Chapter One
Recreation Deck, USS Illustrious NCC-1863
Miranda-class light cruiser on Klingon border patrol
Stardate 7439.76, 19th October 2272Andrea looked up from her musings to give a chagrined smile to her opponent. No matter what she could think of, it only ended up differing in how many moves she was beaten in. The lanky beanpole of a figure sitting opposite her tried to affect a look of infinite patience and total innocence at her fate but only succeeded in looking infinitely
smug.
“Looks like you got me again, Indra,” she told him, managing to keep
most of the annoyance out of her voice—which only made him exude more smugness, knowing what she was like and what his own reaction did to her.
Now if we could just harness this power we’d have that regenerating energy source Humanity has been looking for all these centuries…Indra Gunawan grinned a big, toothy grin and cranked up his smugness again, knowing he needn’t say anything yet.
Andrea rolled her eyes and blew out an exasperated breath. Then she stood up and took a deep breath.
The rest of the occupants of the Rec Deck all turned their eyes towards her almost as one, having anticipated this event from the moment someone had noticed their chess game starting and secretively passed this tidbit to the entire volume of the two-deck room.
Though somewhat inured to it by now, Andrea still felt her cream complexion colour slightly as she made good on her boast—on
losing it, that was.
“Oh Indra, Mighty Scion of the House of Gunawan, Wise and Sagacious beyond your youthful years, and Holder of the Title of Chess Grand Master, I once again Acknowledge and Bow to your Vast Superiority in this most Ancient and Noble Battle of Intellects!” she loudly proclaimed to the entire Rec Deck in a voice that wavered only slightly from her own self-mortification. Gamely continuing, she uttered, “I hereby now do imbue you with Many and Varied Bragging Rights, and transfer unto you another magnitude of smugness with which to crown your Magnificent Achievement.”
The entire room—over fifty of her crewmates, most from the Beta shift to which she belonged—seemed to be grinning from ear to ear or at least trying to hide a smirk, and no doubt many a cautionary tale or proverb would one day sprout from this event, the latest in a so far fortunately brief string of defeats. Indra himself seemed to be practically glowing, radiating so much smugness and glee was he.
The Malaysian engineer cashed in his smirk in exchange for a wide grin as he too now stood up, and also speaking in a voice loud enough to be heard across the open-plan two-deck room, gloated good-naturedly.
“Why thank you, Young Challenger and Harbourer of Much Potential. I’m sure that at some far distant point in the future, your skills will somewhat approach mine as they are now,” he stated wisely, playing to his audience, “and until that heady day I shall be
honoured to continue tutoring you in the Ways of Chess.”
He made a grand gesture of magnanimity, which seemed to be a signal to the rest of the rooms’ occupants as they burst into good-natured jeering and catcalling.
Andrea flushed, much as she had done several times before, her usually unflappable mien rent asunder by her vividly red cheeks. She took it well, though as she knew it was her due for razzing Indra quite mercilessly—if not so publicly—in everything she could beat him at. Putting her best face on it, she asked him—she managed to stop her tone making it an outright challenge—in a voice loud enough to cut through the hubbub, “Well played, Indra. Would you care to spar with me in the gym now?”
Indra was nothing if not smart. Knowing full well the measure of his opponent, he knew that no matter how hard she would try to be fair, her thirst for revenge would out and he’d take quite the knockabout. Playfully, of course, as he didn’t think there was a mean bone in her body, but it would be a knockabout nonetheless.
Still grinning widely, he replied, “I don’t think so. I’m quite liable to lose more than I’m willing to bet you there.”
Andrea nodded, a small, genuine grin of her own at the probable results and his knowledge of them. “Another time then,” she agreed, and they both walked over to the group of junior officers for some playful razzing of the vanquished.
Andrea endured it with good grace and few blushes, bearing them no ill will for it but all the time thinking,
That’ll teach me not to be so full of myself. Damn! I was so sure
I’d figured him out, and then he goes and wipes the board with me again! You’d think I’d have learned more than a few chess strategies over these past few months…Bridge, USS IllustriousAndrea sat at the Helm station, staring resolutely forward at the main viewscreen, interspersed with the occasional sweep of her instruments.
She deliberately did
not look to her right. She knew what she would see: Garn staring myopically at her wearing the comically belligerent look that passed for the Tellarite version of a smug grin.
The whole incident of this afternoon’s chess game and the subsequent knowing looks everyone gave her distinctly reminded her of when she’d set up a birthday surprise for Garn, except for the tiny detail that she’d been on the other side of the equation that time—and that her event had been a
nice surprise aimed at making the furry navigator feel better about his shipboard life. But then again, if she ever dared voice that complaint, Andrea herself would be the first to admit that she’d set herself up for this fall.
These past few chess games were still few enough that it was still an event for everyone to talk about, and people she barely knew the names of passed her in the corridors with friendly smirks.
Great. I’m a flamin’ celebrity, was the usually-accompanying thought to her mental grimace.
She resisted for a while, but just knowing that it was there waiting for her made it inevitable that she’d try to sneak a peek. So, as surely as a star’s gravity pulls in a comet, she felt her gaze being drawn towards the navigator.
As expected, he met her sneaked glance with the look of an outraged boar and bared his wide, flat, herbivorous teeth in a threatening snarl—the equivalent Tellarite expression for “gleefully smug”. On making eye contact with her, he chuckled deeply, quietly. In an equally quiet voice, he said, “Ah, my Andrea, I think I have proved that Klingon proverb wrong.”
Andrea looked at him in open surprise at his apparent
non-sequitur, and her own raised eyebrows coaxed his up as well. He wiggled them appreciatively at her and she managed to stifle a snort of amusement.
“Revenge is also very sweet when served warm,” he told her, then paused for effect before adding, “and it is very warm on your face right now, Monkey-Girl!”
Andrea felt an automatic, genuine flash of irritation at his original—and quite literal—pet name for her. She still hadn’t been able to figure out over the intervening months
why it bothered her so, but she couldn’t seem to help that it
did. She supposed her reaction was due to the words seeming to be a racial epithet, even though he said it in genuine good humour just to get a rise out of her, but she couldn’t say for sure. As always she suppressed it and comforted herself with the knowledge that she consistently labelled
him with mildly insulting porcine attributes, though she never said them out loud.
They weren’t quite
that good of friends just yet.
Almost instantly dismissing her irritation, her smile at Garn was genuine, if full of chagrin. “You’re loving this, aren’t you?” she asked him in a similarly low voice.
“I
am,” he replied with relish. “Now you know what if feels like to be the main topic for discussion for nearly four hundred people.”
“Garn, I hardly think your experience compares to mine,” she objected condescendingly. “Everyone was talking about you, yes, but no one was laughing at you. They were making friends with you, for the love of Kera and Phinda!”
“Your invoking of the twin Moons is not going to lessen my enjoyment of my revenge,” the navigator snorted primly, the humour still in his black eyes.
“Oh, for…!” Andrea retorted in good-natured exasperation. “It’s not even
your revenge! Did you plan it? Did you execute such a plan? No! I just made an arse out of myself”—
again—“and
everyone, not just you, is enjoying the spectacle. This is
so not your revenge,” she asserted defiantly. Pointlessly, but defiantly nonetheless.
“Protest and rationalise it all you like, Andrea, it doesn’t change the fact that
I am enjoying
your comeuppance. Thus,
I have
my revenge,” he stated pompously and with finality, indicating the issue was closed.
Andrea knew from experience that arguing with a Tellarite after such a proclamation was tantamount to challenging them to a duel, and the point wasn’t worth the effort she’d already expended on it. Deciding to cut her losses, Andrea retreated with a few well-placed comments of Civil Conversation.
“You’re more stubborn than a Terran mule, you jack-ass, and I’d get a more intelligent debate from arguing a bulkhead,” she told him with a glint in her eye.
His cheeks ballooned with pleasure at the chance to speak in his own manner. “Well, if you’d stop preening yourself like an overstuffed
nyeeka bird and pull your brains up from those overripe
chuk’ta fruits attached to the front of your body,
you’d realise that the bulkhead had won its debate as well!”
“Ah-
ha! I
knew it!” Andrea exclaimed suddenly. Narrowing her eyes in malevolent amusement, she told him, “You keep your beady little eyes
off my
chuk’ta fruits, you lecherous warthog!”
Unfortunately, their escalating banter had reached the hearing organs of the officer in the centre seat, who brought it to an abrupt end. “Unless the two of you would like to retire to your quarters for the next few
days to continue your stimulating discussion, I’d advise you to wait until you are off duty before you go any further.”
The entire Beta-shift bridge crew either suppressed grins or turned to face their stations so that they
could grin at Lieutenant Commander Arruntha’s rebuke. The Saurian second officer displayed a far-too-insightful knowledge of the conversational conventions of other species, and though he no doubt knew that they were having a Tellarite Civil Conversation, he also knew that the bridge standards of decorum must be maintained.
Once again, Andrea coloured beautifully and locked her eyes rigidly forward in acute embarrassment, while Garn merely bobbed his head and chuckled almost inaudibly.
Damnit girl, will you never
learn? Andrea silently lambasted herself.
Just because the Captain isn’t here or that Arruntha isn’t the Ice Queen doesn’t mean you can carry on like a fool! If you don’t break this habit now
, the first time you do it under Commander Donally’s eye will be the last
time you’re on the Alpha shift! That she had managed to avoid slipping up like that during the four weeks of her double-shift punishment detail, where she’d also worked the Alpha shift under the Exec’s exacting standards, was more likely due to her tiredness and extreme nervousness at working directly under Commander Donally than any effort of willpower. If she ever actually became comfortable enough in the frosty climate of the Alpha shift, she’d have to watch her behaviour—or watch her career end after it had barely began.
“Mr. Brown, please list any and all navigational hazards and Notices to Spacefarers in the areas along our projected course,” Arruntha suddenly ordered. “Without checking the databanks, if you please, Lieutenant?” he added on seeing her start to press buttons on her console.
Ah, crap! Andrea blurted inwardly. She should have expected this, having seen it happen to a couple of other officers on the Beta shift already in these past few months. Arruntha may indeed be an easy-going and discreet being, but he was also a conscientious officer. He would allow you some leeway with the bridge decorum protocols, some banter to keep the mood light, and even some gentle but to-the-point chiding instead of an official reprimand if you crossed the line by his lights.
However, if you had crossed that line, he would make sure you were up to speed in your duties. If you weren’t…
Andrea at once racked her brain for the updates she’d read since the beginning of her shift and from the shift change briefing itself. As was usual in these “on-the-spot” sessions, her brain froze up for a second before she willed herself to relax. It was becoming easier to do that after four years at the Academy, but it still occasionally plagued her. In an emergency she’d found herself to be calm and controlled, but being tested for information…
Hell, that’s what science officers are for! she thought in mild outrage.
After what had seemed like ages but must only have been a few seconds, the information she sought came to mind. Pointedly trying to ignore those seconds of silence, she cleared her throat before giving her report.
“Commander, there is an ion storm intersecting our patrol course in 2.7 hours. It has been dissipating for days already and is down to a Class I-2 rating as of last report four hours ago. There are three Notices for this and the surrounding sectors, one being the on-going advisory to all civilian traffic that the Klingon border sectors are to be avoided if at all possible due to the ‘unauthorised’ raids on Federation shipping by ‘disaffected’ Klingon Great House vessels.”
Andrea’s emphasis on certain words of that report made plain her feelings on the issue while maintaining a nominally professional demeanour. Arruntha’s nasal cavities whistled ever-so-slightly, indicating to those who knew that he was mildly amused. He allowed Andrea to continue without comment.
“Notice Two is another advisory from Starfleet, to avoid a one light-year sphere around system s1022 while warp speed trials are carried out. The third is to reinforce the exclusion zone of five light-years around the Gamma 7A system while Starfleet science vessels continue to examine the system and surrounding space for lingering effects from the destruction of the giant space amoeba.”
Andrea couldn’t help but smirk as she said those last three words aloud. It just seemed so improbable, so fantastical, as to defy acceptance. Even though she’d seen the logs from the
Enterprise on the creature, and even though Starfleet had lost an entire starship and her crew—and very nearly lost the second sent to investigate her disappearance—she still couldn’t say “giant space amoeba” without having to resist the urge to smile mockingly. Even on the visual logs themselves the creature hadn’t seemed real or credulous, but its effects were all too real. Getting back to the matter at hand, she added, “This concludes my report, Commander.”
Arruntha’s soft voice came from behind her again. “You are quite sure you haven’t forgotten anything, Lieutenant?”
Controlling the brief flash of panic those words caused her, Andrea calmly ran through everything she remembered about the topic. Satisfied she hadn’t forgotten anything, she replied, “Yes, Sir.”
“Very good, Lieutenant. Carry on,” he told her, and lapsed into silence again.
Feeling relieved that she’d not gotten yelled at for missing something, Andrea almost fell into the belief she’d passed the Second Officer’s test. However, even as she relaxed her posture, a tingling feeling in her mind warned her to check the logs anyway. Trying not to make it look obviously hurried, she brought up the requisite data.
She was horrified to find that her intuition had been correct. There was something she’d missed out. Trying to maintain her façade of normalcy, she took the plunge and spoke up. “Commander, I was mistaken. There is a second navigational hazard, code D-10.” This was a serious hazard, as it indicated a derelict object of the highest danger level. Andrea managed to swallow her nervousness at missing a Class 10 danger and pushed on with her addendum. “On bearing 017 mark 349 at two light-years’ distance is a radioactive gravitic mine that no one’s been able to get close enough in and destroy because it is still active and primed. It is not along out projected course but should be close enough to detect on sensors as we pass through that sector.”
“I see. Thank you, Lieutenant Brown,” the Saurian responded, his voice still soft. Addressing the bridge at large, he announced, “Everyone, your attention please.”
Topic: Star Trek Illustrious: Klingon Incursion - Introduction (Read 3626 times)