<USS Avalon> =/\= Between The Lines =/\=

=/\= Between The Lines =/\=



The screen flickered as the connection was made, and Commander Matira Elagius 
grinned at her former classmate.  "Andi, I've got one for you.  Or will 
have," she shrugged, "in a year or so, once she's trained."

"One what?"  Captain Andrea Robisen raised a brow.

"One empath who won't be detected in a crowd," Elagius told her gleefully.  
"Remember when you said you needed one who could pass as a secretary or honor 
guard for your diplomats?"

"Mati, that was over two years ago.  And I recall you saying you thought you 
had one then -- a Cardassian?"

Elagius nodded.  "It's the same one.  I've finally manipulated her into a 
situation where she's being evaluated -- and incidentally getting crash therapy 
for her issues.  The difficult part, of course, was putting her in the path of 
my agent without HIS knowing what was going on."

Robisen looked even more skeptical than she had at first.  "How in the name 
of all that's holy are you having an agent evaluate her without knowing what 
he's doing?"

The grin returned to the commander's face.  "The agent is Camdell Loyen.  
He's half Terran and half Serashen, fully empathic.  I've been using him to 
evaluate combat-shocked officers on medical leave, to determine whether they're 
fit 
to return to duty."

"Loyen?" Robisen interrupted.  "Isn't he the one who spent his entire tenure 
at the Academy going out with a different girl every week?"

"Yes, and every one of them psi-sensitive!" Elagius laughed.  "He won't date 
anyone who's not.  After a while, it got so we were identifying suspected 
latents by whether he'd date them.  So when Ashayu was ordered to take shore 
leave, I made sure her inbox was full of brochures and that the most attractive 
of 
the bunch would lead her to Loyen.  And he glommed onto her like... well, like 
a glommer.  Thereby proving she's the empath I thought she was.  And Loyen 
won't let her hide behind her issues."

Robisen nodded.  "I'll take your word for that, Mati, but how can you be so 
sure she'd be undetectable?  Or, for that matter, that she could read 
non-sensitives?"

"You've got the clearances, Andi; I'll send you her file.  But it's simple 
logic, too -- if she was detectable, the Obsidian Order would have detected her 
early on, and she wouldn't have been running loose."  Elagius grinned again.  
"So once Loyen's had a few days with her, we'll tap him for what he knows, get 
her into some proper training, and start preparing her for her new duties.  I 
warn you, though -- Ketchum may want to keep her on Avalon."

"Pth," said Robisen.  "I'll see what I can do about that... or maybe in the 
meanwhile you'll find someone else who won't take a year of preparation."

"Maybe so," Elagius agreed, though it had taken her this long to get Ashayu 
sorted out.  "Meet me for lunch when you're in the neighborhood?"

"Of course!  Say, I've got to go, Mati.  But I'll see you in a few weeks!"

Elagius closed the connection, returning to her report on Loyen and Ashayu.  
Things were looking very interesting indeed.



=/\=

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