The Cardassian Complication - Part III

Posted on Fri Jun 10th, 2016 @ 12:57pm by Suresh & Ronin & Rafael Hernandez & Kaeli & Isaura Panossian

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: RIS Opius

* RIS Opius- The Bridge *

Two hours had passed while Rafael and Isa sat on the bridge, talking over various things and making plans for some time down on Archadia once they were home. So far, everything was running smoothly and Rafael was relieved not to see any Cardassian ships in their wake. Behind them the lift doors opened and he turned to see Kaeli step out.

Leave us, Kaeli requested mentally.

He looked to Isa and spoke softly. “You have a visitor. I’ll just be in the Ready Room.”

She caught his hand and smiled at him, It’ll be okay, luv. To Kaeli, she said, “Have a seat. Unless you’re going to hit me. In which case, let me stand first.”

Kaeli stood silent, her arms crossed, until Rafael had closed the Ready Room door. “I’m thinking about it.” A muscle twitched in her jaw as she stood looking back at Isa. “But that’s how I deal with Ro, not you.”

“Well, I appreciate that. I’d hate to interrupt your time with Patch to get any bruises healed up,” Isa said. “Look, I know: you had a plan. I screwed it up. Sorry.” She didn’t sound particularly sorry.

“My problem is that you didn’t tell me. Having one of us in the dark is dangerous, Isa. I get that you wanted to end his miserable existence. All you had to do was say so, not shoot me and put yourself in danger.”

“You wanted it clean; I wanted him to suffer. Would you have let me do that? Make it messy? I don’t think you would have, Kae.” Isa frowned. “He just needed to have a messy end.”

“For you?” A hint of a smile finally appeared on Kaeli’s face. “Yes. My only concern was him having witnesses hidden, which would have made it impossible to get out. Frankly, I hope it was horrible for him. Likely not horrible enough, in my opinion.”

“Zarv killed the witnesses - the guards that were waiting to kill you.” Isa sighed and chuckled slightly. “His end was horrible. You should have seen the terror on his face when he saw Zarv.”

“Did it help?” Kaeli asked, her voice soft.

She nodded. “I feel better.” This time, her grin was real.

The hint of a smile finally grew into a real one on Kaeli’s face. “Good.” She closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around Isa. “In that case, you want to help me with something?”

Returning the hug, Isa held onto Kaeli for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, what am I helping you with?”

“A little side trip before we go home.” Kaeli pulled back, her smile now replaced with determination. “You got yours, I want to get mine. Rekar. You up for it?”

“I am, yeah, let’s go. And this should be just the ship to do it in,” Isa agreed. “Should let us slip in and out amongst the regular traffic and not be noticed.”

“Rekar won’t think twice about us being there, since he thinks I am working for him again.”

“How do you want it done? Messy? Slow? Does he need to suffer?”

Kaeli gave a slow nod. “It could get ugly. Likely it will, actually. I don’t care who takes over after he’s gone. But you have to promise me you won’t turn renegade on me? Because here, they really will kill you in a horrible way.”

“Long as I can take Zarv, I’ll be fine,” Isa said. “Plus, this is your kill. I’ll just be there for moral support.”

“It won’t be easy, I promise you that but we need a little adventure. We should change course and go directly there. Then we can return to 900. But….” She paused and frowned. “Jarad will be livid if he finds out where we’re going.”

“Then let’s not tell him,” Isa said, opening the autopilot to reset their course. “We’ll say... we’re delayed? Avoid answering the comm? Claim we’re visiting your mother?”

“Yes, no, and no,” Kaeli answered. “You’ll have to give him a valid reason so he won’t blow a gasket or decide to come looking for us. Actually, my mother isn’t a bad idea. Vulcan...it’s close by, believable.” She nodded finally. “Let’s go with that.” After a pause, she continued. “Patch was right.”

“About what?”

“He insisted that I go to my quarters and cool off for a while before I started looking for you.” Kaeli shrugged and dropped into the second chair. “I don’t want to tell Ro about this side trip either, not till after it’s done. He’ll say it’s stupid and dangerous, likely the only time he and Jarad will agree on something.”

“Maybe the only time we all agree on something, Kae. It’s a stupid thing, but then, so was this trip to take out Boroca. I should call Suresh, let him know the task is done. I wonder why he called us for that anyway,” Isa shook her head.

“LIkely to repay a debt?’ Kaeli suggested. “He did say that we’d owe him so, I suppose this may be it, even though there is money involved. And yeah, call him. Have you talked to Ro at all?”

“A bit, yeah,” Isa nodded. She’d finished re-routing them. “Feel like talking to him now?”

“Who? Ro or Suresh?”

“Either of ‘em?”

“Suresh first, he won’t ask too many questions.” Kaeli opened a channel and put it on the main viewer. Moments later, Suresh appeared, a little larger than life-sized.

“Yes? Oh, it’s you two. How’s tricks?”

“Tricks?” Isa frowned at Suresh. “We don’t have anyone by that name here. But Kaeli and I are fine, thanks for asking. I assume all’s well at the Station?”

”More or less,” Suresh answered. “Your fellow was here, though, asking questions, Kae. I was surprised that he hadn’t heard from you but I am staying out of this one. Any troubles with your mission?”

Kaeli glanced over at Isa to answer that one.

“Nope, no troubles at all. Not even though I stunned Kaeli.” Isa laughed and glanced at Kaeli. “So you had a visit from Jarad?”

“I did. I’ll leave it at that. Like I said, I am not getting into this one.” An amused smile lit his face. “So, can I tell Nyyar that everything’s done and she can rest easy?”

Kaeli nodded. “He won’t bother her ever again. He’s as dead as it comes, Suresh. You can tell her as much as you want.”

“Just don’t tell Jarad or Drekkar, okay?”, Isaura said, shrugging. “We’ll make sure they know in good time.”

“Deal,” Suresh agreed. “So you’ll be home soon?”

“Well, not exactly. We are going to stay out an extra few days. Nothing major. We can tell you all about it once we’re home. If anyone asks, we’re stopping by Vulcan to see my mother.” Kaeli smiled. “We’ll only be there a day or so though.”

“Yeah, just a quick side trip, since we’re out this way anyway,” Isa added. “I’m not visiting Mom, but I’ll probably make a trip to the market there. Vulcan silk will make for a nice dress. I’ve heard that place, the Nexus, is good for a dressy night out.”

“It is.” Suresh looked back at them for a second or two and finally nodded. “Very well. I’ll leave you to your cruising then. Oh, have Patch get in touch with me, would you?”

Isaura nodded. “Will do. See you, or not, when we get back.”

Kaeli closed the channel and looked to Isaura. “The easy one is out of the way. I didn’t exactly tell Ro what we were off to do, did you?”

“Hmm... ah... I might have done,” Isa nodded trying to recall the conversation.

“Well, at least he will be glad we’re done. Ready?”

“Yep,” Isa patched them through to a secure channel to the Ning’Tao, Ronin’s room. Before the channel opened fully to have video-capability, she said, “Ronin? Hey, if you’ve got an underaged cricket... cover her up!”

“An underaged cricket?” Kaeli was obviously puzzled. “Am I missing something here?”

“Rhian... what’s her species?” Isa whispered to her.

“Ocampa,” Kaeli whispered back. “What’s going on?”

“Ah... let’s see...,” she opened the channel fully, turning on the video feed. “Ro? You awake?”

“I am now,” he grumbled as he appeared in the viewscreen. His long hair was mussed and he was shirtless. Stifling a yawn, he finally focused. “What’s up in the middle of my night?”

“Well, we were calling to let you know everything’s fine on our end but I want to know about this ‘cricket’. What gives?” Kaeli shot a grin at Isaura.

“Nothing gives and you have a big mouth Isa.” The screen went black for a moment, then Ro reappeared.

“Kaeli, don’t worry about it, I just didn’t want to discover that he’d given his bunk over to Rhian. He and I talked about another pilot joining the crew and maybe taking Rhian’s quarters. Sort of a round robin of bunk-swapping,” Isa told her. “Ro, how are things there? Has that pilot decided not to move in?”

“I haven’t even begin to deal with that yet. In three hours I’m taking Joe, Falon and Paz out for a day run. Rhian is coming with us, mostly to keep her out of tomorrow’s poker game. She cheats, of course, and you know what that would mean in the Pit.” Ronin rubbed his eyes. “That’s only part of the...trouble...she’s giving me.”

The light finally dawned for Kaeli and she snorted laughter. “I see.”

Isa grinned. “Why not see if that pilot is around? Take him out, too,” she suggested. “Let him know that a pirate’s life isn't all fun - some, most, of it is very boring and tedious.”

“And some of it is far more dangerous than he is used to,” Ronin added. “I suspect that it’s not just the free life that’s attracting him either.”

”Maybe it’s a certain cricket?” Kaeli teased him, earning herself a glare from Ronin.

Again, Isa laughed. “Maybe. If so, then having him along might help you a bit, Ro.”

“What? To distract her? Or make him see that she has other interests?” He shook his head. “Scratch that. I am not going there. Tell me about Boroca instead.”

Kaeli glanced over to Isa. He’s changing the subject...obviously. Don’t let him get away with that.

Isa didn’t answer Ronin - she wasn’t sure whether Kaeli wanted Ro in on the ‘he’s dead and now we’re going to Romulus to kill Rekar’ scenario or not. “On this away mission, where are you going? To the colony? If so, you need to make sure the transponder is set for something other than ...what did we use when we stole the colony’s construction supplies? Oh, the Bolian ID code. Make sure that’s different or else you might find that the Marines will want to take the Ning’tao from you.”

“We’re not going that far, I’m just taking them out for the day, and coming in late,” Ro answered. “At this point, I don’t think I want to be cooped up for a week with...yeah, anyway...if we take Awf along, he can’t be gone a week either.”

“Okay. t’was just an idea,” Isa shrugged. “So it’ll just be out and back. Ok. You’ll probably be back before we are.”

“You will.” Kaeli paused a moment, wondering if Ronin would buy what she was about to say. “Since we’re making a short side trip. If you talk to Suresh, he might mention I’m visiting our mother. Just nod and smile. We are making a side trip but not for that.”

Ronin frowned at her words. “For what then?”

“Rekar. He thinks I’m working for him so I need to check in.” It was only partly a lie. “It shouldn’t take long, then we’ll be straight home.”

Isa nodded, “Yup, straight home. Unless, of course, Kaeli wants to really go to Vulcan - I told Suresh I was going to pick up some silk for a dress for dinner at the Nexus.” She realized something and added: “Oh, and Boroca is dead.”

“That’s good.” Ronin nodded. “I’m glad for your sake Isa. One less thing driving you crazy, which is saying a lot since you deal with my sister on a daily basis.” He frowned suddenly. “Which reminds me, you two. What’s with the radio silence where Jarad is concerned? He’s driving me nuts.”

“Let’s call it a breach of trust,” Kaeli muttered and fell silent.

“I already told him what Jarad did, Kae,” Isa said. “Ro, just tell him we’re fine - we’re off on a shopping trip. After all, Rafe’s with me, so we can stay out and have some fun.” She smiled, rather wickedly.

“Uh huh.” Ronin clearly wasn’t buying it but he let it go. “I’ll tell him I talked to you and you’re fine and that I didn’t see Patch anywhere. Will that help?”

Kaeli shrugged. “Maybe. Just tell him not to bug you since you don’t know anything. Trust me, it’s better that way.”

“Kaeli, do you need a minute with your brother without me around?” Isa looked at her partner in crime. “Course is laid in, so we’re set if you do. Just watch for any red alerts from the autopilot.”

“No not really. I’ll call you tomorrow Ro.” Kaeli closed the channel then turned to Isaura. “But you are due to be relieved. I’ll call Patch and get him up here to keep me company.”

“Okay. If I see him, I’ll send him up.” Isa stood and quickly kissed Kaeli’s forehead before moving out of the cockpit.

“Hey Isa?” Kaeli called out. “Next time tell me. I’m bummed that I missed seeing Zarv do his thing on Boroca. He had it coming.”

Isa stopped and looked back. “It wasn’t pretty, Kae. You know, if he weren’t bonded to me, I’d be terrified of him. If you want him to do the same to Rekar, though.... You can watch.”

“This one’s all mine. He’s going to look me in the eye as he goes down,” Kaeli answered. “Go, get some sleep.”

“Going. Talk to you soon,” Isa left and made her way back to Rafe and their bed.

**********
Kaeli
Rafael Hernanzez
Isaura Panossian
Suresh
Ronin