Living the dream

Posted on Fri Jan 23rd, 2026 @ 6:55am by Rear Admiral Indi Hawk & Treon Brevor

923 words; about a 5 minute read

/// Somewhere ///

It was Indi's office. But it wasn't.

It certainly looked like her office aboard Starbase 369. Not that she ever saw it.

It was just off Fleet Command Ops.

A large inner sanctum and outside - the yeoman's station and a small waiting room.

She stood up when Indi arrived that morning. Like every morning.

A Lt that was appointed as her yeoman when she arrived at SB 369.

She greeted Indi with a smile.

"Good morning, Admiral. You have a meeting with Admiral Maclaren in fifteen minutes. Otherwise your schedule is clear until 1100."

She followed Indi into the office.

The office inside featured viewports looking out into space. Several ships were docked along the upper pylons

A neat pile of PADDs was waiting for Indi on her desk, along with a steaming mug of coffee - black, exactly as she took it.

The same as yesterday, and the day before that.

It had been a little while now since Indi had known something was off. She hadn't quite figured out all of it yet, but something was definitely off. She hadn't let it show to anybody yet, but something was wrong. Her conversations with Sidra had been off. Stories that didn't add up. Stories that she remembered differently. She had thrown a few in the mix, like what happened the day she got promoted to Commodore. The answer she'd gotten from good-humored Sidra hadn't been anything like it had really been.

But then, where was she? When was she? How was she? What was this place?

Until she could figure it out, she'd decided to play along. But then the link with Sha'mer had opened. A blast of fury followed by softer feelings. And then she'd really known something was wrong. And she'd decided not to go along so easily anymore.

"Good morning, Lieutenant", she replied, eyeing her desk. The same as every morning. The same dreadful coffee instead of her usual bottle of coke. Until now, she'd assumed the Yeoman just wanted to do her best, but now she knew better. The Yeoman had no idea she took coke instead of coffee for her caffeine intake. "Please get in touch with Admiral MacLaren's office to reschedule the meeting. I have other matters to attend to," she added. She couldn't bear to be in the same room with that imposter anymore. Not with any of this fake stuff, but least of all her used-to-be-friend.

The idea she was being manipulated, made her skin crawl. She had to get off this starbase, but where would she go? Was this a physical recreation? Was it a holodeck? Was it some unknown technology? Just how far would she get 'off' the starbase? Too many unknowns so far to risk her life over. And so she was stuck. And hated every second of it.

"Other matters." The Lt responded carefully.

Indi would usually sit and start going over the PADDs. Today she didn't. She was standing by her desk..

"Admiral MacLaren would like to know why I'm rescheduling. What should I tell her?"

"Tell her I have other things to see to," Indi shrugged. She liked her Yeoman less and less. The more she was thinking about it, the more she realized she'd been bossed around by her from the minute she got here. As long as she'd thought it made things run smoothly, Indi had gone with it. Now, it simply bothered her. "Now leave me alone," she added.

There was a pause that was just a little too long.

Then the yeoman smiled. "Yes, Admiral."

She stopped before the door and turned around.

"Please let me know if there's anything else you need."

Indi waited until the door had closed before sitting down and activating her console. For the better part of an hour, she tried looking up facts and figures that she knew to be true. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, that information checked out. Whoever was behind this, was very sophisticated.

Did she want to draw them out? Did she want to play along and see what information she could gather?

In the end, she tried to focus on her link with Sha'mer again, see if she could open it and send more information. But she was out of practice. Nothing happened, except for maybe a few vague thoughts or feelings. She couldn't be sure what - if anything - got through.

Information gathering then. She got up from her chair and found her Yeoman right outside her office. "You're officially assigned to the Security department? Right, Lieutenant? Let's go then. I want to get some sparring in, and you just became my partner."

Without waiting for a reply, Indi headed off towards the gym. If no more information, at least the exercise would clear her mind and allow her to think out of the box.

"Admiral?" The Yeoman called out after her.

When Indi didn't slow down, she hurried after her.

"It would be best to schedule a sparring session in advance," the yeoman said, once she caught up with Indi. "The gym could be full at this hour."

And indeed, when they finally got to the gym, it was full of exercising officers. Every mattress was occupied.

That's not what Indi had hoped for. A sparring session could have given her a good feeling about the Yeoman's persona. Now, she was left to guess even more. "Schedule a session. Let me know when. I'm off for lunch," she spoke over her shoulder and left.

--

Yeoman apb Treon Brevor
&
RAdm Indi Hawk

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