Beg, Steal or Borrow – Loose Ends
by Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Lieutenant JG Opaka Jo'el & Klingon Ambassador Toran of the House of Moqrhat
Post Details
OLD:
Oh! she thought, her eye catching the glint of Opaka's commbadge in Nniol's hand; he didn't know - the tiniest difference in technology - their own devices contained an element linking the device to the identity signal of the individual to which it was issued; a precaution of the paranoid preventing it from functioning if used by another ... but a Federation device ...
Though it pained her to do so, Isha chuckled softly to herself; the Elements were playing games again.
"I'm beginning to grow bored with you, Klingon," Nniol said banging his hand on the arm of his chair, the comm badge flat beneath his palm. "You have two minutes. Leave or we will destroy you."
New:
Da`nal shook his head, he was tired of the arrogant dog. "After you...Energize!"
Isha wondered if her own expression, when she had been transported from DS5 looked anything like the shimmering mask of realisation and abject horror that was now fixed on Nniol's face. He tried to hurl the badge away, but the signal lock had already taken effect.
"Ryak'na!," she said as he faded.
Isha forced herself to her knees and slammed her hand onto the comm panel, "RUWON, BRIDGE. NOW!" she shrieked and fell back, clutching her side and making a noise that sounded very much like nnyyyyyyyuk.
"I'm writing my engineering extension professor a long thank-you note when I get back to the station." Jo'el stepped over to Isha and boosted her back off the ground. "Are you alright?"
"I've looked worse," she replied as she clutched his arm, her voice a little shaky. "Where did he go ... Fveirrolh?"
"Gone," Jo'el said, sitting Isha in the command chair. "He ducked back into the ready room, but I assume there's a second exit from there other than the door to the bridge..."
Da'nal watched with satisfaction as a thorn in his House's side was now in his hands. However he kept his attention on the view screen. "Ensign Opaka, do you and the Ambassador require any assistance?"
"Thanks, commander, but I think we can find a medic on board for the time being." Jo'el said helpfully. "Thanks for catching my signal."
"There's always a second exit," she said flatly.
As Opaka spoke with the Klingon she turned to Ruwon as he entered with a number of armed companions; for just one second as he noted her wounds she thought that she had misjudged him and they were about to endure a replay but in the same instant the calculation in his gaze shifted.
"Fveirrolh has absconded," Isha told him. "Clear the bridge and then provide me with a list of everyone on board this ship. Communicate with the Freedom as necessary then return here. I want to know exactly who is being made ready for transfer and why - don't see this as a chance to get rid of your own opponents," she warned.
He agreed readily and began to direct his fellows to do as she had asked; the bridge officers were among those she would give to the Federation, not one of them had lifted a finger to help her and all of them were clearly hand-picked supporters of Nniol.
Ruwon had found time to change his jacket, she noted as she watched, perhaps it was a result of finding that her own son was against her, or perhaps she was concussed, but Isha found it impossible to trust Ruwon as much as she had been willing to when he had been their only chance of getting enough support to secure the ship. Still, he had done his part.
"You must be very angry with me, Ensign Opaka," Isha said.
The Bajoran shook his head. "My people have spent far too much time being angry. I don't think either of us are too keen on perpetuating stereotypes. Let's just write it off to experience."
"I have caused you a lot of trouble. I hope this does not prove damaging to your career."
Jo'el shrugged, the right corner of his mouth. "So long as we're both alive and on the station in the next few hours, I think I can avoid the death penalty."
"One look at me will inform even the most blind of your superiors that I have been beaten. But as it is my good friend Agent Gabriel, perhaps you will be ok, no doubt he'll think it a bonus and well deserved," Isha forced a laugh as she tried to think of anything but the dark tear that she felt widening through her soul. "Indeed, if you tell him you did it, he'll probably promote you."
He chuckled in agreement. "Generally, if you screw up real bad without getting kicked out, there's a fresh new pip on your collar within days."
It was odd to be sitting in the middle of the deserted bridge, but Isha had sent Ruwon and his men away for a reason. She gazed up at Opaka, clenching the part of her lip that did not hurt between her teeth.
"Ruwon was closer than he claimed to be, otherwise he could not have reached us so quickly, I think I was very wrong to trust him to aid us. Oh, he's chosen a side now, but I was wrong to trust him."
"I don't understand, Isha. We're alive, Ruwon helped us. What's going on here that seems so sinister to you?"
"I think it was all a set piece to gain my trust. I'm sending Ruwon to see a friend of mine, anybody who willingly helped attack me is going to get exactly what they deserve ... and attacked DS5 of course," she added. "Help me up, please, I want to get something."
Jo'el quickly closed the distance between the two of them and slid Isha's arm over his head, pulling her out of the command chair. "What are we looking for?"
She breathed in sharply, but made no complaint. How could she explain something that she no longer understood herself? "I'm almost as interested in the transmission logs as your Klingon friend over there on the Freedom," she said. "You may inform him that he may have anything relevant, after I have examined them. I don't know what I am looking for. I can stand, thank you," she said not entirely sure of the truth of that statement. "I want to look in the ready room before we go."
He stepped to the side but kept his arms at the ready in case she fell. Once Isha was moving on her own, Jo'el spoke up again.
"I assume you'll want to do that in private. What should I do in the meantime?"
To be left alone anywhere on the Vrelnec was the very last thing that Isha wanted, despite her outward stoicism her nerves were tangled and frayed and threatening to show their impact in a more than sharp words and a short temper. Nobody really likes having their head snapped off once by a snippy Romulan and to invite a second bite wasn't really in his nature, she thought.
"Come with me, Opaka," she said, "and one of these days when we have a little more time and somewhere a little more comfortable to sit, you and I will have to share a bottle of spring wine and discuss the nature of trust. I’ve confused you enough for one day, I think, so I’ll not even try to touch the subject now.”
"Thanks for noticing," Jo'el said with a smirk. He fell into step and followed Isha through the doorway. "To be honest I prefer your people's ale to my people's wine. Our manager at Pike City would buy me a case of the blue stuff at the end of every season. Good man, Coach Yates." First the Betazoids, now Romulans are crawling into my head.
The room showed scant sign of habitation, or at least it lacked any personal touches. Isha touched her fingers to the side of a round teapot feeling little warmth from its smooth side. Her eyes shifted to the teacups, one stood still half full as if a pleasant conversation had been interrupted, which it probably had been, Isha thought but the other was upturned, the liquid spilling across the desk and dripping soundlessly to the floor as if someone had moved something in a hurry and caught it with a careless edge.
She lifted a padd that had been discarded on the desk, scrolled through the contents, her brow darkening with each word. Isha muttered something under her breath and held it out to Opaka, “You might find this interesting,” she said.
Jo'el stared at the padd for several dumbfounded seconds. "I recognize the words 'government' and 'tal shiar', but that's about it. My language minor was in Cardassian."
“I’m sorry, why should I expect you to read Rihannsu? It’s a confession,” she explained, “unsigned, of course. Shall I tell you what it says or would you like to give the translators something to entertain them?”
"I think I prefer the abreviated version. I expect a Romulan confession would be a rather long and painful."
“It was written for me to sign. When he fled, I think that Fveirrolh did not mean to leave this behind; it's one thing to stand back and watch complacently while your uncle attacks your mother but quite another to be part of an attempt to simultaneously frame her for terrorism within the Federation and treason in the Empire. I’ve got everything I need,” Isha finished.
Jo'el glanced at the far wall, frowning. Isha turned and looked where Jo'el indicated. Alongside the far wall sat a dull grey metal table. On the table was a jade-colored stone arc. Each end of the arc pointed upward, two points on each end.
"He even had place set up for your sword."
Isha shuddered. She closed her eyes against the wash of nausea as she turned away.
---
The last thing Isha did on board the Vrelnec was to enter some co-ordinates and to release a limited set of command functions to Ruwon Tahn, “Report to Arrain Raedheol, you will find him on Cariel III,” she told him. “He’ll know what to do,” she said by way of explanation when Ruwon questioned the co-ordinates she had supplied the computer with. “The defences and weaponry are disabled and will remain so. Should anyone on board still hold any lingering desire to be a renegade, I should also make you aware that if you do attempt to override the command locks you will find yourself dead in space, and any vessel that comes to your rescue will have orders to blow you out of the sky. Understood?”
“Ensign Opaka, all the necessary transfers have been made. Please contact the Freedom and get us out of here. Wait," the reading on the screen was strange, "What do you make of that?" she asked indicating ... she didn't know what ... a sensor blip, a warp signature. Even as they looked, it disappeared from the screen.
Jo'el walked back to the conn and stared across the shoulder of its new occupant. "Something just came out of high warp about 2000 clicks away." He double checked a calculation and turned to face Isha.
"It's a starship."
"Its gone. I wonder what ... ask Da'nal if the Freedom picked up the signature too. It appeared to be heading in the direction of DS5. Come on," she added in a whisper, "I have the wish to lock myself in a darkened room until we get home."
The Bajoran walked back to the communications station. "Open a channel to the Freedom, please."
After a few seconds, the viewscreen winked on again.
"Channel open," the officer said.
"Commander, we just caught a glimmer of a warp signature about 2000 clicks away, did your sensors get any information on it?"
A dark haired human looked back through the feed at them, sitting up a bit straighter in the Center seat of the Bridge.
"This is Lieutenant DeHavilland." he replied, glancing back at the Petty Officer at the Tactical panel, "Are you picking up anything?" he asked.
"There was something briefly, at this distance I can't identify the type of warp signature. Probably just another ship enroute to DS5."
Jo'el shook his head, confused by the development. "I can't say I like it. In any case, the Ambassador would feel more comfortable going back to the station onboard the freedom. I'm feeding you and coordinates of the Vrelnec's ready room. We'll be standing by for beam out."
OFF
Ambassador Isha t'Khellian, DS5
Ensign Opaka Jo'el
VIP Bodyguard
Lt Cmdr Da`nal
Commanding USS Freedom
Lt "CJ" DeHavilland
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Freedom
NPC Tactical Petty Officer
USS Freedom - Played by Da`nal
by Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Lieutenant JG Opaka Jo'el & Klingon Ambassador Toran of the House of Moqrhat
Post Details
| Title | Loose Ends | |
| Mission | Beg, Steal or Borrow | |
| Author(s) | Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Lieutenant JG Opaka Jo'el & Klingon Ambassador Toran of the House of Moqrhat | |
| Posted | Tue May 12, 2009 @ 6:30am | |
| Location | Vrelnec | |
| Timeline | In paralell with 'Checkmate' on USS Freedom |
Oh! she thought, her eye catching the glint of Opaka's commbadge in Nniol's hand; he didn't know - the tiniest difference in technology - their own devices contained an element linking the device to the identity signal of the individual to which it was issued; a precaution of the paranoid preventing it from functioning if used by another ... but a Federation device ...
Though it pained her to do so, Isha chuckled softly to herself; the Elements were playing games again.
"I'm beginning to grow bored with you, Klingon," Nniol said banging his hand on the arm of his chair, the comm badge flat beneath his palm. "You have two minutes. Leave or we will destroy you."
New:
Da`nal shook his head, he was tired of the arrogant dog. "After you...Energize!"
Isha wondered if her own expression, when she had been transported from DS5 looked anything like the shimmering mask of realisation and abject horror that was now fixed on Nniol's face. He tried to hurl the badge away, but the signal lock had already taken effect.
"Ryak'na!," she said as he faded.
Isha forced herself to her knees and slammed her hand onto the comm panel, "RUWON, BRIDGE. NOW!" she shrieked and fell back, clutching her side and making a noise that sounded very much like nnyyyyyyyuk.
"I'm writing my engineering extension professor a long thank-you note when I get back to the station." Jo'el stepped over to Isha and boosted her back off the ground. "Are you alright?"
"I've looked worse," she replied as she clutched his arm, her voice a little shaky. "Where did he go ... Fveirrolh?"
"Gone," Jo'el said, sitting Isha in the command chair. "He ducked back into the ready room, but I assume there's a second exit from there other than the door to the bridge..."
Da'nal watched with satisfaction as a thorn in his House's side was now in his hands. However he kept his attention on the view screen. "Ensign Opaka, do you and the Ambassador require any assistance?"
"Thanks, commander, but I think we can find a medic on board for the time being." Jo'el said helpfully. "Thanks for catching my signal."
"There's always a second exit," she said flatly.
As Opaka spoke with the Klingon she turned to Ruwon as he entered with a number of armed companions; for just one second as he noted her wounds she thought that she had misjudged him and they were about to endure a replay but in the same instant the calculation in his gaze shifted.
"Fveirrolh has absconded," Isha told him. "Clear the bridge and then provide me with a list of everyone on board this ship. Communicate with the Freedom as necessary then return here. I want to know exactly who is being made ready for transfer and why - don't see this as a chance to get rid of your own opponents," she warned.
He agreed readily and began to direct his fellows to do as she had asked; the bridge officers were among those she would give to the Federation, not one of them had lifted a finger to help her and all of them were clearly hand-picked supporters of Nniol.
Ruwon had found time to change his jacket, she noted as she watched, perhaps it was a result of finding that her own son was against her, or perhaps she was concussed, but Isha found it impossible to trust Ruwon as much as she had been willing to when he had been their only chance of getting enough support to secure the ship. Still, he had done his part.
"You must be very angry with me, Ensign Opaka," Isha said.
The Bajoran shook his head. "My people have spent far too much time being angry. I don't think either of us are too keen on perpetuating stereotypes. Let's just write it off to experience."
"I have caused you a lot of trouble. I hope this does not prove damaging to your career."
Jo'el shrugged, the right corner of his mouth. "So long as we're both alive and on the station in the next few hours, I think I can avoid the death penalty."
"One look at me will inform even the most blind of your superiors that I have been beaten. But as it is my good friend Agent Gabriel, perhaps you will be ok, no doubt he'll think it a bonus and well deserved," Isha forced a laugh as she tried to think of anything but the dark tear that she felt widening through her soul. "Indeed, if you tell him you did it, he'll probably promote you."
He chuckled in agreement. "Generally, if you screw up real bad without getting kicked out, there's a fresh new pip on your collar within days."
It was odd to be sitting in the middle of the deserted bridge, but Isha had sent Ruwon and his men away for a reason. She gazed up at Opaka, clenching the part of her lip that did not hurt between her teeth.
"Ruwon was closer than he claimed to be, otherwise he could not have reached us so quickly, I think I was very wrong to trust him to aid us. Oh, he's chosen a side now, but I was wrong to trust him."
"I don't understand, Isha. We're alive, Ruwon helped us. What's going on here that seems so sinister to you?"
"I think it was all a set piece to gain my trust. I'm sending Ruwon to see a friend of mine, anybody who willingly helped attack me is going to get exactly what they deserve ... and attacked DS5 of course," she added. "Help me up, please, I want to get something."
Jo'el quickly closed the distance between the two of them and slid Isha's arm over his head, pulling her out of the command chair. "What are we looking for?"
She breathed in sharply, but made no complaint. How could she explain something that she no longer understood herself? "I'm almost as interested in the transmission logs as your Klingon friend over there on the Freedom," she said. "You may inform him that he may have anything relevant, after I have examined them. I don't know what I am looking for. I can stand, thank you," she said not entirely sure of the truth of that statement. "I want to look in the ready room before we go."
He stepped to the side but kept his arms at the ready in case she fell. Once Isha was moving on her own, Jo'el spoke up again.
"I assume you'll want to do that in private. What should I do in the meantime?"
To be left alone anywhere on the Vrelnec was the very last thing that Isha wanted, despite her outward stoicism her nerves were tangled and frayed and threatening to show their impact in a more than sharp words and a short temper. Nobody really likes having their head snapped off once by a snippy Romulan and to invite a second bite wasn't really in his nature, she thought.
"Come with me, Opaka," she said, "and one of these days when we have a little more time and somewhere a little more comfortable to sit, you and I will have to share a bottle of spring wine and discuss the nature of trust. I’ve confused you enough for one day, I think, so I’ll not even try to touch the subject now.”
"Thanks for noticing," Jo'el said with a smirk. He fell into step and followed Isha through the doorway. "To be honest I prefer your people's ale to my people's wine. Our manager at Pike City would buy me a case of the blue stuff at the end of every season. Good man, Coach Yates." First the Betazoids, now Romulans are crawling into my head.
The room showed scant sign of habitation, or at least it lacked any personal touches. Isha touched her fingers to the side of a round teapot feeling little warmth from its smooth side. Her eyes shifted to the teacups, one stood still half full as if a pleasant conversation had been interrupted, which it probably had been, Isha thought but the other was upturned, the liquid spilling across the desk and dripping soundlessly to the floor as if someone had moved something in a hurry and caught it with a careless edge.
She lifted a padd that had been discarded on the desk, scrolled through the contents, her brow darkening with each word. Isha muttered something under her breath and held it out to Opaka, “You might find this interesting,” she said.
Jo'el stared at the padd for several dumbfounded seconds. "I recognize the words 'government' and 'tal shiar', but that's about it. My language minor was in Cardassian."
“I’m sorry, why should I expect you to read Rihannsu? It’s a confession,” she explained, “unsigned, of course. Shall I tell you what it says or would you like to give the translators something to entertain them?”
"I think I prefer the abreviated version. I expect a Romulan confession would be a rather long and painful."
“It was written for me to sign. When he fled, I think that Fveirrolh did not mean to leave this behind; it's one thing to stand back and watch complacently while your uncle attacks your mother but quite another to be part of an attempt to simultaneously frame her for terrorism within the Federation and treason in the Empire. I’ve got everything I need,” Isha finished.
Jo'el glanced at the far wall, frowning. Isha turned and looked where Jo'el indicated. Alongside the far wall sat a dull grey metal table. On the table was a jade-colored stone arc. Each end of the arc pointed upward, two points on each end.
"He even had place set up for your sword."
Isha shuddered. She closed her eyes against the wash of nausea as she turned away.
---
The last thing Isha did on board the Vrelnec was to enter some co-ordinates and to release a limited set of command functions to Ruwon Tahn, “Report to Arrain Raedheol, you will find him on Cariel III,” she told him. “He’ll know what to do,” she said by way of explanation when Ruwon questioned the co-ordinates she had supplied the computer with. “The defences and weaponry are disabled and will remain so. Should anyone on board still hold any lingering desire to be a renegade, I should also make you aware that if you do attempt to override the command locks you will find yourself dead in space, and any vessel that comes to your rescue will have orders to blow you out of the sky. Understood?”
“Ensign Opaka, all the necessary transfers have been made. Please contact the Freedom and get us out of here. Wait," the reading on the screen was strange, "What do you make of that?" she asked indicating ... she didn't know what ... a sensor blip, a warp signature. Even as they looked, it disappeared from the screen.
Jo'el walked back to the conn and stared across the shoulder of its new occupant. "Something just came out of high warp about 2000 clicks away." He double checked a calculation and turned to face Isha.
"It's a starship."
"Its gone. I wonder what ... ask Da'nal if the Freedom picked up the signature too. It appeared to be heading in the direction of DS5. Come on," she added in a whisper, "I have the wish to lock myself in a darkened room until we get home."
The Bajoran walked back to the communications station. "Open a channel to the Freedom, please."
After a few seconds, the viewscreen winked on again.
"Channel open," the officer said.
"Commander, we just caught a glimmer of a warp signature about 2000 clicks away, did your sensors get any information on it?"
A dark haired human looked back through the feed at them, sitting up a bit straighter in the Center seat of the Bridge.
"This is Lieutenant DeHavilland." he replied, glancing back at the Petty Officer at the Tactical panel, "Are you picking up anything?" he asked.
"There was something briefly, at this distance I can't identify the type of warp signature. Probably just another ship enroute to DS5."
Jo'el shook his head, confused by the development. "I can't say I like it. In any case, the Ambassador would feel more comfortable going back to the station onboard the freedom. I'm feeding you and coordinates of the Vrelnec's ready room. We'll be standing by for beam out."
OFF
Ambassador Isha t'Khellian, DS5
Ensign Opaka Jo'el
VIP Bodyguard
Lt Cmdr Da`nal
Commanding USS Freedom
Lt "CJ" DeHavilland
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Freedom
NPC Tactical Petty Officer
USS Freedom - Played by Da`nal