It Just Takes Some Time Little Girl You're in the Middle of the Ride

Posted on May 26, 2014 @ 8:06pm by Captain Tim Layne
Edited on on Oct 26, 2015 @ 2:27pm

Mission: The Tangled Webs We Weave
Location: Various

“It just takes some time, little girl you're in the middle of the ride.”

(Con’t from “There’s gotta be a morning after”)

Location: Olvactin Nebula, 6 ly from ORION
Stardate: 2.140409.0015
Scene: Bridge, PANDORA

It was dark on the bridge, and chilly. It was like this across the entire ship as a matter of fact. When a call went out to action stations, several things happened, all meant to free up additional power so that it could be shunted towards weapons and shields. The PANDORA was a rescue ship, and often times that meant shooting headfirst into the worst situations people could find themselves in. Her CO wouldn't have it any other way.

“They’re powering weapons!” This announcement from the Operations panel broke the silence on the bridge. Outside, three freighters, which had since been rebuilt into heavy duty raider vessels, joined up for an assault run on the Federation ship. Not far away, the civilian cargo ship drifted, their crew no doubt desperately trying to restore engines to get away from their attackers.

The Captain of the PANDORA frowned as he ran his fingers through his thick mane of hair. This wasn't going to be a fight, it was going to be a figurative slaughter. “Bring us over them in a parabolic arc. Lock phasers onto the two flanking ships and shock the lead.” He commanded. This was no challenge.

Flight conn executed the maneuver with simple ease, the PANDORA handling like a European sports car. Behind the Captain, Tactical put dorsal phasers to the engines of the left ship, and ventral phasers to the ship on the right. The ship’s weapons, frighteningly powerful, lanced through the pirate’s shields and devastated all propulsion, leaving them dead in the water.

Following that, a massive pulse rippled out of the navigational deflector, drilling the lead ship squarely. Upon impact, the energy carried by this pulse wrought havoc on the pirate freighter’s power distribution, shorting, and even blowing out power conduits and lines. Only the most hardwired and dedicated systems were spared the wrath of the PANDORA. Inwardly, the Federation ship’s XO hoped and prayed that life support were among those, because he knew his Captain didn't frequently share that desire.

“Drop a comm bug onto the hull of the lead ship,” Tim said, “And force the link to their main screen.”

Outside, from the forward torpedo tube, a small probe was launched. It struck the lead pirate’s ship on the comm array with a minimum of force, and upon impact, used whatever power the ship had remaining to pry open a communications link.

The effect on the Orion pirates was immediate. One moment they were sitting in the dark, scrambling to get anything working, the next moment, their main screen had come to life, illuminating the bridge and filling their field of view with him.

“The Black Lion,” The Orion pirate sneered, her delicate and beautiful featured marred by stress and shock. “Why don’t you beam over so we can talk face to face?”

“I love it when you talk dirty, Commander Velene.” Tim spat back in perfect Orion. While his ship could still provide translation, this was as much a psychological tactic as it was a display of skill. She now knew she couldn't issue orders in a clandestine manner, using gutter Orion, which killed yet another avenue of action. “But business first.” He added with a wicked smirk.

“You have us at the disadvantage, speak your piece.” The Orion woman snapped.

“Fine,” Tim retorted, sitting back down. He wasn't going to show her an ounce of respect. “You've ran wreck on these shipping lanes long enough. The Federation asked the PANDORA to ensure the safety of the civilians. Now, I’mma let you go, but if I catch you personally again, I don’t stop shooting until you’re nothing but space debris, and I promise you, I've got the guns to do it.”

“And that’s it?” She asked with a quizzical look. “You let us walk?”

Tim smirked at her response. “No, you don’t just walk. We’re gonna have ourselves a conversation, on my ship, and on my terms.”

Before she could even say anything, the fierce Captain gave a nod to his right, and watched as, whether she liked it or not, the Orion woman began dematerializing.

Given the nature of being broken down into one’s constituent atoms and then being broadcast across space, to spend time in a buffer, Velene hadn’t a clue how long she was energy instead of a person. All she knew was, she’d been transported into a small conference room, alone, and unmercifully, unarmed.

There, she sat for over an hour before the door finally hissed open. “Hello Velene, I want Z’aalrik, that’s all.” The Black Lion said as he sat down in front of her, his voice a baritone rumble.

Velene frowned, the expression unflattering to her. “I give you Z’aalrik, I’m dead. You’ll just throw me in prison. I’ll take my chances in the cooler.” She said flatly. It was not what Tim wanted to hear.

With no effort, he tossed the table between them aside, and tackled the woman down to the ground, his weight and the impact forcing the air out of her. The ferocity in his eyes was unmistakable as he hauled her to her feet by the straps on her halter. “Where is he?!” Tim shouted into her face.

“I don’t know!” Velene screamed, nearly tearing up from shock and fright. Starfleet wasn’t supposed to act like this, that much she knew. “I swear I don’t know!”

“You’re lying.” Tim said, his mouth millimeters from her ear, his breath hot against her neck. Like he’d hoped, the goosebumps on her arms and shoulders were a dead giveaway to the unwilling reaction it’d caused. “Just tell me the truth.” He asked through gritted teeth.

“I… I… I don’t know, he doesn’t tell us so this can’t happen! We drop shipments at transmitted coordinates hours before the drop’s supposed to go down!”

Tim smiled. The pirate freighters were still down comms, and with the virus that the PANDORA’s comm bug had planted, any ship running the frequencies the Orion pirates were using would also get infected. It was a good take.

“Thanks, that’ll be all.” Tim said to Velene, immediately calm and cool. As he turned to walk away, the now angry, frustrated, and confused pirate woman called back to him.

“You’re just gonna leave me like this? You rough me up and walk away. Word was you actually had a thing for green girls!” She taunted. The effect on him was immediate, and pleasing to the pirate captain. He turned on his heel, shaking his long hair off his shoulders, and pushed her up against the wall again, still rough, but not violent this time.

Tim leaned into her hair again and whispered. “Yep.” He said before turning and walking away again, leaving the green pirate alone.


Location: Starbase 5
Stardate: 2 days later (0245 hours)
Scene: PANDORA’s Crew Wing

There was a chirp on Tim’s comm, the beeping loud enough to shake him from the spacing he was doing. As a ship captain, there was actual work he had to do, even when his ship was docked. This part of it wasn’t in the job description. It was supposed to be tooling around in one of the most awesome ships in the fleet, shooting bad guys and rescuing good guys and letting the diplomacy and exploration get handled by people actually trained for that kinda crap.

But hell no, crew rosters, duty forms, requisitions! He had not only a first officer for this, but a second one, he absently pondered what the hell they were doing about this mess, when the chiming on his comm got extremely insistent.

“Right, phone.” He muttered, pulling a bathrobe on over his massive shoulders and chest. He tapped the answer button, and was only slightly surprised by what he saw.

“Hi daddy!” the beautiful young woman said from the other end of the line. This was immediately suspect however. He was Dad most of the time, Daddy-O when she was in a good mood, Father when he’d pissed her off, but Daddy was reserved for either the best of times, or worst.

“Pira Vell!” He replied to his daughter, using the Orion word for wise queen. “How’s San Diego?” He asked, hoping her greeting was a good Hi Daddy and not a bad one.

Amaryllis smiled sweetly, looking heartbreakingly like her mother when she did. “It’s great! After this I’ve got one last show for a month!” She said, her eyes bright. “I was going to see if you could take some time so we could get together.” She added this with that near Luciferic charm she’d developed.

Tim smiled at his daughter, so proud of her. Playing professionally, doing the music she wanted to do, and burning just bright enough to keep going a good long while. It’d nearly killed him when she’d hit him with the emancipation papers on her 17th birthday, but when she explained it was to actually go on tours and record albums, he couldn’t refuse.

On the outside though, he let his smile falter. “Commodore Hannah wants me on Z’aalrik’s ass. I can’t let off honey, I’m so sorry.”

Across the line, Amaryllis’ wide grin did the same. “Oh, ok daddy. I gotta run, I love you!”

“I love you too Pira Vell.” He replied, kissing his fingertips and pressing them to the screen. She replied in like, and then severed the connection.

Location: Brisbane, Australia
Stardate: 5 more days later
Scene: Queensland Performing Arts Centre

The lights were dim as the near capacity crowd settled in for the show. On the stage, a single spotlight illuminated a concert sized grand piano, the black lacquered wood shining under a perfect polish to near mirror reflectivity. For a moment, there was the utmost silence, before a whoop of applause shattered the quiet.

Another spotlight, much smaller, lit up the right side of the stage, and the cause for the applause became evident. The golden green musician, known publically only as ‘Ryllis, strode across the stage. Dressed in a long black skirt, red lace bustier, and a black puff sleeved shirt, she looked gorgeous but not to frilly. Her raven hair was tied and styled in a quirky updo of braids, ornamented by softly glowing beads here and there.

Wasting no time, she smiled at the crowd, sat down at the piano, and began to play.

”I told you that I’d never cry for you
I had a million reasons to keep a smile
But we’re a disaster through and through
Boy nothing’s gonna change it now

I wish I knew how to how to hurt you right
So you could leave and never ever say goodbye
But after the smoke cleared after our last fight
I think there’s still too much left to say”

As she played, she tapped the fourth pedal on her piano, which allowed the keyboard to rise on hidden anti-grav generators. Keyed to a small chip in one of her bustier buttons, it followed her around as she rose, danced a few slow spins, and finally, with an impressive grace, brought herself atop her own piano without missing a note.

The audience ate this performance up, but when the lights kicked in, and the curtain dropped revealing the rest of her band, the show got really bright.

It was after she show, backstage, however, where the real difficulty of performing professionally reared it’s head. Amaryllis was chased by reporters, fans, her agent, other agents who wanted to be her agent, makeup and wardrobe specialists, it was hell.

Making quick excuses, the exhausted young woman darted into her dressing room, letting her agent handle the mess. Letting the door shut behind her, she leaned against it, exhaled, and blew an errant strand of hair out of her eyes.

“Hell of a show,” greeted her, scaring the poor girl half to death. She hadn’t even noticed anyone in her dressing room when she’d ducked in to hide. She would’ve said something to her dad but she was tackled by her brothers, only ten and almost as big as her already.

“Dad’s right, hell of a show.” Aiden said, hugging her waist.

“You dress funny,” Keiran said, but still kissed her cheek anyways.

Still trying to speak, but unable to, she, and her brothers were all scooped up by her dad, who squeezed them all a bit too tight. Finally he let go and Amaryllis could catch her breath. “Dad, I thought you had a job to do and couldn’t get here. Did you lie to me?” She asked in a stern tone. Gods above and below she could turn into her mother in no time.

“No sweetheart,” Tim replied. “But something went wrong in engineering, we had to get her back to PLANITIA to get it fixed.”

“Dad happened to Engineering is what I heard.” Keiran mumbled as he fussed with his shirt.

“Dad always happens to Engineering.” His big sister replied, kissing her brothers both on the cheek, making extra sure that she smeared a proper amount of lipstick on the both of them.

Looking at his family, it amazed Tim how they’d grown. Keiran was whip thin but wiry, taller now than his brother, and kept his black hair long. Aiden was broad, a couple inches shorter, and kept his blonde hair in more or less manageable length. Their attitudes weren’t much different, Keiran still didn’t approve of much of anything, and Aiden would blithely stumble his way into Gre’thor with a goofy grin on his face. Amaryllis had grown into a woman, something that no science or technology that Tim could get his hands on could prevent. She was more beautiful than her mother already, and carried herself with a double dose of fierce pride. While she wasn’t biologically Tim’s daughter, it was often hard to tell. She’d developed the independent country attitude with no issue, tolerated bullshit not a whit, and shared the dark hair and high cheekbones of her adopted dad.

“What, I warned the ChEng that there was something wrong in the secondary relays on deck 16, but did he listen? Hell no, it was all ‘Cap’n, I know you built this thing but I gotta keep it runnin’ day in and out, and if there was something wrong in the relays, I woulda known about it!’ and of course the damn things blow not a day later. It’s a good thing we were still docked when they did!”

“Daddy, sabotaging your own ship wasn’t the way to come see me play,” Amaryllis said softly. “But I’m glad you did.”

“Yep, that’s what daddies do.” He replied, hugging his children again. “Aunt Xana invited us to Italy, by the way, so get your press outta the way so I can have some s’ghetti.”

Tim Layne
Pretending to be a Starfleet Captain
USS PANDORA



NRPG:

Sarah, thought the invite was too good to ignore. Just had to stage, erm... experience a small accident.