By Commander Blane
and -=/\=-Zanh Liis
80229.12
Five Hours and Forty Five Minutes after Drafted
and -=/\=-Zanh Liis
80229.12
Five Hours and Forty Five Minutes after Drafted
Captain's Log, Supplemental.
The stations on Sera's bridge are once again populated, for the most part, by my most experienced officers.
Due to the extended hours and difficult conditions of the Alchemy away mission, I insisted that as many of those who served on it leave their stations and allow replacements to fill in for them, while they get a hot meal and at least four hours of sleep.
Thankfully, our journey has thus far been uneventful, but I expect that is about to change sooner rather than later.
I have contacted the authorities at Gibraltar Depot and advised them that there may be trouble brewing- they have temporarily suspended all docking privileges and remain on red alert status.
I have also requested that Starfleet dispatch another ship to meet us there and take on the Executor's displaced crew.
Unfortunately, I had no choice but to make Command aware of the fact that this is now a situation which must be contained, and both crews- Executor's and ours- are going to have to be debriefed. Likely also required to give depositions as to what happened so that when they combine the information that we procured from the Alchemy by way of those 'appropriated' isolinear chips, that the truth of what has happened and who is behind it can be determined, once and for all.
Whether or not we will be privy to the outcome of that investigation remains to be seen- right now my main concern is getting the Executor's crew to safety, recovering the Alchemy, and licking our collective wounds.
End log.
-=Bridge, USS Serendipity=-
"Captain, Gibraltar Depot is now within range of long-range sensors," Micah Samson announced.
"On screen, then."
The image of the spindly, skeletal looking supply station appeared.
"Not much to look at is she?" Blane observed.
"She's our silent witness," Zanh responded. "To me that makes her the most beautiful sight I've ever seen. Helm, all stop. I don't want to get any closer, that way if anyone decides to blow us up, we won't take Gibraltar with us."
"Captain?" Nimue Andraste raised a pert eyebrow at Zanh as she looked up from the helm position. She was unaccustomed to hearing any commanding officer talk so directly or casually about their ship's potential destruction.
"I'm just saying." Zanh replied.
TC had been hovering around the bridge for the entirety of the trip. He had politely refused to go to his quarters and relax as the captain had wished and Zanh, expecting him to do just that, had allowed him to stay on the job.
He did relinquish the Ops station to a subordinate for the time being and had concentrated on helping Lt. Blakeslee prepare the Sera for the inevitable altercation.
He glanced at the Captain and nodded his approval. “A wise tactic. They will not be so gung ho to come in weapons blazing within site of the station.” He looked back at the viewscreen. “I’m worried about what other tricks they will use. Blunt force is only one of the tools at their disposal.”
“Really? What makes you say that?” Nimue asked.
He glanced down at the newly drafted helmsman. “Experience.”
He looked back at the captain. “We should discuss strategy.”
"We can discuss it all you want," Zanh reached up and began twisting the chain on her earring as she spoke.
Experience was whispering in her ear as well, and she knew that they could try as they might, but it was going to take a hell of a lot of good luck to get them out of the fix that they were in without sustaining terminal damage.
"They're not going to want to fold their hand. But the bottom line is that unless they are willing to destroy two crew's worth of Starfleet officers in front of a live audience, they're going to have little choice but to let us go in the end. Now, whether or not they try to make us suffer first," Zanh sighed. "Will depend on just how much of a maniac this Admiral Spangler is. Which reminds me," Zanh tapped her badge, "Zanh to O'Sullivan. I need an audience with your friend. Please escort him to the bridge?"
[Understood.]
Soon, Zanh Liis was standing face to face in her ready room with Jonas Vox.
"You shot me." He remarked casually..
"Yeah," Liis replied emotionlessly. "I did."
Vox wasn't reacting at all as Liis' expected him to- and that bothered her. He didn't seem to be the man she'd known so many years, and she wondered exactly who he had become in the interim.
"Don't ever do it again." Vox rumbled authoritatively.
"Understood." Zanh replied, her eyes holding his gaze all the while.
"No one else was present," Vox added, addressing O'Sullivan now. "The matter dies here. It will never be spoken of again. Understood?"
Keiran nodded. "Aye Admiral."
"Thank you, Keiran." Zanh remarked, giving the security officer his cue to leave. The man inclined his head toward her, and then left.
"I need to know, Jonas," Liis said softly, her eyes imploring him. "Spangler. Just how much trouble will he be?"
"He's our worst nightmare, Zanh Liis," Vox admitted reluctantly. "He believes that he answers to no one, he has powerful backers. . ." His eyes betrayed a sense of quiet desperation. "He has no conscience."
Meanwhile back on the bridge TC and Zander were looking at the tactical console.
“Well, what do we know about the Gauntlet?” Zander asked no one in particular as he pulled up the Starfleet starship registry database. He glanced it over. “According to this she’s not all that much different then any other ship of her class.”
He glanced at TC and saw the look on his face. “Yea, I’m not buying it either.”
“Pull up our sensor logs from when we first encountered her.” TC suggested.
Zander nodded and did as told. “OK here we go. Remember the sensors were being hampered by the star so I don’t know how much data we would have.”
TC nodded his understanding. “Even a little bit will help.”
As Zander looked over the logs with TC he asked. “So, I am surprised that you don’t have some sort of prior knowledge about the Gauntlet. I mean, since you are Special Ops and all.”
TC glanced at the lieutenant from the corner of his eye. “I am merely a grunt for them. I have one assignment and one only for special ops. As far as I am concerned the Gauntlet is standing in my way of completing that assignment.”
Zander frowned. “Even if it is a special ops ship?”
“Special ops, temporal investigations, even the president's own ship would not change my orders as far as I am concerned Mr. Blakeslee.” TC pointed to the screen. “What’s that?”
Zander stopped the scrolling information and zoomed in on the item that TC had pointed out. “It looks like the sensors were able to get a life scan of the Gauntlet. Seventy five souls according to this.”
TC stood up and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “What is the crew compliment of a Nebula class starship?”
Zander thought for a moment. “About twenty three hundred peop…” His eyes lit up. “Wait a second!”
TC nodded. “Bravo, Admiral Spangler. That was one hell of a bluff.” He was truly impressed by the move from the admiral. He had only a skeleton crew, probably because of the secretive nature of this whole ordeal, and he used the massive size of his ship to intimidate the smaller intrepid class vessel.
TC shook his head. “Stand to and prepare to be boarded.” He said out loud.
Zander eyebrows rose at the off beat comment. “Pardon?”
“We’ve just become pirates Mr. Blakeslee.” He grinned and tapped his badge, he knew the captain was in her ready room but he did not want to disturb her. “Captain to the bridge.”
"On my way," Zanh responded, from the other side of the ready room door.
"Admiral," She turned back toward him, wanting to do something more, to say so much more, but knowing now was not the time for it.
She didn't have to tell him that her faith in him was shaken to the foundation, and that foundation was cracked down to bare earth. He had betrayed her- he had betrayed them all. She didn't know his justification for this- and right now, the pain of that betrayal was too fresh to want to know. She just wanted him to understand that as far as level of trust went, with her, he was starting from scratch.
"I know. And I'm sorry, Liis." Was all Vox said. "We'll talk about this another time?" He offered.
"If there is another time." Zanh said grimly, and she turned and left him behind as she returned to the main bridge. A moment later, he followed and stood behind her as she took the command chair.
"Speak to me, Thomas."
He looked at her and then smiled slightly. “The right eye.”
“What?” Liis questioned.
“The patch, I think it’ll look good over your right eye.”
“What patch? Thomas, your not making sense at all.”
TC nodded to the screen that displayed the scan and the cross reference to the crew complement. Liis leaned in close as she read the information displayed on it.
TC leaned in next to her as he saw that she had found the information. “With the people that we pulled off the Executor, we outnumber them at least three to one. Ever boarded a ship before?” He smiled. “Ahoy me hearties.”
"Been awhile," Zanh replied, adding a low whistle. "But I think I remember where I left my compass. It doesn't point North, you know." Zanh glanced at Salvek. "You have the bridge, Logic. O'Sullivan,"
She gestured toward Keiran, who had been keeping close watch on Admiral Vox from the corner. "Dengar. Blakeslee. Blane. Cristiane,"
She nodded to each as she spoke their name. "We're taking a little trip. Pack your hooks and swords. Let's go."
"Captain," Salvek made the obligatory attempt at objecting, though he knew already that there was no logic in it because his words would surely fall on deaf ears.
Zanh simply grinned at him, her eyes sparkling with a light that he had not seen since well before she had been abducted from their last assignment.
She leaned close to him. "Make sure that the Admiral is kept company, at all times. "Don't let him out of your sight."
The newly formed Away Team congregated in the turbolift, and Zanh noticed the puzzled expression on the face of young Rada Dengar and she smiled at him warmly.
"Ensign," she began, turning to face him directly, "I hear you've taken a shine to diverting anti-grav units into haywire conduits and saving every one's lives in the process. Or something to that effect?"
"Sir?" Dengar couldn't believe that news traveled so fast.
"Yes, your deeds proceed you. I'm proud of you. And what's more, it's given me an idea, at last, for what I really want to call you."
"Sir?" Rada was worried now. While he knew that Zanh was only given to nickname people she was fond of, he was concerned what her actual choice would be.
"Yes, that's right and I can't believe this didn't occur to me before," Zanh laughed as the lift doors opened and they headed off to arm themselves to the teeth. "The a and the e. All this time it was right in front of me!"
She reached out and patted him on the back, giving him just the first of the many 'atta-boys' she knew that the crew had earned while on the Alchemy's mission. "Yes, this is it." She grinned at him anew. "Come on, Danger. We've got a ship to commandeer, and you're going to help."
"Do we get any rum? Cristiane smirked, as he analyzed the phaser rifle that TC Blane had just handed him.
"Maybe when we get back," Zanh said, giving him a sideways glance. "If you behave, Mr. Cristiane."
Commander TC Blane
Second Officer/Chief Ops Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
-=/\=-Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Second Officer/Chief Ops Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
-=/\=-Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012