by Michael Blakeney and Gem Lassiter
90705.20
Immediately Following Descent into Darkness
-=/\=-
90705.20
Immediately Following Descent into Darkness
-=/\=-
As she lay in Sickbay aboard the USS Serendipity, Gem Lassiter's semiconscious mind continued to bombard her with memories of events she had tried so hard, for so many years, to forget.
-=Flashback, 2357 Current Timeline=-
“Well, are you going to answer me?” Braylan demanded, fuming and just a little panicked from this incursion into his personal life here of all places.
Noting his surroundings and the fact that it’d be best to keep these people from being anywhere near his personal accommodations he stepped quickly out of the turbolift.
“There’s a fairly simple explanation for why we’re here.” Michael offered skeptically as the old man stepped out around them, clearly more curious about what Braylan was doing here than Braylan was about him.
“I’m not talking to you.” Braylan insisted swiftly, turning to what he thought would be the weaker of the two. “I’m talking to her.”
His brow furrowed as he did his best to make his face look as harsh as he could, stepping up close to Gem hoping to be intimidating.
He was not but he continued trying to be anyway, speaking loud enough that were this floor not essentially deserted then he’d have had all eyes turning to them now.
“You were supposed to be off the case. I told Galloway specifically that I didn’t want you anywhere near me. So what does he do? He tells you about what was supposed to be a secure location and then lets you just come right on over.”
“The agency didn’t send me here.” Gem explained in a measured tone, trying to find the appropriate balance in her voice between showing the necessary respect and making sure the ambassador knew she’d not just let him walk all over her.
“That’s even better!” Braylan complained with deep sarcasm, staring down into her eyes. “I shouldn’t have been surprised that they let you find out my location. I knew from the fact that sent someone like you to protect me to begin with that this agency isn’t exactly overrun with talent.”
“Now hold on just a minute.” Michael objected, placing a hand on the ambassador’s shoulder. He quickly removed it when one look from Gem told him that she wanted to deal with this on her own.
“I’m still not talking to you.” Braylan said, his eyes flickering briefly over at Blakeney.
“There was no leak.” Gem insisted, ignoring Braylan’s comment. “This location came up in the course of our own investigations.”
Clearly this gave Braylan pause for thought, the confidence dropping from his face.
“How exactly did it come up?”
Something in his voice told Gem that it was best not to tell him too much.
“That’s classified.” She flatly replied.
The look on Braylan’s face was one of utter indignation, followed by contempt.
“I’ll see that the people in charge of you hear about this.”
Braylan withdrew a small device which looked like a transponder from his pocket and displayed it for all to see.
“Your employers gave me this in case you showed up.” He said with a wheezy chuckle. “I just need to press this button and they’ve assured me they’ll send the director himself to deal with you.”
With his eyes locked on Gem and after a suitably extended pause for drama's sake, he took great delight in pressing that button.
“I can assure you that by the time I’m finished with you all you’ll be allowed to investigate will be where your job has gone.”
True to Braylan's word it was a matter of seconds later that Adam Galloway himself materialized behind them with an incredibly sour look on his face.
“Galloway, you’re here.” Braylan said, with little more respect in his tone for Galloway than he had for anyone else. “Good I was just telling your underling here…”
Before he finished Galloway raised his hand and silenced him “I’ll deal with it, ambassador.” He said with an anger filled stare like a disapproving father could give to their least favorite child; a stare which seemed to leave Gem feeling just like that was what she was. “Go back to your room.”
Satisfied, the ambassador slipped away back to the turbolift and Galloway cornered Gem against the wall.
“Did the meaning of the word ‘suspended’ change recently and I didn’t get the memo? What the Hell did you think you were doing?!” The director incredulously asked.
“We were investigating.” Gem said simply, with just a hint of defensiveness.
“We, who’s we?” Galloway asked with eyebrows raised, furious already with Gem but doubly so with anyone else in the agency would have had the poor sense to work with her when she was suspended.
Slight confusion enveloped Gem’s features about why Galloway would ask that, as she turned over to where Michael had been.
“Myself and…” She turned around again to look behind, first slowly then quicker, yet as she took in this entire room she saw they were alone here now. “Agent Blakeney.”
Not quite believing that he’d disappear like this Gem turned back to Galloway and found she was met with an incredulous gaze with haunting eyes aflame. He could have been looking at her like she an idiot who’d made a foolish mistake or a crazy person who’d made someone up, yet neither would have felt anywhere like the slap in the face of the way he looked at her now. He looked at her like she was a liar.
“There is no Agent Blakeney.” The older man scoffed as if genuinely offended that she’d think she could deceive him like this.
Automatically she tried to offer some response, yet stayed quiet as she found she had no response to offer. What would she say? That she’d let herself be taken in by a fraud in fancy clothes? She couldn’t accept it, she was smarter than that. She’d known from the beginning that this was not how an agent behaved and yet at some point she’d found herself willing him to be real.
She was still struggling to believe that he would abandon her so easily, though she knew she shouldn’t be. What was so much harder to believe was the hollowness of the hole she felt in herself right now when all she’d lost was a pretender.
Quickly Galloway lost patience with what he saw as a pathetic attempt at feigning confusion.
“I don’t know what’s gotten into you.” He snapped in a caustically cruel tone. “I do know that I specifically told you not to go anywhere near Braylan.”
“Yes, you did but…” She started softly, not quite sure how to finish but not having it matter when Galloway cut her off.
“A hearing is being convened to decide whether you should be court-martialed. You should be locked away at home doing everything in your power to stay out of trouble. What do you do instead?”
“My job.” Gem replied, after a short pause, both feeling and making herself snap back into this moment.
“Your job,” Galloway hissed through gritted teeth “is to do as I tell you.” He shook his head in further disbelief. “You used to know that.”
Something in his tone broke through to her. The searing emptiness seemed to dull down to a light heat and it was flame that returned to her heart.
She looked him challengingly in the eyes and her words started getting quicker as they grew louder.
“With all due respect Adam, you didn’t hire me to just blindly follow orders. A director needs people to question his orders now and then. You used to know that.”
“Don't you dare…” He started, raising a lecturing finger to her. Yet looking at Gem now, seeing her defiant stance as she stared him down regardless of rank, he realized this was still the woman he knew.
Slowly Galloway lowered his finger, shook his head and sighed
“I just don’t understand you anymore, Gemini.” He said in a gentler tone. “You didn’t even want to take the job of guarding Braylan in the first place. Why do you care enough now to risk your career?” Beside the seriousness of the situation the smallest hint of smile snuck onto his face. “God knows it’s not because of his award-winning personality.”
Though she’d never been the type to easily give up, a simple logical consideration of the available facts told Gem exactly why she felt herself so determined in this case.
“It happened while he was under my care.”
Instantly Galloway understood, it’s never easy to face a mistake and Gem was much harder on herself than most. Yet he was never the type to sugarcoat things and knowing whom he was dealing with he certainly didn’t expect to have to make an exception.
“There was a time when you’d never have let that happen.” He observed. “What was different this time? Was it things with Jonas?”
“No.” Gem insisted, quickly making sure Adam understood that Jonas Vox as he called himself now could have no more impact on her life.
“Then what?”
He was giving her an opportunity and Gem knew she should take it. She could tell him everything about Michael, throw him to the wolves like how he had abandoned her here. Yet she struggled with the words, which wouldn’t form.
Finally she quietly relented.
“I have no excuse.”
“No, I didn’t think you would.” Galloway replied, shaking his head once more. “I’m not going to be able to protect you this time.”
“I never asked you to.” Gem observed.
“No,” Galloway answered with a sigh. “You never would.”
Galloway rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to force down the headache which had crept up on him. It was clear to them both that Gem had nothing more to say.
“Go home, Gem. Stop any investigations you’ve been doing and just go home. That’s an order.”
He marched her toward the exit, noticing that she stopped to take one long, last look around them.
Somehow, she still just couldn't accept that who ever Michael Blakeney was or whomever he was working for, that he would simply disappear at the very first sign of TI higher ups. Though he may or may not be TI something about the man screamed Starfleet to her, and she just didn't want to believe it wasn't so.
Was this or was this not the man who had so chivalrously cut in on her dance with the Ambassador at the Embassy Ball when Braylan had clearly forgotten his manners to spare her the abuse and embarrassment, and then helped her to foil the assassination attempt on top of it?
Why would a man willing to do all that, and willing to do all he'd done afterward, turn tail and run the moment her boss showed up?
There has to be an explanation, Gem thought. There has to be more to him than meets the eye.
"What is it?" Galloway asked impatiently. "What are you looking for?"
"Something I was certain was there." She replied cryptically, before giving up at last and walking away.
From a safe and carefully obscured distance, Michael Blakeney's eyes followed Gem as she traveled away from the building, up until she made it to the corner and turned, disappearing at last from view.
------------------
Lt. Commander Michael Blakeney
Temporal Investigations
and
//// Gem Lassiter
Director, The Alchemy Project
Lt. Commander Michael Blakeney
Temporal Investigations
and
//// Gem Lassiter
Director, The Alchemy Project