"Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus"
(Or "Stash returns to full time posting on the Galaxy!")

Stardate: Somthingorother.4
Location: USS GALAXY, shared quarters of Kathy Kelly (NPC) and Ensign Zeke Wikkins, Security.

Ensign Zeke Wikkins walked through the corridors of the Galaxy just before the graveyard shift. His recently relocated shoulder - wounded in the attack on the Lammergier asteroid - still throbbed a bit, despite the medication from Dr. Malgan. The crisis the crew and ship had been faced with had stabilized. He could now see crewmembers beginning to walk about the halls with much less nervousness - even at the current hour.

He stopped in front of "his" quarters and straightened his uniform, just on the off chance that Kathy Kelly was still awake. The doors slid open and the large man slipped inside into the darkness. He sighed with relief as the doors closed and the shadows engulfed him. His head was still pounding and he wanted nothing more than to lay down for the evening with a gel pack on his forehead.

Kathy was apparently fast asleep, so he stripped off his uniform and wandered over to the replicator.

"Gel pack ....cold...." he whispered.

A loud chirp acknowledged his request causing him to jump. The blue pack materialized and he grabbed it and gingerly made his way to the couch that served as his temporary bed. He didn't want to wake Kathy rummaging around for his pajamas, so he figured he would just slip back into his uniform before she awoke in the morning. He was eager to crawl under the blanket that was draped over the back of the couch.

"Lights!" Kathy yelled from the couch and the room was instantly lit up. He absentmindedly covered himself with the first thing that he found available - the cold gel pack. His eyes snapped open as he made "first contact" with the icy blue coldness.

Kathy seemed a bit startled by his appearance. "Where have you been buddy? Galavanting around, swilling synthahol in the bar? Having a ball, no pun intended, in the holo deck?"

Zeke was freezing himself to death and the last thing he wanted was another trip to the mad Russian doctor. "If thou must know, I was in the sickbay. Now..."

"What did you do to your groin?" she asked with what seemed like a mixture of amusement and genuine concern as she peered down his muscular frame nonchalantly until her eyes rested below his waist.

"NOTHING!..I mean..I injured my shoulder during the attack on the Lammergier asteroid. Woman please. Thy inquisition..." he replied, clutching the pack painfully closer.

"So why are you wrapping yourself with the cold pack? Wait, never mind. I'll never understand the way you men think. Your thought process is so not normal its scary." she said.

"Woman, if thy will pardon my forwardness, what does thy require from me at this ungodly hour?"

She slid over and patted the side of the couch. "Come here. Relax."

At this Zeke's eyes grew even bigger. "I..I am Amish. I don't..."

"Not that, you pervert! " she said with a playful smile. "Although I could shake your homemade britches if I put my mind to it. I couldn't sleep and just wanted to talk. To see how your getting along on the ship. To see how your day went."

"Um, does thou have any idea what time it is? Roosters back upon my father's farm do not even think of crowing this early in the morn. And thee were sitting in the dark wanting to...chat?" Zeke said, easing onto the sofa next to her, careful to keep a respectful distance, yet still keep his unmentionable covered.

"Sure, whats wrong with that?"

"Er, nothing...but right now?" Wikkins asked greatly confused and on the virge of frostbite.

"Typical male!" She said swatting him in the shoulder as she stood up. Zeke doubled over in pain as she hit his sore shoulder.

"Sister Kelly..." he groaned.

"No, no, its all right. You don't have to talk now if you don't want to, Mr. Insensitive. I don't want you to do anything your not comfortable doing. I'll just go to bed, maybe read a book or something" she said. She walked past Zeke and glanced down reflexively at his groin again as she walked past. "Ahem..You ..ah..better get some sleep. "

The doors to her bedroom swished shut behind her. The Security officer sat there for a moment, catching his breath before he realized that he was still holding the ice pack to his ever shrinking nether region. He then realized what she was talking about and walked over to her door.

"I am not tired, it is just half frozen if thy must know!" he yelled.

"Good night Zeke." she called out.

"Seriously!" he said defending his manliness.

"Whatever you say Zeke!" she called out.

He limped back to the couch, flopped down and dropped the gel pack on the floor and sighed as he pulled the cover over himself. "Heavenly Father grant my groin relief..." he started to say in prayer, then blushed. "Thou know what I mean, Lord." he said embarrassed and glancing over at Kathy's bedroom door. At least his headache was gone.

OOC: Here's the next-in-line of the Cass/T'Shani mini-saga. Hope you enjoy! Only three more episodes, until the big 'surprise', at the end! Hehe...

MJ

==========

"From the Shadows, Part VI"

STARRING:
T'Shani A'Akledorian
Cassius Henderson

GUEST STARRING:
Arthur Blackwelder (F. Byrne)
Norra Ridgeway (M. Miller)
AMIE (Both)

Captain Brenna Worthman (F. Byrne)

SPECIAL APPEARANCES:
Colonel Al'indal Markay'di'n (M. Miller)
Captain Michelle Novanya (F. Byrne)

--------------------

** Following "From the Shadows, Part V" **

=^= 0100, 10 February 2381: Bridge of USS Holdfast (NCC-1947) =^=

Marine Colonel (Detached, special assignment: Above Top Secret) Al'indal Markay'di'n ran a finger through his long snow-white whiskers as he looked over the Mission Ops board. It wasn't like a standard LCARS panel, however.

Actually, there really *were* no panels to speak of on the bridge at all. Instead, the same strange white-creme colored floor, walls, and ceiling wrapped around the small duty crew, creating a sense of ethereal openness and space.

In front of him, the holodisplay *floated* beneath his hands and up, around - yet slightly below - his forward vision. Using both eye-tracking and icono-digital inputs, he was able to manipulate the controls and data feeds much faster than if he had used only his hands.

Markay'di'n looked over to a section of the Ops board that had begun pulsing a dark maroon color. Using his implanted nano-array, the Deltan officer 'looked' at that section, causing it to zoom-out and open into different data blocks, projected three-dimensionally around his vision.

~Good~

Although neither technically 'outranked' the other, Al'indal deferred to Michelle as to what was happening, as the Holdfast *was* her ship. Even so, *he* was responsible for the eventual success or failure of the mission objectives.

"Team has entered interspace, Captain. Estimated time of arrival at objective: thirty minutes and counting," he announced to Novonya, who was seated in her command chair in the still-traditional center of the bridge.

Novonya's teeth were clenched, and it took effort to open her mouth to reply. Waiting during an operation was always tough, she thought as she forced herself to reply. "Thank you, Colonel. Keep me appraised of their ETA every five minutes." She looked over to the officer in charge of monitoring AMIE. His report should be next.

"Sir, AMIE has initialized her secondary protocols," the young man in Intel Black reported from the next console over.

~Now, if things will go as planned...~ Al'indal thought. But he knew better than to hope in that. No...a Marine never 'hoped'. He either did, or did-not. And now, he was counting on his protege to *DO*.

~C'mon Tish, don't let us down~

=^= 0130: Romulan Interspatial Starbase, Rel'kessan System =^=

[<Shuttle Dalteri, state your cargo and intentions,>] a gruff voice spoke in Romulan, over the comm-link.

The Romulan SubCommander at the helm leaned over to speak into the microphone, as Tish held her breath.

"<Control, we are transporting Federation spy's as prisoners, apprehended while preparing to infiltrate the secure interspace zone. I intend to deliver them to Base Command,>" she replied in a clipped, military-style of Rihannsu dialect.

There was a moment's pause, as the base officer was - in no-doubt -verifying the transport's clearance codes and orders.

[<Acknowledged, Dalteri. You are ordered to Bay Five, Section Three for secure landing. Adjust course now to bear on Approach Lane Five.>]

"<Adjusting course now, Control. Shuttle Dalteri ETA is five minutes. Standing by,>" she turned off the microphone while keeping the communication's array on standby, as the autopilot guided the transport toward the starbase.

Quietly, she turned around to her 'passengers'...

*****

Norra still wasn't sure that this had been such a 'bright idea'. She'd been the one to point out that they stood less of a chance of getting caught by using a simple beam-in/beam-out.

But, according to Mister 'High-and-Mighty Technology' (Blackwelder) standard transporters couldn't operate in interspace. So now, they were stuck in the present situation.

Cass Henderson crouched, lying back with his head against the wall. He was engaging in a method of meditation taught to him by Worthman many years before, floating information that he wanted to remember on the top of his mind. He was grateful that they'd destroyed all of their written information before being taken onto the transport.

He envied T'Shani A'Akledorian, he realized. She'd had the luxury of being with those she 'cared for' before they left. He had spent the final hours in conference with Art Blackwelder, a man whom he disliked, on most days. Neither his patrons - deMercereau or Worthman - or his....he didn't know how to describe Rima. What was she to him? It wasn't a question he could answer, or should be trying to answer. Not right now, in any case.

Arthur Blackwelder fumed. He'd gotten into an argument with Gunnery Sergeant Ridgeway about the technological aspects of their mission. Marines just didn't *understand* the finer points of technology, which made Red Division the obvious solution to their techno-intelligence needs.

~Why waste time making your own advances when you can steal other people's?~ All that marines understood was force and....he groaned silently. He was starting to sound like Mister 'Self-Righteous-Idealist' Henderson.

For her part, Tish hadn't spoken at all since they had been taken aboard the transport. She laid her back into the hard, cold inner hull wall of the transport, trying to prepare herself for how she was going to get her team out of *this* one...

*SWISH!*

Cassius looked up, just in time for a Rihannsu security team to march smartly into the shuttle and gather them up. He took notice that the troopers wore unmarked uniforms. It wasn't too surprising, he decided.

It was a political environment where the Tal Shiar was on the decline and Rihannsu Naval Intelligence had stepped into the foreground of the new intelligence establishment on ch'Rihan. These men were struggling to find the 'win' that would save their dying organization.

The team was roughly brought to their feet and walked-off the transport; four guards on either side. The Tal Shiar wasn't taking any chances, this time.

The SubCommander warily trailed the guards and prisoners out of the shuttlebay, as well.

Casting his eyes ahead, Cass concentrated on the layout of the base, memorizing as he went, and trying not to be distracted by the swaying of T'Shani's hips. Did she always have be so....*overwhelming* with her body language? On the other hand, he was sure that one of the Rihannsu guards was staring at that same ass, and that meant the*guard* was *off-guard*.

Tish continued her walk in silence, noting that the guard accompanying Cass - behind and to the left of her - was sufficiently distracted by her 'assets'. She made sure Cass got an eyeful, too. Tish really couldn't help teasing him. It was her way at getting back at him for his staunch idealism. Quickly, she discreetly glanced with her antenna to Ridgeway, to her right.

Norra noticed Tish's signal and nodded, ever so slightly. She blinked two times, while keeping her face neutral, giving nothing away. They were set. Now, if their 'hosts' would be cooperative...

Henderson watched Norra and T'Shani's signals, and flicked his middle finger at Blackwelder, who glowered back. They were ready. And it seemed they'd reached their destination.

The SubCenturion on duty for this detention block stood and removed her sidearm before stepping forward to issue the standard challenge.

"<Identification and orders.>"

It was a command, not a statement.

~Here goes nothin'~ Norra thought, as the SubCommander that had delivered them stepped to the front of the group and bowed slightly to the SubCenturion, then saluted sharply in the traditional Romulan way.

Quickly, she spoke, without challenging the SubCenturion's eyes. "<SubCommander Tem'la of the IRV M'Nessa, transferring prisoners from shuttle Dalteri to primary detention cells for incarceration, by order of Imperial High Command, SubCenturion.>"

"<I'll need to confirm them with the C-in-C, SubCommander,>" the SubCenturion replied. "<It should just take a minute.>" The Rihannsu officer turned and walked back over to her console to entered the information into the computer terminal.

As the SubCenturion worked to confirm the orders, an Instant Message flashed across all of the team member's TEDDs. The ensuing *conversation* took less than two seconds to complete, between the team, with the help of the nano-arrays.

[AMIE: STANDBY FOR ESCAPE MANEUVER ALPHA-FIVE. CONFIRM.]

All four "YES-NO" indicators quickly blinked to [YES].

[AMIE: CONFIRMED. COMMENCE IN FIVE...]

"<SubCommander Tem'la, I can't find anything in the database. I'm going to have to call up and make sure this is authorized,>" the SubCenturion said, raising her disruptor to cover Tem'la.

[...FOUR...]

T'Shani's muscles tensed, readying for action as the SubCenturion trained her weapon on Tem'la.

[...THREE...]

Norra checked the jammers that she had 'set' via her TEDD on their way down here. As long as no particle weapons - Rihannsu or 'Fleet - were discharged, her little 'bugs' could handle re-signaling the data feeds. Even if the Romulan bastards wound-up dead, her devices could 'fake' their biosigns to the main computer, thus preventing base-operations from being tipped to their activities.

[...TWO...]

Cassius allowed his eyes to flow through the control menus now embedded in his vision. He carefully selected the items he needed and waited for AMIE's countdown to complete. It wouldn't be long now. Then they could really get the show moving.

[...ONE...]

Art winced. He was capable of combat, but this seemed like an unnecessary risk. That disruptor could mean the end of the entire mission before it even began. And he knew the Romulan officer wouldn't hesitate to vaporize them; guards and all. Collateral-damage had never been a big deal to the Romulan High Command.

[...MARK. INITIATE.]

SubCommander Tem'la calmly - yet quickly - walked forward, reaching out

and touched her finger to the SubCenturion's ridged brow. A small yellow-orange glow emanated from Tem'la's finger, followed by the rag-doll collapse of the SubCenturion.

In a blur, T'Shani jumped up high, twirling counter-clockwise with her left-leg extended to catch her guard in the throat, immediately collapsing his trachea. A moment later, he was lying still on the floor.

Cassius spun over his right shoulder and thrust his hand forward, a combat knife appearing as he accessed it from his TEDD. Jabbing, he caught the distracted guard just below the third rib, severing a critical nerve-ending. The guard slumped, and Cassius used him as a shield when Art's guard fired on him.

Blackwelder went into the prepared, choreographed routine, waiting for the guard to fire on Cass. Then he stepped in behind his opponent, and carefully broke his neck with a well placed strike with a metal pole that he had stored in his TEDD.

Norra - the seemingly diminutive blonde Southern Belle - quickly brought her right arm up to a square, and threw back a wicked punch to her guard's face, instantly breaking his nose. A split-second later, she spun around to face him, while quickly stabbing at his abdomen with a series of punches and finger-spars to his heart; right where a Terran's liver would normally be. A look of immense pain crossed the guard's face, then went expressionless as he silently slumped to the floor.

That was the last of them. She kicked the guard for good measure, just in case.

~Impressive~ T'Shani thought to herself. Not many humans were trained in the Vulcan 'Harm Touch' schooling of martial-arts.

"Whoa! What did you just do to him?" Art asked Norra, as soon as he was sure the area was clear.

"Stahped his beatin' hahrt, muh'dear," she gave him a teasing smile while adding, "Jahst dahn't piss me ahff, *Ahrt*," she teased sweetly while selecting the Assault Rifle from her trans-belt's inventory. ~He's actually kinda cute when he's not being such a *dickhead*~ she mused, while cocking the 'shotgun' with a loud **SWISH-CLICK!**.

"Sure, no problem Norra," Arthur replied, still a little shocked. He'd never seen any human do anything like that, and he had seen some strange combat in his time with SFI. He flicked through his menus and removed one of the Enhanced Type IIs.

"Alright you two, you can flirt with each other after we get out of here, understood?" Tish growled.

Arthur laughed briefly, sighting down the barrel and giving his weapon a quick once-over, while Norra shot a disgusted glare toward T'Shani.

"AMIE, objectives' status?" Tish queried, while arming herself with her hrisal'aa.

The SubCommander's form cocked it's head to the side, while accessing the station's computer database to compare the information she had gathered with the current mission objectives. In less than a second, she had formulated, extrapolated, and determined what had to be done to complete the mission in an acceptable time frame.

"The Hellfire is being held at docking bay four, station port side, under heavy guard. The ship appears intact; it does not seem that the Romulans have been able to extricate the Deep Shadow drive systems. You must first deactivate the security protocols in place, by accessing the main computer core, *here*." A nav-beacon and route-tracer lit up the overlaid map, indicating where Arthur and Norra had to go.

Tish nodded as the trace-map floated into her view. ~Good, the security measures have held, then~ she thought to herself. Surely, the Rihannsu scientists were having bloody hell trying to figure out how to operate/extract the mysterious machinery, without activating the Hellfire's self-destruct mechanism. Another Red Devision trick...

AMIE spoke up again, after taking another moment to access the computer system again. "Captain Worthman and her party are being held in Detention Block Five, cells eighteen through twenty. Conditions, unknown," she said the last part with a slight frown crossing her face.

Tish nodded as the schematic layout flashed onto her interface, and another nav-beacon and route was overlaid. Turning back to the 'team':

"Good. Lovebirds: get our ship back. Cass, you're with me. We're gonna get the 'prisoners'. AMIE, enable your infiltration protocols, and deactivate your holomatrix."

AMIE immediately embedded a copy of her core structure-arrays over the Rihannsu computer's own intelligence routines. Given the access codes that SFI had provided (thankfully, they worked), AMIE now had *almost* complete control of the starbase's computer network. There was just something....she placed a 'HOLD' tag to that *thought*, as she deactivated her hologram.

The SubCommander's form shimmered then winked-out, leaving a small, floating circular disk. T'Shani plucked it out of the air, and tucked it into the inner breast pocket of her tac-suit.

"Watch your back, Cass," Blackwelder said, looking to the marine NCO. "Norra, you have point." He indicated a passage, headed off in the direction of what they were 86% sure was the main computer core and access center.

Norra passed him, while swinging the Assault Rifle in front of her. "Jahst dahn't be stahrin' at muh ahss, *Mistuh* Blahckweldah," she chimed as she ducked into the corridor.

"What? I'd be remiss in my duties if I didn't watch your ass, *Miss* Ridgeway," Blackwelder grinned, then jogged off after her.

The love-banter was making Tish sick. She turned to Cass, momentarily catching him looking her over in her tactical suit. Smiling wryly, antenna's curling, "Shall we, Mister Henderson?"

"Naturally," he said, as if challenging her. It was time to prove that Brenna Worthman was no traitor, that T'Shani was wrong about her, about him, and about Red Division. This was what he'd been born to do. Selecting the Enhanced Type II from his TEDD, he followed her down into the hatch.

Before he could answer, she had disappeared down a floor hatch...

Typical. Cassius was step behind her, rifle in hand.

----------------------- Detention Block Five... -----------------------

Brenna Worthman completed her six-hundred-fifty-second workout routine. The forty-seven year old SFI Captain had started doing them as soon as she'd been placed in the holding cell. It served two functions. One, to keep her from become complacent, weak, or bored, and two, to keep track of time. By using her very careful timing of the routine's length and the downtime's length, Brenna was able to determine that she'd been in captivity for...something in the order of two and a half weeks, give or take a few days due to torture, and being passed-out afterwords.

So far, she hadn't broken. The information that she'd gleaned during her time as SFI's Liaison to the new Romulan Naval Intelligence helped her to resist the torture techniques of the Tal Shiar. She'd been beat, brutalized, humiliated, and raped, but her will remained strong.

She wasn't as sure about San'X Ateles'kes, who she hadn't heard or seen for far too long, a week by her count. She was in the cell next to her, and there was no way to peek in. Lemmes was still there, unconscious at the moment, his rotund, piggish form slumped over in a pile in the center of his cell.

The thing that bothered Brenna the most was that she still didn't have a plan, and was in all likelihood in over her head. She'd known that Commodore Illyanovitch was trying to get her killed or worse, but there'd been very little she could do about it. So now she was here, in a prison cell in Rihannsu territory, working with Red Division. None of that suited her. For the thousandth time, she sat down on her bunk,

ran her hands through her long, curly brown hair, and tried to use what she knew to plan.

Then she heard it. Some sort of sound, and she wasn't sure where it was coming from. The brig was designed to bounce sound around so it came from nowhere, it's weird angles serving a purpose other than to be unorthodox.

~What was that...?~

*****

"So, Cass," Tish wiggled her way in front of Henderson, as he trailed behind in the Jefferies Tube, or whatever the Romulan equivalent term was for the access tunnels. With AMIE monitoring and masking the sensor net, they could move through the tunnels freely.

"So, T'Shani," Cass replied, trying not to spend too much time ogling her ass. It was hard enough being on an operation without her flaunting herself and distracting him. Calling on the discipline that he'd learned as an independent agent, he willed himself to concentrate.

Tish couldn't help but chuckle at Henderson's tone of voice, as Cass was no-doubt getting a fine view of her rear. "How far back do you and Brenna go?"

"2373. She was the adviser assigned to me, Arthur Blackwelder, Simone Ovrali from Ciutric, Veloric from Vulcan, Sigmund Blackwelder from Alpha Centauri, and Celias sh'Veltarran from Andor," he replied. She sure knew how to ask hard questions. He could remember each of them with vivid detail. Too many ghosts in his past.

"Hmmm," she sighed as she stopped, checking her TEDD for further directions.

"She was a good teacher, and better handler. When we graduated, we became her group, nominally assigned to a ship, not actually on it. A lot of what we did during the Dominion War and after it is still classified. Arthur and I are the only ones left."

As she continued moving along, "And are you *involved* with her, Henderson?"

Cass laughed. "She's 7 years my senior. We were colleagues.... shared a lot of the same ideals. But at the time I was involved, more or less, with another woman, so it never really occured to me."

Her antenna bobbed back, as she noted the coolness to his voice. Well then, at least it wouldn't cloud his judgment, when it came time to act.

"How about you, T'Shani? How did you come to know all of these people...Tanner Houghton, Al'indal Markay'di'n, Korman Blackar? You seem very comfortable with them," Cassius asked, turning the conversation away from himself. He had no desire to relive those years.

Tish let out a low sigh, barely audible, as she watched the IM from AMIE flash across her TEDD:

[AMIE: TEAM ONE, STAY PUT FOR NEXT TEN MINUTES, WHILE SECURITY SHIFTS ROTATE. STANDBY FOR ALL-CLEAR. ACKNOWLEDGE.]

Both Cass and T'Shani 'blinked' their YES-NO indicators to acknowledge.

Propping her body against the tunnel's curved wall - slightly hunched over - she looked at Cass. Strange how it was: at these *times*, she didn't feel adversarial toward him. Just like when he had caught her in the holodeck, after the fight she had had with Rex.

"Cass...it's a long story," she said quietly, antennas dropping ever so slightly, while brushing an errant strand of her silvery-white hair from her eyes.

"So tell me," he asked softly, squatting down, a comfortable position developed through years of work for SFI, "It sounds like we have some time to kill before we carry out our part of the mission."

She sighed again, leaning her back into the wall. "Very well, Cass. Korman rescued me, after Seltax Seven fell, when I was ten. He was the commander of the Marine party that searched for survivors along the outskirts of Raath Ra'Chuul...that *was* the capitol."

"I remember reading about that when I was a plebe at SFA London," Cass said, looking through his TEDD windows to monitor the progress of Art and Norra as they talked. "So, he took you in?"

"Yes. I suppose you could say that he became my foster parent. Until I returned to Andoria - almost a year later - he took care of me, protected me, taught me the honor and courage of being a marine..." she trailed-off quietly, while listening as the booted footsteps of the Rihannsu soldiers crossed on the overhead deck plating.

"That explains where you are now," he nodded understandingly. "It must have been only natural for you to follow his example." Young, impressionable, aggressive, and with a tragic hatred of the Rihannsu. She had been the perfect candidate for Red Division. Cassius could only wonder if Blackar had been saving her or recruiting her that day on Seltax Seven.

"Yes, I suppose. That's why I enrolled at the combat schools," she said slowly, head-bowed at the memory of Korman. "I wanted to *be* what he is...*was*," she corrected herself, while holding back the emotions that laced her voice.

Cassius just nodded. Whatever the reasons of Korman Blackar, the end result would have been the same. T'Shani had developed a deep attachment to the Caitan marine, and now he was dead. Dead at the hands of the hated Rihannsu... *greenbloods* as the Andorian referred to them.

She waved his concerns away, while noticing AMIE flashing the 'ALL-CLEAR' over the IM screen. As she began moving forward again, she continued. "I kept in touch with Korman, over the years. Then, when the ADL had stumbled upon the Tholian's plot to retrieve the Deep Shadow crystal - during the battle of Hel'mis' Retreat - his Red Devision platoon, the 'Red Dogs', and my ADL command-section were tasked with 'retrieving' it before the <f'theking> *crystals* got their spiny tails on it," she said, bitterly.

"But you did get it, of course," he said. He frowned. Dimension traveling technology. It had been the same switching through dimensions that had brought the old Constitution-Class USS Defiant through the hell-plane, and granted it the disturbed sentience that his predecessor had left notes on.

"Well, obviously, Cass. Though, it took alot of work. And alot of lives," she quieted at the memory of those lost...Sanchez, Koonan, Met'tari...

"The important missions usually do," he replied, following close behind her. He'd lost quite a few in his own time. Ovrali, Browning, and of course Celias sh'Veltarran. He still had their images scattered around his quarters, reminding him of his past, and also reminding him to mind his 'Ps-and-Qs', and to not make the same mistakes that had cost each of them their lives.

They came to a juncture, marked on their TEDDs as a a critical junction, right above the detention cells. Quickly, she motioned for Cass to insert his spy-bugs into the ventilation system. Self-propelled with their own anti-gravs, yet almost microscopic in size, they could scout the area ahead, with minimal risk of detection.

Cassius nodded and retrieved the bugs from his TEDD, a canister the size of a standard pop can. Placing it, he pressed the release button and sent roughly half the bugs scurrying into the ventilation shaft. He flashed her a quick affirmative hand gesture, informing her that he'd planted the micro-spys.

As the micro-bugs transversed the ducting, Tish continued. She didn't know why, but for some reason, she didn't mind confiding in Cassius. Even if he *was* such a 'goody-two-shoes'.

"Tanner 'recruited' me into Red Division, after the Chryonix Five incident. I became his assistant, and have been on inactive-duty with Second Division, ever since." She let out a tired sigh, "I just didn't figure I'd be recalled, so early..." she trailed-off.

"Neither did I," he admitted. Though after Dalson Center, he'd thought that he'd *never* be recalled. "But that still doesn't explain why you're flying fighters off the Galaxy." The bugs traveled down the ventilation shaft and into the brig. On the monitor built into the TEDD, Cassius watched as they moved from the brig guard office back into the detention block, confirming the number of Tal Shiar guards at five.

Tish answered softly, as the picture from the bugs came into view. "Thank Al'indal for *that*, Cass," she replied, wryly. "It wasn't my..." she trailed off as she saw *them*...The Deltan female - San'X - wasn't moving, at all. The Tellarite seemed knocked-out. And the human - Worthman - ~traitor~ was doing sit-ups...

Cassius watched as T'Shani viewed the detention block footage, noticing her expression sour slightly when bugs came to Worthman. Good old Brenna, still doing her workouts. He wondered what T'Shani would say if she knew that as much as she thought Worthman a traitor, he considered Blackar in the same light. Looking back over to her, he mouthed, "Stun-grenade, wide arc, down the ventilation shaft." That would dump it out on top of the surprised guards.

Tish nodded, while selecting a grenade from her arsenal. Setting it's controls to 'WIDE', she looked over to Cass, pulled the pin, and mouthed 'one...two...three!'...

------------ Meanwhile... ------------

"Muh-my, yah gettin' a li'l close there, Ahthu'," Norra cooed sweetly as his hand errantly caressed the top of her buttocks. Granted, being squeezed into a service-junction built for only *one* to occupy called for close quarters, but not *that* close. Though, Norra didn't mind...*too* much.

Art chuckled. Quite the predicament. "Sorry, Norra. It slipped. It's got a mind of it's own when it comes to women. I just can't do a thing with it." He returned to patching his PADD into the the Rihannsu technology, which was incompatible at best, dangerous at worst.

She sighed, while surveying the current situation, again. They had both ducked into here, after an armed guard had entered the computer control room. And he hadn't left yet, either.

So instead, Blackwelder was trying to access the Rihannsu starbase's network via a secure terminal interface, with the help of AMIE and his PADD. To do so involved reaching *around* Norra's waist, as they faced each other. It was awkward, at best, but neither could move into a more suitable position in the cramped space.

She sighed, again, feeling his hot breath on her neck, as he peered over her shoulder past her honey-blonde hair, accessing the control panel near her waist.

"If I can make this connection, we'll be through," he said, acutely aware of how close together they were. Norra Ridgeway was definitely *something*, and the first thought that came to Art's mind was 'all woman'.

"Well, jus' dahn't get so *excited*, Mistuh'," she said, indicating toward their hips, which were both pressed close together in the close confines.

He pressed tighter against her and continued working as she giggled girlishly. It was amazing what happened to some women when they were exposed to a *real* man. "There, we're in. I'm searching for the best route to the Hellfire..."

A few minutes passed as they stood there, locked in an embrace. Finally, Art reported, "I have it. I'm going to try to open the secure access hatch behind you. Hold still."

She suppressed a giggle as he knelt down, in front of her at hip-height. She couldn't resist teasing him, "My, good sir. Dahn't get to close to my 'personahls'."

He grinned, slapping his codebreaker onto the door, working it, and popping the hatch. "Now spread your legs."

She choked for a second...

"What did you jus' say, Mistuh?"

"Ah *sayed*: spread yah laygs," he said, mimicking her accent, "I need you to spread your stance so that I can crawl through, out the hatch. Then you can duck down and follow me." he explained, placing his hands on her thighs and lightly applying pressure to indicate how far.

She felt an unexpected, yet pleasant, tingle as Art pushed on her inner-thighs with his hands. ~Oh....C'mon girl! Get your mind out of the gutter!~ she chided, while acquiescing to Art's *request*.

He laughed. "Take a woman on a secret mission and all of a sudden she's pressing against you in a service junction and spreading her legs. Must be 'spy appeal'." Reaching up, he made sure to brush his hand on her rear as he steadied himself on the hatchframe, peaking out. Once he was sure the coast was clear, he crawled out into the access tunnel.

Norra only rolled her eyes (though his hand *did* feel nice on her butt), while quickly swinging herself around, down, and behind Art, into the access tunnel.

"Ah jus' hope ya know where we're goin', hun," she smiled as she got a good view of his cute butt. ~At least he knows how to work out...~ she sighed to herself, as they made their way to the Hellfire...

***TBC***

off: Well, it had to happen sometime....the Victor and Samantha post :)

"Days of Our Lives"

Primary Characters:
Lt (JG) Victor Krieghoff
Samantha Widdlestein, romance novelist and ship pest

*****

USS Galaxy
Secondary Hull
Deck 11
Main Biology Labs

Samantha Widdlestein crept quietly in the biology labs. True, she wasn't supposed to be in here, especially during her lunch hour, unattended but she needed some description for her heroine's lab.

"Cold and uncluttered." Samantha muttered into her old fashioned tape recorder. "The perfect match for her frosty and unyielding heart. Ooh, I like that."

"This area is off-limits to non-Fleet personnel," Victor said quietly from the doorway behind her. He'd considered a different approach after the unauthorized access signal from the lab's monitors, but discarded it when he'd realized that the intruder was a child with a string of unauthorized entries longer than she was tall in her file. He'd never met her, but every Security personnel on the ship knew her on sight - Commander Corgan had made certain about that.

Sam, not unlike most of the USS Galaxy's crew, turned, took one look at Victor, and screamed bloody murder.

Expecting the reaction, Victor avoided wincing, although he did spend a second wondering if the LCARS panel nearest Samantha was shivering prior to cracking from the shrill tone.

She stopped abruptly and looked at him with wide eyes. "You're...you're..."

Victor debated closing his eyes so he wouldn't have to see the change in the girl's expression, the same way he'd seen so many other children's faces change. In the end, though, he chose to face it as he had all the times before. It wasn't as if it would hurt more than the first time had... or any of the others, since then.

"You're perfect!"

Victor blinked. That was most definitely *not* the response he was waiting on.

"Oh, wow! You're just the person I've been looking for my project. You look exactly like my main character Giovanni Savage. Well, maybe a little more, er, intense but still, wow!" Samantha gushed.

"Excuse me?" he asked quietly, still somewhat confused that she was not using one of the more normal phrases like 'Monster,' 'Bad Man,' or the apparently always popular "Ahhhhhh!'

"Can you scuba dive?" Samantha asked. "Giovanni can scuba dive but I'm beginning to think that's not the right direction to take for him. What do *you* like to do in your spare time? I'm betting that you're a Paresisi Squares player, right? I thought about making Giovanni a universally known Paresisi Squares player but I don't know, it seemed a bit much."

Without thinking, Victor answered, "I hunt," and then frowned. "Miss Widdlestein, I have to ask you to leave - this area is off-limits."

"Hunting. Hmmmm..." Sam mused. "That could work. Savage could be some big game expert. Oooh, shark expert. What were you saying? Oh, I just had to come in here for some research. They never let us in here except on field trips and those are so *juvenille.* I'm not a two year old, for Kahless sake. I need hard data for my book. Which reminds me, do you have a girlfriend?"

Victor frowned, trying to decide at what point the child in front of him had taken over the conversation - and why. "Have you finished your research?" Whatever it was that she was doing, the sooner it was done, the sooner he could get her out of here without one of the scenes she was famous for.

"Well, not really." Sam said. "I still need to catalog th equipment and computer programs the biologists use. And get a feal for the atmosphere. And I asked you a question."

"I know," he replied to her question without losing his frown. "I just didn't answer you."

"Dark and mysterious." Sam said into her recorder. "Frown that would have frozen hell over. Well, spit it out Big Guy. I won't make her the villain if that's what you're worried about. But she can't be the heroine. Arel's already too perfect for that. Maybe the best friend? Is she a sidekick like? Bookish and shy?"

What was this child talking about? "No."

"What's her name? I may be able to incorporate it into the book."

"No girlfriend." Grey was a friend, but not the kind Widdlestein meant. No one was.

"Hmmmm..." Sam thought out loud. "Well, we can't have that. Only the heroines are supposed to be untouched and pure. Ooh, I'll bet some girl broke your heart and now you feel you can never love again. That would be *perfect* for the story! Ex runs off with Savage's playboy scuba diving brother. Now he sails the sea in agony because he will forever be alone.

This is good stuff. What did you say your name was again?"

Victor stared at the child, trying to figure out what on earth she was talking about. Maybe the screams were preferable to this - at least he understood them. "I didn't."

"Well," Sam said with the tone of "I'm waiting."

"Krieghoff. Victor Krieghoff."

"Like Bond, James Bond?" Sam said. "No, that won't work. Maybe Victor Savage? I always thought Giovanni was a bit much anyway."

"You need to leave the laboratory," Victor repeated, retreating back to something he at least understood.

"Alright, Victor," Sam complied. He still was a bit creepy even if he fitted her hero perfectly. "Do you think I might be able to interview you later for a more in-depth background?"

"That depends."

"On?"

"On whether or not you leave with me now." Bargaining with a child was a tactic he remembered from the psych class he'd had at the Academy - he'd made poor marks in it, but that was more because no one could be near enough to talk to him than because he'd not understood what to do.

"Sure, we can go." Samantha said grandly, almost as if it was her idea. "So, tell me more about Security. Arel's in Security too but she never talks about it much."

"I'm not the person you should ask." This was familiar ground at least.

"Why not?" Sam pressed. "You're in Security, aren't you?"

"Because I'm not like the rest of them."

Out came the recorder again. "Deeply rooted isolation." Sam said into it. "Childhood trauma perhaps or maybe deep fear of rejection."

Victor frowned. "No."

"No what?"

"No, that isn't what I'm afraid of."

"Of course not." Samantha replied soothingly, her tone implying that she didn't believe him for one moment. "I'm just saying possibilities for Savage." She paused and the continued into the tape recorder "Relies heavily on denial."

Victor's frown deepened. "Where are you supposed to be now? School?"

"Advanced Calculas but I already know it all."

"You should go, even if you already know everything."

"Why?"

"Because people don't scream when you're near them," he answered, as if that made perfect sense.

"I wish they would." Sam said sulkily. "No one takes me seriously, not even when I pull out these." She whipped out one of her Hirogen stilletos. "Arel says its cause I don't use them right."

Victor frowned down at her. "No, you don't," he said with conviction. "And she's correct."

"You're just as humorless as she is." Sam grumbled. "Well, show me how then."

He looked at her penetratingly for a moment, and then said, "You don't want people to scream when you're near them, what you want is for them to treat you like an adult. And you're not using them correctly because waving a weapon around like that makes you look like an idiot. Either use it or put it away."

Samantha looked at him darkly. "It's a memento. I saved Arel's life when the Hirogen caught us and let us loose on that smegging planet. And I'm telling the truth before you ask."

"I know." Victor replied, having apparently dismissed the stiletto as inconsequential.

"How's that?"

"I read your file."

Sam brightened. She'd always wanted to get into her file. "What's it say?"

Victor doubted she wanted - or needed - to hear the material added to the file by previous Security officers that had been forced to deal with her. "You're smart. You're bored. You're trying to get someone to treat you like an adult."

"Does it really say that?"

"Yes. It also says that if you're not out of the Biology labs in thirty seconds I get to take your stilettos away."

Samantha grinned. "I like you, Victor. Even if you're kinda spooky. You should really work on that."

Victor frowned and pointed towards the door.

"All right, all right, I'm going!"

He followed her outside and stood, waiting, until she moved a little way down the corridor. "Stop trying so hard," he said suddenly, still with a frown, "You'll be an adult soon enough."

"Yeah, yeah." Samantha grumbled.

"Relationship Woes"

Colby Elliott
Ella Grey

*****

Colby looked with over to the woman standing in his room with a muddled mix of defeat and annoyance.

“I mean what the hell is wrong with you?” She shouted, her hands on her hips as she paced around Colby’s quarters. Her lips were twisted down in a look of total disgust.

She was clearly angry, Colby got that without needing a dictionary. Despite the fact that she thought he was an idiot he wasn’t that slow. Colby wasn’t happy to see her go but he was relieved.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?” She asked, her tone raising a little.

Colby just shrugged, taking his black baseball cap from the nightstand and putting it on.

She let out a little shrieking scream and stomped her feet, “This is how it is with you,” she shouted, “If you cared about anything you wouldn’t,” she broke off, “You are a slob Colby, a dirty slob."

Colby gave a little admitting smirk and nodded but said nothing.

The woman in the room shook her head as she gathered the rest of her things from Colby’s floor and stuffed them into her bag then moved for the door. She turned back, “And how hard is it to put the seat down on the toilet after you use it?”

Elliot’s eyebrows raised and he shrugged, “Um, I guess as hard as it is for you to put it down before you use it?” he offered then broke out into laughter. He watched her leave still laughing but when the door shut he stopped laughing and sighed looking at the floor. He liked her even though she had the habit of nagging him about everything and being too positive. He was, still, both sad and relieved to see her go. “I need a drink,” Colby said to the empty room, with her gone and all her stuff gone it was a really empty room. He pushed himself up from the bed and headed for the door, as the door wooshed open he looked back into the room, shaking his headas he regarded everything he saw and everything she had said.

****

Ella was on a mission.

Dressed in a very obvious blue dress (short, sparkly, and just a tad on the slutty side), she had decided that she would forget about her problems in a familiar way.

But it wasn't working.

Oh, it wasn't that the dress wasn't having its appeal, she'd had a number of offers so far this evening, its just that every offer made her stomach lurch and her heart cry out one very special, if not utterly annoying name.

Ella wondered when she had lost her edge and her brain had switched on to stupid.

Slinking up to the bar, she ordered a refill on her drink and then sat down in defeat.

Colby stepped into the bar on the Galaxy and looked around with a careful gaze. He was watchful, like a hunter looking for prey only instead of looking for something he was looking for the lack of something. After his look over the room he found that the room did indeed lack the someone who had stormed out of his room. He doubted that she would have been down here but it never hurt to check did it.

“Fuck no,” he said to himself as he stepped from the doorway and into the lounge area. It did not hurt to be careful, the last thing he wanted was to bump into her here and get yelled at again.

Colby smiled as he looked around and toward the bar. Things like that were why he would always believe in the beauty of luck. He straightened his shirt slightly and re-adjusted his cap as he walked up to the bar, stopping and looking over the engineer, “Where do you keep your PADD in that?” he asked with a smile, wondering if she would remember him from their last conversation.

Ella grinned at Colby and then opened up her purse to grab her computer PADD. *I HADN'T REALLY EXPECTED TO BE TALKING ANYONE, IF YOU GET MY MEANING. THINK ITS TOO MUCH?*

“Yes,” Colby said with an adamant little nod, “Too much, talk it all off,” he looked around, “Though maybe not here.”

*HOW ARE YOU THIS EVENING?*

Colby shrugged, “I’m alright aside from the usual crap that seems to spring up. How about you? I’m not interrupting any occasion am I?” he asked looking to her dress again.

*NO* She typed with a smile. *THIS IS ME TRYING TO BOOST MY EGO A BIT.* Ella stretched out her leg, admiring the strappy shoes. Her dress hiked up a bit more. *I THINK I SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT THE BLUE ONES.*

Colby looked at the shoes then followed the soft line of her leg up to where it disappeared beneath the dress she wore. Fidelity was one of Colby’s few virtues and had the night not begun the way it had he would not have allowed himself such a long gaze at the engineer’s legs, but it had so he had. Shrugging Colby interjected, “I’m a guy, I have two pairs of shoes, so…” he trailed off then shrugged again, “I’m certainly not the right person to ask about shoes.”

She smiled again.*SO TELL ME ABOUT YOUR TROUBLES AND I'LL BORE YOU WITH MINE*

“My girlfriend left me,” Colby said as he took a long swig from the bottle the barkeep had brought him. He rolled his eyes then looked back to Ella, “That happens to me a lot.”

*ANY PARTICULAR REASON?*

“I’m lazy, I have annoying habits, I don’t work hard enough if I did she thinks I’d be first officer,” he shook his head and muttered, "Clearly she’s nuts.” Then he added, “Oh, and I leave the seat up.”

*SHAME ON YOU :) I HAVEN'T BEEN IN A NORMAL RELATIONSHIP IN A LONG TIME.* Ella mused. *I DONT REALLY THINK IM CUT OUT FOR ONE THOUGH.*

“Yeah, my relationships never last.” He looked off into the distance as if searching for something then found it, remembering their previous conversation, “What about that guy?” Colby knew she had said, typed, more but all he could remember about him now was that he was that guy.

Ella did her best not to scowl. *WHY DO YOU THINK I'M DRESSED LIKE THIS? I'M GOING TO GET OVER HIM IF IT KILLS ME.*

Colby gave Ella’s dress another glance, “In that I’m sure a lot of people will be happy to get you over anything and everything.” He smiled, “Guys are always happy to help.”

She laughed. *I LIKE YOU COLBY. YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS NUTS TO DITCH YOU OVER A TOILET.*

“Maybe some people just aren’t cut out for real relationships,” he said with an oddly distant note in his voice, the note was his memory of his longest relationship, that had been the one to break the two month marker. He moved out of his thought and back into the situation, he looked at Ella and smiled, “Thanks, I always thought the toilet argument was retarded.” Colby closed his eyes, shit, he shouldn’t have said that, you never knew who got offended when you say retarded because they had some dumbstruck cousin or brother or something. Fuck it, Colby thought to himself, to late to not say it.

Ella looked amused if anything. *IT'S ANNOYING TO FIND YOURSELF FALLING INTO THE TOILET AT TWO IN THE MORNING SINCE SOMEONE LEFT THE SEAT UP BUT I WOULDNT LEAVE SOMEONE OVER IT.*

Elliot laughed, the fact that a drowsy person falling ass first into a cold bowl of toilet water was funny to him was probably not a good thing but that didn’t stop him from finding it funny as hell.

*GIVE HER A FEW DAYS TO THINK ABOUT IT. SHE'LL PROBABLY COME BACK TO HER SENSES.*

Colby sighed and shook his head, “I hope not,” he said honestly. “I got the feeling she didn’t want to be alone, if she didn’t mind it our, ‘relationship’ would have ended the morning after.” He rolled his eyes and gave an odd note to the word relationship. “You know, the I don’t like coming home to an empty apartment so I’ll mold this guy into my dream husband.” Colby set down his drink then laughed, “Or maybe I’ll bump into her again and we’ll get married and have a bunch of kids.”

Ella never molded her conquests, she just used. But it wasn't like they didn't use right back, she figured. He probably would run into the woman again and get married with 2.5 kids.

“Maybe yours will come to his senses,” Colby offered.

Ella snorted and then took another sip of her drink. Then she looked at him. Well, no use in being shy about it. *DO YOU WANT COMPANY TONIGHT, COLBY?*

Colby smiled, “Couldn’t say no even if you weren’t in that dress.”

(OOC: I assume this is a bit of a backpost, taking place a couple days after the Galaxy docks at Starbase 212. Part 2 to come later this afternoon.)

"Transition, Part 1: Getting There"

by
Ensign Tarin Iniara
Operations Officer,
USS Galaxy

and a nameless crewman

Location: endless hallways of Starbase 212 and the USS Galaxy

The last few days had been decently interesting. For someone whose daily life consisted of making sure Intergalactic Service Station and 24-Hour Roadside Café Number 23 ran smoothly all day, every day, it didn't take much.

After packing up her few possessions, meeting with her department head one last time and then arranging passage aboard the first available ship she could find, Ensign Tarin had once more found herself shooting through the blackness of space toward her new home. Well, in that general direction at least. But first, a few delays were in order: a quick stop at another Intergalactic Service Station, then a short ride with the oh so interesting denizens of a Nameless Eighteen Wheeled Freighter Without the Wheels (it had a name, it just wasn't all that memorable), another hop here, a slide to there, and finally onto the inevitable runabout, the Volkswagen Beetle of the skies.

Several ships and a couple days later, she had finally arrived at Starbase 212, where the Galaxy was docked for the time being. So it hadn't been the quickest trip ever, but it hadn't been boring. She checked the first terminal she came to, using it to locate the position of the Galaxy and the easiest way to get there from her current location. Once she had the required information she headed off, barely pausing to take a breath or examine her surroundings.

After only a couple wrong turns, Iniara finally found herself in the corridor she had been trying to locate. ~Okay, turn left here, then another left, then straight down...right.~ Quickening her pace a bit, she popped out of the bland, beige-and-blue hallway into a somewhat larger, though no less bland, atrium of sorts.

Only two features marked this almost-room: the airlock door, and the small desk situated exactly opposite it. Iniara turned toward the desk and the young crewman sitting behind it. "Ensign Tarin Iniara," she began as she stepped up to the desk, "reporting for duty aboard the USS Galaxy NCC-70637-A."

"One moment please." The crewman turned his attention from her to his console, tapping a few buttons. A few seconds later it displayed the information he needed. He scanned the screen, one hand reaching down to pull open a desk drawer stacked with PADDs. He looked down, selected the one he needed, and pushed the drawer shut.

Standing, he handed the PADD to Iniara. "You're all set, ma'am," he said before coming around the side of the desk. Iniara followed him the few feet across the room and waited as he punched in the access code for the airlock door.

Almost instantaneously the doors began to slide open. "Welcome to the Galaxy, ma'am."

Iniara nodded to the crewman before proceeding through the airlock, the second set of doors automatically opening as she approached. She unconsciously tugged on the strap across her chest as she stepped through the doors, hitching her single bag up a little on her back. ~Well, here goes nothing.~

For all the mental building-up she had done within the past few days (especially in the past few seconds), stepping onto the Galaxy seemed almost like a let-down. Sure, it was her new assignment, her new home, the ship that would take her on wild adventures and maybe even get her moving back up the totem pole of promotion. But right now, where she stood looked like any other Starfleet-run piece of hallway she had ever been in: beige on top, blue on bottom, reassuringly bland.

Sighing just a little, Iniara turned her attention to the PADD she had recently been handed. Activating its screen, she flipped through the information it contained. Location of her quarters, the Ops office, meeting scheduled with the Chief of Ops, temporary duty schedule, and a couple other useful bits of information. She scanned the information, noting that she had nothing on her plate until tomorrow.

~Nothing to do for the rest of today, I see. No time like the present to learn my way around the ship, then.~ And with that resolution in mind, Iniara used the PADD to call up the location of her quarters, figuring that would be the best place to start.

"Permission Granted" Part 1 of 2

(Takes place immediately after 'No One Has Permission To Die')

Principal Characters:
Lt. (JG) Victor Krieghoff
Lt. (JG) Ahdjiia D'Tinya-Bolivar
Ensign Cora Dobryin Lt. Cutter Kara'nin

Secondary Characters:
Ensign Paul Hanley
Ensign So'ka Zan Lanaka

****

Gryphon Colony
Asteroid Moving to Diplomatic Reception Area

Victor hated patrolling en mass.

It was like asking for the enemy to attack. All those targets lined up like that, most of them poorly-trained in even the simplest woodcraft, sounding more like a herd of Terran water buffalo on a wooden floor than someone trying to be quiet and approach a potential enemy. He would have rather come alone, just himself and the terrorists out there. That would have at least made it more of a challenge, would have allowed him to do what he was good at in the manner that suited him best.

But instead he was here, with over a dozen others on the ground and two in the sky, their wings beating in rhythm as they spiraled out from the main body in search of potential hostiles and injured needing assistance. His pulse pounded inside his head with the need to get away, to leave these sheep behind and do what he was born to do, to be what he was meant to be - to find those that had killed in his territory, taken lives that were his, and kill them in return.

His frown long since descended into a scowl, he fought with himself, fought the need to just step to the side and vanish into the rubble and buildings that comprised the inner surface of the asteroid colony and become the hunter he was. He fought, but it was a losing battle and he knew it. Sooner or later, no matter what he wanted, the hunter would win and he would leave. Sooner or later....

Cora was running on adrenaline. Search and rescue duty with active terrorists still around wasn't exactly relaxing. To top it all off she had to admit the same thing applied to being around Krieghoff. As such her attention remained focused on finding answers. While she wouldn't feel at ease until they were safely aboard the Galaxy, Dobryin also knew that distinct feeling of failure if they didn't find those responsible.

Cutter watched Zan fly some distance away. She was responsible, very together, much more than Arkedi probably would be, but she was still Fruna'lin. She wasn't used to this, nothing like this happened in recent history in their home system. And, of course, she didn't have any military training like Cutter had; she didn't have a preprogrammed behavior mode to switch to in a crisis situation. She was holding up really well, however, amazingly well, but Zan was always one of the strongest people he had known.

He glanced back down, first locating the away team he was following, then surveying the area around them. About fifty yards away, he noticed a tall man waving in the dark, surrounded by seven or eight others, it was hard to see. Cutter flew down and stopped his momentum, floating above them.

"Hey, you're on the Galaxy, right? Was that a shuttle I saw earlier?" he asked. He was holding onto a handrail with his foot to keep himself from floating away from the walkway.

"Yes, they landed in a park, in that direction," Cutter pointed, "about a quarter kilometer. You'll be able to see it once you get closer, it's obstructed by that building, but you can see the glow of the lights they've erected."

"Great," the man smiled. He pulled himself back down and spoke softly to his group. Cutter couldn't hear what he was saying, but he noticed one of them was holding their eye, another gripping his forearm against his chest. The other seemed to be helping.

"You should only take in the injured and report in yourself and, of course, any other ship personnel with you. The rest, the uninjured should move away and find shelter elsewhere, prevent crowding."

"Got it, thanks." Cutter flew off as the group moved away. Victor was moving the team fast; they were almost out of sight in the still dark asteroid.

****

Gryphon Colony
Asteroid Moving to the Diplomatic Reception Area
Five Minutes Later

Victor continued his fast pace at the head of the column, reaching a vertical turn in the path. Without warning, he jumped up as his foot bounced off the metal grating rather than landing and staying like it was supposed to. His right hand whipped out to grab hold of the railing as his feet started to shoot out parallel to the ground and turned back to the following away team. "Gravity's out. Pull yourself along the railing; watch out for it to kick back on. Watch for an ambush."

Ahdjiia had been moving as silently as one of her Little Ones as she made her way with the group, eyes watching and wary. She nodded when Krieghoff gave his warning about the gravity, and she was grateful for having excelled at her zero G classes back at the Academy.

As she continued on, she could feel the eddies of the gravity fluctuations. They made it a bit of a slower go, but after the first few, the rest were easier to adjust to in her opinion.

Hating the delay, Victor had the next man in line pass him a small piece of rubble, and, after he'd hooked one leg on the rail, threw it sidearm in their direction of travel, watching to see where the gravity came back on. The rock flew straight for six meters, and then abruptly dipped as it passed into a gravity-positive area. "Six meters of null-g, people," he reported. "One man at a time in the zone, the rest watch for an ambush."

He waited until everyone had the message, then tapped his combadge and repeated the warning to the Lieutenant and his companion as they circled overhead.

There was a pause over the channel before Lieutenant Kara'nin responded, "Um, all right, but you don't have to worry about us. We're already floating; it's easy for us to adjust." He sounded much more comfortable over the comm, Victor noticed, than when they were physically talking.

Ahdjiia took note of how the rock had traveled, and she propelled herself with a good hop to make it through the gravity void. While her hop didn't provide enough momentum for her to come through solidly on the gravity end, it did allow her to progress slowly enough to react if something happened suddenly. With a bit of twisting, she was able to get a leg over on the gravity side to make things easier for her to 'land' without injuring herself.

Ahead, something was moving. Something trying not to be heard. Victor smiled as he waved the column down and slipped ahead. Something that didn't want to be heard meant something that might be dangerous, and the pounding in his head drove him to find out if that were true - and show them that no matter what they thought, there was nothing more dangerous here than he, himself, was.

A few steps took him out of sight of the column, around a mostly intact group of shops and stores, some with still-intact glass in their windows and silently back around behind the source of the sound he'd heard. He slowed his approach, ghosted around a planter that had lost it's contents when the gravity fluxed, and took a careful look.

Civilians. Not civilians with guns, or even looters, but civilians of the worst type: women and children, four of the first and almost a dozen of the second. They were scared, huddled behind some ruined stands for some kind of ethnic human fried food. As he watched, a child, older than the others - making her about twelve Victor supposed - slipped back up and whispered to a thirtyish woman with Terran Asian ancestry, "Mrs. Wanatabe, I can't see anyone now, but I'm sure there was someone there with a gun."

There was nothing for it, despite the pounding in his head. He couldn't leave these people here, fair game for the lesser predators that were running amok. Victor dropped the muzzle of his rifle and stepped out. "There was."

Several of the children and at least one of the women screamed, and Victor frowned despite knowing that it wouldn't help the moment. "Stop screaming or someone will hear you," he ordered.

That had the expected result of making two more children shriek and start to cry, and the Asian woman - Mrs. Wanatabe - place herself between the others and Victor. ""W-what do you..."

"I want them to stop screaming," he repeated quietly. "Before someone that will start shooting at you and my men hears them."

"You... you're not... your men?" She looked closer. "Oh. You're Starfleet... You're here to...."

"There's an evacuation and aid station in the Memorial Park," Victor replied as the other women started to calm the children. "I'll send some men back with you to make certain you get there."

The woman relaxed as Victor summoned the rest of the column forward, warning them there were survivors to evacuate. "I... I'm sorry the children screamed," she apologized nervously. "They're just so scared, and..."

"Good," Victor interrupted her. "They should be. If they're scared, they're alive. Keep them that way." He turned to the side as the column approached, the frightened children eyeing the men and women nervously, until one spotted Zan in the air and pointed, distracting all of them as they watched the Fruna'lin pair fly overhead. "D'Tinya," he said, still frowning, once she'd approached. "They have to go back. Detail two men to..."

The first incoming round sparked off one of the carts. The next three struck the road next to them. The fifth clipped a lock from Mrs. Wanatabe's hair, sending it skipping up to fall and separate into a cloud of separate falling strands. Before the sixth struck, Victor snapped out "Incoming!" and reached out to drag the Asian woman to cover.

****

Gryphon Colony Asteroid
Twenty meters above the ambush

"What was that?" Zan asked as she flew up beside Cutter.

"Shots." On the ground, at least, the two of them were concealed by the darkness a good fifty or sixty feet above the away team. No telling how long that would last with his reflective white wings. He wished momentarily that he had inherited all of his mother's blue, rather than just on the wing tips. He scanned the ground and walkways below and to his right, searching for the source of the shooting with his avian eyes.

"Victor," he said, tapping his combadge, "I see two men on a walkway extending out of the third floor of the building near you. You should be able to spot the blue glow of their sensor scopes, and maybe one or two down on--"

"AAHH! Ka ist thekh!"

"Zan?" Cutter asked at her cry. She had coiled up her wings, the movement sent her higher but she was remaining airborne only through the zero gravity; she was clutching one of them.

"They shot me! Thekhikal chanit!" she cursed. Cutter heard one more whistle by his ear, causing him to reflexively spin in the air. He heard Zan curse once more then fly off.

"Zan? Where are you going?"

****

Gryphon Colony Asteroid
Ambush Site

Ahdjiia kept the civilians covered once the firing started, and motioned to them carefully to follow her. She did keep an eye out for where the shots were coming from, as well as where the other crewmen were and began to formulate a way to get the civilians out so the Security team wouldn't have them to worry about in addition to themselves.

Across from D'Tinya, Victor snarled as he pushed the women he'd pulled from the line of fire into the cover provided by the planter. He'd known this was coming, felt it, and now it was here - and he couldn't do what he needed to in order to stop it. He couldn't move out and kill the people shooting because he had to protect the civilians and his people. The pounding in his head grew louder and his snarl more feral as he searched the area for a target besides the ones the Lieutenant and his woman were diving on, attacking like striking birds of prey.

Someone managed to plant a small concussion grenade far too close to Cora's current location for comfort. No one else could actually see it but the Intelligence officer. Their options were severely limited and there was only one right thing she could do to save innocent lives. Ensign Dobryin put herself between the low wall which was the only thing standing between some innocent children and that grenade. "We have to get out of here now..." unsure if her warning could be heard over the chaos or not. Cora only hoped someone had heard.

****

Gryphon Colony Asteroid
Twenty meters above the ambush

"Kyle, look out!" one of the men on the third story walkway shouted. He ducked the speeding green object careening towards them but his friend was not so quick. He heard the loud knock of his jaw smashing shut, teeth slamming into one another as the figure struck. The man, Kyle, was knocked backwards by the blow, tumbling over the railing and fell three stories in one of the few working gravity wells. The other one spun in his crouched position and fired his weapon wildly into the air. After a moment, he paused and searched through the darkness with his sensor scope. It was one the birds that attacked them, he realized. Where was the other?

"Ka!" Cutter swore as he heard another bullet whiz by over head. He pushed downwards, bringing himself below the walkway. What was Zan doing? She could have gotten herself killed, but worse, she might have killed that man who fell. Another shot rang off the metal walkway, a shot from below. The man above rolled and started to run, Cutter followed. He caught up quickly; moving must faster through the air than the man could on the ground, and tackled the man. He fell, his gun bouncing on the ground out of his reach. The man tried to push himself up, Cutter was light, only a hundred pounds, he could easily be thrown off, so he grabbed the attacker's hair and shoved his hand down, forcing the head into the metal grating.

The man screamed, but was still struggling, so Cutter slammed his other arm into the back of the man's neck, pinning it to the ground. But it wasn't enough, Cutter was pushed off and he fell backwards. The attacker stumbled to his feet and reached for his gun, but he was knocked again. Zan! She was attacking again, swooping by the catwalk thwacking the man with her shoulder. He toppled over the edge like his friend earlier, but he was able to grab on.

"Help!" he cried, hanging onto the edge of the walkway with one hand. Cutter looked, Zan was circling back, she might attack again. He'd never seen her this angry, this out of control, but he'd never seen her physically attacked before, he'd never seen her life be threatened. He crawled over and reached out his hand, the terrorist grabbed it and Cutter helped pull him up. The man began to scramble again, once he had been lifted back up, Cutter couldn't tell if it was panic, or if he was going for his gun.

"Stop!" It was Zan. She had picked up the gun and stood on the walkway. It was aimed at the terrorist.

****

Gryphon Colony Asteroid
Ambush Site

Ahdjiia was very aware of Victor's struggle because of his affect on her. She knew she had to move fast so he could unleash the Beast Within.

Her eyes darted and found a bit of protecting wall that was left from a building's fall and from the other debris in the area, the terrorists would have a hard time with visibility and firing. There was a chance to get the civilians to better cover for the officers to do their job.

"Strike!" she yelled out to Victor as she made her move to get the civilians to safety.

Shots fired around her, one almost clipping her leg, but Ahdjiia kept her calm as she hurried them along. One of the children stumbled and she wasted not a nanosecond as she scooped him up and felt the first blast to her hip.

Ahdjiia bit her lip rather than cry out. As it was, the acrid stench of burning flesh was enough. She forced herself to run, and another shot clipped her shoulder.

There was only a little further to go, but she kept on despite the agony.

Just as she felt her legs about to give out, she sent the child off with a shove as a shot struck home, hitting her in the chest near her heart.

Ahdjiia fell to the ground; her last sight was of the civilians taking safe shelter.

Cora had been thrown clear of the blast by the grenade's shock wave when it finally blew. By default she landed closest to Ahdjiia's location. It had been a rather rough but short flight and she was incredibly lucky. A few scrapes and scratches along with a jammed shoulder. Making sure the kids were ok was her first task. Adrenaline blocked her own pain and it would be some time before the after effects of being airborne truly sunk in.

"Permission Granted" Part 2 of 2

(Takes place immediately after 'No One Has Permission To Die')

Principal Characters:
Lt. (JG) Victor Krieghoff
Lt. (JG) Ahdjiia D'Tinya-Bolivar
Ensign Cora Dobryin
Lt. Cutter Kara'nin

Secondary Characters:
Ensign Paul Hanley
Ensign So'ka
Zan Lanaka

****

Gryphon Colony Asteroid
Twenty meters above the ambush

All three sat frozen, the two Fruna'lin and the human, two on their backs, one standing over them with a gun, waiting for one of them to move. It was Cutter. "Zan. Stop, don't shoot him." She gave no reply, and the man began to scurry backwards, trying to flee.

"Stop!" she said again, and she fired, a round ringing off the walkway. He did.

"Zan," Cutter said again. There was another eternal pause before she spoke again.

"What am I supposed to do?"

"Hold," Cutter said, "Let me tie him up. He can't do anything then."

She stood, her jaw starting to quiver, her hand beginning to shake. "Okay."

Cutter sighed, pushing out his stress with his breaths. He removed one of the bands around his arm, untying it and using its long length as rope. The terrorist cooperated, afraid for his life, and in another moment, his hands and feet were bound. Only then did Zan lower the gun.

****

Gryphon Colony Asteroid
Ambush Site

"We need to med evac her ASAP," Cora yelled to Victor as she carefully made her way over to check on the injured security officer. "She doesn't look good."

Victor shook his head, trying to get the pounding that had risen to a roar to clear enough to let him think. This was different than he fought alone; this was why he couldn't command a ship - because he saw nothing but the targets and himself, the others were forced away, out of sight as the thing that lived inside him started to claw its way out.

With a growl that made the woman he'd saved draw back in shock, he stepped out into the open, knowing the location of the last shooter from the way D'Tinya had spun back from the impact. As he rose, he thumbed up the setting on the rifle, the meter reading '11' when he fired his first shot.

The beam struck the wall the sniper had fired from, played across it for only an instant - and then the energy transference blew the stone and duracrete apart, shattering the wall and sending the pieces back into the building like thousands of stone knives and hammers. The building shuddered as close to ten cubic meters of it vanished under the shot, and them started to collapse in slow motion.

Without moving, Victor swiveled and brought the rifle to his shoulder to trigger another shot that blew out the side of a shop where another volley of shots had come from, and then a third into the interior of the store, almost erasing it from the foundations and ending the incoming fire. He turned, rifle seeking another target, the pounding in his head slowed but not vanished, and his presence still filling the small square so completely that it almost shoved the refugees and other crewmen out.

The whine of a single shot cut through the sudden silence with a 'skikkt' and a line of red sprang up along Victor's left cheek as it cut him, drawing a new snarl and a quick, pantherish turn in the direction of the shooter. His rifle fired once more, taking out a balcony and part of the wall under it, the blast throwing the sniper clear of the building and into a perpendicular standard gravity zone. Victor watched the man's abrupt positional transition and fall expressionlessly, his head tilted to the side to see better, and only turned back to the others after his target had crashed to the street forty meters ahead of them and one level up.

"How..." He stopped, shook his head, and tried again. "D'Tinya. How bad?"

"She was hit more than once it appears.. Hip and shoulder are the least of my worries. It's the chest wound that could be fatal. I'm not a Doctor but that's too darn close to her heart for comfort. We certainly don't have the proper facilities while we are here or aboard the shuttle. Right now I'd say time is against us," Cora responded still unaware of her own pain. "My expertise is Intelligence not medical." The last was repeated so quietly and more for her own reassurance than anything else.

Victor took three steps and knelt next to D'Tinya, his fingertips at her throat. "Pulse is bad," he agreed. He checked the chest wound and frowned, the sound of his pulse that had echoed in his head gone for a moment. "Call the Lieutenant and his lady, Dobryin. See if they need help, and get them down here. I need them to transport her back to the runabouts ASAP - or at least to the runabout's transporter range." He looked down at D'Tinya's still form again and waved Hanley over, taking the field medical kit from him. "I'll do what I can. Hanley, you and So'ka get those kids away from her. Get everyone away from her."

"Aye, sir," the pair agreed and started herding the children and their keepers back across the small square.

Victor spilled the kit out on the ground and grabbed up a compress and one of the emergency regenerators even though he knew it couldn't heal the wound, and would only delay the inevitable. He hesitated, and then simply tore her jacket and tunic open to gain access to the injury. "You're not going to die, D'Tinya," he growled as he applied pressure and set the regenerator for maximum depth and laid it atop the compress. "Weren't you listening? No one has permission to die."

Ahdjiia felt the blackness around her ebb and she was vaguely aware of the feel of air on her skin and someone chewing her out. Her eyes flickered open, and she managed to mouth 'sorry'.

"Don't be sorry, D'Tinya," Victor said as he ran the small scanner from the kit over her and frowned. "Be alive. The children are." He looked at a reading and his frown deepened. "Your child is. You should have told me, D'Tinya. I'd have left you on the ship."

"Wh.. won't... be.. codd...lld.", she managed to force out, "S... ssstill...securit...ee."

Ahdjiia focused all she had into keeping herself going to at least be able to see Saladin one last time, but she wasn't sure she was going to pull it off.

Victor looked at her for a moment, checked the readings again, and made a frustrated, angry noise in the back of his throat. "You should have stayed," he repeated as he set the scanner aside and checked the dermal regenerator. "It's bad. There's damage to the heart, and there will be more by the time we get you to Malgin. Too much damage."

She closed her eyes, understanding what he wasn't saying. "Save... m... son... Saladin..." she struggled out.

Victor leaned closer, his voice a low growl, like a tiger's. "You can't go, D'Tinya. I have to give you permission to go, and I won't. Not until the boy is safe. Do you understand? You don't have permission to die."

A faint smile crossed her lips and Ahdjiia reached out to take Victor's hand as if to hold on longer and gain strength from him.

Victor frowned, looked at her hand, and slowly closed his fingers over hers. "Tell me you understand, D'Tinya. I need to hear you say it."

Rather than force the speech, and to conserve her strength for at least her son to live, Ahdjiia mouthed 'yes'.

Victor nodded once, looked down at her for a moment in silence, and then said quietly, "You make good choices, D'Tinya. I promise you, your son will be with his father."

She managed a smile, and seemed to fade, but her grip on Victor's hand was strong.

The beat of his pulse in his head returned abruptly and Victor growled in frustration, his presence pushing out to surround them. "Stay here, D'Tinya. You can't go yet, not until I say you can."

The Beast Within that sent so many scurrying in fear was oddly comforting to Ahdjiia. But then, considering it had a different reaction on her, that was understandable. Rather than answer and use up more of her strength, she squeezed Victor's hand firmly.

He frowned again and squeezed her hand back awkwardly. Death he understood intimately, but this he didn't. Victor looked up at the children across the plaza, huddled around the women that had guided them to safety. They might not see their parents again, but at least they'd known them. D'Tinya's son wouldn't even have that.

He growled again and looked down at the woman on the ground; regret that her killer's passing had been as quick as it had been filling his thoughts. He should have killed the man slower, should have made him suffer the way D'Tinya's mate and son would at her loss, should have... With an effort, he pushed the thoughts back. He had no time for them now. D'Tinya had no time for them. Not anymore.

"Wait," he told her. "The lieutenant and his woman will carry you back to Malgin. He squeezed her hand again, the gesture still alien to him as he started to stand. "I'll be back."

****

Gryphon Colony Asteroid
Ambush Site
Five Minutes Earlier

"Dobryin to Cutter we need you down here ASAP," Cora radioed for assistance.

A man fell at the edge of the cleared people, smacking the ground with a loud 'thwack,' causing the children to scream again. They were quickly silenced by the sight of two winged Fruna'lin landing immediately afterwards.

"What happened to her?' she asked quickly, noticing a red ooze on the female Fruna'lin's wing.

"She was shot in the wing," Cutter said, gesturing to Zan.

Cora nodded then asked, "Can you fly?"

"My plumage is *robelau*," she spat, the tone of her voice causing the one brave child to withdraw his hand before touching her.

"Its just skin, anchors the feathers," Cutter explained quickly. "She can fly."

He looked down at the fallen security officer then, really noticing for the first time what had occurred. Though it was painfully obvious, all he could bring himself to say was, "What happened?"

"Ambush," was all Cora managed to say in the chaotic aftermath of recent events.

"Lieutenant." It was Victor, his presence pushing at Cutter and the others seconds before his voice did. "I need your help."

Zan seemed to frown harder as Victor approached, Cutter visibly tensed up. "Um...all right. What?"

"D'Tinya. She has to go back to Malgin."

"Can she be moved?"

"Yes." Victor's voice was flat and emotionless.

Cutter sighed and then had to try a few times before he could speak, "It's not that easy. My wings can lift a lot of weight, it's hard, but I can do it. My arms can't. I'm not as -- *we're* not as strong as humans," he explained, his wings flashing open as he stressed his species. "If I try to carry her, I...I could make it worse."

"She's already dead, Lieutenant," Victor said with the quiet certainty of Death itself. "But the child inside her isn't. She can't leave until it's safe. That's why she has to go back. For the son she'll never see."

Cutter nodded, reluctantly accepting his duty. He took a deep breath, his large chest puffing out and back in, and then stepped over to the fallen officer. He raised her shoulders and placed an arm around her back, then put the other arm under her knees and lifted. A sound slipped from his lips as he lifted more than his body weight; he struggled, almost dropping her back down before he caught a better grip.

Victor watched as the Lieutenant took several quick steps forward, concerned that he was losing control, that he was going to fall, but then his wings whipped open and lifted D'Tinya and himself into the air.

Victor turned to Zan, but she was already gone, taking flight to catch Cutter and take some of D'Tinya's weight. The two Fruna'lin together managed her weight well enough that they began to pick up speed as they departed.

Without looking away, Victor tapped his combadge. =/\= "Krieghoff to Medical Team. One wounded officer in transit. ETA... five minutes maximum. Wounds are kinetic impact and fatal, but officer is pregnant. They request the child be saved." =/\=

A nervous woman's voice answered, =/\= "Ahhh... roger, Landing Party. You say the wound is fatal?" =/\=

=/\= Yes. Damage to the heart and lung. Severed blood vessels bleeding into lungs. One kinetic projectile has shattered the left hip, endangering child." =/\=

After a moment, a different voice answered. =/\= "Understood, Lieutenant. Will advise Dr. Malgin." =/\=

Victor nodded. =/\= "Contact me when child is secure." =/\=

=/\= "Dr. Malgin says he will do so," =/\= the second voice reported. =/\= Medical Team out." =/\=

Victor turned back to the silent people watching him. "Dobryin, you're in charge of returning these people to the Medical Team. Take three men and set out after you get yourself looked at. I'll take the rest and keep going to the Reception Area."

Cora simply nodded, "Understood." Training and experience ruled her actions because that required the least effort. None of them would forget what happened here. The medical team's response still hung in the air as she moved to carry out her duties.

****

Gryphon Colony Asteroid
En Route to Reception Area
Thirty-Seven Minutes Later

=/\= "Medical Team to Lieutenant Krieghoff." =/\=

Victor stopped the now-reduced column and tapped his combadge. "=/\= "Krieghoff here." =/\=

=/\= "You wanted to be contacted when Dr. Malgin was done with Lieutenant D'Tinya-Bolivar. The Doctor reports the transfer to a temporary stasis womb was a success. The child is returning to the Galaxy with the first load of wounded in approximately three minutes." =/\=

Victor frowned. =/\= "D'Tinya?" =/\=

=/\= "She's holding on, Lieutenant. She shouldn't be, but she is. It's like she can't... like she can't go, like something is keeping her here." =/\=

=/\= "Let me speak to her." =/\=

=/\= "Sir?" =/\=

=/\= "Let me speak to her." =/\= He hadn't raised his voice, but suddenly it was the same one he'd used to quell the com traffic earlier.

There was silence on the other end of the com for a minute, and then yet a third voice spoke. =/\= "We've put her combadge next to her ear, sir." =/\=

=/\= "D'Tinya, can you hear me?" =/\= Victor's voice hadn't changed, but its inflection had, making it less overtly menacing but no less disturbing.

After a second, the voice of the nurse responded, =/\= "She can, sir. She just can't speak." =/\=

=/\= "Listen carefully, D'Tinya," =/\= Victor said, each word distinct and sharp as broken glass. =/\= "Permission granted." =/\=

There was a gasp from the other end of the com, as if someone had received a sudden relief from something terrible, and the voice of the nurse whispered in an oddly frightened, subdued voice, "=/\= "She's gone, sir." =/\=

=/\= "Krieghoff out." =/\=

Victor turned without a word and started moving again. After a moment, the other members of the team followed him hesitantly.

"Transition, Part 2: Touring Mode"

by
Ensign Tarin Iniara
Operations Officer,
USS Galaxy

Location: USS Galaxy, Decks 19-39

Finding her quarters had been easy enough. Ensign Tarin had been surprised to see that her quarters on the Galaxy were almost a mirror image of her old ones on Starbase 23. Except for the minor size differences and the slanted walls with the giant picture windows, it looked like someone had merely taken her starbase quarters, flipped them over, and plopped them down on the Galaxy. It would take a little getting used to.

After depositing her bag in the corner of the room and resolving to unpack later, Iniara decided to begin her self-guided tour, starting at the bottom. She dropped the one PADD on her desk and retrieved another one from her bag, the one she had been using to study the Galaxy's layout.

Stepping out of her quarters, she quickly made her way down the hallway to the first turbolift she could find. After a moment the lift's doors whooshed open and she stepped inside, calling up a ship schematic on the PADD. "Deck 39," she stated, giving the number of the bottom-most deck that contained anything she might have to know about while on duty.

The turbolift doors opened at her destination, revealing still more hallways to be traversed. Iniara accessed the detailed specs for Deck 39 and began walking. "Bulk Cargo...Shuttle Bays..." she began to tick off as she made her way around the hallways. Not a whole lot on this deck, time to move up.

The next deck was similarly uneventful, as was the next, and the next. Only a skeleton crew appeared to be running the ship at the time; the majority of the crew was probably off on the starbase, she figured. Even Main Engineering had been mostly empty; apparently there wasn't much to do with the ship docked, aside from making sure nothing blew up, that is.

~Having a ship full of empty hallways is probably better,~ she mused, once more burying herself in the PADD's data and not really paying attention to every step along her way. ~Fewer people to bump into.~

Fewer people on board also mean fewer minds to feel, she stopped to remind herself. She hadn't realized until she left Starbase 23 how accustomed she'd become to the people who lived there, both physically and mentally. But during the first few hours off the starbase she'd started to develop a serious headache, a consequence of actually having to maintain and reinforce mental shields to keep out all the new minds she was around. She had admonished herself for becoming complacent, getting so used to everyone that she let her shields relax, sometimes even deliberately dropping them and just letting the waves of telepathic energy push against her until she couldn't take it anymore.

It was exactly this which Iniara felt herself beginning to do as she completed her tour of Deck 19. Figuring this was as good a place as any to test the mental waters, she ducked into the arboretum. She poked around for a second, making sure the area was empty. Satisfied, she leaned against a wall, closing her eyes and slowing her breathing. A few moments later she tentatively began to drop her shields, opening her mind to the ship and its crew all around her.

~*...see what Rachel was wearing last night, I mean damn! What a...*~

~*...useless piece of junk! Dad, you can't...*~

~*...believe they burned her at the stake. Earth's Middle Ages...*~

~*...trashed this plasma injector, it seems. Guess we'll have to get a...Milkshake. Chocolate. You want anything while I'm...sweaty and disgusting. I don't think his mother ever taught him to kill targs with his bare hands! Oh oh, and they say he can report to Sickbay, please take care of that filthy socks when will he ever learn to have a Class Five pilot's holodeck seems to bedon'tpointthatflamingdrinktryityou'llprobablydiewithinthenextfiveyearsiftheshipcant'seemtopullhisheadoutofhotdogsandfrenchfrieswereagrEATBRIDGEHASNEVERSEEMEDTHIS--*~

A loud, hollow clatter brought Iniara back to her senses. Immediately her default shields went back up, and she took a few moments to reinforce those as she almost always had to do. She then turned her attention to the source of the noise, realizing that the PADD she had been holding was now on the ground, propped up awkwardly against one of her feet. She reached down and picked it up, sliding it under one arm, unconsciously running her free hand through her hair.

~How long...? Couldn't have been more than a minute, if that.~ Iniara sighed, realizing that her headache had come back in full force after her little "experiment". It was going to take some time to adjust, especially when the full crew compliment was back on board.

"Well, I've done it before, I can do it again," she said to herself, voice echoing slightly in the empty room. She pushed herself away from the wall, turning and exiting the arboretum. Once outside, she pulled the PADD from under her arm. ~Only eighteen more decks to go...~

Dr. Janelle Reynolds
CMO
USS Galaxy

Things had been quiet for Dr. Reynolds. Sickbay was slow and now that they were on the starbase, things got even slower as everyone prepared to get off the ship for a little R and R.

Dr. Reynolds had no desire to go off the ship until she heard that the Miranda was docking there too. She wondered who she knew on that ship. Looking at the crew manifest, she recognized a few names. One name stood out in her mind, Rayna O'Grady. She remembered her from a party for one of the big wigs.

She would have to visit her sometime. It would be nice to talk to someone than stay there and read up on her medical journals.

"Like Sands Through An Hourglass"

(Set one day after 'Days of Our Lives')

Principle Characters:
Lt (JG) Victor Krieghoff
Samantha Widdlestein

*****

USS Galaxy
Deck 38
Security Main
Victor Krieghoff's Office

Samantha Widdlestein sat down and folded her hands in front of her professionally. At least that's what she told herself. The man across from her frowned and his presence gloomily stretched across the room, filling it with terror, dread, and other unpleasant feelings.

"Could you turn it down a bit?" Sam snapped at Victor.

"Turn what down?" It really was a silly question, but Victor supposed that there was always the possibility that she'd meant something besides the obvious.

"The heebie jeebie vibe."

"I can't," he said quietly. It had been a futile hope after all. Maybe it would speed up the process of the interview he'd agreed to in order to get Widdlestein out of the Biology labs without a fight.

"Ooh, that's a good place to start then." She cooed and turned on her recorder. "Let's talk about that."

"Not much to say."

"Did you pick it up from some creepy alien?" Sam asked, her imagination coming up with a thousand dramatic scenarios all at once.

"No, it's always been there. Even when I was an infant - the other newborns wouldn't stop screaming until I was taken to a private room."

Samantha's eyes widened with sadness. It didn't stop her from making her character Savage have a similar incident happen to him in her notes though.

"That's so horrible. You must have been really unhappy as a kid."

"Not always. Once I understood that I was different, that I wasn't ever going to be like the rest of them, I learned to find things that I could do to fill the time. Things that took the place of what I couldn't have.

"Such as?" Sam asked in a professional tone.

"I study a lot. Remote learning classes, self-paced holo-courses, things like that. I learned the family's traditional trade." He smiled slightly.

"And I learned to hunt."

She didn't really care for the smile, it looked mean and vicious but it was also perfect for the final showdown battle between Savage and the yet-unnamed-bad guy. "Tell me about hunting. Why do you like it?"

"Because when I hunt, I don't have to hide what I am. There are no rules beyond the ones that I was born knowing. There's just me and my prey, hunting each other. It's simpler, cleaner. One lives, one dies. No predator can ask for more than that."

Sam frowned and decided to switch the subject. Thoughts of hunting gave her the creeps. "So, I've done some research on you and you lied to me."

"About what?"

"You've got two girlfriends!" Sam announced, proud of her investigation skills.

"No, I don't." Victor supposed that it was too much to ask that a child might not have heard about his supposed social life.

"Yeah you do. Everyone says so."

"They aren't my girlfriends," he repeated. "No matter what everyone says."

"Says here that you have one named Ella, a real bitch most people say, and Angelina, a deaf mute." Samantha said, deliberately messing up her facts to see his reaction.

Victor reflected that her misinterpretation was at least better than swapping him with Leo Streeley and saying that he'd been Princess DeV'oraH's love-slave. "Lt. Grey is mute. Flight Officer Angelienia is a bitch. Neither of them are my girlfriend," he replied tonelessly.

"But if one were your girlfriend, which would you choose?"

"I wouldn't. There isn't any reason to."

"That's why I used 'if' Victor." Sam said primly. "Surely you can pick one."

"No. There isn't any point to it. Neither of them are for me."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Tell me about your family. Did your parents tie you up as a child?" Savage would work out better if he were abused, she thought.

"No. They were the only people that I didn't do... whatever it is that I do... to when I was a child."

Well, that was disappointing, Samantha thought. "If you didn't have the heebie jeebie vibe, what's the first thing you would do?"

"Nothing. I'd be dead."

Sam sighed in exhasperation. "I said "if"."

Victor frowned slightly. "I don't do 'what if's' there's no point to them. There's only what is."

The girl pouted out her lower lip. "You promised to cooperate if I left the bio lab. Its not that hard of a question. If *I* for instance were older, I would join the Academy. If you didn't have the heebie jeebie vibe you would...."

With a sigh, Victor forced himself to try and consider what he might do in that situation. "I would..." His voice trailed off as he tried to find something, anything that he would do if that were true. "I would...I don't know."

"Awww, common!"

"I don't know anything else other than what I am," he said quietly. "I can't see myself any other way."

Sam narrowed her eyes and then nodded firmly as if making some internal decision. "You definitely don't have much of an imagination, do you? Well, okay, since you can't tell me now, you're going to have to think about it and tell me next time."

"Next time?" Victor's frown deepened.

"Why of course." Sam said with a smile. "You're much too complicated for just one interview."

"What, exactly, are you doing this for again?" he asked quietly.

Samantha rolled her eyes. "Deaf as well. I *told* you I'm doing research for my book. I think you're an excellent model for my lead role. Which reminds me, what do you think would be the ultimate prey for a hunter to catch? Sharks (she asked a bit hopefully)? Tigers? Bigfoot?"

"Alive or dead?" Victor asked, relieved to have a question that made sense.

"Alive of course. Our readers like to relate to things."

"Terran or non-Terran?"

"Ooooh, non Terran." Sam said happily.

"Francosian Land Kraken," Victor replied without hesitation.

"What's that?"

"The largest predator native to Francos IX in the Gallican Cluster. Only hunted successfully with less than vehicle-mounted weaponry six times in recorded history, and never successfully without military-grade energy weapons."

"What's it look like?" She asked eagerly.

"Easier to show you." Victor stood and moved to the LCARS panel in the desk by Samantha. He worked the controls for a moment, and then nodded towards the holographic display set in the front of the desk as an image materialized in it. "There. Three meters tall, four wide. Mass approximately six tons. Armored skin proof against phasers and disruptors up to setting seven, reduced effects after that due to the crystalline structure of the armor plates. Sixteen tentacles with organic steel grasping tips. Distributed circulatory and nervous system make it immune to stun effects. Carnivorous. Beaked maw capable of taking the nose off a shuttlepod."

"Holy smegging Kahless." Sam said in awe. "That's perfect." She looked at it for a few minutes, trying to think of descriptive words for it. "How would you go about killing one of those things? HAVE you ever killed one?"

"No." He frowned. "I fought one on the Defiant - it was someone's nightmare the ship brought to life. I put out an eye, but it would have killed me if I hadn't run." He stared at the image. "The six successful hunts all used man-portable anti-armor weapons like isomagnetic disintegrators and occurred at distances of greater than fifty meters to allow for the multiple shot necessary to bring one down. Under that distance, no tactic except flight has ever worked."

"Er, can you say that in Federation Standard, Victor?" Sam asked.

He blinked. "You can't hunt them with anything designed primarily to kill people," he tried again. "You have to treat them like a shuttlecraft or a grav tank and kill them like you would one of those - with big guns from far away."

"Oh." She studied it further. "Were you scared by it?"

"No. I knew it was going to kill me, so there was no point in it." He shrugged. "I've only ever been scared of one thing, and this isn't it."

Sam looked expectantly at him.

"Becoming what people think I am."

"You need a life, Victor." Samantha said firmly as she wrote down brooding on her notes and underlined it twice. "Or, at least, a vacation."

"I don't take vacations."

"Everyone takes vacations." She informed him. "Ok, well, why not?"

"Because the Galaxy always stops at places where people go, where they do things that people want to do."

"So?"

"Because I'm not like them. I can't be in large crowds, someone will get hurt. Risa and the other resort planets don't offer anything I w