by Zander Blakeslee and Salvek
100207.1300
After The Fight of Your Life
-=Outside Sickbay, USS Serendipity=-
As they stepped out of Sickbay, Salvek glanced over at February, hoping the idea he had might serve to cheer up the Lieutenant a bit.
“Lieutenant Grace. Arie has been talking about taking Sophie for a walk in the arboretum. If you are free tomorrow, perhaps you could join us.”
February smiled, appreciative of the offer, but she had her own idea in her head at the moment. “Thank you, sir. I’ll think about, see how everyone is doing tomorrow. I actually wanted to make a stop before I turn in. I won’t tell Dabin I didn’t go back to our quarters if you don’t.”
“Of course,” Salvek answered. “Good night.”
February nodded, and parted ways with him in the corridor. Before Salvek could even turn to leave, he heard a voice calling his name from behind him.
“Commander Salvek! There you are!”
“Can I hope you, Mister Blakeslee?”
“Well, I am hoping I can help you. I have some bad news I need to deliver, but I wanted to do a bit of reading on Vulcan law first.” Salvek wondered what sort of bad news could possibly be delivered beyond what he already knew. His wife was in Sickbay, along with one of his oldest friends, and one of his own people had just been lost in the line of duty. Salvek had not even yet had the chance to pay his respects.
“What news do you have?”
Zander rubbed the back of his neck, as he was not sure of the best way to approach this. “Um, can we find someplace a little more private?” He glanced around and noticed they were close to the conference room for this deck. He nodded for the commander to follow him.
Once in the room and with the door shut up tight behind them he turned towards Salvek.
“There has been an investigation ordered into the death if T’Dara.” Zander explained. “Specifically, if you were the contributing factor that might have caused or failed to prevent her death. The investigation has been requested by the Vulcan government. Who made the request, I do not know, yet anyway.” He watched Salvek carefully, waiting for a reaction but not really expecting one. “Starfleet has jumped on the bandwagon and is sending an investigator of their own. I have been assigned to handle the investigation from the Sera,” he added.
Salvek’s eyes shifted, as he contemplated the implications of this unexpected twist. “I will need to inform the Captain.”
“I’ve already done that,” Zander answered. Salvek glanced up at him, his expression seeming to say, I beg your pardon? “Sorry for not coming to you sooner, but protocol…”
“Of course. I will need to tell Doctor Hartcort as well. I had a request to be made of him.”
Zander sighed. “I have to ask that you keep this to yourself. I also have to request that you do not discuss the events surrounding T’Dara’s death with anyone else besides the assigned investigators or myself. Publicly anyway. What you do in private is your business.” Zander pulled out a chair and sat down.
“I am really sorry about this Commander. Somebody is rattling cages over this and had a lot of pull. The command staff has been removed from the investigation process, except for myself, which is highly unusual.” He leaned back into the chair. “Does anyone on Vulcan or within the government have it in for you?”
“I have done what I could to limit my interactions with the Vulcan Homeworld. I do not see how I could have developed enemies there. Disappointed a few by my choice not to complete the Kholinar perhaps, but certainly nothing that would warrant an unfounded investigation.”
If anything, Salvek would have liked to believe his last visit to Vulcan ended on a positive note. “I think the question we must ask ourselves, Mister Blakeslee, is not what enemies I may have, but rather what friends T’Dara may have had. Her death was nothing short of a tragedy and there are bound to be those deeply effected by it.” Salvek paused, before admitting, “I am one of them.”
“That will give me a place to start. When you actually face your accusers, I’ll be able to do some digging to find out who they are and why they chose to do this.”
Salvek thought of the fact that they were already due for a trip to Vulcan, to return T’Dara home to her family. It was likely that that trip would need to be hastened now, to bring himself before the inquiry.
“How soon will we need to depart?” Salvek asked.
“As far as I am concerned we do not have to change the date of our arrival from what we had already planned. So two days.” Zander stood. “That will give us time to get all of your ducks in a row.” He leaned against the table.
“When we get to Vulcan we will meet the men leading this whole thing. A Senior Investigator named,” Zander paused, searching his memory for a moment, “Savol. He is leading this mess for the Vulcan Government. Starfleet’s representative is a Commander Jars. I plan to look up as much information on these individuals as possible.”
He stood and looked at the Vulcan again. “We need to go over the events again as well as your report. We should be ready for their questions. Surmise what is going to be asked and basically try and put ourselves in their shoes.” He shrugged. “Maybe we can figure out why they are doing this or at least what they want.”
He now frowned at a thought. “You said a possibility could be T’Dara’s family. If we were dealing with humans, I would agree with you. The need for revenge or for someone to be at fault is a common theme among emotional beings, but I would think Vulcans would be above that.”
“You are correct. However, there is no telling what associations she had outside of her own family.” Salvek sat silently for several moments as he thought about the situation. The more he considered the possibility of this investigation turning T’Dara’s life into an open book, the more repugnant it became to him. She had only just passed, and deserved peace in her death. If the Vulcan’s had to question and dissect Salvek’s decisions, so be it, but this inquiry was inevitably going to turn over every stone in T’Dara’s life, and put her on display for all to see. It was not right.
“Two days.” Salvek said.
“We’ll need to meet again later. Get some sleep, then go over every detail of exactly what happened. I will question you myself, play devil’s advocate if you will. I’m sorry, I know you have other places you’d rather be.”
That was an understatement. With Lair Kellyn in Sickbay, his place was on the ship.
“Is there any possibility of a delay?” Salvek asked.
“You know the Vulcan’s better than I do.” Zander said, meaning no.
“And if I refuse to go?”
Zander sighed. He had hoped this question would not be asked, lest he have to answer it. “Whoever this Savol is, he sure seems to have a lot of pull. Starfleet is quite worried about unsettling the peace between the Federation and Vulcan governments. That’s how serious this is being taken. Commander Jars has ordered that I take you into custody, if you refuse to go.”
“I do not answer to Commander Jars.” There was a hint of fire in Salvek’s eyes, which he quickly suppressed.
“His orders come from Starfleet Command. If Captain Zanh or Admiral Lassiter could have countermanded him, I would have asked them to.”
Salvek opened his mouth, about to ask if Zander Blakeslee intended to follow that order if it came to it, but stopped himself short. That was a request he could not make of a fellow officer.
“If you don’t mind Commander Blakeslee, I still have a request to make of Doctor Hartcort, regarding T’Dara. You have my word, I will not speak of this investigation.”
Zander nodded. “Of course. Remember that as long as it is not…” He made quotations with his fingers in the air. “…on the record. What you discuss is your business.” He hoped that his subtle hint to Salvek would be picked up. He had no intention of hampering the commander from doing everything possible to assist himself in this farce of an investigation. He just had to make sure they play by to the letter of his orders.
“I’ll catch up with you in the next twelve hours and we can start going over everything. Sound good?” Zander asked.
“No. It sounds like I simply have no choice.”
*****************************************************
Zander Blakeslee
Chief of Security
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
&
Commander Salvek
First Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Zander Blakeslee
Chief of Security
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
&
Commander Salvek
First Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012