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"Blue Tears" by Lady Rainbow
Rating: PG-13 The character of Ensign Klees (here with the first name Mori) was introduced in the later chapters of “Calm Before the Storm”, when she transferred from Phlox’s department on Enterprise to Opur’s on Columbia. Please leave a review! Thanks! Awesome job, Pesterfield. :) Four “He’s what?” Hayes stared at the main viewscreen. Lieutenant Talas aboard the Asahari was on the left side and Admiral Maxwell Forrest of Starfleet was on the right. Talas sat in her command chair, her back ramrod straight and her antennae pinned back on her head. One of them looked considerably shorter than the other, the result of an ushaan-tor fight between her and Lieutenant Commander Trip Tucker. Hayes thought she’d seemed a bit unsteady on her feet on Andoria, but she looked completely in control now. “Thy’lek’s taken his squadron to Weytahn,” Talas repeated slowly, as if to a dim-witted child. “Perhaps you pinkskins know it better as Paan Mokar, the Vulcan outpost midway between our space and theirs.” “Why is he headed there?” Forrest burst out. “That’s a Vulcan military outpost now.” “Perhaps Jhamel and Talla have been taken there,” Commander Daniels spoke up. “It’s automated now, but their formidable defenses are still in place.” Hayes shook his head. “He’s crazy. Hanrii will be blown out of sky as soon as they get within range of the planetoid.” He carefully avoided referring to it by name; Weytahn was placed strategically between Andorian and Vulcan space. It was currently in the hands of the Vulcans, after a long and arduous conflict, and was renamed Paan Mokar. Of course, the Andorians refused to honor the new name and called it by its Andorian name instead. “I have my orders from Chancellor Halan and General Linha. I must follow my brother and assist him in any way. Captain Hayes, you may join us, or elect to stay out of this matter, per your superior’s orders, of course.” Talas gave him a poisonous smile. “Either way, I’ll have my astrogator relay coordinates to your science officer and helmsman, just in case. Asahari, out.” “Talas, wait—“ But her image vanished, to be replaced by the Asahari arcing away from Columbia and going into warp, followed by the six ships of her squadron. Hayes slammed a fist on the arm of his command chair. “Damn woman!” “Follow her, Captain Hayes,” Forrest said, his tone as cold as ice. “I’m sending Richmond, Devonshire and Gandhi to assist you. Enterprise can’t leave Vulcan orbit; the situation there has become more volatile. Use any means necessary to prevent a conflict breaking out between the Andorians and the Vulcans. Am I understood?” Hayes snapped to attention, as did everyone else on the Bridge. “Understood, sir.” “Written orders will follow. Good luck, Captain Hayes. Starfleet Command, out.” Forrest nodded once, then disappeared. “You heard the admiral. Follow Asahari, warp five. Commander Daniels, I want a meeting of all senior staff in three hours.” “Yes, sir,” Daniels answered, all business. “I’ll be in my Ready Room.” Silence fell after the doors closed after Hayes left the Bridge. Daniels looked after him with a thoughtful expression as he sat in the center chair. Deep within the bowels of Columbia’s engine room, Ensign Mori Klees stood at the warp intermix ration board as the ship jumped into warp. She glanced over her shoulder at Commander Opur and gave her commanding officer a thumbs-up. At least we made it to maximum warp without blowing ourselves up, she thought. She sighed and rubbed her temples. Ever since she’d transferred here from Enterprise, she’d felt little love for Opur’s department. Granted, he ran it differently from how Commander Phlox ran his, but both had trouble relating to the Human engineers under their direct supervision. It only confirmed her private belief that to be on a Human ship, one needed to be Human. And this new conflict with the Andorians was yet another piece of evidence that pacts between Earth and other Outworld planets were a bad idea. Even Captain Hayes was allowing his personal feelings to interfere with his sworn duty to Starfleet. Pathetic. Her fingers adjusted the ratio again, so it stayed within acceptable limits. The flawed software on board Columbia and Enterprise worked according to their specifications. Although the major environmental controls were untouched, everything else was fair game. Klees didn’t want any harm to come to either ship’s crew, but it was enough of a nuisance to cast doubt over the joint Terran/Vulcan technology from Starfleet Engineering. Her counterpart on Enterprise kept her informed of events there. Morale in their Engineering department was low, despite Phlox’s efforts to rally his people. Now they were stuck in orbit around Vulcan, and thanks to politics beyond their control, Enterprise was far from the stations on Earth and with the trouble on Vulcan, V'Lar's government would hardly allow Enterprise access to their stations. Now Columbia would be even farther. A set of chimes sounded on the intercom, signaling the shift change from Beta to Gamma. Klees smiled at the young crewman who’d come to relieve her at her post. “Watch the interflow matrix,” she warned him. “It’s touchy as it is. I don’t want anything bad to happen when we get out of warp.” “I’ll watch it,” the crewman promised. “Thanks, Mori. And Mori—“ “Yeah?” His hesitant voice stopped her halfway down the ladder. “What is it?” “I’m glad you transferred here from Enterprise. I think you’re a good addition to the team.” A smile stretched her mouth, but it didn’t touch her eyes. The sincerity in the young man’s voice choked her. Liar, she thought. Aloud, she kept her tone gentle. “Thanks, Ray. Have a good shift, okay, and call me if you need me.” “Will do.” She continued down the ladder without looking back. Matt Hayes frowned as he met Shran’s gaze. Through some miracle of FTL communications, Jane Taylor had managed to punch a message through to Hanrii, and Shran immediately responded. The screen fizzled with static around the edges, but the Andorian’s image seemed sharp enough. “Let me get this straight. They sent you a ransom note? A bunch of Vulcans sent you a ransom note? That doesn’t sound like their normal modus operandi, Thy’lek.” “Whether or not it is their normal ‘modus operandi’, Matthew, my cryptologist confirmed it is a code used by the Vulcan government.” Shran narrowed his eyes and his antennae straightened on his head. “They have Jhamel and Talla under ‘protective custody’ at Weytahn, or Paan Mokar, as they have misnamed it. It will be a challenge to find and rescue them from that place. I need your help.” “The whole place is automated, Thy’lek. I don’t think the Vulcans would be inclined to give us the command codes to deactivate it.” “Of course not. It will take superior planning and strategy, and plenty of powerful weapons.” “Thought you’d think that way.” Hayes’s voice was both affectionate and withering at the same time. “Well, they cannibalized the original security systems when they overran the main installation,” Shran said, matter-of-factly. “It so happens that the son of the original system designer is here on Hanrii as a weapons specialist—“ “Quite lucky.” Shran chuckled with genuine humor. “Come, come now, Matthew, such sarcastic irony doesn’t suit you.” He sobered and added, “He has consulted with his father on the original layout of the security systems and currently my weapons officers are poring over detail. I’ll forward the information to your Major Kemper; perhaps Human ingenuity can assist Andorian practicality.” “Uhm,” Matt muttered, deigning not to answer that last remark. “Thy’lek, your sister’s squadron’s on its way as back-up, but I do have one request.” “Which is?” Matt grinned. “Don’t do anything until I get there. I don’t want to miss anything.” Shran eyed him. “I thought you’d be under orders to stop me.” “I’m under orders to defuse tensions between you and the Vulcans, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes, even if it means covering your ass or blowing it out of the sky.” “I understand, Tirh’lar. We are warriors after all. Very well, but don’t dawdle in space. I can only afford to wait so long.” Shran saluted him and said, “Until later.” Matt stared at the darkened screen and shook his head. Andoria was under lockdown and according to Hoshi, V’Lar’s government was under siege as well. He remembered her frustration and her fear as she shared her own suspicions. “Ambassador Soval’s been recalled from San Francisco, and other factions are getting involved,” Hoshi had said. “Jon Archer has his hands full here, and T’Pol’s running into problems as well. Malcolm’s up to his eyeballs in complications at the Vulcan Medical Academy. We’re barely keeping things from blowing up here.” Matt felt an irrational flash of irritation at her mention of Doctor Reed by name, but it was quickly suppressed by the magnitude of Hoshi’s problems on Vulcan. She’s got it worse than I do now. It’s too well-planned to be coincidental, but then who’s behind it? His computer chirped, announcing the arrival of new information. Hayes went ahead and forwarded the tactical data to Nate Kemper’s board on the Bridge. Then he turned his attention to the other message, from Earth. The accompanying note read: Don’t worry about paying me back on this one. Consider this partial payment on the debts I owe you. Mark. Hayes input his personal Section 31 codes and began to read what Mark Harris had found for him. To Be Continued... |
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