by -=/\=- Zanh Liis
80828.16
Following Rescue Orders
-=Admiral's Ready Room: USS Gauntlet=-
80828.16
Following Rescue Orders
-=Admiral's Ready Room: USS Gauntlet=-
After Salvek's departure, Admiral Vox addressed the rest of the would-be Away Team and gestured toward the door with an open palm.
"Move along. Security will show you the way, you can replicate some new clothing and will be given other appropriate... accoutrements for the task ahead."
"No such 'accoutrements' of the Temporal Investigations variety, Admiral," Fen warned, and Tred concurred with resolute agreement.
"Yes, that's right. No futuristic toys. It is imperative that Captain Zanh and her team use only the standard issue technologies of the day on this mission. Otherwise they risk corrupting the timeline even further."
"Is that even possible?" Dane couldn't fathom the thought, given in the current version Keiran was dead or dying, his kid was in trouble, Zanh Liis was not acting at all like Zanh Liis, and he found he was on everyone's shit list, including that of the Admiral who owned him and the very imposing, exacting Commander Blane.
"Don't ever ask if it's possible to make a timeline worse, Mister Cristiane!" Tred gasped, shuddering with horror. "The answer is always, always a definitive yes."
"A moment of your time, Zanh Liis?" Fen asked, lurching forward and taking Zanh by the sleeve as she walked by. She stared down at his hand as it grasped the fabric of her tunic, and then up at him again.
"Are you touching me?" Zanh's question was the only warning he would get before she stopped him, violently, from doing so ever again.
Immediately, Fen let go, snatching his hand back as if he'd touched an open flame. "No, no, of course not, Captain. I would never show such disrespect, it's just, we need to talk. Just for a second."
"Everyone else out, please." Tred added, joining Fen at Zanh's side. He was amused by the fact that the smaller man took up position behind him, putting the taller TEMA agent between himself and the seething Bajoran.
Vox looked absolutely opposed to and insulted by the idea, but he knew he had no choice but to comply if they insisted. "You can't possibly mean to include me."
"Yes, everyone, Admiral. Please and thank you." Fen clarified, politely smiling at Vox as he waited for him to obey the request.
Finally and with great disgust, Vox vacated his own Ready Room.
"This is ridiculous," he complained. "Absolutely ridiculous."
*You've got that much right, and whose fault would that be?* TC Blane thought angrily, staring through Vox as they walked out onto the Gauntlet's bridge.
Inside the room they had just vacated, the captain clenched her jaw and demanded to know why 'Tweedledee and Tweedledum' had delayed her. She wanted nothing more at this point than to get the hell wherever they had to go, find Carrick, and bring him home.
"What do you want?" She folded her arms and clamped her hands down tightly against her own skin, trying to conceal the fact that she was shaking.
"We only want you to listen to your instincts, Zanh Liis." Fen answered softly. "You must leave guilt, regret, and all of the corresponding emotions behind if you're going to see your way clear through this."
She was about to argue that she could see just fine, but she knew better than anyone that the past was exactly what had been in front of her- for days now. It blinded her- an enormous obstruction between her and her future.
"You must see your way clear through this," Tred added sympathetically, but firmly. A long silence followed as each was preoccupied by their own thoughts. Then the man's expression suddenly brightened. "If you do, the results could be quite surprising."
"I hate surprises." Zanh balked.
"Of course you do. Given your history, I would expect no other response. Surprises can be frightening," Fen conceded. "But sometimes fear is more our friend than our enemy. Remember that, and whatever happens..." he looked her dead in the eyes, "go with your gut, Zanh Liis."
"I'll do my best," Liis promised. "For the timeline, and for..."
Sadness haunted her tired features, and once again Fen found he couldn't help but risk personal life and limb to try to encourage the woman with the weight of the worlds on her shoulders.
He patted her gently on the back as she concluded her thought with a hoarse whisper. "...for the O'Sullivans."
"Just think," Fen offered gently, "if you succeed, you will probably never see us, or anyone like us, again in your lifetime." *At least not in this timeline,* he thought.
"Now that's something to strive for." Zanh returned, breaking free and walking to the door. She glanced back over her shoulder. "No offense."
"None taken." Tred assured her. "Godspeed and good luck, Captain."
-=An Hour Later: Main Shuttlebay of the USS Gauntlet=-
A cheery voice, singing remarkably on key broke the weight of the stillness that had enveloped the crew as they took stock of the controls of their borrowed Betazed merchant vessel, Rixx Rewards.
Dane Cristiane looked up from the comm station with marked annoyance, and across the small bridge TC Blane mirrored the expression identically. This was something that ordinarily would have amused Landry Steele to no end. But right now, as she sat at the Science station feeling completely useless, nothing could amuse her.
She had no idea why she'd even been drafted for this. In fact, her career had stopped making any sense to her at all the moment that she'd been sent to this mysterious entity called Temporal Investigations to become personal assistant to the Admiral-in-Chief.
Next thing she knew, between doling out aspirin by the handful, medication for Vox' blood pressure and getting sworn at, repeatedly, by the likes of Zanh Liis, she was sent into this most disturbing form of exile.
*Internship, my ass...* Landry thought, then she winced when she realized that she seemed to be picking up the propensity for profanity that had so offended her upon first meeting the Bajoran woman who sat at the helm, cursing softly even now as she analyzed its configuration.
"Problem, Captain?" TC inquired, looking up from the tactical display. This ship was, in his estimation, woefully vulnerable considering the fact that the mission they were about to undertake was so dangerous. He honestly hoped that they would just be dumping it when they arrived at their destination- and that they could rely on the Sera or Alchemy to be their ride home if they needed to escape their environment in a hurry.
"It's just that Vox neglected to consider the fact when he got us this loaner that none of us are telepaths." Zanh grumbled softly. "I am trying to find a way to turn the neural command interface off and go to manual control." Ordinarily, she would have been able to locate the manual override very quickly. With her history as a pilot, Zanh had flown many interesting, alien vessels in her day.
But these were not ordinary circumstances and today she was having a hard time keeping her focus. She knew that she had to pull herself together before they reached their destination.
She could not afford to be scattered or distracted once they got into the heart of the mission- or everyone would pay for her inattention with their lives.
"Thomas, could you take a look? I need to have a quick chat with our very...musical friend over there." Liis pointed to the just-arrived Commander Reece, the source of the tune they had been serenaded with thus far.
He put his hands on his hips and stared indignantly down at Steele. "Hey you, girl I don't know. You're in my seat. Moooove."
Landry sighed and began to look around for another quiet corner in which to hide. Finding there were none left, she joined Blane at the Tactical station, standing just over his shoulder.
TC turned slowly, his ice blue eyes piercing through her. "Did you need something,
Ensign?" His tone made Landry jump back a step.
"Just looking for a place to stand, Sir."
"Well don't stand there." Blane was still suspicious of the young woman, knowing who had sent her to their crew to begin with, and doubting her true purpose here was anything other than to spy on Zanh and her crew- himself included.
"Isn't there something I can do to make myself useful?" Landry threw her hands in the air helplessly. "I'm just using up oxygen here and it's driving me crazy."
"Yes." Zanh Liis stopped mid-step on her way to talk to Reece and addressed Steele. "Take this, and read it. When you're done, read it again." It was a report with what little data the TEMA people had been willing to share to allow them to undertake this ill-advised rescue attempt. "Then tell me what's there."
"Aye, Captain." Landry took the PADD gratefully and moved over to the last vacant chair on the bridge, at the main engineering station. Controls to it had been rerouted to security so Blane could monitor them as well.
Reece had settled into his chair and was still, much to Zanh's chagrin, singing.
Liis grabbed the back of Reece's chair and spun him violently to face her.
"Whoa." Reece marveled, blinking rapidly and holding his hand up in front of his face as a wave of dizziness washed over him. "I see spots. Wait." He thought of the irony of that remark and then laughed a little. "Again!"
Once his vision came back into focus, he yanked gently on the low ponytail secured at the nape of Zanh's neck. "Awww, you didn't keep the dreads! I really thought that look was totally you, Tia Dalma!"
"Reece, this is no time for you to be...you. Got it?"
Liis leaned forward and whispered in his ear for a moment, and he jumped out of his seat and clapped his hands together. He began humming another song, and moving stealthily around from person to person. He pretended to duck and dodge imaginary adversaries, holding his right hand aloft with fingers outstretched into the shape of an imaginary pistol.
"Reece. Dabin Reece," He whispered loudly to Blane, wiggling his eyebrows. "Temporal Investigations Secret Agent!"
"You are no such thing." Zanh snapped, clapping her hand on Reece's shoulder and pulling him away from Blane just as TC looked like he wanted to jump up and remove the man from his personal space himself, much less gently than Zanh was doing it. "Thomas, how's it going with the manual control issue?"
"Still working on it, Captain." Blane replied, releasing a frustrated breath slowly, his eyes still boring into Reece with annoyance that made Reece thrust out his lower lip into a mighty pout.
"Come on, you guys are no fun. We're on some super secret classified covert mission thingie, and this is the mood of the day? Whatever happened to that 'we're unstoppable and we're going to save the day' Starfleet spirit? Goooo team!"
"Stop yammering a minute will you and listen to me? Very, very carefully." Zanh's patience was wearing thin. She hadn't brought Reece along for his entertainment value, which, if she were being honest, was truly considerable.
She brought him because he was the best CSO in the whole of Starfleet, and if anyone could find one human on a planet full of various lifeforms, the proverbial needle in the haystack they were looking for, Dabin was the man for the job. But she needed him to pay attention and realize that this trip, while 'cloak and dagger' of necessity, was not going to consist of fun and games.
"Yeah, sure okay Liisy." Reece stopped, listened, and nodded his understanding once as Zanh began whispering to him.
She continued for a good ninety seconds before he responded again.
"Soooo," His expression began to change, and he stopped bouncing up and down on his feet. He tilted his head closer to her lips, taking in every word she spoke until she was done.
"Um," His eyes clouded with concern, and the corners of his lips turned downward. "Oh. Crap. That's not good."
"No, it's not. So, we have to fix it. We have to find him."
Suddenly, Reece put his hands on her shoulders and squeezed them supportively. "I understand. We'll find him all right, don't you worry your pretty little wrinkled nose about it. Reece is on the job."
Liis nodded her thanks, and then turned her attention back to the helm. "Did you find it, Commander Blane?"
"I found it. Whether or not the command actually went through, I couldn't tell you yet, the computer is still crunching the data. This machine is not exactly what you would call state of the art."
"Yeah, well if our ride was too elaborate, we'd raise suspicion among whomever it is we're trying to blend in with." Liis fell heavily back into the pilot's seat, preparing to test out Blane's efforts to reroute command control.
She gave him an appreciative glance as the lighted panel came alive beneath her fingers, and the engines began to wind up.
"Thomas Cassius Blane, you are one handy guy to have around." She smiled gently as she laid in their course based on the coordinates they'd been provided.
"Happy to be of service."
"Heading and speed laid in. Dane, request departure clearance from the Gauntlet's bridge."
"Time to arrival at Klaestron?" Dane asked as he worked, anxious to get down to business.
"We'll get there when we get there, Ensign," Zanh was still very unhappy with the young man and had every intention of making him squirm the entire way there. "Until we do get there, you will speak only when spoken to- or if we have incoming comm traffic. Understand?"
"Yes, Sir." Dane muttered, turning back to his station. "We're cleared to depart."
-=Bridge of the Gauntlet=-
Jonas Vox paced with his hands behind his back as he watched the Betazoid ship disappear into Warp.
"Do you think they can do it, Sir?" Commander Yeager asked quietly, having been briefed by Vox the moment that the TEMA agents had gone.
"If they can't, no one can." Vox answered honestly.
-=Aboard Rixx Rewards=-
An hour passed in silence, with everyone doing their respective jobs and trying to brace themselves for whatever lay ahead. With the auto-pilot locked in, Zanh Liis stood from her chair, turned, and addressed her team.
"There is something you should know."
Her voice was hollow; her eyes void of all emotion.
"I know that you've all at least met Keiran O'Sullivan. I also know that none of us has ever met his son before. But that son is," she paused as she sought the proper words of explanation. "...in a way,"
Blane's jaw set as he watched her struggle- he knew what she was going to say, and was amazed she had somehow found the strength to say it.
"Carrick O'Sullivan is, or was, in another time and place," she took turns meeting the eyes of each officer with her own. "My stepson."
Reece stared at the floor. This was what she had whispered, among other things, into his ear earlier. Still, he found hearing the words spoken so clearly aloud even more disturbing. Suddenly so many things, including the Vedek's departure from the ship for the time being, made so much sense...
"Wait," Dane knew he wasn't supposed to speak, but he couldn't stop himself. He thought back to what he'd been able to read of Keiran's letter, and he understood that Zanh had meant something to the man- but enough that he could actually have married her?
"You and Keiran were, somewhere, in some time,"
"Yes, Dane." Liis shivered as she spoke. "We were." Her countenance hardened again, and she pointed toward his chair. "Keep your station."
"God," Dane muttered softly, "Married? I don't believe it," The gravity of what he had done for Vox pressed ever harder down upon his shoulders.
He had to make it right, somehow.
"Believe it." Liis replied, directing her gaze back to the helm.
"I want to be sure everyone gets some food and a little sleep before we arrive," Zanh instructed. "Because we don't know how long it'll be until we get either once we are there."
==============================
-=/\=- Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Currently aboard Rixx Rewards
-=/\=- Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Currently aboard Rixx Rewards