Lookin' for Levin in All the Wrong Places
Posted on Wed Sep 19th, 2012 @ 5:24pm by Lieutenant Commander Michael Darwin & Lieutenant Commander Gilroy & Ensign Ian Bren & Lieutenant Norval Tigan & Lieutenant Nick Marcinko & Senior Chief Petty Officer Jonas Levin & Ensign Aure'l
Edited on on Wed Sep 19th, 2012 @ 5:32pm
Mission: Sections of the Delta Quadrant
SB900
“Leave it to Oz to create a diplomatic disaster...,” Ganesh mumbled.
“Hey, insults are my purview,” Moresi warned him and came around the console to stand next to the Bolian. “You’ve been on duty for nearly twelve hours. Go, get some rest, I’ll handle the Trill beam over and the detail over there.”
“Okay,” the Bolian yawned. “Sounds good. The kid’s getting a quick shower and shave while Lieutenant Tigan waits. The volunteers are in the visitors’ lounge.”
“BlueBoy, I got it,” the Tellerite grumbled. “Go on.”
In the changing of the guard, a few details slipped through the cracks.
Archadian Roadway Towards the Airfield
“I can walk you know,” Aure’l informed the two, much taller security men. “Dress or no dress, you will be surprised how quickly I can move.”
Darwin and Gilroy shot each other a look over her head then both let go of the over-dressed Vulcan. They’d gotten themselves far enough away from the Palace that no one was chasing them. “Great. No tricorder,” Darwin looked Aure’l up and down, “Unless you have one hidden in the folds of that dress...?”
Gilroy shot Darwin a smirk; it was tough to tell whether he was annoyed, amused or constipated. “We need to trace Levin somehow.” He turned away slightly and hailed someone he knew was on the planet: Nick Marcinko. As an Intel guy, he should have some handy gadgets. Reaching Nick, he gave the man their location and agreed to wait for him.
Meanwhile, Darwin was pondering the issue of Levin in a different way. “Well, let’s think about this...,” Darwin paused and again regarded Aure’l. “Ensign, when someone’s just killed a Queen what’s the most logical next thing to do?”
“Escape. We know he had a shuttle here, so logic dictates that he made haste to get back to it and leave the planet.” She smoothed out her dress, then reached down the neck of the dress into her cleavage. Moments later, her hand came back up with a small scanner. “It’s not as sophisticated but it should do.”
Looking at Gilroy, Darwin tossed his hands up and said, “See? Not such a bad question.” He grinned and addressed Aure’l again, “Don’t suppose you have any snacks in there?”
“Luck favors the prepared, darling.” Aurel spoke with a completely straight face. “And no, unless you consider a woman’s natural anatomy to be a snack.” She switched on the scanner and passed it to Gilroy. “Shall we?”
“Ah, put that way...,” Darwin was about to grinningly insert his foot in his mouth.
“Shutit!” Gilroy coughed and accepted the scanner. “Let’s wait here for Nick, then head to the airfield,” he said. He knew that Darwin had already known that’s where they needed to be headed, but was testing the Ensign’s logic. As if a Vulcan would slip up. ‘Course, she did just crack a joke. He fussed with the scanner and worked to not think about where it had just been.
Nick watched from a second story window as the trio waltzed past like they were on the yellow brick road headed to see the damn Wizard or something. Shaking his head, he descended the steps, crossed through a small wooded area between the buildings and was waiting for them as they passed.
"You guys gonna' skip and hold hands while you're making your way out of the city? Are they just giving away security training certificates now?" He was leaning against the corner of the building, dressed in subdued clothing, but nothing as gawdy as what those invited to see the Queen had been made to endure. What clued them in, however, was the cigar he puffed on. In all of the Delta Quadrant, he and Admiral Wegener were about the only people that still imbibed the smoke of the tobacco plant.
“Oh, ew, Gilroy,” Darwin made a disgusted face and looked at his fellow officer, “I think someone mistook Marcinko for a sewage treatment plant. Or... hey, Marcinko, are you smoking feces? ‘Cause that shit stinks.”
Gilroy didn’t tell Darwin to zip it; he was in agreement, but he didn’t feel like pissing into the wind at the moment. “Nick, do you have a tricorder? We need to find the trail of Jonas Levin.”
“Something wrong with yours?” he asked, and looked at Darwin. “And go fuck yourself......sir.” He added the last word hesitantly, but it sounded much more like ‘cur’ than ‘sir’.
Nearly letting Nick bait him, Darwin had his mouth partly open to tell the man all about how Nenita had already done that for him. Gilroy, though, as if reading his thoughts, coughed loudly and said to Nick, “Watch your tongue and be civil; there’s a lady present.” Not to mention two officers that outranked him. “The tricorder we had was destroyed. So unless you have some other brilliant idea for tracking Jonas Levin,” Gil snapped his fingers and gestured at Nick in a ‘gimme’ manner, “Tricorder.”
“We are running short of time as Levin has a head start, Nick. We have reason to believe he is responsible for the death of the Queen, and our own officers are being held for suspicion of murder instead.” Aure’l’s voice was calm. “We need to find the shuttle.”
SB900 Shuttle 68448-D
Levin relaxed only slightly as he left the Archadian airfield behind. It had been close but his timing, as usual, had been perfect. He’d stayed until the old lady’s pulse fluttered to a stop, escaping just in time for Kh’ali and her team to take the blame. Such an atrocity would surely sever any further ties much more effectively than previous efforts. It also paved the way for their puppet to hop into the big chair. He had to admit, even by his standards, the plan was pure genius. Now he had one more stop to make in order to tie up one last loose end, and he would bid SB900 a not-so-fond farewell.
He opened a channel directly to the Trill ship. “This is SB900 shuttle 68448-D. One to beam aboard with Ensign Ian Bren’s team. My apologies for being a little late, I was detained on the planet.”
Permission was given and he edged the shuttle in close, docking it to the underneath side of the Trill ship. Moments later, he vanished in a swirl of blue.
Trill Ship
Traditional transporter harmonics and light displays started on the Trill ship and ended when the SB900 group had fully materialized. Besides the two Trill, Ian Bren and Norval Tigan, there were six others: the part-Klingon, E’tarna; the Bajoran, Ed Mills; the Terran, Ted Haskell; and three Security officers. Moresi, a Tellerite, was in charge of the two juniors. Scanning the group, Moresi quickly assessed them then deferred to Lieutenant Tigan to address the Trill waiting for them.
Taking a deep breath Norval stepped forward, all smiles as he kept his hands draped behind his back, holding a PADD. “Doctor Vidic,” he said, managing to sound jovial despite being rather non-plussed that a member of the Symbiosis Commission’s Board had chosen to attend personally. “It’s a pleasure to see you in person. I hope your trip was comfortable.”
“As much as can be expected in traveling to this backwater,” Vidic replied, not showing the same courtesy that Norval was trying to muster, simply holding out his hand expectantly.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Norval replied, his smile slightly more genuine now as he saw that Vidic was just as displeased to be here and Norval was that he was here. He handed over the PADD, in which was contained his formal review of Ensign Ian Leyva as a candidate for joining. He had managed to make the holodeck simulation appear as a very in-depth psychological profile, and had gathered a few insights from Eric in sickbay. It wasn’t nearly as exhaustive as Ian’s first report would have been, but it would have to do. It also didn’t matter. In mere minutes, Ian and Bren were going to be inseparable.
Vidic only glanced at the PADD in passing before making a somewhat dismissive gesture to his side, indicating the wispy, grey-haired man who stood at his side. “This is Tonn, the Guardian who will perform the zhian’tara.”
“I have prepared a room for the ceremony,” he said, speaking in a soft, slightly shaky voice that implied his age, while smiling somewhat toothlessly. He, at least, seemed very pleased to be there. Excitement at getting out from the Caves of Mak’ala, perhaps. “I must say, Tigan, you are looking well for one so old. And you, Bren,” he said, turning glassy eyes on Ian for the first time, “I am sorry for what you’ve been through.”
Norval was somewhat accustomed to the ability of the Guardians to look on a Trill and be able to tell to whom they had been joined, as well as their penchant to speak to the symbionts directly rather than the host, but for Ian it would have felt like the elderly caretaker was peering into the deepest recesses of his consciousness, speaking directly to the experiences of his past lives.
There were things in Ian’s conscious mind that he really didn’t want anyone shining on a light upon. And that’s what it felt like this old guy was doing. He frowned and unconsciously reached for E’tarna’s hand. What made it all worse was that Bren wriggled in his belly and Ian founded himself saying, “It’s been terrible. There was a blond demon that tried to unseat me....”
Interjecting, Norval spoke. “Ian, whenever you’re ready, you and the Guardian can begin with the first volunteer host. Dr. Vidic, given the... unusual circumstances surrounding Bren right now, I’d like to lock down your transporter for the duration of the ceremony, and raise the shields.”
Archadia, Where Darwin is Doing a Damned Fine Job of Keeping His Temper, ThankYouVeryMuch
Nick tapped his communicator and spoke to one of his intel geeks on 900, purposely not handing over the tricorder. Since it had sensitive material that was beyond Gilroy’s clearance, or was need-to-know, Nick wasn’t authorized to hand it over anyway. The intelligence officers were able to track the shuttle in question and found that an occupant had just beamed over to the Trill ship. “There you go,” he said and looked at Gil. “I’m sure the one that beamed over is your man.” He slitted his eyes at Gilroy. “And I don’t give a shit who outranks who here. If you snap at me like that again, I’ll break your goddamn fingers off.” He then turned to the rest of the group. “And one more thing, I don’t know any of you any better than you know me. So until then, it’s ‘Master Chief’, ‘Marcinko’ or ‘hey you’. ‘Nick’ is reserved for people that have actually earned my respect.”
Surprised, and angered, by Marcinko’s disrespect, Darwin and Gilroy exchanged glances then Gilroy commented, “Seems like someone needs anger management training....”
“That, or more fiber in his diet,” Darwin added.
“We need to get to that ship and quickly. If Levin is there, it is logical to assume that he intends to harm Ensign Bren.” Aure’l looked from one to the other. “A direct transport would be the best course.”
As the two security goons looked back and forth, Nick rolled his eyes and tapped his commbadge again, prompting Darwin to ball his fist and take a step towards him; Gilroy caught the Security officer and muttered something to him. “Yeah, it’s me again,” Nick said after he’d reestablished contact with his people in intelligence. “I need a direct transport of myself and the three other signals near me to the Trill ship under my authorization related directly to my ongoing investigation. It’s an emergency so hurry the fuck up. Marcinko out.”
There was only enough time for him to drop the cigar and step on it to put out the remaining embers before the transporter beam reached down from the enormous station above the planet, plucked the four of them off of the surface of the planet, and deposited them in a storage bay of the ship. “Service with a smile,” Nick said as they all materialized.
“In the storage bay?” It was Darwin’s turn to roll his eyes. “We don’t exactly need to skulk around.” Tapping his commbadge, Darwin contacted Moresi and asked several questions. When one of Moresi’s answers came back as: =/\=Levin? Oh, yeah, he’s here. Just went into the ritual room with Bren.=/\=, Darwin’s brows shot up and he gestured for the others to follow him. “Come on! We know where he is, at least!”
______________________
CPO Ganesh
CPO Moresi
Ensign Aure'l
Lieutenant M.Darwin
Lieutenant Gilroy
MCPO Nick Marcinko
SCPO Jonas Levin
Lieutenant Norval Tigan
Ensign Ian Bren
