A Person of Interest, Part III
Posted on Thu Nov 13th, 2025 @ 11:16am by Lieutenant Siadra Molaur & Lieutenant Ezra Van Wijnbergen
Edited on on Mon Nov 17th, 2025 @ 5:50am
1,884 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Episode 2 - The Sins of History
Location: Side Bar Lounge - Deck 5 - USS Artemis
Timeline: MD015, 0745 hrs
He set his cup down and, almost absently, added, "You've got this way about you, Siadra... like you walk through the day noticing everything worth noticing. People like that"--he paused, searching for the right way to frame the thought--"they make the rest of us slow down and remember that small things still matter."
"I am glad that I can be of service. I have found that, each moment that a person shares with another, being a small part of their history, or they being of mine. It adds to life." Siadra giving another smile.
Ezra thought about how easily people said things like that, as though time could be measured by the number of kind strangers they might meet. But with her, it didn't sound trite. It sounded earnest and lived.
He leaned back then. "You mentioned this trial," he said after a pause. "Gul Vamcet. I've read the summaries--enough to know what he did. You were part of his apprehension. Do you see him as a monster?"
"I lived on Bajor for a time, I saw the damage that had been done to the planet. The scars that were there, pain evident from the ones that were older and had lived during the occupation. When being a weaver and a creator of clothing, people tend to talk, while watching the workings of the loom."
Siadra's gaze becoming distant as she remembered.
"They told me of their history. What he chose to do, willingly under the guise of being under orders. Making certain to grind them under his heel." there was a tremor in Siadra's voice and a glimmer of tears.
She looked into Ezra's eyes, there was anger in her own. "His actions were monstrous, he could have controlled himself therefore he willingly became a monster. Actions speak louder than words, Ezra. He embraced the monster within and so he is a monster. "
Ezra didn't answer just yet. He watched the way her fingers tightened slightly around the mug and the anger in her eyes. There was something almost sacred in her pause, the moment before she responded, almost as if silence could not give her pain the room to breathe.
He leaned forward once more, elbows on the table. "You're right," he said, breaking the long pause. His voice remained just above a whisper, gentle. "He chose. And choices matter. That's where the moral weight sits--right there in the moment someone could stop, and doesn't."
He glanced down at his cup, seeing the marshmallows now mostly dissolved into little white continents on the surface. "The trouble is, when we call a person a monster, we make them different from us. It makes us feel safer. It's becomes easier to lock away and forget. But if he's only a monster, then what happens to all the small choices the rest of us make every day--the ones that push the universe one way or the other?"
Turning his head to stare at Bajor through the viewport, Ezra took a long moment to consider Siadra's feelings about this war criminal. He turned back to her, eyes clear and searching. "I've sat across from people who've been hurt in ways I can't imagine. Some want revenge, some want understanding. Most just want to know that the person who hurt them is capable of knowing what they did. Capable of guilt. It's not forgiveness--they're not the same thing. But it's something human to hold onto."
"Are you trying to get me to see the 'human' side of him? Granted I do not know him personally. I didn't go talk to him, as my feelings have been strong where he is concerned. I tried to set aside my feelings, I had wanted to ask him why. The answer though could have been he was ordered to do what he did. Whether he feels guilt as to his actions I do not know."
Siadra drank of the cocoa, it now having a light brown hue. She looked down into the cup,
"Calling someone a monster, yes, it does make said person separated from the rest. It does provide a fence from behind we can all peer through feeling moderately safe. I have heard though that he is feeling sorrow for what he has done. That he wishes to pay for his sins. Yes that makes him not seem so monstrous."
Siadra looked up from the cup, her gaze having a resigned expression. "Does my feelings as to considering him a monster, make my monster show up, to where it can be seen as well?"
"Psychologically we all have some sort of monster that lives within us, a beast. Perhaps my having considered him a monster, makes the idiom of the pot calling the kettle black, be true"
She had the napkin in her right hand, her thumb running along the crease.
"No," he said softly. "Feeling anger doesn't make you a monster, Siadra. It makes you honest."
His eyes lifted, uncertain, caught between curiosity and shame.
Ezra went on, keeping his tone careful--like he was laying small stones across a brook. "You saw pain and didn't look away from it. Most people do. They turn it into something simpler so it doesn't touch them. You didn't do that--you tried to hold onto it. Tried to understand it. That's not monstrous at all. That's 'human' in the best sense."
He looked down at his own hands, his large fingers loosely curled around the quickly-cooling mug. "I think we mistake having dark feelings for being dark ourselves. But they're simply echoes of what we've seen--and they pass through us."
"Pieces of that dark echo can still linger, settling down into some crack of a person's psyche. Where it can just lay in waiting, gathering energy until it just leaps out." Siadra answering somberly.
She went quiet, contemplating her own words, laying the napkin flat onthe table. "Having someone to speak about the feelings that can just settle inside the mind is a good thing. Its good that there are counselors who have the ability to shed light in the darkness to help chase away those lingering echoes and shadows."
"We all need someone to talk to," Ezra admitted, knowing full-well he'd found himself unable to evacuate his own complex emotions. "In my work, I'm less a counselor and more of a guide. I work with people affected by crimes and help them to navigate the labyrinthine system that is justice. So, getting them ready for a hearing, helping them to prepare testimony, meeting with attorneys." He sighed, remembering some of the harder cases he'd worked in the recent past. "There are numerous ways the justice system tends to re-victimize the innocent."
Siadra gave an understanding nod. She'd been witness to several cases as part of the team to present evidence. She had seen the wounds that were reopened when the victim was starting to heal.
"It does cause problems." Siadra remarked quietly. "Now for a question I ask of you, who do you talk to when it is your turn to shed light upon what likes to linger in the shadows?"
Ezra smiled at the question but wasn't surprised by it. "I talk to my mother sometimes," he said after a moment. "She's retired now, lives on Betazed. She was a child psychologist for over forty years."
He smiled again, warm and more than a little nostalgic. "She has this way of listening that convinces you she can see this whole map of your thoughts and feelings. Even now, when I call, she'll let me talk about work or life--or even nothing at all." Taking a slow sip of cocoa, he reflected on how there were often things that he simply couldn't talk about. Even to her.
"And when I'm not talking to her," he went on, "I talk to my dogs." He grinned and turned his gaze to the viewport once again.
"Ah yes, the confidantes that will not judge nor tell tales. I had no idea you have dogs onboard. I remember having a counseling session with a counselor who had a therapy dog. This was a few months after I was joined with Molaur and assigned to a ship. It was comforting and fascinating to have one there."
Siadra had an amused smile, she was satisfied with his answer and noticed the twinkle in his eyes. "Good glad you have several someones you can talk to. Always a good thing."
Ezra smiled--purely reactive to Siadra's--and took what he felt was probably the last sip of the cocoa before setting it down on the table. "Speaking of someone to talk to," he began a slight glint in his eyes, "do you ever find the opportunity to speak with past hosts of Molaur?"
"Indeed, I do talk to them, quite a bit." Siadra's voice bubbly with amusement. "The first host has been rather effusive about your voice, giddy like a school girl having her first crush. The resonance of it. I think I had spoken of that earlier." she paused as if to recall that memory. she shrugged, It not coming to her mind. "I will have to agree with his assessment of your voice being rather pleasant to listen to."
Scratching his jaw, Ezra found himself marveling at the idea of carrying on a dialogue with long-dead people in your own head. He tried to pretend he didn't hear the compliment but the slight flushing of his cheeks betrayed him. "
"That's fascinating," he remarked. "During my last assignment, I had the pleasure of working with a Trill surgeon who would sometimes tell me some of her previous hosts would be squabbling while she was working." He smiled again at the memory.
"What are your plans for the day, Siadra?"
A gentle smile at Ezra sharing a little bit of his past with her. Siadra having a regretful expression in her eyes.
"I actually plan on getting a wee bit of sleep, I have been awake the whole night. Though it was a good happenstance for me to have decided to get something to eat, before I go get some sleep. I was able to meet you." Siadra having a twinkle in her eyes.
"The Sandman though is scattering his sleep dust in my eyes and I feel that I can't fight him off for too much longer." Siadra having an earnest expression.
Ezra grinned an honest and forthright grin at Siadra. "Better not fight him--he always wins," he said with a wink. "It was definitely a pleasure, Siadra. I hope to see you again."
A light shade of pink suffused her cheeks, Siadra giving a nod. "I feel that will be possible." a smile appearing. "Thank you for the company during breakfast."
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Siadra Molaur
Chief Forensic Science Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Lieutenant Ezra Van Wijnbergen
Victim Advocate Counselor, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
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