Authors Note - This is not strictly trek, and would probably be considered an original work, but I am claiming this under an alternate reality. Basically, I wanted to explore what might be different if the federation developed differently. They aren't evil, like the Mirror universe Terran Empire, but it is different.
She looked at him, laughing where acceptable, smiling when he seemed to want her to smile. He was a easy read, he was miserable, and in love. But yet, he was trying to flirt with her. She went along with it, not really listening to him but watching his face for queues. She flicked her hair over her shoulder, resting her hands on one of her knees and looked away from him, back at what she really was here for. A lay out plan.
She scrutinized the area, making notes of the different cameras tucked away in the high corners of the crown molding of the ceiling, to the different guards aimlessly wandering about, answering questions as asked. Security was lose, no one really gave a care for the old world art work anymore. That was fine.
“You know, for a married man, you certainly flirt a lot.” She stated thoughtfully before she looked back over at him, “but you are only flirting because you are stressed out, over money… or perhaps something else. And you two are arguing about it. But you really care about her. I see that card in your brief for her.”
He stuttered, reaching for the small pink card that was sticking out of his brief and pushed it further in. He looked at her and sighed.
“You’re… You’re right…” He muttered.
“No, not really. But anyway, can I have a cig?” She asked, pointing to the pack she saw hanging in his coat jacket.
“Sure, here.” He handed it to her, looking at his hands once she had taken it from him.
He started rattling onward, something about how he did love his wife, they were just having problems at the moment. But she was busy studying the woman next to her out of the corner of her eye. She slowly, and carefully moved into a pose that matched the woman next to her.
She kept a eye on the man next to her… and suddenly moved backwards, quickly and with careful movements as to not draw his attention back to her as he looked away. She got up and moved quietly into the crowd, fingering the cigarette she held between her fingers.
He looked over at the woman next to him and just starred at her. A puzzled frown spreading across his face. The woman was spacing out, fingering a cigarette, holding a tiny black purse in her other hand. She blinked, looking over at him with a frown.
“What?” She snapped.
“N-nothing…” He looked away, looking around… and shook his head as he pulled the little pink card out of his brief and smiled at it.
She looked around as she went, handing the cigarette off when someone asked if she was going to smoke it. She finally settled on a piece, approaching it with a thoughtful eye, smiling as the studied the concept drawings of a flying machine. She leaned in as close as the ropes would allow, studying the detail with a thoughtful eye. It was old, the ink and paper told her so, but it wasn’t the original, rather it was a copy of the sketch done in crude ink rather then the original sketch done in charcoal. Still, it was important none the less. She leaned back and frowned thoughtfully as she looked around through the corners of her eyes. The few people that were near by were museum goers.
She pretended to look around the room, looking for cameras, found one in the middle of the hall way that was between this room and the one on the other side. It was stationary, probably a fish eye view. She wandered across the room pulling out a small device and pretending to have keen interest in it as she sat down on a near by bench. For several minutes, people came and went, she got up when people walked into the area and over to the sketches. She quickly moved over to them, and started discussing the piece with them. She smiled, taking a poster out of the bag one of the people was holding and discreetly pulled the plastic off, returning it to the bag.
She engaged them further, directing with without words, spreading them out around the sketch, three in people in total. Their attention was short, the two to her left got bored, but didn’t wander away, rather, stood there, both of them paying attention to a com device that one of them was holding. The one on her other side, noticed them, scowled, and told them to put them up as he walked around her, to stand between her and them.
“Sorry about… that?” He finished his statement in a puzzlement… the woman was gone, no where to be seen in the general area.
“Huh. Weird…”
“Um… the sketch is gone…”
She was quickly making her way through the area, heading towards the massive stairs that led towards the lobby, trying not to appear rushed, her twin tails casually flicking behind her, a poster held in her other hand. She had bright sky blue eyes that were amused at the moment, her wild curly red hair, that fell down to her shoulder blades, bouncing into her face which she tried to huff out of her eyes with little success. She wore a tank top, black knee high short and black high tops. Not her usual choice of wear, but she was trying to blend in, not stand out… well, not stand out as much as two large fox tails and a pair of fox ears would allow her.
As she approached the stairs she noticed a man standing at the bottom of them. He was not exactly a handsome man, but he had a distinguished look that showed he was a man of leadership. The Imperial Space Forces uniform didn’t exactly hide the fact either as she tried to ignore him and walk by. “Miss Aideen Foxfire,” he said quietly to her utter shock. “I am going to have to ask you to come with me.”
She looked over her shoulder at him, raising a eyebrow and sighing.
"No chance I could just give you the sketch and run for it?" She asked quietly, just simply musing out loud. While she knew how to fight, she much rather avoid trouble if at all possible, violence that could be avoided was the best kind.
"Do you really think I'm the only one here?" he asked with a smirk, almost welcoming the challenge.
"No, that would just be silly." She answered with a chuckle, looking around, gauging her options. She tapped the poster against her other hand, and scowled thoughtfully.
"Hey! There you are, I hadn't imagined you... I just wanted to say thank you." The man she had been speaking with earlier wandered up to her, taking her hand and shaking it.
"You are welcome." She smiled at him and waved at him, "But you really shouldn't be here. Flirting with strange women."
"Ah yes, well thank you." He bowed slightly and wandered off... she turned back to him with a giggle once the man was out of site, holding up both of her hands, which were empty.
"Is there any reason you're attempting to hold me up here?" She asked, thoughtfully, smiling at him warmly.
"I was sent here to apprehend a thief," the man replied as he looked her over. "Although this isn't quite what I had expected." He gestured towards the exit, where a craft would surely be waiting. Thief or not, he still had a code of personal honor to uphold. "I am Rikugun Taii Ken'Daichi Yakamura, if you will please come this way."
"What were you expecting, some hardened criminal?" She asked, absent mindedly, sizing up her options one more before she seemed to deflate slightly. Violence was about her only way out, and really, it wasn't worth it. Needless violence really wasn't. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, this isn't my usual outfit. I usually parade around in a mask and a cat suit." She said with a rueful chuckle and started to make her way towards the exit.
Ken'Daichi led her out of the building where two guards were waiting, looking like they were ready to put her in shackles. Surprisingly however he waved them off, and showed her to a comfortable seat on the craft.
"You may want to strap in, this planet's atmosphere is particularly turbulent."
After he was sure she was secure he disappeared into the forward section and ordered the pilot to lift off, to return only a moment later to take a seat facing her.
"So, how much would this one have gotten you?"
She blinked at him... and threw back her head and laughed, loudly and hard. It went on for a minute before she settled down with a giggle, sniffling and smiling. "What? What did you just ask me? How much I'd get for it? Oh my. You chaps are funny." She grinned at nothing in particular, "Absolutely nothing."
"So what then?" he asked in a serious tone. "Birthday gift? Charity? There must be a reason. Or is it that you just can't stand not having what others have?"
"I don't steal for gain, of any kind, in fact, if you glanced at my record, you'd see I'm dirt poor." She said thoughtfully, looking back at him, "I steal things because no one cares about old world artwork anymore. That piece I took, wasn't the original. It was a old copy. But it took needs to be taken care of."
"How can you say its not cared for when its in a museum?" he asked. Before she could answer the pilot called from the control section.
"Rikugun Taii, we are being hailed by the Katana."
"Put it on the speakers."
"Rikugun Taii, this is Rikugun Chūi Okuda. We're picking up a spatial anomoly. It matches the other sites."
"Any sign of ships?"
"No sir, not yet."
"Very well, keep monitoring," he replied as he closed the channel and started to stand. "We shall have to continue this conversation another time. Which there will be plenty of once this issue is dealt with."
"Sure, sure... what is going on out there?" She frowned, trying to peer out a window to get a better view, highly doubting he would allow her anywhere near the displays.
"We don't know," he admitted as he walked towards the pilot. "Where's the anomaly?" he asked. The pilot keyed up a display that she couldn't see from there, but from his stance he didn't like what he saw. "Well, this certainly makes things difficult."
She had somehow managed to get to the display panel when no one was paying attention and was leaning over it, frowning up thoughtfully... and gapped at what she saw. There was a massive door way, a massive portal of ancient energy... there were ship coming through, none like any she had ever seen. They were old, appearing to be made out of stone, and left not clue as to what was holding them together.
"There are ships, coming through a portal." She said, looking at him, even as she danced out of the way of grasping hands.
Ken'Daichi just looked back at her briefly, then back at the controls. He very much doubted she could do anything, where would she go? Space?
"Katana, open the landing bay. We aren't going to have time to follow SOP, so everything will be manual."
"Yes sir," replied Okuda, the nervousness showing clearly in his voice. The small craft shot forward, knocking anyone over who wasn't expecting it, and made a break for the ship.
She flailed, but she managed to stay upright regardless. Her body was thin, but she had muscles along her legs and arms, defined from self defense and running. She looked at him with a frown.
"Alright, Ken'Daichi, What can I do to help? If you tell me to sit down and shut up, so help me, I'll smack you upside the head. This is obviously not the time to be treating me like a petty thief... although.... I'm not a petty thief, regardless." She scowled thoughtfully, deciding she was right in that fact.
"Katana, cover our approach," he ordered before turning towards the woman. Behind him the view lit up with streaks of fire, cutting a path in the stars. "Right now that is about all you can do, I'm fairly certain your particular talents don't include landing a craft under fire."
"You might be surprised by what talents I have," she replied smugly before sitting back down and grumbling. "Fine."
Ken'Daichi turned back towards the console and studied them as the craft bobbed and weaved through the weapons fire.
"You're doing fine," he said calmly as he noticed the tense expression on the pilots face.
"Thank you sir," replied the pilot.
A few moments, and one extremely close call later they landed in the Katana's bay. Guards were there ready to meet them, and presumably to take her to a cell. But to Aideen's surprise, his order was different.
"Take her to guest quarters, I'll be on the bridge," he said before a vanished around a corner.
"What's going on?" she asked as one of the guards led her out of the bay. "Who where those ships?"
"Nothing for you to worry about Ma'am," the guard replied, clearly stating he wasn't going to answer any questions.
The tran opened up onto the bridge, the nerve center of the entire ship. At the moment it was bathed in a red light, crew running from one station to the other as weapons were traded between ships.
"Report," Ken'Daichi ordered as he moved to the command station.
"Defensive screens down thirteen percent."
"Re-route power from the star drive."
"Aye sir."
"Sir!" called another crewman. "Another ship is coming through."
"Launch the Kamikaze missile, bring us about."
The missile streaked away from the ship on a death march to the emerging enemy. They were close enough that when it hit, the Katana rocked from the shock wave, but that was nothing compared to the effect on the enemy ship. It seemed that whatever defensive systems they used were not usable in the initial moments of emerging from the portal.
Good, he thought as he watched the ship collapse in on itself. We can use this.
"Sir, something is happening," reported another crewman. "The portal is destabilizing."
On the screen the other ship drifted towards the portal, seemingly being pulled in by some unseen force. A moment later it vanished, leaving the Katana alone as the ship lurched.
"Report."
"We're being pulled in."
"Get us out of here, divert power to the engines."
"Marginal effect sir, we're still being pulled in."
The ship shook again under the strain as he hit the intercom.
"Engine room, we need more power. Red-line the engines if you have to."
"You've got it all sir," came the reply. “It’s not going to do any good."
Seconds stretched into minutes, and the minutes seemed to last forever as they tried to squeeze every bit of power they could out of the engines. It was a losing battle as the ship was drawn closer, systems began to fail. The sensor console exploded, injuring the woman operating it.
"Rikugan Taii, if we keep this up the engines will blow."
"Very well, cut power and reinforce defensive screens. Everyone hold on!"
Once the engines had been powered down the ship tumbled into the portal, throwing everyone to the ground as it crossed the edge of the field. Lights went dead, consoles and power conduits blew, causing fires, and the ship was plunged into darkness.
She looked at him, laughing where acceptable, smiling when he seemed to want her to smile. He was a easy read, he was miserable, and in love. But yet, he was trying to flirt with her. She went along with it, not really listening to him but watching his face for queues. She flicked her hair over her shoulder, resting her hands on one of her knees and looked away from him, back at what she really was here for. A lay out plan.
She scrutinized the area, making notes of the different cameras tucked away in the high corners of the crown molding of the ceiling, to the different guards aimlessly wandering about, answering questions as asked. Security was lose, no one really gave a care for the old world art work anymore. That was fine.
“You know, for a married man, you certainly flirt a lot.” She stated thoughtfully before she looked back over at him, “but you are only flirting because you are stressed out, over money… or perhaps something else. And you two are arguing about it. But you really care about her. I see that card in your brief for her.”
He stuttered, reaching for the small pink card that was sticking out of his brief and pushed it further in. He looked at her and sighed.
“You’re… You’re right…” He muttered.
“No, not really. But anyway, can I have a cig?” She asked, pointing to the pack she saw hanging in his coat jacket.
“Sure, here.” He handed it to her, looking at his hands once she had taken it from him.
He started rattling onward, something about how he did love his wife, they were just having problems at the moment. But she was busy studying the woman next to her out of the corner of her eye. She slowly, and carefully moved into a pose that matched the woman next to her.
She kept a eye on the man next to her… and suddenly moved backwards, quickly and with careful movements as to not draw his attention back to her as he looked away. She got up and moved quietly into the crowd, fingering the cigarette she held between her fingers.
He looked over at the woman next to him and just starred at her. A puzzled frown spreading across his face. The woman was spacing out, fingering a cigarette, holding a tiny black purse in her other hand. She blinked, looking over at him with a frown.
“What?” She snapped.
“N-nothing…” He looked away, looking around… and shook his head as he pulled the little pink card out of his brief and smiled at it.
She looked around as she went, handing the cigarette off when someone asked if she was going to smoke it. She finally settled on a piece, approaching it with a thoughtful eye, smiling as the studied the concept drawings of a flying machine. She leaned in as close as the ropes would allow, studying the detail with a thoughtful eye. It was old, the ink and paper told her so, but it wasn’t the original, rather it was a copy of the sketch done in crude ink rather then the original sketch done in charcoal. Still, it was important none the less. She leaned back and frowned thoughtfully as she looked around through the corners of her eyes. The few people that were near by were museum goers.
She pretended to look around the room, looking for cameras, found one in the middle of the hall way that was between this room and the one on the other side. It was stationary, probably a fish eye view. She wandered across the room pulling out a small device and pretending to have keen interest in it as she sat down on a near by bench. For several minutes, people came and went, she got up when people walked into the area and over to the sketches. She quickly moved over to them, and started discussing the piece with them. She smiled, taking a poster out of the bag one of the people was holding and discreetly pulled the plastic off, returning it to the bag.
She engaged them further, directing with without words, spreading them out around the sketch, three in people in total. Their attention was short, the two to her left got bored, but didn’t wander away, rather, stood there, both of them paying attention to a com device that one of them was holding. The one on her other side, noticed them, scowled, and told them to put them up as he walked around her, to stand between her and them.
“Sorry about… that?” He finished his statement in a puzzlement… the woman was gone, no where to be seen in the general area.
“Huh. Weird…”
“Um… the sketch is gone…”
She was quickly making her way through the area, heading towards the massive stairs that led towards the lobby, trying not to appear rushed, her twin tails casually flicking behind her, a poster held in her other hand. She had bright sky blue eyes that were amused at the moment, her wild curly red hair, that fell down to her shoulder blades, bouncing into her face which she tried to huff out of her eyes with little success. She wore a tank top, black knee high short and black high tops. Not her usual choice of wear, but she was trying to blend in, not stand out… well, not stand out as much as two large fox tails and a pair of fox ears would allow her.
As she approached the stairs she noticed a man standing at the bottom of them. He was not exactly a handsome man, but he had a distinguished look that showed he was a man of leadership. The Imperial Space Forces uniform didn’t exactly hide the fact either as she tried to ignore him and walk by. “Miss Aideen Foxfire,” he said quietly to her utter shock. “I am going to have to ask you to come with me.”
She looked over her shoulder at him, raising a eyebrow and sighing.
"No chance I could just give you the sketch and run for it?" She asked quietly, just simply musing out loud. While she knew how to fight, she much rather avoid trouble if at all possible, violence that could be avoided was the best kind.
"Do you really think I'm the only one here?" he asked with a smirk, almost welcoming the challenge.
"No, that would just be silly." She answered with a chuckle, looking around, gauging her options. She tapped the poster against her other hand, and scowled thoughtfully.
"Hey! There you are, I hadn't imagined you... I just wanted to say thank you." The man she had been speaking with earlier wandered up to her, taking her hand and shaking it.
"You are welcome." She smiled at him and waved at him, "But you really shouldn't be here. Flirting with strange women."
"Ah yes, well thank you." He bowed slightly and wandered off... she turned back to him with a giggle once the man was out of site, holding up both of her hands, which were empty.
"Is there any reason you're attempting to hold me up here?" She asked, thoughtfully, smiling at him warmly.
"I was sent here to apprehend a thief," the man replied as he looked her over. "Although this isn't quite what I had expected." He gestured towards the exit, where a craft would surely be waiting. Thief or not, he still had a code of personal honor to uphold. "I am Rikugun Taii Ken'Daichi Yakamura, if you will please come this way."
"What were you expecting, some hardened criminal?" She asked, absent mindedly, sizing up her options one more before she seemed to deflate slightly. Violence was about her only way out, and really, it wasn't worth it. Needless violence really wasn't. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, this isn't my usual outfit. I usually parade around in a mask and a cat suit." She said with a rueful chuckle and started to make her way towards the exit.
Ken'Daichi led her out of the building where two guards were waiting, looking like they were ready to put her in shackles. Surprisingly however he waved them off, and showed her to a comfortable seat on the craft.
"You may want to strap in, this planet's atmosphere is particularly turbulent."
After he was sure she was secure he disappeared into the forward section and ordered the pilot to lift off, to return only a moment later to take a seat facing her.
"So, how much would this one have gotten you?"
She blinked at him... and threw back her head and laughed, loudly and hard. It went on for a minute before she settled down with a giggle, sniffling and smiling. "What? What did you just ask me? How much I'd get for it? Oh my. You chaps are funny." She grinned at nothing in particular, "Absolutely nothing."
"So what then?" he asked in a serious tone. "Birthday gift? Charity? There must be a reason. Or is it that you just can't stand not having what others have?"
"I don't steal for gain, of any kind, in fact, if you glanced at my record, you'd see I'm dirt poor." She said thoughtfully, looking back at him, "I steal things because no one cares about old world artwork anymore. That piece I took, wasn't the original. It was a old copy. But it took needs to be taken care of."
"How can you say its not cared for when its in a museum?" he asked. Before she could answer the pilot called from the control section.
"Rikugun Taii, we are being hailed by the Katana."
"Put it on the speakers."
"Rikugun Taii, this is Rikugun Chūi Okuda. We're picking up a spatial anomoly. It matches the other sites."
"Any sign of ships?"
"No sir, not yet."
"Very well, keep monitoring," he replied as he closed the channel and started to stand. "We shall have to continue this conversation another time. Which there will be plenty of once this issue is dealt with."
"Sure, sure... what is going on out there?" She frowned, trying to peer out a window to get a better view, highly doubting he would allow her anywhere near the displays.
"We don't know," he admitted as he walked towards the pilot. "Where's the anomaly?" he asked. The pilot keyed up a display that she couldn't see from there, but from his stance he didn't like what he saw. "Well, this certainly makes things difficult."
She had somehow managed to get to the display panel when no one was paying attention and was leaning over it, frowning up thoughtfully... and gapped at what she saw. There was a massive door way, a massive portal of ancient energy... there were ship coming through, none like any she had ever seen. They were old, appearing to be made out of stone, and left not clue as to what was holding them together.
"There are ships, coming through a portal." She said, looking at him, even as she danced out of the way of grasping hands.
Ken'Daichi just looked back at her briefly, then back at the controls. He very much doubted she could do anything, where would she go? Space?
"Katana, open the landing bay. We aren't going to have time to follow SOP, so everything will be manual."
"Yes sir," replied Okuda, the nervousness showing clearly in his voice. The small craft shot forward, knocking anyone over who wasn't expecting it, and made a break for the ship.
She flailed, but she managed to stay upright regardless. Her body was thin, but she had muscles along her legs and arms, defined from self defense and running. She looked at him with a frown.
"Alright, Ken'Daichi, What can I do to help? If you tell me to sit down and shut up, so help me, I'll smack you upside the head. This is obviously not the time to be treating me like a petty thief... although.... I'm not a petty thief, regardless." She scowled thoughtfully, deciding she was right in that fact.
"Katana, cover our approach," he ordered before turning towards the woman. Behind him the view lit up with streaks of fire, cutting a path in the stars. "Right now that is about all you can do, I'm fairly certain your particular talents don't include landing a craft under fire."
"You might be surprised by what talents I have," she replied smugly before sitting back down and grumbling. "Fine."
Ken'Daichi turned back towards the console and studied them as the craft bobbed and weaved through the weapons fire.
"You're doing fine," he said calmly as he noticed the tense expression on the pilots face.
"Thank you sir," replied the pilot.
A few moments, and one extremely close call later they landed in the Katana's bay. Guards were there ready to meet them, and presumably to take her to a cell. But to Aideen's surprise, his order was different.
"Take her to guest quarters, I'll be on the bridge," he said before a vanished around a corner.
"What's going on?" she asked as one of the guards led her out of the bay. "Who where those ships?"
"Nothing for you to worry about Ma'am," the guard replied, clearly stating he wasn't going to answer any questions.
The tran opened up onto the bridge, the nerve center of the entire ship. At the moment it was bathed in a red light, crew running from one station to the other as weapons were traded between ships.
"Report," Ken'Daichi ordered as he moved to the command station.
"Defensive screens down thirteen percent."
"Re-route power from the star drive."
"Aye sir."
"Sir!" called another crewman. "Another ship is coming through."
"Launch the Kamikaze missile, bring us about."
The missile streaked away from the ship on a death march to the emerging enemy. They were close enough that when it hit, the Katana rocked from the shock wave, but that was nothing compared to the effect on the enemy ship. It seemed that whatever defensive systems they used were not usable in the initial moments of emerging from the portal.
Good, he thought as he watched the ship collapse in on itself. We can use this.
"Sir, something is happening," reported another crewman. "The portal is destabilizing."
On the screen the other ship drifted towards the portal, seemingly being pulled in by some unseen force. A moment later it vanished, leaving the Katana alone as the ship lurched.
"Report."
"We're being pulled in."
"Get us out of here, divert power to the engines."
"Marginal effect sir, we're still being pulled in."
The ship shook again under the strain as he hit the intercom.
"Engine room, we need more power. Red-line the engines if you have to."
"You've got it all sir," came the reply. “It’s not going to do any good."
Seconds stretched into minutes, and the minutes seemed to last forever as they tried to squeeze every bit of power they could out of the engines. It was a losing battle as the ship was drawn closer, systems began to fail. The sensor console exploded, injuring the woman operating it.
"Rikugan Taii, if we keep this up the engines will blow."
"Very well, cut power and reinforce defensive screens. Everyone hold on!"
Once the engines had been powered down the ship tumbled into the portal, throwing everyone to the ground as it crossed the edge of the field. Lights went dead, consoles and power conduits blew, causing fires, and the ship was plunged into darkness.
