by Admiral Vox
80706.11
Immediately following For This One Wish
-=Transporter Room: USS Perseids=-
80706.11
Immediately following For This One Wish
-=Transporter Room: USS Perseids=-
"Welcome home, Captain."
Keiran merely groaned.
Knowing that this was a standard reply, the ship's XO Ashton Ledbetter forged ahead with the question that demanded to be asked.
"Temporal status?"
In one swift motion Keiran yanked the compass from his belt, flipped open the lid, and held it up on display.
"Dark," he declared, stating the obvious about his mood in addition to the current status of his guiding piece of technology.
"Excellent!" Ash clapped his hands together once. "In that case, we have our orders and will be departing soon. First, though, the Admiral wishes to speak to you over subspace."
*I bet he does at that.* Keiran thought.
"In my quarters, then," he agreed, as he strode across the transporter room and out through the doors. Ledbetter followed, having to take two steps for every one of Keiran's long strides just to keep up.
"You look exhausted, Captain."
"Rough trip." Keiran thought that surely Ledbetter could understand. After all, he too had been doing this sort of thing for years.
"Rough coworkers." Ashton replied, irritation evident in his voice. "That woman ought to come with a warning label."
Keiran didn't respond. He stood before the turbolift, unmoving, until Ash finally pressed the button to summon it.
"How is our little black balloon these days? Still sucking the life out of everyone around her?"
Keiran held his tongue.
Ash had been on a Jump while he had been on the Sera, and they had not yet been debriefed as to what information they could safely share, if any, about their respective experiences.
Keiran didn't want to say the wrong thing and risk mucking up the timeline now, least of all for the sake of small talk.
He did think of one small detail that was a matter of public record...one that he could safely share and which he knew would amuse Ledbetter.
"Far as she knows, you're dead."
"Really?" He dragged the one word out into several unnatural syllables. "How did it happen this time?"
"Nasty business, that." Keiran's eyes lit up slightly as he widened them for dramatic effect. "You were murdered by the Romulans and they put a surgically altered operative in your place. In fact, they tried to frame her for your death."
Keiran still could not find the courage to speak her name and hoped that Ledbetter would not, knowing neither did he have the courage to hear it.
"She was almost court-martialed," he concluded.
"Almost?" Ledbetter actually sounded disappointed. "But not quite?" Somehow after all that working with her had done to him over the years, the idea of her standing trial for his assassination was perversely satisfying. On several levels.
"No," Keiran couldn't help but shake his head. "Not quite."
"Seems then that Zanh Liis' luck is still running true to form." Ledbetter sighed.
*Not lately,* Keiran thought sadly. His stomach knotted. *He just had to say her name, didn't he...*
Then, adding insult to injury Ledbetter said it again.
"Zanh Liis has the most insanely good luck of anyone I've ever met. Damn her to Hell." Ledbetter sighed.
Knowing what a struggle it had been for Ash to be paired with Zanh during the years that he was her Jump partner, Keiran forgave him the remark. Liis had been the senior partner then, and there was never a moment in their partnership during which she let Ashton forget it.
He was weary of talking, and just wanted to get back to his quarters, get through this conversation with Vox, and get as far away from Earth as he possibly could. As quickly as he could.
There was nothing more he could do for her, or himself in this time and location. All he could do was get back to work, even while longing for that ever elusive chance he might have to try again with her. *Next time...*
The lift doors opened and Keiran got inside, but held his hand up to ask that Ledbetter keep his position. "Ten minutes, then patch the Admiral through. After that I will try to catch some sleep and in the morning I'll see you on the bridge."
"Aye, Captain..." Ledbetter was concerned, but had to trust that O'Sullivan was ready and willing to return to his position of command. If he'd learned one thing from his job, it was that second guessing yourself, or anyone else constantly was the surest and shortest path to insanity.
-=Captain's Quarters=-
Keiran tossed his bag onto the bed and slumped into the chair at the desk.
He pulled the rosary out of his pocket and looked at it. He grasped it tightly, closed his eyes...
...but could not pray.
Lost in a daze, he stared at the ring on his left hand as the minutes flew past and soon the screen before him came to life.
[Report.] Vox demanded.
"Compass is dark. I'm back on the Persey, and I don't know what more ya want from me, Jonas."
Vox' expression did not alter. [You were in Ireland.]
"Yeah, I was, true enough." Keiran replied casually, rubbing the stubbly five o'clock shadow that had formed on his chin hours ago. "You told me to go there yourself. Surprised I listened to ya?"
[Surprised you didn't have company.] Vox responded tersely. [You didn't see her after leaving here, did you?]
Keiran laughed softly. "You can pinpoint our location on the planet at any given time via compass or combadge. She had both on her person. You're tryin' to tell me that you don't know where she spent every second of her time on Earth before she went back to the Sera?"
Vox now frowned.
He knew that O'Sullivan was keenly aware that there were devices available to persons in their profession that effectively jammed, or better still, rerouted such tracking chips to give a false result.
Devices which Zanh Liis was certainly smart enough to: A) know how to use and B) would have had the foresight to bring if she were planning on trying to conceal her true whereabouts from anyone. She would only have had to deactivate the device a split second before transporting off the planet, and that split second would not have been enough time for the chip to register a change from the false location to the authentic one.
Vox believed, somehow, that was exactly what she had done today.
[I sincerely doubt that Zanh Liis spent all day sitting in the Russian Tea Room, eating scones. That is what the tracking data indicated.]
Keiran had to fight to suppress a smile which would betray the deep satisfaction he felt at hearing this. *Good girl, Liis...*
"Maybe she was conducting her own recon mission to try to pick up Breaux's trail," Keiran offered. "You know that he was meant to meet Angela Nolan at the Russian Tea Room when you sent Lair in her place."
Vox considered this but still had his doubts. Still, he knew when he was beat.
If the man had seen Zanh Liis, he was never going to admit it, and if he hadn't, there was no sense in tormenting him. Especially not right now.
Besides, he had other means of gathering information which would likely prove much more efficient...and cooperative.
[Perhaps.] Vox shifted in his chair. [Its really gone dark?]
Keiran sighed with profound annoyance and opened up the compass once again, proving his words to be true.
[Very well. Keep in touch.]
Keiran knew that "keep in touch" was Vox-speak for 'I'll be watching every blessed move you make...'
"Take care, then." Keiran closed the channel, and leaned back in his chair. He looked around at his quarters.
He knew that this, at least for now, was home. Still, tonight it felt like the furthest thing from it.
Stretching out his legs and propping his enormous, booted feet up on the desk, he stared up at the ceiling. The fingers of his right hand twisted the ring on his left, as he wished for all he was worth that he could turn the clock back just a little, to the time moments ago when he was still holding her in his arms, and nothing else seemed to matter.
-=Office of Admiral Vox, Temporal Investigations HQ=-
"LANDRY!"
"Yes, Admiral?" Landry dropped the Twinkie she was eating and bolted into his office. Misjudging the distance needed to stop on the freshly polished floor in her new boots, she skidded past her intended end point and came to a landing up against the desk.
Vox blinked.
"I hate to do this to you."
*Oh crap, whenever he says that, the following is never a good thing...*
"Do what, Sir?"
"Go back to your room and throw a few things in a bag," Vox admonished. "You're taking a field trip."
"Sir?"
"Eyes and ears, Ensign. I need eyes and ears upon Zanh Liis and you're going to help me with that."
*Oh no. No, no no no no.*
"I am...Sir?"
"Yes, Landry, you are. And before you start feeling too sorry for yourself, feel sorrier for me. I'm going to have to somehow manage with a temp while you're gone."
She had a hard time feeling much sympathy for his plight when compared with hers. More than a little sarcasm was apparent in her tone as she replied. "My sincere condolences, Sir."
Landry's mind shrieked and her heart sank, but she knew that orders were orders.
As she turned away and tried to accept her fate semi-gracefully, she didn't look back as she made one last attempt to try to get him to reconsider.
"You're certain she didn't spend all day drinking tea, Sir?"
Vox' answer was quick, and sure.
"I would bet my life upon it."
-----------------------------------
[////] Jonas Vox
Director of The Alchemy Project
Starfleet Command/Temporal Investigations
[////] Jonas Vox
Director of The Alchemy Project
Starfleet Command/Temporal Investigations