At the End of the Day You're Another Day Older

Posted on Sun Jul 7th, 2024 @ 3:49pm by Commander Kevin Lance
Edited on on Sun Jul 7th, 2024 @ 9:56pm

Mission: Cat in the box
Location: Romulan Space
Timeline: Current

on:
{Romulan Space Station, Guest Quarters}

Lieutenant Commander Kevin Lance laid back on a divan in the guest quarters assigned to Captain Rodale with a large glass of synthahol in his hand. The brew was replicated to relax him from the tensions of the day while metabolizing quickly enough that it would not interfere with what he needed to do later. He took a long pull off of the drink as he considered the events of the day.

It had started very early with the visit from Shadow in the wee hours of the night. That the negotiations were going poorly for the Federation and that M’Niras intend to use Mira to reverse that situation hadn’t come as a surprise but the fact that Kevin was expected to do something to preempt that did.

That had led to a sleepless remainder of the night as Kevin came up with a plan and figured out how to resource it without getting caught. Fortunately, getting those resources had gone smoother that he would have thought possible,

Then there was the attack on Mira at breakfast. The icoberries were not, in and of themselves poisonous, but had caused a sever reaction in his love that had nearly cost her life had it not been for the quick-witted reaction of Lieutenant Kronnelti.

Kevin had not wanted to leave Mira but as the second-in-command, it fell to him to return to the base to run interference for the Captain so she would be safe and have the time she needed to recover. M’Niras, of course, was fit to be tied and threatened or conjoled Kevin in every manner possible but Kevin refused to be budged. Captain Rodale was recovering from a deadly attack and was not to be disturbed.

The rest of the day had been split between investigating the attack on Mira and fulfilling the diplomatic duties required of the Norris officers. Kevin assigned Kronnelti to liaison with the Klingon delegation and he intended to do the same with the Gorns but with Mira out of the picture, M’Niras seemed to have lost interest in that group. Instead, Kevin was back in the meeting of the military attaches listening to the Romulans going through the motions of listening to the Klingons’ point of view. He listened little to the arguments present but instead focused on the Nauarchus

The Triumvirate member was much less engaged in the discussions than she had been the day before but whether that was due to a predetermined decision by the Romulans or a preoccupation with something else was impossible to tell.

The investigation into the poisoning was equally unproductive. Kevin determined that the Romulan kitchen staff had nothing to do with the event, either by accident or desire. The recipes that that they had prepared did not include icoberries and there was no evidence of the fruit anywhere in the kitchen or in food storage. Electronic records did show any Gorns, Orions or Nausicanns in or near either the food preparation area or the dining hall, although as his own clandestine software indicated, it could have been hacked. The assailant had to be from either the Federation or the Romulans. Or maybe the Klingons. No telling how many sleeper agents from houses opposed to Rasmehlier were in K’klun’s crew.

It all made his head hurt.

The Triumvirate was expected to announce their decision tomorrow, then the Norris could head back to Starbase 364. Mira feared an attack by the Gorns and likely they would once they departed Romulan Space. Kevin doubted that the lizard race would be so bold as to attack with the ink hardly dry on their treaty with the Romulans.

At least the absence of Mira from the guest quarters solved two problems. First, with her on board Norris, there was no reason for a Federation or Klingon bodyguard. Jackson returned to duties aboard Norris and D’klala was elsewhere too. Even the Romulans saw no reason to protect a lowly Lieutenant Commander as Centurion Kocas was frequently missing altogether from the corridors outside the Star Fleet Officers quarters. That would make getting out of the quarters tonight unnoticed that much easier.

The other problem that the lack of Mira’s presence solved was how he was going to insulate her against what he was planning to do. He had been wrestling with the moral and emotional questions surrounding his plan to dose her with the amnestic he had taken from the Norris’ science lab. It would have erased the six hours of short term memories and seemed like a deep night’s sleep to her, allowing her to honest state that she didn’t remember anything that happened. But it was an insidious assault on her agency as a sentient being. Kevin was glad that the decision to go through with that portion of the plan was removed from him.

His PADD chimed. An alert that he was expected at dinner with M’Niras in less than an hour, allegedly to discuss the day’s event. In reality, I would be a continuation of the Ambassador’s verbal and mental manipulations to get access to Mira. Kevin let out a deep sigh as he heaved himself from the divan and headed to the bathroom.

:off

Lieutenant Commander Kevin Lance
Executive Officer
USS Chuck Norris