Darkness On Evora
Posted on Tue Jan 17th, 2023 @ 8:49am by Commander Arianna Frost
Edited on on Tue Jan 17th, 2023 @ 7:20pm
3,570 words; about a 18 minute read
Mission:
Season 1 Interlude II (E5.5)
Location: Starfleet Facility on Evora
Timeline: sometime after Baz's Bazaar
Captain Rasahni Korra guest written by Kaichi (formerly Kara Madavi)
“I am glad I let you talk me into taking a few days off.”
Two women walked down the hall of a Starfleet transfer station on Evora, just an hour’s hop over from Risa. The two were now returning to Starbase 211 where one would resume her Command of the station, whilst the other returned to her job, hidden behind walls and walls of secrets, smoke, mirrors and duranium shadows.
Evora was the brief stopover for them to switch transports the following morning, after their week at Risa.
“Hopefully next time the girls can come with us, I miss them.” Said the human-betazoid as she intertwined her fingers with the bajoran woman next to her. “I miss the freedom of the days we had on the Taniwha of late a lot.”
"You mean when Vee was a teenager and all rebellious?” Korra asked with a grin. The Bajoran playfully wrinkling her nose, teasing Xanthe as she squeezed their hands. She felt the same of course, their days aboard the Tani seeming so much simpler, so much more… exciting. Flying off to save the day, rushing from conflict, to conflagration, to contagion, all at Xanthe’s side. How could she do anything but miss it? “I know what you mean.”
Because of course, as much as she missed the old days, she wouldn’t trade what she had now for a single day back. Their adventures, their marriage, raising the girls… they were the happy memories that Korra could fall asleep to on those all too frequent nights where Xan was late, or on assignment. “Wouldn’t have been fair, only to have Kya along while Vee was off in the Gamma Quadrant.”
Xanthe loved the way Korra’s nose wrinkled, making her nasal ridges all the more pronounced. It just made the bajoran all the more beautiful. “For sure. We’ll have to arrange a get together when she comes back. Then I’ll take you all to Betazed finally and we’ll go to my cousin’s place…you know the one I’ve been promising I’d take you and the girls to for years?”
"Right, the elusive home in the mountains, was beginning to think the family lost it to the Tusalo's." Korra teased with a mirthful smile. Xan had been taking about this family getaway owned by her cousins for years. Wars and crisis had interrupted more than one family vacation there. Especially once the girls entered Starfleet as well. Korra didn't want to go without the whole family, so she'd held off even for this little getaway.
“Hey!” Xan chuckled, “oh there’s our room. The yeoman wanted to give us VIP quarters, but I asked for standard. Didn’t want people to stand on ceremony for us. We get enough of that in our day to day life. I’m enjoying being just one of the everyday folk for a change.”
There was also the fact that eversince she had come back to the ranks of Intelligence, years ago now, Xan had fallen back into the habit of leaving as little of a trail as possible.
“I’m sure they weren’t happy about that, Captain Orohino has always been a stickler for protocol.” In a way she felt sorry for the Yeoman, they’d certainly be hearing about all the centuries of Tradition that had been ignored by not giving a Captain and Commodore their finest state room. Hopefully neither of them would hear about it either, Korra could swear that Orohino was a Ferengi in a Bolian’s body the way she worried about rules and protocol.
“Did you happen to get one with a real shower? I don’t know if I’m quite ready to go back to sonic yet.” Korra winked as they entered the space, the room was familiar if not overly comfortable; the classic Starfleet lines of greys and silvers running throughout the furniture. Despite the standard designation of these quarters they were definitely designed for a Senior Officer or even family residence judging by the main sitting room. She wondered if the Yeoman had snuck in an upgrade to the accommodations after Xan had finished speaking with them.
“Really hope they went for…” Xanthe stopped short as they took a few steps in and the doors closed behind them.
Something was off, but she couldn’t quite pinpoint it. Whether it was elusive to her partly-betazoid heritage or whether she was just coming off of a post holiday high and…
No…there!
Rahal turned towards the bedroom. “Come out.” She said.
Korra had noticed the change in Xan’s behaviour immediately, 20 years in Security and another 10 married to Xanthe had kept her observational skills sharp. Following the woman’s gaze, Korra too looked at the bedroom door, moving to flank it in case a threat lay inside. Glancing at Xan she nodded, keeping quite to not give herself away.
“You took your time, ma’ams.” A feminine voice spoke from what was the bedroom.
A woman with dark hair and chocolate brown eyes stepped out, wearing a civilian contractor’s uniform - maintenance was the tag on her drab uniform.
“Sorry to barge in on you on your holiday, but this is urgent.” The woman continued.
Xanthe leaned her head sideways a little. What she was seeing and what she was feeling was in opposition.
“Glennis Kavannaugh.” She said, giving Korra a signal to stand down. “It’s alright, Korra.”
Glennis took out a small device of a triangular shape and pressed a small control button.
A sharp pitched sound emanated from it for a few seconds before it stopped. It was known to Xanthe and many others across many fields as a scrambler.
Relaxing slightly Korra moved to Xan’s side, taking her wife’s assurance to heart, she raised her eyebrow at the strange woman who’d come from the shadows. “Don’t believe I’ve heard of Glennis…” She turned to Xanthe, “If you were looking to spice things up you only needed to ask.” The tension in the woman’s appearance was palpable, Korra had quipped to try and break the icy mood.
Glennis chuckled, “so this is the famous Captain Rasahni, the fame does you little justice, ma’am.”
Xanthe rolled her eyes, “take it off, Frost.”
If Frost went to such lengths to reach her, the news couldn’t be good.
The woman reached into her pocket and her image shimmered for a moment, before it stripped away, leaving behind a woman with short blonde hair and green eyes. Xan remembered those eyes as usually full of joke and mischief and professionalism.
“Captain Korra Rasahni, this is Commander Arianna Frost, she’s one of mine from the Castermer.” Xan motioned between the two women.
Frost nodded, extending her hand to Korra, “ma’am.”
“Commander.” Korra took the woman’s hand, turning it slightly as they shook just to make sure it wasn’t another hologram. “So this is definitely business then, and not pleasure?” Her eyebrow raised, looking between the pair of Intelligence Officers. She knew the answer, she could read Xan’s body language, gone was the relaxed woman she’d been just a few minutes ago, she was all business now.
Frost sighed, “believe me, I wish it was.” The woman said, her accent now that from Earth’s australian region. “Castermer has been breached.” She looked between the two, “Taskmaster has gone off script.”
Xanthe motioned for the two women to follow her to the couch. “Off script how?”
“Ma’am, did you authorize for Castermer targets to be assimilated using possibly Borg or Federation nanoprobes?” Frost asked as she followed and took a seat herself.
Omri, nanoprobes!? Korra's eyes widened as she tuned to Xanthe. By the Prophets what had the man gotten himself into this time. She didn't for a second believe that was something Xan would order, they'd both heard too many accounts of former officers and civilians alike who'd undergone assimilation.
“Of course, I didn’t! Even we have limits to what we can and cannot do.” Xanthe replied with a frown. “How did you even come by this information and what’s it got to do with Taskmaster?”
“You know the Borg drones that are meant to be in Deep Storage on Memory Theta?” Frost pulled out a PADD from her pocket. “Turns out they roam Overwatch Station…also turns out not all of them are Borg. Donnager target Vokau, was one one them.” The woman handed Xanthe the PADD. “And from what we can tell, they aren’t Borg probes. They seem to be ours.”
“Who do you mean by ours, nanoprobe research is under strict control, only a small group of scientists have access to them.” She would ask about the Borg Drones later. That any were being kept at this point rather than being transferred to the Reclamation Project was a whole other topic that she would be needing to take up. But for now, it seemed the main worry was this element not just experimenting with nanoprobes but actually assimilating people.
“Federation nanites, ma’am. The very same under high security you just mentioned.” The australian said with a sigh. The woman then looked over at Xanthe. “I am opening an investigation, ma’am. Into Taskmaster…”
There was a moment of silence before she continued.
“And you, ma’am. I owed you the courtesy of saying it to your face.” Frost continued.
Xanthe’s eyes were glued to the report. How the fuck did everything she’d devoted the last decade to get completely fucked? One of her closest associates, her protege.
When Frost spoke, she looked up at her and nodded, “I understand, Frost. I’ll cooperate fully.” She had to help salvage the project by any means necessary.
Korra was thrown completely for a loop. Xanthe was being investigated? For something Omri’d done? There was no way the Commander had to understand this. That thought was really all that was keeping Korra’s famously hot headed temper in check. Xanthe trusted her, so that had to count for something.
“You owe it to me too, Commander. Get this right.” She didn’t know Frost, never really heard about her. But if she was the officer Xan had alluded to before Korra wasn’t worried. But she also wasn’t going to let the woman off easy.
“My ass is on the line too, ma’am.” Frost replied to Korra, “I was there when the Donnager target Vokau was assimilated. I didn’t know because I stepped out of the room at the time after eliminating him.” Then she looked back at Xanthe, “I didn’t take those nanites, and you didn’t do it.”
Xanthe nodded, “and it wouldn’t have been the support crew, so it only leaves him.”
Frost sighed, “I need everything you have on him, ma’am. I know he’s meant to stay a cleanskin, but the gloves are off and we’re all going to hang if we don’t stop him.”
Xanthe looked over at Korra, placing a hand on her wife’s.
Korra returned the touch, her fingers quickly lacing in Xan's. They would work this out, she wouldn't let anything happen to her wife or her family. This was the part of Xanthe's work she hated, the unknown of it, how easily things could be manipulated. Give her the simplicity of a battlefield any day over the cloak and dagger.
Xanthe gave Korra a loving smile before she turned back to Frost. “I was never able to get down to his real identity. Korra and I first met him when I took command of the USS Taniwha in ‘75. He came aboard as Ensign Omri Updike. His file was 90% redacted - which indicated to me that it was an alias. I never ended up having time nor cause to dig further. However, what little digging I did do lead me to something called Project Lazarus.”
Frost leaned closer, leaning her elbows on her knees, her expression echoing rapt attention.
“That’s all I know. I don’t have the files with me, but I can send you what I have via a trusted courier.” Xanthe said with a sigh.
Frost nodded, “please. I’ll need everything I can get my hands on. I’ll be contacting Internal Affairs shortly.”
Rahal sighed, squeezing Korra’s hand. “Does he know you’re onto him?”
Frost shook her head, “not as of yet, at least as far as we can tell.”
“Good, the less he sees, the more you can dig.” Xanthe nodded, “we?”
Hazel eyes studied green.
Frost chuckled, “spoilers.”
Xanthe nodded, “better I don’t know.”
“Alright…unless you’ve got anything else for me, ma’am, I need to get going before people start wondering where I am.” Frost said as she stood up.
Korra wasn’t going to stop Frost from leaving; she wanted the woman gone and doing her job. She wanted to forget for just one more evening that Omri had gotten her family twisted up in some fucked situation of his. Thinking back she regretted intervening on his behalf with the Ranjen. Bastard
Watching Frost finally leave, Korra let out a breath, her hands squeezing Xan’s tightly. She needed some kind of comfort, to feel her wife because she didn’t know what was going to come next.
Xan watched after Frost for a moment, before squeezing Korra’s hands back. “Love, look at me.” She said as she turned to the one person in the world she would actually retire for. The one person who kept her tethered. “You, the girls and I…the four of us, are going to have to put on the performance of our lives - whilst building up a contingency if shit goes sideways, which it will. Frost and whomever she has backing her up - eventually they will force his hand, and then, we need to be ready because he will come for us. And we will not let that happen.”
Korra hadn't wanted to look at first, she couldn't. She felt if she looked she would be forced to let go of what little bliss from her trip was left. Xan was sometimes too dutiful, too ready to act, which was saying something coming from her. But… she was also usually right.
Once Xan spoke, Korra wished she'd kept looking at the stars. Their girls, how could they be at risk, how could Omri come after any of them… "Xan, I…" She felt so unsure. This wasn't an enemy she was used to, a danger she could accept for her family so readily. This was a a dangerous man, who had access to all kinds of information and resources, even Borg drones. And he was going to come after them.
"He wouldn't really, not the girls, not just because of… us?"
Xan lead Korra back over to the couch, still holding the bajoran’s hands. “Think back, to all of the times we’ve worked with him. Did he ever show mercy or empathy? When you looked into those dark eyes, did you see a soul?”
"I… I don't know, I guess not?" It had been years since they'd seen Omri or at least since she had. He did always put the mission first. He could be cold, efficient, ruthlessly so… but he didn't put his comrades at unnecessary risk… but he also wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice someone to accomplish the mission. It had made him quote effective after the war. But could she describe him as soulless? Had he really been that far gone back then?
“The reason I made him Taskmaster is because of his ruthless efficiency and dedication to the cause. He got the job done and he pushed others to do better.” Said Xan with a sigh, “I made him who he is…and he knows that the two ways to stop me from meddling into whatever he’s gotten tangled into is to either kill me, or go after you and the girls. It’s what any agent would do when facing a comparative enemy. Except…we would stop at the threat, he would not.”
"Then why meddle, why get involved? Let Frost handle whatever this is!" If they weren't seen as a threat already why couldn't they just stay out of it? "Why does he still have to be your problem!?"
“Korra, he made me involved when he used my codes to hide his crimes.” Xan replied, “he also knows me well enough to know that I will act against him if I catch onto what he’s really doing, or of I find out who’s pulling his strings and who he’s working for now. If I stay too quiet, he will know something is wrong. I’m damned if I do and I’m damned if I don’t. The longer we keep up pretense that we don’t know anything, the better. But both him and Frost work for me - and it’s only a matter of time before his eyes turn to me. And when they do, we need to be ready and we need to have the girls protected. I need your Tactical mind here, my love.”
"I…” Korra sighed, running her hand through her hair. “Ok, I get it. I don’t like it but I get it… I just… I need you to promise me that our family is going to be alright. And that we have to come before the Fleet.” She stopped short, biting her lip as she debated saying the rest of what she wanted to. Unsure if it was her sense of duty or want to not put Xan in an impossible position… Korra just wanted… needed Xan to be able to walk away if it meant keeping their family together, not looking over their shoulders because of the brat of a man Omri had become.
Xanthe spread her arms a little away from her body and gave Korra a helpless shrug and a sigh. “Korra, you have just given me an impossible request. Not in the terms of you and the girls coming before the Fleet. Of course you do come first and I am saying and doing this primarily to protect us..” Xan said and shrugged again. “But I can’t promise you we will be alright if we hide and hope it goes away. Us and the Fleet are too intertwined in this to just hope it just gets better. Do you understand what I am saying? I can let Frost and the others handle this, sure. But you and I need to prepare and be ready in case this comes back and bites us in the ass. I am not doing this for the Fleet. I don’t care if I lose my rank or my position it doesn’t matter. Omri is very good at making people disappear and he doesn’t care about boundaries of Fleet or civilian.”
The human/betazoid hybrid started pacing the room, “he was never right in the head but someone in Intel kept him in the game and I couldn’t override it, so I did my best to contain it, to keep him on the right path.” Another sigh, “it’s clear now that I’ve failed and put everyone in danger, you and the girls, the others…he won’t let me just walk away if he turns his eyes on us. And I can’t just let everyone else who’s been landed in this just fend for themselves. I can’t…it’s not who I am and you know it.”
"I do." Korra sighed too, she got up and moved behind Xan, wrapping her up in a hug as they stared out the large bay windows of their quarters. "It's one of the many reasons I love you. And…" She bit her lip, squeezing Xan just a bit tighter. "If this is what we have to do to keep our family sane then yes you have me. I can do this." She honestly wasn't sure if she was reassuring herself or Xanthe more, but Korra was determined. No one messed with her girls and came out unscathed in the end.
Xanthe didn’t reply. Instead, she stepped over to Korra, took the Bajoran's face in her hands, and pressed her lips against hers, then her arms wrapped around her wife, willing the woman to understand how much her reply meant to Xan.
Korra kissed Xanthe back, pulling her into a tighter embrace. Neither woman needed to say more. Their love and devotion to their family stronger than any threat that could be brought and both of them knew it. They would weather this storm and any other that came their way. Prophets, spirits, and ancestors help whoever tried to change that.
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