Title: Bound to Happen Sooner or Later
Author: Whoa Nellie
Contact: whoa_nellie40@hotmail.com
Summary: Some things are inevitable and Vash faces an intergalactic archaeologist's occupational hazard with her usual style.
Author's notes: This occurs in the Reasons of the Heart timeline which launched an expedition toward the Delta Quadrant in a previous story, History's Legacy.
As always: Paramount owns all the marbles, we just have a lot more fun playing with them.
Whoa Nellie's Romance Star Trek Fan Fiction Stories
http://whoanellie.fortunecity.com
Bound to Happen Sooner or Later
"I realize that some people might think 'rash' should be my middle name, but, to me, a symbol denoting death is definitely a sign to slow down not go faster," Vash Picard cautioned her team. Scans of an M class moon in this system had revealed the presence of four large stone circles reminiscent of the Stonehenge circle on Earth. The archaeology department was evaluating the structures and surrounding ruins in an effort to determine their purpose. Each of the stone circles had a pathway leading from it lined with smaller, flat stones that were inscribed with alien writing. The pathways all converged at a point some distance from the stone circles. The writing on the smaller stones were different for each pathway, suggesting that each stone circle played a different role in the society, but at this point there were no indications of whether those differences were political, cultural, theological or even based on the education or economics of the society. The symbol on the pathway where all of the smaller pathways converged was similar in style to the symbol for death in a couple of the alien cultures that the expedition had met thus far in their travel, so cultural or theological were the most likely contenders.
Latona felt a slight shift beneath her boot. The tall, lithe Romulan archaeologist took a step back and knelt down to investigate. "Professor Picard, this stone is quite loose."
"So is this one over here," Archaeologist Karita Leigh announced from one of the other paths picking up another stone. With her long dark curly hair and petite curvy silhouette, Vash's protégée was reminiscent of a young Deanna Troi.
"Trying to decipher the writing on these smaller stones before we go poking around in the large stone circles might be prudent. We're most likely dealing with a type of sepulcher site but it never hurts to be cautious." Vash accepted the small stones from her colleagues and began to inspect them.
"You? Extolling the virtues of caution?" Lieutenant Sean Kennely inquired with feigned incredulousness eliciting a not-quite smothered giggle from Karita.
With a regal toss of her brunette hair, Vash cast a sidelong glance at the young security officer. She had discovered that Sean's innocent boy next-door looks concealed a wickedly sharp sense of humor. He was also just plucky enough to verbally spar with her on occasion. To her delight some of that daring was rubbing off on Karita, his romantic relationship with the younger woman was helping to bolster her self-confidence. Vash's blue eyes sparkled while she quipped wryly, "just don't tell your captain."
"You don't want Captain Picard to know you acted judiciously?" asked Somnus, Latona's husband who was also the other Romulan archaeologist on the team.
"The shock of the revelation might cause my husband to need medical attention. Besides, I've got a reputation to protect," Vash offered in explanation.
Karita waved her hand in a calming motion to reassure her Romulan colleagues. "She's joking."
Somnus shook his head, his mouth pinched in slight confusion. "I am still finding the humor of humans difficult to understand."
"Let's just see if we can figure out what these stones are trying to tell us." Vash compared the stones that she was holding with the other types of stones around her. She moved slowly, stepping backward onto the large octagonal stone at the very center. Just as her left foot came down onto the center of the stone's design she felt herself being enveloped by an energy beam.
"And she keeps her reputation intact yet again," Kennely muttered with a curse. He quickly pulled a stunned Karita and Latona back to put more distance between them and the stone where Mrs. Picard had disappeared.
"Sean," Karita gasped in shock gripping his arm for support.
"Don't worry. He'll find her and get her back. He always does," he assured her before tapping his communicator, "Kennely to Enterprise."
…………………
Captain Jean-Luc Picard needed another cup of Earl Grey. He should have realized that being the fleet captain of a three ship expedition to the Delta Quadrant would mean three times the paperwork. Having already reviewed Beverly's reports from the Pasteur and Will's from the Titan, he only needed to add his own to the regular data stream transmission before it was sent back to Starfleet Command. He took his tea from the replicator and turned to face the ready room door when the chime rang. "Come."
"Captain," Chakotay said briskly as he walked into the ready room.
Picard returned to his desk and set his cup of tea down on the corner. Commander Chakotay was in charge of the expedition's Department of Anthropological Sciences, including the First Contact teams, anthropologists, archaeologists and historians. Considering that the man was married to one of his oldest friends, he had spent enough time in Chakotay's company to know him fairly well. He could tell immediately from his solemn bearing and tone that there was a problem. All that was left was the details. "The archeology team on the surface?"
There was no easy way to say it and the captain wouldn't appreciate the details being sugarcoated. "Vash is missing. Apparently she stepped onto a large stone and was instantly enveloped by what they believe was some kind of alien transporter technology. The rest of her team has returned to the Enterprise. We've already got science teams working to analyze what happened."
Vash. Why was it always Vash? She always promised to try and stay out of trouble and yet somehow she had this uncanny ability to effortlessly land right in the middle of it. An icy knot started to form in his stomach and he exhaled slowly in an effort to dispel the sense of dread. His mind racing, he moved to sit down and inadvertently knocked his cup of tea off the corner in the process. The clatter of the cup shattering when it hit the floor resonated in the quiet room. Ignoring the broken cup, he looked back at Chakotay. "Are we sure it was a transporter beam?"
"Yes, sir. Since there are no inhabited planets in the system, we haven't ruled out an automated system of some sort. Barclay is working with Astrometrics to trace the source. Commander Data has advised Captain Riker on the Titan of the situation."
He slowly lowered himself into his chair, sitting back with his hands steepled in front of his face and his index fingers resting against his lips. After a long moment, he spoke, "so we need to find the particular rabbit hole Alice managed to fall into."
"Your Alice spent two years deftly handling the very embodiment of the Cheshire Cat. She'll have no trouble handling any Mad Hatter she may come across," Chakotay reminded his commanding officer.
"It's the possibility of a Jabberwock that concerns me," Picard admitted.
"When we first met, she informed me that she once took you with your own sword," Chakotay said with a small reassuring smile.
Picard chuckled in spite of situation. "Indeed she did."
…………………
After the bright sunlight of the archaeology site, Vash had to blink her eyes several times to adjust to the lower light of the room where she had materialized. The room was quite warm, around thirty degrees Celsius. By the time she could see, there were six aliens surrounding her. They were roughly humanoid, fairly reptilian in appearance, in fact they reminded her of the Gorn the only major difference being cobalt- blue, iridescent scales. The hard, militaristic fashion of their clothing was punctuated by the rather large, nasty-looking weapons that they were pointing at her. She took a deep breath, concentrating on calming the normal fight-or-flight response. There was no reason for her to panic. There were theoretical limits to the distances over which transporters could function so the expedition couldn't be too far. Data and Reg would trace the transporter beam and then Jean-Luc would send Will on the Titan to fetch her. The tallest of her hosts stepped toward her.
"I am Lord Teiadie, the High Suzerain of the Fen Domar. You have been seized for desecrating the sacrosanct resting place of the Fen Domar."
"I assure you grave robbing was not my intent." She decided to leave out the 'mainly because my darling husband doesn't approve of me doing that sort of thing.' Although her naturally brazen nature served to bolster her composure it was probably wise to keep her sarcastic wit in check. She placed the two stones in her hands on the floor and backed away.
As one of his soldiers retrieved the stones and took them out of the room, Teiadie challenged, "You were caught violating the rest of the ones who have gone."
"I am Archaeologist Council member Vash of the Federation Starship Enterprise. We are a group of peaceful explorers, seeking to learn about different life forms and civilizations." She winced inwardly. Damn, she was rusty. Was that really the best she could come up with? After all these years married to Jean-Luc she was beginning to sound like a Starfleet recruitment poster. Why don't you just add the 'to boldly go where no one has gone before' line off the ship's dedication plaque while you're at it, Vash.
"Only the sanctified votaries of Sauria, Lacertilia, Cordylidae, and Helodermatidae are permitted access to the resting place of the Fen Domar. It is strictly forbidden to all others. You will be taken to your cell to await trial on charges of desecration and grave robbing. The penalty for your crime is death."
…………………
Picard entered the conference room on the Enterprise, followed by his chief of security Commander Geoff Lar. With the many uncertainties and the possibility of a First Contact situation, it had been decided that the Enterprise would continue to take the lead. It was still quite possible that the archaeology team had accidentally tripped an automated device and they would find Vash animatedly exploring another abandoned site and chastising them for taking so long to find her. Picard took his seat at the head of the table noting that Chakotay was already there, sitting next to his wife, Beverly. His first officer, Data, was speaking quietly with Riker about the contents of a PADD sitting in front of them. Across the room, Picard noticed his chief engineer, Reginald Barclay standing next to the room's viewscreen and fidgeting restlessly, looking downright impatient. "Mr. Barclay, should I take it that you have something to report?"
"I believe so, sir." Barclay tapped a couple of controls on the side of the viewscreen and a star chart of the region appeared. "According to our findings, the transporter beam was actually a micro-wormhole, extremely powerful and precisely calculated. It's an incredible feat of engineering that would actually allow for individual transport over much longer distances than our own transporter technology. Of course the power and technology requirements would be—"
Beverly headed off Barclay's rambling admiration of the science, as concerned about Vash as everyone in the room. "Were you able to pinpoint the source of this wormhole, Mr. Barclay?"
"Yes, ma'am," Barclay said. He pointed to a spot on the star chart being displayed on the viewscreen. "The beam originated from what appears to be a warp capable civilization on an M class planet in this nearby solar system. It was triggered by a pressure pad on the stone that Professor Picard stepped on just before her disappearance."
Lar spoke up, "all personnel have been recalled from the surface to prevent anyone from triggering any more of these micro-wormholes."
Riker studied the long-range scans of the system for any indication of military threat. "There's no indication that they know we're here yet. We could move toward their space, here's a small asteroid field that could provide some cover for the Pasteur and Enterprise while I--"
Picard stopped him. "No, although it appears Vash did indeed trip an automated device, this is still a first contact situation. We want to avoid appearing like an invasion fleet. We'll all hold position here for now and try to make contact with the planet first. I would request that your people stand ready to pull her out if it doesn't go well. My wife's vast expertise in archaeology is only outmatched by her vast ability to find trouble."
"And your vast ability to fret over her," Beverly teased. She'd known him long enough to know that, when it came to his wife, his mind went straight to worst-case scenarios no matter how calm of a façade he put on for everyone else. "Vash is quite resourceful."
"Captain Crusher, is that your gentle way of reminding me that if I go charging in before actually knowing if my wife needs rescued she's liable to take my sword away again?" Picard inquired. He knew full well that everyone in the room was aware of the reference.
"Just something to keep in mind," Beverly replied.
Chakotay offered what he could of the Anthropology Department's work on the situation thus far. "I have Parcaes Somnus and Latona, as well as Dr. Leigh working with linguists from my department to analyze all of the data they managed to collect from the moon's surface. Some of the symbols appeared to be variations on writing from races we've met recently, so we may be able to extrapolate some cultural inferences as a basis for contact. They hope to decipher the symbols of the alien text and determine the purpose of the site along with the reason for the automated transporter contained in the large center stone. As soon as we have a little more to work with, my First Contact team will compose an introductory message to send."
"The ball is in your court, Commander," Picard said.
With everyone briefed on the situation and the plan of action, the conference ended. Riker headed straight for the nearest transporter room to begin preparing an assault force in the event that they had to rescue her by force. Before leaving to head back to the Pasteur, Beverly walked over to Barclay. "Reg, I have a message for you from Geordi."
"Yes, Captain?"
Following the death of her first officer in an attack, Geordi had been promoted from Chief Engineer of the Enterprise to serve as her first officer onboard the Pasteur. "He said to tell you that you'd better not be showing him up too much, Reg. Between you and me, however, as his captain I'm telling you to feel free because I'm not giving him back."
"Yes, ma'am" Barclay chuckled.
"I still can't believe you managed to drag LaForge out of engineering, even for a first officer's position," Lar quipped to Beverly, overhearing their conversation as he walked past on his way out of the room.
Chakotay had been coming over to a quick kiss from his wife before getting back to his office. His eyes took on a mischievous glint as he rested his hand on the small of Beverly's back. "Ever try to say no to one of the trio, Geoff?"
"Point taken," Lar chuckled.
……………………..
Author: Whoa Nellie
Contact: whoa_nellie40@hotmail.com
Summary: Some things are inevitable and Vash faces an intergalactic archaeologist's occupational hazard with her usual style.
Author's notes: This occurs in the Reasons of the Heart timeline which launched an expedition toward the Delta Quadrant in a previous story, History's Legacy.
As always: Paramount owns all the marbles, we just have a lot more fun playing with them.
Whoa Nellie's Romance Star Trek Fan Fiction Stories
http://whoanellie.fortunecity.com
Bound to Happen Sooner or Later
"I realize that some people might think 'rash' should be my middle name, but, to me, a symbol denoting death is definitely a sign to slow down not go faster," Vash Picard cautioned her team. Scans of an M class moon in this system had revealed the presence of four large stone circles reminiscent of the Stonehenge circle on Earth. The archaeology department was evaluating the structures and surrounding ruins in an effort to determine their purpose. Each of the stone circles had a pathway leading from it lined with smaller, flat stones that were inscribed with alien writing. The pathways all converged at a point some distance from the stone circles. The writing on the smaller stones were different for each pathway, suggesting that each stone circle played a different role in the society, but at this point there were no indications of whether those differences were political, cultural, theological or even based on the education or economics of the society. The symbol on the pathway where all of the smaller pathways converged was similar in style to the symbol for death in a couple of the alien cultures that the expedition had met thus far in their travel, so cultural or theological were the most likely contenders.
Latona felt a slight shift beneath her boot. The tall, lithe Romulan archaeologist took a step back and knelt down to investigate. "Professor Picard, this stone is quite loose."
"So is this one over here," Archaeologist Karita Leigh announced from one of the other paths picking up another stone. With her long dark curly hair and petite curvy silhouette, Vash's protégée was reminiscent of a young Deanna Troi.
"Trying to decipher the writing on these smaller stones before we go poking around in the large stone circles might be prudent. We're most likely dealing with a type of sepulcher site but it never hurts to be cautious." Vash accepted the small stones from her colleagues and began to inspect them.
"You? Extolling the virtues of caution?" Lieutenant Sean Kennely inquired with feigned incredulousness eliciting a not-quite smothered giggle from Karita.
With a regal toss of her brunette hair, Vash cast a sidelong glance at the young security officer. She had discovered that Sean's innocent boy next-door looks concealed a wickedly sharp sense of humor. He was also just plucky enough to verbally spar with her on occasion. To her delight some of that daring was rubbing off on Karita, his romantic relationship with the younger woman was helping to bolster her self-confidence. Vash's blue eyes sparkled while she quipped wryly, "just don't tell your captain."
"You don't want Captain Picard to know you acted judiciously?" asked Somnus, Latona's husband who was also the other Romulan archaeologist on the team.
"The shock of the revelation might cause my husband to need medical attention. Besides, I've got a reputation to protect," Vash offered in explanation.
Karita waved her hand in a calming motion to reassure her Romulan colleagues. "She's joking."
Somnus shook his head, his mouth pinched in slight confusion. "I am still finding the humor of humans difficult to understand."
"Let's just see if we can figure out what these stones are trying to tell us." Vash compared the stones that she was holding with the other types of stones around her. She moved slowly, stepping backward onto the large octagonal stone at the very center. Just as her left foot came down onto the center of the stone's design she felt herself being enveloped by an energy beam.
"And she keeps her reputation intact yet again," Kennely muttered with a curse. He quickly pulled a stunned Karita and Latona back to put more distance between them and the stone where Mrs. Picard had disappeared.
"Sean," Karita gasped in shock gripping his arm for support.
"Don't worry. He'll find her and get her back. He always does," he assured her before tapping his communicator, "Kennely to Enterprise."
…………………
Captain Jean-Luc Picard needed another cup of Earl Grey. He should have realized that being the fleet captain of a three ship expedition to the Delta Quadrant would mean three times the paperwork. Having already reviewed Beverly's reports from the Pasteur and Will's from the Titan, he only needed to add his own to the regular data stream transmission before it was sent back to Starfleet Command. He took his tea from the replicator and turned to face the ready room door when the chime rang. "Come."
"Captain," Chakotay said briskly as he walked into the ready room.
Picard returned to his desk and set his cup of tea down on the corner. Commander Chakotay was in charge of the expedition's Department of Anthropological Sciences, including the First Contact teams, anthropologists, archaeologists and historians. Considering that the man was married to one of his oldest friends, he had spent enough time in Chakotay's company to know him fairly well. He could tell immediately from his solemn bearing and tone that there was a problem. All that was left was the details. "The archeology team on the surface?"
There was no easy way to say it and the captain wouldn't appreciate the details being sugarcoated. "Vash is missing. Apparently she stepped onto a large stone and was instantly enveloped by what they believe was some kind of alien transporter technology. The rest of her team has returned to the Enterprise. We've already got science teams working to analyze what happened."
Vash. Why was it always Vash? She always promised to try and stay out of trouble and yet somehow she had this uncanny ability to effortlessly land right in the middle of it. An icy knot started to form in his stomach and he exhaled slowly in an effort to dispel the sense of dread. His mind racing, he moved to sit down and inadvertently knocked his cup of tea off the corner in the process. The clatter of the cup shattering when it hit the floor resonated in the quiet room. Ignoring the broken cup, he looked back at Chakotay. "Are we sure it was a transporter beam?"
"Yes, sir. Since there are no inhabited planets in the system, we haven't ruled out an automated system of some sort. Barclay is working with Astrometrics to trace the source. Commander Data has advised Captain Riker on the Titan of the situation."
He slowly lowered himself into his chair, sitting back with his hands steepled in front of his face and his index fingers resting against his lips. After a long moment, he spoke, "so we need to find the particular rabbit hole Alice managed to fall into."
"Your Alice spent two years deftly handling the very embodiment of the Cheshire Cat. She'll have no trouble handling any Mad Hatter she may come across," Chakotay reminded his commanding officer.
"It's the possibility of a Jabberwock that concerns me," Picard admitted.
"When we first met, she informed me that she once took you with your own sword," Chakotay said with a small reassuring smile.
Picard chuckled in spite of situation. "Indeed she did."
…………………
After the bright sunlight of the archaeology site, Vash had to blink her eyes several times to adjust to the lower light of the room where she had materialized. The room was quite warm, around thirty degrees Celsius. By the time she could see, there were six aliens surrounding her. They were roughly humanoid, fairly reptilian in appearance, in fact they reminded her of the Gorn the only major difference being cobalt- blue, iridescent scales. The hard, militaristic fashion of their clothing was punctuated by the rather large, nasty-looking weapons that they were pointing at her. She took a deep breath, concentrating on calming the normal fight-or-flight response. There was no reason for her to panic. There were theoretical limits to the distances over which transporters could function so the expedition couldn't be too far. Data and Reg would trace the transporter beam and then Jean-Luc would send Will on the Titan to fetch her. The tallest of her hosts stepped toward her.
"I am Lord Teiadie, the High Suzerain of the Fen Domar. You have been seized for desecrating the sacrosanct resting place of the Fen Domar."
"I assure you grave robbing was not my intent." She decided to leave out the 'mainly because my darling husband doesn't approve of me doing that sort of thing.' Although her naturally brazen nature served to bolster her composure it was probably wise to keep her sarcastic wit in check. She placed the two stones in her hands on the floor and backed away.
As one of his soldiers retrieved the stones and took them out of the room, Teiadie challenged, "You were caught violating the rest of the ones who have gone."
"I am Archaeologist Council member Vash of the Federation Starship Enterprise. We are a group of peaceful explorers, seeking to learn about different life forms and civilizations." She winced inwardly. Damn, she was rusty. Was that really the best she could come up with? After all these years married to Jean-Luc she was beginning to sound like a Starfleet recruitment poster. Why don't you just add the 'to boldly go where no one has gone before' line off the ship's dedication plaque while you're at it, Vash.
"Only the sanctified votaries of Sauria, Lacertilia, Cordylidae, and Helodermatidae are permitted access to the resting place of the Fen Domar. It is strictly forbidden to all others. You will be taken to your cell to await trial on charges of desecration and grave robbing. The penalty for your crime is death."
…………………
Picard entered the conference room on the Enterprise, followed by his chief of security Commander Geoff Lar. With the many uncertainties and the possibility of a First Contact situation, it had been decided that the Enterprise would continue to take the lead. It was still quite possible that the archaeology team had accidentally tripped an automated device and they would find Vash animatedly exploring another abandoned site and chastising them for taking so long to find her. Picard took his seat at the head of the table noting that Chakotay was already there, sitting next to his wife, Beverly. His first officer, Data, was speaking quietly with Riker about the contents of a PADD sitting in front of them. Across the room, Picard noticed his chief engineer, Reginald Barclay standing next to the room's viewscreen and fidgeting restlessly, looking downright impatient. "Mr. Barclay, should I take it that you have something to report?"
"I believe so, sir." Barclay tapped a couple of controls on the side of the viewscreen and a star chart of the region appeared. "According to our findings, the transporter beam was actually a micro-wormhole, extremely powerful and precisely calculated. It's an incredible feat of engineering that would actually allow for individual transport over much longer distances than our own transporter technology. Of course the power and technology requirements would be—"
Beverly headed off Barclay's rambling admiration of the science, as concerned about Vash as everyone in the room. "Were you able to pinpoint the source of this wormhole, Mr. Barclay?"
"Yes, ma'am," Barclay said. He pointed to a spot on the star chart being displayed on the viewscreen. "The beam originated from what appears to be a warp capable civilization on an M class planet in this nearby solar system. It was triggered by a pressure pad on the stone that Professor Picard stepped on just before her disappearance."
Lar spoke up, "all personnel have been recalled from the surface to prevent anyone from triggering any more of these micro-wormholes."
Riker studied the long-range scans of the system for any indication of military threat. "There's no indication that they know we're here yet. We could move toward their space, here's a small asteroid field that could provide some cover for the Pasteur and Enterprise while I--"
Picard stopped him. "No, although it appears Vash did indeed trip an automated device, this is still a first contact situation. We want to avoid appearing like an invasion fleet. We'll all hold position here for now and try to make contact with the planet first. I would request that your people stand ready to pull her out if it doesn't go well. My wife's vast expertise in archaeology is only outmatched by her vast ability to find trouble."
"And your vast ability to fret over her," Beverly teased. She'd known him long enough to know that, when it came to his wife, his mind went straight to worst-case scenarios no matter how calm of a façade he put on for everyone else. "Vash is quite resourceful."
"Captain Crusher, is that your gentle way of reminding me that if I go charging in before actually knowing if my wife needs rescued she's liable to take my sword away again?" Picard inquired. He knew full well that everyone in the room was aware of the reference.
"Just something to keep in mind," Beverly replied.
Chakotay offered what he could of the Anthropology Department's work on the situation thus far. "I have Parcaes Somnus and Latona, as well as Dr. Leigh working with linguists from my department to analyze all of the data they managed to collect from the moon's surface. Some of the symbols appeared to be variations on writing from races we've met recently, so we may be able to extrapolate some cultural inferences as a basis for contact. They hope to decipher the symbols of the alien text and determine the purpose of the site along with the reason for the automated transporter contained in the large center stone. As soon as we have a little more to work with, my First Contact team will compose an introductory message to send."
"The ball is in your court, Commander," Picard said.
With everyone briefed on the situation and the plan of action, the conference ended. Riker headed straight for the nearest transporter room to begin preparing an assault force in the event that they had to rescue her by force. Before leaving to head back to the Pasteur, Beverly walked over to Barclay. "Reg, I have a message for you from Geordi."
"Yes, Captain?"
Following the death of her first officer in an attack, Geordi had been promoted from Chief Engineer of the Enterprise to serve as her first officer onboard the Pasteur. "He said to tell you that you'd better not be showing him up too much, Reg. Between you and me, however, as his captain I'm telling you to feel free because I'm not giving him back."
"Yes, ma'am" Barclay chuckled.
"I still can't believe you managed to drag LaForge out of engineering, even for a first officer's position," Lar quipped to Beverly, overhearing their conversation as he walked past on his way out of the room.
Chakotay had been coming over to a quick kiss from his wife before getting back to his office. His eyes took on a mischievous glint as he rested his hand on the small of Beverly's back. "Ever try to say no to one of the trio, Geoff?"
"Point taken," Lar chuckled.
……………………..
