564: Balance of Power: Two

by -=/\=-Zanh Liis
81006.22

…continued from part one

-=/\=-

-=Conference Room One, USS Serendipity=-


Lassiter stood, taking several steps away from the table and toward the window. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

"I'm sorry," Liis stood tall once again and held an index finger aloft in silent query. "...but it sounded like you just agreed with me."

"If a woman can't live with her conscience at the end of the day, Zanh Liis, then nothing else she does with her life has any meaning, does it?"

Her words bore the weight of years of experience in dealing with Starfleet, Temporal Investigations, and Jonas Vox as well.

"I know he pulled your strings. Made you dance like a marionette to suit his own vision and then left you tied in knots." Lassiter turned back.

"I also know that you fought him every damned step of the way, and that is why you are still the one we want sitting in the center chair out there on that bridge."

"You've been testing us all."

"To put it bluntly. I had no other choice. How else could I determine how deep the corruption ran? How far he'd succeeded in warping your sense of purpose?"

"He would have done a lot better at it if I didn't have such strong souls surrounding me. Salvek and Blane. Dengar, Blakeslee and Reece. Lair,"

"O'Sullivan."

As soon as Lassiter spoke the name Zanh's expression altered, and she immediately took note. "So. Tough as nails Zanh Liis may have an Achilles' heel yet."

Liis turned on her once again, her eyes dead calm as Lassiter severed her last nerve. "Everyone," she whispered, making her meaning clear, "...has one."

Lassiter's features conveyed her discomfort. Clearly, this was not a woman to be trifled with.

"Very well, Zanh Liis. Tell me, what else did I say to you when we met, hm? Anything I should know?"

"Well you were pretty talkative that night." Liis began twisting the chain of her earring. "After all, we'd just watched the Perseids crew literally bury their captain. Emotions were running high."

Lassiter inhaled sharply as the idea, and the image it created, wounded her. "I'm glad," she stammered.

"Sorry?" Liis growled, misunderstanding.

"I'm glad that is not the time in which we are currently living." Lassiter paced back to the table and, suddenly exhausted, sat down again. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the surface and her chin on her hands.

"I imagine it was clear to you then that I care a great deal about Keiran, and his family."

"Makes two of us."

Lassiter faced Liis with a completely different countenance than moments before. "I owe him my daughter's life," she declared. "More than once over."

*I owe him my soul,* Liis thought, thinking how grateful she was, too, that he was alive. She looked away, not wanting to give Lassiter anything more to work with as far as her feelings for O'Sullivan were concerned if she could help it.

"Starfleet is very much in his debt. I informed him last night that he's going to be offered the flagship. As soon as the Zenith is out of space dock, she's his."

Liis' eyes betrayed her surprise at hearing this. "He's done?"

"Yes, he's done. As I believe you were told previously he was not supposed to Jump again after he regained his memories."

"I know that, but I thought," she shook her head. "I thought that they'd offer him Jonas' job."

"They wanted to," Lassiter admitted, "As director in charge of TEMA the past ten years, I pulled rank and I told them not to."

"Without even asking him if he wanted it?"

"Zanh Liis, I know the man well enough to know that for years, all he has wanted was his freedom. So he has that. He is no longer under any obligation to Temporal Investigations."

Again, Liis was doubtful. "Really."

"Really."

"And he knows this."

"Yes."

His behavior on the holodeck overnight now made perfect sense. He'd been so afraid to even be near her the last time that they'd been in the same place, for fear of somehow condemning her to a terrible fate by doing so. Now, the situation was different, and Liis was the one who was worried.

"So he's free, and I'm free, and that means," she gestured for Lassiter to continue and finish the statement for her with the relevant facts.

"...that the rules don't apply to you any more."

"And they haven't, not since," Liis stopped, thinking of Vox taking her compass. She felt winded and sat down onto the couch by the windows.

"What is it?" Lassiter asked, her tone softening.

"When I was living the paradox," Liis droned, her stare vacant. "I thought that his death was my fault."

"Why would you think that?"

Liis couldn't form the words to answer.

Lassiter filled in the answer for her, having known it before she asked the question.

"You thought that because you remembered him and cared for him that history condemned him, just as it had done to you those times when he loved you and acted upon it."

She nodded.

"Whatever did, or did not take place in those alternate branches of space time, Zanh Liis, doesn't matter anymore. For the first time in what must seem ages to you, the only time you have to worry about is now."

Liis was still trying to comprehend her words when the door chime rang, and Lassiter called for their visitor to join them.

Keiran approached, bright eyed, clean shaven, and looking ready to take on the world.

"Good morning, Admiral." he tilted his head toward Liis and grinned, though she didn't immediately look up at him."Captain."

"It is a good morning, isn't it O'Sullivan?" Lassiter remained seated at the conference table, fussing again with her paperwork.

"Aye, it is that. I've just come from seein' my boy."

"How is Carrick faring?"

"He's improving by leaps and bounds physically. The rest will take a bit more time."

"Well, that's something he'll have plenty of." Lassiter watched as O'Sullivan gazed affectionately at Zanh, who only continued to stare down at the floor in silence.

"Did I...miss an'athing important?" Keiran asked, beginning to worry at the change in Zanh's demeanor from a short time ago.

"No, you're just in time. I was just about to officially sign off on returning command of the Serendipity to Captain Zanh."

Lassiter tapped away furiously once again, and finally affixed a definitive thumbprint to the order. "There you are, Zanh Liis. Medical Leave is over."

"Great," Liis finally looked up, eyes bloodshot and weary. "When does my vacation start?"

"Very funny. She has a great sense of humor, this one." Lassiter gestured toward Zanh, and O'Sullivan rumbled softly, giving Lassiter a knowing wink.

"So I'm told."

"What, you two think I'm kidding? I have been through a hell of a lot recently and when we get to Earth, I want some time to myself. I haven't taken a single voluntary vacation once in my entire career. I am entitled to shore leave and I am taking it."

"She's serious!" Lassiter crowed, disbelieving Zanh's insistence.

"Seems she is at that." Keiran turned away to hide the fact that he was still grinning from ear to ear.

"Time to do what exactly?" Lassiter demanded.

"Sight see." Liis offered her no more.

"Well, I suppose that since we'll be busy running tests on the Alchemy anyway..." Lassiter sighed. "You win."

Keiran now had to raise his hand to his lips, feigning a thoughtful gesture to stifle his laughter.

This was the Zanh Liis he remembered.

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-=/\=-Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012