05-08-2024, 01:56 AM
==Jensen timeline==
Of course, Jensen was still on his high horse. Jenny supposed she shouldn't have been surprised; Jensen's morals made him who he was, a protector of the innocent and a valuable right-hand. Unfortunately it also made him rather inflexible when it came to certain circumstances, and it made Jenny truly wonder whether his moving to the Command Track had been the best thing she had done for his career - he could easily have thrived as a Security Instructor at Starfleet Academy or commanding a VIP protection detail somewhere; jobs that required his kind of black-and-white analysis of the universe.
The longer he's in that uniform, the more grey he's going to see, and he won't like it.
Jenny leaned back in her chair again and fished a cigarette from her pocket. Lighting it, she stared at the ceiling for a few moments before exhaling a cloud of smoke through her nostrils.
"The Federation is so afraid of 'starting a war' that it lets people walk all over it. In the twenty-two sixties it was the Klingons. The twenty-three sixties the Romulans and the Cardassians. They violate our space, and we send them packing with a stern finger-wag and a reminder not to do it again. How many people have died because Federation foreign policy is to be the galaxy's doormat? If you ask me, we were at war with Cardassia the moment they took the Callisto, a war we lost the moment the bigwigs decided the Callisto wasn't worth recovering after all."
Jenny rubbed her eyes, not from physical but emotional exhaustion and sighed. She closed them, still tilted up in her chair facing the ceiling, and let her shoulders slump into something relaxed. It was an easily-recognisable sign of someone who had seen too much, done too much, in far too short a space of time.
"I'm never going to order you to follow an illegal order, it was stupid of me to try the first time and I'm genuinely sorry I put that on you. I need you to understand something, though; you're still a Security Officer first and foremost. Your training tells you that the world exists in two shades: legal and illegal, black and white. I came into Tactical from Special Operations; everything was a shade of grey, legal and illegal weren't our concern. I see the universe a lot differently to you because of the things I have seen, and the things I have done. We can put on the fancy red uniforms and call each other 'Captain' and 'Commander' all day long, but deep down you're still a cop, and I'm still a soldier; we are going to disagree on a great many things because of that."
Opening her eyes again, Jenny sat straight upright.
"Starfleet has treated its people poorly over the last century or so, there are still Callisto survivors out there somewhere along with God-knows how many other crews Command gave up as 'lost'; that's why the people will always be my first priority. That's where my loyalty lies; not to the uniform, but to the people wearing the uniform. You're right, I'm not Kirk. Or Picard. Or Pike, Sisko, Janeway, Mariner, Boimler, any of the other legends we all read about. I am just a woman with a very strong idea of right and wrong, the moral courage to do something about it regardless of the risk, and the ability to pull it off."
Extinguishing the now-stubby cigarette in the ash-tray on her desk, Jenny gave her First Officer a wry smile. She genuinely hoped that Jensen would take what she was saying to heart, and not write if off as arrogance or self-importance.
"Fortunately I don't think our next few assignments are going to need us to use those particular skills."
Of course, Jensen was still on his high horse. Jenny supposed she shouldn't have been surprised; Jensen's morals made him who he was, a protector of the innocent and a valuable right-hand. Unfortunately it also made him rather inflexible when it came to certain circumstances, and it made Jenny truly wonder whether his moving to the Command Track had been the best thing she had done for his career - he could easily have thrived as a Security Instructor at Starfleet Academy or commanding a VIP protection detail somewhere; jobs that required his kind of black-and-white analysis of the universe.
The longer he's in that uniform, the more grey he's going to see, and he won't like it.
Jenny leaned back in her chair again and fished a cigarette from her pocket. Lighting it, she stared at the ceiling for a few moments before exhaling a cloud of smoke through her nostrils.
"The Federation is so afraid of 'starting a war' that it lets people walk all over it. In the twenty-two sixties it was the Klingons. The twenty-three sixties the Romulans and the Cardassians. They violate our space, and we send them packing with a stern finger-wag and a reminder not to do it again. How many people have died because Federation foreign policy is to be the galaxy's doormat? If you ask me, we were at war with Cardassia the moment they took the Callisto, a war we lost the moment the bigwigs decided the Callisto wasn't worth recovering after all."
Jenny rubbed her eyes, not from physical but emotional exhaustion and sighed. She closed them, still tilted up in her chair facing the ceiling, and let her shoulders slump into something relaxed. It was an easily-recognisable sign of someone who had seen too much, done too much, in far too short a space of time.
"I'm never going to order you to follow an illegal order, it was stupid of me to try the first time and I'm genuinely sorry I put that on you. I need you to understand something, though; you're still a Security Officer first and foremost. Your training tells you that the world exists in two shades: legal and illegal, black and white. I came into Tactical from Special Operations; everything was a shade of grey, legal and illegal weren't our concern. I see the universe a lot differently to you because of the things I have seen, and the things I have done. We can put on the fancy red uniforms and call each other 'Captain' and 'Commander' all day long, but deep down you're still a cop, and I'm still a soldier; we are going to disagree on a great many things because of that."
Opening her eyes again, Jenny sat straight upright.
"Starfleet has treated its people poorly over the last century or so, there are still Callisto survivors out there somewhere along with God-knows how many other crews Command gave up as 'lost'; that's why the people will always be my first priority. That's where my loyalty lies; not to the uniform, but to the people wearing the uniform. You're right, I'm not Kirk. Or Picard. Or Pike, Sisko, Janeway, Mariner, Boimler, any of the other legends we all read about. I am just a woman with a very strong idea of right and wrong, the moral courage to do something about it regardless of the risk, and the ability to pull it off."
Extinguishing the now-stubby cigarette in the ash-tray on her desk, Jenny gave her First Officer a wry smile. She genuinely hoped that Jensen would take what she was saying to heart, and not write if off as arrogance or self-importance.
"Fortunately I don't think our next few assignments are going to need us to use those particular skills."