[ussbansheec] "Orders"
- From: "Moria Grace" <bansheec@xxxxxxx>
- To: <ussbansheec@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2005 15:47:18 -0400
"Orders"
Admiral Sara Kaelyre, Captains Vevay Davis and Miranda Hale and Doctor Jaidev
LeBeau
When the meeting had ended most of the people there hung back to discuss and
digest everything that they had just been told. A few, like Melanie, had
slipped out of the room. By the end of it all she felt as if she couldn't
breath, that the walls had started to close in on her, she hadn't even told
Vevay she was leaving. She walked out into one of the gardens that over looked
the bay and sank onto a bench facing the water.
Vevay slipped down next to her. "We'll find her, love, I promise."
It had been a long time since Melanie had felt such gripping fear, not since
the day she'd heard Vevay's last ship had engaged the Breen. The tears that
she'd managed to hold in all afternoon finally fell as she covered her face
with her hands.
Rubbing up and down Mel's spine, Vevay said, "They're just lost so all we need
to do is find them."
"How do we do that when we don't know where to look?" Melanie asked as she
turned to look at Vevay. "That thing could have swallowed them up and spit them
out anywhere."
"Have you seen the size of my ship, love? We're big enough on our own to cover
half the Galaxy," Vevay smiled.
Melanie couldn't even manage a smile let along tease her wife over her ship.
"What if you go out to look for our daughter and I end up losing you as well?"
"Not happening," Vevay said with all seriousness. "Not now, not ever. I come
home from my missions, remember? Just like Grace comes home and she will come
home, are we clear on this?"
It had been a long standing promise. One Vevay had made when she went back to
serving on starships and Melanie had remained at their home in Wales with Grace
and John Alan, a promise Grace had made to them both before she left on her
first assignment. Melanie finally nodded.
"Good." Sliding her arm around her wife's waist, Vevay leaned her head against
the woman's shoulder. "I love both of you so much, how could I ever let
something happen to her? How could I allow myself to not come back?"
Melanie laced her fingers with Vevay's and stared at their wedding bands as
they caught the late afternoon light. "You've always come home." She said
softly. "Even if you had to limp or crawl back."
"That I did. Do you trust me, love?" Vevay asked softly.
Lifting their entwined hands, Melanie kissed Vevay's. "Completely."
"Then trust that I will bring her home." Leaning over, she kissed her wife's
forehead. "To that end, I need to go back and see the Admiral."
Melanie nodded, though she didn't want to let go. "I need to get back and tell
John what's going on. Will you come home before you ship out?"
"Yes, love, it'll be tomorrow now anyway, so I'll be home for dinner." Standing
up slowly, Vevay frowned when her spine cracked but she strode off back to the
Conference Room.
Miranda leaned in and gave her mother a tight hug. "We'll find 'em and we'll
bring Evy home, Momma. I need to meet with the Admiral and Captain Davis, I'll
come by the house before I go back to the Tempest. Go find Daddy and go home."
"Okay sweets," Lindsey said as she climbed to her feet. "Actually, I'll go and
find Anna and Mac, have a word with them."
As she entered, Vevay passed Admiral Hale's wife on the way out. Offering the
woman a warm smile, she passed in. Her eyes settled on the other two occupants
and she moved to resume her seat at the table.
Sara sat in the chair closest to the two captains and handed them each a padd.
"That's what we know about the wormhole that we believe the Banshee entered.
It's not a lot which will make your jobs a lot harder."
Miranda looked over the padd and could already feel the headache behind her
eyes. "Do we know if the hole can be reopened?"
"We don't have enough information to know that." Sara replied.
"Do we even know how it got there in the first place?" Vevay asked.
"We know that until the raids the Maquis started, we had no data what so ever
of it's presence" Pressing a button on the table a 3D imaging map appeared over
it. "These are probe scans of the area dated six months before the first
reported Maquis attack," She pressed the button again and the image changed.
"Three months before," Again she pressed the button. "One week after the first
raid." The only thing different on the three images was that the wormhole
appeared on the third.
Vevay blinked then rubbed her eyes. "I'm not a scientist, ma'am, that's why I
captain a warship. How can we help? I can send out all the squadrons of
fighters and runabouts to sweep the area but we'd need someone who knew what
they were looking for to plough through the data for us."
"That is where Doctor Jaidev LeBeau comes in." Sara answered.
Miranda's brow perked up. "The Cardassian we picked up on outpost 12?"
Sara nodded. "He's a Cardassian hybrid actually and one of my wife's former
students. His specialty is man made stellar events."
"How successful has he been with situations like this in the past?" Vevay asked
carefully.
"If this temporal wormhole is what I think it was then my success rate in one
in one." Came a strange voice. It was male, sounded Cardassian but had an odd
accent.
Sara looked up at the man standing in the door way. He was tall, his skin a
pale grey, and he had the scales and ridges of a Cardassian, but his eyes were
hazel and his hair blonde. Turning back to her captains, Sara looked at Vevay.
"Captain Davis I believe your the only one who hasn't meet Doctor LeBeau."
Standing, Vevay crossed over and offered her hand to the extremely odd looking
man. "Pleased to meet you, you must be one of the few people here who doesn't
have a personal stake in this."
"Vidya, the youngest of us is aboard." Jaidev corrected.
Sara frowned. She was going against protocol on this by involving so many
family members of the Banshee's crew, but who better to bring them back then
the people who want them back? "I wasn't able to reach your parents, Jaidev."
"It is the late season and Ammi and Père are on Cardassian Prime." He
explained. "I will inform them when next I speak with them."
"The well oiled machine," Vevay said quietly as she resumed her seat. "We have
to be. I promised my wife that I'd bring her daughter home and I don't lie."
Miranda nodded. "I told my Momma we'd bring her baby home."
"I can't say anything for sure until we get there and I can look at the area."
Jaidev said. "If it was our..." He stopped short before picking up anew. "But
as my Great Uncle would say, "de cards are feelin' right tonight." in other
words I have a good feeling about this."
"Then we need to make a move. The Fenchurch will be ready by tomorrow morning.
I'll make sure the squadron leaders are all briefed," Vevay said as she stood.
"Is there anything else we need to know, ma'am?"
Sara nodded. "Though your allowed to do whatever you need to do to find the
Banshee and bring it back, there is one standing order."
"And what would that be?" Miranda asked.
"You are to under no circumstances enter any anomies even if that is the only
way to bring the Banshee back."
Vevay turned very slowly and held the Admiral's eyes in a steady gaze. "With
all due respect, ma'am, if I see the danger is minimal, I'll do what needs to
be done."
Sara shook her head. "I've been given a lot of leeway in this operation but not
only will my commanding officers not tolerate the lost of another ship and
crew, but neither will I. There will be a limit to what risks I will allow to
be taken and that's it. You are not to enter any kind of anomaly what so ever,
am I clear Captain Davis?"
"Crystal." I'll do what needs to be done, she thought as she moved into a
perfect salute. "Permission to be dismissed, ma'am." Bloody hell, it's been a
long time since you've had to say that.
The emotions coming from the Captain didn't surprise, Sara. In fact in a way
they were comforting. "Granted." She replied after nodding a bit. In the end,
if it got her daughter home, she'd defend any and all actions the captains
took, but you didn't get gold boxed pips by letting those under your command
think they had permission to do what they saw fit.
In a whirl, Vevay span around and sped out, hitting her comm-badge as she went.
"Mr Singh, set up a meeting with the Senior Staff for first thing tomorrow
morning, our new orders are in."
"Ma'am, may I ask what they are?" came the South African accent of her XO.
"I'll tell you in the morning. Recall the crew for 0900, we leave shortly
after."
"Aye, ma'am."
Turning to look at the other two Sara sighed. "Doctor you'll be traveling on
the Tempest with Captain Hale." Then she looked at the woman. "You'll leave
with the Fenchruch first thing."
Miranda got to her feet and nodded. "Aye Ma'am."
"Dismissed."
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