission had started slow, setting up and taking initial readings, though she'd been genuinely interested by the survey. A survey that Una wouldn't get to see through. A call had come in from Earth, pulling her away from the discussion with one of the scientists, reporting of an incident at the Academy, which came with a promise from Una to be on the next shuttle out and Una didn't know what she felt more of disappointment or irritation.
It took her only a few hours to get to Earth, a single bag with her that Una had briefly stopped to deposit at her assigned room before taking the last of the trip over to the Academy, to the Academy's security where a cadet that she knew very well was currently being held. She'd made a request, a room to talk to her, knowing that the cadet wouldn't want to go anywhere even with Una whilst she was riled up and a chance to talk alone. Considering that this wasn't the first call that Una had needed to answer the requests had been granted, though it came with a warning: Una might have a good record, might have endorsed her but it was the last chance. Una understood that but she wasn't the one who needed to.
When the door opened for her, Una stepped in with her hands folded behind her back, she could feel the attitude and frustration even before the girl spoke. La'an Noonien-Singh. She'd heard the comments that had pushed the girl's buttons, and had been questioned about her own motives for supporting her, but at least in Una's case, a stern word or expression made even a superior back off. La'an didn't yet have that finesse or temper control. For the first few minutes after entering the room Una said nothing, pulling out the chair to sit across from her, studying her. There was so much about the girl that reminded Una of the day they'd met and in some ways so much that hadn't changed, though when you were forced to grow up too soon, too young, it put you at a disadvantage later.
Una could understand it, could understand her response even if she could never feel it -- La'an was hated just for existing, hunted by the Gorn, left to die, then hated just for who her ancestors were. An augment. Her name wasn't why Una had taken her under her wing, wasn't why she'd fought so hard for and with her, but she did understand. Una's history and the secrets that she hid were both similar and different, histories of augmentation and the reason why Illyrians were banned from Starfleet. That was a man long dead, not this girl whose many misfortunes had put her in Una's path. Who Una would continue fighting for.
Eventually, it was La'an that spoke first, La'an who didn't have Una's patience and she huffed out a breath. "Are you fighting their battles now?" She sounded much younger than she was, more a petulant child than the incredible officer that Una believed La'an could one day be if she could get there and if she could temper herself.
"Only yours." Her voice was unflappably calm and whilst most people would come in shouting or making demands Una knew that wouldn't work with La'an. It also, even though she was only a lieutenant, wasn't her style, not when she terrified more with silence and a look, at being so unflappable some swore that she was Vulcan. The calm had an effect on La'an, unnerving her slightly which only made her petulance worse, feeling too defensive and hating how weak it felt. She'd fought again but again they'd started it, calling her every name, talking about him until her buttons had been too pushed for her to do anything else. She didn't need Una to tell her she was disappointed but she wanted to pretend that she didn't care. She wasn't cut out for Starfleet anyway.
"I know what they said." Una doesn't need to have heard this one specifically to know exactly what would have started it: she's heard it before.
"And I--"
"Do you?" La'an cuts in, anger bursting from her. "I'm not him, I'm not even augmented but that's what they call me: augment, monster."
Una lets La'an yell, being the safe place for her that she's always been, that she always will be. She doesn't know when La'an had become more like family than simply a friend but the girl needed one, even if Una would never offer the words aloud. She needed one too, alone aside from the few people she'd made an effort to know, La'an chief amongst that.
"People who are afraid don't think to understand." Her words come from an experience that Una will never admit to La'an. She can't admit it, not and keep her position in Starfleet even if she wanted to, though she also doesn't know what would be the bigger blow for La'an -- that she's augmented or that she lied. "You're not him, you've fought every day for that. People hear about something in history and it makes them afraid, unfairly, and people that are afraid do stupid things." History had enough examples of that. La'an wants to butt back in and moves to but a look from Una quietens her, she's one of the few people that she'll listen to unquestionably (the only one) and she's calmer now for that look to quieten her.
"They were stupid and cruel. So were you. I heard you broke his jaw." La'an at least looks ashamed rather than proud about that now, her sense returning and she knows what Una's going to say: hitting them doesn't help. "Make them afraid by being better, not by being cruel. Be the Cadet, beat them in your class." La'an wasn't certain that she was capable of doing that, she was good in her studies, particularly her physical training, but was she cut out for it? Judging by Una's expression she didn't need to voice those concerns. They'd had this conversation before and Una's answer was always the same: "You'll find a way."
La'an doesn't expect it when she stands nor when Una offers a hand out to her. "I'm spending the next two weeks on Earth. You can show me what you've learned." Anywhere new she's been, her latest training. Una would make sure to spend some time with her ironing out what she could, doing in person for those two weeks what comms messages couldn't do.
What Una doesn't say as they leave is the warning that she'd been given. That was a later conversation, one on safer, more neutral ground, a conversation for after Una had worked a little magic.