Cerulean Stars - Chapter 115

Chapter 115

Stardate -298334.07 - August 31, 2024 - 17:31:44

Over her years in Starfleet Raine had run through a number of undercover training scenarios, several of which more or less matched up to their current circumstances. So it wasn't particularly difficult for her to mingle and make small talk with the various amoral business people here, even if several of them seemed to be under the mistaken impression that she was a hired escort.

“While I'm flattered by the thought.” She told the moderately overweight man who had very blatantly offered to pay her five thousand dollars for a night. “I really don't think you want your number to end up in my little black book given the unfortunate fates of past business associates who have.”

The man gave her an odd look, and she met his gaze as a small smile graced the corner of her lips.

“Ah.” He muttered thoughtfully, no doubt filling in the blanks with his own preconceptions. “Well, if you ever have a falling out with your current employer.” He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a business card. “Biogen is always on the lookout for effective corporate agents.”

Raine accepted the card without a word before leaving the man to the hors d'oeuvres table where she had encountered him to join Jadzia by the window.

“Another one?” The Trill asked as she eyed the business card in Raine's hand. “What was it this time? Hitwoman?”

“Corporate spy.” Raine corrected with a grin. “Exactly the type of job I would probably jump at if I was planning to stay around here long term.”

Not that she would actually do so, but it paid to keep up appearances when you didn't know who might be listening in.

“What about you?” She asked with a teasing smile. “Any luck with Christopher?”

Jadzia pursed her lips in sudden nervousness. “Some. I think Ben and Julian might have been taken to the sanctuary district.”

The breath momentarily caught in Raine’s throat, and she could tell from the Trill’s tone just what she was building up to asking.

“I can’t help with that.” She warned Jadzia, grimacing slightly in acknowledgement of the fact that she really did want to. “With my health issues, one overzealous police officer or resident not willing to take no for an answer and I could end up in serious trouble.”

After all, she couldn’t risk using her biotics given the sheer number of ways some scientist detecting that could mess up the timeline. And unlike the Trill, her blood was both noticeably inhuman and mildly toxic. So going anywhere near a likely combat situation was just asking for something to go wrong.

“Health issues?” Christopher asked in concern as he walked up behind them.

“An unfortunate combination of a blood clotting disorder and immune system deficiency.” Raine lied, purposefully shrugging to show she treated it as just a normal thing she lived with. “It’s normally not that much of a problem, but that’s mostly because I make it a point to avoid circumstances where it will become one.”

The businessman gave a nod of understanding before focusing on Jadzia. “I was able to confirm from the names you gave me that your friends were processed into the system. So once things open back up tomorrow, I should be able to talk to some of my friends in the police department about having them released.”

Even if Raine hadn’t known that there was a good chance that Gabriell Bell was already dead, the knowledge that the Bell Riots were set to start tomorrow would have been enough to tell her that it had a faint hope of working at best.

“Are you sure there’s nothing you can do before then?” Jadzia all but pleaded, biting her bottom lip in a way that made it very obvious to Raine that the Trill was not above taking advantage of Christopher’s obvious crush on her.

“I really wish there was.” Christopher admitted with a sad shake of his head. “But everyone I know who could help is currently off shift, and if I try to bring something like this to them now, they’re likely to refuse on principle.”

Letting out a sigh, Raine offered the two a half smile. “I guess we’ll have to wait till tomorrow and hope nothing happens in the meantime.”

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Stardate -298334.0 - August 31, 2024 - 18:08:38

Huddling next to Bashir in the stairwell that they'd spent the previous night in, Benjamin stared in dread at the name on the food card he'd pulled off the person who had just died trying to save them.

This was the absolute worst case scenario, and he didn't have even the slightest idea how to start fixing what they'd just screwed up.

“They're gone.” Bashir said as the distinctive sound of yelling faded away into the distance.

“For now.” Benjamin muttered, holding up the card so Bashir could see the name. “But they're the least of our worries. That man who just got killed trying to help us was Gabriel Bell.”

A slowly look of horror crept onto Bashir's face. “If only I'd had my med kit or been able to get him to a hospital I might've been able to save him.”

And if Benjamin had known what Gabriel Bell looked like he would have stepped in front of the knife himself. But recriminations like that wouldn't do either of them any good.

“You did all you could, Doctor.” Benjamin tried to reassure the man.

“But it wasn't enough, was it?” Bashir muttered, their circumstances obviously hitting the doctor harder than Benjamin had thought. “A good man died because I wasn't willing to give up my food card.” He threw up his arms. “And who knows what this will do to the timeline.”

Benjamin sighed and slumped back against one of the cold concrete walls. “Without Bell, the hostages at the processing center tomorrow will die. And that is almost sure to prevent public opinion from turning against the sanctuary district policy.”

“And without the resulting social reforms from that we may very well say goodbye to the Federation.” Bashir followed in a tone of despair.

“We have to save them.” Benjamin said with purpose as he straightened up. “Whatever it takes, we have to make sure those hostages survive.”

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Stardate 48492.5 - June 29, 2371 - 18:18:00

Nerys rubbed the now smooth skin of her nose with her fingers and shivered slightly at the feeling. “And you're sure you can reverse this, right?”

“Easily.” The Defiant's EMH reassured her with a pleasant smile. “The Bajoran nasal ridge isn't a particularly difficult distinguishing feature to restore. So rest assured, when all this is over you'll be just as rough around the edges as you were before.”

Not the most reassuring way for the program to put it, but Nerys supposed the fact that it was trying at all was probably a marked improvement given all the complaints she'd heard from others.

“Great.” She muttered, hopping off the biobed before taking a moment to crack her neck to get out the kink that had formed in it. “Computer, deacti–”

Her communicator chirped. “O'Brien to Major Kira, we're going to need you on the bridge, fast.”

Already out the door and moving, she tapped her combadge to reply. “On my way.”

It took Nerys less than a minute to arrive at the Defiant's bridge, and she ignored the odd looks her disguise garnered as she walked over the sensor station where an increasingly frantic looking O'Brien was at work.

“What happened?” She demanded, looking over the screen to see it displaying a slowly expanding picture of the Sol system.

“They're gone.” O'Brien muttered as if he couldn't quite believe his own words.

Nerys gave him a moment to expand on that before letting out a sigh and prodding him. “What’s gone, Chief?”

“Everything.” He finally explained. “Spacedock, Earth’s satellite network, the Utopia Planitia yards on Mars, the terraforming stations on Venus, Starfleet Headquarters. I'm not detecting a single sign of…”

“Chief?” Nerys inquired cautiously as he trailed off, desperately hoping another problem hadn’t decided to join the pile of issues they were currently dealing with.

“There’s a ship on approach from the far side of Luna.” O’Brien said in clear surprise. “El-Aurian warp signature. And it’s hailing us.”

“El-Aurian.” Nerys murmured, furrowing her brow in thought as she tried to remember why that species name sounded familiar. “Like the guy who nearly destroyed the station last year with those weird gambling devices?”

“Martus Mazur.” O’Brien confirmed with a nod as he glanced over at her. “They also have some sort of trans-temporal awareness, so if something happened in the past that changed the timeline whoever’s on board might be here trying to figure out what it was.”

For a moment Nerys began to consider the vast reality of just what that suggested before ruthlessly crushing the thought before it could take root.

“I guess we should see what they have to say then.” She told O’Brien as she walked over to the captain’s chair and used the side controls to open a communications channel to the approaching ship.

The sight of Earth vanished from the viewscreen to be replaced by the small moderately well lit interior of a starship's flight cabin with an almost familiar blue humanoid sitting at the control station.

“Oh thank god.” The Asari muttered in clear relief as she stared directly into the sensor pickup. “I wasn’t sure you’d be able to get my signal through the chronal envelope.”

Even though the body and facial features were somewhat different, the voice was recognizable enough to Nerys that a very odd possibility found its way to the fore of her mind.

“Brooks?” She put forward in an uncertain tone.

“Yes!” The Asari confirmed with a nod. “That’s me.” She tilted her head slightly and frowned. “Or not me, because the me you’re thinking of is currently in the past.” She paused as a contemplative look briefly flitted across her features. “Unless for some reason you’re thinking of the me native to this timeline. In which case she’s on Risa where she’s spent the past twenty years at the bottom of a bottle due to the existential dread of discovering she’s part of a timeline that’s probably going to blink out of existence in the next couple of days.”

Nerys blinked as she took a moment to try and process the woman’s string of words, only to end up with even more questions then she had before. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Well I couldn’t just leave her alone on Earth with all the dead bodies.” Brooks offered as she gave Nerys an odd look. 

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Nerys spent a moment centering herself before opening her eyes to stare Brooks directly in her own. “Commander, how about we start from the beginning. What happened to everyone after you transported down to Earth?”

A complicated series of expressions flashed across Brooks face before settling on a distinct flush of embarrassment. “I… I don’t really remember…”

“You don’t remember?” Nerys repeated, finding that particularly difficult to believe given the woman’s usually impressive memory.

“It’s been nearly three hundred and fifty years!” Brooks complained with a pout. “And I lost my notes when my ship was destroyed helping to repel the Borg attack on El-Auria. I remember how we fucked things up though, and all you gotta do to stop it is get us out before the humans figure out Sisko didn’t actually die.”

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Author’s Notes: Say hello to Matron Raine, destroyer of spheres, savior of El-Auria, three time ex-husband of Dax, and the only person in the history of the galaxy to spray paint the word “asshole” on the Guardian of Forever.