<USS Avalon> "My Heart Leads Me Astray" Pt. 8

“My Heart Leads Me Astray” – Part Eight
by Ensign Evan Benevente



Evan materialized in his quarters as the shimmering blue disappeared from his head and his sight. He paced in his quarters constantly, waiting desperately for Muln to show his face. Evan had completely forgotten he was still carrying the torpedo launcher at ready in his arms as he paced. Evan set it down carefully, staring blankly into the abyss of space that was the outside of the ship. He didn’t know what he was going to do to Garen, if anything, or what he was going to say to him. All Evan could think about was that he was extremely pissed and felt betrayed.

“Enter!” Evan yelled as Garen strolled through the door. Benevente looked at him a moment and then leaped at him, dragging him to the ground. Evan started pounding on him, one fist after the other. Garen kicked him to the floor and then dived on top of him, raising a couple fists of his own. “Garen! Why did you lie to me?!”

Garen released his death-grip and backed off, “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Michelle, you bastard, you said that Gul Surak had her.” Evan said as he stood to his feet, wiping the blood from his face and his knuckles, which Evan had opened up on Muln’s face. “You did that just to recruit me into the Maquis, didn’t you?”

Garen shrugged, walked to the window, and then returned to face Evan again, “Again, I haven’t the faintest idea of what you talking about?”

Evan grabbed a picture from the table stand and shoved it into Muln’s face, “Michelle Rose Alexander! You said you knew that she had been taken.”

“I must have confused her with someone else, it was an accident.” Garen looked at Evan without emotion or guilt. It was one of the most sickening sights Evan had ever seen in his entire life. Evan’s stomach cringed slightly and for a brief moment he felt sick. Then, in a show of remembrance, Evan realized that he must not let her die in vain or let the treachery go unanswered.

“What kind of person are you?” Evan looked at him questioningly, “I waste three months of my life with this pitiful organization, and all you can come up with is that it was a simple mistake? You had put her face with someone of the Ockum III government, which she was apart of, and that she had been taken. Don’t give me that bull shit that you made a mistake.” Evan paced faster know, clenching his fists.

“Evan, take it easy…” He started.

Evan swung as hard and as fast as his body would let him. It impacted on Garen’s left cheek and sent him sprawling to the floor. Blood poured from his mouth as he struggled to gain his footing. Benevente kicked him in the kidneys as hard as he could – he couldn’t let the opportunity go to waste. Garen’s body folded underneath him and he rolled to the left, impacting Evan’s nightstand. More blood poured from his mouth as Evan lifted him up. Tossing him across the room and into a tapestry Evan had on the wall, it fell over him and somehow the upper hand shifted again.

“I won’t take it easy you self-righteous son-of-a-bitch, I won’t sit here and be misled anymore, and I want to know how many more of the people on board you’ve lied to.” With that Evan up and left his quarters and walked to the nearest communications station and opened a ship-wide channel. “This is First Officer Evan Benevente, I have an announcement to make, all personnel meet me in the Cargo Hold. Bridge crew, enable the cloak and put us into orbit around the nearest planet.” Halfway smirking at his newfound courage, Evan left the station and walked down the corridor, entered the turbolift and rode it to the cargo hold.

As he stepped into the hold several crewmembers had already begun to assemble. Evan stepped up onto a cargo container and waited, more people trickled in from all over the ship until he had everyone listening intently. Evan stood up, and begun speaking:

“Crewmates! May I have your attention, please? I have been deceived and I believe that many of you may have suffered the same fate. Garen Muln, your worthy leader, has been telling me for months that my wife was captured during the Cardassian raid of Ockum III. I have found this to be false, he blatantly lied to me and I’m sure that it isn’t the first time that he’s done something like this. I won’t stand to be lied to. I am taking command of this ship and returning us to Federation space…”

A blinding pain ripped through Evan’s back muscles and down into his legs. He felt shaky and he could see the terror in some of the crew’s eyes; Evan fell to his knees, and then collapsed forward onto his chest. He couldn’t move and was barely able to breathe, but Evan could still feel and hear – it was one of the most terrifying experiences he’d been through to date. He heard footsteps approaching from his back and a toe nudged him over onto his back. More pain shot through his body as he gazed up and took in his situation: Garen stood over him, a phaser in his hand, and an evil smile spread over his face.

“You know, Evan, that could be considered as inciting mutiny.”

“Good, you bastard!” Evan struggled to move.

“Get back to your jobs, now!” Garen shouted as he raised his phaser in the air. People scampered around and exited the hold. “Get him back to his quarters and lock him down.” Garen moved away as three men dragged Evan to his feet and back to his quarters.


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


The next couple of days were painful; being allowed minimal medical equipment and only two meals a day was like prison and he couldn’t do anything about it. Evan wondered how long Garen would keep him there, but that was answered quickly. One day Garen strolled through the door as Evan was reading something on warp drives.

“Evan, can we talk?”

He perked an eyebrow, “What about?”

“I need you and your skills,” Garen said as he began pacing around the room, “we’re having the same problems that we were having before you came onboard. I need you to come back and work with me, but first you need to understand the Maquis and its objectives.”

“Damn it, Garen, I know the objectives. The last three months of my life have been the most memorable experience ever. I understand the Maquis. I have put my blood, sweat, and tears into this ship and this organization. I don’t hate the Maquis; I’m just upset with your methods that you used to acquire my talents.” Evan stared him down as Garen had stopped pacing.

“I’m sorry, Evan. We just needed someone and you fit the profile. I didn’t mean to lie to you at all. I apologize for your loss and I am deeply saddened about this. I knew she was in a bunker, but I didn’t think that it would collapse or anything.” Garen’s words were filled with remorse, or what Evan perceived as remorse. It was hard to tell given the previous situation with the man. He started to pace again, “I guess I was wrong. Can you forgive me?”

Evan stared him in the eye and extended his hand, “I forgive you, but I want you to be completely honest with me. Can you do that?”

“Want me to start now?”

“Yes.”

“The whole thing with Ockum III; it was a ploy to get Cardassians to raid the place because we thought that there was a Maquis agent that was working with the Cardassians, stationed on Ockum III. Your wife was on the list as one of the possible ones. She had approached the Maquis with joining, but never made it official. Others were a couple of diplomats and a couple of the high-standing citizens that carried the nobility.”

Evan cleared his head and finished his thought, “That is how you knew so much about her?”

“Correct.”

“Anything else you want to tell me?”

“Laura…”

“What about her?” Evan asked as he stepped forward.

“Nothing personal, but she was using you. We wanted to know how tight you held your vows to Michelle. We figured that you’d have assumed that she was dead and you’d want to move on, that is why Laura showed interest in you,” Garen’s words cut him like a knife, but somehow he’d expected it. “Her specialty is designed specifically for sexual pleasure in order to gain information. She has slept with almost everyone on board.”

“Including you?”

Garen chuckled, “She’s my girlfriend actually, but don’t let it get out.”

“I see. Doesn’t it bother you?”

“No, it’s strictly her profession. But anyway, you’re free to roam the decks again and return to your job. Anything you ask of me, I can do, with notice of course. Anything that you can think of right now?”

Evan paused and looked around, “Yes, I want to contact Starfleet and let them know that I’m all right and wish to rejoin them.”

Garen shook his head, “They won’t allow it Evan. Why do I know that you already knew that?”

“Because I did. I can reason with them. Figure in your clever deception and talk of my love for my wife and it will go to temporary insanity.” Evan paced around himself, already trying to figure out what to say if he was even allowed to make the call to Starfleet.

“Sure, as long as you do it from a secure terminal and they can’t triangulate our signal to these coordinates, understood?” Garen turned towards the door.

Benevente nodded, “Of course, sir.” He disappeared out of Evan’s quarters and down the corridors.


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


Later that day, Evan was reintroduced to his surroundings. He found that his speech in the cargo hold had more than devastating effects. Some of the crew had formed a group and were planning to mutiny. Others talked about rigging the shuttles and trying to escape, while others wanted to seal themselves in cargo containers and decompress the ship. Evan hadn’t realized that people would go to such extremes to figure out the truth.

Then he realized that he had done the same thing, and Evan would have done more to find out what was real. Some people had lost months, if not years to Muln. Some may have joined upon their own freewill, but others were sucked into it with fantasy and made up stories. Evan worried about some of them; all of the weapons lockers were emptied and all weapons were brought to the bridge. The bridge had extra security on it, of course. Evan dove into a conversation.

“Powers, what are you up to?”

“Designing a bomb that will enable forcefields around the back half of the ship after the bridge is destroyed.”

“Why?”

“So I can get back to my life after it was ripped away from me by Garen Muln.” He looked around, checking to see if anyone heard him.

“Right.” Evan stood and walked away. He walked down the hallway and saw Laura walking around. She smiled at him and Evan walked past her. He stopped momentarily and rethought his actions and then decided to go back and meet up with her. The two walked along in silence.

Then she broke the ice. “I’m sorry about the whole deception thing. I was just following orders, which I won’t follow anymore. I’m now in contact with my friends on Rial, and apparently my fiancee wasn’t killed in a Cardassian raid. He had left on vacation and Garen had blocked his transmissions telling me so. I’ll find a way back there.”

“Goodnight.” Evan said as they reached the end of the hallway.

Evan and Laura stopped at her quarters, “Want to come in?”

“What for?”

“I don’t know, we could talk or do something.” She perked an eyebrow and licked her lips. She ran her hand up over his chest and then grabbed his collar and kissed him. She dragged Evan into her quarters and they made love again. Not because Garen had ordered her too, she wanted it on her own.


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


Evan tapped a console, opening a secure channel and sending it to Starfleet Headquarters. He passed the encryption codes quickly and was put straight through to Admiral Ethan Connors. His image appeared on the screen; he looked at me questioningly.

“Admiral Connors, pleasure to meet you.”

The man raised an eyebrow, “Mr. Evan Benevente. I don’t know you personally and I would like to know why you’ve contacted me. Last time I checked you had left Starfleet to join the Maquis, which isn’t a good thing, son.”

“I understand, sir. Although, that’s why I have called you, sir. I want to rejoin Starfleet.”

“I need a reason, Mr. Benevente.”

Evan shook his head, “Sir, the leader of the Maquis that I work under deceived me. He had told me that a Cardassian took my wife during the raid of Ockum III three months ago. I believed him and we set off together to find her. He had blatantly lied to me and played off my emotions.”

“I can’t reinstate you on that. That was also part your fault. In the eyes of the Federation Council and Starfleet Headquarters that makes it also your decision, not temporary insanity which is what I think you are trying to get at.” He shook his head, “I’m sorry.”

“What if I agreed to go back and go through the academy again, sir, would that change anything?”

He shook his head continually, “I am sorry, Mr. Benevente, the Federation will now see you as an outlaw that needs to be arrested. Just like all of the other Maquis members there aren’t any exceptions – there isn’t anything that I can do.”

Evan shuddered; he was losing his only opposition to the reinstatement idea. The Admiral had shot down all defenses and wouldn’t listen to any of Evan’s arguments. Thankfully, Evan had one last chance. He didn’t know if the Admiral would take it. “What if I could give you something?”

“Bribing me won’t get you anywhere, Mr. Benevente.” He shook his head more, which was beginning to become very redundant. He just kept shaking it.

Shaking his head in response, Evan made clear his intentions, “No sir, of course not. I mean give you Maquis members.”

“They come a dime a dozen, Mr. Benevente, I need more.” Connors still shook his head.

“What about someone of extreme importance?”

Admiral Connors paused, stared at Evan from his desk light-years away, “Go on, I’m listening.”

“What if I told you that I could get you Garen Muln?”

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