782: Impressions

by Commander Salvek
90219.2230
Concurrent with Three Men...

-=Temporal Investigations Headquarters, Earth=-

Salvek once again found himself in the company of Gemini Lassiter.

He had agreed to stop here and speak to the Admiral about recent events before returning to the ship. The Admiral’s office was Spartan and cold, lacking the trinkets and souvenirs that made Zanh Liis'’s ready room so uniquely Zanh Liis.

Lassiter’s décor was much more befitting a Vulcan’s taste, but he still found himself missing the familiarity of his friend’s ready room. He found himself missing a lot in recent days; not the least of which was his sense of inner peace.

“You can relax, Commander, the inquiry is over. I didn’t ask you back here to question you further of the matter of the Romulans.”

“Then I will supply you with information you are not aware of yet. Captain Zanh has relieved me of duty.”

Lassiter froze with a teacup at her lips, and appeared to be genuinely speechless. “Why is that?”

“She feels I am…not myself. That I need to consult with the priests on Vulcan to help regain my spirit.”

“Well, I suppose you would like me to reinstate you. I see no need for any of this.” Lassiter huffed, as she set her teacup down.

“I trust the Captain’s instincts. They are rarely incorrect, and my soul tells me that I am indeed as troubled as she believes.” Salvek paused. “She has granted me any means necessary to make the trip. I am formally requesting use of the Alchemy.”

“Absolutely not!” Lassiter snapped.

Salvek raised his hand. “Please, Admiral, allow me to speak. With the upgrades to the transwarp drive, we can be there almost instantaneously, and back just as fast if the ship is needed. Apparently Captain Ledbetter was planning on an excursion to Vulcan anyway. He can surely command the ship for the brief journey.”

“And I suppose the Alchemy is useless without one half of the team that designed it.” Lassiter crossed her arms and sighed. “You may take the ship, and Captain Ledbetter if he wishes to go, but I…”

Lassiter was thrown from her feet as an explosion shook the room around them. Salvek held the armrests of his chair to keep from tipping over as the lights flickered on and off overhead several times, before resuming their normal illumination as the rumbling stopped.

“Are you all right, Admiral?” Salvek was out of his chair and kneeling at her side in an instant. Lassiter accepted his strong arm to help her up slowly.

“I’m all right I think,” She tapped her communicator. “Lassiter to Command Center. What was that? Please respond.”

She paused, waiting for a reply but none came.

“Lassiter to Lindsay."

Again, there was no response.

"Lassiter to anyone that can hear me.” She waited again, but still nothing. Salvek tried his badge but to no avail.

“Follow me.” She ordered. She stepped out of her office and down the corridor to the central lobby. Immediately upon entering the lobby she saw smoke billowing from what was the office of their new Interim Director, William Lindsay.

“Oh, no. No.” Lassiter’s face fell pale. “What have I done.” Instinctively she grasped Salvek’s arm for support. He held her steady and surveyed the lobby himself, seeing smoke billowing out of a second room nearby. He did not recognize the location from the brief tour Zanh Liis had given him.

TI agents were rushing back and forth, grabbing tricorders and fire extinguishers, but the blasts had effectively collapsed the entrances to both rooms. There appeared to be no way in or out.

“William,” Lassiter whispered.

Salvek saw the look of pain on her face and knew exactly what she was feeling right now. To say he was surprised by the plain heartbreak on the usually stoic Admiral’s face was an understatement. The many facets of emotions never ceased to amaze him.

“Admiral, is there another way out of those rooms?

“Yes." She answered slowly, clearly dazed. "Yes there is, a secondary corridor that runs behind the rooms, ringing the lobby. There are stairwells back amongst those rooms that one could use to escape.”

“Perhaps Captain Lindsay was not in his office that the time, or escaped out the back way,” Salvek offered.

Lassiter immediately realized she had let her emotions get the best of her, and released Salvek’s arm.

She kept her eyes on the floor, feeling the rare emotion of embarrassment that she had ‘outed’ her feelings for Lindsay to Salvek. “We need to begin searching for survivors, Commander.”

A man in a black TI uniform jogged up to the Admiral and gave a preliminary report. Apparently the second room targeted was the archives room that contained the computer files for Temporal Investigations.

The man’s eyes shifted questioningly towards Salvek, indicating his uneasiness at the thought of going into too much detail in front of a non-TI officer.

“Lifesigns?” Lassiter pressed.

“Nothing from Captain Lindsay’s office; possible lifesigns from the archive room, but the debris is making it difficult to make tricorder scans, and we have no computer control at all.”

“Keep at it,” she ordered.

[Reece to Salvek.]

“Go ahead.”

[Finally got a hold of you! Zanh Liis was just beamed up to Sickbay. I can’t find Blane or O’Sullivan anywhere.]

“Is the Captain injured?”

[They said she was unconscious, that's all I know. Waiting for a report,]

“Commander Salvek,” Lassiter interrupted, “There is a lot of sensitive information down here. Perhaps it would be best if you helped us locate Blane and O’Sullivan from your ship. We have plenty of hands here.”

“Shall we scan for Captain Lindsay as well?”

“Of course.” She nodded, trying to make it appear it was only a matter of routine, even though Salvek knew better.

“Can you bring me up to the ship, Commander Reece?”

[Uno momento.] The frown on Reece's face was apparent in the sound of his voice. [No can do, Point...er...Commander. Too much crud in the atmosphere around you to get a good lock. Can you go outside of the building?]

Salvek asked Lassiter if he was free to go with a glance, and she nodded. "I'll have someone escort you to the rear exit. They can lock onto you once you're outside."

"Give me a few moments, Mister Reece. Salvek out."

Lassiter flagged down the nearest security officer and asked him to assist the Vulcan in finding his way. Then she stepped aside, and watched Salvek disappeared down the corridor.

-=/\=-

Moments later, Reece beamed Salvek straight to the bridge and then hopped out of the command chair so he could help with scanning the facility.

“They reported faint lifesigns in the archive room, where one of the explosions occurred. Can you target sensors on that area?” Salvek inquired.

“That building has more layers then an onion with multiple personalities. I get the impression they don’t generally like people poking around their facility with sensor arrays.” Reece said, as he punched buttons to narrow the scanning field. He shook his head slowly as his scans came up empty. “There’s a lot of interference on top of the difficulty I already have trying to look inside the building just from its construction.”

“Try using power from the deflector dish to boost the power to the scanners,” Salvek suggested.

Reece nodded and went back to work. Salvek walked down the ramp to the command chair, tapping his badge as he moved.

“Sickbay, status of the Captain.”

[Good evenin' to you too! I’d love to tell ya, but she’s not exactly being…very…cooperative…] McKay seemed to be struggling for every word. [Look, Vulcan, I’m busier than a one-armed man wrestlin' a polar bear...]

Salvek next heard a frantic, raging voice in the background and recognized it as that of Zanh Liis. He could not understand what she was saying, but at least she was able to speak.

[Will call ya back.] Mckay concluded. [Sickbay out.]

Salvek scowled.

Once again the Captain had been injured because she was in a location she was only in because of him. If she hadn’t needed to attend his inquiry, she would have already been in Ireland where she belonged, celebrating the rest of her honeymoon.

Not to mention the others still unaccounted for…

“Idiot.” Salvek swore at himself through clenched teeth.

Everyone on the bridge froze, except for Dabin Reece, who kept right on working. The Ensign at the helm instinctively turned back towards Salvek.

“As you were,” Salvek ordered, his voice calm and collected, as if nothing had happened. The Ensign turned back to what he was doing, as did the others.

“I have something!" Reece declared. "On the roof, two Humans!”

“Our people?” Salvek asked, once again joining Reece at the science station.

“Blane and O’Sullivan.”

“Beam them directly to Sickbay,” Salvek ordered. “Please follow up with Admiral Lassiter, and ask Ashton Ledbetter to report to my quarters.”

“You want me to follow up with the Admiral?” Reece asked.

“Yes, you have the bridge.”

“O…. kay….” Reece said slowly. It wasn’t like Salvek to dump something like this off onto someone else before the crisis was fully resolved. He considered what Lair Kellyn had said to him and February earlier; about Salvek needing a trip to Vulcan. It seemed to Reece she was right; this wasn’t the Salvek he knew.

Salvek stepped into the turbolift and released a deep breath. It was becoming more difficult with each passing moment to control whatever it was that was happening to him. The impressions Taris had left were slowly poisoning him, like the insidious venom of a snake.

His feet pounded on the deck as he headed for his quarters, where Ashton Ledbetter was already waiting on his doorstep.

“You wanted to see me, Commander?”

“Yes, Captain Ledbetter. To be brief, I understand you have a desire to travel to Vulcan. Admiral Lassiter has authorized use of the Alchemy to transport me there, if you are willing to take command for the voyage.”

“When do we leave!” Ashton said with a flourish of his hands.

“Thank you,” Salvek said, then stepped through the door into his quarters.

Ledbetter stood staring at the closed door in front of him.

“Well, I guess I’ll go pack.” Then he grinned as he walked away “T’Lara awaits!”

*************************
Commander Salvek
First Officer
USS Serendipity