Honesty... one of his secrets

Posted on Fri May 2nd, 2025 @ 9:00pm by Lieutenant Zara Kingston Ph.D. & Lieutenant Commander Ryan Price

Mission: Those who are left behind
Location: Zara's quarters

On:

Ryan had been thinking over things, his past had been laden with many secrets, some were personal in a way that he wouldn't share them with just anyone, there were others that were haunting and dark. In the present context he didn't want to keep certain secrets where his relationships were concerned, and after all he was in a relationship....wasn't he? He paused looking at the floor, If I tell her this what could happen? he mused. As he raised his gaze back to walking forward, it wasn't like he'd tell her That other secret... for now. He weighed the potential consequences of what he wanted to say, he also was a bit afraid of her reaction if it was negative or worse. The other side was Zara would find out some things sooner or later.

Zara was on her way to her quarters after spending a day at the main science labs. It was a fairly long day for her as she was writing recommendation reports for various Starfleet stakeholders. She had a PADD in her hand as she was walking back to her quarters, totally oblivious to her surroundings until she reached her quarters to see Ryan standing there. "Oh!" she said, blushing slightly. "I didn't see you there."

Ryan half froze as she saw him, his heart skipped a beat as she spoke, he pauses be smart about this... he thought as he spoke next "Can we talk in private?" trying not to sound serious.

She was a little taken aback. "Um...sure," she said. "Is everything okay?" So many thoughts were racing through her head, and she could only focus on one—him wanting to end what they had started. Regardless, she knew she needed to remain calm. The door to her quarters opened and she gestured for him to come inside.

Ryan could read some concern in her voice and he spoke after the door closed, "There's something I need you to know, and there are secrets about me that I'd rather you hear from me than speculation from the ship-board gossip machine." Ryan said looking deeply into her eyes, "After the holodeck my mind kind of raced a bit, I didn't want you to think I'm pretending to have a realationship with you as part of some cover, that kind of thing is on hold for now, being the agent thing anyways." he fumbled out.

Ship-board gossip machine? she thought to herself. She took his hand and led him to her couch, and they sat down. "Ryan, I'm not worried about you pretending to be in a relationship with me as a cover," she said softly, looking across her room at nothing in particular. The thought of him pretending, though, did make her feel uneasy on the inside. It wasn't something she'd been worried about, but now it would be in her head. She looked back at him. "What do you need to tell me? What secrets?"

Ryan decided he had nothing too loose here and spoke "The first officer came into possession of somekind of media footage of an evacuation mission I was part of, well under the name Ryan Price anyways." he paused his thoughts were starting to jumble "That mission was one of many, from rescuing Romulan dissidents too breaking up smuggling over the last few years, hell I was undercover at Wolf three five nine purely because the admiral who assigned me there needed me to get first hand information on who planted the wildfire computer virus."

It was a lot for Zara to take in, but in truth, none of this was actually all that surprising to hear from an intelligence officer. What did interest her though was the mention of the media footage that the first officer had obtained. “What’s so special about this specific video that she has?” she asked.

Ryan let out a deep breath "Some of the footage was of a firefight with the Jemhidar as we were being pushed out of the settlement back to an evacuation point, my specific role was to get a number of high profile types out and away from the Dominion forces, I didn't know that the footage existed anymore as the camera operator got caught in the crossfire."

She frowned and shook her head. "I'm confused. What's so bad about you helping people get away from the Jem'Hadar?" She paused. "Is there something...in the video you didn't want me to see?"

"No...but there are a lot of people who don't know I'm alive and others who want me dead." Ryan said then adding "There are some angry Orion syndicate types who are paying for that privilege."

And there it was, she realized. "Well, how did the first officer even acquire this footage?" she asked. "And can Starfleet Intelligence track down the source, perhaps, and...do something about it so that it doesn't fall into the wrong hands?" She let out a breath, looking into his eyes.

Ryan sat back looking up at the ceiling "I got the impression the footage was found, as to how she got it there aren't many ways except through the intelligence communities, most likely something to do with her dad." he paused as he looked down briefly "I played it cool surrounding the footage since the mission itself wasn't classified, it's existence is enough to be of concern." he turned to look at her again, "There are other things, bad things, very bad..." his words tailed off.

Zara tried to think back to her introduction to Commander Stoffels to remember what she had said about her father, but wasn't really coming up with anything. If she remembered correctly, her father was a Marine officer. After hearing his words tail off, she placed her hand on top of his. "Do you want to tell me?" she asked quietly.

Ryan stared blankly at the wall "When I was a security officer at Starbase 25 I arrested a low level criminal on a minor infraction, he swore he'd retaliate, one night while I was off duty I was walking alone back too my quarters and that guy attacked me, during the fight I killed him." his voice became cold "His two buddies came at me I shot both of them with a phaser that had fallen on the floor during the struggle."

"After the investigation I met this mysterious admiral and he put me too work doing operations with Starfleet intelligence, my name was changed, my records were erased." he paused feeling nothing "after that I'd go where I was needed, Campor, Wolf three five nine, the badlands, and so on."

His story may have stirred different emotions for someone who wasn’t Klingon and hadn’t been raised in Klingon culture. In Zara’s eyes—and she knew her father would agree—he did what he had to do. As for the mysterious admiral, that was interesting to her. “Thank you for trusting me to tell me that,” was all she could managed to say. She remembered their first time ever meeting where she had jokingly said dating a spy must be difficult because of all the secrets. Now, it seemed less like a joke.

Ryan looked at Zara, "I'm not perfect, far from it."

“None of us are perfect, Ryan,” she said to him. “Anyone claiming to be is lying. And for the record, I’m not expecting you to be perfect.”

He leaned in slightly "I'll just do the best I can."

"I will too," she said, kissing him on the cheek as he leaned in.

Ryan turned to face Zara "Thank you."

End