If It's Not One Thing It's Another

Posted on Mon Jan 7th, 2013 @ 2:29pm by Suresh & Cadet Junior Grade Tenahn Vor & Lazan

Mission: The Struggle Within
Location: Lazan's Office / Academy Deck

The Rat was in what was conventionally known as a ‘tizzy’. True to his namesake, he was so unsettled and downright afraid that his nose and mouth quivered, along with his hands, and his eyes were narrowed into a tight squint. As he hurried along the corridor, he muttered to himself, the same words over and over.

“What now? What now? I have to tell him of course, but what now?”

He was just leaving the area where the cadets were housed, having watched the commotion from around the corner. The Enforcer had gone completely around the bend it seemed. He’d been talking to himself, mentioning this young Eli over and over, then dashed out of the room. By the time the Rat caught up, he saw him breaking into the cadet’s quarters and there he had remained.

After the cadet entered the room, things had gotten weird. The Rat had stood with his ear pressed to the door and heard the strangest things. Had the Enforcer really been shouting ‘I love you’? What the hell? Another shout had sent him scurrying back around the corner however, just in time to avoid Security. And now, the Enforcer was on his way to the brig and the Rat had some bad news to deliver.

Some twenty minutes later he approached Lazan’s office door. He’d put it off as long as he could and knew it would be better to deliver this news himself instead of letting it arrive third hand. He rang the chime and waited.

“Come in,” Lazan said as he removed his feet from the top of the desk and sat up. He had managed to keep things quite low-key since the unfortunate incident with the Security Chief’s brother and, despite wondering how he was going to appease the Federation for that blunder, had been enjoying his time in charge. It was certainly easier to navigate his own little web of deceit when he didn’t have to hide his purpose from Suresh.

The doors slid open and as usual when he stepped in, the Rat was wringing his hat in his hands. “Hello Lazan.” He advanced into the office only far enough to allow the doors to close behind him. The whoosh set his nerves on edge as it announced the closing of his escape route. “I have some news.”

Lazan smirked. There was something about the perpetual unease that surrounded the Rat that was simultaneously amusing and, quite honestly, grating. “Out with it then,” he prompted, knowing they could sit in silence forever while the sniveling little man attempted to work up the courage to speak.

“It’s..it’s about the Enforcer. There’s...a...problem.” His lips trembled, making the words unsteady. “It concerns the cadet Eli.” He paused, watching Lazan carefully. He knew he should probably spill it all out at once but he hoped that by easing into it, he could avoid bloodshed.

Lazan’s eyes steadily narrowed, his face becoming more severe than usual. “If he’s killed another cadet, after I gave you explicit instructions to stop him, so help me...”

“No, no, it’s not that at all,” the Rat hastened to assure him. “But he’s become somewhat obsessed with this one in particular. He went to his quarters today to wait. I listened at the door, knowing that you’d want to know. He....he thinks he is in love with the young man and that he is....” The Rat shrugged. “I have no idea what is in his head. However....” and now it was time for the worse news. “Security was called. The Cadet has figured out that it was the Enforcer who killed his friend.”

Lazan had managed to relax, if only momentarily, at the hasty assurance that the Enforcer had not gone completely off the chain. But the news about Security... that was disturbing indeed. The crime lord was on his feet in an instant, moving towards the door and rather directly towards the Rat who still stood before it. His features were almost inscrutable, such that the pathetic little man might have been consumed with fear when Lazan lifted his arm... even if only to place a hand on the Rat’s shoulder as he brushed by. For once, the man had done his job admirably, informing Lazan swiftly enough to still possibly take action.

He made his way purposefully towards the brig.

The Rat held his ground until Lazan was gone and only then did he relax. Taking time for a few deep breaths, he began to relax and his chaotic thoughts to settle. He now had another mission and that involved following up on this situation. Departing Lazan’s office, he started the trip to the location of a certain magnet around which this young man Eli revolved. As strange as this situation was turning out to be, he was leaving nothing to chance. The pun made him laugh, a sound that was more like a wheezing snicker.

*** Anthropology & Archaeology Laboratories, Deck 212 ***

Cadet Tenahn Vor was carefully replacing the hominid skulls he had been studying in their storage containers, attempting to be as delicate as he could be with inch-long claws extending from each of his three digits. Satisfied that his work was properly stowed he sealed the case and exited into the hallway, intent on returning to the Academy levels from the Galileo Center.

The Rat peeked around the corner, alerted by the sound of the lab doors closing. He could see the Cadet moving along the corridor. He studied him curiously for a moment, noting his lizard-like appearance. Interesting. He watched a few more moments, then stepped out, following casually behind.

Approaching the turbolift, Vor waited only a moment before the doors parted and permitted him to step inside and turn to face the corridor he had just strode. “Deck five-five-nine,” he requested.

The Rat slipped in just before the doors closed. “Whew! Just in time.” He looked up at Vor. “Headed down to the Academy are you?’

Vor gave a polite nod in response. “I am. And you?” he asked, noting that the lift had slid into motion without his sudden companion calling for a destination of his own.

“I have a delivery for the assistant dean is all.” The Rat shrugged. “Lucky I hopped in this lift then. How’re your studies going? I’ve heard the Academy is intense.”

Vor intimated the human gesture of a noncommittal shrug. “I suppose it could be such,” he reasoned. “I do not find the course load to be particularly challenging, if I’m being entirely honest, but I am very pleased to be here.”

The Rat nodded. “I was sorry to hear about the loss of your fellow cadet. A real tragedy.” He fell silent, looking over to the panel to check the progress of their descent.

Vor's exposed scales, normally ranging from green to brown, shifted swiftly into a midnight blue. "Yes," he admitted somberly, "it was. For some more than others." The saurian's thoughts shifted from Chance to Eli and back. Vor missed a friend, but Eli had lost far more than that. The pheromones that had come off of them both had been impossible to misread in happier days.

“A friend of mine met the one left up on the promenade the other day, said he seemed to be taking it hard. A shame for someone so young.” He fell silent as the chime sounded and the lift doors slid open. “After you.”

"Hmm?" Vor asked, stirred from his own thoughts to notice the open door. "Oh, thank you..." He managed a solemn nod as he made his way into the corridor, turning to head towards home.

The Rat stepped out and waited till Vor was a little distance away down a side corridor before he began to move stealthily along behind him. What he needed to know was where this young Cadet lived and thus where Eli was staying at the moment.

It had taken some time to notice, but eventually the saurian's primary sense alerted him to the fact that he was being followed. Turning a corner, Vor almost immediately stopped, waiting for his pursuer to draw near.

The Rat stepped out, seeing that he’d been made but keeping his pace casual, as if her were out for a stroll. When he reached Vor he nodded and started past.

"You know," the Cadet said almost immediately, "I don't believe there is an Assistant Dean on this deck, and I should have realized that sooner... But you should also probably know that I can smell dumplings in my quarters from here, so your scent on my trail is simply noticed."

Smiling toothily, Vor tapped his snout with a talon. He was an herbivore, of course, but maybe no one had told this little man that.

“That so? Useful talent, that.” The Rat nodded once more. “You go enjoy your dumplings and I’ll see you around I suppose.”

"I imagine I'll smell you first," the Voth muttered before resuming his path home, wondering what possible interest anyone could have in him.

The Rat stood still, watching until Vor was out of sight. “That’s good to know,” he whispered.

****************
The Rat
Working His Way Through A Maze

Lazan
Taking Care of Business

Cadet Tenahn Vor
Getting Caught in the Web