SB Assailant Episode 1.6 Robbing Peter to pay Paul

[Magellan Lin]

T’Val quickly introduced her to the Admiral who was busy at his desk with some work. When he saw her, he quickly stood up and extended a hand. “Welcome to Assailant!” he smiled.

“Thank you, Admiral,” she shook his hand. “This is quite a station you have here. I look forward to working here.”

"And me with you" Magellan replied diplomatically, he really should stop judging people by their jobs. Not all diplomats could be a pain in the proverbials...could they?"

“I trust that my scientists will be well cared for as well,” she added. “They’re rather particular about their work as all scientists are. If there is any trouble with them, then I would hope that the matter would be taken to me to deal with.”

"Of course, The scientific team will be under the direction of Dr Hyran Sharex, you might have heard of him, hes one of Tellars finest minds. Even so even he reports to me, so do not worry and problems and you ll be the first tohear. Although from what I hear of fabled Fabrini scientist I dont think problems will arise."

“Also, I do not know if you know this or not, but my government did not have time to fully brief me on the situation here as I was assigned fairly quickly,” she explained. “Might I ask for information to study up on tonight?”

"Of course. Healer T'Val perhaps you could excuse us, I m afraid its going to get rather boring."
T'Val nodded
"I must be leaving as it happens, I need to get D'beren home in time for a feed and nap."
With a curt nod to Jatira T'Val exited.

"Right now where to begin. The colony project was founded to help relocate the Tekarans. Their sun is going nova and they need a new home. Dr Sharex is using a new terraforming technique called Gaia, its based on the Genesis Principle. If that wasnt hard enough the Debrune have shown up, a long thought of dead ancestor of the Romulans, They too want to colonise the planet. I ve agreed to allow them habitation of their abandoned city but the rest is up for negotiation, in the long run of course we will allow it but in the short term, well thats different."
"I see" Jatira nodded
"A Tekaran Delegation is due to arrive here tomorrow to being negotiations with us and the Debrune concerning the changes in the project. Ambassador Saarok as our senior Federation Diplomat is co-ordinating that, I was hoping you could assist him? in addition to representing your scientists of course"
Magellan leaned back in his chair and rubbed his forhead.
"You ll soon discover that life here is somewhat unique, for a backwater station its certainly a hive of activity. We currently have a major pirating problem in the area so if you ever need to go off station please check in with Tomlinson - Chief of Base Security. He gets annoyed otherwise." he grinned.
"Right let me give you a quick tour, Assailants too big for the full thing."
Magellan led Jatira out of the office and in to the operations room.
A large room with a huge viewport overlooking the interior dock.
"This is Commander F'Rras Chief Traffic Controller officer and this here" he said pointing to a Bolian at Tactical "Is Commander Zoilip, my aide. If you need anything and cant find me - he'll either be able to help or point you to who can. F'Rras can you assign the Ambassador quarters. Come let us find Ambassador Saarok, he will hopefully be in the Federation Offices, this way please"
Magellan ushered Jatira out and towards a turbolift.

[Deleted]

It seemed to take a lot of effort for Richard to open his eyes, almost as if they had been glued shut. Gradually however, his eyelids dragged themselves open so he could see the interior of his darkened cabin. Wasn't much to look at really. Richard's eyes slipped closed again, but he knew that sleep was lost to him now. Sitting up slowly, he said "Computer, lights" and the dark room was suddenly awash with brightness. Squinting painfully, he yelled "Computer, lights one-half intensity!" and the illumination became bearable.

The first thing that caught his attention was a strange sight on top of his bureau. The bottle of Saurian Brandy that he had emptied was balanced upside down atop his similarly upside down drinking glass, and a second drinking glass was sitting atop the inverted bottle. Richard shook his head, amazed. He didn't remember doing it, and probably couldn't do that sober. He reached over carefully and removed the three glass items from atop the bureau and placed them into the replicator for recovery, then turned for the shower.

About a half hour later, Richard was again sitting in his chair on the bridge, examining the results of the level 2 diagnostic he had run. There was nothing serious on the list, just some minor repairs that could become problems if not taken care of. Malfunction in a tertiary data relay, secondary navigational deflector out of alignment, replicator malfunction in one of the passenger cabins. Nothing that a few hours of preventative maintenance wouldn't fix, Richard thought happily. He was very fond of the Wanderer. She was by far the finest ship he had ever owned. Richard grabbed a took kit from a locker and got to work.

Four hours later, he stepped back onto the bridge after getting cleaned up. The navigation deflector problem had proven a lot more difficult to correct than he had thought. Richard had fixed the original misalignment, but doing that had led to another problem, and he ended up having to realign all the navigation deflectors on the Wanderer. However, once the repair was done there was really only one way to test the new navigational deflector configuration. Richard opened a comm line and said "Wanderer to Assailant Operations."

"Wanderer, this is Starbase Operations, Commander F'Rras here" came the immediate reply.

"Commander, this is Richard Jibb. I just completed some upgrades on my navigational deflector array and need to check them out. I need Starbase exit clearance" Richard requested.

"Standby Wanderer." There was a brief pause while F'Rras checked whatever scheduling he had available. "Wanderer, I have an exit window in 25 minutes. I have a convoy of freighters inbound carrying Tekarans bound for Qualinost, with an escort of Federation starships. I can let you go when they're in."

"All right, Ops. I'll be ready when you give the word." Richard closed the channel and started running through his preflight checklists.

[Deleted]

"Of course. Healer T'Val perhaps you could excuse us, I m afraid its going to get rather boring."
T'Val nodded
"I must be leaving as it happens, I need to get D'beren home in time for a feed and nap."
With a curt nod to Jatira T'Val exited.

T'Val didn't like being shut out, and was quite annoyed when she saw Magellan usher the young woman away swiftly, without allowing her so much as a word in T'Val's direction. ~I shall seek her out later~ T'Val thought. On her shoulder, Sev echoed her annoyance. She startled, having completely forgotten the presence of the little bronze.

Then and there she decided she should seek out Richard Jibb, and ask him about the odd reactions he had been displaying. Without thinking where she went, she suddenly found herself standing before the doors that allowed access to the docking hatch to the Wanderer. She pressed the chime and waited patiently for the human to allow her in.

Elsewhere on the station, Tedak and Saarok had met for breakfast in Saarok's office, discussing several diplomatic items.

<ooc: sorry I keep getting lost with tedak...saarok hope you don't mind me placing him in discussion with you, in awaitance of Magellans and Jatira;s arrival?>

[Deleted]

Richard was taking his time running through the Wanderer's startup checklist. The shuttle could be in the air extremely quickly, so he still had time to kill before his launch window came up, and there was no point in irritating Commander F'Rras by leaving without permission.

He was about five minutes from his exit window when the comm systems went off. Richard looked at his main board with annoyance. It wasn't a comm, someone was standing at his hatch and pressing the call button. He accessed his Security systems and took a look at the exterior of the main hatch. It was T'Val. Richard closed his eyes and rubbed them with one of his hands. T'Val was not high on his list of people that he wanted to spend his time with. He considered just ignoring her and leaving when his launch window came up, but that level of rudeness was a bit beyond him, unfortunately. Besides, doing that would be lost on T'Val. Vulcans tended to not understand being insulted. He opened a channel, but refrained from opening the hatch. "This is Jibb, go ahead."

"Mr. Jibb, this is Healer T'Val. I would speak with you" she announced.

"Go ahead, T'Val" Richard said from his chair, smiling grimly.

"I would speak with you in person, Mr. Jibb." Richard thought that he could detect a trace of irritation in her voice.

"Gee T'Val, I would really like to talk to you too, but I have a launch window coming up in..." Richard checked his chronometer "three minutes. I'm not waiting for another one to open, so unless whatever it is you have to say takes less time than that, you'll have to come with me. What happens if D'Beren needs you?" Richard threw that last one in shamelessly, hoping to use T'Vals attraction to the child to put her off as long as possible. He closed his eyes and waited for the response as the time counted down.

[Deleted]

T'Val however, was determined to clear up the uneasy work-relationship with the other diplomat. "D'Beren is cared for," she said, not so much as blinking when she said that, "Tedak knows our son is at home with a nurse, and his brow firelizard checks in every several minutes. I will come with you then." She waited patiently for Jibb's answer.

She had not lied when she said the brown checked in often, for the little brown was an intelligent creature, and his litter mate, the bronze on her shoulder, had informed him of matters that played. Nut had checked in on them only moments before she had left her quarters, and she had told him to stay with the baby and the nurse, and call for Tedak should the nurse or the baby need anything. Nut had chirped and settled himself near the crib.

T'Val sighed, her patience getting stretched to its limit as she still gazed at the closed docking hatch. However, she wanted him to let her aboard, even though she could easily use her medical override. She had one, despite being a civillian healer, because if she were around when a Starfleet physician was not, she should be able to get to a patient in the other doctor's stead. Again, she sighed, but stood motionless, waiting. On her choulder, Sev warbled annoyance, his eyes whirling yellow-green.

[Deleted]

Back in Drew’s Office.

"I was looking into some communications that were made recently, when I came across something most disturbing.”

Tomlinson leaned forward with interest at what Drew had to say next, but Drew noticed KezTrek was paying more attention to Tomlinson. He had known KezTrek for years, and knew she didn’t often make mistakes, but sometimes she did, and Drew simply couldn’t believe that a fine Officer like Tomlinson would betray the uniform.

“Someone has been making repeated coded transmissions from Assailant, and then deleting the logs.”

Tomlinson gave Drew a confused look,

“If they have been deleting the logs, how do you know they have been making transmissions?”

“There are a number of discrepancies in the log’s, concurrent with the deletion of logs,” Drew explained, “however, I cannot find any trace.”

“Anything deleted would leave a trace,” Tomlinson argued, “It’s the standard Starfleet backup system to protect against operator mistakes.”

Drew looked over at KezTrek, who had not said anything; she was still watching Tomlinson carefully, almost as if she expected him to make some sort of confession. He was just relived that Tomlinson didn’t appear to notice, or if he did, he gave a good impression of not knowing.

“Nominally I would agree with you,” Drew answered, “but, we all know that there are ways to remove all evidence from the system.”

“But only a handful of people know that, and even less can actually do that,” Tomlinson counter argued.

“Indeed,” KezTrek finally said, “And it can only be done in select locations, including the Security Office.”

Tomlinson turned round as if noticing KezTrek’s mood for the first time, he gave the Admiral a cold stare.

“As well as Operations, and Magellan’s office.”

“Again, only a trusted senior member could get to those locations,” KezTrek answered, her voice remained neutral.

“Are you trying to suggest something Rear Admiral” Tomlinson asked in a harsh tone.

“She is suggesting nothing,” Drew said sternly, ending their argument, “We are not here to argue among ourselves.”

“Why are we here then?” Tomlinson asked, he was becoming annoyed now, and Drew knew he was on the verge on walking out.

“Because according to my research, the last transmission was sent just an hour ago, whoever is doing this, is on the Station as we speak, we have to find them before they give away more secrets.”

There was a silence around the room, as each person thought over those words, and each thinking of their own suspects.

[Deleted]

Jatira listened carefully to what Magellan said. From what she knew, relocations of large populations always caused problems. She remembered the stories from when her people relocated to their new planet for identical reasons. Fortunately for them, the Federation had been willing to help them out and to rebuild their civilization.

As Magellan continued, she realized that her people had it far easier since there weren’t any other worlds wanting to colonise the same planet. "I see" Jatira nodded.

She now understood why she sent here. Things were going to take some time to straighten out and Ambassador Saarok was going to need help to do it.

“Of course I’ll assist him,” she said. “That is my job after all. I’ll be glad to do it.”

Magellan said:

"You ll soon discover that life here is somewhat unique, for a backwater station its certainly a hive of activity. We currently have a major pirating problem in the area so if you ever need to go off station please check in with Tomlinson - Chief of Base Security. He gets annoyed otherwise." he grinned.

Unique? she thought. Sounds interesting.

At the mention of pirates, she became concerned. “Pirates? Well, don’t worry. I won’t be planning to go anywhere for a while yet and certainly not alone.” She wasn't pleased when she heard that, but then again she couldn't expect the Federation to be everywhere all of the time. But now that the problem was being given more attention, she was confident that it would be solved.

Magellan said:

"Right let me give you a quick tour, Assailants too big for the full thing."

She waited for him to come from behind his desk and followed him out the door into the operations room. She was curious about her new home and wanted to get to know it as well as the people living here. She marveled at how large the space was at the size of the viewport near the dock. Magellan began to point out a few people who were busy at work.

Magellan said:

"This is Commander F'Rras Chief Traffic Controller officer and this here" he said pointing to a Bolian at Tactical "Is Commander Zoilip, my aide. If you need anything and cant find me - he'll either be able to help or point you to who can. F'Rras can you assign the Ambassador quarters. Come let us find Ambassador Saarok, he will hopefully be in the Federation Offices, this way please"

She followed him out of the operations room directly to one of the turbolifts. After a short ride, they stepped out on one of the decks and made their way over the Ambassador’s office.

[Deleted]

Richard cursed quietly under his breath. T'Val still wanted to come aboard. Well, there was nothing for it now. He opened the hatch and watched T'Val and one of her flying lizards climb aboard. He closed the hatch behind her, and locked it down.

He could hear her footsteps approaching the bridge, and he was about to turn when the comm sounded. "Wanderer, this is Starbase Operations. You are cleared for takeoff. Your exit vector is 217.8. Confirm."

Richard opened the channel and said "Confirmed Ops, 217.8. Out." He turned to T'Val, who was standing at the back of the bridge. "Last chance to hop off." T'Val looked at him without expression, walked over to the secondary bridge chair and sat down. Her lizard settled itself into the corner of the main viewscreen and stared out, waiting to fly into space.

Sourly, Richard turned to the controls, coaxed the Wanderer out of it's docking bay and into the crowded Starbase hanger. Expertly, he navigated his way into the controlled chaos, through the bay doors and out into open space.

[Deleted]

The security officer pushed back away from the table his wheelchair rolling smoothly across the floor until it hit a miniature step. He promptly turned it around and wheeled through the door.

"Are you walking out on us Lieutenant?"

Tomlinson spun the chair back towards the desk. "That is not in the least bit funny Admiral. And I am going to follow up some leads I have. It's what the security people do when the admiralty is just blaming the first damn person they see." With that he rolled out through the door, and through the base to his security office.

Once he was inside, he locked the door, and accessed the communication logs. Indeed, as the Rear Admiral had said, there were indeed discrepancies that he hadn't noticed earlier. He then checked for trace's, and yet again found that in some things the admiralty could work, there were no traces of the communications left. The work of a professional, as would be expected when the Chief of Security was doing something.

He kicked himself for not sorting out the discrepancies, but knew that to remove them now would place too much suspicion on himself. Instead he worked through them backwards, looking for anything that could lead to himself. Of course, they had all been sent when he was on duty, but most of the staff were on duty at that time so it made little difference. He had also got the camera watching his office on a recurring loop each time, so that nothing could be seen.

He was damned stupid for leading them to himself, and couldn't believe he had done it, but that was in the past now. From now on, he would have to be very careful and work slowly to make sure nothing could be traced back to him or his office. Any further transmission would have to be completely invisible, without even the discrepancies he had been leaving so far.

Going through the usual motions, Tomlinson put a tape recorder on that would play white noise for the next five minutes, at the low level that inidicated normal levels, and hit the cameras on loop. His office was now sterile. He slowly inputted the relevant codes and locks to open the secure channel he needed.

[Deleted]

T'Val sat, motioning Sev off to stay away from the human, while he piloted his shuttle deflty out of the docking bay. She remained quiet until they reached open space. "Mr Jibb, we must talk," she said finally, watching him intently, "you seem to go very quiet and observant when either Magellan or myself are around. I sense anxiety coming from you at such times, as I sense anxiety right now. What have we done that made you act this strangely towards us?"

She held no direct memory of preying on the poor courier, when she had been infected with the vampire virus, but she knew his reactions were tied into that episode, or in the least she had a hunch. "Please, why do we not try to clear it up, it would do our working relationship much good, or that is my hope."

[Deleted]

Richard listened to what T'Val had to say while he flew the ship. He was looking for some place within the system to test out his new navigational deflector configuration. Activating his short range sensors, he set them to look for a class 2 or 3 comet that was close to his present position. While they searched, he had a moment to think about what T'Val had said.

So, she wanted to clear up their working relationship.
Richard wondered what she would think if she knew that the security system on this ship was set to transport her and her pet into the pattern buffer if he said a particular keyword. Probably wouldn't do their working relationship much good.

"T'Val, I'm not really interested in improving our working relationship" Richard stated with as much courtesy as he could muster, which in all honesty wasn't very much. "My work and yours are going to coincide very rarely.

Richard was distracted by his sensor console, which had located a class 2 comet near the Bertreka Nebula. Richard altered the course of the Wanderer so that she would pass through the tail of the comet, giving the deflectors a bit of a workout so that he could assess the effectiveness of their new configuration. They would rendezvous with the tail in about 10 minutes.

[Deleted]

"But you and admiral Magellan Lin will work more closely," she countered, "you have been acting very strangely around us, and I have also noticed that you do not socialize much either." She looked at him earnestly, motioning Sev to remain absolutely quiet. "You avoid him as much as possible, and your behaviour has been bordering on insubordination, if not plain rude towards the admiral. I have watched you when you speak with other diplomats, and around Saarok your behaviour is rather peculiar also. Why?"

[Deleted]

Richard winced inwardly. Vulcans and their insufferable logic could be quite maddening at times. He hadn't realized he was being that obvious with his dislike of the three of them though. His anger burst forth. "Why? Because that is my right, that's why. I don't trust you, Admiral Magellan or especially Saarok, and I don't have any intention of doing so in the near future. I don't know whether I can trust you and have no way of knowing or understanding your motives. From what I have seen of your past behaviour, the three of you are capable of pretty much anything. I may have no choice but to work for Saarok or Magellan at the moment, but it is my option to be cautious about what position they put me into, and question as to why they're doing it. If they or you aren't happy with that, then they can transfer me or I can resign my position."

Richard set the autopilot, abruptly stood up, walked over to the replicator and ordered up a cup of coffee, carefully keeping an eye on T'Val and her little monster as he moved in case they tried anything. He also studiously ignored the fact that his hands were shaking with agitation and his little walk was designed to hide the fact from T'Val. Richard took a sip, which eased his nerves and waited while T'Val digested what he had just shouted at her.

[Deleted]

T'Val let the anger come over her, and ignored it. She knew he had every right to be mad at them, she only wanted to sort it out. The healer in her noticed his shaking hands, but she also saw that he was trying to hide it so she let it pass. She remained seated, hands folded in her lap, in clear view. ~he feels threatened by me~ she thought, and wondered why. Carefully and gracefully she rose from her seat and walked over to the replicator to get a coffee herself. She kept her eyes on Jibb, but made no move to approach him. Instead, she got her coffee and returned to her seat.

"Are you sure that it has nothing to do with us having been infected with the vampire virus?" she asked innocently, studying his reactions, "having used you when we were not ourselves?" ~stay~ she told Sev, who was fanning his wings in anger, his anger, not hers. ~do nothing to antagonize him, or I will send you home~ The bronze instantly settled down.

[Deleted]

Richard watched T'Val warily as she crossed over to the replicator, hand hovering near the small phaser he had constantly concealed in his clothes. It was getting harder keeping track of both of them, and it was obvious her lizard was becoming agitated. Richard was ready to beam both of them into the pattern buffer before they could blink.

"Are you sure that it has nothing to do with us having been infected with the vampire virus, having used you when we were not ourselves?" T'Val asked.

Richard looked at her coldly. She was missing the point. "How do I know you were not yourselves?" he demanded. "Perhaps that's the way you really are. I've seen nothing that would lead me to believe otherwise. In fact, according to my investigations, I'm not certain Saarok was even infected, yet was willing to sacrifice me and possibly many other members of the Federation for little reason. How can I trust any of you? As it stands, the best I can do is be cautious, keep my eyes open and stand ready."

There was a beeping from the console. Richard walked over to to take a look. The Wanderer was approaching the comet tail. He sat down in the captain's chair to monitor the approach, while keeping an eye on T'Val using her reflection on the main view screen.

[Magellan Lin]

Magellan took Jatira down to the Ambassadorial level, here were located all of the embassies and diplomatic rooms.
"Here is the Dominions Embassy" Magellan pointed,
"I find it odd that they are allowed an Embassy here."
"Well so did I when I arrived. But so far things are quiet with them, if you forget their attempted invasion of Klingon Space 2 years ago. They had a sceintific interest in the Nebula and so Command granted them the right to have a small diplomatic station here, just a Vorta, a handful of Jem'Hadar and some of their scientists. They keep to themselves mostly. I tend to let Saarok deal with Shian their Vorta, hes as supercillious as the rest of his race."
"What of the other races?"
"Well we have a Klingon Embassy, Tholian, A Cardassian run by some disgraced Legate, Krell I think hes called. Theres obviously the Ferengi Embassy and the Romulan, they are both major financial partners in the colony project."
"Sort of a new NimbusIII then"
"Better, much better I hope and with out all teh mind control" Magellan chuckled
"I take it the Federation has quite a presence here?" Jatira asked as she began to realise just how big the office space was that they were now entering. Each door was marked by the UFP symbol.
"Oh yes. Saarok heads the team but their are representatives from Vulcan obviously, Betazed, Bajor, Rigel, Tellar and now New Fabrini. Its lucky you are only a small delegation. I m afraid we have had to put you up with the Bajoran delegation."
"Thats fine" Jatira nodded
"So whats New Fabrini like now." Magellan started, Now - what was he on about he had never been to New Fabrini and neither had his first host Toya.

<Jatira>

"Ah heres Saarok now" Magellan pointed.
A slim Vulcan man dressed in a simple tan gown approached them, he was flanked by a pair of Security guards and accompanied by Tedak.
"Admiral" Saarok greeted formally
"This is Delegate Jatira, the New..."
"The New Fabrini Ambassador" Saarok finished curtly "I spoke yesterday with the President about her appointment"
"Of course you did. " Magellan said through gritted teeth and a forced smile. "This is Ambassador Tedak, Romulan Ambassador." He gestured towards the Romulan "Mr Saarok perhaps I can leave Jatira in your capable hands. I have a freighter Captain to debrief and want to get some food before the Tekarans come aboard."
"Of course" Saarok nodded, the slightest tug of a smile to his lips, "You must of course eat. I will show Jatira her new offices and then meet you at Conference Room 4?"
"Yes Zoilip has set up 4 for the initial meeting. Till later then" Magellan nodded and headed off.

[Deleted]

T'Val could actually understand his anger, for he was very much correct and she nodded. "Yes, Saarok did use you, but he used us also. I am very sorry that he used you as bait, but I do not think we ever harmed you. I mean Admiral Lin and myself."

~go aft and stay there~ she silently told the bronze firelizard, who once more was fanning his wings ~you will not antagonize Mr Jibb~ The little bronze zipped out instantly, without so much as a chirp in protest.

Then she got up and slowly, and very carefully approached Richard Jibb, then kneeled before him. "Give me your hand," she said softly, "and I shall show you that you have nothing to fear from me." Without awaiting his response, she took his hand and placed it on the katra points on her face. ~your mind to my mind~ she thought, closing her eyes, then waited for him so see.

[Deleted]

Richard became alarmed as T'Val approached him. He had absolutely no intention of allowing even the possiblity of a repeat of past events that had occurred between him, T'Val and Magellan. Without a second thought, Richard spoke his code phrase "Ferengi Federation". The phrase activated the Wanderer's heavily automated security systems, which in turn beamed everyone living thing aboard the ship except Richard Jibb into the transporter pattern buffer. T'Val disappeared from in front of him, and Richard knew without checking that her lizard was in there as well.

Richard walked over to the captain's chair and checked the pattern buffer. Both T'Val and her lizard were safely tucked away. Richard deactivated the autopilot and started the Wanderer back towards Assailant at top speed.

[Deleted]

ooc: with jibbs permission: quarters instead of buffer..

ic:

Surprised, T'Val suddenly found herself in small quarters. Looking around she saw it was sparsely furnished, but enough to provided enough 'human' comfort. A second later, Sev was transported in also, and the little bronze chittered angrily and looked as if he were to zip out and give Jibb a piece of his mind about first being transported into a buffer pattern, and then finally into quarters.

"Stay," T'Val told the bronze firmly, grabbing his tail before he could go, "he is antagonized, we do not wish him set against us more than he already is. I only hope he saw into my mind before he transported me. It was a very dangerous and stupid thing for him to do, for it could easily have gone wrong, but we are all right. At least he is humane enough to transport us to quarters in the end, and not leave us as a transporter pattern in the buffers." She shuddered at the idea and transporting already was not her most favourite means of transportation.

She walked around the small room, and literally jumped when she passed a man-sized mirror. Ever since she was infected with the vampire virus, she could not look into her own reflection in a mirror. Thus, she avoided them as much as possible.

She walked towards the doors, but found them closed to her, there was no way, not even her medical override, to open them. Finally, she sighed and resigned herself to the situation, then chose to lie down on the bed and take a little nap. "Stay," she told the bronze again, "I will be very angry if you disobey me." The bronze chirped and curled up beside her. She would wait until Jibb would come to her, instead.

[Deleted]

After Magellan left, Saarok turned to the newcomer.

“Allow me to properly introduce my self, Ambassador Saarok of Vulcan, and this here is ambassador Tedak ir-Saj'sihaer tr'H'Rhinann. “

<Tedak>

<Jatira>

“I have heard good things about you Miss Jatira”, Saarok said

“But now to keep the talk to the minimum as we have a Tekaran council arriving shortly”, he said

“Let me show you to your office, and then perhaps you would like to join me and ambassador Tedak in greeting the council?”, he said as they started moving towards her office

<Jatira>

After a shorter walk they arrived to her office.

“This here is my office, he said pointing to a door as they passed by it, and yours is right down here, he said pointing to a door where an ensign holding a pad was standing.

“Ms. Jatira Laika”, he asked

<Jatira>

“I have your access codes, and also you can tell me if there is anything you might need, from assistants to security guards anything at all feel free to contact me about it and ill see that it gets done.”, the Ensign finished

<Jatira>

“Now is it me being around humans for far too long or is this man acting strange”, Saarok whispered to Tedak

<Tedak>

Meanwhile Jatira finished her convo with the ensign and he proceeded further down the corridor while Jatira entered her codes and opened the door to her new office. Inside there were some members of the Bajoran delegation working at computer terminals.

“I have prepared the pads containing the latest diplomatic events and placed them in your office, when I was informed that you would be coming, also should you require anything else, ask me and I will see if I am able to assist.”, Saarok said

<Jatira, Tedak>

[KezTrek]

There was a silence around the room, as each person thought over those words, and each thinking of their own suspects.

KezTrek considered Tomlinson, there was certainly something she didn't 'like' about him... oh if her mother could hear her thoughts now...

But for Drew's sake if nothing else, she willed herself to conceder other suspects, after all, Drew trusted Tomlinson, that counted for something... KezTrek was sure Drew couldn't be involved here.

She'd made the mistake of not trusting him in the past, and it was always wrong, the first time... she remembered it so clearly... was terrifying, standing up in front of the man she'd known, and... yes... in someways even loved for years, a dear friend, and loyal officer... and ordering him put in the brig... she'd felt dizzy for an hour afterwards, and sick with concern when he'd later been kidnapped... the second time... didn't bear consideration... no she wouldn't be that stupid again, Drew was no part of this... he couldn't be...

"We need a list of suspects gentlemen, lets start with our Mayor... obviously he has something to hide." KezTrek said, flipping a small black box from her ever present hip holster, and opening it to reveal a padd, that was at all times connected to SFI by subspace.

Drew gave her a questioning look having never seen such a device.

"SFI... new tech, I get to play, always fun." KezTrek told him, with what she hoped was a smirk. Her mind wouldn't stop her traitorous thoughts about Drew, but she couldn't follow them, and couldn't let him see them.

"Suspects gentlemen, suspects." KezTrek repeated trying to get their minds back to the job at hand, and away from any other thoughts she may or may not be having.

RA KezTrek

[Deleted]

Saarok said:

After Magellan left, Saarok turned to the newcomer.

“Allow me to properly introduce my self, Ambassador Saarok of Vulcan, and this here is ambassador Tedak ir-Saj'sihaer tr'H'Rhinann. “

Tedak made a little formal bow. "Of the Romulan Empire," he added, giving Saarok a little nudge between the ribs, "you do keep forgetting that part my dear Vulcan friend." He grinned at Jatire, then deepened his bow playfully. "At your service ma'am."

<Jatira>

<snip>

“Now is it me being around humans for far too long or is this man acting strange”, Saarok whispered to Tedak

"Seems to me the ensign is trying to please the lady," Tedak grinned, allowing his brown firelizard to land on his shoulder. The brown rubbed his head against Tedak's cheek affectionately and Tedak stroked the creatures eyeridge return, causing the little brown to croon in delight. "But yes, it may be that you have been around humans too long too my friend," Tedak continued, "but really, is it so bad that she gets enamoured by a couple of men? I am sure she is woman enough to fend for herself on this matter. If Ms Laika does not desire the ensign's attention, I am sure she will fend him off politely."

Meanwhile Jatira finished her convo with the ensign and he proceeded further down the corridor while Jatira entered her codes and opened the door to her new office. Inside there were some members of the Bajoran delegation working at computer terminals.

“I have prepared the pads containing the latest diplomatic events and placed them in your office, when I was informed that you would be coming, also should you require anything else, ask me and I will see if I am able to assist.”, Saarok said

"Or me, or my wife," Tedak added, still grinning.

<Jatira>

[Deleted]

Richard sat in his chair on the bridge of the Wanderer. After a few minutes, he couldn't stand it any longer and transported T'Val and her fire lizard into a berth on the passenger level. While he didn't really want T'Val anywhere near him, she certainly didn't deserve to be locked up in the transporter buffer. The transporter cycle completed and he scanned the two of them. She and her lizard seemed to be fine. T'Val was circling the room. Richard waited for the two of them to come back up to the bridge.

After several minutes, a puzzled Richard checked his internal scans again. T'Val was lying on the bed in her cabin. He had been expecting her to come up as soon as she transported back, but she seemed to be taking a little break. He checked the room status and discovered that the door was locked, which surprised him even more. He didn't normally lock the cabins. T'Val must have done it.

Richard checked the logs and discovered that the command to lock the door had originated from his own control console just when he had beamed the two of them in there. However, he had absolutely no memory of doing it. But the truth listed on his screen, staring him in the face.

Richard started to become worried about his mental state. It was one thing to protect himself from an unwanted mind meld, but it was another entirely to be committing actions of which he had no memory.

Richard released T'Val's door and opened it remotely, so that she would know it was unlocked, then started running a list of commands that he had done from his console to see what else he had been up to without realizing it.

[Deleted]

T'Val noticed the door opening and sat up on the bed, carefully not to rouse Sev, who was sleeping. She waited for the door to open further, and hopefully admit the courier to her little quarters. When nothing happened, she got up from the bed and walked to the door, opening it further, then sticking her head out to look left and right into the corridor.

"Hello?" she called.

When nobody answered, she stepped out and found her way back to the command centre. "That was quite an experience," she said softly, then noticed the man started. "My apollogies, I did not intend to startle you." She looked out the viewscreen. "Why are we flying into a group of vessels that obviously have no Federation markings?"

[Deleted]

Richard looked away from T'Val and at the main screen. There was a small group of vessels in close proximity to one another directly in the Wanderer's path, shimmering faintly. They seemed to solidfy and start moving away from one another, then alarms started to go off and the shields snapped on automatically. Richard quickly executed a sharp starboard turn, but the unknown vessels kept moving and stayed with him.

Richard initiated a scan of the ships. There were 7 vessels of varying descriptions and crew makeup. They all seemed to be armed with an assortment of weapons. The largest was about the size of a small destroyer, with about 50 life forms aboard. The rest were shuttles, mostly smaller than the Wanderer. The destroyer had a very high power usage curve, which led Richard to believe that there was a cloaking device aboard, which would explain why all of the smaller ships had been closer to the bigger one, taking advantage of the protection provided by the cloaking screens.

Suddenly, several phaser beams flashed through the space in front of the Wanderer and the ship-to-ship comm crackled to life. "Attention Federation vessel. This is the Dread Pirate Roberts." (OOC For all you Princess Bride fans out there) "Drop your shields and prepare to be boarded, or we'll take your ship by force!"

Richard attempted to open a channel to Starbase Assailant, but found that all frequencies were being jammed. There weren't many options available, so Richard looked over at the Healer and asked "T'Val, how are you at handling a weapons console?"