Elle stayed put. There was no other choice. She clenched her hands into the wet towel, twisting the terrycloth fabric into knots, biting her lip so hard she drew blood.
The all-clear came what seemed an eternity (six minutes) later. "All-clear. Seven hours to Levaeri V. General reminder: Department heads meeting in one hour. All crew on boarding party should have minimum four hours rest. Repeat, seven hours to Levaeri V." Sulu sounded stressed, over the comm.
"All that, for six minutes," Elle whispered, forcibly relaxing her hands.
"The most important six minutes of our life so far," Moira said, from the nearest games console. "What are you going to do for seven hours?"
Elle shook her head. "I'm going to have a little wander, walk out some of my adrenaline, and then I'm supposed to be at the meeting."
Moira didn't have eyebrows to raise, but the intonation was there all the same. "And what is your deparment, pray tell?"
Elle grinned. "Department of Civilians No Longer Allowed to Alter Maintenance Equipment," she said.
Moira's synthetic cackle was better than Elle's. "Better get going, then."
Elle's wandering meander ended in one of the shuttlebays, and there she found Ael and Captain Kirk modifying one of Bloodwing's shuttle couriers. "Whatcha doin?" Elle asked.
"This is going to be our fifth shouting malfunction," Kirk said dryly.
Elle smoothed a hand down the support strut of the hatch. "It's a nice little ship."
"My personal courier," Ael said. "A sacrifice, one willing to be made." She straightened up and ushered the two humans from the little ship. "He's on a timer, let's go."
They watched the courier lift itself on autopilot and fly away into space, ready to cause chaos.
"Pre-attack briefing," Kirk reminded them, and offered his arm to Elle.
She linked elbows with him.
"This business of names," Kirk said slowly, picking up a conversation between him and Ael.
Ael frowned. "It's not names, specifically. Just words. Even in your own world, people have died for them. Or because of them. One learns to be careful what one says, in such a world. And like anything so powerful, any weapon, it can cut both ways. The attribute we name as a virtue may also be our bane. So we watch what we call things, in case we turn out to be right."
"Very Vulcan of you," Elle said quietly.
"It is something we and they understand," Ael said. "We treasure names, most of all. After all, what else is more powerful than your name being called? As long as a Rihannsu has someone to speak their name, to write, or even think it, that person is real. Afterwards..." she shrugged. "The Elements, some say." She looked down at Elle and squeezed her shoulder. "You understand."
Elle thought of the names tucked away in her sock drawer and bowed her head. "Names are important. What that name comes to mean is also important."
"Yes."
Elle detoured to get a snack from one of the synthesizers and lost the captain's next question. By the time she got to the briefing room, Spock and McCoy were there, and teasing the captain about keeping his name off the boarding party.
Elle grinned into her yogurt.
"That better not be ice cream," McCoy said, without turning to look at her as Spock continued running through the names.
"It's yogurt," Elle protested. Frozen yogurt.
"With chocolate sauce?" McCoy said dryly.
"Fudge," Elle said, lifting her chin defiantly.
McCoy rolled his eyes. "Really, Elle?"
"What? We're in enemy space, I deserve chocolate."
"And gummy bears?" Kirk asked, smirking as he fished one off the side of her froyo bowl.
Spock wrinkled his nose. "That much sugar, ax'nav-"
"I won't get pimples," Elle said. "It'll all be burned off by today's mission."
Ael laughed.
They all turned to look at her.
She waved a hand, still snickering. "I just," the commander said, hiding her grin. "It hadn't hit me that you had quite so many parents."
"Anyways," Kirk said, drawing attention away from Elle's snack choices with a sly wink, "back to the list."
The department heads filtered in after a few minutes and they started the briefing.
"Sir, before we get into it," said Colin Matlock, Chief Giotto's aux, "what color are the walls in the station?"
"Camoflauge," Elle said. "We're gonna need camoflauge."
Ael turned a considering look to Matlock. "Silver or light grey," she said.
Kirk nodded. "A good idea, Mr. Matlock. Have the quartermaster issue light grey fatigues to all boarding members."
"Rihannsu should wear them as well," Ael said. "It will give us another second of hesitation on the station's part."
"Good idea."
Almost all of Security and half the remaining crew were gong to storm the Levaeri V station, and everyone else was to stay back and hold the Enterprise, and be ready to go.
"Mr. Scott, Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov will be controling the Enterprise from the Auxiliary bridge. Elle, I want you there as well," Kirk said. "That will be the safest place for you."
Elle nodded. "What are we going to do about the Intrepid?"
"If it's docked it'll have to be a cold restart," Scotty said. "That'll take about fifteen minutes."
Kirk frowned. "In and out estimates forty minutes. If we can't get to Intrepid early enough we'll have to destroy her before we leave."
"The puir ship," Scotty said sadly.
"My tribble clan," Elle protested.
"They'll have to take their chances," Kirk said, attempting not to smile.
Elle saw through his solemnity and scowled into her froyo.
"That's all, then," Kirk said. "After we beam back, we'll get out of here with Bloodwing and Intrepid at warp eight."
"That's all, he says," McCoy echoed, rolling his eyes.
The department heads filed out to their duties. Scotty gestured to Elle. "Come along, lassie, I want another set of hands on these controls," he said.
Elle followed him out and made a note to stop by her quarters and change into normal clothes at some point.