2030 HRS
"VARSCAHN LAH'NK!" Captain Daniel Lowe boomed, while standing in front of the viewscreen on the bridge of the USS Washington. Did he just hear this correctly? "A Rakhari pirate?" He shook his head vigorously. "I don't deal with outlaws."
"Dad," Derek tried to calm his father from the viewer. "I don't like it any better than you. But, if there's something going on in that sector, he's the one to ask. You want to find out what happened to Mom, don't you?"
Dan Lowe furrowed his brow. He didn't like this, not one bit. "I just don't like thinking that my youngest son keeps company with that kind of riffraff," he stated with a displeased look on his face. "Besides, how do I know that this... this Varscahn will even talk to me."
"I will supply you with a coded signal you can send out," Damon explained. "It will let him know that you come with a request from me."
"And you think, he will honor that?" his father huffed, still skeptical.
Damon sighed. "Yes. I am like family to him. I am his Para'khari," he confirmed softly. Hesitating, but then adding, "... his blood brother."
For a long moment, Daniel Lowe's face turned to stone, portraying a look that Derek had never seen on his father. In the background, he could see his older brother, Dean, gasping in shock. He braced himself for the barrage of words that would surely come their way, but... nothing.
Damon hated to confess this fact he had kept hidden for some time, because he had always feared how his father would react to it. He watched with apprehension, as his father inhaled slowly and then exhaled sharply, struggling to remain in self-control.
"I see." Dan finally broke the silence.
Damon's heart sunk at hearing the unmistakable tone of disappointment in his father's voice. He compressed his lips and swallowed hard.
"I... will send you the information you'll need... on private channel," he remarked quietly.
"Make it so," Captain Lowe acknowledged, while avoiding to look at his youngest son. "Washington out."
=/\= - =/\=
2130 HRS
Lt. Anabelle Sawyer took a last look through her desk and office to make sure she had left things ready for the new Counselor. Everything was cleared of her personal items and in order. She just had a couple more appointments this evening and then her job was finished here on McKinley Station.
She sat down in her chair, picked up the PADD with her appointment schedule, and laid her feet on the desk. Not being able to focus on her work, her mind drifted off to her unpleasant encounter with Lt. Cmdr. O'Riley again. She had tried to calm herself throughout the whole day, but her agitation was still boiling her blood. As she started feeling herself getting all worked up again, Anabelle decided to forgo the rest of her appointments for the day.
"Computer, cancel all remaining appointments for today," she instructed with frustration in her voice. "Send notification to all those concerned."
"Cancellations confirmed," the computer stated in a monotone.
Anabelle laid the PADD down on the desk and took a deep breath. She tried to relax again, but the more she thought about the whole situation, Liam's nonchalant attitude toward her, the more furious she was getting. Continuing her brooding, she plunged deeply into the raging sea of hurt and anger that was churning inside her heart. The surges of her rage and frustration were getting stronger and stronger and threatened to drown her with the force of a hurricane's tidal wave.
Desperately, Anabelle tried to reign in that 'beast', that 'sea monster', that was rearing its ugly head relentlessly, until she couldn't hold herself back any more. She abruptly jumped out of her chair, fuming, and stormed out of the office.
=/\=
"Well, this Varscahn guy didn't seem all that bad," Lt. Cmdr. Dean Lowe remarked, as he stepped into the Captain's ready room behind his father. "Pointing us to the sector where that Karemman insurgent might be hiding out. That was rather helpful."
Captain Daniel Lowe paused for a second, but did not turn around, and then proceeded to his chair. He sat down slowly, watching his oldest son with a curious expression of indifference. 'If that information even proves to be reliable,' he thought cynically. 'Why would a Karemman ship carry Dosi weapons?'
"I know, you don't agree with me on that," Dean continued undeterred despite his fathers icy silence, "But, one could understand why he has become an outlaw. It wasn't necessarily his choosing."
Dan's eyebrows shot up. "Not his choosing?" He scoffed. "Don't try to make excuses for that pirate."
"I'm not, Dad," Dean met his father's eyes squarely. "But... you know yourself that the Rakhari government has a very strict and swift justice system. They not only wield the death penalty on any lawbreakers, but their families, too! How fair is that?" his eldest son made a compassionate plea.
"You don't have to convince me that this seems rather... extreme," Dan conceded, "but, it isn't any of our business. We can't get involved in interplanetary affairs of non-Federation members. You know the Prime Directive just as well as I do."
Dean nodded uneasily.
"And... you have no idea if his sentence was deserved or not," his father's voice was getting hard. "We have no knowledge of his case, and it is not ours to judge."
"I was just thinking, that I understand why he felt the need to protect his family," Dean retorted. "Wouldn't you have felt the same way?"
"He could have chosen to just flee," Daniel Lowe slapped his hand on the desk, "Instead, he chose to become a pirate and seek vengeance! There are always other options than all-out rebellion." His agitation was unmistakable. "He just found a convenient excuse..."
"Excuse?" Dean couldn't believe his father's dispassion. He always had thought of him as a supporter of the disadvantaged of the galaxy. "What about his family? He had to..."
"I don't want to debate this any more, son," Dan raised his hand and halted Dean in mid-sentence. His eyes went dark. "To quote the famous words of an early-20th-century movie, 'Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn'."
Dean Lowe rolled his eyes and opened his mouth again...
"That's the end of this discussion!" Captain Lowe commanded sharply.
Dean flinched.
"Captain, sir," Cmdr. D'Aljair's voice came over the comm. "We've arrived at our destination."
=/\=
"Are you sure these are the right coordinates?" Cmdr. Jaques D'Aljair asked the helmsman.
"We're in the sector our informant had indicated, sir," Ensign Stanley Prowers replied.
"Lieutenant T'Karn, scan the region. Full sensor sweep," Captain Daniel Lowe ordered his Science officer. "Everybody, be watchful."
"Yes, sir!" The entire bridge crew answered in one accord.
The USS Washington was slowly moving forward at impulse speed, scanning the area thoroughly as she went along. It appeared that there was nothing going on in the region.
"Captain," Lt. T'Karn suddenly broke the tense silence on the bridge. "Sensors have just detected what could indicate a cloaked ship. Object is at bearing 091, mark 10, at about 5,000 kilometer distance."
"It could very well be the ship we're looking for, sir," Dean, the Security Chief, addressed his father.
The Captain nodded at him and thought for a brief moment. "Helm, take us around and slowly move us closer. But... don't look like we're trying to get closer," he narrowed his eyes. "Just fly casually. If they're trying to play 'hide-and-seek', they probably won't move, so they don't attract our attention."
"Yes, sir," Ensign Prowers acknowledged. "Heading 045, at half impulse, sir."
"Commander Okamara, keep monitoring the object and inform me the instance it tries to move," Captain Lowe instructed his Tactical Officer. "Let's find out what or who you are, my friend," he muttered to himself.