***************
USS Aegis
Sickbay
The Next Day…
Lt. Commander Erik Rydell smiled weakly when the door opened. With a grimace he sat up slightly in his biobed. Sage Vechama stalked forward, causing several of the medical center’s staff to scurry out of her way.
She stopped in front of him and looked down at him, her mask making her facial expression inscrutable. Rydell decided to speak first. “I’m glad you weren’t hurt.”
The woman nodded. “I wish I could say the same for you.”
He grinned, “That wasn’t a joke was it?”
“No,” the Breen said. “I was merely stating my hope that you hadn’t been injured. Your body made an excellent shield for me,” the woman paused, gauging his reaction. “That was a joke,” she added. Rydell sighed in relief.
“Actually you shielded me,” he said. He had received a multitude of contusions and lacerations as almost the bar’s whole stock seemed to have been hurled at him. Rydell had thrown his arms over his face and balled up his body to protect himself as best as possible. He hadn’t done a good job. Before he blacked out he remembered Vechama stepping forward to cover him. “Thank you.” The Breen nodded.
“You see the fallacy of the stigma of turning your back on a Breen now?” She asked.
“And the jokes keep coming,” Rydell said drolly. “So, what now?” The Starfleet officer switched tracks. “Since none of the eggs were recovered, and Nefas bit the dust, how will that affect relations between the Gynarchy and the Confederacy?”
“I don’t know,” the woman answered truthfully. “But I am hopeful that Nefas’s demise and the likely destruction of the eggs on the ship bearing Amah Losa will settle the matter.”
“I hope so too,” Rydell said. An awkward silence grew between them. Finally, the Operations Officer couldn’t help himself. “Say…Sage Vechama…perhaps the next time I’m back in this sector of space….”
“No,” the woman said. Rydell recoiled.
“Geez, I was just going to….” The human began again.
“No,” she said. “You intrigue me, but it would never work. You are not Breen.”
“There are a lot of interspecies relationships all across the galaxy. If Klingons and humans can wed and raise families, I think any type of relationship is possible,” Rydell half-joked.
“Humans,” the Breen shook her head slowly, “are too stubborn for your own good.” The woman glanced around the room. Both she and Rydell noticed that the medical staff was studiously avoiding them. She leaned forward, and carefully took off the front of her mask.
Rydell did his best not to react, but he gasped, “Whoa.”
“You understand now?” Rydell nodded.
“I am not opposed to a friendship,” the sage offered.
“Friends is good,” he nodded more vigorously, his throat dry. “Friends works for me.” The sickbay doors opened again and Lt. Brenda Tshego stepped through. “As a matter of fact, there’s another of my friends now,” Rydell said, prompting a pinched expression on the young woman’s face.
“Didn’t mean to intrude,” she said, turning quickly on her heel.
“You’re not intruding,” both Rydell and Vechama said at the same time. They gave each other a curious look. Tshego turned back around, and carefully considered them both.
“I just wanted to see how you were doing?” The woman said after a few seconds. “I’ve seen. So goodbye,” she added.
“Why are you lying?” Vechama said. Tshego whipped back around.
“What did you just say?”
“You are not being truthful,” the Breen said. “You project an air like you are not interested in Lt. Commander Rydell, but your body language proves otherwise.”
“Plus, coming back to see me is another good indicator,” he muttered.
“I don’t need help,” Vechama retorted, drawing a smile from Tshego. The Breen sage turned back to Rydell. “You could do far worse than this one,” she advised.
“I would be a fool to argue with a sage,” he grinned.
“Yes, you would,” Vechama said, before she left both of the humans alone.
********************
USS Aegis
Captain’s Ready Room
Four Days Later….
Captain Terrence Glover peered out of his office’s viewport at Tefal Station. Several work bees from Aegis had been dispatched to seal the various hull breaches puncturing the station, and his small contingent of engineers had been working overtime to help the Ulirians get the station back up to speed, putting off needed repairs on Aegis.
He would be relieved when the USS Just, from the Corps of Engineers, arrived to take over the reconstruction project. The Just’s captain had already agreed to loan him a few engineers to help facilitate repairs on Aegis.
When his door chime ringed, the captain barked, “Enter.” He turned around, greeting Lt. Commander Rydell and the Orion Mnessa stood by his desk. Rydell was recovering well from the broken leg and multiple contusions he had suffered on the station.
He had credited Sage Vechama for shielding him from the brunt of the multiple assaults he had borne. The man had been genuinely sad to see the Breen female leave, and Glover was surprised that Vechama seemed similarly disappointed.
Of course Mnessa still looked gorgeous. “Not much for mourning?” He asked. Only days ago, the ship Amah Losa had tried to escape the station on had been vaped by the Romulans. Both the Romulans and Orions that had been seeking the Breen eggs had transported off the station and left after Losa had been neutralized and the eggs lost. Mnessa merely shrugged.
“I don’t expect you to understand,” she said. “But I did love my sister. I still do. However, her desire for revenge against the Syndicate, for what they took away from us, for what they made us do, was too revolutionary. I never wanted to change the world, merely to escape the one I had been born on….and make a healthy profit while doing so. My sister’s removal, whether by incarceration or more permanently, allows me to do so with the remnants of her organization.”
“That’s cold,” Rydell shuddered for emphasis. Glover nodded tersely. “So, let me get this straight. You and the captain worked out a deal to have Amah Losa arrested?”
“Yes,” the captain spoke up. “I wanted Amah Losa and the eggs. I was going to let Mnessa go free.”
“And what now?” She asked, her voice becoming throaty. She batted her eyes suggestively. “Am I your prisoner?”
“No,” the captain shook his head. “You’re my informer now, my contact into the Lamenda System’s underworld.”
“What?” The Orion asked, shocked. Glover’s grin was fiendish.
“Command has agreed to my proposal to give you some room to operate if you provide intelligence to us. To be quite honest, there are bigger fish to fry than you. We want the Xepolite cartels and the Syndicate thugs.” Mnessa shrugged then smiled, not insulted at all.
“Captain,” Rydell began, his tone shocked. “I can’t believe that Starfleet would condone this. The Fed’s are too squeaky clean to tolerate crime or to enlist criminals to catch bigger criminals.”
“These are different times,” the captain merely said. “But you are right. Most Starfleet officers don’t understand the underworld, couldn’t thrive in its unpredictable, brutal environs. But you can. That’s why I’ve discussed a reassignment for you with Command.”
Rydell stepped back, his face flushing red. “Sir, I-I like it here! How could you do such a thing without discussing it with me first?”
Glover shrugged. “Because I’m a captain and I’ve got that right.” He paused, allowing the man to calm down. “Let’s be honest, Commander. You are capable, you’re hard working and have leadership potential, but you don’t fit in Starfleet anymore. It’s too staid an existence for you. I know you miss the rough and tumble, living on the edge life of the Maquis. Being our liaison with Mnessa will give you a semblance of your former life.”
“That’s all well and good sir,” Rydell leaned forward, lowering his voice. “But I don’t necessarily trust her.” Mnessa’s laugh was musical.
“And you shouldn’t,” Glover replied. “Don’t worry. You aren’t the only operative we’ll have inside the organization. And if anything happens to you, her subordinates will receive an edited version of this conversation. Once they realize she’s been working with Starfleet, there’ll be nowhere she can hide.”
Mnessa sidled up to Rydell, wrapping an arm around his. “I assure you that nothing will happen to the commander that he doesn’t want to happen.” Rydell glanced at the woman, looking at her up and down, and then back to the captain.
“Sir, I think she just made me an offer that I can’t refuse.”
***************
That was a lot of action condensed into a tightly written installment.
Glover shoulda thought of that before he burst in! 
