Liking Cardonez kind of coming unglued. After all the crap she's been through, she deserves a good nervous breakdown...
Thanks!! rbs
Thanks!! rbs
Star Trek: Into the Void - Season One
- Thread starter admiralelm11
- Start date
- Status
Chapter Four
17:57 Ship’s Time
Huntington and Masafumi sat idly, each of them leaned up against each goalpost. The Asian had his legs splayed and the football lay between them. “We don’t have time for a rematch.”
“Chicken,” said Huntington with a laugh.
“I was simply reminding you that we only have the holodeck for another few minutes.”
Silence returned to the huge stadium for a few moments before Adam said,” What happens when we leave the holodeck? With you and me, I mean.”
Masafumi shook his head. “I don’t know. I would like to think that we got a lot off of our respective chests. I would like to think that we could go back to being friends. Especially if you’re leaving the ship.”
“There’s no keeping a secret on this ship.”
Yashiro cocked his head to one side. “It’s hardly a secret. Everyone always knew that you never stayed long in a posting. A year aboard a ship and then several years at the Academy before another year on a ship… and so on and so forth. In a way, I admire you greatly. You have it all. A stable family environment and the ability to be out here at the same time. I screwed up my last chance at family.”
“I don’t have it all. Forgive my arrogance but if it wasn’t for my little sojourns at the Academy, I would have made Captain a long time ago.”
“You’ll probably still make it before I do it again,” said Masafumi.
“I’m sorry about that.”
Masafumi shrugged. “I’ll miss it but there’s no point in holding onto regret…”
“So says you. I regret that my marriage almost failed.”
“True.”
“There must be something that you feel guilty over other than that. You wouldn’t be Human otherwise.”
“Maybe I’m not,” Masafumi said with a gleam in his eyes. “Seriously though, yes, I do feel guilty. I feel guilty that I love Zia more than I ever loved my wife. I feel guilty that I don’t often get to see my son and guilty that … His voice trailed off.
“Yes?”
“I’ve never told anyone this but I feel guilty that I missed the war. Oh, I know that I always claim that I was glad to be out of the way of the fighting but it’s a lie. Then I feel guilty for wishing that I had been fighting, instead of exploring. I’m really a very guilty person.” And he laughed.
Huntington laughed too but he knew what he meant. He also had something to feel guilty over. Something that the Tennyson business had brought back to the foremost of his memory. He had never told anyone outside of a small circle of people. Not even Natalia. Maybe it was time to trust someone… to trust Masafumi.
Before he could say a word, however, the holodeck doors opened and several crew members leaned their heads in marveling at the sight of an empty auditorium with two senior officers sitting in the mud like dirty schoolboys. It felt even stranger when the Asian and the Englishman began to laugh at the sight of them.
****
18:00 Ship’s Time
Dayle wore a cream-colored dressing gown and seemingly nothing else. When she leaned over to hand Cardonez a drink, the Captain caught a glimpse of cleavage. “Are you sure I can’t get you anything stronger?,” she asked her.
Isabel took a sip of Eliberry juice. “No, this is fine. Trust me. I don’t need anything alcoholic, right now.”
Dayle sat down opposite of her and crossed her legs. “Oh, I see.”
Cardonez ignored her inference. Partly because she knew that the Counselor was thinking along the right lines. She tried to reconcile the petite woman in front of her with pale skin and long red hair, with the man that she had once shared a bed with.
Dayle was Lareyan, a humanoid species that was most Human-like except for the fact that they changed their gender every five years until they reached middle age when their gender was fixed one way or another permanently. She had been the first man that Cardonez had slept with in over a year and there had been no one else in the six months since their breakup.
“This is unexpected,” said Dayle.
“It is? Can’t a person drop in on an old friend?”
Dayle gave her a short girlish laugh. “Of course, but then that person had avoided their friend for months on end. It does take one somewhat by surprise. I take it that you’re here in a professional capacity?”
“Am I that obvious?”
“Only because I know you so well, and because it’s my job to notice. In truth, that surprises me more than if this were a friendly visit.”
Cardonez raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, don’t give me that innocent look. We both know how you feel about counselors. You think that we’re a waste of time. That people should be able to solve their own problems without having to resort to hearing a stranger utter psychobabble. You think that anyone who comes to see one of us is weak.”
“You know it took a bit of an effort to come in here,” said Cardonez. “If you’re just going to be smug, I might as well as leave.”
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t meaning to come off like that. I think it’s a sign of real strength that you’ve come here.”
“Yeah, right,” muttered Cardonez.
“Yeah, right. You’re an incredibly strong and incredibly stubborn person. To come and see me must have taken an incredible act of will. For you to reach out to me…” She let the sentence trail off.
Both women sat there for several minutes. Neither of them spoke and neither of them made eye contact. Cardonez drained the glass and set it down on the coffee table. The sight of the table sent a shiver down her spine and she knew why.
“So,” said Dayle, finally shattering the silence.
“So?”
“You know, I can probe if you like but this would be more constructive if you just opened up,” Dayle said.
“Well, I’ve come this far,” Isabel said but she didn’t follow up the sentence. Instead she merely stared out of the window.
“Isabel, you’re obviously uncomfortable in this situation. So let me make an observation. The sooner that you start talking, the sooner you can leave.”
Silence.
“It’s your own time that you’re wasting.”
Cardonez laughed at that.
“That’s positive,” said the Counselor. “For a while, I thought that you might have lost your sense of humor.”
“Can’t I have another drink?”
“Sure,” said Dayle and she headed off towards the replicator. As she stood by it, Isabel suddenly spoke.
“I can’t forgive myself.”
Dayle resisted the urge to turn around, instead of requesting another glass of eliberry juice. She kept her back turned from her. “For what happened to Liz?”
“Partly… and partly for what happened afterwards.”
Dayle turned around now, walking over and handing the glass to Cardonez before she resumed her seat. “What happened afterwards?”
Cardonez sighed. As she took a sip, Dayle saw that her hands shook, just a little. “I almost killed Bill Reeves. I let my anger take over. I let the Romulan-half of me take over and I came close to murdering a man.”
“But you didn’t,” Dayle interjected.
“No, and sometimes that’s what I can’t forgive myself for. I had the chance to expunge evil from the universe and I faltered. I let my moral code overrule my instincts.”
“One cannot fight evil with evil.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Cardonez, darkly. “It’s all a matter of degree. The lesser evil versus the greater.” She took another drink. “One day, they’ll let him out and one day, he might do the same again, and if he does, that will be my fault.”
“You can’t hold yourself responsible for every action in the Galaxy,” said Dayle. “The Isabel Cardonez that I knew understood that. That’s what makes you such a good Captain. Being able to deal with the failures without letting them weaken you.”
“I know. It’s just not that easy this time. Liz is one of the closest people to me and I let her down. I’ve dealt with setbacks my whole life and I’ve always bounced back. So why can’t I do it this time?”
“I don’t have a magical answer to that question,” said Dayle. “Therapy isn’t an exact science. It could take days or years to get to the root of things.”
“Tough,” said Cardonez, draining the glass again. “I leave tomorrow.”
“You’re really going through with it? Quitting Starfleet?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Why? What are you running away?”
“I’m not running away from anything!,” snapped Cardonez. “The trouble is, I’m not running towards anything either.”
Dayle followed. “I don’t follow.”
“Life is pointless,” said Isabel. “Nothing has any meaning to me anymore. Nothing and no one since what happened to Liz. I could stay but I would be going through the motions. I don’t know what it is that I’m searching for but until I find it, there’s no point of me being the Captain of so much as a tugboat because I don’t care. I don’t care if I live or die. Trust me. No crew wants a Captain like that.”
“Isabel, if you’re contemplating suicide…”
Cardonez shook her head. “No. I would need to care for that and I don’t. I just exist. I sleep, I eat, I drink and I shit but that’s it.” Suddenly she stood up. “Look, this isn’t helping. It’s just making me angry.”
“What are you angry at?”
Cardonez took a deep breath before she answered her. “Stop analyzing me.”
“I thought that’s why you came here,” said Dayle with a smile.
“I came here for the same reason that I do anything these days. I’m looking for something.” She paused and looked around the room. “It isn’t here,” she said with a shake of her head before heading for the door.
“Isabel, wait…,” said Dayle but it was no use. Within seconds, the doors slid open and then closed again, leaving her alone.
****
18:48 Ship’s Time
Valian Kandro watched Lieutenant Louise Ramblin enter the bar and he quickly saw the thunder-like look on her face while she made a beeline straight for him. “Uh-oh,” he muttered under his breath.
“Can I get you a drink, Lieutenant?,” he asked her when she barged past two young woman who quickly moved out of her way.
“I want to talk to you.”
Kandro shrugged. “Okay, fire away.”
“Not here,” said Ramblin. “Outside.”
Kandro gestured around him. “I’m the only person on duty. I can’t just abandon – “
“It’s important,” said Testudo’s Chief Engineer and when he looked into her eyes, the Betazoid was surprised to see a hint of pleading in them.
“Okay, just give me a second,” he said and began scanning the bar, trying to find a worthy replacement. He spotted Doctor Hollem Azahn sitting over in one of the quieter alcoves of the Backyard. He appeared to be talking, whispering more like, to Zia Kehen. He found this strange since he hadn’t seem either of them walk in and he certainly hadn’t served them.
“Azahn!,” he shouted above the din. “Azahn!” He raised his voice even higher and the tousle-haired Bajoran looked up. He pointed at his chest in a classic ‘me?’ gesture.
“Yes, you!,” shouted Kandro. “Mind the shop for a minute, will you?” For a moment, Hollem hesitated but then he stood up from his seat and ambled over to the bar.
Kandro came out from behind the bar and gestured towards the doors for Ramblin to lead the way. She did and moments later, they were standing out in the corridor. “Is this private enough?,” he asked.
“Yes.”
Kandro leaned up against the wall, his arms folded. “Okay, then, what have I done this time?”
“Typical,” she snorted. “Everything’s got to be about you.”
Kandro raised both eyebrows. “Well, apart from work-related conversations, we do have a habit of biting each other’s heads off most of the time.” He smiled. “I just assumed that you were hungry.”
“I wish I was,” she said before she surprised him by coming and leaned against the wall next to her. “I’ve just got my permanent promotion.”
“Congratulations. It’s hardly unexpected. What’s the problem and why on Betazed would you want to ask me about it?”
She took a deep breath. “I have a concern and I need a brutally honest answer. I don’t want to speak to Masafumi or Huntington about it, nor do I particularly want to leave it until the new Captain arrives.”
“Well, I can do brutal.”
Another deep breath and Louise asked him,” Is everyone making a huge mistake? Am I really cut out to be the Chief Engineer?”
Valian was taken aback. “Wow. Confidence was never something that I saw you lacking. You’ve been running the Engine Room for months. Why is this bothering you now?”
“Because now it’s real,” she replied. “I have my promotion. It’s not just a temporary assignment anymore. I can’t kid myself that I’m going back to my old life. Just put me out of my misery. Am I hopelessly miscast as Chief Engineer?”
Kandro barely even thought about what he was going to say. He just opened his mouth and let the truth come out. “We’re never going to be friends. That’s for sure, but as to you being qualified to run Engineering? There’s no question about it.” You’re a better engineer than you give yourself credit for, and though it pains me to say it, you’re probably better to command others than Liz ever was.”
“I wasn’t looking to be compared to Lieutenant Tennyson.”
“Tough. I can’t help it. Liz is my friend and a damned fine engineer. I wish she was running Engineering. No offense, but she isn’t here and you are. The life of everyone aboard this ship could depend on you someday and I have no qualms in trusting you with my life. Plus you don’t take shit from anyone. If Liz had that quality… Well, let’s just say that we wouldn’t be having this conversation now.”
Ramblin was speechless. It was a rare event.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a bar to run,” Kandro said, standing away from the wall and turning back towards the bar doors.
“Thanks,” she said.
He turned back towards her. “It was nothing.”
“Yes, it was. So, thanks.” For a moment, they just looked at each other.
“You’re welcome,” Kandro said and he watched her walk away. This wasn’t right. He and Ramblin didn’t get along. They never had apart from the few days that they had spent as lovers and that was before they really knew each other. They couldn’t become friends. It would just be too weird. He didn’t want to be friends. He enjoyed their witty back-and-forth patter. If they tolerated each other, what fun would that be.
“Hey, Ramblin!,” he shouted after her.
Ramblin paused and looked back. He saw a slightly worried look in her eyes. She felt it too. The beginnings of a connection. “What is it?”
Kandro smiled. “Any time that you need any more ‘input’ from me, well, you know where my quarters are.”
Ramblin smiled. It was filled with relief and also mixed with disdain. “In your dreams, buster,” she said and carried on walking.
“Frequently!,” he shouted after her when she turned around a corner and was gone. Clapping his hands together gleefully, he headed back inside.
Hollem looked up when he walked in. “Can I go now?,” he asked him.
“Please say yes,” said Ensign Waite who was sitting at the bar. “I asked for a Bloody Mary and he gave me a wine spritzer!”
“That’s what you asked for?,” replied Hollem, stroking his beard.
“Thanks, Doc, but I can take it from here.” Kandro walked over and retook his place behind the bar. “So, what are you and Zia chatting about?,” he asked him absentmindedly while Hollem started walking away.
“Nothing,” replied the Doctor. He spoke far too quickly to be telling him the truth.
Kandro shrugged. “Okay then. Bloody Mary, right?,” he asked Waite.
The young engineer raised a glass filled with a pale fizzy liquid. “Actually, this is quite nice. I’ll have another one.”
Kandro was still watched Hollem. “One more wine spritzer coming up.” While he made the drink, he saw Kehen and Hollem leave. Neither of them looked his way.
****
19:05 Ship’s Time.
Isabel Cardonez had been pacing her quarters, trying to prolong the time until she took a drink for as long as possible. The tequila bottle sat on the coffee table, taunting her and tempting her in equal measure. She looked at it.
“Not yet,” she whispered, wondering how long she could hold out.
****
19:15 Ship’s Time.
“Back again?,” Valian asked when Alec Carter pulled a stool up to the bar.
“Yeah, he said with a huge grin on his face. “Only this time, I’m really celebrating. Look.” He placed a PADD on top of the bar.
He looked down and saw a grainy black-and-white image on the display. “What is that?,” he asked. “A star chart?”
“No. Something way better,” said Carter. “That’s my daughter.” He beamed with pride and as a shocked Kandro looked up, he saw tears brimming in the Ensign’s eyes. “When I got back to my quarters, I had a subspace message from my wife back home. I thought that my last leave went well but it obviously went better than I thought!”
Kandro was stunned. “Well, I’ll be… Who knows?”
“So far, just you.”
Kandro was shaking his head. “I don’t beleive it. We’ve got to tell everybody.”
“Why else do you think that I’m here, Valian? Your sparkling wit?,” asked the Australian, his grin getting wider by the second.
“Everybody!,” shouted the Operations Officer/Bartender. “Hey! Shut the hell up, all of you!” The sound level in the bar continued. Although those closest to the bar had, at least, turned towards him. “I don’t beleive these guys. Okay, well, this will get their attention.” He picked up a glass and heaved it across the room towards an empty wall. As it shattered, those who have been closest to the impact jumped out of the way of the flying glass and within a second, the bar was silent.
“Thank you!,” said Kandro. “Now then, Ensign Carter has an announcement. So listen up and afterwards, you all owe him a drink!” He gestured towards him. “All yours.”
Carter stood with his back to the bar. He was silent for what seemed to be like an eternity while he composed himself. Finally, with his voice shaking, he shouted at the to pof his voice. “I’m going to be a dad!”
After another moment of silence, the waves of cheering that erupted within the confines of the bar sent a shiver down Kandro’s spine.
****
20:04 Ship’s Time
She didn’t know what had possessed her but Cardonez now stood outside the Backyard. She had grown tried of pacing the floor and she wanted, more than anything, to have a drink. Still, something nagged at her mind and she hadn’t been able to drink more than a thimble before she decided that if she was going to drink it, it might as well be with others.
Taking a deep breath, she walked inside.
It wasn’t like an old Earth movie. The crowd didn’t immediately shut up and stare at her, the moment that she walked inside. No, it took, at least, the few seconds that it took her to get to the bar to do that.
“Killer entrance,” said Valian Kandro. “Can I get you a drink?”
Cardonez glanced around the room, taking in the silent gawping faces. “What?,” she asked tersely and suddenly the spell was broken. People returned to their drinks and conversations.
“You’ll have to excuse my clientele,” the Betazoid said,” but no one’s really seen much of you lately. Least of all, your friends.”
She sighed. “I came here for a drink, Valian, not a lecture.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, using her most hated nomenclature. “What will it be?”
“Have you got any requila?”
“Synthehol?”
“Sure? Why not?,” she said. She looked around the room again while he poured her a drink. “Everyone seems to be pretty hyped up.”
“Well, Alec Carter discovered that he’s going to be a father tonight so most people are celebrating,” said Kandro. “You know this lot. Any excuse…”
“That’s good for him,” she said, making a valiant attempt to sound genuine.
“The rest of the Bridge crew are over by the window. Unless you want to stay and chat?”
She looked at him. “I’m sorry, Valian. I guess I’ve been ignoring you, most of all, since I came back on board.”
He shook his head. “Guess again,” he said, handing her a glass of tequila. “You’ve been ignoring me since you abandon the Captaincy.”
Cardonez stared into the glass. “I asked for that.”
“Yes, you did. What were you…” Kandro began to say but he didn’t get a chance to finish.
“Four more ales!,” slurred a burly Lieutenant in Security Gold who elbowed Cardonez gently out of the way.
“In a minute,” Kandro said, harshly. “Look, I’m kind of busy but I do get off soon. We could talk if you wanted to?”
“Sure. I’ll just go and see the oithers,” she said, gesturing off while keeping her eyes on Kandro.
A moment later, she was gone. He watched her leave for a second before shaking his head and turning towards his latest customer. “Four ales, right?,” he asked.
Cardonez found them easily. Kandro had been right. The entire senior staff was clustered around a table. Captain Masafumi, Lieutenant Commander Huntington, Doctor Hollem, and Lieutenants Ramblin and Kehen.
“Room for one more?,” she asked softly.
All of them looked up at her but it was Masafumi who spoke. “I think we can squeeze you in,” he said with a smile, indicating an empty chair between Ramblin and Kehen.
17:57 Ship’s Time
Huntington and Masafumi sat idly, each of them leaned up against each goalpost. The Asian had his legs splayed and the football lay between them. “We don’t have time for a rematch.”
“Chicken,” said Huntington with a laugh.
“I was simply reminding you that we only have the holodeck for another few minutes.”
Silence returned to the huge stadium for a few moments before Adam said,” What happens when we leave the holodeck? With you and me, I mean.”
Masafumi shook his head. “I don’t know. I would like to think that we got a lot off of our respective chests. I would like to think that we could go back to being friends. Especially if you’re leaving the ship.”
“There’s no keeping a secret on this ship.”
Yashiro cocked his head to one side. “It’s hardly a secret. Everyone always knew that you never stayed long in a posting. A year aboard a ship and then several years at the Academy before another year on a ship… and so on and so forth. In a way, I admire you greatly. You have it all. A stable family environment and the ability to be out here at the same time. I screwed up my last chance at family.”
“I don’t have it all. Forgive my arrogance but if it wasn’t for my little sojourns at the Academy, I would have made Captain a long time ago.”
“You’ll probably still make it before I do it again,” said Masafumi.
“I’m sorry about that.”
Masafumi shrugged. “I’ll miss it but there’s no point in holding onto regret…”
“So says you. I regret that my marriage almost failed.”
“True.”
“There must be something that you feel guilty over other than that. You wouldn’t be Human otherwise.”
“Maybe I’m not,” Masafumi said with a gleam in his eyes. “Seriously though, yes, I do feel guilty. I feel guilty that I love Zia more than I ever loved my wife. I feel guilty that I don’t often get to see my son and guilty that … His voice trailed off.
“Yes?”
“I’ve never told anyone this but I feel guilty that I missed the war. Oh, I know that I always claim that I was glad to be out of the way of the fighting but it’s a lie. Then I feel guilty for wishing that I had been fighting, instead of exploring. I’m really a very guilty person.” And he laughed.
Huntington laughed too but he knew what he meant. He also had something to feel guilty over. Something that the Tennyson business had brought back to the foremost of his memory. He had never told anyone outside of a small circle of people. Not even Natalia. Maybe it was time to trust someone… to trust Masafumi.
Before he could say a word, however, the holodeck doors opened and several crew members leaned their heads in marveling at the sight of an empty auditorium with two senior officers sitting in the mud like dirty schoolboys. It felt even stranger when the Asian and the Englishman began to laugh at the sight of them.
****
18:00 Ship’s Time
Dayle wore a cream-colored dressing gown and seemingly nothing else. When she leaned over to hand Cardonez a drink, the Captain caught a glimpse of cleavage. “Are you sure I can’t get you anything stronger?,” she asked her.
Isabel took a sip of Eliberry juice. “No, this is fine. Trust me. I don’t need anything alcoholic, right now.”
Dayle sat down opposite of her and crossed her legs. “Oh, I see.”
Cardonez ignored her inference. Partly because she knew that the Counselor was thinking along the right lines. She tried to reconcile the petite woman in front of her with pale skin and long red hair, with the man that she had once shared a bed with.
Dayle was Lareyan, a humanoid species that was most Human-like except for the fact that they changed their gender every five years until they reached middle age when their gender was fixed one way or another permanently. She had been the first man that Cardonez had slept with in over a year and there had been no one else in the six months since their breakup.
“This is unexpected,” said Dayle.
“It is? Can’t a person drop in on an old friend?”
Dayle gave her a short girlish laugh. “Of course, but then that person had avoided their friend for months on end. It does take one somewhat by surprise. I take it that you’re here in a professional capacity?”
“Am I that obvious?”
“Only because I know you so well, and because it’s my job to notice. In truth, that surprises me more than if this were a friendly visit.”
Cardonez raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, don’t give me that innocent look. We both know how you feel about counselors. You think that we’re a waste of time. That people should be able to solve their own problems without having to resort to hearing a stranger utter psychobabble. You think that anyone who comes to see one of us is weak.”
“You know it took a bit of an effort to come in here,” said Cardonez. “If you’re just going to be smug, I might as well as leave.”
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t meaning to come off like that. I think it’s a sign of real strength that you’ve come here.”
“Yeah, right,” muttered Cardonez.
“Yeah, right. You’re an incredibly strong and incredibly stubborn person. To come and see me must have taken an incredible act of will. For you to reach out to me…” She let the sentence trail off.
Both women sat there for several minutes. Neither of them spoke and neither of them made eye contact. Cardonez drained the glass and set it down on the coffee table. The sight of the table sent a shiver down her spine and she knew why.
“So,” said Dayle, finally shattering the silence.
“So?”
“You know, I can probe if you like but this would be more constructive if you just opened up,” Dayle said.
“Well, I’ve come this far,” Isabel said but she didn’t follow up the sentence. Instead she merely stared out of the window.
“Isabel, you’re obviously uncomfortable in this situation. So let me make an observation. The sooner that you start talking, the sooner you can leave.”
Silence.
“It’s your own time that you’re wasting.”
Cardonez laughed at that.
“That’s positive,” said the Counselor. “For a while, I thought that you might have lost your sense of humor.”
“Can’t I have another drink?”
“Sure,” said Dayle and she headed off towards the replicator. As she stood by it, Isabel suddenly spoke.
“I can’t forgive myself.”
Dayle resisted the urge to turn around, instead of requesting another glass of eliberry juice. She kept her back turned from her. “For what happened to Liz?”
“Partly… and partly for what happened afterwards.”
Dayle turned around now, walking over and handing the glass to Cardonez before she resumed her seat. “What happened afterwards?”
Cardonez sighed. As she took a sip, Dayle saw that her hands shook, just a little. “I almost killed Bill Reeves. I let my anger take over. I let the Romulan-half of me take over and I came close to murdering a man.”
“But you didn’t,” Dayle interjected.
“No, and sometimes that’s what I can’t forgive myself for. I had the chance to expunge evil from the universe and I faltered. I let my moral code overrule my instincts.”
“One cannot fight evil with evil.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Cardonez, darkly. “It’s all a matter of degree. The lesser evil versus the greater.” She took another drink. “One day, they’ll let him out and one day, he might do the same again, and if he does, that will be my fault.”
“You can’t hold yourself responsible for every action in the Galaxy,” said Dayle. “The Isabel Cardonez that I knew understood that. That’s what makes you such a good Captain. Being able to deal with the failures without letting them weaken you.”
“I know. It’s just not that easy this time. Liz is one of the closest people to me and I let her down. I’ve dealt with setbacks my whole life and I’ve always bounced back. So why can’t I do it this time?”
“I don’t have a magical answer to that question,” said Dayle. “Therapy isn’t an exact science. It could take days or years to get to the root of things.”
“Tough,” said Cardonez, draining the glass again. “I leave tomorrow.”
“You’re really going through with it? Quitting Starfleet?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Why? What are you running away?”
“I’m not running away from anything!,” snapped Cardonez. “The trouble is, I’m not running towards anything either.”
Dayle followed. “I don’t follow.”
“Life is pointless,” said Isabel. “Nothing has any meaning to me anymore. Nothing and no one since what happened to Liz. I could stay but I would be going through the motions. I don’t know what it is that I’m searching for but until I find it, there’s no point of me being the Captain of so much as a tugboat because I don’t care. I don’t care if I live or die. Trust me. No crew wants a Captain like that.”
“Isabel, if you’re contemplating suicide…”
Cardonez shook her head. “No. I would need to care for that and I don’t. I just exist. I sleep, I eat, I drink and I shit but that’s it.” Suddenly she stood up. “Look, this isn’t helping. It’s just making me angry.”
“What are you angry at?”
Cardonez took a deep breath before she answered her. “Stop analyzing me.”
“I thought that’s why you came here,” said Dayle with a smile.
“I came here for the same reason that I do anything these days. I’m looking for something.” She paused and looked around the room. “It isn’t here,” she said with a shake of her head before heading for the door.
“Isabel, wait…,” said Dayle but it was no use. Within seconds, the doors slid open and then closed again, leaving her alone.
****
18:48 Ship’s Time
Valian Kandro watched Lieutenant Louise Ramblin enter the bar and he quickly saw the thunder-like look on her face while she made a beeline straight for him. “Uh-oh,” he muttered under his breath.
“Can I get you a drink, Lieutenant?,” he asked her when she barged past two young woman who quickly moved out of her way.
“I want to talk to you.”
Kandro shrugged. “Okay, fire away.”
“Not here,” said Ramblin. “Outside.”
Kandro gestured around him. “I’m the only person on duty. I can’t just abandon – “
“It’s important,” said Testudo’s Chief Engineer and when he looked into her eyes, the Betazoid was surprised to see a hint of pleading in them.
“Okay, just give me a second,” he said and began scanning the bar, trying to find a worthy replacement. He spotted Doctor Hollem Azahn sitting over in one of the quieter alcoves of the Backyard. He appeared to be talking, whispering more like, to Zia Kehen. He found this strange since he hadn’t seem either of them walk in and he certainly hadn’t served them.
“Azahn!,” he shouted above the din. “Azahn!” He raised his voice even higher and the tousle-haired Bajoran looked up. He pointed at his chest in a classic ‘me?’ gesture.
“Yes, you!,” shouted Kandro. “Mind the shop for a minute, will you?” For a moment, Hollem hesitated but then he stood up from his seat and ambled over to the bar.
Kandro came out from behind the bar and gestured towards the doors for Ramblin to lead the way. She did and moments later, they were standing out in the corridor. “Is this private enough?,” he asked.
“Yes.”
Kandro leaned up against the wall, his arms folded. “Okay, then, what have I done this time?”
“Typical,” she snorted. “Everything’s got to be about you.”
Kandro raised both eyebrows. “Well, apart from work-related conversations, we do have a habit of biting each other’s heads off most of the time.” He smiled. “I just assumed that you were hungry.”
“I wish I was,” she said before she surprised him by coming and leaned against the wall next to her. “I’ve just got my permanent promotion.”
“Congratulations. It’s hardly unexpected. What’s the problem and why on Betazed would you want to ask me about it?”
She took a deep breath. “I have a concern and I need a brutally honest answer. I don’t want to speak to Masafumi or Huntington about it, nor do I particularly want to leave it until the new Captain arrives.”
“Well, I can do brutal.”
Another deep breath and Louise asked him,” Is everyone making a huge mistake? Am I really cut out to be the Chief Engineer?”
Valian was taken aback. “Wow. Confidence was never something that I saw you lacking. You’ve been running the Engine Room for months. Why is this bothering you now?”
“Because now it’s real,” she replied. “I have my promotion. It’s not just a temporary assignment anymore. I can’t kid myself that I’m going back to my old life. Just put me out of my misery. Am I hopelessly miscast as Chief Engineer?”
Kandro barely even thought about what he was going to say. He just opened his mouth and let the truth come out. “We’re never going to be friends. That’s for sure, but as to you being qualified to run Engineering? There’s no question about it.” You’re a better engineer than you give yourself credit for, and though it pains me to say it, you’re probably better to command others than Liz ever was.”
“I wasn’t looking to be compared to Lieutenant Tennyson.”
“Tough. I can’t help it. Liz is my friend and a damned fine engineer. I wish she was running Engineering. No offense, but she isn’t here and you are. The life of everyone aboard this ship could depend on you someday and I have no qualms in trusting you with my life. Plus you don’t take shit from anyone. If Liz had that quality… Well, let’s just say that we wouldn’t be having this conversation now.”
Ramblin was speechless. It was a rare event.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a bar to run,” Kandro said, standing away from the wall and turning back towards the bar doors.
“Thanks,” she said.
He turned back towards her. “It was nothing.”
“Yes, it was. So, thanks.” For a moment, they just looked at each other.
“You’re welcome,” Kandro said and he watched her walk away. This wasn’t right. He and Ramblin didn’t get along. They never had apart from the few days that they had spent as lovers and that was before they really knew each other. They couldn’t become friends. It would just be too weird. He didn’t want to be friends. He enjoyed their witty back-and-forth patter. If they tolerated each other, what fun would that be.
“Hey, Ramblin!,” he shouted after her.
Ramblin paused and looked back. He saw a slightly worried look in her eyes. She felt it too. The beginnings of a connection. “What is it?”
Kandro smiled. “Any time that you need any more ‘input’ from me, well, you know where my quarters are.”
Ramblin smiled. It was filled with relief and also mixed with disdain. “In your dreams, buster,” she said and carried on walking.
“Frequently!,” he shouted after her when she turned around a corner and was gone. Clapping his hands together gleefully, he headed back inside.
Hollem looked up when he walked in. “Can I go now?,” he asked him.
“Please say yes,” said Ensign Waite who was sitting at the bar. “I asked for a Bloody Mary and he gave me a wine spritzer!”
“That’s what you asked for?,” replied Hollem, stroking his beard.
“Thanks, Doc, but I can take it from here.” Kandro walked over and retook his place behind the bar. “So, what are you and Zia chatting about?,” he asked him absentmindedly while Hollem started walking away.
“Nothing,” replied the Doctor. He spoke far too quickly to be telling him the truth.
Kandro shrugged. “Okay then. Bloody Mary, right?,” he asked Waite.
The young engineer raised a glass filled with a pale fizzy liquid. “Actually, this is quite nice. I’ll have another one.”
Kandro was still watched Hollem. “One more wine spritzer coming up.” While he made the drink, he saw Kehen and Hollem leave. Neither of them looked his way.
****
19:05 Ship’s Time.
Isabel Cardonez had been pacing her quarters, trying to prolong the time until she took a drink for as long as possible. The tequila bottle sat on the coffee table, taunting her and tempting her in equal measure. She looked at it.
“Not yet,” she whispered, wondering how long she could hold out.
****
19:15 Ship’s Time.
“Back again?,” Valian asked when Alec Carter pulled a stool up to the bar.
“Yeah, he said with a huge grin on his face. “Only this time, I’m really celebrating. Look.” He placed a PADD on top of the bar.
He looked down and saw a grainy black-and-white image on the display. “What is that?,” he asked. “A star chart?”
“No. Something way better,” said Carter. “That’s my daughter.” He beamed with pride and as a shocked Kandro looked up, he saw tears brimming in the Ensign’s eyes. “When I got back to my quarters, I had a subspace message from my wife back home. I thought that my last leave went well but it obviously went better than I thought!”
Kandro was stunned. “Well, I’ll be… Who knows?”
“So far, just you.”
Kandro was shaking his head. “I don’t beleive it. We’ve got to tell everybody.”
“Why else do you think that I’m here, Valian? Your sparkling wit?,” asked the Australian, his grin getting wider by the second.
“Everybody!,” shouted the Operations Officer/Bartender. “Hey! Shut the hell up, all of you!” The sound level in the bar continued. Although those closest to the bar had, at least, turned towards him. “I don’t beleive these guys. Okay, well, this will get their attention.” He picked up a glass and heaved it across the room towards an empty wall. As it shattered, those who have been closest to the impact jumped out of the way of the flying glass and within a second, the bar was silent.
“Thank you!,” said Kandro. “Now then, Ensign Carter has an announcement. So listen up and afterwards, you all owe him a drink!” He gestured towards him. “All yours.”
Carter stood with his back to the bar. He was silent for what seemed to be like an eternity while he composed himself. Finally, with his voice shaking, he shouted at the to pof his voice. “I’m going to be a dad!”
After another moment of silence, the waves of cheering that erupted within the confines of the bar sent a shiver down Kandro’s spine.
****
20:04 Ship’s Time
She didn’t know what had possessed her but Cardonez now stood outside the Backyard. She had grown tried of pacing the floor and she wanted, more than anything, to have a drink. Still, something nagged at her mind and she hadn’t been able to drink more than a thimble before she decided that if she was going to drink it, it might as well be with others.
Taking a deep breath, she walked inside.
It wasn’t like an old Earth movie. The crowd didn’t immediately shut up and stare at her, the moment that she walked inside. No, it took, at least, the few seconds that it took her to get to the bar to do that.
“Killer entrance,” said Valian Kandro. “Can I get you a drink?”
Cardonez glanced around the room, taking in the silent gawping faces. “What?,” she asked tersely and suddenly the spell was broken. People returned to their drinks and conversations.
“You’ll have to excuse my clientele,” the Betazoid said,” but no one’s really seen much of you lately. Least of all, your friends.”
She sighed. “I came here for a drink, Valian, not a lecture.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, using her most hated nomenclature. “What will it be?”
“Have you got any requila?”
“Synthehol?”
“Sure? Why not?,” she said. She looked around the room again while he poured her a drink. “Everyone seems to be pretty hyped up.”
“Well, Alec Carter discovered that he’s going to be a father tonight so most people are celebrating,” said Kandro. “You know this lot. Any excuse…”
“That’s good for him,” she said, making a valiant attempt to sound genuine.
“The rest of the Bridge crew are over by the window. Unless you want to stay and chat?”
She looked at him. “I’m sorry, Valian. I guess I’ve been ignoring you, most of all, since I came back on board.”
He shook his head. “Guess again,” he said, handing her a glass of tequila. “You’ve been ignoring me since you abandon the Captaincy.”
Cardonez stared into the glass. “I asked for that.”
“Yes, you did. What were you…” Kandro began to say but he didn’t get a chance to finish.
“Four more ales!,” slurred a burly Lieutenant in Security Gold who elbowed Cardonez gently out of the way.
“In a minute,” Kandro said, harshly. “Look, I’m kind of busy but I do get off soon. We could talk if you wanted to?”
“Sure. I’ll just go and see the oithers,” she said, gesturing off while keeping her eyes on Kandro.
A moment later, she was gone. He watched her leave for a second before shaking his head and turning towards his latest customer. “Four ales, right?,” he asked.
Cardonez found them easily. Kandro had been right. The entire senior staff was clustered around a table. Captain Masafumi, Lieutenant Commander Huntington, Doctor Hollem, and Lieutenants Ramblin and Kehen.
“Room for one more?,” she asked softly.
All of them looked up at her but it was Masafumi who spoke. “I think we can squeeze you in,” he said with a smile, indicating an empty chair between Ramblin and Kehen.
****
20:10 Ship’s Time
Valian Kandro had just finished supplying Ensign Carter with yet another round of drinks. He was focused on his task and so he didn’t hear someone behind him. When the tap on his shoulder came, he jumped and spun around fast.
“What?!”
Louise Ramblin smirked and asked, “You’re kind of jumpy, aren’t you?”
Kandro stared at her. “I know that basic engineering principles elude you mostly but even you must know that you order drinks from the other side of the bar.”
“Funny man,” she said,” and when I’m here to do you a favor.”
“Favor?”
“Yeah, a favor,” said Ramblin. “I figured that I owed you from this afternoon and beleive me when I say that owing you anything will just prey on my mind. So the sooner that I can pay you back, the better.”
“I don’t follow.”
“You were always slow on the uptake. I’ll finish your shift. It should give you a chance to see the Captain. After all, it’s her last night on board.”
Kandro narrowed his dark eyes at her, expecting a catch. “You’re sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” said Ramblin,” but the longer that you take to leave, the less sure I get.”
“I’m gone,” he said, making a run for it.”
Behind him, he heard Louise say,” Okay, you drunks. Form an orderly queue and no pushing. I don’t care how cute you are!”
****
20:47 Ship’s Time
Isabel Cardonez found that she was smiling in spite of herself while Adam Huntington recounted his tale.
“So there I was, locked in a cell with three Orion animal women. All of whom were all in heat at the same time and there was barely enough energy in my phaser for one stun shot.”
“And?,” quizzed Yashiro Masafumi.
“I shot myself,” said Huntington, deadpan. “By the time that I came around, the rest of the away team had managed to storm the arena and retrieve me.”
“You shot yourself?,” asked Kandro. “Just to save yourself from being ravished?”
“You know, technically, a man’s sexual organs will work, whether he’s conscious or not,” said Hollem. “So it’s quite possible that … uh… What I mean is…” He started to stammer when he realized what he was implying.
Huntington winced. “Let’s just say that my uniform was in tatters. I had scratches in some very peculiar places and I’m eternally grateful that it happened before I met Natalia.”
The group laughed at that and Cardonez downed her synthehol.
****
21:32 Ship’s Time
“You’re telling me that the feeling never goes away?,” asked Kandro.
Cardonez nodded. “Damn right, it doesn’t,” she said, rubbing her left arm. “Six years since that Klingon bastard hacked it off and it still doesn’t feel like my arm.”
His face fell and he took a large gulp of ale. The group had divided off and now there were three conversations going on at once at the table. Kandro put his glass down and rubbed his own left arm.
“Well, I did always want to be like you,” he said with a weak smile.
****
22:08 Ship’s Time
“Okay, okay! My most embarassing moment ever,” began Kehen,” had to be when I was in my quarters. Yashiro had come around to talk to me about… something.” The Yulanian was obviously drunk and she waved her arms dismissively when she said ‘something’. “Anyway, I had just got out of the shower and I was in my dressing gown. Anyway, the Caotain… That one,” - she pointed at Cardonez - ,” calls down and asks me up to the Bridge. ‘I just need to get dressed,’ I say. ‘Oh, and by the way, Masafumi is with me. Do you want him too?’ Damn, I swear I had never gone bluer!”
“You see, that’s the disadvantage of Engineering. You miss classics like that one,” Louise Ramblin said. After she had finished Kandro’s shift, she rejoined the senior officers, grabbing a chair and forcing her way between Masafumi and Huntington.
Masafumi blushed and said,” That happens all the time now but no one seems to mind anymore.”
“I’ll say,” said Hollem. “If you two hadnt gotten together when you did, I was under orders to slip you something to make you go for each other.”
“I was joking, Azahn!,” laughed Cardonez.
“Oh,” was all that the Bajoran could say in response.
“Well, given what had transpired, it seemed foolish to keep waiting and foolish to let pride get in the way when it could all be snatched away,” said Masafumi, the one member of the group who seemed to be remotely sober.
Silence followed his comments while each person around the table ruminated about what he meant.
“When was the last time that anyone heard anything about Lieutenant Tennyson?,” asked Huntington, verbalizing what most of them were thinking.
“I got a letter from her mother a few weeks ago,” said Kandro. “She’s a little better but Doctor Durant is a little disappointed that she isn’t making a faster recovery.”
Silence descended once more.
Masafumi stood up, a trifle unsteadily, and raised his glass. There was a huge clamor of noise as dozens of conversations echoed around him but they all heard what he said next, even though his voice was soft.
“To absent friends,” he said, lifting his glass slightly.
“Absent friends,” echoed the six other officers around the table as he sat down once more.
For the next five minutes, none of them spoke since each of them were caught up in their own thoughts. Finally, Ramblin stood up.
“Well, we had to enter the maudlin phase of drinking sooner or later,” she said. “It seems as good as any time to say goodnight.”
Masafumi nodded. “I concur,” he said, nudging Kehen who was asleep on his shoulder.
Within seconds, seven had become four.
A minute later and only Cardonez and Kandro were left.
“Wow. Talk about rats leaving a sinking ship,” he said before yawning. “Still, I have to be back at Ops tomorrow so it might be a good idea to turn in.”
“I have a better idea,” said Cardonez. “I have a bottle of tequila in my quarters. How about we go drink it and talk about old times? I don’t know when we’ll see each other after tomorrow.”
Kandro smiled. “I would like that,” he said. Together, the two old friends stood up and headed out of the bar.
20:10 Ship’s Time
Valian Kandro had just finished supplying Ensign Carter with yet another round of drinks. He was focused on his task and so he didn’t hear someone behind him. When the tap on his shoulder came, he jumped and spun around fast.
“What?!”
Louise Ramblin smirked and asked, “You’re kind of jumpy, aren’t you?”
Kandro stared at her. “I know that basic engineering principles elude you mostly but even you must know that you order drinks from the other side of the bar.”
“Funny man,” she said,” and when I’m here to do you a favor.”
“Favor?”
“Yeah, a favor,” said Ramblin. “I figured that I owed you from this afternoon and beleive me when I say that owing you anything will just prey on my mind. So the sooner that I can pay you back, the better.”
“I don’t follow.”
“You were always slow on the uptake. I’ll finish your shift. It should give you a chance to see the Captain. After all, it’s her last night on board.”
Kandro narrowed his dark eyes at her, expecting a catch. “You’re sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” said Ramblin,” but the longer that you take to leave, the less sure I get.”
“I’m gone,” he said, making a run for it.”
Behind him, he heard Louise say,” Okay, you drunks. Form an orderly queue and no pushing. I don’t care how cute you are!”
****
20:47 Ship’s Time
Isabel Cardonez found that she was smiling in spite of herself while Adam Huntington recounted his tale.
“So there I was, locked in a cell with three Orion animal women. All of whom were all in heat at the same time and there was barely enough energy in my phaser for one stun shot.”
“And?,” quizzed Yashiro Masafumi.
“I shot myself,” said Huntington, deadpan. “By the time that I came around, the rest of the away team had managed to storm the arena and retrieve me.”
“You shot yourself?,” asked Kandro. “Just to save yourself from being ravished?”
“You know, technically, a man’s sexual organs will work, whether he’s conscious or not,” said Hollem. “So it’s quite possible that … uh… What I mean is…” He started to stammer when he realized what he was implying.
Huntington winced. “Let’s just say that my uniform was in tatters. I had scratches in some very peculiar places and I’m eternally grateful that it happened before I met Natalia.”
The group laughed at that and Cardonez downed her synthehol.
****
21:32 Ship’s Time
“You’re telling me that the feeling never goes away?,” asked Kandro.
Cardonez nodded. “Damn right, it doesn’t,” she said, rubbing her left arm. “Six years since that Klingon bastard hacked it off and it still doesn’t feel like my arm.”
His face fell and he took a large gulp of ale. The group had divided off and now there were three conversations going on at once at the table. Kandro put his glass down and rubbed his own left arm.
“Well, I did always want to be like you,” he said with a weak smile.
****
22:08 Ship’s Time
“Okay, okay! My most embarassing moment ever,” began Kehen,” had to be when I was in my quarters. Yashiro had come around to talk to me about… something.” The Yulanian was obviously drunk and she waved her arms dismissively when she said ‘something’. “Anyway, I had just got out of the shower and I was in my dressing gown. Anyway, the Caotain… That one,” - she pointed at Cardonez - ,” calls down and asks me up to the Bridge. ‘I just need to get dressed,’ I say. ‘Oh, and by the way, Masafumi is with me. Do you want him too?’ Damn, I swear I had never gone bluer!”
“You see, that’s the disadvantage of Engineering. You miss classics like that one,” Louise Ramblin said. After she had finished Kandro’s shift, she rejoined the senior officers, grabbing a chair and forcing her way between Masafumi and Huntington.
Masafumi blushed and said,” That happens all the time now but no one seems to mind anymore.”
“I’ll say,” said Hollem. “If you two hadnt gotten together when you did, I was under orders to slip you something to make you go for each other.”
“I was joking, Azahn!,” laughed Cardonez.
“Oh,” was all that the Bajoran could say in response.
“Well, given what had transpired, it seemed foolish to keep waiting and foolish to let pride get in the way when it could all be snatched away,” said Masafumi, the one member of the group who seemed to be remotely sober.
Silence followed his comments while each person around the table ruminated about what he meant.
“When was the last time that anyone heard anything about Lieutenant Tennyson?,” asked Huntington, verbalizing what most of them were thinking.
“I got a letter from her mother a few weeks ago,” said Kandro. “She’s a little better but Doctor Durant is a little disappointed that she isn’t making a faster recovery.”
Silence descended once more.
Masafumi stood up, a trifle unsteadily, and raised his glass. There was a huge clamor of noise as dozens of conversations echoed around him but they all heard what he said next, even though his voice was soft.
“To absent friends,” he said, lifting his glass slightly.
“Absent friends,” echoed the six other officers around the table as he sat down once more.
For the next five minutes, none of them spoke since each of them were caught up in their own thoughts. Finally, Ramblin stood up.
“Well, we had to enter the maudlin phase of drinking sooner or later,” she said. “It seems as good as any time to say goodnight.”
Masafumi nodded. “I concur,” he said, nudging Kehen who was asleep on his shoulder.
Within seconds, seven had become four.
A minute later and only Cardonez and Kandro were left.
“Wow. Talk about rats leaving a sinking ship,” he said before yawning. “Still, I have to be back at Ops tomorrow so it might be a good idea to turn in.”
“I have a better idea,” said Cardonez. “I have a bottle of tequila in my quarters. How about we go drink it and talk about old times? I don’t know when we’ll see each other after tomorrow.”
Kandro smiled. “I would like that,” he said. Together, the two old friends stood up and headed out of the bar.
Epilogue
The next day.
Isabel Cardonez opened her eyes.
She felt awful.
Her head pounded and her mouth was dry. Sitting up in her bed, a sheet fell away from her body and she couldn’t be bothered to catch it. She blinked sleep away from her eyes and she looked around her. Her head suddenly jerked to a standstill when her gaze fell onto the person who lay in bed next to her.
“Oh, no,” she murmured.
“Morning,” Kandro said with a sleepy smile on his face.
She shook her head. “Oh, no,” she repeated. “My life just keeps going from bad to worse.” She grasped for the sheet now to cover her nudity.
Kandro sat up. “It’s nice to see you too,” he said, wincing at his own pounding head.
“This can’t have happened,” Cardonez said. “I don’t understand. I remember us coming here and finishing off my bottle of tequila. We were talking about old times…”
“And then we weren’t talking,” he said. “Look, I’ve had some odd reactions in the morning but never outright horror. So we got drunk and fooled around. Is that really so bad?”
She glared at him. “Are you kidding? First off, I never, EVER, wanted to become another notch on the Kandro bedpost.”
“Actually, there are no notches on my bedpost,” quipped the Betazoid. “I keep a diary though.”
“That’s not funny!,” she snarled. “It’s bad enough that we did it… but in Liz’s bed. What the hell is so damned funny?!”
Valian was laughing. “I’m sorry! I can’t help it. Come on! Isn’t this situation just a little funny?”
“Not at all!”
“Really? You know something? I think that Liz would think it was.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, really,” he replied. “Look at us. We were probably the most morose two people on the ship yeaterday. I certainly was. I woke up yesterday, feeling like my life was pointless. My empathic and telepathic powers are gone. One of my best friends in is a hospital and another friend is little more than a phantom.”
She didn’t say anything.
“And I wake up today with a shocking hangover and an even more shocking sleeping partner but you know what? I feel better than I have felt in months.”
Cardonez snorted. “It’s typical. All it takes is a one night stand to fix everything on Planet Kandro.”
Kandro shook his head. “You don’t understand, Isabel. Before yesterday, I felt like a shadow of my former self. Like all that remained was a phantom after the Silena and the Borg had destroyed the real me. I was terrified of mingling with the crew because I didn’t want to connect with them but it turns out that I didn’t have a say in the matter. I thought that people were lesser beings because I couldn’t sense their feelings but I found myself being captivated by their lives anyway. I don’t need my old Betazoid senses to tell me than Carter is more thrilled than he’s ever been right now. I might not be quite the same Valian that I was before the Silena blacked everything out but I’m still part of this crew and part of this family.”
“Good for you,” said Cardonez, her voice filled with scorn.
Kandro merely smiled. “I certainly don’t need my old abilities to know that you’ve been desperately trying to convince yourself to stay aboard the Testudo.”
She had been avoiding looking at him but now her head snapped around to face him. “Don’t presume to know how I’m feeling, Valian.”
“Okay, so why don’t you tell me? You’re obviously not happy and you’re obviously searching for something. Be it forgiveness or peace of mind or just plain belonging. What is it?”
Isabel closed her eyes. “I don’t know what it is,” she admitted. “I do know that something is missing and that I don’t feel fully alive. I don’t know where I belong anymore, no matter which side I’m on.”
“Well, then if it’s forgiveness, then I think we both know Liz well enough to know that she doesn’t hate either of us for what happened. And pardon my martyrdoom but what happened was more of my fault than yours.”
Cardonez shook her head. “I was the Captain. The bottom line is that it was my fault.”
“Okay, so don’t forgive yourself, then, but don’t try and deny that you’re alive. One thing that I did realize after last night is that only two living, fallible, sentient beings could have possibly made the mistake that we did last night.” He laughed.
She laughed too. She couldn’t help herself. “I was that bad, huh?”
“Worse than you could ever imagine,” he lied with a smile.
“Dios, the worse part is that I can actually remember everything that happened. So much for drinking to forget.” She winced in pain as it lashed through her head once more and her stomach churned. “I’m never drinking again.”
Kandro laughed again. “Ah, the age old lie of the hangover,” he said. “So, was I that bad?”
She smiled. “I’ve had worse,” she conceded.
“There’s a backhanded compliment if I ever heard one. How about we go get breakfast burgers and Sprite for breakfast? It’ll help with our hangovers.”
“I’m sorry. The Chikuma will be here soon and I really need to pack.”
“You’re really going?,” he asked her.
“Yeah, I really am.”
“Well, I need breakfast. So I guess I’ll catch you later. Before you go, I mean.”
Valian slipped out of bed and grabbed for his clothes that were currently lying on the floor. Isabel caught a flash of his naked butt but she managed to squeeze her eyes shut before she saw any more. The irony didn’t escape her.
****
After the doors slid shut behind him, Valian Kandro started walking down the corridor. He had to get on shift in an hour but there were things that he had to do first. He needed breakfast, then a shower, and a shot of Pylium before the last one wore off. After that, if he had time, he decided that he would take a walk down to Engineering and pester Ramblin.
When he approached a turbolift, he rubbed his hands togeter in glee, a smile lighting up his face.
“Watch out, Universe,” he muttered. “I’m BACK!”
****
In the room that he had vacated, Cardonez merely sat in bed, staring off at the wall. Finally, she knew that she had to move. She really did have to pack. Slipping out of bed, she moved uneasily to the replicator and ordered a large glass of water. As she gulped it down, she tried to remember the last time that she had taken her contraceptive shot and decided that it had only been a few days before. Even though she had Dayle had broken up, a while ago, she still kept taking the hypos. It was more habit than anything.
With the glass empty, she demolecularized it and reached for her suitcase, flopping it loudly onto the bed, she began to haphazardly toss items into it. After a few moments, she paused when she remembered what she had forgotten to check.
“Computer, any messages?”
“You have one message,” replied the computer.
“Play it.”
“The message is text only.”
Cardonez was intriged now. Walking over to a nearby console, she brought the message up on the screen. It read: ‘A thank you for Relatrix. James.’ And there was a link below it.
Tyrell had finally crawled out of the woodwork. She accessed the link and surprisingly, it took her to yesterday’s daily Starfleet bulletin. She scrolled down the items on the page that it had raised, hoping that whatever it was would be fairly obvious.
The wedding banns of Captain Wintaki and Nealis-Doh. No, not that.
Announcements of sixteen different births on various starships. Not that either.
A report on Captain Benjamin Maxwell, missing since he was released from prison, just a month ago. It seemed to be unlikely. That wasn’t it either.
Doctor Julian Bashir had won a notable award. She shook her head. She had never even met him.
Four brand new comets had been discovered in the Daetra Sector. No, it had to be something more interesting than that…
And suddenly, she found it. In fact, there was no way that she could have missed it.
A hand went over her mouth while she read it and suddenly her stomach was churning again but it wasn’t from the result of alcohol consumption anymore. She barely made it to the bathroom in time before she vomited and spewed forth the contents of her stomach.
The article was short but the meaning was all too clear.
Prisoner dies in accident.
Lieutenant William James Reeves died on Stardate 55438.2 when a faulty pressure seal ruptured, depressurizing his cell on Starbase Lima II. Lieutenant Reeves (49) died instantly. Reeves was being held in custody on Starbase Lima II, awaiting trial for the rape and attempted murder of Lieutenant Elizabeth Tennyson. Although a full inquiry has been commissioned, early indications are that this was a tragic accident. Lieutenant Reeves is survived by a mother and four sisters.
Cardonez has still hunched over the bathroom sink. She had stopped vomiting but now it was tears that fell into the toilet bowl below her.
****
Yashiro Masafumi was sitting alone in his quarters, painstakingly putting the finishing touched on a model of the original Testudo, a Daedalus-class starship from the late Twenty-Second Century. An empty bottle sat nearby on the table, ready to receive the ship once he had finished it.
He had just finished delicately writing on the ship’s registry, NCC-181, when the door chimes rang. He placed the fine pen on the table and said,” Come.”
He looked up when the door slid open. Isabel Cardonez was framed in the doorway and she was in uniform.
“Cap…,” he began to say before he corrected himself. “Isabel, I take it that the uniform is for the Chikuma’s benefit?”
She walked inside and over to where he was sitting. “You could say that,” she said. Her left hand was behind her back as if she was holding something. With her right hand, she delicately picked up the model. “Have you ever read some of the reports that these guys filed?” When he shook his head, she continued. “Amazing things, back when Starfleet really did seek out the unknow.”
Masafumi smiled. “I thought that they still did or have I benn on the wrong ship for the last year?”
She put the model down. Ignoring his question, she said,” I have a present for you.” Before bringing her left hand into view, he saw a flash of colored cloth before it was tossed gently in his direction.
He caught it and immediately identified it as a Science Blue uniform undershirt with three golden pips on the collar. He smiled. “Thank you but I remain Captaiun until Captain Taylor comes aboard. Besides, he might not approve of me wearing blue. It is non-regulation.”
“As much as I hate to correct you, Yashiro, I feel that I must. You’re the Captain until Testudo’s new commanding officer comes aboard. Then you revert back to the rank of Commander.”
“I know that,” Masafumi said,” but obviously the new Captain hasn’t arrived yet so…” His voice trailed off when he suddenly realized the implications. He looked up at Cardonez and she was smiling. “You?,” he asked with a hopeful smile on his face.
She nodded. “As of ten minutes ago. You have no idea how much I had to beg Admiral Gavin. Apparently, I’m not overly popular with the top brass right now but the Admiral pulled all of the strings that he could and here I am.”
Masafumi sprang to his feet and he extended his hand. “Am I to assume that you will be required a First Officer?”
She took his hand. “You assume correctly, Commander. I’m sorry that you have to lose the extra pip.”
“If I’m to lose it, there is no other place than I would wish than to be by your side, Captain.” Catching Cardonez off guard, he leaned forward and hugged her tightly. After a moment, she returned the favor.
****
Valian Kandro had been grinning ever since he heard the news. In fact, so had Kehen. When the turbolift doors opened and Cardonez stepped out with Masafumi close behind her, his smile got broader.
Adam Huntington stood up from the command chair. “Captain on the Bridge,” he called out before he walked up the ramp to the Tactical console.
“Cut that out,” she said with a smile and a wink.
“Yes, ma’am,” replied the Security Chief.
“That too,” she said, taking her seat. Masafumi took the seat next to hers.
For a moment, she sat there, barely touching the armrests as though she was afraid that they would vanish.
“The Chikuma is on approach,” reported Huntington.
“On screen,” Cardonez said and the view changed to show an Excelsior-class starship slowly moving towards them.
“I guess that Captain Taylor is going to be disappointed,” said Kehen.
The Captain shook her head. “I don’t think so. He’s been offered the Tasmania. She’s a newer ship plus he avoids having to put up with you guys.”
“Captain, if I might remind you that a ship’s crew is most often a reflection of its commanding oifficer,” said Masafumi.
She nodded. “True. so did everyone act all sensible while you were in command?,” she asked with a raised eyebrow and a sly grin.
Masafumi shrugged. “The analogy isn’t always correct.”
Kandro spun around in his seat. “So, what happened?,” he asked Isabel.
She looked at him, resisting the memories of last night that would always pop into her head whenever she sat him from now on. “Maybe I’ll tell you some day,” she said. “Suffice it to say that something happened that reminded me of where I belong.”
“Well, it’s nice to have you back, Captain,” said Kehen. “I had begun to worry that we would never see you in the command chair again.”
Cardonez smiled and looked dead ahead. “Like there was ever any doubt.”
****
‘Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag.
And smile, smile, smile,
While you’ve a lucifer to light your fag,
Smile, boys, that’s the style.
What’s the use of worrying?
It never was worthwhile, so
Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,
And smile, smile, smile.’
Words by George Asaf.
Music by Felix Powell.
Published in 1915 London
The next day.
Isabel Cardonez opened her eyes.
She felt awful.
Her head pounded and her mouth was dry. Sitting up in her bed, a sheet fell away from her body and she couldn’t be bothered to catch it. She blinked sleep away from her eyes and she looked around her. Her head suddenly jerked to a standstill when her gaze fell onto the person who lay in bed next to her.
“Oh, no,” she murmured.
“Morning,” Kandro said with a sleepy smile on his face.
She shook her head. “Oh, no,” she repeated. “My life just keeps going from bad to worse.” She grasped for the sheet now to cover her nudity.
Kandro sat up. “It’s nice to see you too,” he said, wincing at his own pounding head.
“This can’t have happened,” Cardonez said. “I don’t understand. I remember us coming here and finishing off my bottle of tequila. We were talking about old times…”
“And then we weren’t talking,” he said. “Look, I’ve had some odd reactions in the morning but never outright horror. So we got drunk and fooled around. Is that really so bad?”
She glared at him. “Are you kidding? First off, I never, EVER, wanted to become another notch on the Kandro bedpost.”
“Actually, there are no notches on my bedpost,” quipped the Betazoid. “I keep a diary though.”
“That’s not funny!,” she snarled. “It’s bad enough that we did it… but in Liz’s bed. What the hell is so damned funny?!”
Valian was laughing. “I’m sorry! I can’t help it. Come on! Isn’t this situation just a little funny?”
“Not at all!”
“Really? You know something? I think that Liz would think it was.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, really,” he replied. “Look at us. We were probably the most morose two people on the ship yeaterday. I certainly was. I woke up yesterday, feeling like my life was pointless. My empathic and telepathic powers are gone. One of my best friends in is a hospital and another friend is little more than a phantom.”
She didn’t say anything.
“And I wake up today with a shocking hangover and an even more shocking sleeping partner but you know what? I feel better than I have felt in months.”
Cardonez snorted. “It’s typical. All it takes is a one night stand to fix everything on Planet Kandro.”
Kandro shook his head. “You don’t understand, Isabel. Before yesterday, I felt like a shadow of my former self. Like all that remained was a phantom after the Silena and the Borg had destroyed the real me. I was terrified of mingling with the crew because I didn’t want to connect with them but it turns out that I didn’t have a say in the matter. I thought that people were lesser beings because I couldn’t sense their feelings but I found myself being captivated by their lives anyway. I don’t need my old Betazoid senses to tell me than Carter is more thrilled than he’s ever been right now. I might not be quite the same Valian that I was before the Silena blacked everything out but I’m still part of this crew and part of this family.”
“Good for you,” said Cardonez, her voice filled with scorn.
Kandro merely smiled. “I certainly don’t need my old abilities to know that you’ve been desperately trying to convince yourself to stay aboard the Testudo.”
She had been avoiding looking at him but now her head snapped around to face him. “Don’t presume to know how I’m feeling, Valian.”
“Okay, so why don’t you tell me? You’re obviously not happy and you’re obviously searching for something. Be it forgiveness or peace of mind or just plain belonging. What is it?”
Isabel closed her eyes. “I don’t know what it is,” she admitted. “I do know that something is missing and that I don’t feel fully alive. I don’t know where I belong anymore, no matter which side I’m on.”
“Well, then if it’s forgiveness, then I think we both know Liz well enough to know that she doesn’t hate either of us for what happened. And pardon my martyrdoom but what happened was more of my fault than yours.”
Cardonez shook her head. “I was the Captain. The bottom line is that it was my fault.”
“Okay, so don’t forgive yourself, then, but don’t try and deny that you’re alive. One thing that I did realize after last night is that only two living, fallible, sentient beings could have possibly made the mistake that we did last night.” He laughed.
She laughed too. She couldn’t help herself. “I was that bad, huh?”
“Worse than you could ever imagine,” he lied with a smile.
“Dios, the worse part is that I can actually remember everything that happened. So much for drinking to forget.” She winced in pain as it lashed through her head once more and her stomach churned. “I’m never drinking again.”
Kandro laughed again. “Ah, the age old lie of the hangover,” he said. “So, was I that bad?”
She smiled. “I’ve had worse,” she conceded.
“There’s a backhanded compliment if I ever heard one. How about we go get breakfast burgers and Sprite for breakfast? It’ll help with our hangovers.”
“I’m sorry. The Chikuma will be here soon and I really need to pack.”
“You’re really going?,” he asked her.
“Yeah, I really am.”
“Well, I need breakfast. So I guess I’ll catch you later. Before you go, I mean.”
Valian slipped out of bed and grabbed for his clothes that were currently lying on the floor. Isabel caught a flash of his naked butt but she managed to squeeze her eyes shut before she saw any more. The irony didn’t escape her.
****
After the doors slid shut behind him, Valian Kandro started walking down the corridor. He had to get on shift in an hour but there were things that he had to do first. He needed breakfast, then a shower, and a shot of Pylium before the last one wore off. After that, if he had time, he decided that he would take a walk down to Engineering and pester Ramblin.
When he approached a turbolift, he rubbed his hands togeter in glee, a smile lighting up his face.
“Watch out, Universe,” he muttered. “I’m BACK!”
****
In the room that he had vacated, Cardonez merely sat in bed, staring off at the wall. Finally, she knew that she had to move. She really did have to pack. Slipping out of bed, she moved uneasily to the replicator and ordered a large glass of water. As she gulped it down, she tried to remember the last time that she had taken her contraceptive shot and decided that it had only been a few days before. Even though she had Dayle had broken up, a while ago, she still kept taking the hypos. It was more habit than anything.
With the glass empty, she demolecularized it and reached for her suitcase, flopping it loudly onto the bed, she began to haphazardly toss items into it. After a few moments, she paused when she remembered what she had forgotten to check.
“Computer, any messages?”
“You have one message,” replied the computer.
“Play it.”
“The message is text only.”
Cardonez was intriged now. Walking over to a nearby console, she brought the message up on the screen. It read: ‘A thank you for Relatrix. James.’ And there was a link below it.
Tyrell had finally crawled out of the woodwork. She accessed the link and surprisingly, it took her to yesterday’s daily Starfleet bulletin. She scrolled down the items on the page that it had raised, hoping that whatever it was would be fairly obvious.
The wedding banns of Captain Wintaki and Nealis-Doh. No, not that.
Announcements of sixteen different births on various starships. Not that either.
A report on Captain Benjamin Maxwell, missing since he was released from prison, just a month ago. It seemed to be unlikely. That wasn’t it either.
Doctor Julian Bashir had won a notable award. She shook her head. She had never even met him.
Four brand new comets had been discovered in the Daetra Sector. No, it had to be something more interesting than that…
And suddenly, she found it. In fact, there was no way that she could have missed it.
A hand went over her mouth while she read it and suddenly her stomach was churning again but it wasn’t from the result of alcohol consumption anymore. She barely made it to the bathroom in time before she vomited and spewed forth the contents of her stomach.
The article was short but the meaning was all too clear.
Prisoner dies in accident.
Lieutenant William James Reeves died on Stardate 55438.2 when a faulty pressure seal ruptured, depressurizing his cell on Starbase Lima II. Lieutenant Reeves (49) died instantly. Reeves was being held in custody on Starbase Lima II, awaiting trial for the rape and attempted murder of Lieutenant Elizabeth Tennyson. Although a full inquiry has been commissioned, early indications are that this was a tragic accident. Lieutenant Reeves is survived by a mother and four sisters.
Cardonez has still hunched over the bathroom sink. She had stopped vomiting but now it was tears that fell into the toilet bowl below her.
****
Yashiro Masafumi was sitting alone in his quarters, painstakingly putting the finishing touched on a model of the original Testudo, a Daedalus-class starship from the late Twenty-Second Century. An empty bottle sat nearby on the table, ready to receive the ship once he had finished it.
He had just finished delicately writing on the ship’s registry, NCC-181, when the door chimes rang. He placed the fine pen on the table and said,” Come.”
He looked up when the door slid open. Isabel Cardonez was framed in the doorway and she was in uniform.
“Cap…,” he began to say before he corrected himself. “Isabel, I take it that the uniform is for the Chikuma’s benefit?”
She walked inside and over to where he was sitting. “You could say that,” she said. Her left hand was behind her back as if she was holding something. With her right hand, she delicately picked up the model. “Have you ever read some of the reports that these guys filed?” When he shook his head, she continued. “Amazing things, back when Starfleet really did seek out the unknow.”
Masafumi smiled. “I thought that they still did or have I benn on the wrong ship for the last year?”
She put the model down. Ignoring his question, she said,” I have a present for you.” Before bringing her left hand into view, he saw a flash of colored cloth before it was tossed gently in his direction.
He caught it and immediately identified it as a Science Blue uniform undershirt with three golden pips on the collar. He smiled. “Thank you but I remain Captaiun until Captain Taylor comes aboard. Besides, he might not approve of me wearing blue. It is non-regulation.”
“As much as I hate to correct you, Yashiro, I feel that I must. You’re the Captain until Testudo’s new commanding officer comes aboard. Then you revert back to the rank of Commander.”
“I know that,” Masafumi said,” but obviously the new Captain hasn’t arrived yet so…” His voice trailed off when he suddenly realized the implications. He looked up at Cardonez and she was smiling. “You?,” he asked with a hopeful smile on his face.
She nodded. “As of ten minutes ago. You have no idea how much I had to beg Admiral Gavin. Apparently, I’m not overly popular with the top brass right now but the Admiral pulled all of the strings that he could and here I am.”
Masafumi sprang to his feet and he extended his hand. “Am I to assume that you will be required a First Officer?”
She took his hand. “You assume correctly, Commander. I’m sorry that you have to lose the extra pip.”
“If I’m to lose it, there is no other place than I would wish than to be by your side, Captain.” Catching Cardonez off guard, he leaned forward and hugged her tightly. After a moment, she returned the favor.
****
Valian Kandro had been grinning ever since he heard the news. In fact, so had Kehen. When the turbolift doors opened and Cardonez stepped out with Masafumi close behind her, his smile got broader.
Adam Huntington stood up from the command chair. “Captain on the Bridge,” he called out before he walked up the ramp to the Tactical console.
“Cut that out,” she said with a smile and a wink.
“Yes, ma’am,” replied the Security Chief.
“That too,” she said, taking her seat. Masafumi took the seat next to hers.
For a moment, she sat there, barely touching the armrests as though she was afraid that they would vanish.
“The Chikuma is on approach,” reported Huntington.
“On screen,” Cardonez said and the view changed to show an Excelsior-class starship slowly moving towards them.
“I guess that Captain Taylor is going to be disappointed,” said Kehen.
The Captain shook her head. “I don’t think so. He’s been offered the Tasmania. She’s a newer ship plus he avoids having to put up with you guys.”
“Captain, if I might remind you that a ship’s crew is most often a reflection of its commanding oifficer,” said Masafumi.
She nodded. “True. so did everyone act all sensible while you were in command?,” she asked with a raised eyebrow and a sly grin.
Masafumi shrugged. “The analogy isn’t always correct.”
Kandro spun around in his seat. “So, what happened?,” he asked Isabel.
She looked at him, resisting the memories of last night that would always pop into her head whenever she sat him from now on. “Maybe I’ll tell you some day,” she said. “Suffice it to say that something happened that reminded me of where I belong.”
“Well, it’s nice to have you back, Captain,” said Kehen. “I had begun to worry that we would never see you in the command chair again.”
Cardonez smiled and looked dead ahead. “Like there was ever any doubt.”
****
‘Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag.
And smile, smile, smile,
While you’ve a lucifer to light your fag,
Smile, boys, that’s the style.
What’s the use of worrying?
It never was worthwhile, so
Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,
And smile, smile, smile.’
Words by George Asaf.
Music by Felix Powell.
Published in 1915 London
Sometimes a drunken romp is a healing thing... Nice wrap! Thanks!! rbs
Chapter 1 review – A great opener, with the characters' backstory revealed in an entertaining fashion after a brisk action sequence. Nicely done! I like the premise of the mission, and a New Orleans-class ship is a rarity in fanfiction, and I applaud the choice. Captain Cardonez seems like a straight-shooter and someone able to handle an abrupt change-in-command before setting off on a potentially dangerous assignment.
You’ve caught my attention.
You’ve caught my attention.
Chapter 1 review – A great opener, with the characters' backstory revealed in an entertaining fashion after a brisk action sequence. Nicely done! I like the premise of the mission, and a New Orleans-class ship is a rarity in fanfiction, and I applaud the choice. Captain Cardonez seems like a straight-shooter and someone able to handle an abrupt change-in-command before setting off on a potentially dangerous assignment.
You’ve caught my attention.
Thank you, Gibraltar. I think you might like what you see here. I feel like this series was inspired by you and RBS.
Star Trek: Into the Void
Episode Eighteen - ‘Where the Wild Roses Grow’
By Jack D. Elmlinger
Prologue
Captain’s log, stardate 55487.8;
It has been over two weeks since I resumed command of the Testudo and I still feel behind on so many issues. However, Starfleet makes no concessions for its Captains’ workloads and so we have been diverted from our leisurely study of the Quekki Asteroid field to the planet Nendri Four where we’re to rendezvous with a Starfleet transport that will be delivering several visitors who will give us further instructions.
Doctor Hollem Azahn gazed out of the Conference Lounge’s main windows at the planet below. The Testudo was in a standard orbit and it provided a wonderful view of the planet. The planet looked almost Earth-like with blue skies, white cloud formations, irregular landmasses, and large oceans. That was where the similarity ended. The blue of the skies were tinged faintly yellow and several large dark shadows seemed to glide over the planet’s surface.
“What do you make of those?,” he asked, pointing in the direction of one such shadow that appeared to be kilometers wide.
The recipient of his question was Lieutenant Zia Kehen who was standing beside him. The Helm Officer merely shrugged. “Who knows? High-level cloud formations, possibly.”
“I don’t think so,” said the Testudo’s Chief Medical Officer. “I’ve watched carefully. They don’t seem to move with the winds. Several times, I’ve seen nearby cloud formations move in the opposite direction.”
Kehen squinted closer. “Well, your eyesight is probably better than mine but I don’t see it,” she said. “It could be Klaides.”
“A cloud of ghosts? I know you’re superstitious but tell me that you don’t think that?”
“I’ll think about what I like until I’m given a better explanation,” she replied. “Anyways, we’re on the edge of Sector 29004 and as we’ve seen time and again, anything is possible out here.”
“Hmm. No doubt that Commander Masafumi will enlighten us.”
“Yeah, and probably in great detail,” said Valian Kandro sarcastically.
The Yulanian turned away from the window. Testudo’s Operations Officer was sitting at the large conference table, resting his head on his arms. “Watch it, Valian, or I’ll tell him that you said that.”
Kandro lifted his head slightly. “Snitch,” he muttered.
“I hope this isn’t going to take long,” said Louise Ramblin from the opposite side of the table. She had just put a PADD down on the table after frantically tapping away at it for the last five minutes. “I have work to get on with.”
Kandro lifted his head fully off of the table and sank back in his seat now. A witty quip at Ramblin’s expense was already forming in his mind but before he could say anything, Hollem spoke once more.
“They’re here,” he said simply.
Another shadow played across the planet’s surface but this one was easily explainable. The small Oberth-class science vessel drifted eerily into view and halted a few hundred kilometers away. For a moment, Hollem admired the aesthetics of the small vessel. It was certainly one of the more beautiful starships, in spite of its completely illogical layout. He resolved to ask Ramblin or Kandro just how the crew got from the ship’s saucer section to the secondary hull.
Hollem turned around to ask but before he could say a word, Kehen interjected. “You would think they would want to settle in and unpack before having a meeting.”
“From what I hear, they’re on a tight schedule,” said Kandro.
“Hmm,” said Hollem. He was sure that he had been about to say something but it was gone now. “Intriguing. At least, we’ll no doubt learn what’s going on soon enough.”
Ramblin had stood up from her seat to stretch her legs and now she stood by Hollem and Kehen. She gazed out of the window and suddenly gestured. “Whoa, they really don’t mess around,” she said. “The Rouen is already moving off.”
Hollem and Kehen followed her gesture and watched while the Oberth-class ship wheeled around gracefully and began to move away at impulse power. Kandro remained seated with a bored expression on his face.
“I guess we should take our seats,” said Hollem. “They should be with us shortly.”
His words proved to be prophetic. A moment after the three of them sat down, the doors slid open and seven people walked in. The Bajoran physician looked over and saw Lieutenant Commander Adam Huntington, Commander Yashiro Masafumi, and Captain Isabel Cardonez bringing up the rear. Of the other four people, three of them wore Starfleet uniforms while the fourth person was dressed in a charcoal gray, two-piece suit.”
Captain Cardonez motioned for the four officers to sit down before she and her First and Second Officers followed suit. For a moment, everything was quiet while both groups of people warily surveyed each other. It was Cardonez who broke the silence.
“Well, then, Commander. Perhaps we should start with the introductions?,” she said, addressing her words to the individual that Hollem assumed was the group’s leader. He was a haughty-looking alien in a command uniform with Lieutenant Commander pips on his collar. A small silver case about the size of a briefcase lay on the table in front of him. It took the Bajoran a few seconds to identify the man’s race since he had encountered so few of them in his travels. As it was the hairless scalp, the faint ridge bisection the top of the head and the multi-lobed ears marked him as an inhabitant from the planet of Tiburon.
“If it’s really necessary, Captain,” he replied. His voice was nasal and his tone was curt. “We really don’t have a lot of time.”
Cardonez ignored him and carried on. “You’ve already met my First Officer, Commander Masafumi, and our Chief of Security, Lieutenant Commander Huntington,” she said before she gestured towards each of her remaining command crew in turn. “Lieutenant Valian Kandro, our Operations Officer, Doctor Hollem Azahn, our Chief Medical Officer, Lieutenant Louise Ramblin, Chief Engineer, and Lieutenant Zia Kehen, our Primary Helm Officer.”
“A Yulanian,” said another member of the visiting group. It was the one not in a Starfleet uniform, a young Trill in his late twenties. “I wasn’t aware that there were any Yulanians in Starfleet.”
“I’m the only one at the moment. Though there are a few Yulanians who just enrolled at the Academy.”
The Trill smiled and nodded.
“If you’re quite finished?,” asked the Tiburonian.
“Oh, yes,” replied the Trill but he smiled and winked at Kehen. Masafumi caught the gesture and raised an eyebrow in her direction. She ignored him and smiled back at the handsome sandy-haired Trill.
“Good. I am Lieutenant Commander Tavuhn and I am in charge of this team. The inquisitive gentleman on my left is Professor Hovin Kee.” The Trill nodded in greeting. “This is Lieutenant Carrie Sharp.” He motioned towards the only woman in the group. She was a petite Human in her early forties who Hollem decided would have looked bookish, even without the anachronistic glasses that sat perched on her nose. Her uniform was red like Tavuhn’s but the red seemed to be pale in comparison to the brighter vermilion of her bobbed hair. “And this gentleman is Ensign Ravi Patel and he’s with my team for this mission only as a specialist.” The Tiburonian didn’t specify what he was a specialist in.
Hollem looked the last member of the group over. Despite his rank, he must have been forty years old. A Human of Indian descent, he assumed, both from his name and the pale brown of his skin. He had a medium build and he seemed to be altogether too neat. The blue undershirt of his uniform seemed to be crisp and freshly ironed. His black hair was short and slicked back away from a side parting. Above his lip was a pencil-thin mustache which was impeccably trimmed. To most men, such an affectation would have seemed foolish but somehow, it suited this man.
Several months earlier, Huntington had made the Bajoran watch an ancient film about a man named ‘Robin Hood’. He hadn’t enjoyed the film very much but he did remember the actor portraying Robin. He thought his name was Errol Rathbone or something similar. Patel looked very much like a brown-skinned Errol Rathbone. He certainly wasn’t his type but the doctor had to admit to himself that he was a very handsome man.
Having finished his introductions, Tavuhn now leaned forward, clasping his hands together and almost glaring at Cardonez. Hollem was sure that he could hear someone’s feet tapping impatient on the floor underneath the conference table.
She got the message, ignoring her instincts to throttle Tavuhn. Instead, she asked,” So, Commander, what are we here and how can we be of help?”
Tavuhn opened his mouth to reply but someone got there first.
“We’re here to find the Ranger,” said Professor Kee, his eyes sparkling with wonder. “After a hundred years, we’re here to find the Ranger.”
Episode Eighteen - ‘Where the Wild Roses Grow’
By Jack D. Elmlinger
Prologue
Captain’s log, stardate 55487.8;
It has been over two weeks since I resumed command of the Testudo and I still feel behind on so many issues. However, Starfleet makes no concessions for its Captains’ workloads and so we have been diverted from our leisurely study of the Quekki Asteroid field to the planet Nendri Four where we’re to rendezvous with a Starfleet transport that will be delivering several visitors who will give us further instructions.
Doctor Hollem Azahn gazed out of the Conference Lounge’s main windows at the planet below. The Testudo was in a standard orbit and it provided a wonderful view of the planet. The planet looked almost Earth-like with blue skies, white cloud formations, irregular landmasses, and large oceans. That was where the similarity ended. The blue of the skies were tinged faintly yellow and several large dark shadows seemed to glide over the planet’s surface.
“What do you make of those?,” he asked, pointing in the direction of one such shadow that appeared to be kilometers wide.
The recipient of his question was Lieutenant Zia Kehen who was standing beside him. The Helm Officer merely shrugged. “Who knows? High-level cloud formations, possibly.”
“I don’t think so,” said the Testudo’s Chief Medical Officer. “I’ve watched carefully. They don’t seem to move with the winds. Several times, I’ve seen nearby cloud formations move in the opposite direction.”
Kehen squinted closer. “Well, your eyesight is probably better than mine but I don’t see it,” she said. “It could be Klaides.”
“A cloud of ghosts? I know you’re superstitious but tell me that you don’t think that?”
“I’ll think about what I like until I’m given a better explanation,” she replied. “Anyways, we’re on the edge of Sector 29004 and as we’ve seen time and again, anything is possible out here.”
“Hmm. No doubt that Commander Masafumi will enlighten us.”
“Yeah, and probably in great detail,” said Valian Kandro sarcastically.
The Yulanian turned away from the window. Testudo’s Operations Officer was sitting at the large conference table, resting his head on his arms. “Watch it, Valian, or I’ll tell him that you said that.”
Kandro lifted his head slightly. “Snitch,” he muttered.
“I hope this isn’t going to take long,” said Louise Ramblin from the opposite side of the table. She had just put a PADD down on the table after frantically tapping away at it for the last five minutes. “I have work to get on with.”
Kandro lifted his head fully off of the table and sank back in his seat now. A witty quip at Ramblin’s expense was already forming in his mind but before he could say anything, Hollem spoke once more.
“They’re here,” he said simply.
Another shadow played across the planet’s surface but this one was easily explainable. The small Oberth-class science vessel drifted eerily into view and halted a few hundred kilometers away. For a moment, Hollem admired the aesthetics of the small vessel. It was certainly one of the more beautiful starships, in spite of its completely illogical layout. He resolved to ask Ramblin or Kandro just how the crew got from the ship’s saucer section to the secondary hull.
Hollem turned around to ask but before he could say a word, Kehen interjected. “You would think they would want to settle in and unpack before having a meeting.”
“From what I hear, they’re on a tight schedule,” said Kandro.
“Hmm,” said Hollem. He was sure that he had been about to say something but it was gone now. “Intriguing. At least, we’ll no doubt learn what’s going on soon enough.”
Ramblin had stood up from her seat to stretch her legs and now she stood by Hollem and Kehen. She gazed out of the window and suddenly gestured. “Whoa, they really don’t mess around,” she said. “The Rouen is already moving off.”
Hollem and Kehen followed her gesture and watched while the Oberth-class ship wheeled around gracefully and began to move away at impulse power. Kandro remained seated with a bored expression on his face.
“I guess we should take our seats,” said Hollem. “They should be with us shortly.”
His words proved to be prophetic. A moment after the three of them sat down, the doors slid open and seven people walked in. The Bajoran physician looked over and saw Lieutenant Commander Adam Huntington, Commander Yashiro Masafumi, and Captain Isabel Cardonez bringing up the rear. Of the other four people, three of them wore Starfleet uniforms while the fourth person was dressed in a charcoal gray, two-piece suit.”
Captain Cardonez motioned for the four officers to sit down before she and her First and Second Officers followed suit. For a moment, everything was quiet while both groups of people warily surveyed each other. It was Cardonez who broke the silence.
“Well, then, Commander. Perhaps we should start with the introductions?,” she said, addressing her words to the individual that Hollem assumed was the group’s leader. He was a haughty-looking alien in a command uniform with Lieutenant Commander pips on his collar. A small silver case about the size of a briefcase lay on the table in front of him. It took the Bajoran a few seconds to identify the man’s race since he had encountered so few of them in his travels. As it was the hairless scalp, the faint ridge bisection the top of the head and the multi-lobed ears marked him as an inhabitant from the planet of Tiburon.
“If it’s really necessary, Captain,” he replied. His voice was nasal and his tone was curt. “We really don’t have a lot of time.”
Cardonez ignored him and carried on. “You’ve already met my First Officer, Commander Masafumi, and our Chief of Security, Lieutenant Commander Huntington,” she said before she gestured towards each of her remaining command crew in turn. “Lieutenant Valian Kandro, our Operations Officer, Doctor Hollem Azahn, our Chief Medical Officer, Lieutenant Louise Ramblin, Chief Engineer, and Lieutenant Zia Kehen, our Primary Helm Officer.”
“A Yulanian,” said another member of the visiting group. It was the one not in a Starfleet uniform, a young Trill in his late twenties. “I wasn’t aware that there were any Yulanians in Starfleet.”
“I’m the only one at the moment. Though there are a few Yulanians who just enrolled at the Academy.”
The Trill smiled and nodded.
“If you’re quite finished?,” asked the Tiburonian.
“Oh, yes,” replied the Trill but he smiled and winked at Kehen. Masafumi caught the gesture and raised an eyebrow in her direction. She ignored him and smiled back at the handsome sandy-haired Trill.
“Good. I am Lieutenant Commander Tavuhn and I am in charge of this team. The inquisitive gentleman on my left is Professor Hovin Kee.” The Trill nodded in greeting. “This is Lieutenant Carrie Sharp.” He motioned towards the only woman in the group. She was a petite Human in her early forties who Hollem decided would have looked bookish, even without the anachronistic glasses that sat perched on her nose. Her uniform was red like Tavuhn’s but the red seemed to be pale in comparison to the brighter vermilion of her bobbed hair. “And this gentleman is Ensign Ravi Patel and he’s with my team for this mission only as a specialist.” The Tiburonian didn’t specify what he was a specialist in.
Hollem looked the last member of the group over. Despite his rank, he must have been forty years old. A Human of Indian descent, he assumed, both from his name and the pale brown of his skin. He had a medium build and he seemed to be altogether too neat. The blue undershirt of his uniform seemed to be crisp and freshly ironed. His black hair was short and slicked back away from a side parting. Above his lip was a pencil-thin mustache which was impeccably trimmed. To most men, such an affectation would have seemed foolish but somehow, it suited this man.
Several months earlier, Huntington had made the Bajoran watch an ancient film about a man named ‘Robin Hood’. He hadn’t enjoyed the film very much but he did remember the actor portraying Robin. He thought his name was Errol Rathbone or something similar. Patel looked very much like a brown-skinned Errol Rathbone. He certainly wasn’t his type but the doctor had to admit to himself that he was a very handsome man.
Having finished his introductions, Tavuhn now leaned forward, clasping his hands together and almost glaring at Cardonez. Hollem was sure that he could hear someone’s feet tapping impatient on the floor underneath the conference table.
She got the message, ignoring her instincts to throttle Tavuhn. Instead, she asked,” So, Commander, what are we here and how can we be of help?”
Tavuhn opened his mouth to reply but someone got there first.
“We’re here to find the Ranger,” said Professor Kee, his eyes sparkling with wonder. “After a hundred years, we’re here to find the Ranger.”
Chapter 2 review – More excellent character introductions. I’m liking the ship’s doctor, and the chief engineer seems to have her work cut out for her. Kandro appears to have a horrible affliction for a Betazoid, one that promises to color his time aboard ship. Huntington is a hoot, and he carries himself as someone who knows his business. Kehen is fascinating, and I’m guessing the Yulani are a creation of yours?
The captain and Masafumi appear to have rubbed each other a bit raw at first, but I could see these two becoming an effective command team.
Can’t wait to see these characters get this show on the road.
The captain and Masafumi appear to have rubbed each other a bit raw at first, but I could see these two becoming an effective command team.
Can’t wait to see these characters get this show on the road.
Or perhaps Basil Flynn? Intriguing start and nice to stat with a mystery instead of a bang. Thanks!! rbs
Chapter 3 review – A great briefing scene where we get the background on this mysterious sector and all the verifiable events and unverified ghost stories about it. It reminds me of the NX-01 Enterprise exploring the Delphic Expanse. While it’s clear that while Cordonez believes in her crew, some of them aren’t on the same page yet. They’re going to need time to gel into a functional unit, and here’s hoping that occurs before they meet their first real challenge.
If it makes it easier for some of you, I've uploaded the first seventeen episodes of Star Trek: Into the Void to my website. Here's the address: https://assinninewriting.wordpress.com/
Please comment when you can. Thank you.
Please comment when you can. Thank you.
Chapter One
There was silence around the room after Kee’s revelation. Hollem ignored the shocked expressions on the faces of his fellow officers and instead, he watched how their visitors responded. Tavuhn shook his head in disappointment, tutting underneath his breath. Sharp merely rolled her eyes but Ravi Patel actually looked like he was angry.
“The USS Ranger,” said Cardonez. “She’s been missing for a hundred years.”
“And most likely, she still is,” said Tavuhn forcefully. “You must excuse my enthusiastic colleague here. Professor Kee is a brilliant archaeologist but he can be a little too blinkered sometimes.”
“So, this isn’t about the Ranger?,” asked Masafumi.
Tavuhn shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “It isn’t, and yet, it might be. We can’t rule anything out.” He scowled in Kee’s direction.
Focusing back on the meeting as a whole, he continued,” Let me explain further. My colleagues and I work for the Federation Retrieval Unit. Are any of you aware of what we do?”
There were several shaken heads before Commander Huntington answered the Tiburonian. “I’ve heard of you,” he said. “You’re the guys who look into disappearances. Starship crashed and the like.”
Tavuhn nodded, a pleased smile was now on his lips. “Yes, that’s exactly right. Starfleet has sent hundreds of thousands of starships into space over the years and not all of them have come back. Sometimes, we know what happened to them. Sometimes, we don’t. Starfleet has finite resources to use in finding such ships. After the big boys go home, it passes to our department.”
“So you guys try to solve mysteries?,” asked Kandro.
“That is one way of putting it,” the Tiburonian said. “I prefer to think of us as bringing closure to the families of those missing souls.” His brusque manner slipped just a fraction and a shred of emotion could be seen through it.
Hollem raised a hand and started wagging his index finger. “Now I know where I’ve heard the name of Tavuhn before,” he said. “You found the remains of the Hera, didn’t you?”
Tavuhn nodded. “Indeed. I was part of the team that rediscovered the USS Hera. It’s unusual that anyone recollects such things unless they were involved. I don’t remember there being any Bajoran officers aboard the Hera. Was it a friend that you lost?”
“Excuse me?,” asked Hollem.
“The Hera,” said Tavuhn. “Was it a friend that you lost?”
“Oh, no, I didn’t know anybody aboard the Hera,” the Chief Medical Officer replied and when Tavuhn looked quizzically at him, he continued,” I was stationed aboard the Enterprise, a few years ago when the message came through.”
“Of course, Captain LaForge’s son. I regretted having to tell him the news,” Tavuhn said with a shake of his head. “Our job is rarely pleasant.”
“Well, he seemed to be relieved to me. I remember him telling Beverly that he felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of his chest.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” interrupted Sharp before she realized that she had interrupted the conversation. “I’m sorry.”
“If you must, Carrie,” Tavuhn said. His brusque tone was back but there was something almost fatherly about the way that he looked at her.
“Well, my brother was serving aboard the Zephyr when it was destroyed near Elas. Starfleet engineers collected almost all of the ship and most of the bodies but my brother wasn’t among them. It was three years before a retrieval unit discovered the truth that he had been working in a sensor pod when the ship was attacked. He had actually survived the destruction of the ship. The pod was thrown clear at high speed and it was caught in the path of a comet which took the pod further away from the scene of the attack. The first Starfleet ships didn’t bother to check outside of a specific radius. My brother died in the collision with the comet but when we learned that his remains had been found, we were…” She paused. “Happy is the wrong word. Relieved, I guess, but that doesn’t do it either. After all, while he was lost, there was still a chance. I suppose it enabled us to get on with our lives.”
“Exactly,” said Tavuhn. “We’re a small unit. Just a hundred officers and a handful of ships. As you can imagine, since the end of the war, our workload has blown out of all proportion.”
“I can imagine,” said Cardonez.
Tavuhn shook his head. “I don’t think you can, Captain,” he told her. “There are still twenty-nine starships unaccounted for as are dozens of small vessels. There are still seventeen thousand, four hundred, and eighteen Federation citizens who are still on the Missing In Action list.”
Cardonez’s eyes widened in shock. “Okay, I wasn’t imagining that.”
Tavuhn’s expression softened. “My apologies, Captain. Perhaps I haven’t appeared to be gracious since I came aboard.”
“That’s an understatement,” whispered Kandro.
Cardonez shot him her patented ‘Shut the hell up, Kandro’ look but Tavuhn merely smiled and nodded in his direction.
“True enough. However, as I said, my time is limited. The workload of this retrieval unit has increased but our resources haven’t. We still have pretty much the same number of people that we had before this war. My team here had twenty-four hours to investigate Nendri Four while the Rouen follows up on leads in the disappearance of the USS Hood in the Allapach System.”
“If not the Ranger,” asked Masafumi,” then what do you expect to find on Nendri?”
“Perhaps nothing,” replied Tavuhn. “What we have to go on is slight at best. Six months ago, a Ferengi survey team visited Nendri Four, looking for dilithium deposits.”
“I remember them,” said Huntington. “They had quite a half-arsed operation. Just a handful of men searching entire planets. They said that they hadn’t found anything useful and went home.”
“Ah, well, from their perspective, they hadn’t found anything useful but what they had discovered on Nendri were these.” He flipped open the catches on his case and lifted the lid before spinning the case around on the table to show everyone what was inside.
“It’s just a few bits of junk,” said Kandro in disappointment.
Hollem looked closer. There were three shards of some kind of metal, twisted and burned but they were undeniably man-made.
“In a certain respect, you’re correct,” said Tavuhn and the Bajoran was amazed that he was taking so much crap from Kandro. “It is what they were before becoming junk that’s of interest.” The Tiburonian cast a glance towards Sharp.
Sharp nodded and began speaking. “Basically the shards of metal found by the Ferengi are duranium. More specifically, a certain duranium composite that is solely used by the Federation and only in the construction of starship hulls.”
“So you figure that a ship crashed and Nendri and the Ranger are the obvious choice?,” asked Ramblin.
“No,” said Tavuhn. “The Ranger is a possibility. That’s all.”
“In fact, only. I have faith in that hypothesis,” Professor Kee said,” but then mysteries like the Ranger have been a hobby of mine for quite some time. Even I can admit that the possibility that these artifacts belong to the Ranger is slight.”
“Where do you think they originate?,” asked Masafumi.
“There are four possibilities,” answered Tavuhn. “One possibility is obviously the Ranger. It’s more likely that those shards came from the USS Atlantis.”
“One of the ships that searched for the Ranger,” said Huntington,” and was destroyed in an ion storm.”
“Exactly,” said Tavuhn. “It’s a better option because while no trace of the Ranger had ever been found, the Atlantis did explode very close to here. The third option is the USS Featherwind, a Miranda-class ship that vanished in 2354. Its last known position was several lightyears away from Sector 29004 but its proposed route would have skirted the sector very close to here.”
“I could be wrong but I sense that the fourth option is the one that you favor,” said Doctor Hollem.
“Correct. Ensign, perhaps you should explain.”
Patel leaned forward and slid a PADD across the table until it met with a computer interface. Then he punched a command in and the wall-mounted computer monitor at the head of the Conference Lounge suddenly activated to display star charts and an image of a Federation starship. Hollem recognized the class of ship immediately since the spherical primary hull was the giveaway.
Patel spoke for the first time. His accent was as neat as his appearance that could have originated from anywhere in the Federation. “This is the USS Akela, an Olympic-class hospital ship, NCC-57810, and she was commanded by Captain Mirek K’Nell.”
“Mikey K’Nell’s ship,” Adam interjected. “I was at the Academy with him. I didn’t know him too well but he’s a good man.”
“He was the best,” said Patel.
“I thought the Akela was destroyed during the war?,” asked Huntington.
All eyes were now focused on the Ensign. He took a deep breath and continued. “It was Stardate 51179.2 and at the height of the Dominion War. The Akela had just deposited over sixteen hundred wounded at Starbase Sixty-Three and she was returning to the front lines. We were supposed to have an escort of two Defiant-class ships but they were redeployed for Operation: Return; the retaking of Deep Space Nine.”
As he spoke, Hollem heard anger creeping into his voice.
“We were twenty-four hours out from our destination when we were ambushed. There were three Jem’Hadar fighters.” Patel paused for another moment. He was looking straight ahead as if he wasn’t seeing the room around him but replaying memories instead inside his head. “The Captain advised them that we were a hospital ship and not a combat vessel. Unfortunately, the Jem’Hadar don’t take the same view as most sentient species about mercy missions. It must come from being genetically-bred to fight and die. Medical leanings don’t come high in their genetic makeup. Anyway, they pressed home their attack and almost blew out our shields on the first pass and filled over two dozen members of our crew. The Captain tried to surrender but they wouldn’t answer our hails. Their need to destroy us was unwavering. Their second pass breached practically every deck and in less than a minute, we had lost half of our crew. There were only seventy-five of us left. I just thank the Gods that we weren’t carrying any patient.”
Patel took a deep breath, showing that recounting the story was obviously difficult for him.
Cardonez sensed this and said,” Ensign, if you would rather not continue, I understand.”
He shook his head. “No, I’ll continue,” he said. “I owe them that.” He clasped his hands together, rubbing one against the other nervously. “We had warp power but we didn’t know for how long. The Captain didn’t even think about abandoning the ship. We had heard enough stories of the Dominion blowing escape pods out of space. He only had one chance. A Mutara-class nebula was close by so we set a course. Even at Warp Eight, it took almost ten minutes to reach it. It was a nightmare. They were on our tail the whole way. How our Chief Engineer kept the warp drive and the structural integrity fields going, I’ll never know.” He paused and looked down at the table. “She died just before we reached the safety of the nebula.”
Patel lapsed into silence again but no one around the room spoke. All of them knew what he was feeling. The war had left no one unscathed. After a minute, he looked up and Hollem saw tears welling up in his eyes but he was refusing to shed them.
“The nebula gave us sanctuary but it was for breathing room only. We had been in there for just twenty minutes when the first polaron charges began to explode around us.”
“They were trying to flush you out?,” asked Cardonez.
“Yes, and it worked. However large that the nebula was, the shockwave from the charges was slowly, but surely destroying what was left of our hull integrity. Life-support was failing and we were just minutes away from losing power altogether.”
“And?,” asked Masafumi. Like everyone else, the story held him in rapt attention.
“The Captain ordered us into the escape pods,” said Patel.
Ramblin shook her head at that. “Those escape pods wouldn’t have been able to stand up to the charges either. You would just be prolonging your agony,” she said bluntly.
Patel fixed her with an icy glare but Hollem wasn’t surprised to see her return it with interest. He gave up trying to intimidate her and returned his gaze to the rest of the table. “I never said that he ordered us all into the escape pods,” he said, coldly. “There were forty-seven of us left. The Captain asked for volunteers. We all knew what he had planned and only three people didn’t step forward. Can you imagine the loyalty that man engendered? Even for a Caitian?” His question went unanswered since it didn’t need an answer.
“He chose four of us, the oldest or those of us that he knew didn’t have families. The rest of us were dumped into escape pods and jettisoned. He… told… us… that it had been an honor serving with us.” His voice was cracking slightly now. “Us? The honor was ours to serve with him and the others: Lieutenant Asher, Ensign Palmer, Doctor T’Kura, and Chief Petty Officer Kowalski. If I close my eyes, I can see the five of them, standing on the Bridge while the last of us headed for the escape pods.” Patel closed his eyes while trying to prove a point. Without opening them, he continued his story. “My escape pod was the last pod to leave. We watched the ship while we drifted away from it. We were amazed that it was still in one piece, let alone functional.” He opened his eyes. “That was the last time that we saw the Akela.”
“He left the nebula, didn’t he?,” asked Huntington. “Captain K’Nell decoyed the Jem’Hadar away from you.”
Patel nodded. “The rest of us managed to connect our lifeboats together. The ship had left a shuttlecraft behind so we have maneuvering power. Even so, we stayed inside that nebula for a week. We were terrified that the Jem’Hadar would be waiting for us if we left. Eventually, two officers took the shuttle. It was agonizing, waiting for them to return and several times, we considered the possibility that they might have been destroyed. They did return, though it took another twelve hours for a rescue ship to find us. We asked about the Akela but there was no word on its status.”
He paused for a moment before shrugging.
“We were taken to Starbase Twenty-Four where we were debriefed. We were there for over three weeks before being reassigned. During that time, there was no word concerning the fate of the Akela.” He stopped and looked over at Tavuhn, nodding.
“And there has been no word since then,” the team leader said. “A few rumors, to be sure. One of our teams thought that they had located the ship, eighteen months ago but it turned out to be the wreckage from a lost runabout. Another false lead was the rumor of a Ferengi auctioning off a Federation starship.” He paused to smile. “IT was an old Miranda-class ship that had been stolen from Qualor Two, several years before the war. There was no warp core or weapons system to speak of. It was little more than a shell. We attempted to recover it but the ship’s new owners managed to spirit it away somehow. Who knew that Pakleds could be so smart?”
Cardonez frowned. She looked at Huntington and her Security Chief nodded sagely. They had both thought the same thing.
Tavuhn continued unabated. “These fragments are the best lead that we’ve ever had.”
“But why are you so sure that they belong to the Akela?,” asked Kehen.
Tavuhn opened his mouth to speak, but the Trill beat him to the punch again. “Because the nebula in question is very close to Sector 29004. We also know that Captain K’Nell was familiar with this region since he once served aboard the Wyoming,” Kee said, referring to the last ship to perform a survey of the sector, thirty years before. “It’s possible that he thought he could lose them in an ion storm, or at the very least, hope to evade them in familiar territory.”
“The nearest Mutara-class nebula is over five lightyears from here,” said Masafumi. “How could they have gotten this far with armed ships on their tail?”
“I told you,” Patel said. “He was the best. If anyone could have done it, he could. He should have been commanding a heavy cruiser. Starfleet had offered him the Sovereign but he turned them down. He said that he could make more of a difference, commanding a hospital ship.”
“Well,” said Cardonez,” as you have so little time, we should begin scanning the surface for any other remains.”
“That will prove difficult,” said Tavuhn.
“Indeed,” said Masafumi. “In fact, almost impossible.”
“Explain.”
Masafumi looked at Tavuhn but the Tiburonian acquiesced and gestured for him to explain. “Two reasons,” he said. “First of all, some of you might have seen strange black clouds in the planet’s upper atmosphere. Well, they aren’t clouds but swarms of insects. There are millions of them that live in the upper atmosphere. Lacking intelligence, they’re still quite fascinating.”
“Here comes the lecture,” Kandro whispered to Kehen.
“Mister Kandro,” the First Officer said and everyone looked his way. The Betazoid froze. He hadn’t realized that he had spoken loud enough to be heard.
“Yes, sir?,” he answered weakly.
Masafumi tapped at his blue collar. “Only three pips, not four but still enough to make your life miserable, Lieutenant,” he told him. “Now, please shut up. I have a long and boring lecture to give.” He smiled and Kandro let out a breath of relief. “Now then, as I was saying, large clouds of insects. They lack intelligence but their presence in the upper atmosphere obscures our scans. It reflects anything more than a cursory surface scan.”
“So how are we supposed to find the Akela?,” asked Ramblin.
“I wondering about that myself,” Masafumi said, looking at Tavuhn.
“The old-fashioned way. We have the coordinates of the spot where the Ferengi found the fragments. We also know that the fragments were embedded in the ground at an angle implying that they struck the planet from several kilometers away. We’ll send two teams down. One of them to the actual discovery site and another team to an estimated initial crash site, three kilometers away.”
“We have the general direction that the shards must have come from,” said Kee. “We just don’t have an accurate distance. We’ll start at three kilometers and the two away teams will each track towards the other, hopefully meeting up with one team or the other finding something.”
“We could string away teams between the distances,” said Kehen. “That would be easier than just using two of them.”
“Perhaps,” smiled the Trill scientist,” but you’re not trained archaeologists. We could be looking for microscopic fragments here. The slightest error could be catastrophic.”
“That’s why, despite our limited time here, we’ll only be using two teams. Myself, Lieutenant Sharp, Ensign Patel and Professor Kee,” said Tavuhn.
“No offense, Commander, but you will be accompanied by several of my officers,” said Cardonez. I’m not comfortable with such small away teams.”
“That’s acceptable. So long as you assign us officers who know what they’re doing.”
“Perhaps Lieutenant Kehen could accompany my team?,” Kee asked, flashing a smile towards Testudo’s helmswoman.
“Perhaps not,” Masafumi muttered underneath his breath.
“Lieutenant Kehen has no real scientific training,” Cardonez said, quickly. “I would recommend that Commander Masafumi and Doctor Hollem accompany you, Professor. As for the other away team, Lieutenant Kandros and Ramblin will go with Commander Tavuhn and Lieutenant Sharp.”
“Captain,” said Ramblin,” I really do have too much work to do without – “
“That’s an order, Louise.”
For a moment, Hollem was sure that Ramblin was going to argue with the Captain. Instead, she merely said,” Yes, sir.”
“Never mind,” Kandro said, looking over at Ramblin and smiling. “It should be a nice stroll in the countryside. Fresh air and great company…”
She responded with a sarcastic smile back at him.
“Captain, while I appreciate your crew’s assistance, I would like to start immediately. Would that cause any problems?”
Cardonez looked over at Masafumi.
“None that I’m aware of, Captain,” he replied. “It’s a Class-M planet and the Ferengi mentioned no adverse conditions other than a few insect bites. It has a stable ecosystem so it should be relatively tranquil down there.”
“Very well, then. We’ll beam down both parties as soon as they’re equipped. As a final note, I would like to say good luck and I hope you find something. I’ve never met Captain ‘K’Nell or any of his crew but the idea of Starfleet officers having an unknown grave doesn’t sit too well with me. Dismissed.”
The people around the table began to stand up from their seats and head off for their assignments.
There was silence around the room after Kee’s revelation. Hollem ignored the shocked expressions on the faces of his fellow officers and instead, he watched how their visitors responded. Tavuhn shook his head in disappointment, tutting underneath his breath. Sharp merely rolled her eyes but Ravi Patel actually looked like he was angry.
“The USS Ranger,” said Cardonez. “She’s been missing for a hundred years.”
“And most likely, she still is,” said Tavuhn forcefully. “You must excuse my enthusiastic colleague here. Professor Kee is a brilliant archaeologist but he can be a little too blinkered sometimes.”
“So, this isn’t about the Ranger?,” asked Masafumi.
Tavuhn shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “It isn’t, and yet, it might be. We can’t rule anything out.” He scowled in Kee’s direction.
Focusing back on the meeting as a whole, he continued,” Let me explain further. My colleagues and I work for the Federation Retrieval Unit. Are any of you aware of what we do?”
There were several shaken heads before Commander Huntington answered the Tiburonian. “I’ve heard of you,” he said. “You’re the guys who look into disappearances. Starship crashed and the like.”
Tavuhn nodded, a pleased smile was now on his lips. “Yes, that’s exactly right. Starfleet has sent hundreds of thousands of starships into space over the years and not all of them have come back. Sometimes, we know what happened to them. Sometimes, we don’t. Starfleet has finite resources to use in finding such ships. After the big boys go home, it passes to our department.”
“So you guys try to solve mysteries?,” asked Kandro.
“That is one way of putting it,” the Tiburonian said. “I prefer to think of us as bringing closure to the families of those missing souls.” His brusque manner slipped just a fraction and a shred of emotion could be seen through it.
Hollem raised a hand and started wagging his index finger. “Now I know where I’ve heard the name of Tavuhn before,” he said. “You found the remains of the Hera, didn’t you?”
Tavuhn nodded. “Indeed. I was part of the team that rediscovered the USS Hera. It’s unusual that anyone recollects such things unless they were involved. I don’t remember there being any Bajoran officers aboard the Hera. Was it a friend that you lost?”
“Excuse me?,” asked Hollem.
“The Hera,” said Tavuhn. “Was it a friend that you lost?”
“Oh, no, I didn’t know anybody aboard the Hera,” the Chief Medical Officer replied and when Tavuhn looked quizzically at him, he continued,” I was stationed aboard the Enterprise, a few years ago when the message came through.”
“Of course, Captain LaForge’s son. I regretted having to tell him the news,” Tavuhn said with a shake of his head. “Our job is rarely pleasant.”
“Well, he seemed to be relieved to me. I remember him telling Beverly that he felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of his chest.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” interrupted Sharp before she realized that she had interrupted the conversation. “I’m sorry.”
“If you must, Carrie,” Tavuhn said. His brusque tone was back but there was something almost fatherly about the way that he looked at her.
“Well, my brother was serving aboard the Zephyr when it was destroyed near Elas. Starfleet engineers collected almost all of the ship and most of the bodies but my brother wasn’t among them. It was three years before a retrieval unit discovered the truth that he had been working in a sensor pod when the ship was attacked. He had actually survived the destruction of the ship. The pod was thrown clear at high speed and it was caught in the path of a comet which took the pod further away from the scene of the attack. The first Starfleet ships didn’t bother to check outside of a specific radius. My brother died in the collision with the comet but when we learned that his remains had been found, we were…” She paused. “Happy is the wrong word. Relieved, I guess, but that doesn’t do it either. After all, while he was lost, there was still a chance. I suppose it enabled us to get on with our lives.”
“Exactly,” said Tavuhn. “We’re a small unit. Just a hundred officers and a handful of ships. As you can imagine, since the end of the war, our workload has blown out of all proportion.”
“I can imagine,” said Cardonez.
Tavuhn shook his head. “I don’t think you can, Captain,” he told her. “There are still twenty-nine starships unaccounted for as are dozens of small vessels. There are still seventeen thousand, four hundred, and eighteen Federation citizens who are still on the Missing In Action list.”
Cardonez’s eyes widened in shock. “Okay, I wasn’t imagining that.”
Tavuhn’s expression softened. “My apologies, Captain. Perhaps I haven’t appeared to be gracious since I came aboard.”
“That’s an understatement,” whispered Kandro.
Cardonez shot him her patented ‘Shut the hell up, Kandro’ look but Tavuhn merely smiled and nodded in his direction.
“True enough. However, as I said, my time is limited. The workload of this retrieval unit has increased but our resources haven’t. We still have pretty much the same number of people that we had before this war. My team here had twenty-four hours to investigate Nendri Four while the Rouen follows up on leads in the disappearance of the USS Hood in the Allapach System.”
“If not the Ranger,” asked Masafumi,” then what do you expect to find on Nendri?”
“Perhaps nothing,” replied Tavuhn. “What we have to go on is slight at best. Six months ago, a Ferengi survey team visited Nendri Four, looking for dilithium deposits.”
“I remember them,” said Huntington. “They had quite a half-arsed operation. Just a handful of men searching entire planets. They said that they hadn’t found anything useful and went home.”
“Ah, well, from their perspective, they hadn’t found anything useful but what they had discovered on Nendri were these.” He flipped open the catches on his case and lifted the lid before spinning the case around on the table to show everyone what was inside.
“It’s just a few bits of junk,” said Kandro in disappointment.
Hollem looked closer. There were three shards of some kind of metal, twisted and burned but they were undeniably man-made.
“In a certain respect, you’re correct,” said Tavuhn and the Bajoran was amazed that he was taking so much crap from Kandro. “It is what they were before becoming junk that’s of interest.” The Tiburonian cast a glance towards Sharp.
Sharp nodded and began speaking. “Basically the shards of metal found by the Ferengi are duranium. More specifically, a certain duranium composite that is solely used by the Federation and only in the construction of starship hulls.”
“So you figure that a ship crashed and Nendri and the Ranger are the obvious choice?,” asked Ramblin.
“No,” said Tavuhn. “The Ranger is a possibility. That’s all.”
“In fact, only. I have faith in that hypothesis,” Professor Kee said,” but then mysteries like the Ranger have been a hobby of mine for quite some time. Even I can admit that the possibility that these artifacts belong to the Ranger is slight.”
“Where do you think they originate?,” asked Masafumi.
“There are four possibilities,” answered Tavuhn. “One possibility is obviously the Ranger. It’s more likely that those shards came from the USS Atlantis.”
“One of the ships that searched for the Ranger,” said Huntington,” and was destroyed in an ion storm.”
“Exactly,” said Tavuhn. “It’s a better option because while no trace of the Ranger had ever been found, the Atlantis did explode very close to here. The third option is the USS Featherwind, a Miranda-class ship that vanished in 2354. Its last known position was several lightyears away from Sector 29004 but its proposed route would have skirted the sector very close to here.”
“I could be wrong but I sense that the fourth option is the one that you favor,” said Doctor Hollem.
“Correct. Ensign, perhaps you should explain.”
Patel leaned forward and slid a PADD across the table until it met with a computer interface. Then he punched a command in and the wall-mounted computer monitor at the head of the Conference Lounge suddenly activated to display star charts and an image of a Federation starship. Hollem recognized the class of ship immediately since the spherical primary hull was the giveaway.
Patel spoke for the first time. His accent was as neat as his appearance that could have originated from anywhere in the Federation. “This is the USS Akela, an Olympic-class hospital ship, NCC-57810, and she was commanded by Captain Mirek K’Nell.”
“Mikey K’Nell’s ship,” Adam interjected. “I was at the Academy with him. I didn’t know him too well but he’s a good man.”
“He was the best,” said Patel.
“I thought the Akela was destroyed during the war?,” asked Huntington.
All eyes were now focused on the Ensign. He took a deep breath and continued. “It was Stardate 51179.2 and at the height of the Dominion War. The Akela had just deposited over sixteen hundred wounded at Starbase Sixty-Three and she was returning to the front lines. We were supposed to have an escort of two Defiant-class ships but they were redeployed for Operation: Return; the retaking of Deep Space Nine.”
As he spoke, Hollem heard anger creeping into his voice.
“We were twenty-four hours out from our destination when we were ambushed. There were three Jem’Hadar fighters.” Patel paused for another moment. He was looking straight ahead as if he wasn’t seeing the room around him but replaying memories instead inside his head. “The Captain advised them that we were a hospital ship and not a combat vessel. Unfortunately, the Jem’Hadar don’t take the same view as most sentient species about mercy missions. It must come from being genetically-bred to fight and die. Medical leanings don’t come high in their genetic makeup. Anyway, they pressed home their attack and almost blew out our shields on the first pass and filled over two dozen members of our crew. The Captain tried to surrender but they wouldn’t answer our hails. Their need to destroy us was unwavering. Their second pass breached practically every deck and in less than a minute, we had lost half of our crew. There were only seventy-five of us left. I just thank the Gods that we weren’t carrying any patient.”
Patel took a deep breath, showing that recounting the story was obviously difficult for him.
Cardonez sensed this and said,” Ensign, if you would rather not continue, I understand.”
He shook his head. “No, I’ll continue,” he said. “I owe them that.” He clasped his hands together, rubbing one against the other nervously. “We had warp power but we didn’t know for how long. The Captain didn’t even think about abandoning the ship. We had heard enough stories of the Dominion blowing escape pods out of space. He only had one chance. A Mutara-class nebula was close by so we set a course. Even at Warp Eight, it took almost ten minutes to reach it. It was a nightmare. They were on our tail the whole way. How our Chief Engineer kept the warp drive and the structural integrity fields going, I’ll never know.” He paused and looked down at the table. “She died just before we reached the safety of the nebula.”
Patel lapsed into silence again but no one around the room spoke. All of them knew what he was feeling. The war had left no one unscathed. After a minute, he looked up and Hollem saw tears welling up in his eyes but he was refusing to shed them.
“The nebula gave us sanctuary but it was for breathing room only. We had been in there for just twenty minutes when the first polaron charges began to explode around us.”
“They were trying to flush you out?,” asked Cardonez.
“Yes, and it worked. However large that the nebula was, the shockwave from the charges was slowly, but surely destroying what was left of our hull integrity. Life-support was failing and we were just minutes away from losing power altogether.”
“And?,” asked Masafumi. Like everyone else, the story held him in rapt attention.
“The Captain ordered us into the escape pods,” said Patel.
Ramblin shook her head at that. “Those escape pods wouldn’t have been able to stand up to the charges either. You would just be prolonging your agony,” she said bluntly.
Patel fixed her with an icy glare but Hollem wasn’t surprised to see her return it with interest. He gave up trying to intimidate her and returned his gaze to the rest of the table. “I never said that he ordered us all into the escape pods,” he said, coldly. “There were forty-seven of us left. The Captain asked for volunteers. We all knew what he had planned and only three people didn’t step forward. Can you imagine the loyalty that man engendered? Even for a Caitian?” His question went unanswered since it didn’t need an answer.
“He chose four of us, the oldest or those of us that he knew didn’t have families. The rest of us were dumped into escape pods and jettisoned. He… told… us… that it had been an honor serving with us.” His voice was cracking slightly now. “Us? The honor was ours to serve with him and the others: Lieutenant Asher, Ensign Palmer, Doctor T’Kura, and Chief Petty Officer Kowalski. If I close my eyes, I can see the five of them, standing on the Bridge while the last of us headed for the escape pods.” Patel closed his eyes while trying to prove a point. Without opening them, he continued his story. “My escape pod was the last pod to leave. We watched the ship while we drifted away from it. We were amazed that it was still in one piece, let alone functional.” He opened his eyes. “That was the last time that we saw the Akela.”
“He left the nebula, didn’t he?,” asked Huntington. “Captain K’Nell decoyed the Jem’Hadar away from you.”
Patel nodded. “The rest of us managed to connect our lifeboats together. The ship had left a shuttlecraft behind so we have maneuvering power. Even so, we stayed inside that nebula for a week. We were terrified that the Jem’Hadar would be waiting for us if we left. Eventually, two officers took the shuttle. It was agonizing, waiting for them to return and several times, we considered the possibility that they might have been destroyed. They did return, though it took another twelve hours for a rescue ship to find us. We asked about the Akela but there was no word on its status.”
He paused for a moment before shrugging.
“We were taken to Starbase Twenty-Four where we were debriefed. We were there for over three weeks before being reassigned. During that time, there was no word concerning the fate of the Akela.” He stopped and looked over at Tavuhn, nodding.
“And there has been no word since then,” the team leader said. “A few rumors, to be sure. One of our teams thought that they had located the ship, eighteen months ago but it turned out to be the wreckage from a lost runabout. Another false lead was the rumor of a Ferengi auctioning off a Federation starship.” He paused to smile. “IT was an old Miranda-class ship that had been stolen from Qualor Two, several years before the war. There was no warp core or weapons system to speak of. It was little more than a shell. We attempted to recover it but the ship’s new owners managed to spirit it away somehow. Who knew that Pakleds could be so smart?”
Cardonez frowned. She looked at Huntington and her Security Chief nodded sagely. They had both thought the same thing.
Tavuhn continued unabated. “These fragments are the best lead that we’ve ever had.”
“But why are you so sure that they belong to the Akela?,” asked Kehen.
Tavuhn opened his mouth to speak, but the Trill beat him to the punch again. “Because the nebula in question is very close to Sector 29004. We also know that Captain K’Nell was familiar with this region since he once served aboard the Wyoming,” Kee said, referring to the last ship to perform a survey of the sector, thirty years before. “It’s possible that he thought he could lose them in an ion storm, or at the very least, hope to evade them in familiar territory.”
“The nearest Mutara-class nebula is over five lightyears from here,” said Masafumi. “How could they have gotten this far with armed ships on their tail?”
“I told you,” Patel said. “He was the best. If anyone could have done it, he could. He should have been commanding a heavy cruiser. Starfleet had offered him the Sovereign but he turned them down. He said that he could make more of a difference, commanding a hospital ship.”
“Well,” said Cardonez,” as you have so little time, we should begin scanning the surface for any other remains.”
“That will prove difficult,” said Tavuhn.
“Indeed,” said Masafumi. “In fact, almost impossible.”
“Explain.”
Masafumi looked at Tavuhn but the Tiburonian acquiesced and gestured for him to explain. “Two reasons,” he said. “First of all, some of you might have seen strange black clouds in the planet’s upper atmosphere. Well, they aren’t clouds but swarms of insects. There are millions of them that live in the upper atmosphere. Lacking intelligence, they’re still quite fascinating.”
“Here comes the lecture,” Kandro whispered to Kehen.
“Mister Kandro,” the First Officer said and everyone looked his way. The Betazoid froze. He hadn’t realized that he had spoken loud enough to be heard.
“Yes, sir?,” he answered weakly.
Masafumi tapped at his blue collar. “Only three pips, not four but still enough to make your life miserable, Lieutenant,” he told him. “Now, please shut up. I have a long and boring lecture to give.” He smiled and Kandro let out a breath of relief. “Now then, as I was saying, large clouds of insects. They lack intelligence but their presence in the upper atmosphere obscures our scans. It reflects anything more than a cursory surface scan.”
“So how are we supposed to find the Akela?,” asked Ramblin.
“I wondering about that myself,” Masafumi said, looking at Tavuhn.
“The old-fashioned way. We have the coordinates of the spot where the Ferengi found the fragments. We also know that the fragments were embedded in the ground at an angle implying that they struck the planet from several kilometers away. We’ll send two teams down. One of them to the actual discovery site and another team to an estimated initial crash site, three kilometers away.”
“We have the general direction that the shards must have come from,” said Kee. “We just don’t have an accurate distance. We’ll start at three kilometers and the two away teams will each track towards the other, hopefully meeting up with one team or the other finding something.”
“We could string away teams between the distances,” said Kehen. “That would be easier than just using two of them.”
“Perhaps,” smiled the Trill scientist,” but you’re not trained archaeologists. We could be looking for microscopic fragments here. The slightest error could be catastrophic.”
“That’s why, despite our limited time here, we’ll only be using two teams. Myself, Lieutenant Sharp, Ensign Patel and Professor Kee,” said Tavuhn.
“No offense, Commander, but you will be accompanied by several of my officers,” said Cardonez. I’m not comfortable with such small away teams.”
“That’s acceptable. So long as you assign us officers who know what they’re doing.”
“Perhaps Lieutenant Kehen could accompany my team?,” Kee asked, flashing a smile towards Testudo’s helmswoman.
“Perhaps not,” Masafumi muttered underneath his breath.
“Lieutenant Kehen has no real scientific training,” Cardonez said, quickly. “I would recommend that Commander Masafumi and Doctor Hollem accompany you, Professor. As for the other away team, Lieutenant Kandros and Ramblin will go with Commander Tavuhn and Lieutenant Sharp.”
“Captain,” said Ramblin,” I really do have too much work to do without – “
“That’s an order, Louise.”
For a moment, Hollem was sure that Ramblin was going to argue with the Captain. Instead, she merely said,” Yes, sir.”
“Never mind,” Kandro said, looking over at Ramblin and smiling. “It should be a nice stroll in the countryside. Fresh air and great company…”
She responded with a sarcastic smile back at him.
“Captain, while I appreciate your crew’s assistance, I would like to start immediately. Would that cause any problems?”
Cardonez looked over at Masafumi.
“None that I’m aware of, Captain,” he replied. “It’s a Class-M planet and the Ferengi mentioned no adverse conditions other than a few insect bites. It has a stable ecosystem so it should be relatively tranquil down there.”
“Very well, then. We’ll beam down both parties as soon as they’re equipped. As a final note, I would like to say good luck and I hope you find something. I’ve never met Captain ‘K’Nell or any of his crew but the idea of Starfleet officers having an unknown grave doesn’t sit too well with me. Dismissed.”
The people around the table began to stand up from their seats and head off for their assignments.
yeah... I'm getting the feeling they should be taking along some serious bug spray... Nice repartee between Kandro and Masafumi. Also, great world-building with the FRU.
Thanks!! rbs
Chapter 4 review – What should have been a routine away mission generates more questions, both about the colonists’ collective emotional state and the intentions of Administrator Blake. I hope the crew wasn’t premature in returning the Aora survivors to the ship, especially if there’s some as-yet undetectable contaminate at work on this planet.
And now an alien signal that could be Borg, Breen or Ferengi. Methinks strange things are afoot on Malthea II.
And now an alien signal that could be Borg, Breen or Ferengi. Methinks strange things are afoot on Malthea II.
Chapter Two
Lieutenant Paul Carson looked up from the command chair when the turbolift doors opened. When he saw Captain Cardonez and Lieutenant Commander Huntington exit the lift, the well-built Security Officer began to rise out of the chair.
As she walked down the ramp to the lower level of the Bridge, she waved a hand in Carson’s direction. “You can keep the chair for a while longer, Lieutenant,” she told him. “The Commander and I are just going for a chat.” Then she and Huntington disappeared into her Ready Room.
Carson sighed and sat back down, running a hand through his iron-gray hair.
“Don’t worry, sir,” Ensign Alec Carter said from the helm station. “I’m sure that they’ll explain what’s going on… eventually.”
****
Once she was inside her Ready Room, Isabel headed for the replicator. “Can I get you a drink?,” she asked over her shoulder. “I’m having an eliberry juice if you’d like one.”
“No, thanks. It’s too sweet. I’ll take a raktajino instead,” replied Huntington. He didn’t move towards a seat just yet. Instead, he swept his gaze around the room. “You know I haven’t been in here much since you redecorated. It’s nice to see your knickknacks back again.” The scale model of the Excelsior-class USS Tianjin was back on its shelf. Cardonez had never explained it to people. As far as he knew, she had never served aboard that ship. It was a mystery that he hoped to solve someday. The small presentation box was back on her desk as well. It was closed but she knew that it contained her Pacifica Cross, a very rare award that was specially minted by the people of Pacifica for the crew of one special ship, the USS Osprey.
He did notice one addition. Within two strides, he was examining the sealed Perspex block that held it.
“Here you go,” Cardonez said when she walked back from the replicator with two drinks.
“Thanks,” he said, taking the cup of hot Klingon coffee from her. He gestured at the block. “It’s pretty obvious where this came from.”
Cardonez smiled. “The Ferengi government said that I could take any of Offenhouse’s possessions as payment for saving their planet. I chose this.”
“I take it that it’s authentic?,” Huntington asked her, peering at the faded album cover.
“Oh, yes. It even has the record inside of it. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, circa 1967. It’s over three hundred years old.”
“Does it still play?”
“Are you kidding? From what I can tell, it’s been sealed in that box for two centuries. I’m surprised that the Ferengi government didn’t offer you a reward, actually,” she said before she moved over to her desk chair and sat down.
Huntington gave the album another look and then followed her, sitting down on the opposite side of her desk. He took a sip of his beverage before he placed it on the table. “Oh, they did,” he said,” and I took something.”
“Really? Do I dare to ask what?”
“Remember the silver-plated Colt .45 that Offenhouse almost killed me with?”
“You’re kidding!”
Adam shook his head. “Not at all. It’s a very powerful weapon and I speak from first-hand experience,” he said, rubbing his shoulder. “Besides, after our tangle with the Borg, I have a newfound respect for old-style bullets. It makes a nice complimentary piece to my replicated PPK.”
“It’s still a tad morbid.”
Huntington smiled. “This is coming from a woman who once told me that she had tried to get a hold of the bat’leth that had severed her arm,” he said with a raised eyebrow.
Cardonez raised her glass and toasted in his direction. “Touche,” she said before taking a drink. As she replaced the glass on the table, she changed the subject. “I saw the look that you gave me when Tavuhn mentioned the Pakleds. Do you think it could have been Glablok?”
“It seems to be a fair hypothesis. We know that his gang of pirates has a thing about acquired Federation ships.”
“Yeah,” she said, thinking back to her first mission as the Captain of the Testudo when they had investigated the disappearance of the USS Aora. That ship had been hijacked by a group of Pakleds that was in league with a mysterious force that seemed to be intent on gaining a foothold on Sector 29004. “Those people have been quiet lately. Any sign of them while I was away?”
“Not a squeak,” said Huntington. “Maybe the pasting that they got from the Zelket scared them off permanently.”
“Or maybe they’re just biding their time and secretly plotting for another attack,” she replied.
“Touche,” he said with a smile.
Cardonez lounged back in her chair. “Somehow I get the feeling that we aren’t here to talk about Pakleds and mysterious enemies?”
“You’re perceptive. I’ve had my orders come through from the Academy. They want me to start classes in two months’ time.”
“I see that you still haven’t changed your mind?”
“No,” he replied with a shake of his head. “I’ve done my bit. Now it’s time to spend some time with my family and take it easy. I have just a month’s leave owing to me and I was hoping that you would let me take it before I leave.”
“That means we’ll have you for less than a month.”
“Three weeks, actually,” said Huntington.
“Well, as much as I’d love to say no,” Cardonez said with a smile,” I can’t really stand in your way.”
“Wise move,” he replied. “Besides, Paul Carson will make a good replacement. You won’t miss me.”
Cardonez laughed. “I’ve never heard you be modest before. We’ll miss you a whole lot. Carson is a good solid officer but personally, I like my Security Chiefs to have a bit more initiative. To be honest, if she was older, I would give the job to Pam.”
Huntington shook his head. “She needs a lot more experience. It might be worth making her Carson’s deputy though. They could learn from each other.”
“Fair enough.”
“And give Paul a chance. There’s a lot to be said for a solid, reliable Security Chief.”
Cardonez smiled. “Well, with the Huntington Seal of Approval, how could I not?”
****
Several decks below them, Commander Yashiro Masafumi was silently contemplating killing a man. There were five of them heading towards the Transporter Room. He walked with Hollem and Ensign Patel on either side of him. Several yards ahead, Zia Kehen was walking beside Professor Kee and she seemed to be hanging onto the Trill’s every word.
“Well, obviously, I’ve seen pictures of Yulani but never in the flesh, you might say,” Kee said with a devilish smile.
“So what do you think?,” she asked, mischievously.
“Very nice. Your coloring is most vivid,” he replied and Masafumi was clenching his fists now. “Perhaps we could enquire again about whether or not you could accompany us? I find new cultures to be fascinating.”
Kehen giggled girlishly and Masafumi’s face reddened. Someone had noticed his ire.
“I wouldn’t worry about him,” Patel said, softly. “Lieutenant Sharp was telling me all about him. He’s far too charming for his own good. He sweeps girls off of their feet in the first few minutes of meeting them but within an hour, they’re bored to tears. He tends to start talking about himself too much.”
“Really?,” asked the Commander. “Well, I hope that’s the case. If not, I might have to arrange a transporter accident for him.”
“Come on, Commander,” asked Hollem,” don’t you ever innocently flirt with women?”
Masafumi fixed him with a gaze. “What do you think?”
“My mistake,” the Doctor said. He quickly decided to change the subject. “So, Ensign Patel…”
“Call me Ravi,” replied Patel.
Hollem nodded. “Ravi,” he said,” I don’t mean to offend you but I haven’t seen many ensigns that are… That is, I mean…”
“Not many ensigns who are as old as me?,” enquired the Indian.
Hollen looked sheepish but nodded.
“It’s a long story. I hope you don’t mind but it’s one that I’ve gotten very tired of telling.” The tone of his voice was pleasant enough but he obviously meant it.
The Bajoran wasn’t finished with interrogating Patel though and he merely changed tack “So, you were aboard the Akela for the whole war? I mean, before she went missing.”
Patel smiled. Hollem thought that it was the first time that he had done that in the short time he had known him. “Missing. I like that. Too many people talk about the destruction of the ship. I’m not a fool but I still like to believe that there’s a chance. In answer to your question, yes. I spent the war aboard that ship. After she went missing, I was transferred to Starbase Sixty-Two. I’m a nurse and they had a shortage. “How about you, Doctor? Where did you serve?”
Hollem furrowed his brow. “I was aboard the Kilimanjaro for most of the war. I did some shifts planetside and on Starbases. I was fresh out of the Academy, just before the war started. There’s a Human expression about being thrown in at the deep end. I’ve always felt that it was quite appropriate.”
Patel nodded. “I saw a lot of blood too. More than enough for a lifetime’s worth.” He turned his attention to Masafumi. “How about you, Commander? Where did you serve?”
Masafumi was still focused on Kehen and Kee up ahead and he failed to register the question. “Commander?,” he asked again.
“Hmm, what?,” he asked, a touch too sharply.
“I was wondering where you served during the war.”
“Oh, I was the First Officer aboard the USS Maelstrom.”
“Maelstrom? Doesn’t ring a bell but I guess there were so many ships. Which fleet did she serve in?”
“She was in no fleet,” said Masafumi. When Patel looked puzzled, he continued,” The Maelstrom was on a deep-range exploration mission when the war began.”
“I thought that all ships were recalled?”
“A recall order was sent but it was left up to the Captain’s discretion, whether they returned. We discussed it as a crew and decided that one more Nova-class starship in the grand scheme of things would make little difference to the war effort. If things went badly for the Federation, those of us who remained in deep space would attempt to fight back. Or at the very least, ensure that the Federation survived in some way.”
Patel stopped walking, a disgusted look on his face. “Do you know how many Nova-class starships were converted to serve as emergency medical facilities? Or how many lives that they saved?”
Masafumi stopped walking too. For a few seconds, Hollem walked on, obviously, before he stopped as well. Kehen and Kee were too wrapped up in their conversation to notice.
“Actually, I am,” the Commander said, seemingly unperturbed,” because I’ve had this conversation before. We weren’t cowards or trying to avoid a fight. We were three months out when the war started. For all that we knew, it would be over by the time that we returned and not necessarily in our favor. Our mission saw us discover several plants with medical applications and three First Contacts that led to Federation membership. We did our part, just not in the same gung-ho fashion as the rest of the Federation. Now then, if you’ll excuse me, I believe we have a mission to complete.”
Masafumi started walking again.
“Asshole,” Patel said under his breath. “How do you put up with him?”
“Who?,” asked Hollem.
“You’re funny,” said the Indian without a trace of humor before he set off again.
The Doctor stayed where he was and called out after the Ensign. “No, seriously. Who?!”
****
The scene was tranquil. Green reeds swayed gently in the morning breeze. Despite the dark shadows cast by the high-flying insects, the day was bright. In every respect, Nendri Four was a typical Class-M planet.
An uninhabited Eden.
Then four unnatural blue beams of light coalesced into humanoid forms among the reeds.
Almost as soon as they reformed into solid form, Kandro and Ramblin snatched at their tricorders like a pair of gunfighters in the Ancient West. The Betazoid was a shade faster. “I’m getting readings but they’re fuzzy.”
“Me too,. It must be the fistrium,” Ramblin said, swinging her tricorder around in a half-circle.
Meanwhile, Tavuhn and Sharp had hardly moved from their beam down position. “Young people,” the Tiburonian said. “Don’t tell me that the wonder of space exploration has left you already?”
Kandro made a play of looking around. The tall reeds that they stood in were stretched out for miles around them. Looking up, the sky was blue and the sun was bright. Several wispy white clouds drifted by and high above, a large dark mass moved gently against the wind.
“I get excited by new things. This is just another Betazed-like planet.”
“You mean Earth-like,” Ramblin corrected him.
“Humanist.”
“And proud of it.”
“Don’t just use your eyes, Lieutenants,” said Sharp. “Can’t you smell it? Something not found on either Earth, Betazed, or any other planet.”
Kandro sniffed the air and his nose wrinkled. “What is that? Sickly sweet…”
“It smells like…,” Ramblin began before a small gust of wind blew the fragrance in her direction. “Actually, I don’t know what it smells like.”
“Exactly,” said Tavuhn. “You use your eyes and just another Class-M world but it isn’t like any other. That smell doesn’t exist anywhere else. Think about it. Two hundred years ago, my people didn’t know what an orange smelled or tasted like and now they grow everywhere.”
“Twentieth-First Century Humans didn’t know what a Vulcan Lyre sounded like,” added Sharp. “With every new world, we add something tangible to the universe.”
Kandro kneeled down to examine the tips of the reeds. He crushed a pale blue corn-like ear between his fingers, eliciting another burst of fragrance. “You guys sound a touch New Age for me,” he added, getting to his feet and dusting the remains of the reed from his fingers.
Tavuhn laughed. “It’s funny that you should say that. An ancestor of mine was something of a… What’s that word, Sharp?”
“Hippie,” she said, checking her own tricorder.
“Yes, hippie. He wanted to get away from technology and start again on a planet like this one. A foolish fellow, really.”
“Shouldn’t we get started?,” asked Ramblin.
“Yes, of course,” said Tavuhn. “There are the estimated coordinates that are three clicks away from where the Ferengi found the wreckage.”
“I don’t see anything,” Ramblin said. “These reeds look undisturbed.”
“Well, it’s an estimated impact point and nothing more. Now then, we head in…” Tavuhn swung his tricorder around. “This direction.” He pointed off into the distance. “We'll form a skirmish line with twenty meters between us. Move slowly and examine the ground carefully.”
“What exactly are we looking for?,” asked Kandro.
“Anything that looks out of the ordinary,” said Sharp before she and Tavuhn headed off.
Kandro smiled at Ramblin. “Fancy a stroll?,” he asked her.
“No, thanks. Just make sure that you’re twenty meters away from me.”
He shook his head mournfully. “And there was me hoping that you would enjoy a stroll in the sun.”
“I’d rather be in Engineering.”
“Your loss,” said the Betazoid before he headed after Tavuhn and Sharp.
Ramblin waited until no one was looking. Then she reached down and grabbed a bunch of reeds. As she joined the others, she wondered if she would be able to replicate the scent?
Lieutenant Paul Carson looked up from the command chair when the turbolift doors opened. When he saw Captain Cardonez and Lieutenant Commander Huntington exit the lift, the well-built Security Officer began to rise out of the chair.
As she walked down the ramp to the lower level of the Bridge, she waved a hand in Carson’s direction. “You can keep the chair for a while longer, Lieutenant,” she told him. “The Commander and I are just going for a chat.” Then she and Huntington disappeared into her Ready Room.
Carson sighed and sat back down, running a hand through his iron-gray hair.
“Don’t worry, sir,” Ensign Alec Carter said from the helm station. “I’m sure that they’ll explain what’s going on… eventually.”
****
Once she was inside her Ready Room, Isabel headed for the replicator. “Can I get you a drink?,” she asked over her shoulder. “I’m having an eliberry juice if you’d like one.”
“No, thanks. It’s too sweet. I’ll take a raktajino instead,” replied Huntington. He didn’t move towards a seat just yet. Instead, he swept his gaze around the room. “You know I haven’t been in here much since you redecorated. It’s nice to see your knickknacks back again.” The scale model of the Excelsior-class USS Tianjin was back on its shelf. Cardonez had never explained it to people. As far as he knew, she had never served aboard that ship. It was a mystery that he hoped to solve someday. The small presentation box was back on her desk as well. It was closed but she knew that it contained her Pacifica Cross, a very rare award that was specially minted by the people of Pacifica for the crew of one special ship, the USS Osprey.
He did notice one addition. Within two strides, he was examining the sealed Perspex block that held it.
“Here you go,” Cardonez said when she walked back from the replicator with two drinks.
“Thanks,” he said, taking the cup of hot Klingon coffee from her. He gestured at the block. “It’s pretty obvious where this came from.”
Cardonez smiled. “The Ferengi government said that I could take any of Offenhouse’s possessions as payment for saving their planet. I chose this.”
“I take it that it’s authentic?,” Huntington asked her, peering at the faded album cover.
“Oh, yes. It even has the record inside of it. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, circa 1967. It’s over three hundred years old.”
“Does it still play?”
“Are you kidding? From what I can tell, it’s been sealed in that box for two centuries. I’m surprised that the Ferengi government didn’t offer you a reward, actually,” she said before she moved over to her desk chair and sat down.
Huntington gave the album another look and then followed her, sitting down on the opposite side of her desk. He took a sip of his beverage before he placed it on the table. “Oh, they did,” he said,” and I took something.”
“Really? Do I dare to ask what?”
“Remember the silver-plated Colt .45 that Offenhouse almost killed me with?”
“You’re kidding!”
Adam shook his head. “Not at all. It’s a very powerful weapon and I speak from first-hand experience,” he said, rubbing his shoulder. “Besides, after our tangle with the Borg, I have a newfound respect for old-style bullets. It makes a nice complimentary piece to my replicated PPK.”
“It’s still a tad morbid.”
Huntington smiled. “This is coming from a woman who once told me that she had tried to get a hold of the bat’leth that had severed her arm,” he said with a raised eyebrow.
Cardonez raised her glass and toasted in his direction. “Touche,” she said before taking a drink. As she replaced the glass on the table, she changed the subject. “I saw the look that you gave me when Tavuhn mentioned the Pakleds. Do you think it could have been Glablok?”
“It seems to be a fair hypothesis. We know that his gang of pirates has a thing about acquired Federation ships.”
“Yeah,” she said, thinking back to her first mission as the Captain of the Testudo when they had investigated the disappearance of the USS Aora. That ship had been hijacked by a group of Pakleds that was in league with a mysterious force that seemed to be intent on gaining a foothold on Sector 29004. “Those people have been quiet lately. Any sign of them while I was away?”
“Not a squeak,” said Huntington. “Maybe the pasting that they got from the Zelket scared them off permanently.”
“Or maybe they’re just biding their time and secretly plotting for another attack,” she replied.
“Touche,” he said with a smile.
Cardonez lounged back in her chair. “Somehow I get the feeling that we aren’t here to talk about Pakleds and mysterious enemies?”
“You’re perceptive. I’ve had my orders come through from the Academy. They want me to start classes in two months’ time.”
“I see that you still haven’t changed your mind?”
“No,” he replied with a shake of his head. “I’ve done my bit. Now it’s time to spend some time with my family and take it easy. I have just a month’s leave owing to me and I was hoping that you would let me take it before I leave.”
“That means we’ll have you for less than a month.”
“Three weeks, actually,” said Huntington.
“Well, as much as I’d love to say no,” Cardonez said with a smile,” I can’t really stand in your way.”
“Wise move,” he replied. “Besides, Paul Carson will make a good replacement. You won’t miss me.”
Cardonez laughed. “I’ve never heard you be modest before. We’ll miss you a whole lot. Carson is a good solid officer but personally, I like my Security Chiefs to have a bit more initiative. To be honest, if she was older, I would give the job to Pam.”
Huntington shook his head. “She needs a lot more experience. It might be worth making her Carson’s deputy though. They could learn from each other.”
“Fair enough.”
“And give Paul a chance. There’s a lot to be said for a solid, reliable Security Chief.”
Cardonez smiled. “Well, with the Huntington Seal of Approval, how could I not?”
****
Several decks below them, Commander Yashiro Masafumi was silently contemplating killing a man. There were five of them heading towards the Transporter Room. He walked with Hollem and Ensign Patel on either side of him. Several yards ahead, Zia Kehen was walking beside Professor Kee and she seemed to be hanging onto the Trill’s every word.
“Well, obviously, I’ve seen pictures of Yulani but never in the flesh, you might say,” Kee said with a devilish smile.
“So what do you think?,” she asked, mischievously.
“Very nice. Your coloring is most vivid,” he replied and Masafumi was clenching his fists now. “Perhaps we could enquire again about whether or not you could accompany us? I find new cultures to be fascinating.”
Kehen giggled girlishly and Masafumi’s face reddened. Someone had noticed his ire.
“I wouldn’t worry about him,” Patel said, softly. “Lieutenant Sharp was telling me all about him. He’s far too charming for his own good. He sweeps girls off of their feet in the first few minutes of meeting them but within an hour, they’re bored to tears. He tends to start talking about himself too much.”
“Really?,” asked the Commander. “Well, I hope that’s the case. If not, I might have to arrange a transporter accident for him.”
“Come on, Commander,” asked Hollem,” don’t you ever innocently flirt with women?”
Masafumi fixed him with a gaze. “What do you think?”
“My mistake,” the Doctor said. He quickly decided to change the subject. “So, Ensign Patel…”
“Call me Ravi,” replied Patel.
Hollem nodded. “Ravi,” he said,” I don’t mean to offend you but I haven’t seen many ensigns that are… That is, I mean…”
“Not many ensigns who are as old as me?,” enquired the Indian.
Hollen looked sheepish but nodded.
“It’s a long story. I hope you don’t mind but it’s one that I’ve gotten very tired of telling.” The tone of his voice was pleasant enough but he obviously meant it.
The Bajoran wasn’t finished with interrogating Patel though and he merely changed tack “So, you were aboard the Akela for the whole war? I mean, before she went missing.”
Patel smiled. Hollem thought that it was the first time that he had done that in the short time he had known him. “Missing. I like that. Too many people talk about the destruction of the ship. I’m not a fool but I still like to believe that there’s a chance. In answer to your question, yes. I spent the war aboard that ship. After she went missing, I was transferred to Starbase Sixty-Two. I’m a nurse and they had a shortage. “How about you, Doctor? Where did you serve?”
Hollem furrowed his brow. “I was aboard the Kilimanjaro for most of the war. I did some shifts planetside and on Starbases. I was fresh out of the Academy, just before the war started. There’s a Human expression about being thrown in at the deep end. I’ve always felt that it was quite appropriate.”
Patel nodded. “I saw a lot of blood too. More than enough for a lifetime’s worth.” He turned his attention to Masafumi. “How about you, Commander? Where did you serve?”
Masafumi was still focused on Kehen and Kee up ahead and he failed to register the question. “Commander?,” he asked again.
“Hmm, what?,” he asked, a touch too sharply.
“I was wondering where you served during the war.”
“Oh, I was the First Officer aboard the USS Maelstrom.”
“Maelstrom? Doesn’t ring a bell but I guess there were so many ships. Which fleet did she serve in?”
“She was in no fleet,” said Masafumi. When Patel looked puzzled, he continued,” The Maelstrom was on a deep-range exploration mission when the war began.”
“I thought that all ships were recalled?”
“A recall order was sent but it was left up to the Captain’s discretion, whether they returned. We discussed it as a crew and decided that one more Nova-class starship in the grand scheme of things would make little difference to the war effort. If things went badly for the Federation, those of us who remained in deep space would attempt to fight back. Or at the very least, ensure that the Federation survived in some way.”
Patel stopped walking, a disgusted look on his face. “Do you know how many Nova-class starships were converted to serve as emergency medical facilities? Or how many lives that they saved?”
Masafumi stopped walking too. For a few seconds, Hollem walked on, obviously, before he stopped as well. Kehen and Kee were too wrapped up in their conversation to notice.
“Actually, I am,” the Commander said, seemingly unperturbed,” because I’ve had this conversation before. We weren’t cowards or trying to avoid a fight. We were three months out when the war started. For all that we knew, it would be over by the time that we returned and not necessarily in our favor. Our mission saw us discover several plants with medical applications and three First Contacts that led to Federation membership. We did our part, just not in the same gung-ho fashion as the rest of the Federation. Now then, if you’ll excuse me, I believe we have a mission to complete.”
Masafumi started walking again.
“Asshole,” Patel said under his breath. “How do you put up with him?”
“Who?,” asked Hollem.
“You’re funny,” said the Indian without a trace of humor before he set off again.
The Doctor stayed where he was and called out after the Ensign. “No, seriously. Who?!”
****
The scene was tranquil. Green reeds swayed gently in the morning breeze. Despite the dark shadows cast by the high-flying insects, the day was bright. In every respect, Nendri Four was a typical Class-M planet.
An uninhabited Eden.
Then four unnatural blue beams of light coalesced into humanoid forms among the reeds.
Almost as soon as they reformed into solid form, Kandro and Ramblin snatched at their tricorders like a pair of gunfighters in the Ancient West. The Betazoid was a shade faster. “I’m getting readings but they’re fuzzy.”
“Me too,. It must be the fistrium,” Ramblin said, swinging her tricorder around in a half-circle.
Meanwhile, Tavuhn and Sharp had hardly moved from their beam down position. “Young people,” the Tiburonian said. “Don’t tell me that the wonder of space exploration has left you already?”
Kandro made a play of looking around. The tall reeds that they stood in were stretched out for miles around them. Looking up, the sky was blue and the sun was bright. Several wispy white clouds drifted by and high above, a large dark mass moved gently against the wind.
“I get excited by new things. This is just another Betazed-like planet.”
“You mean Earth-like,” Ramblin corrected him.
“Humanist.”
“And proud of it.”
“Don’t just use your eyes, Lieutenants,” said Sharp. “Can’t you smell it? Something not found on either Earth, Betazed, or any other planet.”
Kandro sniffed the air and his nose wrinkled. “What is that? Sickly sweet…”
“It smells like…,” Ramblin began before a small gust of wind blew the fragrance in her direction. “Actually, I don’t know what it smells like.”
“Exactly,” said Tavuhn. “You use your eyes and just another Class-M world but it isn’t like any other. That smell doesn’t exist anywhere else. Think about it. Two hundred years ago, my people didn’t know what an orange smelled or tasted like and now they grow everywhere.”
“Twentieth-First Century Humans didn’t know what a Vulcan Lyre sounded like,” added Sharp. “With every new world, we add something tangible to the universe.”
Kandro kneeled down to examine the tips of the reeds. He crushed a pale blue corn-like ear between his fingers, eliciting another burst of fragrance. “You guys sound a touch New Age for me,” he added, getting to his feet and dusting the remains of the reed from his fingers.
Tavuhn laughed. “It’s funny that you should say that. An ancestor of mine was something of a… What’s that word, Sharp?”
“Hippie,” she said, checking her own tricorder.
“Yes, hippie. He wanted to get away from technology and start again on a planet like this one. A foolish fellow, really.”
“Shouldn’t we get started?,” asked Ramblin.
“Yes, of course,” said Tavuhn. “There are the estimated coordinates that are three clicks away from where the Ferengi found the wreckage.”
“I don’t see anything,” Ramblin said. “These reeds look undisturbed.”
“Well, it’s an estimated impact point and nothing more. Now then, we head in…” Tavuhn swung his tricorder around. “This direction.” He pointed off into the distance. “We'll form a skirmish line with twenty meters between us. Move slowly and examine the ground carefully.”
“What exactly are we looking for?,” asked Kandro.
“Anything that looks out of the ordinary,” said Sharp before she and Tavuhn headed off.
Kandro smiled at Ramblin. “Fancy a stroll?,” he asked her.
“No, thanks. Just make sure that you’re twenty meters away from me.”
He shook his head mournfully. “And there was me hoping that you would enjoy a stroll in the sun.”
“I’d rather be in Engineering.”
“Your loss,” said the Betazoid before he headed after Tavuhn and Sharp.
Ramblin waited until no one was looking. Then she reached down and grabbed a bunch of reeds. As she joined the others, she wondered if she would be able to replicate the scent?
Nice world-building and interesting character development on Masafumi. Liking that Huntington is moving on. The franchise tended to keep characters in place far too long. Thanks!! rbs
Chapter Three
Three kilometers to the south, four more figures appeared to disturb the natural tranquility.
“Nice place,” said Hollem when they gazed around them. They were in a small meadow. In the distance, several hills rolled up to the horizon. The grass was long but it was as green as Earth’s.
“Interesting plant life,” said Commander Masafumi while he walked over to the edge of the meadow where a large expanse of flowers grew. As he drew close to them, he estimated that the flowers covered an area of, at least, a square kilometer. Reaching the edge of the expanse, he kneeled down with his tricorder at the ready. The plants looked like roses and their petals were a myriad of colors; purple, blue, white, yellow, and red. Several of the roses had multiple colored petals. Their stems were a very dark green, almost black. Each flower was open to the bright sun and he saw that small insects were crawling within.
“Botany can wait, can’t it?,” Patel shouted from a distance.
Masafumi ignored him and ran a scan of the plants instead. “Damned fistrium.”
“Are you having trouble with getting a reading?,” Kee asked him, kneeling down beside him.
“Yes,” the Commander said, glancing sideways at the handsome Trill. It had taken a Herculean effort not to punch him in the Transporter Room when he had asked again if the ‘delightful Zia’ could join them. He had politely declined and ordered Kehen back to the Bridge. “It’s amazing that they can grow in this soil. What little that I can sense is intriguing. No chlorophyll. I wonder how they absorb sunlight.”
“They’re beautiful flowers,” Kee said, inhaling their bouquet.
“Yes,” Masafumi said, softly. He sensed what was coming.
“Perhaps I’ll take a few back to the ship for Zia.” Masafumi bit his tongue while the Trill continued. “There I go, falling for a woman after only knowing her for a few minutes. It's a curse, you know.” He smiled brashly. “I don’t even know if she’s seeing anyone.”
“That thought didn’t seem to distract you earlier.”
Kee shrugged. “Well, in my experience, young women in Starfleet tend to be single. It’s not a life that lends itself to stable relationships.”
“Really?,” Masafumi asked, his face alive with mock interest.
“Yes, it’s a lonely life but it does leave them… how can I put it? … in need of companionship. Is she seeing anyone?”
“Nobody special,” Masafumi said, dropping his gaze back to the flowers so that Kee wouldn’t see the smile forming on his face. “Just the Testudo’s First Officer.”
“Ah,” Kee said before laughing nervously. Well, you know, you really shouldn’t take what I say seriously. I’m just a massive flirt.” He swallowed hard and fixed a limp smile on his face.
Masafumi looked up, beaming brightly. “May I recommend flirting with someone else when we return to the ship?”
The Trill nodded nervously. “Of course… So, you were talking about the flowers?”
****
A short distance away, Ravi Patel was getting impatient. “What the hell are they doing? We have a mission to achieve here. It’s not even dangerous.”
“Commander Masafumi might be many things,” Doctor Hollem said. “Uptight, a stickler for the rules, far too doe-eyed over Kehen and sometimes he lacks a sense of humor but… “ He frowned. “What was I saying?”
“You were about to eulogize the Commander.”
Hollem snorted. “I was just going to make the point that one thing that he isn’t is a coward.”
“He ran away from a fight. In my book, that doesn’t equate to heroism.”
“I don’t agree with the reasons why the Maelstrom stayed out there but I understand them. All I can say is that in the year or so that I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him back away from a fight. The man was at Wolf 359, you know.”
“So he didn’t have time to get off of whatever ship he was on.”
Hollem laughed. “Fair point. How do you explain that just a few days into our very first mission, he led an away team into a downed Borg Cube, armed only with a phaser rifle and some untested Borg cloaking technology.”
Patel was unmoved. “If he isn’t a coward, then that actually makes it worse,” he said. “Because he had no reason to stay away.”
“But…,” the Bajoran began to say but the Ensign had turned away from him.
“I’m going to start searching. If your Commander ever gets up from smelling the roses, all of you can join me.”
Patel started to walk away but he got all of three meters before Masafumi shouted,” Ensign!”
Patel turned around to find that the Commander had joined the Doctor. “What?”
“I find it better if my away teams stick together, Ensign. I assume that you don’t have an issue with that?”
“No, sir,” replied Patel before he started trudging back.
Just as Hovin Kee screamed out loud.
Hollem and Masafumi spun around and started to run to where Kee was still standing in the expanse of flowers. “What is it? What’s wrong?,” asked Hollem when they reached him.
“The little bastards bit me,” Kee said in an annoyed tone. He was examining the back of his left hand.
The Doctor reached over and took the hand, seeing several ugly red welts beginning to rise up against the Professor’s pale skin. Using his tricorder, he ran a scan as best as he could. “Is that all?,” he asked him. “With that scream, I expected to find a Ktarian lion chewing on your leg.”
“Hey, they hurt!”
“Anything that’s life-threatening?,” asked Masafumi.
“No, Commander. They’re just what they look like. Insect bites.”
“Are you sure?,” asked Kee. “They could be infected or something. My second host, Leddette, was bitten by a Trill gadfly once and she was laid up for a week.”
“Trust me. There’s no sign of any kind of poison or any infection but even if there is, this will ease it.” He grabbed a dermal regenerator from the medkit that hung on his shoulder. After running it over the hand, Hollem grabbed a hypospray. “Antihistamine,” he added before jabbing it against the Trill’s neck.
A few seconds later, the skin looked unblemished once more. Kee clenched and unclenched his hand several times.
“Better now?,” Patel asked, sarcastically after having joined the group.
Kee had regained his composure now and flashed a winning smile at the Ensign. “Yes, and thanks for asking.”
“Do you think we could look for the Akela now, Commander?,” asked Patel.
“Oh, I think so,” said Masafumi before he asked Kee,” We have the coordinates for where the fragments were found, right?”
“Yes, yes,” replied the Trill, opening up his tricorder. “Near those hills.”
“After you,” said Masafumi and motioned in that direction.
Kee headed off with Patel walking close behind him.
“Interesting bunch?,” asked Hollem.
“Yes,” replied Masafumi. “Still, at least, the Professor knows where he stands with Zia now.”
“Which is?”
“On a cliff edge with me, standing behind him,” he smiled. “Come on. We’d better follow… ow!” Masafumi quickly swatted at his neck. “Kee was right. They do hurt.”
“Not you too.”
Masafumi glanced at the remains of a small fly squashed against his fingertips. “Yeah, they must be hungry.”
“There’s no accounting for taste,” the Doctor said, repeating his treatment on the Commander. “A doctor’s work is never done.
“True. Why not try to fathom out some kind of insect repellent next?”
“Hey, I’m a doctor. You’re the scientist.”
“Fine,” said Masafumi. “Come on. Let’s go before Patel has another temper tantrum.”
****
Valian Kandro’s enthusiasm for a stroll in the fresh air was fading fast. They had been walking for only twenty minutes but it felt like it had been hours. Things weren’t helped by the fact that Tavuhn and Sharp were setting the pace and they set it slow. In twenty minutes, they had covered all of two hundred meters. The Betazoid was getting tired of staring at the ground as well.
“There has to be an easier way of doing this,” he suddenly announced.
Tavuhn actually chuckled. “If there is, I would love to hear it. My back is killing me.”
“Maybe you could rewire the ship’s sensors so they could scan, in spite of the fistrium?,” asked Ramblin. “I’m sure that with your modest talents, you could achieve what the finest minds in the Federation couldn’t.”
“I would probably stand more of a chance than you,” was his reply.
“I’m curious,” asked Sharp with a twinkle in her eye. “Are you two married or something?”
“Everyone’s a comedian,” said Kandro. He had looked up at her for a moment before he returned his gaze to the ground… and saw something glinting up at him from between the reeds. “I’ve got something!,” he shouted, dropping to his knees while the others ran towards him.
As they crowded around him, they blocked the light and whatever was glinting at him suddenly disappeared. “Give me room, will you?”
The others backed off slightly and he saw it again. “There,” he said, pointing down. Reaching towards the glinting object, he discovered it was a point of metal. Tugging at it, he realized that it wasn’t going to budge.
“I think it’s the tip of something buried.”
“Here, let me,” Tavuhn said. He had un-slung his shoulder bag and produced a small lightweight trowel.
Kandro stood back and the older man took his place. Gently, he began to probe around the object. “It’s quite big,” the Tiburonian announced while he began to gently dig around it. It took several minutes but eventually, he had uncovered it enough for them to make out what it was.
“Well, I guess that rules out the Ranger,” said Ramblin.
“Hovin will be so upset,” said Sharp.
The subspace transmitter lay with half of it still beneath the soil. It was roughly half a square meter. Its gray metal body was battered, scarred, and pitted almost beyond recognition. They could all see that this was made of fairly modern design.
“If the ship crashed here, you would think that there would be a large crater, wouldn’t there?,” asked Ramblin.
“Probably not,” said Sharp. “The Akela wasn’t rated for atmospheric operations and chances are that she burned up in the atmosphere with only a few fragments making it this far.”
“We should be able to positively identify this as coming from the Akela but we need to get it up to the ship to do it,” said Tavuhn.
****
The other group had made it to a set of sprawling and yet gentle hills. Hollem was tired after the walk but since no one else was suggesting taking a break, he kept going.
“Here is where the Ferengi found the wreckage?,” he asked.
“Can’t you guess?,” asked Commander Masafumi, picking up an empty food container marked in Ferengi symbols.
Kee had dropped to his knees. “These flowers seem to be different from the others,” he suggested, gesturing towards a smaller patch of flora. The patch of flowers sprouted up from a section of bare soil that seemed to be out of place with the grass-covered hills. The flowers themselves seemed to be less healthy than the ones that they had encountered earlier and Hollem moved over to get a better look. When the other roses had a multitude of colors, these roses were all white in color and insects crawled within them.
Even Patel was interested. “They look out of place, don’t they?”
“Indeed,” said Masafumi. “Although I am reluctant to determine their origin based on just a few minutes of observations. For all that we know, these are the natural plant life here and it’s the flowers that we saw earlier that are the aberrations.”
“I doubt it,” said Kee. “Look.” He pointed off into the distance and Hollem had to shade his eyes from the sun. He could still see, a kilometer away, another hillside that was covered with a multitude of multi-colored flowers. His vision suddenly improved when a dark shadow passed over the sun like a cloud. He squinted momentarily and then his eyes refocused.
“There must be thousands of them,” the doctor said, looking up at the cloud of insects.
“Closer to millions,” said Masafumi.
“They appear to be closer to the surface now,” said the Trill.
“So they do,” said Masafumi, looking down. “They’re much like Earth insects.” He pointed to where an insect lay within one of the petals of one of the white roses.
“Look, these flowers are pretty but this isn’t why we came down here,” said Patel. “Now, is it?”
Masafumi walked over to him. “Ensign, I appreciate how you feel but – “
“Don’t patronize me, Commander,” snarled the Ensign. “You have no idea how I feel.”
Masafumi raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps not. However, I do have a firm understanding of the chain of command. I have tolerated your insubordination because of the situation. Be aware that my patience is limited.”
Patel stared into his eyes for a moment. Through gritted teeth, he almost whispered,” Yes, sir.”
“Now then, as you’ve correctly observed, we’re not here to study flowers but to find any remains of your ship.”
“Assuming that it’s the Akela,” added Kee.
“Tavuhn said that they should know fairly soon. Lieutenant Ramblin has the emergency beacon in Engineering while we speak,” said Masafumi. “Now then, we know that this is the spot where the Ferengi found the metal fragments. I suggest that we fan out and see if we can detect anything else. Agreed?”
Patel nodded.
“Professor?,” said Masafumi, with his gaze still focused on Ensign Patel.
“Agreed,” Kee replied who was now standing beside Doctor Hollem.
Without another word, the four men began to stride out from the bed of white roses. Each of them moved slowly but with purpose while they scanned the ground beneath them.
****
High above the planet’s surface, an investigation of a different kind was going on. The battered metal box lay on a table in Engineering. Louise Ramblin had delicately removed its side panel and now several wires were connected to its inner workings.
“Anything yet?,” asked Carrie Sharp. She was standing next to Tavuhn and both of them were skittish with anticipation.
Ramblin looked up from the PADD in her hands. She was standing by the Master Systems Display table that stood at the center of Main Engineering. As always, she tried not to remember what a certain Betazoid had suggested using the table for during the mercifully short length of their romantic relationship. It was tricky with Valian Kandro standing behind her.
“Almost,” she said. “This baby was really knocked around. Most of her internal circuits are fried. I’ve managed to reroute several ODN lines, allowing us to retrieve the unit’s transponder code. Comparing that with the codes that we have on record, we should be able to get a match.” She punched a command into the computer panel in front of her before examining the datastream on the PADD. “Okay, here it goes. I have a partial transponder code. One-six-three-zero-nine… It gets garbled after that but there should be enough.” She paused again. “We have a ninety percent match for NCC-57810, USS Akela.”
Tavuhn and Sharp both let out the breaths of air that they had been holding. “Thank you, Lieutenant, on the behalf of the families of the five Akela crewmembers.” He paused for a second and Louise looked up to see the formation of tears in his eyes.
“Thank you,” he repeated.
****
Down on the planetary surface, the away team had paused in their duties and they were now standing in a group, looking skywards like most sentient beings were known to do when they were communicating with a ship in orbit.
“There’s a ninety percent probability that the wreckage came from the Akela,” came Captain Cardonez’s voice, seemingly from the ether but it was actually coming from Masafumi’s combadge.
“Understood, Captain,” he said. “We will continue our investigation here. Away team out.” He tapped his combadge off.
“I’m sorry,” said Hollem.
Patel shook his head. “There’s no need. I mean, it’s not like we’ve even found anything yet.”
“I… uh, I would have to make the point that the lack of any substantial wreckage,” said Kee, nervously,” would lend credence to the notion that the ship burned up in orbit.”
“There should still be something,” said Patel. He spun around with his arms spread out wide. “There must be some other proof that they were here. Anything!”
Masafumi took a step forward. “Ensign, it might be that we’ve found all that there is to find.” He took another step towards him. “I know that it’s hardly the closure you were expecting but it might be the best you’ll get.”
“What the hell do you know about closure?!,” he spat back at him.
Masafumi kept walking towards him. “I know enough to…” He suddenly let out a cry of alarm when the ground seemingly gave out beneath him and he fell.
“Commander!,” shouted Hollem, who was the first person to reach his side.
“I’m all right,” the Commander said, shakily. “At least, I think I am.”
He was in a hole and everything below his waist was below ground. He had his arms splayed out wide to steady himself but he was firmly standing on the top of something. The others joined the group now.
“A hand if you please,” said Masafumi and with Kee and Hollem grabbing both arms, they helped him out of the small pit.
Now the four of them peaked down into the darkness and there was little to see. Masafumi glanced over at the bag slung across Kee’s shoulder. “Professor,” he asked,” do you have a flashlight in there?”
“Yes, I do, now that you come to mention it,” he replied with a smile and dug into his bag. “Here you go.” He handed a device to him.
The Commander took it, a retro-looking angle-headed flashlight. Turning it on, he focused the light back into the hole.
Kee wiped his brow. “Is anyone else feeling a lot warmer?”
Patel and Hollen both shook their heads. “Actually, I think it’s getting colder,” said Patel.
Kee smiled wanly and said,” It must be the excitement.”
“Interesting,” said Masafumi, moving the flashlight around the hole. “I believe that this is the entrance hatch of an escape pod.”
That got Patel’s attention. “Really?,” he asked, eagerly pushing forward.
“Yes,” the Commander said. “Look, you can see the sides.” He used the flashlight to show that metallic walls were inside the pit. He gave the flashlight to Patel and drew his phaser. “It appears that there was minimal dirt located underneath the hatch. There must be an air pocket inside. Otherwise, the ground would have remained firm. Any objections?” He turned around, waving his phaser in the direction of Professor Kee.
“What?,” asked the Trill. His skin was sallow now and his eyes seemed to be having trouble with focusing. “What did you say?”
“Professor, are you okay?,” asked Masafumi.
Kee slumped to the ground where he sat upright. “No,” he said. “I don’t think I am.”
Hollem dropped down to his knees beside him with his medical tricorder out in a flash. “Blood pressure is rising, heart rate is up…” He looked at Yashiro and the First Officer saw the concern in his eyes. He didn’t even ask for permission. He just tapped his combadge and said,” Hollem to Testudo. Two to beam directly to Sickbay.”
A moment later, they were gone.
“I hate to say it but we should probably follow them,” said Patel. “Kee didn’t look too good. I saw the tricorder readings and they weren’t good.”
“Perhaps we should,” Masafumi said, blinking several times. “I’m having trouble with focusing on anything at the moment.” Then he slumped down to the ground.
Three kilometers to the south, four more figures appeared to disturb the natural tranquility.
“Nice place,” said Hollem when they gazed around them. They were in a small meadow. In the distance, several hills rolled up to the horizon. The grass was long but it was as green as Earth’s.
“Interesting plant life,” said Commander Masafumi while he walked over to the edge of the meadow where a large expanse of flowers grew. As he drew close to them, he estimated that the flowers covered an area of, at least, a square kilometer. Reaching the edge of the expanse, he kneeled down with his tricorder at the ready. The plants looked like roses and their petals were a myriad of colors; purple, blue, white, yellow, and red. Several of the roses had multiple colored petals. Their stems were a very dark green, almost black. Each flower was open to the bright sun and he saw that small insects were crawling within.
“Botany can wait, can’t it?,” Patel shouted from a distance.
Masafumi ignored him and ran a scan of the plants instead. “Damned fistrium.”
“Are you having trouble with getting a reading?,” Kee asked him, kneeling down beside him.
“Yes,” the Commander said, glancing sideways at the handsome Trill. It had taken a Herculean effort not to punch him in the Transporter Room when he had asked again if the ‘delightful Zia’ could join them. He had politely declined and ordered Kehen back to the Bridge. “It’s amazing that they can grow in this soil. What little that I can sense is intriguing. No chlorophyll. I wonder how they absorb sunlight.”
“They’re beautiful flowers,” Kee said, inhaling their bouquet.
“Yes,” Masafumi said, softly. He sensed what was coming.
“Perhaps I’ll take a few back to the ship for Zia.” Masafumi bit his tongue while the Trill continued. “There I go, falling for a woman after only knowing her for a few minutes. It's a curse, you know.” He smiled brashly. “I don’t even know if she’s seeing anyone.”
“That thought didn’t seem to distract you earlier.”
Kee shrugged. “Well, in my experience, young women in Starfleet tend to be single. It’s not a life that lends itself to stable relationships.”
“Really?,” Masafumi asked, his face alive with mock interest.
“Yes, it’s a lonely life but it does leave them… how can I put it? … in need of companionship. Is she seeing anyone?”
“Nobody special,” Masafumi said, dropping his gaze back to the flowers so that Kee wouldn’t see the smile forming on his face. “Just the Testudo’s First Officer.”
“Ah,” Kee said before laughing nervously. Well, you know, you really shouldn’t take what I say seriously. I’m just a massive flirt.” He swallowed hard and fixed a limp smile on his face.
Masafumi looked up, beaming brightly. “May I recommend flirting with someone else when we return to the ship?”
The Trill nodded nervously. “Of course… So, you were talking about the flowers?”
****
A short distance away, Ravi Patel was getting impatient. “What the hell are they doing? We have a mission to achieve here. It’s not even dangerous.”
“Commander Masafumi might be many things,” Doctor Hollem said. “Uptight, a stickler for the rules, far too doe-eyed over Kehen and sometimes he lacks a sense of humor but… “ He frowned. “What was I saying?”
“You were about to eulogize the Commander.”
Hollem snorted. “I was just going to make the point that one thing that he isn’t is a coward.”
“He ran away from a fight. In my book, that doesn’t equate to heroism.”
“I don’t agree with the reasons why the Maelstrom stayed out there but I understand them. All I can say is that in the year or so that I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him back away from a fight. The man was at Wolf 359, you know.”
“So he didn’t have time to get off of whatever ship he was on.”
Hollem laughed. “Fair point. How do you explain that just a few days into our very first mission, he led an away team into a downed Borg Cube, armed only with a phaser rifle and some untested Borg cloaking technology.”
Patel was unmoved. “If he isn’t a coward, then that actually makes it worse,” he said. “Because he had no reason to stay away.”
“But…,” the Bajoran began to say but the Ensign had turned away from him.
“I’m going to start searching. If your Commander ever gets up from smelling the roses, all of you can join me.”
Patel started to walk away but he got all of three meters before Masafumi shouted,” Ensign!”
Patel turned around to find that the Commander had joined the Doctor. “What?”
“I find it better if my away teams stick together, Ensign. I assume that you don’t have an issue with that?”
“No, sir,” replied Patel before he started trudging back.
Just as Hovin Kee screamed out loud.
Hollem and Masafumi spun around and started to run to where Kee was still standing in the expanse of flowers. “What is it? What’s wrong?,” asked Hollem when they reached him.
“The little bastards bit me,” Kee said in an annoyed tone. He was examining the back of his left hand.
The Doctor reached over and took the hand, seeing several ugly red welts beginning to rise up against the Professor’s pale skin. Using his tricorder, he ran a scan as best as he could. “Is that all?,” he asked him. “With that scream, I expected to find a Ktarian lion chewing on your leg.”
“Hey, they hurt!”
“Anything that’s life-threatening?,” asked Masafumi.
“No, Commander. They’re just what they look like. Insect bites.”
“Are you sure?,” asked Kee. “They could be infected or something. My second host, Leddette, was bitten by a Trill gadfly once and she was laid up for a week.”
“Trust me. There’s no sign of any kind of poison or any infection but even if there is, this will ease it.” He grabbed a dermal regenerator from the medkit that hung on his shoulder. After running it over the hand, Hollem grabbed a hypospray. “Antihistamine,” he added before jabbing it against the Trill’s neck.
A few seconds later, the skin looked unblemished once more. Kee clenched and unclenched his hand several times.
“Better now?,” Patel asked, sarcastically after having joined the group.
Kee had regained his composure now and flashed a winning smile at the Ensign. “Yes, and thanks for asking.”
“Do you think we could look for the Akela now, Commander?,” asked Patel.
“Oh, I think so,” said Masafumi before he asked Kee,” We have the coordinates for where the fragments were found, right?”
“Yes, yes,” replied the Trill, opening up his tricorder. “Near those hills.”
“After you,” said Masafumi and motioned in that direction.
Kee headed off with Patel walking close behind him.
“Interesting bunch?,” asked Hollem.
“Yes,” replied Masafumi. “Still, at least, the Professor knows where he stands with Zia now.”
“Which is?”
“On a cliff edge with me, standing behind him,” he smiled. “Come on. We’d better follow… ow!” Masafumi quickly swatted at his neck. “Kee was right. They do hurt.”
“Not you too.”
Masafumi glanced at the remains of a small fly squashed against his fingertips. “Yeah, they must be hungry.”
“There’s no accounting for taste,” the Doctor said, repeating his treatment on the Commander. “A doctor’s work is never done.
“True. Why not try to fathom out some kind of insect repellent next?”
“Hey, I’m a doctor. You’re the scientist.”
“Fine,” said Masafumi. “Come on. Let’s go before Patel has another temper tantrum.”
****
Valian Kandro’s enthusiasm for a stroll in the fresh air was fading fast. They had been walking for only twenty minutes but it felt like it had been hours. Things weren’t helped by the fact that Tavuhn and Sharp were setting the pace and they set it slow. In twenty minutes, they had covered all of two hundred meters. The Betazoid was getting tired of staring at the ground as well.
“There has to be an easier way of doing this,” he suddenly announced.
Tavuhn actually chuckled. “If there is, I would love to hear it. My back is killing me.”
“Maybe you could rewire the ship’s sensors so they could scan, in spite of the fistrium?,” asked Ramblin. “I’m sure that with your modest talents, you could achieve what the finest minds in the Federation couldn’t.”
“I would probably stand more of a chance than you,” was his reply.
“I’m curious,” asked Sharp with a twinkle in her eye. “Are you two married or something?”
“Everyone’s a comedian,” said Kandro. He had looked up at her for a moment before he returned his gaze to the ground… and saw something glinting up at him from between the reeds. “I’ve got something!,” he shouted, dropping to his knees while the others ran towards him.
As they crowded around him, they blocked the light and whatever was glinting at him suddenly disappeared. “Give me room, will you?”
The others backed off slightly and he saw it again. “There,” he said, pointing down. Reaching towards the glinting object, he discovered it was a point of metal. Tugging at it, he realized that it wasn’t going to budge.
“I think it’s the tip of something buried.”
“Here, let me,” Tavuhn said. He had un-slung his shoulder bag and produced a small lightweight trowel.
Kandro stood back and the older man took his place. Gently, he began to probe around the object. “It’s quite big,” the Tiburonian announced while he began to gently dig around it. It took several minutes but eventually, he had uncovered it enough for them to make out what it was.
“Well, I guess that rules out the Ranger,” said Ramblin.
“Hovin will be so upset,” said Sharp.
The subspace transmitter lay with half of it still beneath the soil. It was roughly half a square meter. Its gray metal body was battered, scarred, and pitted almost beyond recognition. They could all see that this was made of fairly modern design.
“If the ship crashed here, you would think that there would be a large crater, wouldn’t there?,” asked Ramblin.
“Probably not,” said Sharp. “The Akela wasn’t rated for atmospheric operations and chances are that she burned up in the atmosphere with only a few fragments making it this far.”
“We should be able to positively identify this as coming from the Akela but we need to get it up to the ship to do it,” said Tavuhn.
****
The other group had made it to a set of sprawling and yet gentle hills. Hollem was tired after the walk but since no one else was suggesting taking a break, he kept going.
“Here is where the Ferengi found the wreckage?,” he asked.
“Can’t you guess?,” asked Commander Masafumi, picking up an empty food container marked in Ferengi symbols.
Kee had dropped to his knees. “These flowers seem to be different from the others,” he suggested, gesturing towards a smaller patch of flora. The patch of flowers sprouted up from a section of bare soil that seemed to be out of place with the grass-covered hills. The flowers themselves seemed to be less healthy than the ones that they had encountered earlier and Hollem moved over to get a better look. When the other roses had a multitude of colors, these roses were all white in color and insects crawled within them.
Even Patel was interested. “They look out of place, don’t they?”
“Indeed,” said Masafumi. “Although I am reluctant to determine their origin based on just a few minutes of observations. For all that we know, these are the natural plant life here and it’s the flowers that we saw earlier that are the aberrations.”
“I doubt it,” said Kee. “Look.” He pointed off into the distance and Hollem had to shade his eyes from the sun. He could still see, a kilometer away, another hillside that was covered with a multitude of multi-colored flowers. His vision suddenly improved when a dark shadow passed over the sun like a cloud. He squinted momentarily and then his eyes refocused.
“There must be thousands of them,” the doctor said, looking up at the cloud of insects.
“Closer to millions,” said Masafumi.
“They appear to be closer to the surface now,” said the Trill.
“So they do,” said Masafumi, looking down. “They’re much like Earth insects.” He pointed to where an insect lay within one of the petals of one of the white roses.
“Look, these flowers are pretty but this isn’t why we came down here,” said Patel. “Now, is it?”
Masafumi walked over to him. “Ensign, I appreciate how you feel but – “
“Don’t patronize me, Commander,” snarled the Ensign. “You have no idea how I feel.”
Masafumi raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps not. However, I do have a firm understanding of the chain of command. I have tolerated your insubordination because of the situation. Be aware that my patience is limited.”
Patel stared into his eyes for a moment. Through gritted teeth, he almost whispered,” Yes, sir.”
“Now then, as you’ve correctly observed, we’re not here to study flowers but to find any remains of your ship.”
“Assuming that it’s the Akela,” added Kee.
“Tavuhn said that they should know fairly soon. Lieutenant Ramblin has the emergency beacon in Engineering while we speak,” said Masafumi. “Now then, we know that this is the spot where the Ferengi found the metal fragments. I suggest that we fan out and see if we can detect anything else. Agreed?”
Patel nodded.
“Professor?,” said Masafumi, with his gaze still focused on Ensign Patel.
“Agreed,” Kee replied who was now standing beside Doctor Hollem.
Without another word, the four men began to stride out from the bed of white roses. Each of them moved slowly but with purpose while they scanned the ground beneath them.
****
High above the planet’s surface, an investigation of a different kind was going on. The battered metal box lay on a table in Engineering. Louise Ramblin had delicately removed its side panel and now several wires were connected to its inner workings.
“Anything yet?,” asked Carrie Sharp. She was standing next to Tavuhn and both of them were skittish with anticipation.
Ramblin looked up from the PADD in her hands. She was standing by the Master Systems Display table that stood at the center of Main Engineering. As always, she tried not to remember what a certain Betazoid had suggested using the table for during the mercifully short length of their romantic relationship. It was tricky with Valian Kandro standing behind her.
“Almost,” she said. “This baby was really knocked around. Most of her internal circuits are fried. I’ve managed to reroute several ODN lines, allowing us to retrieve the unit’s transponder code. Comparing that with the codes that we have on record, we should be able to get a match.” She punched a command into the computer panel in front of her before examining the datastream on the PADD. “Okay, here it goes. I have a partial transponder code. One-six-three-zero-nine… It gets garbled after that but there should be enough.” She paused again. “We have a ninety percent match for NCC-57810, USS Akela.”
Tavuhn and Sharp both let out the breaths of air that they had been holding. “Thank you, Lieutenant, on the behalf of the families of the five Akela crewmembers.” He paused for a second and Louise looked up to see the formation of tears in his eyes.
“Thank you,” he repeated.
****
Down on the planetary surface, the away team had paused in their duties and they were now standing in a group, looking skywards like most sentient beings were known to do when they were communicating with a ship in orbit.
“There’s a ninety percent probability that the wreckage came from the Akela,” came Captain Cardonez’s voice, seemingly from the ether but it was actually coming from Masafumi’s combadge.
“Understood, Captain,” he said. “We will continue our investigation here. Away team out.” He tapped his combadge off.
“I’m sorry,” said Hollem.
Patel shook his head. “There’s no need. I mean, it’s not like we’ve even found anything yet.”
“I… uh, I would have to make the point that the lack of any substantial wreckage,” said Kee, nervously,” would lend credence to the notion that the ship burned up in orbit.”
“There should still be something,” said Patel. He spun around with his arms spread out wide. “There must be some other proof that they were here. Anything!”
Masafumi took a step forward. “Ensign, it might be that we’ve found all that there is to find.” He took another step towards him. “I know that it’s hardly the closure you were expecting but it might be the best you’ll get.”
“What the hell do you know about closure?!,” he spat back at him.
Masafumi kept walking towards him. “I know enough to…” He suddenly let out a cry of alarm when the ground seemingly gave out beneath him and he fell.
“Commander!,” shouted Hollem, who was the first person to reach his side.
“I’m all right,” the Commander said, shakily. “At least, I think I am.”
He was in a hole and everything below his waist was below ground. He had his arms splayed out wide to steady himself but he was firmly standing on the top of something. The others joined the group now.
“A hand if you please,” said Masafumi and with Kee and Hollem grabbing both arms, they helped him out of the small pit.
Now the four of them peaked down into the darkness and there was little to see. Masafumi glanced over at the bag slung across Kee’s shoulder. “Professor,” he asked,” do you have a flashlight in there?”
“Yes, I do, now that you come to mention it,” he replied with a smile and dug into his bag. “Here you go.” He handed a device to him.
The Commander took it, a retro-looking angle-headed flashlight. Turning it on, he focused the light back into the hole.
Kee wiped his brow. “Is anyone else feeling a lot warmer?”
Patel and Hollen both shook their heads. “Actually, I think it’s getting colder,” said Patel.
Kee smiled wanly and said,” It must be the excitement.”
“Interesting,” said Masafumi, moving the flashlight around the hole. “I believe that this is the entrance hatch of an escape pod.”
That got Patel’s attention. “Really?,” he asked, eagerly pushing forward.
“Yes,” the Commander said. “Look, you can see the sides.” He used the flashlight to show that metallic walls were inside the pit. He gave the flashlight to Patel and drew his phaser. “It appears that there was minimal dirt located underneath the hatch. There must be an air pocket inside. Otherwise, the ground would have remained firm. Any objections?” He turned around, waving his phaser in the direction of Professor Kee.
“What?,” asked the Trill. His skin was sallow now and his eyes seemed to be having trouble with focusing. “What did you say?”
“Professor, are you okay?,” asked Masafumi.
Kee slumped to the ground where he sat upright. “No,” he said. “I don’t think I am.”
Hollem dropped down to his knees beside him with his medical tricorder out in a flash. “Blood pressure is rising, heart rate is up…” He looked at Yashiro and the First Officer saw the concern in his eyes. He didn’t even ask for permission. He just tapped his combadge and said,” Hollem to Testudo. Two to beam directly to Sickbay.”
A moment later, they were gone.
“I hate to say it but we should probably follow them,” said Patel. “Kee didn’t look too good. I saw the tricorder readings and they weren’t good.”
“Perhaps we should,” Masafumi said, blinking several times. “I’m having trouble with focusing on anything at the moment.” Then he slumped down to the ground.
Might be the bugs... might be the flowers... definitely a far more dangerous planet than initially assessed...
Really nice world-building. Thanks!! rbs
Really nice world-building. Thanks!! rbs
Bug bites are the worst. Let's hope the doc can help them before they die or turn into something weird. Anything's possible.
- Status
Similar threads
