Most Memorable Posts of the Year as Chosen by the Captain
Favorite Post written with my Executive Officer: Clocks
Favorite post written with my Second Officer: TIE: Entitled to the Appellation and Friends and Family
Favorite post written with my Chief Engineer: Mightier Than the Sword
Favorite post written with my Ship's Counselor: Of Course You Realize, This Means War
Favorite post written with Lara Valera Ryn: Armed and Fabulous
Favorite post written with Mellice Cem: Ask Questions First, Shoot Later
Favorite posts written jointly by two or more other members of the crew:
Women Have Wiles and Men Have Needs (Tryst/Reece)
Starting Over (Elton/Salvek)
Extraordinary Damage (Tryst/Salvek)
A Certain Point of View: Blakeslee/Tryst
Just a Coffee: Elton/Ryn
When the Time is Right (Ryn/Jariel)
The Most Dangerous Man on the Ship (Tryst/Dengar)
My favorite post I wrote by myself: The Parting Glass
My favorite individual posts by members of the crew:
Salvek: Full Swing
Blakeslee: Home 1-3
Dengar: What Shall Not Stand
Tryst: Riddle Me This
Ryn: Leningrad
Mellice: The Long Road Home
Favorite Post written with my Executive Officer: Clocks
Favorite post written with my Second Officer: TIE: Entitled to the Appellation and Friends and Family
Favorite post written with my Chief Engineer: Mightier Than the Sword
Favorite post written with my Ship's Counselor: Of Course You Realize, This Means War
Favorite post written with Lara Valera Ryn: Armed and Fabulous
Favorite post written with Mellice Cem: Ask Questions First, Shoot Later
Favorite posts written jointly by two or more other members of the crew:
Women Have Wiles and Men Have Needs (Tryst/Reece)
Starting Over (Elton/Salvek)
Extraordinary Damage (Tryst/Salvek)
A Certain Point of View: Blakeslee/Tryst
Just a Coffee: Elton/Ryn
When the Time is Right (Ryn/Jariel)
The Most Dangerous Man on the Ship (Tryst/Dengar)
My favorite post I wrote by myself: The Parting Glass
My favorite individual posts by members of the crew:
Salvek: Full Swing
Blakeslee: Home 1-3
Dengar: What Shall Not Stand
Tryst: Riddle Me This
Ryn: Leningrad
Mellice: The Long Road Home
And a special mention to Reece for: Assorted Mixed Nuts because it was exactly what I asked him for *laugh*.
My favorite joint posts I worked on this year as a character I am primary writer for other than Zanh Liis:
Soul Searching (as Keiran O'Sullivan, with Zander Blakeslee)
For Safe Keeping (as Lair Kellyn, with Rada Dengar)
Snap and Boing (as February Grace with Lara Ryn)
Show and Tells (As Landry Steele with Lance Hartcort)
Horseshoes and Hand Grenades (as Gem Lassiter with William Lindsay)
Teamwork at its Finest (as Dane Cristiane with TC Blane)
My Favorite Action Sequence: Hellfire and Damnation by William Lindsay and Zanh Liis (though my name is on these posts, Lindsay gets credit for the action sequences)
Dramatic Post of the Year: No One Shouted 'Stop'! by Lance Hartcort and Azalia Adams
Funniest posts of the year: TIE: The Balderdash Cup (Reece) and The Second Slowest People by Rada Dengar
My Favorite Plot Arc of 2009: One Day, Every Hundred Years (Lassiter/Blakeney/Lindsay)
My Favorite Sub-plot of 2009: The Adventurer's Club party on the Holodeck (you have no idea how much I loved those posts, guys...so much fun. We have to have another party there in the future.)
Overall Post of 2009 as chosen by the Captain: Last Man Standing by Salvek
Funniest dialog of the year, written by Vol Tryst: From Down Cold
"Reece!" Vol demanded.
[Good to see you too, Tryst...] Liis muttered under her breath, as Reece's head snapped upward and he greeted Vol.
[Howdy!]
"So you're sitting in a bar and in walks Godzilla."
Reece blinked once, then a second time. [Are you sure it wasn't Mothra? What about Gamera? I hear he's really neat, and that he's filled with turtle meat...]
Vol continued on, undaunted. "You're sitting in a bar, and in walks Godzilla. He's pissed off and looking for trouble. Soon, a fight breaks out."
[What am I drinking?]
Vol just ran with it. "It doesn't matter, it's tossed from your hand."
Dabin's eyes widened.
[What was I drinking?]
"A Shirley Temple."
[I love those! With extra cherries? I always ask for-]
[REECE!] Zanh bellowed sharply, and Vol watched everyone on both bridges flinch at the sound of her voice. Everyone, that was, with the exception of Salvek, TC Blane and Keiran O'Sullivan, all who were clearly immune to the effect by this point. [Focus!]
"Yes it had extra cherries. Now it's on the floor." Vol continued patiently, as if speaking to a very small child.
[No way! Godzilla spilled it? I'll kill that overgrown, scaly son of a...]
Zanh was still completely lost, and additionally her headache was returning. [Gentlemen, any time you feel you're ready to enlighten--]
The Captain was promptly ignored by Vol but Reece seemed to come back to the moment. [Yeah, Vol, wind it up, will ya? We don't have all day!]
Vol simply carried on. "Exactly! You want to hurt the big guy, but how?"
Dabin didn't ponder too long. [I guess kicking and punching would do no good.]
Vol shook his head.
[Yeah...okay...I didn't think so. Well, it's a lizard, so I'd beam that sucker to the Antarctic and point and laugh as it--]
"Dabin!" Vol interrupted. "The Domox."
[What about them?] Dabin asked curiously, his face shining brightly with innocent ignorance as to what they had to do with Godzilla and his lost Shirley Temple with extra cherries.
It was at this point that Zanh dropped her head into her hands and just sighed.
"Godzilla," Vol concluded, "meets a shrink ray."
It took a moment, and only a moment, for Dabin to take a sharp intake of air and for Vol's lips to crack a very wide smile.
---
Some of the Captain's other favorite scenes/quotes/dialog of the year:
From Numbers and Figures by Rada Dengar
His eyes, forced open, pled desperately with his body for sleep. Though the dull lighting kept always around him was blinding, worse was the darkness that let him see. There were numbers, so many numbers from corner to corner. He found they gave him order to count them one by one.
There was one door and no windows.
There were eight corners and no escape.
There was one bed and no sheets to hang himself with.
There was one species he’d destroyed and nothing else that mattered.
It was quite odd really how in a universe which had changed so drastically the numbers could be so rigidly set in their ways. What may have been yesterday, such a long time ago, he could remember the feeling like numbers were just his playthings to tease and to change as he wished. It made him something like a god but his actions indicated the devil. Power may have been the greatest of corruptors but he knew the corrupted one was always there down below.
Many worlds told of a mark of evil the gods burnt into the skin of those that offended them most. Now Rada knew better as at it’d not come with pain or passion of fire. Its coverings had just washed away revealing what had always been beneath. Perhaps that was what they were staring at, he considered, of the two figures who now stood in the door.
They were one man and one woman with phasers drawn, such an insufficient weapon for what they were up against. They wore uniforms not unlike his own. The man was a large one. Her nose was creased. Automatically he began again to count these visitors to his world.
Seven pips.
Two phasers.
Four eyes absorbed by concern.
Yet they were more than just numbers to him. They were familiar and utterly unfamiliar. He’d known these visitors in another lifetime.
-----
From Entitled to the Appellation by TC Blane and Zanh Liis
"The bottom line," Blane continued, "is that you were never meant to resign your commission as Captain of this ship to begin with." He felt she'd made a grave error in judgment, and he couldn't count himself as her friend if he didn't try to get her to see that as quickly as possible.
"You don't know, Thomas!" Liis raised her voice, something she rarely did when speaking to Blane. He stood at his full height and so did Liis, looking him straight in the eyes as she poked a finger at his chest. "What these people have done to me."
"Don’t try to feed me that bull! You know damn well that I understand more then most!” he barked back. “Your running with your tail between your legs, it’s that simple! You're going to take yourself out of the fight and let them do it to the people you care about instead? The people that you swore to protect and lead no matter-"
"Go to Hell!" Liis raged, stomping into the house and slamming the door shut between them.
Immediately, she regretted her words. She closed her eyes, fighting to maintain her composure.
After listening for a moment to see if Blane was simply going to leave, she realized she should've known him better.
She opened the door again, shoulders slumping heavily. She winced, glancing at him contritely. Her eyes spoke the apology that she wished she could find the strength to offer in words.
"If I'm going to Hell maybe you can draw me a map or give me some directions Zanh Liis," TC said tonelessly, as he calmly stood at parade rest on the porch where she'd left him. "Seems to me you're already there."
----
From An Eternity by Lindsay, Zanh and Blane
The team closed their eyes as the transporter began to break them down into molecules. When they opened their eyes they stood in the docking bay of the Romulan ship.
Then the fireworks started.
The beams deposited Blane, Zanh, and the rest of the first wave of Sera crew onto the Romulan ship directly behind Salvek.
“Captain! It is good to see you. Arie is in the shuttle.” The Vulcan informed.
*Of course she is. Where else would she be.* Before she could give voice to her internal monologue, Liis' thoughts came to a grinding halt. Her eyes darted around the bay, seeking one form; one face she had to see for herself before she could force her feet to move a single step.
---
From Up and At 'Em, Part One by ZL:
Captain's Personal Log, Stardate 90115.8
It came to my attention recently that, as part of a primary-school science project, Lair Arie managed to override certain security protocols and hijack the omnidirectional holographic diodes and magnetic field generators on deck eight of this ship.
In doing so, and in additionally rerouting certain data through one of the holodecks she was able to alter the subroutines controlling the LMH's appearance and vocal processors and reprogrammed them so that he would take on the likeness of one Twenty-first century musician, a shaggy-haired kid by the name of Joe Jonas.
She didn't understand, she said, when asked what she'd done "Why the hologram 'retained the strong vocal inflections of the doctor's original subroutines."
She then blinked and asked if there was a problem with what she had done.
The LMH was not amused.
I was not amused.
Security was, most certainly, not amused.
The teacher threw her hands into the air and gave the girl an 'a' grade on her 'project'.
In exchange for explaining to Security and Engineering exactly which flaws in the system she had exploited to pull the changes off without detection, her promise never ever to do it again and her agreement to write an essay on why it is not acceptable to override the subroutines of a sentient, photonic being for entertainment purposes or school assignments, we decided not to file any formal charges.
Or send her to boarding school.
I swear, maybe she had the right idea after all.
If Dalton doesn't let me out of here soon, I am going to let Arie have at it again and the LMH will be singing a different tune.
---
From Damnation by Lindsay/Zanh
Liis knew something exactly the right size and which was designed to cope with enough power for what they needed to do. The only problem was her arm wouldn’t move as she tried to get it.
Keiran saw her struggling “It’ll...It…” he tried to tell her that things were going to be okay, but couldn’t bring himself to lie to her.
There were eighteen seconds left before the ship exploded.
She shifted, just enough for her compass to fall out of her pocket. Keiran was shocked to see it, having no idea how or when she'd come to be in possession of it again. He was not, however, at all surprised when he also saw that it was dark. The instant he'd recognized the device, he’d accepted that it would be.
TC Blane knew now they would die, and there was something he had to say. [I…]
Then Keiran cut him off. He realised what Liis was thinking and hurled her compass at Salvek “Use that,” he demanded.
As a former Temporal Investigations agent himself, he knew she was right; that the compass could take it. Looking down at Liis again, though, he wondered if it wasn’t too late already.
"Keiran," she murmured to him softly, unable to keep her eyes open any longer. "Thank you." With her remaining strength, she tugged at the ring on his left hand.
He understood her loud and clear. She wanted him to know that she was thankful for all he'd done, all he had suffered so that they could have the chance to be together again, even if only for a little while.
Keiran could not help but consider with bittersweet gratitude that his many prayers that he would never lose her and never again have to spend a moment without her by his side looked as though they were all about to be answered. This creaking, dying ship was doing its damnedest to take them both with it, but at least it was taking them together. With their deaths they may finally find the peace in their love that so eluded them in life.
There were seven seconds left before the ship exploded.
Salvek had to jump to fix the compass in the gap left by the overloaded conduit. Just releasing it before it locked into position, and the power fried him. Throughout the ship systems began to come back online and the transponder started broadcasting.
Its signal bounced back and forth between the communicators, getting stronger and reaching out to the Sera.
My favorite joint posts I worked on this year as a character I am primary writer for other than Zanh Liis:
Soul Searching (as Keiran O'Sullivan, with Zander Blakeslee)
For Safe Keeping (as Lair Kellyn, with Rada Dengar)
Snap and Boing (as February Grace with Lara Ryn)
Show and Tells (As Landry Steele with Lance Hartcort)
Horseshoes and Hand Grenades (as Gem Lassiter with William Lindsay)
Teamwork at its Finest (as Dane Cristiane with TC Blane)
My Favorite Action Sequence: Hellfire and Damnation by William Lindsay and Zanh Liis (though my name is on these posts, Lindsay gets credit for the action sequences)
Dramatic Post of the Year: No One Shouted 'Stop'! by Lance Hartcort and Azalia Adams
Funniest posts of the year: TIE: The Balderdash Cup (Reece) and The Second Slowest People by Rada Dengar
My Favorite Plot Arc of 2009: One Day, Every Hundred Years (Lassiter/Blakeney/Lindsay)
My Favorite Sub-plot of 2009: The Adventurer's Club party on the Holodeck (you have no idea how much I loved those posts, guys...so much fun. We have to have another party there in the future.)
Overall Post of 2009 as chosen by the Captain: Last Man Standing by Salvek
Funniest dialog of the year, written by Vol Tryst: From Down Cold
"Reece!" Vol demanded.
[Good to see you too, Tryst...] Liis muttered under her breath, as Reece's head snapped upward and he greeted Vol.
[Howdy!]
"So you're sitting in a bar and in walks Godzilla."
Reece blinked once, then a second time. [Are you sure it wasn't Mothra? What about Gamera? I hear he's really neat, and that he's filled with turtle meat...]
Vol continued on, undaunted. "You're sitting in a bar, and in walks Godzilla. He's pissed off and looking for trouble. Soon, a fight breaks out."
[What am I drinking?]
Vol just ran with it. "It doesn't matter, it's tossed from your hand."
Dabin's eyes widened.
[What was I drinking?]
"A Shirley Temple."
[I love those! With extra cherries? I always ask for-]
[REECE!] Zanh bellowed sharply, and Vol watched everyone on both bridges flinch at the sound of her voice. Everyone, that was, with the exception of Salvek, TC Blane and Keiran O'Sullivan, all who were clearly immune to the effect by this point. [Focus!]
"Yes it had extra cherries. Now it's on the floor." Vol continued patiently, as if speaking to a very small child.
[No way! Godzilla spilled it? I'll kill that overgrown, scaly son of a...]
Zanh was still completely lost, and additionally her headache was returning. [Gentlemen, any time you feel you're ready to enlighten--]
The Captain was promptly ignored by Vol but Reece seemed to come back to the moment. [Yeah, Vol, wind it up, will ya? We don't have all day!]
Vol simply carried on. "Exactly! You want to hurt the big guy, but how?"
Dabin didn't ponder too long. [I guess kicking and punching would do no good.]
Vol shook his head.
[Yeah...okay...I didn't think so. Well, it's a lizard, so I'd beam that sucker to the Antarctic and point and laugh as it--]
"Dabin!" Vol interrupted. "The Domox."
[What about them?] Dabin asked curiously, his face shining brightly with innocent ignorance as to what they had to do with Godzilla and his lost Shirley Temple with extra cherries.
It was at this point that Zanh dropped her head into her hands and just sighed.
"Godzilla," Vol concluded, "meets a shrink ray."
It took a moment, and only a moment, for Dabin to take a sharp intake of air and for Vol's lips to crack a very wide smile.
---
Some of the Captain's other favorite scenes/quotes/dialog of the year:
From Numbers and Figures by Rada Dengar
His eyes, forced open, pled desperately with his body for sleep. Though the dull lighting kept always around him was blinding, worse was the darkness that let him see. There were numbers, so many numbers from corner to corner. He found they gave him order to count them one by one.
There was one door and no windows.
There were eight corners and no escape.
There was one bed and no sheets to hang himself with.
There was one species he’d destroyed and nothing else that mattered.
It was quite odd really how in a universe which had changed so drastically the numbers could be so rigidly set in their ways. What may have been yesterday, such a long time ago, he could remember the feeling like numbers were just his playthings to tease and to change as he wished. It made him something like a god but his actions indicated the devil. Power may have been the greatest of corruptors but he knew the corrupted one was always there down below.
Many worlds told of a mark of evil the gods burnt into the skin of those that offended them most. Now Rada knew better as at it’d not come with pain or passion of fire. Its coverings had just washed away revealing what had always been beneath. Perhaps that was what they were staring at, he considered, of the two figures who now stood in the door.
They were one man and one woman with phasers drawn, such an insufficient weapon for what they were up against. They wore uniforms not unlike his own. The man was a large one. Her nose was creased. Automatically he began again to count these visitors to his world.
Seven pips.
Two phasers.
Four eyes absorbed by concern.
Yet they were more than just numbers to him. They were familiar and utterly unfamiliar. He’d known these visitors in another lifetime.
-----
From Entitled to the Appellation by TC Blane and Zanh Liis
"The bottom line," Blane continued, "is that you were never meant to resign your commission as Captain of this ship to begin with." He felt she'd made a grave error in judgment, and he couldn't count himself as her friend if he didn't try to get her to see that as quickly as possible.
"You don't know, Thomas!" Liis raised her voice, something she rarely did when speaking to Blane. He stood at his full height and so did Liis, looking him straight in the eyes as she poked a finger at his chest. "What these people have done to me."
"Don’t try to feed me that bull! You know damn well that I understand more then most!” he barked back. “Your running with your tail between your legs, it’s that simple! You're going to take yourself out of the fight and let them do it to the people you care about instead? The people that you swore to protect and lead no matter-"
"Go to Hell!" Liis raged, stomping into the house and slamming the door shut between them.
Immediately, she regretted her words. She closed her eyes, fighting to maintain her composure.
After listening for a moment to see if Blane was simply going to leave, she realized she should've known him better.
She opened the door again, shoulders slumping heavily. She winced, glancing at him contritely. Her eyes spoke the apology that she wished she could find the strength to offer in words.
"If I'm going to Hell maybe you can draw me a map or give me some directions Zanh Liis," TC said tonelessly, as he calmly stood at parade rest on the porch where she'd left him. "Seems to me you're already there."
----
From An Eternity by Lindsay, Zanh and Blane
The team closed their eyes as the transporter began to break them down into molecules. When they opened their eyes they stood in the docking bay of the Romulan ship.
Then the fireworks started.
The beams deposited Blane, Zanh, and the rest of the first wave of Sera crew onto the Romulan ship directly behind Salvek.
“Captain! It is good to see you. Arie is in the shuttle.” The Vulcan informed.
*Of course she is. Where else would she be.* Before she could give voice to her internal monologue, Liis' thoughts came to a grinding halt. Her eyes darted around the bay, seeking one form; one face she had to see for herself before she could force her feet to move a single step.
---
From Up and At 'Em, Part One by ZL:
Captain's Personal Log, Stardate 90115.8
It came to my attention recently that, as part of a primary-school science project, Lair Arie managed to override certain security protocols and hijack the omnidirectional holographic diodes and magnetic field generators on deck eight of this ship.
In doing so, and in additionally rerouting certain data through one of the holodecks she was able to alter the subroutines controlling the LMH's appearance and vocal processors and reprogrammed them so that he would take on the likeness of one Twenty-first century musician, a shaggy-haired kid by the name of Joe Jonas.
She didn't understand, she said, when asked what she'd done "Why the hologram 'retained the strong vocal inflections of the doctor's original subroutines."
She then blinked and asked if there was a problem with what she had done.
The LMH was not amused.
I was not amused.
Security was, most certainly, not amused.
The teacher threw her hands into the air and gave the girl an 'a' grade on her 'project'.
In exchange for explaining to Security and Engineering exactly which flaws in the system she had exploited to pull the changes off without detection, her promise never ever to do it again and her agreement to write an essay on why it is not acceptable to override the subroutines of a sentient, photonic being for entertainment purposes or school assignments, we decided not to file any formal charges.
Or send her to boarding school.
I swear, maybe she had the right idea after all.
If Dalton doesn't let me out of here soon, I am going to let Arie have at it again and the LMH will be singing a different tune.
---
From Damnation by Lindsay/Zanh
Liis knew something exactly the right size and which was designed to cope with enough power for what they needed to do. The only problem was her arm wouldn’t move as she tried to get it.
Keiran saw her struggling “It’ll...It…” he tried to tell her that things were going to be okay, but couldn’t bring himself to lie to her.
There were eighteen seconds left before the ship exploded.
She shifted, just enough for her compass to fall out of her pocket. Keiran was shocked to see it, having no idea how or when she'd come to be in possession of it again. He was not, however, at all surprised when he also saw that it was dark. The instant he'd recognized the device, he’d accepted that it would be.
TC Blane knew now they would die, and there was something he had to say. [I…]
Then Keiran cut him off. He realised what Liis was thinking and hurled her compass at Salvek “Use that,” he demanded.
As a former Temporal Investigations agent himself, he knew she was right; that the compass could take it. Looking down at Liis again, though, he wondered if it wasn’t too late already.
"Keiran," she murmured to him softly, unable to keep her eyes open any longer. "Thank you." With her remaining strength, she tugged at the ring on his left hand.
He understood her loud and clear. She wanted him to know that she was thankful for all he'd done, all he had suffered so that they could have the chance to be together again, even if only for a little while.
Keiran could not help but consider with bittersweet gratitude that his many prayers that he would never lose her and never again have to spend a moment without her by his side looked as though they were all about to be answered. This creaking, dying ship was doing its damnedest to take them both with it, but at least it was taking them together. With their deaths they may finally find the peace in their love that so eluded them in life.
There were seven seconds left before the ship exploded.
Salvek had to jump to fix the compass in the gap left by the overloaded conduit. Just releasing it before it locked into position, and the power fried him. Throughout the ship systems began to come back online and the transponder started broadcasting.
Its signal bounced back and forth between the communicators, getting stronger and reaching out to the Sera.
-=Main Bridge; USS Serendipity=-
“Sir, the Captain’s transponder is broadcasting again,” Tenney advised.
Standard protocol was to open communications and to confirm the Captain wanted to beam back, but that was impossible with the interference.
There were four seconds left before the ship exploded.
Luckily, that was standard protocol and this was Dabin Reece.
“Beam them back now!” he ordered.
The transporter room locked onto the transponder signal but it was being bounced around too much to get a fix. They located the end points.
The plasma pressure reached critical and ignited.
The transporter operator started the beam out.
The chain reaction hit.
The transporter operator only counted four life signs.
The Romulan ship was destroyed, taking Liis’ temporal compass, Taris, and everyone left on board with it.
The Away Team materialised on the transporter pad.
Liis’ life sign had been too weak to register on their equipment but she’d been carried along, in Keiran’s arms.
She had closed her eyes thinking how grateful she was that at the very least, she would fall asleep for the last time wrapped in his arms; her head resting against his strong and steady shoulder.
The men she'd both sworn to protect and also entrusted with her life, however, refused to acknowledge that as an acceptable outcome.
They had not deserted her.
They had not faltered.
They had not failed; and because of them, she would wake from the nightmare to find instead she'd made it home alive.
---
From Do You? by Jariel Camen
Camen laced his fingers together, and gave Ram a smile as sweet as death itself. “Relanon also has a long track record of contributing to you as well. I was reading through some of the old public contribution records and saw an anonymous donor provided you with a yacht and a vacation on Vulcan last winter. This was right before Dendre Hald awarded a new contract for planet-wide vaccine manufacturing to Relanon, with a note in the press release that the contract had the full support of Gorlan Ram and the Vedek Assembly.”
Ram stammered, unaware Jariel was coming here armed with any other information other than what the Starfleet doctors had told him.
“You don’t really think I was going to come here unarmed for a fight, did you Vedek Ram?”
Ram brushed a few crumbs off the belly of his stretched out robe, from the snack he was eating during the presentation.
“All that aside, I maintain, my fellow Vedeks, that going public is the wrong course of action at this time. If Relanon collapses, so does the vaccine industry, and that puts the safety of the public in danger.”
“Starfleet can provide any vaccine you need on twenty-four hours notice. All you have to do is ask.” Hartcort chimed in. “Of course you’ll have to give us a little more lead time for the yacht.”
“How was Vulcan, Vedek Ram? The desert must have felt wonderful compared to what the people in the Plains had last winter. Bitter cold with no electricity or heat.” Camen asked. “I have an in with the First Officer of the Serendipity whom I’m sure can find out for me who made and paid for all your travel arrangements to Vulcan, but I don’t think there is any point in going that far, is there Vedek?”
Camen walked slowly around the room, meeting the eyes of each member of the Assembly as he continued to speak. “As for going public, that is a foregone conclusion. If the Assembly does not speak out, I will. That will leave each of you with an important question. Who amongst you desire to go back to your Province and explain to your parishioners why, when you were told about this threat to the Bajoran people, you… did… nothing? Who would like to explain all this to the Kai, when the people call for his head?”
Jariel leaned over the table where the last Vedek sat, palms flat, and his face mere inches away from the white haired elderly woman.
Standard protocol was to open communications and to confirm the Captain wanted to beam back, but that was impossible with the interference.
There were four seconds left before the ship exploded.
Luckily, that was standard protocol and this was Dabin Reece.
“Beam them back now!” he ordered.
The transporter room locked onto the transponder signal but it was being bounced around too much to get a fix. They located the end points.
The plasma pressure reached critical and ignited.
The transporter operator started the beam out.
The chain reaction hit.
The transporter operator only counted four life signs.
The Romulan ship was destroyed, taking Liis’ temporal compass, Taris, and everyone left on board with it.
The Away Team materialised on the transporter pad.
Liis’ life sign had been too weak to register on their equipment but she’d been carried along, in Keiran’s arms.
She had closed her eyes thinking how grateful she was that at the very least, she would fall asleep for the last time wrapped in his arms; her head resting against his strong and steady shoulder.
The men she'd both sworn to protect and also entrusted with her life, however, refused to acknowledge that as an acceptable outcome.
They had not deserted her.
They had not faltered.
They had not failed; and because of them, she would wake from the nightmare to find instead she'd made it home alive.
---
From Do You? by Jariel Camen
Camen laced his fingers together, and gave Ram a smile as sweet as death itself. “Relanon also has a long track record of contributing to you as well. I was reading through some of the old public contribution records and saw an anonymous donor provided you with a yacht and a vacation on Vulcan last winter. This was right before Dendre Hald awarded a new contract for planet-wide vaccine manufacturing to Relanon, with a note in the press release that the contract had the full support of Gorlan Ram and the Vedek Assembly.”
Ram stammered, unaware Jariel was coming here armed with any other information other than what the Starfleet doctors had told him.
“You don’t really think I was going to come here unarmed for a fight, did you Vedek Ram?”
Ram brushed a few crumbs off the belly of his stretched out robe, from the snack he was eating during the presentation.
“All that aside, I maintain, my fellow Vedeks, that going public is the wrong course of action at this time. If Relanon collapses, so does the vaccine industry, and that puts the safety of the public in danger.”
“Starfleet can provide any vaccine you need on twenty-four hours notice. All you have to do is ask.” Hartcort chimed in. “Of course you’ll have to give us a little more lead time for the yacht.”
“How was Vulcan, Vedek Ram? The desert must have felt wonderful compared to what the people in the Plains had last winter. Bitter cold with no electricity or heat.” Camen asked. “I have an in with the First Officer of the Serendipity whom I’m sure can find out for me who made and paid for all your travel arrangements to Vulcan, but I don’t think there is any point in going that far, is there Vedek?”
Camen walked slowly around the room, meeting the eyes of each member of the Assembly as he continued to speak. “As for going public, that is a foregone conclusion. If the Assembly does not speak out, I will. That will leave each of you with an important question. Who amongst you desire to go back to your Province and explain to your parishioners why, when you were told about this threat to the Bajoran people, you… did… nothing? Who would like to explain all this to the Kai, when the people call for his head?”
Jariel leaned over the table where the last Vedek sat, palms flat, and his face mere inches away from the white haired elderly woman.
“Do you?”
He moved to the next Vedek.
“Do you?”
--
From Beyond All Reason by Blakeney/Lassiter
Gem was now faced with a difficult decision. Since by definition she now seemed to be his captive, the best should could hope to do was keep him talking and try to cause him a moment's distraction so she could get a hold of his transponder, or figure out another way out of this place. The best way to do that would be to lie to him, to tell him what he wanted to hear. Sadly, her nature just wouldn't allow it this time. "No." She answered honestly. "I don't."
"Why do you doubt me? Is it my lack of skills? Lack of intelligence? Lack of fashion sense?" Now it almost seemed that he was the one trying to throw her off balance. "Because darling if you're basing credentials as an undercover agent on chosen manner of dress, you're the one who has cast aspersions."
"You've been lying to me!" Gem shouted, beyond the point now of looking for a way out that may or may not exist. She just couldn't hold back any longer. "You knew that Braylan wasn't what he said he was. You knew the moment you saw the blood. You knew exactly where and when to show up to keep me from getting killed by his murderer and you," she paused, "you just know a little too well how to," she stopped.
He stared at her now, his expression quite difficult to read.
"How to what, Gemini? How to wear you down until I could convince you to forget that you had an investigation underway that could mean millions of lives being saved or lost depending upon the outcome? Did you think that I could be so egotistical that I'd just beam us up here from a murder scene, sweep you off of your feet, take you straight over there," he nodded toward the large bed in the center of the room. "...and risk all those lives just to spend one night with you? And you think that I'm conceited."
She suddenly felt very ashamed of herself. She didn't want it to but reason interfered. While she had no doubt that, before they'd gotten this far into the investigation he'd have jumped at the chance to spend the night with her, now it was different. And even given their unexpected surroundings, he was trying to keep working. Yes, he had locked the door, there could be any one of a hundred valid reasons why and she was sure he could offer them all if just given sixty seconds to explain. She also knew just how much she would want to believe every single one.
The only thing that still bothered her was why he was holding so much back if he was really who he said he was.
Her silence infuriated him even more than her frustrating refusal to believe his cover story.
He became so angry that he forgot himself and his neatly clipped, perfectly polished British accent began to morph into something that sounded quite different.
"Ya know, yer really somethin'. At first I thought you were just sexually frustrated. But no, no darlin' i's so much more than that. Gem Lassiter doesn' have feelings! She doesn' need romance or excitement. She's more highly evolved than the rest of us poor Neanderthal, bipedal primates who are strugglin' just to keep on standin' upright! She's got i'tall figured out. She can work alone, live alone, sleep alone, save the world all alone. She can do it all by noon and still have the rest of the day all to herself to make up lists of ways she could've done it more efficiently!"
"Michael," she stammered, her mouth hanging open as he continued his rant.
"She doesn' want an'a'one's help, or need an'a'one, ever. Nothin' and no one can touch the great Gemini Lassiter? Well maybe nothin' SHOULD!" As he stormed away, over to another panel in the wall, she heard him mutter one last remark under his breath. "I'm certainly done tryin'."
She stared at him in shock; his accent had just changed countries of origin, right before her eyes.
"Michael," she stuttered again. He hadn't even realized what he'd done, and was still so angry with her and with the ridiculously complicated situation he now found himself in that he swiftly moved back toward her, took hold of her arm with one hand and then pulled the transponder from his pocket again with the other.
"This is yer stop, Gem. I'm sendin' ya back. You are ta stay where I'm sendin' you, 'till you receive word that the investigation is over and the murderer has been apprehended. Do you understand exactly what I am telling you?"
Slowly his accent returned to its original inflections, and she simply nodded. She didn't want to stay here if he was going to keep her from searching for more answers, and so the best thing she could do was play along and then as soon as she was free...
For his part, Michael was convinced that she was not understanding just how much danger her life was really in.
"Listen to me very carefully." He began again, as he grasped her firmly by the shoulders, his eyes burning into hers. "You are not to leave the place where I'm sending you. If you do, they will find you and they will kill you."
------
From Teamwork at Its Finest by TC Blane, Dane Cristiane and Landry Steele
Why can't we just beam the thing up, again?" Landry asked, as Blane settled into the pilot's seat and brought the engines of the shuttle to life.
"Because O'Sullivan can be a pain in the..." Dane blurted, but then he stopped. His reason for not completing the thought was two-fold; the first being that Blane would smack him upside the head without hesitation if he completed the sentence and two, Dane was awfully glad that Keiran was around to be a pain, no matter how big.
"Because it is a handmade gift from O'Sullivan to his wife, who, need I remind either of you happens to be Captain of this ship? He doesn't want to risk a single molecule of it being scattered by the transporter beam." Blane explained.
"You do know we have to get it down that tiny spiral staircase." Dane recalled the space well.
"No, we don't. See, this is why O'Sullivan wanted me to keep an eye on you," Blane shook his head. "Basic reconnaissance, Cristiane. Always check for an easier way out. In this case, the standard staircase that is down the hall from the guest room and exits the house through the kitchen would be the easier route. No spiral."
Dane's face reddened. He'd completely forgotten about the second set of stairs.
“Don’t sweat it, Cristiane. It sometimes takes years to become competent.” TC chided.