951: With Friends Like These

by Mellice Cem and Centurion Borov
90922.2100
After Life Line

-=Aboard the Stolen Raider=-


Seeing the hatch open on the Romulan ship, Mellice angled the nose of the small Orion ship, hoping for decent landing. Considering the repairs it needed to get it back into space worthy condition, this was going to be quite a feat.

He hoped repairs could be made here, even if they were second rate and improvised. He'd pulled off similar stunts before while in the Resistance, and was confident he could use that experience to his advantage now; employing mechanical skills he’d learned while he was young. Like any skill learned well in youth, it seemed that no matter how long it’d been since you practiced it, it always came back to you just when you needed it to help you out of a jam.

This was one jam Mellice definitely wanted out of, before it turned into a big snafu of the dangerously political kind. The kind that, if it went horribly wrong, could result in a war the Federation and the Romulans did not need, a war that certainly neither side would come away from as the victor. Both sides would suffer heavy losses and even if it were a war quickly ended by the politicians and their treaties, would only serve to more deeply entrench both worlds in their long-standing distrust of the other.

Once the raider was inside the force field and touched down upon the deck plates, Cem glanced toward Kelly while powering down the engines. "Look, if we're to get out this with our hides intact, you can't, and I repeat can not, let them know who you are. If they even suspect you’re Admiral Harris' daughter, they'd use you for leverage against him and surely kill me without so much as a second thought." He spoke to her in a stern, yet purposely restrained voice to convey his thoughts on getting out of this alive and in one piece.

Kelly nodded her head once in understanding, knowing their situation was a dire one.

Making their escape from the Orions to kick things off, only to wind up onboard a Romulan ship to repair their own stolen ship.

Now that folks, is irony for you, Kelly thought.

Outside the raider, Borov stood at a decidedly unsafe distance as it touched down in the bay. He positioned himself mere inches from where the landing lights guided the nose of Mellice’s ship, as if daring the pilot aboard to ram him with the vessel. Further back, two guards stood with weapons at the ready, choosing to not leave their lives in the hands of a pilot whom they did not know.

As the engines shut down, Borov waved his men forward to join him, and paced around the side of the ship to the hatch.

“Exit the vessel!” He bellowed. He turned his left side toward the hatch to conceal the scar running down the right. He then folded his arms across his chest, so the passengers on the ship would be able to see the contours of his biceps straining against the fabric of his uniform sleeves. It was an intimidating sight to say the least, even without seeing Borov’s scar.

He would allow Mellice no more than thirty seconds to open the hatch on his own. Any more than that and Sub-Commander Antok’s guests would have ample time to set some sort of explosive device if their plan was to destroy the Warbird from inside.

Borov counted silently to twenty, offering no warning. He did not issue reminders or offer second chances. The pilot was instructed to exit the vessel and if he refused to do so in a manner Borov considered timely, then the next logical step was to blast the hatch from its hinges.

When he reached twenty-five, a wag of his finger towards the door was all the instruction his men needed. They raised their weapons, and Borov felt the bitter sting of jealousy in him that he would not be the one doing the firing personally. That fact only made him more irritable than he was simply by his nature. After the wag, his fingers flew to the bridge of his nose, rubbing it gently as he squinted his eyes shut to control his instinct to simply rip the hatch and everything beyond it to pieces.

At twenty-eight, the hiss of the raider door opening brought his silent count to an end. Another motion of his hand instructed the guards to lower their sidearms back to the standby position.

A Bajoran man and a Human woman walked down the ramp towards him. Borov studied them both as they moved. Searching their eyes for signs of deception, gauging their height and weight to determine how best to disable them in hand-to-hand combat, and scanning their clothing for any protrusions that may indicate a hidden weapon.

He waited, unmoving except for his eyes, with his chin resting gently in a small cup formed by curling his index finger into a ring and touching it to the tip of his thumb. As the Bajoran and Human stopped before him, Borov broke the awkward silence with a simple, aggravated question.

“What?”

Mellice knew better than to have a hidden weapon on him. He also knew better than to try and conceal one on Ms. Harris. That would have been foolish and counter productive to his means of getting back into Federation controlled territory.

Mellice's own eyes, much like the scarred Romulan’s, were executing a visual check of his surroundings; taking count of how many people were inside the bay, and locating any potential exits other than the raider he and Kelly had just disembarked from. Also like the Romulan, he was calculating both the best and worst case scenarios of how this could be played out.

Best case? They speak to Sub-Commander Antok, get their ship repaired and be on their way. Worst case? Everyone present gets trigger happy, he and a few guards die, and Kelly is now in the hands of the Romulans to be used against her father as a highly lucrative bargaining chip.

He kept his answers to the man in charge of the guards short and sweet.

"We're here to speak to Sub-Commander Antok and make repairs to our ship." He knew to keep his voice calm and his expression neutral, when being scrutinized by the enemy; another skill he’d absorbed early on in his youth. Years of fighting the Cardassians during the Occupation had hardened him, more than any other member of his family, including his older sister Mellice Jun…

He fought to return his thoughts to the moment, dismissing the memory of those dark days, which never seemed completely in the past.

His gaze met those of the scarred Romulan’s evenly.

Though he himself was scarred over his right eye, his didn't run as long as the other man’s did. The thickness and severity of the scar revealed much to Cem, specifically that the Romulan before him had survived the blade of a Bat'leth.

No small task to accomplish, since Klingons aren't known for showing mercy on any enemy. Mellice also happened to know this for a fact from experience, since he'd seen it first hand during the Dominion War. Specifically, he’d seen it while on a joint Federation/Klingon raid in the Archer system to free it from Dominion control.

Borov turned slightly to allow Harris to see the scar on his face, eliciting a small but perceptible lurch from her at the initial shock. The effect was exactly as he had intended, to instill a modicum of fear in the female. He knew immediately from sizing up Mellice that the tactic would have no effect on the Bajoran.

Borov waved once more, and one of the guards swapped his weapon for a scanner to search their guests. “Sub-Commander Antok has instructed me to escort you to the bridge. I will do so once our scans are complete. Are you carrying any hazardous or illegal cargo aboard your ship?”

“You can tell me the answer to that question yourself after you search it from bow to stern, which you are going to do as soon as we leave.” Mellice replied.

Borov simply grinned.

The guard showed the scanner to Borov, indicating their guests were not armed in any way. Satisfied, he stepped to the side, opening a path for Mellice and Harris to the exit.

“This way.” Borov instructed.

Kelly wasn't a Starfleet officer, nor was she trained in any form of hand-to-hand combat. She had opted to live her life as a civilian volunteer, aiding planets devastated by the war with the Dominion.

Mellice, on the other hand, had seen far more combat action than he cared to recall. He’d fought not only for the freedom of his people during the Bajoran Occupation, but also for the freedom of the entire quadrant during the Dominion War.

As they were being escorted to the bridge by Borov and his guards, Mellice took note of each corridor they entered, every hatch they passed and every possible place a hidden assassin may lie in wait for them.

It was clear he didn't trust the Romulans one bit and believed this show of 'kindness' may only be a ruse to get them to lower their guard. He kept a very keen eye on every nook and cranny they passed.

He kept his thoughts to himself while they moved through the bowels of the Romulan vessel towards the lift that would take them to the bridge.

Borov's strategic movements were an indication of his own experience in dealing with those he perceived as his enemy, and as Mellice continued to observe him, he suppressed a smile.

Clever man, Mellice surmised.

As they came to the lift Mellice watched Kelly, and observed that her nerves were beginning to show. His own were starting to fray a bit, though he kept that fact concealed beneath a deceptively pleasant expression.

So far, nothing had happened; which was both good and bad.

Borov spoke only one word to the lifts automated controls. "Bridge."

Mellice and Kelly rode in the lift along with their escorts in total silence. Kelly, from the looks of her, was growing ever more apprehensive about this meeting, while Mellice still looked calm and relaxed, as if this was nothing more than just a normal chat between a department head and his or her subordinate.

This wasn't the time to be squeamish, this was a time to keep calm and hopefully come away with your skin still intact and alive to tell the tale of how you once were given a guided tour of a Romulan vessel by a man with a scar ‘that long.’ Information could be gained here, and information that rare was both vital and powerful.

When they arrived at their destination Borov announced their presence and returned to his station, leaving Mellice and Kelly standing awkwardly in front of the left doors on the perimeter of the bridge.

Antok completely ignored them, going on about his business in an all too transparent attempt to make it appear that their presence was completely meaningless to him.

“Engage the cloak, and set a course for Romulus; warp 4.” He said calmly.

Mellice was immediately discouraged by the intended destination, though he did not show it. Kelly was not so calm, tugging on his sleeve as if to say, ‘don’t just stand there, do something.’

Mellice remained silent. This was Antok’s ship, his home turf, you they had to play by his rules. When the Romulan finally turned his attention to them, his demeanor was suddenly very friendly. Too friendly.

“Welcome aboard. You must be Mellice Cem,” He said, addressing the Bajoran. “Who is your companion?”

“This is my friend, Sally.” Mellice said, lying through his teeth.

“I understand your ship is damaged. How might we assist you?” Antok shook each of their hands and then retreated across the bridge to his command chair.

“I can perform the repairs myself, and we’ll be on our way. I just need a few supplies from your Engineer, if I might impose upon your…hospitality that far.” Mellice answered.

Antok nodded slowly. “Not a problem. You’ll have to understand however that I will need to have my own engineers perform the repairs. I have no way of knowing how competent you are to complete the work safely, and if you were to have an…accident, it would cause serious damage to my own vessel.”

“Do you have any idea how long that will take?” Mellice asked, as if he didn’t know. It would surely take longer to repair the raider than it would to return to Romulus, Antok would make sure of that.

“Not long. However, our engineers are quite busy checking our own systems after the battle to rescue you, so you’ll have to understand if there might be some delays. Might I ask how you drew the ire of the Orion Syndicate? Open ship battle is not a normal course of action for such an organization. They prefer to keep a low profile and do their killing with hired assassins, unless someone has greatly upset them.”

What Antok really wanted to know was what was so valuable that the Orion Syndicate risked exposing so many of their forces in an attempt to recover it. Was it the Human? The Bajoran? Or perhaps something aboard their ship…

“We did borrow their vehicle, but aside from that, I don’t really know what reason they had for pursuing us. Perhaps they just wanted to search our cargo hold to see if we had taken anything of value to them.”

In his mind Antok eliminated anything on the ship. Mellice would never have mentioned the cargo hold if there was actually anything worthwhile in it. That meant either him or the female companion were of value to the Syndicate, which meant they were also of value to the Romulans.

“Hmm.” Antok said, nodding his head slowly, and tapping commands into his armrest as he sat in his chair with his back to Mellice and Kelly. They waited patiently in silence for him to speak again. “As I said we will tend to your ship as soon as possible.”

“I’d like to contact the Federation, to let them know I am safe.”

“Sub-Commander!” Borov growled immediately in protest. Antok raised a hand to steady his compatriot.

“I am sure that, what my excessively enthusiastic security chief would like to point out, is that we have just destroyed an Orion Syndicate force. They will likely be seeking revenge on those responsible, namely us. If we send a subspace message now, we will give away our location to the enemy.” Antok said calmly.

Mellice didn’t expect them to agree, but it was worth a try. “Good point.” He said, though both he and Antok both knew the real reason why no message to the Federation would be sent, and it had nothing to do with the Orion Syndicate.

Antok rose from his chair and turned to face his guests.

“Now, until your ship is repaired, the comforts of our vessel are at your disposal. I will arrange for quarters for each of you.” Antok paused, and raised a finger in thought. “Unless of course, you wish to cohabitate?” He said with a slimy grin.

Noticing the grin on the Romulan Sub-Commander’s features, he knew what Antok wanted to do by mentioning they have shared quarters. He wanted something from them, something to hold against them. Well, this was his ship and Mellice would agree to the shared quarters, but he'd toss his own monkey wrench into Antok's plans.

"Shared quarters are acceptable." Mellice replied, hoping there may be separate bunks, or at least a couch in addition to the bed. Admiral Harris would surely court-martial him if he so much as thought about touching his only daughter in the manner the Romulan implied.

Though he had to admit the thought had crossed his mind many times over the past few weeks. He knew that would really complicate things. His mission was to keep Kelly safe and out of the hands of anyone who might try to use her. He would see to it that mission was accomplished.

It hadn’t been an easy task; from the start the job had been complicated.

It all began when Starfleet Intelligence intercepted several Orion Syndicate transmissions stating that a top Starfleet Admiral's daughter was targeted for kidnapping, to be sold on the illegal slave market.

Admiral Gem Lassiter's daughter, Gira, was one of the suspected targets, however she was fairly safe aboard the USS Serendipity as one of its flight control officers.

When it came to young, attractive female offspring of the currently highest ranking power-players at Command these days, that left Admiral David Harris' daughter, Kelly, as the next potential target.

SI had gotten it right…for once.

-=Flashback: months earlier=-


Admiral Harris paused thoughtfully, hand brushing against the railing of the landing overlooking the Promenade of Starbase 54. He slowed his steps to a stop and spoke softly to his companion, Lieutenant Mellice.

"Intelligence is saying there are two possible kidnapping targets. My own daughter being one of them, the other currently serving as a pilot aboard the USS Serendipity. I personally know Admiral Lassiter, she's a good friend of mine. Her daughter Gira is relatively safe from this threat there, surrounded by both the Sera’s standard security complement as well as a particularly large, Irish guardian angel by the name of O’Sullivan.

“My own daughter on the other hand?” Admiral Harris continued, “Let's just say I really wish she had joined Starfleet instead of becoming a civilian missionary. I really had hoped it wouldn't come to this but I feel there’s no other choice."

The Admiral began walking again, and only turned to face the Bajoran once more as they came to a stop near one of the many view ports. In the distance, one could see the Admiral's own ship the USS Huntington and the ship Mellice had been serving on, USS Revolution-A. The Rev sat still and externally silent in dry dock, while activity buzzed within; the ship being overhauled and upgraded.

"So what your telling me, Admiral, is you want to beat the Orion's to the kidnapping of your own daughter? You want someone who knows enough of guerrilla tactics to pull it off in hopes of undermining the Orion Syndicate and hopefully throwing a hydrospanner, so to speak, into their illegal slave trading ring?"

Mellice furrowed his brows in thought, as he had a feeling he knew why Admiral Harris had singled him out for this mission.

His experience in these kinds of missions served him during the crash of the original Revolution on the ice planet, when he had reverted back to his alter ego, the man known as The Prophets Fist.

Admiral Harris nodded his head only once to what Mellice had just said.

"And you, my boy, are the man I have chosen for this mission. Commodore Aberhart and Admiral Gene both have spoken very highly of your skills as a security officer aboard the Revolution and what you've done to help keep not just the crew safe but its civilian population also.

“I also heard you've been teaching the children in the school about the Occupation of Bajor…” He stopped, and his expression changed as he began to speak again. “I also know you've been rather restless aboard the station, with the Revolution out of service. This mission will serve two purposes, the first one being the 'kidnapping' of my own daughter.”

“…and the second…" Mellice inquired.

"You are to assassinate the Orion Syndicate boss who gave the order to destroy Border Station Indigo, and did destroy the original ,Revolution through his henchmen's computer virus.

“Complete both objectives and the crews of both Indigo and the Rev will thank you for it. But more importantly, my daughter will not end up looking over her shoulder for years to come wondering if this is the day that those who wish to use her against the Federation will finally strike."

A wicked grin formed on the Bajoran’s lips, and he answered without hesitation. "I'll do it."

-=End Flash Back=-


Thinking back to that day, Mellice knew if they had stumbled upon the same intel that SI had, it wouldn't be hard for the Romulans to look for the Orion transmission in their own database. If they did indeed have it, then they were surely screwed and he was a dead man walking.

If they didn't, then both he and Kelly could count their lucky stars that the Tal Shiar had been otherwise occupied and missed that particular bit of intelligence.

"Arrangements will be made for the shared quarters." Antok told them both, as they were then escorted from the bridge. “I hope you will enjoy your stay.”

***********************************************

Lieutenant (jg) Mellice Cem
Assistant Security/Tactical Chief
USS Revolution NCC-71605-A
Discovered Federation Spy within the Orion Syndicate

&

Centurion Borov
Romulan Security Chief
NPC As Played by
Commander Salvek