By Lara Valera Ryn
100401.11
After Give and Take, Part Two
100401.11
After Give and Take, Part Two
-=Bridge, USS Poseidon=
The guard marched Lara back to the science station. He stood nearby, within arm’s reach, but was really not paying attention to her or what she was doing. He rather seemed bored with the whole ordeal. Annoyed too at having to play baby-sitter.
Tapping at the keys in the console in front of her, Lara ran through the sensors logs for the ship. She was surprised to find them all readily open and available to her and suspected that someone -- namely a current wannabe captain -- had ensured that she would have access.
As she glanced through the numbers, Lara did hazard a glance over toward Denise, now back in the captain’s chair. She really was not a bad person, just someone else caught up in this mess. In another scenario, she might have even been an agreeable person.
The term 'agreeable person' rolled around in Lara’s brain for a moment. That was certainly not a term from her vocabulary. It was too passive and docile and not nearly precise enough, which meant only one thing. Ryn was still out of the proverbial box and influencing her decisions. Had she been on the Sera, Lara would have beaten the worm into submission, but she could not afford the distraction of her inner demons right now.
Shunting these thoughts out of her mind, Lara returned to the readings. She compared the numbers from engineering with those on the science station and immediately, she frowned. Something wasn’t right. She did not have to understand the complexities of the ship and how it worked to bend time to its will to understand that something was off.
And then it hit her.
“Not good,” she mumbled to herself.
“What’s that?” the guard snapped, turning his full and fierce attention toward her now.
She looked up at him, gave him a sheepish and hopefully innocently reassuring smile, but did not speak to him. Instead, she returned her attention to the nominal captain of the ship. “Captain?”
Denise stood up from where she sat and turned around to face Lara. “Yes.” The façade of her being in control, both of the ship and her own emotions, had returned.
“May I contact engineering?”
“Why?” It was clear that her suspicions were immediately raised.
“I do not have all of the sensor readings from the engineering consoles. I would like someone to read the numbers from down there to me.” It seemed like an innocent request and it in fact almost was. But that was not the point. Making Denise Moreno believe it was innocent was.
A brief flash of insecurity and concern flashed across Denise’s face, but then she relented, and said, “Bridge to Engineering.”
[Powell here.]
Denise nodded to Lara to continue the conversation.
“I need someone to read over the sensor readings from your end. I don’t seem to have all of the numbers here.” The last fact was a lie, but it was a minor enough one that it seemed to slip by.
[You there,] Powell was heard saying.
[Me?] came a second voice.
[Yes. Go over to that console and read off the last sensor numbers.]
[Okay.] There was silence for a few seconds and then softly, the numbers were read off by the second person.
“I’m sorry, I can’t hear you. Can you speak up?” Lara asked.
There was a loud sigh from the other end, which could have only come from Powell. Then there was a beep, followed by the second voice saying,[Can you hear me now?]
Lara shook her head from how loud the voice now was, as did most of the people on the bridge.
“Yes, I can, Jamie,” she replied, now recognizing the voice of her own crewmate.
[Good. So here goes.] Again, he repeated the numbers, and Lara tapped them into the science console one by one.
“Thanks,” she said, as soon as he was done. Neither of them had a chance to say anything else as Denise signaled to the communications officer to shut down the comm.
With the data in hand, Lara returned to work and was quickly dismayed to learn that the results were as she feared -- the same as the last time.
Again, she glanced at Denise for a second time. The woman had said that if Lara tried anything, she would know. Well, Lara now hoped that such bragging was actually true.
From the science station, she opened a link with the control pad on the armrest of the Captain’s chair. She tapped in the message, ‘Just read, don’t respond,’ and sent it.
She saw the light blink on the console of the captain’s chair and saw as Denise did acknowledge it. Lara waited a few seconds and then sent a second message.‘We have a problem. The numbers from engineering and science are the same. Exactly.’
Again, Lara paused and waited for the message to be received. Then, she typed out, ‘This is impossible. They can only be the same if someone tampered with one of the sensors. Before we arrived.’
Once again, she waited and watched as Denise took in the message. Finally, Lara added in the last part. ‘Trust me.’
After the final message had been sent, Lara began to work to erase what traces she could of the message. It would only pass a perfunctory glance, but that was all that she could do without raising suspicions. Now, it was in the hands of Denise Moreno.
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Lt. Lara Valera Ryn
Science Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Lt. Lara Valera Ryn
Science Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012