The Journey

Posted on Wed May 15th, 2024 @ 6:41pm by Rear Admiral Leena Haistro & Commander Lillian Carter & Lieutenant Commander Liam Reynolds & Lieutenant Amia Telamon MD & Senior Chief Petty Officer Jonathan Stoun & Glin Slorir Varin & Lieutenant JG Osil Haistro

1,647 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 1: Palingenesis

ON

Leena circled the bridge listlessly, the other officer, mostly red collars, seemed to be busy with nothing to do, unlike she who was lacking anything to do other than observe. She could see Carter, sitting in the centre seat comfortably, as if she was meant for it. Osil and Reed sitting in tandum around the tactical station. The Doctor sitting with Liam, she seemed a centre of calm while Liam himself was coiled ready to pounce into action, he just didn't know what. Then you had Stoun. She had to admit, she liked him. Then there was Varin. He was a tough one to read. He was very much the patriot to his people though.

"Glin... We haven't had a chance to meet formally. Admiral Leena Haistro" she smiled

"Glin Slorir Varin," the Cardassian man introduced himself to the Admiral. "Thank you for inviting me to attend this mission," Even though he was honest in his statement, he himself realized there was a bit of an edge to his words, even more than he was accustomed to when it came to interacting with Starfleet.

"We are common allies now Glin but we still have a ways to go to build trust between our two peoples. Lets just say I'm doing my part to foster a stronger understanding between us and build a working relationship with you even if it may not necessarily become a friendship".

She smiled at him. She had been lucky and avoided the Dominion War, one of likely only a handful of people that could claim that. Yes her family had been affected when Betazed was invaded but none of her family had lost their lives and she had been lightyears away when it had happened.

"Indeed," he found himself answering, even though he wanted to say more in reply. It was unusual to say the least. He had so much that he wanted to say, to try to build trust and collaboration, yet his words were not finding him. Years upon years of training were fighting against him, he would have to work to overcome them.

"Where would you like me to serve?" He was finally able to ask, forcing out the words.

"Not to step on Commander Carters toes, this is her boat, but pick a station and do what you can!" Leena advised, the ship was short handed after all having to launch at such short notice.

The engineering console stared at Jon, and he stared back. The ship was running fine, everyone was busy. It was a nice change from the station where everything was on fire most of the time. He could just be, without having to wrench something. The engineer watched the admiral circling the bridge, no doubt fidgety, when she walked by his station, he stopped her.

"Admiral, I think I heard you were in to archaeology, anything interesting you could tell me? Not my area of expertise, but it sounds interesting. Not unlike looking at a pile of scrap and trying to piece together what it did or how it worked I would think."

"In a lot of ways it is very much that and we have to have a rudimentary understanding of language as well, not to dissimilar to understanding how a Computer communicates" she said back to him, a smile crossing her features. Although a salt of the earth type, there was certainly more to him.
"I have a few artifacts from the Kurlan civilisation that I'm still working on more as a hobby now. If you are interested you could join me in the science lab when things settle down again!"

"I'd love to, though I'll probably have the understanding that a three hundred pound gorilla would have on the subject, you'll have to talk in basics for me." he paused to look over his console to make sure everything was running well.

"I think the most experience I have with archaeology are those tourist traps that you see in second rate space stations. See the Fiji Mermaid, be amazed! Ancient Mysteries revealed for only two slips of latinum" He grinned at the Admiral. "I'm sure you can probably give me some more context though and not charge me two slips."

"I'm sure that can arranged" she offered once her own gentle bout of laughter at his statement had subsided.

"I'm okay," Liam told Amia sensing she was still worried. "I just wasn't expecting it to be that intense when we are so far away from each other. But it makes sense now. He was being tortured. He had to build up his mental ability quashing the physical pain. Oh by the goddesses, I haven't even let Mother know yet. I need to send her a message."

Amia laid her hand on Liam's shoulder reassuringly. "I'm sure your mother would understand a momentary delay whilst you're rushing to Jon's rescue" she told him gently. "Would you like me to send her a message and update her for you?"

"Have you ever spoken to my mother? Have I inflicted her on you before Amia?" he asked.

Tag Amia

In the Captain's chair, Lillian sat, keeping watch over the various bridge stations. Although outwardly she appeared to be an island of calm, inside she felt anything but. She had a headache, a strange taste in her mouth and her uniform just felt.... uncomfortable. Especially across her chest. She chalked it up to the mission as the loss of a starship is worrying at the best of times, now it turned out her captain could be missing and being tortured at this very moment.

Now and then, she caught sight of the Admiral, pacing around the bridge and sympathised with her. For some reason, she too was taking the loss of Keiben pretty hard, in fact, there had been a time this morning when she had broken down in tears in her quarters.

Still, while on duty, the Captain had to be a rock on which the crew drew its strength.

"Helm, what is our ETA?"

Osil had remained quiet until now, watching the people around him -especially his mother- closely. He glanced down at his console, then across to the empty helm station. The Betazoid frowned, wondering if the helm duty officer had taken a break without informing anyone. "ETA is one hour at present speed," he announced after a quick check.

"Permission to start scanning for life signs in the area surrounding where the Andromeda went down?" Liam said. He suspected he would need to do it empathically more than anything. He was sure anyone torturing Jon was smart enough to shield where they were. Or surely the rescue vessel when the Andromeda had crashed would have located him.

Lillian nodded. "By all means. Launch a class one probe as well. Report anything out of the ordinary."

Instead of taking a workstation as the Admiral had suggested, Glin Varin had chosen to instead stand off to the side of the starship's Bridge as they travelled on their mission. He couldn't help but muse, privately, about where he was. Not so long ago a Cardassian standing on the Bridge of a Federation vessel would have been unheard of. Considering his people had been trained to retain that what they saw to a near eidetic level, he wondered if the consoles would have been set to a privacy mode any time before now with him being there.

"Commander picking up some residual chroniton radiation and what looks like temporal displacements," Liam announced.

Surprisingly, it was their Cardassian visitor who spoke first, "Is there a danger to the ship of temporal incursion?"

"There shouldn't be if we travel carefully," Osil answered, eyes fixed on his workstation, "our shields should deflect most of the radiation and we should navigate around the displacements." Just where in blazes was that helmswoman!

Carter interjected "The rescue party who retrieved the Andromeda's crew did not report any temporal issues, mind you they would have been focusing on rescuing the crew, not scanning for anomalies. Just to be on the safe side, take us to yellow alert. Are there any signs of Captain Reynolds?"

"I believe I'm sensing him more the closer we head in that direction," Liam said aware that several would not have much faith in this. However, he didn't have to justify anything because suddenly there was a flash in his minds eye and a beautiful woman appeared. It was like he knew her but had no idea who it was. Then he suddenly had flashes of Romulans, ugly So'Na and his brother.

Osil froze, eyes wide in surprise. "Who is that?" He breathed, "She's.. gorgeous. Why am I seeing this?"

Leena was caught of guard and stumbled, catching the back of the Command chair as the images overloaded her senses for a moment.
"I'm sorry Commander" she said to Carter as she righted herself.

"Admiral, I believe ...." Liam said knowing from her face and Osils they had, had the same experience ..... "She's now giving us spatial coordinates."

It had to be the "other" goddess his mother and Jon had told him about.

Lillian glanced around the bridge and then turned back to Leena, somewhat skeptical. "Well, I suppose it's a place to start. Lieutenant Reynolds, enter the co-ordinates. Helm, lay in a course, full impulse. Red alert! All hands stand to battle stations. Let's be prepared for anything."

Glinn Varin watched as the crew rushed to their workstations, casually crossing his arms as they moved to and fro around him. He was certainly curious about what all was happening and Osil's comments regarding seeing a woman. He never had believed in the supernatural, believing firmly in what his own two eyes could show him, but he was certainly curious about all that was happening.

Looking toward the viewer he wondered how long it would take to arrive.

END

 

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