* * *
To say the least, Telsia was quite impressed with Jack’s stealth skills. Working with the Maquis for over a year, Telsia had seen many different means of infiltration without detection. Some of the moves Jack used she had never seen or even considered before, and she found that they might come in useful for Hazard Team operations.
Breaking this boy Swifty out of the Refuge had taken quite a short amount of time. But right before Jack helped Swifty escape, he made Swifty promise to never steal or pickpocket again. Desperate, Swifty promised to and they made it out.
However, on the way back, Swifty ran ahead to be home again, while Jack and Telsia stayed behind and talked. Telsia couldn’t remember the last time she had opened up so much to one man. Now that she thought of it, the last man she really opened up to was Kenn Lathrop.
Kenn had been Rick’s best friend. From what Kenn had told Telsia, he and Rick had clicked from the beginning and were almost like brothers. Telsia sighed as she opened up to Jack about losing Kenn. Kenn died only a day before Rick had.
Kenn’s death had been so completely meaningless. Alex had just rescued Telsia from scavengers, then both completed the stealth mission at the scavenger base in finding several samples of isodesium for Voyager to use. Because the base had a dampening field to block the team from transporting out, they had to use pattern enhancers to beam back to Voyager.
Once the enhancers were activated, several Borg drones beamed in, stole the isodesium and attempted to assimilate Lt. Foster. Kenn, being the closest team member to Foster, was the first to react. But he was too close to one drone and it used its iron arm to shove him back.
The drone’s blow had been under Kenn’s chin, and Telsia had heard a snap before he landed motionless. Then the drone proceeded to fire at Kenn’s body with a green beam to ensure he was no longer a threat. While Telsia and Alex fired at the drones while attempting to protect a seriously injured Tom Odell and avoid shooting Foster, the Borg beamed away with Foster and the isodesium in their clutches.
When the team was beamed back, The Doctor pronounced Kenn dead of a broken spinal cord. Having been the one there, Telsia had to tell the rest of the Hazard Team what happened. As expected, Rick took it the hardest. He was so charged with anger and hate that he was ready to beam over to that Borg cube by himself and blow away as many of those drones as he could.
But, on the contrary, Rick wasn’t the person to take it the hardest. It was little Naomi Wildman. Naomi was the first and currently only baby ever born on Voyager. She had considered Kenn to be her uncle, giving him the nickname of “Unk.”
When Naomi was two, Neelix was chasing her down the corridors in a game of tag. Telsia, Kenn and Rick were walking down that corridor when Naomi appeared. She saw Kenn, latched onto his leg and refused to let go. Kenn was rather stunned by the little girl’s attachment, especially when Neelix appeared and couldn’t persuade her to let go of Kenn.
Later that evening, Samantha Wildman brought Naomi to the mess hall to see Neelix. But, to Samantha’s surprise, Naomi zipped straight over to Kenn, officially dubbing him her Unk. Rick thought it was hysterical, but Kenn found himself liking the attention from the little girl. He often spent time with her when he was off-duty and almost became the father she had never known.
As she had to do with the Hazard Team, Telsia had to tell Samantha and Naomi about Kenn. Naomi, now five years old, did not fully understand the concept of death and wondered why she could never see her Unk again. When Telsia finally said that Kenn was in heaven where he could not come back, Naomi finally understood and Samantha and Neelix had to comfort her on their own.
“That’s real sad.” Jack responded. “Man, if I knew that liddle girl, I’d’ve stepped in ‘n’ tried t’ be another uncle t’ her.”
“She’s doing better now. Even if she did ‘adopt’ another uncle, he still wouldn’t hold the place in her life the way that Kenn did.”
“I undastand. I guess that’s what happens with everyone. When they lose someone that special, no one cin take their place.”
“That’s right. We both understand that, don’t we?”
He shrugged. “I guess so.”
Telsia never thought such a small truth could hurt so much. She hadn’t meant it the way it seemed. It seemed, at least, that no one could ever take the place that Rick had had in her heart. Then again, she had thought that not too long ago. Only now she was beginning to wonder if that part could open to another.
“So, how do ya get involved in this secret service ‘f yours?” Jack finally asked after a long pause.
“Why do you ask?”
“Cuz…maybe I’d like to get involved.”
Telsia’s heart sank. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid that’s impossible.”
“Why? We come from th’ same backgrounds.”
“That’s not the point, Jack. For one thing, you need to have special experience and be of the right age.”
“How old do ya gotta be?”
“About as old as I am.”
“An…if ya don’t mind me askin’, how old are ya?”
She stiffened. “Well, I was born on a leap year, February 29th. So technically, I’m six years old. But in reality: twenty-six.”
His jaw dropped. “No way.”
“Yes.”
“I think I gotta sit down.”
He sank to the ground, finding it difficult to breathe. He had suspected that Telsia was older than him, but…twenty-six years old? That was an eight year age difference. Any hope he had to ask her to be his girl vanished immediately.
“Are you okay? Because if you need any doctoring, Juliet’s trained in a medical background.”
“I…I’ll be fine.” He rasped.
Telsia sat down beside him. “Are you sure?”
He nodded. “Positive.” He responded with his voice cracking to a high pitch.
“Then here, let me help you.” She rose and helped him with her.
For a brief second, their eyes met. Telsia searched Jack’s eyes and saw so much and yet so little of Rick inside of him. Jack had an ego, but wasn’t an egotist. He was passionate, but could remain cool-headed and was open to showing mercy. Above all, Jack had a tenderness that was evident for most people to see. Rick had preferred to hide that side of him so to be dominating.
“What is it?” Jack wondered.
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “But it’s incredible.”
“What?”
“You and Rick. You two have so much in common, and yet you’re so different in the same aspect.”
“Is that a good thing?”
“I don’t know.”
“Ya think ya’ll stick ‘round long ‘nough to find out?”
“I wish I could.”
She then realized that she had never released his hands from when she had helped him up. Her hands were enclosed tightly around Jack’s, and she didn’t want to let go. She squeezed them a bit tighter when she had tried to release him.
“What’s that all ‘bout?”
“I…don’t know.” She whispered in response.
Abruptly, she broke her hands away and clasped them behind her back. Then glancing at the ground, she cast her sight up again and found that Jack was watching her. She blushed and tucked away a stray strand of hair from her eyes.
“Shouldn’t we be heading back?”
He shrugged. “Yeah. Kloppman’ll be pretty ticked off.”
Surprisingly, when they arrived at the house, most of the newsboys were awake. Kloppman wasn’t downstairs, meaning he must be up in the boys’ room. Jack and Telsia went up to investigate, and found Swifty and Mitch trying to explain something to Kloppman. Jack interfered.
“Hey, hey, what’s this?” he demanded.
“He was in my bunk!” Swifty defended, pointing at Mitch. “Who is ‘e, anyway?”
“One ‘f th’ guys who came with Telsia!”
“Mitch, what’s going on?” Telsia asked.
Mitch raised his hands. “I didn’t do anything! All I was doing was sleeping, then all of the sudden, that kid jumps on me and I didn’t know what it was!”
“Ya screamed like a girl!” Swifty shot at him.
“Well, excuse me, but you should look before you leap!”
“Mitch, shut up. You don’t always look before you leap.” Telsia pointed out.
Mitch was ready to respond, but found he couldn’t.
“There now, that’s enough from you boys.” Kloppman stated. “Now, Swifty, it won’t kill you to sleep on the floor tonight and let Mitch have your bunk now, will it?”
“I ain’t had my bunk for two days!”
“And you can survive one more night without it. This is Mitch’s first night.”
“Fine! He cin have it!”
Now that the matter was resolved, Telsia went upstairs to the girls’ room. Some of the girls were awake and wondering of what the yelling downstairs was about, and Telsia told them and went to her bunk. Then she heard Juliet whispering her name.
“Telsia, come here!” she murmured.
Telsia frowned at Juliet's tone. She knew Juliet well enough that when she used such an urgent tone, something was wrong. Telsia tiptoed to Juliet's bunk and lowered her voice.
"What is it?"
"We need to talk. Alone."
"Is the fire escape okay?"
"That's as good a place as any. Let's go."
Juliet yanked her covers off and followed Telsia to the window. They opened it, slid through and closed the window behind them.
"Now then, what's wrong?" Telsia questioned.
Juliet grimaced as she rubbed her temples. "I...was contact by Keptik."
She sucked in a quick gasp. "Did he tell you anything?"
"He was very brief, but he gave me warnings. He said that he would be leaving earth in three days, and that he didn't want us to follow him. As long as we left him alone, he would not interfere with the timeline."
"And what if we do try to go after him?"
"He wasn't specific, except for one thing."
"What?"
"He threatened Austin."
"Austin?"
"Austin has green blood from his Rigellian side. If Keptik harmed him, he would completely blow our covers and who knows how that would affect the timeline."
Telsia didn't know what to think. She sank heavily onto the stairway and ran a quivering hand through her hair. She knew this mission would be difficult, but now it had taken a personal turn. Austin was her friend, and Telsia was aware of the feelings Juliet had for him that she wouldn't acknowledge.
If only Austin wasn't by himself. Who knew where Keptik was hiding? If he was anywhere near Austin, he could attack him without anyone finding out till at least the morning. Telsia fumbled in her pocket for her combadge.
"We'd better contact Voyager." she said. "They should have contacted us by now."
She tapped her badge, but a flat sound was heard instead of the chime when contact was made. Confused, she tapped it again. No response.
"Telsia to Voyager." she voiced.
No reply.
Juliet took a tricorder hidden in her undergarments. She scanned the combadge and took readings to find the source of the malfunctioning, and it only added to her anxiety.
"What?" Telsia asked.
"I'm detecting readings of some kind of dampening field." She tapped the tricorder for more readings. "It's Odarian."
"You mean…Keptik's blocked our communication transmissions?"
"It appears so."
“Can we bypass it?”
“Not unless we go directly to the source. That must be Keptik’s ship.”
“Do you think you can track down the source with the tricorder?”
She tapped the tricorder again. “I don’t know, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly.”
Telsia sighed heavily and covered her face in her hands. “I shouldn’t have taken this mission. I should’ve told Tuvok to pick someone else to lead.”
Juliet closed the tricorder and hid it again. “Telsia, this isn’t a Kobayashi Maru situation. You’re doing a fine job right now, you just need more faith.”
“I’m not doing good at all.”
“Listen, the only problem we’ve run into is with Keptik threatening Austin. Tomorrow morning we’ll tell him to join us so he can be safe.”
“That’s not the point.” She looked up. “I told Jack about the situation.”
Juliet’s eyes widened. “What?”
“He was asking too many questions, so I gave him enough information to satisfy him. He knows we’re hunting Keptik, but he knows nothing about us being from the future.”
“Well…I guess that’s all right then. Listen, we’d better get to bed. You’re positively exhausted.”
“You don’t look so good either.”
She grimaced. “My head’s been hurting ever since we came to the lodging house. I think it’s because these newsies are so open-minded. I can read them so easily, and it’s overwhelming.”
“Are you going to be okay?”
“I’ll be fine. I can suppress the voices, but that’s the cause of my headaches.”
“Will it overwhelm you completely?”
“Probably not, but I’ll be in constant pain.”
“Then we’d better find Keptik’s ship and destroy it. If we do, we can contact Voyager and make sure Austin’s safe. Let’s just get it over and done with as soon as possible. I’ll tell Mike and Mitch tomorrow.”
“All right. Let’s go inside.”
They went back into the room, and one of the girls sat up and stared at them sleepily. It was Crescendo, and Juliet sensed her suspicion.
“What are you guys doing?” Crescendo voiced hoarsely.
“Just talking about private matters.” Juliet replied. “You can go back to sleep.”
Skeptically, Crescendo lay back down. Then Juliet went back to her bunk and lay down as well. Once she sensed that Telsia and Crescendo were both sleeping, she was ready to fall asleep. And before long, she was almost completely asleep.
But seconds before she drifted to sleep completely, her migraine disappeared abruptly.
* * *
