Chapter 20: Yeoman Rand

Dawn arrived on the bridge the next morning and made her way to the engineering console. As she sat down Jim stepped out of the turbolift. She noticed that he looked at everyone and saw that with the exception of Janice Rand that everyone was here. He walked over to Buffy and looked down at her. "Commander," he said. Buffy got up and he sat down in the center seat.

Jim swiveled his chair towards Spock. "Good morning, Commander Spock."

"Good morning, captain."

"I enjoyed our game last night."

"It was ..." Spock hesitated. "Most instructive."

"Let me guess," Buffy said. "Three-dimensional chess?"

"Yes," Jim replied.

Buffy smiled and looked toward Spock. "If the Captain is not a challenging partner. You could try Dawn. T'Pol taught her the game and she is quite good at it.

Spock looked at Dawn who nodded. "I would be honored to have a game with someone who had the chance to play with Ambassador T'Pol."

The turbo-lift opened once again and Yeoman Rand sidled to the environmental systems station and started to work.

"Yeoman Rand," Jim said stiffly.

"Yes, captain?" she whispered.

"About my schedule."

"Yes, sir, it's right here, sir."

"But you made an appointment for me with Leonard McCoy," he said. "Dr. McCoy and I have served together for years. Didn't you notice that we both came to the Enterprise from the same ship?"

"No, sir. He didn't say—I'm sorry, sir."

Dawn frowned as she slowly got up from her seat. What she felt from Jim was enough to warrant. "Janice, may I see you in private," she said before Jim could say anything about Rand's appearance.

Her uniform easily two sizes too big, her hair rumpled, and her eyes watery.

Dawn escorted Rand into the turbolift and then selected a destination. As the turbolift started downward she turned toward Janice. "Tell me what happened."

Janice looked at Dawn confused for a second and then at her appearance and sighed. The words came out in a tumble. Janice had no conception of hazing. Sometime in her life she had decided, or had it demonstrated to her, that sticking up for herself was more dangerous than submitting to humiliation.

"And then this morning," Janice said, "I went back to the cabin to get my things and move, and I just lay down for a second, only I was so tired I fell asleep and when I woke up I was late, and I put my uniform on only it was the wrong uniform, I know I ordered the right one but it isn't the one that was there when I lay down, and I didn't know whether to order another one and wait, or put it on and go to work, and Roswind laughed till I could hardly think." Her lips quivered. She hovered on the brink of tears. "She's so beautiful and I admired her so much at first, but all she ever did was make fun of me and laugh."

"Why didn't you just laugh, too?"

Janice stared at her, uncomprehending. "I had to go to work."

"She was teasing you, Janice. Maybe she let it go farther than she meant—I hope that's all it was—or maybe she's the sort of person who likes to see how far she can push you. Usually all you have to do is push back."

Janice said nothing. She sat very still, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, giving every indication of listening to what Dawn said to her. But the expression in her eyes was lost, distant, hopeless.

"Where are you from, Janice?"

"What? I'm sorry, I mean ..."

"Where's your home world?"

"Oh," she said, her voice rising into a brittle false cheer, "I'm from all over, we moved around a lot."

"Who's we? Your family, your community? Where did you go?"

"Why are you asking me all these questions?" Janice cried. "Why should you care, what do you need to know for?"

"First is because it's my job. And even if it was, I care because it hurts me to see anyone as frightened as you are. I care because we have to work together, and we can't if you act like a scared sixteen-year-old."

Janice gasped and her fair skin paled. Janice flung herself on her knees at Dawn's feet.

"How did you find out? Oh, please, please, don't tell, don't tell anyone—"

"Janice—!"

"Please, I'll do anything! Just don't tell!"

"Janice, get up!" Dawn said as she practically dragged Janice up. "Stop it, now, stop it!"

Janice jerked herself away from Dawn. "How did you find out?" she cried.

Dawn's eyes went wide with realization that Janice was actually younger than her official records said she was. "I didn't know, Janice," she said truthfully. "I won't tell, I promise. How did you get into Starfleet at sixteen? They're pretty strict about that."

"When I was little, my family moved," Janice whispered. "The warp engines blew, and we had to travel through normal space. We accelerated almost to light-speed, so it only took us a few weeks of subjective time. But objective time, it was three years."

"Nobody ever corrected the records?"

Janice shook her head.

"You were scared for people to find out," Dawn said as Janice nodded. "And you don't want to go back to…"

"Saweoure," Janice answered.

Dawn racked her braing for a moment. "I don't recognize the planet."

"It's where we ended up after the ship lost its warp drive. We didn't have enough money to get it fixed. We had to sell it and stay there. But you can't just stay there if you don't have any money. You have to be under somebody's 'protection.'" Quite calmly, Janice told Dawn the entire story.

"Janice ..." Dawn took a deep breath. "What you're describing is nothing but slavery! How is this allowed to go on? Hasn't anyone tried to stop it?"

Janice's voice turned bitter. "How should I know? Maybe it's easier for the Federation to think everything's all right. Maybe everybody likes it that way so they keep it secret."

Since becoming an empath Dawn welcomed the feelings she was receiving from Janice of bitterness and anger. "If I may ask," she said as the finally reached her office and stepped inside. "How did you get away?"

"I sneaked me and my brothers on board a cargo shuttle. We were too ignorant to know it was impossible. Once the shuttle got back to its mother ship, we stayed hidden. It wasn't too hard. Then we hid in a crate of relief supplies, and when we landed we snuck into the Faience refugee camp—"

"You snuck into Faience?" Dawn asked. She had heard of the camp. It was not the best place to be.

Janice shrugged. "It was better than where we'd been," she said. "Then Starfleet came to relocate us, and that's when I found out I was legally three years older than I really am. I don't have any records except my birth certificate."

"What about your brothers?"

"They didn't even have birth certificates. The officials at Faience patted us on the head and said, 'Oh you poor children,' and registered Ben and Sirri. Since I was of age, I got their guardianship. I found them a good school, and I joined Starfleet so I could pay for it."

Dawn smiled at Janice. "If I had been in your situation. I would have done the same thing. I can pull some strings if you want. Both Buffy and I have some pull with the Admiralty we can get the slavery stuffy looked into. I won't even mention you or your brothers if you don't want."

"I… I'm not sure," Janice replied.

"It's okay," Dawn answered. "It's something to thank about at least. Now let's get you fixed up and back to the bridge. The sooner you forget about this morning, the better."

"I have to ... to go back to my cabin. I left my things on my bunk. Roswind will be there, I guess."

"Forget about your roommate. You move into the yeoman's cabin. Wash your face. Put on a fresh uniform. I'll get your things for you."

"Oh, Dawn, would you?"

"Leave it to me," Dawn said.