"Intrusion Attempt"

[Guest Sar'vek t'Jhiin]

Things had been going... quietly, at least, even if "well" wasn't really the right word. They might not have endured that hellish wormhole yet, and there was no sign of a greater Klinghanns'su fleet ready to drop their cloaks and open fire on Talon. Her newest acquisition hadn't been discovered, and t'Rexan, for whatever other subtexts laid in the former-cyborg's words, had implied that it would not be seized even if she did hear of it. On the other hand, Sar'vek was now more convinced than ever that Khre'Riov m'Iracle was far, far more paranoid than she was, and regaining her youth and looks hadn't helped t'Rexan anyway. Oh well.

 

But now, now... Sar'vek really couldn't catch anything remotely resembling a break. Glancing through the shipwide summaries, something caught her eye. Something that shouldn't have been going on, and something that made her very, very unhappy: an intruder alert. Not a "Klinghann'na fvadt beamed aboard" intruder alert. An alert that someone -- a Talon someone -- was in her quarters. As if any of the veruul from the lower decks had any right whatsoever to be in her quarters. By the Elements, if it was indeed an unauthorized entry...

 

Sar'vek had very low tolerance for petty thieves, especially after the extravaganza around the latinum excavation and the enlisted men's penchant for stealing there. She had even less tolerance for people spying on her, or planting listening devices or poisons or explosives, and she had no qualms about taking the intruder and publicly gutting him, or her. Sar'vek was already planning on making an example out of whatever little fool had thought themselves able to take on her wrath.

 

Steaming her way into the turbolift, she waited impatiently for her destination. On one hand, she supposed it could have been an isolated incident; as she'd already considered, under normal circumstances she would have suspected a fool enlisted man who didn't know enough to keep his hands to himself, or to keep all of himself out of Sar'vek's room. There were always plenty of those to go around. But given the current drama that had plagued the ship recently... no. This couldn't be some simple robbery or assassination attempt.

 

t'Rexan might have paraded like the crew had been reunited as some happy family, but Sar'vek knew that to be far from the truth. Talon was fractured, still broken into factions by the "death" of t'Rexan, the preceding mutiny... some of the lines drawn among the crew had been in place since long before t'Jhiin had even been assigned to the vessel, and the momentary break in the quarreling was a momentary rapprochement, not a full-fledged peace.

 

Which was why Sar'vek deeply suspected that another game was afoot here. Her... objections to the faux-t'Rexan, whatever she was, were not things she had attempted to conceal. Indeed, she had been among the more vocal senior officers when the woman had reappeared. Sar'vek knew that --knew that it made her a target among the woman's rapidly-growing base of rabid supporters. If someone had made a raid or a sabotage attempt on her quarters, it could have been ordered by any number of the crew who had some reason to see t'Rexan supported. Medical, Engineering, Security... all were led by vicious women who had more than ample reasons of their own to see t'Rexan as their commander. Even within her own department... well, she had her share of enemies there, too. Hells, it could even have been commanded at the "Khre'Riov's" order, intended to make a point of setting Sar'vek back in whatever place t'Rexan had decided she belonged.

 

Speculation, however, was pointless. Sar'vek would have her culprit, and her answers, soon enough. If the instigator thought that she would be bowed by such an incident, they were very, very wrong, and it would not be her tears and blood that were shed by their attempts.