Sins of the Father - Guilty by Association (Backpost)

Posted on Sat Sep 20th, 2025 @ 9:49pm by Captain Violet Bluegarden & Lieutenant Irril Sharvo

1,289 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: What's Past is Present
Location: Ready Room, U.S.S. The Sullivans

Having settled into his quarters aboard the U.S.S. The Sullivans, Lieutenant Sharvo Irril knew that it was time to meet with Captain Violet Bluegarden. He'd been aboard only a short while, but he'd been dreading this meeting a bit because he was fearful about what all Captain Bluegarden knew about his history. Starfleet was smaller than people thought and the Excelsior Captains were chatty, he really wondered what all Captain Leslie Wong had shared about his departure from the Cairo. He really hoped that this assignment wasn't an exercise in futility.

Tugging on his uniform tunic, the young Bajoran reached up and pressed the door chime.

Who knew that reactivating an old ship was so much effort?

This whole process of reactivating The Sullivans had sure been a learning experience, and that was before they had even gotten into dry dock to begin modernization.

For once, Violet was in one of her rare moments of downtime in the ready room. She never thought she would miss the mundanity of paperwork, but with her constantly running around and helping departments find stuff that the reactivation checklist identified needed to be present on the ship, a moment off her feet was a welcome change.

Violet had already begun the process of "moving in" to the ready room- having started by unpacking her great grand mamaw's time capsule and placing its contents on the ready room shelves. Those had also been joined on the otherwise barren shelves by some of Violet's own personal effects. Evidently, there was still more that she could add, but she was happy with what was there as a start.

Violet had just gotten a call from Lieutenant Takanashi regarding something that required her immediate attention, and was about to head out when she heard the ready room chime ring:

"Enter:" She called out. Hopefully this would be quick and Violet could be on her way, or it was Lieutenant Taknashi here to physically drag her from the room.

Knowing now was the time, the younger Bajoran tugged on his uniform to make sure it was presentable and then stepped through the portal and into the Ready Room of the Starship The Sullivans. He had been looking forward to this meeting with the Captain of the ship for some time, but was still a bit trepidatious about exactly how it would go if Captain Wong had been able to reach out first.

Stopping across from the desk, he stood at parade rest, "Operations Officer Sharvo Irril, reporting as ordered, Captain."

Sharvo... Where had Violet heard that name before?

The silence must have been excruciating for the Bajoran man as Violet struggled to remember where she had seen the name before. At last, it came to her: The Bajoran Provisional Government had furnished the Little Rock with a list of their most wanted fugitives, and the Sharvo family was listed as supporting terrorism. Surely, the man standing before her just had the name by coincidence...

"Any relation to the Sharvo family, Lieutenant?" Violet asked. "Wanted by the Bajoran government for supporting terrorism?" The captain chose to specify who she was talking about in case Sharvo turned out to be as common a name on Bajor as Jones or Smith was on Earth.

"Frax," the Bajoran mumbled absently in response to the question. Apparently the galaxy was as small as it seemed, or the Excelsior Captains really were as chatty as rumored. Looking at the Captain, he realized he'd just used a Ferengi expletive in front of his new Commanding Officer. If anything his first contact with Captain Bluegarden would definitely be one for the history books.

Still at rest, he pulled himself together, "I wish that I could say it was another Bajoran family, Captain, but that would be a lie. Sharvo Aktar was a Cardassian collaborator and he happens to be my father. He was apprehended by the Cairo, my previous assignment, and placed under arrest. Ultimately, the Bajoran government chose not to pursue my arrest because I was a child at the time of my father's crimes."

"I see." Violet nodded. "Well, Lieutenant; you should know that I've spent a lot of time in the Bajor system during my time with both the Cassin Young and my previous command, the Little Rock. I've made quite a few friends there, including some in the Bajoran Provisional Government. Now, I could easily list off at least 20 of them who would love nothing more than for me to turn you over to the Bajoran authorities and leave you to whatever fate they have in store for you."

Sharvo Irril stood there, silently listening to the Captain as she explained the situation as she saw it. It really was a unique situation in many ways, and a challenging environment for the Captain to be in. To have spent so much time in the Bajoran system and deal with a person who's father was accused as a collaborator would be challenging. Perhaps he should consider transferring again, perhaps even to the Alpha Quadrant.

"However:" Violet continued, motioning to Irril's Starfleet uniform. "That uniform you wear prevents me from doing so. I love the Bajorans to pieces, but I will not compromise my integrity as a Starfleet Officer to appease them. So, as long as you are assigned to my ship and wear that uniform, you are a Starfleet Officer first, and a Bajoran fugitive second, and I will do my damnedest to ensure that you remain outside Bajor's jurisdiction."

"To be fair, Captain, my father is the fugitive, and I am more an unwitting, forced accomplice. I was a child during the Occupation, far too young to understand what the Cardassians were doing. The Provisional Government seemed to understand that and gave me a pass, but the damage has already been done. I left the Cairo over my father's actions, I hope that I can find some solace here."

"Like I said, there are some in the Provisional Government more than happy to deem you guilty by association, regardless of how young you were at the time." Violet said. "However, I intend to not let that happen: It's unfair and cruel to label such a young child a war criminal, so I hope I can do the best I can to provide you that solace you seek."

The young Bajoran wanted to hug the Captain at the acknowledgement, but decided it was far too soon into their relationship to ever consider such an act. Instead, he went with the Starfleet answer, "Thank you, Captain, for your support."

"Of course," Violet nodded. "If you ever need anything, my door is always open. Now, I'd prefer you didn't wake me up out of a sound sleep, but part of my job is understanding that bad shit can happen at odd hours of the night."

"Don't worry, Captain, I plan to not wake you up unless it is absolutely necessary. I rarely bothered Captain Wong, well unless I needed to," the young officer confirmed. "Although, I do agree, it does seem that there's a lot of strange happenings in the middle of the night, especially aboard a starship."

"Indeed it does." Violet nodded in agreement as she rose to her feet, having been on the receiving end of being woken up in the middle of the night several times before. "I'll send you over what we've completed for the Ops list so far later. For now, I'm afraid I've probably kept our intrepid engineer waiting long enough."

The Bajoran nodded, "Thank you, Captain. I won't hold you up any longer. Permission to be dismissed?"

"Permission granted." Violet nodded.

A mission post by

Captain Violet Bluegarden
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Irril Sharvo
Chief Operations Officer

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