Help Is On The Way

Posted on Sat May 16th, 2015 @ 12:55pm by Commander Dae Nalas & Lieutenant Commander Solis & Lieutenant Bajun Julisa

Mission: Breaking New Ground
Location: USS Inaba - En Route To 900

* * * USS Inaba * * *

She'd slept hard, so hard she had drooled on the pillow and her hair was plastered to one side of her head. Sitting up slowly, she asked the computer for the time - and, as she suspected, realized that she'd been left to sleep right through her turn at the helm. She minded that - in that it implied Dae and Solis were coddling her. Then again, as her hand twinged painfully, perhaps a little coddling was okay.

Running her fingers through her hair and then washing her face, she made herself presentable before heading up to the cockpit. "Sol?" She touched his shoulder, smiled at him and slipped into the seat next to him. "Where in the galaxy are we?"

“Just a few hours out from home. I sent Dae to sleep since neither you nor he is blessed with Vulcan physiology where sleep needs are concerned. Feeling better?” He looked over to her and couldn’t resist reaching out to touch her face. He just couldn’t look away and part of his brain warned him not to go overboard, no matter what the rest of him wanted to do. Too late it hit him that since he was touching her, she’d feel all of the emotions surging within him.

Leaning into his touch a bit, Julisa chuckled and kissed him before his emotions filtered in. "I am, sort of. My hand hurts, but that's too be expected for now, right?" Her demeanor changed slightly and her brow wrinkled, "What's going on, Sol?"

“With what?” The console beeped and he took a moment to adjust course before turning back to Julisa. Busted, he knew. He smiled and shook his head. “Just a little wound up still. My bastard mind keeps replaying that scene when we found you and wondering what I’d have done if we had been too late.”

"You haven't slept since, have you? No wonder you're still wound up. But don't think along that line - you and Dae were in time. Thankfully. I'd hate to think what could have happened if you hadn't. I might be complaining about both hands hurting," she winced.

Or a shoulder, he thought but smiled.

“You’re right of course.” He took her uninjured hand and raised it to his lips. “I think I am going to be grateful that we did get there for the rest of my days.” He leaned over to kiss her gently.

She deepened the kiss and made a move as if to slip into his lap. "I certainly will be. And I'll be happy to show you my gratitude."

Solis settled her in his lap with a laugh. “Out here may not be the best idea. Dae’s a light sleeper like all the spooks. I know that because he said so, not from personal experience. Though he does know how to cha cha I found out. I might make Earl jealous.” It felt so good to be lighthearted again. Julisa always had a way of brightening his mood.

Laughing, she kissed his cheek. "You have so many ways of making Earl jealous. Though, I'll warn you that he does a snazzy tango."

“Oh is that so? He always has to lead though, but since it’s Earl….” He hugged Julisa close, savoring the moment. Questions rose in his mind though, that needed to be decided. “We need to figure out a few things.”

"Like what? Making this official?" She chuckled. "We've been referred to as married and I've referred to you as my husband, but... We never really got around to that, did we?"

“You took off after I gave you the ring as I recalled.” Merriment danced in Solis’ eyes. “And yes but that’s not exactly what I meant. I was thinking about what will happen when we get to 900. In light of circumstances on Betazed, I don’t expect our homecoming to be welcoming.”

“He’s right, Julisa.” It was Dae, emerging from his quarters, looking fresh as a daisy.

"Oh, um, Dae, hello," Julisa started to rise from Solis' lap but he held her in place. "A bad homecoming? Perhaps so, but we have evidence of wrongdoing. All we need to do is show that to...," her reasoned passion died quickly, "...to whom? What if Ray is in on this? Or Zeferino? People on her staff?" She could see why their homecoming might be bumpy.

“Well we know it’s not Li or Oz themselves, they’re gone and if they were part of this, you couldn’t pry them off the station. Staffs are open to question and that means everyone.” Dae frowned a moment. “I can think of two exceptions. Admirals Wegener and Hawke. They wouldn’t be trying to screw themselves over.”

“There’s one more,” Solis added, looking from Julisa to Dae. “Nico. He has to know this since he was there.”

"Right, but the pool of people to trust and who are on the Station right now, is pretty small. Dae, what about your people? Isn't there a.. Leto somebody? Can you trust her or anyone else?"

“I want to say yes but I just don’t know, Julisa.” Dae frowned as he considered all the possibilities. “Did anyone besides Dr. Crane know you were coming Solis?”

Solis shook his head. “Not on my end, how about you two?”

"Well, the two admirals, of course. Ray, Siri, Chelsea and Monique, and Earl, too. No one else needed to know," Julisa replied.

“Which means no one knows I am here,” Solis surmised. He looked up to Dae. “I’ll be our way in. When we arrive, I’ll have us all beamed to Piper. They won’t think anything of a request from me, whereas every transport area on the station may be tipped off about you two.”

Dae nodded. “And once we are there, Julisa, we’ll track down Nico. Robin’s office can get him for us.”

"Sounds like a workable plan," Julisa commented.

“Once we have him, we’ll need to get to our admirals and hope like hell that Ray’s on the level.”

“We have about five hours till we’ll be docking,” Solis informed them. “Time to relax a little before we jump into the fire.”

********
Lt. Bajun Julisa
Lt. Solis
Lt. Commander Dae Nalas
Coming In Dark