Command Performance

Posted on Jun 11, 2014 @ 5:25pm by Captain Siobhan Reardon
Edited on on Jun 11, 2014 @ 5:32pm

Mission: The Tangled Webs We Weave

"Command Performance"
(Continued from "In Search of a Knight")

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"Sometimes the only thing more dangerous than a question is an answer."
-Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #208


=/\=

Location: Starfleet Academy
Scene: Quad, approaching Holodeck A-33
Stardate: [2.14]0526.2030
Time Index: The same evening as "Chance and Change"

The dark haired Captain took his time walking through the common areas of Starfleet Academy. He'd eaten a little too much of Xana's homemade pasta, and the fresh night air and exercise would do him some good.

The PANDORA's Engineering staff was probably not too pleased at the moment. Still, the calculated 'mishap' had afforded him some valuable down time. Not that Layne understood that concept completely. But he was certainly making a good go of it.

Over the remnants of a huge Italian dinner, Xana had readily offered Reardon's location, even though the new addition still had plenty of time to report. Tim's curiosity and the want to view her in a non-work environment had been all it took to have him roaming towards the unmistakable noise of a large party.

But first, he'd taken the time to make a pit stop on his way to the Presidio. A guitar case was slung over one shoulder.

The edges of the room were dominated by conversation, but the closer Layne moved towards the stage and the dance floor, the more the music took over. The twang of an electric guitar mingled with a piano, drums, and a bass guitar. There was a type of chime in the background accentuating the beat; Tim wasn't sure if it was a triangle or a muted xylophone.

Then a pert redhead in mid 20th century finery began to sing.

"When marimba rhythms start to play,
Dance with me, make me sway
Like a lazy ocean hugs the shore,
Hold me close, sway me more

Like a flower bending in the breeze,
Bend with me, sway with ease
When we dance you have a way with me,
Stay with me, sway with me."

She delivered the lines with a sultry, smoke-filled quality, seemingly oblivious to everything except what she was doing in that moment.

Layne went over the checklist in his head: Red hair, check. Average height (for a human female), check. Athletic build, check. Green eyes, check. Theatrical wasn't on the list, but it looked like he could check that one off, too.

In the meantime, the song was over, and Sio leaned into the microphone. "Gonna take a fifteen. In the meantime, the house band," she said with a gesture to the holographic swing orchestra that had reassumed their places.

She walked to the left side of the stage down a small staircase and straight into the waiting form of her Commanding Officer.

"Captain Si-o-bhan Reardon?" he asked, completely mangling her first name.

"Oh," she breathed, for a split second flushing as red as her hair. "Captain Layne," she responded, trying to gain some form of composure and failing miserably. "Suddenly I feel a bit overdressed."

"What you wear off duty is no concern of mine," he answered truthfully. "But I wouldn't suggest it for the bridge during an alert. It gets a little chilly."

Reardon began to look around to see if Drey had kept his promise. "By the way, it's 'sh-bhan', it sounds like 'chiffon'. But most folks call me Sio."

"See-oh," Captain Layne said back to her, perhaps a little more carefully than he meant to. "That doesn't exactly make sense."

She smiled. "No, it doesn't. I forget when that started, but the nickname kind of stuck. We could keep calling each other 'Captain' back and forth, but that's bound to get confusing."

"I don't think there's a targ's chance of mistaken identity here," he answered. "Who are you looking for?" Layne asked as he saw the woman's attention diverted to a careful scan of the large room.

"My son, Drey," Sio said. "I told him he had to show up for an hour- he's been spending way too much time alone with his head buried in either his studies, or lately a ship's schematic."

"Excited, huh?" Tim commented, allowing himself some pride on behalf of the PANDORA.

"We *both* are," she replied gently. "We just have different ways of dealing with it." In the dim light, while making her way to where she saw Drey sitting, her arm brushed against the case Tim was carrying and her eyes brightened. "A guitar? You play?"

"Nah- I just carry this around to confuse people."

Sio ignored the joke. "That means you have fifteen minutes to come up with a song we can do together."

"Is that an order?" Tim said as he followed her towards a table near the wall.

She turned to look at him, her lips curved upward in a smile. "If you follow orders, then yes. Captain Tim Layne, this is my son, Drey. Drey, say hello to the Captain." She quickly went over to the replicator to get some refreshments.

The pale green youth looked up from his PADD, eyes widening at the solidly muscular CO in front of him. "C-Captain."

Layne shook the kid's hand. "Drey. Nice to meet you."

"Sir," was all the young man could muster in response.

"So do you always sneak up on new members of your crew?" Siobhan asked, carrying a tray of iced coffee and water.

"Well I happened to be planetside visiting my daughter 'Ryllis and-"

Suddenly the redhead turned into a fourteen year old girl, interrupting him. "Shut. Up. She's your *daughter*? Her piano playing is amazing! Her singing, too."

"I'll let her know how much you like it," he said, amused. "So then I went to Xana's place for dinner and-"

"Xana- I should have known she'd have something to do with this. Madame Secretary's been awfully busy lately."

"So, do you always interrupt this much?"

Sio looked apologetic. "No. Usually, I'm a pretty good listener."

"Could've fooled me," Tim replied with a smirk.


=/\=


Location: SUPAI
Time Index: about 20 years from now
Scene: Alternate Future

Siobhan walked through the foliage drenched glade, inspecting the creamy flowers in various stages of bloom. Her son's home planet was a beautiful place to visit. And seeing her grandchildren was even more fantastic. She had picked some pole beans earlier in the day to serve at dinner, and wanted some fresh flowers for the table.

She had certainly aged in the past twenty years or so, but the touch of time had been forgiving. Her wrinkles were more the result of smiles than tears, and her coppery hair was threaded with white strands and patches, a swirling mix of fire and ice. She had gathered it in a loose bun and a topped it with a straw hat.

This had become her tradition during every summer vacation from the Academy for at least the past 15 years. Her son Drey had pursued a degree in Agriculture, and made the difficult decision to return to his homeworld and implement his ideas to advance their ability to feed their people and develop secondary products from the crops. He'd become a respected scientist in this field.

Her delicate hands traced the petals of a bluebell, and she snipped several of them to add to the field lillies already in her basket.

Her reverie was interrupted by the familiar sound of a transporter whine on the other side of the courtyard. But she hadn't been expecting visitors. She turned around as the man appeared. His sandy hair was still mostly blondish, but his temples were decidedly silver. His build was still athletic, maybe a little on the slight side, but he certainly was fit. He was wearing a Starfleet uniform, but its variant was unlike anything she had seen before. And, his eyes were just as blue as the last time she had seen him which was nearly a lifetime ago. His boyish grin hadn't changed either. "Sio."

The basket slipped from her grasp, spilling blossoms everywhere. They fluttered in the breeze, like the rapid beating of her heart. It was like she was seeing a ghost, but she knew better.

It was Jacob Sterling.

They met in the middle of the garden, hugging each other. "Why are you here? *How* are you here?" Sio asked.

"Let's talk," he replied, as they headed towards the house, arms linked like not a day had passed.


=/\=


Scene: Reardon Summer Home, Interior
Time Index: about 30 minutes later

Siobhan had taken the time to brew a pot of tea, but it was largely untouched as they caught up on nearly twenty-eight years of history.

Jacob Sterling had once been the golden boy of Starfleet. He graced the flagship with his presence, among other distinguished ships of the line. His history had already started being written before Reardon had graduated from SFA. Eventually though, nearly all angels fall, even those with golden wings. He had commandeered fleet resources and disobeyed direct orders to fight the Locusta, a transdimensional and multidimensional enemy who were mirror images of them. Siobhan could still remember the psionic nightmares of a future that only partially came to be at the hands of the Locusta. She'd even impersonated one of her mirrors for a while in an effort to stop the onslaught of an enemy with an all too familiar face.

She was one of only a handful of people that had known of Jacob's liberation from the New Zealand Penal Colony and escape into another universe to live out the remainder of his days. A fresh start, but at the sacrifice of everything he had known.

It was one of many times she had learned the lesson that not everything was black or white. It was all shades of gray, all relative. She struggled for years afterward that she aided and abetted his escape with her passiveness. She had broken the law by proxy. But she sincerely believed his actions had saved them all. The Locusta did not take over. And hope once more became a part of her mental vocabulary.

"Come with me, Siobhan."

"Why... why *now*?"

"The Federation's about to be torn apart. I'm offering you an escape. A way out. To make sure you're safe."

Her eyes glistened with unfallen tears. "Locusta?" Had they found a way back?

"No, this time it's an inside job. Some Admiral has been amassing personnel and resources to overthrow the whole damn thing from within. Neo-Essentialist bullshit."

Sio shook her head. She'd had more than a few run-ins with a couple of different Essentialist factions early in her career as well. "How soon?"

"The timeline isn't entirely accurate, calculated guesses are some time in the next two weeks."

Sio closed her eyes for a moment. Then she opened them with a sad resolution. "I can't go with you."

Jacob looked crestfallen. "Why not?"

"I have a life here, a family. It's not perfect but it was shaped by the decisions I made. I'm not willing to abandon it so easily."

"I wasn't saying it would be easy," Sterling grumbled.

She grasped his hands and held them with her own. "This isn't about your reasons for leaving... this is about my reasons for wanting to stay. If I could see another way around this, I would jump at the chance. Just seeing you again has given me such joy."

He stood up with a grim expression. "And I have to go," he admitted. "You're not my only stop on this little trip. Time is of the essence, my friend."

"I know," she said, her voice muffled in a hug.

Siobhan walked him out from the front portico into the garden. "Don't wait another twenty-eight years to look me up, Sterling." She sighed, her heart heavy with unanswered questions.

"That is one thing we agree on, you don't ever deserve to be kept waiting, milady," Jacob said. "Later, Sio." He slowly coalesced and faded away.



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NRPG: Jacob Sterling is a way way back character created by Pete Boychuk. I just wanted to show what might have happened had Sio not chosen the position offered by Xana.

Susan Ledbetter (susanmled@earthlink.net) writing for

Captain Siobhan Reardon
Instructor
Starfleet Academy


"I savored those stories; I read them slowly, one each day. And when I was done, I wished I hadn't read them at all. So I could read them again... like it was the first time."
-Melanie to Old Jake, DS9, "The Visitor"