Chapter Eight

Salen woke up without opening his eyes and stretched out his back. Finding himself warm and comfortable under a heap of covers he nestled in and thought about going back to sleep. After about five minutes he sighed and sat up. He knew he'd never hear the end of it from Razor if he slept in. Looking around his room he was a little confused at first. He recalled falling asleep in the infirmary.

"Razor must have moved me." Salen muttered to himself with a slight smile.

Still sitting on the soft bed Salen really didn't want to get up. He inched back until he could put his back against the wall. Leaning over he grabbed the communication tablet off the night stand. After typing his code into the device he hailed the Intrepid. He had expected to just be leaving a message for Joanna, but she answer and her smile seemed to brighten the small screen.

"Sugar!" Joanna cried happily. "I've missed you so much."

"I have missed you as well." Salen smiled. "How are you?"

"Things are pretty boring around here actually."

"Good." Salen replied.

"Good?"

"It means you are in as little danger as possible."

"You're so cute." Joanna giggled. "Speaking of danger, have you been on any missions yet?"

"I have."

"I know you can't tell me about them..."

"I can tell you that six Starfleet Officers will be able to return to their families."

"I am proud of you, I just wish I could be there."

"You do not mean that." Salen shook his head. "This is a ship of rowdy wolves. Just their utter lack of table manners would drive you crazy."

"That reminds me, how is Razor doing as Top Dog?"

"I am not certain that he is used to it yet." Salen admitted. "I believe he wishes Beckett was still in charge."

"Beckett was a yellow bellied snake in the grass!" Joanna hissed. "I never liked him."

"You are only saying that because he almost got me killed."

"I'm saying that because he left you to die."

"He was the one who saved me in the end."

"No." Joanna shook her head stubbornly. "It was Razor who fought for you."

"It does not matter now. I can not speak with you long and I would rather use the time to tell you how much I love and miss you."

"Oh, well, in that case," Joanna smiled mischievously "don't let me stop you. How much do you love me?"

"More than the stars."

"I'll accept that." Joanna teased. "How much do you miss me?"

"As I would my own heartbeat."

"My silver tongued Vulcan." Joanna sighed happily. "I wish I was there."

"I will see you in a few short months."

Joanna and Salen exchanged good-bye and the screen went dark. Salen rethought his decision to not allow Joanna to serve as the doctor on board for a moment. However he knew that having her aboard was selfish and that she was far safer where she was. Finally getting out of bed Salen pulled on a ship board uniform and when on the hunt for Razor.

It took a while to find Razor, he was in the main computer room. Salen stepped up silently behind him as he stared at the screen. There were six pictures floating on the translucent screen, all of them of the same tattoo, but they looked to be on different people. Razor tapped his fingers on the console in obvious frustration.

"Thinking about getting some new ink?" Salen asked.

"Yaaah!" Razor exclaimed as he jumped out of his seat. "Damn it Salen! I'm going to get you a bell that you'll have to wear while you're sneaking around on the ship."

"That is a threat I have heard before."

"I swear, the next planet we come to that sells bells I'm getting you one." Razor mutter. "Nearly gave me a heart attack."

"You should not be so easy to sneak up on."

"Yeah, well, I was concentrating."

"On what?"

"I have been trying to figure out the six men we rescued. So far the only minor points of interest is that they all grew up on Ioa 7, they serve on the same ship, and they all have the same tattoo."

"What do you suppose that means?"

"It is not uncommon for kids who grew up together to enter the Academy together and end up serving on the same Starship." Razor shrugged.

"What about the tattoos."

"That's a little harder. I could mean a few things. They could have gotten them done before the Academy, as a graduation celebration, as part of a loyalty thing, during a drunken shore leave, or something more sinister."

"Sinister?" Salen repeated. "Like a gang tattoo?"

"That doesn't sound likely, does it?"

"Not at all."

Salen took a closer look at the images. Members of Starfleet with tattoos had them scanned and entered into the database in case they were ever needed for quick visual identification of a body. Salen furrowed his brow as he studied the simple ink design. It was a stylized line drawing of a mountain with two peaks with a sun rising behind them, the mountain lines and those of the sun met forming a nearly circular design. At least that was what Salen saw, it was hard to know since it was just a few lines.

"Not exactly what I think of when I think of a gang or cult tattoo." Razor sighed.

"What makes you think that there is anything behind the tattoo?"

"Just a hunch."

"I have found that in humans a 'hunch' usually translates into an 'over active imagination', attempts at reason in the absence of it."

"I have my reasons." Razor growled.

"Something the prisoner told you no doubt."

"Maybe."

"Am I to understand that you are not going to share any of that information with me?" Salen asked calmly.

"What do you think he said?"

"I have no way of knowing. I assume it was either something along the lines of a confession to kidnapping or a repetitive denial of the crime."

"More along the lines of the second one." Razor admitted. "He said that the Starfleet Officers claimed that they were drug runners and paid him to hide in his basement and that they must have called in the ransom themselves."

"That...does not make any sense."

"I know!" Razor exclaimed in frustration. "It is so absurd that I'm almost forced to believe that it is true. But why would the Officers do something like that?"

"They would not." Salen answered simply.

"Exactly. So it must be a lie. But if this scum bag decided to lie to us why didn't he think of something better? Something more plausible."

"Perhaps he is just a terrible liar."

"That is another thing that is bothering me." Razor said. "He either had no training and was telling the truth, or had amazing training and was telling a lie. He sounded extremely convincing and he never changed his story despite the pa..."

Razor stopped suddenly and looked at Salen uneasily.

"It is okay, Razor, I know you were torturing him. You do not have to try and hide it."

"I know...I guess...I don't know."

"Razor, what is wrong?"

Razor sighed heavily and dragged his hands through his hair. Salen was concerned about the amount of stress that his partner seemed to be under. As far as Salen knew the mission was basically over, he didn't understand why Razor was looking so deeply into the lives of the victims trying to some how twist them into criminals. Salen knew that even Starfleet Officers sometimes ended up corrupt, but faking a hostage situation didn't seem to have any logical gain.

Meanwhile Razor was looking more and more guilty by the second. Salen had seen this in him before, it was the look he got when he had a secret that he'd rather not keep. Salen crossed his arms over his chest and waited patiently. Razor tried to keep quiet, but quickly broke down.

"Okay, fine." Razor huffed. "I think you killed Daft."

"Daft? I do not even know who that is."

"He was the prisoner."

"He is dead?"

"I wouldn't be standing here saying I think you killed him if he was alive." Razor pointed out.

"Logical. When exactly do you think I had the time to break back into Toby's chamber and kill him?"

"I think you did it from the infirmary."

"How?"

"I don't know, you tell me, you're the alien here!"

"Since neither of us are on our homeworlds we are both technically 'aliens' right now."

"You know what I mean." Razor growled.

"No, no I do not know what you mean. I do not understand any of this. I was unconscious in the infirmary and then I was talking to you before going back to sleep. I don't see how murder fits into any of that."

"Daft died of massive nose bleed."

"I still do not see the connection."

"You had blood dripping from your nose."

"I had a drop of blood."

"Yes, but why?"

"I do not know, perhaps it had something to do with the fact that you had been striking me with the back of your hand to wake me up!"

"Oh...right." Razor said sheepishly. "I...uh...I kinda forgot about that part."

"Clearly." Salen snarled.

"Salen, I'm sorry, I just..."

"You do not trust me."

"It isn't you I don't trust, it's what you can do. Salen, I think for everyone's safety, including your own, you should go to Natala and get some training."

Salen took a breath to argue, but kept his thoughts to himself. Razor looked like he was standing on pins and needles as he waited for Salen's response. Salen sighed and relaxed his confrontational body language.

"Salen?"

"I already tried." Salen admitted quietly.

"Already tried what?"

"I talked to the Vulcan High Council before returing to the Diamond about receiving training and they said no."

"What? Why?"

"They say I am too old."

"You're not even thirty. They won't even give you a chance?"

"No." Salen shook his head sadly. "It is not logical for them to waste their efforts on me."

"That's bull shit!" Razor spat. "What about Spock? Maybe he can help you?"

"He has done enough for me. Spock does not have the time to take me as a student right now."

"Salen..."

"If you do not believe that I am fit to serve aboard the Black Diamond then I will apply for a transfer."

"Don't you dare." Razor replied quickly. "I'm just being an idiot. If you say you had nothing to do with the prisoner's death and that you weren't connected to him during your 'meditation', then I believe you."

"I was not. There are rules of physics to be obeyed."

"Toby admitted that it could have been an aneurysm rupture from the stress. I want you as my First Officer, I just need you to promise me that you'll follow my orders and not attempt any more of these Vulcan mind tricks."

"I will and I will not respectively."

Razor had to think about Salen's answer for a moment to make sure he understood it. Salen chuckled to show that he had used the complicated wording on purpose. Razor narrowed his eyes and pounced on Salen quickly putting him in a headlock. Salen protested with a shout of laughter as Razor roughly gave him what he had previously referred to as a 'nuggie'. Salen managed to escape but his hair was now a hopeless mess.

"I will never understand human bonding rituals."

"And I will never understand anything that Vulcans do."

"I do not understand most of it myself." Salen smiled. "Where do we go from here?"

"What do you mean?"

"The Starfleet Officer's tattoos, the strange confession from the prisoner, the lack of any sense to this whole case, what are we going to do about it?"

"We're going to drop it. I'm going to write up the report, send it in, and wash my hands of it. I'm going to take the word of six high standing Officers over the delusional lies of some dead scum bag. The hostages are free, the bad guys are dead, the mission is over, the case is closed."

"Sounds...somewhat logical."

"It's as logical as it's going to get around here." Razor shrugged. "Hey, lets head down to the gym, I think an old fashioned sparing match will get all this conspiracy stuff out of my head, and you can get a chance to get some revenge on me for accusing you of murdering people with your mind."

"I am a little miffed about that."

"Then lets go settle the score like men and then forget it ever happened."

"Deal."