by -=/\=- Zanh Liis
90807.22
Concurrent with Family Album
-=Bridge, USS Serendipity=-
90807.22
Concurrent with Family Album
-=Bridge, USS Serendipity=-
With the ship hovering at all stop, Zanh Liis rose from the helm and began to pace.
After her third time crossing the floor, she turned back and looked at the empty space where her chair was supposed to be. She glanced over at TC Blane, who gestured to the XO's vacant chair, suggesting she sit in it as he sat in his own seat on the opposite side of the void.
"No thanks. Feels...off." Zanh shrugged. "I know we're short staffed and all, but with the repairs complete, isn't there a flunky somewhere we can put on finding out what the hell happened to my chair? At moments like this I really miss Cristiane."
"We have someone on it, Captain, in fact. Chief Dengar recruited them for the task before leaving."
"What did he do? Send Halliday?" Halliday was competent, but sometimes, Zanh just wanted to smack the smirk off of his perky little face.
"Not quite, Captain. Someone who is entirely over qualified." Blane tapped his badge. "Blane to Lair."
In the cargo bay where she was on her hands and knees reading container labels and comparing them to the manifest on the PADD in her hand, Lair lifted her head too quickly and smacked it against the overhanging lid of a large metallic container. [Son of a...]
"Pardon?" Blane blinked, as Zanh just shook her head.
[Sorry, Commander. What can I do for you?] Lair grumbled.
"Any news on the missing furniture?"
[Well, by all accounts, there are exactly as many cargo containers aboard the Sera as there should be if you go by the manifest. That's the good news.] Lair took a moment to catch her breath before continuing.
"Bad news?" Blane pressed after a moment of lingering silence.
[Bad news is that the stuff in the crate isn't necessarily the stuff on the label. For example. This one, here it says...potting soil, bound for the Arboretum. Want to know what's in it?]
"Do we?" Blane asked Zanh, widening his ice blue eyes intentionally to try to break the tension in her, which was growing exponentially by the second and getting worse the longer the Away teams were gone and not reporting in with their findings.
"What the hell." Zanh shrugged, finally plunking down into Salvek's chair. She sat in it a moment, tilting her head as she looked at the viewscreen. She just didn't like the look of things from this angle and couldn't get used to it. She rose and resumed her pacing.
[What's in it, Commander?] Blane's voice rang out from Lair's communicator as she looked at it again. "It's Reece's shipment of freshly grown Asna."
Zanh Liis sighed and closed her eyes a moment before shooting Reece a look.
"What?" Dabin replied, his expression all innocence. "It's good for the baby."
"Well, keep on looking, let us know..." Blane requested.
[Understood. Lair out.]
"Thomas, I need a moment. I'll be right back, you have the bridge." Liis paced past him once more and descended the steps in one leap, wasting no time in reaching her ready room.
She looked at the chronometer on the desk.
This was taking too long.
The longer that the ships sat here, the more likely it was that people were going to begin asking questions. Questions that Zanh still, as of this moment, had no answers to.
She couldn't put Lassiter off much longer.
Over the past two days, the Admiral had tried to contact them with increasing frequency, one time even demanding answers from their Chief Science Officer, which sorely tempted the man to start making static-sounding noises and pretend that he couldn't hear her. Only a stern look and an intervention from his Captain had averted that disaster, already in progress.
Her thoughts drifted now to the younger Lassiter, over on the Zenith with the rest of Zanh's search team.
As soon as the ship had been brought to a stop and was holding position, Gira had asked if she could join the active search. Salvek saw no purpose in keeping her where she was when they were so short handed, and so he had asked Zanh for her permission to allow it.
The Vulcan had taken over the helm just in case they needed to change position, and sent Lassiter off, with Dane Cristiane and two other officers from Security.
The chime to the ready room door rang, and Liis bid her visitor enter by name, certain she knew who it was. "Yes, Thomas?"
"Everything all right?" Blane asked, concerned by her expression as she twisted the chain of her earring and stared out the window at the Zenith, hanging lifeless in space nearby.
Her first tired, and frustrated thought was to say that no, it wasn't all right. Eight hundred and seventy two people were still missing, and she had no idea how to help them, or if they even could be helped. But remembering to whom she'd be speaking, she simply sighed.
Blane walked to the replicator.
"Coffee, hot. Double cream." He handed the mug to Liis, and she sighed again.
Her features instantly softened, as did her tone. "Thank you."
"Penny fer yer thoughts." Blane said next, imitating Keiran's phrase that Zanh had only recently insisted upon using on him.
"I honestly hope," Zanh whispered, staring down into her cup, "that we're not in over our heads this time."
[Captain,] The voice of Sue Tenney informed nervously over the comm. [Admiral Lassiter is insisting that she needs to speak to you.]
"In here." Zanh replied. Blane moved to leave, but Zanh's eyes bid him to stay where he was. He remained where he stood, out of sight of the screen, listening.
[Report!] Lassiter demanded without introduction.
"We're still searching the ship. There is no sign of the crew, but the Zenith herself appears to be completely intact."
[You had better have a damn good working theory for me as to where those people have gone by the time I get there, Zanh Liis.]
"Get...here?" Zanh's voice rose, as did her eyebrows.
[Yes. I'm aboard the Gauntlet, and we're on our way. The moment you located the ship and found it appeared empty, I was authorized to bring a skeleton crew to command it. They're with me and we'll be arriving within forty hours. Understood?]
"Understood." Zanh watched as Lassiter closed the channel, and looked up at Blane over the top of the screen.
"So much for keeping a low profile." Blane scoffed, as he folded his arms across his chest. Zanh shook her head in bewildered agreement as she led the way back to the bridge.
"Sue, hail Commander Salvek." She requested. "Inform him that we're going to have company."
"Sir?"
"Admiral Lassiter is aboard the USS Gauntlet and en route to our location."
-=/\=- Zanh Liis O'Sullivan
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012