Tracking The Spoils Of Conquest

Posted on Sun Apr 24th, 2016 @ 10:46am by Indra Nyyar & Jarad & Kaeli & Isaura Panossian & Drekkar

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: DS9

“Isaura?” Tindam woke slowly, strangely groggy and cloudy-headed. He’d dreamed of the part-Bajoran, of her seducing him and then turning into a many-tentacled creature.

“Tinman? About time you woke up,” Isa said,nudging him with her boot. She glanced back at Kaeli, rolling her eyes and said, “He’s getting there. Geez... let a guy sleep for a few hours.”

“It has been a long few days, and this is the first time he’s slept that I know of since Romulus. Did you dump cold water on him?” She looked down at the conn as she asked the question and adjusted course slightly.

“Of course not. I’m not cruel like you,” Isa shook her head. “But maybe some cold water in the face wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

“I’m awake; I can hear you, too,” Tindam grumbled, rolling to a sitting position. “Kaeli, do you want me to take over? We’re almost at DS9, aren’t we?”

“We are. I’ve already requested clearance and course laid in. You get something to eat unless you’d rather wait till we’re docked,” Kaeli answered. “How’re the lovebirds, Isa?”

Isa looked towards the back and winced. “Nyyar is sleeping; the patient is still out. Let’s hope we’re in time.”

“He’ll be fine,” Tindam said, standing and moving to the co-pilot seat. “I’ll get something to eat on the station. There’s bound to be some great food there.”

“Agreed.” Kaeli tapped the panel, then leaned back in her seat and rubbed her eyes. “Take us in Tinman. I notified their medbay that we have a serious injury and that Jarad would be meeting us there.”

“Bet you’re happy.” Tindam took over the controls and, on the station’s signal, took them in. “They should transport him there as soon as we’re docked.”

“Good.” Kaeli rose and moved to the back of the ship. Bending down, she gently shook Nyyar to wake her. “We’ve reached DS9.”

Hearing that, Nyyar was instantly awake. “How soon will we dock?”

“We’ve made arrangements to have you and Eldren transported directly to the medbay. Jarad will meet you there. Try not to worry, he’s one of the best I’ve ever seen,” Kaeli assured her.

Nyyar nodded slightly. Her knowledge of Jarad was limited to his official activities for the Order, which usually had the opposite effect of healing someone. However, the two Cardassians and the group here had gone to great lengths to rescue her from Cardassia so now she trusted them. “Thank you.”

Kaeli smiled. “Don’t mention it. Isa and I have a few things to see to here, then we’ll come check on you.”


Several minutes later, Tindam announced they were docked; a moment later, Eldren and Nyyar were transported off. He turned to Isaura and Kaeli. “Unless you think we have to stay and babysit the ship, let’s go get food.”

“Just lock it up and let’s hit Quark’s. After that Isa, we have to stop in and see Garak. He has a surprise for us he said.” Kae moved from the cockpit towards the back and sat down to put on shoes. “I wouldn’t mind a small room for a day either, to shower and change.”

“A shower sounds good, as does a change of clothes. So long as this change of clothes doesn’t include a free trip to Romulus,” Isa said, more bitterly than she intended.

Tindam laughed. “I’ll be happy to go into the dressing room with you and stand watch.”

“No need.” Kaeli smiled brightly at Tindam. She reached out to open the hatch. Moments later, she led the way to the docking pad.

* DS9 *

In his suite of rooms on the Pumulu, docked several tiers away from Eldren’s ship, Drekkar opened a diagram of the station on his console. “Computer, show all Cardassian tags,” he ordered.

Several orange blips showed up on the screen. He touched one after another, until he found one in Sickbay. He cursed, “Dammit, Isa, told you to remove that....” He knew that Jarad had hurried off to Sickbay and was likely there with Nyyar right now.

He touched a few more till he found two together. “There you are, my dear.” He noted the location then got up and went off to intercept them.

* * *

“So then I called Garak and he said to come immediately. He owes me for...a thing a while back so this should be good.” Kaeli paused as she and Isa approached the tailor’s shop. “I bet we can make up for that dress you lost too. Well, and the pants and boots you lost on Archadia. Sorry about that.”

“Eh, no worries on that. The Ning’s replicator can make new ones. Though, a dress would be nice; something I could dazzle Rafe with.”

Tindam blinked and looked at her sharply. “Rafe? That’s the human? You’re hoping to dazzle him? And what about me?”

Isa bit her bottom lip. “Ah... well... you’ve been fun, Tinman, but Rafe... he’s... you know. He’s Rafael. Besides, you might decide not to stay on with us once we’re at 900.”

“He’s the real thing, to put it bluntly.” Kaeli glanced up at Tindam. And not a potential spy for Rekar, she sent to Isa.

Wouldn’t it be funny if he were a spy for the Federation? She smiled at her.

Wouldn’t it be funny if I could hear everything you two were secretly thinking at each other? Tindam’s thoughts cut into both of theirs.

Isa winced. “Shut up, Tinman.”

“Well, it’s a reasonable assumption, Tindam. I know better than anyone how he operates. Have you considered that he’s messed with your head so you don’t even know you’re his mole?” Kaeli asked. “You know he could.”


“Why would he?” Tindam shook his head. “I’m in charge of whether I report to Rekar or not.”

“Hmm... keep believing that,” Isa said. A second later, her eyes went wide and she turned to look around the shop. “Kaeli,...,” she whispered.

“Isaura!” Drekkar came up behind them and took her by the arm. “It’s good to see you’re okay.”

“Drekkar.” Kaeli greeted him, her tone less than welcoming. “Imagine you turning up here. Did you come to help us pick out dresses for our men?”

“You’re picking out a dress for Jarad? To wear?” Drekkar was a little confused.

“No, for us to wear when we see Jarad and Rafe again,” Isa corrected him. “Hey, why don’t you and Tindam go have a drink somewhere?”

Both men objected but then saw the seriousness in Isa’s eyes. Drekkar frowned but said, “Tindam, we’ve been dismissed. C’mon, we’ll have a drink and discuss not killing each other.”

“Oh, good. See you later, perhaps,” Isa waved her fingers at them then relaxed as they disappeared out of the shop. “Oh thank the prophets.”

“Seriously,” Kaeli answered. “Wait, how'd he know we were here? I thought you no longer had a tracker. Without that, we coulda been anywhere as far as he knew.”

“I removed mine a long time ago,” Isa said then looked Kaeli up and down. “Though... it does seem like a very Cardassian thing to do.”

“Well fuck me,” Kaeli muttered. “Seems like maybe a trip to sickbay is in order for us and not just to check on Eldren and Nyyar. Her expression had hardened considerably. “Then it will be time to put the fear in Jarad. We’ll come back here after. My budget will be much bigger then.”

“I love watching you put the fear in him.” Isa turned and led the way to the station’s sickbay.

* Sickbay *

It had taken some doing, but Isaura and Kaeli had convinced the nurse at the front desk to let them go back to see Nyyar, Eldren and Jarad. Isaura spoke first, “Jarad! Good to see you, though you might not like us so much in a few more minutes.” She beamed at him.

“Why is that?” he asked. His attention was focused on Eldren and he continued to work. “Hello darling.” The last was addressed to Kaeli.

“Hello. How’s he doing?”

“Let’s just say it’s good it didn’t take you any longer to get here.” Jarad fell silent as he dealt with some detailed repair.

Isa’s stomach turned a little and she turned away from Jarad’s work. “You haven’t taken out Nyyar’s tracker have you?”

“Not yet no. She and I agreed that Eldren was more urgent,” was his succinct reply.

“Where is she?” Kaeli asked, then waved the question aside. “Doesn’t matter. When she gets back, her chip needs to come out. In fact, this may be a group operation. I want mine out too, and you’re going to check Isa, just in case.”

Jarad was silent and a muscle in his jaw twitched, but his hands never wavered. “So how did you find out?”

“Drekkar,” Isaura answered, “He showed up at a shop and there was no way he could have known where we were unless there’s a tracker on one or both of us.”

“I see.” Jarad let out a sigh. “Yes, I did. But it was precisely because I was afraid that something would happen and it did. How do you think we got to Romulus so fast?”

Kaeli’s arms were crossed and her foot tapped the floor. “I get that but you should’ve told me. This isn’t three years ago, Jarad. When?” She meant when did he implant the chip.

“The week after I joined the Ning’Tao,” he admitted. He glanced at Isa. “For transparency's sake, you do have one too.”

“What? No, I removed mine a long, long time ago!” Isa shook her head. “Wait... did Drekkar tag me again? Once he was on the Ning? I’m going to kill that ass.”

“Yes.” Jarad finally finished the delicate repair and began closing the wound. “I’ll get rid of them once I’m done here.”

“Damn right you will,” Kaeli snarled at him. “And then, Isa and I are going shopping. I have a feeling you’ll be very generous. Once I am done, you and I are going to have a discussion.” She winked at Isa.

“How much longer till you’re done with Eldren?” Isa was studiously staring at the far wall.

”Another ten minutes, why? If Nyyar’s not back, I can deal with you two,” Jarad answered. His attention was still focused on Eldren.

“That’s all I wanted to know,” Isa walked out of the room then peered back in, “I’ll be out here. ‘Cause that,” she indicated his work, “is creeping me out.”

He chuckled as he continued closing the wound. “So, about this discussion, sweetheart?”

Kaeli sniffed and ignored the question. “Maybe we’ll go shopping now. See to Nyyar and you can take care of us later.”

“Very well. Tell Garak to send me the bill.”

Kaeli stepped out and grinned at Isa. “I told him he could take care of us in a little while. That way we don’t have to hang around till he’s done and we’ve managed to skip out on Drekkar and Tindam. Ready to go spend Drekkar’s money?”

“Oh, yes, very much. But you know that that means Drekkar can easily find us again?” Isaura walked out with Kaeli. “I might buy a necklace, something sparkly that’ll draw Rafe’s attention.” She spent a few minutes trying to recall Rafe’s favorite color.

“Knock yourself out,” Kaeli answered. “Necklace, dress, shoes….and while we find all that, we can figure out what we are gonna do with Tinman.”

“Oh... yeah... I should maybe come clean about something there, Kaeli,” Isaura said, looking a little uncomfortable. “You know how he sort of... had a change of heart about things? Back on Romulus?”

“Yeah?” Kaeli looked over at Isa as they left the lift and moved along the Promenade. “I wouldn’t trust him. I taught him everything he knows and I especially don’t trust him for that very reason.”

Isa grunted. “Well. Actually, what I do lets me trust him - or anyone - completely. But... it’ll wear off,” she looked at Kaeli before adding, “When it does, he’s not going to be happy, Kae. For one, he’s going to hate me the way he did back on Romulus. I’ve been tweaking him every once in awhile on this trip, to keep him docile.”

“Uh oh.” Kael frowned immediately. “Then we better ship him off before he wakes up to reality. That way he won’t know where we’re going when we leave here. He won’t really care about Nyyar. I can get hold of Rekar and cover it.”

“Wasn’t he supposed to go along with you anyway? To... I don’t know, insure Rekar’s interests in you?”

“Yes but this changes things somewhat, doesn’t it?” Kaeli asked. “He’ll be dangerous for you. I can arrange things so he’s not a problem for either of us.”

“Okay. I’ll sort of miss the verbal sparring we were doing before. Though I really didn’t appreciate how he questioned my intelligence and competency,” she shrugged.

“He’s always been an ass. He started that way with me and I had to teach him a lesson. Now that he’s not some raw recruit, he thinks he’s all that. It will be fun to remind him that he isn’t.” Kaeli hesitated a moment. “Garak can arrange getting him off the station but I have to ask. Do you want him home in one piece or not? It will be better if….you know…”

“If? Maybe I don’t know?”

The question got a nod from Kaeli. “Yeah. But it won’t be me if that helps.”

“You’d kill him? Oh, no, no, no. Don’t kill him. Just send him home or away or something. But he doesn’t need to die.” Isa could be way too much of a softie.

“He won’t be, but I think it’s best if he doesn’t remember you, don’t you?”

“Oh, well, that might not be a bad thing. Though I’m not sure it matters,” she said. “I mean... the last time I did this, once it wore off, the guy wasn’t happy but he didn’t have the ability to kill me.”

“He wasn’t Tindam, who is a trained assassin,” Kaeli answered. She stepped into the open door of Garak’s shop. “You start looking while I arrange this.”

“I have no problem with that!” Isa laughed and headed for the display of jewels.

**************
Isaura Panossian
Tindam
Kaeli
Jarad
Drekkar
Indra Nyyar