By Tam Elton (as told by Rada Dengar) and Lair Kellyn
100619.2230
Following To Plan and Not to Plan
-=Sickbay, USS Serendipity=-
100619.2230
Following To Plan and Not to Plan
-=Sickbay, USS Serendipity=-
Kellyn could see that Tam was getting anxious. His tiny feet consistently rose from and fell to the floor as he’d taken to walking back and forth by the internal sickbay door, which led to the entrance. He had his small hands cupped behind his back and that sweet worried look on his face. The only possible word Kellyn could have used would be to say that he was pacing, just as Rada was known to do when he had a problem on his mind and didn’t think anyone was watching.
Children often picked up these habits without their parents even realising it. Arie right now was in Lance Hartcort’s office, tired though unable to sleep, and meditating in the way she’d taken to doing more and more to deal with it in a Vulcan way when Bajoran emotions became unwelcome.
Wondering about Rada now Kellyn couldn’t help but worry about what might be happening to him. That reminded her that the child before her likely had far more on his mind than just the fate of the two missing crewmembers. He really must have felt so alone on this ship.
“Hey you,” she said as non-threateningly as she could and the small child stopped perfectly still and turned his head, his eyes reflecting his concern for what she might say. Though Kellyn’s instincts under the circumstances were to make a joke about him making himself dizzy or her being the one who’d have to fix it if he wore a hole in the floor, the mother in her told her that right now even the gentlest of teasing would only sound to Tam like something more to worry about. So instead she just patted the seat beside where she was sitting while she was catching her breath and invited him over. “I could use some company. How about you sit down?”
He seemed lost as he thought about her offer, not wanting to say no to her, but also not wanting to move any further away from the door than he had to. His eyes actually flashed back and forth between the two locations uncertainly.
“There’s a pretty good view of the door from here, you know,” she added and this seemed to solve Tam’s dilemma for him. The child nervously hurried over and climbed up on the chair beside her, immediately settling in the perfect position to watch the door again.
It was evident that he hadn’t entirely registered that her request for company would involve some sort of conversation as he chose just to sit and stare in silence.
She looked down at him and smiled sadly.
“So Tam, what do you want to ask me?”
The child simply shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t know of anything to ask her, although didn’t know how to say it would have been a more accurate description.
She didn’t imagine he’d have much to say right now anyway. She wished that she had more she could say herself but after a long pause there was only a single sentence she felt he’d even really hear.
“They’ll be alright.”
Tam did indeed seem to hear her sentence, which he took as far more than just the simple meaning regarding the fate of Dane Cristiane and Trev Sterling. He turned his little head and looked up at her with an expression that seemed to ask how she could know that and if she could really be sure. He didn’t feel like he could be sure of anything right now.
“I know them,” Kellyn answered the question he hadn’t asked yet. “I know what they’re capable of getting through.”
Tam found her reasoning very familiar. Though he turned his face back to the door quickly so she didn’t see the expression in his eyes, Kellyn could tell from his tone that he wasn’t so certain that anyone would get through this.
“This is a very unusual situation,” he said, looking down from the door for just a moment to observe his lightly swinging legs.
“Yes, it is,” Kellyn acknowledged, turning her head slightly as if to catch his downcast eyes and adding, “Unusual situations can be scary for everyone.”
Tam didn’t seem at all to register this permission to be afraid, his eyes just once again moving up to the door. Though he looked like he was once again going to silently retreat into his worries, he instead softly spoke a sentence that pretty much summed up what all of them were thinking right now.
“I wish I knew what was happening.”
“That tells me something about you, Tam. Something important.” Kellyn nudged him gently with her elbow and Tam tilted his head, his curiosity so strong it divided his attention just for an instant between the woman beside him and the unknown beyond the door they both fixed their eyes upon. “Do you know what that is?”
Tam shook his head.
“It tells me that you’re very smart.” Kellyn stopped talking a moment, forced to again chase after her breath and cursing her lungs for the fact that it simply refused to let her catch up to it.
“Many people, when they’re afraid, they want to bury their heads in the sand. Like those big, dumb, angry birds from Earth that Arie was doing a report on for school. What did they call them, do you remember?”
“Ostriches.” Tam replied, trying valiantly to continue with Lair along her train of thought even though he was just as certain as she was that her attempts at distracting him were meeting with little actual success.
“That’s right. Ostriches.” Kellyn nodded, observing the continued tension in the boy’s shoulders, his hypervigilant posture gave away just how smart he really was. “They like to bury their heads in the sand, hide from things they’re afraid of. Even if it’s to the detriment of themselves and everyone around them.”
She now placed her hand beneath his chin and gently turned his head until he was forced to look up at her or risk appearing impolite, which would be as unthinkable to him as speaking aloud of his fears.
“You’re anything but an Ostrich, Tam Elton,” Lair decreed. “Do you know why people feel afraid in situations like this one?”
Again, he did not answer.
“Because they’re so smart they realize just what is at stake. But there’s another thing that smart people do in situations like this, and I want you to remember it for later, okay?”
Tam nodded. “What is that, Commander Lair?”
“That you can’t let your fears paralyze you, or your thoughts. No matter how bright you may be, the difference most of the time between staying alive and ending up dead is just how quickly you can think on your feet.”
-=Main Bridge, USS Poseidon=-
“Captain on the bridge.”
The Ensign’s voice felt like an announcement to the world that she’d been doing things she shouldn’t have as Denise rushed from the turbolift and returned to her rightful position in the captain’s chair.
She hoped that if she were lucky then nothing of consequence would have happened during her absence and so no questions would be asked later on about where she’d been. However she’d barely even sat down before she learnt her luck had not been so good.
“Lieutenant Peterson has been trying to contact you, Captain.”
Though wishing to swear right about now, Denise instead cleared her throat then straightened her uniform as she discretely reattached the combadge she’d intentionally left on the chair.
“Very well,” she said, inhaling slowly to retain casual composure and doing her best to make it sound like everything was normal. “Put him on the screen.”
The very second that the image of the Sera’s bridge appeared on the screen Denise heard the turbolift doors swish open behind her. She felt a pair of eyes seek her out and begin staring through her.
“Captain,” Brody drawled slowly, acknowledging her as he moved to stand over Denise’s shoulder at the weapon’s console behind her. He’d managed to compose himself quite well on the outside even if coming so close to failure as he’d just done would make the inside much harder to fix.
Denise offered no similar greeting in recognition of Brody, instead directing her attention purely to the screen before her. He could tell, though, that she was doing so intentionally to avoid looking him in the eye.
Maybe it was her paranoia finally getting to her, but somehow she could have sworn that he knew, feeling his stare upon her. If he did though, she was still also hoping he wasn’t going to call her on it just now. For all he knew so far she’d been off the bridge to check on the supply of pens in sickbay and she wasn’t going to act like her actions were anymore suspicious than that.
“What is it, Peterson?” she asked, with impressive confidence.
Peterson’s face clearly reflected his confusion as just moments before he’d seen that neither Denise nor Brody was available and now as clear as day he could see them both.
[I’m sorry to bother you…] he started, unsure of whom he should by addressing here. [However one of the prisoners claims to know of a potentially dangerous flaw in the Poseidon’s operations.]
Denise shifted awkwardly in her chair, worrying that Blane may be about to reveal what she’d only recently discovered about the tampering with the data from Engineering.
“Who has made this claim?” she asked, trying to allow herself enough room to be able to request to deal with this in private before too much had been said.
Peterson went to open his mouth but before he did Brody cut in.
“Let me guess. Commander Blane?”
[Yes, sir,] Peterson answered from where he was so awkwardly standing in front of the Sera’s captain’s chair. [How did you know?]
Brody stepped out from the weapon’s console, feeling a little bolder but feeling more strongly the need to assert how in control he was so he could prove it to himself.
He observed TC Blane, standing just towards the edge of the screen and with an expression of utter disdain in his so often emotionless eyes. So he seemed to address this statement to him even as he made sure Denise felt he was addressing it to her.
“I know the type of man he is and I know what he thinks he’s doing. The Commander thinks he can deceive me. He thinks I can be distracted long enough to let him follow through on his own agenda.” Denise’s skin almost seemed literally to crawl as Brody paused and his eyes moved for the briefest second to her.
“He’s wrong.”
-=Sickbay, USS Serendipity=-
Finally he heard the door to sickbay slide open and Tam immediately forgot about the conversation he was involved in, almost stumbling as he eagerly stepped from the chair. He held his breath for the coming seconds until the internal door opened as well and Trev Sterling and Dane Cristiane were revealed intact.
“Welcome back, sirs,” Tam said, entirely unable to hide his relief as he looked up at them.
Trev smiled at the boy, Dane was not in a smiling mood.
“How did it go?” Kellyn asked, as she managed to drag herself onto her feet.
“Not bad,” Trev answered cautiously.
Dane shot him a look that seemed to ask ‘are you serious’ but also inserted a rather colourful expletive.
“We were able to make the bypass. I patched in my combadge so it can be activated remotely. There was however a…complication.”
“Complication?” Dane exclaimed, wondering if had it been Trev’s throat that was almost crushed the situation would be simply regarded as ‘complicated’. “The fu…” Dane stopped himself, noticing the child was present and changing what he was saying. “The fun tricorder didn’t work when it was supposed to. We were discovered and had to stun two guards.”
Kellyn tended to agree with Dane that this was more than just a simple complication. She could feel her headache getting worse by the second.
“What did you do with them?” she asked, knowing that soon enough either the guards would wake up and call for help or someone would attempt to contact them and realise something had happened.
“We couldn’t bring them here. So we had to tie them up,” Trev explained. “Hopefully that’ll buy us some time when they wake.”
“Okay,” Kellyn said calmly with a slow exhale, knowing they likely didn’t have a choice but not wanting this extra problem right now when her head was still swimming. “Did you learn anything useful while you were out there?”
“We learned the ship’s phasers are operational again,” Trev explained. This drew Kellyn’s interest.
“Did you get a chance to figure out how?”
“No, we didn’t,” Dane answered and Kellyn immediately began planning a trip to get back there and see. However before she could, Dane unclipped the phaser he’d stolen from his belt. “We got something better.”
"Such a dark little boy," Lair grinned, ruffling Dane's hair. "With such light fingers."
-=Main Bridge, USS Serendipity=-
“Well, I suppose you’re not even going to listen,” TC asked as if irritated about Brody’s stubbornness, though secretly he was relieved. Though he had no way of knowing for sure, it was likely that by now his intended distraction had been entirely successful and having to make up a fake problem with the Poseidon was an unneeded complication.
[I think we both know there’d be no point,] Brody added confidently, feeling a little more convinced as time had gone on that what had happened with Liis was an isolated moment of emotion. TC then noticed him turning very slightly towards Denise and speaking in a tone that said there was more going on here than there appeared. [Don’t you agree, Captain?]
[Yes, I do,] Denise said, so softly that it could barely be heard on the Sera’s bridge.
Brody turned quickly back to the screen, feeling like he was now firmly in control. A smug smirk was almost, but not quite, allowed to show on his face as he prepared to close the channel and to get onto more important matters. He then silently scolded himself for almost allowing it. There was still too much that could go wrong and of all men he knew the toll that putting too much faith in anyone, even himself, could demand.
[Good.] Brody was still certain TC was hiding something from him, but he had far greater deceptions to concern himself with on his own ship. Peterson felt Brody’s eyes locking on him and the man spoke slowly in that way to say his point should be taken very clearly. [I don’t want to be bothered with something like this again.]
Now Peterson knew exactly who he should be addressing from between the two authority figures on that bridge.
At times like this he felt like a child with two very different parents. They learned quickly which of them it was more dangerous to irritate and Peterson felt Brody seemed irritated right now. Peterson wondered if this hadn’t been TC’s plan all along, to put Peterson on Brody’s bad side.
"You won’t be, sir,” Peterson answered immediately, eyeing TC with disdain as if all the inconvenience was TC’s doing and Peterson was twice as irritated as Brody was. “In future I’ll not waste your time with the likes of him.”
Brody nodded his approval of this and Peterson felt he’d made the right choice. Then, as if on cue the perfect opportunity seemed to present itself as before the channel had been closed the turbolift door behind him slid open and one of the Sera’s crew stepped off, with one guard standing on either side of her.
“I gave the order that no one was to be let on the bridge,” Peterson barked, hoping Brody could see how well he was asserting his authority. “What the hell is she doing here? Can’t you see I’m in the middle of a very important communication?”
“She somehow managed to override the controls on her door and get out into the ship,” one of the guards explained. “Then when we found her she demanded we brought her here to talk to you. She’s TI, sir.”
Peterson hadn’t known this and he found it interesting, but it was something about the focused look in her dark red, tear- stained eyes that really drew his attention. There was something out there that could make her cry, but she was unnervingly fearless when it came to facing him.
“What does she want?” He asked, turning away from those eyes to address the guards who’d cower before him.
“I need to talk to Tucker Brody,” Landry answered simply and firmly, as of yet not having noticed he was already on the viewscreen.
“Forget it,” Peterson scoffed, still not quite looking at her.
“It’s important,” Landry added flatly. She knew an impassioned plea wouldn’t exactly mean much to a man like this.
Peterson ignored her, gesturing to the guards as if to indicate they should go away. “Take her back to her quarters immediately and this time make sure she stays.”
“If you do that I’ll only get out again,” she warned. "I can make things very complicated for you, unless you let me talk to Brody."
Now Peterson was getting angry. She would not make him look like he wasn’t in control of this situation in front of Brody.
“You’re not getting this, are you?” he retorted with irritation, as he pulled his phaser from his belt and pointed it at Steele. “Either you get off this bridge right now or I will…”
Before he could even finish Brody cut in and perceptive ears, though not Peterson’s, heard something in the man’s voice few ever would.
[Put your weapon down, Peterson,] he said commandingly with just the faintest hint of concern that he could fire.
Landry immediately recognised that beautiful, overpowering voice and she turned toward it, as did all eyes on the bridge.
“But sir,” Peterson objected in confusion, half lowering his phaser as if unable to make sense of the request. Landry took the opportunity to step forward into the bridge until she was standing in front of the viewscreen, no one attempting to stop her because it was clear Brody would not react well if she were hurt.
“Landry.” Brody said only her name in surprise, his eyes locking upon her and flashing for just an instant something almost recognisable as vulnerability.
“After all this time, is that really all you have to say to me?”
“What do you expect me to say?” Brody asked, stepping forward as if to approach her; for the first time in a long time making movements without a thought to what they would cost or gain.
Landry did just the same, stepping closer to the viewscreen as she instinctively wrapped her arms around herself in a futile display, trying to protect herself from the pain in his conflicted eyes.
The scene around them seemed to disappear- people, places, all and nothing.
In this moment there was once again just the two of them, separated only by the widest of all possible chasms: the differences that had driven them apart.
Tam Elton
Civilian Crew
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
As told by Rada Dengar
and
Commander Lair Kellyn
Engineering Research and Development
The Alchemy Project
Civilian Crew
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
As told by Rada Dengar
and
Commander Lair Kellyn
Engineering Research and Development
The Alchemy Project