Multi-Faceted Rifts - Conclusion

Posted on Mon Sep 12th, 2016 @ 12:38am by Lieutenant Riley Sukotav & Ensign Six of Ten & Suresh & Niro & Ensign Leela Carter & Ensign Reva Madhava

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: EFS

EFS Korenna - Alt Universe *

The Korenna grew still and Six withdrew her hand from the panel. “The Kohana is gone.” She turned to Reva. “What about the rift? Is there any way….?”

Reva shook her head, still staring at the console as she tapped at it. “It’s closed. We’ll have to ...make calculations. Opening it again will require an enormous amount of energy and precision - we need to break through to our universe, not just any random place.” She sounded a little shell-shocked.

Riley moved over to stand beside her and reached out, touching her arm. We’ll find a way. It may take some time though. What about the people in your universe?

“They’ll come for us,” Reva said, knowing she was right. They came after her before.

Smiling, Suresh couldn’t say he was upset with the turn of events. “It might just take a while.” He hesitated then asked, “We have a Borg cube on our side of this rift, too; where is it?”

“It’s at least two hours away,” Six answered. “Which gives me plenty of time.” She turned away from Reva and dashed for the doors of engineering. They opened immediately.

Reva debated following Six. Rather, she debated not following Six. A moment behind her friend, she took off for the Bridge.

Seeing where this would end up, Suresh drew his phaser and fired on Reva - he knew Riley wouldn’t do it, even though the man had every reason to want to get some payback on the woman. He stepped over to her prone body and said to Riley. “Perhaps we should catch up to Six.”

Riley looked first at Reva, then glared at Suresh. You catch her. I’ll see to this one. The alarm had begun to sound when Suresh fired. Better hurry. I’ll warn NIro.

Suresh took off after Six. “Check in on the other woman, too.”

Six was moving fast and had the added advantage of being part of the ship now. As Suresh rounded a corner, he saw the green glow of the transporter as Six vanished, leaving him to use the lift or transport himself. Moments later she appeared on the bridge.

“What the hell have you done Niro??” she demanded.

“Nothing that anyone else in my position wouldn’t have done,” Niro said, laughing. He knew from Leela’s head that the Niro in their world was a right terrible bastard. “You and the others will need to get used to being here.”

“No way in hell will I get used to being here,” Six shot back. “They’ll come get us, count on that.” She moved closer, leaning into his personal space. “There is a Borg cube two hours from here. I am the only thing standing between you and your new cubicle as a drone. Now with that in mind, what do you intend to do with us?”

As Suresh burst onto the Bridge from the lift, Niro laughed and asked her, “Would you really do that to your friend, Reva, or the other two women, Leela and Marie? They may want some say on whether they are assimilated.”

“I meant you. Soon, I’ll be able to hear the Borg, communicate with them. I can help you or give you to them. It all depends on your next few words.” She glanced over at Suresh, sensing a chaotic swirl of emotions as he watched her. “Well? Are you going to bring us back here or not?”

“Back here? Certainly, someday,” Niro nodded. “It might be a week.... Or a so. One never knows. After all, we have someone else we answer to. She’ll want to meet you.”

Suresh went still and frowned deeply.

“Who?” Six demanded. She reached out mentally, sensing Niro’s emotions. For the moment, he didn’t seem to be lying, which both reassured her and worried at the same time.

Looking surprised, Niro asked Suresh, “You and Riley didn’t tell them?” Suresh shook his head; the Syndicate leader wasn’t one he liked to be around. “Ah, well. Then the pleasure is mine,” Niro looked at Six, “The Syndicate’s executive in this region, Europa. You might know her better as Reva’s mother.”

Six was silent as she tried to process that. It was the wrong Reva’s mother of course but that was in itself a problem. Suresh had said that this person wouldn’t like her very much. Six could think of a dozen reasons why she wouldn’t, which left Six out on a very shaky limb without much support. Her gaze fell on Suresh again before she turned back to Niro.

“Until then?”

“Until then, we’re the crew of the Korenna,” Suresh said, smiling slightly.

“And we’re to keep this ship running. I get it.” She looked from Niro to Suresh, suddenly sensing something more that caused her eyes to narrow. The emotion she’d picked up from Suresh was...expectant. She filed that away to examine later and decided that for now, any ally was better than none. “Two things. I want to see Leela, and I want Marie out of that cell.” She turned away without waiting for an answer.

“Of course.” Now that there was nowhere for them to escape to, Niro was magnanimous. “Suresh, see to it.”

“Thank you. I’m going to check on Reva since Suresh shot her.” She stepped back and raised her left hand, the one with the visible implant, and waggled her fingers at him. It was an obvious threat. “Be good.” She turned and crossed to join Suresh.

At an unspoken question from Niro, Suresh shrugged and said, “Riley wasn’t going to.” He took Six’s arm and led her onto the lift.

The doors closed and Six turned to Suresh. “You know this ship will basically run itself. It will notify whoever is on duty if there’s a problem but if there is it will fix itself. Are you going to be my shadow now?”

“Perhaps. It’ll be interesting to see whether Riley becomes Reva’s shadow.” He smiled at her blandly.

“I’m not….” Her, Six had started to say but she stopped. One ally was better than none. For now. Finally, she shrugged. “We’ll see. Do I get quarters or are you planning to drag me back to the cave?”

“Cave? Ah... there’s no such thing here,” he chuckled. “Unless your Borg tech created one.” He led her to the Brig area, where Leela had been put along with Marie. “If you’d like, you can stay here. Otherwise, I’m sure appropriate quarters can be made available.”

“They will be released, if Niro was truthful, so yes I’ll need quarters.” She stepped up close to Suresh and touched his arm. “Look, I know that you…I mean...how about I crash on your couch? I’d rather have you between me and Niro.”

“Must it be my couch?”

* * *

Waking slowly, Reva stretched her Betazoid abilities to sense the room around her. Riley was there; it was just a long nightmare. Smiling, she sat up, “Rye?” His touch swept away her smile, reminded her that he was not her Riley and that she wasn’t on the Kohana. She reacted poorly, scooting away from him as far as the couch would let her.

Easy, Reva, Riley cautioned. You were hit with a phaser in the shoulder. I healed it up but you need to not move it around too much yet. How does it feel?

“You shot me?” She frowned at him as she gently rolled her shoulder and winced. “I’ll survive.”

Suresh did when you started to leave engineering, then he went to chase down Six before she got to Niro. She was boiling when she left there. It wasn’t the smart thing to do, to go bitch at Niro. But you’ll be safe here.

Where is here? And are we reopening the rift?

Riley was silent for a few seconds as he considered how to answer that. Finally, he shook his head. Not yet. The Borg are still coming and we need to get out of here. I’m sorry.

I’d rather stay far away from the Borg. I don’t think Six could convince them not to assimilate us. She looked around the room and smiled on seeing some familiar items. The two Rileys weren’t completely different.

Riley nodded. I think it’s the best course for now. Niro is...there’s something simmering in his head and even I can’t see it yet. I think it would be best if you stick close, just in case. I know it’s strange but...yeah...

“I need to see Six and the others,” she said.

Yes. Suresh should’ve caught up with Six by now. You can reach him on the comm and he can bring her here.

“Okay. And you’ll sleep on the couch while I’m staying here?”

If you want to stay here, yes I will. You’ll be okay here, don’t worry. He offered his hand to help her up. Ready to call for Six?

She nodded, took his hand and tapped her commbadge to contact Six.

* Guest Quarters - EFL Korenna (Alt Universe) *

It had taken some convincing on Six’s part to get Suresh to leave her here alone but she had managed it somehow. She had an hour exactly and now rang the chime at Leela’s quarters.

Leela answered the door and pulled Six inside; she looked up and down the hallway, spied Reva coming and waited for her before closing the door. Inside, Marie was already on the couch, sipping wine. “Reva, what will it take to reopen the rift?”, she started in on questions.

Reva shook her head; she was still ‘off’ because of their situation. “Ah... lots of energy, calculations, proximity to where it was.... We’ll need this ship - or another one.”

“And time to do it once we get back there. Without interference. If there is help from the other side it will go much faster. Or help from this side, but I don’t see that happening,” Six added.

“No. Is it possible to open a rift somewhere else? The Admiral and a couple of others went through rifts on the Station,” Leela said.

“Rifts to a different universe. Opening a rift isn’t really the hard part; the hard part is making sure that we open one to our universe. Unless... unless we just open one that’s large enough and then sort through all of the signatures and resonances to find ours,” Reva answered. “Finding our universe would be easier back at those same coordinates.”

“Where are we going now Leela?” Six asked.

Leela briefly glanced at her hands then answered, “There isn’t a Starbase 900 in this universe. Instead, there’s a pirate’s bay type of station, a place cobbled together and run by the Orion Syndicate.”

Reva looked up from the glass of wine she’d just poured. “Orion Syndicate?”, she glanced at Six.

“We are going there?” Six met Reva’s gaze, then reached out to touch her hand. “It’s Europa. Not your Europa but yeah, this universe’s version.”

Reva paled a bit. “Europa... I’ve never met her. Perhaps she’s a milder version of our universe’s Orion, like this Niro is.”

Looking from one to the other, Leela shook her head. “Why is this concerning? She’s an Orion; a business person, correct?”

“She’s my mother. In our world, she’s in prison on Earth for some rather awful crimes,” Reva said, prompting Leela to mouth “oh”.

“Seeing Reva will interest her I imagine. Seeing me will not, in the least. Niro’s already warned me about that.” Six studied Leela for a moment, her emotions confusing. “How long until we get there?”

“Few days,” Leela answered. “Until then, let’s all just lay low and try to make friends.”

Six nodded. “I’ve already begun. In my case it shouldn’t be difficult. This Suresh is….well, complicated but he is staying close and there’s something going on where we are concerned.” She turned to Reva. “What about you? Can you find anything in Riley’s head?”

“Not yet. He’s a bit closed with me. For now. Maybe I can open him up in the next couple of days.” She shrugged.

“Work on it, Reva.” Leela sighed. “And I’ll work on Niro. This will likely be my most distasteful career assignment.”

“You have my sympathy, Leela.” Six nodded then. “I’ll do what I can with Suresh. He’s so weird. One minute he’s all touchy-feely and smelling my hair, the next he’s clammed up tight. I’m not sure which is worse.”

“I vote for touchy-feely,” Reva said into her wine glass as she took a sip.

Six shot her a look. “There are all kinds of issues with that. But we have to get home. There are limits.”

“I’m not asking you to cross that line,” Leela said. “Don’t do anything you’re not okay with.”

She nodded. “I won’t. However, I think he and Riley will be easier to control than Niro. Keep your comm badge with you. If you need us you can call and we’ll come running.”

“Thanks,” Leela sighed and settled in on the couch.

********************

Lt. (jg) Leela Carter
Ensign Reva Madhava
Ensign Six Of Ten
Riley (Alt.)
Suresh (Alt.)
Niro (Alt.)