Cerulean Stars - Chapter 93

Cerulean Stars - Chapter 93

Stardate 48331.3 - May 1, 2371 - 22:11:00

Working through everything of potential Starfleet interest that Jaxa had been through the past year was thankfully proceeding on track, though Raine wasn’t sure how much use any of it would actually be. She supposed that would be up to Starfleet’s analysis division to figure out, or possibly whoever they ended up assigning to do the followup.

Stepping past the Defiant’s airlock, she took a moment to stretch and get the kinks out of her back from the nearly full day of being forced to sit straight and act the responsible officer, only to pause mid motion at seeing the smiling form of Garak standing just beyond the two guards flanking the airlock.

“Ah, Commander. I was hoping to find you.”

“Garak.” Raine greeted the man in a cautious tone as she walked over to him. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Many things.” Garak returned, something about the way he said those words enough to put Raine instantly on guard. “But in this specific case I’m amused to say it will be me who is helping you.”

The Asari could all but feel the sword of damocles hanging over her head at his statement, and in her tiredness she briefly found herself wondering if she could just punt this whole thing to someone else before the annoying realization hit that Garak would probably just sidestep that in some manner.

“And that help would be?” She finally put forward as she eyed the still grinning Cardassian.

“Why.” Garak began as he clapped his hands together. “Helping Starfleet solve a murder of course.”

“A murder?” Raine repeated, somehow now even more skeptical of the man’s intentions than she was mere moments ago.

“Oh yes.” Garak confirmed in complete seriousness. “A rather horrible one at that. I assume you are aware of the assassination of Natrel Lorem?”

“Ambassador Veltor’s attaché?” Raine asked to be absolutely sure. “The one who’s death set back the peace agreement between the Federation and Cardassian Union by a good six years?”

Garak’s smile somehow got bigger as he leaned forward slightly. “The very one. And I am here to confess my involvement in that rather unfortunate occurrence.”

Raine closed her eyes before taking a moment to massage her temples to try and prevent the headache she could suddenly feel coming on.

“You are aware that happened in Federation space?” She asked tiredly, desperately hoping he was just playing some bad joke on her and would take the offered out for what it was.

“Of course.” Garak confirmed, sounding particularly pleased with himself as he did. “I rather enjoyed visiting Minos Korva's sulfur springs during my time there. It's just a shame it had to be cut short by having to kill Miss Lorem”

“All right then.” Raine said, deciding to humor the man for a moment. “How did you slip the disruptor through the security screenings?”

Garak gave her a disappointed look. “A disruptor? Really commander, even if I was lying about being involved in the event I assure you the fact that Natrel Lorem was killed by a Remat Detonator is well known to the Obsidian order.”

She had expected as much, but if he was going to annoy her with whatever plot he had going on, she was damn well going to make him work for every inch of it.

“What's not well known however,” He continued with a secretive grin. “is that the detonator was lodged in the left strap of her bra.”

The dead eyed stare she shot him had little effect other than to make her feel better. “That probably would have been a lot more poignant of a declaration if I knew anything more about the case than the weapon used to kill her.” 

A brief flash of likely faux embarrassment appeared to pass across Garak's face at her words. “Well, I assure you, it was quite the hidden bit of information. Only a handful of people knew because at the time the Obsidian Order couldn't risk their involvement getting back to Central Command.”

And that was more than enough that Starfleet Command would want her to conduct an actual investigation into the issue.

“Fine.” Raine muttered as she grabbed Garak by the arm. “You win, enjoy spending however long it takes to get this sorted out in a holding cell.”

“Commander.” Garak interjected in an overly innocent tone before Raine could take more than a single step towards the security officers. “ Far be it for me to do your job for you, but in cases like this, are you not supposed to hold the suspect in the highest grade Starfleet detention facilities available?”

“Yes.” Raine said drolly as she rolled her eyes. “Which is why I’m taking you to… 

She trailed off as the realization hit that the Station wasn’t actually a Starfleet facility, and she turned a glare to the smug looking Cardassian before doing a one eighty and dragging him back towards the Defiant’s airlock.

“I don’t know what you’re planning.” She muttered angrily. “But I hope you enjoy rootbeer and hamburgers, because that’s what the Defiant’s brig is going to be serving.”

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The back and forth trip between Deep Space Nine and Bajor was never really one Kira enjoyed, not because of the travel itself mind, but because she always seemed to end up stuck in crowded runabouts with people who wanted to have conversations when doing it.

“And wouldn’t you know it.” Bashir continued to Nerys, the other her looking every bit as unenthused with his conversation as Kira herself was. “Kalaris ended up spending the entire semester as a woman because they found it such an interesting experience compared to their usual bigender state.”

“Pranks like that are why everyone avoids Starfleet medical you know?” Ensign Yellen muttered, looking about as disturbed at the idea as Kira herself felt.

“Kerkhovian transformative viruses are perfectly safe.” Bashir reassured the other human as a look of amusement settled across his face. “This one in particular is even a required experience for those aiming to enter the psychology division.”

“You’re not helping your case Doc.” Ensign Palmer interjected with a tired shake of his head.

“You say that.” Bashir put forward with a smug look at the junior officer that Kira could tell promised nothing good. “But doesn’t the security division have their surprise week-long naked survival course?”

“Yes.” Yellen confirmed with a grimace. “And we regularly curse the instructors while suffering through it.”

“Naked survival course?” Kira asked, morbid curiosity pushing her to ask despite the little voice in the back of her head warning her that she probably didn’t want to know.

“Security training involves a lot of beaming to random locations for on site training.” Palmer explained, sensible enough Kira supposed, and she’d seen Raine pushing for similar with those cycling through Bajor’s new orbital station. “One of those, selected randomly during the year by the instructors, has the entire group beam to the location and end up materializing without anything but the skin on their backs.”

“The location is carefully prepared beforehand so there’s no real risk to it.” Yellen added in with a blush on her cheeks. “But even though it’s a good test of your improvisational survival abilities, that doesn’t mean it’s not embarrassing as all get out.”

“And everyone else thinks the security division is utterly crazy for doing it.” Bashir said as he gave a pointed look to the pair before giving an acknowledging tilt of his head. “At least those who aren’t jealous of you.”

Palmer and Yellen exchanged awkward looks for a moment before the male of the pair looked away with an awkward flush on his cheeks. 

“Having sex outside without anything between you and the terrain isn’t nearly as fun as holodecks make it out to be.” Yellen finally confessed with a grimace, a relatable experience for Kira that brought to mind a number of encounters in caves with rocky ground that wasn’t forgiving even with a thick blanket under her.

“What about you, Major?” Bashir asked as he spun his chair to face her. “Any interesting stories about your time learning the ropes in the resistance?”

“Several.” Kira admitted after checking herself to keep from bringing the mood down by talking about the numerous new recruits who tended to die during their training periods. “The most memorable was probably sending us into Palukoo nests to try and catch dinner. “Floor to ceiling webs, and they didn’t tell us that the Palukoo were completely harmless to anything larger than a Cardassian vole.”

Yellen visibly shuddered. “Hate spiders.”

“Yea.” Palmer agreed with a nod. “Web caves are the worst, you’re always on edge waiting for whatever it is to drop down and get stuck in your hair.”

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“Poke.” Saya said as she poked Raine in the shoulder.

“Mlarghel.” Raine mumbled into the couch pillow, wanting nothing more than to stay there for the next week.

“Poke.” Saya repeated as her digit again struck home.

Raine lifted her head off the pillow to glare bleary eyed at her daughter. “Be gone demon child, lest my heavenly wrath descend upon you like the fires of Narya onto the forces of Mordor.”

Saya rolled her eyes. “Four out of ten for the mixed reference.”

“Also, you've yet to actually convince Gandalf to hand Narya over to you. So that's a threat you can't actually back up.” She finished with an amused lilt to her voice as Raine flopped her head back into the pillow.

She had nearly dozed off completely when the sound of the replicator activating brought her back around to wakefulness. And she turned her head to glare in the direction of the offending device as the smell of perfectly baked pizza began to fill their quarters.

“Evil daughter.” She muttered as her stomach chose that moment to remind her that she'd skipped dinner. “Bet her mirror universe counterpart is a perfect princess who never causes my other self any trouble.”

“Anchovy pizza is the best!” Her evil hellion of a daughter exclaimed in a clearly exaggerated tone of voice as she loudly clomped over to plop down in one of the chairs opposite the couch.

“You're not going to win.” Raine growled as she pushed herself up to stare hatefully at the tempting dish now sitting on their coffee table.

“I think it already has.” Saya said smugly as she took another exaggerated bite of the half eaten slice she was holding.

Raine's hand shot out and grabbed a slice as she pulled her legs up under her to sit more comfortably.

“My revenge will come when you least expect it.” She mumbled around a mouthful of cheesy goodness.

“I'm sure it will be swift and merciless too.” Saya returned with a giggle that quickly morphed into a worried frown. “Is everything okay mom? Cause you’re not usually as up and down as you’ve been the past couple days.”

Taking a moment to consider whether she could get away with deflecting again, Raine finally let out a sigh as the realization set in that doing so at this point would likely just make her daughters worry worse.

“Multiple Cardassian plots piling on each other at once.” She finally confessed. “And one in particular that’s been focus firing its phasers on the more dangerous risks of operations work.”

“Is there a space baby?” Saya asked with an inquisitive tilt of her head.

“Probably not.” Raine admitted after a moment, not entirely able to give a negative answer to that given Bashir would have absolutely kept either of the two women being pregnant confidential.

“Then it can’t be too bad.” Saya returned with a sagelike nod. “Cause you always say a space baby’s one of the worst things that can happen to a security officer.”

“Present company excluded of course.” Raine said with an amused look to her daughter.

“Of course.” Saya agreed with a grin.

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Author’s Notes: This chapter went some weird places after Garak began putting the second stage of his plan into motion.