Terminus

Posted on Nov 23, 2016 @ 8:38pm by Commander Jacob Crichton & Ambassador Xana Bonviva
Edited on on Nov 23, 2016 @ 9:00pm

Mission: Aftermath

= Terminus =
(cont'd from "Down We Go")
=/\=

Location: Bolarus IX
Scene: B.O.P. (Bolian Office of Protection) - Director’s office
Stardate: [2.16] 1123.1707
Time Index: Months ago, before the events of "Civil War"


When Xana Bonviva had the idea to go back to Bolarus IX the intent was good, but the plan was hazy. It didn’t take long upon her showing up for there to be this thing -- what to do with a well- known Bolian, intent on helping, but long out of practice who showed up on a xenophobic, misogynistic, and thoroughly corrupt government who allowed the looting, fighting and according to some profited by it?

The answer was quick and terrifying - stick her in a Cabinet appointed but otherwise useless government office -- and pray to any and all Gods she shuts up and goes away.

Looking down at Angus as he snacked on a bone, Xana sat at her desk reading report after report that was perfectly useless. “What the hell?!” Getting up from her desk, she stuck her head out of the door and bellowed at the assistant who was sitting there. “Get me whoever wrote this.”

“Ma’am,” the man who was counting down his days to retirement (literally -- there was a little countdown clock next to the holo of his family), “why don’t you use the intercom?”

Xana sighed as she looked at the assistant. “Lamas,” she sighed. “Can you please do this?”

Lamas Qoro gave her a look that conveyed his dismay that his great bureaucratic career was ending this way. “It’s because you don’t know how to use the intercom isn’t it?”

“The. Author. Of. This. Report,” Xana bit out.

The assistant shook his bald, blue head as he typed up the request for the analyst to come up. “I’m sure we can get one of the 5th graders who was just here to show you.”

Xana stalked back to her chair as she kept reading the report. Suddenly Angus perked up his head and with great effort got up to greet the person at the door. “Uhm, oh okay, yes, okay, I heard about you. Yes, you’re the large canine who guards the Secretary.”

“He’s 15 years old, and if it came down to me or a bone I’m not sure what the decision would be, but yes that is my canine, or dog colloquially. His name is Angus,” Xana offered to the terrified woman standing in the doorway. Most Bolians didn’t keep domesticated animals as pets, and large animals like Angus (the monstrosity of a Rottweiler/German Shepherd mix) was viewed with fear and apprehension. While Angus sat there waiting to be petted and the woman stood there staring back at him uncertainly, Xana sighed. “He wants to be petted more than anything.” When the analyst looked at her she explained, “It’s a form of affection for canines from Earth.” Whistling for Angus to come over, she gestured for the analyst to come over. Petting Angus she pointed to a seat and said, “Explain to me this report.”

The analyst looked at the report for a moment. “Oh this report.” Looking up she relaxed. “Okay, so when you came on board we were told to acclimate ourselves to Terran customs, history, and the like. We were also to told to make them 'peppy' because you liked Terran popular culture. Well then I got to watching, reading and listening to many of your Terran items that I could find and in particular there was this documentary series that discussed aquatic threats that migrated to land due to meteorological threats. Now as you know there’s been significant meteorological disturbances due to the Romulan threat, which in turn has knocked out our weather controlling satellites and monitoring stations. And as BOLARUS IX has more water than Earth, I got to thinking that it could easily happen here. So I used Barry Allen’s Speed Formula, with some modifications for Bolian landscape, and calculated our needed response to such threats.”

That Xana didn’t respond to all that was a testament to many, many years of being a politician. And perhaps some memory of being a young, green officer who started off so long ago. “Well, your response scenario, especially on a limited staff and budget were fantastic, and that’s why I called you up here,” Xana started. As the woman sat up to listen, Xana leaned and gently said, “But if I may...Sharknado is not a documentary series.”

The Bolian woman blinked. “It’s not?” When Xana shook her head the analyst sighed. “But it seemed so real and well documented.”

“Also...Barry Allen isn’t real.”

“So I should stop trying to replicate his suit and--”

“Probably for the best,” Xana nodded.

The woman looked like someone kicked her puppy, if she liked puppies. “Next you’ll tell me that ooga-chaka isn’t real either.”

Finally Xana was stumped. “The what now?”

“The ooga-chaka,” the analyst said. “I’ve been listening to it. It sounds like an anthem. I figured everyone memorized it.”

Xana began typing into her old, decrepit computer. It took a bit of time but then the sounds began rattling out of the speakers:

Ooga-chaka, ooga-ooga
Ooga-chaka, ooga-ooga
Ooga-chaka, ooga-ooga
Ooga-chaka, ooga-ooga

I can't stop this feeling
Deep inside of me...

As the music continued to play the analyst said quietly, “See, the ooga-chaka.”

Xana smiled at that. “So tell me Ooga-chaka--”

“My name is Nykye Xiranat,” the analyst explained.

As the song continued on, Xana smiled. “Yeah...I don’t think I’m getting this out of my head. So you’re an analyst. How would you like a promotion to Head of Research and CI?”

“Do I get raise?”

“No.”

“A staff?”

“I’d like to say yes but I’m not sure. Probably no.”

Nykye frowned so much that her bifurcated ridge rippled. “So...what’s this about?”

Xana leaned in. “Your sources may have been flawed but your analysis was the best I’ve seen. And I’m here to help clean up Bolarus IX despite what its politicians want. So want to help...Ooga Chaka?”

=/\=

Scene: Docks - Ithimia Bay


It had taken Xana, Nykye and a small band of others to transform B.O.P. from a bloated-PADD pushing agency into a leaner, agile response agency to the problems that plagued Bolarus IX. The police officers took care of the daily disturbances but the point of B.O.P. was to take on the larger planet wide crimes.

Sitting on top of a hovercraft while waiting for a sting to go down, not for the first time, Xana reflected that this all reminded her of her old life on GATEWAY; both iterations. Both the first time when she had first started out as a green Security officer on GS-1 and then later on when she came back after Gene’s death and to rebuild her life…

“What’s going on Ooga-Chaka?” Xana asked over the comm while rotating her wedding ring on her left hand.

[[Still quiet,]] Nykye Xiranat responded from her hub at HQ. [[I’ll let you know if I see anything on sensors.]]

Traxx Vara, her Security partner for the night, gave her a look before sweeping the landscape. “Want to check in with the teams?” he asked.

Xana looked over at Traxx. He was former Starfleet too but retired before the neo-Essentialist threat had come up. When the war came home to Bolarus IX, he had like so many others, had signed up again. “Go for it,” she asked.

He flipped his comm to match her frequencies. “Vara to Grid 1.”

[[All clear.]]

“Grid 2.”

[[Clear.]]

“Grid 3--”

[[Dude she’s an ice queen. She’s got a husband -- Yeah but he’s a Terran and is he here? No but you know that explains--]]

“VARA to GRID 3, children,” the Bolian man with Xana snapped to the voices on comm.

There was a snap of silence before one of the voices said. [[All clear.]]

“Remember the job,” Vara snapped.

There was a moment of silence on the docks as Xana kept looking out. “I’ve been called worse by better.”

“We all have,” Traxx nodded. The Bolian man on duty with his Director kept his view on the horizon.

Xana was going to say something when she heard something. “To me,” she whispered as she jumped off the hovercraft. The Bolian/Human woman heard the soft shuffle of Vara’s boots hitting the sand then followed by scrape of Angus’ paws hitting the ground. The reasons for picking Traxx Vara were simple: he was tough, he complimented her way of viewing the situation, and for a Bolian he dealt with Angus fairly well.

Traxx's shout interrupted her viewing of the docks: "Behind you! Bonviva!"

She saw them then. Silent as beetles, two men scuttled toward him but seemingly oblivious.

More followed, slipping from doorways and corners. Under cover of the rain and fog, the pack had stalked in, unseen, converging from three directions. They were Romulan, judging from their speech. They carried knives, chains, disruptors and katanas.

And then a group of Bolians followed.

These were vermin from the dockside, deadly and cold as ice.

"Nykye are you getting this?” Xana whispered as she heard Traxx whisper over his comm for the other grids to snap into position.

[[Got it,]] the Bolian back at HQ replied. [[We’ve got enough to get them out. No way anyone can ignore this now.]]

"More of them down that way. A dozen, at least." Traxx dropped out of the fog, into his usual place, taking the left. They were two against that many. Long odds.

She picked a target--one in front, where his friends would see him die--and threw a small crude grenade. The bravo collapsed with a sucking, bubbling neck wound. The familiar stink of death rose in the alley.

The thugs hesitated, sending glances back and forth, fingering the disruptors and chains, not sure where who was attacking. Attack or retreat. It could go either way.

Then one man broke ranks and went running for a glint of silver in the night not knowing it was a dog but knowing it wasn’t one of theirs.

If this lasts long, he'll get killed, Xana thought, what a reason to come home. Then the thought went quickly out of her head. "Mine on the right." She shot and glanced off a collar bone.

One man down. One wounded. "Where are the others, Vara?”

“Not responding,” Traxx cursed.

Her last grenade was in her boot. Then there was the knife in the other boot. Not for throwing. This one was for killing up close.

She forced her mind to the pattern the attackers wove, trying to spot the leader. Kill the leader and the others might scatter. Xana danced a path through the bullyboys, breaking bones with that lead-weighted chain that she often disguised as Angus’ leash.

Angus stayed in her shadow, using her as a shield, growling as people got too close. He's been in fights before; it’s just been too long, for both of us, she thought.

Then she didn't think about her dog at all. A chain whistled past. She grabbed it and jerked the man off balance and drove his knife through a gap in the leather waistcoat, up under the breastbone, to the heart.

For an instant she stood locked, face to face, with the man she'd just killed--a thickset blue skinned Bolian...and vicious, gleeful, mad blue eyes. Outrage and disbelief pulsed out at him . . . and drained away. The eyes went blank.

Then the dead bastard thrashed, rolled with the knife, and took it down with him as he fell.

No time to get it back. A bright shot of pain cracked down on her shoulder with it came a sour, copper pain. She fell, dodged a boot, and rolled away as Traxx faced on Xana’s attackers.

Angus bared his teeth.

Traxx was swearing a blue streak; Xana would have swore if she didn’t feel blood filling up her mouth.

Amid the chaos, she heard a monstrous racket of hovercraft coming. A goods shipment came around.

Romulan and Bolian broke out. Shouts back and forth. Limping, dragging their wounded with them, the gang pressed on now that a tall figure came out. Traxx tried to take on three but two were holding him back and another was using him as a shooting range. Up. She had to get up. She staggered up through madness and confusion, fog and pain.

The man leading the charge out of the goods wagon indicated that this was the leader that Xana had been looking for; she had simply been too early. He had the blue skin of a Bolian but pointed ears that was not native and his fluency in Romulan gave some clue as to the other half of his origin. Seeing Xana across the way he raised his disruptor and shot her with accuracy, sending her flying back against the cobblestones.

She lay huddled on her side, as if sleeping, covered with blood and mud, her black uniform halfway off her. Her hand lay upcurled on the cobbles, open to the falling rain. Sliding the other grenade out of her boot, she threw it as best she could behind Eldok. If she couldn’t take him out then the rest of his team could go.

“Oh my other hybrid,” the Bolian/Romulan man snarled, jerking close. Two hybrids fighting over a xenophobic home world gone mad. As the rain fell over both them, Xana tried to will herself up but the pain was washing over her with every drop. “It would be you.”

“Eldok,” she spat.

Kneeling down over her, he snarled as he yanked up her. “It’s going to be a pleasure to take this from you as I kill you.”

The last noise Xana heard was a growl and the sound of flesh tearing as her world went black.

=/\=

Scene: Medi-Vac Unit


The bright lights woke her up, piercing through her eyelids.

Oh Gods, it’s my time, it’s finally come. I didn’t say goodbye to the kids. But Ben is so young...Dahlia, oh Gods Dahlia, how could I do this to her? And Erika is off still angry and I never resolved that. And Gavi...wonderful I’m giving myself a 1 out of 4 on my kids of kids I set right on life.

Jake. Oh Gods Jake...I never told him...why didn’t I….I don’t want to go to the bright lights not yet.

Then another disturbing thought pierced her hazy. What in the 99 hells made her think with all that she done that she was worthy to go to the bright lights in the afterlife?

Well THAT was a disturbing thought. Disturbing enough to open up her eyes and see that it wasn’t some afterlife but an overworked, understaffed medi-vac unit.

Suddenly the pain from her wound flared up with an intensity unlike ever before. It was all wrong, something frighteningly wrong. Her violet eyes darted all over, desperately searching for a way to relief her body from this miserable feeling; and then she realized...this miserable feeling was just her body recovering.

Everything hurt. Her face, her lungs with every breath. She tried to raise her arms up but the effort it took was too much. Even the elastic of her underwear pressing on her hurt her.

It took them a moment to gather her thoughts, or at least gather enough of them to think a little clearer. And then she remembered what happened...so some of what happened. Enough to have questions.

Xana opened her mouth and a moan mixed with a guttural grunt she didn’t recognize as her own barely escaped. Tired and frustrated she wanted it all to be over and done with. Trying to swallow the dry lump in her throat she tried again.

Suddenly a nurse appeared at her bedside. “Hello ma’am. Would you like a drink?” After Xana nodded, she handed over a drink while raising her bed. “You and your team gave us a scare.”

After forcing a few sips of water down her bruised throat Xana whispered, “Where am I? What happened?”

“You’re on a Medi-Vac Unit,” the nurse explained. “You and your team were lifted out.”

The pain was radiating out everywhere including…

And she had no memory after seeing Eldok sneering up at her.

“What are my injuries?” she asked quietly.

The nurse looked at the chart. “Consistent with a fight. Clavicle was cracked, bruising and burn marks consistent with close range weapon fighting--”

“I hurt everywhere,” Xana interrupted.

“We can get you some pain medicine,” the nurse answered.

The Bolian/Human sighed. “I have no memory after my head hit the ground and I can’t remember…” Her face twisted painfully. Trying to lift up her hands she rubbed her temple, “I at least knew when I was raped 15 years ago...I can’t even remember now--”

“No,” the nurse said quietly. When Xana looked up, she continued on, “You weren’t. I didn’t realize that was what you were asking, I’m sorry.” There was a pause. “From what I understand, it was a possibility, and you maybe remembering the assault and we have counselors here but it was interrupted.”

“By whom?” Xana asked. “The interrupting. Who did it?”

“He’s back,” another nurse muttered.

“If you’re okay with it,” the first nurse explained, “I think your visitor who won’t leave can explain.”

Xana nodded and saw Traxx walk over. He was clearly injured, judging from the bandages and burn marks but he was upright.

“Bonviva,” he nodded.

“Vara,” she sighed. Leaning back she said simply, “I have gaps in my memory after Eldok arrived. Perhaps you can fill me in?”

Traxx Vara stood there for a moment, neither frowning or smiling, simply staring at his Director. Finally he said, “It was clear, and I think you knew this, that Grids 2 and 3 had been compromised. We didn’t know this but Grid 4 had been ambushed but we recovered some of them up here.”

Xana nodded at that.

Vara stood there quietly until he said. “I was surrounded. There were three on me, and it was late in the fight. That’s not an excuse.”

There was a shuffle around the Medi-Vac that they ignored for a beat. “I was on the ground if you recall, it’s not like I can nor should say much,” Xana pointed out.

“Eldok came. I saw him come right by me for you,” Traxx said quietly. “I couldn’t get to you. I am--I failed you.”

“But you didn’t fail me,” Xana said softly. “I’m fine.”

“That wasn’t me,” Traxx replied. “Remember we had a third partner that night.”

Xana paused suddenly then whipped around her head. “Where is Angus?” Looking around wildly she said, “Traxx, you didn’t leave Angus behind did you?”

“Ma’am, I’m Starfleet, like you. I don’t leave a comrade.” The Bolian man stood quietly there, ramrod straight. “Angus was Starfleet too. He didn’t have the pips but he didn’t leave you. He’s the one that attacked Eldok.”

The Bolian/Human hybrid exhaled at that as she sat back. “He’s only attacked one other time, when my kids were in danger.” Looking up she asked, “Where is he?”

"The best weapon is one that you and your enemy are unaware of,” Traxx replied.

Leaning over she asked again, “Where is he? Where is Angus?”

Traxx bent his head, “One of Eldok’s killed him.” When Xana curled up in bed, he sighed and said, “I wanted to get his body, as well as the others, but we were taken.”

Tears fell out of her before she could stop them. Her chest, which was already sore, tightened against her will. For a moment she allowed herself to think about Angus while Traxx kept trying to apologize without appearing too emotional himself...Angus had been such a small abandoned puppy on GS-1 and he followed around when she was Chief of Security...then to Ops...XO….then onto the Prophecy...then back to GS-2...then onto other adventures...he licked everyone of the kids when she brought them home, as if to say “Nope, they’re mine too”...he was her constant companion through it all.

“--I am so sorry. I know I didn’t understand your bond with him but I thought you’d like to do some kind of funeral rites for Angus. But they wouldn’t let me take him here.”

Xana distantly heard him. “What?” Her slow and sluggish mind were suddenly putting things together. Sitting up again she asked, “Where is this Medi-Vac? Why were we Medi-Vac’d?”

“You were taken on my orders,” a voice came from behind Traxx.

Summoning a strength she didn’t know she had she stared at the craggy face from long ago. “Hello, Towers,” she said using his last name sans title to rattle him more than anything. “You’re not here to check up on my health are you?”

“No, I was here to take you out of that hell-hole,” Alex Towers snapped.

“Oh like hells you were,” she yelled. Grief, desperation, loneliness all clawed up in her and Alex Towers made a fabulous target. “Get my team and I back on Bolarus IX.”

“You were almost raped and left for dead,” the Marine Commander pointed out.

“By the Gods your bedside manner is just as splendid as it ever was," Xana dryly pointed out, "Well then as I am no longer under your station you can forget about this and let me go.”

Alexander Towers looked down at Xana Bonviva. “That is not happening.”

And not for the first time she missed Jake. She missed him every day. At first it was the little things, turning to ask him for help, or what his opinion would be. She often imagined the wry smile he’d given when he thought she was doing something too much but he was going to be damned if said anything first. Or that look when he figured out something and couldn’t wait to tell her. She missed those little looks; her heart was buoyed on shared small looks and warm hugs; neither of which she had now.

After awhile though she stopped thinking about the little things. And then it became the big things he wasn’t there for. The pain. The loneliness. The anger. Marriage was a partnership and her partner was on the other side of the universe, or maybe she was on the other side of him. Either way they were separated by a gulf too wide to breach. Not distance, or time, or anything so poetic. Their intentions, when not focused on the bubble of their family, were too divergent.

So they ignored that, and she was getting good at ignoring. Except for now when the pain inside of Xana threatened to tear her in two. She lost Angus, her constant companion. She had small victories at B.O.P. before this but losing the dockside battle was not what she needed now. She was afraid of closing her eyes and reliving what had happened.

And now she was dealing with Alexander Towers, who not exactly standing here with a bouquet of flowers and chocolates.

Channeling all the rage of being alone, angry, and scared into something far more convenient she said to the tall Marine standing there. “Bring it on,” she growled.

“YES! Consider it brought! Big ol’ brought,” a voice yelped from the doorway. Then suddenly a small blue blur came barreling in so quickly that even Towers had to move aside. Nykye Xiranat came rushing in and stood on the other side of Xana’s bed. “That’s right,” she nodded fiercely. “It’s been brought.” Catching the way Traxx Vara glared at her she asked quietly, “No?”

“Even I know that’s not the way it goes,” he muttered. “Oooga-Chaka.”

Towers glared at Xana Bonviva, ignoring the others. “I’ll be coming back. When you have fewer visitors,” he said pointedly.

After the Marine stomped off Xana sighed. “Who do we have?”

“Team 4,” Traxx offered.

“Lamas,” Nykye replied. When Xana gave her an incredulous look at being told her crusty admin was still around the Head of Research & CI said, “He said he didn’t want to lose his pension.”

“It’s the important things,” Xana sighed.

Traxx put a hand on Xana’s arm. “We all were able to evac with our families. I have my son and husbands, Nykye took her daughter and parents. Your son and daughter were taken to their next of kin. What if that--” he said jerking his head towards where Towers left, “--was your way back to your family?” Pointedly he asked, “To your husband?”

Xana had been playing with the ring on her finger. Who knew what Towers wanted but even if he didn’t offer a ride home, she probably could leave. Some part of her was tempted…“Not now. We have too much to do. Go if you want to, but I’m staying,” Xana announced.

But damn it...she just wanted to be held by Jake.

=[/\]=

Time Index: A few hours later


After Traxx and Nykye had left, Xana lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling. Tears ran down her cheeks and soaked into the pillow, but she was making no sound. She was thinking of everything she'd lost.

She could feel Towers watching her from outside the room, but she didn't turn to look at him. When it seemed as though he might never come in, she finally spoke.

"Are you going to stand out there all night?"

Towers entered slowly, his features even more dour than usual. He took a few steps into the room, then stopped, still well away from her bedside. Xana turned to look at him.

"What is it?"

Towers wasn't looking at her; he was staring down at his boots. Xana could sense his hesitation - not something she'd often seen coming from the stoic marine - and it filled her stomach with a fluttering, indistinct worry. Eventually, Towers looked up at her, his brow furrowed, his normally piercing eyes distant.

"I was ordered..." he started, then trailed off.

"Is there a point to this visit, colonel? You look like someone walked over your grave."

"What do you know about Richard Edgerton?"

The question caught Xana off guard. "The admiral? I know he's a lunatic with delusions of grandeur. I know he's the reason my husband is a fugitive, and that his days in power are numbered."

"I was sent here to extract you," Towers said. "I was told my team was rescuing a high value diplomatic asset, living almost on the front lines of the Romulan invasion. Nobody said it was going to be you, but our orders were clear: get you out safe."

"If Edgerton wants me back on Earth, it's not because he's concerned for my safety," Xana said. "I'll be arrested the second we beam down."

But Towers was shaking his head. "No. He doesn't even want you to make it that far."

Xana blinked. "What do you mean?"

"My unit received new orders," Towers said, his eyes dropping to the floor again. "We're supposed to execute you, and the surviving members of your team."

"Edgerton's orders." Xana let out a long, slow breath through her nose. "Are you going to follow them?"

Towers looked up, and a bit of that old determined fire had seemed to fill his eyes again. "What are you asking me? Am I going to murder a bunch of unarmed civilians?"

"From what I've heard, Starfleet's been doing a lot of questionable things lately. There are stories of a special 'security taskforce', black shirted officers, people disappearing. It was only a matter of time before Edgerton's cronies graduated to murder."

"It can't really be true..." Towers said. "Can it?"

Xana nodded slowly. "It is."

"And he's been given emergency powers by the Federation Council." Towers lowered himself into a chair at Xana's bedside, and started rubbing his temple with two fingers. "This..."

"Yes."

"It means..."

"Yes."

"But how?" Towers asked, suddenly slamming a fist onto the armrest of the chair and making Xana jump. "How could he get away with all this? How didn't anyone see--"

"People did see," Xana said. "Jake, and Kane, and the rest of them. They all saw. *We* all saw. That's why we took the Phoenix and ran."

"And I thought you were traitors," Towers said. "I thought..."

"You thought what Edgerton wanted you to think," Xana sighed. "Don't feel too bad, Towers. You're not the only person he had fooled."

Towers sat in silence for a moment, his gaze fixed on the opposite wall. Xana let him be; it couldn't be easy to find out you'd been blindly following a dictator. Even she hadn't seen through Edgerton at first, not until Jake had come back with the CENTURY, and news of the Neo-Essentialists and Edgerton's plot to seize control of the Federation. Then the Romulans attacked Bolarus, and then everything started moving so fast...

"So," Xana said. "What happens now?"

"There are other defectors," Towers said. "Command has been trying to keep it hushed up, but there've been reports of several starships defying orders and going rogue."

"People are starting to wake up."

"We could find them," Towers said. "If they're trying to put together some kind of resistance, they're going to need all the help we can get. And it will probably be safer for you there, anyway."

"Towers," Xana said. "No."

"What?"

"I can't leave," Xana said. She lay back down on the bed, her eyes once more fixed on the ceiling. "Bolarus has its problems but... it's in my blood. Its lands, its people... I'm not turning tail and running off while the Romulans reduce it to rubble."

"You could die here," Towers said.

"I can also do good here," Xana said. "More good than I would out there."

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do. People need my help here, and I'm not going to turn my back on them. I agree Edgerton needs to be stopped, but that's a job for someone else."

Towers didn't look happy, but he didn't press the issue any further. He was probably remembering some of the arguments they'd had when he was commanding GATEWAY Station, and she was assigned there as an ambassador, and remembering how frequently those arguments had ended with Xana getting her own way. She didn't say it, but Xana appreciated him backing off; she just wasn't in any mood to argue right now.

"Edgerton's going to find out my team's gone AWOL," Towers said. "He might send someone else for you."

"I can take care of myself."

"Yes. I suppose you can."

Towers rose from the chair, came to her bedside, and held out his hand. Xana stared at it for a moment, like she didn't recognize what it was.

"It was good to see you again, ambassador," he said.

Xana accepted his offered hand, and they shook. "Take care of yourself, Colonel. Get our Federation back for us."

"I will."

Then he was gone, and she was alone again. Alone with her grief, her memories, her loneliness. She lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling, occasionally dabbing at the tears on her cheek with the corner of her pillowcase, and thought of her family, so far away.

=[/\]=

Location: Bolarus IX
Scene: Transit Hub
Time Index: Present Day


Jake Crichton, along with Dahlia and Ben, stepped off the transporter pad and looked around. Raxl Dreyton had been good enough to get them here, but had demurred when the question of beaming down to the surface alongside them had come up. It was just as well; Jake's reason for being here wasn't exactly social, and while Jake considered Raxl a friend, this wasn't something he would be able to help with.

The transit hub was crowded, as Bolians reunited with loved ones thought lost during the Romulan campaign, merchants argued with customs officials about irksome delays in leaving orbit, and vendors persistently hocked their wares in the direction of anyone who passed by too close. Jake shouldered his rucksack, then reached out to take Ben's hand.

"Stay close to me," he said, as he and his children started to weave their way through the crowd. "We don't want to get separated in this crowd."

"It smells," Dahlia said, wrinkling her nose as she looked around.

From the looks of things, portions of the transit hub had been converted to a makeshift hospital for survivors and refugees. Romulan hostilities had been over for several months now, but Bolarus had been hit hard, and with Edgerton in charge the Federation had neglected to divert any resources towards rebuilding efforts. Vast areas of the city were now a dangerous No Man's Land of half-exploded buildings and twisted wreckage, and Jake guessed that half the hospital's patients were people who'd been hurt while out scavenging. Life was coming back to Bolarus at last, but the scars of the Romulan invasion could still be seen all around.

The Romulans had also knocked out the planet's comm satellites, making communications both planetside and to ships in orbit a patchwork at best. They'd managed to get clearance to beam down, but Jake hadn't been able to raise any kind of government officials, or anyone else who might be able to point him in Xana's direction. He'd at least gotten confirmation she was still alive - the news to and from Bolarus had finally started moving enough for that, at least - but he'd had no luck in contacting her to let her know he and the kids were coming.

"Are we still seeing mommy?" Ben asked.

"That's the plan, kiddo," Jake said.

"There was a war here?" asked Dahlia. "Did mom fight in it?"

"Your mom came to help," Jake said. "Not to hurt anybody."

"But sometimes you have to, in war," Dahlia said. "Don't you?"

"Yeah," Jake said. "Sometimes you do. But don't worry; your mother is fine. And when we track her down, she's going to be very happy to see you."

"And you too," Dahlia smiled at him.

Jake returned the smile, but it was a weak one. He'd been going over and over this in his head the whole way from Earth to Bolarus, and even more once news of humanity's removal from the Federation Council had come through. Though the Neo-Essentialist crisis was over, it had left scars which, like Bolarus', would be a long time healing. When this had all started, he had been ready to walk away from life in Starfleet, and recommit himself to his wife and his children. But then Edgerton had refused his request for shore leave, and so Jake had gone flying off again on the DISCOVERY. Everything that had happened after that had been a matter of grave necessity - they'd discovered Edgerton's plot, and they had to stop him - but through it all Jake had thought he was still ready to put his career on hold and spend some time learning to be a husband and a father.

Now, though...

The Federation needed him again, that was all. A lot of good officers had died in Edgerton's bloody coup, not to mention the 28 million lives in Paris, and right now Starfleet needed all hands on deck. The organization's once sterling reputation was still taking a beating, as more and more decorated officers were outed as Neo-Essentialist agents, and the news was reporting that the public's trust in Starfleet was dropping fast. Now was the time for those officers who had stayed true to the organization's ideals to step up and be counted, to show the galaxy that the ideals of the Federation still mattered.

But that meant he would be leaving. And this time, he didn't think Xana was going to come with him.

=/\=

Scene: Scene: B.O.P. (Bolian Office of Protection) - Director’s office


If it had been Earth it would have been a Sunday; it was Bolarus IX so it was 7th day. Either way it was supposed to be a day for a day of reflection. As a way of dealing with the grief of the last year.

“You’re talking about the discourse by the priests and priestesses,” Loras sighed. “You’re supposed to be reflecting up on it, not critiquing it.”

“Like I’m already not going to the 99 hells,” Xana shrugged as she walked in with her admin trailing her. Raising up her hands she pointed out, “They had a captive audience. They could have done anything with that audience.”

“What do you want the priests and priestess to do? Sing an opera?” Loras asked.

“It would have been an improvement! They had a captive audience to teach us about the Gods,” As they walked down the hallway towards their office she quoted from the readings, “Husbands love your wives and care for your wives. Husbands bow to your wives’ labors.”

“You’re skipping over the part where the wives are to be subject to the husbands and their husbands’ obligations,” Loras pointed out.

Not at all ashamed that she was caught in skipping a part of the reading, Xana agreed, “I do skip that.”

“Why?”

“Cause it’s a dumbass thing,” Xana replied with a dismissive hand gesture. “But that wasn’t even the point.”

Loras groaned. “What is your point?”

“They were hacks! They had an audience and they didn’t know what to do with it. That was a crime -- a crime of oratory,” the Bolian/Human said as she denounced the morning’s religious exercise.

The most bureaucratic of bureaucrats gave her a look. “There is no such thing as a crime of oratory.”

“It’s a DAMN METAPHOR,” Xana yelled. Standing still in the middle of the office she stomped her foot for effect. “Words have the ability to move us from our physical location to somewhere beautiful and bright. They can inspire us to be more than we were a moment ago or the circumstances of our birth. Words are what give our cause meaning, it echoes the music of our hearts and the beating of the drums, and without it we are nothing--”

“You are an oratorical snob.”

“I am and the Gods love me for it.”

“I thought they were sending you to the 99 hells.”

“They are but for other things, not this,” Xana agreed as she began walking again, this time over to see if she could get some water. “You can’t just trot out the Gods and hope it works. The reading today was only partially about husbands and wives. It was about all of us. The passage starts with: Be subject to one another. In this day and age, where we have citizen against citizen, where we’ve strayed against our values, don’t you think we could find meaning in that? If we went back to who we are and truly subject to each other?”

Loras sighed as Xana went looking for a cup. “So it is about you? And this idea you have--”

“No.” Xana paused as she stopped her rummaging around the cabinets for a cup. Turning around she admitted as she rested a hip against a counter, “Ok, fine it’s about me. But tomorrow it’s about anyone. The hacks out there could have turned this moment into so much more.” Sighing she said, “Ok, Loras, get me Senior Staff so we can review rotations--”

Traxx Vara walked over with Nykye Xiranat trailing behind him. “I’m telling her,” Nykye announced. “I found it and I’m telling her!”

Xana looked around Loras and raised an eyebrow.

Nykye raised began waving a PADD. “Your boo came.” When Xana said nothing she clarified. “Your bae.” Still not getting what she considered to be the appropriate response she said, “Your boo-bae? Your bae-boo? I know one of these is right.” Pointing to the wall where there was a banner of “Who we fight for” and holos of the staff’s families she said, “I know your family’s pictures. I pass them everyday like you do. And this is your--boo. Bae. Help me here, Traxx.”

“There is a man here matching the description of your husband. Initial feedback from the undercovers is that he did appear to be Federation,” Traxx said quietly, “Additionally he was traveling with two people matching the descriptions of your youngest children.” Giving her a look the large Bolian man said, “We’ll go with you in case it’s another situation of rebels trying to trap you or B.O.P. but...I agree with Nykye. The probability that this is your husband is high.”

Xana stood there for a second in shock for a moment as she numbly took the surveillance pictures of her family here on Bolarus IX. Lifting up her violet eyes from the PADD, she unexpectedly saw her crusty admin. “Perhaps the readings today were literal,” Loras said quietly.

=/\=

Scene: Just outside the Transit Hub


“I’m hungry.”

Jake tried not to sigh. He was hungry too; he just didn’t announce it loudly in the middle of a crowd who was clearly hurting. “We’ll eat soon,” he promised Ben.

“Where?” Dahlia asked as she looked around.

There was a soft voice from behind them. “I think I could help with that. If you want.”

The three of them whipped around and saw a tall azure woman with short white hair pushed back by black sunglasses that normally protected familiar warm violet eyes; she was dressed all in gray including a protective gray vest over her chest. The weapons were visible but holstered on her hips.

“Mama,” Ben grinned as he broke away from Jake and went running to Xana who caught him easily. Xana knelt down so they could be eye to eye. “Mama?”

“Yes, Benito?”

“IT’S BEN,” the boy explained with great exasperation. “And I’m still hungry.”

“Working on it,” Xana promised while plopping a kiss on his brow. Looking over to Dahlia she paused not wanting to push her daughter. After a moment’s hesitation, just as she was about to get up, the young girl came over and leaned in for a hug and said so quietly that she almost missed it over the din, “I missed you.”

Those three words were as precious as any gift she had ever received. “I missed you too, principessa,” Xana whispered back fiercely as she kissed her daughter’s wrinkled nose.

After a moment, Xana stood up to look at Jake who was standing there patiently. Long time ago, in another quadrant, there was a fight of epic proportions. One of them had been captured by a crazed alien and the other one, hurting and looking for purpose, did the rescuing. When Jake awoke, he thanked Xana for rescuing him and they went their separate ways on the GATEWAY.

There were feelings but it was large station, life was complicated. Love wasn’t to be denied, though. So they came together, and together they were a team. Mostly. There was a lot of coming together - and many separations.

Love alone never sustained a relationship, they could attest to that.

However, they had been together this last time until Xana was bored and worried about Bolarus IX. So this time she left. Be subject to one another, floated up into her mind. She went to lean in to give Jake a greeting, either Bolian or Terran, but wasn’t sure if it would be reciprocated, and she felt a nervous twist of her stomach.

There was love; but also many complications. In that, their relationship really hadn’t changed over the last 8 years.

"Jake," Xana breathed.

"Xana."

But there was love, and for now that pushed aside their uncertainty. They came together, arms wrapped around one another in a vice-grip that, in that instant, no force in the universe could break. Ben made elaborated retching sounds as he watched from nearby, until Dahlia thumped an elbow into his side to shut him up. Ben started to cry and tried to push Dahlia back. This, at last, broke Xana and Jake's embrace, as they became parents once more, pulling their children apart.

"Come on," Xana said. "We can eat in my office. There's not much, but it's edible."

"I want ice cream," said Ben.

=[/\]=

Scene: B.O.P. - Director's Office


There wasn't any ice cream, but there was enough food to take the edge of Ben's hunger, and with it, most of his attitude. Dahlia, Jake, and Xana ate their fill, and then sat back as Ben started picking over the remains of their plates. Meanwhile, they talked. They talked about where they had been, what they had done. Xana told them of her struggles here, working with refugees, trying to get civilians out of the line of fire. She told them about Angus (Ben and Dahlia cried at this, which set Xana off again, and for awhile storytime was put on hold so that the children could comfort their mother), and she told them what had happened when Colonel Towers had come to extract her.

Jake told Xana of their time in the Hyperion Expanse, their problems with the Amaterasu and Arthur Embry. He told her of the budding colony on Elandipole, and the averted Civil War. About the Promethean Device, he gave only the vaguest impression of events (he still had not shared the full-details of that particular horror-show with his own children), and he left out his encounter with his mirror-universe double. Finally, he told the story of the Siege of Earth, and the successful overthrow of Richard Edgerton. Ben and Dahlia chimed in from time to time, adding their own impressions of events.

Though they'd finished their meal quickly, they talked well into the early evening. They ended with Ben asleep in his mother's lap, and Dahlia sprawled out in a nearby chair, also dozing. Finally, Jake and Xana had reached a point in the conversation where there seemed like nothing more to say. Of course, there was - Jake felt it, and he knew that Xana could feel it too - but surely it could keep one more day. For now, at least, they all had their family back, and neither of them was eager to wake up from so sweet a dream.

"Where have you been staying?" Jake asked, his voice pitched low so that he wouldn't wake Ben or Dahlia.

"When I'm not sleeping in my office? I have a small apartment not far from here. It isn't much, but it's more than a lot of people have."

"Maybe we should get the kids in a proper bed," Jake said. "They've had a long day, I think they could use the sleep."

Xana nodded, but she still looked undecided. "Jake, are we going to talk--"

Jake shook his head. "Not now. Yes, but not tonight. Please."

"Okay."

Xana took Benito in her arms. The young boy murmured something in thick sleep talk and then was still. Jake meanwhile had gone to Dahlia, roused her gently, and together they set out for Xana's small apartment. As they went, Xana explained that the neighborhood she called home was, while not safe by Federation standards, far more secure than other sections of the city.

"It's the gangs that are the biggest problem," Xana said, speaking quietly so as not to wake up Ben. "They're more organized, they have the manpower to control whole districts and, therefore, all the food and medical supplies to be scavenged there. What's left of Bolarus' military has managed to drive them out of areas like this, but you still have thousands of desperate, hungry people all living right on top of each other, so sometimes... things happen."

Jake nodded. It sounded similar to the conditions in the camps set up inside the PHOENIX's cargo bay by Limbo refugees, during their trip through the Hyperion Expanse. Take cramped conditions, subtract the supplies necessary to keep everyone fed and warm, and you had yourself a recipe for disaster.

"They're not the only issue, though," Xana sighed. "We've had real problems with unexploded Romulan ordnance. They hit the population centers pretty hard during the invasion, and not every bomb they dropped went off like it was supposed to. I suppose that's a blessing in its own way, but every now and then some poor scavenger disrupts one of the bombs and... well, you can guess."

Jake looked around at the ruined buildings that lined either end of the street. In the darkness, he could just make out the silhouettes of figures creeping along the shadows of those buildings; though whether they were trying to stay out of sight, or sizing up these newcomers as potential targets, Jake couldn't guess.

"You shouldn't have to live like this," he said.

"Nobody should." Xana sighed. "Anyway, it's probably not much worse than what you've had to put up with, living on the run."

"We had replicators," Jake said. "Most of the time anyway."

"Oh, what we'd have done for even a dozen of those, six months ago." Now it was Xana's turn to look around; where Jake had seen ruined buildings and desperate people eking out meager lives, she saw progress. She could remember what it had been like in this area even a few weeks back; though things were still bad, they were getting better.

"Now that the crisis with Edgerton has passed, the Federation should start sending some real relief our way," Xana continued. "It's nice to have some light at the end of the tunnel, after all this time."

They arrived at Xana's building; it had fared better than many, but the top few stories had collapsed. Xana saw Jake frowning up at them and smiled. "It looks better on the inside. Just don't go poking around anywhere above the fourth floor. The structure is stable enough, but there's a lot of damage up there. You could cut yourself on exposed durasteel, or wind up falling through a hole down to one of the lower levels."

"You live here?" Jake asked, still not quite believing it.

Xana shrugged. "It's better than a lot of people have. And best of all, it's secure. We'll be safe."

She nodded a hello to the guard standing outside the building's doors, then led Jake and Dahlia inside. They went up a flight of stairs ("power is still too valuable a commodity for something like turbolifts," Xana explained) and then down a short hall. Xana's apartment was not furnished, save for a nondescript table, a couch, and a small bed in a back room. They lay Benito and Dahlia on the bed, then went back to the living room, taking seat on the couch. Jake put his arm around Xana, who in turn leaned into him, and they sat like that until they had fallen asleep.

=/\=

TI: Next morning


Poke. Poke. Poke.

“Mom. Wake up, I’m bored.”

Yawning and shifting from the warm, if tangled and uncomfortable position she was in, Xana murmured something to Jake who was still half-asleep. Looking at Ben who was standing there looking way too awake for first thing in the morning she put a finger over her lips and led her son away to away. “What?” she whispered.

“Bored,” he announced. As his stomach rumbled he admitted the obvious, “And I could eat.”

So as quietly as they could, Xana and Ben got washed and dressed in record time. Leaving a note for Jake and Dahlia, they left but not before grabbing a tan bag. At the marketplace they bartered for a variety of Bolian fruits, and filled up Xana’s bag.

As they walked back, Ben was noshing on a star fruit, the juice dribbling down his chin. “Is all this for me?”

“No,” his mother grinned. “And you still have to earn that. Everyone earns their keep.”

“I have to make my bed, don’t I?” Ben pouted.

Xana laughed as they made their way to her building. Putting the bag down she grinned. “No.” Nodding at the guard she dug around the bag past the fruit haul of the morning until she found the only non-food item. “We’re playing stoop ball.”

“Ah what now?” the young boy said as he screwed up his face.

Xana chuckled at that; she explained the rules and within a few minutes he was vigorously playing along with her. “I WIN - I AM THE MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE!” Ben announced after he scored a point while doing something that somewhere in some corner could be called a victory dance. Or a seizure. Personally his mother was hoping it was a premature victory dance.

“Keep your shorts on, that’s one point, in one inning,” Xana explained dryly. When Ben gave her a blank look she explained, “Out of nine innings.”

Ben stopped his dancing. “Oh.”

“Who’s this?”

Ben looked around his mother at the newcomers but said nothing, slightly bashful that someone saw his (awesome obviously) victory dance. “This is my son, Ben,” Xana explained to the neighborhood kids she normally played with in the early mornings. Noticing her daughter who was watching it all from the doorway she said, “And that’s my daughter Dahlia.”

Stepping back to let the kids play, she handed out fruit to the kids, and their parents as they came by, and took note of their concerns in the neighborhoods, following up on earlier problems they had given to her.

After a while Xana sat down on an old hovercraft that was left on the side of the road but still within eyesight of the kids. Tapping a communicator that was similar to her old SF commbadge she called into her office. “Bonviva to BOP.”

[[Aren’t you on leave?]] came back the voice of her head of Research.

“And good morning to you too, Nykye,” Xana smiled. “How are we looking this morning?”

[[No but really your lobster is here. I met him yesterday and your off-spring--]] Nykye continued on.

Xana rubbed her face. “You met Jake, he’s Human.”

[[Yes but he’s your Lobster.]]

“He’s my husband not a crustacean, Ooga-Chaka, and I can’t believe I’m having this conversation,” Xana sighed. Digging out the PADD she had been making notes on she began her morning briefing while keeping an eye on her kids. At some point Jake wandered over and while she was wrapping, Xana passed over some fruit that she saved for him. After she wrapped up her briefing she leaned in. “How long have you been up?”

“A while,” he yawned. “It was kind of hard to sleep with the Master of the Universe right under the window.”

Xana chuckled at that and kept watching the kids, nodding to the families who were scattered around who were doing the same. It was nice to be able to enjoy this moment with Jake. “Sorry no coffee this morning,” she explained.

Jake nodded as he finished up the set of berries. “How often do you do this?” he asked while he opened a bottle of filtered water to share.

“Not as much as I’d like,” Xana admitted. Whistling and clapping at one of the kids who got a good hit she admitted, “But it’s fun.”

Nodding at the families milling about Jake mused, “And you learn a lot.” As his wife shrugged, the Engineer asked while passing the water, “What are you doing here?”

The question took her off-guard. The sun was shining, the kids were happy...and they only had so much time to have a painfully difficult conversation. “I was dying on the PHOENIX,” she said softly. “Not literally but--”

“I get it,” Jake nodded.

There was a long silence between them as they watched the kids go from stoopball to tag. “I grew up on EARTH, speak its languages fluently but most people look at me and see a Bolian. And even the Bolian people have embraced me and gave me a religious honor 10 years ago. Then BOLARUS IX was hurting. Jake...how could I turn my back?”

“BOLARUS IX isn’t the only one hurting,” Jake pointed out softly, without recrimination, just raw honesty.

The azure woman with her shocking white hair turned her head to stare at her husband. “I know,” she said softly. “But if I follow you again then we’re stuck in the same position that we were a year ago. That wasn’t good for us. You know it wasn’t. And you’re not in a position to leave, I know better than to ask.”

Jake shook his head. “Xana, this time it’s--”

"I’m not having this fight,” Xana sighed. Leaning her head on his shoulder she said quietly, “I’m sorry. I thought I could give you anything, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t do this.”

Briefly Jake closed his eyes. “I was planning to make it my turn this time.”

Xana smiled at that wistfully. “Oh Jacob.”

“I could have done it.”

“I’m not pregnant.”

“What's that got to do with anything?”

“That’s the last time you did it.” And Xana finally was able to laugh, “And you took a posting right after the Master of the Universe was born.” Twisting her head up she said, “I love you, Jake, but let’s be honest: you would have poked your eyes out with a spoon.”

As Jake sighed while wrapping an arm around Xana, he said “I meant it.” They sat in companionable silence before Jake sighed, “The universe has changed. I know we keep saying that but it has. I... I have to stay in the ‘Fleet."

"I know."

"You were ‘Fleet, once,” Jake continued.

"And I was a Federation Ambassador, and then I was the Secretary to Starfleet. Now I’m the Director of Bolian Office of Protection. I’ve always served at the pleasure of the Federation,” she shrugged. Looking over at Jake she said, “You do the same, just in a different capacity.”

"And neither of us can give that up."

"No," Xana said quietly. "I suppose we can't."

Jake was very quiet as he watched some of the kids go, and some more come in, watching with interest at how Dahlia and Ben interacted as “the new kids”. He had an idea they were approaching some final terminus, the last stop of their lives together, and he let the silence draw out between them like a blade, suddenly desperate to prolong this moment for as long as the universe would let him. He and Xana leaned against each other, watching as their children played with the other neighborhood kids, forming those easy bonds that children always seem able to form so quickly. That was a trick Jake wished he could remember.

And then, finally: “How do we do this?"

Xana closed her eyes; she recognized this voice. It was Jake’s “engineering voice”. The “we have a problem and I won’t be happy until I’ve torn it apart and have fixed it ten ways to the Delta Quadrant” voice. “Jake...did you ever think that not every problem has a solution? Or maybe not a solution that we like?”

“Yes, I've thought of that.”

Xana opened her eyes to look at Jake and realized he had come to the same conclusion that she had. It broke her heart, to see her grim certainty reflected in his eyes (**pale blue,** she thought fleetingly), but she could hardly fault him for it. They were who they were, and their lives had set them on different paths, that was all. Jake could no more turn his back on the Federation than she could. Their shared commitment to that ideal was part of what made their love so strong. That was cold comfort, as it was now what would keep them apart, but that didn't make it any less true. Jake could step away, could work at being the devoted family man he was always falling short of in his own mind, but it would only ever be an act, and it would make him that much less the man she loved. Likewise, she could step away from public service and become the dutiful wife, staying behind in their shared quarters to wring her hands endlessly every time he was away on some assignment or other. But they had tried those compromises, and a dozen more.

It was time to stop pretending.

"The kids..." Xana started, blinking away the tears that had already started welling up in her eyes. She wiped them away absently. "This isn't the best place for them, I know... my work here should be almost done, once we get some real Federation aid. Maybe you could keep them until I move back to Earth. Then I... we..."

But the tears were still coming, and a sob racked her chest. Jake held her close.

"Shhh," he said, his lips against her temple. "Shhh. It's okay."

"Gods, Jake..." she whispered. "Is this really how it ends? Is this the story of us?"

Jake didn't say anything. Xana felt his tears, dripping off his chin to land on her clavicle. The sensation gave her goosebumps. They had always been each others' blind spot, hadn't they? Both of them, led inexorably to this decision, and now they were here, it seemed neither one of them could pull the trigger.

"How do we tell them?" Jake asked.

"We need to be honest," Xana said. "And we need to make sure they understand, this was nothing to do with them."

"They'll understand that."

"I think Benito will take it well enough," said Xana. "But Dahlia... she already lost one father, Jake. She needs to know she isn't losing you too."

"I'll always be there for her."

"I know that. She needs to--"

Just then, a tinny chirp sounded from Xana's communicator. She'd always suspected that communicators were programmed to go off at exactly the worst possible moment, and she briefly considered throwing the tiny device into the street to be kicked and stomped by the neighborhood kids. But then she remembered why she was here - what she was walking away from her marriage for. She smiled apologetically at Jake (though there was little warmth in it), extricated herself from his embrace, and activated the communicator.

"This really isn't a good time."

[[Sorry, ma'am,]] the voice of Nykye sounded back from the device. [[We have an incoming communication, ma'am. From off-world.]]

"If it's some merchant asking for transporter clearance--"

[[No, ma'am. The call is from Earth.]]

Even in her emotional state, this caught Xana off-guard. BOLARUS IX's comm network was in ruins; communication from orbit was often spotty at best. If someone had taken the trouble to patch a call through from another planet, they must have something they really needed to say.

"They're asking for the BOP, or the interim civilian government?" Xana asked.

[[Neither, ma'am. They're asking for you. By name.]]

Jake and Xana traded a glance.

"Me?"

[[The transmission isn't altogether clear,]] Nykye said. [[I guess they had to bounce it around several times to get it through to us. The caller is saying his name is Karimi.]]

Xana sat forward now. "Hussein Karimi?"

[[Couldn't say,]] Nykye replied. [[Do you know him, ma'am?]]

"Yes, a lifetime ago," Xana sighed. "Keep the comms open, Nykye. I'm coming in."

[[Yes ma'am.]]

Xana deactivated the communicator, then turned to Jake, who was smiling slightly.

"Duty calls?" he asked.

"It always does. You'll watch the kids for me?"

"Of course," Jake said, his eyes drifting back out to where their children were playing. "Xana... If I saw any way to make this work... if *you* saw any way--"

Xana leaned forward then, and kissed her husband for what might well have been the last time.

=[/\]=

Scene: B.O.P. - Xana's Office


She cried the whole way back to the BOP offices, stopping outside the door just long enough to wipe the evidence away from her eyes. She sucked in a lungful of breath, steeling herself, and returned back to work. It came with less effort than she thought it would; but then, going back to the job had always been easy, like slipping into a warm bath. Soon, she found herself seated behind her desk, staring at the badly deteriorated viewscreen image of Hussein Karimi.

"Hussein?" Xana asked, not quite able to tell if it was really him from around all the sensor static.

{{Xana Bonviva,}} came the garbled reply from the other end. {{It has been too long.}}

"It has," Xana said, putting on her best politician's smile. It felt weak, which was probably right considering the conversation she'd just been pulled away from, but it was apparently still good enough to get the job done. From thousands of lightyears away, Karimi smiled back.

{{You are missed in the Assembly,}} Karimi said. {{How is Bolarus? You are safe, I hope.}}

"Safe enough, at the moment," Xana nodded. "To what do I owe the pleasure, Hussein? You went to a lot of trouble to get me on a comm-screen."

{{These are interesting times,}} Karimi said. {{You've heard the news from the Federation Council? Earth has lost its permanent spot on the Council.}}

Xana nodded. That was one of the things Jake had mentioned to her the afternoon before; at the time, it had been one of a dozen terrible things, most of them eclipsed by the news of the total destruction of the city of Paris. She'd not yet had the time to really process what Earth's removal from its permanent seat on the council meant, for humanity or for the Federation.

"I've been told, but I'm afraid you might be wasting your time," Xana said. "I burned most of my political contacts when I flew off in the PHOENIX. I don't have any strings left to pull, not for something like this."

{{Recent events have put the theft of the PHOENIX in a more sympathetic light,}} Karimi said. {{You might have more allies left than you think.}}

"If you really think so," Xana shrugged. "I could try to make some noise. But our comm situation on BOLARUS IX isn't stable, and I'm not in a position to leave right now."

But Karimi was already waving this off. {{I have it on good authority; Bolarus will be receiving the aid it's been calling for, and more. With the Neo-Essentialist crisis resolved, there's a great deal of public support for reconstruction efforts after the Romulan invasion.}}

"Hussein, that's..." Xana said, trying to absorb the full import of what he'd told her. "That's great news! There are a lot of people here who the Federation can help--"

{{Yes, yes,}} Karimi interrupted. {{Bolarus has been seen to. I was hoping that might be enough to convince you to come back to your *other* home. Earth needs you, too.}}

"Hussein," Xana said, looking around. "I appreciate whatever hand you may have had in ensuring aid for Bolarus, but until things are more stable, this is where I can do the most good."

{{Not at all, Xana,}} Karimi said, smiling an unctuous smile. {{I'm running for a seat on the Federation Council, and I could use your help.}}

"Earth just *lost* its seat on the council," Xana said.

{{The end of one chapter, the beginning of another,}} Karimi said, waving this off as well. {{The president did humanity a disservice when he stripped us of our council seat, Xana, and I think you agree with me. Earth is as much your home as Bolarus. You've fought for one of them, now I ask you to come fight for the other.}}

"Hussein," Xana said. "What are you asking me to do?"

{{Tell me, Xana Bonviva,}} Karimi said, smiling that unctuous smile once more. {{Have you ever served as anyone's campaign manager before?}}

=[/\]=

NRPG: Lots going on here. Jake and Xana have officially decided to separate; their lives will always be pulling them away from each other. But also, Earth's latest political rising star wants Xana's help managing his campaign... which means Xana Bonviva might be heading back to Earth after all!

A Joint-Post by...

Sarah Albertini-Bond
Xana Bonviva

and

Shawn Putnam
a.k.a.
Jake Crichton
Chief Engineering Officer
USS PHOENIX