<USS Avalon> Late night calls and blue dart frogs

T’Leara continued lying there in bed a few minutes more. She was exhausted. 
Eventually, she thought, if she continued to lay there, sleep would inevitably 
follow. But she was fooling herself. She hadn’t slept through an entire night 
since Vega Prime. 
 
"Lights", she muttered softly.
 
She rose silently as the lights in her quarters illuminated all of the corners 
from which the shadows of the past had called to her throughout the night. She 
was still in uniform, having already tried and failed at this whole rest period 
idea several times before. She wound her long braid back on top of her head and 
fastened it into a tight bun. She considered going to the hydroponics lab 
again, but the other's there were already beginning to drop things when they 
saw her. She supposed this was because of the expression S’Lena used to refer 
to as her permanent scowl, the expression she wore whenever she was 
particularly tired or perplexed. It was frequently pointed out to her as a 
decidedly un-Vulcan expression. 
 
Well, she thought, I am generally flawed and most decidedly un-Vulcan myself. I 
suppose I shall have to live with that. 
 
She wandered slowly to the Science lab, looking to see if there were any 
experiments of interest currently being performed. The only thing of interest 
she found was a large quantity of unusual blue dart frogs. Who would keep such 
animals aboard a starship? Especially knowing how toxic they were to humans? 
T’Leara wondered if perhaps that weren’t their purpose, then scowled again, 
recognizing that sort of paranoia to be the result, as most things seem to be 
now, of her time of Vega Prime. Still….she left the science lab and went back 
to hydroponics, seeking the plants she knew already to be there. If 
combined carefully - an anti-toxin, just in case. Her console was blinking when 
she got back to her quarters. 
 
"T’Leara," She answered.
 
The unwelcomed face of Taggert appeared.
 
"T’Leara, how nice to see you again", his voice filled her with loathing.
 
"What, Taggert", she responded coldly, her scowl deepening.
 
" I would appreciate it if you would make certain you were with the search 
party when our belongings are retrieved", he answered, " Take care of anyone 
who get too curious. We want our belongings back without questions. Perhaps, if 
you were to ensure this happened for us, we could clean up that ugliness in 
your file for you."
 
" I don’t work for your particular branch of Starfleet, Taggert, remember. I am 
a scientist, not a spy."
 
" It could protect them from what you helped create, T’Leara. You know how 
dangerous certain prototypes can be."
 
"I don’t have a clue what you mean," T’Leara lied, "T’Leara out!"
 
A moment later she was kicking herself. She should have offered him a pet frog! 
If they only knew who Taggert was, she was certain their owner wouldn’t mind.

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