Thirteen
Stardate 59435.1, Romulan Moon Lleiset, Municipal Center
Keln watched silently as Commander Eridos and Major Bullock argued. He could hear them easily enough even with the distance they had put between them, but decided not to let it show that he knew the subject they could not agree upon was him. Knowing that Theus was several levels above the intelligence of even the brightest Starfleet officers he had met, Keln was certain that the distance was intentional to ensure he overheard them.
The two had completed their talk and Theus stepped back to let the transporter effect take him. Keln saw Bullock grimace and heard her mutter a curse about Lt. Commander zhNon before walking over to him.
"The Captain's order stands, get over to the coordinates and meet with the Wing dissidents." Bullock said.
"Yes sir." He said not even attempting to hide his smirk or condescending tone. "I will inform him once my mission is complete."
"Like hell you will!" She said. "Everything you have will go through me first."
"I'm sure you wouldn't have it any other way."
"Meaning?"
Keln took in a deep breath of air. It made him stand taller before he walked up to Bullock, invading her personal space. She didn't flinch, but instead met his eyes with an equal, if not greater amount of strength and defiance.
"I fall under your direct supervision, Major. As you said, anything…everything I have goes through you first."
Bullock was about to speak but he cut her off by grabbing hold of both her shoulders and squaring her to him.
"Now is not the time. A woman as strong, as commanding and dangerous as yourself. It's almost Romulan." He chuckled.
"Is that a compliment?"
Keln lowered his voice. It was a deep, suggestive grotto when he said, "And more. I've noticed your looks, and you hunger. How difficult it must be for you. A warrior born into a society of peace and pacifism that keeps you on a constant leash."
Bullock said nothing.
"Is it difficult to find one that is up to your standards? On your level? Even amongst your Corps of warriors, have you ever really met one who can satiate your hunger?"
Keln started to close the gap between them. He was leaning in toward Bullock's face at a slow, steady pace and she did not move. At the last moment, he moved his lips to her left ear and whispered.
"I could do all that and more. Expose you to battles, challenges…give you conquests you have only dreamt of. I only ask that you trust me." He finished and returned to his full height.
Looking at Bullock, he could tell she was flustered. Her eyes were dilated, and he could see the faint hints of blush in her cheeks. In an almost imperceptible movement, her eyes darted to the side and flicked away before meeting his again.
She brought up her hand to his face and held his cheeks. Slowly she moved down to his neck and stroked his nape before clamping her fingers down in a hard, vice like grip. Keln immediately grabbed her hand at the wrist, but in her armor, her strength was enhanced with powerful micro motors and force fields that made his natural bulk pale in comparison. His legs began to give, and he almost went to the ground. Bullock caught him and supported him enough so that he was just beneath her chin.
"You're cute…more than cute," she said, "but you're not that cute. Don't confuse this situation by misunderstanding my intent. Complete your mission, report back. Do you understand?" She asked without raising her voice.
Keln nodded through the pain.
"Good." She said and released him. "Check in every hour, and don't forget to report your last coordinates before they blindfold and escort you to the real location. We both know it's coming."
He watched as Bullock turned on a heel and began to walk off.
"I-I," Keln choked out, "I couldn't help but notice that you didn't correct me on any part of my observations." He said.
Bullock didn't stop walking. Instead, she threw what Keln knew was an obscene human hand gesture with one of her fingers over her shoulder. When she put her hand down, she said aloud, "Maybe literally once this is all over."
USS Aegis, In orbit of Romulan Moon Lleiset
"Commander, I'm picking up strange activity on my sensors." Carver said from her Ops station on the bridge.
"Can you be a bit more specific?" ZhNon asked.
"I…I believe they're explosions ma'am. Or more precisely, detonations."
"Goritan?" zhNon said while turning her command chair toward him.
"Checking." He said. "Ma'am, I've been running constant sensor sweeps since we went to Yellow Alert. I haven't detected anything out of the ordinary. No indication of a ship within our vicinity."
"Lieutenant?" zhNon asked Carver.
"Stand-by…Goritan, focus your sensors on grid coordinate 597 by 108 mark 4. Narrow the beam as much as possible."
Goritan did as she said. He worked his console for a bit before reporting, "Still nothing."
zhNon rose from her chair and walked behind it to her Mission Ops console. She studied the information for a bit, before frowning. She was confused at the surprising lack of information available.
"I'm not seeing anything either, are you sure it was an explosion of some kind, Angelica?" zhNon asked.
"Without further study, I can't say for certain. But I do know something registered on my sensors." She said. A few taps on her console and she said, "Carver to Ensign Contreras, please report to the bridge."
"Acknowledge." Came his immediate response.
After a few moments, Contreras entered the bridge, face buried in a PADD as he reported to Lt. Carver.
"Ensign…Ensign!" Carver said loudly when he didn't look up.
"Oh! Yes ma'am?" He said in a startled voice.
"Take your station, we have a bit of a sensor mystery we need cleared up."
"Aye ma'am." He said and sat down to work.
While she was not particularly impatient, zhNon was fidgeting at having to wait for the Ensign's analysis. Even with all of his quirks, there was no one on the ship she would rather have on data interpretation. Save for their captain.
"They're detonations ma'am." Contreras finally said.
"That's what I surmised, but can you help narrow down their location?" Carver asked.
"I don't need to narrow anything ma'am, they came from RSS-2398.2" He said.
"Where?" zhNon asked.
"Sorry ma'am." He said. "Starfleet still doesn't have a name for this sector. The Romulans only name star systems that they inhabit, so-"
"I know how classification works, Ensign." She said cutting him off. "You scientists over-think everything. I was asking where on the second planet are the detonations coming from. And as an additional question, how?"
Contreras bowed his head slightly in a sheepish grin. "Sorry ma'am. As Lt. Carver said, they are detonations. Easily mistaken for explosions, but these are deep, more controlled."
"Wait," Goritan said, "isn't that the planet that we detected when we first got here? The one that you said was 'cracked open'?"
"It is sir." Contreras said. "That's how I'm able to report with certainty that those are detonations. The distance between the first and second planet is only about 200 million kilometers. It has very thin atmospheric layers, so our scans have had no problem penetrating it. However, those detonations are happening at least 1200 kilometers below what's left of the surface."
"That's almost deep enough to reach the lower mantle of most M-class planets." Carver said.
"It is." Contreras agreed. "Whatever is causing them, can't be natural. We detected high concentrations of valuable inner planetary minerals in the atmosphere, this could be how they were exposed."
"Back to this?" Goritan asked. He turned to zhNon and folded his arms. "Ma'am, I understand that we're explorers, but we have more pressing issues. I also have a desire to know how that planet was cracked open, but if anything this proves that the Romulans or Lleisetians, or whatever have some sort of mining operation going on."
"I doubt that." Contreras said. "You called it earlier, if they did, no one would be careless enough to allow that much material to escape processing.
"And the detonations are registering at least 25 isotons." Carver said.
"25?" Goritan repeated. "That's as much as a low yield photon torpedo."
"How are we just now detecting this?" zhNon asked.
"…Ma'am, again these are detonations. Someone had to trigger them." Contreras said.
zhNon gave him a small smile, but her eyes suggested that she wasn't pleased.
"Oh, um, y-you wanted to know why our sensors are just now detecting such a powerful explosion?"
"Better." She said.
"I'm afraid that one's on me Commander." Carver said.
"Us." Goritan corrected. "With all that's been going on, we haven't been sending out active scans of the system. I ordered our sensor resources to be focused on tactical support."
"That included our probes." Carver said.
"It's basic relativity ma'am," Contreras picked back up, "the planet is 45 light minutes from our current location. It took that long after the detonations for our passive scans to detect them."
zhNon pursed her lips. She realized that it was no one's fault that the detonations weren't detected, but their presence was something that couldn't be ignored.
"Any word from the Captain?" She asked Carver.
"None, ma'am." She said. "He reported from the surface that their transport was complete and proceeded to meet up with Major Bullock."
"Should we contact him?" Goritan asked.
"No." zhNon said in agitation. "He was very clear that he would contact us when the time came. This doesn't rise to the level of an emergency to break radio silence."
"But we are going to investigate, right?" Contreras asked.
"That we are, Ensign. Get down to the Navigational Sensor Array and meet up with Lt. Mok. You two are going on a little fact-finding mission."
Romulan Moon Lleiset, location unknown
Keln squinted and turned his head away from the bright light once his face cover was removed. True to Bullock's prediction, once he had journeyed to the coordinates given to Theus by the Wing Dissident, he was met by two armed escorts and promptly blinded by a dark hood that covered his entire head.
It was difficult to ascertain how far or what direction they had traveled in, as they took some sort of shuttle or hover craft from the meeting point to their final destination. They had not stopped during the entire trip, but once they did, he felt the tingling sensation and heard the distinctive whine of a Romulan transporter beaming him to a new location.
"Jolan tru, welcome Centurion." daise Y'Borom said.
When his eyes adjusted, Keln took in the dark room. The walls were made of stone, indicating their location was more than likely in a mountain or cavern of sorts. Standing lights were set up in the passage he could see as a hall, but one shone directly at him for some reason. There were no guards, and Y'Borom gestured for Keln to join his side.
"I must apologize for all the subterfuge." Y'Borom said. "Never did I believe I would live to see the day when so many traitors walk proudly out in the open."
"Nor did I, daise." Keln said evenly.
Y'Borom started to walk and Keln joined him. As they strolled through the encampment, he couldn't help but notice how advanced their setup was. While most small resistances, rebellions, and insurrections lived meager, desperate lives, these dissidents seem on par with any field forward operations base.
"I believe your captain has questions for me." Y'Borom said.
"Not my captain, but a means to an end."
"And what end is that?" He asked.
Before Keln could answer, they had reached their destination. It was an alcove the size of a small room, lit with a generator that simulated natural light, and in its center sat a small table with two chairs. On top, two small cups of Romulan design with a closed pitcher. They both sat and Y'Borom poured them both bright blue drinks that held a silver shimmer before lifting his cup.
"To Romulus, may she soar once more." He said.
Keln picked up his drink. "And protect us all beneath the Raptor's Wings."
They took quick drinks and Y'Borom refilled their cups.
"I'm sure your Starfleet helpers have already detected our condition."
Keln wasn't sure what he meant. He knew from his training that when dealing with active deception, the best lies were those that were mostly true.
"I wouldn't put it past them, although they are the pests of the galaxy, they are nothing if not resourceful pests."
"I see, is that why Commander Eridos sent you in his stead. To utilize you as a resource?"
"He did." Keln answered truthfully. "He wishes to understand the depth of your relationship with C'Ulos."
"A means to an end." Y'Borom repeated Keln's words back to him. "I've allowed him to live, until it no longer suits me or my goals."
Keln was slightly startled at his directness but didn't let it show.
"And once it no longer suits you, will you seek revenge for your murdered comrade?" Keln asked while taking another sip of his drink.
"Comrade? Oh you mean the Uhlan you found in the forest. No, that was my doing." He said and drank more.
Keln sat down his cup.
"You killed your own man?" He asked, his voice laced with bile and disgust.
"A means to an end."
Keln shot from the table, his eyes blazing with fury.
"You dare call yourself a loyal citizen of the Empire when you admit to murder!"
"He is loyal." Another voice said while entering the room. "Loyal to our own Empire. And once we have what we need from that little ship of yours, we can all stop pretending and show our true faces. Isn't that right, Centurion?"
"You?!-" Keln said and that was all.
A bright blast of energy erupted from a disruptor pistol held at the new comer's side, striking Keln in his upper chest. It knocked him back, the setting on the heaviest stun but still burning throughout his torso as he went down.
"W-who…why?" Keln coughed out as his world began to go dark.
"And protect us all beneath the Raptor's Wings." The new person said. "You mistranslated the prayer. No Romulan refers to our people 'beneath' anything! It's one of the most hated pejoratives we learn as children. I'm not sure who you are 'Centurion', but you are no Romulan. Still it is of no consequence. Soon you, and your Starfleet handlers will all be dead."