Cerulean Stars - Chapter 163 (Patreon)

Chapter 163 - Improbable Cause - Part 4

Stardate 48642.8 - August 23,  2371 - 14:55:40

Three hours for Raine to pack up her travel bags, make arrangements for Keiko to stop in daily to check on Saya and D’Vana, and break the news about the emergency deployment to the  girls wasn’t exactly optimal, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been given the two were at the age where they could mostly take of themselves.

She had stopped by the O’Brien’s quarters on the way back to her own, and thankfully Keiko had been more than happy to stop in a couple of times a day to make sure the two weren’t getting into trouble.

“All right,” she began the moment she spotted the two on the couch working on something on their padds. “So I have some bad news.”

Both looked up at that, Saya taking in her somewhat stressed look and letting out a slightly annoyed huff. “Let me guess, there’s an emergency situation going on?”

“Pretty much,” Raine confirmed, focusing fully on the Orion teen. “So I hate to say this again, but it looks like I won’t be able to take you back for at least another couple weeks, D’Vana.”

“I kind of figured!” D'Vana cheerily offered only for an embarrassed flush to come over her face. “I mean… Someone tried to blow up Mister Garak, so of course you're not going to be able to take a couple days off to take me to another planet.”

“No,” Raine felt the need to correct the young Orion to save a small bit of face. “If it was just that Odo would have been able to handle things here on his own just fine. But there’s an emergency mission to the Gamma Quadrant to pick up the Federation Ambassador, and Commander Sisko needs both me and the Defiant for that.”

“Oh,” D’Vana blinked. “That sounds worse.”

“It means diplomatic overtures have completely fallen apart and there’s a very real risk of war.” Raine admitted since she was going to have to tell the two anyways.

“So you’re saying we should pack up for a possible evacuation to Bajor.” Saya groused, having been through this song and dance several times before.

“Oh!” D’Vana exclaimed, giving a small clap of excitement. “I’ve never been to Bajor.”

“It’s nothing really special as far as planets go,” Saya offered before giving a grudging nod of acknowledgement. “Well, outside of having a bunch of inhabitable moons.”

“Which were probably terraformed by some ancient unknown alien race,” Raine felt the need to add in.

“But not the Prophets,” Saya rolled her eyes, having heard that correction before.

“Why couldn’t it have been the Prophets?” D’Vana asked, looking between the two Asari in confusion.

“Because Starfleet cannot acknowledge the potential validity of the Bajoran’s creation myth without scientifically verifiable evidence pointing to it,” Raine explained in a sage tone. “Trutfully though, it really could have been any number of other species since archeological evidence suggests this area of space was heavily trafficked during the galaxy’s last couple eras of technological driven expansion.”

Their galaxy’s archaeological scene was honestly kind of impressive when you took a moment to dig into the sheer number of extinct technologically advanced civilizations that had been scattered across its space over the billions of years since the progenitors had done their thing.

“Moving away that, given travel times I’ll be gone for at least a couple of weeks. You’re both old enough to handle that mostly on your own, though I asked Keiko to check in on you a couple times a day and make sure Quark doesn’t try to lock you out of our holosuit reservations under the excuse of you not having an adult present.”

“Does that mean we’ll get to pick our own programs!?” Saya asked, her eyes all but sparkling at the thought. 

“Sixteen and below age restrictions still apply,” Raine reluctantly nodded, not wanting to know what had her daughter so excited about that thought. “But yes.”

A chime rang out from behind the Asari, and with a slightly annoyed grumble she spun back around to see who might be at their door.

Tapping the control panel, the door slid open and she found herself more than a little surprised to see T’Rel standing on the other side since she had thought the Romulan woman would already be preparing herself for the Defiant’s trip.

The Romulan woman had grown her hair out a small bit since her return from Romulus, a choice the Asari appreciated since the helmet cut the vast majority of Romulan military officers tended to sport wasn't exactly the most flattering of looks. Outside of that small change however, the only change was the switch to the stiff grey patterned uniform type that the Romulans had begun to adopt the last couple years.

“You should bow out of the mission to the Gamma Quadrant,” T'Rel put forward without any preamble.

“...I Can't,” Raine said, moderately sure her hackles would have risen in that moment if she actually had them. “Sisko wants me on tactical since Kira's staying on the station. So unless you know something that could change his mind…” She trailed off, giving T'Rel the opening to volunteer whatever it was that she knew.

“For several reasons I cannot tell you about, only my sister will be on board the Defiant during the upcoming mission to retrieve the Federation’s ambassador,” T’Rel offered. “You should consider the why of that.” Glancing into the room at the two girls who were raptly watching their interaction the Romulan offered the pair an amused smile before focusing back on Raine. “Jolan tru, Raine.”

“Jolan tru, T’Rel” Raine returned the traditional Romulan phrase with a tone that was all but radiating confusion.

With those words T’Rel walked off, leaving the Asari to stare appreciatively for a moment at what the tighter fitting uniform did for the Romulan’s ass before she turned back to the two girls in her quarters. “All right, so if there’s anything–”

The chirp of her combadge cut her off, and she began to reach up to tap the device when the computer's voice rang out from it instead. “Security alert, unauthorized access attempt in progress on the Rio Grande at Landing Pad Three.”

“Oh for the love of…” Raine angrily muttered before shooting an annoyed look to the girls. “Hold that thought, I’ll be right back.”

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Striding into the runabout’s cabin, Raine found herself almost unsurprised to discover Garak shoulders deep in the primary computer core.

She gave a fake cough into her fist. “Garak.”

Pulling himself out of the console, the Cardassian carefully pulled himself up and offered her a somewhat forced smile. “Ah Commander, I really wasn’t expecting to run into you here.”

“I expect not,” Raine returned dryly, well aware of just how many security safeguards he would have needed to bypass to get where he was. “Should I even bother asking why you're trying to steal a runabout? Or do you want to skip directly to the part where I take you to a holding cell?”

“I don't suppose there's any chance you could just pretend you didn't see me?” Garak tried hopefully. “I can assure you, the runabout will be back on its pad with nobody the wiser before you return from your little trip to the gamma quadrant.”

Raine felt her eye twitch at the sheer level of gal. "...Putting aside the worrying assumption that you can actually take out and return a runabout without anybody in the station noticing. I can't just look the other way while you,” she made airquotes, “borrow, a moderately armed Starfleet vessel.”

Garak winced. “Yes, well, I suppose that would be too much to ask.’ He perked up slightly. “Would it help if I said at least one life likely hangs in the balance?”

Given the timing that someone was likely Enabran Tain, however Raine knew better than to say that out loud since the former spy was one of the last people the Asari wanted to start questioning her knowledge. “The love of your life you left behind when you were exiled from Cardassia?” 

“Why yes!” Garak grinned as if he'd just been handed a signed copy of the Never Ending Sacrifice. “However did you guess?”

A surprisingly lovelorn look appeared on his face. “Her name was Palandine, we met during my time at the Institute of Commercial Endeavor. It was love at first sight between us, but she was engaged to this absolutely dreadful administrator's son who managed to leverage his connections to have me expelled. And when, after a few years, that turned out not to be enough to keep us apart, he had me exiled.”

He let out a sad sigh. “We've managed to keep in touch intermittently since, something which, after the bombing, I began to suspect her husband may have discovered. I managed to contact her a few hours ago while trying to confirm things either way, which is when I learned her circumstances had reached the point where it was no longer safe for her to stay around him.”

It was a good story, somehow believable in a way Garek's various tales usually weren't. More to the point however, it was laser targeted in a way that Raine knew from experience was sure to pull most Starfleet officer heartstrings. Except even if she hadn't known due to her metaknowledge that it was a pie, she had spent over a year talking with Natima about the civilian side of Cardassian life, so the holes in his story were obvious.

“Isn't spousal abuse one of the few guaranteed ways to get a divorce in the Cardassian legal system? And by guaranteed I mean that, due to the Cardassian surveillance state, the only ones who can get away with it are members of the Obsidian Order.”

Garak winced again before a somewhat contrite look appeared on his face. “Ah, well, I wasn’t really expecting you to know about that… Miss Lang, I take it?”

“Yup,” Raine confirmed. “But look on the bright side, your story has just convinced me that it won’t be safe to leave you locked up on the station while we’re gone.”

“Oh?” Garak perked up hopefully.

“Yes,” Raine nodded, resting a hand semi-suggestively on her phaser. “Because you almost surely have some way of breaking out of there you’re instead going to be spending the next couple weeks in the Defiant’s brig instead.”

Anything else risked him running off to Tain, and without Odo there to soften any infiltrating Founder’s opinion that was an almost sure death sentence.

“Oh,” sighed Garak.

Raine gave him a moment to start moving away from the console before letting out an annoyed growl when he didn’t move. “So are we going to do this the easy way, or the way where I stun you and then use the runabouts transporter to beam you into the brig?”

Letting out another sigh, Garak’s eyes flicked around the room for a moment before a general sense of acquiescence seemed to overtake his posture. “The easy way I suppose, if you’ll just give me a moment to grab my–”

The former spy stopped the movement he’d begun making towards the opaque equipment bag on the primary pilot's seat as Raine drew her phaser and pointed it at him.

“You will not be moving towards whatever weapon you might have hidden away in that bag.” She interrupted, motioning slightly with off hand towards the far wall. “You will instead be walking over to the wall and then stand there as I collect your bag.”

For a moment Garak seemed to mentally debate with himself about whether Raine would actually pull the trigger before with a sigh walking over to the indicated wall. “It’s just a few odds and ends I thought I might need on my trip.”

“I’m sure it is,” Raine drawled, carefully edging over to the bag to conduct a one handed search of its contents.

It took nearly a minute, mostly due to needing to keep one eye on the former spy, to find what he had likely been going for, a recognizable pistol shaped object that had the Asari’s eye ridge twitch in annoyance.

“An Eminian sonic disruptor? Really, Garak?”

The odds that the former spy just so happened to choose the only type of weapon recorded as going through Raine’s barrier like it wasn’t even there were so unlikely that the Asari would have had better odds with a Ferengi scratch off ticket.

“One must always be prepared to defend themselves against potential aggressors when traveling,” Garak confessed with an innocent tone. “And the Eminian’s do make some of the best limited-lethality weapons this side of Starfleet’s own. Which I was quite disappointed to learn aren’t actually allowed to be sold on the open market.”

“Then I’m sure you have a permit for it,” Raine returned, carefully returning the weapon to the bag before slinging the entire thing over her shoulder. “Now come on, we have a cell to get you to.”

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Author’s Notes: Oh Garak, you really should have known better given Raine’s very open paranoia about the stations Runabouts being stolen.