Love is in the water.
Love is in the air.
Show me where to look.
Tell me, will love be there?
Will love be there?
Teach me how to speak.
Teach me how to share.
Teach me where to go.
Tell me, will love be there?
Will love be there?
If Cartwright had been cornered and surprised before, he was better prepared now. "What are you talking about?"
"This is why you've been so interested in Synprilox," Kirk accused. "You've been trying to get a hold of Admiral Ciana's information by going through the channels she used when you took her position. You've been trying to do this for years. But you did nothing to help when you could."
"I have every right to retain any records left behind," he retorted. It was admittance, at least, and one that Kirk relished. "I was placed in charge of the Starfleet presence on Synprilox upon her death. Since no information was forthcoming, I was not able to make any decisions. Whatever information Lori Ciana left behind was all that I had and that was very little."
Kirk knew that he was lying. There was no way that Cartwright could have missed any briefings and there was no way Starfleet would have swept this under the rug. While a lot of Lori's information had been hoarded and hidden, Starfleet would have been able to lecture Cartwright on the issues Synprilox faced. It was public knowledge. He kept his tongue though. He wasn't going to trap Cartwright…yet.
"There should be something left behind," Kirk insisted lamely instead. He hoped to place some blame elsewhere and draw out another confession from Cartwright. "I told you, Lance. Lori Ciana would not have left loose ends."
"If she did, she would have given it to you," Cartwright pointed out. "Everyone knew that she loved you. There wasn't a secret she kept from you."
"Me? No. Lori gave me nothing. She didn't even say anything for the inspection. You know of the report. I told you, Lance. My life is an open book. I hide nothing."
"You've told me this before, Jim. I do not believe you."
Kirk looked squarely into Cartwright's dark eyes. "There is nothing I am concealing from Starfleet. You know as well as I do how dedicated I am."
With neither willing to budge, the conversation was essentially over. Cartwright only mentioned to Kirk that he was needed to stay put and left with an excuse that he was required elsewhere. This allowed Kirk and Riley to finally enter Sickbay. The admiral told himself that he would somehow manage to have Cartwright admit to his shortcomings. While he was never innocent in the matter either, Kirk knew that Cartwright was covering his tracks.
He'll pay for these mistakes. It won't be now. It will be later.
McCoy noticed them from his corner and met them almost immediately. Riley considered the discussion private and pretended to be busy, meeting with Ryder and Ali around the corner. The doctor took the admiral to a small and remote room, where he knew nobody could hear them. He also noticed the box in Kirk's hands and said nothing about it yet. He knew what it was. Alyssa told him about it long ago.
"Ryder wants the plug pulled in forty-eight hours." McCoy said. "I'm sorry, Jim. There's nothing I can do. When they kidnapped you and Alyssa, they dosed her with so much radiation that her bodily functions failed. She skipped through the advanced stages of the disease and went straight into a coma she can't wake up from. The machine is the only thing keeping her alive, but just barely."
"There's a cure," Kirk replied softly. "The Thyrians have it."
"That's impossible, Jim! Every known remedy and medication in all of the galaxies has been tried."
"Bones, there is a chance. There's a way for thousands like Alyssa to survive. She can live. We can defeat them."
"Christ, Jim, listen to me. I know you're pretty damned upset, but –"
"No. You listen to me." Kirk was cross. "The Thyrians are holding onto their only trump card. If we do not play ours, we don't stand a chance. They want domination. They got it. We've got a battle up there that will mean the beginning or the ending for us. I don't know. But one thing is certain. I don't like losing."
McCoy nearly lost his temper. It was bad enough that he had to deal with the loss of another friend. Now, he had to contend with Kirk being hysterical on top of his own angst. McCoy found it oddly easy to rein in his emotions. But there were times when he was so frustrated with the admiral that he wanted to scream. This time was no exception.
However, he had a feeling that he had to trust the admiral. Kirk may be desperate, but he wasn't going to chase something that wasn't existent. This cure might be the ticket and part of the solution to their problems. But McCoy wasn't going to hope. Forty-eight hours was a short time. It wasn't going to be enough to retrieve the miracle material and come back in one piece and without galactic war over their heads.
"Forty-eight hours, Jim," McCoy reminded him flatly. "I am not delaying Ryder's wishes. If you're not back, Alyssa is still coming off the machine."
Kirk nodded. He left McCoy and waved for Riley to join him. What he did not expect was Ali following closely behind the aide. Alyssa wasn't dead yet. Kirk was going to command her to stay with her mother and brother, but noticed that Ryder's commanding officer also strode in and was lecturing the junior officer on something. He stopped and told Riley to go ahead and faced his daughter sternly.
"You're a pretty close friend to Mom if I'm supposed to be staying with you," Ali said before Kirk could utter a word. She slung her backpack over her shoulder. Although very shaken from her previous ordeal with the Thyrians, she displayed no fatigue.
"Looks that way," Kirk replied. He remained stiff and had to remind himself that he was the adult, not Ali.
"Does this mean that I am coming to meetings with you?" she asked. "Taking notes? Following you around with all those big wigs?"
"No. I'll have somebody watch you when I can't." He paused, taking a deep breath. "It also means that we need to have a serious discussion."
"You're not used to parenting," Ali teased. "You're not a very good babysitter if all you do is threaten me with a boring night."
Kirk did not answer. Instead, he offered Ali the chance to exit first. She accepted the gesture and found Riley down the hallway. She scurried after him, chatting so fast that Riley had a hard time keeping up. He looked at the admiral for permission to take the young girl elsewhere.
Kirk pointed to the direction where his temporary office was. Riley herded Ali, but she continued to chew his ear off about many topics. From behind, Kirk caught up and listened. It gave him the chance to study Ali some more without her noticing him. Granted, it was obvious that he was interested in what she was doing and saying. Luckily, it wasn't enough that nobody would see the pride and love.
What Kirk picked up the most was that Ali sought solutions to problems with no obvious conclusion. When she worked her way through each instance, she'd pick up on details nobody else would think of and saw other angles to those perspectives. Kirk caught up with her discussion on the dismissed conference and heard her talk about how the Thyrians were warlike. What information did anyone have about them? How did they appear out of the blue and demand protection? And what about the Klingons? Didn't they have a say in this too?
"They're pretty tough," Ali concluded. "Why can't we consider them friends? Or the Romulans? I mean, they're almost like the Vulcans. They're an offshoot."
Riley was so overwhelmed by the questioning that he stuttered a few times before remembering that he too was in charge. Recovering himself, he explained treaties, galaxy lines and how the Federation works. It sounded more complicated coming out of Riley's mouth and Ali was soon bored. She did not mind though. She took everything in like a sponge. She even countered a few points and suggested improvements.
Kirk was impressed. She is a midget diplomat. Alyssa, what have you done to her?
By the time they reached what was Kirk's office, Riley was dismissed and ordered to keep the doors locked and all officers out. Kirk was determined to have a discussion with Ali alone and without a thousand ears listening. It was time to tell her about him. Alyssa might not be able to sit with him and explain her side of things, but he had to redeem himself somehow. Ali had earned that right with her mother's pending death.
"Wow, you must be serious about the Thyrians." Ali found a chair near Kirk's desk and sat down. She placed her backpack on the floor as she studied the plans around her. "I thought you had to share you space?"
"I do," Kirk admitted. He found his seat on the other side of put Alyssa's box between them. "I told you. I need to speak with you."
"Is that Mom's?" Ali's inquisitiveness was piqued.
Kirk opened it. "It is. She left behind some documents for me. I want you to see them."
Ali was curious and cautious all at once. Her worry about her mother temporarily disappeared as her childlike emotion took over and pulled out the items. She noticed the storage material and the cube. That wasn't too interesting yet. But she saw the papers underneath and picked up them, reading them carefully. She scanned the marriage paperwork and Ryder's original birth certificate. She was confused.
"Mom was married?" Ali scratched her head. "No. The date is wrong. She wasn't – I mean, no. This isn't right. Mom was born in 2242. I've seen her papers."
"No, it's right," Kirk clarified. "Your mother was an unwilling accomplice in a plot by an ambitious and greedy officer who worked on Synprilox. She wasn't the only one kidnapped either. She had been taken from the year 2012 to 2265 and trained as a Starfleet officer. She was on my ship. After the…resolution, it was decided that she would remain with Starfleet. She was stationed on Synprilox."
Understanding dawned on the girl. "And Ryder? Was he…was my brother born in the twenty-first century?"
"Yes. About a year after her marriage to Kurt Hemmingway, Ryder was born. It wasn't long before they had to flee the social and political upheaval in the country. They fled after their friends risked their lives to save them. Later, Kurt Hemmingway was killed."
"Is he buried anywhere nearby?"
"No. I helped your mother bury him. But it was when we were stuck in the twenty-first century. His body is in a remote location in what is the state of Maine."
Ali inputted this new revelation carefully. It was tough for her to digest all of that in so short of a time frame. But she was stronger than the admiral anticipated. She took a deep breath and plunged into the next page. Kirk held his own as she scanned the text, willing himself not to get too excited. This was her birth certificate. She was going to learn why he was now in charge.
Suddenly, Ali stopped and trembled when she reached the middle of the page. She looked up at him incredulously. "It was you. You're my father. Why didn't you tell me?"
Kirk had been prepared to answer this question for so long that it was a relief to respond. "Your mother and I agreed to keep it quiet. Ryder also promised." The moment felt surreal and drawn out, so much so that Kirk had to take a deep breath and relax. "At that point in our lives – and now too – we saw that it was dangerous to admit that I have a daughter. We wanted to protect you and Ryder at all costs."
"I don't see why," Ali said. "Mom was isolated on Synprilox."
"I have more enemies than those on Synprilox and your mother was no different," the admiral explained. When he saw the anguish in Ali's eyes, he had to reassure her. "I never lied to you. We still love each other dearly. Your mother and I just could not keep up the relationship. It wasn't the distance and Synprilox. It was the possibility that anybody in the years of our travels could hurt you both. It's been proven already."
For a moment, the room was quiet. Ali was shaking. It was unlike her not to volley with some question or comment. She glanced from Kirk to the paper several times before putting all of the documents back into the box. She sat up straight and met Kirk's eyes with hers. She stumbled on a few words and found that even she was shocked into silence.
And that was when Ali burst into tears.
~00~
Give me a word.
Give me a sign.
Show me where to look.
Tell me, what will I find?
What will I find?
Lay me on the ground,
Or fly me in the sky.
Show me where to look.
Tell me, what will I find?
What will I find?
Sunshine streamed through the windows. Kirk blinked a few times and he woke from a dreamless slumber. He stretched, sitting up. The night before was so surreal that he could not believe that it happened. The walk to the cemetery to the cold realization that relations were tight made him believe that reality was right around the corner. He would have Alyssa in his arms in either bedroom and they would sneak out and face another day alone.
He soon realized where he was and what happened and dressed quickly. He peered outside his room and noted the amount of guards. Alyssa was already outside his door, prepared to escort him to his meeting with the chancellor. The admiral did not chance a glance at her and motioned for her assistance. He focused instead on the events from the night before to keep his mind passive.
Magda aside, there was so much he had to digest. Right now, the tables had been turned. He had been the inspector and the Starfleet officer willing to give Synprilox a chance. He already protected the planet and its people the best way he could under the circumstances and tried to keep the peace. Now, he and many others leaders were threatened. The chancellor may have been the target, but she was only one of many, he knew.
They arrived at the council chamber. Alyssa bypassed the guards stationed at the doorway and remained in a corner as Kirk found his seat. The Freedom Riders and Amelia Synprilox ordered the doors shut and the meeting to begin. Immediately, chatter began about the state of affairs in Synprilox and quickly changed to the night before when they grew bored of domestic affairs. Most of it involved the ceremonies being cancelled and hopes for rescheduling. The chancellor waved away all suggestions. They were trivial to her.
"I think we have more important business to attend to," she said, looking at the admiral directly. "There was an attempt on my life. Who knows who else was also going to die that night? But one thing is for certain. Evidence has been put forward that the accused are also targeting Starfleet officers."
There were gasps around the table. Kirk was not surprised. Even if the ones on his life practically ceased, it did not mean Synprilox was pleased with Starfleet itself. He encountered a few radicals brazen enough to take the chance. However, he was curious. What evidence was there? And why didn't Alyssa pick up on it? And if she did, why didn't she tell him?
On the other hand, he thought the reaction from the Freedom Riders staged. There was something off about these leaders being astonished about criminals braying for blood. If this was common (especially in the case of the attacks), then they all should know about it and solve the issue, not pretend to be shocked. Kirk did not believe these Freedom Riders so ignorant that they required an announcement from their de facto leader to reveal the planet's troubles.
Kirk kept his mouth shut. He nodded to the chancellor. "What evidence is there?" he asked her.
"Some of the conspirators have been captured," she replied briskly. "They've confessed their crimes. They've been charged with attempted murder and the murder of two Starfleet officers. However, they also had another person in mind on their mission."
"Who would that be?" Kirk raised an eyebrow. He was interested.
"It was you, Admiral," the chancellor replied. Her manner indicated that he should have known. "You had been on their list for quite some weeks."
"Are you saying that I have made more people angry?" He thought that he was doing enough to calm the waves. He shook his head to dispel the naïve thought. "I thought that the Starfleet presence was slowly becoming accepted."
"It is possible that some people still do not appreciate Starfleet butting their business into ours," one councilman interjected. "We appreciate what has been given to us. We are as protected as we can be from our enemies. But we want nothing more with Starfleet. They may be a part of the Federation, but they are a nuisance. I want them out!"
Kirk's felt his face drain of color. "I do not see how Starfleet has become a problem here. As I understand it, there are other terms of the agreement, including this clause, that Synprilox did not argue about."
"No, Admiral, we did not. But there was no choice! We were forced to. You should have been aware of that."
"Not until recently have I been introduced to the troubles Synprilox currently faces. I also see that there are some that are caused by the inhabitants themselves. You should be made aware that the Federation has done more to counter any threats. The wrongs of the past need to be righted."
"You are not the person to do this, Admiral Kirk. You are the root cause of all of this!"
Amelia listened to the growing tensions with unease. "Gentlemen," she interrupted. "Treaties and technicalities are not on the table today. The violence facing us as leaders and diplomats are. The laws are clear on Synprilox. Starfleet regulations are also the same. After planetary laws have been fulfilled, if that's possible, Federation and Starfleet laws require the condemned to be sent to a rehabilitation colony outside of our sector."
Arguments exploded. Kirk had heard them before. Nobody wanted any interference from the Federation and Starfleet most of all. He did not blame him. Not after seeing what was done to Synprilox. He chose not to add any comment because any challenges from him might indicate violent intent. Instead, he waited until the noise fizzled out. Amelia played referee and managed to calm her fellow politicians before speaking again.
"We are still allowed our punishments to be carried out," she reminded them. "While this crime is still under investigation, an example must be made. Attempted murder is a serious offence. Public flogging at the lunch hour tomorrow has been ordered for those who have admitted their crimes. Afterward, all offenders will be handed over to Starfleet officials, if Admiral Ciana wishes it. That is all."
The meeting continued in the same manner for another hour. While it wasn't as explosive as it was before, the man who openly defied Kirk still continued his assaults and constantly argued the admiral's every point. Although mild, Kirk thought the man very petty and tried to work around him. He ignored its results and then tried going with the flow. That seemed to work out better, although his opponent was not pleased. Adding fuel to the fire was not the best of ideas, he knew, and sweeping something under a rug was worse.
After the assembly ended, he was directed to a series of guards. Alyssa assigned them for the next few hours as she continued checking into the continuing investigation. She said nothing to him. She ordered her men to take the admiral upstairs and ensure that whatever work he conducted was undisturbed and that all comings and goings be reported to her. She could not promise to him alone with him. The nights at her home were now over. The events from the night before sealed the past activity forever.
Amelia Synprilox stopped Alyssa when everyone had left. Aside from the sentries outside the door, they were now alone. The concern on the chancellor's face was obvious though. Alyssa sensed that this might be another discussion about their relationship. She tried to keep her frustrations to herself and only smiled at the leader. She could only handle Amelia's protestations of love so many times.
"You have more you need to care for," Amelia started.
"Last night is another example that we need to reevaluate," Alyssa replied. She ticked off a list with her fingers. "Evacuations have been steady and need to continue if we have assassinations. We need to determine the source of the radiation. Starfleet needs to send a team of medical experts. We also need –"
"That is not what I am referring to," the chancellor quickly said. "I understand your concern, Alyssa. You have a plan for everything. But with things so…so, well, out of control these days, I think you need to think about your growing family. You've had a happy affair, Alyssa. There's no mistaking it. But Admiral Kirk is leaving in two weeks. You cannot pine for him anymore."
The security officer was flabbergasted. She thought that the relationship and the pregnancy were not so obvious. She racked her brain for any instances where clues had been left and found none. There were few ways that the chancellor could have known and all of it having to do with her spies. She knew that Synprilox was a sort of police planet and used its policing forces to the full advantage. She didn't think she would be a target though, Starfleet officer or not.
She wasn't going to lie to the chancellor. "What do you suggest I do then?" she asked Amelia desperately. "I cannot cut ties with Admiral Kirk. I cannot keep this a secret either. It'll get back to him eventually."
"You may need to," the chancellor answered sadly. "Admiral Kirk is not a parent. You are. You both also cannot keep a relationship when so much else is at stake. It is not ideal, but it places the two of you in danger. It is easier if you remain the only parent."
"I cannot keep a child from the father," Alyssa argued. "It is not right. In my…on my planet, it is courtesy to tell someone that you're expecting their child. One cannot just run away like I am."
"You are trapped here, Alyssa, just as I am," she reminded the security officer. "Your fate is entwined with Synprilox. You cannot tarnish another's reputation or tie him down. Admiral Kirk has other plans and is in danger if you keep him with you. We are under the threat of civil war and an interplanetary one as well. You have been working well with us, no matter what the Freedom Riders say about you. A high-ranking officer of Starfleet cannot be a part of the future here. Protect yourself and your family. Keep it quiet."
"And then what? I cannot say this is some immaculate conception."
"No, you can't, but you can excuse yourself for lapsing. An affair with another man is common in your circles, as I understand it. Earth does not frown down upon single parents anymore, no matter who they are. Best of all, no name needs to be mentioned. You can put 'no father' on the birth certificate and be done with it."
Alyssa thought it over. In many ways, Amelia was right. The admiral had to be left in the dark. His career and his life are going to be at risk. To be linked with him was also going to condemn her to the same hell. But she also felt a moral obligation to him. She could not live on the pretense of a lie. Somehow, Kirk was going to find out she was pregnant. He will never forgive her if she kept it a secret from him on purpose.
"I will think upon what you said," the security officer decided. She already knew her answer though. "My family needs to be protected at all costs. So does Admiral Kirk."
Amelia smiled sagely. "I love you, Alyssa. You know that. I am only looking out for your interests. You understand that…right?"
Alyssa nodded slowly. She saw the jealousy of a scorned lover when she saw it. "I know, Amelia. I understand."
Lyrics are from the Collective Soul song "Shine".