Reaping the Fruits of Our Forgotten Labours

[Tachyon 0]

“Ripening Fruits of Our Forgotten Labours”

Stardate 0604.19

Lieutenant Tandaris Admiran

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The rubble separated them with a resounding crash, and in that instant, Commander Corizon was gone. Tandaris was left with Commander Pilot, Ensign Craven, and Weyoun, whom he did not trust for a moment. Together they needed to locate the commander, and if that proved impossible, they had to somehow fulfill their mission without him.

 

It didn't occur until this moment how much Corizon had insinuated himself into the lives of the Excalibur crew. While he had maintained a certain distance, inevitably amplified by the fact that Tandaris was a more junior officer who hid down in engineering all day, Corizon evidently had his hands—or claws—on every thread of the ship. Only when he disappeared did Tandaris actually perceive how much he affected through his presence.

 

This entire mission was a bad idea, though. Admiran could not help shake a bad feeling, a premonition of worse things to come. Six lifetimes meant that he had a good sense of when something bad would happen from supposedly innocuous circumstances. Tandaris' hand tightened on his phaser, hoping that he would not have to use it. He hoped that they would get of of this without bloodshed, with their lives and with Corizon, safe and sound.

 

How much longer would they be safe and sound? These scorpion aliens intrigued and frightened Tandaris. He was not even sure that the Federation had any business interfering in this, aside from his own compassion for helping those in need. Perhaps retreat through the wormhole was the best option. Then again, he was not in command, that was what the brass soldiers at Starfleet Command did for a living. He was the Trill on the front lines, the eyes and ears and muscle, the cannon fodder.

 

But he was awfully good at being cannon fodder.