The Definition Of Fun

Posted on Wed Apr 13th, 2016 @ 9:46pm by Jarad & Kaeli & Isaura Panossian & Drekkar & Eldren Tohr

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Cardassia

* CIS Intira *

“We are approaching the rendezvous point,” the officer at the conn reported.

“Excellent.” Jarad smiled briefly. “Take us in, one-quarter impulse and notify the Bajoran on that ship our team will be ready to transport over in fifteen minutes. You have the bridge till I return.” He rose and tapped his comm badge as he moved to the lift. “Jarad to Drekkar. It’s time.” The lift doors closed behind him.

* * *

Jarad to Drekkar. It’s time. Jarad’s statement made Drekkar growl - not because the message itself was unwelcome, but because the message interrupted his argument with Isaura.

Isa smiled tightly and said, “And now the argument is moot. Tindam is going with us, end of story. I’m not leaving him here for you to screw around with.”

“So you’ll take him with you so you can screw around with him,” Drekkar sneered at her. “I’m sure your human will appreciate that when he finds out.”

Behind Isaura, Tindam leaned forward slightly and asked, “Your human?” He read her thoughts quickly before sitting back and sighing with irritation.

“Nice, use Rafe against me when it’s in your favor. Ass,” Isa growled. “Tindam, let’s go,” she finished buttoning her shirt and shrugged her jacket on. “Drekkar, next time, knock.”

“Next time, lock the damned door,” he shot back. Tindam nodded, agreeing with him, even as he pulled his own shirt on and followed Isa out of the quarters.

* * *

The transporter room doors opened and Kaeli hustled in, her long curls in a bit of disarray, with Jarad right behind her. “Sorry for the delay,” she mumbled as she stepped up onto the platform. She looked at Isa and smiled. “This should be fun.”

Tindam shot Kaeli a worried look, one that said he thought she was crazy. “I question your definition of ‘fun’,” he said. He unnecessarily helped Isaura onto the platform, putting hands in places that made a muscle in Drekkar’s jaw twitch with strain.

Isa laughed and agreed with Kaeli, “This will be - we might get to kick some...,” she glanced at Drekkar and Jarad and left out the word ‘Cardassian’, “...ass. Will there be an issue if we kill anyone who gets in the way?”

Jarad shook his head. “Nyyar sent a warning that she suspects she’ll be watched while she is in that house alone. It wouldn’t be Boroca if she wasn’t. He’ll not want them visible to her though, so that means they will stay outside. It may not look like it,” he nodded to Kaeli who was wearing a flowing black skirt, “but she’s armed to the teeth. Make it look like someone came in and swiped Nyyar and got out, which means don’t let her take anything with her. We’ll handle Boroca and offer to take up the hunt.”

“Easy,” Isa nodded. “Ready when you are,” she looked at Kaeli, avoiding the glare Drekkar was aiming at her. Behind her, Tindam wasn’t; he was taunting Drekkar by winking and smiling at him.

Kaeli looked back at Jarad now. “We’ll transport out to El’s ship and hit the trail. See you back on 900.”

Jarad nodded. “You will. Energize.”

Seconds later, the group faded from view.

“I’m going to kill that man,” Drekkar growled.

Jarad shook his head. “No, what you need to do is wake up and see reality. She doesn’t care about him, she’s trying to make a point. Maybe it’s time you accepted it.”

“He doesn’t have to rub it in,” Drekkar said. “How would you react if Kaeli were bedding every lowlife she came across? And then flaunting it?”

Jarad’s expression hardened. “Given who I am? They’d all exit this life rapidly. For them, it wouldn’t happen more than once. I’m not suggesting you adopt my method, however. It still wouldn’t bring her home to you.”

“You see how I feel, then,” Drekkar said. “Eventually, I’ll wear her down.”

“Just remember what I said,” Jarad replied. “If I have to patch her up one more time because of you, you’ll wake up alone in the Badlands lucky to be alive. Now, we need to get docked and get to Boroca.”

Drekkar turned and left the transporter room.

* Eldren’s Ship *

At the same time, on Eldren’s ship, Isa and Kaeli were taking seats. Tindam stood near Isaura. Isa asked, “Are we going straight to get Nyyar?”

Kaeli nodded. “Hello Eldren. How soon will we be in transporter range? I’d like to go down a few blocks from that house so we can see who is watching.”

“ETA one hour” He replied without looking away from the flight controls as he typed in a new route. “Could be less but I have to save some power as we are cloaked now.” Then he turned to face the passengers “Welcome aboard guys um… and gals. I’m sorry but this craft has been thought for combat and not as a luxury liner. You may ease yourself in the hold if you wish.” He ended eyeing Tindam. “Don’t want to be responsible for eventual varicose veins.”

“Thanks, but I’m fine here,” Tindam answered.

Isa rolled her eyes and said, “He gets a little clingy. Really, Tindam, relax. We have at least an hour.”

“Fine,” he took a seat on the floor. “Are the sensors on this ship,” the way he looked around the ship, it was clear the word he was really thinking was ‘junker’, “strong enough to let us do surveillance before we beam down?”

“The sensors can manage to get us the information we need. Even if her forte are the two phasers mounted on the wings,” Eldren responded patting gently the console.

“Good enough,” Kaeli answered. “When we get there, we’ll check out the area and remove anyone that is likely to interfere. We want to get her out and so we’ll do whatever is necessary. Are you going down with us Eldren? If so, Tindam can stay here and handle transporting us back up.”

“What? Why should I stay behind? It’s his ship!” Tindam protested.

Isa’s glance at him questioned his intelligence. “It’s his girlfriend. Oh, and... you know, the whole Romulan on Cardassia issue. A couple of Bajorans won’t draw attention but a couple of Romulans will.” Tindam looked away, abashed that he hadn’t thought of that himself.

“Which is why they will not see me coming,” Kaeli added. “If they do, then I’m not doing my job right.” She turned back to Eldren then. “So, you’re going down, yes?”

“Of course I am. Been doing these things all my life.”

“Good. In that case, I am taking a nap. Yell at me when we reach Cardassia.” Kaeli moved to the back of the hold, settled in a corner, and was soon sound asleep.

Isa fidgeted while Kaeli settled in; after a bit, she said, “Okay, Eldren, we’re going to the hold.”

“Good, I’ll wake you when we arrive.”
* One hour later *

The red light flashed on the helm screen and high-pitched beeping sound came alive. Eldren stood from the seat and got back to the hold.

“We’ve arrived to the planet. We’re still cloaked so we have not to worry at the moment, numerous patrols passed by without taking notice of our existence.”

Nodding, Isa stood and yawned. “Good. Any scans?”

Kaeli appeared beside Isa and was pulling on a pair of black gloves. She waited to hear Eldren’s answer, though she glanced at Isa. Cross your fingers. Then she smiled.

“We are on the planned coordinates. The sensors are gathering readings right now.” Eldren replied looking at the monitor and inviting them over to have a better view. “Zikar’s estate is huge and moderately removed from urban centers.”

“That makes things a little easier - fewer places for watchers to hide. And a little harder - less places for us to hide. Kaeli, can’t we just beam into the house? Or beam her out?” Isa’s voice had taken on a slightly whiney pitch.

Kaeli considered the question and shook her head. “We don’t know what sort of alarms are set up there,” she reasoned. “Boroca’s had a few weeks to monkey around with the place so who knows what booby traps he’s set up. Transporting in could trigger an alarm, or it could blow us up….too hard to tell. If Nyyar’s in there, we at least know we can walk in.”

“I don’t think he had any need to set up security devices, probably he thinks to have eliminated his adversary and taken the prize for it. Sure, I could be wrong but we have no other option than going in if we want to get Nyyar back and I’m definitely willing.” His hand moved then on the screen pointing a particular spot, “We could transport down here where the sensors are reading this temperature change it must be a vent or a hatch of the sewer system to which the house must be connected. Good enough to make our entry to me.”

“Sewer system?” Isaura was a little horrified by the idea. “I need rubber boots, then. Tindam, you’re good with staying here and doing transport duty?”

He chuckled, “I’m better here than in a sewer.”

“Storm sewer,” Kaeli reassured Isaura. She looked at the coordinates and the scans. “It’ll let us approach from the back of the estate and give a better view of who is standing guard. I don’t suppose we have any way to contact her once we are on the ground?” She looked to Eldren. “If not, we’ll just have to play it as it lies once we get down there.”

“No, we haven’t any mean to contact her at this point. She could make her exact position known though, with a little device set in her earring that will send her exact coordinates right here,” he replied, pointing to the small computer on his wrist “But that’s an option she would normally use only if she’s in danger, I wouldn’t count on that. Most probably we’ll have to improvise and scour the house to get her.”

“Good enough,” Kaeli answered. “Alright, let’s do this.” A few seconds later, the trio materialized inside a small tunnel, just inside the sewer entrance. They stood on a raised platform which was, luckily, dry. Kaeli stood still, listening, both with her ears and her mind. “No one in here,” she whispered.

“Here, take this,” Eldren said shoving a disruptor into Isaura’s hands, “Do you know how to use it? It’s a particularly unforgiving weapon.”

Sparing a quick glance at Kaeli, wondering if she’d just heard correctly, Isaura took the weapon and glared at Eldren for a second. She then smiled brightly and quipped, “Maybe I should practice on you first.”

Kaeli laughed out loud, then cursed when it echoed in the tunnel. “I’ve seen her peel an apple from fifty paces with one of those.” She grinned at Eldren. “Okay, I’m going to peek out and see what’s what. I’ll be right back.” She stepped around Eldren and disappeared through the tunnel opening.

“Oh…” frowning slightly Eldren turned to look again at Isaura. “You really don’t seem the fighter type, y’know? Well… Good to know you can handle your way. Perhaps before this day is over you’ll have the opportunity to deal some payback for your home country.” His grin unpleasant, Isaura had the sensation the man was indeed anticipating such a confrontation with the Cardies.

“I'm deceptive that way,” Isaura said, smiling. She checked the weapon over quickly and nodded. “I don't know about payback necessarily, ...,” she looked at him at little uneasily, “and I’d kind of like to get out of this without encountering Boroca’s staff.”

“Whatever.” Eldren replied positioning himself close to the tunnel Kaeli vanished into taking a quick peek outside. “We wait for Kaeli’s ‘go’ and then we move in. I’m sure the Prophets are watching over us and what we are going to encounter or not.”

Again, Eldren’s words seemed to leave space to an amplitude of interpretations. All disquieting.

“Alright, I spotted two on this side.” Kaeli popped back into the tunnel opening. “One in a small grove to the west, the other in an out building who seems to have forgotten that windows are transparent from the outside as well as the inside.”

Isa was glad Kaeli was back. Eldren had creeped her out just a little. “I’ll take the fellow in the outbuilding; you take the other fellow.”

“Alright,” Kaeli answered. “There are several entrances on this side of the house, Eldren. We can cover you from here, you get to Nyyar. I didn’t get to the front of the house so I don’t know who may be lurking there. Just get in.”

Eldren nodded briefly. “I’ll try to get back as fast as I can.” He passed Kaeli, checked his disruptor and disposed himself close to the tunnel exit ready to scuttle his way out towards the house. “As soon as the two goons are neutralized I’m going in.”

Kaeli took Isa’s hand for a moment. “Shoot first, ask questions later.” She winked and slipped through the tunnel opening, then vanished from sight.

“Always with the killing...,” Isa mourned before sighing and heading for the outbuilding and her designated goon.

*******************
Capt’n Isaura Panossian
Kaeli
Eldren Tohr
Drekkar
Jarad
Tindam