The Secret Is Finally Out

Posted on Sat Oct 17th, 2015 @ 12:51am by Niall Sala Ph.D. & Lani Gellar

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: CoronaTech Offices

* CoronaTech Offices *

Fresh from his vacation, Niall breezed in through the front door, looking relaxed, tanned and happy. He smiled at Malcolm and JL as he rested his briefcase on Lani’s vacant desk.

“Good morning gentlemen, it’s good to see you. It’s nice to be back, though I could’ve easily stayed longer.” He leaned back against Lani’s desk and crossed his ankles, revealing that for perhaps the first time in memory, he was not wearing a tie. “Everything run smoothly while I was gone?”

Malcolm perked up and looked over his computer console at JL, eyebrows raised. JL had done nearly the same thing and they locked eyes for a moment, each wincing. “Ah...,” Malcolm hedged, “Smooth? Yes. Yes, things were very smooth while you were gone. How was the vacation? It looks like you got some sun.”

“And maybe laid,” JL blurted. He then looked horrified and slowly turned beet red.

The office was silent as Niall met JL’s gaze. Finally he smiled. “It was a great time and I don’t kiss and tell. Or even just tell without kissing.” His smile lingered, however. “Oh JL, get over it. I’m not going to shoot you where you stand.”

JL laughed nervously. “Thanks.”

His office mate, who had been struck silent by JL’s outburst, cleared his throat and asked, “Did Lani contact you at any point while you were gone?”

“No, was she supposed to?” Niall’s brow furrowed at the question. Something in Mal’s tone told him it wasn’t just a casual question. “Then again we were out in a cabin in the woods and mostly out of reach. On purpose.” The realization came only now that the desk he was leaning on did not have a young blonde woman sitting behind it. He looked over his shoulder and noticed her terminal wasn’t on. The desktop was empty. “Oh. She’s not even here. Alright, what don’t I know?”

JL and Malcolm shared a look again and Malcolm complained, “She stuck us with telling him. Nice.”

“Lani ran off with her boyfriend,” JL said, silently agreeing with Malcolm. “She said she’ll be working from the Colony for a couple of weeks.”

“Adara requested her there, officially. So did Lev, unofficially,” Malcolm added.

“Unofficially? Explain.” Niall’s tone was suddenly reserved. He looked from one to the other. “Alright you two, what’s going on? And what boyfriend?”

Again, the two shared a look. “Lev is the boyfriend,” Malcolm thought Niall would have made that connection. “So, you know, he asked that she go with them to ensure that set up on the Colony goes smoothly.”

“Uh huh. Just to make sure the set up goes smoothly.” The corners of his mouth twitched for an instant. “Just two weeks?”

They both shrugged. “That’s what she said,” JL commented.

“I see. Huh.” He fell silent again as he considered the situation. This could make things a little more hectic here than normal, but then again, he had been unreachable. On top of that, he would have sent one of them out to the colony….which raised some question in his mind. “How serious is this one, guys?”

“Serious enough that she told us who he is. Usually, she keeps ‘em a secret ‘cause she knows she’ll be done with them in a week or so.” Malcolm shrugged.

“I don’t know that she’ll actually be back, Niall,” JL suggested.

“You don’t know that she...wait.” His reserved expression shifted to surprise. “You don’t think she’ll be back? Really? I mean...I suppose having someone on site during the transition will be good but once they’re settled in and everything is up and running, what will she do there?”

“Work remotely?”, Malcolm suggested.

“Lev?”, JL asked.

Niall snorted. “That goes without saying, doesn’t it? I have to confess I am surprised and not exactly sure what to think. You two were surprised too, weren’t you? You both thought she was seeing me. Guess we all have been enlightened, huh?”

“You?”

“Perish the thought!”

The two looked scandalized. That was, indeed, one of their theories, but Lani had dashed those thoughts when she’d said she was going to the Colony. Their other theories included some highly unlikely candidates as Niall’s romantic interest. For example, Malcolm had a convoluted idea that Niall was secretly seeing Adara, which is why he’d worked, briefly, with her on DS-15 and now here. Of course, that theory ignored the looks that Adara gave the Doctor, Isi.

Niall shrugged finally. “Well, they should be arriving any time now, I’ll talk to her. What that means, however, is that you two will need to pick up the slack here for stuff that can’t be done remotely.” It also meant that they needed to be made aware of his own situation, especially since it would be common knowledge soon enough. “There’s also one other thing.”

“We have to do more work?”, Mal looked disgusted.

“Oh, no. We are so calling her back here,” JL shook his head.

Niall held up his hand to stop the protests. “Just the things she can’t do from there, which means anything that requires in-person attention here.” He paused and took a deep breath. “There’s one more thing you all need to know, and no, I was not on vacation with Adara. I know that has crossed your minds. It wasn’t her or Lani or any of the other names you came up with.”

“Really? Not even Hope?” JL looked hopeful.

“Chief Jenkins? She’s hot, in a black-eyeliner-to-the-max kind of way,” Malcolm guessed.

“Oh! I could see you with a Vulcan - all stoic and serious and secretive, like Aure’l?” JL took another shot.

Niall began to laugh once more. “Aure’l thinks I am too frivolous, if you can imagine that?”

“Friv... seriously?”

“Has she met you?”

Both blinked and looked closer at Niall, as if trying to see whether he was being serious or just yanking their chains.

“True story. But since you’ll never guess, and you need to know since you’ll see more of them here, I’ll tell you.” He paused and finally made the leap. “It’s Counselor Swift.”

Both sat up straighter and stared, mouths agape, at Niall. Malcolm recovered first, “Wow. We totally had the wrong gender!”

“Lani knows, doesn’t she?”, JL was a little slower to recover. “He’ll be coming around here to see you?”

“Yes and yes. She just found out right before I left for vacation.” Seeing their expressions, he smiled. “I needed some advice, that’s all. Not that I don’t trust you two.”

“Well... she does have experience dating men.”

“Experience we don’t have. Unless... Mal? Is there anything you need to tell us?”

“No, nope, I haven’t dated a man yet. That I know of,” Mal shook his head. “So, yep, Lani is the best one for advice in that department.”

“So I should go call her and get this worked out.” He pushed away from the desk. “Is she serious about this one?”

“We covered this ground, Niall,” Malcolm said.

“It’s okay that you forgot already - we know it’s shocking,” JL comforted Niall, “She told us about him, so yeah, she’s serious about him. Now, whether he knows that or whether he’s serious in return? We don’t know.”

“Yeah I know you did, I was just hoping we were all overreacting and she’d be back soon. Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll let you know how it goes.” He turned and disappeared into his office.

Once he was settled behind his desk, he opened a channel to C&C at Valhalla. A young officer answered and put him through to Commander Antos’ residence, which was surprise number two. He drummed his fingers on the desk as he waited for her to answer.

After a moment or two, Lani appeared on the screen, smiling, “Niall! How was your vacation? How’s Robin?”

“Robin is wonderful, as was our vacation.” He smiled back at her. “Everything’s great with him. Honestly? I was a little worried about us being all alone for two weeks with things as new as they are but it was...perfect.” He paused and his smile faded. “I’m calling about you.”

“That’s wonderful to hear about Robin. What about me? Didn’t you get Adara’s request? Did Mal and JL tell you that I’ve run away?”

‘“It’s here on my terminal. I just got back to the office and I was pretty well unreachable. As for those two, yes, they did say that.” His smile returned. “Which raises some questions.” He was back to normal, business Niall it seemed.

“What questions?” She had the feeling she knew, but wanted to wait for him to ask.

“Business first. Do you want to keep working? Doing it remotely? If so, we can manage that easily I think. It will mean the boys dealing with anything that can’t be sent but honestly, I do most things remotely now that we’re out here.”

“Of course I want to keep working, Niall. What a stu-- silly question. I figured that you’d have no issue with me working remotely. And those two, you might need to ride herd on them every once in awhile. It can be like herding cats, but then... get enough tuna and that’s easy to do.” Lani laughed.

Niall laughed too. “Good point. I think that they will rise to the occasion. Besides, you can still ride herd on them via terminal.” He stopped and pondered just how to phrase his next question. “As for this move, is it going to be permanent Lani?”

“I don’t know. Lev and I haven’t discussed anything beyond what’s for dinner tonight,” she smiled. “We’ll figure it out and you’ll be among the first to know. I’m staying with him... ah... to make sure the officers’ quarters are up to snuff.”

“As good an excuse as any,” Niall laughed. “Now, I am asking about you, not Lev. I know he’s a good man but is this what you want?”

Her brows knit together as she looked at him. “Is this what I want?”, she had a note of disbelief in her voice, “Is Robin what you want? Are you sure?”

Niall nodded. “Yes. I only ask because, in your years with me, you’ve become something like family, whether you knew it or not and I can’t fight that urge to look out for you.”

She smiled, “Oh, Niall. If I were there, I’d hug you even though I know you’re really not one for hugging. You’re like family to me, too, so don’t worry about us not being in touch.”

“Are you kidding? If you’re still working here, we’ll be in touch constantly, trust me.” His smile finally returned. “I hope it works kiddo. I know Lev wouldn’t hurt you for anything. So, we’ll just see how it goes. I suspect you’ll be busy with colony settling in for the next week or so. Then we’ll know where we are.”

“I’ll be in touch, Bossman,” she smiled. “I doubt I’ll be calling about any problems with the settling in, though. Be careful letting Mal and JL know your plans - they have no compunction about following you and ‘bumping into’ you and your date.”

“I told them,” he admitted. “It was time they knew since I think we’ll be seeing more of Robin around here. It will be fine. Have a good week and call if you have trouble that Thor can’t fix.”

“Thor?” Her brow furrowed.

“Tobin. Remember him? He’ll take care of just about anything that comes up but I am available whenever you need me. That includes just needing to talk, okay?”

“Oh, right. Gosh, he is a bit too good looking, isn’t he? Thanks, Niall. I’m here, too, if you need to talk. Mal and JL will be useless for advice about men,” she laughed.

“They already admitted that. Alright, get back to whatever you were doing. I have a list of requests as long as my arm from people wanting to submit proposals for us to consider. I’ll send you the good ones to check out. Take care Lani.” He smiled and closed the channel. In the quiet of his office, he considered getting to work but he continued to sit, thinking back over his vacation instead.

***************
Lani Gellar

Malcolm Trent
JL Axin

Niall Sala, Ph.D.