1044: Corrosion: One

By William Lindsay and Zanh Liis
Immediately following Connecting the Dots
-=An Undisclosed Drinking Establishment; Earth=-

With his weapon not working and the ‘enemy’, without a doubt actually TI agents themselves, closing in Will realised this situation was pretty damned desperate.

He also realised he’d made a big mistake coming here and infuriatingly another major one before he’d done so. Still, instinct told him that any analysis of these missteps would be better suited a time when no one was attempting the separation of his head from all other parts of him.

“Come out!” One of the men shouted from the doorway. “If you surrender now then no one has to get hurt. We just want to talk to you.”

Will had no doubt they knew exactly where he was; the singed hairs on his arm enough to tell him that they could never have missed seeing him dive behind this table which even now only barely concealed him from their view. He spied Liis and Keiran across the room, down low in their former booth. He knew that their assailants had to be aware of the O’Sullivans’ location as well.

A tense, unhappy glance was exchanged between the three loyal Starfleet officers, sadly confirming that none of them had a plan to get out of this.

*More like ya don’t want ta draw attention ta yerselves by taking out half this room ta get us,* Will thought to himself.

He knew the table between them would be about as much use against a TI phaser as holding a strainer over your head to keep back the ocean. Experience told him though that they’d rather not fire through it because they were trying to be discreet and a sad truth of covert operations was that the sudden disappearance of a person no one’s looking for is a lot less conspicuous than a piece of furniture people would notice had gone.

He decided however that it was better to play along; if you didn’t have a plan then you could at least give yourself a little more time to come up with one. “Right. Why don’t I just shoot mehself for ya?”

“That would help…” Will barely made out the words of the first man even as the second spoke again.

“Don’t be stupid, Lindsay. You know we’ve got no quarrel with your friends here. So let’s do this properly. You come with us, we’ll let them go home. End of story. Or, we could shoot you all. Your choice.”

Keiran and Liis both glared at Will to convey that they didn’t believe a word, and the look he shot back to them declared that he didn’t either.

“Okay,” Will replied slowly as he tested his phaser once again to confirm that it was absolutely bloody useless. “If ya promise they’ll not be hurt…”

As the men stepped closer again, Keiran gave Will a look that said “Ya better know what yer doin’, William,” and the shake of Will’s head in reply just as clearly answered “I’m just makin’ this up as I go along.”

Liis however did at least have a very small part of a plan now. Sliding her hand up across the table, she knew there was something that could at least pass for a weapon there. As the two armed men approached they split up, one to either side so they were completely ready to take out all three of their enemies with one shot each.

Liis grasped hold of the heavy glass mug from Will’s beer and pulled it closer to her.

“I give you my word,” the first man replied, though it was clear by now he believed Will already knew exactly what that oath was worth. “We...”

Before the sentence was even finished the two men lunged forward, ready to fire. With barely a thought for what might happen Will flipped the table in front of him up into the air toward his assailants.

Both men then turned on instinct to fire upon it as Will barely managed to jump out of the way.

Seeing their opportunity with a brief second of distraction, Liis and Keiran simultaneously sprang out from hiding though the two men were already starting to turn around with phasers at the ready as they did. Not wasting a second Liis smashed the closest attacker over the head with the glass while Keiran grabbed hold of the second man, trapping him completely within his massive arms to hold him still.

The first fell to the ground but the second man was strong and he was struggling fiercely.

Try as he might Keiran wasn’t completely able to incapacitate him and he was slowly inching his weapon around to face it on Irishman.

“Don’ do it,” Keiran warned, as the man continued to fight to wrench himself free. He’d almost reached the perfect angle and was so focused on Keiran he didn’t see Liis reaching downward.

In a single fluid motion, she ripped the weapon from the unconscious man’s hands and fired one shot at Keiran’s attacker, barely missing the Irishman himself but causing the other man to turn limp in his arms.

After taking the man’s phaser in hand Keiran let him fall gently down to the ground between them.

Finally Keiran turned to Liis and seeing she was fine he allowed himself to exhale a quiet but deeply meaningful sigh of relief.“Yer ‘right, yeah?” Keiran looked her up and down quickly; his eyes showing great concern as he old fears forced him to confirm what appeared to be true actually was.

“Fine.” Liis replied, with a tone that said that she hadn’t forgotten his pulling her unwillingly out of the way of the fight but with that slight smile that crept over her face halfway through and said she couldn’t really be that mad at him for it. “You?”

Keiran nodded once as he moved swiftly towards her. He clamped a hand down on her shoulder, needing to touch her just for an instant to convince himself that she really was all right. Once he accepted that she was, then he knew he would be. “Yeah. Am.”

“I’m fine too if anyone’s interested,” Will chimed in teasingly as he dramatically dusted himself off and tugged on the cuffs of his tunic to straighten them out. If Keiran had asked about him before Liis then frankly he’d have been worried for more reasons than one. Finally he ran a hand through his hair in hopes of returning any stray strands to their usual, contrived state of intentionally casual perfection.

Having been able to place his hand upon her arm, a small but significant gesture, Keiran was finally able to take his eyes away from his wife and the investigator in him kicked back in. He bent down over the nearest unconscious man, ready to search his pockets for some type of identification.

“Don’t bother,” Will instructed, as he pointed to the man at Keiran’s feet. “This is Abberton and his friend’s name is Frawley. They’re on the list Jamieson gave me.”

Keiran began to rise but before he was even halfway up a realisation struck.
“Speakin' of Jamieson, odds on these two were not the only ones listening in…”

“Aye,” Will solemnly agreed, with renewed frustration over the seriousness of their situation. Though he’d known that the poison at TI ran deep and was a vile, frothing concoction made up of self-righteous indignation, outright greed and misdirected loyalties, what he’d just learned from what happened here seemed to make it all taste much more bitter. “Somethin’ stopped my phaser from workin’. I doubt they’d have been able to generate that from here.”

None of them had to say it; if others been listening in then they’d have found out that Jamieson was Will’s source and if they knew that then Jamieson wasn’t likely to be all that alive for all that much longer.

Liis unceremoniously stepped over the man at her feet. There were far more important matters to be dealt with now and she wanted to just get on with it. She fixed the weapon to her belt.

“Do you know where he is?”

“I think so,” Will replied, though he could only really hope that Jamieson had been smart enough to stay where he’d suggested he should. “But before we go we need ta do something with this lot, and at the moment it might not be worth much ta bother lockin’ ‘em up at TI.”

For a second Liis considered if the idea she had was a good one and she quickly decided it wasn’t, but it may be the best of the bad ones available given they didn’t have many options here.

“We’ll beam them aboard the Sera.” She reluctantly suggested. “Lock them up there.”

Will nodded that this would be acceptable and appreciated and Liis moved off to contact the ship again.

Seeing his opportunity Will then moved over to Keiran and spoke at little more than a whisper. “Listen, there’s someone involved here I thought it best not ta mention in front of yer wife…”

Out of earshot Liis hit her combadge.

“Zanh to Parrish…if you scan my current location you’ll find two unconscious lifesigns. Have them beamed to the brig.” Liis thought for a second about just what someone with TI training could be capable of especially when they had help. “Better make it separate cells.”

[Aye sir] Parrish replied after taking time to check the readings and soon the two men dematerialised out of sight.

Liis then turned back to Keiran and Will.

Noticing her approach the conversation seemed immediately to halt. Will tried to gloss over the slip, casually continuing on as naturally as possible. He clapped his hands together once. “Now that we’ve taken out the rubbish, we’d best get goin’,” he suggested, a little too eagerly for Liis to have missed it.

Her eyes darted to Keiran, and she instantly noted concern in his eyes that hadn’t been there seconds before.

Those same eyes weren’t quite meeting hers now, in the way that said he was afraid she’d read something in them she shouldn’t.

Clearly Will had just told him that something whatever it was, as he was watching Keiran through his peripheral vision in the way so easily missed by most people but that could never be missed by Zanh Liis.

Liis sighed heavily, putting a hand up and against Lindsay’s chest with great and evident irritation. “Hold up there, Rob Roy.”

She spun immediately back to Keiran because she knew that of either of them he would find it a lot harder to keep a secret from her. She raised her hand and curled her index finger to beckon him closer. “You. I want to talk to you.”

Keiran paused silently, seeming to internally ask himself what was safe to say and what was best not to.

The news Will had given him meant the situation was even more dangerous for Liis than Keiran could possibly have feared, though with her attitude toward danger he knew that’d not make a whole lot of difference to her. It was however something to make it that much more personal and that could greatly influence the risks she’d take, which meant it made a hell of a lot of difference to him.

“We really better start movin’,” Will suggested more urgently, trying to break the silence as he tugged Liis’ sleeve and made as if to exit the room. He gestured toward his ear and widened his eyes, reminding her that they were not really alone and it was not safe to speak openly here.

Liis pulled away, crossed her arms and simply waited, unmoving. She knew the only reason Keiran was likely to even want to attempt to keep anything from her was because he felt he had to protect her. She understood why he did and was wise enough by this point to know that sometimes he’d be smart to do it. Her patience today was wearing thin; she was certain they really didn’t have time for this.

Judging by the anxiousness in his face to get out of here and to Jamieson it was clear Will really didn’t have time for any of this either and so he and Liis both knew that if it came to waiting here she’d win.

Will considered making a joke but opted against it because Liis clearly wasn’t in the mood. “Look, if yer not going ta come with us ta see Jamieson an’a’way, why don’t ya go back ta the ship? Have a coffee and a nice little lie-in and Keiran can catch ya up later.”

The expression on Liis’ face very clearly declared ‘like hell’ without her needing any words to make the statement. Maybe before she’d have been willing to consider letting Keiran go alone, but now with probably half of TI out there to get Jamieson there was no chance she’d let him go in there alone or even just with Lindsay.

Seeing that the attempt had been pointless, Will sighed. He quickly realised that he should have known better than to put Keiran in this position in the first place. In spite of all the deceit around him Keiran was still an honest man and especially unable to keep secrets from the woman who knew him so well she’d read them just as well without him saying them.

Though he’d never been as honest as either of them, Will just hoped that this place hadn’t really changed him yet.

Apologetically he looked at Keiran in a gesture which told him to go ahead. That was all O’Sullivan needed.

“William may be right.” Keiran pressed his lips to her ear and continued in a low, regretful rumble. “I’s Brody, Liis. He’s part of all this. Accordin’ to Jamieson, a big part.”

Liis’ immediate reaction was an instant of stunned disbelief, followed by a scalding self-loathing that she didn’t suspect Brody from the start. Rage boiled up within her at what she considered to be one of her greatest career and personal failings; that she couldn’t yet have put this man behind her.

At the same time her fury at herself and at Brody was tempered by an involuntary, gripping feeling of terror. Hearing that name again sent a cold chill down her spine that seemed to slow and turn back up again rather than to die out when it reached the end. Not only was Tucker Brody a remnant from events still far too fresh she wished she could forget but the man had altered; twisted and corroded into something truly vicious in this timeline. In another time he’d had a decent side to him and truly wanted to help people. Today, he was cruel, cold, and clearly on a vendetta against her though to this day she couldn’t fathom why.

He seemed determined to do whatever it took to make her suffer, and at this time in her life when she actually had something and someone to lose that truly was a frightening thought.

Momentarily Liis paused, seeming to process this information. Quickly however it became clear she’d made up her mind. When it came to not losing what was important to her there was only one way she could be certain; she had to fight to hold onto it with her own two hands. Perhaps more correctly she should say most confident she could hold on, because the worst part of all of this was that there were no certainties.

“No,” she said, with as much resolve as she could force into her voice, even if deep down the thoughts did shake her. “I’m not going back down now. Not because of him.”

Perhaps reason could have told her that regardless of the outcome of their last meeting Brody still knew exactly which wounds were still the most open to prodding to hurt her and that were it a member of her crew in this position then not only would she want them to step back to protect them but would insist they do so out of fear they could be a liability.

Reason, however, had nothing at all to do with her thought process now.

Though once it may have been a matter of pride or just a Captain’s prerogative of stubbornness, this time her motivation for going into the fight were different than they ever could’ve been before she’d lived the Paradox. This time, it was true fear of Brody using Keiran to get to her that made it so clear she only had one choice. She decided that she couldn’t allow fear of a man like Brody make her doubt her place at Keiran’s side; not with his life in such danger.

She was prepared to take on half of TI here, she would not allow Brody to be granted that power or that importance as to be the thing that stopped her from being there when she was needed.

Though clearly Keiran wasn’t happy about it and neither was Will, a glance exchanged between the men confirmed they both knew there was no point to arguing.

That didn’t change that Keiran’s eyes were still full of the concern for just what Brody might do if Liis should stumble across him at some point when Keiran either wasn’t there or wasn’t able to stop him.

“Fair enough,” Will answered with a nod, trying to smile to lighten the mood but still very anxious to get going. “We’ve no time ta discuss it an’a’way. But I’d rather not risk givin’ away Jamieson’s position by arrangin’ ta transport there through TI.”

In spite of her natural lasting irritation at Will’s attempt to deceive her, Liis nodded that she understood and she did even if the expression on her face said she was getting pretty damned sick of all this by now. An attempt on your life did have a way of making you appreciate the difference between caution and paranoia. It did not however prevent you being tired.

“Alright, what are the coordinates?” she sighed, with just the slightest hint of her true fatigue in her tone.

“Not here,” Will replied, gesturing again towards the door, he was far too sure that someone could still be eavesdropping.

Indeed, someone was.

Captain William Lindsay
Interim Director
Temporal Investigations

and

-=/\=- Zanh Liis O'Sullivan
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012