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The redwoods of Yosemite towered over T’Rehes as she walked through the forest. Dried leaves and twigs crunched softly beneath her deliberate footsteps as her eyes scanned her surroundings. She was dressed in her Starfleet uniform, as it allowed her greater mobility than her Vulcan civilian attire. Despite the supportive nature of the message she had received on the padd that had been dropped at her table, she did not want to take any chances. Unfortunately, she had not been able to bring a phaser as she did not wish to violate Earth’s weapons laws. Therefore, it was only logical to have her senior staff monitoring her vitals and position from the
Pendragon.
T’Rehes came to a stop and tapped her combadge.
“T’Rehes to
Pendragon. I am in position.”
“Acknowledged,” came the voice of her first officer. “We’ll be standing by.”
“Excellent. I will keep you updated. T’Rehes out.”
T’Rehes was not entirely sure what to expect. The message had given no time or date, so she could only guess this position was somehow being monitored and that her mysterious contact was only now being alerted to her arrival. That, of course, assumed she hadn’t been followed here. A good ten minutes passed before she heard the crunch of footsteps on foliage to her left. She turned her head and saw an olive-skinned brown-haired man approaching in a Starfleet uniform that was almost entirely black, save for dark blue trim around the neck, hand cuffs, and sleeve cuts. T’Rehes said nothing as he approached and instead took the opportunity to closely study every detail.
“Admiral T’Rehes, I presume,” he said as he approached, a rather cocky grin appearing on his face as he did so. T’Rehes raised an eyebrow at his manner then nodded.
“Yes. Who are you?”
“You mean other than your mysterious benefactor?” he asked, crossing his arms as he came to a stop in front of her. “Sorry about that, by the way, but I didn’t know who could be watching or listening. I figured in a place like this we would have a bit more control over that.”
T’Rehes said nothing as she awaited the man to identify himself. Instead, she continued to study his face closely. The stare apparently unnerved the man, whose cocky grin evaporated somewhat.
“Captain Zepari, ma’am,” he said, finally answering her question.
“And your current assignment?” she immediately asked.
“The
Aurora, a
Sol-class vessel. Would you care for its registry number?”
“No, that will suffice,” she said. “Are you with Starfleet Intelligence?”
At this point, Zepari’s cockiness seemed to have been completely converted into confusion. He was caught off-guard by T’Rehes’ question.
“What? N-no. I’m not with Starfleet Intelligence. Why would you...”
T’Rehes raised an eyebrow at his incredulity, which caused Zepari to reconsider how this all looked.
“Ah... you mean the whole drop-a-padd-with-the-mysterious-message thing. No, I’m afraid that was just because I didn’t want anyone listening to us or knowing that you were speaking with me. After all, if there’s one thing an El-Aurian knows about, it’s listening.”
This earned a sudden slight tilt of the head from T’Rehes. “You are El-Aurian? Interesting. I have never met an El-Aurian before.”
Zepari shrugged. “You and the rest of the galaxy. I can’t complain though. It’s convenient that most people mistake me for Human. It makes eavesdropping much easier.”
“Eavesdropping?”
“Uh... not on you, Admiral. However, you and Admiral Ford were constantly on Admiral Terev’s tongue when she was speaking with another Starfleet commander the other day. She is not happy with either of you.”
“No, she is not, and she never has been. My position and actions regarding the Borg have not put me on good terms with her. Captain Zepari, if this is what you brought me out here to tell me, you are wasting my time as well as your own.”
Zepari started to look flustered. T’Rehes was not acting nearly the way he had expected and it was starting to irritate him.
“That’s not all, obviously! Look, Terev ordered that commander of hers to “fix you by any means necessary”, and I didn’t need to be a xenolinguist to gather her meaning. It had a rather... lethal... tone to it.”
This warranted another eyebrow twitch from T’Rehes, but her look remained skeptical. “Captain, it is my understanding that this expression can take on a number of meanings, especially within the Human cultures it was derived from. It is entirely possible, and much more likely, that Admiral Terev was referring to political pressures, which I am already expecting from her.”
“What part of the whole ‘race of listeners’ thing are you not getting? I know what she meant Admiral, and I’m sure it involved phasers and other not-so-nice instrum--”
At that moment, Zepari was cut off by a voice coming from T’Rehes’ combadge.
“Admiral T’Rehes! The
Pendragon just recorded several beam-ins near your location. We are trying to pinpoint their origin, but the signals were relayed through a number of encrypted transit nodes. It may take some time.”
Zepari looked at T’Rehes with an “I-told-you-so” look. T’Rehes only looked interested in the nature of the development and not who was right or wrong.
“Acknolwedged, Commander. Lock onto my signal as well as that of the man standing next to me.”
“... Admiral? Given the nature of the situation, I would advise you beam up now.”
“Your advice is noted, Commander. T’Rehes out.”
Zepari looked inquisitively at T’Rehes. “Why didn’t you beam us out?”
“Because I desire evidence, Captain Zepari, not hearsay and speculation. While I would advise you to be on your guard until we know more, please act natural. Assuming this is an ambush, I would rather our assailants not know that we know of their arrival.”
“Right...” answered Zepari, who was now looking at her as if she were insane.
Seconds ticked by. The two attempted to see past the other for any sign. Suddenly, T’Rehes’ face jerked so that it was looking just past Zepari’s right shoulder. He almost followed her gaze, but remembered her order and remained with his back to whatever she was looking at.
“See anything?”
“Yes. Four of them, however I can only see one face clearly. I can confirm though that they are carrying weapons and at least one is pointed at us.”
“Is that enough evidence for you?”
“It will suffice pending my access to the
Pendragon’s computer. T’Rehes to Pendragon[/],” she continued as she tapped her combadge. “Two to beam up immediately.”
“Acknowledged!”
T’Rehes and Zepari disappeared just before several orange beams of phaser energy lanced through the space they had just been occupying. The pair reappeared on one of the
Pendragon’s transporter pads. T’Rehes’ first officer was looking at her with alarm.
“Captain, we detected phaser fire right when we beamed you out!”
T’Rehes nodded. “Thank you for your concern, but I am fine. What is the current status of the
Pendragon?”
The first officer was surprised by the sudden change of topic, but stammered out an answer. “Wha-- Uh, I mean, repairs were completed while you were down on the surface. We can leave on your command, however I still have not received any communication from Admiral Quinn for you.”
“Then I shall send one to him. Captain Zepari, what are your current standing orders?”
Zepari looked at her quizzically. “We’re due to patrol a number of star systems in the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Orionis sectors. There have been a number of anomalies that have been disrupting subspace which Starfleet wants us to investigate.”
T’Rehes considered that for a moment. “You mentioned that your ship is a
Sol-class vessel. It would be dangerous for your ship to head that close to Klingon space without an escort. I will suggest that the
Pendragon serve as such.”
“Excuse me?”
“In fact, I would argue that it would be dangerous for either of our ships to be alone in deep space at this point. Do you not agree?”
Zepari nodded as he understood what she was actually saying. “Yes, I agree Admiral. I will await the result of your meeting with Admiral Quinn back on the
Aurora.”
Zepari soon beamed back to his own ship and T’Rehes returned to her ready room. Before she was able to contact Admiral Quinn though, her first officer entered the room and looked deeply concerned.
“Captain, why aren’t we alerting Starfleet Security? You were just attacked on Earth of all places!”
“If we alert them, we will be held here at Earth Stardock indefinitely while an investigation proceeds. Additionally, given that we have some circumstantial evidence that another admiral may be involved, we cannot be sure if the parties involved in the investigation are not similarly corrupted.”
“Another admiral!?”
“Yes. Obviously, this does not leave this room, Commander.”
The first officer nodded hesitantly. “Understood.”
“Excellent. Please prepare the ship for departure while I contact Admiral Quinn.”
Within two hours, the
Pendragon was departing Earth Stardock along with the
Aurora. As the two ships sailed side-by-side away from station, Admiral Terev watched from the window of her office. The look of frustration on her face was quite palpable to Commander Gallagher, who made sure to keep some distance away from the admiral lest she inspire her anger further.
