by -=/\=- Zanh Liis and TC Blane
81030.13
Immediately Following Past, Present, and Future
-=County Cork, Ireland; Earth=-
81030.13
Immediately Following Past, Present, and Future
-=County Cork, Ireland; Earth=-
He heard the swish of her dress as she moved, announcing her approach before she opened her mouth to speak.
"The next President of the Federation, ladies and gentlemen; Thomas Cassius Blane."
Blane laughed. "Not on your life."
"Glad to hear it, because I need you to stay exactly where you are." Her eyes were bright and expressive. "On Sera's bridge and keeping my 'fat out of the fire'."
Certain that she must be tired by this point in the evening, Blane pushed a nearby chair out with his foot and offered it to her.
"Only if you sit too."
"As you wish." He retrieved a second chair and watched closely for her reaction to what he was about to do next.
He flipped the chair backward and smirked, imitating her habit of turning chairs the wrong way to straddle them. It wasn't exactly the most lady-like habit, but it was quintessential Zanh Liis.
She laughed, highly amused.
"If I tried that in this thing there would be a catastrophic breakdown of bridal gown structural integrity unlike anything Ireland has ever seen. An epic wrenching of sequins from silk. Tragic."
She reached into the small handbag which had been looped around her wrist by a satin ribbon all evening.
"I meant to give you this upstairs before the ceremony, but I think now is better." She pulled out a small box. "Here you go."
TC stared at the box, which he knew contained some representation of the traditional gift that a bride gave to thank those standing up in her wedding. Being he was a man and not the standard matron of honor, he couldn't resist making a joke.
"Oh, I hope it's the pearl earrings I've always wanted..."
"Sadly, no. Maybe for Christmas." She jested. "But I think it is something that is almost as handy to have around as you are. You may already even own one of these, but..." she shrugged and watched as he pulled the ribbon from the box. "This one is from me. I hope you like it."
TC lifted the lid, his mouth falling open as he saw the amazing Swiss Army Knife inside.
It was dark in color, with an authentic Rosewood handle inlaid with his initials. It also seemed to have every possible tool known to man contained within that handle.
"Captain...I...Thank you." Was all the man managed to utter.
She smiled as she watched him look over his new toy, but soon her expression turned serious. The rest of the company seemed to disappear from the room as her mind replayed images from her history with TC Blane.
"Thomas," she smiled, shaking her head in amazement. "How far we've come."
-=Flashback: Eighteen months ago; USS Independence=-
"Afternoon, Mr. Blane." She greeted him casually. She waited to see his reaction before setting down her food at his table. She had sensed for a while now that he was a man who didn't entirely trust her as his leader, no matter how swiftly he carried out every command he was given.
"Mind if I join you?"
TC's eyes narrowed as he studied the acting CO, wondering if she had an ulterior motive. He was still uneasy since the incident in the brig and fully untrusting of those with secretive power; a side effect of his years with special ops. He sat up, brushing off powdered sugar from his uniform, the remnants of the calorie filled treat that he had just consumed.
"Have a seat." He kicked out a chair with his foot.
Zanh side-stepped the moving piece of furniture and waited for it to come to a stop. She set down her plate, turned the chair backward and straddled it to sit. She draped one elbow over the chair's high back. She picked up a fork with her left hand, poking her food with it.
"Much obliged."
"Don't even know where to start with all this," she gestured toward the food London had stacked on her plate, using her fork. Then she gestured to the empty plates in front of him as she settled on trying a bite of the hasparat. "I take it you found the food selection satisfactory, TC?"
His eyebrow rose just slightly at her use of his name instead of his rank. She noticed instantly that it seemed to rub him the wrong way and added, "If I can call you TC? Everybody else around here fares far worse when I get past calling them by their rank. But with you, I'm thinkin' I'll stick with TC, or perhaps Thomas, if you prefer."
She knew that some found her difficult to understand, or work with. Once you reached a certain rank, it was a given that not everyone was going to like you. She would have been willing to wager that Blane was one of those people. Still it was not in her nature to be difficult with anyone, just for the sake of it.
Now TC was not sure where this was going. He shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose you can call me whatever you would like. You are a ranking officer."
He knew he was being defensive but was careful not to be too abrasive. In the back of his mind a small voice told him that he might be looking too deep into Zanh Liis' intentions. Still, he could not shake his instinct to be careful around her. He opted to try to be civil back, to see where the conversation would lead. He observed her plate and pointed to it.
"I'd start with the vegetables, they are rather good. If you like your food spicy," he offered. "That meatloaf looking thing there is also really good." His eyebrows raised in thought. "I never inquire too deeply into food. Sometimes, not knowing what it is or where it came from is preferable," he forced a smile. "As long as it is good going down."
"I suppose there are times when ignorance truly is bliss," Zanh countered, gesturing to the meat. "'Cause that 'meatloaf looking thing' is rinta stomach. On your native Earth, I think there is a similar dish. Called haggis."
She watched his expression change, then hastily added, "Kidding, I'm kidding. It's meatloaf. I approved the menu myself ahead of time." She took one bite of the vegetables he had suggested, and then another. They were indeed quite delicious. "You see, I find that with my food, as with my officers, I like to know in advance where I stand."
Trick London swept by and dropped off a cup of coffee for her. She nodded her thanks and then lifted the cup to her lips before speaking again.
"So, in case you're more particular about your ranking officers than your dining adventures, I want you to know straight up that I think you've been doing a hell of a job in the ops post, Lieutenant. I know you'd have preferred to stay in security. But sometimes, we're all called upon to serve in positions, or under people, we'd rather not."
*Ahh, now I know where this is going,* thought TC Blane. Her instincts were quite good.
"Thank you for the vote of confidence, Sir," he leaned forward and took another sip from his glass. "Permission to speak frankly?"
She nodded.
"Straight up, I don't know how to take you just yet, " he leaned even closer so he could speak in a lower tone, one that only she could hear. "That incident in the brig, with Windsor and the prisoner. Does not sit well," he paused, thinking of how to proceed. "I've dealt with your type before, in a past life and it did not sit well then, either. So, let's make a deal. When I know that your crew sits above your alliances of the past, then maybe we'll be friends. Until that time," he stood up, "you're simply a senior officer, and I will follow your orders to the best of my ability."
TC pointed to her meatloaf. "Enjoy your meal." He turned and made his way toward the exit, not giving her the opportunity to respond.
Zanh pushed her plate away and drained her coffee dry. She stood up and prepared to make one circuit around the room before heading back to the bridge.
Her eyes followed TC Blane as he disappeared from sight, and she was thinking that her impression of him had been correct from the get-go.
He hadn't seemed to her to be the sort of man who would shrink back from an insinuation, and his reaction to hers did not disappoint. He didn't try to blow sunshine. Even if he hated her guts, she knew she could work with him because he was willing to speak his mind, regardless of how many pips were on the collar of the person he was addressing.
It would likely have bothered the hell out of him to know it, but in that aspect even if none other, they were very much alike.
*Yep,* she thought to herself. *I knew I was going to like that guy.*
-=End Flashback=-
"A slip of latinum for your thoughts." Blane asked, though he had a feeling that he already knew. He too had been thinking about the first real exchange they'd had, at the reception following the medals ceremony for those, like himself, who had served on Bajor during the rescue and recovery after the Plains' disaster.
"I was just wondering if you know how to take me yet."
He laughed, fully remembering the conversation from the past. "At face value, sir, at face value." He grinned. "With the utmost trust."
TC's mind began to wander as well, through the many conversations they'd had since that first one. Exchanges which, over time, had built up the level of implicit trust that now existed between them.
His memories took him back to a dark time the previous winter, when they had managed to extricate her from Aertok, barely alive.
He remembered standing in Alchemy's Sickbay, watching over her as she lay motionless in stasis...
-=Flashback: One year ago, USS Alchemy=-
TC glanced at Jariel. “She is not destined to perish like this.” He closed his eyes.
“When he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun."
He glanced over at Jariel, who had a questioning look upon his face.
TC smiled slightly. “Shakespeare.” He explained. "I should go," his words implied one course of action, but his body language indicated another. His feet were still very much planted to the floor beside the chamber.
"Would you like a moment alone with her?" Jariel asked, and then without answering he moved to the doorway. "I could use a cup of tea. I didn't want to leave her alone. I would return in just a few minutes, if you would stay."
TC nodded. “Of course.”
Once Jariel was gone, TC drew in and released a long, slow breath. He started to say something, then stopped. He started a second time, and then sighed. Folding his arms across his chest once again he simply stared at his fallen captain, his thoughts silent for the moment.
It was then that TC noticed the Doctor had left a PADD on the counter beside the chamber, and he couldn't resist the urge to pick it up. Scrolling down, he saw two words that jumped out at him off the screen. Those words were "Self Inflicted".
TC realized what she'd done, and understood immediately why. With his background, it wasn't hard to comprehend. Still, looking at the results of that action before him, he hated that she'd had to make that choice.
He wondered if she had lost faith in her own rescue, or if time had simply run out. Knowing that the information in her head would be incredibly valuable to many of Starfleet’s competitors, she made the only choice available to her.
He leaned in close to the glass and stared at his captain’s face. He knew that she could not hear him, but he believed that her spirit would.
“Even if we are trained to die, we have got to believe that we're going to live.” He stared hard at the still form in the tube.
“No one gave you permission to die. So don’t you abandon your post. Or I swear, I will hunt you down in the afterlife and drag you back.” He tapped on the glass. “You know I would find a way.”
-=End Flashback=-
He glanced up at her now, observing that she too had retreated once more into her own thoughts...
-=Flashback: Weeks Ago, USS Alchemy=-
Zanh Liis had been taking out her frustrations on holographic targets for over an hour, and he wanted to be sure that she didn't overexert herself, given she was on medical leave.
Afraid now that she may have overdone it and lost consciousness, TC overrode the security lock out on the door and strode inside. "Computer, cease musical playback."
"Belay that."
She was sitting in the corner of the suite on the floor, legs crossed, head against the wall and staring up at the ceiling. "Decrease volume to 20 percent." She did not direct her eyes toward him at all as she greeted him. "Thomas."
"Captain." He watched as she closed her eyes and, still fighting to catch her breath, mouthed the words of the of the song along with the music.
Blane moved to stand near, but she gestured for him to sit beside her instead.
"I only came to see if you were finished here, Captain. The party is starting,"
"Thomas Cassius Blane," Zanh Liis still huffed and puffed as she finally cast her own blue eyes up toward his as he towered over her. "Sit."
Blane lowered himself to the deck, nodding respectfully.
Liis reached over and took up a bottle of water, drinking half down quickly before speaking again. "That offer still good?"
"I don't believe any of my offers to you have ever had expiration dates, Captain," TC answered thoughtfully, as his expression questioned which offer she was speaking of, specifically.
"The one about your ears and mouth being unattached?"
"Of course. You're ready to talk about..." he didn't volunteer anything, not wanting to say anything he shouldn't before she spoke her mind.
"To talk. Yes." Liis finished her water, and then ran the cold bottle over her forehead. She closed her eyes again for a moment. "What happened to me really was bad, wasn't it?"
TC hesitated before speaking. Commander Salvek had been clear about the need to keep the recent events under wraps from the public and also from the captain herself. But she was his captain, his friend. He stared at her for a long moment as he turned over in his mind the best way to proceed.
“Yes.” He finally answered. The sound of his voice carried with the weight of the answer and his expression softened. “Yes it was.”
"O'Sullivan too?"
He nodded.
"I can't talk to Salvek about this. It would be like trying to talk to the wall." She spoke softly and with great frustration. "He's digging his feet in this time. Simply will not discuss it with me.
"He's gone so far as to encrypt his reports to the Admiral as being for his eyes only, meaning that I can't even read them myself. He went over my head and out-classified me, the green blooded son of a-"
"Don't be too hard on him," Blane said gently. "He is only doing what he thinks is best for his Captain."
"What about what's best for his friend?"
"You know as well as I do that sometimes it is best if you do not know.” TC answered swiftly.
Liis swallowed hard, looked at the floor and uttered three words that would alter the complexion of the situation entirely.
"Thomas, I know."
TC stared at her for a moment. He thought about the events that surrounded the captain and O’Sullivan. She knew, she remembered. As far as he was concerned Commander Salvek's orders were null and void.
“Well then. That changes everything.”
-=End Flashback=-
Liis returned to the present as she heard Keiran's voice over her shoulder, softly asking if she was all right as she and Blane stared at each other wordlessly.
She nodded, her earring jingling as she moved. She reached out and took Blane's hand.
"Thomas," she began, but found there was nothing she could say. How do you thank a man for his loyalty, his friendship, and all that accompanied them with mere words? She found the task simply impossible.
"I know, Zanh Liis." He nodded, squeezing her hand in reply. "That's what friends do. They look out for each other." He rose from his chair and clapped his hands together, grinning again. "Well, I hear there's a cake to be cut soon. I want a large piece, please. Lots of frosting."
"You can have a whole tier if ya want." Keiran declared, shaking Blane's hand firmly. "Thanks, brother."
"Anytime."
Just as Blane was about to walk away a matronly, redheaded woman approached and looked at him expectantly.
"Evening, Ma'am." Blane offered, lowering his head respectfully.
She began quickly rambling on in the native language, leaving TC a bit dismayed. Keiran started to laugh, and he widened his eyes at the tall blond Commander.
"Seems you've made quite an impression on the locals, Thomas."
"How so?"
"Mrs. McConaughey here- she's mother to my sister in law Colleen, by the by..."
"Of course she is." TC replied as if that were obvious.
"She wants ya to know that..."Keiran repeated the same phrase that the woman had just spoken, and left Blane to wonder a moment what it meant. "Tá triúr iníon le cumhdach againn."
Blane stood fast, knowing if he was patient, Keiran would deliver the translation.
"Means, 'we have three marriageable daughters."
TC blinked twice, his facial expression not changing. “Well, it good to know I am marketable, Sir." He smiled.
----------------------------------------
Commander TC Blane
Second Officer and
the Bride's Best Man
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
-=/\=- Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Commander TC Blane
Second Officer and
the Bride's Best Man
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
-=/\=- Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
------------------------------------------------
NRPG: I figured it was high time to roll the 'highlight reel' in tribute to Mr. Blane...
Mister Blane, the writing we've done together this nearly past two years has produced posts that are among my all time favorites, ever, of anything I've ever written anywhere, with anyone. And in 12 years, that means hundreds upon hundreds of posts, among which yours stand out like gems. I can't even begin to tell you how many titles immediately jumped into my head when I tried to pick posts to reference here.
The above are but a few examples of key moments in the relationship between Blane and Zanh. It has gracefully evolved from that moment of sheer genius you had at the beginning (him kicking out the chair, which immediately set the tone) into the amazing fellow officer relationship/friendship that they have today.
Thank you so much for being so generous with what you write. Serendipity, and ST: Alchemy itself could not be what it is and I definitely could not be as proud of our body of work if you were not such a huge part of it.
So thanks, D.
As we near our one year anniversary here on the Sera soon- this is something I've been wanting to say for awhile.
You took a leap of faith, the very first person to jump in and join us, and Salvek and I couldn't be happier that you did.
I can't wait to see what we'll write in the future.
Thanks for everything. ~ZL
NRPG: I figured it was high time to roll the 'highlight reel' in tribute to Mr. Blane...
Mister Blane, the writing we've done together this nearly past two years has produced posts that are among my all time favorites, ever, of anything I've ever written anywhere, with anyone. And in 12 years, that means hundreds upon hundreds of posts, among which yours stand out like gems. I can't even begin to tell you how many titles immediately jumped into my head when I tried to pick posts to reference here.
The above are but a few examples of key moments in the relationship between Blane and Zanh. It has gracefully evolved from that moment of sheer genius you had at the beginning (him kicking out the chair, which immediately set the tone) into the amazing fellow officer relationship/friendship that they have today.
Thank you so much for being so generous with what you write. Serendipity, and ST: Alchemy itself could not be what it is and I definitely could not be as proud of our body of work if you were not such a huge part of it.
So thanks, D.
As we near our one year anniversary here on the Sera soon- this is something I've been wanting to say for awhile.
You took a leap of faith, the very first person to jump in and join us, and Salvek and I couldn't be happier that you did.
I can't wait to see what we'll write in the future.
Thanks for everything. ~ZL