Strange Bedfellows
Posted on June 21st, 2017 by Daniel Vallero and Alexis Wright

by Daniel Vallero and Alexis Wright

“Commander Vallero: I wonder if I could request a few minutes of your time. I’d like to personally thank you for your honest testimony at the hearing, and the bravery that it must have taken to defy your orders to do what you knew was right. I know that you and I did not see eye to eye during your time aboard Atlantis, but I’m hoping you’ll give me the opportunity to apologize for my mistrust – I know now that I was wrong about you. I look forward to speaking with you.

Best Regards,
Lieutenant Commander Alexis Wright, Chief Science Officer, U.S.S. Atlantis”

Daniel Vallero frowned when opening the letter on his screen, wondering why Lieutenant Commander Wright would be writing him. By the end of it, however, he was feeling a mixture of surprise, delight at having yet another express their acceptance of him, and confusion at not having noticed the depth of Wright’s previous distrust. After a moment of sitting in silent consideration, his chair squeaked as he reached forward to call her, his curiosity driving him to respond immediately.

The unexpected incoming call alert pulled Alexis from the pages of her book, her initial moment of confusion giving way to mild anxiety when she realized who was calling. She had, of course, initiated this sequence of events, but that didn’t make her any less nervous. Knowing it was better to get this over with, she suppressed her urge to decline the call and extricated herself from the pleasant combination of couch and cat, setting her book on the coffee table and smoothing her ponytail as she sat primly at the console. After a quick check that Kate was still on the holodeck playing tennis, Alexis finally affected what she hoped was a calm expression and accepted the call, the man’s familiar face appearing before her. “Commander Vallero. I see that you received my message?”

He returned a polite smile at Alexis’ greeting from his desktop screen. “I did. I appreciate your kind words.” He then waited, not commenting on her words of mistrusting him, giving her a chance to say what she wanted to say.

When it became clear after a few moments that he had no intention of continuing, Alexis frowned slightly. He wasn’t going to make this easy for her… but then, had she any right to expect him to do so? “Of course,” she replied, ending the slightly awkward pause, “Your actions were commendable. I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that it took your display of integrity and valor at that hearing for me to finally admit that Kate had been right about you, and that my deep distrust of you seems to have been… unfounded. It is for that ill-placed distrust that I wish to offer my sincere apology.” She hesitated briefly before adding, “People are definitely not my area of expertise, but hubris sometimes leads me to believe otherwise.”

Daniel’s eyes frowned, but the smile remained and curved good-naturedly as he cocked his head to the side. “But I wasn’t to be trusted, was I?” Seeing that she was perplexed by this response to her apology, his smile faded into a serious expression. “You were right about me, Ms. Wright. If anything, I should be apologizing to you. I didn’t realize just how much you distrusted me, but I didn’t make much of an effort to get to know everyone either, at least at first. I tried to fix that later, but I wasn’t very good at it. My eyes were on my mission, which was manipulating Kate in her command decision at the Romulan border. I failed, though, and I’m glad I did.” The smile returned, this time showing affection. “Kate’s a strong one, isn’t she?”

“She is strong,” Alexis said tenderly, her eyes lingering for a moment on a nearby holophoto of the two of them together before returning to Daniel full of steely resolve. “Strong… and strong-willed. She trusts her gut, which seems to serve her quite well most of the time. But I’m a scientist, Commander Vallero. I trust evidence. And the evidence I saw told me that your motives were impure. So to some degree, I’m glad to know that my observations had merit. I believed that Kate was allowing her past association with you to color her judgment, and if I’m understanding you correctly, then perhaps that was part of the point of your assignment to that mission.

“But what truly vexed me is this: no matter how I tried to convince her, she ignored me entirely. She was willing to risk not only herself, not only the lives of the crew, but the fate of the entire Federation on what her ‘gut’ told her about you. Trillions of beings across the galaxy will never know how lucky it was for them that Kate’s gut was right… this time. So yes, as I said, to some degree I’m pleased to be vindicated. But even so, I was still wrong; I’m thankful that Kate rejected my advice, in retrospect, because had she heeded it, the outcome may have been truly tragic. I’m overwhelmingly grateful that her strength of character could sway you to change your course, if indeed that is what happened. It seems I was right to trust evidence, but now the weight of the evidence is on the other side. So if I was initially right about you, then I do not apologize for the distrust. Instead, I simply re-evaluate my position.”

Straightening back in his chair and pulling in a deep breath, Vallero considered what she said. Having contacted him with words of apology and encouragement, Wright seemed to now be telling him how she really felt. Over the years, he had worked around quite a few scientists and otherwise logical thinkers to respect their opinions, and now was no different. Besides, he had reflected on himself quite a lot the past few months, and he would be the first to point a finger at himself.

Still, he found Wright’s unique mix of logical and emotional sides to be quite interesting. Vallero offered her a small twitch of a smile. “I changed my allegiance when I realized I had been duped. The Romulans weren’t aggressive, but actually refugees. Kate saw it and stood strong on her belief. Mine wavered, and I was forced to come to terms that I was fighting for the wrong side.” He spread his hands in front of him. “I thought I was standing strong for what was right and not letting friendship get in my way. And yes, I was assigned to sway her because of our previous friendship.” Vallero folded his hands again. “Turns out I should have trusted our friendship after all, and in the end I did. It wasn’t so much that she changed my mind, but when I did tell her everything, she chose to trust in me, that I could help fix things.”

Alexis was quiet for some time, regarding him with an inscrutable look on her face. When she did finally speak, her voice was quiet. “I suppose, Commander Vallero, that we are both only human. I regret my mistakes, and it sounds as though you regret yours. Ultimately, what matters is what you did at the hearing… and for that, you have my gratitude. Thank you.”

Vallero gazed back at Wright’s image on his screen for a long moment. He then lowered his eyes to the desk and gently nodded. “That’s what I keep telling myself.” Another quiet moment passed before he took a deep breath and offered a small smile. “I really owe Kate. Let me know if I can be of help to her, will you?”

Nodding, Alexis returned his small smile with one of her own. “Certainly. Thank you for your time, Commander. And… Good luck.”

Once the call disconnected, she let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding and looked once more at Kate’s face in the holophoto. She smiled softly and shook her head, murmuring, “I wonder if you even know what ripples you leave in your wake.”