Star Trek: Cayuga
12 - ‘Flightless’
By Jack Elmlinger
Running was undignified for a commander. It implied a state of panic or a lack of control over a situation.
Yet zh’Tali ran.
She burst out of her quarters, knocking Mbanu and Collier into the wall while speeding for the turbolift. “We’ve been intercepted by a runabout,” Riker had told her. “The pilot says that he knows you.” She didn’t know very many people and thinking about the ones that she did know only spurred her on.
The Bridge doors barely had time to open to admit her. She continued on and caught herself outside the doors to the Captain’s Ready Room. They opened and the Andorian’s blood froze.
“Hello, Davi,” Stavek said, his face as painstakingly neutral as any dignified Vulcan should be. “I trust that you are well.”
“Lieutenant Commander Stavek was just telling me about the 383rd’s downtime,” Captain Pozach said with a smile. “I had no idea that you were versed in the baroque style.”
Ignoring the jab, zh’Tali asked him,” What brings you here, Commander?”
“Sentimental reasons. I wish to speak to you,” -- the Vulcan touched a strand of his white hair -- ,” about old times.”
“My quarters are available.” She sounded hurried and she knew it.
“Of course.” Stavek rose from his seat and turned towards Pozach. The zhen’s adrenaline spiked as he moved and she caught his hand an inch from the desk. It was holding a guitar pick. “You play?,” he asked, ignoring zh’Tali’s grip on his wrist.
“When I can find the time.” Pozach;s gaze played over to zh’Tali’s hand which was so tight on Stavek’s.
“I would very much like to hear that. I have found ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ and ‘Helter Skelter’ to be quite enjoyable.” He straightened up and asked zh’Tali. “Shall we, Davi?”
She released his hand. “After you.”
He followed her to the turbolift in silence. Once the doors had closed behind them, she requested, “Deck Two.” She waited exactly four seconds before then saying,” Hold lift.” She turned towards Stavek and said,” Get off my ship. Now. And don’t ever come back.”
Stavek’s face broke into a broad smile. “Why, Davi, where is your sense of camaraderie?”
“I reserve that for my comrades,” she spat back at him, forcing herself to face the Vulcan’s eerie leer. “What is your business here?”
“I told you. I’m just looking in on my old friend.” Stavek began to move, deliberately slow.
zh’Tali felt her back touch the wall. “You’ve seen me. Leave.”
“And this Vulcan, Sayvok,” Stavek continued. “I’ve heard much about that unique flower in the harsh landscape of Vulcan conformity.”
“He had returned to the Academy.” She saw an opening and took it. “I will take you to the transporter room -- “
“And I’m going to kill Wiebach.”
zh’Tali swallowed at his revelation. “Then I suggest that you look back on Earth for him.”
“I’ve already been there and spent a few days with his wife and children. None of them seemed very happy to discuss dear Nathan.”
“I trust that they are all dead now?”
“What sort of savage do you take me for?,” the insane Vulcan asked with a grin. “There would be no sport in it.”
“I have forgotten that you are a connoisseur of murder. Wiebach is not here.”
Stavek turned towards the lift doors. “We shall see. Computer, resume.”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Nathan Wiebach was mildly surprised to see zh’Tali enter his quarters, open up his luggage and begin packing his belongings.
“Going somewhere?,” he asked her.
“Yes, you are,” she said, holding up his mek’leth to check the edge of it against the light. “Stavek is here.”
“Stavek is here?,” he repeated incredulously. “Has he come for you or for me? How did he know where to find us?”
“You,” the Andorian said, throwing him an empty bag,” and I assume that there is a trail of dead Cardassians on Iannar II who had the misfortune of knowing you as well as broken security around the captain’s report on the Romulans’ role at Noghhar.” She shook her head. “We have to get you off of the ship because a battle here would involve numerous casualties. Discipline is lax. I will request a shuttlecraft and shore leave.”
“Then they’ll know that something’s wrong,” Wiebach muttered, pulling pants from drawers.
“If we can get you to a nonaligned station, you can book passage to Talarian space. Stavek won’t suspect that you’ve entered the territory of a xenophobic race.”
“Done,” Wiebach said, hefting his bags. “How fast can you get us a shuttlecraft?”
zh’Tali was already leaving the room. “Proceed to the Shuttle Bay via the Jefferies tubes. I’ll meet you there.”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“Apparently, the difference is that one has five dice and the other, multi-colored cards,” Aimee Maguire nodded, pleased by her succinct description. She tweaked the large red sock carefully attached to the warp core and glanced back at Trevor Newberry. “Is it straight?,” she asked him.
Newberry looked at her and then the sock with something between amusement and strained respect. “As socks go.” Maguire hopped off of the railing that circled around the warp core and hurried into the Toy Room.
“Next is the eggnog that contains egg but no bog. Then you wrap up a bunch of cheap gifts in decorative paper.” She glanced at the PADD on the table. “And signing, though I think that’s optional.”
“What’s all of this for again?,” Newberry asked her, eyeing the collection of gaudy baubles littering the Toy Room.
“Christmas! It’s the most wonderful time of the year!,” she cried out. “And besides that, it means something to Sean for some reason.” From the corner of her eyes, she caught a flash of moment in the main room and called out,” Hey, you there!”
A Vulcan stepped into the Toy Room. he glanced over the odd arrangements and raised an eyebrow. “I apologize. I am in search of Commander zh’Tali.”
“Well, she’s not here.”
“I saw her in the Shuttle Bay,” Newberry said,” about four hours ago.”
“Is that so?,” the Vulcan asked before he lashed out. Newberry gasped as Stavek dug his fingers into his face. “Good sport, Davi.”
Maguire reached under the workbench and pulled out a phaser that had been brought in for repairs. “Drop him! Now!” Stavek leered at her and she fired. She shuddered, his eyes rolling back into his head. Then the chief engineer felt his hand brush her shoulder.
“Oh, sh--”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Captain Pozach stared at the man on her monitor screen. “Do you understand me?,” he asked her.
“Yes, of course,” she said coldly. “More to the point, do you understand me?”
“The Aloxim is upon you and you have duties.”
“Duties to my ship and to my crew. I withdrew from your ‘duties’ long ago.” She deactivated the screen and locked eyes with Jim Morrison before twisting her chair to stare at the stars.
“Pozach to Pasko,” she said with a tone of defeatism.
“Pasko here.”
“When you get some time, I’d like to speak with you.”
“Sure thing,” he said and the intercom clicked off. Pozach leaned back and closed her eyes.
“Riker to Pozach.”
Pozach sighed. “Go ahead, Commander.”
“Lieutenant Commander Stavek’s runabout just tore out of here at Warp Five without so much as a goodbye. He’s following the course that Commander zh’Tali took for her shore leave.”
Pozach’s eyes opened. “No response to hails?”
“None, Captain.”
“Lay in a pursuit course and follow them at a discrete distance. Something’s going on here.”
“Aye, sir.” There was a pause before he said,” Warp drive is offline.”
Grabbing her black and gray vest off of the couch, Pozach headed for the door.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“Report!,” snapped the Captain as she walked onto the Bridge.
Riker stood up from the command chair and took his place at Ops. “The warp drive is disabled. I don’t know if it’s a computer failure or a technical one.”
“What does Lieutenant Maguire have to say about it?”
Riker shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “Medical teams have been summoned to Engineering. Everyone on duty has been… rendered unconscious.”
“I’m past thinking that our guest may have been more than he let on.” Pozach settled down into her chair. “Mister Riker, take Lieutenant Ntannu and a security team in the Garibaldi and see if you can get a warning to Commander zh’Tali. Failing in that, try to help her however she needs it.”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
It was a horrible space station that was barely even airtight but there was a transport docked there. That was all that mattered to Davi zh’Tali.
“Get on the ship.”
“What are you going to do?,” Wiebach asked her.
zh’Tali shoved him towards the transport’s hatch. “I’m going to take the Ivanova and buy you some time which will all be for naught if you don’t leave!”
Wiebach glanced into the ship. “Davi… thank you. For --”
“Get on the damned ship.”
Wiebach nodded and gathered his bags. He paused as if he was going to say goodbye but the flash in her eyes made him step back in so that the hatch could cycle shut.
zh’Tali watched as the transport gently lifted away before sailing off into the darkness of space. She turned away and weaved through the debris that filled the corridor, trying to focus on her next move. The Tong Beak Nebula wasn’t that far away from her. At the end of the hall, she could see the af section of the Ivanova’s nacelles.
An arm slammed into her face, smashing her nose and knocking her onto her back.
“Were I to guess, I would surmise that Wiebach is somewhere nearby,” Stavek commented.
zh’Tali struggled to her feet. “I thought that I would make it sporting for you.”
Stavek’s bark of laughter startled her. “You would make it sporting? You’re weak, Davi! You’ve let them poison you. Command? Command is for those idiots concerned with piddling issues like crew evaluations and fuel consumption reports. It must be killing you, pretending that you care, that all of these menial tasks mean anything to you -- “
Green blood splashed against the wall and zh’Tali followed her first blow with a roundhouse kick to the head. The Vulcan was still standing so she slammed her fist into the center of his chest and felt something crack. It had to be one of the servo motivators to her prosthetic arm.
Stavek smirked up from the ground. Her boot met his chin as she punted him through a pile of debris and into the wall. Snarling with anger, she advanced upon him. A piece of metal shot out at her, slicing open zh’Tali’s scalp and staining her white hair with blue blood. She was lucky that her antennae had been avoided. She roared at him, blocking two torso blows before he took a snap-kick to the gut. Her arms wrapped around his leg and she leveled Stavek’s head into the floor.
The other leg whipped around and the zhen saw stars on her way down. She managed to roll away and then come back up onto her feet.
“I must thank you, Davi. I haven’t had this much fun since the Jem’hadar left.” Stavek put a finger to his lips in thought. “Well, except for Terranova. She always did fight well for an Augment.”
zh’Tali charged at him, leaping into the air and pinning Stavek’s neck between her shins. Her momentum slammed him into the ground but she stumbled on her recovery. A fist hit her jaw, throwing her head back. Her arm flew out for balance and the Vulcan was there to twist it and slam her back down.”
zh’Tali struggled to rise but Stavek’s foot between her shoulders crushed her to the ground. “We’ll have to do this again sometime,” he said, spitting out a tooth and a stream of green blood. “Now to find Wiebach.”
Darkness took her after that.
The End...
12 - ‘Flightless’
By Jack Elmlinger
Running was undignified for a commander. It implied a state of panic or a lack of control over a situation.
Yet zh’Tali ran.
She burst out of her quarters, knocking Mbanu and Collier into the wall while speeding for the turbolift. “We’ve been intercepted by a runabout,” Riker had told her. “The pilot says that he knows you.” She didn’t know very many people and thinking about the ones that she did know only spurred her on.
The Bridge doors barely had time to open to admit her. She continued on and caught herself outside the doors to the Captain’s Ready Room. They opened and the Andorian’s blood froze.
“Hello, Davi,” Stavek said, his face as painstakingly neutral as any dignified Vulcan should be. “I trust that you are well.”
“Lieutenant Commander Stavek was just telling me about the 383rd’s downtime,” Captain Pozach said with a smile. “I had no idea that you were versed in the baroque style.”
Ignoring the jab, zh’Tali asked him,” What brings you here, Commander?”
“Sentimental reasons. I wish to speak to you,” -- the Vulcan touched a strand of his white hair -- ,” about old times.”
“My quarters are available.” She sounded hurried and she knew it.
“Of course.” Stavek rose from his seat and turned towards Pozach. The zhen’s adrenaline spiked as he moved and she caught his hand an inch from the desk. It was holding a guitar pick. “You play?,” he asked, ignoring zh’Tali’s grip on his wrist.
“When I can find the time.” Pozach;s gaze played over to zh’Tali’s hand which was so tight on Stavek’s.
“I would very much like to hear that. I have found ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’ and ‘Helter Skelter’ to be quite enjoyable.” He straightened up and asked zh’Tali. “Shall we, Davi?”
She released his hand. “After you.”
He followed her to the turbolift in silence. Once the doors had closed behind them, she requested, “Deck Two.” She waited exactly four seconds before then saying,” Hold lift.” She turned towards Stavek and said,” Get off my ship. Now. And don’t ever come back.”
Stavek’s face broke into a broad smile. “Why, Davi, where is your sense of camaraderie?”
“I reserve that for my comrades,” she spat back at him, forcing herself to face the Vulcan’s eerie leer. “What is your business here?”
“I told you. I’m just looking in on my old friend.” Stavek began to move, deliberately slow.
zh’Tali felt her back touch the wall. “You’ve seen me. Leave.”
“And this Vulcan, Sayvok,” Stavek continued. “I’ve heard much about that unique flower in the harsh landscape of Vulcan conformity.”
“He had returned to the Academy.” She saw an opening and took it. “I will take you to the transporter room -- “
“And I’m going to kill Wiebach.”
zh’Tali swallowed at his revelation. “Then I suggest that you look back on Earth for him.”
“I’ve already been there and spent a few days with his wife and children. None of them seemed very happy to discuss dear Nathan.”
“I trust that they are all dead now?”
“What sort of savage do you take me for?,” the insane Vulcan asked with a grin. “There would be no sport in it.”
“I have forgotten that you are a connoisseur of murder. Wiebach is not here.”
Stavek turned towards the lift doors. “We shall see. Computer, resume.”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Nathan Wiebach was mildly surprised to see zh’Tali enter his quarters, open up his luggage and begin packing his belongings.
“Going somewhere?,” he asked her.
“Yes, you are,” she said, holding up his mek’leth to check the edge of it against the light. “Stavek is here.”
“Stavek is here?,” he repeated incredulously. “Has he come for you or for me? How did he know where to find us?”
“You,” the Andorian said, throwing him an empty bag,” and I assume that there is a trail of dead Cardassians on Iannar II who had the misfortune of knowing you as well as broken security around the captain’s report on the Romulans’ role at Noghhar.” She shook her head. “We have to get you off of the ship because a battle here would involve numerous casualties. Discipline is lax. I will request a shuttlecraft and shore leave.”
“Then they’ll know that something’s wrong,” Wiebach muttered, pulling pants from drawers.
“If we can get you to a nonaligned station, you can book passage to Talarian space. Stavek won’t suspect that you’ve entered the territory of a xenophobic race.”
“Done,” Wiebach said, hefting his bags. “How fast can you get us a shuttlecraft?”
zh’Tali was already leaving the room. “Proceed to the Shuttle Bay via the Jefferies tubes. I’ll meet you there.”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“Apparently, the difference is that one has five dice and the other, multi-colored cards,” Aimee Maguire nodded, pleased by her succinct description. She tweaked the large red sock carefully attached to the warp core and glanced back at Trevor Newberry. “Is it straight?,” she asked him.
Newberry looked at her and then the sock with something between amusement and strained respect. “As socks go.” Maguire hopped off of the railing that circled around the warp core and hurried into the Toy Room.
“Next is the eggnog that contains egg but no bog. Then you wrap up a bunch of cheap gifts in decorative paper.” She glanced at the PADD on the table. “And signing, though I think that’s optional.”
“What’s all of this for again?,” Newberry asked her, eyeing the collection of gaudy baubles littering the Toy Room.
“Christmas! It’s the most wonderful time of the year!,” she cried out. “And besides that, it means something to Sean for some reason.” From the corner of her eyes, she caught a flash of moment in the main room and called out,” Hey, you there!”
A Vulcan stepped into the Toy Room. he glanced over the odd arrangements and raised an eyebrow. “I apologize. I am in search of Commander zh’Tali.”
“Well, she’s not here.”
“I saw her in the Shuttle Bay,” Newberry said,” about four hours ago.”
“Is that so?,” the Vulcan asked before he lashed out. Newberry gasped as Stavek dug his fingers into his face. “Good sport, Davi.”
Maguire reached under the workbench and pulled out a phaser that had been brought in for repairs. “Drop him! Now!” Stavek leered at her and she fired. She shuddered, his eyes rolling back into his head. Then the chief engineer felt his hand brush her shoulder.
“Oh, sh--”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Captain Pozach stared at the man on her monitor screen. “Do you understand me?,” he asked her.
“Yes, of course,” she said coldly. “More to the point, do you understand me?”
“The Aloxim is upon you and you have duties.”
“Duties to my ship and to my crew. I withdrew from your ‘duties’ long ago.” She deactivated the screen and locked eyes with Jim Morrison before twisting her chair to stare at the stars.
“Pozach to Pasko,” she said with a tone of defeatism.
“Pasko here.”
“When you get some time, I’d like to speak with you.”
“Sure thing,” he said and the intercom clicked off. Pozach leaned back and closed her eyes.
“Riker to Pozach.”
Pozach sighed. “Go ahead, Commander.”
“Lieutenant Commander Stavek’s runabout just tore out of here at Warp Five without so much as a goodbye. He’s following the course that Commander zh’Tali took for her shore leave.”
Pozach’s eyes opened. “No response to hails?”
“None, Captain.”
“Lay in a pursuit course and follow them at a discrete distance. Something’s going on here.”
“Aye, sir.” There was a pause before he said,” Warp drive is offline.”
Grabbing her black and gray vest off of the couch, Pozach headed for the door.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“Report!,” snapped the Captain as she walked onto the Bridge.
Riker stood up from the command chair and took his place at Ops. “The warp drive is disabled. I don’t know if it’s a computer failure or a technical one.”
“What does Lieutenant Maguire have to say about it?”
Riker shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “Medical teams have been summoned to Engineering. Everyone on duty has been… rendered unconscious.”
“I’m past thinking that our guest may have been more than he let on.” Pozach settled down into her chair. “Mister Riker, take Lieutenant Ntannu and a security team in the Garibaldi and see if you can get a warning to Commander zh’Tali. Failing in that, try to help her however she needs it.”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
It was a horrible space station that was barely even airtight but there was a transport docked there. That was all that mattered to Davi zh’Tali.
“Get on the ship.”
“What are you going to do?,” Wiebach asked her.
zh’Tali shoved him towards the transport’s hatch. “I’m going to take the Ivanova and buy you some time which will all be for naught if you don’t leave!”
Wiebach glanced into the ship. “Davi… thank you. For --”
“Get on the damned ship.”
Wiebach nodded and gathered his bags. He paused as if he was going to say goodbye but the flash in her eyes made him step back in so that the hatch could cycle shut.
zh’Tali watched as the transport gently lifted away before sailing off into the darkness of space. She turned away and weaved through the debris that filled the corridor, trying to focus on her next move. The Tong Beak Nebula wasn’t that far away from her. At the end of the hall, she could see the af section of the Ivanova’s nacelles.
An arm slammed into her face, smashing her nose and knocking her onto her back.
“Were I to guess, I would surmise that Wiebach is somewhere nearby,” Stavek commented.
zh’Tali struggled to her feet. “I thought that I would make it sporting for you.”
Stavek’s bark of laughter startled her. “You would make it sporting? You’re weak, Davi! You’ve let them poison you. Command? Command is for those idiots concerned with piddling issues like crew evaluations and fuel consumption reports. It must be killing you, pretending that you care, that all of these menial tasks mean anything to you -- “
Green blood splashed against the wall and zh’Tali followed her first blow with a roundhouse kick to the head. The Vulcan was still standing so she slammed her fist into the center of his chest and felt something crack. It had to be one of the servo motivators to her prosthetic arm.
Stavek smirked up from the ground. Her boot met his chin as she punted him through a pile of debris and into the wall. Snarling with anger, she advanced upon him. A piece of metal shot out at her, slicing open zh’Tali’s scalp and staining her white hair with blue blood. She was lucky that her antennae had been avoided. She roared at him, blocking two torso blows before he took a snap-kick to the gut. Her arms wrapped around his leg and she leveled Stavek’s head into the floor.
The other leg whipped around and the zhen saw stars on her way down. She managed to roll away and then come back up onto her feet.
“I must thank you, Davi. I haven’t had this much fun since the Jem’hadar left.” Stavek put a finger to his lips in thought. “Well, except for Terranova. She always did fight well for an Augment.”
zh’Tali charged at him, leaping into the air and pinning Stavek’s neck between her shins. Her momentum slammed him into the ground but she stumbled on her recovery. A fist hit her jaw, throwing her head back. Her arm flew out for balance and the Vulcan was there to twist it and slam her back down.”
zh’Tali struggled to rise but Stavek’s foot between her shoulders crushed her to the ground. “We’ll have to do this again sometime,” he said, spitting out a tooth and a stream of green blood. “Now to find Wiebach.”
Darkness took her after that.
The End...
