21: Last Minute Arrangements

USS Vanguard

Sickbay – Morgue

Serpent Nebula

21:00 October 10th 2183

xxx

MacLeod looked down at the body of Lieutenant Mok with clenched fists. He didn't blame Balak for the Lieutenant's death, or anyone on the Citadel. He blamed himself. Instead of just beaming the hostages out he'd tried to make a point to the local races, and it had failed and now another member of the crew, no his crew, had died because of him.

"The burden of command sometimes is not choosing who lives and dies, but having to live with your choices afterwards." He turned and saw Captain Anderson standing just inside the door to the morgue, with a Starfleet security officer, who was acting as his escort, waiting outside.

MacLeod took a final look at the dead Bolian and turned to the Captain, "What can I do for you sir?"

Anderson paused as he looked down at the body of the dead alien and indicated for MacLeod to come out of the room. MacLeod did so and the pair walked in silence to the nearest turbo-lift.

"This is an incredible ship," remarked Anderson as they walked. "You can feel the power coursing through her, yet it never seeks to overpower or intimidate. Truly breath-taking."

MacLeod smiled as he looked at the exposed panels and watched the various cables and terminals blink, flash and pulse as the ship went about its daily operations. "I guess it is. I've never really noticed it before."

Anderson laughed softly as the turbo-lift doors opened for them. "I guess growing up around such refined power would make you a little indifferent to it. But to someone who has spent his life on dedicated warships, a vessel like this helps remind me that there is more to this universe than warfare. That beauty and elegance can still be found in the most powerful of things, natural or artificial."

MacLeod nodded, not really wanting to get drawn into a talk about the beauty of a photon torpedo, unless it involved firing one into the derriere of a certain Batarian or Turian, followed but three or four more!

The turbo-lift soon stopped and they stepped off to begin the short walk to the MacLeod's quarters.

MacLeod nodded at Rheu who stood outside the room. No matter how much he protested to D'Mora about the guard, she would not back down. Moreover, he found her concern a beacon of hope for him to hold onto so he decided not to complain too much.

Anderson barely avoided stumbling as he rounded the corner and came face to stomach with the armoured Romulan. He supressed his dinner as he remembered the Romulan from the video footage provided by Aishia of the short but brutal battle. The Romulan had grabbed a Batarian as he had tried to flee and with one massive, armoured fist, the Romulan had crushed the Batarian's helmet until blood has started to seep out of the cracks.

MacLeod would have disciplined Rheu except for two things; one, he was not technically under his command and two, he'd have done the same to Balak if not for Aishia placing him in a Stasis Field long enough for C-Sec to arrive and help secure the area.

Once free of the Stasis, MacLeod had glared at the Spectre before angrily beaming away all Starfleet and Romulans from both locations and several Batarians that had been tagged with sub-dermal transponders. However, that had resulted in a good deal of damage to one of the transporter rooms – not to mention to a poor Batarian Biotic and six others in the room at the time. Who knew dark energy did not like being taken apart at the sub-molecular level then reassembled a few seconds later?

Anderson looked at MacLeod as he chuckled to himself and settled into a chair, with Anderson quickly doing the same on the other side of the table.

"Now Captain, what's up?"

Anderson slid a Starfleet padd he'd been loaned onto the table and MacLeod picked it up. "The Alliance team has arrived along with a small unit of ships which have been assigned to guard your ship at the Fang shipyard."

The Fang shipyard was a secret shipyard located between the Serpent Nebula and the Boltzmann System which orbits a brown dwarf that is thought to have been the star that helped create the Nebula when it went supernova millions of years ago. While the Vanguard was being sent there, the runabout Agnew - named for a former Captain of the Battleship HMS Vanguard - would remain behind with a two man crew in orbit of the Citadel to allow the rapid transfer of MacLeod, D'Mora , their team and any survivors to the Vanguard if she was still docked at Fang.

MacLeod picked up the padd and looked down the list of ships and Captains and paused when a familiar name came up. "Shepard?"

Anderson nodded, "Yes, the newly promoted Captain Hannah Shepard is the Commander's mother." Anderson leaned in conspiratorially as he continued to speak, "Shepard doesn't know about it but I figured that a familiar name would help set your mind at ease that this isn't a trap."

MacLeod looked at the Captain Shepard's ship; it was one of two cruisers and six frigates assigned as 'protection' for the Vanguard. While MacLeod was none too happy about having both Alliance and Turian ships as protection, he felt better than if it had just been Turians as they, by and large, seemed to distrust Humans. In addition, he personally disliked a certain Turian Councillor.

"When will they arrive?"

"Some time tomorrow after you leave. The Turian forces will detach from the Citadel fleet and the combined force will escort your ship to Fang."

"Captain.." MacLeod started but Anderson cut him off.

"I know you're not comfortable with this, but the power that your ship showed during the video file yesterday has people worried and the longer your ship stays this close to the Citadel, the more likely it is that certain elements of all the various governments will consider making a play to take your ship for themselves."

MacLeod gave Anderson a very predatory grin as he imagined such a battle; "I don't know what you'd call that Captain, but I'd call it target practice!"

Anderson chuckled to hide the slight fear he had from both MacLeod and the truth of the statement. Anderson didn't know the full strength of this vessel, but given to what it could do while badly damaged, he felt sorry for anyone stupid enough to attack it now that the ship was almost fully combat ready, well almost sorry for the attackers.

"Well, if there's nothing else, I need to get back to the Citadel to co-ordinate with Admiral Hackett on fleet matters."

MacLeod stood and shook hands with the Captain. "We can have you back in there in minutes."

Anderson raised his hand in defence as he spoke; "Thanks but I think I'll just take the shuttle back. No offence, but the idea of being taken apart and put back together is a little disconcerting."

MacLeod bowed slightly in acceptance and indicated for the door with pair soon on their way to the shuttlebay.

"I almost forgot," started Anderson as they entered the turbo-lift again. "The Alliance has setup an account for you and your crew to help with making purchases on the Citadel….."

As the doors closed Anderson and MacLeod discussed the money being made available by not only the Alliance, but the three Council races as well. MacLeod knew what they wanted out of this but was smart enough to accept it for now, but he decided to limit access to only a handful of people for now.

Though the amount of money they were providing was large, excessively so he thought. But their reasoning was very obvious and MacLeod found himself thinking about re-reading the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition before making any deals with the local races.

...

Transporter Room 2

21:30

xxx

Drake looked down at the damaged platform and sighed. No-one had thought to check whether a Biotic person was safe to transport but they'd found out that there were complications. Such as the Batarian 'volunteer' exploding rather violently when he'd rematerialized killing two other prisoners and badly wounding a third along with Ensign Connors who'd been beamed up at the same time while crewman Denver from security and the transporter operator, crewman Selvic had both suffered minor injuries.

The transporter itself was offline and in need of major repair but before that happened Drake, Varik and two others, specialist Venters – a specialist in transporter physics and crewman Jankovic – a technician, were trying to work out what exactly had happened, and how to prevent it from happening again.

"Well the explosion blew out the coils." Stated Jankovic as he pulled the component out from its slot. "We'll have to totally replace it along with a bunch of isolinear chips and a few gel packs. Beyond that, the physical damage wasn't too bad."

"It was sufficient to killed three people and wound four others crewman, so I believe, crewman, that it was 'bad' in any sense of the word."

Jankovic sunk back into the hole in the transporter pad where he was while Drake and Venters shared a look from behind the control station.

"It seems that the dark energy generated by the eezo in the Batarian's blood reacted badly when we tried to reassemble the molecules on the platform." Remarked Venters to draw Varik's attention. "Something is interfering with the phase transition inhibitor and preventing it from calibrating for the dark energy present in this eezo."

"Indeed. However, I admit to lacking a sufficiently advanced understanding of dark energy to be able to see a solution to this problem."

Drake thought to himself as he tried to remember a name then it clicked. "Gwagra!" He said then noticed the looks the other gave him. "Um, Specialist Gwagra. She graduated from the Vulcan Science Academy. If I remember she was on-board only to conduct an experiment involving dark energy and transwarp, but that was delayed due to the Borg and she never left the ship."

Travik nodded at the Ensign's good memory. "You are correct Ensign. She was working on her doctorate and it does relate to dark energy." He paused and tapped his badge; "Computer, locate Specialist Gwagra."

"The Specialist is currently in Multi-lab two on deck six, section sixteen-beta."

Varik tapped his badge twice – too close the link to the computer and open a new comm-link – then spoke again. "Varik to Specialist Gwagra."

There was an audible sigh as Gwagra answered. "What is it?"

Varik raised an eyebrow at the disrespectful tone of the reply but chose to overlook it. "Your presence is requested in Transporter Room Three."

"What could I possibly be needed for up there?"

Varik looked at Drake for some help, but the Human just shrugged, indicating that he had been having issues with his fellow scientist.

"There is a problem with the transporters involving dark energy and the local substance called element zero."

"Eezo you say?" The female voice perked up at hearing something that interested her. "I'll be there with my kit in a few minutes."

"That would be appreciated." Replied Varik before he closed the link. He turned to see the three humans fighting to not smile at how he'd closed the comm-link. "Ensign Drake, you are in charge. I need to report to the Commander to assume command."

Drake nodded as Varik left the room.

"Varik's taking command?" Asked Venters with a slightly worried look.

Drake nodded. "Yeah, the Commander is leaving with Hazard to rescue our crewmembers who were taken by the Geth."

"You mean Ku right?" Asked Jankovic as he re-emerged from his hiding hole inside the transporter pad. "The Commander only cares about her."

"Yeah Simon, what's up with that?"

Drake glared a little at Venters for using his given name when on duty. "Well Sandra, the Commander is close to her, that's all." Using her given name, got his comment across easily, as Venters blushed a little at the subtle telling off.

"What about the Sub-Commander?" Ask Jankovic to save his co-worker.

Drake Smiled; "That's another story, which I'll tell you about in the Forlorn Hope, after we finish our shifts. Clear?" he fixed them with as good a stern stare as he could- which he knew was honestly not that good – and waited for their replies.

"Yes sir." Came the duel reply, with a slight giggle from Venters.

Drake smiled a little as he shook his head. At least these two seemed in good spirits but he wondered how long it would last as all his research suggested there was no way back home. There were hints in the personal reports for his department that suggested that several crewmembers were starting to slip badly and he was sure the same was happening in other dpeartments. Right now all that was keeping it from bubbling to the surface was the rescue attempt and repairing the ship. After those were done, Drake suspected that the new connamd staff would have to have a series of discussions to find ways to deal with the crew becomming increasingly despondent.

...

Deck Two

23:00

xxx

D'Mora exited the turbo lift and walked towards his quarters. She paused outside, turned back to her guard, Decurion Kassus, and handed him a padd. "These are my orders. Examine them then give them to Sub-Lieutenant Khev. Do you understand?"

Kassus took the padd and quickly scanned the orders, his eyes widening rapidly as he read. "Sub-Commander?"

D'Mora fixed him with a solid glare. "Do you understand?"

Kassus snapped to attention. "By your command."

D'Mora nodded and smiled, "I know it is unusual but ask Khev about why I have issued them. Tell him 'Teelah', he'll understand and explain it."

Kassus clasped his hand to his chest in salute, bowed, then turned and returned to the turbo-lift.

D'Mora smiled up at the door guard then pressed the buzzer.

"Enter."

She walked through the door and saw her target, and her sahe'lagge.

"Sub-Commander," asked MacLeod as he looked up from behind his desk. "What can I do for you?"

"Hna'mi Hru'fir." She answered as she moved around the desk towards him.

MacLeod looked up at the predator approaching him, and smiled. "Rha?"

She leaned in and kissed him softly. "Yes." She pulled him from his chair then abruptly pushed him down hard onto the desk. "I need my mate."

He growled back into the kiss and pushed her back hard into the wall. For a few minutes they wrestled until he unexpectedly pulled back while still pinning her to the wall and looed at her carefully. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yes." Her voice was barely more than a whisper mixed with a groan. "Whether we get home or not, whether we die on this mission or not. I want you with me." A single tear slid down her cheek, which caught his eye. He did not know why she would be crying, except to be glad back in his arms, but he knew she was worried or concerned about something.

"Then you have me." He said as he kissed the cheek just cleared of the tear and pulled her with him towards the bedroom while kissing her jawline.

As they fell onto the bed, she turned and looked at him, a look of pain and concern definietly evident on her face this time.

"What?" He asked.

She shook her head slightly; "Not now. Ask me again after we come back." She leaned in until she could hear his heartbeat through his chest. "Right now, I just want to be with you."

He watched her for a moment, and gently stroked her cheek before he answered her by lifting her head and kissing her once more as he pulled her back into the bed.

...

A/N: Good thing no-one beamed Tevos up at any point prior to the the Batarian incident... ;)

And now we are - finally - of to Virmire. Though it will take a wee while to get there since I personally doubt that even a Mass Relay is capable of moving someone instantly across the galaxy.