by Commander Taris
81115.1800
...continued from part one...
81115.1800
...continued from part one...
Indeed she would meet Salvek again, but she always came up short somehow. If she could just get one more chance, to get past Zanh Liis and to Salvek, she knew she would succeed.
Make no mistake however, that if in the course of her schemes she did manage to get her hands on the Alchemy and all its secrets, she would no doubt take everything she could get. If that lead to power in the Empire, so be it. She would gladly pay back those who deserved it with the place at her side she promised. Those who did not deserve it, would be put to death, or used as slave labor, if they were of sound body.
The Alchemy, transwarp technology, time travel. These were all icing on the proverbial cake to her. Her primary goal was simply to make Zanh Liis and Salvek hurt. To cut them deeply, so they understood all that she had lost because of all the times they had upended her plans.
The flaw in her plan was that, even if she managed to wound or kill Zanh Liis and Salvek, if she did not deliver the promises she made to her followers, they would certainly kill her.
No matter. She would die pleased with herself.
With Tolleth’s help, she had received a rare bit of good news today.
An intercepted communiqué from a Federation construction team that had discovered a box with Hugreti markings. Taris could almost hear the vein burst in the head of whatever Admiral at Starfleet Command had received that message, and realized it was not encoded.
There had been rumors of the Hugreti possessing technology of unparalleled power. One tale told of a Romulan Commander who had a device that could pluck enemies right off the bridge of their own ship, even through shielding. The story goes that the crew battled amongst themselves for possession of the device, and eventually the ship was destroyed with the Hugreti device along with it.
If such a device, or something similar, actually existed, Taris could make use of it in her next encounter with Zanh Liis to perhaps turn the tables. She had planned for saving her mutiny until the day she located the Sera itself, but the opportunity to acquire Hugreti technology was simply too valuable to pass up.
“Just remember,” Taris began, addressing Tolleth, “Our brothers and sisters will not understand at first.” She leaned in closer and whispered, “But when we offer them Hugreti technology, they will offer us the entire fleet to pursue the Serendipity, and once we have transwarp technology…”
Tolleth completed her thought, “They will offer us the entire planet, or die for opposing us.”
“We need to alert our allies, meet back here in thirty minutes.”
Taris and Tolleth parted company, and made their way through the ship. Each passed a code phrase to a fellow loyal officer, and they in turn passed it on further to other officers. The message was short and simple. Get to the designated areas, and wait there until the all clear was given.
Taris had killed many people in her time, but she detested bloodshed whenever it wasn’t truly necessary. There would be no gruesome knife fights or gory disruptor blasts during the takeover of the ship. It would be clean and civilized.
She intended to simply gas the crew.
Those loyal to her would proceed to safe areas where the poison would not be distributed. The entire process would take only a few minutes to complete. Tolleth lacked the command codes to release such toxins on his own, but Taris still had a few tricks up her sleeve.
She slipped a data rod containing the executive officer’s command codes into the terminal in engineering. Pratith was a loyal first officer who would never betray his Captain. He was, however, simply sloppy.
Taris had easily stolen the rod that Pratith had forgotten about, from the bridge during the last set of battle drills. If often took years of careful planning to get pieces of important information. But sometimes all it required was being a petty thief working for an absent-minded officer.
Tolleth added his codes to the ones Taris had supplied, and the hiss of gas being released filled the vents throughout the ship.
There were frantic calls to engineering heard over the intercom, demanding information. And then, silence. The hiss turned to a whoosh as the ventilation system reversed, and purged the atmosphere of the toxins.
“Well done,” Taris praised her compatriot. “Let’s get to the bridge.’
Loyal officers saluted her in the corridors, and she made her way up to the bridge. She could not help but smile. She was once again in command, and those her dared oppose her were exactly where she enjoyed having them most, dead at her feet.
“Orders Commander?” The navigator on the bridge requested.
“Clear the bridge of these, things, and replicate me a new uniform, I need to change.”
Taris pushed the former ship’s Commander out of her chair, and unclasped the sub-centurion rank insignia from her chest.
“Then you may cloak the ship, and set a course for the planet that message about the Hugreti originated from at maximum Warp.”
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Commander Taris
Once again in Command
Commander Taris
Once again in Command