Habeas Corpus (Part 1)

Posted on Sat Aug 22, 2015 @ 1:44pm by Commander Caden Aldrex & Commander Caleb Ryan & Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin

1,345 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Fallout
Location: Various
Timeline: MD 3/1845 - After "They Beget Terror"

::ON::

==Promenade==

"Isha?" Yolanthe offered the woman her hand. It was bright yellow. Yolanthe herself had no children, but she was willing to take a stab at how she must be feeling, or more accurately how. Her Reshi had been murdered, and whilst he hadn't been a child, children held the same place in most cultures that men held in hers. The little girl wasn't technically dead, but she was as good as. Gone, never to return. Isha was probably past the despair horizon and accelerating fast. "Come on, up you get."

"They all die. Nveid, Hexce, Fveirrolh, Rh'Vaurek, now her," Isha said quietly. Her throat was tight and her heart weighed on her like the gravitational pull of a moon. Had the knife not disappeared with the Fae and Eviess, she might have used it to end everything.

She took Yolanthe's hand and somehow got to her feet. "They all die," she repeated.

The kid had mentioned a brother. "You still have her brother. He'll need you now more than ever."

"It’s only a matter of time," Isha said her tone flat. "Everyone I dare to love dies."

She knew it was mostly the shock talking, but Yolanthe slapped her anyway. "So does everyone you hate, and everyone you couldn't care less about. That’s how it is, even when it isn't fair Right now, focus on what you have, a little boy who's lost his sister. Who's going to tell him? All he has is you."


==Operations==

Up in station ops, Cade Aldrex had seen it all transpire via the security monitors. He, like everyone else up there, was in a mild state of shock. He had to give an order to shake everyone back to their duties. "Full scan! All directions! And launch a series of class ten probes to extend our sensor range! If those intruders beamed to a ship I want that ship found!"

The XO's orders were met with a ripple of nods and aye-sirs from the ops crew. Everyone got to work immediately.

Soran wasn't around so Cade turned to one of the junior officers on duty. "Ensign Alessandro, take over here. I'm going down to the Promenade." He nodded to the monitor, which displayed an image of Yolanthe helping the captain to her feet.

"Aye, sir."


==Promenade==

Caleb shook his head to clear it. Had he just seen what he thought he saw? The captain stabbed the Fae and then a mist covered them all and everyone was gone, including the captain’s daughter.

“Sir?” Jessica beside him prodded.

“Right,” Caleb said. “Fan out. Search the Promenade,” Caleb ordered his people over comms. “See if Ops can get internal sensors ta find them. Mayhew, with me.”

Caleb lowered his rifle slightly and started toward the captain and Yolanthe in their odd Ancient West period clothes. Had they been in the holodeck? He eyed Mayhew beside him, swiping away at something as they moved.

“Captain?” Caleb said. “Are ya okay, sir?” He reached out and took Isha’s other arm, helping Yolanthe help the Romulan officer to stand again. “What the hell just happened?”

"I'm not sure. The-" Yolanthe stopped. The human probably wouldn't appreciate her people's name for those creatures. "Fae took her daughter. They poisoned her then took her away. The other one said she could keep her alive if the kid went with them."

Aldrex arrived, walking at an expeditious clip. The crowd parted for him as he made his way to Isha. He laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Captain," he said in a low voice, and then hesitated. He wanted to ask what happened, having only seen what had happened but not having heard any of the words exchanged. He surveyed the crowd then said to Caleb, "Let's disperse these people, Commander."

"Rh'Vaurek will find her for me," Isha said. "He was here just now. He'll get her back."

Yolanthe caught Aldrex's eye over the top of Isha's hair, and shook her head. She didn't know if Aldrex knew that Raedheol was dead, but of all the people here, she had the dubious claim to having known the woman the longest. How much the Trill knew about his superior was just a guess. "Isha," Yolanthe said firmly, "Raedheol's dead too. You're not thinking straight. You're in shock."

Aldrex looked around for the nearest turbolift. He knew who Raedheol was and agreed with Yolanthe's assessment. "Let's get her off the Promenade," he muttered to the Bokkai. He placed a hand around Isha's waist and the other under her elbow and inched her away from the scene as gracefully as possible.

One of Amia's staff, a hospital corpsman named Reade, happened to be standing nearby. "Can I help, sir?" he asked. He was holding a medkit.

Aldrex nodded eagerly. "Yeah, but not here in front of these people." He gestured to the Box of Delights, which was only a few steps away. "Is it alright if we go in there?" From this angle it looked like it was emptied out.

"Of course. This way." Yolanthe quickly ushered them towards the Box, moving around the thick vines that lay across the promenade. Inside the box there was only a few people left, all currently spaced out and staring at something she couldn't see. Then she had them through the door to Back-of-House, and into her black and white office. She left Caden to settle the captain and poured some Romulan ale from her minibar into a heavy tumbler. "Here you go."

Aldrex sat Isha in a chair, then took the tumbler and pressed it into her hands, helping her wrap her fingers around it. Meanwhile Corpsman Reade waved a cylindrical scanner around her head while studying the readouts on a medical tricorder.

On the Promanade, Caleb turned to the crowd. “Okay, it’s over now, people. Let’s get back to work cleanin’ up an’ puttin’ things back together,” he told them. More of his Security people were arriving and Caleb started to clear the area. With nothing left to see, the civilians seemed willing to disperse. Everyone still had a lot of cleaning up and damage assessment to do.

"How does it look?" Aldrex asked Reade.

The corpsman shrugged. "Nothing life threatening. I'd say she's suffering from the effects of profound grief. My recommendation would be rest, maybe a sedative, but I can't make that call. I'll leave that to Doctor Amoran."

A voice over the comm interrupted. "Ops to Captain t'Vaurek?"

Aldrex answered for her, tapping his comm badge. "First Officer here. What is it, Ops?"

"Sir, we're receiving an incoming hail from the Romulan High Command. They're demanding to speak with the captain right away."

Aldrex frowned. "Demanding, huh? Did they say what it's about?"

"No, sir, but if I had to guess, I'd say they've noticed we suddenly have a solar system in our back yard."

Reade looked at Aldrex and shook his head. The captain was in no condition to go back to duty, not after losing her daughter only minutes before. Cade Aldrex agreed. "I'll talk to them myself. Put them on hold for a minute."

"Understood."

The comm channel closed. Aldrex knelt beside the captain and squeezed her hand. "Captain, I'm temporarily relieving you of duty. We'll take care of things while you recover." Even as he said it, he wondered if she could. Who could recover from losing a child?

"I'll take her to sickbay," Reade offered.

Aldrex stood and straightened his uniform. "No, I imagine sickbay is still crowded. Take her to her quarters. I want you to stay with her, Reade. At least until Amoran or one of the staff doctors can come down to see her." Also the counselor, he thought to himself, but didn't say aloud.

Reade nodded. "Aye, sir."

Aldrex nodded to Yolanthe, took one last look at the captain, and then headed out.

::OFF::

Captain Isha t'Vaurek
CO

Lt.Cmdr. Caden Aldrex
XO

Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner, The Box of Delights

 

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