Big Things in Small Packages

Posted on Mon Jan 11th, 2016 @ 3:50am by Admiral Lucius Hawke & Captain Li Hawke & Lieutenant Seren Hawke & Ensign Kai Sarkozi & Aros & Admiral Ricky Wegener
Edited on on Sat Feb 6th, 2016 @ 12:54pm

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Admiral Hawke's Office

* Admiral Hawke’s Office *

Lucius had risen early and grabbed a quick breakfast before he dressed in uniform. He leaned down to kiss Tora and whisper that he had a meeting and would be home later, then departed. Kai was already at her desk when he arrived and she handed him a full mug of coffee and a padd.

“You’re in early, kiddo. What’s up?” he asked.

“Well, I know Seren and the Admiral are coming today and with Gilroy away I woke up early and decided to come in. I know what they’ve gone to do and it’s made me too nervous to settle down much. I don’t sleep all that well when he’s away either. So, here I am.”

Lucius nodded. “I can understand that. When Rick and Seren get here, send them right on in. Oh, Li will be with them, and check on Aia’s transport. Get me their arrival time and date.”

“Of course, sir. I already put two carafes of coffee in there and some croissants and chocolate.” Kai flashed him a smile and returned to her terminal.

“Thanks, Frenchy.” He grinned at her and went into the inner office.

Five minutes passed before Rick strolled in. “Ensign Sarkozi,” he said with a smile to the petite aide. “Up early, I see. Bucking for a promotion?”

“Just keeping the head spook in line, sir.” She smiled back at him. “Not that anyone really can. He’s here and waiting for you.”

“Did you even eat breakfast this morning?” Rick asked. “I can make that grumpy old ass in there bring you something if you want.” He smiled, primarily because Kai was a good officer and a nice kid, but also because he knew Lucius probably heard every bit of that last part.

“There’s something in there, actually. I wasn’t sure how long this would go, so I brought in coffee and food.” Kai pressed the panel on her desk and the doors opened. “Enjoy.”

As she finished speaking, the doors opened and Li hurried in. “Good morning Admiral, Kai.” She had a padd in hand and was tapping out an order even as she talked.

Rick and Kai watched as Li zoomed past them. “Well, it appears that something important is going on. Guess I should get in there. And thanks for setting up the grub.”

Following Li in, Rick sauntered past the food that was sitting out. He poured himself a black coffee, took two croissants with butter and a piece of chocolate. Chocolate for breakfast? That French girl was definitely on to something.

“There.” Li finished whatever she was entering into her pad, kissed Lucius on the cheek and joined Rick at the table. “So what’s this all about?”

“Seren said he would brief us on the Devore incident - why he was there and how he ended up locked in a house and drugged.” He refilled his mug and dropped a small square of chocolate into it to let it melt. “Morning, Rick.”

“Ah! So that’s what the chocolate is for!” Rick said after he’d taken a few bites of his own. “Good idea. And good morning.” He turned to Li. “I saw you rushing in and thought something big was going on.”

“Just rearranging my monthly meeting with Robin,” she answered. “I’m seeing Nick and Leto today regarding the sudden infestation of Cardassians.”

Rick nodded. “There are quite a few around here lately. More than usual.”

“I noticed,” Lucius added as he turned back to Rick. “Since you’re the big guy in the DQ now, what’s our stance on old Cardassian war criminals? Are they on hold during the negotiations?”

“That’s a good question. I’ll probably have to check with Starfleet Command to get the final word on that one, since this would affect more than just our little sphere of control out here,” Rick said, now dropping his newly acquired chocolate into his coffee. “For now, however, if they lay low and don’t cause trouble I say we let ‘em go about their business. If they do something stupid, which is bound to happen, they’re taken into custody and then we’ll have no choice but to have them tried as war criminals.”

“Understood,” Li replied. “I’ve done some digging on that situation and sent the reports on to you both. I should know more later today.” She stopped as she heard voices in the outer office, faint through the closed doors. “Seren is here and he’s brought...someone else too.”

The doors to the inner office opened and Seren stepped in with a tall man with dark hair and very slight ridges between his eyebrows - Brenari. Seren smiled at the assembled group, but the other young man seemed a little nervous, given the presence of two admirals and a captain.

“Good morning, family,” Seren greeted them, earning him a surprised look from the Brenari.

“Family?” he asked.

“Indeed. My father, Lucius Hawke, Director of Intel, Starfleet Command, Admiral Rick Wegener, Director of Delta Quadrant Operations and second father, also Starfleet Command, and my sister, the XO here, Captain Li Hawke. Everyone, this is Aros. He’s here because he’s sort of at the center of all this.”

Rick stood and offered his hand. “Welcome to Starbase 900, Aros. Come on over and have a seat,” he said, then looked to Seren. “Grab another chair, Seren?”

“Thank you.” Aros shook Rick’s hand, Lucius’ hand as well.

“Certainly.” Seren pulled over one more chair and once he and Aros had coffee, they all settled in. “He’s the reason I was on the Devore Homeworld.”

Lucius’ eyes narrowed in thought, then his expression cleared. “I had a report that we had an operative going in there but it was vague and didn’t say who or for what specifically. I’m guessing that was done on purpose. Sending a Betazoid there is a suicide mission, your eyes are a well-known giveaway. And you, Aros, are too easily recognizable. Why were you there?”

Li had been mulling over his name as it seemed familiar. Finally recognition came and she smiled. “Aros….you’re with Patrick and Kh’ali.”

Aros nodded. “Yes, I’m the nanny.” An amused smiled lit his face.

“Okay...wait a minute. Seren? You went to the Devore Homeworld to pick up a nanny for Kh’ali?” Rick asked. “I’m hoping there’s a bit more to this than just that.”

Seren began to laugh and shook his head. “No, he became the nanny after he got here - while I was still on the Devore homeworld.”

“That’s right,” Li added. “You went to Qo’nos with them didn’t you?” she asked Aros.

“I did. That was...an interesting trip, but that’s a story for later.” Aros looked to Lucius and Rick now. “Seren came to the Devore planet to get me off of it. I was there for an op at the order of my government. I am Brenari Special Forces.”

Lucius blinked, surprised. “You’re Special Forces and you’re working as a nanny?”

“Hell, when I finally have a kid, you’re hired! Who wouldn’t want Rambo as their kid’s nanny?” Rick said with a laugh, then leaned over to Aros. “I’m serious, by the way,” he said quietly.

“You’ll have to take that up with Kh’ali. I don’t argue with her.” He grinned back at Rick.

“Geez, man. I don’t either,” Rick replied. “I’m an admiral, but I’m not totally stupid.”

Now it was Li’s turn to laugh. “You recall, though, that I worked as a lounge singer on Nimbus III while I was undercover there.”

Seren looked over at her, his eyes wide in surprise. “That was you? I had some friends out that way and they spoke often of the chick at Apollo Bay and how hot...yeah..moving along. Show them Aros.”

“Very well.” Aros reached into his pocket and pulled out a small translucent sphere with silvery metal bands around the center along both axes. He passed it to Lucius. “That’s why I was there. I was sent to remove that from the Devore.”

Lucius examined it closely, then held it up to the light. “What is...ohhhh.” The recessed overhead lights caught the sphere and splashes of blue reflected on the walls and floor. Within the small sphere, a tiny cloud turned slowly, pale grey against the blue.

“That’s remarkable,” Li breathed.

Rick scooted to the end of his seat and set his mug down. “What is that?”

“Maybe you should brace yourselves,” Seren answered, his voice soft.

“That,” Aros spoke up, “is a power cell. Technically, it’s an encapsulated dark matter nebula, a very small one. It was synthesized, not naturally occurring, thus it’s tiny size. Romulans have used small singularities to power their warp engines for as far back as we know but this? Makes those singularities look like a match compared to an inferno.”

Lucius gave a low whistle. “How stable? Since I’m holding it in my hand?”

“Oh, completely,” Seren replied. “When it’s alone and not placed for its intended use.”

“Which is…?” Rick asked.

Li held out her hand to Lucius and he placed the small orb in her palm. She looked at it a moment, then turned her attention to Aros.

“As I said, it’s a power cell, Krenim technology. They developed it to use in a device that is capable of widespread temporal ….reversal shall we say?” Aros replied to Rick’s question. “There were records of a similar device in the Voyager logs as you will recall.”

Lucius nodded. “That ship was destroyed and it reversed all the damage it caused.”

“So, now that you have it, what are you going to do with it?”

“I was sent..well we were sent,” said, indicating Seren. “To steal it from those who stole it from the Krenim capital. We received Intel that they were planning to test it and if those were successful, to put the device to use, starting with Borg space as a first run.”

“And eventually spread out. News of a new Federation colony sped up their timeline, at least that’s what Aros’ source discovered. You can see which way they are pointing.”

Lucius swore, then looked at his son. “And you were going to tell me when exactly?”

Seren frowned. “Well, that’s where things got kinked up. I went to rendezvous with Aros and get him out of Devore space. Their intel agents were the ones who swiped it from the Krenim. The Brenari, along with quite a few other worlds, were afraid it would be too tempting for the Devore, that they would put all that power to use against telepaths. Anyway, things were getting hot and we had to make a run for it. I shoved him and the sphere into a hole in the wall and let them catch me so he could stay hidden and get away later.”

Aros took up the story then. “They stopped looking and after nightfall, I managed to get out and get to the rendezvous point. Commander Larsson got me away and brought me here.”

“I…” Rick said, somewhat confused. “Okay, look, I get the reason behind the op. But how was it that Lucius wasn’t informed of this? This is some pretty big shit that should have at least made it onto a post-it note on your father’s--wait, you guys don’t remember those. Whatever. It just seems a bit loose with Starfleet regs, Seren. This could have gone sideways real quick and we could have lost a good man, not to mention my favorite adopted son.” Rick looked at Lucius. “Well, and his real son, but you know what I mean.”

“It wasn’t a Starfleet op,” Seren answered. “I got pulled in to do the extraction, not really realizing what was involved until I was almost there. When I was taken by the Devore, they decided to put me in one of their private facilities instead of the usual detention centers, hoping to get some answers out of me. They drugged my food and I ate as little as possible. They intended to get answers from me. Leto and Eldren Tohr put a stop to that. If all had gone according to plan, I’d have been back here a few weeks ago to fill you in Dad.”

Lucius’ expression was stern. “Which explains why my memo on this extraction was vague.” His tone was harsh and every telepath in the room, which was everyone but Rick, read his anger loud and clear.

“They didn’t want you worrying that you might lose your one living son,” Li said quietly. “That’s it isn’t it?”

Seren nodded. “Yeah. That was not my idea, for the record.”

“Well let me tell you something,” Rick said, his own temper up, “if you were still a young boy I would have you across my knee and ground you for six years!” He was standing now, his angry face on--which was kind of the norm anyway, but he was genuinely concerned. “Lucius, what are we going to do about our son!?” He strode over to Seren, jerked him out of the chair and bear-hugged him. “Kid, if you ever do something like this to me and your father again, I will....I will… Well, you’ll regret it!” He pulled away from Seren and held his face in his hands. “You will come home safe every time, you got that?” He pulled him in for another hug, a bit tighter this time.

“Now you’re just encouraging him Rick,” Lucius snapped and rubbed his forehead. “You’ll have to get in line behind me if you want to tan his hide. I can’t believe you did this, Seren.”

“Lucius!” Rick hissed, then softened his tone. “Not in front of the children. We’ll talk about this later.”

Everyone turned to look at him with confusion. “What?” Rick asked of Li. “So you have two dads and a mother. Who cares about that anymore?”

“Two dads, a mother, a step-mother, and soon to be a second step-mom. I hope you’ve warned El’Shar about this clan,” she laughed.

“We should have warned Aros,” Seren commented. He grinned at Aros, who simply shrugged.

“Dad, I have to apologize here. I was part of the cover-up.” She steeled herself for his reaction.

“You?” Lucius turned on his daughter with a frown. “Explain yourself.”

“I’m the one who sent Leto and Eldren to extract Seren. I know I told you once they were on the way back but I made them all promise not to breathe a word to you until he was off the planet and clear of their space.” She sighed aloud. “We all meant well, and I suspect that your staff did too in being vague about his presence there but it was an error in judgment.” She glanced at Rick a moment. Don’t you dare tell him I made you promise that too.

“It was.” Lucius was still clearly not pleased. “My staff at SFC is going to learn the difference between concern for me and making stupid decisions based on that concern. That includes you two.” Now Lucius looked at Rick. “And you.”

Rick did a double take aimed at Lucius. “Me? What did I do?”

“You knew too.” Lucius took a deep breath and focused on Aros now. “Family ‘discussion’ aside, we need to get back to business. So we know the Krenim have their sights set on the Borg and then getting Starfleet and the Federation out of the Delta Quadrant. I’m guessing all the planets in the way are just collateral damage if they proceed as they did in Voyager’s time. My question now is, where have you been keeping this and is that spot secure?”

“With me.” Aros looked a little embarrassed now. “I replicated ten other spheres that look just like it and made it into a mobile. That mobile is now hanging over D’veidh Leroy’s crib.”

“That’s pretty damn genius,” Rick said with a smile. “Hiding in plain sight.”

“Exactly and no one would think of a baby’s room. There’s one thing you should know. The little one knows that there’s a special bubble in the bunch hanging over his bed but he’s not talking.” Aros grinned. “But that brings up the point of briefing Patrick and Kh’ali.”

“About hiding a dark matter nebula above Kh’ali’s son’s head?” Rick said nervously. “1, 2, 3 not it!”

Seren smirked at Rick. “Come on, Kh’ali can’t be that bad...can she?” he asked.

“Uh...yeah? Klingon,” Rick said as an explanation.

“Commander Leroy also isn’t going to take this lightly and he’s not generally one to argue with either, from what I hear,” Lucius added. He smiled at Aros. “That means it’s all yours, Aros.”

“Noted, sir,” Aros answered.

“We’ll need to brief Security too,” Li added. She looked across at Aros and a brief, silent conversation passed between them. Finally she nodded. “I think all senior staff should be told once we have had a little time to pull in what we can get from that area of space. Even if they don’t know Seren is Fleet, the Devore may naturally come here looking to see if anyone’s got it for sale. And the Krenim will be looking everywhere too, but trying to keep it quiet...at first.”

“So, what’s the endgame?” Rick asked. “Are we getting this to the Corps of Engineers? I mean, what are we going to do with it? We can’t just hide it forever. Eventually, baby Leroy is going to outgrow a mobile.”

“We could get it to Commander Leroy and his team to see if they can deconstruct it. FIgure out how it was made and then dismantle it and neutralize that nebula,” Li suggested. “If it no longer exists, then no one will be hunting for it.”

“And if they are successful, it will be easy enough to put the word out that it was found and destroyed. They don’t have to know by whom,” Lucius added. “But I suspect time is short.”

Rick raised his hand. “Uh, so, I have a thought: are we not at all interested in this thing for ourselves? He said it was stable, so it’s not a danger. I mean,” Rick scoffed, “what kind of nanny would put something dangerous above the head of his ward? This item could be studied and used for all sorts of other purposes. We could just get word out that it was dismantled...but...not actually.”

Lucius nodded. “Exactly. Getting the word out that it was doesn’t mean that word is true. One concern is that everyone and their cousin will be after it unless they believe it’s gone. The only other issue there is the Krenim themselves. They may not take kindly to any of this and we may face some rough days until we convince them that they are on the losing end when it becomes common knowledge what they were trying to do.”

“The alliance that sent me to the Devore could be convinced to stand with you, if worse comes to worse,” Aros added. “If it does, you likely won’t have trouble drawing in others to assist either.”

Rick nodded. “And we do have some allies out here as well, other than Starfleet. But I’m confident that we can pull this off. It’ll be no problem.”

Immediately, everyone in the room groaned. “What?” he asked.

It was Seren who spoke up. “You know what happens when you say that?”

“It...winds up being no problem? I do have the best Starfleet personnel on this base, you know.”

“It’s an invitation to trouble,” Lucius declared. “Never ever say ‘it will be no problem’. Last time you said that we ended up in….” He stopped and looked at the group. “Never mind. Anyhow, we’ll know how to proceed once Intel has done its thing. Aros, assuming Rick has no problem with this, I’d like you assisting Intel here as well as connecting with your government. You are informing the Leroy’s….” He turned to Rick. “Should you go with him? Or Li?”

“Sounds like a good time to delegate,” Rick said with a smile. “Li is the perfect candidate. A captain, the station’s XO, smart, quick in a fight--probably quicker than Kh’ali just, you know, going by their size and what fighting I’ve seen Li do. Yeah. Li can do it.”

Li glared at Rick a moment, but it gave way to a smile. “Very well. Aros? I’m guessing that afternoon, when they are both home is better?”

“Yes,” he answered. “1600 hours, and give them a little time to unwind. Say 1700?”

“Alright, I’ll be there. If anything comes up, call me,” Li said. “What about you Seren?”

“Yes!” Rick pointed at Li. “Additional backup. Good call.”

“He’s going to be working with me and making up for his little cover-up.” Lucius gave his son a stern look. “Our first order of business is a meeting with Intel Staff at Fleet HQ.”

“Oh that will be fun.” Seren’s voice was laced with sarcasm.

“Indeed. Now shoo, all of you. Son, get in uniform and get back here. Aros, I’ll have Leto meet you at the public conference room they use on Deck 32 and she can take you down from there. Anything else?” Lucius looked now to Rick.

“Nothing from me,” Rick said. “We have a plan, now let’s get to it.”

Once the group filed out and the doors were closed, Lucius turned to Rick. “Well then. That’s not exactly what I expected this morning.”

“Li made me do it,” Rick blurted out. “I don’t know about that girl anymore, man. Keeping things from her own father…”

“Her heart is in the right place.” Lucius rose and crossed to refill his coffee. “A snatch and grab I can forgive, more or less. The op that sent Seren there in the first place? Whoever authorized that and ordered that I not be told is about to learn what Outpost 23 is like. Lt. Amani would be glad to fill them in I bet.”

“I agree with that,” Rick said, suddenly realizing he’d been neglecting the chocolate-coffee concoction that Kai had worked so hard to set out for them. Standing, he refilled his mug and dropped another chunk of chocolate then took another of the croissants. “By the way,” Rick said, gesturing toward Kai’s desk, “give that girl a raise. This is fantastic. Just missing some strawberries, though, so...not that much of a raise.”

“I’ll be sure to do that. When she gets her JG pip.” Lucius grinned. “Let’s hope we don’t soon have a war on our hands, Rick. But considering what has so far been prevented, I think getting that power cell out was the best thing they could’ve done. Otherwise, we might all be sitting in a cave somewhere chewing on a bone.”

“Yeah. And this may be a good opportunity to send our diplomats back out to ensure our allies are up for the task of helping us kick some ass, if it comes to it.” He sipped his coffee, then dunked the croissant in. “You know, I really thought it would be us coming to the rescue of these other races out here first, not them having to come to ours first. But, I guess things can go awry out here in the Delta Quadrant.”

“We’ve done our share of saving. Given what we’re all faced with? I don’t foresee anyone turning us down. They’ll be saving themselves as well.” He watched Rick dunk the croissant in his coffee once more. “One word of advice though. Don’t ever let Kai see you do that. She may be little but she’s feisty. She was cursing in such rapid French the translator couldn’t keep up.” He grinned at Rick. “Let’s get some lunch. I need the energy for the ass-chewing I am about to deliver.”

Rick stood there with the last bit of his croissant in the coffee. “What? What’s wrong with this? It’s like a bready-mocha bit of heaven!” He grumbled and tossed the soggy bread down onto the tray. “I need a steak now, then. Medium rare with onions and bleu cheese crumbles. Take that, Frenchy!”

“I heard that,” came Kai’s voice through the doors.

“Busted. Let’s go. We’ll take her with us and make it up to her.” Lucius left his coffee and led the way out. “Come on, Kai, lunch time.”

She eyed Rick suspiciously, then smiled and locked Lucius’ office.

“I don’t trust her,” Rick said. “Can’t you pat her down for weapons or something?”

“No way. You know she lives with a Klingon, right? Security fellow? There’s no telling what she’s carrying.”

“Told you I didn’t trust her. She probably has four knives tucked into that tiny bun on her head. World’s tiniest assassin,” Rick said, smiling at her as they walked. It wasn’t lost on him just how much taller he was and thought they must have looked like a parent walking their child to school.

“Only three,” she said and smiled up at Rick as they entered the turbolift.

***************
Admiral Lucius Hawke
Admiral Rick Wegener
Ensign Kai Sarkozi
Captain Li Hawke
Seren Hawke
Aros