Here's the next part of the story. ^^ Like the vodka part, huh? Well, anyways, here it is. None of the characters belong to me 'cept the ones that dosen't sound like anyone you know on the show. ^_~ R&R!
CHAPTER FOUR
The two entered Ivanova's living room. Vodka bottle, not a drop remaining. Two glasses beside it, sone with a drop left and the other with none. Her vase seemed unaligned and a bit off-centered. The lights were dimmed and lumicent.
"Computer, lights," Ivanova ordered. The lights brightened as the two inspected the surroundings the last evening, recollection coming back to them. Beside her, Marcus stiffened a bit, tense, at the sight of the bottle of vodka and the empty glasses.
"Must have been a quite a party," she commented, cleaning up.
"Hmm?" he asked, looking back at her. She smiled as she placed away the two cups and the empty bottle. She turned back at him, watching him visibly recoil and blink as he tried too hard to hide his embaressment. "I don't remember much, but I could swear you were calling me "dad" last night."
She frowned. "Dad?" she repeated. "Why would I say something as dopey-sounding as that?" She shook her head. "Anything?" she asked and he politely helped himself of the thought as she prepared herself at least some biscuits. "Dad...hmmm...why would I say that?" she asked out loud. She studied Marcus as he prepared her table. She brought the biscuits over. "Come to think of it, you kinda look like him in a small way," she told him.
He frowned. "Yeah, I might as well look like you great-grandfather."
None of my great-grandfathers would look like you, she said silently. None of them were a handsome British, or a Ranger for that matter. She excused the thoughts immediately as she acknowledged it with a single graceful nod.
"Computer, messages?" she asked.
"There are fifteen messages on hold for you," it replied. "Fourteen of them are marked urgent." She scowled as Marcus grimaced at the contents made from the computer. She brushed her haird back in an air of fustration. "Computer, scroll down messages from the person of origin."
"Lt. Cmdr. David Corwin, Ambassador Delenn, Ambassador G'kar, Security Zack Allen, Lt. Cmdr. David Corwin, Michael Garibaldi, Dr. Steven Franklin, Security Zack Allen, Lt. Cmdr. David Corwin, Captain John Sheridan, Nancy Reynolds, Security Ensign Lei Minh Carsonn, Ambassador Londo Mollari..."
"Whoa, wait a minute," she said. "Relay message from Ensign Carsonn." The computer oblidged, her computer screen turned to the face of her young collegue, her short crimson bob noticable as her eyes seemed weary. "Commander Ivanova," she said, as if responding to her presence. "I have the piece of the Amsterdam gang in holding cell three, so that you may just know. We will interrogate them tomorrow morning, just to let you know. Carsonn out."
"Damn," she said beneath her breath.
"Wait a second here!" Marcus cried. "Amsterdam gang, in holding cell? Susan, is there something you'd want to tell me what this is all about?" he demanded. She faced his piercing gaze, keeping is cool straight face. "Caught the gang who was going to steal the cargo last night," she told him proudly. "And as of right now, you owe me."
He dropped into his chair, as if he was drenched with cold water. She tried hard not to bite back a grin. She was afraid he was going to bounce back in thought that this was the first time he lost to a female, not to mention the second on the station. But then he just grinned and said, "Whatever you say, Commander."
She nodded. "I gotta take a shower," she told him hastily. "Ohh... I'm going to be so late that Sheridan might as well shove me out of the airlock." She sighed. "What am I to do?" "I'll clear off the table," he offered. "You go take your shower and get prepared."
"Marcus, I---"
He held her shoulder. "Please," he said. "It's the least I can do for you." His eyes. "Go take your shower and do upon your business. I can clean up this mess we made last night and before you know it, you'll be on C&C trying to clean out the mess that I fear Mr. Allen and Mr. Corwin might have made up there."
"Okay," she said meekly.
Moments later, when she was finished, all crisp and cool and clean in her uniform, she saw the Marcus had did what he had said he would do; everything was clean and even shining in polish. And there he was, finished and laid out on her chair, perspiration all over his forehead. She came over to his side.
"You've done a...very good job, Marcus," she complimented. "Enough to apply for as a mid-wife." He looked up at her with tired eyes. "I'm not even married and I'm this exhausted," he replied wearily. "I guess it comes with the job. I might as well go and tell Mr. Eilerson of the news; if he isn't suffering from a huge headache himself."
"I'll come with you."
"And what about Sheridan and Corwin and all the others---?"
"They can wait," she replied. "My next shift is in---"
The doorbell chimed. They froze, their spines tense. This was ridiculous! There they were in the same room, talking and in was about to be ridiculed for their lives. They gulped; Ivanova straightened her uniform but said nothing. The words were strained in her throat.
"Commander Ivanova, we know you're in here!" It was Garibaldi! Oh no! This was going to be a disaster! Marcus gulped dryly as he tried desperately not to hide. He turned to her for support, but she to was in need of some. "Commander." It was Sheridan! "Commander, I think it's a little bit to late to be oversleeping. Now open this door...don't make us want to use override and then run off when you bite our heads off."
Oh, might as well get it over with. "Come it!"
The door opened and there was her two friends, cluttering up the corridor, behind them officers and civilians alike walking back and forth. Marcus cringed as they walked in. Garibaldi and Sheridan equally were surprised when they saw Marcus in the room. "Oh! Marcus," Sheridan greeted. "Didn't know you were...here."
Ah, surprises, surprises.
"Yes, Captain," he replied weakly. "Here I am."
"Commander," Sheridan said, turning to face her. "You're late for your shifts." "Yes sir," she said, desperately trying not look down on the carpet floor. "I was out on an errand last night and I got to bed a little to late." She exchanged a quick glance at Marcus, who rotated his eyes to her for a moment.
"I suggest you start your shift after lunch, then," Sheridan told her, ignoring the exchange between her and the ranger. "Corwin and Allen has it all covered up there. Until then, I'll see you in the Chamber of Non-Aligned Worlds...again." He tipped his head. "Commander, Marcus."
He trooped out to the hallway.
Garibaldi raised his eyebrows in suspicion. "Staying for lunch as well, Marcus?" he asked him. Marcus shrugged but remained standing tall this time and managed a smile. "Brunch, I suppose," he said, undeterred by the security chief's sudden suspicion.
"I suppose---"
"Michael!" Sheridan cried from the hallway, and was comically removed from the quarters. Before the doors shut, they could hear Sheridan say to Garibaldi, "I suggest you leave them alone to---whatever they were...doing."
"John! I don't believe you would---"
Thud. The door slammed shut. Ivanova rocked on her heels, and raised her brow. "There'll be quite a commotion when I return to C&C," she told him quietly. "We might as well get going, Marcus. We wouldn't want to stir up some more commotion."
He nodded out of a daze. "Agreed."
Max seemed a little whiter than usual. "Not my fault," he spurred at the two people behind him. "The ale gave me one hell of a headache. I'm not even sure how I got into my quarters, let alone going over to see my to-be-robbers of my precious artifacts that are worth a lot of credits."
Ivanova and Marcus groaned from behind the IPX representativve. The man's ego was unbreakable, larger than the station itself. They were to die listening to his voice continously talking about his undeterred job and his eternal lust for money, well, at least credits. The commander wacked her hands held behind her back to avoid trying to smack Eilerson on the head. Marcus, otherwise, was ready to smack him either way.
"...but then again, a Ranger does the dirty work either way."
An insult. Marcus bolted up and raised his hand for a wack attack, his eyes piercing and his jaw set. Ivanova intervened and tried to pull down Marcus' hand from the sky above. Max continued to babble, unaware of the entire incident, as Ivanova restrained the a very angered Marcus Cole. She stared at him, reluctant to do so. "I thought patience was what they taught you in Ranger training."
He shurgged, his eyes darting from the IPX member to her cool and steady, professional ones. "They taught you everything there," he told her. "Unfortunately, patience wasn't one of the ones I mastered. And let me tell you, they taught us that money is never important, unless...but that man is as corruptable as can be. Might as well throw him out of the airlock!"
Max stopped, turned in confusion, searching for them.
Ivanova pushed Marcus and her back around the bend, turning. Two officers gazed at them as if they were...well, anyway, that made Ivanova let go of Marcus. "As much as I'd like to throw him out of the airlock like you, we can't," she told him. "He's needed as a representative. I am representing the entire Earthforce. You are a representative of the Rangers. Please act like one."
He sighed heavily; it wasn't going to be easy. Then again, anything to do with that Eilerson was never easy. "Oh, alright, Susan," he sighed out loud. "Only because I am a Ranger after all. But remember this, once we get to the bottom of this, I am personally going to say "bon voyage" to him as I boot him out of the airlock, alright?"
"I'll join you," she agreed.
Max came around the bend, his blue eyes confused. "Don't we have a meeting to go to?" he asked them. "I mean, you are the ones who are intending to go to this meeting and you're the same ones who are keeping us up!"
Marcus leered over him, wanting to punch him as his hand coiled to a fist. A hard fist. But Susan stole his bolted hand and smiled nervously at him. "Well, of course," she assured. "Marcus just had to tie his shoelaces a bit."
Max frowned and looked down. "Those are boots, Commander."
She nodded stiffly, still smiling nervously. "Exactly," she replied at once, pushing Max forward to the lift. "Now let's go to that blasted meeting you're so anxious about." She let go of Marcus' now out'stretched hand and continued to stride.
"Me, anxious? Fair commander, you've got it all mistaken."
Groan; this was going to be a long day,
"I'm picking up something!" Corwin said from his consol.
Zack frowned from his. "You don't have to yell, lieutenant," he told him. "What is it?" He frowned and checked his controls from his panel propped up on the wall.
Corwin studied his consol, then his headset. "It's some kind of probe, or ship," he replied, frowning as he was reading off the data. "It's coming through the jumpgate bearing 12 by 16 by 20. Approximate size...the size of a probe? Zack?"
The security officer frowned. "Aren't those bearings us?"
Corwin checked on his controls. "Uh-oh."
Zack Allen spun around to face him. "What do you mean, uh-oh?!"
He looked up from his consol, visibly annoyed at Zack's tauntings. Why couldn't he go to security or something? "Uh-oh," Corwin repeated. "It means that that probe is headed our way. I can't get a better lock until it gets any closer to proximity. It's going to come through the jumpgate in exactly...forty-five seconds."
"What do we do?" Zack asked.
Corwin rolled his eyes. "Wow," he said. "Look back to the third in command for help."
Zack sighed.
The lieutenant checked his headset, then he reached for his link, tapping in a command for a channel. "Corwin to Sheridan," he said. Silence. Then, a static reply for his backgrounds seemed very loud. "Sheridan here," came a grouchy reply. "Look, Lieutenant, it better be more than a leaky computer consol for I am really busy down here at the Chamber of Non-Aligned Worlds!"
No wonder there was all the racket. "Sir," Corwin said anxiously. "There appears to be a probe coming through and is headed this way. Its intentions are unknown. Permission to lock and stock, sir?" He sighed and looked at Allen for some relief.
"Get Ivanova up there and deal with it, Sheridan out." End.
Zack frowned. "Well, isn't he such a crabby captain today," he scowled. "Not only do we get triple shift but now we have a crabby captain? We're doomed for it, I tell you! We've been cursed by something. Did anything black like a cat come through our front of space?"
Corwin frowned at his counterpart. One of these days... "Zack, you're getting delusional." He reached up to his link again, and tapped to a channel. "Corwin to Ambassador Delenn."
Zack glared at the lieutenant. "What are you asking her for?" he demanded. "This is a military situation, not a political or spiritual problem...although right now what we need is a spirit dancer...but still? She dosen't really have any military tactics as far as I know of. David...are you listening to me?!
"Yes, Lieutenant."
"Ambassador," he said anxiously, trembling in his boots. "There appears to be something wrong with the captain. I was hoping you'd like to check on him. He's a bit crabby right now...no, not a bit, really crabby. And Commander Ivanova's on this other meeting with the Hak'Vir. Garibaldi's going on for some security call and some training while Franklin...well, you know...I was hoping you'd..."
"No problem, Lieutenant, I'd be glad to go," she replied from the other end. "I'll check on you later, Delenn out." The channel ended gracefully as she would have.
Zack glanced at the link. "Is she a telepath?"
"Of course not!" he darted back, annoyed.
"We're being cursed," Zack whispered doomsday as he trembled where he stood at his consol. A beep. Corwin looked down and checked out the signal. "The jump point is opening," he said, his voice quivering as blue light swirled in the middle of space. "It's coming through."
Heh heh....well, I'll get on the next one ASAP while doing my other stories. R&R....^^ Luv to hear comments.
CHAPTER FOUR
The two entered Ivanova's living room. Vodka bottle, not a drop remaining. Two glasses beside it, sone with a drop left and the other with none. Her vase seemed unaligned and a bit off-centered. The lights were dimmed and lumicent.
"Computer, lights," Ivanova ordered. The lights brightened as the two inspected the surroundings the last evening, recollection coming back to them. Beside her, Marcus stiffened a bit, tense, at the sight of the bottle of vodka and the empty glasses.
"Must have been a quite a party," she commented, cleaning up.
"Hmm?" he asked, looking back at her. She smiled as she placed away the two cups and the empty bottle. She turned back at him, watching him visibly recoil and blink as he tried too hard to hide his embaressment. "I don't remember much, but I could swear you were calling me "dad" last night."
She frowned. "Dad?" she repeated. "Why would I say something as dopey-sounding as that?" She shook her head. "Anything?" she asked and he politely helped himself of the thought as she prepared herself at least some biscuits. "Dad...hmmm...why would I say that?" she asked out loud. She studied Marcus as he prepared her table. She brought the biscuits over. "Come to think of it, you kinda look like him in a small way," she told him.
He frowned. "Yeah, I might as well look like you great-grandfather."
None of my great-grandfathers would look like you, she said silently. None of them were a handsome British, or a Ranger for that matter. She excused the thoughts immediately as she acknowledged it with a single graceful nod.
"Computer, messages?" she asked.
"There are fifteen messages on hold for you," it replied. "Fourteen of them are marked urgent." She scowled as Marcus grimaced at the contents made from the computer. She brushed her haird back in an air of fustration. "Computer, scroll down messages from the person of origin."
"Lt. Cmdr. David Corwin, Ambassador Delenn, Ambassador G'kar, Security Zack Allen, Lt. Cmdr. David Corwin, Michael Garibaldi, Dr. Steven Franklin, Security Zack Allen, Lt. Cmdr. David Corwin, Captain John Sheridan, Nancy Reynolds, Security Ensign Lei Minh Carsonn, Ambassador Londo Mollari..."
"Whoa, wait a minute," she said. "Relay message from Ensign Carsonn." The computer oblidged, her computer screen turned to the face of her young collegue, her short crimson bob noticable as her eyes seemed weary. "Commander Ivanova," she said, as if responding to her presence. "I have the piece of the Amsterdam gang in holding cell three, so that you may just know. We will interrogate them tomorrow morning, just to let you know. Carsonn out."
"Damn," she said beneath her breath.
"Wait a second here!" Marcus cried. "Amsterdam gang, in holding cell? Susan, is there something you'd want to tell me what this is all about?" he demanded. She faced his piercing gaze, keeping is cool straight face. "Caught the gang who was going to steal the cargo last night," she told him proudly. "And as of right now, you owe me."
He dropped into his chair, as if he was drenched with cold water. She tried hard not to bite back a grin. She was afraid he was going to bounce back in thought that this was the first time he lost to a female, not to mention the second on the station. But then he just grinned and said, "Whatever you say, Commander."
She nodded. "I gotta take a shower," she told him hastily. "Ohh... I'm going to be so late that Sheridan might as well shove me out of the airlock." She sighed. "What am I to do?" "I'll clear off the table," he offered. "You go take your shower and get prepared."
"Marcus, I---"
He held her shoulder. "Please," he said. "It's the least I can do for you." His eyes. "Go take your shower and do upon your business. I can clean up this mess we made last night and before you know it, you'll be on C&C trying to clean out the mess that I fear Mr. Allen and Mr. Corwin might have made up there."
"Okay," she said meekly.
Moments later, when she was finished, all crisp and cool and clean in her uniform, she saw the Marcus had did what he had said he would do; everything was clean and even shining in polish. And there he was, finished and laid out on her chair, perspiration all over his forehead. She came over to his side.
"You've done a...very good job, Marcus," she complimented. "Enough to apply for as a mid-wife." He looked up at her with tired eyes. "I'm not even married and I'm this exhausted," he replied wearily. "I guess it comes with the job. I might as well go and tell Mr. Eilerson of the news; if he isn't suffering from a huge headache himself."
"I'll come with you."
"And what about Sheridan and Corwin and all the others---?"
"They can wait," she replied. "My next shift is in---"
The doorbell chimed. They froze, their spines tense. This was ridiculous! There they were in the same room, talking and in was about to be ridiculed for their lives. They gulped; Ivanova straightened her uniform but said nothing. The words were strained in her throat.
"Commander Ivanova, we know you're in here!" It was Garibaldi! Oh no! This was going to be a disaster! Marcus gulped dryly as he tried desperately not to hide. He turned to her for support, but she to was in need of some. "Commander." It was Sheridan! "Commander, I think it's a little bit to late to be oversleeping. Now open this door...don't make us want to use override and then run off when you bite our heads off."
Oh, might as well get it over with. "Come it!"
The door opened and there was her two friends, cluttering up the corridor, behind them officers and civilians alike walking back and forth. Marcus cringed as they walked in. Garibaldi and Sheridan equally were surprised when they saw Marcus in the room. "Oh! Marcus," Sheridan greeted. "Didn't know you were...here."
Ah, surprises, surprises.
"Yes, Captain," he replied weakly. "Here I am."
"Commander," Sheridan said, turning to face her. "You're late for your shifts." "Yes sir," she said, desperately trying not look down on the carpet floor. "I was out on an errand last night and I got to bed a little to late." She exchanged a quick glance at Marcus, who rotated his eyes to her for a moment.
"I suggest you start your shift after lunch, then," Sheridan told her, ignoring the exchange between her and the ranger. "Corwin and Allen has it all covered up there. Until then, I'll see you in the Chamber of Non-Aligned Worlds...again." He tipped his head. "Commander, Marcus."
He trooped out to the hallway.
Garibaldi raised his eyebrows in suspicion. "Staying for lunch as well, Marcus?" he asked him. Marcus shrugged but remained standing tall this time and managed a smile. "Brunch, I suppose," he said, undeterred by the security chief's sudden suspicion.
"I suppose---"
"Michael!" Sheridan cried from the hallway, and was comically removed from the quarters. Before the doors shut, they could hear Sheridan say to Garibaldi, "I suggest you leave them alone to---whatever they were...doing."
"John! I don't believe you would---"
Thud. The door slammed shut. Ivanova rocked on her heels, and raised her brow. "There'll be quite a commotion when I return to C&C," she told him quietly. "We might as well get going, Marcus. We wouldn't want to stir up some more commotion."
He nodded out of a daze. "Agreed."
Max seemed a little whiter than usual. "Not my fault," he spurred at the two people behind him. "The ale gave me one hell of a headache. I'm not even sure how I got into my quarters, let alone going over to see my to-be-robbers of my precious artifacts that are worth a lot of credits."
Ivanova and Marcus groaned from behind the IPX representativve. The man's ego was unbreakable, larger than the station itself. They were to die listening to his voice continously talking about his undeterred job and his eternal lust for money, well, at least credits. The commander wacked her hands held behind her back to avoid trying to smack Eilerson on the head. Marcus, otherwise, was ready to smack him either way.
"...but then again, a Ranger does the dirty work either way."
An insult. Marcus bolted up and raised his hand for a wack attack, his eyes piercing and his jaw set. Ivanova intervened and tried to pull down Marcus' hand from the sky above. Max continued to babble, unaware of the entire incident, as Ivanova restrained the a very angered Marcus Cole. She stared at him, reluctant to do so. "I thought patience was what they taught you in Ranger training."
He shurgged, his eyes darting from the IPX member to her cool and steady, professional ones. "They taught you everything there," he told her. "Unfortunately, patience wasn't one of the ones I mastered. And let me tell you, they taught us that money is never important, unless...but that man is as corruptable as can be. Might as well throw him out of the airlock!"
Max stopped, turned in confusion, searching for them.
Ivanova pushed Marcus and her back around the bend, turning. Two officers gazed at them as if they were...well, anyway, that made Ivanova let go of Marcus. "As much as I'd like to throw him out of the airlock like you, we can't," she told him. "He's needed as a representative. I am representing the entire Earthforce. You are a representative of the Rangers. Please act like one."
He sighed heavily; it wasn't going to be easy. Then again, anything to do with that Eilerson was never easy. "Oh, alright, Susan," he sighed out loud. "Only because I am a Ranger after all. But remember this, once we get to the bottom of this, I am personally going to say "bon voyage" to him as I boot him out of the airlock, alright?"
"I'll join you," she agreed.
Max came around the bend, his blue eyes confused. "Don't we have a meeting to go to?" he asked them. "I mean, you are the ones who are intending to go to this meeting and you're the same ones who are keeping us up!"
Marcus leered over him, wanting to punch him as his hand coiled to a fist. A hard fist. But Susan stole his bolted hand and smiled nervously at him. "Well, of course," she assured. "Marcus just had to tie his shoelaces a bit."
Max frowned and looked down. "Those are boots, Commander."
She nodded stiffly, still smiling nervously. "Exactly," she replied at once, pushing Max forward to the lift. "Now let's go to that blasted meeting you're so anxious about." She let go of Marcus' now out'stretched hand and continued to stride.
"Me, anxious? Fair commander, you've got it all mistaken."
Groan; this was going to be a long day,
"I'm picking up something!" Corwin said from his consol.
Zack frowned from his. "You don't have to yell, lieutenant," he told him. "What is it?" He frowned and checked his controls from his panel propped up on the wall.
Corwin studied his consol, then his headset. "It's some kind of probe, or ship," he replied, frowning as he was reading off the data. "It's coming through the jumpgate bearing 12 by 16 by 20. Approximate size...the size of a probe? Zack?"
The security officer frowned. "Aren't those bearings us?"
Corwin checked on his controls. "Uh-oh."
Zack Allen spun around to face him. "What do you mean, uh-oh?!"
He looked up from his consol, visibly annoyed at Zack's tauntings. Why couldn't he go to security or something? "Uh-oh," Corwin repeated. "It means that that probe is headed our way. I can't get a better lock until it gets any closer to proximity. It's going to come through the jumpgate in exactly...forty-five seconds."
"What do we do?" Zack asked.
Corwin rolled his eyes. "Wow," he said. "Look back to the third in command for help."
Zack sighed.
The lieutenant checked his headset, then he reached for his link, tapping in a command for a channel. "Corwin to Sheridan," he said. Silence. Then, a static reply for his backgrounds seemed very loud. "Sheridan here," came a grouchy reply. "Look, Lieutenant, it better be more than a leaky computer consol for I am really busy down here at the Chamber of Non-Aligned Worlds!"
No wonder there was all the racket. "Sir," Corwin said anxiously. "There appears to be a probe coming through and is headed this way. Its intentions are unknown. Permission to lock and stock, sir?" He sighed and looked at Allen for some relief.
"Get Ivanova up there and deal with it, Sheridan out." End.
Zack frowned. "Well, isn't he such a crabby captain today," he scowled. "Not only do we get triple shift but now we have a crabby captain? We're doomed for it, I tell you! We've been cursed by something. Did anything black like a cat come through our front of space?"
Corwin frowned at his counterpart. One of these days... "Zack, you're getting delusional." He reached up to his link again, and tapped to a channel. "Corwin to Ambassador Delenn."
Zack glared at the lieutenant. "What are you asking her for?" he demanded. "This is a military situation, not a political or spiritual problem...although right now what we need is a spirit dancer...but still? She dosen't really have any military tactics as far as I know of. David...are you listening to me?!
"Yes, Lieutenant."
"Ambassador," he said anxiously, trembling in his boots. "There appears to be something wrong with the captain. I was hoping you'd like to check on him. He's a bit crabby right now...no, not a bit, really crabby. And Commander Ivanova's on this other meeting with the Hak'Vir. Garibaldi's going on for some security call and some training while Franklin...well, you know...I was hoping you'd..."
"No problem, Lieutenant, I'd be glad to go," she replied from the other end. "I'll check on you later, Delenn out." The channel ended gracefully as she would have.
Zack glanced at the link. "Is she a telepath?"
"Of course not!" he darted back, annoyed.
"We're being cursed," Zack whispered doomsday as he trembled where he stood at his consol. A beep. Corwin looked down and checked out the signal. "The jump point is opening," he said, his voice quivering as blue light swirled in the middle of space. "It's coming through."
Heh heh....well, I'll get on the next one ASAP while doing my other stories. R&R....^^ Luv to hear comments.