Beg, Steal or Borrow – In Memorium: Part 3
by Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Colonel James Darson
Post Details
Isha blinked, her eyes moist as they adjusted to the change of light and air. She stepped back and felt for the door, the sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach telling her that the dry dark silence that surrounded her was wrong.
“Darson, open the door,” she said, her palms flat on the unyielding surface. “DARSON!”
Isha could scream herself hoarse or pay him back later. Her arms fell. Turning back into the room she chose the latter option, it was never too late for revenge. The sseikea was probably watching anyway.
She folded her arms, each breath controlled as though she were preparing to speak before a hostile audience.
“Well,” Isha said out loud, “I’m waiting.”
It happened slowly, the shifting darkness, fading, solidifying, becoming form; the steep angled lines of a Warbird’s bridge. Her eyes surveyed the empty room, the displays a mess of crackle and fizz as though out of time; which they were, she thought.
Isha ran her fingers over the familiar panels as she stepped carefully around the simulation. It was a simulation, she reminded herself as she completed a circuit, pausing over the panel that proclaimed the ship’s identity.
“Vrelnec,” she whispered her painted nails picking at the crimson trim of her collar. The ship was a tomb.
Isha stiffened as fingers tightened on her elbow but she offered no resistance as they guided her round; “You’re dead,” she said, a reminder to herself as she came face to face with the husband she had last seen in semi-darkness as he left to join the second battle at Chin’toka, that certain victory that had left her crushed and alone.
Striding along slowly with Isha in tow, Nveid looked down with no trace of a smile, "Yes Isha...I am dead," he said with no trace of emotion. But then his lips turned up in the Romulan version of a smile, "But...I haven't gotten around to lying down yet. I've been programmed to be your guide through this simulation."
It had taken Isha too many years to let go of the delusion that Nveid might still be alive somewhere, she finally and painfully had and now here he was standing before her; did he know about Rh’vuarek? Did he know that she rarely used her married name off-world?
Isha froze, biting her knuckles hard; the thought was ridiculous. He wasn’t real.
“I think I’m going to kill Darson for this,” she told the hologram eventually, he had no right to do this to her. “Why am I here?”
Nveid threw his arm out to encompass all of the bridge of the time-locked Warbird and beyond, "This is a simulation designed to replay the events of a very rare event during the Dominion War. A joint Romulan-Federation operation, codenamed: SNOW HAMMER," He paused and looked to Isha with an expression of disgust on his face, "The Federation picked the name."
He walked towards the viewscreen, taking Isha with him. Outside, they could both see the blurry still outline of what was unmistakably a Normandy class ship.
"Our ship, the Vrelnec was assigned to accompany this ship, the U.S.S. Valkyrie. Our mission was to find and destroy a forward base of Dominion operations, to halt their advance in this sector."
“Why you? Why not get the assistance of a ship wholly under the control of the Galae and the Empire, one not influenced by the considerations of a hfihar (Great House) … or have I just answered my own question?”
Nveid gave a ghostly impression of a smile and gently laid his holographic hand on her arm, "You were always very astute Isha. That’s one of the reason's why I loved you so."
Isha’s muscles tensed as though to shrink from his touch, “What am I doing here?” she repeated.
Nveid's image flickered slightly, "You are here," he said, "Because the Major wants you to watch these events in their entirety. That is all. Now then, shall we begin?"
Isha folded her arms around her body, support against the sickening ache that spread through her bones. "Being another man's puppet does not suit you, Nveid," she observed. "Why does he want me to know this? Why could he not just TELL me?"
Nveid did not reply. Instead he said, “We met up with the Valkyrie approximately 200 light-years away from the star system. The human Captain on board, Captain Charles Itsura invited me over to dine with him during the interval we were at warp. I declined…but, after repeated and annoying requests, I agreed, on the condition that I would be accompanied by several of my troops on board.”
Isha nodded, that was only to be expected. But Nveid’s continued lack of regard for the necessary protocol concerning an alliance, no matter how brief irked her; she had impressed on him a thousand times that it must not be neglected and still, the moment he was out of her sight, he shoved that knowledge to the back of his brain.
“I transported over, and both ships went to warp. They were planning to come in on the other side of the sun from the planet in question, so that we could mount a stealthy attack. The meal I had onboard was…passable, but then, all human food is disgusting.
After the warp trip, we came out right where we had planned. I prepared to leave and return to the Vrelnec to prepare for that attack…but then everything went horribly wrong…lets watch, shall we?”
With that, he clapped his hands to together lightly, the whole simulation fizzled, and they both found themselves on the Federation bridge. All the crewmen were frozen over their stations, and the Captain was frozen looking out the viewport contemplatively.
Isha glanced from Nveid to the still Federation crew; too much of this and her head was going to start spinning.
She turned back to Nveid, “They knew you were coming?” Isha asked moving beside and slightly behind him where she could grasp his arm as the simulation continued.
“Yes…they knew we were coming. They hit us as soon as we dropped out of warp. The Vrelnec was destroyed almost immediately…they were planning to cloak as soon as I transported back, so they had their shields down in preparation. The Federation ship on the other hand, managed to survive the initial volley. The Captain ordered evasive action, and return fire. Lets fast forward slightly here until I return to the bridge,” He waved his hand in a mystical fashion and everything sprang into fast motion, lights dimmed to red-alert status, people rushed around, consoles exploded in quick bursts, and this all happened in complete silence. When another holographic Nveid entered the simulation from a nearby turbo lift, the simulation began to play in real time.
The Valkyrie shuddered violently as her already beleaguered shields took another critical hit. Captain Itsura managed to stay in his seat and barked, “Status! What just hit us?”
“Jem’hadar fighter, sir,” the tactical officer, Lieutenant Jones, replied. Her porcelain features darkened, “Tricky bastard must have powered down and slipped past our fighter nets.”
A humorless grin tugged at Itsura’s mouth. Jones was a first rate tactical officer, utterly ruthless in a fight. She seemed to take the Jem’Hadar fighter pilot’s actions as a personal insult. “Teach them a lesson, Lieutenant,” he said.
She nodded and tapped a series of orders into her still functioning panel – new orders for the Valkyrie’s fighter squadron.
A moment later, there was COM chatter audible in the bridge as one of the Valkyrie class Space Superiority fighters went after the vicious Jem’Hadar, followed by a cheer from the bridge crew as the alien ship transformed into a momentary sun, complete with its own system of co-orbiting debris.
Itsura wiped a trickle of sweat from his forehead as they experienced a small reprieve. He checked his display – they’d reverted back into real space only ten minutes ago. Ten minutes , and the only other ship with them had been destroyed, and they were taking heavy damage.
He turned to the bridge’s main viewport. A massive gas giant, the system’s sun, dominated the spectacular view. One of the Valkyrie fighters screamed past as it patrolled. He turned in his chair to face the silent Nveid, “Galae’Enriov I’m very sorry about your ship and your men.”
The simulation’s Nveid said morosely, “There will be time to grieve later. In the meantime, what do you plan to do now? We should abandon the mission.”
Itsura shook his head fiercely, “No. The Federation is counting on my ship and the Marines onboard to eliminate this threat. If we fail, then we will lose this sector, and the Dominion will have a stronghold behind our lines. It’ll be a massacre.”
“But how do you plan to complete this mission? My ship is gone. We no longer have the advantage of stealth. I do not see any way to complete the mission.”
Itsura faced the viewport and said with conviction, “There is always a way. Just give me some time to think.”
He absently toyed with the pipe he habitually carried, lost in thought. It had always run completely counter to his nature to slink about in the shadows on a stealth mission. He respected the Jem’Hadar as a dangerous, deadly enemy, and hated them for their savage butchery of human colonists and fellow soldiers alike. He had never feared them, however. Soldiers didn’t hide from the enemy – they met the enemy head on.
He palmed his chair’s command suite and accessed Navigation, plotting a course deeper in system towards the fortified target, and fed it to Ensign Horvall, the Flight Control Officer.
“Captain,” Jones piped up, “Sensors paint a squadron of enemy fighters inbound, looks like boarding craft are right behind them, and a detatchment of Cruisers behind them.”
“It was a matter of time, Lieutenant,” He sighed. He lit his pipe, regulations be dammed, and took a long puff on it. After a moment of silence he triggered a shipwide announcement and said, “All personnel, stand by to repel boarders.”
“Such an ill fated vessel, the Vrelnec,” Isha muttered, “Perhaps I will have her renamed when the new ship is finally commissioned.” Pausing she looked from the simulation of events to the simulation of Nveid, “He knew as well as I know now that that ship could not have been destroyed without inside help. They had time to abort the transport and power the shields, but they did not do it. I would wager that the person responsible is the same one who let the ship movements be known.”
A theory was forming in Isha’s mind, far fetched and melodramatic by some standards, but rather plain and simple by the elaborate standards of the intelligence services back in those times. “Tell me, deyhhan (husband), was the traitor Dominion or were they Federation? Either could be concealed in a warbird with a crew of over a thousand. It was your assistance that the Federation wanted, not that of the ship, or of the twenty officers on board the Vrelnec who were members of your own House, or of the thousand nameless crew who died,” her voice rose and her fingers tightened as she spoke. “And as a ship under the direct control of the Illiallhlae the Senate could express little outrage at the loss; after all, it cost them nothing. So they guaranteed your co-operation by destroying your only means of leaving and provided the thin motivation of revenge.”
Nveid froze the simulation and sighed, “Isha…my dear, please avoid jumping to conclusions before you have seen what transpired here. have a hard time believing that this was all about me…mere coincidence saved my life, nothing more and nothing less. Yes, I wanted revenge, but as you will soon see, the Federation had enough trouble without cutting out a large part of their support.”
“We never found out if the traitor was indeed a Dominion infiltrator onboard our vessel...if it was, then he hid himself well. Likewise the same for the Federation. That isn’t to say we didn’t have our suspicions…after the mission there was an investigation on both, but nothing conclusive was uncovered.”
Isha released the hologram's arm. "I'm not your dear," she folded her arms, her tone closed and tense, "and Nveid did not believe in coincidence any more than I do. If this scheme was not a result of mortal conniving then it was the Elements who had more than a hand in your ... in Nveid's survival and as he knew I have limited trust in the Elements too."
At least the programme can be paused, Isha thought. "Continue," she said putting more distance between herself and the hologram.
Something that looked faintly like anger, very human anger, flickered across the false Nveid's face for less than an instant. Almost as if he was angry that Isha had defied him. But then, just as suddenly, it was gone. He turned to Isha with a placid expression on his face and said, "Of course...now then, moving on. For some odd reason, the Dominion wanted this ship. Instead of destroying it flat out, they wanted to seize it. They transported boarding parties aboard where the shields failed, and tried to disable us. Major Darson did a credible job of fending them off, and Captain Itsura as well evaded the tractor beams of the Cruisers...but we couldn't run for ever. Let's watch, shall we?"
The hologram was very, very convincing, Isha had to acknowledge that, but the longer she spent with it, the more she noticed that it deviated from her memories of her husband, from his actions and his personality. Someone had done a very good job but their own perceptions and reactions had coloured their creation filling in their limited experience with Nveid with assumptions.
“Yes, let’s watch,” Isha agreed, her words little more than a hiss.
To be continued …
OFF:
Ambassador Isha t'Khellian
Major James Darson
MCO
by Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Colonel James Darson
Post Details
| Title | In Memorium: Part 3 | |
| Mission | Beg, Steal or Borrow | |
| Author(s) | Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Colonel James Darson | |
| Posted | Sun Feb 15, 2009 @ 9:47am | |
| Location | Deck 72 - Marine Complex | |
| Timeline | SD8 - 00:30 |
“Darson, open the door,” she said, her palms flat on the unyielding surface. “DARSON!”
Isha could scream herself hoarse or pay him back later. Her arms fell. Turning back into the room she chose the latter option, it was never too late for revenge. The sseikea was probably watching anyway.
She folded her arms, each breath controlled as though she were preparing to speak before a hostile audience.
“Well,” Isha said out loud, “I’m waiting.”
It happened slowly, the shifting darkness, fading, solidifying, becoming form; the steep angled lines of a Warbird’s bridge. Her eyes surveyed the empty room, the displays a mess of crackle and fizz as though out of time; which they were, she thought.
Isha ran her fingers over the familiar panels as she stepped carefully around the simulation. It was a simulation, she reminded herself as she completed a circuit, pausing over the panel that proclaimed the ship’s identity.
“Vrelnec,” she whispered her painted nails picking at the crimson trim of her collar. The ship was a tomb.
Isha stiffened as fingers tightened on her elbow but she offered no resistance as they guided her round; “You’re dead,” she said, a reminder to herself as she came face to face with the husband she had last seen in semi-darkness as he left to join the second battle at Chin’toka, that certain victory that had left her crushed and alone.
Striding along slowly with Isha in tow, Nveid looked down with no trace of a smile, "Yes Isha...I am dead," he said with no trace of emotion. But then his lips turned up in the Romulan version of a smile, "But...I haven't gotten around to lying down yet. I've been programmed to be your guide through this simulation."
It had taken Isha too many years to let go of the delusion that Nveid might still be alive somewhere, she finally and painfully had and now here he was standing before her; did he know about Rh’vuarek? Did he know that she rarely used her married name off-world?
Isha froze, biting her knuckles hard; the thought was ridiculous. He wasn’t real.
“I think I’m going to kill Darson for this,” she told the hologram eventually, he had no right to do this to her. “Why am I here?”
Nveid threw his arm out to encompass all of the bridge of the time-locked Warbird and beyond, "This is a simulation designed to replay the events of a very rare event during the Dominion War. A joint Romulan-Federation operation, codenamed: SNOW HAMMER," He paused and looked to Isha with an expression of disgust on his face, "The Federation picked the name."
He walked towards the viewscreen, taking Isha with him. Outside, they could both see the blurry still outline of what was unmistakably a Normandy class ship.
"Our ship, the Vrelnec was assigned to accompany this ship, the U.S.S. Valkyrie. Our mission was to find and destroy a forward base of Dominion operations, to halt their advance in this sector."
“Why you? Why not get the assistance of a ship wholly under the control of the Galae and the Empire, one not influenced by the considerations of a hfihar (Great House) … or have I just answered my own question?”
Nveid gave a ghostly impression of a smile and gently laid his holographic hand on her arm, "You were always very astute Isha. That’s one of the reason's why I loved you so."
Isha’s muscles tensed as though to shrink from his touch, “What am I doing here?” she repeated.
Nveid's image flickered slightly, "You are here," he said, "Because the Major wants you to watch these events in their entirety. That is all. Now then, shall we begin?"
Isha folded her arms around her body, support against the sickening ache that spread through her bones. "Being another man's puppet does not suit you, Nveid," she observed. "Why does he want me to know this? Why could he not just TELL me?"
Nveid did not reply. Instead he said, “We met up with the Valkyrie approximately 200 light-years away from the star system. The human Captain on board, Captain Charles Itsura invited me over to dine with him during the interval we were at warp. I declined…but, after repeated and annoying requests, I agreed, on the condition that I would be accompanied by several of my troops on board.”
Isha nodded, that was only to be expected. But Nveid’s continued lack of regard for the necessary protocol concerning an alliance, no matter how brief irked her; she had impressed on him a thousand times that it must not be neglected and still, the moment he was out of her sight, he shoved that knowledge to the back of his brain.
“I transported over, and both ships went to warp. They were planning to come in on the other side of the sun from the planet in question, so that we could mount a stealthy attack. The meal I had onboard was…passable, but then, all human food is disgusting.
After the warp trip, we came out right where we had planned. I prepared to leave and return to the Vrelnec to prepare for that attack…but then everything went horribly wrong…lets watch, shall we?”
With that, he clapped his hands to together lightly, the whole simulation fizzled, and they both found themselves on the Federation bridge. All the crewmen were frozen over their stations, and the Captain was frozen looking out the viewport contemplatively.
Isha glanced from Nveid to the still Federation crew; too much of this and her head was going to start spinning.
She turned back to Nveid, “They knew you were coming?” Isha asked moving beside and slightly behind him where she could grasp his arm as the simulation continued.
“Yes…they knew we were coming. They hit us as soon as we dropped out of warp. The Vrelnec was destroyed almost immediately…they were planning to cloak as soon as I transported back, so they had their shields down in preparation. The Federation ship on the other hand, managed to survive the initial volley. The Captain ordered evasive action, and return fire. Lets fast forward slightly here until I return to the bridge,” He waved his hand in a mystical fashion and everything sprang into fast motion, lights dimmed to red-alert status, people rushed around, consoles exploded in quick bursts, and this all happened in complete silence. When another holographic Nveid entered the simulation from a nearby turbo lift, the simulation began to play in real time.
The Valkyrie shuddered violently as her already beleaguered shields took another critical hit. Captain Itsura managed to stay in his seat and barked, “Status! What just hit us?”
“Jem’hadar fighter, sir,” the tactical officer, Lieutenant Jones, replied. Her porcelain features darkened, “Tricky bastard must have powered down and slipped past our fighter nets.”
A humorless grin tugged at Itsura’s mouth. Jones was a first rate tactical officer, utterly ruthless in a fight. She seemed to take the Jem’Hadar fighter pilot’s actions as a personal insult. “Teach them a lesson, Lieutenant,” he said.
She nodded and tapped a series of orders into her still functioning panel – new orders for the Valkyrie’s fighter squadron.
A moment later, there was COM chatter audible in the bridge as one of the Valkyrie class Space Superiority fighters went after the vicious Jem’Hadar, followed by a cheer from the bridge crew as the alien ship transformed into a momentary sun, complete with its own system of co-orbiting debris.
Itsura wiped a trickle of sweat from his forehead as they experienced a small reprieve. He checked his display – they’d reverted back into real space only ten minutes ago. Ten minutes , and the only other ship with them had been destroyed, and they were taking heavy damage.
He turned to the bridge’s main viewport. A massive gas giant, the system’s sun, dominated the spectacular view. One of the Valkyrie fighters screamed past as it patrolled. He turned in his chair to face the silent Nveid, “Galae’Enriov I’m very sorry about your ship and your men.”
The simulation’s Nveid said morosely, “There will be time to grieve later. In the meantime, what do you plan to do now? We should abandon the mission.”
Itsura shook his head fiercely, “No. The Federation is counting on my ship and the Marines onboard to eliminate this threat. If we fail, then we will lose this sector, and the Dominion will have a stronghold behind our lines. It’ll be a massacre.”
“But how do you plan to complete this mission? My ship is gone. We no longer have the advantage of stealth. I do not see any way to complete the mission.”
Itsura faced the viewport and said with conviction, “There is always a way. Just give me some time to think.”
He absently toyed with the pipe he habitually carried, lost in thought. It had always run completely counter to his nature to slink about in the shadows on a stealth mission. He respected the Jem’Hadar as a dangerous, deadly enemy, and hated them for their savage butchery of human colonists and fellow soldiers alike. He had never feared them, however. Soldiers didn’t hide from the enemy – they met the enemy head on.
He palmed his chair’s command suite and accessed Navigation, plotting a course deeper in system towards the fortified target, and fed it to Ensign Horvall, the Flight Control Officer.
“Captain,” Jones piped up, “Sensors paint a squadron of enemy fighters inbound, looks like boarding craft are right behind them, and a detatchment of Cruisers behind them.”
“It was a matter of time, Lieutenant,” He sighed. He lit his pipe, regulations be dammed, and took a long puff on it. After a moment of silence he triggered a shipwide announcement and said, “All personnel, stand by to repel boarders.”
“Such an ill fated vessel, the Vrelnec,” Isha muttered, “Perhaps I will have her renamed when the new ship is finally commissioned.” Pausing she looked from the simulation of events to the simulation of Nveid, “He knew as well as I know now that that ship could not have been destroyed without inside help. They had time to abort the transport and power the shields, but they did not do it. I would wager that the person responsible is the same one who let the ship movements be known.”
A theory was forming in Isha’s mind, far fetched and melodramatic by some standards, but rather plain and simple by the elaborate standards of the intelligence services back in those times. “Tell me, deyhhan (husband), was the traitor Dominion or were they Federation? Either could be concealed in a warbird with a crew of over a thousand. It was your assistance that the Federation wanted, not that of the ship, or of the twenty officers on board the Vrelnec who were members of your own House, or of the thousand nameless crew who died,” her voice rose and her fingers tightened as she spoke. “And as a ship under the direct control of the Illiallhlae the Senate could express little outrage at the loss; after all, it cost them nothing. So they guaranteed your co-operation by destroying your only means of leaving and provided the thin motivation of revenge.”
Nveid froze the simulation and sighed, “Isha…my dear, please avoid jumping to conclusions before you have seen what transpired here. have a hard time believing that this was all about me…mere coincidence saved my life, nothing more and nothing less. Yes, I wanted revenge, but as you will soon see, the Federation had enough trouble without cutting out a large part of their support.”
“We never found out if the traitor was indeed a Dominion infiltrator onboard our vessel...if it was, then he hid himself well. Likewise the same for the Federation. That isn’t to say we didn’t have our suspicions…after the mission there was an investigation on both, but nothing conclusive was uncovered.”
Isha released the hologram's arm. "I'm not your dear," she folded her arms, her tone closed and tense, "and Nveid did not believe in coincidence any more than I do. If this scheme was not a result of mortal conniving then it was the Elements who had more than a hand in your ... in Nveid's survival and as he knew I have limited trust in the Elements too."
At least the programme can be paused, Isha thought. "Continue," she said putting more distance between herself and the hologram.
Something that looked faintly like anger, very human anger, flickered across the false Nveid's face for less than an instant. Almost as if he was angry that Isha had defied him. But then, just as suddenly, it was gone. He turned to Isha with a placid expression on his face and said, "Of course...now then, moving on. For some odd reason, the Dominion wanted this ship. Instead of destroying it flat out, they wanted to seize it. They transported boarding parties aboard where the shields failed, and tried to disable us. Major Darson did a credible job of fending them off, and Captain Itsura as well evaded the tractor beams of the Cruisers...but we couldn't run for ever. Let's watch, shall we?"
The hologram was very, very convincing, Isha had to acknowledge that, but the longer she spent with it, the more she noticed that it deviated from her memories of her husband, from his actions and his personality. Someone had done a very good job but their own perceptions and reactions had coloured their creation filling in their limited experience with Nveid with assumptions.
“Yes, let’s watch,” Isha agreed, her words little more than a hiss.
To be continued …
OFF:
Ambassador Isha t'Khellian
Major James Darson
MCO