Cerulean Stars - Chapter 118

Chapter 118

Stardate -298333.6 - August 31, 2024 - 21:39:27

Three years of Kira looking like Kira made it hard for Raine not to stare when the Bajoran showed up at the door to her suite without her customary nose ridges. It was surprisingly attention grabbing all things considered, and the Asari finally dragged hers eyes away from the woman's nose to offer the group a smile.

“I’m sorry.” Kira began, shooting the currently disguised Asari a very odd look. “Have we met?”

“Seriously?” Raine asked, looking past Kira out into the hall where Jadzia was covering her mouth to hide her giggling. “You didn’t warn them?”

“Brooks!?” O’Brien exclaimed in sudden surprise.

“Do you know another hundred and seventy eight centimeter woman with my figure?” Raine asked, raising an eyebrow in challenge at the man.

“Several.” Kira interjected with a frown as she studied Raine with a critical eye. “Are you actually… You know?”

Taking a moment to confirm nobody else was in the hall Raine shook her head. “It's a hologram, from what Guinan said when she gave me the mobile emitter it’s probably something Q left lying around.”

Or something from future Picard's trip to the past, but that was a kettle of fish for the Department of Temporal Investigations to deal with.

“Guinan?” O'Brien asked in confusion.

Raine jerked her thumb in the direction of the bedroom. “She's in the bedroom. Not sure if she's asleep or what. But temporally speaking it's probably okay given that whole thing that happened a couple years back with her, Mark Twain, and Commander Data's severed head.”

A confused look settled onto Kira's face. “I'm sorry, what!?”

“Another one of those things you probably don't want to know.” O'Brien put forward with a shake of his head.

Stepping to the side Raine motioned for the three to enter. “Come on, you wouldn't think things could get worse, but someone apparently decided to taunt Murphy while you were coming back here.”

The three filed in, and Raine shut the door behind them before walking back over to plop down onto the couch.

“The kitchen is over there if you want anything.” She said, pointing towards the fridge. “We have wine, scotch, whisky, vodka, a fruit basket, some sandwiches, and a bunch of snacks.”

“Dax filled us in about everything she could on the drive over.” Kira said, lookind down at the half assembled mess of electronics with a frown. “But what do you mean when you say things got worse?”

Grabbing the remote, Raine flicked on the flat screen television and a newscaster appeared on screen backlit by a green screen projection of the inside of the sanctuary district where the Bell riots were just beginning to hit full steam.

“Many of the district employees fleeing the riot have been reported injured with several yet to be accounted for entirely. And while there has been no official count of injuries among Sanctuary residents, satellite pictures show a number of possible casualties.”

Tapping the mute button, Raine offered the three a grim smile. “It seems the Bell Riots have begun.”

Kira and O'Brien exchanged glances and a look of panic flashed across Jadzia's face.

“We've got to get down there!” The Trill exclaimed.

Kira and O'Brien exchanged a glance for a moment before the Chief spoke up. “You think this is what the other Brooks was talking about?” 

Raine blinked, straightening up with a jerk to stare at the man. “I'm sorry, the other Brooks?”

“Something the four of you did changed the timeline.” Kira put forward, glancing down at Raine's chest for some reason as she said that. “And an older you showed up to tell us where you were and what she thought we needed to do to fix it.”

“Huh.” Raine muttered, trying to work out just what kind of mess the timeline must have ended up in for that to happen and coming up blank. “I…”

She stopped herself, because even with as many questions as she now had, it was absolutely not the time to ask them given that version of her existing at all was enough to tell her things had gone seriously wrong somewhere.

“You know what, unless that alternate future version of me said something about getting Sisko and Bashir out of the Sanctuary district?”

Kira shook her head.

“It can wait till after we get that suddenly much more important issue taken care of.” Raine finished as she pulled herself back to her feet.

“Major, Chief.” She continued, focusing on the pair. “I'm going to need a full list of what equipment you brought.”

If they had at least one tricorder with them things would get monumentally easier since they'd be able to just brute force their way through a good portion of the planet's digital security.

“Standard away team kit.” O'Brien offered as he patted the satchel he was carrying.  

“Great!” She exclaimed, grinning as the beginnings of a plan came together. “I'll need you and Major Kira to give everything but your combadges to Jadzia.”

“Brooks.” Kira started.

Bending down, Raine rolled up her pant leg before pulling out the sheathed knife she had hidden in her boot. 

“I assume you know how to use this?” She checked as she offered the weapon to the frowning Kira.

The Bajoran glanced down at the Hedgemart bought weapon for a moment before looking back up at her with a frown. “Brooks, I don't think–”

“Sorry Major.” Raine apologized, having a strong suspicion of where the Bajoran was going with things and wanting to decisively cut that particular argument off before it got too far in. “I know you out rank me in our chain of command, but I’m going to have to pull the Starfleet seniority card on this one.”

Kira frowned, clearly wanting to object nonetheless but thankfully seeming to realize that the Asari wouldn’t be saying that if it wasn’t important.

“A knife?” She finally asked, eyeing the weapon Raine was offering her for a moment before accepting it.

“You and O’Brien are going to need to infiltrate the Sanctuary District.” Raine explained to the woman. “Keep the knife visibly on you as a threat, you have the twitchy former soldier look so that should be enough to discourage any of the less stable residents from trying their luck.”

And O’Brien all but radiated the feeling of a down on his luck everyman, so he would probably blend in with the residents without looking even the slightest bit out of place, but of course that wasn’t something the man needed to hear.

“Given we’re talking about an in-progress timeline shift, Sisko and Bashir are probably hip deep in the Bell Riots since there’s no way that’s not one of the big domino’s the temporal mechanics classes like to use as an example. In which case they’re probably somewhere around the District Processing Center where most of the important events will be going down.”

From what she recalled of things they likely wouldn’t want to leave, but the most likely point where things could have gotten fucked up was either the hostages dying or their exfiltration after the government took back the processing center. And working out how to make those sorts of things work was pretty much Kira’s bread and butter given the near decade she had spent with the Bajoran resistance.

“The most likely way in is probably going to be through the subway.” She continued as her mind went back over the backup plan she and Jadzia had begun to put together prior to the pair contacting them.

She turned to O’Brien. “You know how to force open most types of mechanical and digital locks, right?”

“Sure.” The Chief confirmed with a nod as Raine reached into her pocket and pulled out the lockpicking kit she’d bought alongside the knife . “But I’d need a–” She tossed it to the man who fumbled with the pouch in surprise before opening it to look inside. “Oh.”

“I’d love to be able to send you in with a tricorder and phasers.” She offered with an apologetic smile. “But with everything going on we can’t risk those getting confiscated by the government.”

Silence stretched out across the room with all three of the others giving her odd looks, and for a second Raine worried she was going to have to argue through various objections before Kira let out a breath.

“All right.” Kira finally agreed. “But I hope you at least have a general map of the area. Because underground transportation networks are never easy to navigate.”

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Stardate -298333.6 - August 31, 2024 - 21:34:00

Things had snowballed remarkably fast after Bell’s death, and they had barely made it to the distribution center in time to stop the man who called himself BC from going off on one of the hostages.

Now Benjamin was left trying to figure out how to keep the clearly unstable group from going off completely when the inevitable moment came when the authorities tried to talk them down.

“This isn't good.” Bashir muttered as he stared at the television showing a reporter talking about the riot.

“National Guard units are mobilising now and should reach Sanctuary District A within the hour. Governor Chen meanwhile has issued a statement to reassure the public that the uprising will quickly be quelled and the District secured. It's still not clear how this riot began, though rumours of mounting tensions have been filtering out of the district for weeks.”

BC grinned at the Doctor as the dark haired woman continued theorizing about their motives. “You kidding? This is great. We're on every channel. Hell, I bet they're even watching this in China.”

Not yet Benjamin knew, but the news would reach other countries eventually.

Rubbing his chin in thought, BC frowned at the television. “Kind of stupid that they sound so surprised though.Treat people like shit for long enough and you shouldn’t be surprised when you get a fist to the face.”

Benjamin turned to look out the door to hide his wince, having more than once used similar justifications for violence when his own temper had gotten the better of him.

The door chose that moment to open, and Benjamin let out a sigh of relief as Webb walked through only for his heart to nealy skip a beat when moments later every gun in the room but his own was pointing at the man.

“Hey!” BC said, glaring at Webb with a disdain that spoke of at least some prior acquaintance. “Who the hell said you could come in here?” 

“I did.” Benjamin returned firmly as he walked up to the self proclaimed advocate.

BC shot him a suspicious glare before letting out a huff and motioning for the rest of his group to lower their weapons. “It’s on you then. So better hope he doesn’t screw this up for us.”

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Author’s Note: Look at Raine, actually taking charge the moment things actually go pear shaped.