Clandestine Meetings - cross posted to Republic

[KhreRiovtRex 0]

Clandestine Meetings

 

A joint log between Admiral BluRox, Khre'Riov t'Rexan and Daise'Khre'Riov tr'Vatrix

 

The Onza had barely gotten a short distance into the Neutral Zone, when the Teronix had decloaked immediately in front of the small Mark 2 yacht. The Republic was probably still within range to pick this up on sensors, but the yacht was also broadcasting her feed back to the ship as well, so no doubt they were getting almost as good of a look as she and Bardolph were. “Blazes….evasive..” she began as they were hailed by Teronix. “ Khre'Riov, Fhaen come to all stop. We wish to beam au aboard for our conference...please have au ship hold position, and we will return her to au in dev siuren.”

 

“Hell-lo,” she heard Bardolph beside her. Blu could barely hold off whistling herself, as she had only seen images of this newly upgraded Verelus-class Dreadnought, and the remains of a few others of the previous class during the war, but never one on active duty, nor…..so close.

 

“It's alright Bardolph. I'll be ok. I think I’d like the opportunity to see this ship in person.” Reaching over she pressed the com switch, “Teronix, this is Admiral BluRox, were we not supposed to meet your shuttle as well? However, as time is short, you may beam me aboard at your convenience. However we do request that I am actually returned in 10 minutes, so my crew does not worry about me.”

 

Bardolph eyeing the ship with interest turned to Blu with a bit of concern, “Aye, ma'am. You need backup, I'll be standing by.”

 

tr’Vatrix turned to his ops officer, “Hteij ta'rhae....bring her aboard.” tr’Vatrix and his other officers stood and watched as the swirl of red particles coalesced on the oira of the ship into the form of the Lloannan’Galae Admiral known as BluRox. “Jolan Tru, Admiral. Aefvahd to the RES Teronix.”

 

“It is my honor to be welcomed aboard your fine vessel. I would assume there was a good reason to change the manner of our meeting?”

 

“Ie, there was. I will explain to au in a siuren, if au would join me in my chambers, Khre’Riov t’Rexan whom au have met before, awaits our meeting. We have much to discuss, and little time to do so.”

 

“Very well, please lead the way,” Blu nodded to him, while casually glancing around the bridge of the enormous ship. This was their flag ship, and the officers on this bridge, were a picture of perfection. From the attention to their posts, to the exacting nature of their uniforms, they were like a single unit, no discussion, just each doing their assignment. She had almost a pang of jealousy, and then remembered the price that came with such rigidity. Not wanting to offend her host, she turned and headed towards the door that she was being directed to.

 

Entering what she assumed was their equivalent to her ready room; she saw another uniformed figure standing looking out the viewport at the Onza. “A fine personal craft, does it handle well?”

 

“I’ve not had much of a chance to fully test its capabilities yet I’m afraid, but it seems to handle well enough for its purpose.” Blu looked around wondering where t’Rexan was , as this was obviously a younger woman standing at the window and not the Romulan woman she had expected. As the figure turned, she appeared to be perhaps a younger sister of another officer she had met before, t’Rexan’s first officer at the time, but the name eluded. Turning back to tr’Vatrix, Blu looked askance at him, perhaps now starting to sense some sort of trap after all. “I thought I was to meet with the Khre’Riov, where is she?” Blu turned a bit back towards the woman, ready to flex her claws as she heard the female stepping closer, and did not want to get a knife in her back.

“Be at ease Admiral. I am right here. Though I know this will be difficult to explain to you,” she paused a moment. “I am the one au seek. Though I admit, I am na as I once was,” t’Rexan approached the cautious Caitian.

 

Looking back at the woman and then back to tr’Vatrix, "I do not know what kind of game you are playing here, but the Federation and our ship responded to your request in good faith in negotiations. I do not know why you attempt this deception. This is not t’Rexan, she is a woman I’d have to say is at least a good 20-25 years older than this woman. And though I know she had not lost them when last we met, all reports say you have lost not only your left hand, but your right eye as well. You, seem to have both. If you would please beam me back to my ship, I believe we are finished here.”

 

tr’Vatrix held up a hand to stop her from heading towards the oira, knowing she had no place to go anyway, but did not want his crew to shoot her if they only saw her come out and not know the status of he and his bondmate. “Fhaen…….please as you say, have a seat and let us explain. Then if au wish to leave, we will beam au back to au ship.”

 

“They are expecting me back in a few minutes anyway. Very well, I will listen, but I don’t know what you expect me to say, when this obviously is not the woman I met 15 years ago during the war.”

 

tr’Vatrix motioned her to a seat by the desk, “Admiral, I would na have agreed to this meeting if we did na know au were one of integrity amongst au people, and I would hope that knowing both my position and that of the Khre’Riov, that au would believe that there is na reason for us to lie to au about this. But let us fill au in quickly.”

 

“Ie, there had been an…..incident, where I was almost yy’a…..killed, and I had been placed into stasis. However the crew encountered an alien repair station, and those aliens, were able to restore not only the ship, but myself to my previous condition, and more so, as their scans determined that as most of the crew was younger, that my aged cells were damaged and reversed the aging on most of my body systems. However, before long the crew discovered something was amiss, finally discovering that some of our crew had been cloned. I know this will be hard to believe, but it is me. However, they also tried to take over the ship and the crew shortly afterwards, and were destroyed in the ensuing battle, so the technology has been lost. But I can assure au, it is me,” t’Rexan continued.

 

“That’s rather handy, that the technology was suddenly lost,” Blu quirked a brow and swiveled her ears back a bit.

 

tr’Vatrix stood in anger, “Au accuse her of lying?”

 

“No, not yet. I would like to hear more of this……loss of technology, but as we said, time is short and at the moment, I would ask her something only she would know.”

 

t’Rexan turned to BluRox, “Very well, ask away.”

 

“How did we meet?” Blu looked at her, waiting for her to answer and not give the exact response she awaited.

 

“That is simple, your ship, had been in a battle with the Cardassians, and while you and some of your crew were aboard their vessel, they received reinforcements and your ship had to pull away leaving you and your team there to fight for au lives.”

 

“Well, yes, anyone would know that that had read mission reports.”

 

“Ie, that’s true, but while au ship was drawing away the other ships, my ship decloaked and we sent our own team over to deal with the deceitful Cardassians. Au were fighting the same enemy as we were at the time, so we had na quarrel with au.”

 

“It still does not answer my question.”

 

“Patience Errrika, I am getting to this. As we entered au were tangled in a nasty fight with a Cardassian, one that I believe, did that to au,” pointing to the missing ear tip. “As we joined in the fight, I dealt with the Cardassian with my kaleh, and then turning, I stepped on your tail. Hard enough that you reacted by digging your claws into my leg. Au were very lucky my blade was already in the Cardassian’s neck or reflex might have ended things that day for au. I had na interacted with au species before that siuren, and almost pulled my ie’yakk until au saw the Cardassian and au thanked me for the assistance, and then almost became ill when au saw me removing his headbone. Au asked if au skin would be my next trophy.”

 

Blu stood, looking confused, first at the woman, then to tr’Vatrix who was nodding his own head, “But how? Only you and I were there for that, nobody else would have known.”

 

“I originally had the same doubts, but she proved it to me as well,” tr’Vatrix responded to BluRox, as he walked around placing a hand on L’haiy’s shoulder. “It is as we said, alien medical technology, but we have other things to discuss I believe, as both we, and au have been sent by our respective governments to discuss matters that concern us both. Now au see why we brought au aboard, had au met in the shuttle, au would na have believed her without me there as well I think.”

 

“It’s still difficult to grasp, but very well, we were all sent here on a mission, we might as well get to it,” Blu responded, watching the two of them together and the look they gave each other. “So you no longer command the Talon then, you serve on this fine ship then?”

 

“That is still undecided at the moment. Technically, Ie, the Talon is still mine, however, we have just joined each other hrrau our So’Rdaz.”

 

“I’m sorry, I’m unfamiliar with that term,” Blu looked at her, but could almost guess.

 

“Apologies, we have become bondmates, the Daise’Khre’Riov and I,” pausing a moment as she turned and smiled up at tr’Vatrix, and he patted her shoulder again, then looked at BluRox, nodding his head.

 

“I see. Congratulations to you both. I hope that this meeting did not cut anything short for your celebration?”

 

“It did, however we are Galae, and do what we must and are ordered. Now, if you would tell us what it was your Galae wanted us to know, and what we were promised to find out about our Ambassador?” tr’Vatrix motioned for her to retake her seat.

 

“The investigation into the murder of the Ambassador is ongoing and I have a disk of information that I was given to present to you as to any findings, and suppositions that have been made. Rumors had it, that he had been looking into some type of smuggling, but we do not have all the information on the matter, but have invited your praetor to send a new representative to join the investigation.” Blu reached across and handed tr’Vatrix a data disk labeled Camelot. “There were rumors that there is a group or groups of weapons smugglers that are working to destabilize various regions of space, most notably in the Gamma Quadrant, and the trail, keeps leading back towards the Neutral Zone between our space and yours. The question is, who’s behind it, and are they trying to set up a confrontation between our peoples as well?”

 

tr’Vatrix took the disk and looked back at the feline woman, “We too have been investigating such rumors. We also have heard rumors of smugglers not only trying to get weapons to the Gamma Quadrant through Federation hands, but of areas of our space. In fact, the Khre’Riov’s ship is also investigating this, and on its way towards io of our trouble spots. ”

 

“Yes, and this is where things become…..messy I’m afraid. It seems, that some factions have decided to take matters into their own hands and try to stop this themselves. That being said….one of our ships has supposedly, gone after the smugglers and we fear that they may have illegally entered Romulan space, or at least the Neutral Zone.”

 

“What!?” tr’Vatrix rose to his feet. “We come here in good faith, and you sit there calmly telling us that your people have invaded our space?”

 

“I’m sitting here telling you, instead of trying to hide this. I think we both know that another war would be of no benefit to either of our people. Help us to retrieve them, grant us access to enter your space to bring them back. Anything we find out on the smugglers in the meanwhile, we would surely share with you.”

 

“Au propose sending a ‘second’ ship into our space?” tr’Vatrix began to color in a bit of anger. “This is na the news we wished to hear.”

 

“Var’lon, let’s listen to her, what harm is there, and we’ve already stated we believe her to be a woman of her word,” t’Rexan looked at the Caitian. “For that matter, if au wish, I would be willing to go with them, to make sure our interest were protected and that they do nothing other than they claim.”

 

“Absolutely na. Na in your condition.”

 

“Condition? I am barely 2 months along Var’lon, I can na remain sitting on silk pillows until the time as I deliver au son.”

 

“If I may, there is no need to drag the Khre’Riov along, but if you wish to station a crewman aboard, it can be done, however, as we have a new ship, he will be restricted from many areas of the ship.”

 

“That would be acceptable, as long as he’s allowed to send regular reports to me,” tr’Vatrix responded. “However, if this renegade ship of yours should fire upon io of our ships, we have na recourse, but to defend ourselves. I will forward word to them however, to na interfere with au ship, and will send them your specifications. That was a Sovereign ship we’re scanning along the Neutral Zone, ie?”

 

“Ie, I mean…yes, yes it is. Also one other thing, we recently came in contact with an alien species as well, that had been working through an unstable wormhole, and our people that managed to escape from them. The OEST they called themselves, our people saw members of your race there as well. It seemed, they had been kidnapping various races to see which they could use for genetic materials and breeding stock. The information is found on this disk as well, much of their ship was destroyed when we escaped, but we do not know the final outcome of the situation, as the wormhole collapsed, but if you are missing people, this may be the explanation,” as BluRox passed a second disk over to him. “We believe that the terminus of that wormhole was in the Delta Quadrant as well. Now I should be returning to my ship, before they become….worried. I’d love to get a tour of this vessel, but I’m also sure that’s out of the question as well,” she smiled at them.

 

“Perhaps another day Admiral,” tr’Vatrix responded as t’Rexan stood and crossed to speak to BluRox. “Good luck and a word of advice….never, ever trust au crew farther than au can reach them with a disruptor. Especially au first officer, they are usually the most deceptive of the lot, and will betray au when au are thinking well of them. Menkha hunting Admiral.”

[NDak 0]

"Perhaps another day Admiral," tr'Vatrix responded as t'Rexan stood and crossed to speak to BluRox. "Good luck and a word of advice.never, ever trust au crew farther than au can reach them with a disruptor. Especially au first officer, they are usually the most deceptive of the lot, and will betray au when au are thinking well of them. Menkha hunting Admiral."

 

Betray is an awfully strong word. :D