80819.14
Immediately following Resigned
-=USS Gauntlet, in orbit of Betazed=-
Immediately following Resigned
-=USS Gauntlet, in orbit of Betazed=-
As Jonas Vox watched his security officers take Zanh Liis away, he sighed.
He hated to see such a promising career end this way.
Still, she had truly no one to blame but herself...
"What have you done?"
A horrified voice squeaked out the exclamation and Vox whirled around, hand poised to hit his combadge and report an intruder alert. His fingertips never made contact with the metal of the badge however, because another, quicker hand stopped him.
"Shhh. Don't do that." Vox blinked quickly, and then he realized that his visitors were none other than Fen and Tred, his own personal liaisons to the 'people upstairs' at Temporal- i.e., the Temporal Emergency Management Agency.
"Seeing us twice in one of Earth's solar years, Admiral," Tred commented with a shake of his head as he slowly released Vox' hand. "That has to be some sort of record."
"He is title holder of the previous record," Fen piped up quickly. A veritable treasure trove the man was of Jonas Vox trivia and TI potpourri in general. "Two visits in sixteen months."
"Gentlemen," Vox inhaled slowly in through his nostrils and released the breath through his lips. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Oh, it's no pleasure and you won't be happy to hear it. But hang on a second. First thing you have to do is tell Security to bring Captain Zanh back in."
"She is not Captain Zanh any longer." Vox snarled.
"That is part of the problem. Bring her back in." Fen leaned closer to Vox, his tone utterly polite but completely insistent. "Please." He added hastily, "and please forgive our sudden appearance. We do so hate to barge in on people like that but, well, Admiral sadly you left us no choice."
"How so?"
"You've gone and done it now," Tred breathed nervously, checking a device on his wrist once, twice. Three times. "You've started a Cascade."
"I?" Vox laughed incredulously. "Ridiculous. I've been working for Temporal Investigations for decades and I have never started a Cascade."
"That's right. You're the record holder for time served without one, in fact," Fen replied. "Until today. Sorry, you are no longer pitching a no-no."
Vox was perplexed, unsure what that meant exactly. "But,"
"Bring Zanh back in. Hurry. We're wasting time and that in this instance is one thing we don't have to play around with."
Vox spun on both men and started literally backing them into the corner of his ready room. He raised an accusatory index finger and poked it into each man's chest in turn, alternately.
"Before I do anything you're going to tell me how the hell I created a Cascade."
"Well, first," Fen began, holding up his own index finger and suspending it mid-air, "Dane Cristiane. Ouch. You should not have recruited him to spy on Zanh. Bad idea."
"I never would have believed the great Jonas Vox could be capable of sacrificing the timeline for the sake of petty revenge," Tred whispered softly to Fen, but not so softly that Vox couldn't hear him.
"Indeed," Fen clucked his tongue. "How far the mighty have fallen,"
"Gentlemen," Vox felt his head begin to throb, a sure indication that his blood pressure was elevated. "Exactly what did I do wrong?"
"The phrase, 'throwing the baby out with the bathwater' comes to mind." Tred remarked. "You underestimated the importance of Carrick O'Sullivan."
"You mean Keiran O'Sullivan."
"No. We mean Carrick." Fen replied. "But really, Admiral. We must speak with Zanh Liis. Also, you must stop ignoring the hails from the Alchemy, they're not just going to go away quietly and just let you take their CO with you. They've seen and heard too much at this point. You must meet with Salvek, Blane, and Zanh and before this is over, you're going to have to spring Dane from their brig and bring Landry Steele into this too."
"Steele? She's only my assistant!" Vox protested. "She's just a little girl."
"She was just your assistant. Until you turned her into a purposely planted operative to suit your own twisted sense of justice,” Fen blurted, suddenly horrified as his words echoed in the room around him at a seemingly exaggerated volume. "Good grief, did I say that aloud? Apologies."
"I'm afraid we really must insist that you bring Captain Zanh in now," Tred folded his arms, trying to look menacing and missing the mark by a mile. Still, Vox knew these men had reasons to be where they were. TEMA never showed up without just cause. He sighed and looked up at the ceiling helplessly.
"All right." He tapped his badge. "Vox to Security, please turn Zanh Liis around and bring her back to me."
[On our way, Sir.]
"Why must I speak with Salvek?" Vox inquired.
"And Blane!" Fen chirped.
"Yes, yes. And Mister Blane." There was another person who, when thought about too long, threatened to raise Vox' blood pressure beyond the point of safety.
"Because, they are going to have to help you to stop the Cascade."
"Send a Jump Team to fix it." Vox replied sounding rather bored. He turned his back on them and checked the moisture level in the African violet plant on his desk. *Over watered, *
"Do you think we would be here if it were that simple, Admiral Vox?"
"I think he underestimates our skill and abilities, Fen."
"I would have to agree with that assessment, Tred."
"Thank you very kindly, I appreciate the back-up."
"What are partners for..."
"Gentlemen!" Vox' composure began to slip as he felt a vein in his neck begin throbbing in time with his heartbeat. *I swear the only one who chatters more than these people is that hyper Trill, Reece...*
The door chime sounded, and Vox gestured for the two agents to stand up against the wall, where they could not easily be seen from the doorway.
He blocked entry to the room with his body, not allowing the Security team to come back inside.
"Thank you. I will call for you when we are finished." Vox told the confused team, who merely shrugged and walked away. He then grabbed Zanh by the shoulder and pulled stepped aside only enough for her to pass by.
For her part, Liis was still lost in a complete daze.
She was still holding the large, manila colored envelope Vox had given her up against her chest, and simply stared off into the distance.
"If you please." Vox said, much more politely for the sake of the TEMA agents than he had said anything to Zanh in years.
Once the door closed, Vox initiated the lock, and told Zanh to sit.
Obedient as a humiliated child, Zanh moved toward the chair opposite his desk. She would not reach it, however. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a shadow move behind her and she jumped, spun, and reached for the phaser that was normally situated at her hip. She'd forgotten for a moment that it wasn't there now.
"DID YOU SEE THAT!" Fen jumped backward, hurrying to lower his voice as Zanh startled again at the sound as she had at his shadow. "Look at her move! I can't believe it, Tred. THAT is Zanh Liis!"
"I know who I am. Who the holy hells are you?" Zanh demanded, finally moving backward and sitting down on the edge of Vox' desk. It took a moment for her to place the uniforms they were wearing. She had not seen the likes of them in a very, very long time. "Good grief. Not..."
"Temporal Emergency Management Agency at your service, Zanh Liis." Tred rushed forward, grabbing Zanh's empty right hand and pumping it up and down with a vengeance. "I am Agent Tred, this is Agent Fen. It is such an honor to meet you...we've been familiar with your work for so long but we never thought we’d get to meet you in person this way let alone-"
"Tred, you're babbling." Vox snapped. Zanh, now utterly confused, set down the envelope on the desk and regained her footing, marching up to Tred and grabbing him by the collar of his uniform.
"IS there a temporal emergency?" She demanded. Some nearly extinguished, barely smoldering ember of life in her was suddenly fanned back to life by the thought and was only a breath away from bursting back into full-blown flame. "My compass is dark."
"Your compass is dark because someone deactivated it the moment you left Temporal Investigations HQ on Earth last time." Tred stammered, as Liis' fingertips grasped not only his shirt but also a handful of his chest hair, causing him considerable pain. "Please, let us explain,"
"Who?" Liis demanded, in her heart already knowing the answer. "Who deactivated it!"
Tred and Fen both rolled their eyes up toward the ceiling, lips forming into gentle 'o' shapes as though they were about to whistle a tune, and then just as quickly, their gaze settled back upon a now very quiet Jonas Vox, who was standing across the room staring out the view port at the Alchemy, hovering in the distance.
"Son of a bitch!" Liis flew across the room and grabbed Vox by the shoulder, spinning him around. Her left fist connected with his jaw, and a stream of blood ran from the corner of his mouth instantly after contact.
"He's dead because of you! You screwed with the system! He was never supposed to,"
"...to Jump again? That's right, Zanh Liis. Keiran was never supposed to Jump again after the Sylph encounter." Vox turned his head slightly, spat, and then wiped at the remaining trickle of blood with the cuff of his sleeve.
"However, you complicated matters. You withheld information, I was certain of it. That led me to believe he was doing so as well. With those factors in play, when he asked to take that Jump to try to repair the damage the Sylph had done,"
"Wait, wait." Liis shook her head, poised still to take another swing at him even as Fen and Tred held her back, one on each side of her. "He asked to go on that one way Jump, and you LET him?"
"He was so unhappy…It seemed the kindest thing to-"
Now Liis growled with fury, and broke free from the two shell-shocked TEMA agents.
They had never seen anything quite like this.
"Keiran is DEAD because of YOU!" she cried.
Vox began an attempt in earnest now to divert her blows, finally grabbing her wrist and twisting it around behind her back.
Liis responded by yanking his arm in the opposite direction from the one it was intended to bend in, and just before she broke it, she stomped on his foot with her boot and broke free.
The noise of the struggle brought a handful of bridge officers including Vox' XO Daniel Yeager running into the room.
"Yeah, hi. How are you today?" Fen greeted the Gauntlet's bridge crew with a weak wave as they hurried to come to the aid of their commanding officer. "Thanks for your concern, but we have things under control. This is a private meeting, folks. Bye now."
"Have a lovely day," Tred added, waving them out of the room even as Vox and Zanh stood toe to toe, glaring at each other.
Recognizing their uniforms and knowing that if his input was wanted he'd be asked to stay, Yeager went into damage-control mode and ushered his officer back to their stations. "Move along, people. Our help is not wanted here. Sorry for the intrusion."
"Not at all, thank you kindly." Vox replied. Once the door closed again, Zanh Liis raged on.
"If you are single-handedly responsible for Keiran’s death, Jonas Vox," she rasped, "I swear I will be single-handedly responsible for yours."
-=/\=- Zanh Liis
Aboard the Gauntlet
Aboard the Gauntlet