by Denise Moreno
100827.2100
After The End of the Fight
-=Bridge; USS Poseidon=-
100827.2100
After The End of the Fight
-=Bridge; USS Poseidon=-
The Poseidon was a blaze of noise and commotion. All around were busy preparing and fretting for in a few minutes, as the blaring siren that seemed to be coming from within her Captain’s own skull insisted, they were about to courageously disembark from their natural place in history to steal their rightful one.
For most it was merely crossing the line to safety. For some it was but the beginning of a glorious journey; like ancient sailors setting off in the spirit of war and the hope of conquest of the seas of time. For only one did the drawing of the moment nearer bring ever more doubt about what the hell made her think she could do this.
Sitting in her command chair, with what seemed like the entire crew moving around her from station to station, Denise felt almost like she wasn’t here. It was like she was just watching it all happen with no control anymore, and she felt absolutely sick. Yet no one even seemed to notice.
Never before had her stomach felt so uneasy. It was more than just a knot. It was more like a living scuttling creature, subsisting entire of her own guilt, as it squirmed and writhed within her; ever more violently attempting to force its way upward to her throat. She tried to take slow breaths out and in, to gain some sort of focus, but each one simply turned to a shudder as she thought of all she’d done.
They’d abandoned their own people on the Sera and she did nothing to stop it, for it was her only hope of saving her son. She’d taken a weapon to the man that in another world she would have loved, for the transmitter that he’d hidden would prevent her from seeing that child she never got a chance to hold. She had justified it all, growing to hate herself only a little more with each action, always attributing the need for it all by the photograph of a young man she’d never even met. Now as she glanced down to where that photograph was kept, she didn’t want to look at it anymore; she didn’t want to look into his eyes to ask what he’d think of his mother now.
She’d always thought that for all the recklessness and evil within the people around her, that somehow she was different. She had a reason to be here beyond just personal gain. She cared about her actions and their consequences, too much to ever find the blood on her hands that they did. That was what she’d thought until this moment as the words repeated again and again in her mind.
“Captain, he’s dead.”
That is what the medical team had told her after finding Kenneth Mitchell, who was if not the bravest then the most humble man she’d ever known, lying in a pool of his own blood in their cargobay. His wounds had evidently been worse than she’d realised and there was nothing they could do.
Since this entire mess began, she had never been so close to crying as she was right now; though she had to fight it if not out of pride then out of necessity of maintaining a certain image.
There was no justifying this. He was not an evil man, nor even one who had intentionally chosen to position himself against her. He was simply a scared and lonely old man, who only wanted to go home. She could so clearly now still see that longing he’d had in his eyes. The hardest part of seeing that look was knowing that she’d only gotten in to this because she’d wanted the exact same thing.
Now he was dead but she still lived. What a sick galaxy and time was this where the greater the evil within the longer one could survive. Perhaps though, she wondered, if it was only the evil that really survived in the end.
^There are five minutes remaining until Temporal Drive activation,^ the computer cheerfully informed her.
So there it was; five minutes left until she could go back to a time and place where she got to pretend her hands were clean. Her life and her crimes would be undone. She doubted she, that is the she that she was supposed to be, would ever even realise what this version of her had done, and that was a comfort of sorts. However it was a comfort that only lasted a second until she reminded herself of how nothing else had gone to plan.
She looked around at these people who would turn on her so easily. Then suddenly she felt absolute disgust at herself as she really looked at who she was becoming. It was downright stupid to think that somehow this would be the one point where everything went right. She took in another shuddering breath as she really processed what this meant, while everything around her just got faster.
What the hell were they doing here? They were talking about actions that would affect billions of lives, with untellable consequences for the entire quadrant, just to fill whatever gaps they felt in their existence between what they had and what they deserved.
All of a sudden, her eyes were at once a picture of sadness and determination as her hands gripped onto the sides of her chair and forced her to her feet. There was a slight shake to her stance but she did not fall back down. For so long she’d been pitifully asking herself if this was truly all she had to show for a lifetime. However she would not pity herself anymore.
Though most didn’t even seem to notice her, Lieutenant Wilson who Brody had installed as chief of security, immediately stopped the security checklist he was working through and turned to her.
“Is something wrong, Captain?”
“Everything’s fine,” she replied with just the slightest shake to her words at first. “I’m going to make a final inspection of the jump drive.”
The narrowing of the man’s eyes showed he was suspicious that he was not being told the whole story, especially as he noticed Denise’s hand unintentionally brushing by her phaser.
“Would you like me to accompany you, Captain?” he asked with false concern.
“That will not be necessary,” she answered with all the authority she could muster. “You finish your work here.”
“Aye, Captain,” he replied with, though she could never have missed his scepticism.
She had to pretend not to notice it though, just as he had to pretend not to see that shake to her every step she simply couldn’t hide as she moved swiftly in the direction of the turbolift. As the turbolift doors closed behind her however that was another matter.
Stepping quickly away from the nearest people, the man immediately hit his combadge.
“Wilson to Brody.”
-=Quarters of Tucker Brody=-
Tucker Brody was a physical and mental mess. His ribs were cracked, his body bruised, and he was in enormous pain from the beating he’d received. Breathing had become a particularly difficult task. Yet it was nothing compared to the pain as he thought of how close everything had come to slipping away. The alarm was blaring to suggest they were almost there, but his entire world still seemed to teeter on the head of a pin. It could all still so easily fall, even after everything he’d done.
Yet the room was still spinning, his head was aching, and he was struggling even to move from the spot on the floor where he’d settled. He demanded himself to be to stronger than this though. Feeling the weakness brought on by recent events just made him so furious at himself that the very thought of it had his heart pounding and his breathing grew rapid and uneven.
When he’d heard the sound of his combadge he’d been barely able to drag himself to his feet, and as he did he needed a sharp inhale first just to get the breath to his lungs to answer with.
“Brody here.”
[I’m sorry to disturb you, sir, but our Captain has just left the bridge. She said she’s going to inspect the Temporal Drive but…Well, she was awfully shaky.]
Brody’s eyes suddenly widened.
“She wouldn’t,” Brody cursed under his breath but the realisation very quickly struck him that she would. He couldn’t believe this was happening now.
“Okay, listen very carefully,” he insisted with a sharp inhale, harshly enunciating every single word. “The Captain can no longer be trusted. She’s been deliberately concealing information and was responsible for the release of the two enemy prisoners from our brig. I am hereby removing her from command.”
Before he’d even finished speaking, Brody was already beginning to make lurching movements towards the door of his quarters. Wilson had never heard such anger in Brody’s voice and he knew better than to challenge him on this. Wilson had never had much faith in Denise anyway.
[Understood, sir.]
“She can not be allowed to reach engineering,” Brody spoke the words as a mixture of deadly threat and utter panic. “You do whatever you have to stop her! Do you understand?”
[Yes, sir, I understand,] Wilson replied soberly.
-=Turbolift Four=-
Denise took in a deep breath to try to steady her shaking hands, but any chance of that happening was lost as the turbolift made a sudden cracking sound, the lights cutting out, as it stopped dead in its place. They were trying to prevent her getting there which meant she’d been discovered.
She turned rapidly around towards the turbolift controls. Her hands struggling to pull off the cover, she finally managed it. Clumsily she then attempted to override whatever had been done to cut her out. However it was becoming very quickly apparent as her almost arthritic fingers struggled to make the necessary adjustments that she simply didn’t have the practical knowledge of the ship’s systems to do it.
“Damn it!”
She turned to the door, contemplating attempting to force it, but she knew she didn’t have the strength to do so. Her head fell into her hands, though she was not yet ready to consider if she should just give up now. Then she gasped as she suddenly had an idea. She quickly took hold of her combadge.
-=Deck Three=-
Will had almost forgotten that he still had his TI communicator in his pocket until it suddenly began to chirp. He pulled it out, more in an attempt to silence the damn thing before the noise drew anyone to him than anything else.
“Who is it?” he said at a harsh whisper, greatly hoping it’d be someone from TI somehow caught up with them but not holding his breath for that.
[It’s me, Will. It’s Denise. I’m using the TI frequency and not the ship’s so no one should be listening in.]
He seriously considered simply not responding at all but his better nature made it impossible for him to ignore how desperate Denise sounded.
“Well given our chance for a private chat’s not likely gonna last fer very bloody long, I’d suggest ya talk quickly.”
[Are you anywhere near the bridge?]
Will’s immediate response was to scoff about why he’d possibly tell her, though it quickly occurred to him that she could easily enough track him by the communicator and so there was little point in trying to hide his position from her.
“I’m a few decks down,” he answered, intentionally keeping just how close he was vague and in particular not mentioning the fact that he was heading there already.
[Okay…] she said, breathing heavily. [Will, listen to me. I’m stuck in a turbolift and they’ve cut the power from the bridge. It’s…turbolift four. Is there any way you can override it from where you are?]
There was a way; the security measures on these old ships were fairly simple in design and it should be possible to manually override the controls from a nearby wall interface. However that didn’t mean he wanted to.
“Why should I help you?” Will asked, showing that none of the anger he felt at her betrayal had simply evaporated over time.
Denise would have struggled to answer herself that question, she had no idea what if anything in her could possibly deserve anyone’s help right now, but she knew exactly how to answer it for Will.
^There are three minutes remaining until Temporal Drive activation^
[Because if I don’t get to Engineering then in a few minutes the Temporal Drive will be activated. You know what that could mean for the Federation. I can stop it, Will.]
Will cursed under his breath. He had no reason to believe her, but the continued siren reminded him he was running out of time.
-=Turbolift Four=-
“Please William.” Denise spoke the words quietly; not to Will himself but almost as one would to a god they didn’t really believe was there.
She breathed heavily, finding herself so hopelessly unprepared to be here in the darkness. She had spent so many years convinced that she could have handled everything they could have thrown at her. She really had known it all; singlehandedly she’d been able to design the plans needed to use their wonderfully complex technology to alter time itself. Yet none of that meant a thing as she truly thought about being alone in the dark with an entire ship of armed people after her,
Only then she heard a crack and the lights came on, the turbolift resuming its motion. She knew she wasn’t completely alone.
“Thank you, Will.”
-=Bridge=-
Wilson had taken charge on the bridge, taking the command chair, with a young inexperienced Ensign assigned to the tactical console.
“I don’t understand it, but somehow Turbolift Four is moving again,” the Ensign reported.
“Then try to override!” Wilson ‘suggested’ in a tone that warned the Ensign just how much he didn’t want to have to tell Brody they’d failed.
The Ensign’s hands moved quickly, but not quickly enough. Taking in a deep breath, he looked back up at Wilson.
“It’s too late, sir,” he said regretfully. “It’s already arrived at Engineering.”
Thinking he’d deal with the Ensign later, Wilson slapped his combadge angrily.
“Wilson to Geller. I need a security team to Main Engineering right now!”
-=Main Engineering=-
As the turbolift door finally opened, Denise held her breath. She didn’t know if the engineering staff would have been informed they were supposed to be stopping her, but as they continued busying themselves around her she didn’t think they had.
She had the Temporal Drive in sight in the distance, two members of the Serendipity’s crew standing by it, and she quickly began to walk, almost to run in its direction.
^There are two minutes remaining until Temporal Drive activation^
“Captain,” Powell said nervously, intercepting her. “Everything’s on track to activate the drive. What…what are you doing here?”
“I want to see the Temporal Drive.”
Powell looked confused, but Denise thought to herself that that was okay. She just had to keep him confused long enough to get to where she was going.
“Now’s really not a good time for an inspection, Captain. I…”
[Wilson to Powell,] Powell was cut off by the sound of his combadge and suddenly Denise’s eyes grew wider.
“Excuse me, Captain,” he mumbled, preparing to respond.
“Wait,” Denise said, suddenly stopping dead in her tracks and speaking with every ounce of determination and authority she still had. “Do not answer that. Give it here.”
Powell looked at her then down at his combadge with confusion, taking it into his hand
“That’s an order,” she insisted.
[Wilson to Powell. Please respond.]
Powell looked completely uncertain what he should do, but when all else failed he preferred to defer to authority. He quickly handed the combadge to Denise.
[This is…]
Denise pulled open the combadge cover and cut out the power supply, leaving Wilson unable to finish.
“Now, as I was saying,” Denise said, with a slight sigh of relief. “I need to see the Temporal Drive.”
“Yes, Captain…”
Denise turned, her steps again drawing her closer to the device as her hand fell to her side preparing to grab hold of her phaser.
Denise moved eagerly. She was so close. It looked like she was finally going to make it. Only then instantly she stopped in her tracks; her stomach fearfully sinking, as an all too familiar pained and angry voice shouted out viciously from behind her.
Ensign Denise Moreno
Commanding Officer
USS Poseidon
Commanding Officer
USS Poseidon
NRPG Note from the Captain: My apologies to my crew for the delay in posts/sending them out, I have been very ill recently. Working to get back on track and into the swing now. ~ZL