by Mellice Cem & Mellice Kij
91013.0558
After Right Under Their Nose
-=Inside Romulan Space=-
91013.0558
After Right Under Their Nose
-=Inside Romulan Space=-
The complexities of this mission alone had Mellice on edge from its beginning. Now with it was nearly over and from the way things were going currently, he prayed that both he and Admiral Harris' daughter made it out of Romulan space in one piece.
What he needed right now was a way to get his stolen shuttle out of Romulan controlled space without being discovered by another Warbird. As he considered his situation, the sensors picked up another ship on the same heading as his stolen shuttle.
What he saw on the sensors made him look once, twice, and finally a third time before he could begin to believe his good fortune. It was a ship very familiar to him, as was the man it belonged to.
This was a ship called The Prophets Revenge II, and it belonged to his younger brother.
Instead of using the regular comm signals that everyone, including the Romulans and the Klingons could intercept, he used a frequency not used in years, in fact one he'd never known to be used by anyone other than his old Resistance cell. He knew his brother had this frequency programmed into the Revenge's comm system.
It took some doing but with creative work-arounds, Cem managed to get the Romulan communications system to accept the foreign commands. Once he got the comm set, he hoped his brother was listening as he opened a channel to the rapidly approaching B'Rel Class Bird Of Prey.
"Fist to Revenge, come in Revenge." Mellice held his breath as Kelly sat beside him, looking at him as if he's truly lost his mind.
"Fist to Revenge? Are you delusional? We're in a STOLEN Romulan shuttle and your making a call to a big Klingon ship? Mellice, you are truly mad if you think they are going to an-...." Before Kelly could finish her sentence however, there was a reply to Cem's hail.
=Aboard The Prophets Revenge=
The trip into Romulan space was uneventful for Mellice Kij and his crew for the most part.
Well, aside the fact that one of his crew was almost caught with a Senator's daughter in a very compromising position. Good thing the crewman in question had taken the liberty of having himself beamed out of her personal quarters before being discovered by the Centurion guards.
Yes, Kij thought, all in all it had been a very productive day.
As the ship flew through space at a leisurely Warp 4 towards the Federation/Romulan Neutral Zone. Kij's couldn't help but wonder again why his ship was the only Federation Merchant vessel he knew of allowed into Romulan space to trade.
It seemed too good to be true and probably was; even considering his well-earned reputation he was still suspicious of the reasons why the Romulans agreed to open trading with his ship alone.
True, it was good for the Romulans and Kij's crew-- with new goods hitting the legitimate markets and helping to strengthen both economies but on the down side to that was there were also new and highly illegal products flooding the black market, such as Romulan decay detonators.
Kij was pulled back out of his thoughts as the communications officer, an Andorian woman named Shren, addressed him. "Sir, I'm picking up a very unusual signal and it's getting closer to us."
Kij turned to her as he then walked over to the comm and stopped behind her. "Normal channels?"
"No sir, it's on the channel you yourself programmed into the communications system."
Nodding his head once, he then tapped her shoulder lightly with his hand. "I'll take it from here Shren. Take a break." As she got up and headed off the bridge, he slipped into her seat and brought the channel up.
[Fist to Revenge, come in Revenge,] was what he heard over his headset. A smirk crossed his lips as he knew it could only be one man that was transmitting that signal.
"This is the Revenge, go ahead." He replied to his older brothers chatter which on normal channels would sound like background noise.
He hated waiting but if his older brother was on this channel then he either needed help with something or had a plan he wanted to put into effect. At the present time, he didn't know which one his brother was trying to convey so now it became a waiting game.
=/\=Aboard The Stolen Romulan Shuttle=/\=
"...swer?" Kelly finished her last half-spoken word before staring in stunned shock as the comm came alive with a reply.
Looking over to Kelly, Cem's teeth appeared as a grin parted his lips. "Didn't think they'd answer, did you?" Quickly, he replied to his brother's response. "Glad you still receive this channel little brother or else I'd be 'up the shawn without a steering pole'. Think you can give myself and my charge a lift out of Romulan space?"
[Sure thing, just give us some time to get you some quarters ready. Estimated time until you can meet up with us?] He had to chuckle at that, his brother was an efficient one, even if he was a bit too laid back for his own good.
"We're about 20 minutes out, give or take though I hope to neither give nor take any more from anybody I'm ready to get the hell out of here."
[See you in twenty, Revenge out.]
Mellice continued to grin as he switched the comm back to monitor regular channels. All Kelly could do was sit there in stunned shock as to what just happened, she couldn't believe he was going to risk decloaking the shuttle to dock aboard an unknown ship with an unknown crew whose intentions could be dangerous to them both. "Do you even know the captain of that ship? And why did you call......."
That was when she finally put it together, he did know the captain, in fact given how alike their voices sounded he was likely related to the captain.. "Do I feel stupid now." She finally said, as she placed her head into her hand.
-=Aboard The Prophet's Revenge=-
Kij took the headset off as he got up while Shren's replacement, a Human woman named Erika Honeywell, took over at the communications console.
"Helm, drop us out of warp. Ops, in roughly 20 minutes we'll be meeting up with some kind of shuttle, we have to assume it's Romulan in design, open the main shuttle bay doors.
"Security, meet our guests in the shuttle bay and bring them to the bridge and get Mr. J'ara up here also. I have a feeling I know why Romulan decay detonators have been flooding the black market as of late." He ordered and informed his crew.
He was just wrapping up as his first mate, a woman by the name of Joan Drew, exited the lift and appeared on the bridge.
Joan was quite something. She'd been a stowaway originally, from the Orion sector, and worked her way up through the ranks from a cook to his trusted second in command. She now paced the bridge calmly as she began to issue her own orders to the security detail.
"And security? Make sure Mr. J'ara knows we've figured out he's really a Tal Shiar agent."
Kij wasn't about to override that order as he glanced to Joan and simply grinned. "Now I know why I kept you around instead of dropping you off at the first starbase we came too so many years ago. You know how to read people very well."
Joan just returned his grin. "And here I thought it was because of my pretty face."
=/\=Eight minutes later in the main shuttle bay=/\=
As the shuttle approached, the Revenge dropped out of warp and opened its main shuttle bay doors.
Mellice disengaged the cloak and began his landing maneuvers, positioning the shuttle evenly with the landing lights as he guided it inside the force field. The tractor beams took over as he began to power down the shuttle's engines.
As soon as the vessel came to rest, he looked up and beyond the cockpit window he noticed a man struggling in a pair of binders. A man who looked by outward appearances to be Vulcan. *Kij must have found a spy aboard his ship.* He thought to himself, smiling at the thought that little could get past his brother for long, if at all. He and Kelly rose and prepared to depart their current location, both happy to do so.
The security chief aboard his brother's ship didn't even issue any orders for them to exit, in fact the rather large Klingon stood as a silent sentinel, simply waiting until the hatch opened up.
Stepping down the ramp a Bajoran male and a Human female walked side by side as the Bajoran then met the Klingon's gaze and grinned. He then glanced to the prisoner. "I see someone tried to poison the Bloodpie." Cem said in a jovial voice which got the Klingon's ire worked up.
"This little p'tagh will meet his fate soon enough. Come with us to the bridge, my friend. The captain is waiting for us there."
Cem nodded his head a few times as both he and Kelly followed the security detail with prisoner in tow with their meeting with his younger brother.
As they walked both he and the Klingon laughed and swapped stories about various wars they'd fought in. Meanwhile, Kelly talked to one of the female security officers about what had happened to her in recent months of being with Mellice Cem; an adventure that began the day he took her off Yleth VII, a planet which had been one of the hardest hit by the war with the Dominion.
Once they got inside the nearest turbolift, the Klingon barked the command to take them to the bridge. The lift rose quickly as all fell into into a silence that lasted the whole way up.
Once the doors opened up everyone stepped out one by one while Kij looked to his helm officer.
"Resume our previous course; Warp 8 this time." The Angosian simply nodded his head once and did as ordered. The ship shot into high warp as it raced away towards the Romulan/Federation border.
Mellice Cem and Mellice Kij came face to face, and Kelly Harris
immediately realized just how closely the two men were related.
They were brothers, certainly; in fact if it hadn't been for the younger man's shock of blonde hair you could have sworn you were looking at twins. That hair would have hidden it if there had been an identical scar to the one the older Mellice bore, and also helped disguise that Kij was a little bit shorter in stature than his brother.
"You're looking rather well little brother," Cem said warmly. "How's business?"
Kij grinned. "Business is booming. So who is the lovely lady with you? Finally found yourself a keeper after Daisy left you at the altar on Risa?" While the comment was made in a joking manner, Kij immediately knew he just over stepped a line as he noticed his older brothers smile become a very tight, thin line.
The memory of that day came back quickly and painfully; it was not something Cem liked to revisit.
"Sorry, shouldn't have said that." Kij amended, slapping Cem on the back.
Cem locked his hand on his brother's arm and leaned in closely. He lowered his voice and spoke so only Kij could hear. "Don't ever mention that woman's name in my presence. You know what happened after I discovered the affair."
Kij nodded once stiffly as he recalled what his brother had done on what was supposed to have been his wedding day.
Kelly didn't understand why the previously jovial atmosphere had just become more tense than it had any right to be.
"Did I miss something?" she asked while the brothers cleared their throats and the subject was both dropped and changed.
"Little brother, I'd like you to meet Kelly Harris. She's Admiral Harris' daughter and I've been accused of kidnapping her."
Kij laughed as he heard that. "You? A kidnapper? Now that's rich. We both that's not possible." Cem looked to his brother as Kij's brow rose.
"Check your list of wants and warrants."
Shaking his head, Kij moved to a terminal and brought up the most current list of those wanted by the Federation. "Alright, brother, I'll look but more than likely get a good laugh..out...of." The younger Mellice stopped talking when he looked to the top ten on the list, at the very top was indeed his older brothers name. More puzzling were the strange orders attached to the warrant, which Kij now read aloud.
"If caught, please return both Mellice Cem and Kelly Harris directly to Admiral Harris for questioning? Now why would anyone give such a strange order for? Bro, you and I need to talk."
"Kij..."
"Alone. Now!"
Cem smirked as Kij again gestured to Joan. "You have the bridge while the two of us have a little chat. C'mon, Cem. We're going for a walk."
As the brothers left the bridge and entered the turbo lift, the younger of the two then looked to the older as the doors closed. "Deck three," he grumbled to the lift, before turning sharply on Cem. "What the hell is going on with you? Your going to throw away your entire career over what? A kidnapping charge? Granted, she is beautiful, but an Admiral's daughter? Have you lost your frakkin' mind?"
Cem knew all he could do was let his brother rant. He waited for Kij to finish and only then did Cem finally speak. "Computer, halt lift. No, I haven't lost my mind and no I'm not throwing my career away on a kidnapping charge. What I'm going to tell you does not go beyond this lift."
Kij reluctantly gestured with his hands to signify agreement and implore Cem to continue.
"My missions for Admiral Harris are simple. First part was to beat the Orions to the kidnapping of his own daughter and keep her from being sold on the illegal slave market to maybe one day be used against the Federation by an enemy, such as the Romulans for example. The second half of my mission was to kill the Orion Syndicate boss who gave the order to attempt to destroy Border Station Indigo where you dock your ship as it's base of operations.
"The reason the order to turn us over to Admiral Harris himself is so he can erase the charges against me. And everything I just told you is CLASSIFIED! So don't go telling anyone about it, especially not Kelly. She has no idea that her own father arranged for her to have me as her personal bodyguard. For all she knows I HAVE tossed my career into the toilet and flushed it away by taking her."
This was not what Kij was expecting to hear from his brother as he moved back to lean against the back of the lift. "I had no idea, you ahhhh...know I have to put you in the brig until we reach Federation space, right?"
Cem smirked again. "I wouldn't expect anything less. However, since you picked us up without knowing until now and even then only with me pointing it out to you and your whole bridge crew I don't think the brig is going be where you put me, little brother. Just give me some simple quarters and hold me there.
"Besides, I'm running low on adrenaline, I can't exactly 'escape' again at this point. I haven't slept in days and you know how I get under this kind of stress. I'm not the best to be around and she's seeing it first hand for herself and I can see it's scaring the hell out of her wondering if she's next on my temper list. Which she's not because her own father would surely kill me if I even laid a hand on her. So what do you say? Separate quarters for her and I with me being confined to mine and her free to roam the ship?"
Knowing how Cem could get when he'd been sleep deprived too long, Kij knew he'd become a volatile person to try and deal with if the indignity of being put into the brig were enforced at this point after all he'd clearly already been through.
"Alright, separate quarters with you confined until we get in touch with this Admiral Harris. Computer, resume." Kij rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "What ship does he command?"
Cem leaned his shoulder against the wall. "The USS Huntington, a Sovereign Class starship. He'll be listening for my signal on a secured channel but even I know the only signal secure enough to sound like background noise is the one we came up with during the Occupation. I used normal secured Starfleet channels to see who out there would be listening and both the Orions and the Romulans were listening. There is only one person I trust to get this signal out and that's you since he'll be listening for our signal. I gave him the specs and said for him to have it programmed into his ship."
=/\=Meanwhile In Federation Space aboard the USS Huntington=/\=
Admiral Harris paced the bridge of his ship while waiting to hear from Lieutenant Mellice's signal that he and his daughter were back in Federation space.
"Anything yet?" He asked his security chief, for what seemed to be the tenth time in as many minutes.
The reply would be the same as the previous nine times he'd asked the question.
"Nothing yet, sir. Nothing yet."
Lieutenant (jg) Mellice Cem
Assistant Security/Tactical Chief
USS Revolution NCC-71605-A
&
Mellice Kij
Merchant Captain of The Prophets Revenge II
As Played By
Lieutenant (jg) Mellice Cem
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Assistant Security/Tactical Chief
USS Revolution NCC-71605-A
&
Mellice Kij
Merchant Captain of The Prophets Revenge II
As Played By
Lieutenant (jg) Mellice Cem
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