Commander Yilaan was sitting on the floor next to a recuperating Lieutenant Ivanovna in Yilaan's quarters on board the Klingon vessel she'd called home since the they had rescued her and many of her shipmates. Ivanovna was lying on Yilaan's sleeping bench; despite the beginnings of recovery, Lieutenant Ivanovna was still weak and it was easier for her to lie down much of the time.
"Doctor Giovanni gave her life for mine," Ivanovna told Yilaan when the latter brought up the friends they had lost. "She is a hero in every sense of the word and her name will carry that honor with it so long as I am able to speak."
"What exactly happened to her? Do you know?" Yilaan inquired, her curiosity piqued by Ivanovna's steadfast praise of the Doctor.
"Despite Commander Gerard's order to evacuate, she sent all of her medical staff out with the wounded, vowing to remain behind until there was no one left in her Sickbay to transport to safety. I heard her arguing with several people on this very point; people who were trying to get her to leave and abandon those who were in too bad a shape to move easily. I was one of those people, as you may recall, and she managed to find a way to keep me alive and get me to a lifeboat," Ivanovna told Yilaan, her voice cracking with emotion towards the end. "If she got off the station at all, it was aboard one of those lifeboats we saw destroyed by the station's explosion."
"There is no greater sacrifice than one person giving their life for someone else," Ivanovna continued after a pause, as tears began to stream down the cheeks of the six foot six inch Security Chief. "She gave her life for many people."
Wordlessly Yilaan patted Ivanovna on the shoulder, stood, and walked over to the room's only window, ostensibly to stretch her legs. In reality, she was having a hard time keeping her mind focused; there was so much despair around her that she was having difficulty keeping the empathic part of her mind closed to it. Her own despair didn't help matters either.
Unfortunately, her life didn't immediately get any easier. The door opened at that point and the Klingon attendant walked in with one hand gruffly on the shoulder of a seven year old Human girl. The girl's hair was a mess, and parts of it were matted to her face by a steady stream of tears. She looked as though she hadn't slept in a very long time. With a start, Yilaan realized this girl was Lieutenant Hathaway's daughter, Melanie.
"This child is looking for her father," the Klingon attendant reported.
"Come here honey," Yilaan said, forcing an even, smooth voice for the child's benefit. She extended her arms and caught Melanie in a firm embrace.
"Where is my father?" Melanie demanded, trying to push her disheveled hair out of her face. She was very perceptive, especially for a young child, and the look on Yilaan's face made hers go pale.
"Melanie, I wish I didn't have to tell you this, but it seems that your father didn't make it off the Starbase," Yilaan told her quietly.
"No! That's not true! He's here somewhere! You're wrong!" Melanie screamed. "My daddy said he would never leave me like my mommy did."
Yilaan winced as she recalled that from the service records that Lieutenant Hathaway's wife, Melanie's mother, had died in a shuttle accident just before Lieutenant Hathaway had transferred to the Bristol. She embraced the child again as the full weight of the moment fell heavily on Melanie's tiny shoulders. "He's here somewhere," she sobbed, repeating it over and over again as she buried her face into Yilaan's shoulder.
"Your father died in battle, young lady," the Klingon attendant told her, almost proudly. "He has earned a place amongst the honored dead. Remember him well."
Yilaan shot the Klingon an icy stare, causing him to flinch slightly. He nodded gruffly and mumbled something under his breath about being outside if needed before quickly exiting the room. The Klingon passed two Starfleet personnel entering the room as he hastily departed; Yilaan's face went pale when she saw who they were.
"Why my sweet girl, what's wrong?" a familiar voice asked.
Melanie dislodged herself from Commander Yilaan and her tears of pain turned instead to tears of joy. "Daddy!" she screamed, running across the room and leaping into his arms, nearly knocking her father onto the deck as she did so. "I knew you were here somewhere! I knew you were!" She turned for a split-second to stick her tongue out at Yilaan before burying her head into Lieutenant Hathaway's shoulder and hugging him tightly.
"Uh, Lieutenant O'Shea also reporting in, Commander," the other man said with a grin, recovering from the unexpected nature of their greeting.
Yilaan grinned at the two men broadly. "You're late," she teased good-naturedly.
"It's nice to see you too, Commander," O'Shea replied. "At any rate, that's somewhat of a tale in and of itself. We've been stuck on board a Ferengi vessel this whole time. The little cretins wanted bars of gold-pressed latinum for rescuing us," he began to explain as he took a seat near Yilaan and Ivanovna. Lieutenant Hathaway and his daughter also joined them while O'Shea continued. "They then wanted more latinum for the 'privilege' of using their communications to talk you, and more still for transporting us to these Klingon ships."
"You struck a deal of some sort, I assume? Or did you just happen to be carrying armloads of latinum with you when they picked you up?" Yilaan inquired.
"Neither, actually," Hathaway replied, diverting his attention away from his daughter to the conversation. "It seems that our Lieutenant O'Shea is quite a gambler in his own right. And he's a sneak. He offered a Federation shuttlecraft for an advance of latinum, then proceeded to lull them in by carefully losing more than he won during the first few rounds of some game they started to play. Of course, once he had them snared he went to work; soon half the crew was growling with anger as O'Shea became buried under piles of latinum that used to be theirs. We settled by agreeing to use the latinum to pay for being rescued, and to purchase the other services O'Shea mentioned."
"Most of the latinum, anyway," O'Shea said slyly with a meaningful look at a travel bag he had brought in with him.
"Lieutenant!" Yilaan said with mock admonishment, then she laughed. "Sounds like you gave those Ferengi their just desserts."
"What of Doctor Giovanni?" Ivanovna asked from where she lay on Yilaan's bunk. "Did you happen to hear anything about her?"
"No," O'Shea replied, frowning. "Didn't she make it back?"
"She may yet be on one of the other merchant vessels, as you were. There are few other members of our crew also still missing," Yilaan replied by way of an answer. "I'll have our Klingon friends make a few inquiries, but I fear they may be lost." She strode to the door and said a few words to the attendant outside, who then departed. Yilaan came back into the room and sat down by her friends again. "That reminds me, how did you end up aboard a Ferengi vessel in the first place?"
"Convenience, basically," Hathaway replied. "We were near one of the air locks when the command was given to evacuate the station. The Ferengis offered for us to come aboard; we should've realized it would be at a 'fair price,' but neither of us thought of that at the time. Besides, that cleared space for two more in the lifeboats; that Ferengi ship was leaving right then, with or without us. It wouldn't have stayed to see if it could take anyone else."
"Makes sense to me," Yilaan agreed. "I'm sure our Captain will have some very choice comments to pass along to Starfleet about how 'helpful' the Ferengi were. What I wouldn't give to be a fly on that wall."
***
Chief Engineer's Personal Log, Stardate 90223.1. Despite the vice grip my sister Illiasha maintained on my hand in the shuttle hangar, I have departed Andora on schedule and am proceeding towards Starbase 123 at warp nine. I am nervous about leaving the Bristol; perhaps apprehensive is a better word. I believe my leave of absence to be the best thing I could do at this point. I don't want to be forced into resigning my commission; I'm hopeful that Captain Freeman will be able to grant my request of leave.
Commander Jevor sighed and saved the log entry. He stretched out in his chair, folding his hands behind his head carefully so as not to crunch his antennae. He sat and admired the stars as they zipped by the windows, and thought about what he would say to his captain. After an hour of this contemplation, and of thinking about the adventures he'd had as a part of Captain Freeman's crew, he decided to put his time to better use and catch up on any messages he may have been sent and to catch up on Starfleet news.
Calling up this information on one of the side computer panels, he saw that the shuttle had received and stored only two messages for him. He was a little surprised by the amount of messages, or lack thereof, since he'd been contacted daily by one or more of his friends on board the Bristol en route to Andor. Nonetheless, Jevor had the computer play back the first personal message.
"Hello sir," the smiling face of Lieutenant Ivanovna greeted him. For some reason it made him shudder slightly, probably because he so rarely saw her smile. While he contemplated that, the message continued. "I just wanted to confirm with you our Parisi Squares match for two weeks from today." He took a look at the Stardate on which the message was sent and nodded in sort of a personal confirmation, while she continued. "Lieutenant O'Shea started an impromptu tournament here, and its the only thing keeping me from going stir crazy on this Starbase. As it is, he's been beating everyone in sight. I have a match against him tomorrow; I'll send you another message after the game and let you know how it turned out. Ivanovna out."
"Well, let's see how it turned out then," he said under his breath as he pressed a button for the computer to begin play-back of the second message. Instead of being from Ivanovna, however, it was from his sister, Illiasha, and it was dated this morning.
"Hi Belan!" the young Andorian said sweetly, before yawning. "It's very early in the morning, and Mina's helping me to send this message from her office in the city." His older sister Mina appeared briefly in the background and waved before disappearing from the picture. "I just wanted to tell you how happy I am that you'll be living with us again and that I want you to hurry back." She then smiled winsomely at Jevor. "I love you big brother," she said simply, before the screen faded and the computer reported that the last message had been played back.
"I love you too Illy," Jevor said quietly to himself, smiling at the message.
He then turned his attention to the accumulated Starfleet news; his smile quickly faded as he first skimmed, then thoroughly read, the large amount of news regarding the exploits of the Bristol and the fate of Starbase 123. There was also news of the battle between the Xalat and the Bristol. Jevor swore loudly to himself and fought to control his emotions as he continued reading. Jevor's rank and security clearance had given him access to much of the available information about the incidents; more, perhaps, than he was initially prepared for. Eventually he shut the screen off and sat back in his chair, closing his eyes and tried to rationally consider a course of action.
In the end, what he decided wasn't really rational at all; he would chase down the Bristol himself. He felt much like a disappointed parent whose duty it was to track down an errant member of his brood and set them right again; the Bristol, as much as it was commanded by Captain Freeman, was nonetheless his ship. Its misbehavior was in this way his fault and he would find a way to put a stop to it, one way or the other. Despite all his experience and training, Jevor didn't stop to consider that such a mission could easily claim his life.
Thus it was with a relatively nonchalant air that he contacted his older sister to inform her that he might be tied up for a few days longer than expected.
"Hi Mina," he said when the image of his older sister appeared on his viewscreen.
She looked a bit startled, but recovered quickly. "Belan!" she replied, smiling. "Did you like Illy's message? Are you home-sick already, brother?"
"Yes on both counts, but that's not why I'm contacting you. Something has come up; my ship is in a bit of trouble, so it might take me a few extra days to conclude this business and come back," he told her.
Her smile faded. "I see," she replied simply. "What sort of trouble?"
"Bad trouble. I don't think I should talk about it over an open channel, however."
"Is what you have to do dangerous?" she asked Belan gravely.
He hesitated, not really having considered that possibility. "C'mon Mina, everything's dangerous if you think about it," he told her, forcing a smile as he tried to make a joke out of it.
"Belan, be serious," she chided, not buying his candor. "Is it dangerous?" she asked again, more urgently this time.
"Perhaps so," he admitted.
She sighed and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms in front of her. "Will you still be coming home after you're done?"
"Of course I will!" Belan Jevor assured her. He could see her visibly relax somewhat at his assurance, almost as if she'd expected that this was all part of a ploy to get out of his earlier promises. "I haven't had a change of heart, if that's what you think," he inserted.
"I'm glad to hear it. Illiasha will be as well," she responded smoothly. "What do you want me to tell her?"
"Tell her the Bristol isn't where it's supposed to be, and that I have to track her down, but that I'll return home as I promised as soon as I'm able. Don't tell her that I'm in any danger; she doesn't need that extra worry," he told his sister. "Send my love also," he added as an after-thought with a strange tone of finality.
"I will do so. And you be sure you come back here in one piece," she replied. "Take care brother."
"You do the same. I'll see you all very soon," Belan replied, and with that his communication was severed.
Jevor sighed and sat back in his chair, his mind now filled with doubt as to the task he'd set for himself. What did he really think he was going to accomplish by getting himself killed and leaving his family when they needed him most? His nagging doubts encouraged him to just drop the shuttlecraft off at the nearest Federation base, send for Freeman's blessing via subspace transmission, and be done with it. Despite that, something else inside him urged him on. It was this voice that he relented to as he configured his shuttle to move to intercept the Bristol, basing his direction on the last known course and speed of the ship.
After travelling for several hours, the computer indicated he was being hailed.
"Jevor here," he said, answering the call.
"Commander, it's Captain Freeman," replied the Captain, his bedraggled appearance belying the fact he had not yet fully recovered from his injuries.
Jevor looked speculatively at the scenery behind the Captain; the metal grating, the occasional Klingon officer passing by, that sort of thing, and eyed his Captain speculatively. "Sir? You seem in to be in good hands. I was very worried."
"I thank you for the sentiment Jevor. I assume you've heard everything then? I wanted to contact you and make sure before you stumbled into something you weren't prepared for. I couldn't remember exactly when your leave was up, as my injuries have caused me to lose a couple of days to unconsciousness and sleep," Freeman replied.
"I read all the reports my security clearance would allow. I'm on my way to see if I can do something about the problem," Jevor replied evenly.
It was now the Captain's turn to eye him speculatively. "What do you mean by 'doing something'?" he asked.
"I'm going to reclaim the Bristol for us," Jevor replied simply.
The look on the Captain's face became one of pure shock. "Commander, are you insane? We've already lost hundreds of people and several ships to whatever it is that is controlling it! What makes you think you and your shuttlecraft will succeed? It's a suicide mission and I won't allow it!"
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