Work Text:
Into the Fire
Caleb Mir stood at attention during B’Avi’s funeral. He didn’t really know what else to do. He listened as Chancellor Kelrec eulogized one of his best and brightest cadets. He learned more about the Vulcan from his funeral than he ever had from the man when he was alive. Whenever they had crossed paths, whether in the commons, during their war games, or at the nightclub, he had seemed so rigid. So arrogant. Deliberately confrontational. For a Vulcan. It was Dzolo who had done most of the talking.
He looked over the casket and saw her standing equally at attention. He could tell that she was seething. That the shock and grief and need to blame someone was barely in check. Caleb wondered if trying to talk to her today was a good idea. She was not a friend. Barely and acquaintance. To him, she was more of an avatar, the embodiment of what he and his friends thought of the War College. That idea was patently false in the face of reality. She may be Romulan, she may be angry, she may even be a few choice words he’ll keep to himself. War makes strange bedfellows. Death can either break down walls or cause one to reinforce them. Dzolo was a person. Despite previous experience. Despite preconception. He would not maintain petty rivalry given the circumstances.
When the funeral was over, and B’Avi’s burial pod was released to the deep, Caleb stood at a large bay window watching the pod retreat from view. Dzolo stood at the other end the room doing the same. Caleb gave a final salute, turned, and made for the door. He watched her as he went. He knew she was aware of him, but she never flinched, never looked his way, and never asked him what happened. The door swished open before him, but he did not walk through it.
Turning on his heels, Caleb approached the Romulan cadet.
“That’s close enough,” she said, evenly, never looking his way.
Taking a couple of more step toward the large window, he stopped parallel to her a few feet away. He waited silently.
“Okay,” she added. “I’ll bite. What do you want, Mir?”
“Peace,” he replied. “The end of hostilities.”
“There isn’t much peace to go around, Mir. It’s the last thing on my mind.”
“As my Chancellor likes to say. I’m tired of being enemies.”
“Do you really think that your band of merry misfits is where my head it at right now.”
Caleb turned to her. “No. I don’t. I suspect you’re thinking about B’Avi. So am I. I can’t stop thinking about what he did.“
“What did he do, Mir?” Dzolo said turning to him. “Huh? What did he do? He cut short a brilliant Starfleet career? Take a fatal phaser blast guy who still treats this place like a playground. A guy who’s more interested in getting laid than giving his allegiance. How about a guy who has it easy because he is the Chancellor’s pet?”
Caleb was rankled by Dzolo’s comments. “You don’t know me.”
“I know enough. B’avi did his duty, Mir. He knew that for everyone else to live, you had to live. That’s what he did. His duty.”
Caleb turned to the window again. His flash of anger gone. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.”
“Fuck you, Mir!” Dzolo growled. “FUCK YOU!”
She proceeded to beat on the window with her right fist. Her growl elevated into a visceral scream. She beat on the window for what seemed like forever; cursing him, but never turning her attack to him. Caleb took a couple of steps toward her. She turned, raising a fist to him. Their eyes met for the first time. Hers were filled with rage, sweat now beading her brow and lacing her black hair at her temples. His eyes were keen, but seasoned with grief, understand, and grace.
Dzolo lowered her fist and leaned against the bulkhead before sliding down into a sitting position. Caleb silently followed suit.
“I’m not sorry for what I said,” she huffed, wiping sweat from her brow.
“I know,” Caleb replied, knowingly, a small smile curling his lip.
“B’Avi was my best friend,” Dzolo said.
“I figured,” Caleb repeated, kindly.
“I’m not sure what to do,” she said, absently. “I always knew what to do when he was here. It’s like half of me is gone. And you were the one who was with him at the end. How is that fair? Why didn’t Chancellor Kelrec assign me to that mission? B’Avi and I were a team. It was a training mission, for the god’s sake!”
“I was surprised you weren’t there,” Caleb added, quietly.
“I should have been,” she said, gritting her teeth again.
“I agree,” Caleb replied. “But, then, maybe you’d be dead, and he would be sitting her grieving you.”
“You think I give a fuck?” Dzolo answered, coldly. “He. Would. Be. Here.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that. What do you know?”
“I know what he did for me, for us,” Caleb said. “I’m not blind. I may be new to Starfleet, but I’m not new to sacrifice.
They sat in silence for a few minutes.
“Will you tell me what he was like?” Caleb asked.
“Will you tell me what happened?” Dzolo answered.
Caleb offered his hand between them. It stood extended for a few seconds before she took it. “Deal.”