Work Arounds

Gaila carefully readjusted connections. She was seriously tired of not being told what was going on. Really. She'd been more than patient.

Bad enough that someone had decided to keep her in the dark because they were worried that she'd resign or do something really risky if she knew there were might problems with going home. That she almost understood - the potential for risk had been evident, but the evidence was sketchy. Definitely not enough to forbid anyone from going home, especially when Starfleet was already an issue with the family. So Capt. Pike had intervened, pulling strings and calling in an old friend with SI connections to play uptight-officer-in-need-of-a-break as cover for accompanying her home.

The worst part was that Samuel had been so damned good at the role that she'd ignored her initial suspicions and gotten distracted by the shiny idea that he and Ama would somehow be good for each other. Now, if it turned out that he'd died protecting them, she couldn't even be ticked off at him for deceiving her like that, which would be a double shame.

To really top things off, the most anyone would tell them about Giotto was 'We don't have anything definite yet'. Gaila tried to take that as a sign of hope. After all, you couldn't get more definite than death. On earth people might wait to inform next of kin, but Orion wasn't like that. By now the news would have jumped all over finding a body at the club and probably made up some huge sensational story, or several, to go with it.

None of them would be accurate of course, but Gaila was even better than most Orions at sifting data to figure out what was real. However, Granger had absolutely forbidden her from trying. 'No outside contact. We can't risk letting them figure out that you're here.' Gaila ground her teeth at the thought. As if she couldn't fish through the news and her neighbors' infoblasts without leaving a trail! It was insulting.

Granger was even more uptight and security-obsessed than Giotto had ever been. In fact, Gaila had to wonder if they hadn't been partners in more than just the working together sense. A really scary girlfriend would certainly explain a lot about his determination to say no.

Gaila put the thought aside. The problem at hand was cracking the wall of silence here about what had happened to him. She'd almost made some headway with Bill, but if there was anything scarier than a scary girlfriend, it was a scary CO. So, no dice. Plus, she'd gotten stuck cooling her heels in this little conference room.

Well, Granger might have forbidden her from fishing for info on a computer, but she was not going to be left in the dark again. The comm unit in here had been locked, but locks only worked on incompetent burglars and Gaila had helped her roommate ace the comm technology class. This should be a piece of cake...

She put an improvised receiver to her ear.

"Anything?" Maras asked.

Gaila made a face. "Someone named 'honey-ums' is making kissy noises at his girlfriend."

She was all in favor of flirting, but, seriously, not only was that type of flirting more nauseating then sexy, it had nothing to do with finding Giotto. Get your minds off sex and back on the job, people!

...Ozdat. She really had been spending too much time with him.

Gaila switched the channel and winced at the sudden burst of feedback. Sparks flew and she hastily shut the comm down before its circuits fused.

Chastity. She should have known SI would use multiple locks.

Maras arched a red eyebrow. "I thought you said this would be a piece of cake."

"Shut up." Gaila frowned and then snatched a copper clip from her sister's hair.

"Hey!"

"Sorry." She bent back over the comm. "I needed a new fork for the cake..."

.

.

Giotto lay still, quietly considering the situation. The evidence suggested that this was a small operation, with limited resources - something the Empire could easily disavow. Therefore, as long as Gaila and her family had gotten to safety, they'd be okay once the attempt was declared a failure. He just needed to hold on long enough to make that happen. Or until he could figure out how to escape.

His bonds had been loosened, but not enough to slip them - not that that would necessarily help. Battered as he was, Giotto wasn't overly confident in his ability to walk straight, let alone make a run for it. Under other circumstances he might still have tried to get a hand around Talas' throat to use her as leverage, but Klingons dealt with hostage situations by killing both hostage and taker. Although Sam knew there was a good chance that he wasn't going to get out of this alive, he wasn't ready to opt for that particular avenue of escape just yet.

Fingertips ran along the side of his body. "Now, where were we?"

I was imagining an exit strategy that involved breaking your neck. He didn't say it. The longer Talas assumed he was just a 'friend of the family' the better. He kept his eyes closed and focused on analyzing her technique. She was too subtle to be someone Zhal had pulled from a dance hall...

"So quiet. Do you like this game?" she chuckled deep in her throat, toying with the restraints at his wrists, "Being tied down and making me work for your secrets..."

Sam suppressed a laugh. Talas didn't know he was in security and he wasn't about to explain the joke. Although he did have to wonder why Orion women kept thinking he'd be into bondage.

"Mmm, maybe you're just the strong, silent type... You are strong," her hands smoothed over his arms, "...and a good fighter to do so well against Zhal..."

She wasn't Syndicate, but Talas knew what she was doing. Sam did too, and ignored the tacit invitation to brag.

"But you've paid a price for it." Soft hands began massaging an ointment onto his damaged shoulder.

That was playing dirty. There was nothing like sharp pain to refocus the mind and Giotto had resorted to flexing that shoulder at least once so far.

"Does that feel good?" Talas purred, rubbing the soothing gel over his bruised chest and abs.

...definitely playing dirty...that did feel really good...

Focus! There were supplies for pain relief here, but Klingons didn't use analgesics. That had to say something about the location...

"Better?" Talas murmured, hand pausing just below his navel. "I could make you feel so much better in so many ways..."

Please, not in front of the Klingon. Somewhere Zhal had to be watching. Sam fixed the thought in his mind - it was nicely inhibiting.

Her hands slid back up to his chest, pheromones spreading like a mist as she leaned over him. "Your heart is beating faster, quiet man. Imagine how much faster I could make it beat if you talk to me..."

And make it stop the minute I give you anything useful.

"...you're a fighter, a friend of the family... But you haven't even told me..." Talas' mouth brushed his, "your name."

Pheromones and springwine lipstick. Damn. Giotto twisted his face to the side. Name, rank and number were not options. Right now, he was a 'low value' captive and he intended to keep it that way. One stay as a 'guest of the Empire' had been more than enough.

"We don't have time for this!" Zhal suddenly grabbed his jaw, forcing his head back. "Your name."

Giotto resisted an urge to grin. Their good cop/bad cop routine needed serious work. Zhal kept losing his patience just before Talas could really get to him.

Fingers tightened on at he sides of his throat. "Name."

He cracked the eye that wasn't swollen shut and glared stubbornly.

The big man backhanded him. "Now."

"Rumplestiltskin," Sam spat and then wondered at what had just come out of his mouth. Obviously his brain had bounced against the inside of his skull one time too many now. ...on the other hand, it was obscure enough that Zhal might buy it.

A fist slammed into his bad shoulder. Frak. Who'd taught the damn Klingon human fairy tales?

Zhal snorted contempt and backed away. "Don't think I won't check it."

Giotto bit his cheeks to contain a laugh. Go ahead - just come back before my shoulder stops hurting.

.

.

Pike fixed the cadet in front of him with a steely glare. "Kirk, I usually have to warn instructors about making sexual advances to students, not the other way around."

The cadet stood at attention but the attempt at military bearing was marred by a little smirk.

What was he going to do with the boy? Chris was about to order him to wipe the smile off his face, when an unexpected signal flashed on his terminal. He immediately waved a hand in dismissal. "Out."

"But, sir, I-"

"Save it." Pike pointed at the door. "Out. Now."

"Yessir." All traces of smirk were gone as Kirk beat a fast retreat.

How about that. Chris made a mental note to remember that tactic as he activated his secure comm channel. "Sam, what's-"

He stopped dead when an actual picture appeared on the terminal. Not Giotto, but Granger and in a worse mood than usual. Dear God, what had Sam done to piss her off?

"What's this about, Commander?"

"Sir," she responded tightly. "I regret to inform you that Cmdr. Giotto is MIA."

Chris felt his stomach drop. Please, let it be because all that self-control has finally snapped and he's off somewhere screwing Gaila's mother. Or Gaila. Or her sisters. Or any combination thereof.

"Explain."

"There was an incident at the club. Giotto was reported to have been injured in an explosion, but emergency responders have found no sign of him. Indications are that he was taken."

Crap. He should have known. On duty Sam was infinitely more likely to fall into enemy's hands than a woman's arms.

"An explosion," Pike repeated evenly. "At the club where you assured me nothing would happen?"

Her eyes flashed. "Your intel was vague at best and our sources indicated no Syndicate activity there."

"And you'd slit your wrists before you'd admit that Sam's instincts are better than your sources!" Chris snapped, scowling into the screen. "But he's the one injured and missing."

"I...apologize, Captain." Granger sounded like the words were acid on her tongue. "We did get Cadet Gaila and her family out. They're here in protective custody, pending further investigation."

"Dammit, you don't seriously think they had anything to do with this?"

"No," she admitted grudgingly. "But we can't release them until we understand who's behind it. The club owner claims to have paid protection to the local Syndicate. Nothing should have happened, especially while they were inside."

Frak, as Sam would say. No one in their right mind disrespected Syndicate protection and if this was an internal power play, it could get ugly fast. Whoever had this done had lit a fuse and his best friend was out there, injured, and probably right in the middle of ground zero for next explosion.

.

.

"...Nothing should have happened, especially while they were inside."

"Well, it did!"

Pike's voice was so loud that Gaila had to pull the receiver away from her ear. Ow. He could yell even louder than he could whistle.

"I know it did," Granger shot back angrily. "We are looking for him. So far our only lead is a stunned lackey your Cadet brought back. He's been next to worthless on his employers and the only location he's given is impossible."

"Impossible?"

Granger gave a frustrated sigh. "It's probably a lie, but it's also impossible to investigate." A pause. "Councilman Rafhit's private cabin - I've been ordered by Ambassador Hodge not to pursue it."

"I see." Pike's tone along conveyed a string of curses left unsaid. "And you're going to obey that?"

"Trust me, Captain, no one would like get Giotto back and yell at him for this stunt more than I would. However, we don't even know if he's still alive and this is a volatile situation. I have a lot of other agents who'll be in harm's way if it goes bad. You know what Sam would've said about acceptable risks."

There was a long pause. Pike's voice, when he replied, sounded resigned. "I'll see what I can do about the Ambassador's orders on my end. Pike out."

Gaila took the receiver from her ear.

Right. Her Starfleet training told her Pike was doing the right thing, even though Orion politics were convoluted, corrupt, and slow. Gaila drummed her fingers on the table. She was Starfleet, but she was also Orion. The Orion way was to handle legal roadblocks by going around them and that's exactly what she was going to do.

Just as soon as she figured out how.

AN: Sorry for a late update. My hard drive crashed and took a lot of the story with it. Fortunately, I had some bits saved and I have a great beta (thanks to Artemiis Boz for getting the rewrite on this chapter back so quickly).

Just because Gaila didn't hack the locked comm perfectly on the first try doesn't mean she's not awesome. It's a trope that the techie genius always handles any challenge quickly and without a hitch. But I'm an engineer - it's almost never that easy. Plus, if you've read my other stuff, you know I like taking swipes at tropes.

Giotto is a bit concussed from the blast and getting smacked around by Zhal. That condition literally is caused by your brain bouncing against the inside of your skull. Fortunately, it's not exactly a new experience for Giotto, so he's managing.

Please r&r