Epilogue: Part I

Posted on Fri Sep 21, 2018 @ 11:20pm by Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit

856 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Divide et Impera ~ Chapter 2: Heralding the Chase
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: 6 days later

[Captain's Ready Room]

(Captain does something moody and the chime to her ready room rings)

As the doors opened, a slim brunette with silver eyes and her hair clipped back in a ponytail walked in, padd in hand. "Captain," she said, nodding. "My name is Captain Tiffany Edwards, and I owe you an apology."

“Do you now..” Kennit answered in a soft, smooth tone of voice which conveyed exactly..nothing..about what she might be thinking as she turned to lock her dark eyes with Edwards silver gaze. “For which sin I wonder. Putting my ship and crew at risk by withholding information we needed to deal with a murderer and agent of a hostile entity sent here. Or for assuming me to be a mindless killer and playing your own little spy games rather than simply hailing us and relaying the knowledge you had.”

Tiffany sighed. "Captain, we didn't withhold anything, because we didn't know anything yet. By the time we did, you were incommunicado. If you hadn't almost crashed into my ship, we wouldn't have known where you were. As for spy games, you're quite the chess player yourself. But I'm not here to have this argument again."

Tiffany walked up to the Captain's desk and held out a padd. "A peace offering," she said. "Everything we were able to extract from Ms. MacKenzie before she died. I'm sorry it took so long."

Taking the PaDD, Kennit replied “Everything you extracted can’t be much considering how swiftly my highly unusual Chief Medical Officer dealt with Ms, MacKenzie..”

"Well," Tiffany said, sitting down across from her, "according to my highly unusual Chief Medical Officer, time doesn't work the same inside the mind. Something about a first kiss and a hot stove, I wasn't really able to understand what she was saying, but as she explains it, what you or I calculate as a minute objectively, she could drag out to hours."

Kennit responded with a “Hmmmm.”

"Well, that's where most of the good news ends, I'm afraid," Tiffany said. "MacKenzie was one of Blackhawk's agents, and lovers evidently, but she only had knowledge of some of his operations in the Alpha Quadrant. Two outposts mentioned have already been dealt with by us, and we've got a team working on the rest as we speak. Her only assignment in Delta was here, so she doesn't know much of his operations." She shrugged helplessly. "I'm sorry there isn't more to offer, but you now have everything we do."

“You will share information should you learn more.” Kennit said, more a statement rather than question. “If he tries to put another of his operatives on my ship I’d prefer to know before members of my crew start turning up dead.”

"If we hear anything or find anything, you will be my first contact," Tiffany said, nodding. "I would say, any new crew you take on, get to know them. Ask about family, friends, things we can verify by speaking to people. Right now, keeping our two ships from being infiltrated again is of utmost importance. So long as Blackhawk is here, he's vulnerable. It's imperative he not figure out how to get back to the Alpha Quadrant."

“There isn’t a whole lot we can do to stop him if he finds a way to get back through the new gateway..” Kennit commented. “Though with the level of security around it and the power limitations on the new system which operates it..” she shrugged. “ A much simpler way is to simply access a node into the Borg Transwarp conduit system and transit back that way. Assuming he could find a way to avoid assimilation if they didn’t just blow him and his ship out of existence.”

"I'm relatively sure he won't risk assimilation," Tiffany said, dryly. "We'll see about having eyes on the gateway now that it's operational." She stood up and inclined her head. "Thank you for your time, Captain."

“Safe travels Captain.” Kennit answered. Then, just as Edwards neared the door Kennit spoke again, her voice level and calm. Friendly, almost..if not for the underlying current beneath her words as she said “A simple observation for you Captain. I am everything you have heard, and worse. If you think to play your game with my ship, or my crew again.. I will not be as generous, or as forgiving, I protect my own, and this ship..and it’s crew...are mine. No more games. Captain. As worried as you are about Blackhawk, he seems to be far more worried about me. Such effort from someone I don’t care about at all... or, at least... I didn’t.”

Tiffany turned and clasped her hands in front of her. "Noted, Captain. But, as I keep trying to explain, I am not the game master here." She smiled and bowed slightly. "Safe travels as well, Captain, and best of luck." She turned and walked out of the ready room, trying not to shake her head in exasperation.


Captain Rhea Kennit
Commanding Officer
USS Victory

Captain Tiffany Edwards
Commanding Officer
USS Castelnaudary

 

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